Chapter 42 - First Steps

Luca and Emily walked up to the dropship, its hull still radiating heat from entry. The airlock exterior flashed green, pressure stabilized.

Chris came over comms. "Alright, here we go. Don't forget to smile for the history books."

The airlock door slid open with a hiss, and the first thing Luca saw was Ryan lugging the camera rig down the ladder, grumbling under his breath like he'd been personally offended by the equipment.

"Careful with that, man," Luca called up. "You drop it, and our first step on an alien world gets remembered as your dumb ass breaking the tripod."

Ryan shot him a look that could curdle milk. "I hate you."

Chris clapped Ryan on the back as he passed. "He's right, though. You drop it, we're making 'Ryan Fumbled First Contact' a thing."

"Shut up and stand still so I can frame the shot," Ryan muttered, setting up the tripod.

One by one, they descended. Danny went first, his boots thudding against the metal rungs. The second he touched the ground, he threw his arms in the air like he'd just won the Super Bowl. "Fuck yeah! Alien planet, bitches!"

Ryan snapped the first photo.

---

Once everyone was clear, Luca's hand moved toward his helmet, fingers finding the visor release. He wanted to taste the air on this world, the kind of thing people dreamed about their whole lives and never got close to, and he was standing in it with nothing between him and the sky but a single seal.

Joey's voice stopped him cold. "Wait! Don't remove your helmet yet."

Luca froze, his fingers an inch from the latch.

Joey already had some device out, pulled from his utility belt like a gunslinger who'd been waiting for this exact moment. It looked like someone had welded a handheld scanner to a data pad. "We confirmed atmospheric composition from orbit, sure, but that doesn't tell us about pathogens, microbes, anything our bodies might not be prepared for."

The words hit Luca like ice water. He dropped his hand and stared at the helmet release he'd almost pulled. One stupid, impulsive twist and he could've introduced his lungs to whatever alien microbe was floating around out here. Captain Luca Rossi, killed by breathing.

"Good catch, Joey," Luca said. "Remind me to thank you properly later."

"What is that?" Ryan asked, pointing at Joey's device.

"This baby," Joey replied, beaming, clearly desperate for someone to ask, "is a TL-8 Atmospheric Environmental Risk Scanner. Analyzes the air for pathogens, spores, anything your body isn't ready for."

"How much was it?"

"Oh, you know, not much." Joey's grin got wider. "About 40,000 credits."

"Damn," Zoe said. "You paid the price of a car for a vacuum?"

"It was up for auction!" Joey held the scanner closer to his chest like someone was going to take it from him. "Figured it would be useful."

Luca bit down on a smile. The guy had dropped 40K on a gadget and it had just saved all of them from potentially inhaling alien death spores. Joey was either a genius or the luckiest nerd alive, and Luca honestly couldn't tell which.

As they waited, his gaze drifted across the landscape. The lavender sky stretched wide above them, and New Dawn's trees swayed in a breeze he couldn't feel through the suit. Ryan had named the planet. Looking at it now, Luca thought he'd nailed it.

"All clear!" Joey waved the scanner over his head. "No detectable pathogens or toxins. But stay alert. This isn't Earth. If anything feels off, report it immediately."

That was all Luca needed to hear.

---

He gripped the release and twisted. The seal broke with a soft hiss, and the helmet tilted back on its hinge.

The air hit his face and his brain went blank for a second. It was cool and crisp, with a smell to it, something earthy and wet, close to fresh rain on dirt but not quite. Like the planet was trying to remind him of home and getting it almost right.

He stood there breathing like an idiot. The air filled his lungs and it was nothing like the recycled crap on the ship. This was real atmosphere, untouched and clean, and every breath made him feel lighter.

The crew watched him without moving.

Emily stepped forward. "Luca?" Her face was framed by that bulky helmet, and she looked worried and gorgeous and he needed to focus.

A breeze brushed his face. Actual wind, on an alien planet, touching his skin. A grin split his face before he could do anything about it. "It's perfect," he said.

He turned toward them, still grinning.

Then he grabbed his throat, staggered back, and started choking.

He saw Ryan shout. Saw Joey lunge forward like he could perform CPR from ten feet away. Heard Zoe scream "FUCKING HELL, LUCA!" with enough fury to suggest she was already planning his funeral and the eulogy would not be kind.

He straightened up perfectly fine, grinning like an absolute bastard.

"Kidding."

For one perfect second, nobody said a word.

Then Emily was in front of him, and her fist connected with his chest hard enough to make him stumble. "IDIOT!"

"You piece of shit," Ryan said, his voice cracking somewhere between rage and laughter. "You absolute piece of shit."

"I'm going to kill him," Zoe said to no one in particular. She paced in a tight circle, hands on her helmet. "I'm actually going to kill him. On an alien planet. They'll never find the body."

Joey had both hands on his knees, breathing hard. "Luca. Genuinely. From the bottom of my heart. Screw you."

Chris just stood there with his arms crossed, shaking his head, but the corner of his mouth twitched. Danny was doubled over laughing.

