A collection of action packed, fast paced and entertaining science fiction and science fantasy short stories. In the lead story, Contingency Nine, a very dangerous and unpredictable prisoner is brought back up from a down time penal colony by the Urban Pacifiers. Earth's only remaining vestige of law and order. Fighting to maintain control in Earth's remaining megalopolises the Pacifiers are faced with a threat of such enormity that they must resort to a previously unthinkable course of action implementing Contingency Nine. In Grand Master a mere human chess player defeats a Grand Master from Earth's dominant Artificial Intelligences with consequences. In Disposable World everything is disposable while in Qantas Flight 2134 a passenger plane finally lands years after it took off with some alien assistance. In Reality Rider an entity surfs between alternate realities risking the wrath of the Coordinator of Realities while in Mesozoic Overcrowding a small slice of the Mesozoic period becomes a dumping ground for all sorts of things. In Future View Function a new Face Book function is tested out by an elite while in Ancestral Home some of the descendants of the human race return to Earth to investigate the cessation of all communication from the home world. And much more.