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“The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf (part 1 of 2)
Two travelers to an antique land, newly mated. An adventure to an uncharted planet, as a honeymoon. But what is there, here, to discover?
Today’s story is the first of two parts of “The Lone and Level Lands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf, who want to know why they don't get to go to uncharted planets for vacation, and you can find more of their stories on their respective SoFurry pages.
This story will be read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm, the bespectacled dragon.
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https://thevoice.dog/episode/the-lone-and-level-sands-stretch-far-away-by-pascal-farful-and-rob-macwolf-part-1-of-2
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog. I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,
Speaker:and Today’s story is the first of two parts of
Speaker:“The Lone and Level Lands Stretch Far Away”
Speaker:by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf,
Speaker:who want to know why they don't get to go to uncharted planets for vacation,
Speaker:and you can find more of their stories on their respective SoFurry pages.
Speaker:This story will be read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm,
Speaker:the bespectacled dragon.
Speaker:Please enjoy “The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away”
Speaker:by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf,
Speaker:Part 1 of 2
Speaker:Even while we were starting reentry,
Speaker:I didn’t think ey’d go through with it.
Speaker:I thought I was the romantic.
Speaker:But ey did, and just like in all the ancient spirit-tale romances,
Speaker:here we are, on a previously uncharted world as our first act together as official mates!
Speaker:If I didn’t know ey’d never let me live it down I’d
Speaker:swoon! Murd kept me waiting for
Speaker:aaaaages with what planet ey’d chosen.
Speaker:I don’t know how ey found us one. I bet ey pulled strings at the stellography colleges up at the institute
Speaker:and they fed em some leads.
Speaker:I’m not familiar with this side of the galaxy,
Speaker:but it’s a small world,
Speaker:and it looks lovely!
Speaker:Plenty of jungles and sands to explore,
Speaker:things to find and collect!
Speaker:Murd has done some fancy analysis of what’s down there
Speaker:and ey says the only contact we’ve ever recorded
Speaker:was an automated hot time listener probe,
Speaker:that didn’t hear anything,
Speaker:and that was like two hundred years ago!
Speaker:And wow is it ever out in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker:It’d already been a couple hours since I’d smelled a lane radio beam before we even approached the star system.
Speaker:We were navigating solely by scent of solar wind,
Speaker:like the earliest astronauts!
Speaker:Nobody ventures out this far.
Speaker:Not the truckers.
Speaker:Not the helium freighters.
Speaker:Nobody. Maybe we’re the first sentient beings to leave footprints here!
Speaker:And if that doesn’t sound romantic,
Speaker:then I don’t know what does!
Speaker:I’ll try and remember to get pictures,
Speaker:assuming I’m not too excited and can keep my paws off of Murd long enough! —Faln *** Entry Alep Sin One Four
Speaker:Landing made on the sand in the upper quadrant
Speaker:of the northern hemisphere.
Speaker:Initial analysis as follows:
Atmospherics:Oxygen-dominant atmosphere.
Atmospherics:Bonded to carbon.
Atmospherics:A lot of evidence of dihydrogen monoxide in a biome
Atmospherics:not far from this location.
Atmospherics:Expecting to see a lot of dihydrogen monoxide-reliant organisms,
Atmospherics:that’s common for planets with that on.
Atmospherics:Valuable as a fluid,
Atmospherics:I’m surprised it hadn’t been harnessed from here yet.
Tectonics:Orbital evidence of past seismic activity,
Tectonics:but nothing detected now.
Tectonics:Radiation levels:
Tectonics:Not insignificant.
Tectonics:Can’t smell much in the immediate vicinity,
Tectonics:but a non-zero amount.
Tectonics:Meteorological Events:
Tectonics:Cloud cover inconstant.
Tectonics:Evidence of both wind and liquid erosion on geologic formations.
Tectonics:Will prepare for the eventuality of requiring shipboard shelter from hazardous weather.
Biological:Extensive vegetation.
Biological:As yet no direct observation of animal life,
Biological:though some vegetation seems adapted to it:
Biological:if they are bearing fruit,
Biological:they must intend something to eat it.
Biological:Contact with intelligent life:
Biological:None. Mission: Attempt to determine if there is a dominant life form with which diplomatic relations should be established.
Biological:Log to continue. —Murd. FILE ATTACHMENT:
Biological:Landing_zone_diagram.
