The Mission

On Sllth, a deadly plague has been progressively destroying all life. Their only hope is to emigrate to another world. Earth [Zapff to Sllthians] is close enough, but it is currently unsuitable. Sllthians, however, have a way of changing this.

Meanwhile, Douglas Nietzsche, a professor of American history, has immersed himself in alcohol and "speculative history" in an attempt to obliterate his anguish over a lost love. Thoroughly unheralded, his four controversial articles concern how tragic American history might have been, had it not been for certain key events and heroic individuals. One of his students, an exotic woman, has developed an unusual interest in these writings. As a forerunner of the Sllthian mission to Earth, she has selected these articles as working plans for the mission.

An unforeseen problem, however, proves the Mission to have been doomed from the start. When his student asks for help, she and Nietzsche try to stop the fruitless mission. Unfortunately, they are not completely successful. Many other Sllthians, unaware of what awaits them, are already in orbit around Zapff.