Miami Pete 7:

While Pete and I were searching the topical scan, I sneaked a closer look at the coordinates.  It didn't look like much, the whole area was uneven and rocky.  I couldn't see anything there that distinguished it from the surrounding area.  There were very few flat places where a ship like Hauley could put down easily, and nowhere that other supposedly atmosphere capable ships could land.  Atmosphere capable, of course, only means "can land on a planet".  While the planet didn't actually have much atmosphere if any, the ability to land on a planet is still called "Atmosphere capable".

As we were talking about the planet, Pete started calling it "'rus One" which I found silly because it should have been "'rus Three" being the third planet in the system, but once Pete got spun up about something, there was no correcting him. So, "'rus One" it became.

We eventually decided upon a nice flat spot a ways away from the target coordinates.  There were a couple sites that were closer, but the one we decided in was on a wide spot in one of those lines that I had been thinking of as roads.  The topical scan, done once we arrived in orbit so it had much better grandularity, seemed to agree with my conclusion. More importantly, that "road" passed not far from our destination.  The other sites we fond didn't look to have anything connecting them to the road system or our destination. With how rocky and uneven the surface was, we decided the extra distance over the hopefully relatively flat road would be much easier than climbing over-land.  Especially since we would all have to be in heavy survival suits. As an added advantage, using the road would allow us to use wheeled transport rather than walk.  Pete had bought the wheeled transport for a haul to a colony world where the colonial government insisted that all landings take place at the space port so they could inspect the shipment for contraband. We then had to deliver it overland by truck from there. When Pete made it sound like we weren't going to take the load, the client offered to pay extra, so Pete said "Free truck" and we went with it.

The landing was uneventful. Pete took the controls himself saying that he didn't trust the Haul-o-caster to anyone when setting down on such an unknown place. I think he just loves to pilot Hauley.

The planet did have a thin atmosphere after all. It was the usual mix for a methane world but very thin, almost nonexistant. Definiteley not enough atmosphere to support life. It was cold but not as cold as methane worlds usually tended to be. Probably due to the unusual solar activity.  We certainly weren't going to see any methane snow, and I doubted we were even going to see any of those famous methane lakes that methane worlds were known for. It was just too warm for methane to condense in a liquid form.

I spent the next day checking gear, getting the wheeled transport out of cargo three, and making sure it wasn't going to break down on us.  After taking a look at the road in person, Pete figured that barring any unforseen problems we would be able to travel to the coordinates in around six hours. The survival suits were good for 24 hours, but with the cold and extra solar radiation, I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to be outside Hauley's graviton field for much more than 12 hours.  I told Pete... He told the monks, and generally we had agreement all around. Of course, the monks wouldn't take it directly from me.

I had an odd feeling as we set off in the wheeled transport. It made me realize that I hadn't been far from Hauley since I was rescued from Deltos.  Pete had all the contacts and would make the deals. I usually stayed on board except for an occasional trip to a nav data merchant which were usually right there on the docs, or on a rare occasion to a bar with Pete to make sure he came home ok. On those occasions Pete always stuck to the bars that were close. Pete always warned me to stay out of sight and not to talk to anyone. I always wore a cape with a hood pulled up to keep my features hidden.  Now I was going on an adventure to the temple of the 'rus! As much as I felt a sense of forboding as we rounded the bend and Hauley gradually creeped out of sight, I was excited!

The road was ancient and in horrid disrepair.  We drove between massive sink holes and around huge bolders in the road.  We completely lost the road at one point, but was able to pick it up again before long.  It was relatively obvious which way the road was going. A few times we had to get out and search around for a way forward, and on one occasion we had to blast some of the bolders and clear a way for ourselves.

I found myself missing Hauley more and more, which was strange since I had never been prone to sentimentality.  When you grow up on the streets like I did, you learn to let things go. This was different. The feeling was almost physical. Like there was something trying to tug me back to the ship. I didn't want to bother Pete about it, so I kept my mouth shut.

There was nothing new to me about being in a survival suit. I'd been in a survival suit on numerous occasions since I'd been on Hauley. A trip outside is occasionally required to make external repairs in space, and of course I was always the one who had to do them. I had always found time in a suit to be peaceful. I rather enjoyed it. Nothing there but me, Hauley, the stars, and my own thoughts. Occasionally Pete calling on the comm to check up on me. But those times were measured in minutes, perhaps a half hour, or in extreme cases an hour. An hour of walking outside on Hauley's hull with a welding torch fixing meteor or space debree damage, or a bag of tools to fix one of the exterior communications dishes, or a sensor array does nothing to prepare one for hours and hours of just sitting on a truck, bouncing around, isolated from everyone. Pete warned me against using the comm too much. He didn't think the monks would like it. So there wasn't even the prospect of conversation to while away the hours.

Just when I though I was going to go completely bonkers, we arrived.