[fic] part two
Title: Burning a Path Between the Stars
Fandom and OT3: Super Junior; Shiwon/Eunhyuk/Donghae
Rating: PG
Word Count: 18,466
Summary: The three man (and one robot) crew of the spaceship Sapphire favour adventure and exploration above all things - unless there's some money to be made in the process. So when an ancient myth falls into their hands the possibility of it being real, and making a fortune, is too great to resist. And there begins their adventure through the galaxy, or a wild fowlbat chase between the stars.
Warnings: None
Despite their having blasted off-world with a guest still on board the ship, and having forgotten about him entirely, Henry was as good as his word and still managed to fix the engines quite speedily. In fact, he was better than his word (much to Hyukjae's shame) as he'd inadvertently discovered that one of the links had been wired incorrectly, most likely from the last time Hyukjae had had to have a go at fixing them. This miss wiring, as Henry told them when he was finished, was extremely dangerous, and had meant that the engines could have fizzed out completely at any moment, or have exploded and taken the ship with it. This was a very frightening thought, and Donghae, Hyukjae and Shiwon had all shared a look at this news, a look that was at once both relieved and incredibly panicked. Hyukjae was never going to be allowed to fix the engines himself, ever again.
Once the engines were entirely fixed, and deemed to be safe to use again, they were off, Hyukjae plugging in the co-ordinates for the next route, and making the jump into lightspeed. Technically, it was faster than lightspeed travel, as anything slower than that would mean taking centuries to travel anywhere significant or far away, and it was a big, big galaxy hanging out there in space, but lightspeed was what it was commonly called. Making the jump sent them so fast through space that the stars streaked into bright white lines, before vanishing completely, surrounding all the viewports with the black depths of nothing. It almost seemed an alternate dimension, and indeed some space-scientists thought of it as that, that faster-than-light travel sent ships into another dimension of space in order to even achieve such speeds, but Donghae simply thought that it was handy, or he'd have been a wrinkly old man by now, trying to trade his wares.
It was also important to have exact co-ordinates to plug into navcomputers for lightspeed travel, however, and to have current maps of everything. There were occasionally tales of nasty incidents where a ship either hadn't planned properly and crashed into an asteroid right at the height of lightspeed travel, where neither ship nor rock were salvageable or recognisable after the collision, or a map hadn't been up-to-date enough and a blackhole, or a gravity well, had ripped ships flying too close at lightspeed right out of that alternate dimension, mercilessly swallowing them whole.
Luckily, Hyukjae was an excellent navigator, if not a good cook, and the Sapphire had never had such incidents in their lightspeed travel between systems.
So they were steadily on their way, and with Henry still on board. Donghae had paused long enough to ask him if he wanted to be dropped back off on Styko, but not very convincingly, as he thought Henry would be a very valuable companion, at least until after they found the treasure.
They travelled comfortably, and safely, at lightspeed for the next three days, and there was little need for any of them to be in the cockpit during this time, only Hyukjae went occasionally to check on their progress and how close they were to their destination. There was finally some free leisure time for them, and Shiwon and Henry spent a large portion of that in the main hold, which contained a small 'leisure' area, which included a long couch following the length of one wall, a couple of chairs, a table and an extra bed.
There were compartments within the wall, behind the couch where they all kept their recreational items; for Shiwon this was mostly books, for Hyukjae an assortment of games, including a deck for kkliiujkd, and Donghae kept whatever he felt like keeping in them, and sometimes no one wanted to ask him what those were. Once, sometime last year, there had been a terrible smell emanating from one of Donghae's compartments and Shiwon had opened it to find a fuzzy looking brown ball concealed within, and upon closer inspection not only was the fuzzy ball making the terrible smell, but it was alive, some kind of animal unknown to any of them. Donghae couldn't remember why he had it in the first place, and they'd dropped it off at the next stop; it had taken Shiwon a month of cleaning to rid the smell from the ship.
Whilst Shiwon and Henry spent their time themselves playing a few rounds of kkliiujkd or a few games of illinsm, Hyukjae could be found with his head buried in a number of engineering books, not wanting Henry to make him look bad, and Donghae couldn't always be found at all. Sometimes, Kibum joined in with whatever games Shiwon and Henry were playing, but he was incredibly good at all of them, winning every time, and soured the mood so much that Shiwon usually sent him off to make sure Donghae wasn't creating too much trouble; that usually had Kibum grumbling - as much as a robot could grumble - about not being programmed to babysit.
