Sparkling Destination

"Alright, everyone! Get ready to enter orbit!" Ipiz Bi-Nuvu didn't bother hiding the excitement in his voice. They were all sharing it anyway.
Omin pulled up the monitoring panel for the tertiary dorsal conduit grid. All readings normal, same as the ventral one. He turned his attention to their wing counterparts. Left one normal. And the right one... yes, everything in perfect order. Back to the ventral grid.
A few minutes later Siti's voice rang across the bridge. "Aaand that's it! The orbit is stable - we have officially arrived!" The pilot threw her fists into the air, her green feathers raised in joy. The entire crew started cheering while Pasutgiruta's A.I. dutifully reported their status back to Ranul. Nuvu waited until the noise faded before praising his crew. "Good job, everyone."
Omin leaned back and looked up at the planet outside the window, with its turquoise oceans and forest-covered continents. Of course, they all had seen images of Tuvasuno before. Lifelike simulations modeled after the scans of the earlier system probes. Still, those were nothing compared to actually seeing the real thing. Knowing that this enormous world was teeming with life. With alien cultures so different and yet oddly similar to their own ancestors.
Out of the corner of his eye, Omin noticed Ur-Dele looking at him. "Come on, rookie", the senior engineer said with a smirk. "Let's get the atmospheric drones ready."