hey all, hope you enjoy this.

ps. make sure you've read the foreword before starting this!

Hyukjae on his lips as he stared at the image on the screen, trying to sort out his own emotions. He'd wanted to see the sight of Earth again before he died, and he thought it would be a total fantasy – he was completely lost in space – but now he was looking at the screen, the familiar blue oceans and the contours of the continents making him nearly faint, and for the first time in nearly six years, he was surrounded by silence.

As soon as the first whisper of Earth that had left his lips, the others had quietly slipped out, leaving him mostly alone.

“That is it?”

The quiet words broke the silence and Hyukjae jerked slightly, nodding. “That's it. That's my home planet.”

“It is... pretty.”

Hyukjae snorted, his lips stretching up into a smile. “I'm kind of fond of it.” He waited a beat and then looked at the man beside him. “You know I'm not leaving, right? Earth is my home planet, but it's not my home anymore.”

“You do not wish to go back to it?”

Hyukjae sighed. “Well, yeah I do, but just for a visit. I miss my family and it hurts that they think I'm dead. But it's not home, not anymore. That, and we'd never be able to live there in peace.”

“Oh yes, your government and paraji.”

“Paparazzi,” Hyukjae absently corrected. “And it's governments in the very multiple sense.” The annoyed breath of air through teeth made him smile. “I told you we were a mess.”

A soft hum agreed with him. “I still do not understand why your people continue to divide themselves when there are far greater dangers.”

Hyukjae shrugged. “No one's ever been faced with those dangers, so there's sort of a 'that will never happen' attitude. Some want to maintain their positions of power, so they continue their own willful ignorance. I don't think that half of the population would change, even if a flagship showed up in orbit.”

“That, I suspect, would be devastating for your people.”

“Yeah. Take my reaction when I first met you and multiply it by about seven billion.”

“Riots, panic... all for what?”

“The realization that we are not at the top of the food chain,” Hyukjae muttered bitterly.

There was silence for a moment. “We can leave,” came the soft offer. “No one will think lowly of you for it. We can wipe the data of how we got here if you want.”

Hyukjae was tempted, sorely tempted, to take the offer. The majority of their time out in the Wilds and within the Empire’s borders was spent running. Running from place to place, running from the Imperial ships, running when things got bad, and this would just be yet another run. He sighed. “I wish I could...” he said, his voice breaking. They could try and cover their tracks as best they could, but there was always that chance that Earth could be found by the Zhang.

He couldn't take that risk. Not with his family stuck on the planet.

He was pulled forward, and he buried his face in the strong line of the neck, breathing in a scent that soothed him by its familiarity. He let himself cry, the emotions overwhelming him. He was actually back to his home planet, he could help his people with the knowledge he'd gained, but he was still home. He felt strong arms come around him, holding him close and softly petting his hair. He hiccupped a little as the soft pets to his hair smoothed into lips on his cheek and softly whispered words of love and assurance. When he lifted his head, the lips on his cheek lifted to meet his, the chaste kiss soothing him further.

When their lips separated naturally, he sighed and opened his eyes, and then smiled. “I love you Donghae,” he confessed yet again, never able to stop the words.

Donghae smiled at him, his eyes turning up, a thin rim of blue appearing on the edges of the irises. “Just as you have my love. How will we contact your people?”

Hyukjae smiled. Not you, but we. “I haven't figured that out yet,” he laughed. “I mean it's not like I can just cruise on out and scare the out of the people on the ISS, as funny as that would be momentarily. Also, we're probably going to need to find a good place to orbit.”

“I will monitor for the numerous satellites you say your people have placed in orbits.”

“Well, Jupiter and Saturn are completely out unless you can find their orbiters and stay on the opposite side of them along with dodging all of the moons and random meteors. Those orbiters have some really good resolution on their cameras and can get back to Earth within a standard or two.”

Donghae hummed and waved his hands over the large console. Both of them winced at the noise that quickly played before being just as quickly cut off, and Donghae shook his head. “So noisy!” he complained.

“Yeah, we aren't exactly a quiet species. It's a miracle that we haven't been discovered yet, really, and probably because we're arrogant in thinking that we're either alone in the galaxy or that we can handle whatever comes at us.”

Donghae turned amused eyes on him as the solar system slowly formed in the holographic particles above the console. “You have proved rather resourceful... and arrogant at points...” he teased.

He grinned and moved closer, amused when Donghae pinned him against the console. “Arrogant hm?”

“I never said that I did not like it,” Donghae said, nipping at his lips. “Let us begin making plans for contacting your people, any satellite creating noise has been tracked.”

Looking over his shoulder, Hyukjae saw the system mapped out, orange lines indicating planetary orbits, and then the silver lines that indicated satellites that were being tracked. He knew offhand the names and agencies for a good dozen of them, picking out the main ones around Jupiter and Saturn.

Sighing, he turned to look at the map, his eyes seeking out blind spots he knew they could use to hop closer to Earth.

“What are we doing? Staying or going?”

Hyukjae looked over at the door as the other three members of their small skeleton crew pushed into the main room. “Staying,” he answered. “I have to try and help them.”

