Chapter 40 - The Landing

The pilot's seat settled around Luca the way it always did, and that at least felt right. The helm came alive under his hands, the controls familiar enough that he didn't have to think, just fly. Behind him, Emily sat strapped into her harness.

Color had returned to her cheeks, and she was sitting upright without Zoe's support. But he caught the careful way she held herself, the slight tremor in her hands as she adjusted her safety straps. Twenty-four hours ago, she'd been dying of radiation poisoning. Now she was about to make history on an alien world.

"All systems green," Zoe reported from the co-pilot seat. She caught where he was looking and gave him a knowing look. "She's fine, Luca. Joey cleared her for the mission."

He nodded and dragged his attention back to the pre-flight checks. The engines powered up with a thrum that pulsed through the frame, steady and familiar. Beyond the viewscreen, the docking clamps still held them to the Triumph, and beyond that, New Dawn filled the entire lower half of the viewport.

"First time any of us will breathe alien air," Emily said behind him, quiet with something close to disbelief. "Kind of surreal, isn't it?"

Surreal was one word for it, and insane was another.

"Don't breathe too much of it," Joey called out from his seat, medical kit secured beside him. "The atmospheric readings are good, but I want everyone in and out of those environmental suits by the book."

Joey's first thought about an alien planet was how to keep them all bubble-wrapped.

"Docking clamps ready to release on your mark, Captain," Zoe said, her hip brushing against his arm as she reached for her controls.

Luca flipped the intercom switch. "Prepare for undocking."

The hangar hissed as it depressurized, the vast space sealing off from the rest of the ship. The massive doors swung open with a low thrum.

He caught Emily's reflection in the viewscreen. Green eyes, watching him. She gave him a small smile, and his hands tightened on the yoke for a reason that had nothing to do with flying.

The docking clamps lifted the Percival gently, sliding it out of the Triumph's hangar. "Releasing clamps," Luca announced. The dropship detached with a soft shudder, drifting free of the Triumph's protective frame. For a brief moment, the Percival floated in space, weightless and still. Then, with a light touch on the controls, he engaged the thrusters.

The hum of the fusion thrusters filled the cabin as they accelerated toward the planet's surface. Behind him, the crew's chatter picked up, voices layering over each other the way they always did when everyone was excited and nobody wanted to admit it.

Beyond the bulk of the Triumph of Darron, New Dawn filled the view. Deep blue oceans reflected the dim light of Proxima Centauri, and swirling clouds streaked the upper atmosphere in violet and maroon. His hands stayed loose on the controls for a second longer than they needed to. He'd seen plenty of planets on screens and holo-maps. This one was outside his windshield.

"Engines responding perfectly," Zoe noted, scanning the readouts. "Course locked."

Luca fine-tuned their approach, nudging the vector-thrust systems, and the dropship responded like it always did, smooth and obedient because Zoe kept the Percival in shape.

"Initiating descent sequence," Luca announced. Around him, the crew strapped into their seats, running final checks.

"Let's do a quick... Ryan... the dropship's perfectly safe." Luca said as he watched Ryan tighten his safety harness with an extra, almost aggressive tug.

"I know that," Ryan replied, his voice a little too emphatic. "I checked it myself. It's you I don't trust." Laughter broke the tension in the cabin. Fair enough. Ryan had been on enough of his landings to have opinions.

Through the cockpit glass, the Percival's twin energy miniguns retracted into their housings with a faint hum, tucking away for atmospheric entry. He didn't expect to need them on New Dawn. No System, no portals. The planet was supposed to be empty of anything that wanted to kill them, which, after the last few weeks, felt like a vacation.

"Ready for this?" He glanced at Zoe, seated beside him. She was working on the computer, fine-tuning their trajectory.

Zoe turned to him. "Born ready, Captain. Let's get this party started."

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, dropping into his best airline-pilot cadence. "This is your Captain speaking. Please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Fasten your seat belts securely, and stow all carry-on luggage beneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins. Thank you for flying Percival Airways."

The cabin erupted behind him. He picked out Emily's laugh from the rest of them without trying, stronger than it had been yesterday. His shoulders dropped a fraction.

The Percival angled downward, following Zoe's preplanned route. Outside, the Triumph of Darron's silhouette shrank against the stars until it was a shape, then a smudge, then gone. He and his crew and a whole lot of empty between them and anything familiar.

The soft chime of reentry alarms pulled him back. Cockpit lights shifted to dim red, standard procedure for atmospheric entry.

Through the cockpit glass, New Dawn's curvature sharpened. A thin line of atmosphere flickered along the planet's edge, blue and faint and very, very real.

Luca exhaled through his teeth. This was it, and here they went.

---

"Entering the atmosphere in T-minus 30 seconds," Zoe came through his headset. "Brace for turbulence, folks."

"No fancy flying, Captain," Ryan's voice called from the passenger compartment. "We need to conserve fuel."

Luca laughed once under his breath, grip tightening on the controls. "Boring and safe. Promise." He took a deep breath. His atmospheric handling skills were solid, and he knew that, but his gut hadn't gotten the memo.

The familiar pull of [Atmospheric Protocol] sat at the edge of his thoughts, ready if the descent turned ugly. He left it alone for now. Eighteen seconds of perfect atmospheric handling was useful. Wasting the cooldown because he got nervous on humanity's first landing on an alien world would be embarrassing.

The first sign of atmosphere hit them gently, barely perceptible except for the faint vibration that ran through the ship's hull.

Through the viewport, the first glimpse of New Dawn's surface broke through the cloud cover, and Luca's brain stalled for a second. It looked like Earth if someone had swapped the color palette. Purples and burnt oranges where green and brown should have been. Familiar enough to mess with his head, alien enough that his fingers tightened on the yoke.

