In 1990, space travel has become routine, and the International Institute of Space Technology monitors unusual signals from the edges of our solar system. Communications expert Laura James decodes the message and discovers that an alien ambassador is trying to reach Earth. Soon after, she receives a video log revealing that the alien starship has crash-landed on Mars, shifting the mission from reconnaissance to rescue.
An international crew launches aboard the Oceano: Laura, along with astronauts Anders Brockman and Paul Grant. Their voyage takes them through a bright sunburst, during which the ship endures some damage but presses on toward Mars to locate the downed craft. They find a single dead alien aboard the wrecked vessel. Dr. Farraday suspects that the surviving crew may have been rescued, making an observation satellite essential to track any rescue vehicle. Laura’s fiancé Allan and fellow astronaut Tony volunteer for the additional mission, heading out on Meteor to Phobos, Mars’s larger moon, to deploy the satellite.
On Phobos, Tony uncovers an alien spacecraft and, with Allan, enters to find an unconscious but alive female alien. With only two seats available for the return journey, they flip a coin—Tony stays behind while Allan returns to the Oceano with the rescued passenger. Back aboard, the alien gradually regains consciousness and is first cautious, then openly hostile toward Laura. She refuses to eat any offered food and will not allow Anders to take a blood sample, signaling a dangerous dependence on a specific, unknown physiology.
That night, as Paul keeps watch, the alien attacks and kills him, draining his blood after first hypnotizing him. With no choice, the survivors sustain her life by drawing blood from the ship’s plasma supply. When the plasma runs dry, she kills Anders, leaving Laura and Allan as the last two humans aboard. The tension spikes as the alien attacks Allan, but Laura intervenes. In the struggle, Laura scratches the alien, who screams in terror and bleeds out, dying soon after.
With the immediate danger over, Laura and Allan uncover alien eggs hidden aboard the ship. Allan proposes that the alien may have been royalty—perhaps a queen—plausible given hints of human-like hemophilia tied to royal inbreeding, and that Earth could be a destination to breed. The story closes with a stark decision: Earth authorities opt to study the alien eggs rather than destroy them, a choice Allan had urged, leaving the door open to future encounters and scientific inquiry rather than immediate destruction.