Time passed by quite easily in this manner, until the alert went out on the nearest computer that they were approaching the end of their lightspeed route, and Hyukjae made his way into the cockpit; no one else was needed for something as simple as coming out of lightspeed. Dropping into his seat, he leaned over his array of computers and consoles and buttons, checking the co-ordinates, until the ship hit the end of the route, and dropped out of lightspeed, streaks of almost burning light blazing past the viewport, until each line fell back into the glowing light of a star. Once again they were surrounded by the comforting sight of the galaxy around them, stars and planets and moons. Hyukjae always found it a little eerie, travelling in lightspeed, without the comfort of those points of light around him.
With this in mind it took him a moment of staring at the treasure map, and then staring at the view in front of him, to figure out that something was amiss. It took a further few moments for him to work out what was actually wrong, and then he switched on the intercom, and called for both Shiwon and Donghae to join him.
"What's the problem?" Donghae asked, coming into the cockpit behind Shiwon, his hair damp, hopefully from a recent shower. "Isn't this the point where you co-ordinate again and we jump the last stretch to X marks our spot?"
Hyukjae shook his head, his expression one of both confusion, and worry. He turned to half face Shiwon and Donghae. "This is the map, right?" he said, bringing it up larger on his computer screen for them both to see. "And this is what's actually there," he gestured at the viewport, and the space beyond it. "Now, play spot the difference."
Donghae frowned, looking between the map and the viewport, but Shiwon was quicker. "Ah, that planet, it's missing!"
Hyukjae nodded. "That planet was the next co-ordinate from where I was going to set the jump from. And it's not there, which means I don't have exact co-ordinates for it, which means I can't make the jump." And, he didn't need to add it out loud, but without being able to travel at lightspeed to their final destination the distance between here and there meant it would have taken them fifty years, at the least, to reach it.
Donghae's face fell. "Are we lost, then?"
"I don't think so. Everything else on the map checks out, and is where it should be."
"So, where's our missing planet then? Because without that, we're kind of eaten by a snarkak here."
There was a pause, as all of them considered this new and distressing information. Eventually, Shiwon spoke up. "That map is a millennia old, right?"
Hyukjae nodded.
"Anything can happen to planets in that time. It could have been blown up, destroyed, knocked out of orbit by a big enough collision and sent spinning out into the galaxy. But if a planet was there, even a long time ago, we should be able to find out it's old co-ordinates shouldn't we?"
Hyukjae frowned, thinking it over, before responding. "We probably could, but not with the resources I have here on the ship. I think we'd need to go down to the nearest planet and check out their geographical library. Even old sources there should have our missing planets co-ordinates."
"Right," Donghae began, in his 'I'm the Captain and I make the decisions' voice, "We'll land on the nearest advanced planet, and Hyukjae and I will go find the library and get our co-ordinates. We don't all need to go, so you can stay here with Henry, keep an eye on things until we get back."
"Okay," Shiwon nodded, hoping that it wasn't a bad idea, and wasn't going to end like the last time they landed somewhere.
Turning back to his computer, Hyukjae clicked around a bit, until he brought up a read-out of the nearest planet. "Oriyun," he informed them. "It's a medium sized moon, orbits the larger, but dead, planet of Tirim. They're as advanced as anyone else, mostly populated by humans, humanoids, and the Divrons. There are a lot of jungles, and apparently this is the centre for trade in mynnok meat and furs. The fur is illegal to trade, isn't it?" He paused in his read-out, to throw the question out there.
"Ah, yes, yes it is." Donghae looked a little too thoughtful over that, for either Hyukjae's or Shiwon's taste, but Hyukjae ignored it for now and continued.
"They do have large cities, beyond the jungles though, so they'll have libraries, and the sources we need. Also, it's not a place that smugglers and spacebums usually gather, so we shouldn't get into as much trouble here." No one mentioned that it was Hyukjae who had gotten into the trouble, for being caught out cheating.
"Good. Let's get down there then, and we can find our missing planet and be one our way!" Donghae enthused, grinning now. "We're so close to that treasure now."
"Ah, I've got it!" Hyukjae waved Donghae over to the computer port he was sitting at. On the screen in front of him, Hyukjae had up a picture of the view that they should have seen from their ship earlier. "It's about a hundred years old, but the planet did exist!" Thankfully, otherwise it would mean Hyukjae had gotten them lost, and whilst he knew he wasn't particularly good at everything he was pretty good at not getting them lost. Usually.
"That's great! Have you got the co-ordinates?"
