Preface

Preface


The rock hurtled through space. For eons it had participated in its timeless ritual, slowly dancing around the yellow dwarf star. For mellinia it had tumbled aimlessly and unmolested, thoughtless and neutral of the events of any life forms. All that had ended two weeks ago.
A tiny fleet of craft, unseen by their siblings had settled among the rock and its companions. The occupants of the craft selected the rock for its size and set about attaching massive motors to it. When they were done, the rock was ripped from its ancient home and sent hurtling inward toward the tiny worlds below at an ever eincreasing speed.
Driven by the engines attatched to its surface, and drawn ever faster by the ever present tug of the sun, the rock dropped faster and faster from the heavens. Down, down it fell towards the sun and the small rocky bodies nearby. As it approached one, a fair blue world, the huge motors shut down and ejected themselves from the rocks surface. The blue world grew bigger and silently slipped by the rock as the rock curled around the edge of the blue world on a line straight towards its smaller companion.
If there had been any passengers on the rock. the last thing they would have seen before the rock impacted with the moon was a circle of artificial lights, a testement to the presence of living intelligence. The rock, devoid of conciousness, wiped them out.