The bizarre events that have been occurring across the United
States – unexplained "oddities" tracked by Air Defense, mysterious
disappearances, shocking deaths – seem to have no bearing on Benita
Alvarez-Shipton's life. That is, until the soft-spoken
thirty-six-year-old bookstore manager is approached by a pair of aliens
asking her to transmit their message of peace to the powers that be in
Washington. Suddenly an ordinary woman with a poor self-image and low
self-esteem has been thrust into the limelight, as she leaves behind an
Albuquerque home on the brink of foreclosure and a drunken bully of an
abusive husband to undertake a mission of utmost importance to her
planet and its peoples.
Her obligation does not end once the
message is delivered, however, for the Pistach have offered their human
hosts a spectacular opportunity for knowledge and enrichment. And Benita is to act as sole liaison between the two sentient races. The more she
learns about the extraterrestrials who transformed her gray existence,
the more her appreciation grows for their culture, their beliefs, and
their art – especially the ancient and mystical Fresco that appears to
dominate their collective lives. And the easier it becomes to shed the
psychological and societal restraints that inhibited her own growth as
an individual.
But alongside the promise is a dire, unspoken
threat. Because the Pistach are not the only space-faring species making their presence known on Earth. There are others – cold, malevolent,
hungry – who have now set their sights on Benita, and their accomplices
may be as close as Capitol Hill. And the desperate race to save herself
and two worlds could carry Benita Alvarez far from her home planet...
and light years away from anything she has ever been.
