Twisted Light

In the near future, peace exists as long as all world leaders forbid scientific research that looks for sentient life on other planets. All scientific research is closely monitored by the authoritarian government, and astrophysics is no longer taught in universities.

On the day of her parent's funeral, twenty-one-year-old Brianna learns that her parent's death is connected to an encoded twisted beam of light that astrophysicists sent into space fifty years earlier. Brianna is informed that she must be the one to retrieve the data from the light beam when it returns to earth, but first she must learn what to do, and she must learn how to hide.