It all starts here... The plan always worked for the bloodthirsty Cerik, whose battle-bred claws and muscles made them the uncontested top predator on scores of planets. The radiation pulse from the supernova would turn civilization on the blue-white globe below into chaos within days, making for easy prey. In Texas, in a wooden cabin where she'd hidden from regular humans since birth, telepathic Sharon Dae knew nothing could prevent humanity from becoming another tasty slave race. She'd read it plainly from the thoughts in the sky. A scout ship had crashed in her woods, but these alien Hunters would vaporize thousands just to keep any human prey from the fragments. She sensed a stranger, Abe Whiting nearby, hunting for debris with his computers and gadgets. Painfully, she realized she would have to learn how to lie and betray to get the prize away from him, even if she couldn't escape the jaws of the Cerik herself. How could she know that this techno wizard would soon brave the collapse of the world, cobbling together fried scraps and pieces in an impossible rescue attempt for her, a strange white-haired trickster of a girl who slipped through his life for only one afternoon? It all starts here, the first installment of a multi-volume, multi-thousand year tale of human destiny from the mind of Henry Melton.