Soliloquy

When a routine flyby of the tiny planet Soliloquy reveals vast quantities of gold, a domed mining city is quickly built. The mining uncovers ancient DNA that quickly gets into the city water supply, turning colonists into aliens determined to propagate their kind. Fierce battles leave only two colonists alive, Dr. Emily Forrester and a Ghurka security man named Lokbahadur. One alien remains alive, a former miner named Torjesson, who comes now to claim Forrester for his own. Forrester and Lokbahadur overcome Torjesson, leaving him for dead, and flee the horrors of the domed city, where they find mounded groups of flowers that they recognize as the remains of aliens who fled the dome and died outside at the hands of security forces. The planet settles back to its former existence, unnoticed and unwanted. Eons pass, and the flowers cover the planet, talking softly among themselves, for they are intelligent, though not in any sense that human beings would understand. For thousands of years all is well, until a routine flyby reveals vast quantities of a particularly coveted metal.