Hyukjae nodded, looking pleased. "Downloaded this map onto my filepad, I've got all the information I need to get us to our next, and final, stop." There was no hiding the goofy grin that was spreading across his face; they were so close to finding out if this treasure even existed, even after all the obstacles seemingly thrown in their path. Maybe this was why no one had ever found the treasure before, maybe the hunt for it was cursed by annoying diversions. Either way, they had their co-ordinates, and Hyukjae happily tucked his filepad away and stood up from the computer port, ready to leave.
"Hey," Donghae began, as they made their way out of the library, "let's go get a drink before we go back."
Hyukjae looked across at him, surprised. "A drink, now? But we've just found what we were looking for! Don't you want to find out what this treasure is?"
"Of course I do!" Reaching out, Donghae took hold of Hyukjae's sleeve, tugging at it lightly, but quite insistently. "C'mon, Hyuk, let's go have one little drink?"
The wheedling was hard to resist, it always was, and Hyukjae gave in with a sigh. "All right, but only one! And then we go back to the ship. And I'm not playing any games while we're there, either."
"Of course!" Donghae agreed easily, grinning.
That didn't make Hyukjae feel a whole lot better about this.
Donghae led them both to the nearest tavern, talking animatedly the duration of the short walk there, and as always Hyukjae was caught up in Donghae's easy conversation, forgetting mostly about his misgivings. But whilst they were still in the dark doorway of the Spacers Run, Donghae grabbed tight hold of Hyukjae's arm, keeping him still, and hidden amongst the shadows.
"Look who's sitting over at the bar." His voice was low and quiet, and Donghae had to lean in close, his lips all but against Hyukjae's ear in order for him to hear the hushed words.
Somewhat alarmed, Hyukjae's eyes quickly scanned the patrons seated along the long U-shaped bar, until they landed upon a familiar redhead. He sucked in a surprised breath, and turned to look at Donghae, eyes wide. "Oh, blazes, it's Heechul. What's he doing here? Donghae, we need to leave, right now!" The idea of what could happen if Heechul caught up with them now, after the trick they had pulled, was just a little worrying. Heechul wasn't malicious, or vengeful, even if he was a pirate, but he would probably be suspicious and less than happy at their speedy getaway from their last encounter, and after getting this far losing the map to a pirate was the last thing Hyukjae wanted to have happen.
But a closer look at Donghae served to show that he seemed a lot less worried about the terrible timing of running into Heechul. Hyukjae frowned, a bad feeling rising within his stomach, as if he'd eaten some gone off murming ribs. "No, whatever you're thinking, whatever you're possibly planning, just, no," Hyukjae told him, and quite boldly, for him; Hyukjae wasn't known for a firm, authoritative nature. "We're leaving, right now, with Heechul none the wiser, and we'll get to the treasure soon."
Donghae shrugged his shoulders, a light smile playing on his face. "Oh, come on. Don't you want the chance to play a little trick on him?"
"Wasn't that what we did when we just ran away and left him hanging in space?"
"Well, yes. But it's always fun to play tricks on Heechul."
The squirming in his stomach was beginning to become unbearable now, and Hyukjae was really beginning to wonder if he actually had eaten something sour. "Donghae, really, let's just get back to the ship and go. I don't know what you have in mind, but it won't work."
The grin was widening across Donghae's face. "No, it'll work. Look, have a peek over at Heechul and the person sitting with him at the bar. Tell me what you think might be going on."
Still concealed safely within the shadows, Hyukjae spared a glance over at Heechul. He noted that the pirate was sitting having a drink with some humanoid, a Persinnin, by the looks of it, with that deep brown shading to the fur that covered what skin Hyukjae could see, and the shock of natural, green hair cropped short on top its head. The Persinnin was wearing a pair of what looked to be mechanics overalls, the faint stains of engine grease and oil down one leg. They looked to be discussing business, too.
It was fairly easy to guess at what was going on, and a moment later Hyukjae turned back to Donghae. "Looks like he's talking to a mechanic, probably about repairs needed for his ship to get running again."
"Exactly," Donghae nodded, grinning. "So it won't be too difficult. I'm gonna do it, Hyuk. Listen," and Donghae pulled Hyukjae closer, so he could whisper the plan to him. "You stay here, keep an eye on Heechul and his friend, and use the commlink to alert me if either of them leaves. I'm gonna pose as the mechanic and get aboard the ship. I won't be long, and I'll go straight back to the Sapphire when I'm done. I'll alert you when I'm on my way back, we meet at the ship, and we blast off this rock as quickly as we can and finish our treasure hunt, okay?"
