Survival is the first novel of the science fiction trilogy Species Imperative by Julie E. Czerneda (don't think I've read any of her other works). In the mid-term future, like a hundred years, humanity has expanded to the stars and found them populated with a lot of alien species in a harmonious Interstellar Union. Interstellar travel is done via transduction gates, a technology discovered by some long lost species, lost then rediscovered. Earth itself is less populated as people moved out and EarthGov has been busy slowly restoring the planet, fixing humanity's ecological damage.

Dr. Mackenzie Connor studies salmon in the Pacific Northwest, has never left Earth and doesn't really care about what's "out there". Unfortunately her peace of mind and research projects are interrupted by an alien visitor, Brymn, an archaeologist from a species where studying the past is taboo. Brymn thinks something evil is re-emerging from the Chasm may be heading towards Earth, something so dangerous it threatens species extinction. (The Chasm is an area of space — and by that we mean systems connected to a trans gate system so all are nearby — where there is no life, at all even microorganisms, just dead cities and other artifacts of civilizations that lived there.)

With that threat (which is very very secret no-one else must know) Brymn has been allowed on Earth to talk with Dr Connor whom he believes will help him research. Government bureaucrat Nikolas Trojanowski is Brymn's handler though it turns out he's more than he seems. Mackenzie's best friend Dr Emily Mamani also happened to be visiting to help in Mackenzie's research so she gets roped into helping and when Emily is kidnapped Mackenzie has to finally leave Earth with Brymn to visit Brymn's homeworld for answers…

It's a slow moving story told from Mackenzie Connor's perspective. Conveniently since Dr Connor is unfamiliar with space and aliens as she learns stuff we learn stuff. The second half of the novel Dr Connor experiences an alien world with alien viewpoints (she almost dies on the two-week trip because Brymn's people didn't bring food and water for her and their attitude is "if you can't survive on your own you deserve to die"). Lots of plot twists because, aside from Dr Connor, the other major characters all have secrets that are revealed and change how we think about them. The ending is also a huge surprise

After a slow start I did end up enjoying the novel enough to want to continue with the second book (though unfortunately not available from my library network).