A.D. 3596While Xathen are of many body-forms, they are all Xathen, one and united.However, a billion years ago the Xathen fought each other in the bloodiest civil war the galaxy has ever seen. Trillions died and hundreds of star systems were extinguished as battles raged all across the Milky Way.They fought not over race or body-form, but over a single ideal:Thou Shalt Not Interfere.The losers fled the galaxy entirely, cast out into the great dark between the stars.The winners were left to play as gods with the Orion Spur, fostering one cluster of new intelligences after another, wiping them out, then starting again.We are the result of their toils.Now those who had fled have returned. They call themselves the True Xathen. James Jacob (J J) Mathews grew up with his nose stuck in books. A voracious reader in his youth, he devoured all of the science fiction and fantasy books he could find at the local library. J.R.R. Tolkein, Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Larry Niven, Voltaire and Greg Bear were some of his early influences, with many other authors added to his bookshelf as time went on. Broadening out to read more genres as an adult, J J has always held a special place for fantasy and sci-fi.J J is married and lives in Hamilton, New Zealand with his wife and three boys, and writes in his spare time. A.D. 3485All Taylor wanted was to get to know her mother. Now, she may never get that chance.Taylor went along for the ride to help her mother survey a new planet, and the offer of a few extra course credits for doing field work certainly didn't hurt.A planet on the edge of disputed territory, sure, but the war with the Xathen had ended thirty years ago, and the Commonwealth had won. It didn't matter that the first survey ship failed to return, things like that happen during wartime.But this was just term break, with two whole months to work alongside her mother and get to know her better while she sharpened her Xenobiology skills in a verdant paradise.With any luck, she would graduate early.Then Taylor messed up, big-time.Now she was lost, alone and struggling to survive, stranded ten thousand light-years from home

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