"Earth," Pai mused quietly, "It's really been a while."

"Yeah, but...doesn't it look a little dark to you?" said Tart, "Tokyo, I mean. It was always so bright." He cocked his head to the side, and narrowed his eyes. "I mean, I think it was a bit lighter, right Kisshu? You've been down there more than we have."

"Well, if something is wrong, wouldn't it be better just to find out by landing instead of hovering in orbit for another five years?" he grumbled, "I just want to see them already, okay."

Pai leveled a glare at Kisshu and shook his head slowly. "And by them, you mean her. We know. But you're exaggerating. It's been approximately five point six minutes since we entered orbit. Be a little more patient."

"Pai, if I were patient, none of us would be alive right now. Okay, that's more if I were logical like you."

Tart yawned widely and began to drift backwards, much to the irritation of Pai, who proceeded to grab a foot and yank. "Be a little more careful, twerp! Space isn't a place to play!"

"But I'm bored!" Tart whined, and kicked the taller alien's hand away angrily. "It's been forever since we went down there!"

"I don't understand what it is with you two and exaggerations today. I'm just trying to find a way to land that doesn't involve debris or hitting a satellite. If you'd like to help, be my guest."

Kisshu shrugged, and stretched. "We did it last time without many problems, so it can't really be that much different now."

"Keep in mind, Deep Blue's ship exploded, Kisshu, and it was in the outer atmosphere. Do you really want ship-bits embedded in the hull?" Pai pulled out a device, and poked at the dashboard for a few seconds while his two companions fidgeted. "Also, there's something interfering with the interface that wasn't here before."

"So, what, like actual sophisticated technology?" Asked Kisshu, leaning in to look over his shoulder, "that's unlikely, the humans are still - heh - lightyears behind us."

Pai frowned, and studied the screen intently. "Yes and no; this seems more like...well, our tech. I don't see how it could be, though."

Kish flipped through some of his data. "Yeah, seems like it," he murmured, "residue, maybe? We do use a different energy source than they do, and its half-life is certainly more than five years."

The two hovered over their mechanics while Tart flipped a few careless cartwheels through the darkness, and several minutes passed with little more than a mutter being exchanged between the group members.

"Okay, I think we're in. I have a landing pa-Tart, you do realize that if you leave the ship you will die."

"I can't guarantee that the landing will be spot on." Pai warned the group, while he tapped at the controls spread across the screen of the ship, "The power source is strongest over Tokyo, and it muddles readings."

"Please fasten your seat belts and keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times." Kisshu hissed under his breath, and rolled his eyes at the older alien. "Anything else we should know about before we risk life and limb?"

Pai shrugged, and fiddled with the controls a bit more. "Only that you endanger your own life by being an idiot many times on any given day."

"Love you too, man. All right, let's do this."