From Nebula Award winner Jack McDevitt comes the eighth installment in
the popular The Academy series--Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins discovers an
interstellar message from a highly advanced race that could be her last
chance for a mission before the program is shut down for good.
Hutch has been the Academy's best pilot for decades. She's had numerous
first contact encounters and even became a minor celebrity. But world
politics have shifted from exploration to a growing fear that the
program will run into an extraterrestrial race more advanced than
humanity and war.
Despite taking part in the recent scientific breakthrough that
rejuvenates the human body and expands one's lifespan, Hutch finds
herself as a famous interstellar pilot with little to do, until a
message from an alien race arrives.
The message is a piece of music from an unexplored area. Despite the
fact that this alien race could pose a great danger and that this
message could have taken several thousand years to travel, the program
prepares the last interstellar ship for the journey. As the paranoia
grows, Hutch and her crew make an early escape--but what they find at
the other end of the galaxy is completely unexpected.