By Neil Leckman (Broken/Desert/Voices)
Something had obviously broken, this part of the dome was supposed to be a temperate zone, instead plants were withering up and the constantly increasing heat was rapidly turning it into a desert zone. It was possible that the water recycling unit for this sector was malfunctioning, however there should have been some sort of alert sent out to repair it once humidity levels dropped. It would still be two years until they reached planet fall and a malfunction of this magnitude could spell disaster.
Logan took out his comm. Unit and tried to contact the bridge, and just like the last two attempts all he could get was the sound of faint voices. Not loud enough to be intelligible though. For some reason it nagged him, almost as if the conversation were very important, but he couldn’t make out any of what was being said. Walking down the empty corridor to the water plant he wondered again why there was nobody around.
“Logan.”
Stopping he looked around, “Hello. This is Logan.”
Silence, and the comm. Unit was still emitting static, with moments when it changed and almost sounded like faint voices again.
Wiping sweat from his brow he wondered if maybe the climate unit wasn’t also on the fritz. The temperature levels were going up across the boards. Reaching down he opened and took a sip from his water bottle, noticing that it was almost empty he increased his speed to the recycling area.
***
Walking out of the isolation room into the decontamination area Dr. Hather shook his head as he stripped for the cleansing process.
“He is the last survivor of the first landing party, and if we can’t figure out what they came in contact with that caused this reaction we’ll be unable to colonize!!”
“I thought for a moment he was going to talk to us, but he just went back to mumbling something about a desert. His fever hasn’t gone down at all since we put him in isolation. Nothing in his blood work shows any abnormalities either.” Dr. Torl looked back through the glass wall at Logan, who was lying in the hospital bed, face swollen and purple, yellow discharge seeping from the corners of his closed eyes.
“Unless we can figure something out soon we’re doomed. We lack the resources for a return journey to Earth, and all communications stopped two months after we left. We got those reports of strange weather patterns and torrential rains, then nothing.” Hather walked over and stood by Torl and stared at Logan as he mumbled in his sleep.
Faintly through the overhead speaker they heard him saying, “If only it would rain.”
Something had obviously broken, this part of the dome was supposed to be a temperate zone, instead plants were withering up and the constantly increasing heat was rapidly turning it into a desert zone. It was possible that the water recycling unit for this sector was malfunctioning, however there should have been some sort of alert sent out to repair it once humidity levels dropped. It would still be two years until they reached planet fall and a malfunction of this magnitude could spell disaster.
Logan took out his comm. Unit and tried to contact the bridge, and just like the last two attempts all he could get was the sound of faint voices. Not loud enough to be intelligible though. For some reason it nagged him, almost as if the conversation were very important, but he couldn’t make out any of what was being said. Walking down the empty corridor to the water plant he wondered again why there was nobody around.
“Logan.”
Stopping he looked around, “Hello. This is Logan.”
Silence, and the comm. Unit was still emitting static, with moments when it changed and almost sounded like faint voices again.
Wiping sweat from his brow he wondered if maybe the climate unit wasn’t also on the fritz. The temperature levels were going up across the boards. Reaching down he opened and took a sip from his water bottle, noticing that it was almost empty he increased his speed to the recycling area.
***
Walking out of the isolation room into the decontamination area Dr. Hather shook his head as he stripped for the cleansing process.
“He is the last survivor of the first landing party, and if we can’t figure out what they came in contact with that caused this reaction we’ll be unable to colonize!!”
“I thought for a moment he was going to talk to us, but he just went back to mumbling something about a desert. His fever hasn’t gone down at all since we put him in isolation. Nothing in his blood work shows any abnormalities either.” Dr. Torl looked back through the glass wall at Logan, who was lying in the hospital bed, face swollen and purple, yellow discharge seeping from the corners of his closed eyes.
“Unless we can figure something out soon we’re doomed. We lack the resources for a return journey to Earth, and all communications stopped two months after we left. We got those reports of strange weather patterns and torrential rains, then nothing.” Hather walked over and stood by Torl and stared at Logan as he mumbled in his sleep.
Faintly through the overhead speaker they heard him saying, “If only it would rain.”
Writers love hearing from readers. Leave a comment won't you?