In the morning sun, the dark ocean depths ahead gave way to a band of bright aquamarine in the shallows. In the distance, a white-sand beach gave way to a line of mantis green: a jungle with trees so thick that they looked at this range to form a solid barricade. Rising up above the jungle were verdant domes of lushly wooded mountains.

It looked, to Justin's Earthly eyes, like a picture-postcard from a tropical vacation paradise. But somewhere deep in that jungle was Esthean, the ...