Exploring the Stars

Chapter 9 - More Exploration, and a Mishap

(There are italicized words in this chapter that are foreign. Knowing their meaning isn't needed, but it helps know the characters using them a bit more. The final chapter of this book is a listing of these words with their meanings.)

Emeka met them at the airlock when they got back to the ship. He said, "Dannay, this open airlock using the GravFilter to keep things clean is a godsend. You folks come in, and Mita makes sure you only bring what you intended to."

Hari nodded, "Totally worth it! I've had to cycle through more airlocks than I can count, and waiting for the air to enter is monotonous. And when I was working in any sort of atmo, I'd still have to clean off my suit so it didn't contaminate things on ship. Whoever thought this up deserves a raise!"

Giggling, Gamal said, "You mean we're getting paid for this? I thought it was just for funsies!"

Dannay chuckled, "The day Atlantis finds they need to pay all of us a wage hasn't yet come to pass. You know as well as I that we all enjoy our fields enough that 'money' as the rest of the world knows and cherishes it is meaningless. Besides, where else in the world can we get such a cool boat as this!

"Speaking of which, Mita, how would you feel about floating around the ocean so we can check the undersea life for a while?"

"Sounds like a nice way to relax to me, Dannay," Mita replied. "Any direction in particular you want to go?"

Ksenia said, "Why don't we sail around this archipelago, sending off drones to see if the other islands are much different from our first?"

Hari said, "I like that idea. Once we get a feel for these, we can jump a quarter to a third of the way around the planet to see the next part."

Mita asked, "How lazy do you want this cruise?"

Dannay said, "Well, for now, let's keep our speed to about 20 klicks among the islands. If people get bored, we can pick it up later."

"OK, Dannay, going into powered yacht mode," was the response, and they saw through the main windows in the bridge that they were moving away from the island.

Ksenia said, "You know – it would be nice if we had a place on top where we could enjoy the view.

Emeka and Dannay both said, "Noted", then "Jinx" at the same time, to the amusement of the others.

– o O o –

Personal Journal, Ksenia Solovyova

Date: 174-5-18

Aksana, we have been traveling around Samyraz for most of a month now, enjoying the tranquility of the various places we have visited. We started as a pleasure boat in the islands in the ocean that we first landed on, where we met, and Hari "talked to" a species of avians endemic to those islands, and nowhere else we have yet seen them.

We then traveled to the edge of one of the continents, where we walked inland to see what we could find. Since we were on a continent, we expected to see larger wildlife – and we did. Boginya, what a large animal it was. Dannay said it reminded her of some of the Jurassic herbivores – shorter, but still a good size. If this was smaller than those were, dear, I am glad to be here now and not there then. This one was at least 15 meters long and 10 high at the shoulder. Three pairs of huge legs, long neck, beefy tail that tapered. *fsdragivayu*

You need not worry, though – we were well away from it, so it did not step on us. We decided that if this was what herbivores looked like, the carnivores would be large as well. We walked back to the ship, then used it to float over the continent so we could view these mamontov safely.