Stones From Heaven

Space is stunning to behold, staggering to comprehend, and hostile to be in. Just how hostile, a team of military communication specialists discover when they journey to the edge of the solar system to retrieve a high priority message locked inside a faulty transmitter. The transmitter is part of a series of communication platforms called the Incessant Line - one of six mammoth comm pods spread across millions of miles of space.

Thus begins an extraordinary journey for the crew of the USS Aurora. The mission is perfect in its simplicity: find the broken pod, free the message and transmit it back to Earth.

But finding which pod holds the message and retrieving it proves trickier than coaxing a viper from a jar. And retransmitting the message proves harder still - if not impossible. Once deciphered though, the message reveals a cosmic nightmare unrecorded in the annals of space. The team has just six hours to fix the down transmitter before they and everything around them are obliterated.

Unable to repair the transmitter, the team must find another way to get the message out. One by one they deploy their cutting edge communication systems. One by one they fail. A race against time becomes a struggle for survival as the celestial nightmare approaches. And no one's coming to save them. They had dutifully placed their trust in the marvels of modern technology. Now their only hope rests with the blind faith of a young man with an old idea.

-- Joe Santor