On solid ground
Team 2: Just after landing.
"How long will it take for us to walk a hundred
miles?"
"About a day... wait... your not landing a day's walk
away from the target are you?" someone asked
"Oh no... nothing like that"
A sigh of relief was heard
"No... we have to land two hundred miles away..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
---
The Starbug landed, roughly, and Dirk awoke from his slumber. People on board
were complaining about landing so far away from the target. Dirk just pushed
his hat back up to its normal position and picked up his case.
"I can't believe that we have to walk two hundred miles! Can't you get us any
closer?!" Harris yelled at Kayn.
Dirk walked by and patted Harris on the belly, "Come on. A walk would do you
good. And, besides, it's a beautiful day." As he walked out of the ship to the
planet surface, Dirk looked up at the clear blue sky and thought to himself how
great it was to be off that damn spaceship and on solid ground.
"How long will it take us to get there?" he heard Dr. Keto ask.
"Let's see," Dirk began to make the calculations in his head. "Since we're two
hundred miles away and have to walk through unexplored jungle, I'd have to
guesstimate about....um... four days."
"FOUR DAYS!" Keto yelled.
"Of course, there would then be the four day trek back."
"ANOTHER FOUR DAYS! YOU MEAN WE'LL BE GONE FOR A WEEK!"
"Actually that's a mild estimation. You know...if we start at the break of dawn
everyday and walk on into most of the night. Then, there's the examination of
the wreckage itself, which could take a couple of days, depending. Then,
there's the factor of the jungle in front of us. Most likely, we won't be able
to head straight for the crash and have to zig and zag our way through. All in
all, it'll probably take us almost two weeks to get there and back." The idea
of spending two week out of space and on a planet's surface in no way was bad
news to Dirk.
"TWO WEEKS!" Keto paused and then looked horrified. "I don't think that I
brought near enough ointment."
Dirk gazed at the landscape with a smile on his face. The smile slowly
disappeared. Something wasn't right. For a jungle, it was really quiet. There
were no sounds of any bird like creatures singing or flying about. Absolutely
no sound of wildlife at all surrounding the landing site. "Weird."
"What's weird, Mr. Bell?" Harris groaned from behind, probably not liking the
hint that he was getting chubby.
"Well, this is a jungle, right?"
"Of course it is! What kind of a science officer can't tell that!"
"Then, there should be creatures abound."
"And your point is?"
"Listen." Everyone stood still and quiet. "Not a single damn sound to be
heard."
"Maybe the Starbug scared them away."
"Maybe. But doubtfull. Animals ususally only run from creatures that they know
to fear. Something else has driven them away."
(enter your own scary music here)
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