**NEW** They are the last of their kind, their species so decimated they cannot find mates-among their own kind. But they have the power to adapt .... Dr. Cassie Burks is the delighted recipient of that adaptation. Cassie was just minding her own business, off in her own little science world-as usual-happily collecting data for her latest study of birds when a ball of fire from the sky turned her quiet little, completely uneventful life on end.