Author's Note:

Hello everyone and I'm sorry for the long gap since the last update. This is a longer chapter this time around and it largely involves putting different pieces in place for the next big event. Thank your continued support of this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Translatable Mystery

It was a long job patrolling the area around Berk for anything unusual. Normally they'd have split up to cover more ground but Stoick had specifically told them to stay together and Astrid didn't think it was a good idea to tempt fate.

As they rounded one of the many sea stacks dotting the sea Fishlegs gave a sudden cry, "There's something glinting down there!"

Having been flying ahead, Astrid brought Stormfly sharply round to look at the other teen, "Down where?"

He pointed towards the bottom of the sea stack, "Down there on the rocks near the sea level."

She looked down to where he was indicating and saw that there was indeed something glinting at the sea stack's base. She quickly angled Stormfly down and they swooped down towards it ignoring Fishleg's pleas not to. Coming in as close as they could Astrid leaned dangerously off the side of her dragon reaching downwards, in one smooth motion she snatched the glinting object neatly from the rocks and swung back onto Stormfly's back. As they ascended to join the other three teens she studied the thing she'd retrieved, it was surprisingly small and thin but was robustly built from some metal she'd never encountered before. There were three round indentations on its rectangular surface that reminded her of the activation buttons that Hiccup put on some of his inventions as well as what looked like a flap above the buttons covering something inside. Fishlegs spoke pulling her away from her study, "Do you know what it is?"

She shook her head, "No idea but it might have something to do with that lightning door."

"Isn't that a bit of a long shot? I mean we're miles away from the beach where the door appeared so it being responsible is really unlikely."

"It's the best lead we've got Fishlegs, we have no idea how this lightning door works. Besides, Stoick told us to report anything suspicious and this thing is definitely suspicious." Tucking the object safely into Stormfly's saddle bag she turned the dragon homewards, "C'mon, let's get this thing back to Berk."

As the news of their unusual guests spread through the ship a lot of the Enterprise's crew were finding lots of excuses to go past the Mess Hall to see the two dragons.

Toothless and Hookfang were unaware of the amount of attention they were getting as they were fully involved in devouring a large pile of raw fish which had come from the replicators (after a bit of reprogramming on Pavel's part). Hiccup and Snotlout were tucking into a variety of dishes they'd not encountered before and seemed to be enjoying them for the most part, fries seemed to be the favourite making Pavel wonder if there was something in the physical makeup of teenagers that made them love junk food. While Snotlout was content to munch away Hiccup had been full of questions making Pavel really think about how he could answer them in a way the other boy could understand without patronising him. Being a genius himself it didn't take him long to recognise a similar intellect in the younger boy and it soon became obvious that Hiccup had ideas that were way ahead of his apparent time.

In a way Pavel marvelled at how quickly both Hiccup and Snotlout seemed to be adapting to their circumstances though he had guessed that Hiccup had had to adapt to a major change before if his fake leg was anything to go by. When he mentioned this Hiccup just laughed, "We went from a three century war with dragons to living with them peacefully in a few weeks, adapting is how we Vikings survive and my leg was kind of a part of that."

Pavel looked at him in surprise, "How did you manage to start living with dragons peacefully eef ze war had lasted for three centuries and vat happened to your leg?"

Hiccup grinned awkwardly, "Well it really started when I shot down Toothless…"

From there Hiccup went through the whole story of his meeting with Toothless and how he constructed the tailfin enabling the Night Fury to fly while attending training to kill dragons. Occasionally Snotlout would add a comment or clarification of his own and Toothless also inserted few growls or grunts that Hiccup seemed to understand but it was mostly Hiccup who spoke. As he told the story many of the people in the Mess Hall began listening in and gathered around the table where the teens were sat and soon a sizable crowd had gathered. As Hiccup moved onto the fight with the Red Death many of the women and a few of the men gasped in horror at the thought of someone that young fighting something that big and everyone was on tenterhooks.

"…and then the tailfin broke and we couldn't steer away and the last thing I remember was the Red Death's massive tail club coming towards us."

