The Planet with No Nightmare

By Jim Harmon

The creatures on the little planet were real bafflers. The first puzzler about them was that they died so easily. The second was that they didn’t die at all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781952438899

Book preview

The Planet with No Nightmare

by Jim Harmon

Start Publishing LLC

Copyright © 2020 by Start Publishing LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

First Start Publishing eBook edition.

Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-952438-89-9

Table of Contents

I

II

III

IV

The Planet with No Nightmare

The creatures on the little planet were real bafflers. The first puzzler about them was that they died so easily. The second was that they didn’t die at all.

I

TENSION eased away as the spaceship settled down on its metallic haunches and they savored a safe planetfall.

Ekstrohm fingered loose the cinches of his deceleration couch. He sighed. An exploration camp would mean things would be simpler for him. He could hide his problem from the others more easily. Trying to keep secret what he did alone at night was very difficult under the close conditions on board a ship in space.

Ryan hefted his bulk up and supported it on one elbow. He rubbed his eyes sleepily with one huge paw. Ekstrohm, Nogol, you guys okay?

Nothing wrong with me that couldn’t be cured, Nogol said. He didn’t say what would cure him; he had been explaining all during the trip what he needed to make him feel like himself. His small black eyes darted inside the olive oval of his face.

Ekstrohm? Ryan insisted.

Okay.

Well, let’s take a ground-level look at the country around here.

The facsiport rolled open on the landscape. A range of bluffs hugged the horizon, the color of decaying moss. Above them, the sky was the black of space, or the almost equal black of the winter sky above Minneapolis, seen against neon-lit snow. That cold, empty sky was