Sungmin was the first to wake, more attuned he was to minute changes in whichever ship he finds himself in. Though the vigorous shaking wasn’t anywhere subtle, he’s only thankful it jolted him awake, never mind the throbbing in his head and the general groggy feeling.

He looked over the pilot’s seat, where an unconscious Hyukjae held a steady hand on the ship’s control console. He blearily looked over his own console, noting they’ve been knocked unconscious for about 15 minutes already but still strapped to their seats. He vaguely remembered the desperation with which Hyukjae had punched in random coordinates for the space jump, in a last ditch attempt to escape the ships targeting them and the other ships.

“Hyukjae, Hyukjae, wake up,” he took out a hypospray from one of the pouches on him, then reached over to wake the pilot up. Multi-tasking, he injected Hyukjae with the hypospray while bringing up the navigation display onscreen between their respective consoles. They were still within the space jump, and Sungmin ignored the streaks of light outside the viewports as he reviewed the navigational charts. It did not sit well with him that Hyukjae chose coordinates for an uncharted region of space.

Hyukjae finally groaned, waking with Sungmin’s help, slightly wincing as the hypospray on his neck directly delivered anti-g meds into his brain, particularly into the bunch of nerves that stabilized his balance in the zero gee environment. His vision cleared, enough to quickly assess their current situation. “Five minutes to exit,” he only said to Sungmin, who became busy himself pulling up shipwide status.

“Ship’s status nominal; all fifty life signs green,” the elder finally said after studying his screens. They both breathed a sigh of relief, knowing their passengers and cargo were at least safe. For the time being.

“Exit’s coming up,” Hyukjae shook his head to clear the lingering grogginess. He had hit his head earlier on his headrest, never mind if it was designed to protect a human skull. There was only so much it could do against the forces Hyukjae had subjected the ship to in their attempt to escape their attackers. “I don’t detect any active pursuits.”

He’d been careful about choosing a trajectory that the mothership’s debris took, careful about powering down their signature before executing the space jump. He only hoped the attackers were busy monitoring the main ship which still had fight left in her so that the smaller ships could escape. Hyukjae tried not to think about the friends and family he had in the main ship and the other ships.

They’ve all been trained for this possibility, fleeing an old earth and its dying sun to make their way in space and continue human life where it could take root. There have been stories of previous space missions succeeding and humans have been steadily leaving the solar system for those distant worlds now inhabited by humans like him, settlers from those early missions. And nobody kept from them the fact that space is dangerous - if not the various natural space phenomena like radiation and vacuum, then the danger of space and planetary debris that have accumulated with the human’s race to build ships while the planets and moons started disintegrating around them with the sun’s weakening gravity.

Hyukjae was where he needed to be, piloting his assigned seed ship once it disengaged from the mothership. It had been tricky maneuvering between debris and other fleeing seed ships and lifeboats as well as avoiding getting shot at. Sungmin wasn’t supposed to be on this ship, but there wasn’t time to get to his assigned ship when the alarm came. Hyukjae was only thankful they worked well together during training simulations.

The attack had been too sudden. Just mere moments after the shipwide alarm rang through the mothership, the ship rocked with the first of many blasts sent its way.

=====

Klaxons blared throughout the mothership, the United Korea Ship (UKS) Yuseong, moments before everyone aboard felt the jolt of an explosion rocking through it. Hyukjae was at his top bunk when the jolt threw him clear across the narrow quarters, dumping him onto the deck.

He bit back a pained response, scrambling up instead to zip into his flight suit and grab his emergency pack. He exited the quarters to be met with chaos - alarms blaring, red lights flashing, and hurrying crewmen racing up and down the corridor. He securely clipped on his earcuff but stayed off comms for a prescribed period, never mind if he was itching to contact his immediate crew. He listened to the shipwide comms, about unknown assailants having taken a shot at the UKS Yuseong, and to avoid decks E to J having taken the brunt of the first attack.

