A wayfarer's return from a far country to his wife and family may be a shining experience, a kind of second honeymoon. Or it may be so shadowed by Time's relentless tyranny that the changes which have occurred in his absence can lead only to tragedy and despair. This rarely discerning, warmly human story by a brilliant newcomer to the science fantasy field is told with no pulling of punches, and its adroit unfolding will astound you.
Based on the world, setting, and characters in Philip K Dick’s Second Variety. After Sam Walker's space shuttle was destroyed by a mysterious rocket, he thought he'd gotten lucky when another ship came along to rescue him. But when he finds out his rescuers also have his cargo and are holding him and a few others prisoner, he becomes suspicious about what Celmos Corp has him transporting to Mars.
"Normality" is a myth; we're all a little neurotic, and the study of neurosis has been able to classify the general types of disturbance which are most common. And some types (providing the subject is not suffering so extreme a case as to have crossed the border into psychosis) can be not only useful, but perhaps necessary for certain kinds of work....
There are devices a high-level culture could produce that simply don't belong in the hands of incompetents of lower cultural evolution. The finest, and most civilized of tools can be made a menace.