A/N: Surprise! My first ever (and probably last ever) double update! Two chapters in one day! Crazy.

But now for the bad news. This chapter will likely by the last update of 2016. But don't be upset!

I'll be back in 2017 with the second half of this epic gay space drama and I promise it'll be worth the wait.

Please stick with me! Please read and reread and subscribe and comment and share with your friends.

I'll be back before you know it with the thrilling conclusion of Eclipsed.

Don't forget me just yet. I love you all!

Solji hated this part of the story.

She hated it so much, in fact, that when she went on to tell it in the future, she skipped over this part entirely, choosing instead to act like it never happened.

She hadn’t been remotely okay with Hyuna, Elly and Hyoyeon taking the members of the Termite hostage. She’d been entirely against taking them back to the Juggernaut for questioning and, as Hyuna called it, safekeeping. She voiced her objections with Elly flying the Termite back to Jaesan while the Juggernaut, and their hostages, followed behind. And she’d damn near had a when Hyuna instructed Taeyeon and the other three members to clamor out of the Juggernaut and climb onboard the Unity instead.

But she’d been outvoted at every turn.

Who knew this -show had somehow become a democracy?

Solji was pacing in the corridor outside of the gym which had been commandeered as one of two holding rooms. That’s where Hwasa and Taeyeon were, both zip-tied, both seated, both staring at Hyuna and Hyoyeon like they wanted them dead.

The other two Termite crew members – an engineer named Amber and a tech girl named Krystal – were being held down the hall in the library with Elly and Sooyoung as their assigned guards.

Hyerin was sitting on the floor, watching Solji walk back and forth and muttering to herself in Korean.

“So,” Hyerin said after a few minutes passed like this. “I take it things didn’t go exactly according to plan.”

“This is insane,” Solji mumbled. “This is totally insane. Hostages, Hyerin. We have hostages. We kidnapped people! There are four kidnapped hostages onboard my ship!”

Hyerin huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

“Well,” she said, “I guess if it’s for the good of the–”

“Please don’t say it,” Solji groaned. “Please don’t say it’s for the good of the universe and that we’re saving the Berm and keeping bad guys from the wormhole. Just…” She trailed off, stopped pacing and took a deep breath. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t ever the plan. This wasn’t the type of captain she was. This wasn’t who her father had raised her to be.

Completely and utterly dejected, she sank down to the floor, sitting so closely to Hyerin that their shoulders touched. She wanted to rest her head against Hyerin, wanted her wife to hold her and tell her that everything was okay, but she didn’t think she deserved the comfort.

She let this happen. She was the one to decide the Unity would throw their hat in the ring and look for Jiyong. She was the one who should have been in the cockpit when Sooyoung crashed into the Pandora. She was the one who agreed to team up with Hyuna and Hyoyeon. She should have fought harder to keep them from taking the Termite girls.

She should have tried harder.

Maybe none of this would have happened if she’d tried harder.

Maybe it all happened because of her.

She didn’t deserve the comfort, but she wanted it.

And Hyerin, like always, seemed to read her mind.

“Don’t do that,” she said softly. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“I’m not. I’m just thinking–”

“No,” Hyerin interrupted. “Don’t lie to me. You’re sitting here torturing yourself. And I get that. I get why you’re going there. But Solji?” She reached out and took Solji’s hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing. “This isn’t on you. This goes so much deeper than you, than any of us. I don’t know what it was that got us here, be it fate or destiny or just plain bad luck, but we’re here. We’re in the thick of it. We know stuff that no one else in the Cosmos knows. We know about Heechul. We know about Seunghyun. We know about the Bermhole. Maybe we shouldn’t be here but we are. We’re here. And we need to make the best of it.”

