But I also needed to be careful. I had no doubt that we would receive a very cold reception on Valovia, even if we weren’t immediately murdered or imprisoned. We needed to do the job we were hired for, get paid, and then beat a hasty retreat back into safer space.

The one-minute warning sounded and everyone strapped in. Sixty seconds later, Starlight’s Shadow sank into the Valovian atmosphere with a judder. The ship definitely was not at its best in atmosphere. It lumbered like a beast too heavy for flight.

I made some minor adjustments to the autopilot but mostly let the ship take us in. Below, the view turned green. Torran lived in Zenzi, the capital city, nestled within the planet’s temperate equatorial girdle.

As we drew closer, a sprawling city came into view. The orange sun was either rising or setting, causing the taller buildings to glow on one side and cast deep shadows on the other. A check of the local time confirmed that it was early morning.

Getting used to a solar day that was ten hours long was going to be a struggle. It was only in the last hundred years or so that Valoffs had combined two solar days into one longer unit, buratbos, a shortening of “two sun day.”

Before the widespread adoption of artificial lighting, Valoffs worked and slept in short bursts with the natural daylight. With the adoption of the longer twenty-hour buratbos, they worked through a day, a night, and most of another day before sleeping through the second night. It roughly translated to fourteen or fifteen awake hours and five to six sleeping hours.

I wasn’t sure I would adjust, even if we were here for the full length of the contract. At least my quarters didn’t have any outside windows, so I could sleep without the sun shining in my eyes.

The spaceport was at the edge of the city, a huge flat area dotted with other ships. Ground control guided us in, and Starlight settled on the landing pad with a final jolt.

Someone let out a quiet sigh, but otherwise, the bridge remained eerily quiet. Eli and Anja studied their screens. The Valoffs stayed in their seats. I checked the outside cameras. A few people were visible at distant ships, but no one was waiting to snatch us up.

Yet.

I shut down the engines and prepared to put the ship in standby. We were on Valovia. It still didn’t feel real, despite the images streaming in from the outside cameras.

Luna stood and stretched. She sent me a wave of longing with a mental picture of her empty food bowl. It wasn’t dinnertime yet, but we’d skipped lunch, so she was hungry.

I scooped her up and rose. The rest of the shutdown checklist could wait a few minutes. And if anyone was waiting for us outside, maybe they would get impatient and tip their hand.