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“The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf (part 2 of 2)
Frustration, failed expedition, and radiation storm marr Murd and Faln’s honeymoon. But what is this strange abandoned planet, really?
Today’s story is the second of two parts of “The Lone and Level Lands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf, who have too many stories about uncharted planet hookups, and you can find those and more of their stories on their respective SoFurry pages.
This story will be read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm, the bespectacled dragon.
Last time,
We met two travelers to an antique land.
Across the haunted stars they came in search—
While newly mated, newly hand in hand—
Of shattered remnant visage in the dirt.
The one has eyes on knowledge and renown
And seeks the truth whatever it may be.
The other only wants to lay them down
And savor fully love’s epitome.
But in the reader’s mind, a guess appears:
This planet’s name is lost, but not unknown.
Look on this tale, ye readers. Don’t despair,
But love your days of love while they’re your own.
That is the moral of our tale today:
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https://thevoice.dog/episode/the-lone-and-level-sands-stretch-far-away-by-pascal-farful-and-rob-macwolf-part-2-of-2
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog,
Speaker:and Today’s story is the second of two parts
Speaker:of “The Lone and Level Lands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf, who have
Speaker:too many stories about uncharted planet hookups,
Speaker:and you can find those and more of their stories
Speaker:on their respective SoFurry pages.
Speaker:This story will be read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm,
Speaker:the bespectacled dragon. Last time,
Speaker:We met two travelers to an antique land.
Speaker:Across the haunted stars they came in search— While
Speaker:newly mated,
Speaker:newly hand in hand—
Speaker:Of shattered remnant visage in the dirt.
Speaker:The one has eyes on knowledge and renown
Speaker:And seeks the truth whatever it may be.
Speaker:The other only wants to lay them down
Speaker:And savor fully love’s epitome.
Speaker:But in the reader’s mind, a guess appears:
Speaker:This planet’s name is lost, but not unknown.
Speaker:Look on this tale,
Speaker:ye readers.
Speaker:Don’t despair,
Speaker:But love your days of love while they’re your own.
Speaker:That is the moral of our tale today:
Speaker:“The Lone and Level Sands Stretch Far Away” by Pascal Farful and Rob MacWolf, Part 2 of 2 Entry
Speaker:Dalet Res Zero Three
Speaker:If we’d landed here to start with
Speaker:I would have had no doubts about intelligent life
Speaker:on this planet.
Speaker:The site is covered with densely packed obsidian monoliths, of varying size,
Speaker:arranged in a square grid.
Speaker:It’s designed to look forbidding and unwelcoming, clearly.
Speaker:And I can guess why.
Speaker:It stinks of radiation.
Speaker:Revolting,
Speaker:heavy, and metallic.
Speaker:Corrosive.
Speaker:Weapons-grade.
Speaker:It’s almost unendurable at the perimeter of the monoliths,
Speaker:I don’t doubt that it increases toward the center and would in fact be dangerous if
Speaker:we could hold our noses long enough to get there.
Speaker:But there would be no point.
Speaker:Nothing valued is here.
Speaker:This is not a place of honor.
Speaker:This place would be shunned and avoided even if there were anyone to shun it, to avoid it.
Speaker:And there isn’t.
Speaker:What purpose is there to this? —Murd ***
Speaker:Murd’s not talking to me. —Faln *** Entry
Speaker:Dalet Sin Four
Speaker:As I anticipated,
Speaker:a severe meteorological event has manifested.
Speaker:A highly radioactive sandstorm.
Speaker:External visibility is near zero,
Speaker:the instruments are showing nothing but static,
Speaker:and of course we can’t smell anything but the storm.
Speaker:It smells awful.
Speaker:Hull integrity is normal,
Speaker:and the interior is safe.
Speaker:Just don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. —Murd ***
Speaker:Bored out of my mind and it stinks so bad outside ugh! —Faln *** Entry
Speaker:Dalet Sin Seven
Speaker:In the absence of anything productive to do,
Speaker:I’ve been investigating the Mirror,
Speaker:the artifact Faln found at our initial landing site.