“What if there is no best of it?” Solji asked miserably. She’d only allow herself to be this vulnerable in front of Hyerin. To everyone else, she had to be the leader, the captain, the person that kept them together and afloat. But to Hyerin, she could just be. And right now, she couldn’t be anything other than a woman wallowing in deep self-pity. “What if we were ed from the very beginning and there’s no way out? What if there’s no way to win?” She looked up and caught Hyerin’s eyes, immediately warmed by the compassion and the support she found there. “This is bigger than us, Hyerin. Way bigger. This is some deep conspiracy . This isn’t something that we know about. It’s not even something the Juggernaut girls know about. How did we get here?” She shook her head, trying to think of something more articulate to say, but ultimately just repeated herself. “How did we get here?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Hyerin said gently. Solji had given in and rested her head against Hyerin’s shoulder, and Hyerin was running her fingers through Solji’s hair. “How we got here is now officially irrelevant, my love. What matters is where we go from here.” She gestured to the gym where it seemed like Hyuna and Hyoyeon were getting somewhere with the Termite girls. Taeyeon was speaking and it didn’t look like she was yelling or arguing. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know how we’re going to find Jiyong. I don’t know how we’re going to keep Heechul from finding the Bermhole and ending life as we know it. What I do know, though, Solji, is that those two girls in there have the information we need. I know that taking hostages wasn’t part of your five-year plan as a pilot but this is where we are. This ship needs a leader and that leader is you. So you need to get up and go in there and help Hyuna explain to Kim Taeyeon that Heechul is a super villain and that we need their help.”

Solji nodded along with every word Hyerin spoke, committing every syllable to memory like it was the word of God. Hyerin always had a confidence about her, something that made the things she said seem like absolute fact. Solji had known from day one that Hyerin was smarter than her, and Hyerin’s intelligence was something she admired deeply. Where Solji could get lost in her own swirling darkness, Hyerin saw things so clearly.

It was part of what made them a great team.

“I’m scared,” Solji admitted and Hyerin leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

“I know,” she said. “I am, too.” Solji forced herself to sit back up, needing to look into her wife’s eyes to ground herself before she sprung back into action with Hyuna and Hyoyeon. “But I’ll be sitting right here when you get done and we’ll figure it out together. Okay?”

Solji smiled sadly, forcing down the lump in .

“Okay,” she said and then climbed to her feet. She took a deep breath, adjusted her clothes and nodded once. Then she extended her hand to Hyerin, pulling her up so that she could wrap her arms tightly around her and breathe in her perfume.

This was about the hardest thing Solji ever had to do but with Hyerin in her arms, and with Hyerin on her side, she felt like she could pull herself together and make her proud.

It was amazing what a simple embrace could do.

When Solji pulled away, Hyerin was smiling and she touched her hand tenderly to Solji’s cheek.

“I love you,” she said, a simple fact, something fixed and true like math and science.

“I love you,” Solji countered.

Then she her heel and headed to the gym that was now nothing more than a holding cell.

It took Hyuna and Solji six hours to convince Taeyeon and Hwasa to betray Heechul and take their side.

That was how Solji would go on to tell the story.

It took Elly and Sooyoung, meanwhile, nine-and-a-half hours to convince Amber and Krystal, but Elly would go on to blame Sooyoung for that, saying that she was too awkward and didn’t convey the level of confidence necessary to incite Stockholm Syndrome.

By hour nine, Solji just let Taeyeon and Hwasa go in and convince Amber and Krystal themselves.

Taeyeon and Hwasa were reasonable women. They were pissed about being taken hostage and demanded to know where Amber and Krystal were, but they were reasonable women. Taeyeon especially seemed almost eager to hear what they’d found about Heechul, almost like she’d had a suspicion that she needed confirmed. Hwasa was cautious, asking questions and speaking carefully, but Solji could tell that she was intrigued.

Ultimately, they had had Sunny and Yuri come in to share the details and dirt they’d dug up on Heechul. They had receipts – pictures, documents, videos, paper trails. They spoke about his background, his profession, his likely intentions. Uneasily, they even talked about the Bermhole.

