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A daring expedition from Contact Incorporated hurtles toward the scarred world of Azura, a planet still trembling from a recent, brutal invasion. The crew—led by seasoned captain James Gordon and featuring an uneasy linguist fresh from Earth’s central hub—must navigate a battered ship, a shattered atmosphere and the lingering threat of the mysterious “Invader” culture that once razed the planet’s cities.
As the vessel drops into orbit, the team confronts a hostile native population that shuns any outside presence, while the remnants of alien war machines loom in the distance. Their task is delicate: use unfamiliar technology to probe the darkness, establish communication, and perhaps secure a foothold that could earn Earth a priceless million‑credit contract. Yet the uneasy mix of seasoned scouts and an academically inclined linguist hints at both tension and unexpected insight as they prepare for their first steps onto Azura’s unsettled surface.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (81K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Nov 27, 2020
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
A little-known pulp-era science fiction writer, remembered today for brisk planetary adventure stories from the late 1940s. The surviving record is sparse, which gives the work an extra air of mystery.
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