Anders Whittaker was a Solarian citizen from the planet Urako in the Kenichi System. His father was xenoanthropologist Bradford A. Whittaker, his mother was a politician who in 1521 PD was appointed to a cabinet position in the system government. At the same time, Anders decided to accompany his father on an expedition to the planet Sphinx in the Star Kingdom of Manticore, where a new sentient species, the treecats, had recently been discovered.