The first FTL Level Ten starship.
A colony under siege.
A secret directive.
An enemy as territorial as rattlesnakes.

In the year 2199, Earth Alliance President Thomase Baruti commissions the EAS Dauntless—the fastest ship ever built—to spearhead exploration of the Constellation Cetus. Captain Noah Fletcher accepts the mission, but before the Dauntless can venture into deep space, it must make a critical Tau Ceti Seven, where the mining colony has gone dark following a violent attack from the planet’s primitive natives.

Under orders classified “Top Secret,” Fletcher’s true mission is to extract Dr. Nuru Baruti—chief medical officer, brilliant xenobiologist, and the president’s daughter. But all contact with Dr. Baruti and the colony was lost nineteen days ago.

As Fletcher and his crew dig deeper into the tangled mystery, they uncover something far more dangerous than simple territorial aggression. Deep in the outer system, they discover something that threatens not just the colony, but all of humanity.