They told him the Lette were monsters. But the truth lies buried on a dead world—and it’s far more terrifying.

Commander Zane Renner awakens alone aboard a vast, silent colony ship orbiting the planet Artemis. The crew is gone. The only others aboard are a woman driven to madness—and a Lette, one of the alien race humanity has been at war with for decades.

Zane has always believed the Lette started the war. But when he descends to the surface and uncovers the haunting truth behind the colonists’ deaths, everything he thought he knew begins to unravel. A failed alien experiment. A world-spanning mind. A virus that could doom the entire galaxy. And a war that may never have needed to happen.
Guided by the being he once called an enemy, Zane must confront a devastating reality: the danger isn’t the Lette. It’s what lies below—and within humanity itself.

To stop the threat from spreading, Zane must forge an alliance with the last being he ever thought he could trust. In doing so, he’ll uncover a truth buried beneath generations of lies: the Lette never wanted war.