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two legs and the female would give birth to young with a thin transparent shell that the baby drozen would immediately break out of.
The drozen were aware of the planets around them very early on. They saw Venus and the Earth forming, Venus being fairly complete, Earth a little way off. At that time Mercury had been explored completely and their next voyage would be to another planet. The drozen didn't always have it so easy; war for a spell dogged them, volcanoes continually harassed and meteor showers would wipe out thousands at a time. They were courageous and would frequently have to prove it.
When the drozen had perfected chemistry it wasn't long before attempts were made to leave the planet and land on another. They understood gravity and had accurate schedules of the other planets. Because of the low escape velocity of Mercury attempts were made to pilot to the moon and Venus. Those who did didn't come back straight away. It wasn't until later when the three planets were in a way colonised by the drozen that anyone had been there and back. Radio waves enabled the three planets to communicate.
The drozen all realised a possible planetary crisis when an asteroid over ten miles in diameter was spotted on a collision course with sun-giver. A plan for survival of the drozen was unamenousley decided upon. Their population was still half a billion and evacuation of the planet was to begin straight away. The half a million or so already on Venus made preparations as best they could for the accommodation. There would also be prepared a rush to the polar regions if sun-giver collided into the sun.
They had a window of fifteen earth days in which to evacuate Mercury, those left behind would have to prepare as best they could to survive. There would be another window before the meteor hits but there wouldn't be time to reach Venus and survival thus would not be possible.
The mathematics and science involved in rocketing off to another planet was common knowledge to the drozen. The many that had already made the trip had done so out of pure curiosity. The rockets used were of jet engine type, homemade rockets were not unknown and every city had a factory where they were produced. With all hands on deck the rockets were made, enough to evacuate a large percent of the population. With each rocket there would be needed a pilot and a navigator, the remaining space would be made up of children. Food would not be a necessity as drozen could go without for a long period of time without any visible effects. Those with the know-how had chosen the most potent fuel for the rockets to allow for more evacuees. The availability of launch pads wouldn't allow for all the rockets to take off at the same time. Rockets began lifting off straight away and orbited Mercury ready to head for Venus when the time was right.
The window came and went all of the drozen children were on the seventy-earth day journey to Venus. There had been space for more and it was decided that the more intellectual drozen should go. On the moon there had not been a problem in getting everyone in to a rocket and making their way to Venus. Those left behind on Mercury set about preparing for the surge of heat that might cook them all.
Observers watched as the meteor collided with sun-giver exactly where they predicted it would. What they didn't know is what exactly would happen. The meteor followed an elliptical orbit and was at its fastest when it struck sun-giver. The impact slowed the planet in its orbit considerably; as it dived towards the sun it again picked up speed and skirted around the edge of the sun. As it did this the drag from the suns atmosphere slowed it down. It made three more circuits before being immersed into the fiery ball. The scene that followed could only be described as magnificent. The sun almost doubled in size as it broke down sun-giver into its most basic elements; the moon was for a moment ablaze. As the sun's perimeter
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