Biological:Landing_zone_diagram.png *** Honeymoon Landing!
Biological:Because that’s what I’m naming this place!
Biological:Ayup! We’ve landed!
Biological:It’s sandy here and boy am I glad we brought along our beach clothes.
Biological:You should see how Murd looks in eis,
Biological:awooga! Anywho! We’ve been doing some wondering and adventuring. Murd has collected some sand samples and is taking them back into the ship to analyze. I told em ey’d better find some time to be less busy, because the starsets here are gorgeous,
Biological:reds and golds, purples and saffrons, and the clouds catch them in layers, and there’s no orbital transit platforms
Biological:or satellite spheres
Biological:or even rings to get in the way!
Biological:There’s not even any artificial light
Biological:(apart from the ship, duh)
Biological:to outshine the stars.
Biological:And it should be a crime to waste such amazing cuddling weather on analysis,
Biological:amirite? The sand around here is so fine!
Biological:Every time I give my tail a wag,
Biological:and around Murd that happens a lot,
Biological:I send it wafting across the plain.
Biological:Did see one place I wanna check out, while ey’s busy.
Biological:There’s these weird looking stone outcroppings,
Biological:down by where the river turns into rapids.
Biological:Seem a little too right-angled to be natural, if you ask me!
Biological:I bet it’s ancient ruins of a lost civilization!
Biological:Spooky! -Faln *** Entry Alep Ayin Twelve Seven,
Biological:While I have not yet absolute proof,
Biological:I’m confident that this planet was once inhabited. There are
Biological:structures of some form of mildly caustic ceramic
Biological:that seem to have once been pillars.
Biological:Possible bridge supports,
Biological:though only the largest seem positioned to have once crossed any body of water.
Biological:There is an irregular outcropping,
Biological:also mostly composed of the same caustic ceramic,
Biological:around and amidst the river,
Biological:which I also suspect will prove to be artificial.
Biological:My mate, Faln, was the first to say ‘lost civilization,’
Biological:and ey may not be not entirely wrong.
Biological:Though in its present position
Biological:it seems to serve no function,
Biological:if one hypothesizes a higher past sea level
Biological:then it might have been a perfect staging area
Biological:for easy access in or out of the water.
Biological:This might imply an amphibious species.
Biological:But as I have had to stress to my mate,
Biological:complex architecture does not necessarily imply what we would know as intelligence.
Biological:Even if these structures prove artificial,
Biological:in the sense that they were purpose built by life forms,
Biological:that doesn’t mean they were artificial in the sense they are the product of anything more than instinct.
Biological:These could have been the instinctive extrusions of arthropods or mollusks.
Biological:I will attempt to date some of these caustic ceramic outcroppings
Biological:radiologically. If they’re significantly newer than the bedrock,
Biological:then I think I can safely say they’re likely artificial.
Biological:—Murd *** Honeymoon Day 2!
Biological:Murd’s broken out the swim brief!
Biological:Hooray! In more serious news,
Biological:We made our way out to the outcropping and began taking a look at things.
Biological:There were very distinctly texts scrawled on the elements of the outcropping.
Biological:They are formatted in asymmetrical layers, not carved into the substance.
Biological:I would interpret them as having an unofficial, graffiti-esque purpose.
Biological:But I’m a gardener,
Biological:not an archeologist,
Biological:so who knows? In terms of more solid finds,
Biological:Murd did some fancy readings on the ruins,
Biological:and I found a small artifact!
Biological:Its front is mirrored once I wiped off the sand,
Biological:but it’s thick and has a proper “back” portion to it, with some slight texturing and an embossed text on it.
Biological:It’s not in any language or script I can recognise
Biological:but judging by the manner of its embossment and fittings,
Biological:it seemed to have been a conscious part of its construction,
Biological:not something incorporated later.
Biological:Nor can I or Murd get it open or activate it.
Biological:I put it back in the ship so we can have a look later.
Biological:By the time we’d gone to look at the ruins,
Biological:picked up the tablet,
Biological:performed ey’s scans and had the tablet back in the ship,
Biological:the star had moved across and it was getting dark.
Biological:We snuggled together in the sand and watched the galaxy ease into view above us.
Biological:Tomorrow will likely be our last day in the desert highlands before we move off to somewhere further down where the plants and the jungles are thicker. Pretty
Biological:sure I saw an animal!
Biological:Something with long graceful wings, circling overhead.
