The Galactic Nomads

The Eerie Cries

It seemed to Ray that they had been walking forever. And, in fact, it had been forty kilometers at least.

Yet the terrain was still largely the same, greyish purple sand dunes, with a thin layer of haze.

Ray was fatigued, sensing his energy reserves were running out.

"Hey Jean," Ray said.

"What?!" Jean said, in a cranky tone.

"I'm starting to feel my energy supply failing," Ray informed her.

"I've noticed the same thing," Jean replied.

Then, suddenly, Ray realized just how bad that was. Without the ship, they had no nutritional chargers.

"Oh geez, what are we going to do?!?" Ray asked, almost in a panic.

"Relax man. We still have another option," Jean reassured him.

"Oh yeah! we can use our ingestion energy conversion system!" Ray said.

"Yeah, also known as eating!" Jean retorted.

"Although, what are we going to eat out here?" Ray remarked.

After all, the planet didn't seem all that hospitable, especially considering that if this were a gem-controlled planet, there would be little to no organic material of any kind. It's a miracle that this place even has air, he thought.

"I dunno. But before we crashed, I saw some darker elements on the planet, which could mean at least traces of organic material," Jean mentioned.

"Oh! Well, maybe we're in luck after all!" Ray said, feeling reassured.

"Yeah. C'mon! Maybe we can find a plantlike organism," Jean said,

They looked around for quite a while, but found nothing.

Ray's hope began to fade.

"I don't think there are any plants on this planet," He said, finally.

"Well, this sucks! How the hell can we regain energy?!" Jean asked, sounding exasperated.

Ray thought for a moment.

"Wait a minute!" He then said, "What about the soil!"

"What about it?" Jean asked.

"What if there are traces of organic compounds in the soil?" Ray asked.

"Oh... Guess I hadn't thought of that...," said Jean.

Ray then started digging, hopeful once again.

"All we need to do is dig around and scan for organic compounds, then we can ingest them!" Ray said, excitedly.

It took some time. But eventually, Ray dug up something that looked promising.

"Eureka!" he cried, digging for more.

"Holy shit! I can't believe we're eating dirt!" Jean said.

"Yeah, we'll have to disable our tasting sense for this one!" Ray chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh, I don't know. Dirt ain't so bad!" Jean then said, having a mouthful.

"What? Did you install any taste mods I didn't know about?!" Ray asked.

"Ha! No, stupid. I was joking!" Jean laughed, "Did you really think I was serious?!"

"I don't know... I mean, I wouldn't put it past you." Ray said sheepishly.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't forget that this was your idea!" Jean retorted.

After an hour of eating dirt, Ray felt his energy levels gradually returning to normal.