The one wherein the Terraforming experiences an Epic Fail

Hale's moon had always been borderline as far as terraforming projects went. The mass profile was such that it could undergo compression to get a solid 1 G surface gravity, but it was very, very, close to the minimum mass to remain stable. In fact, it was so close to the minimum stable mass, that it didn't take much to upset equilibrium. Something like, say, a large autonomous mining machine digging a little too close to the transition layer between the normal and compressed strata.

It was likely we'd never know exactly what started the spontaneous disequilibrium, but once it started there was essentially no way to stop it. Even if we'd had working terraformers the chain reaction would run its course. Hale's Moon simply had too little mass to remain stable in it's artificially compressed state. The compressed core was starting to rebound against the mass of the upper strata and, like it or not, Physics was going to win the argument.

What that meant for the colonists was nothing short of catastrophic. The solid body would more or less tear itself apart. While not a massive Cortex Video style explosion, the core rebound would turn the upper strata into the equivalent of jello. With that, would come destruction of anything built on the surface, collapse of anything dug into the ground, and serious damage to the atmosphere. Once things were stable again, it was unlikely there'd be any usable biosphere left. Hale's Moon, for all intents and purposes, was dieing. And dieing quickly.

The only up side, if there was any up side, was that it wasn't happening over night. There was more than enough time to evacuate the colony before the core rebound completely demolished everything on the surface and made the moon itself too dangerous to occupy. Between the two orbital stations and passing ships that came to the colony's aid, the evacuation went far more smoothly than anyone would have expected.

But the emotional cost to the people forced to leave was tremendous. The feeling of loss was almost palpable. These were people who'd survived attacks by Reavers, Raiders, Rogue Alliance, Pirates, Smugglers, normal Alliance, revolutionary robots, and an environment barely able to support life. They were survivors. Hardy and hale. But even they couldn't win out when the world they called home itself turned against them.

So here I was: back from a recent mission to find myself in charge of a forced evacuation and the Mayor of a town that no longer existed.

Lovely.

But all was not lost. Not by a long shot. There were several potential places to resettle. From a newly opened world that'd just been released from terraforming, to some unsettled spaces on established worlds in the Kalidasa system. The details would come. The important part was the colonists had gotten off without a lot of injury and we'd have a place to go.

But . . . damn.

Not what I'd expected to come home to.