Chapter 1: Arrival

Outside the window of Kasha’s cabin was nothing but the blue and purple vortex of hyperspace. As long as it stayed that way, she was okay. It was the inevitable point when she would see stars again that she was dreading.

Kasha sat down on the bed that she had slept in for the last three nights. At least her dad’s company had been kind enough to provide them with a family suite on the transport, so she, her parents and her brother each got private cabins. It was a small comfort, and after all, she was used to being surrounded by sterile metal and plastic walls. It was how she had lived all her life.

But in a few hours, everything would be different.

It almost felt like she had been in a state of near constant shock since she learned weeks ago that her dad’s job had transferred him, and that they would be leaving the space station and moving to the province of Calic on Lupina. In all her sixteen years, Kasha had never left space; her whole life had been back on Sigma 14. Now she was going to live on an actual planet; no matter how many textbooks she read in school or how much other people told her, how was she supposed to have the slightest idea what to expect?

She knew the details, of course. Lupina was a planet with an average temperature of 26 degrees and very little seasonal climate change. A year there was 412 days. It had a lot of waterlogged areas, and many towns there were built on water.

But aside from the textbook details, it was what she’d heard about the people that really had her on edge. Allegedly, Lupina was infamous for its people walking around wearing next to nothing—or actually nothing. Nudity or partial nudity was supposed to be the norm there. The only person Kasha had ever seen naked in her life was the girl in the mirror. Now she was about to be surrounded by them—and more than likely expected to follow suit.

Or birthday suit, I should say.

The lady’s voice over the intercom gave the dreaded announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be dropping out of hyperspace within the next hour. We will be docking at the Lupina Cruise Port.”

Kasha sucked in a breath and gulped. The four-day purgatory that had been the trip on this shuttle was about to end. Here goes everything.

Would she really be able to parade around nude in front of strangers, and live that way indefinitely? ... Maybe she needed to practice a little. She stood up and walked to the oval-shaped mirror on the wall, and looked back into the green eyes of the girl she saw there. Straight red hair with cutoff bangs curtained her face. She looked down at herself, at the long-sleeved blue and gray fabric top and gray pants she wore. The kind of outfit that was totally ordinary on the space station, but where she was going would make her stick out like a very sore and overdressed thumb.

Grimacing, Kasha slowly unzipped her top and peeled it away, uncovering her black strapless bra. She shucked her shoes and slid her pants down her legs, uncovering her black boyshorts. She stopped there, pausing to look at herself in her underwear. This by itself was already more than she was comfortable showing off, but she was still going to have to continue if she was going to be ready for this. If it was even possible for her to be ready for this.

Off went her underwear. Now she stood naked in front of the mirror, scrutinizing her body like she never had before. She saw smallish but still pert breasts capped with pink nipples. She saw a red bush at the junction of her legs that she had never bothered to trim, because she had never considered the possibility of someone seeing it. She saw a pair of hips that she wished were just a little narrower ... and as long as she was wishing, some bigger boobs would be nice too.

Well, she decided her package wasn’t too bad, all things considered. If she had to show it off in front of people, maybe that wouldn’t be so terrible.

Her door chimed and her mother’s voice sounded at the door. “Kasha, can I come in honey?”

“Wait, hold on!” Kasha yelped, scrambling in a panic to pull her clothes back on, and opening the door once she was dressed again. “Hi Mom,” she said through a fake grin.

“Is everything alright?” her mom said.

“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because you have ‘basket case’ written all over you.”

Kasha dropped her phony smile and turned back into her cabin. Her mom followed her inside—and stopped, looking at a spot on the floor. Kasha followed her eyes and began blushing like a tomato when she saw what her mom was looking at: her discarded underwear on the floor that she had neglected to put back on in her rush to get dressed. “Trying to get a jump on things?”

Kasha sighed. Her newfound resolve had officially been crushed. How could she handle nudity in front of strangers if she couldn’t even handle it in front of her own mother?

