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"Great. I'm going to turn off the secondary boosters, is the stabiliser holding?"
"It's holding."
"Good. Turning off the boosters. Prepare for touchdown in five, four, three—" A shock wave travelled through the ship as we made contact. I could feel the ship practically groan in protest and multiple lights pinged on around me.
The captain's low voice screeched through my headset. "What was that?"
"Sorry, Cap. Must have misjudged our distance to the ground but we're all set."
"Do better next time."
"Yes, Captain." I called for another status report again, relieved when nothing seemed to be on fire or damaged. Repairs were expensive and I really couldn't afford another deduction from my paycheck.
I released myself from my chair and stretched the strain from my muscles, glad that we'd arrived. As much fun as it was to fly and zap through space, there was something to be said for home sweet home.
On my way out, I ran into Katak coming out of the other cockpit, stretching his long arms. He stopped once he saw me. "What happened?"
"I must've misjudged the count."
"Really?" He seemed surprised. "You never misjudge."
"There's a first time for everything."
We made our way down to the exit hatch and I hopped down instead of using the ramp. It was more fun that way.
My boots thudded hard on the metal surface and the spicy sweet scent of Kyven greeted me over the smell of oil, gas, and grease. There really was no place like home. It was a shame we weren't sticking around longer. From the morning briefing, I'd gathered we’d only restock and pick up some passengers before we went on our merry way again.
There wouldn't be enough time to visit my brother or my two aunties, who always kept a jar of sweets ready for my brief visits. Hopefully I'd at least get the chance to buy some snacks at the terminal's shop.
This spaceport was fairly small for Kyven standards, but at least it had a shop full of local delicacies. It was mostly aimed at tourists, but with no time to drive into the closest town, I had no choice but to get some overpriced goods there. Maybe I should get the captain a treat to apologise for the bumpy landing. I still didn't quite know what had happened. I was a good pilot, no, I had to have more self-confidence. I was the best. It was why Ellabee had hired me and had even paid me a bonus to sign with her crew. Maybe the shuttle was getting old. I should have one of the engineer chicks on the P0TA-2 check it out.
While Katak supervised the loading of supplies, I went shopping. Near the spaceport's exit, a holo poster caught my attention. A new animal park with alien beasts was advertising that they were only twenty clicks from the terminal. Maybe I could visit them next time, if we had more time on Kyven. I also had my next shore leave coming up soon. Two whole weeks to spend planetside. I had no idea what to do with all that time besides getting spoiled by my aunties and annoying my brother.
Deep in thought, I automatically pointed at things in the virtual shop display. My favourite snack bars were out of stock, making me even grumpier than I already felt. Everything was going wrong today. I wouldn't be surprised if the day continued like that. I didn't know anything about the passengers we were supposed to pick up, but I bet they were going to turn out to be spoiled brats like the last people we'd had on the P0TA-2. I understood that Ellabee was making good money by renting out two of the cabins to paying guests, but why did they always have to be boring, rude or pompous?
I decided I didn't want to meet today's passengers, so I finished my shopping as fast as possible. The display told me that my purchases would be delivered to the shuttle five ticks before takeoff. Close, but if we got delayed by a bit, I'd be able to make up for that on the flight to the P0TA-2. Captain Ellabee would understand once I handed her the clovian biscuit I'd ordered for her.
Back on the shuttle, I turned on the outside cameras to watch for our passengers. The manifest said to expect three of them, all females, one Kyven and two humans, whatever that was. Katak was finishing up the loading of the shuttle, slaving away while I put up my feet on the console in front of me. Living the pilot life. I grimaced and switched to a different camera angle. There they were, our three passengers, making their way through the hangar. They were on time, which didn't bode well for my last-minute shop delivery. Now I couldn't blame any delay on them.
I turned on the boarding lights which illuminated their path onto the shuttle. The Kyven walked confidently up the ramp; she'd clearly travelled by shuttle and space ship before. Holding the Kyven’s hand was a brown-haired female who was laughing at something her companion had said. But who really drew my attention was the pale female behind them. She was more hesitant, looking at everything with wide eyes. She was a kyvenoid with two arms and two legs, but she was a little smaller than the average Kyven female. The top of her ears were rounded, which made it look a little as if someone had shaved off her pointy tips. Hopefully she was born this way and it was not the effect of an accident or worse. The human also lacked throat filters, but that was fairly standard for other alien species. Most aliens had their own way of gathering oxygen - or one of the other gases - some through specialised organs, other through their skin. The most striking thing about the female was her hair, a mop of curls in shades of red and orange, like flames sprouting from her scalp. It was such a contrast to her pale skin, so white as if all colour had been sucked from it. Standing between the two blue-skinned Kyvens made her look even more exotic.
Did all humans look that way? If so, I'd quite like to visit their planet. This female was gorgeous.
I zoomed in a little to see her more clearly. She stared at everything as if she'd never been on a shuttle before. Her pink lips were slightly parted. Was that pink natural? I wanted to touch her lips to find out.
"Cargo is loaded," Katak reported through the intercom. I quickly switched to a different screen, feeling a little guilty over checking out the passengers. I'd get to see more of them soon enough, once we reached the P0TA-2.
3
Heather
The ship was bigger than the one that had transported us to Kyven all those months ago. A shuttle had collected Sahra, Abby, and me from the planet's surface and had taken us into orbit where the P0TA-2 was waiting. Abby and her Kyven mate were holding hands as we followed the shuttle's pilot through the hangar. She was a Kyven woman who had said barely anything throughout our walk. Her hair was dyed bright green, unless it was natural? I'd only ever seen Kyvens with blue hair until now. If she'd been a little more friendly, I would have asked if that was her real hair colour, but she didn't seem interested in conversation.
We left the huge hangar and started walking along a dimly lit corridor. Our baggage was still in the shuttle; the pilot had told us it would be transported to our cabins by bots. Something squeaked behind me and I whirled around only to find a pink ball of fluff bumping against my shoe. What on Earth?!
"Jiji!" the pilot exclaimed, showing emotion for the first time. She picked the pink ball up and smothered it against her chest. "I missed you."
The thing squeaked again and became even fluffier, if that was possible. Was that a pet? I couldn't see any trace of eyes, a mouth or even paws among all the pink hair that sprouted in all directions.
