On the planet Vanat, Kesh is the last of his kind, a male vanata-human hybrid. All the vanatas were killed long ago when humans colonized the planet and there are no vanata women left, except for his mother. Kesh has sex with human women, but it's only a dull relief. When he's given a security detail for Locke, a senator, Kesh thinks he might have scented something impossible on the senator-a new vanata female. Hala has just turned twenty. She has...