We Heard You

Three years after a retracted paper wrecked her reputation, radio astronomer Zhu Peilan is working night shifts in the Australian desert when a narrowband tone from the constellation Grus repeats itself with atomic-clock precision. She waits seventy-two hours before telling anyone. What she finds buried in the noise is not a greeting but a warning, followed by a blueprint — and a choice that will divide governments, scientists, and her own estranged family. Some rescues cost more than they save.