There is a dispute about the name of the Gaian Base in Tau-31. That is to say, there is a dispute among those who care about such things as the origins of a name. Some claim that the base is named after the outwash plains of glaciers. Indeed, sandur; a glacial plain, seems to capture the feeling one gets when traversing the expanse of Tau-31. The other, equally popular theory is that the base is named after a village that stood on a remote island in the northern ocean of ancient Earth. Likely a lonely place, close to the land it stood on and even closer to the ocean, Sandur; a desolate village, surely evokes the spirit of the Gaian outpost.
Those who named Sandur either do not care to explain the name or are gone for good. Thus, the argument goes on. But everyone agrees that the name is good and that it fits the outpost very well, for sometimes it appears that places have a name of their own choosing. Long ago it was written that naming some places is looking into darkness and letting the name rise out to find you. Sandur Base is such a place.
The bar is clean, well-lit and with no name. It is quiet and one does not feel the strange feeling of disconnection when looking through the glass into the vacuum. Here the room seems to continue out, through the windows, and you occasionally get the urge to open the door that is not there, to step out, to smell the snow covered juniper brush, the ice, the sharp cold air, and the bright yet frigid sunlight. Then something stirs inside you, you look out only to see the airlessness of space again.
Cory liked the Sandur bar. Most preferred The Green Hell of Islay. A lively place, to drink and smoke until the vines closed in and you woke up the next day swearing never to drink or smoke again. For her, Sandur was for brooding thoughts on the days when you dared only to sip your drink. All the same, by the rules and regulations of every bar in Sirius, there was plenty of drinking to be done. This held especially true for the salvage crews on Sandur Base. From the wrecks they pulled useful equipment and the frozen corpses of the dead.
Now the bar was empty, no music played. The barkeeper was somewhere in the back. Cory sat in the corner next to the window. She made a mistake ordering the drink. She did not feel like drinking beer. Still, there were two fingers of it left.
When the barkeeper comes back, I’ll order another beer, Cory thought and leaned against the glass pane.
