The planet Ceres Alpha is being "developed". The surface crawls with gigantic city-machines that are churning and rebuilding the world, seeding it with tomorrow's vegetation so that full-scale colonisation can follow.

But Gaskill Tyran, head of the biosphere-engineering WorldCorp, is finding things more difficult than he would like. The whole project seems to be falling apart under an ever-increasing burden of mysteries.

Why has a batch of strange babies been born with telekinetic powers? Why won't the terraforming go according to plan? Why are there more and more problems with the comp systems that run the city-machines?

It seems there may be conspirators. A rival Corporation with its eye on the contract for Ceres Alpha. And Tyran's patience is now wearing thin.

But then he gets his answer. A mysterious infiltrator known only as the Doctor.