DESTINY'S CHILDRENTRANSCENDENTItis the year 2047, and nuclear engineer Michael Poole is still in thethroes of grief. His beloved wife, Morag, died seventeen years ago,along with their second child. Yet Michael is haunted by more than justthe memory of Morag. On a beach in Miami, he sees his dead wife. But shevanishes as suddenly as she appears, leaving no clue as to hermysterious purpose.Alia was born on a starship, fifteen thousandlight years from Earth, five hundred thousand years after the death ofMichael Poole. Yet she knows him intimately. In this distant future,when humanity has diversified as a species and spread across the galaxy,every person is entrusted with the duty of Witnessing the life of oneman, woman, or child from the past, recovered by means of a technologyable to traverse time itself. Alia's subject is Michael Poole.Whenhis surviving, estranged son is injured, Michael tries to reconnect withhim-and to stave off a looming catastrophe. Vast reservoirs of toxicgases lie buried beneath the poles, trapped in crystals of ice. Now thatice is melting. Once it goes, the poisons released will threaten alllife on Earth. A bold solution is within reach, if only Michael canconvince a doubting world. Yet as Morag'sghostly visitations continue,Michael begins to doubt his own sanity.In the future, Alia ischosen to become a Transcendent, an undying member of the group mindthat is shepherding humanity toward an evolutionary apotheosis. TheWitnessings are an integral part of their design, for only by redeemingthe pain of every human who has lived and died can true Transcendence beachieved. Yet Alia discovers a dark side to the Transcendents' plans, avein of madness that may lead to an unthinkable renunciation.Somehow,Michael Poole holds the fate of the future in his hands. Now, to savethat future, Alia must undertake a desperate journey into the past. . . .