On ancient port world planet Kuxortal, young Simsa grows up among garbage pickers who live upon the ancient ruins of a fallen galactic civilization — the Forerunners. But Simsa has always been different. Her skin is iridescent blue-black and she shares a telepathic bond with an alien pet, a bat-like zorsal. When Simsa’s mentor dies, she must scrape a poor existence from an unyielding planet. But, then Thom, a star ranger, arrives from the heavens, and he leads Simsa on a path to the discovery of her origins that takes both through danger to the ultimate revelation. The truth may lie below in the ancient high tech Forerunner ruins where Simsa was first discovered as a infant, but these cavernous mazes are far from quiet and dead — and what Simsa discovers there will change her life, and perhaps galactic civilization itself, forever! Two Andre Norton Forerunner novels, Forerunner and Forerunner: The Second Venture, featuring young Forerunner/human hybrid Simsa collected for the first time in one volume.