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"First Contact" is a 10,000-word story by Murray Leinster, about a spaceship from Earth that encounters a spaceship from another planet. The story was first published in the May, 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

While conducting a scientific survey mission in the Crab Nebula, the Earth ship Llanvabon is suddenly confronted by an alien vessel—a species hitherto unknown to humans. The alien ship stops about 20 miles away, leaves a small object behind, and then backs off. The Earth captain sends crewman Tommy Dort out in a space suit to investigate. Tommy finds that the object is a kind of robot, and through it they can communicate with the alien ship. The two sides work out a common language, and begin to exchange some information. But a problem confronts both sides—they don’t know if the other species is hostile or not, and since the two ships met in deep space, neither side knows the location of the other’s homeworld. If one ship heads for home, the other ship might follow, learning the location of the other species’ home planet, and taking that information to their own people. It seems then that the safest course for both captains is to fight a battle here; even if destroyed, it’s better than allowing a potentially hostile race to learn the location of your home world, when you don’t know the location of their home world.

The two ships spend more than three weeks exchanging communications, trying not to give away too much information, and preparing for a battle which neither side really wants, but which no one can see a way out of. Finally, Tommy Dort comes up with what might be a workable solution. He and the captain agree to exchange themselves for two of the alien crew. But once on board the alien ship, the captain, on Tommy’s recommendation, issues the aliens an ultimatum. He says their belts are set to explode, unless the aliens agree to exchange ships. The alien captain then says that his men are issuing the same ultimatum on board the Llanvabon. Both sides agree to the exchange; they destroy all of their star maps, weapons, and anything that might lead the alien crew to their homeworld. Each side then heads for home, each in the other’s ship, promising to meet again in this same star system at a pre-ordained time.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 7 (1945). Editor Martin Greenberg calls this story “a genuine classic”. Isaac Asimov says that Leinster’s story provoked “a response from Soviet science fiction writer, Ivan Yefremov. Yefromov wrote The Heart of the Serpent, which also dealt with the first meeting in space of Earthmen and aliens but from a different viewpoint. Whereas in Leinster’s story the central motif is that of fear and distrust; that in Yefremov’s story is that (sic) of the uniting bond of reason. Naturally, the Soviets made much of the fact that this showed the superior nature, both intellectually and morally, of communist philosophy versus capitalist philosophy…”