"During their temporary research post on Apech--a planet ravaged by a time distorting illness--Wilhelmina Ming and four other elite students of the Crysthian empire have witnessed such illogical brutality that they've resorted to psychedelic antidepressants and group sex to take the edge off. After a night of indulgence following a gruesome execution, they wake to find an oblique warning in the form of an impaled corpse dangling from the exterior...