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Cold Heart
by Arthur Doweyko
Category: Science Fiction
Description: The commercial scout ship, Forerunner, lands on Mother, a small planet orbiting a red giant. Mitch and his crew encounter unusually friendly natives with a peculiar talent. In short order, Mitch falls under the spell of Lan, a very attractive female. The infatuation drops his guard -- a deadly error for himself and his crew, and ultimately for Lan
eBook Publisher: Solstice Publishing/Solstice Publishing, 2012
eBookwise Release Date: April 2012
 
Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [31 KB]
Words: 5642
Reading time: 16-22 min.
First of all, we were surprised to find a planet so far out. Secondly, well that's what this report is all about.
My name is Mitch...Mitch Gleason, Captain of the Forerunner. It's a Class C scout ship, out of the Briggs Explorer based on Number Two. Yeah, Number Two because that planet's second from its red giant. Nice place, not too different from Earth, if you discount the red giant, and the fact that most of the surface is sand...and that there's nothing running around the place other than a few bug-eyed rodents. Our scout ships checked out the other three planets, one closer in and two gas balls farther out. After a couple of weeks there wasn't much to report. The inner planet was hot, no atmosphere and no life. No significant organics were detected in the gas giants, but there was plenty of the usual stuff, like methane, ammonia, and some simple amino acids.
We were on our last orbit around Number Four and stowing away our equipment when Clark Frazer, our navigator, let out a little howl.
"Whoa. Mitch, I got something here."
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