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"I've located a suitable landing location close to our destination," Katak reported. "Sending coordinates to Atina now."
By now, I trusted the other pilot enough that I didn't double-check his coordinates. If he said the location was big enough for the P0TA-2 to land, it was good enough for me.
When the heat shields around us began to glow in a tell-tale red, I couldn't help but grin with excitement. We were getting closer to landing, that moment when I got a healthy rush of adrenaline and felt like I'd succeeded at my task. Flying was great, landing safely was even better.
The location Katak had chosen was on the outskirts of a settlement. Rivers crossed the landscape as blue lines, intersected by grey-black lines covered in tiny colourful spots. Vehicles, maybe, that weren't set up to fly. How idyllic and old-fashioned. Maybe Heather could take me for a ride in one.
I had to evade one large flying object, but it was slow despite its size and easy to outmanoeuvre. Was this theplanethat Heather had mentioned?
"Engaging landing gear," I said automatically when the prompt appeared on my screen. "Two hundred lengths to the ground. Prepare for landing."
Usually, Captain Ellabee would have given a command via the intercom at this stage, but with almost everyone in stasis, all of the crew awake were already on the bridge.
I did the last few pre-landing checks before taking a deep breath. It was part of my ritual that had become a habit ever since learning the ropes at flight school.
"Landing in five...four...three...breaks engaged...and we've arrived."
The P0TA-2 barely swerved when we touched down on solid ground. This was a textbook landing, so much better than the shuttle landing on Kyven.
"Nice one," Captain Ellabee praised. "Let's do all the necessary checks first before we reverse the stasis mode. I'm rather enjoying the peace and quiet."
As much as I was looking forward to spending more time with Heather again, I couldn't help but agree with Ellabee. The atmosphere on the bridge was a lot more relaxed with only a skeleton crew present. Plus there was no chance of the rashipis escaping again while they were asleep.
I went through the motions until the captain was satisfied that no locals would be able to stumble across the P0TA-2 by accident. If anyone got too close to the perimeter I'd drawn, they'd suddenly feel the urge to return home. It was a very useful piece of technology that Ellabee had paid quite a lot for, but it enabled us to land on planets that didn't have an official spaceport yet. Loading cargo was much easier this way than having to use a shuttle.
"Now go and wake your human," Ellabee said with a suggestive grin. "I know you've been waiting for it."
"I...Thanks."
I didn't even bother denying it. For once, the captain didn't seem to care that relationships between crew and passengers were against the rules. She was unpredictable that way. Going against some of her rules could easily result in disembowelment, while breaking others didn't have any consequences at all.
I rushed to Heather's cabin, arriving just in time to hear the signal that stasis mode was about to be turned off. I opened Heather's pod and waited patiently for her to wake up. She looked beautiful in her sleep, so calm and serene that I was tempted to stroke her cheek. But I resisted. She wasn't awake yet. If I'd misread all her signals, I didn't want to breach her boundaries.
Finally, her eyelids fluttered open. I made sure that I was in her line of vision so that I'd be the first thing she saw. She yawned widely, then smiled when she became awake enough to recognise me.
"You."
"Me." I grinned. "Did you sleep well?"
"Mmmhm. I think I dreamed... no, I can't remember. But it feels like it was a nice dream. Are we near Earth now?"
"We've already landed. The captain thought it would be a good idea to wait until after the landing to lift stasis mode. We have three planetary days now until lift off. Do you want to show me around? Jiji is staying here, Katak will be keeping it company. I don’t have a LightScreen ring small enough for the qoark."
She sat up with another yawn. "Do you know where we are? If we've landed somewhere outside the UK, I doubt I'll be able to be a good guide. I've never travelled much myself. It's hard to go on holiday when you have a farm to look after."
I opened a holo map on my controlband and showed her our current location.
"Oh, the Yorkshire Dales, that's the middle of nowhere! Why did you choose to land here?"
"Katak said it was close to our destination, but I didn't ask how close. Maybe he got something mixed up. Is this anywhere near your home?"
"No, and it's not near any major city either for us to get supplies! Abby wants to visit her parents, but I’m not sure where they live. I suppose they'll have to go to Leeds and take a train from there, but how will we even get there? It's not like we have a car."
"We have a shuttle with camouflage mode," I explained. "It will take on the form of a local transportation vehicle to blend in. It works similarly to LightScreen technology that we use to look like the natives. If your vehicles don't fly, the shuttle will convert to ground-transportation as well."
"How handy." Heather's face lit up. "Can I decide what vehicle it turns into? I've always wanted to drive a Mini."
I chuckled. "Let's find out."
