Pluto

This is where you can post your Commander Keen related stories, artwork, or other stuff that is related to Commander Keen but otherwise doesn't belong in another forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
Levellass
S-Triazine
Posts: 5265
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:40

Pluto

Post by Levellass »

A little something in honor of New Horizons' unveiling of high-res Pluto pictures. Shamelessly unoriginal.


The surface of Pluto is covered in ices. Methane ices, nitrogen ices, and carbon dioxide ices mostly, but also a scattering of exotics like oxygen that, warmed only a few degrees Kelvin, sublime into gases. The waste heat of our vacuum suits was enough to do the trick. With every step the ground exploded underfoot and billowed up overhead. Mike and I had to keep moving if we wanted to see at all.

Behind us, like Sodom burning, was the giant updraft caused by the Baphomet melting a crater into the ice. I didn't look back–it would have turned my heart to stone. "What now?" I said tonelessly.

"Keep walking," Mike said.

We did.

"Is there a point to this?" I asked after a while.

"Yes. It's called basic research."

"Oh."

"You got something better to do?"

"Other than dying?" I laughed, maybe a little shrilly. "No, nothing at all."

We loped along, scanning the land before us. Pluto was surprisingly hilly for such a tiny planet–almost as small as its partner-moon Charon, the argument over whether or not 'dwarf' should precede 'planet' was the main reason we had been sent. It was, I supposed, basely possible we'd chance upon something worth finding before our oxygen ran out. Though I couldn't imagine what.

"Check it out." Mike gestured at a discolored streak that moved with imperfect straightness toward the horizon. "Melted." And then, "Let's follow it."

We did, in long, low bounds. "Think they'll ever find us?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, start at the crater, follow our trail. Even if they mothball NASA like that idiot in Washington wants, somebody a hundred or even a thousand years from now won't have any trouble …"

We topped a ridge and stopped to take in the view.

Far below us, at the end of the melted trace, was a whitish tangle of machinery. It took a moment to realize that parts of it were actually a vacuum cleaner. And... a lead acid battery?

"Looks like we weren't the first after all," Mike said. "Not the first to land, and not even the first marooned here."

"Not by a long shot," I said. This close to absolute zero, it takes forever for things to disintegrate. The odd machinery was in rough shape. The universe was a younger place when it arrived. I checked my air. "We've still got ten minutes. Just barely time enough."

"For what?"

"To get down there." I started downslope. My heart was singing. Against all odds, we'd stumbled into something worth finding. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to die without seeing this close up."
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
Benvolio
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 976
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 12:43
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Post by Benvolio »

Watch out for those pesky guardian yetis :P

An entertaining read Lass
User avatar
Levellass
S-Triazine
Posts: 5265
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:40

Post by Levellass »

It had to be a single post,t he only way I'd be sure of actually finishing it.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
Post Reply