Chapter Eight
By the time they made it to the landing platform, the shuttle had settled completely into place and the plumes of white smoke had begun to disappear into the air. The shuttle would stay there for at least 24 hours to give the crew a chance to rest and recuperate after the long journey and prepare for the equally long journey back. Zuri found herself wondering if the flight attendants had the option of undergoing the sedation process that many of the passengers did when they were on their way back to Earth. If the shuttle was empty, there really wasn't much for them to do. Perhaps, though, they were required to stay awake simply because they were working and it wouldn't seem practical to pay them for working five days when they were merely sleeping.
The door to the shuttle hissed slightly as it loosened from its position in the shuttle wall and opened out into the space above the elevated landing platform. Zuri watched as the shuttle commander, the same pilot who had been in charge of her trips from Earth to Uoria, back to Earth, and then back to Uoria again, stepped out onto the platform and took a deep breath of the cool air as if relieved to be out of the shuttle for the first time in days. Behind him came a young man and a young woman wearing the flight attendant uniform. She thought that the young man could have been the one who had been with her on one of her flights, but she wasn't positive. She didn't recognize the woman, an obvious hasty replacement for the attendant who had used her position on the shuttle as a means of betraying the Denynso because of an old family grudge.
The women shifted behind her as they waited a few more seconds for the professor to come out. It had been Zuri's experience that passengers who chose to stay awake during the voyage were usually standing right in front of the door with their luggage at their feet, ready to bolt out of the shuttle as quickly as they possibly could when the craft landed because they were so desperate to not be in the same small space, staring out of the window at the deep blackness that was the universe. To her this meant that the new professor must have taken the option given to all of the passengers and been put into a deep sleep to pass the trip. She had done it on one of her trips, and though she had to admit that it made the days pass far more quickly and numbed the pain that she had been feeling, it was not something that she would have wanted to do on her first voyage. That is something that she wanted to feel in control of and remember.
After another few seconds of waiting she saw a large suitcase fly out of the door to the shuttle and skitter across the platform followed by another, and then a smaller bag. Finally a figure stepped into the doorway and Zuri couldn't withhold her gasp of surprise. It was a man.
The whispers that came from the women behind her told Zuri that they had all been assuming the same thing; that the new professor that would come to Uoria to be a part of the exchange program would be a woman. She wasn't sure why she had assumed that, other than that she was the only professor to have come to the planet and that the majority of the professors who had been in favor of the exchange program and voiced even the slightest interest in being a part of it were women. Even the only two students who had made their way to the program, Leia and Samira, were women. This middle-aged man's sudden appearance seemed somewhat out of place, like it was throwing the balance off track.
The man stepped forward and stretched his back, looking down to offer a grin to the women gathered at the foot of the platform, and Zuri suddenly recognized him.
"George?" she called up to him.
"Zuri!" he boomed, the lilting accent in his voice sounding both familiar and strange.
She had worked with George for a few years prior to coming to Uoria, though they were never what she would have considered close friends. She wasn't sure how she felt about him being the professor who was joining the program on Uoria, but she also didn't know how she would have reacted had it been one of the women. As she stood there watching George gathering his bags so that he could carry them down off of the platform, Zuri realized that she was feeling so protective of the compound and the Denynso that she didn't think she would have reacted well to anyone new coming. She would have just as soon cancelled the program and stopped anyone else from coming to the planet.
"Where to?" George asked as he came up beside Zuri.
"When new visitors arrive on Uoria, the first place they go is to meet the king and queen. We'll take you there."
"Sounds good."
"You might remember Samira," Zuri said, gesturing toward the youngest of the human women.
"Of course. It's good to see you, Samira."
Samira nodded and stepped out of the way so that Zuri could introduce the other two women, who exchanged pleasantries and handshakes with George. Zuri could see that all of them were looking at him with expressions that said they were feeling much of the same confusion and uncertainty as she was.
"And this is Zsilvia."
Zuri stepped back so that she could gesture toward the Denynso woman. Zsilvia had fallen back a few steps from the rest of them and looked somewhat startled when Zuri urged her forward. George reached forward and Zuri saw Zsilvia's hand tremble slightly as she placed hers against his palm. He closed his fingers around her hand and held it for a few seconds rather than shaking it as he had with the other women.
"Hello," Zsilvia said, her voice uncharacteristically soft.
"It is very nice to meet you," George said.
After a moment Zuri placed a hand on Zsilvia's arm.
"We should get to the meeting hall. Creia and Theia will be expecting George."
Her intrusion in the suspension between the two of them seemed to bring Zsilvia back into reality and she stepped away from George, her hand falling away from his and her eyes dropping to the ground. Zuri withheld the smile that was teasing at her lips and started back down the path away from the shuttle and toward the meeting hall.