Bob Grant leads a no-nonsense expedition toward the Sun in search of Vulcan, a planet many doubt exists, aboard a compact ship with the impatient engineer Peter Torrence and the idealistic young Jan Holden. What begins as a practical mission for scientific discovery quickly turns into something far more perilous when the crew reaches the harsh world's metal deserts, steam vents, and crushing gravity, and Bob confirms both Vulcan's existence and the presence of valuable allurite. The planet's bleak surface soon yields a darker revelation: the wreck of the earlier Roberts-King expedition, the body of Jonathan Roberts, and signs of a violent, intelligent enemy. Strange red-green flames, metal arrows, and a slaughtered crew transform the survey into a fight for survival. Amid the terror, Bob encounters Ama, a frightened captive of the Senza, who warns of the savage Orgs and a fiery "mime fire-male." Together they move through the silence and scorched wreckage, racing to find Jan and Torrence before Vulcan's hidden inhabitants claim more victims. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.