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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: The colonists on Munij were, one-by-one, leaving the colony. Was it an alien threat, a disease, or something a lot more fun?

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Asimov's, 1982
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2002

32 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [24 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [32 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [11 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [80 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [11 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [62 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [81 KB] , hiebook (KML) [58 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [39 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [9 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [12 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [39 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [19 KB]
Words: 2998
Reading time: 8-11 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Ron Snyder couldn't take his eyes off the green lumps that slithered outside the groundcar. "What are those?" he asked, wondering if his eyes were lying to his brain.

"The natives," the car replied. It spoke with a slight lisp; it's hard to keep them repaired in the field.

"They look like Jell-O," Ron commented.

"'Lime gelatin' is the standard comparison. You should have read your file; it's probably in there."

Ron hated it when machines corrected him. He couldn't read the file on the way to Munij; he was always too spacesick for work when his life depended on an electronic pilot. Just the thought of their failure rate brought on hot chills and delirium. This time he'd been lucky: he landed without getting hurt, and only ten kilometers off target. He wished they'd send him someplace with a spaceport and regular service.

If he didn't know better, he might have thought Space Industries had made a mistake in making him an Investigator.

All he knew was what Mr. O'Lena had told him: report to Munij and find out why people were deserting.

Ron picked up the folder and tried to focus on the words as the car milkshaked across the planet's roadless surface. The Company had claimed it a year ago, subject to the standard "evidence of sentience" clause. Half of its twelve-member exploration colony had deserted. The manager had called for help by emergency FTL-radio.

Munij appeared to be a standard paradise-class planet--warm, sunny, breathable air, few predators, plenty of good-tasting and even digestible food. Nice, but certainly no Edon or Tahiti XII.

Ron just couldn't figure why anyone would want to desert the Company. You did what the Company said if you wanted to visit any of the planets it owned, leased, or had a trade monopoly on--in other words, if you wanted to leave Earth at all.