6. Part VII - Mannatgranoa (Doomsday Comet and the Twelve Moons of Beledde IV)

Mannatgranoa was the last of Beledde's outer moons – or the first of its inner ones, depending on who you asked. It was also the first with a breathable atmosphere, albeit a thin one. Despite the atmosphere, it was nearly uninhabited. People seldom came to Mannatgranoa, even to visit. They built cities on Glimp and grew jungles on Sharpoon and even scratched out a living on the harsh and volcanic surface of Bannabil, but Mannatgranoa was almost as empty as tiny, barren Prub – and there was nothing on Prub.

Why? Why ignore Mannatgranoa, when they would spend enough resources to create an entire artificial ocean on Treddispa? Was it the faintly perceptible effects of Beledde IV's strange radiation? A superstition toward the number 6? Perhaps they just found it to be a bit dull and tedious, what with all those glossy and rippling black dunes expanding out in majestic waves to the horizons under a strange and alien sky? Or its stark, striated mountains – of which we will hear more to come, once our heroes reach them – or the rounded and twisted sulfur-flocked canyons that choked parts of the moon's surface like weeds? Much less interesting than, say, Glimp, with its uniformly gray and rocky surface, or Treddispa, with its rocky surface that was a slightly different shade of gray.

Why indeed? Answers may be forthcoming, but it wouldn't do to forget an important underlying truth, which is that human behavior doesn't make any dang kind of sense.

Given the circumstances, though, it is probably fair to say that anyone who chooses to live on Mannatgranoa likely does so because they don't appreciate being bothered by strangers.

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This is the sixth story in a series about Doomsday Comet and his journey across the moons of a distant planet called Beledde IV. This story contains: A non-traditional marriage, a useless compass, some terrible tragedy, gratuitous amounts of fine black sand, a parting of ways, and an aspirin. (This story probably marks the halfway point of Doomsday's journey. Because of this, Part VII of the series is twice as long as the others and contains events of unusual importance.)  

Doomsday Comet and the Rogue Asteroids were a galaxy-wide phenomenon, their single, eponymous album topping charts in every system. There's nobody who hasn't heard of Doomsday Comet, and there's nobody who doesn't love his music – except for Doomsday Comet himself.
The eccentric musical genius who led the band now wants nothing to do with his fame. When he speaks of his fellow band-mates, he mutters darkly, cites infamous deeds, then quickly changes the subject. Whatever the circumstances surrounding the album's production were, he doesn't care to be reminded of them - which is hard when those hits find air-time wherever music is being broadcast, those melodies stick in the heads of every sentient being to have heard them.

These stories follow the misadventures of Doomsday and his companion, a monk from a space station monastery, as they journey between the moons of a backwater gas giant called Beledde IV. Doomsday only wants to find some peace and quiet and to enjoy himself as a tourist, but between his persistent fame, his penchant for getting himself into trouble, and the distant presence of a strange and ominous saxophonist who has been shadowing him for unknown reasons, his experiences on the moons rarely go so smoothly.
But that's okay, he's a brilliant musician: He knows how to improvise.

You shouldn't need to have read the rest of the series to appreciate this story, with the exception of the prologue, which can be downloaded for free here.

You can find out about the series and subscribe on a roughly pay-what-you-want basis to receive the stories as they're released at www.patreon.com/DeepwaterCreations, or pick them up individually here.

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