Plant People

Snipher tried a few leaps through the foliage of the hills and found the plant-like canopy to be too much of an obstacle to make the kind of progress he made in the open planes. And his tired arms started complaining.

Brachiation with high tech assistance

That was about the point where the tracks came to an end with a very old rover, showing no signs why it had been abandoned.

The rover looked about ready to rust out.

And the sun began to set, leaving him with the option of artificial light which might attract more attention than he could handle. It was time to camp for the night.

He thought maybe he should return to the dead ship and call down the shuttle to power it up and get what info he could. But then again, real life was out here and the answers were probably just waiting to be observed.

He already knew there was nothing to be seen from above. That he learned when he was orbiting for his landing.

He commanded the MEMS cannister to descend and make camp here at the opening in the canopy. Maybe in the trees would be a good spot. As it descended and began the quick process of releasing its stored helium and the slow process of collecting extra oxygen from the environment (and warming it of course), he set out to quietly walk a search pattern around the perimeter of his prospective camp to try to detect any signs of ambulatory life.

Camp site preparations

He found lower life quickly. Inside a hollow 'tree' were a colony of bugs. One poke of the mop told him that they were not exactly like anything from his home world, but they had similarities to insects, arachnids, and crustaceans.

The bugs were similar to crustaceans, insects, and arachnids of his home world.

He got lucky only once, which was all he needed. He heard motion not far away through thick growth.

He didn't smell anything more than petrichor and geosmin from melted snow and the live and rotting plants, but he heard a couple of bipedal creatures about his size. He pictured a nudist couple much like himself having a romantic evening picnic.

Snipher pictured what he was hearing in the thick bushes.

He did not dare move until they had walked out of earshot. He was aware that he was downwind of them (what little wind there was), but he mysteriously caught no scent of them. He didn't like the average odds of outsiders introducing themselves to a community that has been closed for many years (especially if the outsider was there to 'save' them or study them), so he kept his distance and his silence.

By the time he returned to his camp site and entered the canister, it was warm and comfortable. His internal muscle contractions and odd breathing had kept him warm enough to ignore the cold, but now getting back to a protected climate (where he could relax) allowed him to realize how exhausting the day had been. A human without his advanced physical and mental skills would have given up, he was certain.

Bed time inside the MEMS canister camp

He pulled out half of his food rations, (with the remaining 5-day supply still on his shuttle) and began chewing and swishing the liquids around in his mouth. He did prefer these smaller packets with a greater variety of flavors. If one had to eat food that maximized its lifespan before spoilage above all other considerations, then it was nice to have a bite of curry, a bite of marinara, a slosh of coffee, and a slosh of wine, even if they were all artificial.

Sleep came instantly as soon as he laid his head down.