Leeteuk took one look at the people before them before he greeted. “Greetings General Hangeng, formerly of the Kang Alliance, I presume. I would love to know how the Lady Kang Sora la Terra Nova ended up on this uncharted region of space.”

Everyone tensed, including Hyukjae who realized Leeteuk stirred some kind of hornet’s nest by not even hiding what he knew of their hosts. Donghae had led them into camp without a problem, except for wary looks sent their way, but he had to wonder what Leeteuk was aiming for by greeting their hosts this way.

The pretty girl before them pursed her lips before replying. “If you know who I am, then you know the circumstances that brought me here.”

“Last I heard, your brother tried to kill you for escaping life in the palace. Surprised me how you could manage that but I guess with the help of your best general, looks like that wasn’t hard to do.” Leeteuk looked over Hangeng, whose poker face didn’t reveal anything else after the initial surprise. “I was already under cryosleep before they confirmed you and your companions dead, presumably killed by General Kangin.”

The mention of her brother’s name elicited a flash of anger on Sora’s face but she held it in check, worthy of a princess of one of the most powerful alliances in the galaxy. “I’m a Kang - not that easy to kill.”

Part of their studies included the history of the diaspora. Hyukjae knew of the Kang Alliance as the descendants of the earliest spacefarers, having reached their target planet, and establishing a presence in what turned out to be the galaxy’s hiway, paving the way for humans to meet alien species, and ofttimes, going to war with them. While Earth was far removed from intergalactic politics, the Alliance’s influence was far-reaching, and they figured as one of the dangers in space identified in Hyukjae’s training. All of them didn’t count on actually meeting some members, though former members, of that notorious group.

“Is this a stronghold for the alliance then?” Leeteuk challenged. “Because now I wonder if our mothership’s attacker is your brother dear.”

Everyone in Sora’s group looked at each other in hesitation. Only Shindong offered an explanation.

“We are not a stronghold of any alliance. Sora and her allies came to us as refugees, and we’ve managed to avoid the alliance’s interest, especially when we came into this system. We haven’t had any contact outside the system for a year now.” Shindong paused. “So as to whether or not it is the Kang Alliance who attacked you, we can’t confirm that. And neither can we confirm that it’s not the Kang Alliance who sent you, no matter what you’ve already told us about who you are.”

A year, Hyukjae marveled. Donghae and his people have been on the planet for a year already. And that they would be within their rights to be suspicious about them newcomers, especially when they had shown up unannounced.

Leeteuk just nodded, taking the accusation in stride, before straightening up in a formal salute that the rest of the Jinju crew copied. “Colony Commander Leeteuk, of the UKS Jinju. Requesting permission from this world’s government to conduct a survey on the planet in the hopes of establishing a viable colony, in accordance with SEED protocols.”

=====

Not one for politics, Hyukjae discreetly followed Donghae out of the main camp where Leeteuk and the powers that be were still discussing guidelines for establishing the Jinju colony. It was already evening, after dinner, but Leeteuk and Sora, plus or minus a few advisors, decided to continue the discussion rather than leave it off for the morning.

Saeloun Jigu is what they called this world. New Earth, Terra Nova... it seemed that wherever humans had established roots, they’ve taken to calling their new home by some derivative of the one they fled from. Hyukjae hoped they’ve really found a haven - he’d always been reluctant about flying to other stars in search of a new home. It was also a question of time - making a colony viable will take years, and them, the first generation, would need to make sure that the next generation is fully equipped to continue life for the future generations that would come.

He was lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize they were quiet a long way from the main camp. There was only the lone shack that Donghae disappeared into, and Hyukjae stopped in his tracks wondering what he was doing following Donghae here. At least until Donghae popped back out to ask, “Are you coming in or what?”

What he thought was an outpost was actually a homey cabin cobbled from old ship parts. “Uh, apologies for the intrusion,” Hyukjae lapsed into that age-old ritual about visiting somebody’s home, including a short bow as he stepped into the... house.

Donghae looked at him weirdly before climbing metal stairs to what looked like a loft. “Come on up - view’s better out on deck,” he said before disappearing from Hyukjae’s view.

The view was better on the upper deck, that included a corner of the main camp but mostly consisting of the open night sky and the horizon on the sandy plains. Donghae was already lounging on deck when Hyukjae joined him.

“This was the first thing I had built when we landed,” Donghae said. “A lifetime spent in space and on ships, and the first thing that I wished for was a place to call my own.”

Hyukjae smiled at the thought. “And also because it’s somewhere far enough from camp for your sensitive ears?”

Donghae grinned. “I’m sure you know how noisy it is inside a metal ship. Above or on the ground, those contraptions just don’t stop making noises. Not to mention the people living in them.”

Hyukjae just nodded, as he sometimes piloted ships by feel - the way they vibrated or creaked in response to helm. Or how the patter of feet reverberated throughout the ship, never mind the noise dampeners they put in place. And there was always a bulkhead clanging as doors slid open and shut.

“First time I learned what silence meant outside of space. Silence in space is suffocating... here, it’s peace,” Donghae said as he pillowed his head in his hands, looking up at the stars.

