A warning arrives for something that has not happened yet.

Halcyon Relay hangs at the far edge of the colony system, nine people keeping a signal chain alive between worlds that will never meet. Nothing happens there. That is the job.

Then, at four minutes past three in the morning, a message comes in from Tern, the next relay out, forty light-minutes away. It refers to a log entry the station has not written, and it tells the crew not to use the port coupler until a correction is confirmed.

Tomasz Wren checks the stamps. Mara Ellison-Quade checks the logs. The supply tug is more than a day out, carrying everything the station needs, and its pilot has only the fuel she was given. No one can prove who sent the warning. No one can afford to ignore it.

The Quiet Between Stars is a slow-burn science-fiction novel about engineering, human error, and deciding whom to trust when the evidence is all you have.