With their power plant destroyed, the therians send a reconnaissance group down to theria to investigate the disaster. While below, they encounter Aral, a sixteen-year-old Cthonian--the only person left alive after the Cthonians' botched attack on the therian power plant. But when Aral realizes that Rex Himmel is related to an therian asylum-seeker living among the Cthonians, Rex understands that Aral might be the connection he needed to rebuild...