The Space Station - Chapter 2 - Page 5

The long, tedious wait for his turn at one of the counters gave Functionary an opportunity to acquaint himself visually with his new planetary home from the ground level. He stared out of the transparent shell of the dome at the planet, its surface and its dark sky. The planet's jagged, rocky crust shone bright white, stark against the blackness of the infinite and starry space above. The light was, at that particular moment, coming at an acute angle, directly and primarily, from the star around which the planet revolved and also, more feebly, from the reflective surface of a distant moon whose large off-white sphere visually rested upon the distant surface of the planet, off to the right as Functionary looked out at the scene. This meant an image in sharp contrast, where some surfaces were so saturated in light that their detail was almost bleached into a universal whiteness, while many areas in shadow were completely black. The weak secondary light reflected by the moon meant that a limited number of surfaces turned towards the lunar presence showed a sharply etched detail of rock formation filled with a limited grey tonality. Here, was a picture of antiseptic beauty, of sharp crystalline rocks brilliantly glinting in the light. Outside the transparent balloon of the space station, nothing moved and there was no sight of any vegetation. It was an image of utter stillness and absence of life. The few plants in line of sight were within the safe harbour of the climate-controlled environment of the station. All visible life forms existed within this thin bubble which enabled the apparently precarious existence of the artificial environment of the space station. By the grace of its thin and seemingly brittle transparent wall, the station provided a comfortable and supportive atmosphere that protected life from what was usually the harsh chill of the planet’s surface. Then, as the planet slowly rotated so that part of the planet upon which the station seemed to feebly perch, faced directly at the Planet’s star, these same walls and the station’s powerful climatic machinery would be all that prevented its contents from being cremated. Functionary, knew that in practice the outer walls separating the life inside from the hostile environment of the planet and its solar system outside, would be strong, many layered and capable of withstanding much in terms of storm, wind, dust, debris or meteor strike; nevertheless, the largely transparent oval shaped blob in which he sat, together with the many other attached sectors which comprised the space station, gave the impression of having an a insecure and weak grip upon the surface of this unforgiving planet, ready to be instantly removed by some random meteoric prick or puff of solar wind.