The Last Cosmonaut by Brandon Q. Morris

Author:Brandon Q. Morris [Morris, Brandon Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

October 11, 2029, Earth orbit

51.501859 degrees north, 14.539951 degrees east. Mandy identified the coordinates for the restricted zone and entered them, down to the very last point, into the search engine. With that, she’d reached the second step. The first one had taken her about an hour. That was how long the main computer needed to combine the results for the individual wavelengths in a way that produced the cloud transparency effect that was such a source of pride for the inventor of the MKF-8.

The restricted zone was not perfectly rectangular, so Mandy had to collect more than four points. 51.384593 degrees north and 14.761051 degrees east was the last coordinate she entered. She clicked the “Search” button, and a stopwatch with a rotating second hand appeared on the screen. The watch disappeared and was replaced by an expressionistic-looking mixture of areas in various shades of green, brown, and gray. So this was the big secret?

Mandy focused on the area’s western edge and zoomed in further. The zone’s borders were very clearly visible. The area outside was obviously overexposed. There were no clouds there. Mandy recognized the gray band of a narrow road running alongside the zone. Behind the fence, which wasn’t visible at this magnification, there was forest. There were a number of clearings where buildings could be located. Mandy increased the scale, but the image didn’t get any clearer. That must be because of the algorithm that had made the clouds magically disappear. From above, those patches looked grayish blue. That meant they could be buildings, but they could also be small lakes with the colors distorted, or even ponds and pools. An area with constant cloud cover would certainly be quite humid.

Slightly further from the zone’s boundary, Mandy encountered another road. It appeared to have just one lane. Or was it a wide ditch? No, up ahead there was a wider one that crossed it at right angles. Bodies of water didn’t intersect like that at all. It must be a road crossing. She followed the first road because it seemed to run parallel to the edge of the zone.

The next intersection was a little further north. The other road was two lanes, headed east. Mandy followed the lane and could see that large trucks must use it, because there were turnouts. A square appeared on the right side of the road. The base measured about twenty meters and there were numerous cross-connections. In the middle was a bright point that radiated in the infrared. That must be a rig. Mandy was already wondering why there weren’t more of them.

There was another derrick on the left. She checked the scale. It must be about one kilometer away from the first one. She imagined walking down the street. The atmosphere would be gloomy, with the dense clouds blocking out much of the sunlight. The burning flares from the derricks cast flickering shadows across the landscape. Although she was alone—she hadn’t noticed any cars in the images so far—Mandy felt as if she was being constantly watched, because the landscape was in constant motion.

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