Her mom had lost none of her inexplicable ability to read Kasha’s mind. “If it means anything to you, I’m as freaked about this as you are.” Like Kasha, her mom was also a born spacer, and although she’d been to some actual planets before, she’d never been to any world like Lupina.

“Why couldn’t Dad’s job have sent him to some planet like Gethro or Morvis, where people actually stay covered up?”

“Look, honey, you know you don’t have to actually get naked in front of people once we get there. There are other options.”

“Not a lot of them.”

“I know it’ll take some getting used to, but I’m sure we will.”

Kasha grimaced. “I wish I was so sure.”

After a pause, her mom added, “Actually, so am I. I was trying to reassure myself as much as you.”

Her grimace turned to a smile, and she leaned over to hug her mother. “Thanks, Mom.”

Her mom hugged her back and then turned to leave. “We’re going to be landing soon, so make sure you’re ready.”

“Mm-hmm,” Kasha said as her mom walked out the door. As if I’m ever going to be ready for this.

Kasha removed her clothes again just long enough to put her underwear back on, and decided to spend the time she had left before they landed by doing the one thing she knew could always relax her at least a little: playing her ogara. The ogara was a musical instrument that produced a high lyrical sound. It consisted of a base with a grip for her left hand and a butt that she held in the crook of her arm, and above that was a large ring that projected a big ball of glowing energy inside of it when it was active. By holding her hand in front of the energy, she produced a tone. She made notes by moving her fingers and changed the pitch by moving her hand closer or further from it. It was an instrument that took a lot of practice and some old-fashioned raw talent to master, and Kasha had had both since she was six.

She spent the next hour playing her favorite set of songs; songs she was sure her family had gotten sick of hearing over the last four days. But finally, the inevitable came. She saw the flash out the window that preceded the reappearance of star-speckled blackness. Gulping, Kasha stood up and walked to the window ... and looking down, she saw the blue and green planet below her.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in orbit above Lupina. Please strap yourselves in as we prepare to dock with the Cruise Port.”

Kasha’s window didn’t allow her a clear view of the orbiting station that they were docking with, but she did as instructed, strapping into her chair and waiting out the long minutes before she felt the craft slow its motion, and then shudder violently when the docking clamps locked in place.

Showtime.

Sighing, Kasha stood up, packed up her stuff and walked for the door of her cabin. The rest of her family was already out of the suite; she found them already waiting for her out in the hall where the other passengers were moving to get off the shuttle. “Kasha, come on,” her dad said.

Gritting her teeth, Kasha stepped out of the suite to join her family. Her dad seemed oblivious to her distress at the situation, but her mom gave her a knowing look. Her 10-year-old brother Trevor just looked lost. As a group, they headed for the airlock, coming ever closer to their new life. As they walked among the other passengers, Kasha couldn’t keep from thinking about how most of them were only here for a visit. Not like her.

They followed the crowd of passengers through the transport to the exit hatch, and from there followed the signs and the yellow line snaking along the sleek, metallic floor to Customs and Security, where Dad presented their travel passes and IDs and answered the necessary questions. Then it was onto the shuttle down to the surface, where they checked in their luggage and were guided to seats, where this time they had to sit all in a row together, the luxury of their private cabins behind them. In fact, Kasha realized, a lack of privacy was something she would soon have to get used to.

“Please strap yourselves in as we prepare to disembark,” the announcer lady’s voice said. “There will be some turbulence as we enter the atmosphere.”

It’s the turbulence after we enter it that I’m worried about, Kasha thought as she secured herself in the chair. She looked over and saw Dad squeezing Mom’s hand, and privately wished she had someone’s hand to hold too. Her brother didn’t count.

They were pressed back into their chairs as the shuttle launched from the Cruise Port, and then the planet below them started rapidly getting bigger in the window. The way the shuttle trembled and shook as it made its entry seemed a perfect analogy for how she felt now. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth and gripped her fingers tight on the armrests.