The Dawn of Day - 3. Chapter 3 - The Dawn of Day

“Gravity is about Earth’s,” Brandon said. “Gravity should not pose a problem. We must deal with lower oxygen, however. We can’t get off the ship without helmets and suits. I think our bodies will adapt to the lower oxygen level, but adaption takes time. We mustn’t rush. Quick exploration is out of the question. We must check the air for microbes, too.”

“We’ll take the ground car. It’s fully equipped and connected to the ship’s computer. I suggest we’ll have a look at the immediate surroundings, the spaceport area, first. After this, we can decide if we go into the town and look for any signs or remains of the extraterrestrial civilization. We won’t do anything unprepared and we’ll carry weapons, of course,” Eric said. “I see vegetation at the edge of the runway. Any signs of animal life?”

“No,” Dave replied. “No signs of life, except the weeds near the runway. There’s no radiation, no poisonous air. We’ve checked everything. This place is just deserted.”

Finally, they opened the hatch and let the ramp down. Dave drove the ground car down. It was a medium-sized car with four seats and lots of room for supplies and equipment.

It was a hazy day. The yellow sun was partly behind white clouds and the red sun was almost invisible. The sensors of their suits measured 31°C, a fairly high temperature with the constant breeze. Their suits and helmets were connected with the ship’s computer. The men tested the helmet-based communication system. Dave drove the car around the ship and tested the equipment. Everything worked properly.

“Okay. Let’s move to the spaceport tower and the adjoining building. This was probably the spaceport hall,” Eric said.” He looked thoughtfully at the runway. “The clean runway bothers me. I can’t get my mind off it.”

“I think it’s self-cleaning,” Brandon said. He went to the side of the runway, tore some weeds out and dropped parts of the weeds. A breeze carried them to the side of the runway. “I have no idea how it works. The sensors detected nothing unusual about the material of the runway. I’ll have a closer look when we’re back on the ship.”

The men climbed into the ground car, drove down the runway and stopped in front of the decayed spaceport hall. Weeds of a deep green color grew all over the once tarred place. The tar had broken everywhere and branches and dead trunks were scattered about. Dirt covered the stairs to the entrance and sand covered the roof of the building. Something dead, the black skin dried and of a leathery texture, was sprawled on the upper stairs. It was the size of a cat, had a head and four legs but otherwise was unrecognizable. They had encountered the first extraterrestrial animal. It was dead but evidence of animal life on the planet.

“I’ll collect it later with the proper equipment,” Brandon said.

Vaajat awoke on the grass. A gray sky stretched above him. It was early in the morning. He heard sounds in the distance, birds fighting over something. The air carried wafts of a mold smell to his nose. Vaajat sat up. The horror was back immediately. He let out a stifled cry when he remembered the fire in the nightly sky. Vaajat forced himself to calm down. There was nothing to fear in this place. No one was here. Those were only birds fighting.

His basket was lying on the ground. Vaajat took an apple and a stale piece of bread and chewed slowly, looking south in the direction where the heavenly fire had moved. Finally, he got to his feet, flung the basket on his back and moved on. The yellow sun was rising when he reached a brook at the end of the meadow. Vaajat sat down and drank. He had never been in the area. The priests had warned them of the south. A young novice had been missing at the time Vaajat had joined the monastery. Rumors said he was taken by the evil lords, down in the south where great horrors lived. Vaajat swallowed. He had seen that horror with his very eyes the previous night: the evil lords’ fire crossing the sky.

Vaajat hesitated but then convinced himself that there was nothing to fear. He was still far away from the domain of the lords. It couldn’t hurt to catch a glimpse of their domain, from a safe distance, of course. He would tell the priests of the fire and of things no one had ever seen. Vaajat moved on.

The surroundings changed. The dirt road led through a sandy plain where only thistles grew. It was almost noon. Vaajat wiped his dry lips. The plain stretched to the horizon. It was dangerous to move on without water and proper equipment. He had not even a knife that could serve him as a weapon.

