The message shattered the fragile peace of First Hope. Panic, excitement, and fear erupted in equal measure.
"The Continuity?" Kaela mused, her face grim. "They left during the worst of the Filtering? They abandoned us."
"Or they were the smart ones," a former Council administrator, now integrated into the leadership, countered. "They survived. They thrived. They could have technology, knowledge beyond our imagining."
"Or they could be the reason the Filtering happened," Elias said quietly, voicing the fear that haunted everyone. "What if they're coming back to finish the job?"
A new council was formed, the "Council of First Contact," comprised of Elias, Thorne, Kaela, Lena, and representatives from the Odyssey and the awakened. They had three months to prepare for an encounter that could mean their salvation or their extinction. The internal squabbles of the past seemed trivial now. They had to present a unified front, a single "Humanity," to the unknown.