The Dove

What if the oldest stories we were told were true—but the details were misremembered?

On an unexceptional asteroid in the Belt, Dr. Raj Patel finds something remarkable. Something that defies explanation. Something that should not exist.

It is small.
It is crude.
But it is unmistakable.

A bird—carved in stone, buried inside a boulder on a lifeless rock orbiting the Sun.

What begins as a routine geological survey quickly becomes something far more dangerous. Hidden tunnels. Ancient chambers. Symbols tied to forbidden beliefs. Evidence that humanity's story may be far older—and far less terrestrial—than anyone has been allowed to remember.

But in myth is power. And power demands control. Not everyone wants this discovery revealed.

When a classified mission turns catastrophic, survival becomes secondary to silence. Raj and his fellow scientists are thrust into a high-stakes race—not only to survive, but to protect a truth powerful enough to unsettle everything we think we know about where we came from.

The Dove is a gripping speculative novella about discovery, faith, secrecy, and the fragile boundary between science and belief.

From the author of A Gentle Leap and The Dove, part of the expanding Genesis Rift: Tales From a Future War series.