Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington's life. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened - as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx's most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.īut her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie's find - and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly - land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie's explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision! It should have been the perfect new home - a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. Stephanie Harrington had always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore.

A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber