Cum Grano Salis

In the fledgling Space Service of the United Earth, Colonel Fennister wrestles with the weight of a new frontier. He sees the endless vacuum not as emptiness but as untapped potential, a chance for humanity to prove its destiny. When the first expedition to the alien world Alphegar IV is launched, the colonel’s mind is already full of calculations—logistics, risks, and the strange promise of a planet that seems both familiar and alien.

What the crew cannot foresee is the silent menace rising from Alphegar’s towering forest. A single bolt of lightning, amplified by the planet’s massive, twelve‑hundred‑foot trees, brings down a colossal wooden behemoth that shatters the base’s defenses and threatens the settlement itself. As the fire spreads and the unexpected monster approaches, Fennister must decide whether his training and instincts are enough to protect his men, or if the very concept of “potential” will prove insufficient against nature’s hidden fury.