After a second or two, I give Z'irri my brightest smile, "I am so happy that we can talk with you, though, Z'irri."
He seems pleased by my simpering words and turns back around to face the cockpit.
"Kiss-ass," someone whispers jokingly.
"As long as I don't have toactuallykiss his buggy butt, I don't care how much I have to suck up to him," I hiss back, trying to adjust the way I'm sitting in this damned uncomfortable seat.
"Where is Mama Z'rykby's agency based?" Alana calls out to Z'irri, trying to cover our whispering.
"Never mind that," Z'irri answers, frantically pressing buttons and checking monitors. "Looks like we need to make an unscheduled stop at..." his screens zoom here and there, expanding and whizzing, bouncing from what I can only think must be coordinate to coordinate until he finds what he's looking for. "A-ha!" Z'irri exclaims, "here, this conservation island on planet G36229 should do the trick!"
There's a sharp swooping in my gut and it feels like we're careening to one side, andfast. "What's happening?!" Gwen yelps. We're all holding hands again.
"The authorities have been spotted in the area and closing in on our intended path. The safest bet would be to land for a semi-solar turn so as not to be detected and give them a chance to move on without detecting us."
"Why, is keeping humans as pets illegal, Z'irri?" Chastity pointedly asks.
The buggy alien only throws a glance over the shoulder of his captain's chair. "Of course not," he chuckles to himself, "it's just that I declared this ship a wreckage after a particularly nasty crash two Torkii Sun rotations ago to avoid the hefty taxation charges. They won't be pleased to see it flying."
"Uh, no judgment here and all, buggy," Chastity says, practically having to shout over the noises of our acceleration, "but is it really a good time to start saying things like 'wreckage' and 'particularly nasty crash' when we're currently hurtling at light-speed toward an alien planet!?"
My insides feel like they've liquified and I have to shut my eyes, trying to focus on the hands I hold at either side of me. Someone starts chanting a prayer and although I've never really put much stock into it, I do too. Z'irri shouts something over the din and I crack an eye open to see him buckle himself securely into his seat. Behind him, the view of the planet nears through the windows.
***
Planet G-whatever-he-called-it is hot as hell! From what I can tell by craning my neck, we've landed in a clearing, surrounded by what I think is thick jungle. We landed only about ten minutes ago and even Z'irri is complaining about the humidity. The air is thick with heat and the constant hum of jungle insects outside, added to occasionally by the call of some sort of bird. I presume it's bird noises anyway. What do I know about this planet?
We’ve been sitting here, restricted to our seats by our collars, with nothing to do but stew in our fear. Now and again, someone will sniffle, and I know they’re trying not to wail out loud. I feel the same. There are hushed whispers up at the other end of our row of seats - where girls named Bea, Skye, Dove, and Sophia sit. I can’t hear what they’re saying. Are they planning something? Have they noticed something we could use to out-wit our new buggy-overlord? I don’t know. And I’m not one to wait for others to figure things out for me either. I need to come up with something. If only we could get free of our seats.
"Z'irri?" I tentatively ask, eyeing him and his drooping, unhappy-looking antennae. The whispering stops and the silence in the ship has me swallowing thickly. "Any chance we could be let out for a bathroom break?"
"A bathroom break?" he echoes, mandibles moving as he speaks.
"Yeah. To...You know. Expel... fluids?"
Z'irri tuts to himself. "You can wait. I'm not risking runaways."
"You can trust us!" Chastity supplies. "It would be awfully nice of you to let us stretch our legs. Very ethical."
I can just imagine her batting those thick eyelashes of hers at him.
"Besides," Alana adds," you won't want us to have accidents. Human waste can be so messy and sometimes we just can't hold it-oops!"
"What are you doing?!" Z'irri exclaims, jumping up onto his chair and waving his multiple insectoid arms. "Don't-Don't do that there!Who is going to clean up your expelled liquids?! Is it toxic?! Oh, my stars! Here!" He fumbles inside his robes for his little screen, taps a few buttons, and seconds later all our collars click open, freeing our now rather sweaty necks. Beside our row of seats, the door slides open with a whoosh. "Go do your business outside! Shoo!Shoo!"
"You don't have to tell me twice," Chastity mumbles as we all stand and make our way outside. My eyes meet with Alana’s before quickly glancing down to where her hot pink button-down pajamas now have a delightful wet patch. 'Thank you,' I mouth to her, catching her blush before turning and following the others emptying out of the ship.
Outside, the air seems even closer and all around us is thick jungle foliage, only not all of it is green. Some leaves are as black as night and others an eggplant sort of purple with bright pink veining running through it. Below my bare feet, the feather-soft grass is bone-white. In the sky hangs two suns, one smaller than the other, and, looming low, two ghostly moons huddled together as well. "Well, Toto, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore," I say to myself as I try to get my bearings and take stock of the situation.
"What's the plan?!" Chastity sidles up to me and hisses. "We can't escape here. This place is like the deepest, darkest Amazon rainforest on steroids. How would any of us survive? Who knows what lurks out there?" She scans our surroundings and shivers despite the heat.
"I was a Girl Scout," says Gwen who had moved closer to me and Chastity. "I bet a lot of Earth wilderness survival stuff can transfer over to other planets."
Just then, a frog-like creature jumps into the clearing right in front of us. It looks exactly like one of those multi-colored rainforest frogs I'd seen in nature shows… except, maybe a bit…off. Like someone had stepped on it or something, making its eyes bulge out of its head just a bit too much.
"Brightly colored. That means it's poisonous," Gwen says, informing us with a nod of authority, right before the little froggy opens its mouth and belches out a flame that scorches a patch of white grass. Gwen, Chastity, and I all yelp, leaping backward, away from the fire-frog while it munches on the over-cooked vegetation.
"Ok, Girl Scout, remember anything about flaming frogs from your wilderness survival training?" Chastity teases, hands on her hips, her silk sleep top riding up. Gwen screws up her nose. This is ridiculous.