Vaajat spotted a pole to the right of the path. A plate was fixed to it. The pole was made of a strange material that felt cool to the skin. A big red circle was painted on the once whitish plate. A red stripe crossed the circle. Vaajat understood the sign at once. He had reached the domain of the lords and he was ordered to leave. Vaajat looked at the sign on the plate and back to where he had come from, and then he took a deep breath, blocked out second thoughts and entered the domain of the lords.

It was late in the afternoon and the yellow sun was already low when the sandy plain finally ended. Vaajat reached a rocky area. A long and broad road led to buildings in the distance, buildings that looked old and decayed. The road, however, looked clean and swept. Vaajat took the basket from his back and pulled out a piece of bread. Crumbs fell down when he broke it. They were hurled into the air and to the side of the road as if by magic. Vaajat crouched down and placed his hand on the ground. The material felt solid but not exactly like stone. He rose to his feet, took an apple and dropped it to the ground. The apple rolled quickly to the side of the road. Vaajat now saw that sand had piled up on each side of the road. He had climbed over the sand dam without a thought. Vaajat was afraid. This place was a place of magic. This place was the area of the lords. He looked around. But why was the area deserted? Where was the fire that had crossed the sky?

Vaajat surrounded the ancient buildings. Some were damaged, the roofs had come down, and all the windows were broken. He pulled on a door, but it wouldn’t open. He peered through windows and saw piles of sand inside. Vaajat finally climbed through a window into a room. Tables and chairs were arranged on the walls. Vaajat spotted a black plate embedded into a table. He wiped sand and dust away and touched the plate. It felt cold and like glass.

Vaajat returned to the window and immediately froze. Figures were crossing the place. There was nothing familiar about them, except that they had arms and legs. Their heads were big and where the Sin people had eyes, nose and mouths, these beings had only a plate made of glass. Vaajat clung to the window sill, unable to turn his eyes from the horror, but then he retreated into the room and crept under a table.

The men investigated the place. The doors and windows of the buildings had once been glassed, but the glass had broken into thousands of shards. Only black holes in the walls had remained. They looked through the openings into the buildings. The floor was covered with shards, dirt, rubbish and sand. The men didn’t enter the buildings, afraid the shards would damage their boots and suits. They moved on but finally returned to their car.

Dave opened the door and cast a look back at the ancient building. “There!” he exclaimed, pointing at the spaceport hall.

The others turned their heads at his shout.

A figure was standing on the roof of the hall. The figure wore a helmet and was dressed in a tight brownish suit and boots. The alien carried something in his right hand and he was looking in their direction. And then the figure jumped from the roof to the ground with a giant leap, jerked to the left and disappeared.

“Back to the ship!” Eric shouted.

The men climbed into the car. Dave activated the self-defense system and drove back to the ship as fast as he could. The others looked outside, guarding their retreat. The figure had disappeared. No one else could be seen. They reached the ship and Dave pressed a remote button on the car console. The hatch of the ship opened and the ramp descended to the ground. The procedure seemed to take hours. Finally, they were back on the ship. The men went into the cockpit, sat down in their seats and took off their helmets.

“We’re not alone on the planet. Did you see that figure jumping from the roof?” Dave asked.

They all had seen it.

“No doubt on extraterrestrial life anymore,” Brandon said.

“He carried a weapon. He was not a member of some primitive tribe. They sure have advanced equipment,” Dave said.

“They?” Brandon asked. “Do you think there are more?”

“Don’t you think so?” Dave asked back.

“Scan the area again for artificial signals, transmissions from a ground base or a ship,” Eric said. “Send a drone up in the air and have it survey the area. I’m sure they’re somewhere near.”

Brandon programmed the computer to do a search for transmissions and Dave sent a drone up in the air.

