348
You have timed your fall perfectly. Falcon's Wing settles onto the rocky surface of Thrix with a crunch and a whine from its hydraulic legs. CAIN warns you that the soupy yellow atmosphere of Thrix is highly corrosive and you put on your environment suit. Whilst you are doing so, CAIN gives you some valuable information on the planet and its inhabitants. The flying girders which you passed in the atmosphere were a primitive form of starship powered by chemical rockets like those used on Earth in the 21st and 22nd centuries. The ships are slow but the pilot, a Thrix, has a lifespan of several millenia and being composed almost entirely of glass-like silica can exist in deep space. The rock-like Thrix are telepathic and can move objects by thought alone. They are dormant at deep space temperatures but regain the capacity for thought whenever their ship nears a sun. Less than two thousand remain on their home world - the reason for their decline is not known. Very little is known about their attitude to aliens in 3033 AD, let alone this time. They are not members of the Federation (they will not become members, that is). 'There is one other thing, Falcon - this timehole is deteriorating rapidly and will soon cease to exist. I estimate anything between one and six hours remaining before it fades away. Take care not to get trapped here!' You thank CAIN. The camera shows ghostly outcroppings of jagged rock, swimming in soupy gases. You leave Falcon's Wing - without preparing a disguise (CAIN does not have the relevant information stored in his memory banks in any case) and set out to explore. Before you have gone twenty metres you see a shiny black boulder, faceted like a diamond, but three metres tall. It is a Thrix. Will you:
Ignore it and walk on? | Turn to 383 |
Run and hide in a shallow trench nearby? | Turn to 372 |
Try to communicate with it? | Turn to 360 |