Jacaranda "Jackie" MacKenzie is an experienced politician, former soldier, and powerful psychic. Ten years out of the military, she happily uses her natural and psychic gifts for languages and telepathy to serve as the Oceanic Representative on the United Planets Council. When precognitives around the world start having visions of her involvement in First Contact with oddly striped humans and octopus/frog-like aliens she is pulled from her position on the Council to serve as Ambassador of the Terrans.
Her task: find the alien civilizations seen by the precogs and lead the Terrans in joining the galactic community. This would all be so much easier if said galactic community wasn't currently engaged in an interstellar war...
This series provides examples of:
- All Myths Are True: When it comes to the V'Dan Sh'nai faith this is strongly implied to be the case. Those familiar with the Theirs Not to Reason Why series will know this to be dead accurate since the Sh'nai faith's prophecies shared by the Immortal were originally written by Ia.
- Fish out of Water: The V'Dan are not exactly comfortable with Terran customs.
- Human Aliens: The V'Dan, though their scriptures claim them to be Transplanted Humans taken from Earth some 10000 years ago by an immortal being from another world. DNA research is quick to back this up.
- Humans Are Psychic in the Future: Well, some humans. A stroke of luck for everyone involved since it allows Jackie to exchange language fluency with the V'Dan simply by concentrating for a few hours.
- Improbable Age: All of the Terrans as far as the V'Dan are concerned since they lack the jungen marks that separate adult V'Dan from children.
- Lockdown: Several weeks of it for the V'Dan and anyone who's come in contact with them. Twice. Once in a space station off Earth and once on V'Dan. Justified since nobody wants to expose their homeworld to alien pathogens.
- Mindlink Mates: Called "Gestalt pairings" by the Terrans and "Holy Pairs" by the V'Dan, these are documented cases of two or more psychics establishing an immediate and irreversible mental bond upon meeting. Complete with minor Synchronization and near-immediate Can't Live Without You.
- Rescue Introduction: Terrans and V'Dan meet when the Salik decide to capture a Terran vessel while having V'Dan captives on board. Jackie ensures that when the Terrans escape the surviving V'Dan get to come along.
- The Alliance: Quite literally. In this series it consists of the Solaricans, the K'Katta, the Tlassians, the Gatsugi, the Choyans, and the V'Dan.
- The Federation: The democratically elected United Planets Council oversees all Terran territory. Anyone who's passed the required tests in politics, ethics, and the basic STEM fields can run for office.
- The Future Will Be Better: An extremely optimistic version. All the nations on Earth have joined together in one (as far as we know) peaceful democratic government with stringent measures against corruption and favoritism. Energy is solar- and water-based. We're exploring the galaxy and have colonized the moon and Mars... All in all future Terran humanity is doing very well for itself indeed.
- The Good Kingdom: An unusually large one. The Empire of the V'Dan is very much not a Star Wars type empire. Though it has an extremely strict Fantastic Caste System and its nobles show tendencies of Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!, its 5000-year-old governing family is generally loved by the citizens.
- World Tour: The V'Dan get one offscreen of Earth and the Sol system in order to introduce them to Terran culture.
