The crew of the Explorer touch down on the alien planet Minos, prepared to hunt down some of the local animals, and test them for contagions. So many ships have been lost to various contagions contracted on different planets, and the Explorer crew are taking every precaution for their own self-preservation.

To their shock, the crew discovers that there are humans living on the planet. After traveling thirty-six light years through space, humans are the last thing they expected to find. As it turns out, there had been a group of human settlers on the planet generations before. Tall, red-headed humans, broad, and athletic. As the crew members confer with the inhabitants of planet Minos, they discover that years ago, the planet had a plague known as ‘the melting sickness’. It is a true threat to their entire crew, and the Explorer members must be on high alert to protect themselves from falling ill with the planet’s contagion.