Hyukjae could only imagine what it felt like for someone spaceborne like Donghae, to finally settle on a planet. He was lucky, to only travel space as a transition between worlds, and not what constitutes a life. While there was a certain romance to traveling in between worlds or stars in search of the new and the unexplored, shipboard life was not something Hyukjae could consider home.

“Is Earth really dying?” Donghae suddenly asked.

“Yep... the sun is dying... and Earth with it... calculations say the sun’s eminent demise still isn’t for a couple of millennia, but the world’s ability to send colonies to space is becoming limited. And of course, Earth dies before the sun will.”

“I’ve never been to Earth... and I guess I never will.”

“Well, that’s what the seed ships are for - create an Earth-like planet. Maybe we can manage to make it really Earth-like, then it would be as if you’ve been to Earth.”

“Looking at it from here, you’d think Earth would be somewhere near.”

The way Donghae phrased it confused Hyukjae. “What?”

Donghae suddenly pointed up to the night sky. “See that star? That’s your Sun... give or take 1.5 thousand lightyears.”

Hyukjae narrowed his eyes at Donghae. “Donghae... just because you also have superior eyesight doesn’t mean you can assign a faint flickering star as the Earth’s Sun.”

Donghae frowned at him in return. “But I’m not,” he insisted. “The only way we could have found this system was using coordinates with reference to the Sol system.”

“What?” Hyukjae was asking again, rather dumbly this time.

As if having a delicious secret he was doling out in bits and pieces, Donghae got up and headed back indoors. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

While Hyukjae scrambled down from the loft, Donghae already had a console up and displaying a star chart. “Our ancestors have passed down certain coordinates due to the nature of sleeper ships, in which the first augments were on,” Donghae started as soon as Hyukjae joined him. “Each sleeper ship had a set, and was considered the target world for the ship. Of course, not much is known as to which ships actually reached their intended targets, as subsequent generations opted to live in space instead of accomplishing the original mission. At least mine didn’t, and since I wasn’t of the navigator line, I never really knew what system our ship was supposed to reach... everything about it was purged from ship’s libraries and those in the know had died out.”

Donghae addressed the computer. “Computer, highlight Sol and Saeloun Jigu’s positions on the star chart.” Out of the multitude of dots on the chart, two became prominent. “These we got from Heechul, who was from another sleeper ship, and which coordinates were passed down to him. Call it being at the right place at the right time, because with the type of ship we got now, this system became reachable.” He paused for dramatic effect. “And here we are.”

He got worried though, because Hyukjae was staring intensely at the star chart. “Hyuk?” he asked, only to get a lost look in return. Before Hyukjae refocused and stared at the chart again.

=====

As a pilot trainee, Hyukjae compensated for his weakness in astrometrics and navigation by relying on the onboard computer and navigator, whichever and whoever could give him information. As long as he was told where a target was at a specific time and how it moved relative to where he was, he’d always reach the target accurately. In this case, specific stars, specific planets. So he made a game for himself, how fast he could build a mental chart of the local space he had to pilot through, almost mindlessly absorbing various inputs and placing the correct locations on instinct.

With everything that happened, Hyukjae hadn’t asked himself why he punched in the coordinates for this system during that desperate run from the Yuseong. He had shrugged it off as arbitrary, forgetting that while he had trained himself to pilot on instinct, he could only do so if he had a specific destination in mind. He was already mapping the local space around Yuseong at the time of the attack, so he knew the possible vectors he could take to make a space jump... and know that a system is on the other side of that jump. So this system was not an arbitrary destination. He just could not recall what the system was named, because in his mental chart, they were just a bunch of coordinates.

“Computer, what is this system called with reference to Earth?” Hyukjae asked out loud.

Both him and Donghae waited with bated breath as the computer displayed a label beside the dot representing Saeloun Jigu.

Kepler 1315.

The name triggered an eclectic mix of trivia and factoid to bounce around Hyukjae’s brain, least of which is that it was one of the first systems Hyukjae mapped in his mental game, categorized under systems with Earth-like planets. But most important of all, is that it was one of the target worlds of the Genesis Wave, which Hyukjae came across whilst perusing NASA archives, and which knowledge was permanently planted in his brain with one of Siwon’s impromptu lectures on the history of space colonization.

“Holy ,” Hyukjae said as his brain finally processed what he was seeing. “This changes everything!” Unable to contain his enthusiasm, he reached over to bearhug Donghae, all the while screaming, “This changes everything! We have to tell them! We have to tell everyone!”

And then Donghae was released from the hug as Hyukjae wasted no time going out the door and running back to camp.

Leeteuk would have been offended if it was anyone but Hyukjae who barged into their meeting. It was already late and he was mentally drained but the discussions were at an impasse that neither side was willing to surrender.

“Commander! We have additional information about this world!” Hyukjae breathed out in between pants from his run. Leeteuk deduced the “we” included the augment Donghae, who showed up right behind Hyukjae.

“Go on.”

“This system is the Kepler 1315. And this may be a Genesis World.” Hyukjae reported.

