This choice: a junkyard in the middle of the afternoon • Go Back...Chapter #2Down in the Dumps by: Sage   Everywhere around Amadeus stood what looked like old style land vehicles he had driven in various Games, as well as one some of the Prim worlds he'd been the visitor on. These though didn't look like they were in any condition to run as some lacked wheels and seats, others engines, and still others were just empty chassises sitting in the dirt rusting away peacefully.
In the distance a large sun, yellow and thus most likely H-class, burning hydrogen rather than any of the heavier gas elements. Sniffing at the air Amadeus was surprised by the lack of fumes that normally were associated with the industry required to create and run the vehicles around him, but inspection of one of the few engines showed him why.
The motors of the transports that still had them were designed to burn ethanol rather than a petroleum extract that was the usual mode of combustion in such engines. Taking a look at the interiors of the vehicles provided him with a clue as to the average size of the native population by gauging how much space the seats provided. He guessed them to be about hominid medium size, same as his own homo sapien race, which seemed about right as the planet's gravity felt to be about one grav, and that was a usual indication of the local biosphere's proportions.
"Well at least I don't have to deal with fifty foot monsters," said the extraterrestrial to himself, slamming his palm onto one of the derelicts before walking off into the rest of the yard. Oddly it looked like something recent had caused a shift in the piles of various debris, many still having small avalanches of car parts and other garbage rolling down their side.
As he walked Amadeus took stock of his situation by running his hand over his belt. Pulling at the Startec pistol he discovered the weapon to still be in working order, or at least the gun thought itself to be. Whether it was or not he didn't want to test as he was pretty confident that the magnetic stream caused by the guns firing would rip a few of the errant metal objects out of place and possibly bury him in the cast offs of whatever civilization held sway on this planet.
His next order of business was to grip the pouch on the other side of the belt, ripping it open and staring inside. Luckily most of his personal possessions seemed to have survived their trip through whatever it was that had drawn him into the sky intact, though the flute looked like it had gotten scratched in his rough landing.
"I can buff that out later," he commented, replacing the top of the pouch before putting his hands behind his back and withdrawing what looked to be a small PDA. Obviously the odd display of bits and pieces of various images was not what Amadeus had wanted to see as he swore violently in his native tongue smashing his palm into the side of the device.
"Zee, you don't want to leave me here alone do you? Come on and pull yourself together," he ordered the device, and was answered by a series of whining pulses and beeps that ended in a steady high pitched tone. The screen then went blank for a moment before a timer appeared displaying that it would be a couple of cycles before the unit's logic string recovered from whatever it was that had thrown it for a loop.
"You're never there when I need you, you know that?" he told the device, getting only silence in answer as the timer continued to count down. Looking up at the sun and estimating the planet's rotation to be somewhere around sixteen cycles, though probably a little less. That time struck him as odd as it was the same rotation as Old Home Terra, the legendary home planet of humans, or at least it was according to the Games Jasmine designed.
"Heh, she really believes it exists too," said Amadeus, remembering all the arguments he'd had with Jasmine about it. He was of the opinion that the planet was a myth, something dreamed up to give the people something to search for always. After all expeditions that were searching for the lost homeworld were launched everyday, and it always filled the people with hope that maybe they would find it this time, though they never did. After all you can't find something that isn't real.
Lost in his thoughts Amadeus nearly missed the sound of footsteps as the approached. Not wanting to cause a panic just yet among the locals Amadeus decided quickly it would be best to hide, and so dove into one of the derelict vehicle frames, rolling into the back seat so that he could stare out of one of the rusted holes in the back door. Looking over at the direction from which the footfalls were coming Amadeus stared in anticipation as the figure rounded a corner and came into his view. It was a shocking view too as the figure turned out to be...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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