Zen

In the cold silence of Vesta, a paleontologist finds the last of a civilization. David Koontz has traveled millions of miles to an asteroid at the edge of the solar system, expecting only rock and dust. Instead, he discovers the Zen: an ancient, intelligent species whose homeworld was destroyed three thousand years ago. She has been alone ever since, the sole survivor of apocalypse, surviving but not truly living. What unfolds is a delicate, devastating encounter between two beings separated by species but united by loneliness. She has endured for millennia without companionship, and now she makes a request that will test everything Koontz believes about mercy, obligation, and hope. When a second Zen arrives, the story pivots from grief toward something unexpected: the fragile, precious possibility of renewal.