Signals and Silence

Captain Astrid Vega thought her first solo salvage mission would offer quiet purpose—a chance to grieve her husband, Chandra, in the silence of space. But when she answers a recovery call for a crashed ship named Elise, what she finds isn’t a wreck—it’s a message. Encrypted fragments. Buried logs. A hidden truth too dangerous to stay buried. Now hunted by unseen forces and trapped in a web of sabotage, Astrid uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest echelons of Guild power—one that orchestrated Chandra’s death, and others like it. With only an aging military salvage ship, a loyal AI named Lucy, and an embedded grief-monitor named Harmony, Astrid must decode her husband’s final warning before she becomes the next silent casualty. But the truth doesn’t want to be found—and someone has already marked her for deletion. Signals and Silence is a slow-burn, character-driven sci-fi thriller set in a future where silence is weaponized and survival means dismantling the lies that power the stars. For fans of The Expanse, A Memory Called Empire, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, this is a story of resilience, revelation, and the human voice echoing through the void.