Journal of Aber Crombie 2

CHAPTER TWO

Today we chose 323 degrees for our trek. My WristWear has a compass showing the cardinal directions and 360 degree graduations. As long as the communication satellites are working around any planet, it is extremely accurate. Herbert has an old physical nautical compass given to him by his grandfather, whose grandfather gave to him, and so forth. It shows magnetic north. It also has an inner circle with the 32-point compass rose corresponding to the 0 to 360 degree graduations. It's a pretty cool antique. We occasional compare the readings along our walks. They are always the same.

About 6 kilometers out, we have seen nothing interestingly different. Same types of rocks and dirt we had seen before. No signs of creatures. Not even microbes. But as I take a gulp from my water bottle, my eyes land on the horizon ahead of us. I stare at it for a few seconds before I asked Herbert if I am seeing a mirage. Herbert follows my gaze to the horizon, and says if it is a mirage, he is seeing it too. We are probably way more excited than we should be to see a hill, but 23 days. This planet so far has shown no indication of anything other than a flat elevation. Dried cracked dirt. No flowing water above ground. No hills. No craters. Smooth and flat. But there it is. Something sticking up on the horizon.

As we reach our 7km mark, it is becoming clear that what we are seeing is not a hill. There are geometric edges that do not look natural. There was no way to know how far this group of structures is away from us, or how tall they are, but they are there. It's not unusual for companies to put way stations in desert areas on planets, especially on planets where the indigenous people don't travel for one reason or another. But the literature is pretty clear that this planet has no life, much less people. As we reach the 8km mark, there is no doubt in our minds that these structures are buildings.

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As much as we want to, we can't just keep walking towards the buildings. There is no way of knowing how far away they are, but it is certain that they are too far to get there and back to the way station before sunset. No, we can't go today. We have to go back and make a plan. See what provisions we have to prepare for an overnight trip. Figure out if that is even feasible. We have to turn back.

Neither of us is saying much on the trek back. But my mind is reeling with ideas of what the place could be, lists of what we will need to get there and back, why there was nothing in the travel literature about buildings, and most of all, will we find anyone living there. Considering that my imagination has already decided we are stranded here after some galaxical catastrophe, finding other living beings would be a relief. I hope.

The way station is still here. As is our note taped to the door informing the conductor of any arriving transport ship that we have been stranded here and will return before sunset, and requesting that they please wait for us. We will have to update that before we leave for the buildings. “If we are not back by sunset, Please send a search party to find us.”

Herbert is collecting provisions for our trip as I hack into every file on the kiosk system that I can find about this planet. Unfortunately access to extraplanetary databases is always hard to get on these remote way stations. It's bad enough that you only have old movies and video games, but there is no additional information on anything other than what the transport company thought you would need. Still, the system keeps data on travelers, ships, local provisions, local resources. I am hoping if I can get to some non published files I might find more data on the planet.

Herbert has broken into the office to look for emergency blankets and torches. He is looking for anything that might be a portable source for generating heat. I have just entered the password to get to the facility management files in the system. I would love to tell Herbert that I used my superb computer system skills to get there, but truth is I found the account name and password on a note stuck to the system interface in the office after he broke in. I guess if the account only gets used occasionally by a passing conductor, the easiest was to remember the login is to write it down.

I am at least hoping to find out about water supplies on the planet. We know the nights are cold, but how cold. If they even survivable. What I really want to find is planetary history. Not the stuff in the marketing info. Even if they don't want customers to know everything about a planet, I am sure they do a lot of research before building a way station. And it looks like this file called “Feasibility Study” might be a good place to start.

Planet name: Anarans B.

Moons: None.

Surface area: 55.91 million mi².

Troposphere: 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, and 0.1 percent other gases. Trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and neon are some of the other gases that make up the remaining 0.1 percent.

Radiation: 130 to 1,610 microsieverts

Hydrosphere: <1%

Aquifers: Unconfined aquifers exist in a limited number of areas and make up 10% of total estimated ground water.

Flora and Fauna: No native biological species remain on the planet.

Habitants: No inhabitants remain on the planet

Wait. What does that mean. No inhabitants remain. Doesn't that imply that there were once inhabitants? There was once plant life. Animal life. So, buildings would not be a surprise. The question is … where did they go?

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