The artificial sun light was so annoying. It entered by a crack in my apartment window and hit my face every morning. EVERY MORNING.
I took a look on my watch. 5 am. I took a look on my interplanetary watch. 7 messages. Ugh. I stretched lazily before pushing the blanket over my face again. My entire body screamed at me, complaining about the quantity of substances I took last night.
Damn, I was thirsty.
Gathering all the force that I could muster, I walked to the kitchen rolled in my blanket. The automatic filter dropped a cup full of water on my hand. I almost drunk it right away, but surely I didn't want to die just yet.
I walked to the other side of the kitchen and poured 2 spoons of salt in the cup before drinking it. The species that live in this planet didn't need to do it, somehow. What was one of the first things that I noted on my reports.
I prepared another cup and sat back on my bed before chug it down. I was still thirsty but I was not inclined on go back to the kitchen, even if it was 5 steps away.
The clock noticed my change from unconscious to conscious and started to bip, warning me of the unread messages. That still confused me. The last time that they sended a message first was 1 year ago. Since then, it was me that had to ask things or require supplies.
For a second I considered ignoring the messages, but I knew that I had to answer, unless I wanted to be in deep trouble.
The first two messages were from my superior, both saying me to... Oh. I never had ever seen my superior swear. Opening the chat I could see why.
Shit.
I got up so fast that the world spun for a second. While I scrolled by the messages that I sent last night with one hand, I quickly started to make my bags to run away. I had to leave my apartment asap.
But wow, I was really pissed off with the drunk me. Why would you send a message like these to your superiors? The other chats were all the same.
I even sent a lot of goodbyes to my friends on the other planets.
Checking more closely on my watch status I saw that I was cut off the interplanetary network. I couldn't even swear anymore. I laughed.
What was the drunk me thinking? Desert is practically impossible. I could do it if it was a planet connected to the others, but this one is a cage. There were no intergalactic ports, no interspace connection. Nothing.
Desertion means death.
My luck was that this hellish floating rock was so remote that it took a couple of days of travel from the closest galaxy with something that resembled a interplanetary guard garnison to here.
On the other hand, the explorer that was deployed to the other side of the planet must be arriving soon. I flushed my interplanetary watch down on the toilet so they couldn't track me. I turned all my devices off. I finished one backpack with essential things and one carrier bag full of interplanetary tech stuff wrapped in some foil that caused interference on any signal.
I used to use it to test the tech of this planet, but I think I'll have to find new uses to these.
The backpack was totally full and I could not afford to waste space on it with clothes, so I just wore three pieces of each type.
I put my best boots on. It was a nightmare on hot days, but worst than that was not wearing something warm on cold ones. And they have a nice spring system that helps a lot when running.
One pocket knife on each pocket and a laser firing ring on each hand. These lasers were super weak. The most they could do was a bad burning and just fired once before needing a recharge, but they were better than nothing.
Last but not least, I put a methane breathing mask for a couple of minutes before leaving. The portable one and all of the refills were on the bag. And I could not afford to use them now.
The main differences between the living species of this planet and mine were very few. They had less salts on their body, so they could drink water without it. They could survive solely on the air of the planet but I needed doses of methane every other day to survive. And I had a tail that they didn't, but it was quite easy to hide it.
The outside appearance was astonishingly alike actually, one eye, two ears, one mouth and two nostrils. One of the first hypotheses that I sent to the research team (now that I am a sad explorer) was that they must had an ancester of our species. Maybe someone from our planet ended up here somehow in the far past.
Of course it was a crazy hypothesis, but two species to evolve in such a way that I can walk among them without using a hologram suit meant a lot. Even the skin color was super alike. Mine was just a little more pinkish.
I put a mask, this time a normal one, that everyone used on the streets. It was used to block the pollution. I left my apartment in a hurry. I was thinking while packing... Where do I go now? I still didn't have the answer.
I walked a bit before finding a bus stop. The underground city was the same as always, full of trash and shit everywhere. The Hope city is so under its name that the citizens have always called it Rope city, like... We prefer to hang ourselves than to live here.
Pretty nice place to work and explore, isn't it?
Most buildings were very short and went underground, some were tall enough to reach the ceiling of the city and a few of them went all way over to the outside. Before make one of these you have to talk to the city authorities, of course. The part that went out of the city could not have windows of any type, for example.
Looking at them gave me a sudden idea. One bus reached the stop. I knew it passed by one of these crazy tall buildings on its route so I took it.
What if I went to the surface?