What if you discover that you aren't human? That your parents aren't your parents? That you're expected to save the world? Vala, who talks to animals, and Eric, who reads individuals' thoughts, believe they're just oddball humans. What else is there to be? Their beliefs and lives shift forever when a transparent figure haunts their lives. When they finally make contact with the mysterious visitor, they learn they must give up everything and try to save not one but two Earths. Challenges to Alpha Earth, 2029, include environmental devastation and political demagogues. A greater threat looms over unaware residents: collision with another Earth threatens annihilation. Beta Earth residents have begun to realize the Membrane separating the two Earths is failing. Not only has Beta Earth lost its status as a sanctuary created by gentem–genetically divergent from homo sapiens–the threat of collision now endangers both Earths. The gentem have to find a solution to save at least one of the planets and at least one of the species. Which Earth should they choose? Which species? The questions force them to try to connect with the two children they abandoned on Alpha Earth 29 years earlier. The existence of both planets depends on what the children have to say.
