You can't choose what you are, except when you can.It's only been a few months since first contact and, although peaceful, humanity will never be the same. The new treaty with the Mendians is seemingly too good to be true; free access to hundreds of star systems and the means to get there. All they ask in return is that humanity make the Mendian's "Path of the Other" free to any who desire it. Although following it means to surrender your humanity, for the UEA leadership, the price is worth it. After all, who would choose that?Joyce and John were both born feeling different, like they were meant to be something else, a feeling they've never been able to share except with each other. Now they can become anything and suddenly there is hope. Joyce can't wait to be one of the first human-animal hybrids called Morphics. John is supportive but worried about the risks and the stigma from society as distrust of the treaty grows.A great divide is growing within humanity between those who see the hope for a new age of mankind and those who fear the beginning of the end for humanity itself.Hope or fear, the lines are drawn, and to the victor goes the fate of humanity itself.