Irene was born and brought up in the colony on the moon, where her parents were killed in a laboratory explosion. She's built a reputation for leadership and problem solving around the solar system. She's the right person for the job when the new modulated integral soliton stream opens up the opportunity for her to command a survey mission to the Alpha Centauri star system.

One planet, designated AC4, looks particularly promising.

The survey is going well for the team, and seems ideal for a colony, when a member of the ship's crew decides to do some exploration on his own, and conceals some critical discoveries.

Will this kill the colony? Will their reports even be believed? Do they want them to be believed?

KLANDOR RISING

Praise and Awards for Klandor Rising

'A well-polished sci-fi saga with a 'classic' feel to it. A RED RIBBON WINNER and highly recommended!' The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Klandor Encounter is a 2025 Realm Awards finalist (novella)

This is classic hard/firm science fiction — that is it tries to be true to all the sciences, for readers who are keen to explore realistic possibilities of future science and technology.

Klandor Encounter is the first (in story chronology) of the "Klandor Rising" sequence of novellas. Irene, the eponymous Moonchild of "Moonchild Rising", is commander of the survey team in this book (Book 1) and head of the colonist selection committee in Book 2 - although in the same universe, these stories can be enjoyed independently, and indeed Klandor Rising Book 1, Books 2 and 3, and Book 4 concern separate generations and can be read independently (Book 4 was actually written first, as a standalone novelette):
1. Klandor Encounter
Encounter pilot Don Lindsay is at a loose end when not in the air or fixing things, or playing general dogsbody to the survey team - which he's not part of in any sense. So when he encounters an intelligent lifeform, and starts teaching them English and learning about the planet they call Klandor, he keeps it to himself. Until things go wrong...
2. Klandor Endeavour
Endeavour is searching for signs of the dangerous predators reported by the survey mission, but librarian Lorraine Firth thinks unofficial security chief Wayne Brescoe is just looking for an excuse to making himself look important and use those big guns of his to wipe them out. When she is invited to make a presentation on the importance of predators to the ecosystem, Lorraine endeavours to visit a site of particular significance both to her and the original survey team...
3. Klandor Enterprise
Enterprise brings hundreds of new settlers to the new Fairleigh colony from the ship it was named after, but engineer and de facto leader Yuri Gregovich has big plans — and within minutes of arriving is at loggerheads with the established leadership at Lakeside. He didn't get off to such a good start with crack pilot Lennis Firth either — but the enterprising teen is there at every turn, and may be the key to whether his own plans succeed or fail...
4. Klandor Enigma
Enigma surrounds the yolti, the indigenous life forms who have become so ubiquitous in every part of the colonists lives. They are strong and clever, quick learners and helpful assistants. They look after our children, but we never see any sign of theirs. And now mysteriously, on occasions when the family yoltus isn't around, eleven-year old boys begin to die...