Eight days after the storm, we found the planet.

It wasn't a single rock drifting in space, of course, but Ben later insisted we stumbled over it like a blind, small, furry animal with a fluffy tail over a nut. Which confirmed my suspicion human analogies were complicated, anachronistic and incomprehensible. Anyway. Woken by an urgent message, I followed Hijac's call to the bridge. An old spacer law says emergencies always happen in the middle of the captains rest period. This one was no exception.

I still rubbed the gritty remains of my interrupted sleep out of my eyes while I stepped into the command centre. "What's the urgency? Have you found a signpost pointing us back towards civilised space?"

"No, but this might be as good. Look!" My gaze followed the karjkan's spindly limb pointing to the main screen—only to scream.

A dark mass approached the Topsy at an incredible speed. Convinced we'd be hit any instant, I ducked behind the backrest of my chair. The glaring sound of a proximity alert tore through the ship, and I pressed my palms over my sensitive ear membranes.

But the hit didn't happen. When it continued to not happen, I stood up and bestowed a scolding glance upon my Number one on the pilot's seat. "Hrrovr, cut the alarm. What by the seven guardians of the thrice-forbidden gate to eternity was that?"

"Probably an as'ssteroid, Captain." He busied himself with this screen. "Or a planet? The ss'scanners report a big mass'ss of minerals'ss and froz'ssen hydrogen."

"And why didn't the scanners pick up this icy hazard of the spaceways before it was right on top of us?" My friends insist I'm grumpy when called out of sleep. Near-collisions and alarms tend to worsen my mood.

A mouldy whiff of amusement underlined Hijac's multifaceted stare. "The scanners work fine. The ship wasn't endangered."

"Right, laugh at the captain all you want. So, we just dived beneath a huge chunk of rock, setting off a collision alarm, on purpose and in the best interest of science?"

"Yes, Captain. We need all the information we can collect on this star system to locate it on the charts." The karjkan's speech box screeched out of synch and they tuned it expertly with a hind limb. "It may well be our ticket home."

"Star system?" My anger evaporated when Hrrovr called up a wider view on the main screen. It was gorgeous. A bit to our left, a bright, little yellow sun hung in the darkness of space. I could locate several planets. Number one zoomed onto a gas giant surrounded by a bunch of colourful rings and moons of various sizes.

"Wow." I had been so engulfed in the view I'd missed Aalyxh and Ben entering the bridge. The human scratched his stubbly chin. "Thanks for calling us. At least the view is worth the shock. But a simple comm call would have brought us here too, no need to waste energy on a general alarm."

Sometimes I admired Ben's stoicism. Aalyxh moved to the pilot's station, all business despite being called out of sleep. "Hrrovr, I'm taking over. Such a system must be charted, even if it's as a tourist attraction. Go look for a match in the database."

"Already running a ss'search, Lyxh'ss." Hrrovr moved to his own station. "Negative ss'so far."

"Carry on." Like Hijac and Aalyxh, I was enthusiastic. This was our best bet to find the way back home. All we needed was a single match, a reference, anything that told us where the Ticotan ion storm had carried us. "Ben, how's our energy status?"

"Reaching a third of capacity." The human studied the readouts of engineering. "If we move closer to the star, we can use solar energy to recharge. It seems to be K-class and should allow us to be operational in about two standard days."

Ben sent me one of these big-eyed glances asking for support, a cuddle, or the permission to start an exciting experiment. I hardly ever could read them. This time, it was mirrored by two bright blue orbs at the top of two delicate eyestalks. Ajs, our tyrinan guest, had taken to following the engineer around like a pup. A very bright and adaptive one. The two made an exotic pair since Ben still shied away from the slimy secretions of his young admirer.

I couldn't reject the plea of two pairs of begging eyes. "Fine, we're moving in. But let's check the planets one by one. I'm not keen on surprises. If this star is a K, the system might be occupied. If not, there is the chance of finding valuable ore ."

"Aye, Kali." Aalyxh was in her element. The prospect of exploring had an uplifting effect on her mood. I agreed, everything was better than being stranded in space without an inkling where. She turned the ship around. "Let's begin with the planet we just passed."

With a few thrusts of the auxiliary engine, she brought us alongside the globe that caused my blood to boil earlier. It appeared to be harmless from this position, on the small side, dominated by white and purple ice plains. Black and brown mountain ranges interrupted them, and craters of different sizes marred the surface.

Ben cleared his throat. "Not very impressive. I doubt it qualifies as a planet."

"Why? It's round, and it orbits a star. That's all a planet needs." Aalyxh was a generous person, even towards planets.

Ben shrugged. "Go discuss that with the human astronomers guild. According to them, it would be a plutoid at best."

"What's a plutoid?" Normally, I knew better than to interfere when the two started an argument about semantics, but I'd never heard this expression.

