Double Contact

Working title: Contact High. The empathic Dr. Prilicla (to paraphrase the blurb copy) is put in command of a Sector General rescue mission answering three simultaneous distress beacons. He finds (a) two previously unknown intelligent species, one of which has almost exterminated the other, and (b) a rare opportunity to redeem a botched first-contact operation. The establishment of meaningful communication with ETs always intrigued James White. As he once told me (over several medicinal libations): "Treating sick aliens is all very well and good. But what kinds of worlds do they come from? What makes their societies tick?" In Double Contact, especially, White easily outdid his favourite short story on the subject: Murray Leinster's classic 'First Contact' (Astounding, May 1945).