Hyukjae ducked into an emergency hatch, the nearest one to get him a shortcut to docking bay four, where his seed ship, the UKS Jinju, lay waiting. He hoped against hope the ship wasn’t damaged, never mind if it was nowhere near the wrecked decks.

His earcuff suddenly cackled in the quiet, dim passageways as he hurried to his destination. He identified Jinju’s frequency before Commander BoA’s harried voice followed, “BoA to Jinju, please respond.”

Hyukjae tapped on his earcuff before replying, “Hyukjae here, still on my way to Jinju.” He heard BoA give a sigh of relief.

“I’m still up in Command, and already in lockdown.” Which meant BoA won’t be able to leave Yuseong’s command bridge to get to Jinju. “You know that makes you next in line, Hyuk. And you have five minutes tops to get to her - I’ve already started pre-flight sequence. We can’t delay any further - Duwun and Unkoku had just disengaged.”

Hyukjae didn’t bother voicing his regret - this scenario was part of training, too. “Acknowledged, BoA. I’m just about there.” He stopped at a hatchway, and opened it out to docking bay four. Instead of gunning straight for the docking hatch to Jinju, he detoured to the docking command center, where the lead controller looked relieved handing Hyukjae Jinju’s command padd, while Hyukjae quickly surveyed Jinju’s stats on the controller’s console.

“The UKS Jinju is cleared to disengage, sir.” The controller wasted no time informing Hyukjae. “Pre-flight’s all done and checked out without issue, but we had to do it without Chief Kim Junsu’s authorization.”

“Thanks,” Hyukjae acknowledged. Once BoA initiated pre-flight sequence, docking bay personnel had to do the pre-flight check with or without Jinju’s chief engineer. Otherwise, there was no sense sending out the seed ship without ensuring that its cargo was intact, safe and sound.

“If I may?” Hyukjae asked in a token gesture before the lead controller stepped back from the console. Hyukjae started flipping switches and tapping on screens until the connectors keeping the Jinju attached to the mothership started retracting.

“I won’t make it to Jinju, guys,” Yoochun, Jinju’s navigator and bio officer, suddenly chimed into Jinju’s frequency. “I just got onto the Gyoukukei - was nearest to the seed ship and just informed that Lee Sungmin isn’t making it onto the ship. We’ve already closed hatch and will disengage from mothership shortly.”

Hyukjae finally shook his head in frustration, even as he acknowledged Yoochun’s statement and wished him godspeed. No matter how many sim exercises he took for this scenario, taking lone command of a very precious ship is going to stretch his abilities. He stabbed a final control on the lead controller’s console before gathering up his things.

“I’ll disengage from the Jinju as soon as I’m strapped in. Just a clear a path for us while I do so?” he asked the lead controller.

“Will do, lieutenant” the lead controller acknowledged, already studying his screens and start clearing debris around the seed ship.

Hyukjae raced out of the command center, taking one of the many solo gliders in the docking bay to reach Jinju’s hatch.

“Hyukjae,” BoA’s voice came back onto Jinju’s frequency. “Casualty reports just came in - Junsu didn’t make it, Hyuk. He was in the mess hall when the first hit came. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too, BoA.” Junsu wasn’t just Jinju’s engineer, he was Hyukjae’s best friend, too. But Hyukjae couldn’t grieve right now, as his duty demanded his full attention.

“You’ll have to do this without the rest of the crew, Hyuk. And if you can, send us word where you are once you’ve found a haven. Captain Yunho’s going to keep the Yuseong alive through this attack, but you’re on your own with the seed ship.”

“Don’t worry, BoA, the Jinju will make it. Just make sure you survive this with the Captain so you can come and get us.” Hyukjae didn’t really need to say goodbye, not when BoA sounded confident enough. Hyukjae reached Jinju’s hatch.

“Hold on, hold on! Wait up!”

Hyukjae heard a voice ring in the docking bay, before Sungmin’s figure reached him in no time.

