DYING UNDER A PINK SUN

A SHORT STORY

And then Old Nash decided to die next morning when the first ray of peculiar pink sunlight will hit the top of the sharp boulder not too far from the dome.

He is sitting in observatory desk at the top floor of the dome. The room is dark, merely illuminated with the instrument panel's light. The windows are built to restrict the sunlight to come in, though no problem to watch out. He is sitting in front of one window panel from where he could see the sun is setting in the distant horizon. Planet surface is floating by the peculiar, eerie pink twilight creating a kind of weird feelings in the observer's mind.

Old Nash, age 777 years, a legendary galactic explorer, and based on the galactic standard, he is old now. He had explored so many worlds, walked on the surface of so many planets, bathed under so many stars of the galaxy, he himself couldn't remember. For the Last few years he had been on some important exploration in this part of the galaxy, most of the time serving  as a consultant, to teach and guide the young explorers of new age.

But he had never stayed on any barren planet alone. Almost three and a half months passed the ship left only to come back with more supplies and more instruments that became urgent requirements due to the sudden and amazing discovery they found in this planet. Even the ship's captain Harison, aged 555 years, a person with incomparable authority and stubborn personality could not able to move Old Nash a little from his resolute decision. Not even the tears pouring out from the eyes of 255 years old Jenny, an intern whom Old Nash loved from the first day they met as his grandchild, could not weaken him for a single moment. So the ship left, promising that they will return before the scheduled arrival and left him plenty of supplies for one person to live over six months.

And the captain is a man of word, for sure, as they are returning almost fifteen days earlier than the schedule. The ship will land here by tomorrow noon. Though it is unfortunate that, Old Nash won't be able to meet and greet them. He won't know how much difficulties and questions Captain Harison faced with higher authority as this is out of law to leave any living being on an uninhabited planet alone. He will miss the smile and gentle hug of Jenny. Greetings of the other team members.

Now, as he is looking at the weird sunset, a glass of delightful liquid in his hand, sipping seldom and watching the planet's natural phenomena abstractedly, his head is bubbling with lots of thinking. He isn't sure why he stayed behind in the planet alone. It was as if the thought came to him instantly with no reasoning. It would not have been a trouble for him to deny the fact and to onboard the returning ship, but yet again, he had no idea that, why did not he changed his mind? That is the thought whirling in his mind incessantly.

What made him to stay alone here breaking his lifetime habit of living a disciplined life? He is a realistic man. Never in his life, had he allowed himself to overrule by emotion. And no personal emotion attached here with this planet. Then why the sudden urge?

The ghostly sun surrendered to the approaching night and went down the horizon abruptly. But it may never been a complete darkness here.  After the sun went down, the darkness is driven away by a fearsome greenish glow, another disgusting feature of this planet. He took the last sip of his drink still with the thought of staying behind alone in this planet while he had the chance and that would have been the more reasonable act for sure- to return with the team. He looked up at the eerie greenish sky and flinched. And may be, at that precise moment Old Nash decided to die next morning when the first ray of peculiar pink sunlight will hit the top of the sharp boulder not too far from the dome.

                                                                 ***

Green, green and green.

Wherever Old Nash glanced he sees nothing but the green and green. The dome is by coincident, surrounded by a perfect circle of green, as if the dome was built in the middle to perform a ritual.  

Blazing, blinding green. Who could have imagined that the green would be such fearsome whereas human eyes are accustomed with this color? But even to the experienced eyes of Old Nash, this green is not comfortable at all with the mixture of pink sunlight.

There wasn't even a small sign of green when they first arrived here. They selected a place which is odd enough again. The place is a huge and round plain. Round means perfectly round, strange enough. No sign of life, plants or animals or something else though the planet is breathable yet need to terraform to make it habitable. First few days, they spent exploring the nearby areas and in setting up the dome and observation system.   

Fifteen or twenty days passed, the powerful detection system spotted something in the distance, at the edge of the round plain, all around the circle line. The analytical system described that these are some kind of moss. And the question was how the moss appeared on a dry surface suddenly from nowhere. And they were growing too fast and in such a organized way as if an accomplished and well trained army of soldiers marching towards. Within the next few days the green advanced at a steady and fast pace and covered almost one third of the plain from every side.

