Cirrus@Austlit

'For Shanna, joining the Scout Corps had been a dream come true. The Scouts were charged with expanding their knowledge of Frontier, a hostile planet their ancestors had crash-landed on 300 years before. As the youngest in her class, Shanna struggled to find acceptance and respect amongst her older peers - a task made more difficult by the fact that she has not just one, but two of the colonists' huge feline companions, their starcats.

'On a routine patrol, she and the other cadets found themselves on the frontline of a war they knew nothing about against the hostile Garsal. Now Shanna and her friends must master their new gifts that will enable them to seek out the alien invaders before they enslave her world.

'But it’s hard. Shanna and her friends have gifts that might save the world, and perhaps one day the galaxy - if they can master them. But the training is difficult, and they still don’t know where the Garsal are.

'On the plateau, the Council has allied with the Starlyne race, but Tamazine, the Senior Councillor’s distrust of their new allies creates a final weakness. Below, the Garsal Overlord needs a new pool of human slaves to expand his empire, but first, he must locate and subdue Frontier’s human settlements.

'Time is running out, for both invader and settler, and the outcome hangs in the balance.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.