"In the Sol system, there are eight to ten planets, depending on the definition used." Ben dropped into his chair, and Ajs climbed the back of it to perch on his headrest like an artsy ornament. "Pluto, the ninth of them, was at one point degraded to a dwarf planet or planetoid. A huge debate in the scientific community ensued. In a compromise, now all dwarf planets of the outer asteroid belt are called plutoids."

This sounded like another human lunacy. Aalyxh rolled her eyes, but Hrrovr cut her short. "Captain, two of the inner planets'ss fall into the life ss'zone."

The potential plutoid lost all interest. If one of the planets was inhabited, we might find someone to ask for the way home. Not that this counted as state-of-the-art-navigation by the book, but better than drifting forever in uncharted space. My growing elation was cut short by a sinister thought, though. If there was sentient life here, why hadn't we been hailed or shot at upon entering the system? I swallowed a glob of bile. "Any life signals? Broadcasts?"

"Negative, Captain. But one planet has'ss artificial ss'satellites'ss."

A civilisation on the brink of the space age then, probably not advanced enough to detect us in long-range scanners. If the system was uncharted, this discovery was gold. "Hijac, Hrrovr, continue the search for a match with the charts. Approach with care, Aalyxh, we don't want to trigger a potential weapons system."

"Aye, Kali." The pilot had forgotten about her banter with Ben and concentrated on her job.

The human stood up. "I'm down in engine, Cap. Want to make sure the charging goes as smooth as possible. Just in case."

While I watched his back, I wondered if my crew even needed me. They knew what to do without me, and I was left worrying while they all kept busy with important stuff. Then I glimpsed our tyrinan guest who made a huge effort to follow her adopted parent and suppressed a giggle. Tiny Ajs had to cross twice the distance as the human.

Somehow, and to my utter astonishment and relief, she'd been quick to realise that the residues of her passage offended the crew. From then on, she made it a habit to follow fixed pathways along the walls and unused floor parts. It made a weird kind of sense, as she was able to move much faster on a once established slime track while none of us risked breaking a limb from slipping on her blueish goo.

As soon as Ajs disappeared through the hatch to the engine room, I pulled out my age-worn copy of the GORP, a legacy of my carefree hitchhiking days. There was little chance I'd find out more than Hrrovr and Hijac in the database, but I could at least try. I gave up soon, though, as my mind got distracted by the view on the screen.

While closing in, it became clear we approached a binary system: Two planets of approximately the same size orbited each other. One of them seemed to be covered by liquids with only a few minor landmasses, like my homeworld Oola. The other was terrestrial and of a brownish-red colour. This was the one with the satellites.

The prospect of an important discovery thrilled me despite our awkward situation. And nothing was as important as a planet capable of supporting life. Hrrovr studied his screen. "Looks'ss like a des'ssert."

He had a point, and I turned to Hijac for confirmation. "Any traces of organics? Any sentient life forms?"

"Negative on the latter. No radio signals or anything. But the orbit is cluttered with junk from a long history of space travel typical for a spacefaring species. The satellites are non-functional, though, sending only automated readings."

A cold sea formed in my stomach, sloshing back and forth. No spacefaring species left their planet unguarded—unless they had to, for very important reasons. Ugly concepts like war, plague, and extinction popped up in my mind. "A dead world?"

"Seems so." Hijac emitted a cloud of peppery curiosity flavoured with a bitter hint of fear. The fact the cold-blooded karjkan was spooked worried me. All our eyes remained on the screen and changing readouts during approach until a bright blue flash in the passage to engine caught my attention. Ajs skidded through the hatch, leaving her well-established track to stop in front of my chair. 

"Cap Kali." It was the first time she addressed me, and the combination of Ben's and Aalyxh's names for me made me almost laugh out loud. Then I saw the shivering of her slim body and felt sorry.

Before I could address our new addition, Aalyxh spoke up. "Don't be afraid of her, Ajs. Kali can be quite nice if you get to know her. She just tries to maintain the facade of the grumpy captain to hide her insecurities."

"Thanks for the personality break down, Lyxh. Shouldn't you steer the ship or something?" I tried to swallow my annoyance and ignore Hijac's mouldy amusement as well as Hrrovr's hissing snickers. "Yes, Ajs, what's the matter?"

The tyrinan raised her upper body to full height, her tentacles wrapped tightly around her torso. She had grown during the last days and reached halfway to my knee now.

"Cap Kali, Ben says to tell you he has to readjust the charger for the energy storage and will be occupied for several clicks." She spent too much time with the human and copied even his speech patterns. I had to suppress another giggle. Ajs twisted her eyestalks before she continued. "Also, the cryogenic unit initiated the waking process for the next batch of several scores of the Tanencha's hatchlings."

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