The Night of Hoggy Darn

Red‑haired Flinter Cole is a nervous but driven young ecologist on the brink of his doctorate. Assigned to the remote planet New Cornwall, he must collect data on an enigmatic forest and its famed “stomper” birds before the freighter Gorbals returns in six months. The planet has been virtually cut off for five centuries, its only link to the wider galaxy a prized, mysterious egg that gourmets prize as a luxury delicacy.

On board the cramped ship, Cole trades nervous banter with the seasoned cook and a spry cargo officer, gathering fragments of folklore and half‑remembered science. When a serving of the golden, fragrant eggs lands on his table, the taste sparks a flood of questions about the creatures that produce them, the harsh landscape, and the hidden economies that keep the planet alive. As the Gorbals circles the world, Cole’s curiosity and the pressure of his Ph.D. trial set the stage for a peril‑filled trek into an unknown frontier.