It was a calculated risk. If Taeyeon and Hwasa refused to help them, their knowledge of the Bermhole would be incredibly dangerous. But Solji had an inkling that if Taeyeon knew what they were fighting for, she’d be significantly more likely to jump ship. If she knew how dangerous Heechul was, if she knew what he was after, she wouldn’t be so willing to do his bidding.

And she was right.

That, at the end of it all, was the thing to break Taeyeon’s silence. Once she understood the Bermhole and what it was Heechul was after, she sang like a canary, guilt radiating off of her in waves.

She’d genuinely had no idea what Kim Heechul was up to and it was clear to Hyuna, Hyoyeon and Solji that she felt terrible about helping him.

When Solji told the story, she didn’t go into detail. She didn’t talk about the long, emotional conversation with Taeyeon or how Hwasa admitted there was always something off about Heechul. She didn’t talk about the way Taeyeon read through Yuri’s typed summary of Heechul’s background five times in a row, absorbing every detail, or how Yoona came in after hour four and brought them all dinner. She didn’t talk about what went on when Taeyeon was finally allowed to go see Amber and Krystal, nor did she discuss how goddamned stubborn Krystal was. (Amber was willing to fold somewhere between hours two and three but Krystal was made of pure ing steel until Taeyeon talked her down.)

No, when Solji told the story, she skipped right ahead to the video-chat with Seunghyun where Hyuna had to explain that they’d recruited Kim Taeyeon and the Termite and needed to know what the hell to do next.

“Did you get the key?” Seunghyun asked. Solji didn’t recognize the room in the background and figured it might be whatever room had been upstairs at The Black Pearl. Seunghyun was seated in a large desk chair and Chanyeol, the trigger-happy redhead, was beside him.

“We got the key,” she confirmed. “I’ll have Jinki bring it by. Are you listening? I said we have Kim Taeyeon, Heechul’s errand girl.”

Seunghyun nodded, his face serious.

“I heard,” he said. “That’s good. I’m impressed. Did she tell you anything important?”

“She did,” Hyuna said. “I’ll include a copy of our new file with the key, but I feel like you’re not really registering the significance of this. Taeyeon has switched teams. She’s with us now. How do we use her against Heechul? How does this help? Why don’t you care?”

Seunghyun sighed.

“I’m sorry. I do care. It’s a big deal and a big step forward. Things have been very busy here. We’re working on our next step.” He looked stressed out. Hyuna, Hyoyeon, Solji and Elly were in the cockpit of the Unity, all staring up at the screen as Seunghyun rubbed his face with both hands. “The key will unlock the safety deposit box on Gachug and that’s where we’ll find the other half of the tracker.”

“The tracker?” Elly asked.

“It’s a long story,” said Seunghyun. “To keep Jiyong absolutely safe, even we couldn’t know exactly where he went after breaking out of jail. We helped him escape but he fled on his own. He has a very special, very unique galaxy-wide tracking device so that when we did need to pick him up, we’d know where to find him. The other half of that device is in the lockbox on Gachug.”

“So you’re finally picking him up?” Hyuna went on.

“Yes,” said Seunghyun. “That’s the plan. We need to pick him up and deliver him to the wormhole as soon as possible but…”

He trailed off, looking troubled.

“What is it?” Solji asked.

“We don’t know if we can do it in time,” Chanyeol said, speaking up for the first time. “Gachug is at the complete other end of the Cosmos. And the wormhole, well, it’s not close.” It wasn’t wasted on Solji that Chanyeol wasn’t willing to give away any details of the wormhole’s location, even now when he knew he could trust them. “We don’t have a ship that moves that fast.”

“What’s the rush?” The question came from Elly. “Is there a specific date you need this done by?”

