: not real or genuine: such as
a: made to look like something else that is usually more valuable : IMITATION, FAKE
// faux leather/fur
// a string of faux pearls
// … faux is the French word for fake, but it’s a very chic fake. Faux marble, for example, is found in the best of homes.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/faux
The SRV Urr’ed and Gurr’ed, its pitch getting higher as the elevation got steeper. Steering into the various ruts and runs of the mountainside we started to near the peak I just had a few meters to go then I could turn onto the main ridge and ascend to the top. However, the Scarab had other ideas, going silent white smoke started to billow from under the canopy rising up around the front wheels. I immediately engaged the had break, I bounced out to take a look, frightened I had over cooked her motors on the way up. White smoke also poured from the rear wheels, drifting off on currents of air out into the valley below.
I would have to finish the climb on foot and hope I had enough energy cells to power my suit’s life support. I had more back on the Hiraeth, but I would need to find a suitable landing area, oh and I’d have to get off the mountain. On foot.
The planets rotation must have been slow, something I had forgot to check on my initial scans. But the sun had not set by the time I reached the peak of my faux Hiraeth in fact it had hardly moved at all. Checking the motors with the back of my hand, they were hot to the touch and my hands were well insulated by the Artemis suit.
The rest of the ascent was more of a rough scramble than a climb, once at the top I realised just how narrow the peak was. I may be able to get the SRV over, just about and if it starts up again.
I took a deep breath and observed as the light danced off the peaks surrounding me, casting long dark shadows in valleys below. Not knowing if I was going to make it off the mountain let alone this rock of a planet, I felt at peace. I sat down and enjoyed the moment, the burnt umber on the horizon, the galactic core peering through the atmosphere like a tear in the sky. My travels had taken me far and there was till so much left to see. I mean I needed to go back to Beagle Point for one thing. I drank too much rum the last time and passed out on the fleet carrier, missed the whole 48 hour stop.
I jumped to my feet, full of some newfound determination from my mind meanderings and ran along the ridge back to the SRV, noting to myself if I get the SRV going again. Do not fall down the dark side of this mountain.
The wheel motors had stopped ejecting whisps of smoke, the only white clouds I could see were rolling their way down into the shadows of the valley below. I jumped into the SRV and powered it up, slid the throttle forward, the motors gave a weak whir, then nothing. Leaving the throttle at five percent, I jumped out, one hand on the control stick and the other on the canopy I started to push up the mountain. With a little whir and fzzt the motors hummed into life, and she began to climb, slowly.
Easing the Scarab over the ridge shimmying a little left here and a little right there we made it to the other side, a nice slope down to the valley floor. I had no idea what a recepta looked like or how much daylight I had left; my scans had showed that there would be some samples on the other side of the mountain range I did not fancy looking for recepta specimens in the dark. With that thought, I punched the throttle and ploughed down the mountain.
Hitting the glassy ice rock at the bottom I ping ponged over the floor of the range. The SRV was starting to find its rhythm again as we danced sideways and backwards over hollows and around boulders.
Eventually I shoot out into a vast plateau and there they were, Recepta Conditivus. These things were magnificent. The last time I saw anything like this was at a market on Lave. But the those were edible, possibly. How to describe them, well they are giant pods or organic cages suspended on a stalk that sprouts from the ground. The flesh over the cage part is translucent and confined within a round growth, a seed of some kind.
I recalled The Hiraeth and concluded my scanning and photographing.
Orbiting HYPIO PRI OG-G A 10-17 3, waiting for the planetary obstruction to clear from my target system, I queued up the jump sequence, ready to continue my journey.
As I waited I took the picture of Hiraeth from my pocket, gazing at it, I wondered where it could be.
Three…
My mind drifted, I found it funny that I longed to go there, though
Two…
I had never been before and yet it felt familiar,
One…
it felt like home.
Engage…
The Javi Times 