Tevun-Krus #101 - The New Frontier

The Surveyor - A Story by @DavidGibbs6

The Surveyor

by DavidGibbs6

Bill struggled to build a makeshift shelter in the thin atmosphere. The gene therapy had gone a long way to making it possible to inhabit the planet but that didn't make it easy or fun. The jump alone was perilous, relying on mathematical equations to land a unit onto the planet surface. It wasn't just about getting the coordinates for a distant astronomical body correct, taking into account the rotation and orbital mechanics. They also had to account for distance from the drop zone to the ground, missing mountains or ditches. Which in itself was a miracle, but then conditions on the ground were unknowns. Probes could only determine so much and boots on the ground was the preferred method.

That's why Bill was here. It had meant to be a whole crew but the drop zone had been nasty. Most of the pod had broken up on arrival, the sudden shock had been equivalent to a plane crash and despite the safety measures everyone else had perished. By some miracle Bill had survived, for now at least.

He had some idea on the planet, having done years of training before the final stages and the jump. Right now however his main concern was shelter. The weather wasn't great and he was hoping this was some kind of storm and it would pass quickly. If it were a whole season like this he was done for. Steadily he worked hacking smaller limbs from the strange tree-like growths to construct a makeshift lean-to, hoping to keep him from the worst of the elements. On top of the structure he piled the offcuts making a somewhat sheltered hide.

Staggering back to the crash site Bill had to pass the body of one his comrades thrown free of the wreckage. They might have survived had they landed in snow, instead they were dashed violently into a rock formation. He turned his head so not to look as he walked by and made his way to the blown open hull. The circular pod had been designed to shelter them in the initial days and to act as a beacon for more supply drops. Now it was ripped open like a full soda can smashed against concrete, twisted and opened up, spilling contents into the snow. The remaining bodies were here, strapped into harnesses hanging like morbid tapestries, some high out of reach while others were pinned underneath part of the structure. Hurriedly he searched for the wall which held emergency outdoor kits, looking for the color coded door, while squinting against the wind. Finding it he scrambled up the section of destroyed floor and pulled the hatch open. By the time he pulled the pack out he was exhausted, he barely had the energy to drag it back up the small rise to the rocky outcrop and his hide away. Padding the ground with as much mulch and leaf like litter as he could scrape up, Bill got inside his sleeping bag and wriggled inside.

During the long night, the wind howled and his fretful sleep was broken constantly by cold and cramps. Several times he felt like he was suffocating and he had to adjust his position and calm his mind, reminding himself that the atmosphere was thin and that he was ok. He pushed his arms out in front of his face, clearing more space and keeping the sickly sweet smelling bedding of cut plant matter from getting in his face. Once he was woken by something large moving past his shelter, it padded off in the direction of the pod and after that, noises kept Bill awake a long time.

By morning he was unrested, sore and miserable, but he couldn't lay any longer. He dragged himself clear of the shelter and wriggled free of his sleeping bag, shaking off dirt and debris as he did. He was wet and the wind instantly chilled him. Quickly he grabbed his pack and stumbled back in the direction of the pod. The snow was still falling but the weather was much better, the lighter atmosphere limited how bad it could be. The storm last night would surely have killed him had it been in a denser atmosphere. Although he had been breathing this mix of gasses for years, the air here was filled with scents and felt totally different to the clinical experience he was used to.