Donghae sounded confident, making it seem like a simple, easy plan where nothing could go wrong, but Hyukjae still had his misgivings. But seeing the look on Donghae's face, that look of excitement and anticipation at pulling off a little trick, he knew it wouldn't do any good to talk his friend out of it. Donghae was Donghae, and sometimes, no one could talk him out of anything.
"All right," he eventually agreed, as there was nothing else he could do anyway. "But be quick, and don't try anything stupid, yeah?"
The careless wave of a hand and the nod Donghae gave him in return did nothing to assuage Hyukjae's worries. "Don't worry! Get a drink, and sit inconspicuously in a dark corner booth, and keep an eye on Heechul and his friend for me."
With barely another nod, Donghae was gone, out the door, and Hyukjae was left alone. As surreptitiously as he could manage, he got himself a drink, and found a spare seat in one of the corner booths. Thanks to the design of the room sitting in the corner meant that he was draped in shadows, so that even if Heechul were to look right over at him he wouldn't be able to see Hyukjae's face; there was a reason that taverns were most often frequented by spacers, smugglers and pirates.
Hyukjae sipped slowly at his drink, all the while keeping his wary attention on Heechul and the Persinnin, who seemed to still be discussing the finer details of their arrangement, that or Heechul's ship had really gotten itself into some trouble and required a lot of fixing. Hyukjae hoped for the latter, as it would give Donghae the most time to complete his crazy plan. He also hoped there weren't too many crew members left aboard the ship, or his friend could get himself into quite a bit of trouble.
Eventually, with the details seemingly sorted, the Persinnin left the tavern and Hyukjae quietly commlinked Donghae to inform him.
"Thanks, Hyuk," Donghae's voice came quietly back through the small comm, "I'm still on board the ship, checking out Heechul's cargo holds. I'll be done soon!"
Hyukjae had wanted to say more at hearing that information, but Donghae had already closed communication, and Hyukjae had to just settle in and wait. Or just wait, as he couldn't exactly settle.
There was a tense moment, when Heechul shifted about and pulled out a commlink, and Hyukjae's mind raced ahead to scenarios of Heechul's crew having found an imposter trying to sabotage them, or steal from them, and were calling Heechul for orders. Donghae could be blasted to pieces!
His heart seemed to be in his throat, and for a moment Hyukjae felt as if he were an Inveronian, with their three hearts, each one racing away inside of him. But Heechul looked neither panicked, nor angry, simply stated a few orders, or answered some questions, something - Hyukjae couldn't hear him from where he sat - and ended the communication. There was only a slight sense of relief, at that.
After another several nervewracking minutes in the tavern, Hyukjae caught the small vibration of the call against his arm, and knew it to be Donghae's alert that he was done, and to meet him back aboard the ship. It was about time, and Hyukjae was all too happy to get up and make his way as quickly from the tavern as he could.
"Hey," a voice said from behind him, one Hyukjae knew. He cursed inwardly, but didn't flinch, and didn't stop, didn't give away that the voice was most likely talking to him.
"Hey!" Again, Hyukjae sped up, nearing the doorway now. "Hyukjae, is that you?"
He turned his head, only briefly, and the moment he did he knew he shouldn't have, as Heechul was halfway towards him already.
"Blast it!" Hyukjae cursed himself, and without another look bolted out of the tavern, sprinting back to the spaceport as quickly as he could. He risked only one final look behind, to see that Heechul was standing outside the tavern, talking quite quickly - and looking rather angry now - over his commlink. Whatever Donghae had done had probably been found out by now, by the looks of things.
Putting on a burst of speed Hyukjae made it back to their docking port in record time, and was entirely out of breath by the time he'd run up the boarding ramp and right into Shiwon, who was emerging from the main hold, probably on his way to the cockpit.
"Hey, what's happened?" He asked, reaching out to grasp Hyukjae's shoulders when they impacted, concern crossing his serious face. "Are you okay?"
Hyukjae shook his head emphatically. "Where's Donghae?" He gasped, glancing around the corridor for signs of their captain. "Is he back? We should probably leave, right now, if he is."
"He came on board a few minutes ago, he went into the cargo hold. What's wrong?"
"Heechul," Hyukjae managed, wanting to explain but having neither the breath, nor the time, to do so properly. "Donghae just pulled another trick on him, we need to get out of here before he catches up to us."
