Imagine, if you will, a cautious author of the not so long ago when information on exoplanets was non-existent who desired a plausible nearby solar system in which to place the habitable world on which their story is set. The prudent writer might discard bright stars (too short-lived), multiple star systems like Alpha Centauri and 61 Cygni (stellar orbits may preclude habitable planets), long dead stars like van Maanen’s Star (that would have killed their planets), and dim stars like Barnard’s Star (planets would be tide-locked).
The nearest solitary star that is not excluded by the above criteria is Tau Ceti, which is slightly dimmer than the Sun and only twelve light years away. Thus, it is not at all surprising that this nearby G8 star features in so many classic science fiction stories…
Time for the Stars by Robert A. Heinlein (1956)
With torchships able to sustain high accelerations indefinitely, sublight exploration of nearby solar systems is now practical. The time lag imposed by relativity could be problematic, but the Long Range Foundation has a workaround. Starships may be subject to Einstein’s limits, but communication need not be. Telepathic twins can relay messages across interstellar space instantly.
Tom is one such communications apparatus, dispatched to report on the worlds discovered by the torchship Lewis and Clark. First destination: Tau Ceti’s planet Constance, which proves hearteningly habitable. This proves not entirely a plus, as biocompatibility allows an alien disease to kill many crewmembers. Worse, Constance may be the least lethal life-bearing world encountered on the mission. Perhaps Tom would have been better off staying home.
I could ask in what frame telepathy is instant but A: it is clear that telepathy breaks relativity, and B: I would much rather complain about Heinlein’s egregious misunderstanding of mass ratios and time dilation in this novel. Well, that and the unwelcome appearance of “the protagonist who woos a much younger relative” trope.
The Tower of Zanid by L. Sprague de Camp (1958)
Anthony Fallon was once ruler of minor kingdom on the Tau Ceti world Krishna. Matters did not develop necessarily to his advantage. Deposed, Fallon has to settle for a humbler existence as an ill-paid spy. No surprise, then, that the adventurer accepts a risky job accompanying archaeologist Julian Fredro to investigate the enigmatic Safq tower.
Fallon is cheerfully amoral and utterly confident. He is sure that he can keep all of his plates spinning, or at least exit before the falling dishes hit the stage. As the loss of his kingdom shows, his confidence is misplaced—as the Terran will learn to his cost.
Fallon first appeared as a largely off-stage scoundrel in 1949’s The Queen of Zamba. Here he becomes an on-stage protagonist, although still a scallywag. By his third appearance in 1991’s The Swords of Zinjaban, he is a government bureaucrat. That’s an unusual career arc.…
Barbarella, based on the comic of the same title by Jean-Claude Forest and directed by Roger Vadim (1968)
Scientist Durand Durand has vanished, quite possibly with some malign intent in mind. Barbarella (played by Jane Fonda) is dispatched to Tau Ceti to find and detain Durand Durand. If she fails, he will use his positronic ray to “deminimalize (victims) to the fourth dimension.” Which would be bad.
In theory, Barbarella, as the product of Earth’s highly advanced but austere civilization, should have little trouble capturing her quarry. In practice, Tau Ceti’s Planet 16 (Lythion in the comic) proves to have any number of pitfalls for the hard-working Terran. While Earth has abandoned pleasures of the flesh, Planet 16 revels in them. Can Barbarella survive the salacious distractions that await her?
It’s possible that neither Jean-Claude Forest (comic author) nor Roger Vadim (film director) paid much attention to astronomical verisimilitude in creating their respective works. Nevertheless, an SF film featuring a real star (astronomical, not cinematic) not wildly inappropriate for a habitable world is uncommon enough to be worth mentioning.
Still Forms on Foxfield by Joan Slonczewski (1980)
Fleeing a war that could end in nuclear holocaust, Quakers escaped to Tau Ceti in a surplus starship. Communication was impossible in flight. Having arrived at the target system, the Quakers hear only silence from Earth and fear the worst. While their new home, which the humans name Foxfield, is already occupied, the indigenous aliens are willing to co-exist with humans.
Eighty years later, a United Nations Interplanetary starship appears in orbit to declare the UNI’s ownership of Foxfield. Many elements of the UNI culture are abhorrent to the Quakers. The UNI has a vast population, advanced technology, and little interest in compromise. The future looks quite grim for our Quakers.
Generally speaking, any imperialist power asserting their rule over a planet populated by sympathetic humans and enigmatic aliens should first determine if the aliens are the sort of enigmatic aliens who command powers beyond human ken. For some reason, imperialists rarely bother.
The Sails of Tau Ceti by Michael McCollum (1993)
Despite being on the brink of sublight interstellar travel, nobody in the Solar System has any interest in settling the habitable worlds orbiting Tau Ceti. This is because centuries before, on August 25, 2001, Tau Ceti went nova for reasons still not understood. If Tau Ceti had Earthlike worlds, they perished in the nova.
Tau Ceti had inhabited planets. Two hundred years post-nova, a light-sail-propelled alien starship arrives at Sol. Its crew begs refuge from humanity but are willing to accept no as an answer. The catch? There are more aliens following, billions of aliens. Saying yes means committing to accommodating them all. At the same time, the fleet has extreme propulsive needs and to meet them, the aliens plan to nova the Sun and harvest its energy. Saying no could turn out to be equivalent to self-destruction.
***
There are any number of stories set near Tau Ceti. If I overlooked your favorite, feel free to mention it in comments below.
I should add that it’s almost always the case that when science finally learns more about exoplanets or stellar systems on which SF authors placed their hopes, the revelations that follow are disappointing. In the case of Tau Ceti … perhaps not so much. At least two of the worlds believed to orbit Tau Ceti may be in its Goldilocks zone. True, both are more massive than Earth, but this could be a benefit to human cardiovascular systems!
In the words of fanfiction author Musty181, four-time Hugo finalist, prolific book reviewer, and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll “looks like a default mii with glasses.” His work has appeared in Interzone, Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis) and the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Aurora Award finalist Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by web person Adrienne L. Travis). His Patreon can be found here.
