Servants of the Gods

The truth may be out there, but ancient alien theorists believe it may be as close as the next discovered ancient cave painting-or even the next Roswell. The truth is complicated.

Millions of years ago the Tantian civilization ascended to the stars only to find they were the lone sentient life form in space's vast emptiness. So they set about creating neighbors, their own children, through a mastery of genetics. Among their genetic creations were the Dwar, a servant race of rugged small beings tasked with monitoring the almost hundred infant races.

Thousands of light years from Tantus, Earth became the most distant home to one of those child races-and quietly acknowledged as the most problematic. Tantus was loathe to admit the Earthers were something of a rush job, created by a Tantian science team centuries away from homes to which they yearned to return. So the Tantian "Star Gods" dumped the distant problem of Earth in the lap of the Dwar, eventually known to the Earthers as the Grays.

Flawed from the start, the Star Gods assumed Earth would never become worthy of the stars. Yet, over many thousands of years, the problem child Tantus had believed would eventually self-destruct could prove to be the unexpected salvation of the Tantian Empire.