In a rare show from Shiwon, he cursed, pulling Hyukjae into the cockpit with him. Without a word Shiwon geared up the ship to take flight, and Hyukjae was already plugging in the co-ordinates, the ones they had so badly needed, for the final jump and leg of their journey; he'd forgotten all about that, in the face of Donghae's little scheme.
After a moment Shiwon switched on the ship's intercomm, talking quite briskly through it. "Donghae, we have a problem. Hyukjae says Heechul's on to you, and probably on his way to intercept us right now. We're blasting off immediately, so whatever you're doing, stop it and get in here right now."
After hearing Shiwon so firmly make that demand, Hyukjae spent a moment wondering why he'd never become a captain, he seemed quite capable of it. More so than Donghae probably was, at times. There was little time to dwell on this however, as Shiwon had the ship up on its repulsor engines in only moments, and thankfully, without anyone showing up unwanted in their docking port, a moment later they were up and out, blasting quickly through the atmosphere and after following the command codes for planetary coming-and-goings, were out in the black recesses of space again.
It was only then that Donghae came into the cockpit, a cheery smile on his face. Shiwon turned a questioning look on him.
"What did you do this time?" He asked.
Donghae shrugged his shoulders, leaning up against the doorway. "Well when Hyukjae and I saw that Heechul was here, meaning his ship would be here too, I took the opportunity for a little light-fingered trickery." Despite his could-care-less expression, Donghae sounded rather pleased with himself.
Hyukjae almost didn't want to ask, but he couldn't help himself. "What happened?"
Excitedly, Donghae explained. "I told them I was the mechanic come to fix their problems. There was a shaky moment where they commed Heechul for confirmation, but you'd just told me that the mechanic had left the tavern, so Heechul confirmed for them. They left me alone after showing me to the engineering bay, seems they blew out their lightspeed drive and engines somehow, extensive work needed to fix that, oh boy. But anyway," he continued, enjoying himself immensely it seemed, "I knew I didn't have long before the real mechanic came along, so I went and found Heechul's cargo hold, to see what he'd pirated away this time."
His grin widened and this time it was Shiwon who couldn't help but ask, caught between his general exasperation at Donghae's behaviour, and his curiosity over possibly getting their own back on Heechul. "So, what did you come back with? It must be something good, or you wouldn't look like the murming who had the krint bird."
Donghae shrugged, seeming nonchalant, as he answered, "Well, I only came off the ship with an entire load of glittergems."
It took a moment for this news to sink in. That was nearly triple the amount Heechul had stolen from them with the xinktacks. Suddenly, Donghae's little trick didn't seem quite such a bad idea.
Until...
"Oh, uh. So, there's a ship just left the planet," Shiwon spoke, looking through the viewscreen in front of him. "And it looks like it might be Heechul. So, it might be a good idea to leave now."
"Oh, blast," Donghae groaned. "Hyuk, have you input the co-ordinates yet?"
Hyukjae nodded, pulling up the route on the navcomputer in front of him. "All ready to go."
"Good. Shiwon, get us gone!"
There was the rumbling noise that came with the lightspeed drive firing up and a moment later, stars blazing into streaks in front of their eyes, they jumped into the safety of lightspeed.
"So, why was Heechul so quick in finding us?" Shiwon asked once they were set, turning in his seat to send an appraising eye over Donghae, eyebrows raised suspiciously. "Shouldn't it have taken him longer to find out what you did?"
It was a good point, and Hyukjae realised he should have wondered over that himself.
Donghae looked a little sheepish, when they both looked at him. "Ah, well. I might have run into the real mechanic, when I was leaving the ship."
Hyukjae and Shiwon shared a look, but neither said a thing, what was there to say to that?
Calmly, Shiwon turned back to the control panel, switching on the intercom. "Henry, can you come here please? If you're sticking around with us for a bit then I think it's time to teach you how to be a gunner."
The last leg of their journey was to take a standard five days of travel through lightspeed before they were to reach their final destination, and hopefully, the fabled treasure of Zared-Xxorlyn.
Not only was space travel such as this somewhat on the boring side - days, or sometimes weeks, depending on the distances, of travel through black nothingness - but by this point in the journey everyone was both restless and eager with anticipation. Hyukjae spent hours bent over his navcomputers, checking, re-checking, thrice-checking the map, and cross-checking that with the actual maps of their destination. Shiwon spent his time reading, or playing illinsm with Henry, and Donghae could be found spending his time just staring blankly into the distance, daydreaming. Kibum, periodically informing them of the very low odds of their finding any treasure, more often than not could not be found at all, and was assumed to be up to some kind of unknown robot business.