Biological:Murd didn’t get a look,
Biological:it was gone by the time I got eys attention.
Biological:So it must be fast!
Biological:—Faln *** Entry Alep Zajin One Four Eight Faln’s discovery has thrown a wrench in the works.
Biological:Not only is it far newer than bedrock, as indeed are the other items we found at the outcropping,
Biological:but, having cracked open the tablet,
Biological:the interior is very complex and made of sand.
Biological:Or more, the same chemicals.
Biological:It’s bonded differently,
Biological:likely superheated but…
Biological:chemically the same elements.
Biological:Perhaps it was the basis of the economy of this people?
Biological:Though given how much sand there is here,
Biological:demand might not have met supply?
Biological:The outcroppings show there was a society here,
Biological:both from the dates from the analysis and those texts scrawled on them.
Biological:These were a people capable of some form of writing, that’s for sure.
Biological:Hence, the question is:
Biological:Where are they? What would have caused their disappearance?
Biological:And does perhaps this monolith have something to do with it?
Biological:Perhaps the monolith and these people are not of the same flesh and blood.
Biological:I get the impression even Faln is starting to feel like there might be something bigger going on here than we know of.
Biological:We’ve started charting the lowland rainforests,
Biological:in the hopes of finding somewhere to land,
Biological:though the trees are thick and are growing around other objects we can’t get good readings on either.
Biological:Potentially more ruins.
Biological:Potentially inhabited settlements.
Biological:—Murd FILE ATTACHMENT: jungle_scan_deep_radio.png jungle_scan_topographical.png jungle_scan_magnet_resonance.png ***
Biological:We landed again on a stony ridge.
Biological:It rose out of a sea of trees stretching as far as I can see in every direction.
Biological:When the wind blows over them,
Biological:the branches toss like flowing water
Biological:and swarms of brightly colored airborne animals rise out of them,
Biological:only to disappear again.
Biological:Oh, ancestors…This planet is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Biological:Murd thinks that if there is anyone here to contact,
Biological:then our best chance at finding them will be in one of these basin jungles,
Biological:or maybe down along where the jungles meet the seashore.
Biological:That makes sense.
Biological:That’s where I’d want to live if I lived here.
Biological:I think ey’s troubled by the lack of anyone to contact.
Biological:The Mirror, that’s what I’m calling the monolith,
Biological:does seem to show evidence of circuitry inside it.
Biological:Maybe it was supposed to connect to something else? Oh,
Biological:maybe they had electrometric senses
Biological:and feeling currents flow into different shapes was how they
Biological:‘read’ and this thing was actually a book?
Biological:Like they would stick like a little…
Biological:paw tentacle,
Biological:I dunno, into one of these slots on the side,
Biological:give it a little current,
Biological:feel the different circuit paths, and go “Hm,
Biological:Ah, Oh yes, A Thrilling Tale!”
Biological:I guess we’ll know for sure if we meet some tomorrow.
Biological:Speaking of which,
Biological:I should really go distract Murd from ey’s preparations.
Biological:A nice naked cuddle should do the trick.
Biological:—Faln *** Entry Bet Alep One The second landing site has far more biodiversity. Attached are observations and readings of
Biological:an animal species that seems to be prolific throughout at least this jungle.
Biological:It is an airborne arthropod.
Biological:Transparent wings,
Biological:four legs, two arms,
Biological:head with a quizzical no-nonsense sort of expression.
Biological:Body on average about two inches long.
Biological:Faln thinks they’re cute.
Biological:When inert, the body is largely colorless,
Biological:even transparent:
Biological:I suspect if I could have gotten any of them to hold still
Biological:I could have seen their internal organs through their sides.
Biological:But when excited,
Biological:they iridesce brilliantly,
Biological:in an array of colors:
Biological:Red, Blue, Turquoise, Green,
Biological:Purple, Magenta, Gold.
Biological:I suspect if I observed this at night,
Biological:they would prove to be luminous as well.
Biological:When in the air, and in…
Biological:I suppose ‘flocks’ is as good a term as any,
Biological:each individual seems to try to match the color of those nearest to it,
Biological:which produces waves of different colors across the enormous flocks
Biological:that hovered over the trees.
Biological:Faln says it’s beautiful.
Biological:I cannot disagree.
Biological:This was not the only behavior that inspired me to hope!
Biological:According to all laws of aviation that I know,
Biological:this creature should not be able to fly.
