No Charge for Alterations

A seasoned physician on the frontier world of Deneb, Dr. Kalmar has spent years adapting Earth medicine to a planet where every animal, plant and even the air had to be imported. When a fresh‑out medical graduate, Dr. Hoyt, arrives from Vega, the gruff veteran is forced to confront a new generation’s confidence and curiosity. Their first encounter—amid the bustling spaceport and the clamor of cargo arriving on a fiery landing pad—sets the stage for a clash of attitudes, as Kalmar’s weary pragmatism meets Hoyt’s eager ambition.

Beyond the hospital corridors, Deneb hides a controversial technology: the Ego‑Alter rooms that reshape bodies and personalities to suit the colony’s harsh labor needs. The two doctors must navigate not only the practical challenges of a fledgling settlement—hydroponic farms, synthetic meat, and a fragile ecosystem—but also the moral questions that arise when humanity tries to “perfect” itself for survival. Their uneasy partnership promises both tension and unexpected insight into what it means to adapt, both physically and ethically, on a world still finding its own identity.