Revelations of 2nd Earth: A Thrilling New Beginning

Chapter 4: Part 4

That noon, after our lunch, I programmed ELSA to use the planet's atmosphere within the space ship.

"The soil outside of the spaceship is not suitable for earth plants and the area we on seemed too barren for even the planet's own vegetation. Why don't we scout outside, even further from here?" Alice's proposal sounds good and bold enough.

"Does the hovercraft still work, Peter?"

"I haven't thought of that before. The Production seems to have a spare. I'll check"

The hovercraft is a small bullet shaped vehicle capable of carrying light baggage and as many as eight people. It is fast and highly maneuverable. Although the craft can travel in the air, it can only do so at about ten meters from the surface. Steep surfaces should be avoided in using this vehicle. I immediately went to the Production and opened the Production cargo bay. I instinctively took the more powerful gamma blaster, rather than the beta stunner. The maximum speed of the hovercraft is five hundred kph and can slow to a stop. The jet-propelled craft can fly for more than three days without refueling. It uses hydrogen as fuel. It doesn't even produce any pollution. I decided to bring portable ELSA with me. Main ELSA's radar can scan for hundreds of kilometers around, and the portable version can send and receive signals from the main.

Remi asked to remain in the space craft, while Alice and I cruised in our space suit. The space suit is for protection, I hope. I drove the hovercraft and Alice sat at the back to view this spectacular planet. I sat at the pilot seat and pulled the lift lever.

"Okay Alice, brace yourself!"

The hovercraft hummed its engine and lifted from the surface. I limited its height to about five meters from surface, to further economize the fuel. It is semiautomatic, it can detect steep surfaces, vertically up or down tens of meters ahead. It can even float on top of water.

The typical blurred horizon of the planet looks forbidding but the atmosphere is incredibly clear. We went 'south,' using the convention of starrise as east and starset as west.

As the hovercraft zoomed at its cruising speed of 300 km/hr, it is apparent that the planet looks like an inhabited. As we went further away from our crash site and farther away from the Three-Peaked Mountain, the outline of probably a mountain range on the port side became visible. The mountains are not too high. They look lower than the majestic mountain near the crash site. The rock spires have become less frequent and the plain of the planet remains incredibly flat. We followed the rivulets, hoping to encounter a river running to a lake or even an ocean at its end. As we proceeded, the rivulets gathered formed to become a wide, shallow river. Since the horizon doesn't reveal much information, portable ELSA was able to detect much thicker vegetation so we decided to skim over the river surface. The river is shallow and has a very clear water. Apparently, there are some movements in the water, which indicates aquatic life forms.

The algae filled rock surface around the river bank later became grass covered brown plain. I estimated the distance of our camp at probably seven-hundred kilometers away, having travelled for more than an three hours.

We continued skimming the river. The river is also rough. For almost a thousand kilometers, the river ran its course and its depth remain the same. The bottom is always visible.

Mists started to gather around us, becoming denser and denser as we moved further downstream. I slowed the hovercraft to almost a halt. We don't want to take chances.

We didn't open our 'non-breakable' glass canopy.

"ELSA, do you detect any land animal lifeforms here?"