Planet in Reverse

A freighter pilot who has strayed past the lawful limit approaches Neptune, then loses radio contact and suffers gravitation-plate failures. On the surface he meets a striking young woman who walks and behaves backward and utters reversed phrases; she kisses him and retreats, leaving him bewildered. As he attempts to repair his ship he notices a surreal landscape with distant building tops and mounting temporal dislocation that undermines ordinary cause and effect. The account follows his practical efforts to fix the vessel while confronting inexplicable reversal of motion and collapsed communication.