Free Mya

7: New arrivals in Sandar

New Arrivals, One of them Tightly Dressed

Daniel went, with Trey and Seth as chaperones, to talk to the szleksayaa. Daniel reports that it was a very interesting conversation, with no attempts to seduce anyone.  

The following day, astronauts from Earth turned up, looking very tired and thirsty. Of the crew of seven, only two were women: a doctor in her fifties called Meera and a co-pilot named Charlize.  I think she was about 30 years old.

The seven had landed about 50 miles from Sandar, in a valley in a desert. They had no idea where Daniel and his colleagues had landed or even if any of the crew had survived the crash. It took them a while to locate them.

"You were stuck in the Valley of Dust and Death before you detected our radio signal? How long were you there? It's the hottest place on R8472902. But I'm sure you knew that."

"We were there for nearly 47 Earth hours. More than 2 of these days. The place was so hot, although our spaceship is quite well insulated. We worried we were going to be there for weeks and run out of food and water! We were going to postpone the search for you guys until we had found some water. But then we found a trace of you and knew that you must be near a source of water. The signal was very faint."

"We don't have much use for the radio. You're lucky we were using it that day."

"We're going to move the spaceship. Now we've found you. Do you think it would be okay if we parked it just outside the village?"

"I suppose so."

Charlize was wearing a very tight outfit, in a pale silvery colour. Her long, dyed blonde hair was artfully arranged to make it look as voluminous as possible, yet Daniel knew this effect must have been achieved without hairspray as none was allowed on board the spacecraft. He wondered if she wore hair extensions, but could not see where they might have been added. She wore no make-up, as far as Daniel could tell. Her teeth were very white, but did not gleam like porcelain. Her skin was smooth and clear. There were a few delicate freckles above her upper lip, and on her nose and cheeks. Her hazel eyes were framed by long, curly, black lashes.

Mya frowned at her. Daniel wondered why. Surely Mya was too beautiful to be jealous of Charlize?

"Oh, yes. I remember you now. Your hair used to be black. And it was shorter then. Spiky," he said.

"Yours was longer. I like it, better now" said Charlize.

He pulled a face. "I don't. By the way, your catsuit thing is very tight."

"That's the way the material comes. It's actually very comfortable. Like elastane only better. They didn't design it to be clingy. That's merely an incidental property. They like it because it's quite protective against falls - like motorcycling gear. It keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. It's also fire-proof. It's even easy to wash. It's very utilitarian."

"Yeah, right."

"Would I lie to you?"

They laughed.

Mya was glaring.

"I think perhaps you might find something more frumpy," Daniel suggested to Charlize.

She looked around.

"That would not be difficult."

"You really should be careful not to upset people."

Charlize sighed. "I couldn't make the journey wearing anything else. Like I said, it kept me cool in all the heat. I'll change when my stuff arrives."