A Whisper of Time — Paula E. Downing

LOST HORIZONS

They found the child alone in a glade amid the magnificent ruins of an alien city. A hunt for others of the child's alien people turned up nothing--not even a clue to her origin, aside from some ambiguous markings that might indicate a ship landing. And so she was taken in--humanity's first alien.

Adopted by the human archaeologist who found her, Medoret grew up haunted by vague dreams of her life before the humans came, manipulated by the psychiatrist assigned as her "handler, and subject to a recurring fever that the humans could control but not cure. Unable to escape her alienness, she buried herself in the study of the incredible glyphs carved in the stone of the alien ruins.

Those glorious ruins held greater mysteries than most people imagined: the true tale of an alien civilization long gone, the key to the disappearance of Medoret's people, and humanity's first chance at real First Contact with another race. But first Medoret would have to unravel the mystery of her own heritage.