Hyukjae entered the conference room, well aware of the subtle stirring from those present as he made his entrance. He schooled his features to a semblance of confidence, never mind the nervousness he was actually feeling. He’d like to think he did a good job, not managing to stumble as he made his way to his assigned seat, under the watchful eyes of his superiors.

He had followed protocol by filing a formal report, and tagged it at ultra high priority, within the same day after conversing with Donghae. He had done everything he could to determine that Donghae had purposefully made the journey to the wormhole, with the intent to contact the Buthaan/Ginu and seek aid. That the request for aid is legitimate and not just some madman’s ramblings.

Which makes Donghae more of a Qalini envoy, a man with a mission, rather than a Qalini refugee, someone lost in the wormhole. Which made the quarantine protocols different for him.

Hyukjae’s report warranted a closed emergency briefing by the upper echelon of the Temporal Security Division and which required Hyukjae to show up and answer questions from the bosses. It wasn’t the first time he’d participated in such, but he usually was just an observer, if not the subject-matter expert.

He felt prepared enough, sorting himself out between yesterday and today to be objective enough about the subject at hand. Because whichever way it turned out after this meeting, he is Donghae’s primary contact, and the Buthaan’s de facto liaison with the Qalini. As of the moment, he’s a man figuratively between two worlds and his actions need to serve the best of both worlds no matter how crazy the situation seemed now.

The briefing started as soon as he was seated, the doctors and various experts who’ve examined Donghae so far were called to give their reports first to basically establish his case’s sanity before they even discuss the request. Hyukjae felt slightly relieved that Donghae came off as a level-headed individual no matter who he interacted with, so the general consensus was that he wasn’t insane.

“Now that we have established that Mr. Lee Donghae’s mental constitution is within nominal Qalini parameters, we will now direct the discussion to his case worker on record, Timecop Lee Hyukjae, for the request allegedly made by the Qalini, to quote stop the blight from spreading unquote.” intoned the chairman.

With all eyes now on him, Hyukjae drew a deep breath and briefly reported what transpired with his first conversation with his case, and how the request came about. He didn’t need to spend time expounding on it because he was sure the attendees would have read his report a number of times to understand the weight of their decisions today.

It was the sharp-eyed Commander of the Time Army Corps who raised the first question. “How do we know this isn’t a pre-cursor to an invasion?”

“Because our guest is from an era way too early for the mechanized monstrosities that enables them to easily fly into the Far Reach,” Siwon answered instead, as he sauntered to his seat beside Hyukjae.

“Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Agent Choi,” the chairman dryly acknowledged the tall timecop. Other than an exasperated look thrown his way, their superiors just waited for Siwon to continue.

“Agent Lee’s report matches the Qalini’s temporal signature. The only way they could have reached such a forbidding area in that particular timeline is by means of hardcore trekking, mountain climbing. They do have a mode of flying transportation, powered by these sort of anti-gravity stones, but not something high enough that could make the climb up the ridge surrounding the Far Reach. And based on the Qalini’s psych profile, he’s not exhibiting similar behaviors as that future despot of theirs that got stuck here in our most recent past.”

“We have been monitoring the wormhole since the Qalini came through. It’s been quiet so far, and even the anomalies Agent Choi detected before with the wormhole signatures have died out,” Hyukjae added for the benefit of everyone.

“Supposing we decide to help the Qalini, how will that play out for their collective history?” next asked the dean, the grandfatherly type that’s head of Archival Research in the Temporal Security Academy.

“The last thing we should consider is what happens to their timeline - our first concern is what happens with ours,” interjected one of the lawyers from the Temporal Security Division’s legal arm. “We’ll be revoking a lot of laws and protocols put in place so that we don’t interfere with their timelines.”

A few heads nodded around the venue, clearly not keen on granting the request for aid.

“I am well aware of that - I am one of the primary authors of some of those, if you need a reminder,” the dean paused. “What I am trying to bring to the table is a preliminary plan - or plans - should we decide to help. From what I remember of my archival rotations so many years ago, the Blight Era is one of the Qalini timelines choke points, the one event that had few alternate timelines. Because if the Qalini does not make it out well in this era, they will die out. And in that case gentlemen, the last thing we should consider is our timeline.”

There was a long pause before Hyukjae decided to speak.

“If we were to help the Qalini, we’d have to do the insertion within a year that Mr... Lee took the journey. Based on his assessment, the next five of their years are critical in terms of their world food supply. If they can’t recover within that period, it’s a quick spiral down famine and death.”

“Is he qualified to do the assessment?”

“He’s from a farming family on the fertile north - his mother and brother are farmers, and he’s privy to their plans how to mitigate the blight in their area, boost crop production despite it, and of course, worst case scenarios which includes the five-year projection. Based on his recount, he was young when the blight began somewhere south, spending the next ten years spreading north. If the northern lands are overrun, the planet basically loses its food source.” Hyukjae looked. “He was prompted to seek us because none in their world could figure out yet how to eradicate the blight.”

“Just him?” asked the commander. “If this is a mission sanctioned by their world government, wouldn’t there be more of them?”

