2175 C.E.

IX: Zakal-Faah

06/27/2175

Well, I'm no better off than I was before unfortunately. The industrial sludge is a chemist's playground of toxic things; there's a lot of hydrocarbons, phosphate groups, and ethers in there. Somehow it has about three different heavy metals too, and more Radium and Uranium than I've ever seen anywhere, even in the Korean nuclear waste zones that you're required to tour at the Academy. One way or another, it's toxic as anything ever, and no amount of boiling, filtering, or exposure to UV screening will make it drinkable. The green lake wasn't really much better. The pollution was actually comparatively mild next to the other one, but there was just enough of it to choke out any dissolved oxygen. That's fine by me for drinking, but unfortunately, it's been completely swallowed by a native algal bloom. Not just any algae either; this stuff manufactures a pretty nasty neurotoxin just in case someone tries to eat or drink it. Oh, and there's also an abnormal concentration of toxic sugar salts. I may be able to drink it if I put it through some pretty intensive treatment, but nothing I tried made too much of a difference. As for groundwater, I couldn't find any in this area, as I'd hoped. I'd imagined the geology would be more or less right for it, since there's some large hills to magnetic north of me, but if there ever was any groundwater, it's been used up now. Food will be another problem; I was sampling all of the vegetation in the area when I had finished my water tests, but it's almost all toxic. I can't say I'm surprised; toxic water and toxic algae and acid rain don't make for the most appetizing plants. Even if all this was a relatively recent occurrence, that'd be the case, and since it looks as if some natural selection has been at play between the industrial waste and now, I'd say everything still alive in this area has to be stuff that's adapted to the toxic environment. I'm not giving up hope, though. I'm thinking that I'll go farther out from my pod. It's risky, and dangerous; I don't want to get caught in an acid rain shower, after all. But in all likelihood, unless the captain got out a distress call, I'll be here for a while. In any case, I can't go farther than walking distance. But that will be tomorrow's problem, I think; I haven't been this tired in a long time. End log.

06/28/2175

Today, I'm going to try and make it to the foothills to the north that I mentioned yesterday. My hope is that I'll be able to use the higher elevation to find groundwater. If there's snow up there, I'll check that too, but I don't see any, and I don't really expect to. I don't know if I've mentioned, but this place is one of the hottest places I've ever been in, and its absurdly muggy. I suspect that whoever lived here must have fouled the place up pretty badly with greenhouse gasses. At least, if the thousand-year-old sludge is any indication, that's probably the case. Anyway, I don't think there will be much snow on that mountain. If there is it'll probably be undrinkable anyway. I'm going to bring my supplies with me up there; it'll be a rather long trek up and back, and I don't want to run out of drinkable water a day or two early just because I left it all here. I'm also going to have to salvage some metal from the pod so I can put up a shelter if there's more rain. And the transmitter so I can keep sending these logs. All in all, I think it's going to take a small cart to bring everything. There's some dead trees around; I'll see if I can use the wood to build one. I know it's very risky to wander off into an unknown planet with limited water supplies; hell, I'm probably going to use more water walking up a mountain than I ever would dying of thirst. The way I see it, though, I'm going to use the water one way or another; I might as well spend what I have in search of better supplies further afield. But, we'll obviously see how it goes. I'll probably log in again at the end of the day. End log.

06/28/2175

I probably covered about fifteen kilometers today. I lost a bit of time because I wasn't able to build with the dead wood that I mentioned earlier. I hadn't guessed how old and rotten some of it was. It crumbled the minute I put my hand on it. I upset a swarm of insects that was inside it too; lucky for me they didn't sting or anything, they were really just space gnats. But they flew up my mouth and my nose and into my eyes and I had to get out of there pretty quick or risk being blinded. I'll bet they're toxic if eaten too. There were other trees, and some things that looked for all the world like giant mushrooms, but I didn't have the guts to face that swarm again. It stayed put after I left, just hovering there. They do worry me a bit, but I can't say why really; they're just gnats, after all. In any case, I had to make my cart out of salvaged parts from the escape pod. It wasn't until afternoon that I was able to get a move on. I think this planet has a faster rotation than Earth does, because night seemed to fall really quickly. Anyway, I've stopped and set up camp for the night. I have a tent set up and a metal sheet above that. I've taken the liberty of bringing all of my supplies inside with me. I'm starting to really mistrust this planet. It sounds paranoid, but I think it has it out for me too. I don't know; I suspect I'm just tired. I'll get a move on tomorrow. End log.