By Andrew Lane and Nigel Foster

Published in May 2017 by Titan Books

It's been forty years since first contact between humans and aliens who are so different - physically and mentally - that communication is impossible. They look at us and we look at them. Nothing.

All we have in common is trade. We don't understand why the aliens want or do what they do. We don't understand a great deal of what they give in return. Nonetheless they have changed the world.

But when a group of humans emigrating to a new planet are inexplicably taken hostage by the alien Cancri, communication suddenly becomes of paramount importance.

How can you negotiate with someone when you can't understand them? What do they actually want?

Kara Jones is a trained assassin. Marc Keislack is a conceptual artist. They have nothing in common, but together they have to get the captives back without accidentally starting an interstellar war...