Officially, Isaiah is a respected professor. Secretly, he's an arms dealer specializing in cutting-edge weaponry. Already struggling to balance this double life, a hit of Euphoria forces him to begin a third. Now he's addicted to the venom of an alien wasp species from a jungle world on the other side of the galaxy, and he'll drop everything for another dose. Nothing will stand between him and the drug he craves.Chloe grew up in the lava tunnels under the Moon, home to mankind's remaining universities. She dreams of starting her own anthropology study on Earth, but her plans are waylaid by the offer of a lifetime. Agents from a mercantile clan want Chloe to investigate what might be the only other intelligent life-form in our galaxy - Macroraptorial scolopendra, the 50 foot centipedes inhabiting a primordial planet of mud and sludge. The opportunity is irresistible.Isaiah and Chloe find themselves drawn to a pair of sibling planets in the same distant star system, far from human civilization. One is determined to slash and burn and take everything he can from his new environment to feed his insatiable hunger. The other is compelled to preserve her alien wilderness from all contamination. But neither is prepared to deal with how these bizarre ecosystems will react to their invasions.