Down to Earth — Louis Charbonneau

Vengeance knows no bounds

Emergency Landing Station No. 17, light-years away from our solar system, has rarely been used since the Space Corps developed bigger and better ships that can bypass the planetoid as they head into deep space. Yet all the E.L.S.'s, including No. 17, are still manned by intrepid volunteers from an overpopulated Earth.

Dave Perry and his family are drawing to the end of a three-year assignment on E.L.S. 17. Their time at the station passed relatively uneventfully, the simulated weather and high-tech holograms mimic Earth well enough that it's easy to forget it's all an illusion. Until the incidents begin -- flawless machines start to malfunction, anomalies appear in the holograms, foreign bodies materialize within the airtight walls of the space station's dome.

At first Dave tries to convince himself that it is mere coincidence, or that the years of isolation have induced a kind of mass hysteria around unconnected events. But then the incidents increase in ferocity and communication with Earth is cut off. It becomes clear a vicious saboteur walks among them. Millions of miles from aid, Dave will need to rely on raw instinct to outsmart the sadist stalking his family.