Survey pilot John Bandicut is ready for the worst when he sets out across the surface of Triton, his head spinning with silence fugue. But no way is he ready for the alien presence that is about to invade his mind, or for the winds of chaos set to blow through his life.

It is humanity's first contact with an alien presenceΓÇöand Bandicut can tell no one about the disembodied quarx that has taken up residence in his mind. The quarx, part of an eons-old interstellar civilization that uses advanced chaos theory to predict catastrophic events, seeks to prevent a cometary collision that threatens the Earth. But it must have help ...