We Leapt Into the Sky

Chapter 1

Deep craters studded the rocky moon outside the window. Kendra turned her gaze down to the scuff marks on her boots as the floor beneath them rattled.

"I wouldn't have minded a bit more grant money for this flight," Bria said from the next seat over. The woman rubbed her temples as the walls vibrated.

Kendra nodded in affirmation, still staring at her own feet. The warm light from the window opposite them illuminated tiny metal ridges on the floor. She glanced out the window as one of the men across from them strained at his seatbelt to look out. The ship was turning, the moon fading from view.

The light fell across Kendra's face, and the planet loomed vast in front of them. Gray mountains and plateaus punctuated swathes of white desert sand. Next to her, Bria leaned back against her headrest, closing her eyes. The glow from the window sent beams of light over her auburn hair as they descended.

The shuttle creaked.

A jolt sent Kendra lurching forward, held back by her seatbelt. She made eye contact with Antony across from her, who scowled as he almost spilled out of his own seat. He was a familiar face. But even after the days they'd spent on the cramped shuttle, it surprised her to see the lines on his face and gray in his hair.

The four of them occupied the handful of seats facing each other along the walls of the narrow shuttle. Seph, the man at the window, frowned. He was the least familiar, though she'd grown to expect his name to pop up in her inbox every few days during the months leading up to the trip.

"I don't understand why they wouldn't allot a little more money for transportation. The funding was fairly robust for other areas," Seph said.

Antony crossed his arms. "It's an insurance thing. Remote expeditions are a liability, even if it's just surveying some ruins. It's expensive, so they cut costs in other places. Space travel is considered less of a liability, so we're stuck with the cheapest shuttle that can carry us," he said. He patted the wall behind him. "The heat shielding on these things? Doesn't inspire confidence."

Kendra frowned at her colleague as waves of nausea passed over her. "Seriously, Antony?"

He shrugged.

"In any case," Bria said, "we're going to be fine. I was making more of a commentary on comfort than safety."

There was another thunk from below them. "Though I hope that isn't my microscope rolling around in the cargo hold."

"That's the one you got from your big grant a few years ago, isn't it?" Seph asked.

"It is."

"How many of these shuttles do you think you could have bought for the price of that scope?" Antony asked.

Bria snorted. "I'd never buy a transport shuttle like this. But probably four or five." She made eye contact with Kendra for a moment before turning back to the two men across from them. "Everything is going to be alright. We'll be on the ground soon."

"Yeah, I mean, if we were going to have a problem entering the atmosphere, it would have already happened," Antony said.

"Antony," Kendra said.

"I'm just saying."

"Yeah, I don't wanna hear about it right now."

At that, he simply nodded and closed his eyes.

She did the same, trying to breathe deeply until her stomach stopped turning over. After a few minutes, she peered back out the window.

They flew over a vast plateau as they descended. The cliffs were formidable, reaching high into the sky, with occasional irregular sharp peaks rising off the plateau. They stretched out for miles, giving way to dunes and then flat sand. The shuttle shook as the ground approached, slowly nearing a point in the distance where a small white structure stood.