Welkin Quinn has always dreamed of setting foot on Earth. As an elite Skyborn teenager aboard a transport ship destined for Tau Ceti, all he knows of his home planet is what he has learned from the Elders as well as from a wealth of records and artifacts archived in the ship's memory. The creatures known as the Earthborn-brutish survivors of the devastation that laid waste to Earth-are an uncivilized and technologically primitive race in many ways indistinguishable from savages.

Yet even though Welkin was born on The Colony, Earth is still. . . home.

When The Colony is forced to abort its mission to colonize and Tau Ceti and crash lands on Earth, he will finally have a chance to experience Earth-and the Earthborn-firsthand.

Assigned to a reconnaissance team to explore The Colony's perimeter, however, Welkin is ambushed by a murderous gang of feral Earthborn known as Jabbers. Welkin is rescued by Sarah, an Earthborn hardly older than himself and a leader of group of young survivors who are trying to unite other displaced families in a war against the Jabbers.

No question Skyborn Welkin needs the help of these Earthborn to survive. The real question is, Why on earth would they need him?