She threw her arms out and spun around, dancing between couples and other single dancers, her alien medallion flew out and flickered as it went spinning around her neck. 'Nice, ' said one of the boys near her, watching the medallion swing back. 'Where did you get it?' Saira looked down, the medallion was a rapidly pulsing bright blue disk. 'Uh, uh, dad got it for me, in the city, ' she said in a stumbling voice. She grabbed the medallion and stared at it then shoved it down the front of her shirt to hide it's flickering light. She thought frantically, it's started, heart thudding in her chest, its started, it's happening! After a long silence the alien droid Tackak contacts Saira, the event that she'd thought was never going to happen suddenly upends her life; she is to take a crew of her friends, and ultimately the Earth's people on a journey of contact with an alien civilisation. Saira retreats to a country hideaway where she plans a covert departure from Earth to begin training in a distant habitat.