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| Part 2: Landing Posted by: Báden at 02-15-2014 00:50 AM, Last Modified 02-15-2014 00:50 AM |
The small emergency craft trailed the wreckage of what was once a transport ship for awhile before Jenson gave up and rode along with the pull of the planet's gravity. The ground, what appeared to be nothing more than a barren, blasted desert plain, rushed up eagerly to meet us. Then Jenson pulled up the nose of the bullet-shaped craft as close to parallel to the ground as our speed would allow. The landing was rough and rendered the beaten craft inoperable, but we fared much better than if we were in the transport, which crashed violently and loudly a few long minutes after we came to a stop. I started to get up so I could leave the cramped, confining space of the small craft when Jenson grabbed my arm and said "Seat in a seat, son, we don't know what it's like out there."
"What do you mean?"
"You saw the landscape out there just as well as I did, son, you know exactly what I mean."
"Radiation?"
"Probably, hell, most likely, but there could be any number of things wrong with this place."
"What should we do, then?"
"Look behind you, son, there should be a panel that looks like a cupboard, I want you to open it and tell me what's inside."
I opened the compartment like I was told and saw two surprisingly up-to-date gas masks hanging on the sides, and on the bottom was a mid-sized, unmarked box that had black and yellow hazard stripes on it. "Well," I said "there's a couple of gas masks, oh, wait, shit, one is cracked, but the other is just fine. Besides them there's a hazard box, but that's all."
"Alright," Jenson replied "hand me the mask and the box."
"The hell is in it?"
"Ain't nothin' in it, kid, it's a gas mask."
"I meant the box, sir."
"I know, son, I was just joshin' ya."
"If you're goin' out there with the only gas mask and it IS toxic, what about me?"
"Well, this thing ain't flyin' no more, we lost both engines, one on entry, one while landing, but she might still START, at least. I could run the air purifier for ya while I'm gone, that's what we got the damn thing for, right?"
"Yeah, I guess, but for how long?"
"Long enough, son, long enough."
"Alright, but how will we know if it's toxic in the first place?"
"Easy" He said, then opened the hazard box that I had handed him and pulled out a piece of machinery I wasn't familiar with. "This is a geiger counter, son, all these older models have 'em, used to search out radiated areas on purpose way back when."
"What else is in there?" I asked, intrigued
"Another counter and a folded up radiation suit."
"Seriously? That box doesn't look big enough to have a radiation suit in it."
"That's why I said 'folded', besides, I ain't gonna use it, it's all tore up."
"How?"
"Enough with the questions, kid, let's do this already." He said, then placed the mask to his face. There was a small hissing sound as the mask fitted against his head, the he turned to me and told me to put on my mask just in case. I did so, and jumped when my mask made a much louder, and longer sustained hissing due to the crack in the clear glass/plastic visor. The hissing died down, but still continued as Jenson opened the hatch on the back of the craft and closed it quickly behind him. I watched through the small window on the hatch as he turned on the counter. He looked at it for a long while, seemingly in a trance, then he bent over and looked closer at it, and finally turned around, took off his mask, and waved for me to come out. I opened the hatch and walked out, taking off my useless, faintly hissing mask as I did so. "I don't get it" he said.
"Get what?" I replied.
"This place is totally lifeless, but there's no radiation whatsoever."
"So?" I asked. "Maybe no life evolved here, maybe it's all desert like this."
"No, for two reasons" he said "First, this planet is near a major import route, so there has to be some kind of civilization a checkpoint at the least, unless there's a reason for it to be abandoned. Two, if this planet's lifeless, who the hell shot us down?"...... |
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