"Worth it," Luca said. Emily hit him again, lighter this time, and he caught her wrist and held it. Her eyes were furious and bright and he could see her fighting not to laugh. "Totally worth it."

Ryan sighed and lifted his camera for the first group photo. Luca was still grinning when the shutter clicked.

"Go ahead," he said. "Take a breath." He let go of Emily's wrist and swept his arm out toward the alien sky. "If I'm dying from this, I'm taking all of you with me."

One by one, they followed his lead. Visors tilted back, faces exposed to another world's air for the first time. He watched their expressions change and something warm settled in his chest. These were his idiots, and apparently he was stuck loving every last one of them.

Zoe let out a low whistle. "Well, I'll be damned. It's better than home." Coming from Zoe, that was practically a marriage proposal to the planet.

With helmets off, the mood shifted and everybody looked like they were trying not to grin too hard. The next move was obvious.

"Let's store these in the Peregrine," Luca said, gesturing toward the dropship. "No need to lug them around."

---

Free of the EVA suits, Luca stepped away from the group and let himself take it in properly.

The Percival sat behind them, hull scarred from the descent, still ticking as it cooled. The Peregrine waited nearby, steady as ever. His crew, his friends, scattered across the landing site, stretching and breathing and touching alien grass with their bare hands like a bunch of kids who'd just discovered a backyard.

This was New Dawn, Proxima Centauri b, and six weeks out from Sol they were actually standing on it.

The sun sat low and red on the horizon, turning everything a color that didn't exist on Earth. Warm air on his skin, the faint sweetness of something blooming nearby. A low chirping rolled across the meadow, metallic and rhythmic, like someone tapping a tuning fork against glass. Tiny wings glittered between pale yellow flowers, and he tracked them with his eyes, trying to figure out if those were bugs or something else entirely. Something larger crashed through the treeline and vanished before he could get a look at it. His hand moved to his sidearm on instinct, then stopped.

It wasn't a threat, just a scared animal, and he forced his fingers to relax.

Ryan appeared at his left side, hands on his hips, staring out at the landscape. "Not bad for a day's work," he said quietly.

Emily joined them on his right. She didn't say anything. Neither did he. The three of them stood there, breathing alien air, and Luca realized this was the first time in weeks his brain wasn't running calculations or scanning for threats. The moment sat on him, heavy and real.

After a beat, Emily glanced past Luca at Ryan. "So, uh," she cleared her throat, "you planning on chaperoning all day?"

Ryan's grin was immediate. "Oh, right. Yeah, I should probably go... check on the equipment or something." He backed away, still grinning. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That leaves us a lot of options," Emily said.

Before Ryan could get too far, Chris's voice carried across the landing site. "Hey, before you two go making out, take your weapons!"

The heat that crawled up Luca's neck was instantaneous. He walked over to the weapons locker with as much dignity as a guy whose entire crew had heard his love confession could manage. He shouldered his TL8 Sniper Rifle, and the weight of it settled him in a way that felt familiar and grounding. Emily strapped her twin Energy Blasters to her belt, the soft click of each holster loud against the quiet of the meadow.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded, and they turned toward a gentle rise that overlooked the landing site. The slope rolled up ahead of them, nothing steep, but high enough to see what lay beyond the meadow.

Halfway up, Luca reached for her hand. "Terrain's a bit uneven," he said.

Emily looked at the perfectly smooth grass under their feet, then looked at him, then took his hand. Her fingers were warm against his.

His pulse kicked up immediately. They'd held hands before, on the ramp, but that had been through gloves; this was skin against skin. He could feel the calluses on her palm from years of weapons training, the way her thumb pressed against the side of his hand, and the heat rushed straight into his face. She had to be able to feel him coming apart through his fingers.

Together, they climbed toward the crest of the hill. Her hand stayed in his, and neither of them mentioned the terrain again.

---

The top of the hill stole every thought out of his head.

A valley opened below them, wide and deep, painted in shades of red and violet that his brain struggled to process. He'd seen the orbital scans. He'd watched the feeds. Nothing had prepared him for looking at a living alien world with his own eyes.

Strange trees filled the valley floor, their leaves a coral pink that looked like it should be underwater, not growing in open air. Their trunks were deep burgundy, and, he blinked, they were glowing, a soft pulse of light running through the bark like veins. Patches of crystal formations caught the red dwarf's light and threw it back in colors he didn't have names for.

"Jesus," Emily said. Her grip tightened on his hand.

Something moved in the far end of the valley, and then Luca saw a whole herd of creatures grazing. They were easily the size of elephants, maybe bigger, with six legs that carried them in a slow, rolling gait that looked wrong until his brain accepted that this wasn't Earth and things walked differently here. Their hides shifted between deep purple and silver as they moved, and their heads ended in fan-like crests that flared and changed color, like mood rings the size of dinner tables.

"What the hell," Luca said. His voice came out reverent, which was annoying because he'd been going for casual.

But then it got worse, or better, or maybe just more insane. Beyond the herd, something serpentine slid through the tall grass, banded in magenta and gold, its body easily thirty yards long. It moved without disturbing a single blade. Luca's hand tightened on Emily's. His brain categorized it instantly: predator, too big, stay away. But it wasn't coming toward them. It was just moving, doing whatever it did on a Tuesday, completely indifferent to the two humans gawking from a hilltop.

