Mission Beta by Archie Kregear

SPSFC 2024

Antigravity propulsion enables humans to venture into the vast regions of space seeking empty worlds to make their own. Plucky journalist Bianca Varian joined the second mission to write the ultimate story, humans arrival to the stars. But when the chosen planet turns out to be already inhabited—by a race evolved from something like a jellyfish, no less—they find that the more they discover about them, the more they realize they don’t know. Tensions between colonists a reach breaking point between those who wish to befriend the aliens and those who don’t. Can humans learn to control their fear and live in peace with alien life forms? Or will fear and violence rule the day? Bianca strives to document the tale of a beautiful, faraway world, and it’s inhabitants but does she become the story and source of the conflict?