They’re almost halfway to Jupiter, and another halfway to Neptune. The term half-way doesn’t seem to sit right with him. He wants to search for the whole, make it complete, yet everything feels incomplete. Jongin turns to his side on the bed and listens to Blackjack’s soft purr. It feels like a journey to find himself – a journey to his other half rather than a mission to secure the Earth’s stolen gem.

He has been to other missions; some had been successful, some failed, like his obvious Mars adventure. But this mission brings an unknown emotion. He can feel them moving, travelling slowly like a meteor. Another sigh escapes his lips. It could be the soulmate anecdote messing with his mind and heart. It has to be; Jongin never felt this way before and he never hoped for anything like what he’s feeling now.

Sleep graced him before he knew it, and he woke up fully rested. He looks around to identify his location and after some moments of stretching and deep breaths; he remembers. He gets off the bed and struts down to Blackjack’s packed main hall. The monitors continue to blip and the radar shows him they’re on Mars’ orbit.

“That’s fast.” Jongin mumbles. According to Chanyeol, they’ll have some hours before they reach Mars’ orbit but if he studies the radar correctly, they’re almost out of Mars’ orbit. “It’s impossible…” he glares at the screen, studying the numbers and words. They’re indeed going way beyond intended speed and if this goes on, they’d reach Jupiter in less than a few hours. Jongin looks around more. He flips through the logs and reads each entry. There should be a reason the ship is being flung towards Jupiter at an unimaginable speed.

He wants to know. He wants to learn. This is the core reason why he’s always on missions. Jongin stares out of the window and witnesses the red planet pass by. Jongin thinks to himself and bites his lips. It’s a habit of his. “What could be the reason?” he mumbles on his own, relating to every theory he learned back on Earth. The gravity on Mars isn’t as powerful as the one on Earth. There’s no way it could have such force to navigate a spaceship at such speed. 

“It’s the fire orbs installed on Blackjack’s outer body.”

Jongin turns to look at Chanyeol who is watching his curiosity take the worst of him. “Fire orbs?” Jongin has never heard of them before. According to Chanyeol, these special orbs will help draw and pull the spaceship to travel against Mars’ descending force. Each planet has their ascending and descending force; descending force will slow down a spaceship and ascending force does the opposite. For Mars, it has a strong descending force which will slow down a spaceship to a day speed. However, with Mars being the land of the fire gem, installing the fire gem benefits travellers.

“How much more do I not know?” Jongin wonders loudly.

“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t know about this too. Kyungsoo told me.” Chanyeol laughs and heads forwards to the radar to look at the statistics. “We’ll reach Jupiter in a few hours.” He says, “Way ahead of our scheduled time.”

“Shouldn’t you inform the Jupiterians on the change of plans?” Jongin helps Chanyeol by reading the monitor and radar as they approach the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars, that are occupied by many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes. Jongin feels the chills on his skin as he stares at the screen, as the solid matter scatters around them. It’s about to get worse as they slip through Mars’ orbit into the belt. To reach Jupiter, they have to pass through this deadly solid matter belt. Some asteroids can be as long as a planet's radius, bigger than the sun and wider than the ocean on Earth. Some are way bigger that their impact could destroy them to nothing, leaving no traces.

“Jongin, be my virtual eyes.” Chanyeol says and quickly the Earthian glances towards the Venusian. Chanyeol is taking over the ship by himself and successfully dodges a small tiny asteroid. 

Jongin returns to the radar screen, “Approaching on the left, size of 2km.” Jongin warns, “Just keep straight ahead,” he says, guiding the Venusian perfectly.

They get out of Mars’ orbit successfully and Jongin stops Chanyeol before they pass through the belt, “There’s an opening in the belt.” Jongin says, noticing a perfect gap between the solid masses. 

“What do you mean?” Chanyeol questions, literally keeping Blackjack on air, hovering on a pause. The tall Venusian rushes to Jongin and observes the screen for himself. “You’re right. No time to waste!” Chanyeol gets back to his seat. He’s ready for instruction.

“The radar shows an opening half a kilometre wide but the speed of each solid mass could change by the time the opening reaches us.” Jongin warns again.

“Then let’s not let it reach us, we shall go to it.” Chanyeol announces and shifts their direction towards the opening, 2km on their right. 

Jongin watches the radar closely. “In 0.5km,” he says without glancing away from the radar, but Chanyeol’s polite curse made him look.

“Oh my gems,” he whispers, staring at the gigantic asteroid which is passing through them. The size of it is enormous, making Jongin believe that this could be the same size that killed the Earth’s first civilization; the dinosaur era.

“Opening! Now!” Chanyeol yells, launching towards the small gap and Jongin gets back to the radar, being vigilant on any surprising asteroids. 

“A tiny one ahead of us,” he warns and Chanyeol avoids it perfectly. 

“Increasing speed,” Chanyeol says to no one and Jongin feels the shift of speed on Blackjack. They have to gain speed. The faster they get out of the wide asteroid belt, the safer they’ll be. 

“Incoming on the left!” Jongin alerts Chanyeol of the sudden asteroid coming in at a bullet’s speed.

“It’s like playing a damn video game!” Chanyeol laughs, enjoying the stress and adrenaline. 

Jongin; on the other hand, is suffering from concealing his fears. He experiences being hit once, and he’s experiencing it once again. “I shall leave it to you to cruise the ship on your own then,” Jongin jokes, but Chanyeol screams and curses again, totally in his own head when he dodges another asteroid matter.

After a long twenty earth minutes, they pass the 240 km wide asteroid belt. Chanyeol claps and screams, getting up from the control chair to crack his joints and knuckles. “Such an amazing moment! The rush!” Chanyeol turns to look at Jongin and raises his eyebrows when Jongin doesn’t look as pumped up as he is.

