Manhattan in Reverse

Investigator Paula Myo is meant to be on vacation when the backwoods planet Menard erupts: a supposedly docile, non-sentient alien species called the Onid has turned on the human settlers there, and the planet's corporate owners are ready to fight evacuation rather than lose their claim. Taking the case as a distraction, Paula ends up untangling a xenobiology puzzle that questions everything the colonists assumed about the world they settled. The title novella of Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe story collection, set after Judas Unchained.