Copyright Notice

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce, or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.

Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

Dedication

For Merav.

I told you so.

Seed

Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes …

—H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Sometimes I wonder if pollution isn’t humanity’s way of denying how hard it is to build a wall against the stars.

—Stasia Miller

Fermi’s Paradox, named after the esteemed physicist Enrico Fermi, asks an essential question about the existence of extraterrestrial life: namely, where is it? Given a universe the size of our own—functionally infinite when compared to something as small as a human being—and the number of planets we have already discovered which are potentially capable of supporting life, it seems impossible that we have not yet been visited by our neighbors. Yet conclusive proof of alien civilizations has not been found. Every sighting can be explained; every abduction can be swept away. We are, for all intents and purposes, alone.

Either life is vanishingly rare in the universe, or some other factor is at play. Perhaps intelligence is the rare quality: we may be surrounded by living worlds whose occupants have never risen above the level of common beasts. Or perhaps something, some great and terrible thing, prevents life from developing beyond a certain point. Perhaps we are alone, not because evolution has shown us any great favor, but because we have yet to come to the attention of that which keeps our skies devoid of company.

—from The Fermi Paradox and the Milky Way, by Anthony Vornholt, originally published 2030.

Anastasia has a vivid imagination and does not shy away from sharing her fantasies with the rest of the class. She needs to learn restraint, and when it’s time to put pretend away and focus on the real world. It is slightly concerning how detailed her imaginary scenarios can become. She rarely deviates from the details of her make-believe once she has settled on them, and will argue with other students who attempt to contradict her.