He looked back. Emily had her face pressed close to the viewport, eyes wide, hands gripping her armrests.

"My God," Emily said. "Look at those colors. The ultraviolet radiation from Proxima Centauri must have driven completely different evolutionary pathways."

She sounded like herself. The scientist voice, the one that kicked in when something fascinated her enough to override everything else. He turned back to the controls before she caught him staring.

Below them, the landscape kept unfolding. Burgundy grass covered rolling hills that spilled into valleys, and rivers of silver water cut through forests so dark purple they were almost black. Mountains rose in the distance, their peaks capped with something that might have been snow but probably wasn't.

"There," Zoe pointed to a section of the display.

Luca angled the ship toward their target. He kept meaning to check the instruments and kept looking out the viewport instead.

"Animal signatures are lighting up the sensors," Danny called out from his station. "This place is alive down there. Really alive."

Danny sounded like a kid on Christmas morning. Luca couldn't blame him.

"But no civilization," Ryan added, and the relief in his voice was obvious. "Whatever the System did to this world, it left it wild."

That was good enough for him. Wild they could handle. Civilization would have meant politics, and Luca had enough of that back in Sol.

The Percival bucked hard as they hit a thermal updraft.

"Here we go," he said under his breath, and tightened his grip.

"Let's make history," Zoe said beside him, eyes locked on her instruments.

Luca exhaled slowly and adjusted their descent vector. The ship shuddered through the turbulence, each jolt running up through the yoke and into his arms.

"It's beautiful." Emily had both hands pressed to the viewport, and Luca wanted to look, wanted to see what she was seeing, but the yoke was fighting him.

The ship shuddered again, harder.

That was enough messing around. Luca exhaled hard and let the System take hold.

[Atmospheric Protocol]

The System imparts procedural knowledge for atmospheric handling: re-entry behavior, lift loss, turbulence response, glide correction, landing flare timing, and transition-stress management. For 18 seconds, the user can seamlessly compensate for drag, wind shear, gravity shifts, and re-entry instability without losing control.

Base Duration: 18s

Adjusted Duration: 25s

Base Cooldown: 5m

Adjusted Cooldown: 4m 11s

The cockpit sharpened around him. Crosswind, lift loss, descent drift, flare timing. The System laid the sequence into his hands and let his body keep up. Every correction landed before the problem fully formed, his fingers adjusting thrust and pitch like the ship was an extension of his spine.

Zoe leaned forward, dreadlocks catching the red light of the readouts. "Altitude dropping rapidly. Adjusting trajectory for optimal landing zone."

"Roger that," Luca replied, easing back on the throttle. The ship pushed back against him, engines straining against the atmosphere.

"Everyone hold tight," Luca called out. "Breaking through cloud cover."

The Percival punched through the clouds and the surface hit him all at once. Purple and red as far as he could see, alien vegetation blanketing the hills below, and the landing zone closing fast. The clearing Zoe and Emily had picked sat near the base of a ridge, a flat stretch of ground beside a river.

The Percival pitched hard and Luca fought it back, the yoke alive in his hands. Dust swirled below them. The engines roared, sputtered, roared again, and the System's knowledge kept his corrections ahead of the ship's complaints.

"Steady, steady," he muttered, jaw clenched. Alarms flickered on the console. A gust slammed them sideways and he corrected before the thought fully formed.

The Percival dipped and he compensated, thrusters firing in a pattern that felt right even if he couldn't have explained it. The engine hum dropped low and guttural beneath his feet.

"We're coming in hot," Zoe said, clipped. "Ease back, Luca."

"I know." He pulled thrust, slowing their descent into a controlled hover. His arms burned.

"Final approach." The ground rushed up. Dust clouds billowed as the thrusters fired, and he held his breath, easing the ship down the last few meters.

The Percival touched down with a solid, bone-shaking thump, the landing struts absorbing the impact. The engines wound down to a low hum. Dust drifted past the cockpit glass, and through it, the alien landscape sat there like it had been waiting for them.

Luca exhaled slowly, flexing his fingers off the controls one at a time. His forearms ached. "We're down," he said.

Zoe was already grinning at him. "Not bad, Captain. Smooth enough for a first landing on an alien world."

He flipped on the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New Dawn. Local time is... anyone's guess. The ship is now secure. You may release your seatbelts."

The whole cabin blew up in cheers. Somewhere behind him, Ryan shouted, "Thank you, Jesus!"

"Holy shit, what a bumpy ride!" Chris groaned.

Then a sharp intake of breath cut through the celebration. Luca turned to see Emily pressing her palm against her forehead, her face pale beneath the flush of excitement.

Every other thought in Luca's head got shoved aside.

"Em?" He was unbuckling his harness before he finished the word. "You okay?"

She looked up, managing a weak smile. "Just... migraine. The turbulence didn't help." She started to stand, then swayed, one hand reaching for the bulkhead.

Joey was already there, supporting her elbow. "Easy. The atmospheric pressure changes probably aren't helping either. How bad is it?"

"I'm fine," Emily said, but her knuckles were white on the bulkhead. "I need a minute." She turned toward the viewport anyway, pressing her fingers to the glass. "I didn't come this far to miss walking on an alien world because of a headache."

Luca moved closer. He watched her face the way he'd been watching it for weeks now, looking for the signs Joey had taught him to spot. "Maybe you should rest for a bit. Let Joey check you over."

"No." She didn't let go of the bulkhead, but her voice didn't waver either. "I'll be fine. Give me a few minutes to adjust."