Description: An unabridged collection spotlighting the best space operas, alternate histories, and time travel stories published in 2020 by current and emerging masters of the science fiction genre, edited by Allan Kaster.
- "Midstrathe Exploding" by Andy Dudak-A city that had been struck with a time bomb two hundred years ago has become a popular destination for tourists.
- "Not This Tide" by Shiela Finch-Time travelers visit England in 1944, while it sustains V1 and V2 rocket attacks, to pass on important information.
- "Exile's End" by Carolyn Ives Gilman-A museum curator finds herself at odds with a representative of a long-persecuted culture from another planet wanting to repatriate a painting.
- "Words We Say Instead" by Brit E. B. Hvide-An old military smartship pilot searches for the decommissioned ship with which she had once bonded.
- "Beyond the Dragon's Gate" by Yoon Ha Lee-The military enlists the expertise of a former academician to prevent the annihilation of their AI-controlled starship fleet.
- "Pax Mongolica" by Evan Marcroft-In a world where the Mongol Empire reigns, an Egyptian boy meets a Polish girl at a zoo where the old gods are kept.
- "Knock, Knock Said the Ship" by Rati Mehrotra-An indentured refugee from war-ravaged Luna, working off her debt on a spaceship, collaborates with the ship's AI to fight off pirates.
- "Father" by Ray Nayler-In an alternate 1950s, the VA sends a robot to be a surrogate father to the son of a dead soldier.
- "Laws of Impermanence" by Kenneth Schneyer-the text of a long lost will continually changes over time.
- "Come the Revolution" by Ian Tregillis-In an alternate 18th Century Holland, a robot whose obedience is enforced through pain is determined to escape her makers' constraints.
- "Sinew and Steel and What They Told" by Carrie Vaughn-A pilot, injured in an accident that should have killed him, is forced to reveal a long-held secret he's been keeping from the captain and crew of a pirate-hunting starship.