Two-time Hugo Award winner Allen Steele expands the universe of his Coyote saga with the story of Hex, a habitat the size of an entire solar system that could be a utopia-or nothing but a cosmic mirage… The danui, a reclusive arachnid species, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation-until now. Initiating trade negotiations, they offer only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life-a massive sphere composed of billions of hexagons. But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners…