“Dude, she’s way too old for you.”

“What are you talking about? She’s 34.”

“And you’re 26.”

“It’s only 8 years.”

“That’s what I mean. Do you realize she was in the third grade when you were

born? That’s creepy. Have you thought about this?”

“Yeah, think about that. If we’d had sex then I’d have been one day old and she’d have been a third grader!”

“You’re a freak.”

“Why are you so down on her?”

“Cause she’s old, aren’t you listening?”

“I’m listening, but I’m not hearing any compelling arguments against.”

“Ah, jeez, you’ve got the maturity of a sixteen year old. What the hell kind of relationship do you have?”

“See that’s just it. Think about it. It is like I’m sixteen. And she’d be 18 years older than me! And every sixteen year old needs a mother figure. So she’s mine.”

Mark groaned.

“But the best part is, I also get to satisfy my Oedipus complex by sleeping with her. Where is the problem exactly?” He was grinning now.

“You’re just sick. How much longer ‘til we land?”

“Few minutes. Don’t get excited.”

They sat in silence for a while longer, Mark sipping a beer, David watching the instruments.

“I just don’t see what the problem is. You don’t have to pull this older brother crap every time I start seeing someone. Did I pull this crap when you started dating Sandy?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“We’re the same age!”

“She’s a month and a half older than you. I checked.”

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding.”

“Planet’s surface on screen.”

“Can you land her?”

“Not yet. Gotta find a nice big wide open space.”

David waited a second longer and then giggled. “Besides, she thinks you’re cute.”

“What?”

“No, really, she told me so.”

“She told you when?”

“When we were in bed the other day.”

“I don’t want to hear about this.” There was a warning in Mark’s voice, but as usual David continued on unabated.

“My girlfriend likes my brother. It’s twisted, eh?”

“Shut up, Dave.”

“How bout there?” David pointed at the screen and Mark leaned over.

“Is it big enough?”

“Half a kilo. We should have plenty of space to set down.”

“Wonder what the air’s like out there.” Mark said quietly, staring out at the night sky as they plummeted towards the planet surface.

“Should I call Paris?”

“I’ll do it.” Mark picked up the hand mike and depressed the little red button with the ridges. “Paris? Air check.”

“I’m on it.” A deep booming voice crackled back.

The door to the cockpit skidded open with a loud wail and the brothers turned to eye the blonde girl who entered cautiously. She was still rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

“Are we here?”

“We’re here.” Mark confirmed.

“Breathable?”

“We’ll know in a minute.” David answered smiling. He switched the landing controls to manual and grabbed the steering thrust. “Impact in 30.” He said out of habit. Mark pointed to the chair behind them and the blonde girl sat down.

Her name was Kristina Tillerman, but Dave insisted on calling her Kristy. She hated it. She was the lead of the scientific team that had hired Mark and his ragtag crew to fly them to this desolate planet, and though the ship looked like it was about to fall apart the price had been right, and in her opinion they’d done a fantastic job of getting to where they needed to go.

“When will we know about the air?”

“Not ‘til we land.” Mark answered as though he’d been asked and answered that question a thousand times. That may not have been far from the truth. Many of the planets out on the far reaches of this system hadn’t been studied yet. Federal probes were sent out daily in thousands of directions, but some planets were just too far off the maps. That was what had drawn Kristina’s science team to this one in the first place in fact.

She nodded as though she understood (she didn’t) and gripped the chairs arms with ever whitening knuckles. Dave smiled at her and winked.

“When will we land?” She asked no one in particular.

“We already did.” Dave answered and stood up from his chair. Mark followed suit and they left her behind staring out the viewport in a slight state of shock.

“What do you mean we…” But as she stood up and walked closer to the window she could see that they had already set down. She’d expected to be jostled a bit, probably slammed down into the earth like a falling meteor. Her inexperience with space flight and planet landings amused both Mark and Dave, and she hated that. She wanted to appear more experienced than she was, and that amused them even more.

“Paris? How do we look?” Mark yelled as he exited the bridge.

“Look’s good.” The bass voice shot back. “She’s still breathing.”

“Good.” Mark said to himself. He walked back a few paces to the hatchway and pressed a series of buttons on a small keypad beside the huge metal door. A loud wrenching noise arose from the silence of the sitting ship and slowly and painfully the door unfolded, giving them a stairway down to the planet’s surface.

Kristina pushed past him and started down the steps, determined to be the first on the surface, but she stopped short and gave a sharp yelp.

“There’s a dog!” She screamed.

“Yes.” Mark said walking past her and patting the dog on the head. “Back inside girl. You done good.” The dog licked Mark’s hand and then trotted past the girl and into the ship.

“You- The dog- you put that dog out here to test the air?!”

“Of course. Standard procedure.” She was staring at him in disbelief. “Would you rather we put you out?”

“That’s cruel!”

“Well, unless you’ve got and extra seventeen thousand bucks you’re willing to part with so I can buy the proper equipment to test the atmosphere, that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

“You monster!” She was on the verge of tears.

“Technology’s a wonderful thing ma’am. But it’s expensive.” He was being cold on purpose. He didn’t care what she thought, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to explain it.

“How many dogs have you killed? Murdered!” She screamed.

“Ten. Maybe eleven.” Dave said nonchalantly as he walked past her.

“Sixteen.” Mark said matter-of-factly. He didn’t look back. “Your people gonna set up tonight, or you gonna wait for the sun.”

“Sun won’t come up for another sixteen hours.” Dave said dryly.

“How much daylight?” Mark asked. They were outright ignoring the girl now, and she was getting angrier by the minute.

“I’ll report this. I’ll make sure your license is revoked. You’ll never fly again, do you understand me?”

“Thirty-two maybe thirty-three hours.” Dave answered in response to the daylight question.

Mark nodded and then headed back up the steps and into the ship. As he passed her he almost whispered. “What makes you think I have a license?”