Love, Against All Odds

I - Chapter 2

Together, Becca and Raakor controlled the Pacifica from the cockpit and carefully maneuvered the ship closer to the beautiful planet named Kander. The terrestrial sphere was one of the three other planets in the tiny solar system that had two stars. Distantly a floating, metal object reflected the solar light from the twin suns, but Becca did her best to ignore it. Once they had the ship floating near Kander's moon, they stared at the planet that awoke unspoken memories.

Kander was over ten percent larger than Earth, by Becca's estimation, or at least what once was Earth. Kander also had more landmass, which made it a greener and browner planet than Earth with its once vast oceans. At either pole were soft white caps of water, locked as ice for millenniums. But the most unusual feature about the solar system was the dual suns, where one sun acted as the primary and the second, weaker one hovered near it.

'How long until the meeting?' Starr asked as she entered the cockpit.

Raakor was quietly using the touch panel from the co-pilot's seat.

With a glance at Kander's local time on the control panel, Becca replied, 'In forty-five minutes local time.' Starr's heavy sigh made Becca reconsider saying something about her joining them on Kander. 'Maybe you should—'

'No.'

The cockpit was deathly still, and Becca barely halted her eye roll. Forty-five minutes was just enough time to get down to the ground, but none of them were rushing to the shuttle bay. She climbed to her feet and ordered, 'Come on. I hate to be late.'

Starr led the way to the shuttle and sniffed when Becca passed her. 'You showered?'

Becca knew it was rhetorical and merely replied, 'I'm not taking any risks.' They knew how damn easily the Kalmar could scent anything, from an alien to a bug. The last thing they needed was for the Kalmar to think that Becca, Starr, or Raakor were lovers simply because of their close quarters. The tight confines of their ship forced much of their scents to comingle. Starr's hated hybrid scent was enough to stir trouble, but mixed scents with a hybrid could cause a war. They couldn't leave the possible job to chance, no matter how small.

Raakor pretended to sniff himself but questioningly looked at Starr.

'You smell like oil,' Starr promised. She rolled her eyes when Raakor flashed a grin, then climbed into the vessel's open door and buckled up for the ride to the planet below.

Becca patted the outdoor hull, which was looking a little shabby. They really needed those stills. But like the Pacifica, the shuttle was a sturdy piece of thick alloy, which had always been enough to protect them. Once loaded into the craft, Becca brought it to life with the panel's controls.

Starr leaned away from the co-pilot door as it came down and locked them in securely. 'Can't you let it fly in auto this time?'

Raakor chuckled from the back.