Who are these Visitors from a planet few have ever heard of? They are charming, amusing and seemingly naïve but they are also weird, with strange taboos about being touched and never eating in public. Their way of speaking is also peculiar and they seem completely at sea with most technology. They claim to be descendants of Merculians marooned on Osterly centuries ago, however no away-team ever landed on Osterly.Marlo becomes convinced they are hiding an alien life form in their midst who might be dangerous but his boss forbids him from digging further. Then Triani's young sibling Rio falls for one of them, but even he can't get any direct answers. Why can no one manage to contact their home planet Osterly? Is there something sinister hidden behind the smiles and childlike charm? What do they really want? And will they eventually bring disaster to their hosts?

An alien evil threatens the fun-loving, dual-gendered inhabitants of Merculian. Marlo can feel it.Young people are getting sick from alien party drugs, a valuable antique painting is stolen, celebrated dancer Eulio is receiving menacing notes from a stalker and a body is discovered in the Pleasure Gardens. Meanwhile super star Triani's young sibling Rio falls for a mysterious Merculian youth with ties to the notorious River District. Even the dancers are having problems and during rehearsals for the new production of The Night Bird one of them has a serious accident.Then on opening night, Eulio disappears. Marlo and the Regulators work franticly to find him and in the process discover dark secrets linking to the ruthless Terran criminal and his gang who have taken possession of the River District. But can Marlo or Beny and the secret government group he has joined act quickly enough to save their beloved city?

Who are these Visitors from a planet few have ever heard of? They are charming, amusing and seemingly naïve but they are also weird, with strange taboos about being touched and never eating in public. Their way of speaking is also peculiar and they seem completely at sea with most technology. They claim to be descendants of Merculians marooned on Osterly centuries ago, however no away-team ever landed on Osterly.Marlo becomes convinced they are hiding an alien life form in their midst who might be dangerous but his boss forbids him from digging further. Then Triani's young sibling Rio falls for one of them, but even he can't get any direct answers. Why can no one manage to contact their home planet Osterly? Is there something sinister hidden behind the smiles and childlike charm? What do they really want? And will they eventually bring disaster to their hosts?

An alien evil threatens the fun-loving, dual-gendered inhabitants of Merculian. Marlo can feel it.Young people are getting sick from alien party drugs, a valuable antique painting is stolen, celebrated dancer Eulio is receiving menacing notes from a stalker and a body is discovered in the Pleasure Gardens. Meanwhile super star Triani's young sibling Rio falls for a mysterious Merculian youth with ties to the notorious River District. Even the dancers are having problems and during rehearsals for the new production of The Night Bird one of them has a serious accident.Then on opening night, Eulio disappears. Marlo and the Regulators work franticly to find him and in the process discover dark secrets linking to the ruthless Terran criminal and his gang who have taken possession of the River District. But can Marlo or Beny and the secret government group he has joined act quickly enough to save their beloved city?