Last Relay

Nia Imani wakes from cryo-sleep to find her crew dead, her ship crippled, and fifty minutes of empty space between her and the nearest human voice.

Bolted to the hull of her salvage vessel is something that shouldn't exist: an alien megastructure three million years old, built by a civilization long since turned to dust. It's a Relay - one node in a galaxy-spanning network designed to regulate the energy output of stars. Including ours.

The Relay is failing. Earth's sun is dimming. And the only mind left to explain any of it is Sil - the station's ancient artificial consciousness, who hasn't spoken to another living being in longer than human civilization has existed.

Nia isn't a soldier. She isn't a diplomat. She's an engineer who got kicked off her last posting for a catastrophic mistake she can't stop replaying in her head. But with no rescue coming and a clock ticking down on a star, she'll have to decide what she's willing to become - and what she's willing to lose - to keep the lights on.