Page 49 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“Where are we going to land?” I asked.

Maz walked up to the display and pointed to a small dot. “There.”

The ship shook slightly, and Maz turned to me with his arms open. He looked like he was about to rush over and scoop me uplike he used to do. As much as I wanted to feel his arms around me, he wasn’t ready to carry my weight.

I don't know whether it was the concern on my face or the revulsion he’d developed toward touching me, but he stopped halfway between us and dropped his arms to his sides.

“You should sit in one of the shells,” he said, pointing to the chair full of padding and pillows. He’d purchased several of them during our ill-fated trip to Helsin Station.

During his convalescence, he’d put them together for me. It was a chair developed by the Veli for their children. Although it was called a shell seat, it looked more like an egg cut in half long ways. It was designed so if there was some kind of crash, the chair would enclose the person and give them the best chance of survival.

I thought it was overkill, but unlike all the Talin-style chairs, it had a back and was soft and comfy. It immediately became my favorite. I always used it while enjoying my first cup of tea while Nadia drank her fill in the morning.

Although snuggling on Maz’s lap was better.

No, I couldn’t think about that. Whatever was going on with Maz didn’t seem to be going away, and it didn’t feel right to push him.

“Mika?”

Maz saying my name made me realize I’d been standing there staring at the shell chair without moving. With a little sigh, I moved to it and got in. I pulled my feet up and settled Nadia’s butt on my belly and propped her back and head against my legs.

Nadia wiggled her head a little. I was so impressed at how quickly her neck muscles were developing. Soon she’d be able to support her head.

“After that, there’ll be no stopping you!” I whispered to her with a grin.

The ship shook again, and I looked past Nadia and my legs to see Maz sitting in the command chair tapping at the display there. I moved my eyes to the wall display, disappointed to see the live vid capture of the planet was gone.

There was another shake and full worry started overtaking the vague anxiety from earlier. Was it supposed to be this rough?

When a violent tremor shook me, I was relieved to have the shell’s soft padding in almost every direction. I sat up straighter and tucked Nadia tighter against me.

“Maz?”

He must’ve heard the fear in my voice because he shot out of the command chair. Within a breath he was kneeling in front of me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, searching us with his eyes. Probably looking for an injury.

I felt dumb, but I asked my question anyway. “Are we going to crash?”

“Absolutely not.” He sounded a questioning rumble. “Why would you think that?”

There was another violent jolt that rattled through the chair. “That’s why I’m asking!”

I didn’t like how high pitched my voice sounded, but I’d never experienced this before. The other times I’d been to a planet the ride down was smooth and the landing almost unnoticeable.

“This is normal for entering an atmosphere this thick,” he said, purring.

The purring and reassurance helped. “Normal?”

He launched into a long explanation about how the size of a ship, the atmosphere, size of the planet, and weather conditions could all make the ship shake a little but none of it was enough to harm the ship in a significant way.

He described an assignment in his past where he’d landed on a planet with winds so bad he had to pick a spot in a cave to putthe ship or he wouldn’t have been able to get his door open. Even in those conditions he wasn't concerned. The ship was well built, and he didn’t go anywhere the ship couldn’t handle.

Honestly, it was more about his calming voice than the words he was saying. My skillset was all about dealing with a space station’s delicate air filtration and cycling system. I knew all about the special needs of different species, the cubic cleaning requirements for all different size spaces, but dealing with planets was all new.

And scary.

“What if we land and there’s an earthquake? That happens on planets, right? Big holes can open up and swallow us and the whole ship. What about the frozen water that falls from the sky? It could cover the ship and we’d get smothered. Or if the water isn’t frozen and where we set down fills with water and we drown?”