Strangers to Straba

On the isolated world of Straba, twin moons rise over magenta hills while a solitary hermit tends an odd golf course of toadstool‑shaped fairways. When a young field operative from Tri‑Planet Pharmaceutical arrives under the pretense of a botanical survey, he finds the planet's lone inhabitant both eccentric and curiously distrustful. Their uneasy conversation hints at a deeper tension between the strict order of corporate science and the wild, untamed life that clings to the planet.

The newcomer quickly becomes drawn to the hermit's observatory, where a battered telescope points at the heavens and charts older than the current star maps. His relentless monitoring of a peculiar star leads to a startling prediction—a wandering celestial body that soon materializes as an unfamiliar ship drifting near the planet. As the two men stare at the dark silhouette against the fractured starlight, questions arise about who, or what, the vessel truly is and why it has broken the usual space lanes.