Below, rolling green planes dotted with deciduous woods divided by the sinuous run of a river. The water flickered and sparkled in the bright light of twin stars. Nicknamed ‘niece’ and ‘nephew’ for reasons long forgotten, each added a different hue to the vista; one a warm red, the other an actinic blue. Sushil loved the overlapping shadows cast by everything he could see.Before him, looking incongruous parked adjacent to the tilled soil and neat rows of growing vegetation, sat a spacecraft. It was an old design, its hull a patchwork of tarnished duralium, with the occasional bright shiny repair panel secured in place. The ship was squat, short, but wide, reminiscent of an old atmospheric ship. Twin wing pods extended port and starboard, giving it a rakish profile. A single-man vessel based on the size of the cockpit, though Sushil knew it had been retrofitted with a second seat aboard.Faint sounds of whirring could be heard, accompanied by brief flickers of light from the underside.
