Contact — Ian C. Bristow

Hope comes at a cost.Earth's ability to sustain human life has nearly been exhausted. But the Federation's decades long quest to find a new host planet has finally paid off.Cultural anthropologist Madelyn Lawrence has been selected to join a small team of experts tasked with traveling to explore the new world prior to settlement. Her job is straightforward: Make connections with and study the Xantarians, a group of sentient beings native to Sphyra. It's the opportunity of a lifetime.But not all is what it seems, and someone within the Federation has a dark secret. To what lengths will they go to keep that secret? Murder? Genocide? Or is no price too high to pay?Madelyn and the team are ill prepared for the hostility that awaits them.