“Welcome aboard the Jinju,” was all Hyukjae said before he closed the hatch behind Sungmin while the other guy found the nearest panel and punched in his own authorization code, replacing Yoochun as Jinju’s navigator and bio officer.

=====

Klaxons blared throughout the seed ship, the UKS Jinju, almost immediately after their exit from the space jump. , Hyukjae mentally shouted, echoing Sungmin’s verbal cursing. But both men acted immediately, Hyukjae barely avoiding catastrophe by slewing around the asteroid that popped up straight ahead of them. Meanwhile, Sungmin boosted power on both the proximity sensors and long-range scanners.

“Whatever you do, do not stop the ship,” Sungmin warned Hyukjae as a map of the local space started rendering on the navigation display. He chose to keep his focus down on his navigation console instead of the viewscreen, where Hyukjae could see other massive asteroids up ahead, colliding and smashing off each other.

“Huh, easy. Just like Sol’s asteroid run, right?” Hyukjae muttered, as he started plotting a course based on sensor readings and the rapidly shifting map. Sungmin just widened his eyes, knowing that this was the nightmare version of the solar system’s asteroid belt.

“Hold on,” Hyukjae announced as the ship continued its tight maneuvers under his control, shuddering every now and then as the shockwaves from massive colliding space bodies reached it, sometimes nudging the ship off course.

“We need to get out of here fast - sensors are getting too much distortion to give us any coherent readings the longer we stay in here,” Sungmin said. If they can’t get the correct sensor readings, Hyukjae will be flying blind. Not to mention them being severely hampered exploring what’s on the other side of the asteroid cloud if and when they do get through.

Hyukjae merely nodded, well aware of the need for haste. They did not escape the attack only to be squished like a bug between interstellar rocks. He aimed for the system’s star, navigation finally having a fixed point on their map, catching glimpses of it in their wild ride around and through gaps in the rocks.

“Start waking Leeteuk and Siwon - they’ll need to find viable candidates for planetfall once we get out of here. If I’m reading the map right, we’re in the system’s incredibly dense Oort cloud, and we need options other than go through this again.” Hyukjae minutely swerved to avoid a hurtling rock debris then immediately dived down to escape the one suddenly appearing infront of the ship. 

“I concur,” Sungmin acknowledged, knowing Hyukjae was stepping through their prescribed protocols. He called up the bio console and started deactivating two of the cryopods.

=====

“Permission to...” Colony Commander Leeteuk started to ask, before his eyes widened at what he saw on the viewscreen. He’d suddenly stopped, causing Siwon to float onto his back and sending them stumbling into the bridge.

“Granted,” Hyukjae interrupted, still busy piloting the ship through the rock debris.

Leeteuk and Siwon hurriedly strapped themselves onto the aft console seats, bringing up a map of the local space and scouring through the sensor data.

“System’s an 8-planet,” Siwon’s voice broke through the chaotic chimes in the bridge that kept ringing due to the proximity alarms. “Third and fourth planet’s in the Goldilocks zone but third planet’s our best bet.” As the resident geologist, he was tasked to make decisions as to where the colony could be planted.

“Planetfall or survey?” Sungmin asked, using the shortcut for actual landing on the planet or to continue scanning the planet for viability.

“Survey,” Leeteuk immediately piped up. He’d rather gather more information first, never mind if the sensors already identified the third planet as M-class.

Everyone cussed and howled as a particularly nasty jolt sent them straining against their seat straps.

“Sorry,” Hyukjae said through grated teeth. “Had to choose between a rock and a hard place.”

“Engine three’s bust,” Sungmin grimly announced while Hyukjae glared at his own console. “But I don’t see any leaks - corridor c and cargo three still showing green.” Which meant that even with engine damage, they weren’t leaking any fuel nor radiation that would endanger the adjacent cargo.

