Chapter 2: Welcome to Janiko

"The Starship Ambassador glided silently through the boundless void of deep space. Despite such a formal name, Ambassador, it was certainly not the kind of ship you’d expect to find a high-ranking government official on board. In fact it barely looked capable of sustaining life at all. Inside however, after several months of hypersleep, the crew had begun their landing preparations on the dimly lit bridge.

A brown, furry creature glided between the ship’s portholes using two large and dripping wet sponges strapped to his feet. He meticulously cleaned the windows and walkways, taking extra care not to dirty his freshly cleaned overalls. Approaching the last porthole on his checklist, the creature sprayed it with his cleaning solution and wiped the final smudges from the glass. His eyes widened as the purple horizon of Janiko slowly came into view – a desert planet on the outskirts of Sector 9. It had been a long time since the crew had seen civilisation, and civilisation usually meant adventure.

He tiptoed closer to the window, fogging the glass with the warm breath from his nostrils. The creature’s feet slowly began to slip backwards, forcing him to cling tightly to the windowpane with his fingertips. The unexpected whooshing sound of an airlock opening behind him caused him to accidentally splash cleaning fluid down his overalls. He did his best to look busy, until noticing that his brother – a second furry creature wearing a brown, leather flight jacket – had joined him on the bridge.

‘Morning, Kuma,’ his brother yawned grumpily, rubbing his eyes with his paws.

‘Panko, we made it – look!’ whispered Kuma, nudging him towards the window.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…’ grumbled Panko, continuing towards the cockpit. Panko was not a morning person, or an afternoon person for that matter. It’s not really possible to tell when morning or afternoon is when travelling through space, but either way he wasn’t quite ready for his brother’s level of energy just yet. He attached the headset around his large fuzzy ears and hopped into the pilot seat.

‘Spaceport Alpha, this is the Starship Ambassador requesting landing clearance,’ grunted Panko. He listened closely to the static for a response. His fingers danced impatiently across the steering controls as he leant back in his chair. ‘Spaceport Alpha… this is the Ambassador, requesting landing clearance…’ he repeated. Still no answer.

Down in the sleeping quarters, a rusted silver robot typed a series of commands into the ship’s computer. The system beeped and whirred as it struggled to keep up with the speed of the robot’s data entry. With a loud crackling sound, the icy door of the sleep chamber began to open, billowing clouds of thick smoke across the metal floor. As the mist cleared, it revealed a frozen human inside. His eyes twitched as he slowly regained consciousness.

‘Welcome back, Captain,’ said the robot.

‘Thanks, Ozzy,’ the human croaked, rubbing his face to stretch out his facial muscles and motivate the blood beneath his skin. ‘Ozzy’ was the affectionate nickname the captain had given his OSC-1 service droid, who was now obediently pouring him a cup of blue, hot liquid. The robot handed the cup to the captain, who quickly wrapped himself in the nearest blanket. Shivering as he sipped, the steam melted the icicles that hung from his moustache.

‘Ozzy, anything to report?’

‘Negative, sir. We passed a couple of freighters on their way to Sector 8, nothing of significance. Would you like me to restore us to full power?’

‘That’d be great, Oz. Crank the heating up while you’re at it.’ He shuddered. ‘It’s colder than the dark side of Nervosa in here… Are the others upstairs?’

‘Affirmative, sir.’

The captain wrapped the rest of the blanket around his shivering torso and slowly made his way on deck – wincing with every barefooted step through the swirling mist that hovered above the cold, metal floor.

‘Morning…’ announced the captain as he started to get himself dressed. ‘What’s our status?’

‘Jeez! You look like hell, Nav… But nice of you to join us!’ laughed Panko.

‘Thank you. I’m pretty sure parts of me are still frozen, if I was covered in fur like you guys I’d be warm already.’

‘Ship’s in good shape, Captain!’ squeaked Kuma. ‘Cleaned her up real nice for ya!’

‘Fantastic…’ he mumbled, stifling back yawns as he ruffled Kuma’s hair affectionately between his oversized ears. ‘Panko, how’s the landing clearance coming along? I’m getting sick of this tin can. I need some daylight… and some good coffee,’ he said, cringing at the blue sludge that now circled the bottom of his mug. Before Panko could respond he was interrupted by a loud explosion that rocked the ship, sending the crew stumbling through the cabin.

‘What in the wimpets was that?’ screeched Kuma. A second explosion rumbled through the cabin, forcing the captain to spill blue sludge across the freshly cleaned floor.

‘Incoming fire!’ Panko shouted as his hands grabbed at the controls, pulling a hard left that sent the ship into a gut-wrenching dive. ‘Brace yourselves!’

The Ambassador plunged into the treacherous asteroid field that orbited Janiko’s outer rim. Weaving and banking through the tumbling rock, black patrol vessels appeared seemingly out of thin air and started their pursuit. Kuma clung to the arms of his seat, his eyes squeezed shut. The captain, however – unfazed by the chaos – quickly made his way to the ship’s turret to return fire.

‘Kuma, Ozzy, strap yourselves in!’ he called over his shoulder, ‘looks like we’ve made some new friends…’

‘Calculating probability of survival at thirty-seven point four percent,’ reported OSC-1. Kuma peered over the headrest in horror as a section of the ship detached with an explosive crunch and slowly drifted away.

‘Sixteen point one percent,’ corrected OSC-1.

The captain’s brow furrowed as he blasted at the approaching asteroids to clear a path for the ship. Panko gripped the wheel and with gritted teeth barrel-rolled majestically to avoid the enemy fire. With the patrol ships unable to match his acrobatics, the Ambassador burst through the asteroid field and the planet’s gravitational pull slowly took hold.

‘We’re losing altitude fast, Captain!’ Kuma squeaked nervously, the controls now minimally responsive beneath his fingers. Alarms blared and smoke poured through the cabin as one by one the ship’s systems started to fail. Panko tried desperately to level the ship for impact as they neared the surface. The Ambassador skimmed off the dunes before eventually crashing nose-deep in the purple sands of the Janiko desert."

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