First Contact (novelette)

"First Contact" is a 1945 science fiction novelette by American writer Murray Leinster, credited as one of the first (if not the first) instances of a universal translator in science fiction. It won a retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1996.

Two species make first contact in deep space. Each desires the technology and trade the other can provide, but neither is willing to risk leading the other back to their home planet.

It was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.