Jeez. After looking for who knows how long, I finally found the author and title of a novella that I've always wanted to re-read after having first read it in junior high. The story is about a human starship that meets an alien starship several thousand light-years away from Earth. It's the first alien species that humans have ever encountered. The aliens and the humans manage to create a language together and begin communicating, and it turns out that the humans are the first alien species that they've ever encountered, too.
The problem that each side has is that they don't know whether they can trust the other: they each have to consider the possibility that, if they travel back home, the other species will follow them, and an interstellar war will break out. So the two ships simply sit there in the Crab Nebula, talking about the problem and trying to solve it. As they do, even though they can't take the risk of trusting each other, they begin to form friendships and to like each other as they both sit there, stuck, unable to leave.
Really, really neat story, with a great ending (which I won't reveal here, in case anyone wants to read it). Anyway, last night, after having gone so long not remembering the author or title, I finally found it: "First Contact", by Murray Leinster. Turns out that this novel is considered a classic in the field, so much so that the title of the novella became the name of the entire genre.
Turns out it's included in several different collections, so now I just need to decide which one I want to buy.
Posted by Zathras at November 7, 2004 02:34 PM