A Hardness of Minds: First Contact on Europa

By Eric Kay

First Contact? Or near miss? Life exists under Europa's ice, but there's doubt in the data. A novel of two intertwined novellas. Aliens with rudimentary tools, are trying to look up and out. Earth's scientists peer back through narrow limited bandwidth and an ocean of water. Will there be any meaningful first contact between Europa and Earth? Or will war erase all knowledge between the worlds? For fifteen years, probes have hinted at life under Europa's ice. An eccentric mogul-- bent on expanding his legacy--funds and launches his probe to Jupiter. The robotic submarine can reach the ocean floor and return by an expertly trained AI. But Earth smack in the middle of the Misinformation Age; tensions flare between the United States and China and scientific data is under attack. Meanwhile, Dalton, a self-sabotaging synthetic data engineer, longs to make a name for himself in the scientific community, even at the cost of being infamous. Unknown to Earth, aliens led by Ice-Driller have explored 'up' and penetrated the ice and have researched 'Nullworld,' the mysterious ether beyond the ice from which no sonar returns. Meanwhile a hydrothermal vent has gone cold and tensions in their global society have escalated as city-states fight for survival. Now the military caste is in control, halted all research, and pressed capable scientists and engineers into militia service. Ice-Driller must escape and bring back research he hopes will diffuse tensions: the revelation of another water world. The novel intertwines perspectives of Earth and under Europa as all search for truth. This is the second hard sci-fi novel by author Eric Kay (No Lack of Sunshine). It explores issues of data integrity in the age of adversarial information warfare, moving minds away from the brink of war, and experience versus knowledge by proxy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0B36JNLHJ
• ISBN13: 9798421586746
• Release Date: June 2022
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 213 Pages
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"