Speaker:The circuitry inside is crude, but seems to be partially intact,
Speaker:and I think some of it could be activated with very careful applications of incrementally
Speaker:increasing voltage.
Speaker:Have programmed some guesses at basic interface hardware into the fabricator.
Speaker:Which was a nice distraction, while it lasted.
Speaker:But now there’s nothing to do but wait again. —Murd ***
Speaker:Gonna see if I can convince Murd to come to bed.
Speaker:Even if it’s just to sleep.
Speaker:I just can’t take any more of watching the back of eys head,
Speaker:brooding,
Speaker:and I can’t tell the difference between em being quiet and em being focused and em being furious. —Faln *** Entry
Speaker:Dalet Taw Zero Zero One
Speaker:Had a nap.
Speaker:Fabricator’s still not finished.
Speaker:Visibility still nothing.
Speaker:Instruments still unusable.
Speaker:Ancestors,
Speaker:the storm smells fucking awful.
Speaker:It smells like the essence of death itself. —Murd *** Fuck.
Speaker:When we woke up,
Speaker:the radiation had dropped a bit around us.
Speaker:Moved in towards the buildings.
Speaker:Murd wanted to go outside and get some more readings,
Speaker:but I knew that was a bad idea.
Speaker:I pleaded with em to remain inside, and ey agreed at last.
Speaker:Ey seemed despondent and I…
Speaker:I felt for em.
Speaker:I really did.
Speaker:Though I was proven right when the sand clouds rolled in again.
Speaker:Windspeed of 160 clicks an hour,
Speaker:battering the ship.
Speaker:We are safe,
Speaker:but… I’m starting to…
Speaker:have doubts about what’s going on.
Speaker:What I’d thought was our honeymoon was everyone else’s nightmare.
Speaker:I’m worried I’m going a little unhinged, too.
Speaker:I keep thinking I hear the wind outside starting to turn into a voice.
Speaker:Once I looked up and could’ve sworn I saw something tall and thin with a round face
Speaker:and no tail, out in the storm,
Speaker:trying to make for the ship.
Speaker:Make for safety.
Speaker:Just for a second.
Speaker:Then gone.
Speaker:I know the scan says nobody’s there. I know.
Speaker:But the soul,
Speaker:the soul has other feelings.
Speaker:I was never as spiritual as my pack seniors wanted me to be,
Speaker:or as Murd for that matter.
Speaker:But like, what if we landed on a dead world and woke something up in those creepy as fuck
Speaker:monoliths?
Speaker:Or someone. Ugh.
Speaker:I should delete that before Murd sees. —Faln ***
Speaker:Entry Dalet Taw Alep One Faln?
Speaker:Can we talk? Well,
Speaker:you’re the one that hasn’t been talking to me. …that’s
Speaker:true,
Speaker:and that’s fair.
Speaker:And I’m sorry.
Speaker:I was frustrated and I shouldn’t have taken that out on you by pulling away. …what
Speaker:did you want to talk about?
Speaker:Well. I don’t know if there’s any point to continuing this expedition.
Speaker:I no longer believe there’s anyone here to find.
Speaker:I’m wondering if we should cut our losses, leave,
Speaker:find a nice resort park somewhere,
Speaker:on a planet that’s actually alive,
Speaker:to have a proper honeymoon.
Speaker:And I owe you a proper honeymoon.
Speaker:I thought we were here for a honeymoon!
Speaker:For love. We were! Yeah,
Speaker:the love of your work!
Speaker:You were supposed to rest from that for a while,
Speaker:now look.
Speaker:You’re pouring over maps and tinkering with junk instead of being with me even when we’re
Speaker:stuck in the same ship! Just like when you’re at the museum.
Speaker:Just like when you were at the academy!
Speaker:Just like... I thought you liked my work. I do, Murd,
Speaker:but I want to see the rest of you too.
Speaker:Not just your work.
Speaker:I wanted to have adventures with you.
Speaker:I wanted to watch the starset with you.
