Prologue: Abra
Here on Earth, they called us Descenders because of the way the lights from our spaceships lit up the night when we descended on the planet at the brink of its extinction. We were their saviors, coming to rescue them from the bleakness their world had become. It was a time on Earth when the sun didn't shine, the oceans were lifeless, and most animals were extinct. A small human population survived by scratching out a meager existence from the remnants of what once was.
"What about the girl?" Astrid asked when I'd been silent too long. I stared at her a moment, noting the sadness in my sister's face. She was pregnant again, this time with her fourth child. Her first three had all died by the time they were three years old.
We left Planet Danu and came to Earth as part of an experiment to breed with the human race. We learned to mask our alien traits in order to blend in with the population. We took human mates. We bore half human children. And in all our years of pretending to be one of them, we became a little human ourselves.
"The girl will be born to human parents after the birth of your fifth son. She will be a hybrid." The look of confusion on Astrid's face was understandable. How could a human child be a hybrid? To us, to Descenders, a hybrid was the product of a Descender-human union.
"My fifth son?" My sister looked distraught. Too many of our children had died, and we hadn't signed up for such losses. We were mating with humans in order to improve their race while sustaining our own. But there was something wrong between the genes of Descenders and humans, and I had buried five of my own children alongside my sister's three. It wasn't supposed to be a hostile takeover, but where is the peace in burying your own children? It was a cost neither of us was willing to bear any longer. We might have given in to despair if not for the promise of the girl with the purple eyes. She would be the solution.
The girl appeared to me in a dream. She floated into my thoughts as if I'd conjured her, an answer to what I'd been so desperately seeking. She would be the one — a new branch on the evolutionary tree.
"She will be the first of her kind," I said aloud, "the first human to exhibit traits rivaling our own. Our children are not going to die anymore, Sister."
Some children inexplicably survived the inter-breeding, but only a select few. Our government, the Reformation Republic, wanted to continue no matter the cost. The general population believed the deaths were attributed to a plague, some microbial illness infecting the planet randomly. The government claimed to have no cure. But I discovered their lie, and then I stole it. I pulled the vial from my pocket. The clear, viscous liquid swirled in a case encrypted with the information we needed to save our children.
"So it's true then, they had the cure all along?" Astrid asked.
It was true. The knowledge of such a betrayal was the end of our allegiance to the Reformation. We spent some time inscribing the cure on all of the jewelry we had in our possession, symbols that would mean nothing to anyone else, but everything to us.
We began to form our plan. The Reformation required all children to join an Energy Crusade by the time they were eighteen. Such Crusades could last a lifetime and others, the more dangerous ones, could be much shorter. The higher the level of danger, the higher the energy payout, and energy was the only accepted currency on Earth. Astrid would become even more valuable to the Reformation. She would train Elite Crusaders, building an army under the very noses of those who had deceived us. With her help, I had faked my own death, leaving behind a husband who had no idea I was carrying our twins — the last children I would bear. As far as my government was concerned, I no longer existed. I would go underground and unite those who resisted the rule of the Descenders, biding my time until the girl came to us.
"How will I find her?" my sister asked, knowing we would soon have to part.
"You'll find her, Astrid. Find her parents. A son will be born to them first, in the season of the leaves, after the birth of the son you are carrying now. The girl will come during the second season of the sun following his birth."
"Is there another piece to this puzzle?" Astrid persisted. She knew, she could tell there was something else.
"She has another half," I admitted, unable to keep anything from my sister. I could see the girl would have a male by her side, her equal.
"Her brother?" Astrid asked.
"No." I shook my head. "Someone she loves and not like a brother. Without him, she will not become the girl we need. They are the future of this planet. Of our planet," I added, for I considered Earth my home. I thought for a moment, trying to see into the future. "He is a hybrid, and not by chance." He'd be bred as a hybrid, I felt certain of it. She would be the first of her kind, and he, one of the first of his to survive.
Together, they would breed the first of a new race. "My sons will be hybrids. One of them will complete her destiny." Astrid was quite sure of herself. She patted her swollen belly.
"My son will be a hybrid too. He will be raised to love this girl." I locked eyes with my sister. I could feel her inside my head, trying to see my visions firsthand.
I touched my forehead to hers and could see real tears in her eyes. It was time for us to part.
I hugged my sister tightly and kissed her tears away.
I wouldn't see her again for sixteen years.