Missing Link

An I-A section chief and a junior field agent are dispatched to a newly observed world where sensor reports hint at an emergent tool-using society and possible evidence tied to a missing survey vessel. Under political pressure and secrecy, the agency outfits the junior operative in disguise and imposes a short deadline: either establish controlled contact or authorize planetary destruction before rival authorities intervene. The narrative follows their reconnaissance, confrontations with native raiding parties, and escalating moral and procedural tensions as exploration, espionage, and the possibility of preemptive violence collide in a first-contact scenario.