Speaker:I wanted us to be the first to try exotic fruits that nobody’s ever tasted before.
Speaker:Ancestors,
Speaker:I had this whole… scenario planned out in my head
Speaker:where we’d go swimming
Speaker:and then I’d point out there was nobody here to see if we just ditched our briefs and… yeah.
Speaker:I even wrote it in my log entries,
Speaker:I assumed you’d seen it!
Speaker:You thought I was reading your logs?
Speaker:You haven't been?
Speaker:I’ve been reading yours! I mean…
Speaker:I assumed they were private.
Speaker:That if you wanted me to read them,
Speaker:you would’ve told me. …okay, yeah,
Speaker:I should’ve checked they were being read. So wait,
Speaker:that means you don’t know what I named this planet? Hang on,
Speaker:I’m pulling them up now. Oh. Oh Faln.
Speaker:Honeymoon landing.
Speaker:I… I don’t know what to say. I do~ You do? Yeah.
Speaker:I love you.
Speaker:I… I love you too.
Speaker:—Murd and Faln *** Entry Dalet Taw Alep Three One
Speaker:We’re still stormbound.
Speaker:I think it’s decreasing.
Speaker:Readings still blind,
Speaker:but the smell isn’t as bad.
Speaker:So while we’re still stuck,
Speaker:I wanted to ask.
Speaker:You’ve been reading my logs,
Speaker:so what do you think actually happened? Beloved,
Speaker:you’re the expeditionist,
Speaker:I’m just a gardener.
Speaker:You’re not just a gardener.
Speaker:You’re my mate!
Speaker:And I want to know what my mate thinks. Ooh,
Speaker:very insistent.
Speaker:I appreciate that in a male/penetrating/stabilizing.
Speaker:But I dunno.
Speaker:Whoever they were,
Speaker:they’re not here now.
Speaker:Maybe their food sources failed?
Speaker:Like some kinda ecological collapse?
Speaker:Something clearly happened to the oceanic level,
Speaker:and I don’t even know where to start
Speaker:guessing what that would do to, like, farming.
Speaker:I’d have thought they could adapt to that?
Speaker:They were advanced enough to make the Mirror you found.
Speaker:They had microcircuitry.
Speaker:Maybe it was the radiation? Maybe.
Speaker:It could be something they were using as a power source,
Speaker:and after they were gone there
Speaker:was nobody to keep it contained.
Speaker:Or maybe the radiation is something from off planet, and caused the ocean drop after they were gone?
Speaker:Or maybe both of them happened after the fact,
Speaker:and it was something we’re not even seeing.
Speaker:Perhaps radiation became not just a bringer of life,
Speaker:but a bringer of death.
Speaker:So, what now?
Speaker:No monster but time.
Speaker:No danger but solitude. Murd? What now? Well,
Speaker:I guess once the storm lets up,
Speaker:and we can leave this stinking radioactive desert… we’ll
Speaker:have a proper honeymoon.
Speaker:You said something about swimming…?
Speaker:—Murd and Faln *** Entry He Alep Zajin
Speaker:We set down on a proper beach.
Speaker:Never mind ruins or artifacts,
Speaker:we’re just here to relax.
Speaker:We gathered several species of fruits nearby, after Faln scanned them to confirm nutrition safety.
Speaker:Says ey’s going to make fruit salad.
Speaker:Murd continues to look amazing in swim briefs,
Speaker:but somehow I don’t mind that ey left them
Speaker:in the ship~!
Speaker:Ancestors! Don’t write that!
Speaker:Too late I did!
Speaker:—Murd and Faln
Speaker:FILE ATTACHMENT:
Speaker:murd_how_daring.
Speaker:murd_how_daring.jpeg (NOTE: system has detected that portions of this image have been artificially redacted) *** Entry He Samek Nine The starset was incredible. Granted, I’m biased. And a little drunk.
Speaker:One of the fruits we discovered proved to be very potently alcoholic, and Faln either
Speaker:missed that on the scan or just somehow didn’t bother to mention it.
