Chapter Text
Louis grew up knowing about the existence of extraterrestrial life. He always knew life on Earth was limited to a minuscule part of what the universe had to offer. It was a fact, like fire emits heat or the sky is blue to most human eyes. Not many people on Earth had the same privilege.
His mom had been part of the first NASA group to encounter extraterrestrial life, which eventually became the pioneer government branch created to deal with all alien matters. Now, IRCA, or Intergalactic Research and Control Agency, is a top-secret, worldwide organization, made up of multiple academies and sectors of specialization.
Louis graduated as an aerospace engineer and then joined the space travel academy for training, wanting to follow his mom’s footsteps in some way. He was no scientist, but he wanted to, at least, have a hand in expanding the knowledge IRCA had on the galaxies and all its extraterrestrial life.
It didn’t take long until he became one of IRCA’s best spaceship pilots and, subsequently, responsible for their toughest travels, going farthest from Earth to try to find other planets and other forms of life. So, it wasn’t really out of the ordinary when, a week after he landed back on Earth from his last mission, he got called in again.
What was surprising was that the case file told him:
- It was a three-man mission, and Louis could choose two people to go with him;
- The destination was a planet called Gullna, four solar systems away from Earth;
- The mission was to bring a gullinn doctor to Earth, or at least come back with instructions on how to care for their injured.
Attached were files documenting everything that had happened and the condition of the gullinn group stranded on Earth. Apparently, they had landed on Earth pretty harmed, alleging that an invisible force hit their ship, and none of IRCA’s available technology and knowledge had been useful to heal them. So their last resort was to find one of their doctors to guide them through whatever needed to be done.
It wasn’t Louis’ usual mission anymore, too short and with a too-small crew, but he shrugged it off. He was relieved by the easier job since his last one was quite intense, and his body and mind both needed a break. He had even been thinking about taking some of the accumulated days-off he had available, going somewhere nice with his mom and sisters for a well-deserved vacation. He might still do it after he comes back from the new mission.
Louis was instructed to leave as soon as possible, so he didn’t waste time going after Liam and Niall. Liam was specialized on the mechanical side of things, while Niall worked with magical objects and weird forms of healing — Louis didn’t presume to understand any of it. He missed his friends and the job was the perfect opportunity to spend time together while putting everyone’s skills to use, much like it required. Besides, Louis’ wouldn’t want to spend over a month in the small space their ship would provide with people he didn’t know.
So the day was spent in a rush of filling bureaucratic paperwork, packing and contacting family members to let them know that he was leaving again, as everything had to be sorted for them to take-off the next day.
*****
Almost two weeks into their otherwise uneventful trip filled with card games, the spaceship is hit by... an invisible force.
Louis curses himself for not taking the gullinn allegations more seriously, writing it off as just something they didn’t catch with their systems and trusting that IRCA’s one would.
The force interferes with a few of their propulsors and pulls them towards a pastel orange planet that’s close to them. When Louis realizes they won’t come out unscathed if he keeps pushing to get out of the force’s hold, he activates emergency landing protocols and, instead of fighting against the current, he goes with it. They land faster than he hoped for, making their internal electric panels shut off, but he breathes out a relieved sigh. Electrical damage can be fixed by Liam easily. He looks around and sees Niall and Liam safely seated in their places, not one scratch in sight, and that confirms the successful landing, at least for now. He knows how the gullinn came out from encountering the same force, so this definitely seems like an outcome in their favour.
“I’ll turn on the backup generator until I can fix the main one, so we can at least use the environmental and atmospheric reader to let us know if we can safely step out on the planet,” Liam tells them, efficiently moving towards the back of the ship.
Louis just nods, his heart still beating rapidly inside his chest. He takes off his seatbelt and leans closer to the glass window in front of him, analysing the scenery.
It looks like they landed on a sand desert of peachy colour, which seems to stretch beyond the horizon ahead of them. There are three huge stars shining in the sky, definitely closer to the planet than the Sun is in relation to Earth. Louis touches the window and realizes it’s already heating up, without temperature control from inside the spaceship.
“Liam,” Louis calls out, “We might need to prioritize the thermostat too.”
“Copy that!” Liam’s voice replies from the back.
Louis hears another seatbelt click and Niall joins him a few seconds later to watch the view.
“Do you think it was seidr that hit us?” Louis asks eventually.
“Didn’t feel like it specifically, no. But I wouldn’t rule it out as an option. It didn’t really feel like anything I can pinpoint. Maybe it was, like, a more violent type of gravity?”
Great. So they know absolutely nothing about the force.
“I read the gravity lines on the panel. The pull from the planet only started closer to it. I kept a safe distance.” Louis sighs and rubs his face. “You know that, right? I wouldn’t put us at risk by getting too close on purpose.”
“Of course, Tommo,” Niall frowns, “That’s not what I meant. It was a strange pull, and it felt too big to be an unaimed bout of seidr in space, you know? But also, you can never know the type of strength you will encounter in new planets.”
Louis hums.
“Do you think we strategically landed in the middle of a desert or are we just unluckily facing the desert part and there is a whole civilization behind us?”
“Oh, God,” Niall laughs, sounds more anxious than amused, “That’s the worst part of landing on an unknown planet. We can never know what to expect.”
Louis gives him a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Niall, if it was anything bad it would’ve knocked on our door already.”
“We should put the rest of our suits on, though, just in case.”
“Yeah,” Louis agrees, already moving towards the compartment holding the oxygen backpacks and every other addition to their suits, to make it possible to step onto almost any territory.
Louis and Niall are still sorting through the gadgets when the electrical panels come back on along with the air filtering and cooling systems. Louis moves to turn on the recognition feature and, in a few minutes, they finally get some answers.
They landed on a planet that their system identifies as Gulurrautt. It’s mostly composed of sand and they have no record of life there, though there should be some, given its atmospheric composition that’s similar to Earth’s own. The days and nights are approximately 200 hours long each, which is a little over 8 Earth days, and they have 130 hours until their suns set, plunging the side of the planet they are on in darkness and extreme coldness for another 8 Earth days. So, it’s not a great temperature drop to live through without appropriate clothing and shelter, but they still have time. They can get the ship up and running in 5 days.