Read "Address Centauri" by F.L. Wallace online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
DOCCHI sat beside the pool. It would be pleasant if he could forget where he was. It was pastoral though not quite a scene from earth. The horizon was too near and the sky was shallow and only seemed to be bright. Darkness lurked outside.
A small tree stretched shade overhead. Waves lapped and made gurgling sounds against the banks. But there was no plant life of any kind, and no fish swam in the liquid. It looked like water but wasn't-the pool held acid. And floating in it, all but submerged, was a shape. The records in the hospital said it was a woman.