Mankind’s toxic choices catch-up to them as the apex managers of Earth reach their limit and open a direct frontal assault on humanity, targeting all but a fraction of men for liquidation. It’s a diabolical plan of worldwide homicide by virus and mauling beasts crafted by shape shifting Skate fish to cull the human population. Dandi Moraine, a gifted and sleuth-like bioengineer, discovers a series of anomalies with the help of colleagues and, ultimately, one skate who’s gone rogue. She deduces the conspiracy unfolding and races to piece together a clarion call. But it may be too late. Deliverance doesn’t necessarily mean salvation for all.

Familiar to humans as benign bottom feeders, most of the Skate we know of end up on dinner plates or as chum for bigger game. Long considered unremarkable, even inconsequential, the self-appointed leadership of the flat, triangular fish gladly accept the glazed over regard they’re often given. But in fact, Skate sit at the right hand of the most powerful being of this world—Dominion Mother Nature—selected as managers of the planet and conductors of her ecology because of their discipline and strict reverence. That, and the electricity they can generate, gives them an uncanny ability to manipulate nearly anything, all at a time and place of their choosing.

The special arrangement works both ways to give Skate fish a bloodline of unusual powers as well as sanctuary at the bottom of the seas. But they aren’t untouchable. The Creator declined to make them apex predators which ties them close to their vulnerabilities and, in turn, holds them in check. To thrive, they’ve no choice but to fiercely protect Her natural order.

For generations Skate absorbed losses and imbalances thrown at them by men. With their tolerance bled out, the Skate determine that the root of the problem is man. To weed the garden once and for all the Skate set a campaign to reset the equilibrium, where women are tapped to carry humanity forward, unburdened by a redundancy of brethren. For the sake of preserving sufficient genetic diversity, a fraction of adult men are scheduled to survive and prepubescent boys, guiltless as wallflowers, are spared.

The omnipresent Skate know Dandi well. They’ve tracked her for most of her life and know that the little girl deep inside the successful scientist that she is perseveres with one mantra in front of mind: there is justice in the world. She may unearth their secret and put them in checkmate. But they also see in her a crystal to bend the light to help others see a destiny of different ends, perhaps even of greater purpose, if only they could begin.