Long Nights, Flying Aliens, and Force-Field Windows

Sorry about the delay. My whole sleep pattern is screwed up here. You see, they tell me that a day here, or the equvalent, which they call the coaxrorol (hyua-kha-ro-rol with the some sort of rolled "r") is really long. They did a conversion for me, and said that it takes about one of our mounths for Jed to make an orbit round Coaxta. And it doesn't get terribly dark, either, because Coaxta is so close to the star here, Cex, that it actually glows from the heat! And to look up at the sky, Coaxta is about sixty times the size of a full moon on Earth! Basically, in the middle of the night, which is the time it's been ever since I got here, it's just about as bright as day! I don't know how or when Xala sleep, but I think I'm going to figure up a schedule and close my window when I need to.

All that said, they told me that they'd give me time to adjust myself, so I can get a regular sleep pattern going. Meanwhile, they've been measuring me. Not just whatever measurements you need for a suit. No, they've been measuring me head to toe. They measured my head, the curve of my ears, my fingers, event my toes. The yela'kaja told me they were going to give me some equipment, in case I got lost or something, and they were trying to figure out where it was best for me to wear it all. I told them where not to put it, as well as making the suggestion that I do, in fact, have pockets, if it's something I don't have to be using at all times in all places.

Anyway, meantime I've just been exploring my level of this little station (They've given me the run of it to entertain me). I can't get to any other levels, as the whole thing is designed so that when you come out of a corridor into the central part of the housing unit you come to a ledge that you basically have to jump off of and fly to the level you need to. In addition, watching Xala from the central shaft (which is what they told me to call it), I notice that they always come in from the top, and leave by diving out the bottom. From the looks of it, the whole thing is designed that way. I guess they figure it's easier to dive in a small space than to climb, but I wouldn't know that.

They don't seem to use vehicles, either. Anytime I saw one of them leave or come back, they flew on their own wingpower. And sometimes they passed the horizon, or came from it. If I'm counting right, some of the ones that left about an hour after I arrived haven't come back yet! Anyway, they told me they were going to get a vehicle for me. Apparantly I had the sorry luck of having to come to one of the units that wasn't designed for kaja (their word for aliens).

And one more thing. I didn't notice at first, but on close examination, I found out that all the windows here are actually force fields! From the looks of it, theres a row of tiny blue crystals lining each side of the window that activate and form a really solid forcefield. I've tried pushing at it, hitting it, throwing small objects at it, etc, and the field is so solid that it reacts just like it was solid. There's no weird ripples or static like in scifi shows: the only way you would know it wasn't plexiglass or something is that, if you figure out how the controls work, you can turn it off, which you don't want to do unless the window is closed up. The winds up here are liable to suck you out and send you hurtling through the air! Besides, they make this terrible screeching noise when they reactivate and the field reforms, so I just leave my window on all the time.

Anyway, that's about all the interesting stuff I have for now. If I can just figure out when to sleep I'll be just fine.