Houses of Common by Derick William Dalton

In the 22nd century, pilgrims leave Earth for nearby planets that terraformers have crafted to meet their needs. Ranyk is a smart-mouthed alien, the best of the world-builders employed by the US government—and he always completes his assignments solo, pushing to the deep recesses of space for the good of colonists and to avoid his growing fame.

Until he’s handed an on-planet assignment in Ireland, of all places, as an undercover international student of aquaponics. His real plan? To pull scientists and their families out of a country careening toward civil war—and off Earth, to a world of their own—before a martial law lockdown ends their groundbreaking discoveries.

Risking his life is no novelty for Ranyk. He’s been battered by asteroids, nearly incinerated in volcanoes, and has out-piloted pirates. But political espionage on Earth is more dangerous than anything he’s encountered before, and he’s completely ill-equipped for such delicate matters. Now he must figure out who to trust and who to eliminate, or it will mean his freedom, the safety of forty thousand colonists, and the lives of his friends.