The Astronaut Returns
About
Commander Elias Kessler died in space twenty years ago. So why did he wake up naked in the Nevada desert?
Kessler’s last memory is a routine satellite repair. Then a flash of light, and nothing. Now it’s 2017, and he’s lying in desert sand with no suit, no shuttle, and no explanation for the two missing decades.
Within minutes, government agents arrive as if they were waiting. Their tests show impossible results: accelerated healing, unstable heat patterns, and DNA that isn’t entirely human. NASA confirms the impossible—footage of his death, his funeral, his wife’s grief.
Haunted by memories that don’t match the record, Kessler searches for answers and finds a scientist who’s been tracking others who returned from space changed. Each case ends the same way. Madness. Disappearance. Silence.
As Kessler’s body begins to fail and his mind fractures, he must uncover what really happened out there—before whatever came back in his place takes over completely.
Not everyone who returns from space comes back alone.
Start this standalone thriller in The First Contact Files series today.