“Sort of,” Seunghyun said sheepishly. “It’s complicated. By this time next week, one of the Cosmos’ famous mapping-ships will be passing right by the wormhole.” Solji nodded. The Cosmos had a whole fleet of starships with the set purpose of mapping out the universe. They wandered, almost aimlessly, taking photos and videos and notes so that the Cosmos had a better understanding of their system. “Ideally, we’d like Jiyong inside of the wormhole and in the Berm’s home ‘verse before that happens. But, like Chanyeol said, we won’t be fast enough.”

“I think it’s time you tell us, oppa,” Hyuna said, “where the Bermhole really is.”

Seunghyun bit his cheek. He shot an apprehensive glare to Chanyeol who simply shrugged at him as if to say, “You’re the boss. It’s up to you.”

“Let’s just say for now,” Seunghyun said, rubbing the back of his neck, “that the wormhole is between the Cosmos and the Banseong system.”

Solji pictured the known universe in her mind. They were in Jaesan, the first planet in the Jesamgi system. She supposed one could think of the thee systems as a set of three circles. The Banseong system was the one on the left, the Cosmos was in the middle, and the Jesamgi was all the way on the right.

Gachug, meanwhile, was one of the Cosmos planets closest to the Banseong system and, subsequently, the wormhole.

Basically, it wouldn’t be a short flight.

“Even flying as fast as the Juggernaut could take us,” Hyuna thought aloud, “we wouldn’t make it in time.”

“We’d need a significantly faster ship,” Solji continued.

“We’ll use the Termite,” said Taeyeon, her voice appearing from nowhere. They all turned in time to see Taeyeon entering the cockpit, looking surprisingly well-rested for someone who’d been held captive the last twelve hours.

“Who let you out of the gym?” Solji asked.

“The one you call Yoona,” she said. “I told her I had to go to the bathroom.” She gestured to the monitor. “Seunghyun, I assume. Hi, I’m Taeyeon. I hear you were looking for me.”

“Nice to make your acquaintance,” he said.

“My ship is incredibly fast,” she explained. “It’s small but it’s fast. If things went well, we could probably be at the wormhole within five days.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“That quickly?”

“As long as you’re willing to pay,” she said, “I’m willing to offer up my crew’s services.”

“Now, wait just a damn minute,” Hyuna interrupted. “Your ship sleeps four, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, little lady, it wouldn’t your crew that would make the trip. It would be us.” Hyuna gestured to the other girls in the cockpit.

“The hell it would,” Taeyeon said. “It’s my ship and it’s my ing rules.”

Hyuna raised an eyebrow, equal parts impressed and offended by this outburst.

They started to bicker but Seunghyun knew they didn’t have time for this.

“It should be the four captains,” Seunghyun said, speaking over the commotion. “If the ship sleeps four, it should be Hyuna, Elly, Solji and Taeyeon. The more pilots, the better. You can work in shifts because you all know how to fly. That’s the only logical formation. And, Taeyeon, to address your concern, you will be compensated handsomely, though I doubt I can pay you the same wages as Kim Heechul.”

It was silent for a moment.

“Are we really doing this?” Elly asked quietly, her head spinning. “Are we saying that the four of us are going to get into the Termite, fly to Gachug, get the tracker, find Jiyong and then deliver him to the wormhole?” She looked up, glancing from Taeyeon to Solji to Seunghyun onscreen. “Is that what we’re signing up for?”

“What do we do about Heechul?” Taeyeon asked. “He’s still going to be calling me and giving me breadcrumbs and trying to find Jiyong himself. If he knows that I’m helping you and helping Jiyong escape, he’s probably going to murder me and my crew.”

“You let us worry about Heechul,” Hyoyeon intersected suddenly, gesturing to herself and to Seunghyun.

Seunghyun seemed pleased by that answer.

“Are you four in agreement, then?” Seunghyun asked. “You’ll do this? If we give you all the coordinates and all the help and all the resources we have, will you help us save Jiyong and save the Berm ‘verse for good? Will you help us end this?”

Solji swallowed hard.