“Dreadful memories,” Jongin chuckles and congratulates Chanyeol for saving his life once again. 

“Nah, I don’t think it has anything to do with me. You’re meant to reach Jupiter.” Chanyeol says, taking over the radars from Jongin. He punches some keys and a code screen appears on the monitor in front of them. “We are thousands of miles away from Jupiter now. Blackjack has to catch up speed and reach Jupiter’s orbit. They’d clear an opening for us once we’re in their sky.”

Jongin leaves Chanyeol to navigate the ship to the right course, and he focuses on the giant planet approaching ahead of them. Jupiter; from Earth it looks like a small twinkling star, but now, as he gets closer to this magnificent planet, it looks dazzling. Enormous isn’t even a suitable word to describe how big it is. Eminent scientists on Earth said that almost 1,300 Earths could fit into Jupiter. That’s how huge it is. Jupiter is wrapped in swirling cloud stripes; red, white and yellowish creamy colours. Vibrant bands of clouds ripple around its thick atmosphere, making it a windy and chilly place.

It is obviously windy. Jupiter holds the Wind gem. Legends had said that the gem isn’t anywhere in or on the ground, but it’s somewhere in the air, hidden from the eyes of strangers. It is completely baffling how the Jupiterians kept the gem in air, hidden from eyes. Jongin continues staring until there’s a loud, alarming noise alerting him.

“What’s happening!?” Jongin rushes to Chanyeol, looking for the noise, and he sees the monitor beeping ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ in red. Chanyeol doesn’t look panicky as Jongin is and that’s a fact which starts bothering Jongin. “What’s this sound?” Jongin asks the Venusian calmly and the tall male winks.

“I disconnected the primary controls. Blackjack will plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere in 10 seconds.”

“What!?” Jongin screams, looking around as all the papers and things start scattering, falling. Disconnecting the primary control would mean a spaceship would be completely on its own in the space, with no machinery guidance. This could also mean that a spaceship could float in space, open to any kind of danger. “Are you out of your mind!?” Jongin yells, only to be waved off as if it’s a normal thing.

“5 seconds more Jongin. Stop thinking and hold on to something.” Chanyeol warns and quickly Jongin grips the nearest attached handle bar. He could hear Blackjack swishing through the air, the alarm blaring loudly and the loudest of all is his heartbeat. The rush in his head is extremely uncomfortable, turning his fingers ice cold.

“Chanyeol.” He shivers, gripping the handle bar tightly. If his Mars mission didn’t kill him, plunging into Jupiter might kill him. Unfortunately, he had gone through vigorous training, which proves he has a strong heart and there’s no possibility of it failing. He takes deep breaths as he feels the sudden jerk and fall; it’s plunging down, and the speed is beyond imaginable. Jongin keeps his eyes closed the entire time while holding on for his life. It’s the longest minute of his entire life; the longest and scariest minute.

And then, everything stops. Jongin looks around and locks eyes with Chanyeol, silently asking the other what’s happening. He feels they’re floating, completely in control. Chanyeol steadily stands up and walks over to the controller and taps on his mic. “Anyone catching my signal?” Chanyeol questions and calls Jongin over. Jongin feels steady on his legs and walks to the radar, looking at their current location. They’re in the second level of Jupiter’s atmosphere. It’s obvious; Chanyeol is trying to reach the people of the gigantic planet.

“Coordinates will be sent to you in a while,” A deep, soothing voice answers Chanyeol's question and there’s an odd happiness on his face. Jongin wonders why. The slight headache disappears by just listening to the unknown soothing voice.

“I got the coordinates.” Jongin informs, still watching the weird smile on Chanyeol’s face. The coordinates keyed into the system and Chanyeol booms loudly, punching the air. “Why are you smiling like that?” Jongin asks, voicing out his curiosity. 

“That’s my friend. So, I’m getting good vibes from our arrival.” Chanyeol answers and Jongin feels the positivity too. To be honest, he felt something when he heard the voice. “I can sense him being tasked on this mission.” Chanyeol says, following the course of the coordinates.

An image of their landing spot appears on the screen; slowly the map levels into a real-time image and Jongin hangs his jaws. This couldn’t be Jupiter. “Is this where we’re landing?” he asks, turning the monitor to face Chanyeol. 

The Venusian nods, “That’s their landing point, known as Pegasus 1.”

“How do you know the name?” Jongin questions,

“It’s there,” Chanyeol points and quickly Jongin reads what’s written on the screen. Pegasus 1.

“How does Jupiter look like this?” Jongin mumbles, staring directly into the image and next to him, Chanyeol laughs. 

“Like I said, Jupiter is nothing like you’ve ever seen.”

The Venusian looks too happy to indulge in Jongin’s personal dilemma but Jongin continues staring at the image; he never knew Jupiter would look exactly like how Earth did before evolution. It’s baffling to see a splitting image of Earth in Jupiter. There are trees; lots of them. The aerial view of Pegasus 1 confirms it all. There are lots of trees, just like how Earth used to have. Now Earth has carbonized, processed oxygen made from humans themselves. They’re injected with processed chlorophyll to carry on with photosynthesis with no need for plants. 

Blackjack lands smoothly on Pegasus 1 and from inside the spaceship Jongin could see some forces lined up at the side, waiting for them to step out. Jongin helps Chanyeol to pack some things as the other locks the ship and they both step out of the ship at the same time. 

Jongin eyes each of the officers, wondering which one of them owns the heavy, velvety voice. They’re all tall. Extremely tall and lean - all five of them. Each of them has their animal companion; a cat, a dog, a leopard, a monkey and snake. Chanyeol was right. The people in Jupiter have an animal companion. Jongin feels his skin crawl at the sight of the leopard and snake. 

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