Scott Anderson is a young physicist with a simple dream: survive, keep his family safe, and do the work he loves. But in a world fracturing under the heel of rising fascism, simple dreams are luxuries he can't afford. Fascist enforcers are targeting his family. Physics institutions have been infiltrated by eugenicists who decide whose intelligence is worthy of advancing science. And the community of rebel researchers Scott falls in with is doing something extraordinarily dangerous - they're getting close to unlocking primordial black hole technology.
That's when the orbital bombardments begin.
Humanity is not alone. The alien sentinels circling the Sun have enforced a single, ironclad prohibition for millennia: no civilization advances black hole technology. The rule isn't a suggestion. Physicists who break it don't get warnings. They get erased from above - facilities destroyed, research obliterated, lives ended with cold, extraterrestrial precision.
Caught between fascist violence on the ground and alien enforcement from the stars, Scott must decide what he's willing to risk - and what humanity is actually worth fighting for.
The laws of physics aren't the only rules with consequences.Scott Anderson thought understanding gravity was the hardest thing he'd ever do.
He was wrong.
Tags: science fiction thriller, alien contact, black hole physics, dystopian sci-fi, political science fiction, first contact, hard science fiction, space opera, fascism dystopia, physics fiction, alien invasion, orbital warfare, sci-fi adventure, near future fiction