A Genesis World. A terraformed planet predating the first of the sleeper ships, from a mission known as the Genesis Wave: a fleet of 7 robotic genesis ships which sole purpose is the same as the seed ships - to terraform and seed candidate planets. They were sent out more as a gesture of human achievement rather than desperation. Records about them were lost when subsequent world political crises had countries tearing each other, as usual, for resources, superiority, greed. The world survives another cycle of holocaust, armageddon, dark ages, renaissance, technological advancement and climate change before finally being confronted by the one thing everyone thought couldn’t happen - a suddenly dying sun.

The recovery of the NASA archives was a recent achievement, but no one wanted to rely on such ancient, and possibly outdated, information. Least of all Leeteuk, who sent Siwon a loaded look.

Siwon, of course, as a history enthusiast, was as excited as Hyukjae with the possibility. “Our scans did show this planet to be perfectly Earth-like... it’s not that hard a jump to theorize that it’s because this planet was already terraformed... and we weren’t actively looking for signs of terraformation.”

Heechul, another augment, asked. “And the first sleeper ships were supposed to have followed the genesis mission? Occupy an already terraformed planet, which corresponded to the coordinates we were given?”

Siwon nodded. “Had the sleeper ships stuck to the original mission, they would have reached the planet long before we did - the first sleeper ships were sent out way later than the expected success of the genesis mission. The powers that be at that time may have had info that the terraforming was successful, and is why the ships were sent to those coordinates.”

“Again, conjecture,” Leeteuk interrupted, before the discussion went any further. “How can we be sure?”

“We have probes up - scans should be completing by now,” Sungmin answered. “If those scans don’t yield the whereabouts of the genesis ship, we can start to actively scan for evidence of terraforming.”

“And what does it mean, if you find evidence?” Sora asked from the other end of the table.

“It makes the planet viable for the colony,” Leeteuk answered. “The SEED protocols is expected to work, since the planet is definitively Earth-like. And it advances our work by half a century, since the terraforming process is already done.”

“I recommend we table this discussion after we’ve confirmed details about this planet, and its recent history,” Hangeng spoke. “It’s late and we all need to rest - a fresh perspective tomorrow would better serve us.”

Everyone agreed as they began to gather their stuff and head to their own quarters, including the guests from Jinju. But Leeteuk did not forget to thank Hyukjae and Donghae.

“Good work, the both of you.”

=====

It has been a week since their combined discovery was verified by the planetary scans. The genesis ship was found sunken deep in the frigid waters off the southern polar ice cap. The terraforming process had already achieved equilibrium - whatever native flora, fauna, and geologic processes the planet had, was already adapted to Earth conditions.

For today, Hyukjae rode shotgun in Donghae’s rover, both of them sent out by Siwon to setup GPS stations across the sandy plains.

“Oww, will you be careful about driving,” Hyukjae complained. “My tailbone’s been crushed since we started out this morning.”

Donghae conveniently rolled to a stop, as they had reached their destination.

“You weren’t exactly protesting the other day when I plumbed your depths,” Donghae retorted.

Hyukjae’s face flamed at the innuendo. Which wasn’t exactly an innuendo since Donghae was talking about literally plumbing depths, digging a well near the Jinju so that the crew didn’t have to use the shipboard resources when there was good source of water nearby. Most of the Jinju colonists have been woken, and each of them had started on their work. As Hyukjae volunteered for the job, he couldn’t exactly complain about the backbreaking work. His suggestion to dig using blasters was vetoed since the underlying bedrock was soft, and would risk turning the stone to slush given the blasters’ concussive force. He and a couple of volunteers had no choice but to do old-school digging.

The both of them were conveniently assigned the same tasks, partly due to the agreement that one of Sora’s team should shadow one of Leeteuk’s team, and vice-versa, in an effort to share knowledge between their groups. And partly because everyone could see how well they just clicked together.

Which left Hyukjae no choice but to occasionally bump headfirst into embarrassment after embarrassment as Donghae casually flicked out innuendo after innuendo that could be innocently explained. Or that Donghae still tends to invade his personal space.

“Will you stop being so crass?” Hyukjae finally lit on Donghae before he hopped off the rover and hauled out the survey equipment.

Donghae just looked at him as if he was the one who grew an extra head. “What, did I say something wrong?”

“Yes, that’s it!” Hyukjae huffed. “There’s actually nothing wrong, but at the same time, it’s everything wrong! Yah!” He screeched to turn around and find Donghae looming over him.

“I’ll take that,” Donghae just nonchalantly reached over and plucked the tripod Hyukjae was carrying over his shoulder. “We wouldn’t want to break your delicate little back now, would we?” He whispered by Hyukjae’s ear.

“Delicate, my !” Hyukjae spluttered, shouldering past Donghae and marching off to the first station. “There is nothing delicate about this, you wait and see!” He muttered under his breath, forgetting Donghae could still hear him.

Donghae sent an appreciative whistle after Hyukjae’s back. Now that was one uncharted territory he’d love to explore someday.

__________________

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