The landing craft drifted low over Altea's rolling plains in search of somewhere safe to set down. Through the cockpit windows the world shimmered with colors that did not seem possible — jungles of emerald and gold, rivers like molten glass, and mountains that pierced a sky so blue it almost hurt to look at.
"Find us a flat spot," Halley ordered, her eyes locked on the scanner. "A hill, an empty field, anywhere stable. We need samples for Julia before dark."
"Alright," Harry muttered, though his attention kept drifting back to the view. "But this place…"
"Stay calm," Halley said, her voice low and sharp. "Those things down there can smell fear. If you panic, we're all dead. Stay close to me, both of you."
The landing craft hissed as it touched down on a wide plateau, and the engines spun down into a silence that was not really silence at all. The air outside was full of sound — the drone of insects, the creak of enormous trees, and somewhere far off, something that might have been a bird and might have been something much larger.
Harry stepped out first and stared at the landscape as though he had walked into a dream. "This place is beautiful."
"Don't lower your guard," Halley snapped, coming down the ramp behind him with her rifle already in her hands. "Everything colorful here is poisonous."
"What?" Harry jerked his hand back from a bright orange flower he had been about to touch.
Vanessa snorted. "You didn't learn that in school?"
"Of course not, moron."
"Lower your voices," Halley hissed. "We don't want to attract attention."
"Right. Sorry," Harry said, and he kept his hands firmly at his sides after that.
They worked quickly. Halley had done enough fieldwork to know that every minute spent on an unknown world was a minute borrowed against luck. She kept them moving from soil to water to plant, filling sample tubes and sealing them, while Vanessa kept watch with her weapon raised. Harry did his best not to look up at the sky every few seconds. For a while it almost felt easy. The sun was warm on their backs, the ground solid under their boots. It was the kind of afternoon that made it hard to remember they were standing on a planet none of them had ever heard of a week ago.
Then a high-pitched buzz cut through the air, and Harry flinched so hard he dropped a sample tube. "What was that?"
Something blurred past his ear, its wings the size of daggers and iridescent in the sunlight. A second one followed close behind it.
"Dragonflies," Halley said tightly, scanning the grass around them. "And we're standing in their den. Move."
But there were already more of them rising out of the tall grass, dozens, then dozens more, until the air around the plateau was full of beating wings and that rising, drilling hum.
"They're everywhere!" Vanessa gasped, swinging her rifle from one blur to the next.
"Don't fire!" Halley barked. "You'll attract the predators."
"But we're surrounded!"
Another wingbeat came then, louder and heavier than any of the others. The sky above them darkened as something enormous passed in front of the sun. All three of them looked up, and that was why none of them saw the movement in the treeline until it was too late.
"Hands up! Drop your weapons!"
Harry froze where he stood. Shapes were emerging from the trees all around the plateau — armored figures with rifles leveled, moving with the confidence of people who had done this before. They were human.
"There are other people here," Vanessa whispered.
"Seems so," Halley murmured, lowering her rifle slowly while her mind raced. "Mercenaries maybe. Their gear isn't Imperial."
"Detain them," one of the strangers barked, glancing nervously at the sky. "Before the big ones show up. Move!"
Rough hands yanked them forward and stripped their weapons away. Halley let them do it, because there were a dozen rifles on three people and fighting back would only get the two kids beside her killed.
"Where are you taking us?" she demanded.
"Shut up," a voice snarled behind her. "You'll see soon enough."
"Sergei," a guard said, dragging the captives into a dark room deep inside a concrete bunker. "We found these three wandering outside."
"Imperials?" Sergei asked, raising a brow.
Sergei did not speak much, but when he did, people listened. He was in his mid-thirties, tall, broad and completely bald, with the kind of heavy, unblinking face that did not need any expression at all to make its intent clear. His deep-set eyes did not dart and did not soften; they simply watched. There was something coiled in the way he stood, not aggressive but ready, like a blade still resting in its sheath. Nobody ever knew what Sergei was thinking, and that was exactly how he liked it.
"I don't think so," the guard muttered. "Maybe thieves here for Brions."
"Interrogate them," Sergei said, and left the room without another word.
Another man stepped forward to take his place, with eyes like cold stone and a smile that never reached them. "Alright, young lady. Why are you here, and who are you?"
Halley lifted her chin. "Why should I answer to you?"
He looked at her for a long moment, and then, with a calm smirk, he gestured toward a screen on the wall. "Maybe for your friends' sake." On the screen, Harry and Vanessa stood behind thick glass in a sealed chamber. A pale gas had begun to seep in slowly through the vents along the floor. "Cooperate, or they die."
Halley's heart pounded against her ribs. I can't tell them about the ship, she thought. If they find out the Tartarusios is grounded, we'll be sitting ducks. She needed a lie, and she needed one fast. It had to be dull enough that a man like this would not bother to question it.
"We're here for research," she said carefully, keeping her voice even. "The Institute of Darma sent us to study this planet's ecosystem."
The man's brow furrowed. "Institute of Darma? Never heard of it. Where is it?"
"Just outside the Leora region," Halley said, and she even managed a small laugh, as if the question were silly. "Planet Morleto."
"Mickey," the interrogator barked over his shoulder. "Run a data search on Morleto. Check for this institute." He turned back to her. "If you're lying, you'll regret it."
Halley swallowed and held his gaze. "Do I at least get to know the names of my kidnappers?"
A thin smile crossed his face. "You're in the base of the Pascal rebel forces. That's all you need to know."
Aboard the Tartarusios, the waiting had begun to wear on everyone. "Halley sure is taking her time, Captain," Bjorn said quietly from his station.
Oscar looked up from the repair logs. "When did she last make contact?"
"Eight hours ago." Bjorn's voice was calm, but there was something hard underneath it. "They landed for samples. We haven't heard from them since."
"Could they have been attacked?"
"Her DTI is still pinging, but it's weak. She might be underground." Bjorn frowned at his screen. "Harry and Vanessa are with her, and their DTIs are offline."
Oscar turned, his eyes narrowing. "Then we have a problem. Bjorn, you have the bridge. Chris, Mario, gear up. You're with me."
"Wait, Osi." The voice came from the doorway behind him, and Oscar spun to find Youri leaning against the frame, pale but upright. "I'm coming too."
"Youri. You should be in bed."
"Don't worry, I'm fine." Youri pushed himself off the frame and walked in as if to prove it. "And I want to see this planet for myself."
Oscar looked at him for a long moment and then, against his better judgment, nodded. Below them, the landing craft's engines began to hum.
"Captain," the comm officer called, "landing craft ready."
Oscar's hand tightened on the rail. "Let's go."