The Shadow Planet

Plot

A Federation starship detects a distress call from a long-lost scientific vessel. Therefore, a rescue team of four astronauts investigates the crash site. They can’t stay too long: in 36 hours they must depart or they will miss the rendezvous with the fleet. Gliese 667 is a lifeless rock. The team lands there to learn that the wreck is actually intact on the outside, but its central computer is destroyed. There is only one living person left on board: a girl resting in one of the hibernation capsules, attended by an old robot.

She reports that her father got lost in a dense greenish fog a few weeks after landing on Gliese and he returned a changed man, killing his wife, his two sons… and finally himself.

But the planet has an even more disturbing history. Its inhabitants had worshipped a terrifying deity, nourished by sacrifices. The monster, still waiting for new victims, can take possession of bodies and minds, making them a part of itself. The newest visitors may also share the fate of the planet’s natives. The entity knows there are other planets out there, so now something far worse than death threatens the inhabitants of the galaxy: an eternal life of horror and submission…