Effie didn’t intend to bring death and destruction to Earth.

But when Enforcers close in, Special Agent EAFY584 crashes her stolen starship into an uncharted solar system, and the only habitable planet is one its inhabitants call Earth. Good news: she can pass for a human teenager. Bad news: standard Enforcer protocol is to sterilize any world where a fugitive might be hiding.

Now Effie has to warn an entire civilization that extinction is coming. There’s just one problem, nobody believes her. She tells the government she’s an alien. She tells them an invasion fleet is on its way. All they see is a teenager with a wild story.

The only person willing to listen is a dying old cowboy with nothing left to lose.

So Effie stops asking for permission. She takes her alien technology to the open market, selling it piece by piece, building alliances and weapons from scratch. Because warning people was only Step One. Step Two means carrying the war to the Enforcers’ home system. And if standing up to a bully means dragging Earth into an interplanetary conflict, she’d better make sure she wins.

A scrappy, high-stakes debut for fans of John Scalzi, Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, and the underdog spirit of Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force.