“So where are we going to orbit? There are satellites around everything! There are satellites around satellites!” Amber complained, gesturing at the multitude of silver lines. “Are we just going to orbit your planet?”

“Can't,” Hyukjae answered. “My people are totally unaware of the existence of anyone but ourselves.”

Amber stilled. “Your people have never had contact with...”

“With the Zhang Empire or any other space faring civilization, no. We've never had contact with any being that lives or was born off of our one planet.”

“How is that possible?”

Hyukjae shrugged. “I don't know,” he answered quietly. How Earth was so lucky to have not already been discovered, been plundered for its people and resources when so many other planets were not as fortunate, he would never figure out.

“Your system is in a very desolate location, that might also be a large part of why you have not been acquired within the Empire,” Zhou Mi diplomatically pointed out, his tall, lean body characteristic of the elite rulers of the Zhang Empire as he leaned against the console. “But I feel that your instinct to assist your home planet is correct with many of the major clans looking for new worlds.”

“Yeah they’re pretty intent now on expanding in this general direction,” Hyukjae replied. “Which is why I have to try and warn my people about them.”

“We now circle back to the problem of where to hide,” Amber said, her eyes permanently the soft gold color that led Hyukjae into proposing that she call herself by that name. “If we must hide ourselves from casual discovery, then we must find a safe place to orbit with a strong magnetic field to hide the signature of the ship.”

Hyukjae sighed and rubbed at his chin. “But even smaller telescopes can pick out new things, which could bring attention to the larger telescopes. I’m also not looking forward to us being on a full farn rotation for piloting so we can minimize the shield use.” His eyes caught on Mars and stayed there. “Wait... if we need to hide the signature of the ship while making contact, why not just shut everything but the essentials down? That reduces the signature to the point where it can barely be detected, even with a minimal magnetic field.”

Amber suddenly grinned. “Right. It has been some time since we had to use that tactic.”

“It would also allow us to access parts of the ship that need repairs as well,” Song Qian added, her dark hair spilling over a shoulder.

Donghae looked over at Hyukjae curiously. “Where to?”

Hyukjae reached out, tapping on Mars to expand the view. “This planet, or probably the innermost moon if it’s able to support the weight of the ship landing. There's hopefully two still operational robots on the surface of the planet with cameras.”

“I thought you did not want us to be seen?” Donghae asked, his face twisting in confusion.

“I don't want them to see this ship I want them to see me. Hopefully the government that runs those two is still friendly with mine,” he muttered. “Zhou Mi, can you find the two biggest sources of noise on that planet while we're landing so we know where to go?”

Zhou Mi tilted his head gracefully, indicating his agreement.

“Amber, I would enjoy assistance with cataloging what repairs we would be able to do with our limited supplies, as I assume that Hyukjae will be piloting,” Song Qian said, her dark eyes flickering over the planetary information.

“Make a wish list of materials, preferably with chemical and atomic compounds, that we need. I'll try and get supplies from the governments,” Hyukjae said as he followed Donghae to the piloting seats. “And definitely fresh food.”

Hyukjae chuckled to himself as he stepped onto the dusty brown-red surface of Mars in his old spacesuit and looked around. He knew that the rover was just over the crater to his right. “I shouldn't be more than about half a standard,” he said into the communicator that directed back to Donghae rather than to Earth when he mentally calculated the time differences, figuring that an Earth hour would be more than sufficient.

“Understood. How is your air?”

Hyukjae looked at the read out, mentally calculating Earth time into Zhang time. “I've got two standard's worth, but I don't want to push it. I'll be back soon.”

He walked as quickly as he dared across the Martian landscape, breathing a sigh of relief when the rover was slowly moving towards him. He didn't bother with trying to evade detection and walked right up to the camera. He already had the small note written out, and he hoped that he wouldn't have to do this more than once, but was guessing that he'd have to try multiple times to get any response.

He was able to easily stop the rover from moving with his foot and held the note in front of the camera, keeping his face in the shot as well. The small alarm beeped at him after fifteen minutes. “Okay I'm going to switch to the other communicator. I'll check in with you in a regular interval.”

“Understood,” Donghae replied, his voice tight.

Knowing that there would be no way to soothe Donghae, Hyukjae flicked the communicator with his tongue and proceeded to wait, holding the note as steady as he could. He was unable to stop himself from looking around habitually, looking for anything that could be out of place.

After the second alarm he took a deep breath. “This is Commander Lee Hyukjae, pilot of the one-man vessel Pioneer. It has been six years, eight months, and fourteen days since the incident. I was most likely declared missing in space, but I am alive. Pioneer worked. I was launched into a human created wormhole, and arrived safely on the other side. I...” he faltered, trying to gather his words and not lapsing into his native Korean. “I bring news from other worlds. We are not alone. I repeat, we are not alone. There are allies and enemies in other civilizations. I request that you reply on this frequency to communicate. I require milk for my cookies.” The seemingly nonsensical statement was an old one, one that he'd agreed with his controller that he would use if there was any doubt who he was. “Please spin the camera twice to indicate acknowledgment and receipt of my message.”

Flicking the communicator again, he found his hands shaking within the suit. “Hey.