"The aurora blazed and writhed in the night sky, a parody of the chaos below. Greens, reds and purples shimmered strobe-like over the corridor, turning each person's frenzied flight into a macabre dance."
Fleeing a plague-poisoned Earth, The Last Chance carries over 6000 refugees to a new home on the far away planet Aurora. But when colonists begin to die in horrible seizures, they fear Aurora may not be the last chance they had hoped for.
Fluent in ten human languages and an expert in translation, The Last Chance's Communications Officer, Gar Franck, is charged with the task of attempting to secure humanity's salvation through communication with a hostile alien intelligence. As their situation grows ever bleaker, Gar finds he can no more communicate with Aurora's mysterious sentience than he can with his own autistic son.
Symphony is a moving story in which Douglas Smith showcases his talent for mirroring the epic struggles of humanity in the reflecting pool of intimate, personal experience.