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Chapter 49

Chapter 49

January 31st, 2158 (station time)

Logan sat alone on top of a ridge looking north in the general direction of the Village.  As he and the team returned to the camp, a feeling of depression began to creep into his body.  At first he wasn't sure of why he would be feeling this way.  It wasn't the same as when he was mourning over the loss of this brother.

Once back at the base, Logan decided that he wanted to be alone.  He climbed out of his mech suit and climbed the ridge under the power of his own two legs.  Because Taavi cut the observation time of the village short, Logan was able to sit on the ridge and watch as the sun set.

The sunset was a brief respite from his thoughts as he watched the horizon change color and push out the day.  There were few clouds, those present reflected bright oranges and pinks that seamed surreal.  The landscape could have been a fantasy-scape, the creation of a gifted artist.

Orange turned to red, which turned to purple, until finally Logan was left alone in muted browns and grey.  If his memory was correct, he had at least an hour, or maybe two before the fog rolled in off the ocean.  This gave him ample time to sit and mull over this thoughts.

Eventually Logan came to the conclusion that his depression was caused by a few smaller things, rather than one larger event.  First and foremost, Logan couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by this expedition as a whole.

In his mind this expedition was something epic, once in a lifetime, the forging of new frontiers.  But in his present state, everything felt mundane, and inconsequential.  He didn't feel any danger any more than being on a camping trip in the jungle back home.  The cave and the village should have been life-changing events to Logan, but largely he felt unchanged.

Another major factor affecting his mood would be the change in his sleep cycle.  Almost two full planetary days have already passed.  Which means almost three days have passed on the station.  Logan tried to get as much sleep as possible, but his body would betray him and only allow him to sleep for a few hours at a time.

The last thing affecting his mood was his lack of training with Mike over the past couple of days.  For the past several weeks the two had trained together.  Once they arrived on planet, Mike had too many responsibilities that made training next to impossible.

With Mike at his back, he found that exercise was an easy routine that he slipped into quickly.  But now that Mike was on a rotating shift patrolling the perimeter, Logan found that it was even easier to not exercise.  The only exercise he had received on this planet so far was the run to the cave and to the village.  Because of the mech suits, the run was more of a casual walk than a workout.

Logan decided that he was going to attempt to exercise a little in an attempt to better his mood.  Climbing the ridge was a good start, but if he was going to exert himself, he decided to do it when someone else was around.  The last thing he wanted was to start hyperventilating, with no one around to help him.

Logan was creating a mental list of things that he could use as resistance weights when his DNAC bipped.  The message was a general announcement from Taavi requesting everyone to check in at the base with Taavi, at his quickest available time.

Logan read the message twice, trying to cipher extra meaning from the short message.  After a full minute of not gleaming any new information, Logan slowly stood up and began the hike down to the camp.

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Logan found that he was the last to enter the common room, and everyone turned and looked as he entered.  The looks he recieved were simply that of watching the last person to arrive enter the room.  With the exception of Taavi, who looked anxious to get started, and Manuel who didn't look up from the computer that he was working on.  Logan was quick to notice that most everyone had gravitated towards Manuel.  He assumed that this meeting was the first test of Manuel's new bioelectrical security system.