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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: The alien Tem leaves behind a bio residue in the dust of the Red Desert on the planet Lode. A valuable resource. A homesick miner, daydreaming about Minnesota, cannot come to terms with his life on the desolate planet until his family helps him make a discovery at an abandoned Tem site.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Rockers, Shamans, Mannikins & Thanathespians, 2001
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2002

26 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [65 KB], eReader (PDB) [28 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [14 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [14 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [66 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [86 KB], hiebook (KML) [63 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [49 KB], iSilo (PDB) [12 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [15 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [43 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [24 KB]
Words: 4107
Reading time: 11-16 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

The city of crystal shapes and elegant towers sparkled silently in the afternoon sun, as if a giant had spilled out onto the desert floor his collection of oddly-shaped gems; but as the day wore on nothing stirred in the magnificent metropolis, for it was completely empty of life, recently abandoned by its builders. At twilight a gentle breeze blew across the city and swirled around the towers, filling the dead place with the gay sound of a thousand wind chimes, activating a visual sensor in the top of one of the centrally-located towers.

Suddenly a brilliant torch of fire lit up the night sky as a spaceship flared over the city then streaked toward the heavens, gradually diminishing in size until it became only a speck of light; and in a few minutes it was lost among the stars. But the sight of the departing ship triggered the tower sensor, causing several circuits to be tripped, so that over the city a dark line blinked into existence, circumscribing a pale blue dome that just cleared the peaks of the towers and encased all the city. For a moment the crystal shapes of the city appeared to shimmer inside the dome, then they gradually faded away, like a desert mirage--so that by the time the vehicle hurtling into the sky disappeared from view, the city was invisible, its chimes silenced.

Just before sundown clouds began slipping over the Coastal Mountains, streaking the Red Desert sky with wisps of lavender, apricot, and neon-pink; and as the sunlight waned the brilliant colors changed to pastels and eventually died out completely, leaving only thickening clouds that began to screen the stars and both moons, Garnet and Opal. Galen, standing near the geodesic dome that doubled as home and storage facility, gazed up, watching the dark clouds tent the night sky, listening to thunder rumble beyond the mountains back near the coast. Pretty unusual weather for any place on Lode, he thought, shutting his eyes and smiling behind the protective face mask, letting his thoughts shift to a similar summer evening back on Earth.

--Galen's on the porch of the flat in St. Paul, one arm around Emily's waist, watching a huge anvil-shaped thundercloud blacken the sky. Suddenly a streak of jagged lightning rips the night, sizzling like a red-hot poker jammed into cold water, startling Emily, raising goosebumps along Galen's arms. Then, a deep reverberation, like boulders crashing into a distant canyon. Finally fat raindrops splatter their upturned faces. Their first year of marriage in Minnesota--