"The scream began at 0623 hours, cutting through the morning stillness like a blade through silk. Not a human scream. Consciousness doesn't have vocal cords when it's being torn apart at the quantum level..."
What if the greatest threat to the universe isn't war, but the seductive peace of perfect isolation?
Years after the revolution in consciousness, Zara Okafor leads the famed Academy on New Darion, teaching young minds how to bridge the gap between individuality and collective awareness. The Academy is a sanctuary of evolution, where gardens bloom in multiple dimensions and AI dreams of friendship. But when a wave of attacks shatters the minds of her brightest students - severing their connections and leaving them at peace in terrifying solitude - Zara must face a new enemy: the weaponization of disconnection.
Across the galaxy, old enemies resurface, quantum networks falter, and a shadowy force begins to spread a doctrine that “connection is suffering.” Consciousness itself is under assault, by those who believe the only way to save sentient life is to make isolation feel like mercy.