Shura returns to an Earth that has become a shrine for her people, people that haven't set foot on their homeworld in hundreds of years. Riker-10, the home of most of the human race, orbits Earth, monitoring it for the day when Humankind might set foot on it once again. But when they discover movement on the planet, movement that shouldn't be there, they call in the one person they know who can blend into any situation. Shura. But what has the Earth been doing while the children were away? What the Earth has always done: made, healed, and destroyed life, and this time it's we who are the aliens.