Exploring Execute
"Veronica, we're going east," Joxe reports while ensuring that the ship is receiving their telemetry.
"You kids be careful," Veronica replies. "I'll be in the hot tub I fabricated in the cargo hold."
Naimh rolled her eyes. "You'd better not," she teased.
"I'm just testing it," Veronica deadpanned back.
An expanse of low, rolling hills extends inland from the coast where the starport is located. The forest below is unbroken except for a few clearings where fires had broken out, and where rivers cut through on their way from the distant mountains to the sea.
Gareth, who is in the right middle seat behind Brent, watches the air raft's sensors output on his tablet display. He spots numerous animals, mostly herbivores, with a large predator that Naimh, sitting beside him and behind Joxe's seat, identifies as a bear.
Malcolm uses his binoculars to search to the sides, moving from one rear seat to the other as he works. The device uses both visual, infrared, and near ultraviolet filters; Malcolm had labored for the entire week in jump to fabricate it.
The air raft's groundspeed is nearly 200kph, even with a left-to-right crossing headwind of 40kph. An hour into the flight, no one has seen any evidence of human activity.