Captain Harison had been worried. That wasn't something he had been prepared to encounter. Without knowing the nature or true identity of the objects that were enclosing them, he had no intention to take any further risk. Besides they were short of equipment for this kind of experiment. Then he made the decision to return to the base at Capital Planet some thirty seven thousand light years away and that will take no more than 5 days with the modern space ship through hyper jump. But his decision had been hitched, and he had no choice other than leaving Old Nash alone in the planet until their return. He took that decision based on four reasons. First, since some mysterious object detected, more exploration will be arranged soon enough and eventually. Therefore, no worry about Old Nash's safe returns home. Second, they are coming back within four months. Third, though the greens are unknown and may be dangerous, but still Old Nash can stay safe inside the dome and he won't have any problem to communicate for help with the nearest habited planet if there are any urgencies. And the last one is the most important as he is the captain, he can't put other member's life in danger because of one man.

  So they left only to return soon enough leaving him alone with adequate supplies. Ample time for him, to observe the army of the greens advancing much faster and closing in desperately, and to find out the reason behind his decision to stay alone in this planet while the fact is that he did not like the planet from the moment he saw it from space. And it was more distasteful for him to see the appearance of strange greens.

Still he is searching the answer as he is standing outside the dome ready to die.

Before coming out, he had a conversation with the captain and with jenny. Within an hour the ship will enter planet's orbit and then another four hours to reach here. Captain enquired in his as usual heavy commanding tone about the situation. Old Nash replied cautiously and didn't give him a vague idea about what's in his mind. And jenny was as excited as a little child and was dying to meet him. Old Nash assured her that everything's fine.

There, he is standing. The greens are now around ten feet away and approaching. Within the next ten minutes that will touch his tip toes. He stood still, calm and quiet. He isn't tensed or worried rather feeling a kind of tranquility he has not experienced before. He is still searching the answer to his question that has been drumming loudly inside his head since the green showed up first. He is holding the remote button in his hand. He has no doubt about pressing the switch to explode the whole area.

The greens are two feet away. Old Nash gently rubbed the red button; his whole body has become stiff and alerted, waiting cautiously for the right moment.

The green touched Old Nash's tip toes and that instant moment he got the answers of all those questions he had in his mind. Now he knows why he decided to die exactly at that very moment. Now he knows what's going to happen next. Now he knows everything.

But he has no regrets.  

                                                   ***

 Captain Harison has never been in such an odd situation. It is only a few hours ago he had talked with Old Nash, got the report that everything's fine. But as soon as they arrived, with sheer disbelieve, they found that the dome has gone. No sign of Old Nash. The vast plain had no sign of previous landing rather looked like they had landed here for the first time. In his bewilderment, he was just unsure about the next step.

After almost half an hour, Captain Harison started to gather the clear picture of the situation. Something terrible happened here. No doubt, Old Nash died. There is no need to pay attention to the Jenny's demand of sending search parties. Besides he does not have enough men and women to send search parties. Those are with him merely scientists and ship crews, not soldiers. It won't be wise to stay here longer to endanger their lives.

Now Captain Harison is in full alert. He did not bother to send a message to the Head Quarter asking advice for the next step. He just ordered quietly but with enough authority that no one was able deny, to onboard the ship again and to leave the planet instantly.

Within four hours the ship reached the edge of the planet's orbit and they will take their first hyper jump soon. The crews are preparing for that. Those who are not engaged in operating the ship at moment are discussing about the incident in excitement. Already, there were several hypotheses about what happened to old Nash.

Deep down below, in ships engine room, on the roof top at the darkest corner, technician Mike sees a small green patch. He thought it some kind of dirt and went to bring something to clean up. But as he returned, he found nothing, no green patch was there. He shrugged and concluded that he is hallucinating. Then he went off to his usual duties.

But he did not notice that further inside the roof top towards the darker area, there was a perfectly round shaped green patch exactly what he had seen few minutes ago.

The green patch looks as it is waiting for something or for the right moment.  

Old Nash is going home. But he is not alone.

                                                                      -THE END-