Binary System
(Book)

After surviving a catastrophic starship blow-out, Delia Kemp finds herself stranded on the inhospitable, ice-bound world of Valinda, populated by the Skelt, a race of hostile aliens who will stop at nothing to obtain Delia's scientific knowledge. Escaping from the Skelt, assisted by a friendly chimpanzee-like alien and a giant spider crab, she travels south through a phantasmagorical landscape as the long winter comes to an end and the short, blistering summer approaches.