For Flinter Cole, the mission to the hermit planet New Cornwall is more than a scientific survey—it is his chance at survival. As a young ecologist on his PhD trial assignment, Cole has been tasked with solving a biological mystery: what is wiping out the legendary Stompers? These massive, flightless birds are the source of the sector’s most coveted delicacy, and their extinction threatens an entire planetary economy.
But New Cornwall is not the welcoming frontier Cole expected. On the edge of the Carina sector, the atmosphere is thick with suspicion and ancient shadows. At Bidgrass Station, outworlders are viewed with hostility, and the local inhabitants move with a strange, unsettling grace. As Cole digs into the data, he finds himself caught in a claustrophobic web of secrets.