Space is vast. It took the *Hind of the Dawn*, the fastest ship that the Deep Space Fleet had, over eight days and five hours to travel from Ge to the edge of the Node Field at two hundred thousand times lightspeed (log 5.3). The *Hind’s* new destination was an eleven-day trip by that reckoning, one that took a craft counterclockwise around the Ring of Stars on the standard maps. 

Of course, in an emergency the Lady Zoe Appleleaf was glad to lend Chris Alan a hand. Thanks to her extension of the Portal of Starlight into deep space, the *Hind* got to the planet Brusia within thirty minutes. Re-entry into Brusia’s atmosphere took a little while longer. 

On board the *Hind* with Chris Alan was his pregnant wife Autumn Selene and Slate Rockmire. Chris Alan made sure to slow the courier’s approach enough so they could get a good view of the planet. It was the center of the Brusian Empire, a small cluster of star systems settled by Black Tribesmen who passed long ago through the Portal of Starlight with a tithe of White Tribesmen. Even in these latter days, the population of the Empire remained one-tenth White. Brusia itself appeared to be mostly a desert; it was sandy-brown in color, with few clouds covering the sphere. 

“How could anyone survive down there? I don’t see any water.” Autumn held her stomach in concern. 

“Brusia used to be a much wetter place, long before we Adamim came there,” Chris Alan informed her. “Most of the water today comes from aquifers through natural springs or artificial wells. Otherwise, there is much permafrost stored in the soil of the polar regions, just as there is on Hematite in our own Helios System; and some of that permafrost evaporates seasonally and brings the planet its rare precipitation.” 

“But if it rarely rains, how can those reservoirs keep supplying water?” Autumn still looked worried; in fact she was already wiping the imaginary sweat from her forehead. 

“Besides the permafrost, if memory serves, the mountains normally have snow year round due to their altitude. When the snow melts, it flows down and then underground to be filtered, and then springs back up in the plains. Evaporation and circulation then restores the water to the mountain tops and the permafrost. If the locals keep their population stable, and given normal weather, then they should have no problem with water, ever.”