A Novel of Visionary Terror and Adventure! Light years from Earth, the pinnacle of mankind's genius is reached: two hundred men and women carve an idyllic, self-sufficient colony out of the vast planet Tau Ceti Four. Among the biologists, genetic engineers and farmers is one man who urges caution -- Colonel Cadmann Weyland, a warrior among strangers... They ignore his warnings and tear down his defenses -- until a monster of lightning speed and awesome brutality threatens to destroy their peaceful, fragile world. Now Weyland leads the colonists into deadly, desperate battle. But the beast's annihilation is a fatal mistake, and the true nightmare is just beginning...