Chapter Text
Penny Hapwell unbuckled and scrambled out of the shuttle as fast as she could, which was not very fast considering the leftover muscle atrophy. After all, nearly everyone here had been in deep sleep for fifteen years, growing soft while their ships sped across the universe. Admiral Benden had woken everyone up last week to enjoy the view and adjust to the gravity, but despite the name, spaceships were not exactly spacious. Penny was ready to stretch out and move around without bumping into anyone. “Hey, get out here! Your lungs will thank you!” She stepped out of the way of the others disembarking and spread her arms, spinning in circles a couple of times before her husband finally joined her.
“What?” Pete Hapwell stumbled forward, grabbing Penny’s shoulder to keep from falling over. The relatively quick trip in the shuttle had affected his equilibrium - ah, well, she thought, at least he didn’t get seasick. “Oh, right. Yup, we’re on P-... urp-” he bent over, christening the new planet with a rancid version of yesterday’s reconstituted chicken parm . “Pern, alright,” he finished, wiping his mouth with a napkin his wife handed him. She kicked some dirt over top of the revolting pile, not wanting anyone to step in it. “It’s nice… for being outside,” he admitted.
“We can go inside after we help move these crates,” his wife gestured to the line of people waiting to help carry cargo. “I can handle heavy, just not too big,” she told the shuttle pilot, handing off the light box she’d been given to a child. The next box that came down was marked “fragile” and rattled like glass. Some sort of science equipment, she speculated. There was a lot more science involved in settling a planet than she would have guessed. Something about… pouring farm animals out of a glass? Not to worry. She was here to help out the elderly, she reminded herself - no one would make her touch pureed sheep.
Penny scurried out of the way, setting the box down just in time to open the door for Pete’s backside, soon followed by a gigantic crate and two men holding up the other end. Easily eight feet long, it looked like some sort of construction material. The men managed to get it to the designated area and sat it down without any pinched fingers or strained backs. “That’s it,” Pete said when he got back to his wife, slapping his hands together. “Shuttle’s empty. We had more people than cargo.”
“Oh, ok. Good. Come outside with me.” Penny grabbed his hand, tugging him back through the door onto the not-grass. “I know we have a lot to do… but look.” She gestured broadly over the landscape that felt nothing like Earth and everything like home. The sky was too green, the not-grass split into unfamiliar little clumps, the trees covered in strangely shaped leaves, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. “We made it to Pern,” she said, holding both of his hands.
“We made it to Pern,” he echoed, twisting her into a hug from behind and pressing a kiss on top of her head, “where we can finally relax.”