I had the eerie sensation that it looked familiar. All but the color.
"It looks like an unexplored jungle," Karen said.
"I wonder what's out there," Paul said. Far away to the left of the ship, a series of raw mountains thrust up like hackles into the thick clouds. "We may as well run some tests now. Maybe we can go outside while it's still light," Carl suggested.
"Or maybe we won't go out at all," I remarked. The valley where the ship had landed looked too peaceful.
We climbed down the wall ladder to the laboratory. Captive air filled a pressure tank while I watched them set up the testing equipment. We had picked a region near water in the temperate belt of the planet, and the temperature recorded seventy degrees with the sun overhead as Carl started to analyze the gas structure of the atmosphere.
"What are you doing?" Karen asked. She had found a skirt to wear. Her blonde hair was long, tied back with a ribbon. I would have felt more at ease if she hadn't groomed herself while we went ahead to the lab.
"Testing the air, Doctor," Carl grunted.
She thrust her hands into the pockets of the skirt, standing with her feet wide spread, man fashion.
"Are we going outside?" she asked.