Planet Gaea relies economically on the mining of the hallucinogenic black dust from
the adjacent planet Mavrokon.

When it disappears from storage and in transit. Director of Operations on
Mavrokon, Krell Zorgman warns Gaea that the reason for the disappearance may be
due to the sublimation of the dust and its adherent surroundings, when reaching a
'Critical Mass'

The Central Consortium on Gaea insists that mining continue.
Zorgman complies, but waking one day finds that the once black planet has now
become green and luxuriant, in another dimension, and all contact with Gaea - lost.
Desperate to regain their source of supply, Cornelius Bok, leader of the Central
Consortium, engages brilliant scientist, Saffron Tor, to locate and enable access to the
missing planet.

Zorgman finds that they are not alone. A different species, Dendroids, that he has
only encountered before in his 'Halucinator' experiments, use part of this planet as both
nursery and cemetery.

They welcome the newcomers, should they wish to stay, but would repel any
further attempt to intrude and degrade their planet with mining activity.