Planetbustin'

ca. 1988

Exploring strange places -- that's what I enjoy most about science fiction, not blasting away with laser cannon in thinly disguised war/action stories.   This scene shows explorers stretching their legs on a long journey across the great Fin-Fan Veldt of a worldlet called Drang, a moon of the gas giant Sturm (not visible in the picture) somewhere in the Fomalhaut system.   The fin-fans are neither animal nor plant, but might be loosely compared to Earth's own other life kingdom, protista, the molds and fungi.   For reasons not yet known, these protistoid cell colonies align themselves with the planetary magnetic lines.   Nestled within the plain of spindrift moss, they are ever present living compasses should an explorer become lost without instruments.

The explorers may be trying to find what caused this pathway through the veldt.   Then again, they may just be looking for Baldy Ned's beret, blown off in a sudden gust of wind.   (He's the guy in the middle ground near the yellow Omniport hatch).