Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW Books first printing: Mercury Shell, Venus Shell, Earth, Mars, Asteroid, Jupiter, Saturn. Each shell concentric, studded with artificial planets, each planet embedded in its shell, spinning like a ball bearing. The whole Zeus-created in the service of Man but not beyond its control. Now mathematics and space physics, converging, suggested another shell, its existence hidden from Man. A shell of utter darkness, cold and silent where only extreme mutants could survive. To find that shell, the three were journeying again: Maq Ancor, Master Assassin, Magician Cherry, and Sime Anura, Mistress of the Erotic. Together, daring the all-seeing, all-sensing hostility of Zeus.