III. CRASH
The A.S. Hydra landed on a plateau in the middle of what appeared to be a barren, rocky dessert.
“Or a boulder forest,” Alex remarked after seeing that the place is swarming with enormous boulders; each one weighed as much as 1500 tons or more.
Alex put on his helmetand then pressed a button to airlock it with his suit. He pulled a lever that opened a vault by the sidewall of the cockpit. It contained different types ofhigh-power guns—five large ones and four side arms. He took a laser-handgun and secured it to his suit. He then unlatched the plasma-jet gun with missile shooters and slung it over his shoulder before entering the storage room.
The storage room is lined with stacks of shelves containing all forms of provisions for the pilot and the ship alike. Alex keyed in a code on the wall. A small, vault-like hatch at the far-end wall opened with a hiss.
Inside the hatch is a small vehicle—a hovercraft named Cumulus III. Alex hopped into the cockpit and then clicked the glass-shield shut. He fumbled over the console, opening the aft-side belly of the A.S. Hydra to eject the hovercraft.
Since the A.S. Hydra was not built for terrestrial travel, Alex needed the Cumulus III to reach his destination. Aside from the hovercraft’s maneuverability, it only uses a small amount of energy compared to the regular consumption of his spaceship.
Scanning his surroundings through the glass shield, Alex realized how right the first explorers of ReTarcwere. From their observations, it is basically impossible to determine one’s location on this monochromatic planet. The only known landmarks of ReTarc are the Acid Fields, the Mount Compost, the Great Sea of Ice, the Major ReTarcan Sinkhole, Gutter’s Fissure, the Sponge Mesa, the Great ReTarcan Plateau, and the Metropolis. The Metropolis—a large, circular area of land surrounding the Great ReTarcanPlateau—is where the small population of this planet’s intelligent life resides.
Since the Great ReTarcan Plateau is Alex’s destination, he has to go through the Metropolis first.
Metropolis–the city of the SensientReTarcans.
The SensientReTarcans—nicknamed SenRets—are invertebrates of a sort. They resemble a chimera concoction of slug, crab, reptile, and insect parts. On their heart-shaped heads are five stalk-like appendages with sphincters on the end as eye openings. Up front, they each have two siphons lined with ‘teeth’ on the inside, acting as their mouths. Their heads are somewhat supported by a thin, yet strong exoskeletal structure that, in theory, contains two separate brains. Their neck area sports a thick layer of hard shell with flapping parts for respiration. Scientists proposed that the neck part comprises vital organs such as the heart and the lungs, assuming they actually had any. Gastropodic, they crawl on their underbellies for locomotion—with the aid of two, long segmented limbs with three-pronged claw-like structure for ‘hands’. They have long barbed tails and their backs are covered with exoskeletal plates that somehow resemble that of a pangolin’s, an extinct Earth species. Their hides are scaly yet soft and slimy. What the researchers find intriguing about these creatures are the hinging parts that stick out of their flanks – about twenty of them – looking not unlike the legs of Earth insects.
SenRets are surprisingly large— adults weighabout 3 tons, with the average length of 20 feet from tip to tip. The first explorers of ReTarc did not attempt to come in contact with these giants; but the fruit of their remote observationsbecame the sole basis of the conclusive assumption that SenRets are not hostile.
Alex hoped so; for even though he’s not planning to have contact with the SenRets, he imagined that contact is inevitable. Because, unlike the first ones, Alex is not just going to camp on a high ground to observe: he is actually going directly to the Great ReTarcan Plateau.
He landed the A.S. Hydra somewhere below the equatorial region of the planet. Since there is but little information known about ReTarc, computers cannot precisely map its geography using limited data feed. Alex had to rely on his computer’s analytical guesswork for him to determine where he is. He set the controls to AUTO-PILOT, aiming to follow a straight route towards the south.
He casually slumped on his seat, looked out of the glass shield and took in the sights that the planet has to offer. On first impression, the terrains of ReTarc were nothing but barren badlands. In reality, ReTarc is far from desolate. Some distance away, Alex saw a large herd of Srac-bugs—big, insectine creatures identified by Martian human explorers five years ago.On a certain area, hills of crystalloids shimmered under the blue sun. Alex wondered if he could name that place someday. A strange, blue curtain of light hung far out in the atmosphere, slightly similar to Earth’s polar lights. Several yards away, small yellowish shapes scamperedall around the ground. Ahead, Alex saw the gigantic forms of three ReTarcan Behemoths, their silhouettes blotting out the sunlight. Cumulus III automatically swerved around the docile organisms that did not seem to notice the hovercraft.
Alex mulled over the idea of how could a planet be capable of supporting enormous organisms—and intelligent life—without having been able to develop vegetation: plants being the common primary food sourceof the inhabitants of more than twenty-thousand living terrestrial-type planets within the known universe. On similar planets, a wide variety of producers were present, except for a few with life forms that are mainly microscopic, crystalline, or energy-type. ReTarc’s life-forms are none of those. Complex organisms like SenRets, Sracs, and especially, the Behemoths, could not possibly be self-sufficient; nor could they solely depend on microorganisms as their primary food source.
Whatever it is that sustains the needs of all the ReTarcans remains a mystery.
Alex’s hunch is that the key to solving that mystery lies among the energy sustaining rocks he is looking for.
Out of nowhere, a vast field of green came to his peripheral view. Alex felt a rush of excitement rise inside him.
There might be plants in here, after all, he thought.
He was mightily disappointed whenCumulus III paused over the field.
The ‘field of green’ is a large colony of green organisms clumped together; each with a single miniscule eye at the end of their stalk-like bodies.
These creatures hadn’t been noted in the past, but Alex was quite sure that plant life does not appear in this form. Since he was not a researcher, Alex had no time to spare for the further observation of the green ones. Cumulus III zoomed up through a cliff-face. At the top of the gorge, a red, multi-mandibled bulbous head of a ground-based organism six times the size of Cumulus IIIsnapped at the hovercraft as it went past.
Alex checked his hologram display, showing a basic topographical-layout of ReTarc in the form of a hollow globe.
He smiled. He’ll be at his destination in no time.
Maybe I can finish this mission fast enough, Alex thought. He planned for a quick-stop on planet Dlanod C.M. to grab some grub on his way home.
A strong gust suddenly threw Cumulus III slightly off-course.
“What IS that?”Alex blurted out. As he tried to correct his hovercraft’s course, a surge of gust sent Cumulus III tumbling with the rushing air currents. Alex strained with the manual controls, but the hovercraft still spun uncontrollably. Even his emergency controls stopped responding. Cumulus III traced circles in the air as it plummeted to the ground at an incredible speed.
The craft is crashing.
A wave of nausea overcame Alex, rendering him unconscious before he could even brace himself for impact.