Two days passed like this, until Hyukjae could no longer stand to see Donghae just staring blankly into nothingness, or for himself to once again check and re-check the maps. He made his way into what was the captain's quarters; in actuality a small room that contained a short desk, a chair, a few storage compartments for personal items and clothes, and a fold out bunk to sleep on. It had once been a small hold in the ship, but Donghae had had them convert it into the captain's room for himself, insisting that it was of the highest importance for a spaceship captain to have his own quarters.
Donghae was sat in his chair, an arm propped up on the desk, with his head resting in his hand, staring.
"Donghae," Hyukjae started, trying to get his friend's attention. No sign of life. Hyukjae sighed, and came closer until he was within reach of Donghae. And then, quite suddenly and without a word, he reached out and smacked his hand against the back of Donghae's head.
Donghae's arm went flying and he almost cracked his chin against the desk before up righting himself, alarm in his wide eyes. Then he noticed Hyukjae.
"What was that for?" He grumbled, one hand rubbing at the back of his head.
"Needed to get your attention." Hyukjae shrugged, unapologetic. "There's three days to go until we reach YT-759."
"YT-759?" Donghae frowned, having not heard of it before.
Nodding his head, Hyukjae explained, "It's a medium sized moon, uninhabited even though it's got the right atmosphere for life. It's pretty much just a giant rock, otherwise, so I guess that's why no one's settled there before. But it's the last point on the map, and there are co-ordinates written on it that locate the hiding place of the treasure."
This had Donghae perking up, "X marks the spot, then?"
"Hopefully. We'll find out in three days."
There was a moment of silence, as Donghae pondered the riches that awaited them, and Hyukjae pondered the possibility of their existence. His face fell into a serious expression that didn't often cross his cheerful countenance, and eventually he couldn't hold back the question that had been burning quietly, but consistently, at the back of his mind for all these weeks.
It was in an unusually serious voice when he finally voiced his question to Donghae. "Hae, do you think we'll even find any treasure there, really?"
For a moment, Hyukjae expected one of Donghae's usual retorts, a confident of course! or a joke of some kind, but when Donghae looked up and caught the expression on Hyukjae's face, his own seemed to change with it. There was a look of actual anxiety on Donghae's face, of uncertainty, that wasn't often seen.
They'd been friends for a long time though, back since they were silly young teenagers at school together, and then the academy, and Hyukjae knew better than anyone else probably that despite Donghae's often cheerful disposition he could be serious, when necessary. They'd been getting themselves into sticky situations long before Donghae had won the Sapphire, and Shiwon had joined their crew. Since before even graduating the academy together (and that was by the skin of their teeth, as one of those 'situations' had almost resulted in an expulsion for the both of them). And yet it didn't happen often, and Hyukjae was still always somewhat surprised whenever the smile fell from Donghae's face.
"I really don't know," he answered eventually, with only the slightest shrug of his shoulders. One hand reached up to brush the unruly fall of dark hair from his eyes, before continuing, "I've been thinking about that for weeks now. I mean, how do we know, really know, that the map is genuine? And if it is, then how come we managed to buy it from some spacebum in Bad Market?"
Hyukjae nodded in understanding. Between one thing and the next, there had been little time, or too much excitement, to truly voice the worries and the questions that sat between them. "What if when we get there we don't find anything, and that this whole thing has been for nothing? A wild fowlbat chase?"
"It hasn't really been for nothing though, has it?"
Both turned in surprise to see Shiwon standing unannounced in the doorway. He looked less worried than either Hyukjae or Donghae, which was in itself unusual.
"We've had an adventure getting there, haven't we?" He continued, stepping further into the room, closer. "We have a new companion, and even if there isn't any treasure there, Donghae here insured we'll still have ourselves a small fortune."
Donghae perked up at this reminder, nodding emphatically at Shiwon. "You're right! I forgot about that for a moment. This won't be entirely for nothing, if it turns out there's no treasure to be found." Pushing himself up from the chair, he came over to stand between Shiwon and Hyukjae, looking between them with a smile growing on his face.
That smile was beginning to infect Hyukjae, until there was one to match on his own face. "Well, we really have had an adventure, just getting here. It's been fun, hasn't it?"
Shiwon and Donghae nodded in agreement.
"Doesn't matter what we find or don't find when we land," Shiwon said. "As Donghae's always saying anyway, we're in it for the excitement and the journey, not for the certs."
"Although those are an added bonus," Donghae amended.
