The Outcasts

When Captain Brenda Valkonen leads the first joint Earth-Peregrine Alliance into remote space to examine the wreck of an alien vessel, she does not know the fate of humanity may hang in the balance. Though only several generations removed from Earth, the Peregrines make much more use of brain implants adapted from animals to broaden their range of sensory inputs. These implants create widespread hostility on Earth, where many accuse the Peregrines of trying to create a super-race. Hopefully the Geniah expedition will serve as a model for future cooperation. They find the alien vessel lifeless. Except, of course, for the weird-looking creatures suspended in cryo. Though human in origin, they bear a distinctly skeletal, almost insectoid look, along with oversize jaws and teeth that can only serve as weapons. Who are these people? Who built this ship, and to what purpose? As the crew of the Geniah probe deeper into the vessel, Valkonen comes to suspect that they are less the observers than the observed. And as her fears of an alien invasion grow, Valkonen reluctantly draws closer to a secret that could shatter relations between Earth and the Peregrines forever.