Speaker:But I daresay I’d approve of any starset I got to watch while I had this irreplaceable,
Speaker:precious,
Speaker:comfortable male/receptive/supporting asleep in my arms.
Speaker:I’d say I don’t deserve em,
Speaker:but ey wouldn’t like that.
Speaker:And as has been proven, ey reads my logs. —Murd *** Entry Waw Bet Three One Well,
Speaker:I don’t know if this is the highest point on the planet, exactly,
Speaker:but it’s the
Speaker:tallest mountain range,
Speaker:so the highest point has to be somewhere around here.
Speaker:We needed spirisuits to go for a trek,
Speaker:the atmosphere up here has gotten thin enough that it’s no longer blue overhead, and the
Speaker:stars are visible even in daylight.
Speaker:The ground isn’t exactly snow,
Speaker:it’s more layers of ice that have frozen directly to the peaks when banks of clouds
Speaker:hit them and flow over like a swift river over submerged rocks. Which, yeah,
Speaker:we got to watch that happen,
Speaker:it was incredible!
Speaker:There’s this whole half of a continent spread out below,
Speaker:deserts and jungles under a blue
Speaker:haze that thickens all the way to a horizon so far I can see the planet curving.
Speaker:The pictures don’t do it justice.
Speaker:Very cold though!
Speaker:Not gonna spend the night up here,
Speaker:no thank you!
Speaker:—Murd and Flan
Speaker:FILE ATTACHMENT:
Speaker:cloudpeaks01.
Speaker:cloudpeaks01.jpeg cloudpeaks02.
Speaker:cloudpeaks02.jpeg cloudpeaks03.
Speaker:cloudpeaks03.jpeg view_panorama01.jpeg view_panorama02.jpeg *** Entry Zajin Alep Five
Speaker:This huge animal flew up to us!
Speaker:It was so dark green it was almost black,
Speaker:but shiny like it had been polished!
Speaker:It had wings like panes of cathedral glass!
Speaker:Like six foot ones!
Speaker:And huge eyes and these cute little paws
Speaker:or maybe that was its mouth
Speaker:but it looked
Speaker:like paws folded up begging for a treat!
Speaker:It looked us in the eyes just hovering there while its wings made a sound like rustling
Speaker:sheets of paper!
Speaker:Murd thought it might be dangerous
Speaker:but it was just curious!
Speaker:It zipped off before I could get a picture!
Speaker:It was so fast! —Faln *** Entry Het Alep Three
Speaker:Last night on Honeymoon Landing.
Speaker:Going to sleep under the stars tonight,
Speaker:back in the
Speaker:high desert,
Speaker:same continent where we first landed.
Speaker:I’ve set out radiation detectors
Speaker:so if another storm blows up we’ll
Speaker:have plenty of warning,
Speaker:and Faln is gathering wood for a campfire.
Speaker:While fixing dinner
Speaker:we were invaded by all these little animals that came scurrying up
Speaker:the plains.
Speaker:They look like nothing but shells and long tails dangling behind,
Speaker:but underneath we could see all these tiny legs and little claws that were sifting through
Speaker:the sand and chewing up the vegetation.
Speaker:Must have been some kind of migratory grazing herd animal.
Speaker:It’s amazing how nothing on this planet is afraid of us.
Speaker:A couple things have acted interested,
Speaker:but nothing’s run away, or displayed aggression.
Speaker:They just seem to think we’re neat.
Speaker:Laid out the foldable mattress on the outer deck of the ship.
Speaker:It’s not very big, we’ll
Speaker:have to cuddle close,
Speaker:but I don’t think that’ll be a problem.
Speaker:—Murd and Faln *** Entry Het Giml Two Nine
Speaker:Murd came back from retrieving the radiation detectors, while we were preparing for launch.
Speaker:Ey looked grim.
Speaker:Said ey’d found something.
Speaker:One last time, ey said,
Speaker:can we go check it out?
Speaker:Faln said we could have a little work, as a treat.
Speaker:Just once.
Speaker:Then we go home.