"Guess we'll find out when we get there, won't we?" Hyukjae said, almost outright grinning by then at his two crew mates. They were right as well, treasure or not, they'd had an interesting time following that map he'd bought those weeks ago, and that was usually what they ended up doing, having an adventure, discovering something new, exploring. This was why the three of them ever did anything, and it was why the three of them were still together, aboard the Sapphire.
"Though I must admit," Shiwon added, looking between his two friends, "it'd be nice if there was a treasure. At least then we'd have enough certs to buy ourselves a good ship."
There was laughter to be heard then, even as Donghae reached out to smack Shiwon in the shoulder.
"You leave my ship alone!"
"So, what are you all looking for, anyway?"
Henry's words were rather non-committal as he barely looked up from the game of illinsm he was playing to address the room. Looking back at the game he was playing with Shiwon, he missed the looks that crossed all their faces.
"Um, what do you mean?" Hyukjae carefully asked, sharing a look with Donghae, who was lounging on the bunk in the main hold, whilst Hyukjae himself was at one of the computer ports.
"What are you actually looking for? Kibum told me you're all after some kind of treasure and following some questionable map in the hopes of finding it," Henry answered lightly. "So whose treasure is it?"
"Kibum told you?" Donghae looked surprised at this news. That traitor! Not that Henry could do a lot with his new found knowledge, and he was now one of the crew, after telling Donghae that he wanted to stick around with them for the time being, but that was beside the point. Kibum still shouldn't be sharing information like that with just anyone.
"Yeah, we've been hanging out."
"Oh." Kibum never hung out with him, Donghae thought. Traitor.
Shiwon ended up answering for them. "He's right, Hyukjae found an old map that supposedly leads to the treasure of Zared-Xxorlyn, so we're on our way to find that."
This news didn't have quite the affect on Henry that it had had on the three of them. His face looked blank at the name and he asked, sounding puzzled, "The treasure of who?"
Donghae groaned, a hand covering his face. "Kids these days! They're not taught anything!"
"Zared-Xxorlyn," Shiwon explained, pointedly ignoring Donghae, "is a legend among smugglers, pirates, rogues and spacers in general. He's thought to have lived over a millennia ago, and there's all kinds of stories surrounding his exploits. He's supposed to be the first being to have successfully traversed the Mouth, alive."
The Mouth was what a particular region of the galaxy was known as and it referred to the large amount of blackholes all concentrated in one small area; with their ravenous gravity continually pulling anything that got to close into their eternally hungry bellies, sucking everything away into non-existence. There was, however, now a known route through and between these blackholes that a hardy pilot could carefully fly their way through.
"And, he was the first to discover crayt gems!" Donghae sat up on the bunk, excited now; the stories and legends of Zared-Xxorlyn had always been his favourites. "That's what his treasure is rumoured to be, the biggest, finest crayt gems that the likes of the galaxy has never seen before!"
"Really?" I've never heard these stories before. Oh, I win," Henry added to Shiwon, smiling a little in victory, and for a moment turned his attention to resetting the table for another game, before continuing. "Is it likely that there's actually a treasure waiting for us, though?"
Donghae shrugged. After his talk with Shiwon and Hyukjae a few days ago, his mind had been put at ease on that matter. "We'll find out soon either way."
An alarm rang out through the ship then, alerting them that they were about to drop out of lightspeed.
"Sooner than I thought!" Donghae chirped excitedly, all but leaping off the bunk and surging towards the corridor. Everyone but Henry followed him into the cockpit, even though all three of them weren't necessary for this.
Each settling into their respective seats, the streaks of white quickly settled into the familiar glow of stars around them, and then through the viewport they saw in front of them their final destination.
YT-759. As Hyukjae had explained already to Donghae, it was a small lifeless moon, geologically dead, but for the atmosphere that still clung to the rock. It was so far out along the rim, the furthest planet from the core and the closest to the unexplored wild depths of space beyond it, that the moon didn't even have a name, only a numbered code assigned upon its discovery millennia ago. Despite an atmosphere that was breathable to a large amount of species throughout the galaxy, and acceptable gravity to most of them, the planet remained nameless and uninhabited, mostly because it was just rock. No ores or minerals to mine for, no plantlife or wildlife to trade, not even a gas worth mining for in its atmosphere. It was a lonely, lifeless, rock, hanging on the very fringes of the galaxy.
And this was where X seemingly marked the spot.