Hyuna looked to Hyoyeon.

Elly was the first to speak.

“I’m in,” she said, shocking them all. She was agreeing to spend the next week locked inside a tiny, tiny spacecraft with Kim Hyuna of all people. But every time she got nervous, every time she got weak, she touched her father’s stopwatch in her pocket.

That was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place.

Her father hadn’t raised a coward.

The universe needed her and she couldn’t back down just because it hurt to be around Hyuna.

“ it,” said Taeyeon. “I guess I’m in, too.”

“Me, too,” Hyuna said.

Solji took a deep breath and exhaled hard, remembering that thing Hyerin had said about fate or bad luck.

“Let’s do it,” she said.

“Great,” said Seunghyun. Onscreen, even Chanyeol looked please. “I’ll send someone over with all the things you’ll need and I’ll let my men know what’s developed. I sincerely thank you ladies and one day, the rest of the universe will, too.”

He disconnected, leaving the five of them in the cockpit to consider what they’d just gotten themselves into.

“I guess,” Elly said, keeping her eyes on the floor, “we should go tell the other girls.”

“I guess you’re right,” Solji muttered.

She rose to her feet and headed for the door to the cockpit, having absolutely no idea what she was going to tell her crew and really having no idea what the hell she was going to tell her wife.

Hyerin sat on the couch in the observation deck, staring up at the stars.

She didn’t go into the observation deck very often, though she would admit to spending a few well-deserved nights off with Solji on this very couch doing a lot more than just stargazing. There was something romantic about it, she figured, all the shining stars against the stark, empty darkness.

Hyerin might have understood the human body but she’d never understand space the way Solji did. She’d never appreciate it the way her wife could. Where Hyerin saw nerves and blood clots and muscles, Solji saw nebulas and novas and meteorites. They were so similar, both the human body and their galaxy, both so complex, so seemingly infinite, but they were worlds apart.

Just like Hyerin and Solji.

While Solji and Hyuna broke the news to the crews of the Unity, Pandora and Termite, Hyerin had sat quietly. Was she nervous about Solji doing something this big and dangerous? Of course. Was she terrified of the prospect of Solji getting hurt? Obviously. But was she in any position to voice those concerns? No. She wasn’t.

Her concerns would have come from Hyerin, Solji’s wife, not Hyerin, the Unity’s doctor. And that was unacceptable.

Solji was the captain. Solji was a fearless, competent pilot who had fallen -backwards into one of the biggest conspiracies in their ‘verse had ever seen. But she was in the position to make a difference. Alongside Hyuna, Taeyeon and Elly, Solji actually had the power to help save not one but two different universes.

How could Hyerin object? How could she be anything other than proud?

She was nervous to the point of trembling but there was some Xanax in her office that would take care of that.

Solji needed her support. Solji needed Hyerin to think that she hung the moon. She needed her wife to be that sure of her, to have that much faith in her.

And it worked out perfectly because Hyerin really did think Solji painted the entire galaxy by hand.

She just hoped Solji knew that, too.

She was waiting in the observation deck because she knew Solji would show up eventually. They hadn’t coordinated it, hadn’t planned it in advance, hadn’t texted each other to meet there. Hyerin just knew it was where Solji liked to hide out when she was stressed.

And this was a very, very good time for Solji to be stressed.

It was after midnight when Solji appeared, looking soft and pretty in her pajamas.

After all this time, seeing Solji brought a smile to Hyerin’s lips and a flutter to her heart.

“Who’s driving?” she asked with a smirk.

Solji hadn’t seen her at first, not with the angle of the shadows, but when she did, she smiled genuinely for the first time all day.

“Hyuna,” she said. “It’s my off-shift so I was going to take a nap.”

“Talk to me first?” Hyerin suggested lightly.

It was an offer Solji couldn’t refuse.

