diplomatic relations. However, issues of distrust and misunderstanding plague the characters. Ponter and Mary forge a relationship however as they strive for both their people's mutual benefit even as they struggle to work through profoundly different beliefs as a potential crisis looms for our Earth. Barast society Barasts (Neanderthals) are dedicated hunter-gatherers, and have no developed concept of agriculture. Despite this, they are still technologically advanced, possessing quantum computers, helicopters, communications, and biological recording instruments. They live in harmony with their environment, using clean energy, living homes, and keeping a constant population. They measure long periods of time in lunar months, not years. The total barast population is much lower, numbering only 185 million worldwide compared to the gliksins' (humans') 6 billion. Family life Due to their advanced senses of smell, barasts are very sensitive to pheromones. Accordingly, women and men live in separate communities for 25 out of every 29 days. The four days when they do come together — known as two becoming one — are the cause of a monthly celebration and holiday. All barast women have synchronized menstrual cycles, and the meeting-times are set so that conception is unlikely — except every 10 years, when another generation is purposely conceived. Generations thus grow in synchronized, ten-year cycles; no barast needs to give his age, as simply stating his generation (if this is not simply inferred from his appearance) will give the needed information. All children live with their mothers until they reach the age of ten; boys then go to live with their fathers. Children remain with their appropriate parent until the approximate age of 18. Despite this separation of sexes, the barast find the idea of considering either sex better than the other for any reason to be completely foreign (female barast do not suffer any large-scale physical incapacity due to pregnancy). The separation is a voluntary and cultural thing, and people of both sexes are free to go where the other lives at all times, but find it physically and socially discomfiting to do so when two are not one. However, facilities and living styles are fully and truly 'separate but equal' in barast society, and in the rare event that it is too difficult or resource intensive to do so (for example, large scale scientific facilities), this separation is ignored without incident. While opposite-sex couples form long-term bonds similar to marriage, the same