Chapter 13

There was an awkward silence after Astrid's statement. Gobber was the one to break it with the question "So, what do we do now?" No one actually knew and they looked towards Astrid since she had made the outburst and thus seemed the most knowledgeable of the group.

"You said the Prolium core was damaged. Is there any chance of leakage?" Astrid asked after a minute. The others could pretty much infer that Dark Matter leakage was a really big no-no and they unconsciously took a step back from the downed shuttle.

"No leakage as of yet," the Sergeant spoke up "Though I would not recommend turning it on. The containment unit's internal shielding is at only 34 percent."

"Gobber radio in that we'll need a containment team here immediately." Astrid said. "If that internal shielding fails we'll have a problem on our hands."

"Astrid maybe you could explain a bit," Hiccup said. "I'm really confused."

"You're not the only one laddie," Gobber muttered but did radio in back to New Berk.

It was here that Mala took a gamble and asked "May I call in the rest of my team? I think it would be better if we all got to know each other."

"There's more of you?!" Snotlout uttered.

"Of course there probably are you nimrod," Windshear grumbled. "You saw how many seats that shuttle could hold."

"Well why didn't you say something the first time?!" Snotlout shot back.

"Because they aren't being hostile you dolt!" Windshear shot back. "I've seen pure hostility and hatred and they don't give off that vibe so excuse me for giving the benefit of the doubt!" Snotlout was quiet at that outburst as most in the group knew the life Windshear had led under the Red Death. As a result she was one of the best at judging character.

"Call them but any funny business and....." Astrid left the threat open to interpretation and watched as Mala gave a few hand signals towards the bushes she had come from.

Astrid's hand flew to the handle of her axe and the others trained their guns and crossbows on the group when they caught sight of Telmia. "Don't shoot!" Mala quickly uttered. "She's a friendly!"

"What...... is she?" Fishlegs asked as he lowered his gun somewhat while curiosity overcame him. He didn't let his guard drop completely but as there were no hostile actions by this 'alien' he had to ask.

"She's Talarian," Mala explained as Telmia kept her hands up and made no movement. "Her race are the original inhabitants of Titan,"

"Oh my Thor, an actual alien," Snotlout muttered.

"This is....... Unbelievable," Gobber added and then addressed the alien in question. "Uhm... hello?"

"Greetings," Telmia replied. "Please be at ease, I mean no harm."

Mala observed the group of natives and watched them silently communicate with each other. It was only movements of the head and brows but it felt like they were having a full blown conversation. Such understanding could only happen if they had been together for a long long time.

"Guys lower your guns," Mala heard the one called Hiccup say. It seemed he had especially directed this order to the two men that acted more like soldiers than the rest of them. The red-head had looked the most reluctant as he shot the group of space travelers a suspicious look but he did stand down.

"You all seem to take my appearance much better than your spacefaring counterparts did," Telmia observed and then asked "Why is that?"

"Let's see....." Hiccup said as he began to tick off events that had happened over the years since they found Arcadia. "Living in a wasteland with little food and clean water, sand pirates, secret bases, mad scientists, cloning, nanotechnology, cerebral removal, a murderous AI, a yak rebellion, mind-controlling-harem-establishing woman, more secret bases, the occasional cannibal, space conspiracies...... I think that meeting an alien at this point is just normal."

Captain Mala and her group blinked as they heard the list. They quite frankly didn't know what to make of this. "Wait, you said space conspiracies," Luna spoke up which caused eyes to fall on her. Toothless especially was watching her and Hookfang had to close his friend's mouth. Hiccup noticed and wondered what that was about. He'd have to ask Toothless later.

"I think we should talk about this back at base for more details," Gobber announced. "Stoick is sending Ack and the others to help contain and salvage the shuttle." He then looked at the middle-aged man that had dragged Snotlout and Windshear out "You think you can help them with it Mr....."

"Haddock," The Sergeant replied and none of Mala's crew expected the outbursts of "WHAT! NO WAY! THE KRANKING HELL!....." at the mention of that name.

"There's no way these natives could know about the events surrounding him, right? Even we don't know everything." Luna asked with a frown. Davies, Mendia and the others were also shocked and the man in question himself blinked, not knowing what was going on.

"Ooh Thor, am I in the Twilight Zone?!" Snotlout uttered as he looked between the older man and Hiccup he could see some similarities.

"I think......." Hiccup mumbled. "This may take a bit longer than we thought." He too wanted to get to the bottom of this strange occurance.

"Wait......." Gobber said, "Where are the twins?"

