Captain Log Entry 1324 04 2574
Authors Note: This is a
tale based on the picture below. I used Star Trek as a backdrop and imagined
them landing like a small insect on the two. Sort of like reliving "Living
among the Giants".
Contests rules:
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"This is the
Captain Log 1324/04/2574. This is Captain Jimmy King giving an update on our
recent visit to the planet Bareback in the Beach System. Our mission is to
collect information on the single planet that occupies the Beach System as its
atmosphere is deemed to be conducive for human settlement. We arrive at the
planet Bareback at exactly 0812hr of the ship log time.
"Captain, we
have breached the thick atmosphere of the planet and approaching the planet's
surface. I must remind you, Captain, that this planet is a thousand times the
size of your planet. The system has also two solar stars as you commonly refer
to as the Sun which provides them adequate sunlight to cover the entire planet."
My First Officer was a good man to have as he was deprived of emotions that we
humans are inflicted with. He was of Mulcano descent and his name is equally
hard to pronounce so we just resort to calling him 'Mike' as he was always
communicating using the comms even if you are three feet away; ‘it's my
requirement of social distancing’.
"Thank,
Mister Mike. Mister Solong, auxiliary speed, please. We do not want to crash on
our first visit to the planet." Solong Man was our ship pilot and former speed
racer participant with the most records of no-start at the start line. He never
made it far so he joined Star Enterprise to fly our Frontier Ships.
"Madame Ohara,
please hail on all open communications to the planet's surface. Let us see if
the local inhabitants would consider us for the encounter of the friendly kind."
Ohara was our communication Officer who seems to outgrew her uniform or the
budget cuts was making them hemlines way too high.
"Captain if I
may interrupt, sir. I am picking an unusual landscape on my sensors. It's
revealing a twin mesa formation below us with come unusual structures. It has a
flat table form in the right-center and declines after a rolling range to a set
of diagonal tapering rounded ranges. But on the other edge of the tabletop, there
are two rounded hills which are joined by a rounded mesa at the end. I am
running an analysis of the shape and we would know the results soon enough for
a comparison to what we have on our database." Mister Mike was always there
to offer the details that will bore anyone bothered to listen.
I always brush my
hairline at the forehead and leaned forward on my Captain's seat to make the
infamous statement of mine; "Red Alert! I want all hands to be at the
action station. Ladies and gentlemen of the ship, Enterprise, this is not a
drill. We need to be on our utmost focus for the actions to come. Thank you. Captain
out." I got up from my seat and walked over to the Tube; our transport
system.
"Mister Mike,
you have the bridge. I am going over to Engineering to make sure we have the
power to clear us of any traps." I left the bridge and joined my engineers
below deck.
"Mister
Mounty, have you anything to report on the section?" I looked at my
Engineer, Mister Mounty of Lowlands. He has been raised at the docks watching
the ships sailed for decades before he decided the space travel appeals more to
him than sailing on the drying oceans.
"Aye, Sir. We
had trimmed the ballast and moved up the sails' power. Give me the word, and I ‘mae’
just pushed her faster than the last run." I remember the last time we
asked Engineering for the extra push on the speed. He made just jettison all
our non-essentials including my sunblocks collections.
"Okay then
but hold back on the rum until I come back on the second shift. We don't want to
measure the contents by the finger length again." But my concern on the
rum was interrupted by Mister Mike to report to the bridge.
"Mister Mike,
status report please." I took my seat and almost yelp up from the hot heat
still on it. These Mulcano leaves behind a hot plate on their sitting.
“Proceed, First Officer,
I will ---- remain standing.” I stood there listening to the analysis of Mister
Mike. He has pulled Officer Ohara to his side to demonstrate his findings.
"Captain if I
may focus your attention to Officer Ohara. The mesa which I describe looks like
her in the physical sense but the proportions are more out of alignment."
Madame Ohara gave Mister Mike a demonstration of her non-bedside manners when she
chopped and kicked the Mulcano in some painful areas.
“Captain, I have
to file a sexual harassment complaint on the First Officer.” Ohara screeched.
"Madame
Ohara, you may restraint yourself. I am sure Mister Mike was trying to be
scientific in his groping but I would remind him of the need to be gentle the
next time." But Madame Ohara has walked out of the Bridge to correct her
vanity while I assisted the Mulcano to his seat.
"Captain, if you
would allow me to explain further; there are some more facts that you need to
know. As you can see from this image which we took from a vantage point above
at over 50,000 km above, you would notice the two mesa structures are quite
similar but the one on the left has more pigments buildup on the twin rounded structure
compared to the other mesa. I did a further material analysis and I found
material 45A34. That in common words speaks for the material called cloth. My
scientific analysis tells me that the mounds on that mesa have been covered by
cloth to protect it from the outside elements. The one on the right is still
not covered as it has not built to the correct dimension." The man with
the logical mind is most time correct in his assessment.
"I can agree
with you as I see the right mesa has a bigger deposit further down which I
believe would be distributed to the upper range to complete the mound
built-up." I had to add in as that is the role of the Captain to make the smart
analogy of some situations or reports.
"Exactly,
Captain. Your additional analysis is most accurate, as you can see the level of
coverage on the bottom of the mesa is loose and billows due to the strong
currents of the crosswinds." I liked it when my First Officer supports my
remarks.
"Captain, we
are being attacked by an unknown nature of the weapon." My Weapons Officer,
Mister Konic was taking precautionary actions to counter the oncoming attack.
"The scanners pick it out as dangerous fumes which comes from the hidden valley
of the mesa structure. I am initiating gas masks to be deployed on impact and
all filtering systems to be activated on my command. Pardon me, Captain. I
meant on your command."
I pressed the
switch to release the oxygen mask and also to activate the filter system. Soon
the vacuum starts and the atmosphere of the ship is being taken care of by our
oxygen masks. The attack hit us at precisely five seconds on the warning and
caused some casualties among my crew. As my engineer would put the correct words
for it.; 'did the hounds of hell leave their shit behind or I am in their dens
at the Underworld.'
We took haste to
leave the planet and out into space where we carried out the needed repairs. I
learned something important in this mission. We are not ready to fully understand
the whole Universe, but we would slowly pick up more on it as we grow to be
like them out there.
Mister Konic
insisted that I file in his statement for the records; "This is Mister
Konic. I could have sworn that mesa looks like my in-laws when they took
holiday at Pluto IV for the sunburst package."
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