“What do you think? Who are they? A scouting team exploring the planet? Or are they stranded here like we are?” Dave asked.

“We’re not stranded here. The ship can take off anytime,” Eric said tersely. “I knew something was wrong here. The clean runway seemed out of place.” He took a breath. “I didn’t see a ship. And the spaceport is the only place for a proper landing. I don’t think the man on the roof belongs to a scouting team or to a stranded ship crew.”

“Maybe they’re waiting for a ship to pick them up,” Dave said. “Doing whatever they had to do on this deserted planet and then leaving again. This planet has a spaceport. It sure was a stop-over in the past, but it’s used no longer. Who would come to this decaying planet? Space pirates maybe, hiding their loot?”

“Maybe,” Eric said thoughtfully. “The clean runway sure looks as if it’s used for landing and take-off.”

“The sensors don’t detect any signals,” Brandon said. “The aliens are either silent, completely shielded or don’t have the proper equipment.”

“They sure have the proper equipment,” Eric said, unnerved. “The alien watched us. I don’t think he went for a random walk in the decayed spaceport, climbed on the roof for fun and accidentally caught sight of us. He was watching us. He knew we were there. He came to see what we were doing. They must have detected our ship long before it touched down.”

“This speaks against them being pirates,” Brandon said. “Why would a pirate show himself? It would be more reasonable for a pirate to hide from us and wait for a ship to pick him up.”

“The ship’s sensors surveyed the area while we were moving about,” Eric said. “Check the recordings. Perhaps we’ll see where he came from and where he ran to.”

Dave pulled up the recordings. They watched the relevant sequences on the screen.

“There,” Eric said. “He comes from the left while we look through the entrance into the hall.”

“Those are sure impressive physical skills,” Brandon said when the alien jumped from the ground onto the roof.

“He just stands there motionless until we have spotted him,” Dave said. “And then he jumps from the roof and runs over there.”

“Gone,” Brandon said.

“No, wait,” Dave said. He stopped the recording, played it back and started it again. “There. The brownish speck moving through the bushes. He’s running away from the town, in a southward direction. That’s all.”

“Send the drone in the direction,” Eric said.

Dave programmed the drone and sent the images from the drone to the front screen. A narrow street led to the south and into thick vegetation.

“The rainforest begins here,” Brandon said. “The vegetation must have expanded over the centuries.”

“Where does this street lead to? Can we see more?” Eric asked.

“Unfortunately not,” Brandon replied.

“What will we do?” Dave asked. “Launch the ship to orbit?”

“They might shoot our ship down, either from the ground or from an incoming ship,” Brandon said.

“We can’t stay on the ship forever,” Dave said. “We can do so for a year, but then we’ll run out of supplies.”

“We won’t follow him,” Eric said. “Because that’s exactly what he wants us to do.”

“A trap?” Dave asked doubtfully. “Why lure us away from the ship?”

“I think the ship is far more interesting to them than is its crew,” Eric replied. “I didn’t see their ship, but I saw a well-preserved runway. This gives me some thought.”

Three hours went by. The men sat in their chairs, staring at the displays. Neither the drone nor the ship’s sensors detected any artificial signals.

“I’ve thought it over. I won’t take the risk. Call the drone back and prepare the ship for take-off. I want an automatic take-off, a pre-programmed course to orbit and to the edge of the system,” Eric said.

“Look,” Brandon shouted, pointing at the monitoring screen.

A figure was sprinting along the runway. The man, dressed in a yellow robe, stumbled and, head first, flung to the ground where he remained lying motionless.

“A native?” Dave asked in confusion. “Definitely not the man we saw on the roof. Where did he come from? From one of those villages in the north?”

“Let’s get out. He needs help. He’s unconscious,” Brandon said.

Eric hesitated. “Okay,” he said finally. “Brandon and I will get out. Dave, you’ll wait on the ramp. Take a weapon.”

Dave nodded. Eric and Brandon left the ship.