Penultimate Summer — Rod Rogers

A dust cloud from the depths of the galactic core approaches â€" bad news for the teeming billions occupying Earth. The Conservancy has a plan. Managed by a handful of wealthy corporate executives and politicians, this group has known about the approaching apocalypse for years. They've begun to prepare habitats for humanity â€" not many habitats and those not for much of humanity.

Melody Lucero, a bright young astrophysicist, discovers the impending event through her own research and begins to pursue what effects it might have. She is not the first to uncover what's coming but all the others have been silenced â€" permanently.

The problem for The Conservancy is their plans for Doctor Lucero render her indispensable. They do what they can to silence her by cancelling her projects and research, and when that fails, forcing her dismissal and discrediting her work. And when that fails, seizing her data and tools and threatening her life and those of her friends and siblings. And when that fails, they turn to murder. But not of Melody Lucero for she is worth billions if kept alive and silent.