Sandtrap was published in Interzone 187 in 2003. Click here for a PDF or here for html.

The distant desert planet of Churned is about to begin the long process of planet-forming. But all is not well in the scientific and engineering team based on the surface to oversee the early stages. Arbiter Adenuka arrives on Churned to investigate what appears to have been a bizarre accident that resulted in the deaths of three key workers. As Adenuka meets the personnel and sifts the evidence in a climate of mistrust and suspicion, he reveals that a lot more has occurred on this planet than is immediately apparent...

The first draft of what could be seen as this story was written in 1975, though all that is similar is the setting, with the "aha!" moment buried in a different and, I hope, better way now. The characters, plot, story and denouement are all different. When I wrote the first version, it was the first extended story I had tried to write, though I could tell it needed some marinading: it was written in a bit of a frantic 17-year-old way (the typescript still exists) though I didn't think it would take 28 years to polish it ...

It's not obvious, as none of the characters are the same, but in my mind this story can be seen as a billion-year-later sequel to Enta Geweorc.

Tangent Online: "This is a thrilling, exciting tale with good character interaction, and a nice double twist at the end. This one has many of the things I like best in a good SF story, and is by far my favourite this month. Indeed it just edges into pole position as my favourite Interzone story so far of 2003" Phil Friel

Illustration of Churned was concocted in Photoshop, blended with an image of a couple of well-known planets. The spacecraft was created in Bryce and used for the Jupiter X cover.