'Curtain Call' (4000 words)
The crater was small and typical, just another unnamed pockmark
on the wrinkled and pitted face of the Moon in the vicinity of
Petavius.
White's first mood piece/character study. Gregory Mitchell
is a misanthropic news commentator who believes that people are
"disease spots, just so many wild variables in an otherwise sane
and scientifically well-ordered universe." Mitch (likely
enough names after the Stephen Mitchell character in Charles Chilton's
Jounrney Into Space BBC radio series) rethinks his attitude during
a lone vigil on the Moon. Meanwhile, humanity itself might
or might not be on the brink of self-destruction from a 'fireworks
display' ignited by the Mark 17 Bacteriological Bomb. And
what do those three aliens think of it all . . .?
Synopsis by graham Andrews
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