First contact with hostile aliens, maiden voyages of Earth's first starship, and interstellar adventures await in this hard science fiction collection of the sixth and seventh stories from the Hayden’s World series:

Janus 2:

In Erebus, James Hayden sacrificed the world’s first near-light-speed Riggs ship to make a remarkable discovery on the icy moon of Janus. Now, amidst mounting concerns about that discovery’s implications, he must assemble a crew to repair his crashed ship and fly it back to Saturn’s Cassini Station. But Janus still has secrets to discover, and the alien probe’s mission may not be finished. The crew of Gossamer Goose returns for a new interstellar adventure in this hard science fiction novella set in the Hayden's World universe. The story is a 30,000 word novella (2 - 3 hours to read) and is the perfect size for reading on the go.

Bernard's Promise:

In Janus 2, the crew of Gossamer Goose made disastrous first contact with the Silver Stars, costing them Earth's first starship. Now, with the Centauri probe revealing a world with a breathable atmosphere and possible life, James Hayden must build the ship capable of taking them to the stars. But the Centauri worlds have their own dangers and mysteries, and not everything they find is what it seems. The crew of Gossamer Goose returns for a planet-hopping interstellar adventure in the first full-length hard science fiction novel set in the Hayden's World universe. Join James, Ananke, Hitoshi, Isaac, Julian, Ava, Beckman and new shipmate Willow as James's dream finally becomes reality.