Setting Stone (short story)

Setting Stone was the eighth story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology A Life of Surprises. It was written by Mark Stevens.

Summary
Benny and Adrian visit an uninhabited planet to investigate its ruins. They find a young girl named Nina on the planet. Adrian thinks she stowed away on their spacecraft, but Joseph confirms that she was already on the planet when they arrived.

While conditions on the planet require that Adrian take their craft into orbit, Nina leads Benny on a search for statues. Benny keeps getting memory-like flashes of the species that lived here centuries ago.

When they reach the ruins, there are hundreds of statues. Nina is looking for a particular one, and when she finds him, she says it is her brother and she can't hear him anymore.

Nina explains to Benny that her people were transformed into statues by their enemies, and they used their mental energy to bring her here so she could tell their story. Nina slowly turns to stone, and Benny apologises to her, realising that she had been partially responsible for the defeat of Nina's people.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Joseph
 * Peter Summerfield
 * Adrian Wall
 * Nina

Continuity
to be added