Queens Gambit Declined — 3 — Intergalactic, Planetary
A man’s home is not always where he wishes to be.
Gavin had read extensively about the outworlds. Belevon V, an uninhabitable desert. Teriam VI, mostly radioactive. Cepites IV, toxic gas everywhere. He looked out of the window and saw rain lashing the ground for its sins. The wind smashed against the window, and he thought briefly about the housing situation closer to home.
The mansions would house plenty, though the atmosphere regarding any occupancy was as frosty as Kalave I. Thousands of planets, and not a single one was usable. No way of making them somebody else’s problem.
He began to draft a memo the Environment Agency would not ignore.
I used Zarkonnen’s Planet Generator here: https://zarkonnen.itch.io/planet-generator
This made it even more difficult to squeeze into the minimum word limit, as there could be stories for each of those external planets, and I think revisiting the generator could give me plenty more to write!
