After regaining her memories and saving the reptilian Hsktskt from a devastating plague, Dr. Cherijo Torin faces a different kind of epidemic-a mysterious black crystal spreading like cancer throughout the galaxy. A mercenary claiming to have information on the crystal's origins leads Cherijo and her husband Duncan Reever to the planet Trellus, and maroons them there. Trellus is a world under quarantine.
Its colonists exhibit excessive paranoia and anger, taking out their frustrations in the Omega Dome in simulated combat against battle drones. But someone-or something-is killing victims outside the arena, leaving only their skins behind. Cherijo believes the black crystal infection is responsible for this horror-and that someone deliberately triggered the outbreak.
After regaining her memories and saving the reptilian Hsktskt from a devastating plague, Dr. Cherijo Torin faces a different kind of epidemic-a mysterious black crystal spreading like cancer throughout the galaxy. A mercenary claiming to have information on the crystal's origins leads Cherijo and her husband Duncan Reever to the planet Trellus, and maroons them there. Trellus is a world under quarantine.
Its colonists exhibit excessive paranoia and anger, taking out their frustrations in the Omega Dome in simulated combat against battle drones. But someone-or something-is killing victims outside the arena, leaving only their skins behind. Cherijo believes the black crystal infection is responsible for this horror-and that someone deliberately triggered the outbreak.