New to Space Traveler Fargone? Start at the beginning.
The man who stepped into the room was old, but I still recognized him. It was Paul Longdistance, my childhood hero.
“Paul Longdistance. I can’t believe it. I was; I am a huge fan of your splogs. I have read them all.”
“Thank you. I don’t know your name.”
“Oh, sorry. I am Fargone. This is Emma and Flow. We are space travelers also.”
“Really? I am pleased to meet you all. I am a bit surprised people are still using the title, space traveler. I made it up when I started flying. I thought it sounded romantic.” Longdistance laughed.
“Most don’t. I use it in honor of you. I can hardly believe I am meeting you. I assumed you died.”
“I nearly did. I landed my ship near the canyon edge and used a cable to lower myself into the canyon. I was about a meter above a cave entrance when one of the Caya—canyon people—shouted, ‘Let go!’ I stared at him for a second, then the wind roared by overhead and caught my ship. The cable started pulling me upward, so I let go. I fell hard and broke my leg. The man, Cava’s father, took me in and tended to my injury.
“I learned that the wind is called Flowbo by the Caya. It regularly circles the planet. I rightly assumed the wind had destroyed my ship. A month later, pieces of my ship began falling into the canyon on the other side. Some chunks damaged parts of the cable system and, worse, injured some of the Caya. Surprisingly, they didn’t blame me. They said the fault was Flowbo’s.
“Without a ship, I was stranded. Fortunately, the Caya taught me their ways and welcomed me into their community.
“As Cava mentioned, I had a book with me in my backpack. An old favorite called Baron Britpop Blastfurnace. Teaching Cava to read and write gave me a purpose in my early months here. And it paid off handsomely, as you see all around you. Cava has supplied me with plenty of stories to read ever since.”
“Amazing,” Em said. “I would love to interview you later on video if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t have anything better to do,” Longdistance said with a grin.
“Great.”
“Since you are here and not panicked, I assume your ship somehow survived the wind.”
“Yes. It is a Vecton Infinity 5 series, equipped with a supergravity parking brake. Even Flowbo can’t move it,” I replied.
“I could have used one of those back in the day.”
“I would love to show you my ship.”
“I’ll take you up on that.”
“And, of course, we would be honored to return you to Earth.”
That seemed to catch Longdistance by surprise. He looked off into the distance for a moment, thinking.
“The thought of rescue hasn’t entered my mind for a long time. I was never that comfortable on Earth to begin with, which is why I began space traveling. I admit there is a spark of curiosity in my mind to see how Earth has changed, but my home is here now. Has been for many years. I have no desire to go back to the chaos and corruption on Earth. I am perfectly content to stay here.”
“You could come with us.”
I saw Em give me the stink eye.
“I appreciate the offer. But I am an old man now. Space traveling is a young person game.”
“I won’t lie. I am disappointed, but I think I understand.”
“Now, Flow, you are obviously not human. How is it you are traveling with Fargone and Emma?” Longdistance asked.
“They visited the space station I was residing on and invited me to join them. I find humans fascinating and wanted to see more of the Universe, so I accepted.”
“Flow is a Metallum and can take on any shape she chooses,” Em added.
“Well, that has to be handy,” Longdistance said.
“It has saved our lives more than once,” I replied.
Cava walked into the middle of the conversation circle and started waving his arms back and forth.
“Enough of this chatter. I told you I would show you the canyon, and I intend to. Follow me.”
We all raised our eyebrows and looked at each other, then smiled and followed Cava through a passageway to another large cave.
This cave appeared to be more of a loading dock, for lack of a better description. Wooden crates lined both sides of the cave. At the cave opening, a large wooden platform was secured in place by two levers that clamped to a metal bar. The platform was attached to two cables which gradually descended across the canyon. The cables also ran over a pair of large wheels and went straight down, out of sight.
Cava walked over to the platform and said, “This is a Diastand. They are how we cross the canyon and reach different caves and levels. The principal is quite simple. Two Diastands share the same cable loop. Across the canyon and one cave below, another Diastand is attached to this same cable loop. The cables on that Diastand ascend across the canyon to the cave below us. When this Diastand is loaded and the levers are released, gravity pulls it across the canyon. At the same time, the cables pull the other Diastand, which is loaded with slightly less weight, up and across. Other caves have the opposite configuration. The caves are connected by passageways so we can work our way up and down using different pairs of Diastands.”
“How ingenious,” Flow said. “All that is required is gravity and proper weight balance.”
“Exactly. You don’t want Diastands going too fast and crashing into the wheels on the other side. Are you ready to ride?”
“What? I am not getting on that thing! It doesn’t have any railings,” Em said.
Loving this planet.