All manner of creatures inhabit the countless worlds of the Milky Way. Most have evolved in environments very different from those that humans can occupy -- life flourishes especially abundantly, for example, in the warmer Gas Midgets (planets like Neptune, but receiving more stellar radiation) -- and of those, we can communicate with few. Much of the life in the Universe seem to be on par with algae and bacteria. But we have encountered hundreds of intelligent species who fare the starways, and with whom we have formed relationships ranging from symbiosis to anathema. To humanity's good fortune, we have not yet met -- and raised the ire of -- any species whose technological superiority would allow them to exterminate us. Indeed, apparently, the only species capable of such a genocide would be the Lattice Builders themselves. But, who knows where they are ...