There were two kinds of landscape characteristic of the inner planets of the Sun: the purposeful and the desolate.

The planet Quinta is pocked with ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network draped from spindly poles.  It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness.  The Earth spaceship <i>Hermes </i>arrives on Quinta with the best of intentions towards the humans brothers in intelligence.  But something on the planet has gone terribly wrong...