Keep Your Shape

A rigidly caste-based alien species sends a small invasion team to a habitable planet to install a Displacer that will bridge space to its atomic energy, despite twenty prior expeditions vanishing. The Pilot Pid and his lower-caste companions Ger and Ilg must balance strict shape-discipline and suspicion of a Cult of Shapelessness while their ship dissolves on landing. The story follows their cautious infiltration, the cultural tensions between conformity and improvisation, and the logistical desperation produced by dwindling radioactive resources that drive the campaign.