Denton zipped up a faded brown leather jacket and glared at the person he saw staring back at him in the dirty mirror of the orbital barracks. Torn, faded black pants and heavy black boots completed his outfit. His face had been smeared with grease and oil and his hair infused with a variety of substances in an attempt to emulate an untidy, dirty look.

"Who are you?" he whispered to himself and ran his hands through his hair. He wiped the resulting greasy hand on his pants. He was quite sure that no-one at home would recognize him in his current state.

"Is this really necessary?" he shouted.

Moments later, Leah's head appeared in the doorway behind him. Her eyebrows went up momentarily, and he saw the hint of a smile on her face. "Looking good."

"Right. I look ridiculous."

"No, I'm serious," she said as she stepped into the room, dressed not very different from him. Her hair that had been red the last time he saw her was now jet black. A variety of rings lined her earlobes and fingers while her uniform had given way to a black jacket with a chain around her waist. Blue jeans and a pair of black boots that matched his completed her transformation. "The place we're going, no one can suspect we're from up here. We'll be dead in a heartbeat. Or worse."

Denton rolled his eyes. "How can anything be worse than being dead?"

"You don't want to know," Leah said. "Come one, we need to get going. Our pilot is waiting."

"You make it sound so dramatic," he said as he stepped towards her to follow.

Leah, who had turned and stepped halfway out of the room, stopped and took a step towards Denton, her face only inches from his. "Don't kid yourself, space boy. Where we're going, no-one goes voluntarily, and few ever escape from there. If they figure out who you are, you don't leave."

Denton put his hands up in the air and took a step back. "Alright, alright. Lead the way."

Leah stared at him with a grim look for a few more seconds and then disappeared through the doorway. Denton quickly followed, and as they made their way through the corridors of the orbital station, Denton couldn't help but wonder what he was getting into.

As they stepped into the hangar, Denton froze as he saw a small, rusty contraption in the middle of the hangar. Technicians and refueling personnel swarmed the ship while smoke hovered around the craft. He hurried to catch up with Leah, who had continued to walk towards the craft.

"What is that? That's not our ship, is it?"

"Why, what's the problem?"

"It, it, it's a rust bucket, that's the problem," he said as he gestured towards the ship.

Leah stopped and put her hand on Denton's arm. "Listen, Denton, if your goal is to complete your investigation, this rust bucket, as you call it, is your ticket to that goal. It may not look like much, but it was a gun runner for years before we confiscated it in a raid. There's more to it than you think."

Denton sighed and shook his head.

"Are you coming?" Leah said, hands on her hips.

Denton's ear came alive as Tanner patched through. "She has a point, Denton. Our goal is to complete this investigation. From my research, this ship does appear to be what she says it is. Proceeding carries a certain degree of risk, but in comparison with our mission, the risk is acceptable."

"Thanks, Tanner, for your vote of confidence. That's easy for you to say, you're not riding on this thing," Denton grumbled and then nodded once towards Leah. "Yeah, I'm coming."

As they approached the ship, Denton couldn't help but look it over. It reminded him of a delivery van with wings. The cockpit was visible at the front of what appeared to be a rectangular body. Based on Leah's gun running comment, he assumed most of it was cargo space. Slanted wings extended from the top of the fuselage towards the floor of the hangar, connected to large engines that rested on individual sets of landing wheels. The tail contained another set of engines. A ramp at the rear was open, mechanics scurried in and out of the craft finishing their preparations.

Denton followed Leah up the ramp, through the cargo compartment and into the cockpit. A man in a blue cap and dark sunglasses greeted them from the pilot's seat.

"I'm Buck, I'll be your pilot today," the pilot said as he shook Denton's hand.

"Buck?" Denton said, his eyebrows raised. He had never known anyone named Buck.

"You must be the mighty Denton," Buck said with a grin. "Have a seat, partner, we're taking off in just a minute."

Denton took a seat behind the pilot's seat while Leah climbed into the co-pilot's seat.

"Strap yourself in, bud, it's going to be a bumpy flight. The weather forecast is calling for clouds and heavy rain."

"Perfect," Leah muttered as she strapped herself in.

"Ugh," Denton said and shook his head with a sigh. Not only was the craft a piece of junk, but they were also heading right into a storm. Fantastic.

"No, I mean it," Leah said as she turned to look at Denton. "The worse the weather is, the easier it will be for us to slip in unnoticed. It'll be a mess, but the messier, the better."

"If you say so."

"You'll see," she said and turned to Buck. "You ready?"

"You kidding? I was born ready," Buck said and laughed. He started flipping switches throughout the cockpit, and moments later, the engines came alive, at first an almost undetectable whistling sound that grew to a whine and then finally a roar. He turned and handed Denton a pair of headphones. "You'll need these," he shouted above the noise. "You strapped in?"

Denton put on the headphones and nodded. He heard Leah's acknowledgment through the intercom built into the headphones.

