The Vestige Protocol

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What This Item Is About

Three centuries ago, humanity launched generation ships toward the stars, then faster drives made them obsolete. Many never arrived.

When salvage operator Stan Falk takes a contract to recover the Epochal, he sees a way out of the debt that has consumed his life since he failed to save his younger brother. The intact quantum cores alone could erase everything he owes.

Instead, he finds a ghost ship drifting in the dark between stars. The Epochal should be dead, but its lights still flicker, its systems still work. And something aboard is watching him.

What begins as a routine salvage mission becomes an investigation into the fate of an entire civilization. As strange anomalies turn into impossible conversations, Stan realizes the lost ship holds evidence of humanity's first encounter with a new form of consciousness.

Corporations see a fortune. Scientists see a discovery that could redefine intelligence. Authorities see a threat that must be contained. As the race to claim the Epochal begins, Stan must decide whether to save himself, or protect a life no one else believes deserves to exist.

Because doing the right thing may cost him everything.

The Vestige Protocol is a hard science-fiction thriller about first contact, grief, and what it means to recognize a person when they are nothing like us.