The beach's formerly incapacitating stench was lessened now, with the final arrival of a faint breeze. The strip of sea life killed by the loss of the sea's high tides had dried up into the final stages of decomposition. Life on the planet would need to adjust to the loss of its only moon. It wasn't a beautiful planet. Flat, swampy and on the hot side, with an abundance of sulfur. But it had served faithfully as home to the Murchin Family Enterprise and their colonists for two centuries. Unfortunately, MFE couldn't sufficiently prove ownership of the planet's moon. A moon that would greatly improve the colonizing conditions on the neighboring planet. That planet was a GRASP project, and high priority, it was said. So GRASP took Murchin's moon. Merrim Murchin laid on the beach and waited for night. A database replication error during the GRASP project had set the moon in the wrong orbit, and the mistake not rectified until it was too late. Something about an unexpected delay in the flow of authorization procedures through the requisite channels. The moon would hit the planet tonight. Merrim didn't want to miss the show... |
