Chapter Text
The access panel blips and the door opens with a hiss.
He wiggles through the door, closes it from inside and drops heavily to his feet as the gravitation field activates again.
Sometimes he hates the all-encompassing pressure that weighs down every living being on the water-dirt-thing called Earth. It reminds him too much of the invisible pressures pushed on him every day by his father, by his peers, by the damn BERC Council.
Most of the time, he just wants to fly among the stars. Weightless, uncaring of gravity, simply... free.
Not weighed down by expectations, regulations, self-doubt, all that.
Nevertheless, human souls aren't meant to be unburdened so he gusts out a frustrated breath, and makes his way to the bridge.
"All clear. The sensors were all in stellar condition."
"Then where did that shadow come from?" snaps the Captain.
Hiccup just spreads his hands and shrugs helplessly.
"It was probably just a malfunction. Ugh, so boring!" Ruffnut groans from her chair at the nav screens.
The Captain just harrumphs skeptically and Hiccup feels like he's failed once again.
"Permission to continue the flight, sir?" comes the no-nonsense voice of the pilot.
"At your leisure, Hofferson," the Captain grunts.
The blonde nods and starts firing up the engines.
Hiccup very stealthily slides away as his dad is occupied by overseeing the busy bridge.
It's not like they need him here.
The rest of the journey through the meteor belt surrounding Helheim is uneventful, and they manage to dock to the Horrendous station without any more glitches.
They unpack, run a few preliminary tests to ensure that the station's life support and other vital systems still work as intended before bunking down for the night.
Everyone else except Hiccup, that is.
See, there is one specific reason (besides his love of the stars) why he goes to as many planetary flights as he can, even ones led by his father. He is, first and foremost, a cybernetics engineer. And as such, he often creates things. Things he maybe shouldn't. Things that he has never shown anyone, not even his own mentor.
Things he knows he would only get to try on real extraterrestial conditions after light years of paperwork.
So he keeps them a secret. Sacrifices some of his engineering equipment and rations to pack his inventions instead. Makes up a device to cheat the NASA scanners to smuggle his equipment in without detection.
Sneaks away from the station when his crew mates are asleep.
His heart jack-rabbits against his ribs as he pulls on the culmination of his innovations so far.
The air lock hisses ominously as he steps over the threshold, onto the surface of Helheim.
He holds his breath for 10 seconds.
15.
20.
30.
A minute.
Nothing happens.
His enforced, multi-function suit holds up admirably in the slightly heavier gravity and the extreme heat. Hiccup feels something almost like pride begin to swell in his chest, a small, goofy grin stretching the corners of his mouth. Maybe this will work, after all.
He starts to walk carefully away from the space station. He needs to get far enough away to start the next phase of testing.
Around three kilometers later, he has passed the range of the space station's primary sensors. If someone activates the long-distance ones, he is screwed. But seeing as all the others are supposed to be asleep, he figures it should be okay.
After finding a good, steep ledge, he stops.
For a moment, Hiccup scans the foreign landscape around him, appreciating the stark, black ash dunes and rock formations half-hidden in the mist.
Helheim is a volcanic planet. It has a heavier gravity than Earth, and its surface is mostly composed of tephra, lapilli, ashes and other volcanic rocks. The air consists of 31,5 % oxygen, 64,9 % nitrogen, 1,6 % sulfur and 2 % carbon dioxide, making the air filters on Hiccup's suit fulfill their purpose in saving his life. On the colder parts of the planet - mainly its poles - there are large bodies of water and even some plants. The Horrendous station is located on one of these colder areas, to avoid the occasional volcanic eruptions that happen on the middle circuit.
Most of the planet is still unnamed, but below him roars one of the few named rivers on this planet. Styx crashes and rages in the bottom of the ravine, named after the boundary river between Earth and the Underworld in the Greek mythology.
He sincerely hopes the name isn't an augury about the fate of his little trial here.
Taking a deep breath, he runs a quick diagnostic check on the operation systems of the suit. When all seem to be clear, he braces himself and says:
"Inferno, activate!"
The suit bursts into movement.
Small, compact engines on his back, along his arms and on the soles of his boots shoot him instantly to the heavy ash clouds hanging low on Helheim's black sky.
"Whoa! Not so fast! Hover Mode!"
The Inferno takes a moment to depict his orders, and before it can react, the radar flashes red as something large and impossibly fast crashes into him.
Together they tumble off the sky.