You Can't Buy Eternity!

A battered carrier crashes into the endless dust‑storms of Venus, spilling its lone occupant onto a hostile, powder‑filled plain. Disoriented and bleeding, the man scrambles for cover as a sleek, short‑range cruiser descends, its amplified commands echoing through the alien winds. The chase is immediate, a tense cat‑and‑mouse across eroded rock formations, with the stranded pilot forced to hide behind a grotesque stone pillar.

From the cruiser, a frantic female voice pleads for his surrender, invoking the infamous adjudicator Pike Mawson and the coveted “life catalyst” the pilot helped create. She warns that powerful enemies—government bounty hunters and a notorious Belt slaver—are converging on him, offering a desperate bargain that could spare his life. The opening sets a gritty, high‑stakes pursuit on a hostile world, hinting at moral compromises and the lure of forbidden science while leaving the outcome of the chase—and the true cost of immortality—still shrouded in Venusian dust.