Synopsis: Hidden deep in the shadows of the forest, the Catowls watch the newcomers and learn. They wait until the aggressive ground huggers finish fighting the hungry jungle and each other. Patiently, they choose to continue waiting until the surviving interlopers become civilised, learn to live with their new planet, and begin to flourish. The human Colonists were the pick of an elite minority, and they had gambled precious centuries deep-frozen in their one-trip sleeper ship, fleeing from the restrictive science and dogma of their ancestors. Unable to leave the jungle world, they struggle to stay alive, stagnate and decline, while the Universe passes on by. After hundreds of years discreetly observing the clumsy, noisy aliens, the Catowls finally decided how to introduce themselves. A few of their kits adopt some of the younger "Big Ones," and the delighted children think they are acquiring harmless pets to talk with. In this first part of the trilogy: Jacob Ivanson and Fred, his Catowl friend, help to resist an invasion by buccaneers intent on exploiting the re-discovered world; the reclusive Colonists are forced to come to terms with Civilisation flooding in from outside their cosy little backwater; and together, the Catowls and the Colonists reluctantly try to avert a much wider conflict, when two very different space-faring races meet for the first time.