The Altarai arrive to strip mine the planet, and it's very much the end of life as we know it. But, hey, even all-powerful aliens can get bored and run into trouble. And then humanity's remaining one per cent becomes part of the solution. Linked to “A Burning Love...” ~ 3k words.
After a strange interstellar journey, Maskull, a man from Earth, awakens alone in a desert on the planet Tormance, seared by the suns of the binary star Arcturus. As he journeys northward, guided by a drumbeat, he encounters a world and its inhabitants like no other, where gender is a victory won at dear cost; where landscape and emotion are drawn into an accursed dance; where heroes are killed, reborn, and renamed; and where the lure of Shaping, who may be God, torment Maskull in his pilgrimage