The Last Broadcast from Kepler-186f

For seventy-three years, humanity has listened to the stars. Silence. Nothing but cosmic static and the lonely hum of our own machines. Until now. Radio astronomer Dr. Elena Rossi receives a signal from Kepler-186f — a planet 500 light-years away. The signal is not random. It is a voice. A human voice. Speaking English. The transmission is short. Just thirteen words: “They lied. Don’t send more ships. There is nothing here worth finding.” The voice belongs to Captain James Holloway of the Odyssey II, a colonisation vessel declared lost with all hands sixty years ago. Somehow, impossibly, he is alive. And he is warning us to stay away. But the world governments will not listen. They are already building the Odyssey III. Elena must decode the rest of the transmission before the next ship launches. What did Holloway find on Kepler-186f? And why did he come back alone?