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While Marie and Angela were exploring the area, they came across what looked
like an even more intricate ice cave system. It just so happened to be
roughly in the direction where they were headed now. They didn’t want to
walk a thousand kilometers, and didn’t have time to do so anyway, but
unfortunately, it appeared that they were being watched. If they wanted to
teleport, they had to do it in secret. So they went into the caverns, waited
until midnight central hit again, and then jumped pretty close to their
destination, hoping that it wouldn’t be recorded. It was still freezing and
snowy here, but not below them. Deep in the valley, they could see snow-free
land, as well as a fairly small structure in the center of it. “X marks the
spot,” Mateo mused.
They walked down the rest of the mountain, and approached the oasis. Before
they could set foot on it, a man ran out to a balcony. “Stop!” he cried.
“You’ll wake them!” He pointed to their right. “Over there!”
They looked over to see a bridge a couple hundred meters away. They climbed
up the steps, walked across the bridge, and entered the building, where the
man was waiting for them. “Hello. My name is Captain Leona Matic. We
appreciate your hospitality. Could we ask, who is asleep? Who are you
worried about?”
“My name is Gunther Lank,” he said. “I was left on the surface to study
these creatures. We have no name for them yet. I was thinking of naming them
after myself, but I don’t want to seem pretentious.”
“I think it would be fine,” Leona said. “May I ask, if they only live in the
tundra oasis, why not build somewhere on the snow? Then you wouldn’t have to
be so careful.”
Gunther shook his head. “There are two major lifeforms on this world. One of
them lives in the oases, the other the snow. The former are predators, who
respond to sound and movement; the latter prey who react to electrical
signals. Our technology confuses them. Like electric eels, they use it for
their mating rituals. I’m studying them too, but I have to be more careful.
They vastly outnumber the sand creatures, and I believe they will attack en
masse if they feel threatened. That is why we jam all tech.”
“Are they like those things from Dune, or those things from Tremors, or that
thing from that episode of Sliders that was a ripoff of Dune and Tremors?”
Olimpia asked.
“I do not know the references,” Gunther admitted.
“So, how do you get off the planet, and join your friends in orbit?” Romana
asked.
“I don’t,” Gunther replied. “This is my home now. In a few centuries, either
the snow will overwhelm the oasis, or the oasis will expand as the snow
melts. I’m watching it happen from here. My colleagues are watching from
orbit. We need both to get a clear picture.” He looked around. “We cobbled
this facility together using dozens of dropships that they manufacture up
there. We try to disturb the surface as little as possible.”
“So...” Marie began, “...bottom line is you don’t need any help with
anything. Neither you nor your colleagues want to swap places, or receive
new supplies, or anything like that? You’re good? You’re set?”
“We’re good, we’re set,” Gunther replied. “Is that why you came here?”
Leona nodded. “We have dedicated our lives to traveling to various colonies
that exist outside beyond the Charter Cloud. We’ve come in an experimental,
and extremely energy inefficient, new type of drive. Now that our technology
has been turned back on, we can leave. So unless you need anything, we’ll be
moving on to the next colony.”
“Well...” Gunther hesitated. “Maybe you could stay for tea?”
“We can do that,” Leona agreed.
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