Darkness brings ghostly shadows

MicroWorld (#9)

The warmth from the sun soon cleared the mist making the causeway crossing relatively easy for them. There had been a few tricky moments and a mini disaster when a small "microquake" had caused them to stumble and lose a backpack of equipment down the steep embankment. They had watched as the shards of moving crystals slowly gnawed the pack and its contents into minute shreds; it could have been quite easily one of them. Content in the fact that at least they were safe they had continued but had barely reached the causeway's end when a more forceful quake caused a large section to crumble and slide down into the sea. They would now have to find another safe route back to their spacecraft if they were ever to return home. To anybody else the situation would have been disastrous, but our intrepid adventurers had, on other worlds, faced worse problems than this. Undaunted they pressed onwards.

Slowly they became aware that it was starting to go dark. On a planet with five suns there were usually on or two visible all the time. However, what they had failed to notice was the solar alignment which was now taking place and soon all five would set together bringing unfamiliar darkness. It was time to make camp and settle down for what could be a long night.

As the sky changed from its usual turquoise colour through various shades of darkening green, low rumblings like distant thunder emanated from deep below the surface. The massive combined gravitational pull of the aligned suns was taking its toll on the very core of this mysterious world.

Total darkness came swiftly but did not last for very long for soon eerie and ghostly shapes began to appear slowly moving around them. These strange apparitions which were seen by all of them made them think that they were hallucinating. They next considered the possibility of phosphorescent gases flowing from cracks in the planet's crust, released by the inner turmoil. A third option was a phenomenon similar to an aurora borealis caused by the charged particles that continually bombarded the planet's atmosphere. For them 'ghosts' were not even considered. A natural explanation was the most plausible on this unnatural world. One by one, tired by the day's events, they drifted into sleep, wondering what tomorrow might bring.

For new readers the story begins here.

Photogram through piece of fractured glass (cullet) on to film, then second contact negative on to film and finally enlarged B/W print given slight colour shading.