The Far Side of Nowhere

I brought the lifeship down to the surface of the planet as gently as I could. From a hundred or so feet up the view from the visiscreen showed a level surface covered in short grass, but good though the definition of the picture was I knew that appearances could be deceptive. What I believed was grass could simply have been a covering of vegetation over a lake, bog or quicksand and I wanted to be ready to lift off again quickly. A slight bump told me I had touched land and I held my breath. Thankfully there seemed no indication that we were sinking, but I waited a full ninety seconds before switching off the drive. A glance at the clock calendar above my head showed the time as 6.45 p.m.