The Derand Protocol: Book 3

Synopsis

Charles Derand was just another ghost on Old Earth-forgotten, overlooked, nothing special. Until a cryptic message pulled him off the streets and threw him into the Guild's brutal training program for Slip Ship navigators. Now he's flying with a neural implant wired to an AI that knows more than it should, piloting a prototype ship the Guild wants buried, and running from enemies no one will admit exist. But the real twist? The girl he saved. Cici isn't human. She's Shal'Vaari-one of a psionic avian race the Dominion hunted, caged, and turned into weapons. Young, gifted, and marked for death, she's the key to something ancient … and something the galaxy is killing to keep buried. What starts as survival becomes something else. A missing species. A dead civilization. A god-tier ship built by a race that shouldn't exist. And at the center of it all-Charles, altered by alien tech, outgunned, outnumbered, and still not backing down. The Dominion wants silence. The Hegemony wants control. Charles wants answers. And he's not asking twice.