All was going, well, quite ducky from Aara’s point of view. She had proved herself to Mike, and seemed to have earned the status of ‘leader of the mission’. Mike seemed to have given up on their escape plan since the driving incident and now, three days later, they were passing into sight of the first planet on the far side of Earth she had ever laid eyes on. Unfortunately, as they drew nearer, the surface of the spacial body looked less and less inviting. Sharp crags of rock jutted from steaming ravines, protruding far into the thin, putrid atmosphere. Onboard scanners reported that the air was breathable but if it smelled like it looked, Aara would rather dump that nasty leftover spaghetti into Mike’s old gym shoes and bake it for awhile then breathe into the oven. All the while, Mike sat fixedly sending out displeased vibes and humming the refrain of ‘I wanna hold your hand’ loud enough to be annoying. Aara refused to have her bubble popped by a piece of petulant space trash who couldn’t take photographs. Mike was getting fed up with all this ‘know it all’ stuff. Like geez, she wasn’t ‘sposed to know how to pilot the ship! It was his job to suddenly (somehow) learn how to drive and zoom masculinely out into the open stars. It was going to be his chance to prove himself to be more than an intergalactic bum, to let his stunning intellect shine through. “Get a grip” he told himself “Without help you wouldn’t exist anymore - the Mulanian counsel would have already examined you.” In a futile attempt to drown this inner sense be got up suddenly, smashing his skull on the solid alloy that constructed the inside of the ship. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye, a something that he didn’t have any wish to come into contact with, a massive starship was descending upon them. This ship was not only massive, it was horrible, the whole thing was a mottled pukeish brown with lumps and what looked disgustingly like hair. It was a vessel which couldn’t possible belong to any organized government (except maybe the United States) and that meant they were in astronomical trouble.
Before he could even recite his last will and testament, a large tenpin bowling ball was propelled directly into the flight centers of their minuscule craft and they were plummeting towards the first alien planet Aara had ever laid eyes on with astonishing speed.
