Stars in Shroud — Gregory Benford

The first novel by New York Times bestselling author Gregory Benford, "The Stars in Shroud" original story was a Hugo and Nebula nominee.

The alien Quarn strike suddenly at the heart of Earth's interstellar Empire. Their weapon is a deadly plague -- a soul-twisting assault that strips away the veneer of civilization. The psychological illness sends its victims fleeing back a million years to the safety of the ancestral caves.

No one knew how the Quarn spread the plague. No one knew why they wanted to destroy humanity.

But Captain Ling Sanjen had thought of a way to stop them…