She sank down into the spot beside Hyerin, immediately finding her hand so that she could hold it in her own. She hadn’t expected to see Hyerin here, sure that her wife had already gone to bed, but this was such a pleasant surprise. It sure beat sleeping alone.

“Can I ask you something?” Solji spoke softly.

“Go for it.”

“Are you mad at me?” she asked. “For what I’m doing with Seunghyun and the other girls?”

Hyerin shook her head.

“Solji, no. No way. I’d never be mad at you for doing your job.”

“I feel like everything’s moving at warp-speed,” she said. “It feels like just yesterday we were reading that listing about Jiyong and the bounty and now tomorrow night I’m climbing into the ing Termite and going to Gachug. It feels like it’s all happened in a matter of minutes.”

Hyerin smirked at that.

“Maybe it has,” she said. “If there’s one thing that space has taught me, it’s that time is meaningless. Who’s to say this last month hasn’t existed in a just a few minutes?”

Solji laughed weakly.

“Please don’t get philosophical on me right now. I am so tired.”

Apologizing, Hyerin kissed her temple.

“You’ve been spoiled on this big, fancy ship for so long,” Hyerin said, changing the subject just slightly. “Are you at all worried about the conditions of the Termite?”

“I’m more worried about Hyuna and Elly. That’s a lot of days on a very small ship. From what I understand, it’s one sleeping cabin with two bunkbeds. That could get ugly.”

Hyerin only shrugged.

“Maybe they’ll realize they’re still endlessly in love with each other and get back together,” she teased. “You need to think more romantically, Solji.”

Solji gave Hyerin a playful shove and they both laughed, moving even closer to each other on the couch. When the laughter subsided, Solji’s back was against Hyerin’s chest, and Hyerin’s arms were around her waist. They were both looking up, watching the stars pass by. They were on their way to Geum Haneul. That was where the Unity would dock while the captains took the Termite to Gachug.

From there, it was anyone’s guess what would happen.

Solji and Hyerin were both thinking the same thing, though neither would admit it to the other – they hadn’t been apart for more than two consecutive days since they’d gotten married.

It was a very petty problem in a choppy sea of enormous, ‘verse-wide woes but it was something that was plaguing both of them. As the thought crossed her mind, Hyerin gave Solji a squeeze. She probably wouldn’t sleep a wink the entire time Solji was gone. (But there was Ambien in her office, right next to the Xanax, so she’d be okay.)

“Promise you’ll take care of the kids while I’m away,” Solji said, sounding a lot more dramatic than she’d meant to. “Try not to let Moonbyul and Solar be alone together. I don’t trust those two.”

“Oh, baby girl,” Hyerin said. “That was inevitable. I won’t be able to stop those two from sleeping together. Nothing will.”

“Good point,” Solji said.

“Speaking of kids, though,” Hyerin began and Solji actually turned her body a little so that she could look at her. “I was wondering if we could talk about that.”

“Wow,” she said. “We haven’t had this conversation in a while.”

Hyerin nodded.

For a long time, they’d had this conversation a lot. Really, they had it every time one of them had a sip too much to drink. They had it so much, in fact, that the other girls on the Unity had dubbed it a “Code Pink” so if one member happened to overhear the beginnings of trouble, she could go to the group chat and warn the others to make themselves scarce.

It wasn’t that talking about having children was inherently problematic for Solji and Hyerin. Instead, it was that the conversation rarely ever stayed on that subject very long. It was like a gateway fight. They’d start to talk about having children and Dr. Seo would insist that Captain Heo take nine months off so that she could live out her pregnancy on a stable planet with a reliable atmosphere, the best thing for an unborn child.

Then it snowballed. Solji’s fears that Hyerin resented her for taking her from surgery broke through the surface and manifested itself as harsh comments and defensive arguments. By the end of the night, they were screaming and crying and throwing and the rest of the girls were politely trying not to notice.

