First Claim

Content Warnings: Political conflict / negotiation tension, Disaster survival themes, References to loss during colonization, Medical/quarantine themes, Non-graphic violence / threat of violence, Environmental hazards and predation, (No sexual violence, no graphic gore.)

After six hundred years in the dark between stars, the Varidian colony ship Saffron Ark reaches its promised world-only to find it already thriving with human cities, orbital stations, and millions of settlers who got there first.
Captain Sareth Venn must keep twelve thousand sleeping colonists alive while confronting an impossible question: Who owns a world-those who claimed it first, or those who survived it first?
As diplomacy collides with survival, the Varidians discover that humans didn't just arrive early... they endured a planet that refuses to be tamed-and they're willing to help their unexpected guests.
But help has a price. And the "Green Promise" is about to demand one.

87. A colony ship arrives at its destination only to find it already inhabited by humans.