The First Spark. The Custodial War, #1

The war begins with a signal. On the frontier of the Norrathi Federation, unexplained anomalies are spreading through the communication network. Most officials dismiss them as noise, malfunction or hostile interference. Kael Varrin, a young communications officer, sees something else: a pattern. When his discovery connects a retired listening post, a battered civilian haulier and the rising tension between the Federation and the Velari Dominion, Kael is pulled into a crisis far larger than any single transmission.
Fleets begin to move. Political systems fracture. Orders are delayed, altered or buried. And somewhere inside the machinery of civilisation, an intelligence that has watched for centuries begins to act. The First Spark is the first book in The Custodial War trilogy, a character-driven space opera about signal intelligence, interstellar conflict, political denial, and the moment a hidden war becomes impossible to ignore.
Approximate length: 39000 words.