DAY FOUR - Bloodshot Sun
The light cycle here is
driving me nuts. To start with, I’m used to the ship with its
regulated, 20-hour days. This place has a twelve-hour day, which
is pretty much impossible to adjust to. Ever lived on a moon?
Saleen is a moon of the gas giant Nineris. It’s tidally
locked, so the same side of the Saleen always faces Nineris. As
Saleen whips around Nineris, you get a syzygy every 12 hours,
where the sun, the planet, and the moon line up. When the moon
is on the sunside, the reflected light off Nineris lights the
whole planet up for a couple of hours. When Nineris is on the
sunside, the entire planet is thrown into darkness for about an
hour. So my days are cut in half and every day consists of about
4 hours of the crappy light that makes up "day" on
Saleen, then black for an hour, then dusk for about 4 hours then day…
everywhere… for a
couple hours.
My body is completely confused.
This area I’m tramping
across is
empty desert. It's hard rock covered by a thin coating of black,
volcanic soil. It's thin but seems to support a pretty good
variety of life. I’m now convinced there are enough scrubby
plants and shootable critters to keep me alive until I reach
Kanduambet. Water sources are intermittent at best, though
I’ve stumbled upon a couple of small, warm springs and a few
steaming hot geysers that I’ve been able to collect some
precious water from.
There are occasional little tremors that make me nervous but
I've made it this far and intend to keep going.
There was a storm, too.
The word "storm" doesn't really do it justice, though.
It was
like nothing I’ve ever seen before. One minute, there was a dusky sun peering like a bloodshot eye from the cloudless sky.
Within maybe three or four minutes, there were clouds
everywhere. Angry ones, so low and thick it felt like you could
reach up and grab a handful. They just
kind of appeared from nowhere, frothing and black like
you can’t imagine. It seems like it's always windy here but
the wind that came with the storm was crazy, almost hostile, tearing
up the loose soil and hurling it at me. When the rain came, it was frantic and relentless, pounding at my back while I lay
in some low, thorny bushes with my face in the dirt. It felt like I was being pounded in
the back with hundreds of hammers. I’m pretty sure I’ve got
some bruises to show for the experience.
I’m starting to see
signs of life now. In the distance I saw an enormous balloon
craft. Granted, it was headed east and I am headed west but that would have worked for me just
fine had it been close enough to hear my screaming or see my
frantic waving. It was an impressive craft for this abandoned
world, flying very fast and very low over the rolling ground.
I’ve decided to head towards the path it took in the hopes that another
one will come along and take my ass out of this frying pan.
DAY
FIVE |
