Mika didn't think her dissertation would land her on a job headed to Virendell, the mythical first colony humanity settled following the fall of YesterEarth. She especially didn't think her obsessive documentation of Virendell's collapse would put her in the middle of a dispute over the one resource Fleet needs to solve its energy crisis. Sometimes, that's just the life of a grad student.
Trapped on a planet with Killer Intelligence, bandits, towering monsters, and something stranger still, Mika must ask herself just how far she will go to prove her thesis.