The Forbidden Zone

When Julian's mentor urges him to accept an invitation to study the dying sand of Valeria, all he sees is another assignment. Valeria's ban on romantic and sexual unions seems a trivial price to pay in the name of scientific progress; even the constant supervision by the Sisters, the advanced A. I. that runs Valeria, seems a negligible point. When the situation proves to be more difficult than anticipated, Julian finds a lifeline in Saidin, a warm, emotional individual who has somehow survived a world of passive expression and uniformity.
As they work together to try and solve Valeria's degradation problem, they learn the Sisters had a much more sinister reason for inviting Julian to Valeria, and the two of them may not be able to save themselves, let alone an entire planet.