Now a legal crisis with Brenner Pharmaceuticals threatens to destroy all the colony's hard work.
The clock ticks with less than a week until the next rocket shipment goes out; the council goes into a mad search to find a culprit or the missing drugs as they face being shut down and starved out.
By looking into the suspicious murder of a nearby pregnant woman and health complications with the newborn, Sunny, Tony continues to unravel the mystery of the stolen Marcaine.
Small child-sized footprints turn up in the desert and the story grabs Graham's interest.
Graham, Hellman and his assistant Anna make a series of spectacular discoveries that lead to the unearthing of a secret mutant dwarf species of Mars that has been eating the stolen Marcaine as its natural food source.