Pet Farm

The story follows a three-person reclamation team that surveys a mile-wide crater on a small, arid alien world and discovers a lush valley populated by seemingly ageless, joyous inhabitants and an ornate aerial network. Initially disgusted by signs of prior Hymenop occupation and slave barracks, the team explores cautiously; one member grows entranced by the valley's sensual pleasures and retreats toward a promised fulfillment, while memories and colleagues' warnings hint that what appears as paradise conceals manipulation and lingering experiments by the former insectile conquerors. Tension mounts between duty to document and the valley's seductive, destabilizing effect on human perception.