Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 1.x (Bonus Chapter)

Day 8

I thought about keeping a diary for every „day" (in this moon's sense, not in Earth's sense, so this is technically still day two).

The only problem is that nothing ever happens. I slept the entire fourth and fifth day which equates twelve hours and eight minutes on Earth (yes, I did clock that). The rest of the days, I've been walking past sand dunes. Big dunes, small dunes, crescent-shaped dunes, straight dunes; you know what a desert looks like. This whole time, I've done nothing but walk, walk, walk. No drinking, no eating, no writing. The gravity on this moon is higher than on Earth, so a desert march here isn't the same as a desert march on Earth.

At least my helmet could become darker whenever the Sun shone too hard. You know, like those sunglasses I wore when I was a kid to deal with too bright light. It was, in a way, a shade spanning my entire head at its darkest.

Why am I writing now? Well, today, something happened at least. I've found a dune with plants. They're kinda like moss, only black. And very sticky. Right now, I'm sitting next to another black plant which looks like a V-shaped pair of branches. Apparently, all plants on this moon are black. I guess if I took a picture of this moon from space where all its forests could be seen, it'd look black and blue. Maybe I should name it "Shadowmoon" then.

Anyway, I've got to continue with my death march. A human can only survive for four days at most without water, less if it's hot and they're exhausted. I've already been thirsty for like two days.

I won't survive for long, that's sure.

Day 11

Never mind, the universe has apparently read my diary and gave me an oasis when I most needed it.

Slept the ninth and tenth day before discovering some water just today.

I've also made another discovery: The atmosphere of Shadowmoon is really thick and really hot. When I briefly took off my helmet to drink, it was like a burning inferno of thick gas digging itself into each pore of my skin. I also had to pant if I wanted to breathe. The atmosphere here was at least twice as thick as on Earth but with a way lower oxygen percentage. The bare minimum necessary to sustain a human. When I saw my face reflected in the oasis, I had an idea just how red I had become. When I took my helmet on again, my spacesuit didn't just refresh my breathing air but also cooled the whole atmospheric mix down. That was really awesome.

My working hypothesis so far is that my spacesuit has solar cells, just like my laptop, that feed an inverse fuel cell in my backpack. This inverse fuel cell then converts carbon dioxide back into oxygen like a plant, only that it needs way less volume and mass to do so. It'd also explain why my backpack is so heavy. At first, I thought it was because of storing a lot of oxygen, but now I think that the fuel cell just needs a lot of space. Or the aliens just really love tormenting skinny 5''4 guys.

Anyway, I've gotta go now. As much as I hate leaving my oasis, I hate leaving you alone forever even more.

Day 12

Okay, two things. First, my spacesuit turned out to be even more awesome than I thought. When I had to pee, it cleaned my diaper, and then my inner helmet extended a straw so that I could drink cleaned pee. Disgusting, but efficient.

Second, I've seen my first multicellular life form on this moon. Some sort of leg-sized worm as fat as a sausage. Not quite sapient, but not quite the prokaryotic slime some people claim to be the only alien life out there either. My first encounter with a real alien animal!

Day 13

Second encounter with alien animals and interesting trivia about this planet. You can skip this completely if you aren't interested in the science behind this planet; this is more for my fellow geeks.