Talented programmer Tobias Tolvanen is tasked to decipher alien software to discover the intentions of an alien race that left an escape pod in human space. Talented programmer Tobias Tolvanen is abducted from the streets in broad daylight by Chinese operatives and thrown into a van. For the software specialist, this marks the beginning of an impossible mission that he cannot refuse. There’s only one condition: he must solve the task independently. Tobias is granted access to a shack within a secret military complex, equipped with a state-of-the-art autonomous computer system featuring military-grade artificial intelligence. During his briefing, when he learns that he needs to decipher not Chinese but extraterrestrial software, doubts arise as to whether that’s even possible. He is provided only with recordings of the recovery of an extraterrestrial escape pod and the sound emitted by its beacon. But where is the escape pod itself and the software he needs to decode? His attempts to uncover the truth bring him into contact with a hardware specialist and a translator who isn’t telling the truth. Together, they unravel the workings of the capsule and the software, leading to an unexpected climax. Will Tobias succeed in completing his mission? Prologue The selection 1 The presentation 3 The conference 9 The workplace 18 The police report 28 The assignment 31 The hardware Division 40 The breakthrough 57 The register 62 The donut 64 The prints 68 The symbol 75 The search 78 The coordinates 80 The warning 87 The distress signal 91 The agreement 100 The court-Martial 102 The key 106 The departure 116 The advice 126 The time 140 The message 146 The visitor 151 The connection 158 The steps 163 The invasion 168 The encounter 173 The dome 179 The projectiles 185 The family 188 The handover 191 The boyfriend 196 The evaluation 203 Other work from this author 206 About the author 207 Acknowledgments 208