him making a joke?
A sea of trees rises up from the surface of the planet to greet us. It stretches out as far as the eye can see. I stare open-mouthed at the splendor, and I feel humbled. We could very well be the two first intelligent lifeforms to ever see this beauty up close.
“We need a clearing to land,” Koryn says, “but I don’t see any.”
He takes us down low, until we’re hovering above the canopy of the ancient forest. There’s no man-made structure anywhere on this rock, and I wonder if this is what Earth would’ve looked like if we humans hadn’t been around.
“There,” he says. Ahead there’s a small pocket of space, and Koryn guides the ship down into the darkness. The trees are so thick, their leaves so plentiful, that they blot out the sun.
The ship lands silently, and with a deep sigh I unstrap myself.
This is it.
One small step for man…
“Put this on,” I say as I hand Koryn a spacesuit. I have to carry it with both my hands, for the thing is damn near twice my size. I looked in the locker, but unfortunately, there’s no human-sized spacesuit on board. I could try to slip into the Zoran-sized suit, but I fear I’d look like a baby in there: totally engulfed.
Koryn laughs at me, shaking his head. “What do you mean?” he says as he hits the button that will open the outer-hatch.
“The atmosphere!” I say, panic gripping my voice. “Who knows what’s out there?!”
“We have the readings, it’s safe to breathe,” he says. “Come.”
He pulls the suit from my hands and throws it back in the locker. He grabs my hand and lifts me off my feet, pulling me outside and into the unknown.
I know I volunteered for this mission, but now that I’m a single step away from setting foot on this alien world, I have to admit I feel a slight sense of trepidation.
In other words, I’m scared shitless.
“Open your eyes.”
Koryn places me on the ground, which feels soft under my feet. I feel leaves, grass, moss. Twigs break under my weight, and I sink into the high grass with every step. The air is heavy with pollen and more different scents than I can place, each one more alluring than the last.
I take a deep, long breath, letting the air flow through my lungs. I don’t think I’ve ever had air this clean before. I feel it in every pore in my body.
The trees that surround us on all sides are immense; so thick I think Koryn would struggle to wrap his arms around them, and their branches reach so high I have to crane my neck all the way up to see. Down here it’s not as dark as I thought. My eyes quickly get used to seeing in the dimly lit forest.
It’s not bad here; nothing threatening yet, anyway. But there is something unsettling about this planet, something that takes me a moment to put my finger on. And when I finally do, I can’t ignore it.
It’s the silence. I expected to hear insects rustling in the leaves, birds chirping in the trees, wildlife scampering through the high grass. But the only thing I hear is our own breathing.
Did our incursion scare everyone off, or is there something else going on?
The planet’s teeming with plants, so other forms of life can’t be far off. Koryn doesn’t seem disturbed, though.
“Time to get the scanner going,” he says as he unloads several crates. He opens them to reveal a multitude of drones.
“Will those help us find the cave formations?” I ask. Evides is only located in water that is deep underground, and short of starting a massive excavation, a cave would be perfect for me to run my tests on.
“Exactly,” Koryn answers. He hits a button on his remote and the drones spring to life, hovering obediently in the air a few feet above us. A second later they whir away, each one of them going a different direction.
It still surprises me how they can navigate through the dense woods at such high speeds without bumping into any trees. I know it’s nothing special – after all, we just crossed half the galaxy in a