A planet adrift in interstellar space -- dying. This is the story of technological and social evolution gone wrong. With her world no longer able to sustain life, the Queen of the planet LA MAETAL turns to the technician named Hardgear for a way for her people to survive. His solution is a procedure that comes right out of Clarke's novel 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY -- to transform the people of the planet into machines. The Queen, believing this to be the only way, foolishly submits to the procedure and commands all her people to submit to it as well. But it is not as beneficial as she was lead to believe. His techno-conversion technique has driven Hardgear insane. He intends to use the conversion of the people to conquer the Queen and her planet. Soon, the Queen realizes (too late) the horror of what she has done. As the machinery spreads through her (tele-screens popping out all over her like cancers) she feels herself (like her people) slowly loosing her soul and her sanity; even death is no longer an option for a machine. All that remains of her people in the end are her daughters Emeraldis and Maetel. They must escape the technological hell that has become their world -- and the monster that was their mother. They must escape, and warn the other worlds about the machines -- and one-day return.