Looking Up, Looking Down — Steven Popkes

Columbus' first voyage to find the Japans only finds a new and terrible world populated by monsters. A town situated deep in a simulated system, hiding from a destructive alien invasion. Five people wake on an station orbiting Venus. They have a job to do but it's not at all clear what it is or who has hired them. Three novellas investigating strange things. Where everyone is looking up or looking down. Or both.