The Path To Pluto

The rocking and shaking was pretty intense, I thought to myself, and we are approaching the end of the "Danger Time", the travel between solid Earth and the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere, I hope we don't blow up, if we are going to blow up, it will be now. There are 8 of us on board, three pilots, aged in their early twenties, the Captain, the scientist, the medic, the engineer and me, the horticulturist.
There are three young pilots on board, fresh out of college, pimply faced, pretty good at flying this space ship, and necessary for the journey ahead of us. The Captain is a guy in his mid forties, greyish streaks through his hair, and a rough looking fellow. The scientist is one of two women on board, she is a brown haired freckle faced 5 foot something lady in her 30's, she is here to examine anything new that we come across. The medic is also a woman, a bit taller than the scientist, blonde hair and all that, you would probably intentionally get yourself hurt just to go and see her, just joking, very easy on the eyes though, The Engineer is a bit of a nerd, but a nerd who likes to get dirty, he knows this ship inside and out, he should, he helped design the layout and construction.  Then there is me, a horticulturist, my job isn't only looking after the big pod down on the Starboard side of this vessel down aft, but look also after the robots that look after things whilst we are asleep.
We are all sitting around the cockpit area, I look across at the Scientist, Emma, who has her father's pocket watch, holding it by the chain and swinging it back and forth like a pendulum, I notice the outside sky start to fade to black, the watch stops mid flight and stays at a ninety degree angle, she then let's the watch go, it floats suspended in zero gravity, she collects the watch again and puts it in her pocket, looks at me and smiles.
The Captain, happy that we punched successfully through the atmosphere, instructs us to eat, then hit the "Crypt", the first pilot is George, a red haired fellow and probably not good with the ladies, and most probably spends most his nights as a dragon slayer on online gaming, eats, sleeps and plays all from the comfort of one room.  He confidently takes the pilots chair, the Captain stands close behind him, 
"Set course for the moon" the captain says, but George already knows what the Captain is going to say. 
Meanwhile, the rest of us are sitting around the messroom table, joking and laughing and eating, everyone except me has a super important job to do onboard, it's not a title you normally associate with space and space travel. Glen the Horticulturist, hang on, Glen the "SPACE" horticulturist! After eating, I float down toward the greenhouse pod down aft, we are saving power at the moment so the artificial gravity is not engaged, and stop at a console outside. The robotic arms will be my arms for the next period of time, they are programme to provide light and water to the trees, and also the vegetables that we grow, harvest then regrow, yep, it's going to be a long trip. The air in the whole ship is diverted through the greenhouse, then blown back out the otherside, all our carbon dioxide is fed to the trees, thus giving us free oxygen in return.
"Are you in the Crypt yet Glen?" I hear the Captain's voice coming from speakers throughout the ship, "I'm going there now, Cap" I replied, as I make my way to the "Crypt". 
I return back up towards the front of the ship, I open the door and no one is awake, all cryopods are taken bar three, I head over to my pod and check the readout. I strip down to my underpants and singlet, that's one thing about space, it's bloody cold! And hastily jump in, the CryoCrypt senses me in it, and it slowly seals the door on me, I lay on my back as i feel the warm liquid creeping up my legs, past my bottom going up my torso. Open your mouth Glen I think to myself, the most un natural thing about it, the liquid enters my mouth then lungs, I gag a little at first, then am okay, the CryoCrypt activates, time for sleep.
"Here we go" the Captain tells George, "Get in low just outside the moon's gravity", the ship noses down slightly, as George descends until he can feel the shaking and rumbling of the moon trying to grab our ship and pull it down, upward thrusters prevent this, "Fire the main thrusters" the Captain says as the ship gradually surges forward, "Just as we practiced, two laps of the moon then slingshot us toward our next waypoint". Lap one, George counts, the ship is really gaining speed, the shuddering still present, that means he is exactly where he needs to be, Lap two, at the end of the second lap, he abruptly breaks from orbiting the moon, and heads for the outer planets, eventually Pluto. The rumbling stops, the thrusters are still running for a bit,
"And shut down all thrusters" the captain says, "Whack it into auto pilot, let's get some sleep".
They were heading for Ophelia, close to the Epsilon Rings of Uranus, they will attempt another slingshot manoever before setting course for Pluto.
Cruising past the asteroid belt at a great rate of knots, three stealth ships rose from within the belt, and began their pursuit of our explorers. Their technology meant that they caught up with them no problems, and just sat back behind the space ship following it.
In the Cryocrypt, a long time later, the lights on a crypt blinked to life, as it started activating its "defrost" cycle, the crypt opened, and sitting up coughing and spluttering, was another one of the pilots, Jacob. He rubbed and rubbed his eyes but they just weren't focusing, he needed coffee, and fast, he got up out of the crypt and got into his much warmer pilot's outfit, and made his way to the messroom. The first coffee didn't even touch the sides, so he poured another cup, headed up to the bridge and sat himself down in the pilots chair, looking at all the readings on screen. In front of him, he could see the ever increasing in size Ophelia, he had to change his heading around, so when he exited his two slingshot lap, they will be heading for Pluto, blaming his still tired eyes, Jacob thought he saw something blurry in the corner of his eye, maybe something following them? He wasn't too sure.
