Book 4: Chapter 19: You Did What?
Bob
June 2334
Garack’s Spine
I activated my manny and sat up, rubbing my eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was something Quinlans did, but it felt right. I peered out the small single window. Still dark. We’d “gone to bed” yesterday while it was still light out, so we had missed the Heaven’s River sunset. I wanted to see the sunrise. Mostly, I wanted to see for myself how Heaven’s River handled emulation of night and day.
I’d woken a few minutes early to be certain I was up before the dawn, but I’d left a message with the others. Quietly—not for my crew’s sake but for the other occupants of the motel—I snuck out of our room and down the stairs to the front door.
The air felt crisp and cool and wouldn’t be out of place in early fall on Earth. Item: the artificial sun supplied heat as well as light to the habitat. That implied a heat sink of some kind at ground level, since this was otherwise a closed system. My bet was that the water was kept below ambient, probably cooled by the river-bottom impeller/filters. Maybe the central cylinder absorbed infrared as well, when the sun was off.
No one else was about. We knew that Quinlans were primarily diurnal, so no big surprise. There might be a night guard wandering around, and maybe a paperboy or something, but otherwise I pretty much had the street to myself. Or so I thought, until a voice beside me said, “Morning.”
“Morning, Bill. Had the same idea?”
“Mm-hmm. Lots of data from the drones, but nothing beats eyewitness.”