In the red wastes of Mars, where fortune hunters stalk the ruins of a dead civilization, two hardened explorers uncover an artifact of breathtaking beauty. What begins as a remarkable find soon becomes a dangerous obsession, as one man falls under the spell of a woman he can never truly touch, and the other watches in growing dread. Around them, greed and violence close in, and every choice carries the weight of life, death, and something far stranger than either.
This is a tale of longing and deception, of love born across impossible distances, and of the perilous line between illusion and destiny. Against a backdrop of gunfire, dust storms, and ancient secrets, loyalty is tested in the harshest possible way. To save a friend, a man may have to commit an unforgivable act. To win a future, two civilizations may have to gamble everything on the human heart.
Frank Belknap Long weaves high adventure with emotional depth, blending frontier survival with cosmic wonder. His story moves from tense firefights to quiet moments of aching vulnerability, then opens onto a vision of interplanetary connection that is as bold as it is intimate. It is science fiction that dares to ask what love might mean when worlds themselves stand between two souls.
Long was a prolific storyteller whose work ranged from eerie fantasy to sweeping speculative adventure. In this story, he turns his attention to Mars as both a battlefield and a bridge, creating a vivid, dangerous landscape where desire, courage, and sacrifice collide.
