Mission of Orion

A message from a lost world has failed to bring peace between the humans of the earth and the Tan-i, the lost world's survivors, among them. Still, Mira, Mother of the Tan, must try to make peace with the humans to fulfill the lost world's king's last commands: remember the Homeworld, perpetuate the Tan, and save the earth. It is, after all, the last known planet where intelligent life lives on. If she fails, life will end on the world where the life of all of the other worlds began.

Mira's task of peacemaking will be far from easy. An arranged marriage to a cold, calculating crown prince; conflicts among his subjects; acts of sabotage by misguided sympathizers that win the Tan-i the name of terrorists; and a campaign by elements of the government to track them down and kill them -- these place in her path obstacles that she can see no way to surmount. To make matters worse, her husband is making what might be an ultimate weapon for a purpose that he refuses to tell her.

Amid a growing war between super-powered youths and the world on which they have taken refuge, an unforeseen archaeological discovery opens a door to a new relationship between warring species. From the Atlantic's depths comes evidence that humanity and the Tan share a common origin. Parted kinsmen may be reuniting. Will memories from an age of ice stop hostilities in an age of fire?

In a brief truce, Mira must convince skeptical humanity of the advantages of renewed kinship. If she fails, the war to save the earth may become the war that destroys it.