Tak

Sereena - Part 3

     It hadn't been expected that the ship of space would ever actually land on the surface of a planet, and so no-one had thought that the deck four exit would ever be used, but that day Strong was glad it was there. A section of hull hinged out to touch the boulder strewn ground, and the landing party descended by means of the steps moulded into the inner surface.

     The ship loomed above them like a dark world, a thin crescent lit a dull red by the fiery volcano. Strong stooped to examine the ground and found it to be crumbly rock, lumps of which broke off in his gloved hand and crumbled between his fingers. His feet crunched as he walked, as if he were walking on newly fallen snow. The wind was getting quite strong now, tugging at the thick layers of clothing he wore, and the exposed parts of his face were already beginning to sting with the cold. He stamped his feet and swung his arms around his chest in an attempt to keep warm.

     Saturn was the only one of them who wasn't swaddled with coats and furs. Instead he was dressed just the same as he normally was, in his long, loose robes with their baggy sleeves and the overlarge hood that hung halfway down his back. He must have some kind of magical protection against the cold, the Captain thought enviously. He was holding a polished white marble in one knobbly hand, staring at it as if it were a strange relic of a bygone civilisation, although Strong knew there was a small box of them in the equipment storeroom beside the airlock they'd just used. That box also contained several entire suits of protective clothing, hand weapons, climbing and survival gear, a couple of flying carpets and a locked chest full of gold and jewels for barter. Everything they might want on a strange, alien planet.

     Saturn spoke a few magic words, then tossed the marble into the air. It rose to a height of fifty or sixty feet, then burst into brilliant light. A tiny sun shining above them that illuminated a wide area like full daylight. Strong had to shade his eyes with his hand until they adapted, but then he was able to get his first real look at the planet they were standing on.

     The crumbly rock they were walking across was almost black but glittering with tiny crystals, some of them tinted green or brown. A few yards ahead of them the land fell away into a depressed plain where the lava flow had come to an end. Beyond was a sea of darkness where the light of the sun stone failed to reach. Off to their left was a high ridge. A more recent lava flow that overlay the one they were standing on, while above them the sun stone illuminated the base of the roiling cloud deck. It was uncomfortably like being underground, in a vast cavern far below the surface. It was no place for a man with an active imagination.

     Strong took a moment to examine the underside of the Jules Verne, stooping to slip under its curving hull. In the few weeks it had been in space it had already suffered a few micrometeorite impacts, but he failed to find any that had managed to penetrate the protective wafer cladding, which crumbled to absorb the energy of the impact. It was possible that the ship had suffered a larger impact somewhere, but neither of the two moon trogs aboard had mentioned any drop in air pressure that would indicate that the hull had been pierced. Strong grunted in satisfaction as he emerged and straightened up. So far, the ship was performing well.

     "Okay, let's go," he said, his breath condensing into a cloud in front of him. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be out here one moment longer than necessary." They set off eastwards, the sun stone moving with them to light their way, and they clambered down the rugged incline to the plain below.

     The ground here was smooth and hard. A sheet of obsidian. A sleek, shining black that was shot through with every colour of the rainbow, and Strong mused that it would make a fabulous decorative material. A palace or temple with walls veneered with it would be the wonder of the world. The wind was picking up, blowing in gusts and carrying particles of sand that stung their frozen skin, so he tied a piece of cloth across his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.