Meanwhile, onboard the T.S.S. Pandora, Grimmel was growing more and more impatient. They and the Persephone had been orbiting Earth for a good eight hours now and still their sensors hadn't picked up any data.

"Report," He said and one of his bridge crew approached him.

"Sir, the readings are staying the same as when we first arrived. Updates from the Persephone state that they managed to track the exploration shuttle halfway through the Ionosphere but lost sight of it after an anomalous electromagnetic flare was generated. The shuttle was able to launch its drones though we have no idea if the crew survived or if the drones are still intact." The man reported as he kept some distance from his commanding officer. "Currently the Persephone is busy trying to connect to these drones to see if they have any special data recorded."

"And this..... Anomalous electromagnetic flare?" Grimmel asked with a frown. "Do we have any sensors on Sol to see if it will reoccur?"

"Sir.... the flare did not originate from this system's sun. We initially thought that as well but there has been no heavy Solar flare activity." The officer reported. This got Grimmel's attention. "Our sensors managed to pick up the flare. It seems highly likely to have been generated by the planet's Ionosphere."

"That's impossible!" Grimmel uttered. The very notion that the simple Ionosphere of a planet could generate an electromagnetic pulse equal to that of a Coronal Mass Ejection was unheard of. It was simply against the known Laws of Physics. "Send out the Carrington drones to monitor both the solar and Ionosphere activity." he ordered. This was beyond strange and may likely have something to do with them not being able to scan the planet.

"Sir, the Persephone has already deployed their Carrington drones." The officer reported. "So far there are no more anomalous flares being generated. They are currently waiting for the 72 hour communications window to close. If they do not hear from the Exploration team a Rescue team will be dispatched as per protocol."

Grimmel nodded as his lips pursed. 72 hours was a long wait. He didn't need to be on the bridge until called so he stood up and ordered. "Contact Dr. Griselda and have her meet me in my office."

"Sir, yes Sir," The officer saluted.

When Grimmel entered his office quarters he turned on the light to see a woman with amber eyes and light brown hair sitting there behind his desk and sipping his very expensive tea. "Griselda what did I tell you about breaking into my office?"

"What did I tell you about going easy on my Deathgripper squad?" She retorted. "They are still unstable,"

"Does that look like my problem?" Grimmel growled and smacked the Doctor's feet off his desk. "They are your creations afterall."

"You know very well what I mean!" Griselda shot back. "I need HIM!"

Grimmel sighed. Griselda's obsession was showing again. She was a brilliant researcher with a 'slightly' sadistic side and very little morals. To her everything was about science. The Deathgrippers were one of her creations, efficient but somewhat unstable. Four had already succumbed over the years in space. "Grimmel come on, I just need a smidge of his blood! We've known where he's been holed up for years now."

"Griselda you can't," Grimmel grounded out. "The Council will have your head if you touch him. He's under their protection."

"But you know one of the Council's most powerful members," Griselda argued. "Surely you could pull some strings,"

"Griselda......" Grimmel warned. "I did not call you here to talk about HIM. I need you to analyze the electromagnetic flare data and....."

"And find out how a planet can generate such a charge. Been there, done that," The woman shrugged causing Grimmel to raise a brow.

"I'm assuming you have a theory,"

"Don't I always?" Griselda smirked. "I'm thinking the flares are artificial,"

"And your reasoning?" Grimmel responded but Griselda merely shrugged. "Damnit tell me!"

"I'm not one of your little subordinates Grimmel," She said and patted his cheek. "You ordering me around does nothing,"

"Then what do you want?" Grimmel then asked. Griselda had her moods. It was one of the things Grimmel found a bit irritating. She was the head of his science department but was never an official member of the United Terran fleet which put her outside his chain of command. When Grimmel asked that a smirk could be seen on the edges of Griselda's mouth. That could never be good.

AN: Hiya everyone. I hadn't forgotten about this fic. It took me a bit of time to get out of my writersblock for this plot but I'M BACK!. Also some of you may have noticed me introducing the name Carrington in this chapter. Now here is a fun fact. I'm assuming most of you already know about Solar flares and how they are generated, if not then feel free to look them up. They are quite interesting. Now onto my little name game. You guys all heard of Solar flares but do you know of Carrington flares? Solar flares take days to reach the Earth and affect the magnetosphere. Carrington flares however are Solar flares that are very very fast and can reach the Earth in around 17-20 hours. The reason these flares are so fast is because they 'piggyback' on an already existing flare, reducing travel time. That would be the easiest way to describe it. Richard Carrington was just your average astronomer who in 1859 discovered the existence of solar flares and their influence on the Earth. That was all for this little informative AN. See y'all next time!!!!