Void and Voices

Chapter 4: Cetus

The spaceship started to gain more and more speed towards the planet. Franco didn't understand why Elio was so mesmerized looking at a planet with four moons. He knew that some of the planets have even 27 moons surrounding it. Franco started to accelerate because he wanted to confirm his curiosity. But by doing this, he's unaware of the amount of fuel that is being spent for the transport. 

"Honey, be careful of not wasting our reserve just because you're in a hurry.", Luna reminded Franco who was only thinking for a short term. 

Franco slowed down a bit, he then looked at the fuel level that is displayed in his glasses. Both Elio and Luna couldn't see this. "I got it, you don't have to worry about that.", a proud, confident, and calming smile came out from Franco's mouth. Elio was happy seeing this and Luna didn't have to see Franco, she already knew that he would smile like that every time he's sure. 

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Finally, the ship was getting closer. Franco was started to decelerate the ship, not because he was ready to land, but it was because he wanted to enjoy the view. The ship was above four big moons, even Franco can felt their gravities are trying to pull the whole spaceship down, but he already made sure that they were in the safe distance. Franco stood up and removed his glasses, taking a big deep breath and enjoy the view beside Elio. Luna who saw both of them looking at the windshield decided to join in. She was skeptical at first but as she saw the view, she finally understood. 

The four big moons were rotating, although it's pretty slow, slower than the moon that used to rotate in Earth, but the way they orbit were faster. It explained why Elio thought that it was a train before. The high tide which looks like a tsunami was the effect of the gravitational pull of the four moons. Just like the moons, it also revolve around the planet, the tsunami created its own path that erode all the lands in the planet. From outside it looks like there was a huge whale under the sea and started swimming through the river that it had created. 

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Franco launched three sphere-shaped drones to go to the planets first. Securing possible safe zones for the ship to land. The drones were in a form of small balls that has the ability to scan in 360 degree point of view. Obviously, the safest landing zone was away from the tsunami. The drones gave information as well to Franco whether there are possible threats like poisonous gas or unexpected locals in the planet. Finally after both Franco and Luna read the report of the landing zone and possible threats, they move on to the third stage of scanning, which was gathering information whether the resources there were enough to become another new settlement for humans. 

Franco set his spaceship on the designated landing area, a place where it was safe from the tsunami, but they were still able to observe the phenomenon from afar. Elio woke Gian from his sleep. He flicked his cheeks while Gian was still sleeping under his blanket, and then Gian slowly opening his eyes. 

"Is it time for the class already?" confused Gian asked Elio who was on his side.

"No, dad just found a new interesting planet, you don't want to be left out here by yourself right?" Elio showed his eager face to Gian, who didn't seem to be excited at all.

The truth was Gian was not the type of kid that like to explore, he's the type of a kid that liked to finish his chores efficiently, watch movies and play some games for a while, and then sleep again. But one thing about him was that if his parents command him to do something, he will do it and finish it right away. These were the big differences between Elio and Gian. Elio was the type of person who got inspired by his surrounding, putting everything that he sees into some kind of art, a writing, a drawing, or maybe other form, which makes him easily excited in finding new things. Gian was the type of person who was responsible for his task, and commit to them, he could easily do monotone things daily, because he didn't want any tasks interrupting his rest.