The Chrome Contingency, by T. Curtis

Eighteen-year-old Skye Whitaker has one desire: to protect the people he loves. It’s 1974 in Charleston, West Virginia, when a mysterious sphere crashes onto his farm and thrusts him into a quest that spans the stars—and warns of an alien invasion. Unaware that he holds the key to humanity’s survival, Skye faces a discovery that could either save or doom the world.

Across the country in Spanish Harlem, Vietnam veteran Antonio Bucho battles addiction and despair. Seeking redemption, he joins the D.E.A., but after confronting a sphere of his own, he is drawn into the same cosmic struggle. Armed with a soldier’s resolve, Antonio searches for answers that might restore balance to both himself and the universe.

Together with Ziah Caspary—a human and ultra-terrestrial hybrid—Skye forms The Chrome Contingency, an alliance born of the spheres. But a precognitive U.S. agent, Veronica Luis Smith, pursues him relentlessly, commanding a covert team infiltrated by a species older than mankind. With only a childhood friend at his side, Skye must fight for his life—and for the future of Earth.