Siwon shook his head, having an internal monologue about what politics placed a historically ignorant commander on their military arm. Out loud, he said, “The era does not have a world government yet - they are still divided into countries, territories. Mr. Lee being a lone envoy arose from what he perceives is a need for his world, and it does not matter who authorized it. If he succeeds, everyone would benefit. If he doesn’t, only he would be called a fool, but their world will die.”

Commander harrumphed. “The five-year deadline would not apply to us - we can go at any point in their time to prevent it...” he started to say before a series of scoffs echoed around.

“No we can’t,” a lawyer piped up. “We’d be interfering with their history if we do that."

“So?” the commander countered. “Granting aid will interfere with their timeline anyway, the future one. It is arrogant to presume we’re the solution to their Blight Era, and based solely on predictions from a country bumpkin.”

Hyukjae was conflicted. Of course he wanted to help. But not by going behind the government’s back.

“Well, as the commander has reminded us, time is on our side. It would not harm us to start looking into how we can grant the aid without adversely affecting both our timelines, though I would not recommend looking into the archives while doing so,” the dean spoke again. “We need to exhaust all options, and weigh the pros and cons of each. And somebody contact the Foreign Ministry - we’ll need to loop them in since the mission will fall under their purview, if granted. And if not, the least we can do is equip Mr. Lee with additional knowledge before sending him back.”

“We’re sending him back?” Hyukjae was startled into asking - he thought if the grant was a no-go, Donghae would be made to stay in Buthaan indefinitely.

“Mr. Lee’s classification has been changed to envoy,” the chairman answered. “He’s not a refugee, so of course he’ll be sent back.”

=====

Donghae was finally allowed to go out of the facility, once he was taught how to open his own door with the badge. He'd learned to watch the television, too, seeing in miniature a world so different from his own.

He was told his things were in quarantine, to be kept away until he was old or going back to Qali. He pouted, but didn't protest, because he didn't think he wasn't going back. It may take some time, but hopefully before the rest of the year turned.

Hyukjae kept him company everyday, sometimes just talk to him, other times teach him about Buthaan, show him how things worked. He'd been shown around the facility, too, where he could eat if he didn't want the food from the foodmaker, where he could spend time in an open area, with plants and trees around if he felt cooped up at the facility.

Sometimes he was brought to a medical facility, what Donghae knows as a healer’s place, usually to be poked and prodded, something about tests. Despite the usual discomfort being made to strip every now and then, he knew healers by trade are polite, and generally unimpressed by his body, other than it being ‘other’ than them. Donghae could feel himself regaining strength, either from the food, or the rest, or what they were giving him called "vitamins".

The first time Hyukjae introduced him to another Ginu, it was to Choi Siwon. Donghae was startled because there is also a Choi Siwon in their country, his friend actually, and heir to the Tarda Lorde du Berlanti. It would have not bothered Donghae if they did not have the same look, if not for the hair, as the Ginu Siwon is blonde while his friend is brunet, like they all are in Mahan. Also tall, a sore point for Donghae whenever that friend was giving one of his overenthusiastic hugs. Which looked uncannily the same as the one he was giving Hyukjae.

"Oh wow!" Ginu Siwon was saying. "I mean, I'm sorry. I've never come across a Qalini before - I mean, the last of you came through ages ago, I think. And this lucky bastard here gets to be your case worker."

Donghae just stared, disturbed by how this Ginu really looked and acted like his friend. And then he was thinking, Hyukjae explained to him what a case worker was, but Donghae was pretty sure Hyukjae's parents were married, so that didn't make him a bastard.

Hyukjae was rather initially perturbed by the interest Donghae had over Siwon. He was obliged to bring Siwon in and introduce the two because Siwon is the sociology expert, and they had to get to why a Qalini was requesting help from the Buthaan to solve their world problem, and how it can impact the Qalini's future if they decide to help, or not help.

But with the way Donghae was staring, even Siwon had gone quiet.

"Something wrong, Donghae?" Hyukjae asked.

Donghae looked back at him, surprised, then back at Siwon, hesitant. "I have a friend in Mahan who is also named Choi Siwon. And except for the blond hair, he looks and acts like you." Donghae finally decided to say.

"What?" Hyukjae asked, exchanging looks with Siwon. He'd like to think Donghae wasn't lying, had no reason to.

"There can't be two of you, is there, one in Qali, one in Buthaan?" was the sudden question from Donghae.

"Oh no," Siwon tried to assure him, subtly signaling to Hyukjae not to laugh, who was about to. Hyukjae sobered, noting it was the professional Siwon in front of them right now. "But why would you say that?"

Donghae looked down at his feet, before looking again at Hyukjae, then at Siwon. "You just look too alike, but there can't be two of you, one in either world."

=====

Siwon went back to his place, finally giving in to the dread he was feeling.

The meeting with Donghae drained him, as soon as he realized the archives were true: sometime in his future, he will board the ship that makes him part of what would become the Qali's Ancient Crew - the first of the Ginu.

He had stopped looking into the archives as soon as he came across a future stream of his much older self. But that stream was of Qali's past. He had notified his superior, who immediately pulled him off archive duty.

It has been years now, and he had forgotten about it in the routine of his timecop life.

Until Donghae. Who just had to be a friend of someone who might be his progeny. He would have dismissed it, if the similarities only stopped at the name. But Donghae had looked at him as if he was seeing both friend, and a ghost.

How, how does he end up in Qali's ancient past?

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