Prologue to Book 1: Out of the Gray

Introduction by Rica Miller

When I was five years old, my adopted mother used to tell me fairy tales to help me fall sleep. In them, you always knew who was right and who was wrong. It was clear-cut, just as the fact that good always won in the end.

In real life, there are a lot of men and women who walk a gray line, believing that it will keep them safe. Some stay on this line for so long they even forget who they are—sometimes for the better but more often for the worse.

You see, the gray is nothing more than an illusion. Whether you know it or not, your decisions are always sliding you in one direction or the other. Then one day something wakes you up, and you realize where your choices have brought you.

Whether good won out this time or not will be a matter of your perspective. The reality is choices were made on both sides to get us to this point, and harder choices will have to be made to determine what happens next. The problem is people are only getting one side of the story—the side they want you to know.

This is difficult for me because I have gained and lost so much in this past year that I haven't had time to fully comprehend it. I haven't even had time to grieve, but there’s too much at stake right now for me to just sit things out.

I also know what it's like to be afraid. I didn't even know I was a Hannarian until a year ago, so I do understand. I just want you to know that there’s nothing to fear from them—from us. What's going on right now isn’t what you think.

I have no reason to lie to you, and I hope you won't let a small difference in our DNA cause you to shut out what I'm about to tell you. You need to know the truth and understand why things happened the way that they did.

Whether you decide to trust me or not, you still need to get out of the gray—out of that fog of indecision that's clouding your thinking. If you don't, we are all going to lose.

Introduction by Alex Verin

I was taught to believe that the Hannarians were Earth's enemies only pretending to be our friends. For a long time, I believed it. Then I overhead some things I wasn't supposed to hear.

When the Hannarians arrived on Earth on September 30^th, 2113, many people believed that it meant a new chapter for our planet—or the beginning of the end of it. The event itself changed the entire legacies and directions of several human families, including my own.

These aliens were not what people had expected. Instead of the small gray-skinned creatures of pop culture, they looked a lot like us—with the exception of having an inner glow in their eyes that seemed to intensify in certain situations.

The dilemma of whether to trust the Hannarians divided Earth, with both sides passionate about what they believed would happen once contact was reestablished. Seven years later, a global political alliance known as the Earth Independence Party—EIP for short—was formed in the United States and began to gain momentum in almost every nation on the planet.

When Hannaria’s Ambassador returned to Earth on August 4^th, 2133, those old enough to remember the original event were astounded that the he had not physically aged. It was explained to him by members of the UN that we had no diplomatic consensus on becoming allies because Earth was many peoples and governments, which was a contrast to his planet's rule by one emperor. This news didn’t seem to bother him, and he explained that his government was patient and that he would do his best to explain what they could offer to us as a planet or even as individual countries.

Many generations later, my father Adam Verin was a senior representative and part of the EIP. After the 2300 Congressional elections, the EIP controlled almost a forth of the United States House and Senate. The Democratic and Republican parties were still divided on Hannarian issues even after 187 years of contact, and the EIP had used this to their advantage for several decades to leverage into almost equal power.

The problem however was how this one done, first by smearing opponents and then outright intimidating them. All of this occurred through small but well-funded radical factions and never fell back on its official leadership, even when senior leaders in the party were well aware of it. Even my father had looked the other way on some unethical things that helped him get his position, although he didn't know I knew this.

It may be hard to understand, but the choices I made were because of the seeds of doubt that were haunting me prior to this past year. Despite the fact I knew it was possible the Hannarians could take over the planet and feared them, I came to another realization that was much more terrifying.

What if we were becoming something worse?