
A determined interstellar reporter arrives on the scorching world of Mandmoora, only to find the colony’s leaders refusing to let her into the final refuge of the planet’s most stubborn sun‑worshippers. The colonel explains that three thousand fanatics have chosen to stay on an island that will be engulfed when the star goes nova, and he blocks her from accessing the scene, citing safety and protocol.
Undeterred, Jane uses her wit and tenacity to navigate bureaucratic stonewalling, hoping to uncover the human drama behind the impending disaster. As the countdown to the star’s eruption ticks down, she must decide whether to push the limits of her role as a journalist or accept the grim official narrative—setting the stage for a tense, character‑driven clash between duty, compassion, and the relentless pursuit of a story worth telling.
Language
en
Duration
~35 minutes (34K 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 14, 2021
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1928–2008
A prolific American storyteller, Stephen Marlowe moved effortlessly between hard-boiled mysteries, science fiction, and imaginative portraits of history’s most fascinating figures. He is best known for the globe-trotting detective Chester Drum and acclaimed fictional biographies of Columbus, Cervantes, Goya, and Edgar Allan Poe.
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by Stephen Marlowe

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