Her stolen words can starve seven habitats—and only he can expose the lie.

At Cynosure Station, first contact is no longer a historic event. It is law, life support, and the daily risk of trusting someone whose body and language were never built for human understanding.

When a treaty recording appears to show Pelagri ambassador Ilyra-of-Seven-Currents claiming control of Cynosure's water, seven incompatible habitats edge toward crisis. Ilyra knows someone has stolen her meaning. Yet under station law, only Dr. Adrian Keene—a human forensic xenolinguist—can invalidate the translation.

He is precisely the kind of authority she came to dismantle.

With twelve days before the Pelagri delegation departs, Ilyra and Adrian trace the disputed message through pressure chambers, alien habitats, legal archives, and systems capable of turning words into physical commands. Every discovery pulls them closer, but understanding Ilyra demands more than decoding the luminous grammar flowing across her radial aquatic body. Adrian must learn where attention ends, permission begins, and even accurate knowledge can become a form of possession.

As professional trust becomes intimate, the private language bringing them together may become the most dangerous evidence on the station.