Moving slowly towards the landing site to the left of the cave, Mahhzee aligned the ship and landed effortlessly, after a smooth vertical descent. They were finally there, on solid ground.
Once the back of the ship opened, the passengers started emerging from inside one by one, through the purple gas. They were all wearing a thin suit, providing them with the necessary shielding from the harmful chemical composition of the air, but also giving them the atmospheric pressure their bodies needed to compensate for Kesra’s weak gravity. The gigantic cave housed an array of odd looking machines and Zarfha orbs, some serving a similar purpose as computers do on Earth. To the far right, several edifices, almost as tall as the cave itself, revealed the living quarters that would be their new home, at least for now.
The last ones to leave the ship, Jorh and Serm walked to an area of the cave where strange structures and other large objects were lined up in long row against the wall. Below the glassy transparent surface of a wide container, eleven Zarfha spheres were resting partially buried in the floor of the cave. After giving Serm several instructions, Jorh approached one of the machines and held his hands stretched out in front of him, his twelve fingers seemingly probing the air. Pulling out a black saucer shaped device out of a small container, Serm put the instrument on the glass surface just above the closest Zarfha, and raising his open hand above it, started tracing imaginary circles in the air. A column of white plasma slowly emerged from the black device, encircling it and rising towards Jorh’s hand. As if shaping it without touching it, both aliens guided the column upward with their hand movements, until it reached the roof of the cave. Then, releasing his invisible grip, Jorh clamped his hands together. A foggy white substance started flowing down, along the outside of the column, while the central pillar, staying in a relatively solid state, began changing colors and pulsing slowly up and down its entire length in waves of blueish-whites and purple-reds. A giant oval plate appeared on the wall of the cave, almost as if it had materialized out of the rock. Eleven red circles, evenly spaced in a row at the bottom of it, began fading in and out, in rhythm. In the middle of the giant oval shape, a big black triangle was slowly moving randomly, as if hovering in an imaginary soft wind. Blue lines soon emerged from it, one by one connecting to the red circles.
After confirming the Zarfhas were receiving the plasma, Jorh left Serm and walked to the living quarters. He was looking forward to taking his suit off. He walked into the dark entrance of the towering edifice and made his way several levels up. After the tight confinement of the ship, staying in an adequately sized space would be a welcome change. He had a few hours to kill while the spheres were charging. It was a great opportunity to rest. He approached a machine near the far wall, and after a few commands, walked to another room. Removing his gelatinous suit, he reached the hovering bed and gladly lied down.
A few doors down, Gahneo and Mahhzee were finally in their new habitat.
“I think I’m gonna sleep for a week!” she said, removing her soft suit. The darkness was broken by a small Zarfha spinning slowly in the corner. The reddish glow caused everything to look rusted and old. The ceiling was about ten meters high. The room was circular, and dome shaped. Still small compared to a typical Klomag habitat, it was a great improvement over the tiny cabins of the ship, nonetheless. A corridor at the far end seemed to disappear further down to the right. As they walked on, the walls began to glow dimly. Now, two more doors could be seen on the left. There was an oval shaped screen, straight ahead of them, against the wall. Just below it, an orb was hovering silently, facing a comfortable looking chair.
Gahneo walked toward it and sat down. Mahhzee closed the entrance behind them, and from within the walls, a soft ambient light illuminated the room. There did not appear to be any windows. While Gahneo, waving his hand, made a portion of the wall disappear, offering a view of the large cave, Mahhzee made her way into an adjacent room, just to the left of him. The sleeping quarters were not the largest, but the three hover-beds in the middle looked comfortable and inviting. The Kahnu did not sleep lying down on a flat bed, as humans do. They slept on long hovering lounge seats, comparable to comfortable recliners, padded and molded to the body of the individual lying in it. Mahhzee waved at the wall and another oval window appeared, overlooking a portion of the cave outside. From her vantage point, she could see Serm walking out of the Aruk, pushing in front of him a large container she did not recognize. What puzzled her right away was the similarity in size and shape with a hibernating pod. “What reason could Serm possibly have to take a Time-Frost pod out of the ship?” She kept watching. Hovering in front of him, Serm guided the large capsule around the ship, and soon disappeared behind a rocky column at the back of the cave.
“Looks like everything is in order here!” Gahneo told her telepathically. “What about the other rooms? What does it look like in there?”
Mahhzee was still puzzling over Serm and the strange package. Realizing Gahneo was still waiting for an answer, she finally responded, “I haven’t checked the storage yet, but the bedroom seems fine. The hovers look very comfortable by the way. At least, they didn’t forget about comfort when they built this place.”
“Well, that’s a relief! I’m just about ready for bed. You must be exhausted too! How are you holding up after all this madness?”
“I’m OK.” It was all she could say. Like most of them lately, she was trying to focus on the task at hand, and not think of the destruction of their home planet and the tragic loss of thousands of lives they had witnessed only a few days earlier. Mahhzee was a level-headed person. Her work was her life. It was even surprising she could find time to be in a relationship with Gahneo. The two had become lovers in the last four years of their involvement with the Zarfha Gravitation Engine. Both had been attracted to each other since their first year working together, but it was only after that night in Klomag-Vaha, that they had finally crossed the line that separates friendship and romance. Jorh had been sick that day, and the team had elected to postpone work until the next morning. They were about to test a new gravitation Zarfha, and Jorh’s presence was indispensable. It was Mahhzee who had asked Gahneo if he would care to join her on a short trip to Klomag-Vaha. She wanted to visit a girlfriend who had moved there the previous year with her new companion. She did not want to go by herself. She would feel safer if he came with her. Gahneo had not realized it was simply an excuse to be with him alone and go to a place she had thought about for a long time. After a long conversation with her mother the week before, she had made the decision to wait no longer on Gahneo to make the first move, and to seize the first opportunity to tell him how she felt. This was it.
The spring nights on Klomag-Vaha were often spectacular. Klomag-Vaha was on the outskirts of the Varrish Valley and offered one the best unobstructed views of the vast Kahnu Ocean, and its sparkling purple waters. She had even timed their little excursion so to cross the Kah bridge when the sun was starting to set in the west; the most romantic moment of the day. The warm orange-yellows at that time of day had always been Mahhzee’s favorite.
“So, what’s your friend’s name again?” asked Gahneo mentally, while keeping an eye on their flyer’s trajectory.
They were aboard a Vok, a flying vehicle about eight meters in length, with just enough room for the two of them and a few of their belongings. It was an indispensable form of personal transportation on Kahnu. The vast distances that separated some Klomags could stretch several dozen kilometers; too far to manage on foot regularly. Everyone had a Vok and most used it anywhere they went.