Closer to them, smaller creatures darted between the crystal formations. They had the build of deer, if deer came with four eyes arranged in pairs and skin that shifted between deep blue and translucent pink. When the blue faded, he could see a network of glowing veins under their skin, like living stained glass.

"Look," he said, tilting his head to the left.

A pack of two-legged predators emerged from a cluster of coral trees. Low to the ground, compact, covered in something that looked like natural armor plating. Their coloring matched the foliage. Reds, purples, fading into the background. Their heads were flat, with multiple eyes that caught the light like embers. They moved in that careful, patient way that said hunting louder than any roar.

Emily leaned into him. "Are they hunting?"

The pack stalked one of the deer-like creatures, a straggler that had wandered too far from its group. They fanned out, coordinating without any sound Luca could hear. Wolf tactics, but different. The angles were too precise, the spacing too even. Like they'd done geometry before this.

Luca watched the hunt unfold, his pulse ticking faster. Part of him wanted to warn the deer-thing. The rest of him knew better. This wasn't his world. These were the rules. He squeezed Emily's hand and she squeezed back.

A shadow swept across them. Luca's head snapped up.

Something with the wingspan of a small aircraft glided overhead, its wings membranous and stretched wide, colored in deep purples and golds that shifted as it banked. It circled once, and he swore its head turned to look at them. He held still, his free hand resting on his rifle, watching the thing ride a thermal current until it disappeared beyond the far ridge.

His chest felt like it was trying to punch its way out from the inside. Everything out there was alive, and all of it felt enormous. He was standing on a hilltop with the girl he loved, watching an alien ecosystem run on rules he didn't understand, and every single part of his body was telling him two things at the same time: this is the most incredible thing you've ever seen, and you are very small here.

He looked at Emily. She was staring out at the valley with her lips parted, her eyes moving from one impossible thing to the next, cataloging and marveling and he could see the exact moment each new creature registered. Her face was flushed from the climb, her hair catching the red dwarf's light, and she was breathing fast, and she was right here, and she was alive.

Three weeks ago she'd been in a med pod. Pale under blue light, machines breathing for her while he stood on the other side of the glass and made deals with a universe he didn't believe in. If you let her live, I'll be better. I'll be anything. Just let her live.

The image flickered through his head, fast and cold, and then she turned to face him and it was gone.

"So," he managed, his throat tight, "still want to talk?"

Emily's eyes held his. The alien landscape stretched endlessly behind her, and he could see it all, the valley, the creatures, the impossible sky, but his focus had collapsed to a single point: her face, her eyes, the way she was looking at him like he was the only thing on this planet that mattered.

"Actually," she said softly. She reached up and cupped his face with both hands. Her palms were warm against his jaw. "I think we've done enough talking."

Then she kissed him.

His brain shorted out. Every thought he'd ever had about this moment, every version he'd rehearsed in the shower or while staring at the ceiling of his quarters, none of it matched. Her lips were soft and she tasted like the recycled water from the ship and her fingers pressed against his jaw and his hands didn't know where to go. He put one on her hip, too stiff, and the other found the small of her back, and then she leaned into him and his body figured it out on its own.

He kissed her back. Not smooth, not practiced. Just honest, and desperate, and everything he'd been carrying for six years collapsed into the space between them.

When they pulled apart, his lungs burned. He wasn't sure he'd been breathing.

Emily's face was inches from his, her eyes bright, her grin slowly spreading. "I've wanted to do that for a long time," she said, pulling her arms around his neck.

"Glad you did." His voice came out wrecked. Breathy and stupid and he couldn't bring himself to care because she was grinning at him, and his hands were on her waist, and the red dwarf was painting everything in colors he'd never see anywhere else.

He leaned in again, slower this time, and she met him halfway, her fingers sliding to the back of his neck. This kiss was different, softer, like they had time now, like the universe owed them this and was finally paying up.

When they separated, she pressed her forehead against his. His heart was doing things he didn't have vocabulary for. His face was on fire. Every nerve ending he had was reporting in at maximum volume.

"Come on," Emily said. She grabbed his hand and tugged. "We need to tell the others."

"About the wildlife," Luca clarified.

"About the wildlife," she confirmed, already pulling him toward the slope.

They ran down the hill together, and Luca was laughing before they hit the bottom. His boots slid on the alien grass and Emily's hand kept him upright and everything was too bright and too much and his chest ached in a way that had nothing to do with running.

"Guys!" he called out as they approached the group, still catching his breath. "It's about to get interesting. We've got company, and it's big. Don't wander off."

Joey looked up. Chris turned. Ryan's eyes dropped to their joined hands and his grin said everything.

Luca was still holding Emily's hand, and he made no move to let go. The crew could see. The whole universe could see. He didn't care.

He had solid ground under his feet, alien air in his lungs, and the warmth of her hand in his. Three weeks ago, he'd been standing outside a med pod, begging. Now he was here, and so was she.

He tightened his grip and faced whatever came next.