Hyukjae gritted his teeth as he compensated for three remaining engines while still continuing their mad dash through the rock cloud. “How long till exit?” He asked while making a minute change to follow Sungmin’s rapidly changing flight path.

“About five minutes more - already plotted in your final course... the rocks through there has lesser tumbling trajectories and lesser debris so you should just be piloting straight through.” Sungmin answered.

“Long range’s bust,” Siwon suddenly announced from his seat. “We’re not getting any new data after the last hit.” The sensor array would be sitting just fore of engine three, and while heavily reinforced and protected, still apparently took enough of a hit to be disabled.

At the five-minute mark, their view changed abruptly from tumbling rock clouds to relatively empty space. While they all heaved a sigh of relief, they also didn’t waste time gathering data and rapidly decide on their next move.

They had entered the system at a high angle relative to its ecliptic. It meant they have to target an actual planet with non-stop fuel burn at a certain acceleration, and without the benefit of slingshot maneuvers around planets to control their speed and conserve fuel as they make their way to the inner planets.

They could pinpoint two nearer planets looking like specks of dust in the background of stars twinkling rapidly with what Hyukjae guessed to be because of the transit of the rock cloud on the other side of the system. The system’s lone sun also looked like a tiny star at their current distance, only not twinkling as no planetary bodies were revolving between it and the ship. With additional proximity sensor data, they could see that their mad exit from the space jump delivered them right smack onto the densest part of the system’s Oort cloud.

“Is system-3 still a go?” Hyukjae asked as he continued to orient the ship in the general direction of the inner planets.

“Yes,” Siwon replied, not bothering to look up from his console as he continued extrapolating data about the third planet. “The planet’s M-class, certainly human-livable - we just don’t have enough to know if the native flora and fauna can handle the new genomes we’d introduce if we decide to seed there... or if our genomes can even survive there.” He looked to Sungmin.

Sungmin shrugged. “We have a catalog of all Earth species. Some may survive - system-3 has the requisite NOCH ratios that’s human and Earth species-livable. With additional survey, we should have enough data to make a decision.”

Klaxons promptly sounded throughout the compact bridge. Hyukjae sighed as he reported, “That’s the general alarm for a-lot-of-things-going-.” He looked back at his ragtag crew. “We’d have to make planetfall and repair this ship or there won’t be anything left of us to make a survey.”

=====

It took everything Hyukjae knew about piloting the lumbering ship by the time they made atmospheric entry on System-3. The inward bound journey was relatively fast by the standards of inter planetary travel but the non-stop fuel burn on just three engines took a toll on a second engine so they were running on two engines only by the time they slingshot around one of system-3’s twin moons to make a better approach to the planet - their current engine configuration makes braking directly over the planet impossible. And while they’ve managed to head off any more ship’s damage, the initial assessment was already dire - their adventure in the Oort cloud had compromised enough of the ship’s systems to strain bio and environmental controls.

They orbited the planet twice before finding a candidate landing site - an expanse of sandy terrain on the planet’s northern hemisphere relatively near a freshwater source. Hyukjae aimed for the patch of land while Sungmin continued monitoring their descent. Leeteuk and Siwon had gone belowdecks earlier for the mandatory checks on the rest of the sleeping colony and their cargo.

The ship started to shake and burn as they entered the atmosphere - while Hyukjae oriented the ship to have less surface area resisting the entry burn, he was also missing the use of two engines that would make atmospheric entry under ideal circumstances. Theoretically, the ship can land and takeoff with just one engine but there’s a reason the ship has four - it spelled the difference between survival and...

Alarms started sounding in the middle of reentry and both Sungmin and Hyukjae got busy troubleshooting and working around each system failure as it came. Hyukjae heaved a sigh of relief as they broke through the stratosphere but took it back when the ship didn’t stop burning, or that they were starting to drop with the planet’s gravity faster than Hyukjae would have liked.

“Engine one’s down!” Sungmin shouted over the din before Hyukjae toned down the various alarms.

__________________

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