The planet’s atmosphere was thick with precipitation, not quite resolved into rain. Sunlight from its cheerful little star penetrated in angled rays that were filled with brilliantly gleaming dewdrops. It wasn’t cold, but it was very damp. There was a bell ringing somewhere, not the familiar shrilling command of the shift-change bells but a slow echoing resonance that was singing out into the morning air from some faraway tower. It seemed to have no purpose at all.
