Chapter 1

As Alana pulled the opening of the wormhole over her huddled group, the image cleared and the little group found themselves in the settlement in Mesopotamia.

"Where's Elaine?" Tabatha asked, looking worried as she looked around.

"And the twins?" Tia wanted to know.

"I think they're in trouble," Holly timidly voiced her concerns. Having only met one alien species in her entire life, she had always believed that the Veragos were pretty much as advanced as a civilization could get. After all, what could be more advanced than a Praetor – a thinking machine capable of actually comprehending and understanding human emotions?

But that dragon had looked at her with understanding and deep knowledge in its eyes – at least in the eye she could see. For that single second, Holly had been connected with the mind of what seemed to be a savage, rampaging, fire-breathing beast. And also in that single second, she had been overwhelmed at the sheer complexity of the creature's thoughts. The hybrids in New Eden called themselves goddesses, but that dragon felt closer to a living god than anything she'd ever experienced before, and it terrified her.

During the few minutes when Haley had come to her bedside before joining this expedition, Holly had shared her thoughts and images with her. Now Haley was frightened and jittery, as well, though not as thoroughly immersed in the dread as Holly. So far, there simply hadn't been enough time for Haley to fully wrap her mind around such wild concepts. Plus, she wasn't certain her twin had accurately ascertained what she thought she'd experienced. The images were real, as they were automatically recorded by the subconscious mind, but, Haley hoped, the significance of what Holly had experienced might be more imaginative than factual.

Several buildings were still smoldering, and the denizens of the colony couldn't help but notice the instantaneous arrival of a half-dozen half-naked goddesses. Alana found herself and the other girls immediately swamped with tired, smelly, frightened and injured people, all clamoring noisily for immediate help.

"Thank the gods you're here!"

"Please take us back to New Eden with you!"

"Please help me, my husband's hurt, and I can't move him!"

As more pleas for aid assaulted them, the girls quickly dispersed into the crowd to do what they could. A quick scanning of several minds convinced Alana that Elaine and her twins hadn't arrived here. Agonized at the choice she had to make – to forget her dearest friend, at least for the time being – Alana moved to help the citizens who called her their queen. She considered herself accomplished in dealing with internal injuries, so Alana had the most seriously injured brought to her. There were dozens of upset, hurt and frightened people to care for, and they all needed help – right now.

When Alana awoke, the sky was just beginning to lighten up a bit. There were still a few stars shining in the rich blue that was no longer night, but they were waning against the slow, steady brightening beyond the horizon. Alana stretched as she stood up and then shivered now that she was no longer wrapped in the heavy fur she had been offered as bedding. Despite the goose pimples and shivering dampness, she stared down at the fur wrap with disdain, wrinkling her nose as she once again noticed that her fur bedding smelled like damp camel. And now, so did she.

There was movement in the camp, even at this early hour. The Phoenix girls, Holly and Haley, didn't need much sleep, as they could replenish their energy levels using their own Phoenix fire, and had stayed up far into the night, attending to injured settlers even after Alana had exhausted herself. Holly and Haley usually maintained a regular sleep pattern, but that was mostly because they lived in the palace with her, and most of the staff there went to sleep when the artificial crystal suns went out each night. Twilight and dawn were parts of the day that didn't exist in New Eden, and Alana felt strangely homesick as she watched the slowly lightening sky.

A flicker of light in the darkness at the edge of the woods attracted her attention. 'Fireflies in the morning? I thought they only came out at dusk.' Nevertheless, there was a small swarm of the lightning bugs hovering in a loose grouping only a few dozen yards away. Feeling curious, Alana walked toward them, feeling oddly at home in the pleasant, heavy Earth gravity that pulled straight up and down.

The tiny insects ignored her as she came close enough to perceive that these creatures were much larger than the typical glowing insects that used to delight her back on Earth as they danced and hovered and flickered at each other. 'Back on Earth? But I'm back on Earth, now. Way back, in fact!' These creatures were the size of dragonflies, with large, flickering wings that... 'The light is coming from their wings! Oh, my! These aren't lightning bugs, these are fairies!'

Alana flinched as one of the delightful creatures flickered past her ear with a soft buzzing sound and playfully yanked at a loose strand of her hair. "Ow! Hey, wait!" she cried, then put her hands over her mouth as the sound of her voice caused the fairies to flee wildly in all directions. In an instant, she was alone at the edge of the woods.

'No I'm not, ' Alana thought excitedly to herself, 'I can feel something moving in my hair. Bet I can catch it!'

Moving slowly so as not to give away her intention, Alana carefully straightened up, raising her hands up beside her head. The next second, she squatted down as quick as she could and grabbed above her head. Wildly flickering light indicated that she'd caught something in her fingers. Moving her hand down in front of her face, she watched as the fascinating, delicate fairy desperately fluttered its wings, flashing bright sparkles of light in all directions as it tried to fly away. The fairy's foot, however, was trapped between Alana's fingers.

"Stop! You'll hurt yourself!" Alana urged the tiny creature, completely fascinated as she stared at it. She cupped her other hand and moved it over the top of the creature, hoping that it would stop the wild fluttering of its wings as she brought her hand down.