[ Welcome to Impact ]
[ 01: Planetfall ]
[ 02: Washed Up ]
[ 03: The Beach ]
[ 04: An Un-natural Cave ]
[ 05: Conjunction ]
[ 06: Contemplating the Singularity ]
- More to come
[ Appendices: Random Stats and Stuff ]
[ Some public domain OpenSim textures ]
[ My VR WishList ]
With some food in my stomach and my wounds largely healed, I went for a little wander around the beach and up into the rocks. The beach itself has accumulated in the star-set side of the crater basin and fills roughly half of it. At the middle waters-edge of the beach is a small pinnacle of stone raising at least 128 units [25m] above ocean level out of the crater centre. What may be a cave is up there... from the erosion marks on the beach-level stoneface, the entire beach goes under from time to time. I imagine when the sun and the gas giant are in the right places, the tides go up several meters. At one end of the beach there is a crevice with a steamy hole behind it. Very sulpherous smelling -- presumably a crustal vent that has made its way to the surface through the fractured bedrock. I went a little way into the crevice -- it was pongy, but not suffocating -- and found a large pool of slimy bubbling mud.
I want to climb up the rocks of the pinacle to check out that cave -- it is rough enough to provide plenty of hand/foot-holds -- but I am still too sore and tired recovering from my crash-landing in this place. I need to spend more time resting first.
On more urgent matters, I have verified I am able to use the slime off the rocks near the waterline to top up the nano-fabricator with organic matter to work with. Food constructed from purple slime might not sound very appetising, but the alternative is recycling my own body-waste. Not that the nano-fabber doesn't break everything down to constituent molecules - and even atoms if necessary - first, but the thought has an effect on the perceived flavor! More importantly, the 'fabber powers itself by knocking neutrons off heavy isotopes in the materials it processes, so there is a limit to how many times you can cycle materials before it needs a top-up of suitable fresh matter. The 'fabber read-outs tell me that in its native form the local life-chain is not actually toxic to me, however it contains absolutely no nutritional content my body could use. Local bacteria and/or parasites are very unlikely to have any interest in my flesh either, which is a bonus.
I stupidly took that information as licence to harass the local jellyfish. I soon discovered that while their flesh may be neutral, the venom of their stingers is quite capable of causing me an intense itching lasting for hours. :-(
It is amazing how entertaining cloud formations can be. This is a warm, wet planet and so is quite cloudy. I wonder if it ever rains on Impact? Or do the clouds just blow around and around? Maybe it only rains at the poles where it would be colder. I lie on my back on the beach all of the the (3-hour-long) day watching the clouds sometimes. Stars winkling through an atmosphere is funny too.
The whole 'don't forget your towel' meme has been bouncing around humanity so long no-one knows where it came from, but I still have my towel! (Okay, technically I nano-fabbed a new one.) Impact's atmosphere is somewhat thin, but the ozone layer is quite thick, so sun-baking like this is quite safe. Why do I bother with a bikini when I am all alone? I love this bikini! I have always wanted one like it ever since my 'teens when I saw one in a media slice from Earth. Besides, it helps keep the sand out of places sand ought not go!
[ Chapter 04: The Un-natural cave ]>