Star Rider

Kurt's Journal #6 - Landing

"Kurt, landing burn complete. Contact in 45 seconds. Radiation readings are normal."

Cube's tone was as calm as ever. I was already half-lying in the control seat, wearing my space suit, watching the slowly appearing grey curve of the horizon outside the porthole. Everything was going smoothly. The grey ground was gradually squeezing the black space background out of the window. With a slight vibration, all the sound suddenly stopped.

"We have made contact with B-19997."

I unfastened my seatbelt, pushed myself up from the seat, and felt the gravity around me. Cube seemed to sense that I was trying to get a feel for it:

"Kurt, gravity is estimated to be 0.017G. According to this data, it is unlikely to be heavy metal. It may be silicate or lightweight metal. The feedback from the ground is all silicate readings."

"Okay, Cube. What are the environmental readings outside the cabin?"

"There is no air pressure. The ground temperature detected by the landing gear is -223 degrees Celsius, and radiation is normal."

I jumped over to the airlock, with Cube already prepared with the life support system and propulsion system backpack, as well as on-site survey equipment. I secured the interfaces and straps, completed the decompression process through the two doors of the airlock, and opened the outer hatch. Cube had prepared a ladder for me. I held onto the door frame and was about to grab the ladder handle when I suddenly remembered the gravity reading:

"Cube, gravity is 0.017? Can I jump down?"

Cube seemed surprised by this question and paused for a moment. "Yes, you can. You're about 6 meters from the asteroid surface." 

After a while, Cube added, "Actually, if I could, I'd like to jump too."

Standing on the surface of the asteroid, I turned my foot and felt some small sandy particles breaking between my boots and the ground. Looking up, the surrounding ground was very flat, with occasional large and small bumps, appearing white under the distant sunshine, reflecting intermittent shadows. Apart from black, white, and gray, there was no other color, as if the world had been filtered in black and white. Some large rocks seemed to be slightly stuck together at the bottom and the ground, like sand scattered on a glass ball and then reheated to fuse with the glass part. Perhaps it was the result of millions of years of molecular fusion. I was thinking about how this geological structure might have been formed when Cube's voice interrupted me:

"Kurt, we have found the metal cabin section at 5 o'clock, 300 meters away from you."

I turned around and saw a cabin structure in the distance, just as observed, the door was still there but open, and the appearance was intact without any signs of damage. However, it didn't seem to be the model I knew. Perhaps it was a new model from another company? I told Cube to point the ship's external camera in my direction and slowly jumped towards that cabin section.

As I got closer, I saw the characters "DSF 3137" on the cabin. This was the cabin section of the DSF spaceship!!!