Venom

The Traders, an alien race, have come to Earth. With them comes the collapse of Earth’s world economy. The Traders find little of value here, except manpower. They pass on some limited technology in exchange for servitude. Those who choose a kind of slavery work at tasks the Traders cannot, or will not, perform. One of those tasks is the harvesting of the venom of the red viper of the planet Elsinore. The venom’s purpose is a mystery that divides the Traders themselves.

There are those who have learned to extract money and technology from the Traders by playing from two sides. The Traders hire mercenaries to control their bond servants, but the supplier of the armed men also sends others to fight the Traders, causing the Traders to hire yet more mercenaries.

Aaron Kane, a mercenary officer, crashes on Elsinore, Kane, under the employ of another Trader faction, is rescued by Molly Daniels and organizes a resistance to the Elsinore Traders.
Ilya Aleksandrov, an officer of the same band of mercenaries, arrives to oppose Kane – thus maximizing the fees the Traders on both sides of the conflict pay to the mercenary group.

Kane, though, has an agenda. He blames the Traders for the deaths of his wife and child. Despite opportunities to end the conflict Kane fights on, driven by his hate.

Father Domingo Ramirez, a missionary to the Traders, gains access to the dark, hot, caverns in which the Traders dwell, and finds, to his peril, the answer to the reason for the Venom.

The fates of Kane, Daniels, and Aleksandrov hang on the spiral of madness caused by the venom.