Emerald

Sunrise

One more time it's considered Mil's job to watch comm with the shuttle while Andrej and Carlos work on the engine. The young technician is cautiously optimistic they will find a way to restart the main engine. On the other hand, he is afraid the converted secondary engine will not endure the strains of more than a few starts. Probably it will completely burn out after some trials. So Carlos wants to be absolutely sure everything works perfect the first time.

It's still dark when Koshi's and Dray prepare for their next exploration flight. The captain wants to reach the tundra belt today, under any circumstances. Andrej spent some time to analyse the recordings of their first approach and calculated the probable flight time. Dray will have to exhaust the capability of the shuttle to the last if they want to get there and back in only one day.

There is the possibility of staying overnight in the Emerald wilderness, of course. But no one talks about this option. Mil is certain Koshi takes this scenario into consideration nonetheless. His last orders are concisely as usual.

"Mil, we keep permanent contact. We will deliver a status report every full hour. I want you to do the same. Ready, Dray? Then let's go."

Dray follows him to the lock. There she turns around spontaneously and, as a good bye, hugs her crew mates one after the other. Already suited, this is a clumsy affair. But Dray doesn't seem to mind. She even whispers a hoarse 'thank you' into Mil's ear. The short but intensive exchange of glances between the pilot and the astrophysicist explains everything. Only Carlos seems to be oblivious. He seems happy about a free hug from the attractive but normally quite distant blonde. He still smiles contently while Koshi's seals the hatch and Dray starts the engine of the shuttle.

Andrej briefly smiles at Mil before he follows Carlos back to the engine room. She climbs up to ops to watch the start and wait for daybreak. After the take off and as soon as comm with the shuttle is established, she will go over to the lab to continue her own projects. But the safety of the shuttle comes first. Methodically, she checks the different read outs. The main screen shows the view from the shuttle sensors in a 360-simulation. Dray switches on the external illumination so Mil can follow take off. Once more she admires the pilot's ease in manoeuvring the clumsy shuttle. Dray pulls it up from the hangar deck slightly and lets it glide through the narrow outer hatch without hesitation. There is not a lot of room to play with.

As soon as they reach the edge of the forest, Dray extinguishes the lights. Almost impenetrable mist shrouds the giant trees. Only the treetops are discernible in the slowly swirling mass. The shuttle speeds away above them at top velocity. Mil silently wishes her crew mates luck before turning back to the other screens. Three of the secondary ones still show the transmissions from Andrej's artificial eyes deep in the forest, observing and recording everything, day and night. Koshi programmed an alarm to warn them as soon as there is an unexpected movement out there. He is still convinced they will find a higher life form, sooner or later. Up until now, the alarm shocked them into action eleven times, always to find falling leaves or twigs on the recordings.

Out there, under the canopy, it's still dark. The residual light amplifiers only show the outlines of tree trunks and slight reflections on water bodies. But the image of the ship's sensor facing local east starts to clear up a bit. Mil connects this transmission to the main screen. She loves sunrise on Emerald and looks forward to another opportunity to observe the grand show.

Slowly, the sky turns a deep pink. Thick white mists billow in the clearing and hide the forest like every morning. They will dissolve completely only as soon as the sun stands high in the sky. Now, they change their colour to a pale pink and blood red, matching the sky. The giant red orb of the sun clears the horizon lifting above the mist like a hot air balloon. Mil still is surprised the central star of this system is at least twice the size as the sun she is used to. In addition, the atmospheric conditions on Emerald give the light another quality. This is never as obvious as at sunrise and sunset. Slowly, the mists now turn orange-golden and start to lift.

Suddenly Mil sits up and rubs her eyes. Something out there is wrong. Luckily, Andrej showed her how to overlap different recordings. She calls up still pictures from the past three days, taken shortly after sunrise. At first, she thinks she made a mistake with the zoom factor. But a second upload doesn't change a thing. She leans back and stares vacantly at the evidence on screen. The engine problem must have made them blind for other things. There is no doubt, the edge of the forest moved considerably nearer during each night. Mil feels dizzy and starts another comparison. But the truth remains undeniable.