When a mysterious wildfire repeatedly bends around the isolated town of Blackridge, firefighter Calder Hale discovers a vast ancient engine buried beneath the valley that is part of a hidden planetary defense network. After an extraterrestrial probe attacks the town’s protective field, Calder learns Earth is one of many seeded worlds shielding themselves from a predatory cosmic intelligence that hunts emerging civilizations. Faced with extinction through secrecy or survival through unity, he activates a global countermeasure that reveals humanity’s place in a vast interstellar network and boldly signals that Earth will no longer hide.