Biological:Its wings seem too small, in proportion to its body,
Biological:to get it into the air.
Biological:Yet it flies anyway,
Biological:beating its wings so fast they produce a thrumming sound.
Biological:This is individually faint,
Biological:but again, in large flocks,
Biological:it’s distinctly audible.
Biological:And they harmonize.
Biological:Different groups within the flock will play different tones,
Biological:always in harmonic intervals,
Biological:changing at an average rate of once every three seconds.
Biological:They are playing chords and shifting colors in what must be patterns.
Biological:Surely this could have meaning.
Biological:Surely this could be a communication medium.
Biological:Surely this is intelligent life!
Biological:That I can talk to!
Biological:I wasted a whole day trying.
Biological:They seem to have no fear of us,
Biological:but they also disregard us completely:
Biological:we seem no more interesting to them
Biological:than the rock outcropping. And much
Biological:less interesting than the trees:
Biological:I suspect fruit or nectar must be their food source.
Biological:We had the closest thing I could call “success” when we
Biological:played music to them.
Biological:This caused them to huddle around,
Biological:swarm to listen, but then…
Biological:they grew confused.
Biological:Unsure, then uninterested.
Biological:As if someone walked up to you and said
Biological:“Why do oven the cold food when of out hot eat the food”.
Biological:It’s just gibberish
Biological:and once they understand that,
Biological:they fly off, bemused.
Biological:Or, play the melody to us louder.
Biological:As if to correct us.
Biological:Even as I write this entry,
Biological:some land on my console,
Biological:trundle across it,
Biological:oblivious, till I brush them off and they hover away,
Biological:just as oblivious.
Biological:I must conclude these are in fact only animals.
Biological:Beautiful ones, and fascinating,
Biological:but not something with which we can communicate meaningfully.
Biological:Not people. Ancestors, hear me,
Biological:for there is something about this planet that makes me feel so pitifully alone.
Biological:It feels as if I’ve come home,
Biological:as a yearling from the academy,
Biological:to find my pack all departed
Biological:and the house empty
Biological:and cold. —Murd FILE ATTACHMENT:
Biological:scan_morphology.
Biological:scan_morphology.ctn scan_bioreadings.ctn *** Oh wow.
Biological:Murd’s curled up asleep on the bunk.
Biological:I’m still too keyed up from,
Biological:well, you know! I need to wind down a little before I’ll be able to sleep.
Biological:Ey was so passionate, so fiery, so relentless,
Biological:so male/penetrating/stabilizing!
Biological:It was amazing! Ey is amazing!
Biological:But there’s something
Biological:has me a little worried. Ey insists ey’s fine,
Biological:but something about tonight felt…
Biological:desperate. Ey put eys arms around me so tight
Biological:—which, yes please,
Biological:sure—but like ey was afraid.
Biological:Like ey didn’t want me to get swept away.
Biological:I think ey’s working too hard.
Biological:Gonna try to distract em a little.
Biological:This IS supposed to be a honeymoon, after all.
Biological:That’s why I named this planet that!
Biological:—Faln *** Entry Bet He Waw Five Nine Donned spirisuits for the descent into the jungle.
Biological:Not that I anticipate needing them,
Biological:but it’s well to be prepared.
Biological:The radiation smell decreased as we descended.
Biological:The trees are colossal,
Biological:on a scale such that the largest of them have other plant life growing on their bark.
Biological:It was eerie, walking through this lush and verdant jungle
Biological:and hearing no sound of fauna.
Biological:It makes a profound difference from the park lands back home:
Biological:No birdsong. No skittering in the leaf litter.
Biological:No amphibian chorus.
Biological:Just when I was about to say we should turn back,
Biological:we climbed over a root
Biological:and there they were.
Biological:Structures. Tall, steel structures.
Biological:They’d withered and broken, cracked and split all the way down.
Biological:Big holes had been cleaved out of them like gaping wounds.
Biological:This. This was it.
Biological:The civilisation we’d been looking for.
Biological:Of course we hadn’t seen it from exterior scans,
Biological:the trees had covered it all up.
Biological:But here it was, right in front of us.
Biological:And we stood and we stared,
Biological:lost in it all. This maze,
Biological:this steel and concrete megalopolis.
Biological:But abandoned.
Biological:For some centuries, at least, judging from the state of it.
