Gerlu doesn't register what's truly happened for several seconds. He figures something must have gotten on his helmet while he was looking at the side of the sandship. When it doesn't come off after wiping it, he looks around, and notices that, rather than in the midst of the endless desert of the Paucal Zone, he appears to be standing in a black void, with a few patches of sand strewn about it. He thinks some of the other crew might be around as well.

He spots windows of color next, one paired with each patch of sand, including one behind his back. Evidence of some sort of pocket dimension, and one that's disturbing easy to enter by accident, is definitely enough to upgrade the comet anomaly from a curiosity to something that's going to need containment...assuming that Gerlu can find a way back out.