The fronteer

Coming out of hyper-space, the ship bucked like a wild horse. From the side window where he was sitting, Roger had an excellent view of the planet they were headed to. The planet Darnak looked like any other Terran class planet.

‘Incomprehensible’ he thought.

‘How could such a beautiful planet be so dangerous?’ For a long time now, he had wanted to visit Darnak. Hearing all of the stories about this place, he just couldn’t believe that it was as bad as it sounded. One day he had met a woman who claimed to come from this planet and who had begged him to go there and use his newspaper column to expose the terrors the planetary council was committing.

“But why me?” he had asked. Her reply had been both terrifying and intriguing, “Because no one else dares go there.”

“Please fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen. We are about to enter the atmosphere of Darnak. It is currently a mild twenty one degrees at our final destination. The Darnak traffic control center reports that there are currently no uprisings on the continent of our destination. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

Turning a semi-circle, the transport swiftly descended towards the planet.

Straining against the force the landing put on his body, Roger looked out through the window. The vague greens and blue’s had transformed into a multitude of vibrant colors. Browns, greens, blue’s and the purest white of snow were visible on the continent below. More and more details of the continent were emerging from the overhanging cloud deck. The gigantic spaceport platforms were clearly visible now. To the west of the platform his transport was headed to a large structure was laid out. It seemed to be the customs building, with all kinds of activities going on. Crates were being off loaded from one of the many planetary cargo haulers scattered around one of the other large platforms to the south.

‘There don’t appear to be many guards. From the stories I’ve heard, the airport should be swarming with them.’ With a sudden thwang the ship steeply dropped several hundreds of meters.

“Is something wrong, miss?” asked a concerned passenger. The stewardess calmly walked over, bent and reassured her that this was part of the normal landing procedures. Diving past some more cloud cover, roger could see the spaceport more clearly now. Several structures housing maintenance equipment, spare parts, fuel and other similar things surrounded the platform, making it’s actual size much smaller than he had anticipated from farther above. He could see walkway standing by to the west, ready to swing into place as soon as the transport had landed.

‘Despite the fact that the actual touchdown had been a bit rough, it actually was a nicely executed landing’ flashed through Roger’s mind at the moment he stepped out onto the walkway. Carrying only the light handbag containing some small items and his prized h-cam, he followed the directions to the customs hall.

‘Good day, sir. Do you have anything to declare?’ The man behind the counter casually glanced to his handbag.

‘No, only my camera. I’m a reporter for the Ambora Daily.’

‘Well, sir, I hope you won’t mind if I check to make sure.’ After a thorough search through his small bag, the officer actually looked disappointed when he didn’t discover any secret compartments filled with weapons.

‘I hope you have a pleasant stay, sir.’

After having picked up his other luggage, he took a sub-shuttle to the town he was going to stay in for the next few weeks. In front of his hotel he took a moment and set his luggage down. Making a full three hundred and sixty degrees turn, he looked at the town. It looked like any other rural town on any other planet. Quite, not to large, not to small, somehow just right. Behind the hotel desk an older man sits reading a newspaper. Upon seeing his new customer, he springs up from his chair with surprising ease despite his aparent age.

‘I would like a room please. The name is Roger Mills.’

‘Offcourse sir. I’ll put you in room 119. Will there be anything else sir?’ the man asks.

‘No…. Or maybe, yes. Is there anything of particular interest around here?’

‘Why sure there is. If you’re staying long enough, there is a big festival you’d might want to go to. It’s being held next Monday.’

‘Thank you.’ Roger accepts the key and takes the stairs to his room.