Close encounters happen on both sides of the contact. Evie always knew there was something different about her brain, but she learned to keep it hidden. She always loved the stars, too, and those other bright lights she'd seen in the night sky as a child were never far from her mind. Who was behind them? Scout had surveyed many planets, but the mind he sensed on that little blue-green marble was unique. He shouldn't go back, he knew. Contact was forbidden. But the mind called to him in ways he couldn't ignore. A first contact story that stretches over time and space--what will it mean for the humans of the future?