attention.”
“Very well,” Cameron said, the displeasure still evident on her face.
“If there’s nothing else, sir? I should get back to the hangar deck.”
“That’s all. Thank you, Ensign.”
Mendez straightened up and nodded once, before turning to exit.
Although she managed to hide her displeasure from the crew, Cameron was not comfortable with their captain and their chief engineer stuck on an alien world. As far as she was concerned, they were relying far too much on hastily made alliances. Cameron had never been comfortable relying on others, especially strangers.
“Commander,” Ensign Yosef hailed. “Take a look at this guy. He’s a maniac.”
Cameron stepped back to Ensign Yosef’s station and bent down to get a closer look at the sensor display. At first glance, it seemed like a normal-looking track of the small harvester ship that had been hired by Tobin. But as the numbers continued to update, she realized what the ensign was talking about. “Has he been flying like that the whole time?” Cameron asked.
“Yeah. At first I thought the sensors where out of calibration, but I checked. Those numbers are accurate.”
Cameron watched as the small ship weaved its way around the larger components in the rings, while scooping up the smaller ones. “He barely slows down when he scoops them up,” she declared, a bit surprised. “Can you generate a real-time 3D model of this?”
“No, sir, we’re still down more than half of our cores,” she apologized. “I could compile it later into a playback, if you’d like?”
“No thanks,” Cameron said. “Just thought it would be interesting to watch.” She watched a few more seconds, still shocked by the abrupt maneuvering of the harvester. “Whoever is flying that thing really knows what they’re doing, I’ll give him that.”
— 4 -
By the time Nathan and the others had returned from the parts market, most of the raw produce vendors had already packed up for the day.
“You have returned,” the farmer called to them as they approached. He had completely disassembled his tables and canopy, and was finishing loading them onto his vehicle. “Does this mean you are still interested in purchasing some molo?”
“Indeed it does,” Jalea answered. “Does your invitation still stand?”
“Indeed it does,” the farmer smiled back to her. “I sold well today, so there is plenty of room for you all.”
“How will we get back?” Jessica whispered to Nathan and Jalea.
“We can contact Tobin. The farms are outside of the city, so there are no restrictions on landing. He can pick us up at any time,” Jalea assured them.
The farmer tossed the last crate up onto his flatbed hauler, dusted off his hands, and returned to them. “My name is Redmon Tugwell,” he announced, extending his hand. “My friends simply call me Tug.”
“Then we should call you…” Nathan began, taking his hand.
“…If you’re going to buy a bunch of my molo, then I guess you should call me Tug as well.
“Okay, Tug. Nice to meet you. I’m Nathan. This is Jalea, Jessica, and those two back there are Vladimir and Danik.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. If everyone will climb on board, we can get started. It’ll take about an hour to get there.”
The vehicle was basically one big platform with wheels. At the front of the vehicle, the center portion was raised, covering the main drive section of the vehicle, behind which was a bench seat with room on either side of the driver for passengers. In the middle of the raised section was a small control console, with a steering column and a dash-mounted throttle to one side. On the opposite side of the console there was a small hand-brake lever. There were rails along both sides of the platform, with fold-down benches built into the rails. The side rails appeared easily removable, giving the flatbed vehicle the ability to haul objects considerably larger than the bed itself.
Tug climbed aboard first, reaching behind him to fold down the most forward bench seat on each side. “Everyone grab a seat, and we’ll be on our way,” he instructed as he positioned himself behind the driver’s console in the middle of the front bench seat.
Tug held out his hand, pulling Jalea up to sit beside him on his right. Nathan took a seat on Tug’s left, with Jessica sitting directly behind him, and Vladimir and Danik on the opposite bench.
“Hang on,” Tug announced. “It’s not exactly a smooth ride.”
Tug pushed the throttle forward slowly, causing the vehicle to lurch forward. The vehicle itself was quiet, the wheels creating the only perceptible sound as the dirt and gravel crunched beneath them.
They rolled down the back roads at a slow and steady rate, stopping occasionally to yield to other vehicles or pedestrians. Their rate of travel was better than it had been when they had arrived. Tug explained that the city was most active in the morning and early afternoon, and that by this time most merchants had already begun to make their way home for the day. The days were a few hours longer on Haven than on Earth, so most people spent the first half of the day conducting business in town, and the second half at their homes, most of which were small farms.
Nathan was surprised at how few people actually lived in the city proper. Other than merchants that lived above their shops, and a few small communities that housed mostly ring workers and technicians working the spaceport, nearly everyone else that lived on Haven resided on small parcels of land spread throughout the surrounding countryside. It entailed daily commuting into the city, but with the extra hours available each day, it did not seem to be a hindrance.
After about ten minutes, they found themselves on the outskirts of the city, moving at a much better speed as they made their way through the countryside.
The land was mostly flat, with only modest rises in elevation from time to time. The road was dotted with farmhouses both large and small. Nearly all of them had at least one greenhouse-many had several and of various sizes. There was also molo growing everywhere-along the road, between rows of greenhouses. Anywhere you would expect to see lawns, there was molo. Nathan had to wonder why they needed to travel farther out in the country to purchase molo from this guy, when there was so much of it growing all around them.
Nathan noticed that where the land was open and exposed, it seemed dried out. He could easily see how little would thrive naturally on this reformed world.
“Why is it so dry?” he asked Tug.
“There is no rain on Haven,” Tug explained. “Not any real weather of any kind, actually.”
“But you do have some natural vegetation in addition to the Molo, so there must be some water.”
“There is ground water, yes. And as you have probably noticed, the air here is pretty humid as well.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“When we go through our dark cycle, the temperature drops, and most of the humidity in the atmosphere settles back down onto the land. When the light returns, for the first few weeks everything becomes green on Haven.”
“So I’m guessing it’s not long until the darkness starts?” Jessica surmised.
“That’s right,” Tug told her. “In four days the long night will begin.”
“And it really lasts fifty-two days?” Nathan asked.
“What do you do all that time?” Jessica wondered. “Doesn’t it get cold?”
“Very. We stay inside, mostly. I work the greenhouses, where it is warm. But there is very little activity during this time, at least out in the country.”
“Sounds like a typical Russian winter,” Vladimir exclaimed.
“It is not as bad in the city,” Tug continued as they continued to bounce down the road. “They have lots of lighting, and heaters to keep the cold away.”