"Alright, folks here we go," Buck yelled into his mic. Denton heard a loud bang behind him as the cargo ramp closed and locked in place. The craft rocked side to side as the engines lifted the old ship just off of the hangar floor. A vehicle pulled up in front of them and quickly hooked them to a long boom and towed them over to a launch pad. Buck expertly positioned them in the middle of the pad and then waved through the window to an operator in a booth just to the side of the pad.

The ship bounced slightly as the landing pad descended into the floor. They waited a moment while the hangar bay closed above them after which the pad beneath them parted in the middle. Each half of the pad slid aside and allowed their ship continued to descend out of the belly of the hangar and into space. Buck waited until they were safely away from the hull of the hangar before he engaged the engines. Denton felt a slight tug of gravity as they accelerated away.

"Just a heads up back there," Buck said through the intercom. "This thing isn't exactly airtight all the time. If you start feeling dizzy, just grab the oxygen mask on your left. The guys we took this thing from didn't exactly put maintenance high on their priority list."

"What, this thing leaks air? In space?"

Buck turned and grinned as he shrugged. "Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Just sayin', in case, you know."

Denton shook his head and held on as the ship rotated on its approach to Earth's atmosphere.

"Here we go, guys," Buck yelled as the ship started its descent into Earth's atmosphere, and everything around Denton began to vibrate, first just barely noticeable, then with more intensity. Instinctively, Denton pulled the safety harness tighter and grabbed on to a handle conveniently attached to the hull next to him. He found himself closing his eyes, wondering if this was how he would die, descending through the atmosphere of a planet that was alien to him. He gripped the handle tighter with his left hand and held on to his seat with his right hand and waited for it to be over.

Almost as quickly as the vibrations started, they subsided, replaced by the unmistakable sound of the craft piercing through the air of Earth's atmosphere. He recognized the noise from the Descent back on Proxima b. He looked up and saw that the darkness of space had turned into a lighter color as a result of their descent deeper into the atmosphere.

Leah turned and gave him a smile and a thumbs up. He heard Buck mutter something to himself as his hands flew over the controls. Moments later, they left the smooth air behind and plunged into a thick white soup of clouds. Denton bounced around as the ship was buffeted back and forth and then suddenly dropped straight down for what must have been several hundred feet as they hit an air pocket. Denton felt the contents of his stomach rise in the back of his throat and quickly bent over while he did his best to hold back what he knew could be messy.

Buck was able to find smoother air as they descended further, but the reprieve was short-lived. Denton had just managed to calm his stomach down when they encountered a pocket of heavy rain and strong winds that forced Denton and Leah to hold on tightly as the craft was thrown around in the air while Buck fought to prevent the ship from falling out of the sky.

After what seemed like forever, the ship finally seemed to settle as Buck indicated they were coming in for the landing.

"Alright, guys, this is it. You ready for this?" he shouted over his shoulder.

Denton merely nodded and gave Buck a thumbs up. He wasn't really ready, but he also didn't have much of a choice.

"Hang on, guys, here we go. As soon as we touch down, unbuckle and get outta here. I need to be in the air in thirty seconds, alright?"

Denton straightened up and looked from Leah to Buck. "Wait a sec, what's happening? You're just dropping us off?"

"Yeah, whatcha think I was doing? Coming along on your little excursion? I don't think so. I'll pick you up when you're ready."

Denton turned to Leah, confused. "Leah, this wasn't the plan, was it?"

"Well talk about it later, alright? We need to be ready to get out of here as soon as we're on the ground. There's a backpack in the cargo area, on your immediate right. Grab it before you exit."

"A backpack? Wait, how long are we staying here?"

"As long as needed. Hold on, here we go."

The ship rocked on its landing gear as it touched down. By the time Denton had unbuckled himself, Leah had already disappeared into the cargo hold. Denton followed and picked up the backpack as instructed. She stood by the ramp waiting, her own backpack on her back, looking back at Denton over her shoulder. She waved at him to hurry up.

He joined her at the ramp and looked out into the darkness outside. The rain poured down, whipped sideways by the wind. The ground was a muddy mess, full of puddles. He almost jumped when Leah grabbed his arm and put her mouth next to his ear.

"You ready?" she screamed over the noise of the engines.

Before he had a chance to respond, she let go and took off down the ramp and disappeared into the rain. Denton, momentarily frozen, snapped out of it and followed in the general direction she had gone. He found her about ten yards from the ship, next to an abandoned car that had neither wheels nor windows, its paint hopelessly chipped off from years of exposure to the elements.

He turned in time to see the dark shadow of the ship disappear into the sky, the whine of its engine fading as Buck increased speed and altitude. Leah and Denton watched the sky in silence for a few moments until the only thing they heard was the wind and the rain.

Leah looked over at Denton, rain dripping from her soaked hair, and smiled. "Welcome to Greenwood Backwaters."

~~~

Denton's first visit to Earth isn't too exciting so far. Rain, wind...what else do you think he's going to encounter in this supposed wild part of the world? Will he find what he's looking for? Will he make it out alive?