Snotlout took up the tale for his cousin, "The tail smashed into them throwing Hiccup off and we saw him and Toothless plunge into the firestorm caused by the dragon's death. We all feared the worst until my uncle found Toothless and he showed us that he was still alive." There was an audible sigh of relief from the gathered crowd despite the fact that Hiccup had obviously survived and Snotlout continued the story, "After that our main concern was getting Hiccup attended to, Hookfang flew him, my uncle and Astrid back to Berk while I stayed behind with Toothless. As soon as a ship was seaworthy we followed them and since the dragons seemed to largely integrate themselves into the village on their own it was mostly just waiting around for Hiccup to wake up. Unfortunately they couldn't save his leg but Gobber made him his fake one and designed it to perfectly fit a new tailfin for Toothless, when Hiccup woke up it wasn't long before we and the other teens became the main dragon riders in the village and Hiccup was the guy to deal with any dragon issues."

Dr McCoy had been listening to the tale along with the rest and he shook his head, "I gotta say it, you've got balls kid."

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the crowd and Toothless suddenly began continually nudging Hiccup with his snout, Hiccup pushed the dragon away, "Really Toothless, now? We've not seen the rest of the ship yet."

The Night Fury pouted before nudging Hiccup harder and Pavel watched this curiously, "Vat does he vant?"

Hiccup sighed, "He wants to go flying, apparently it's been too long since he was last in the air." He received another hard nudge, "C'mon bud it's only been a couple of hours."

Pavel rubbed the back of his neck, "Vell zere ees novhere for him to fly on ze ship so I'm afraid he vont be able to for a vhile."

"What about out there?" Snotlout asked and he pointed out of the window which currently showed a stunning view of space.

"That would be an unadvisable course of action." Everyone jumped in surprise as they hadn't realised that Spock had joined the gathering. The first officer stepped forward and explained further, "Without proper protection it is impossible to survive in space. There is no air so there is nothing for you to breathe and temperatures are often at absolute zero which would freeze you instantly. Furthermore stars can produce heat far above what is safe for known life forms and the lack of pressure means that there is nothing to help keep your body together. This means that in space it is possible to suffocate, freeze, melt and quite literally fall apart simultaneously…"

THUD!

Spock's explanation was interrupted by Snotlout fainting and falling off his seat.

The flight back to Berk had been uneventful and it wasn't long before Astrid and the others were showing what they'd found to Stoick and Gobber in the Great Hall. Astrid had explained where they'd found the object and now they waited as Gobber examined it.

The blacksmith tapped it experimentally and attempted to prise its flap open. When it didn't give he turned the object this way and that examining it's exterior. He gave a thoughtful hum before gently placing it on the large council table and cautiously pushed the middle button.

The object produced a quick high pitched noise and the flap above opened to reveal a rectangle with pictures and strange writing flashing across it. Everyone stared in awe and Tuffnut spoke, "What is that?"

Stoick looked to his friend, "Gobber?"

The blacksmith shook his head, "That's definitely some kind of writing on it but yer guess is as good as mine for what it says."

Fishlegs leaned over the object, "It looks like the middle button activated it so maybe the other two control it."

"But what does it actually do?" Astrid asked, "The only thing that tells us what it does is the writing but I don't think anyone can read it."

"I think I might be able to find a way to read it." Everyone looked at Fishlegs in surprise and he explained, "I've done a bit of study into other languages and one thing I've learned is that they all have some kind of structure. With a bit of time I think I can work out how this writing works and then translate it."

Stoick nodded decisively, "Very well Fishlegs, take this thing and see if you can work out what it says. Gobber can help you work out what it does and Gothi can help with the translation, it might be a long shot but I think Astrid is right in thinking that this device is connected to the lightning door so the more we know about this the better." He carefully picked up the device and handed it to Fishlegs, "Be careful with it Fishlegs and remember that we have no idea what it does." As Fishlegs and Gobber left to further study the device, Stoick turned to the other three, "Take the dragons out again and do another search around where you found that thing, there might be more objects or other clues that can help us."

Astrid nodded, "Yes sir, we'll give it a thorough search."

They hurried out and soon Stoick followed them with the intent of heading to the beach where his boys had vanished to see if he could find anything new there.

In a whole other universe, in a binary star system and on board a damaged shuttle that had been overlooked by Starfleet, a small device activated and began the process of connecting to its counterpart across dimensions.

PS-So that's it for this chapter and I'll try and update quicker next time. Please review and I'll hopefully see you soon.