Biological:We found nothing within but trees, stunted and unable to grow atop the layer of metals and calcite debris.
Biological:We couldn’t enter any of the structures,
Biological:just as well, one of the ones in the far distance wobbled and crumbled deep into it’s guts, a big plume of dust in the distance.
Biological:Disturbed by us, no doubt.
Biological:The structure on one side is a large wall
Biological:which curves toward the top to become a roof.
Biological:Metal, an iron and carbon alloy,
Biological:coated with a jaggedly irregular calcite crust.
Biological:Presumably this was meant to protect the iron from moisture,
Biological:(perhaps there was another layer atop this, now long gone?)
Biological:but has failed over the centuries,
Biological:leaving the structure susceptible to oxygen corrosion.
Biological:It was far too dangerous to enter,
Biological:but we did see evidence of multiple smaller rooms within.
Biological:Presumably individual dwellings.
Biological:Other, smaller, calcite crusted-metal structures were visible around the site.
Biological:There were two large cylindrical ones,
Biological:and a pile of debris of the right mass to be a third.
Biological:There was another curved wall/roof,
Biological:separated from the larger main one
Biological:but lined up so its wall formed a largely continuous line.
Biological:The architectural effect,
Biological:when this structure was new and in use,
Biological:must have been magnificent.
Biological:There’s no doubt in my mind that intelligent,
Biological:social beings built this.
Biological:So where are they now?
Biological:—Murd FILE ATTACHMENT: jungle_settlement_map.
Biological:jungle_settlement_map.png *** We took the ship down to the actual beach,
Biological:finally. I was very excited.
Biological:The ocean’s way saltier than back home,
Biological:and I can smell traces of radiation in it,
Biological:but I even tested it with the scope and everything.
Biological:It’s safe! I was gonna get us in the swimwear,
Biological:get out into the surf a little,
Biological:then point out, as if I’d only just realized,
Biological:that we were completely alone on this planet,
Biological:and there was nobody to see if we were to,
Biological:oh I dunno, swim naked.
Biological:Then do other things naked.
Biological:And then I’d make a campfire on the beach, we’d lie on a blanket beside it, feel the wind in eachother’s fur, till the star was down and we were dry.
Biological:Murd wouldn’t come out of the ship.
Biological:Ey said ey needed to go back through all eys orbital photos again, cross reference things in them.
Biological:Ey said I should feel free to explore whatever I wanted,
Biological:ey needed to do research to re-plan the rest of the landing sites.
Biological:I almost said that what I wanted to explore was em!
Biological:I should’ve. I took a long,
Biological:deep breath And I didn’t.
Biological:Instead I walked down the beach.
Biological:The sand isn’t just tan, it’s white,
Biological:and gold, and blue,
Biological:and like thirty different shades of green,
Biological:with flecks of red and purple every so often,
Biological:and it sparkles like jewels when the light hits it.
Biological:It’s gorgeous, of course,
Biological:like everything here,
Biological:but like… that doesn’t matter if nobody looks at it.
Biological:Being out in it alone makes me feel…
Biological:odd. Like I’m not supposed to be here.
Biological:Like nobody is. I ate a fruit.
Biological:I super shouldn’t have done that.
Biological:Don’t worry, I felt nervous after and tested one, and it was fine.
Biological:No deadly toxins, no mercury, sulfuric acid,
Biological:or caffeine or anything.
Biological:Just vitamins and sugars.
Biological:It tasted pretty good.
Biological:There was a long, slithering animal sitting in the tree,
Biological:but it didn’t seem to mind me taking them.
Biological:It might’ve been asleep?
Biological:I gathered a bucketful as
Biological:“samples.” Maybe I can sprout some in the garden back home.
Biological:Though if my mate won’t lighten up a little
Biological:I don’t know if there’ll be a honeymoon worth having a memento of…
Biological:—Faln *** Entry Giml
Biological:Alep One It took all day
Biological:but I’ve identified a new site to try.
Biological:Don’t worry, Faln.
Biological:I’ll salvage this expedition yet.
Biological:—Murd This was the first of two parts of
Biological:“The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away”
Biological:by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf, read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm, the bespectacled dragon..
Biological:Tune in next time to find out if they do, indeed,
Biological:salvage the expedition,
Biological:and how, as well as where this expedition has taken them.
Biological:As always, you can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,
Biological:or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Biological:Thank you for listening
Biological:to The Voice of Dog.
