"In the Shadow of the Volcano"

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Night had fallen, but in spite of her relatively comfortable sleeping roll, Sar'vek was wide awake. Granted, it could have been the fact that there was a potentially active volcano less than three kilometers away, coupled with the excitement of the day, but there was something... something else, and the scientist could na quite lay her finger hrrau it.

 

For as hot as the day had been -- the ocean's wind had na done much to take away the heat, especially during the manual labor the excavation had required -- the night was surprisingly cool. And where the sun's light had been almost blinding, with no cloud-cover to shelter break the rays, now it was nearly pitch-black.

 

As Sar'vek stepped away from the glow of the light from the base-camp, a few features of the landscape eventually phased into visibility. The volcano that threatened to plague the woman with nightmares was an inky black peak against the gloriously-starred sky; the broken crest loomed ominously over the site. Silly, she thought to herself. They were na even certain if there was a threat from the mountain, and here she was having melodramatic imaginings about it.

 

Still chiding herself for it, she made her way over to a few automated scanners set up to run overnight, checking to see that they were actually functioning as programmed. Thank the Elements for the small thinth tat least -- they were, for once, and Sar'vek had na reason to go and wake the technicians.

 

Forcing herself not to focus on "work", at least for a little while, t'Jhiin approached the edge of the sea-cliffs, settling in against a boulder with a sigh. Hugging in the wrap a little tighter as a breaker against the chilly breeze, she imagined for a few moments how the sea must have looked to the long-buried residents of the seaside community. It wasn't a difficulty to imagine living next to the water -- the s'Jhiin property on Tomed sat on the edges of the Paehhos Sea, and she'd spent almost all of her childhood there.

 

Tomed. She rather missed it, to be honest. Sar'vek had only returned home once, after she'd graduated, and that was hardly a pleasure-visit -- she'd left the majority of her belongings, signed paperwork, and been on her way to Talon. And before that... Sar'vek had na seen her home since before the "Incident".

 

Suddenly the night seemed even colder, and she had to suppress the urge to shiver. Those were na times she preferred to dwell upon. Even if it did eventually lead to her joining the Galae, the "Incident", as it was so neatly referred to, made quite a few things in her life her life... tense. Granted, it also left a large share of the s'Crahn holdings under Sar'vek's watchful custody, but that was no substitute for peace of mind. She always had the whole debacle lurking in some corner of her mind, it seemed, and even h'nah, there was occasionally aftermath that had to be dealt with when she was hrrau ch'Rihan. In a way, t'Jhiin supposed it was just as well that they were far from home for awhile. It was nice to have all-encompassing distraction, for a change, and there was never a want for that hrrau this ship.

 

With a hint of regret to be leaving the open night air, Sar'vek headed back to the camp. The next few days were sure to be arduous, and if she did na sleep, she would find herself quite cranky. Whether or na they would admit it, the science teams would probably be quite grateful to her if she spared them that -- and given the importance of their work, sleep probably was na the worst idea.

 

Besides, if they were lucky, she would have ample opportunity to enjoy the planet. Just as long as Mount v'Esuvius over there did na spoil her plans...

[STSF_BluRox 0]

Nice Log t'Jhinn!

 

Sorry, I usually only get to see them at lunch time so just seeing it n ow. I get home just in time for sims....