Speaker:We forget about trying to tease out lessons from a shattered,
Speaker:forgotten planet, and get
Speaker:on with our lives together.
Speaker:You promise?
Speaker:Yes I promise.
Speaker:We left the craft again.
Speaker:The artifact was about a hundred paces away,
Speaker:we could’ve seen it from the outer deck if it hadn’t been dark,
Speaker:if we hadn’t been
Speaker:distracted. At last.
Speaker:It can only be described as a statue. Metal,
Speaker:an alloy of tin and copper,
Speaker:amazingly little corrosion.
Speaker:A representation of the people, from the view of the people.
Speaker:What they looked like to themselves. Bipedal.
Speaker:Probably mammals.
Speaker:Thin limbs,
Speaker:dextrous paws.
Speaker:And capable of making statues. A mark.
Speaker:A maker’s mark.
Speaker:Proof that they were makers.
Speaker:They looked a lot like that vision I saw outside my window in the atomic storm,
Speaker:but I tried
Speaker:my best to repress that.
Speaker:A hallucination, and a coincidence, surely.
Speaker:No clue who this was, or why they made a statue of em.
Speaker:Someone that someone held dear, or admired.
Speaker:A leader, perhaps.
Speaker:A warmonger too?
Speaker:The establishment or the rebel?
Speaker:Someone who had a role in whatever cataclysm made this place what it is now,
Speaker:or maybe a
Speaker:victim lost to it.
Speaker:It had fallen forward on the ground.
Speaker:We had to lift it back upright to make a full scan,
Speaker:which find attached.
Speaker:It was lighter than expected.
Speaker:Perhaps I’ll run the scan through the fabricator,
Speaker:make a replica for the museum.
Speaker:Or just a miniature,
Speaker:to keep on the shelf at home, as a memento of our honeymoon.
Speaker:There was an inscription on the base, as well,
Speaker:which we didn’t see till it was upright.
Speaker:Faln made a flash scan copy of it.
Speaker:We can’t read it,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:but please find that attached as well.
Speaker:Just on the off chance
Speaker:that someone, someday,
Speaker:can decipher and tell who this person was.
Speaker:The last of the people.
Speaker:We considered taking pictures
Speaker:but… this may very well be a grave marker.
Speaker:Pictures feel wrong.
Speaker:Heading back to the ship now.
Speaker:—Murd and Faln.
Speaker:FILE ATTACHMENT:
Speaker:Last_Of_The_People.obj
Speaker:SCAN.000012300140.
Speaker:SCAN.000012300140.txt (contents as
Speaker:follows) [Bob Vorstand,
Speaker:CEO and Founder.
Speaker:Erected by Aclenstra Bottled Water, LLC.
Speaker:of Ozada,
Speaker:Manitoba,
Speaker:in Gratitude for a Successful IPO.] ***
Speaker:Entry Alep Zero One
Speaker:Have just reacquired the lane guidance rays, and set autopilot for home.
Speaker:Murd is going to pass the time organizing these logs,
Speaker:possible publication?
Speaker:And preparing
Speaker:a report for the museum seniority.
Speaker:We don’t doubt this’ll be good for eys career.
Speaker:Faln is cataloging the seed specimens from the fruits we tried,
Speaker:by which ey means ‘making
Speaker:up names.’
Speaker:We don’t know if they’ll be viable,
Speaker:but ey wants to try growing that alcoholic one,
Speaker:at least.
Speaker:We did get something from the Mirror,
Speaker:after all. A tiny sliver of data proved to be recoverable from the current experiment I left running.
Speaker:We made a complete digital footprint of the device,
Speaker:so you can see it too.
Speaker:We’ve attached it here,
Speaker:one final message from this planet to our civilisation.
Speaker:It’s not much.
Speaker:There’s an image.
Speaker:Two people,
Speaker:hand in hand.
Speaker:Some kind of ceremony, perhaps.
Speaker:There’s a great deal of text,
Speaker:most of it corrupted,
Speaker:but there was one clear section.
Speaker:Whatever it says.
Speaker:Farewell,
Speaker:Honeymoon Landing.
