Balance

Fran Crowe, blackmailed more by her imperatives than the manipulation of the Civitas administration, is headed back to Chaldinor for a last-ditch attempt to salvage the colony.  Failure can only mean one thing for both her and the benighted planet, but with the general opinion of Chaldinor being that it is a planet gone mad, it will be an uphill battle.  With her are her sister, her few friends, and a support team of technical and other experts all of whom are tasked with assisting her in a venture best described as mad.

As the Civitas Support Team for Chaldinor discover, the description of a mad planet equally could apply to the biota of the planet.  It seems that they must not only work around (or sometimes against) the Human population in order to salvage the colony, but must do so despite the aggressive and frequently poisonous native wildlife.  Still, it is not the latter which poses the greatest threat;  it is the Human population – divided, quarrelsome, woefully ill-informed and suspicious.  Crowe must weather multiple examples of that anarchistic view if she is to succeed.  Help and advice are there for the asking, but no-one understands Chaldinor quite as well as Crowe herself. Sometimes it seems that even Chaldinor itself may have a view on the whole matter.

While the hidden thing inside her quietly makes inroads into her life, she embarks on a balancing act of planetary proportions.  The only comfort for her is, whatever the outcome, in a way she wins.  It might prove a very Pyrric victory.