Princess of the Stars

2-Landing

Light from the yellow star in the distance barely stretches through the field of asteroids and tiny planets, casting a quiet glow upon the bases in the outer reaches of the dwarf's kingdom. Girdled by a belt of shimmering majesty, the star maintains his royal posture despite his diminutive size at such a distant. In this belt spins a protector of souls, eager to share the benefits of both light and dark to his loyal inhabitants. Rotating to touch the eternal night every few hours, he shows his subjects the cold abyss while the base implanted into his red skin protects itself and thaws the frozen ground.

Approaching the ruler of lost souls, a cloud of metal eggs weaved in and out of itself, appearing like a plague of locust to wipe out the dwarf planet's few provisions. Inside the escape pods, nervous silence abounded as they slowly converged into one massive cloud over the miniature planet. 

 Terra watched as the swarm overshadowed the red sphere, their new home for the time being. Empty, save for the base that covered a portion of its surface, it provided space for the colony to grow accordingly.

"This sure is a mark of human ingenuity," a comrade noted as the base drew closer. They all nodded in response and began to put their helmets back on. As they approached, Terra's view diminished, their pod falling back inside the cloud.

"Celeste would have loved to see this," Terra remarked as her helmet covered her face once more.

"Enough of that," a woman snapped.

"Excuse me?" Terra asked, dumbfounded. The other comrades eyed each other, sensing the tension growing within the confined space.

"You've been sulking since we detached from the ship. You don't even know that someone didn't save her. We're alive, and we're headed down to a base full of people. In order to transfer efficiently, we need you to drop the negative attitude and be present, here with us."

"Oh all right, I'll just forget my friend, let her be dead to me, and we'll all go on and live our happy lives," Terra snapped. "None of you even talked to her. It's fitting you'd tell me to forget her."

"Now you listen to me, little miss. I'm not tellin' you to forget 'er. The opposite in fact: if she was so bubbly and full o' life, would she want you to be 'ere sulking when you could be helping in the transfer process?" the woman's accent drove home her point.

Terra did not respond and instead looked back out the window. Pressing her hands together, the woman displayed her satisfaction and rested her case.

"I'm sorry," Terra eventually said. "It just seemed like no one else would mourn her, so I chose to remember her on my own."

"Someone probably grabbed her in the raucous. We may even see her at this base. Just keep your chin up," she said. "I'm Alice by the way." Her chin raised to the ceiling as her thumb pointed into her chest.

"What base are we at?" a man asked.

"I'm not sure, but the pods are programmed to take us to the nearest one, so it's probably one of the three in Kuiper. I don't know where we crashed, though," a younger man said.

"We'll find out soon enough," Alice said. "Sorry for making it such a quiet trip. Wha' about all of you? We might as well introduce ourselves after a few hours of living in here together."

"Devin, nice to meet you" the younger man said, chuckling as he reached out a hand that no one shook.

"Scott," another man said.