Very close now, Jacob disengages the auto pilot, gets a feel for the ship then alters course for Pluto line up, 
"Right, just like we practiced" he says to himself, the voice of his Captain ringing through his head, as he nosed the ship downward toward the moon's gravity, the ship started rumbling and shaking, he eases it up a touch, the upward thrusters kick in, 
"And three, two, one......" Jacob fires the main thrusters, the ship once again propels forward, one lap he reports, the ship gathers speed as predicted, and two, he steadies up on his new tradectory, let's the main thrusters burn for a bit longer then shuts them down, engaging the auto pilot once again. As Jacob gets out of the pilot's chair, he gives the surrounds a good looking over, he sees blurry stars, but puts that down to the speed which the ship accumulated in the slingshot, he heads back to the Cryocrypt uneasy, he senses something amiss.
The space ship cruised at speed as it hurled towards the planet Pluto, the stealth ships were still in hot pursuit, ocasional distortions in the stars gave them away, seen only by a trained eye. 
Meanwhile, some time later,  the Cryocrypt sprang to life, the lights activated on all crypts, all crypts starting the sequence as the crew awoke from their frozen slumber, the Captain was the first up and down into the messroom then straight to the bridge, he activated artificial gravity, giving a warning before he did. He checked the tradectory, they were travelling nicely towards Pluto, and gave Jacob a high five as he entered the bridge, coffee in hand.
"Great job Jacob, nice set up" the Captain said,
"Thanks Cap, you know, I thought I saw something as I threw it into manual for the turn, as if something was following us, a distortion of sorts" Jacob explained, "I put it down to my eyes playing tricks on me, but it didn't feel right before I returned to my crypt"
The Captain grabbed the transmitter handset, as Pluto came into full view, becoming larger on the approach "Unidentified ships, we are on a peace mission to Pluto, gathering samples and exploration along the way, please respond" there was radio silence, the Captain repeated the message, but still no response, the Captain noticed a distortion outside the cockpit, it was matching his speed. A transmission returned, unidentified garble and clicks, it certainly wasn't english, and it didn't sound hostile, which is always good. The Captain slowed the ship right down and set up an orbit of Pluto, then stared at the ships, the decloaking ships!
The garbled voice talked again, as they flew down the port side of the space ship, and shone spotlights on the ship's docking area "To your eye Jacob, it's obvious they want to board us, we know nothing of our "new friends", they could come onboard and shoot everyone for all we know"
"Yes Cap, what people of Earth has led us to believe, is that most of our pretend alien encounters are hostile, but what if they are friendly? Just imagine what we stand to gain?"
The Captain grabs the internal comms handset, closes his eye briefly, then begins "Good morning people, on your way to the bridge for a snap meeting, during transit to Pluto we have picked up a few hitch hikers, alien ships, their intention is for them to come onboard and meet with us, but there seems to be miscommunication, we don't know what they are saying, they could be saying hey welcome to Pluto, how can we make your stay more comfortable, or they could be saying yes I volunteer for you to eat my internal organs while I watch you, thus far they haven't come across as hostile, I'm sure we wouldn't have made it this far if they didn't like us, give me your answers when you get up here", the Captain put the handset back down.
The Captain explained the series of events, and showed the crew the ships, still outside the the docking area, by this stage there were five decloaked ships, 
"We are not soldiers, and this isn't a warship" George said, scratching his red hair, "hopefully if we close our eyes, they will just go away" the others laughed,
"I think the benefits of a meeting could change the way we do things, technologies we would have access to" said the scientist. "What if they did gobble us up though, to be the first humans to meet an extra terrestrial would be worth it"
"If we do let them in" I started "we shouldn't all be there, grab whatever weapons we can and be in earshot, so if the shit does go down, we are prepared to fightback" I looked at the Captain "We just need a volunteer" famous last words, good one Glen
"Well done Glen, you have done just that, you can meet them down at the docking bay" the Captain smiled 
The Captain moved to the transmitter agian, the announced to latch on to the docking clamps and we will meet with them, the alien responded again in their usual dialect.
I didn't trust this situation fully, I've never met a little green man before, the Captain and Jacob grabbed the only two pistols we have onboard, as the rest followed me down to the docking bay, we were locking all doors on our way down to contain the, well whatever is about to go down. I moved into position near the console, and waited for the alien ship to dock, the sound of the locking latches could be heard, "Let's hope they breath oxygen" I thought to myself. Docking complete said the ships voice computer, I reached over and activated the outer door, only the inner door separated us from the friendly slash angry encounter.
I opened the inner door, and two beings in spacesuits molded to their form walked out of the darkness, they were about seven foot tall, four legs that ended in crab like feet, pointy, their torso was a little hunched over, two arms with extended fingers and faces covered with their helmets, in awe of these huge beings, I swallowed,
"Greetings to you our guests, we are from Earth, we come in peace" I loved Star Trek, and that was the first thing that came to mind, the second of the two was fiddling with a device that was strapped to his chest, I thought here we go, I am going to be a pile of human flesh on the ground any second, the first alien made a hand gesture, I wasn't expecting that, it was a "Continue talking" gesture, so I continued "We left earth 8 years ago, to come and explore the planet Pluto, or what we call Pluto, we are a carbon based lifeform who breaths oxygen and everything on Earth grows with sun and water....." the first alien looked at the second alien, the second alien nodded, the first looked back at me 
"Thankyou for allowing us to board, I know we have never met before, we are from the planet E-6798.6, what you call Pluto, how can we be of assistance"
As it turns out, the device on the second alien was a translator, who knew hey?