Phases in Chaos

Hal Clement sends a small band of very different species—each built for a different environment, each trusting the others less than they'd like to admit—into dangerous, unmapped territory where surviving means learning to depend on partners they don't fully understand. True to Clement's hard-science instincts, the threat comes as much from the terrain and its alien physics as from any single enemy, forcing grudging cooperation to become genuine respect. It's the title novella of the second Isaac's Universe anthology.