“Are you worried I won’t come back?” Solji said, half-teasing. With her fingertips, she was drawing shapes and lines up and down Hyerin’s forearms. “Is that why you want to talk about this now? You think we should do some sort of last will and testament deal?”

“No, shut up,” she said. “It’s not like that. We just haven’t talk about it a while.”

“This always turns into a fight, Hyerin,” Solji said. “You don’t want to be pregnant. I do. But I don’t want to take nine months off from flying. You don’t want me flying while pregnant. Besides, we only have this conversation when we drink.”

“I thought you might say that,” Hyerin said.

Releasing her grip on Solji’s waist, she reached under the couch and produced a small cooler where she’d stashed a few beers. She handed one to Solji and kept one for herself.

“Wow,” Solji snorted. “You’re good.” Solji took a long sip, relishing in this moment – the taste of a cold beer, the unmatched view as they hurtled through space, the way it felt to be in Hyerin’s arms. “We don’t need to have this conversation now,” she said. “I’ll be gone two weeks at the absolute most and when I get back, we will sit down, stone-cold sober, and have this conversation. I promise.”

To signify the validity of the promise, Solji clanked their bottles together, making Hyerin smile.

They sat like this for a while, drinking and enjoying the silence. They were both lost in thought, both experiencing similar worries and emotions, but, somehow, just sitting together was enough to make them both feel better.

When their bottles were empty, Hyerin discarded them and they settled back against the cozy, black couch like they were getting ready for bed. Hyerin’s arms were tight around Solji’s torso and Solji didn’t want it any other way.

This was comfort. This was peace.

“I promise I’ll come back safe,” Solji said quietly after the silence was becoming too much to bear.

“And I promise I’ll be right here waiting for you,” Hyerin countered soothingly.

“I know it’s crazy,” Solji said. “I know all of this is crazy. I know it’s dangerous. I’m sorry that I’m putting you through it but–”

She stopped, not sure where she’d wanted to go with that thought.

“But what?”

“But I want to make you proud,” Solji admitted finally. And there it was, the real reason that Solji felt it impossible to shy away from any of these new challenges. She wanted – needed – to make Hyerin as proud as Hyerin made her.

This comment took the breath from Hyerin’s lungs, truly stunning her.

“Solji, what on earth–?”

“No, don’t say anything,” she said. “I was proud of you the day we met. I’ve been proud of you every moment since. You spent your entire adult life helping people, saving lives, making sick people better. I’m so proud of that. I’m so proud that my wife is a healer. And now I have a chance, Hyerin. I have a chance to heal the universe. I have a chance to really make a difference. And I’m going to do it and I’m going to come back here to you and I’m going to make you proud. I promise.”

There was a long pause. Hyerin could feel Solji’s heart pounding and she tried to process her words, tried to make sense of what she’d just said.

“Heo Solji,” she whispered, “you silly, silly woman.” She squeezed her again, pressing kisses to her head and her cheek and wherever else she could reach. “You never needed to save the universe for me to be proud of you. I already was. I always have been. That could never change.” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and shutting out the view that she’d never understood. “But one thing is for sure. You are going to help save the ‘verse and I’m still going to be the proudest wife this galaxy has ever seen.”

The lump in Solji’s throat was back and she didn’t bother to fight it. Instead, she let a few rogue tears slip silently down her cheeks. She covered Hyerin’s hands with her own and smiled.

“I love you, Seo Hyerin,” she said.

“I love you, Captain Heo Solji,” Hyerin returned. “And now it’s time to sleep. You’ve got a big day tomorrow and it’s better for everyone if you’re well-rested.”

Solji nodded. Hyerin was right. She was always right.

Taking a deep breath, Solji closed her eyes and went to sleep one last time in the universe as she knew it.

"Ah, as usual time flows

and gravity keeps pulling me down

 but if I’m with you, nothing better, nothing better.

Honestly, me right now, I don’t have much to do

I don’t have much to do

But I promise you that one day,

Girl, I’m gon' make you proud..."