Aim Shorts

Stranded

"You know, the sky is beautiful."

"Really, Jen? We are stuck on a remote planet that would rather eat us... and you are gazing at the sky?" She was a top-notch pilot, which was why we did not die in the crash landing, but sometimes she can be so irritating.

"Well, it is. Have you ever seen a purple sky? And the shades of indigo, orange, and red with the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular. If we are to die here, we may as well take in what beauty we can."

She was right, but I didn't feel like admitting that. "The sun is particularly active in the violet and ultraviolet colors, these scatter in the atmosphere to give the sky its unique color. And all the tectonic-driven volcanoes spew a lot of particulates, that produces the colors when the sun is low."

She narrowed her eyes. "Can't you just appreciate the splendor? Lighten up, Willy."

Yup, definitely irritating. "The name in Wilhelm. You do know that I outrank you?"

Her full lips pursed, then parted to a pout. "What are you going to do? Spank me?"

"Don't tempt me."

She did tempt me, that is when I was not fearing for my life. The graceful movements of her willowy frame, her impish crooked smile, those deep dark eyes... Was she flirting?  I needed to change the subject. "What more have you found out about those tar monsters?"

The greatest risk from life on most planets came from the very small, the micro-organisms. Not so here. The apex predator in these parts looked like a giant tarball, a dark amorphous creature that faintly gurgled as it glided across the land; leaving nothing of the rich colorful flora alive in its wake, only a thin slime trail. They ate just about anything organic, including the other two of our crewmates soon after we crashed. With no mouth, it just engulfed its prey within its glutinous mass to begin digestion. Our weapons only pissed them off. They were relentless, but fortunately, they moved relatively slowly.

"They appear to emit and receive long-wave radiation in a ten to thirty gigahertz frequency range."

"Radar?"

She nodded. "Yeah. That is probably how they see and navigate. The frequency and amplitude do modulate, so they may be communicating over that band as well."

That was useful information. "Hmm. I could make some sort of detector to warn us of their approach. We should be able to sleep better then."

"Right. And if we rig the ship to transmit a powerful enough radar signal, it might irritate them enough that they might leave us alone."

We have been here for half a local planetary year, and I figure it will be at least three times that long before any rescue might happen. I grinned. "Jen, we just might make it off here alive."

She traced her fingers down my arm and flashed that crooked smile. "So, Willy... What should we do in the meantime?"