Slowly they approached the moon, Hyukjae busily inputting the approach vector into the navcomputer, so that they would land almost right on top of the co-ordinates given on the map. From space, the moon's atmosphere was a red-orange swirling mess of clouds.
"Those aren't storms, are they, Hyuk?" Donghae asked, sounding just a touch worried; atmospheric storms were a pain to fly through.
"Just a moment..." There were a few clicks, a beep, and then Hyukjae had a read-out of the moon on the screen in front of him. "Nope, no storms. It's as calm as can be down there. Read-out tells me that the unusual colour is just from the mix of gases down there. Breathable, though, we won't need masks or suits."
Donghae nodded, relieved. "Okay, take us down there I guess. It's time to find out how real that map is."
There was a look shared between them, a moment, where all three seemed to be waiting with baited breath, nervous, excited, anxious. And then the mood was broken, as Shiwon began the landing process. It was simple out here on YT-759, with no traffic control to go through, no one to authorise them or assign a docking port. It was simply fly down through the atmosphere, turn on the repulsors, and land the ship. It took only minutes, and then they were down.
According to Hyukjae's computer, they were as close to the X without actually covering it with the ship, which was what he wanted.
"Let's go," Shiwon said, even he was unable to hide the excited tremor from his voice. Grabbing the original flimsy-paper map, Hyukjae followed Donghae and Shiwon from the cockpit. Henry joined them on their way out, and even his blue-skinned face held a look of curiosity.
As they stepped out onto the surface of the moon they discovered it consisted mostly of dirt and rock, and was firm enough for them to walk across. Hyukjae paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the view around him; all he could see was rock, dirt, and more rock. From where they were, at least, it was very flat, with only a few rocky hills in sight.
"What a dull place," Donghae commented, making a face. "Good place to hide treasure, though. No one would come here for anything."
Henry made a noise of agreement.
With map in hand, Hyukjae lead them all the short walk out from under the ship's shadow to the spot the co-ordinates had given them. There was nothing in plain sight, only more dirt beneath their feet.
"This is it," Hyukjae said, pointing to the exact spot. "I guess we'll have to try digging."
"Already thought of that." Grinning, Shiwon held up a hydroshovel. "Who wants the honour?" With no one offering, Shiwon made a face, and set to the digging himself.
The dirt was tightly packed and hard, almost like rock, but after a few jabs of the shovel's edge Shiwon had himself a hole, and the digging became easier after that. They were all silent, watching, for the several standard minutes that it took Shiwon to dig a fair sized hole.
Impaling the hydroshovel still deeper into the dirt, there eventually came a heavy thunk, and Shiwon's eyes widened. "I've got something!" Carefully, he began to dig around the object, until eventually he uncovered a box.
"It's not very big, is it?" Donghae sounded disappointed, as Hyukjae and Shiwon reached into the hole and pulled it out. Dropping it lightly to the ground, they all peered curiously at it. It didn't look like it had been in the ground for a millennia, except for the dirt that still caked it, so it was obviously made out of a strong, durable metal. Probably vacuumed inside, too, so that nothing could affect whatever was in it.
Unable to contain his anticipation, Donghae shoved at Shiwon. "Well, open it then!"
He didn't need to be asked twice, and leaning down towards the smallish box Shiwon studied it for a moment before finding the release button. Sucking in a deep breath, he pushed the button. Slowly, the lid released, and Shiwon pushed it open. From the angle, he was the only one with a view of what was inside the box; he let out his breath, all in a long whoosh, but said nothing.
Impatient, Hyukjae leaned over to peer inside the box.
"Is this a joke?" He questioned, sounding more than a little confused. "What is that?"
Soon, they were all crouched down around the box, peering in. The look across all of their faces was confusion.
"Is that it?" Henry sounded less than impressed. "I thought there were supposed to be gems. From all the stories of this guy, you made it sound like there was a fortune waiting here for us."
"That's what I thought would be in here." Donghae was frowning, disappointed. "Shiwon, hand us out what's in there. Let's have a closer look."
Shiwon obliged, reaching into the box to pull out the first item. They all stared at it, their confusion deepening. It was a small, transparent, sealed jar, and lying at the very bottom was what looked to be a tiny seed of some sort.
"A vacuum jar, with, I don't even know what in it," Donghae commented. That, as far as he was concerned, was not a treasure.
Another hand in the box produced another transparent, sealed jar, though this time it was filled with a clear liquid.
"Probably water. Okay, that's not a treasure, either. This is a joke of some kind, isn't it?"
And finally, Shiwon pulled out the last object from the box, to reveal it as a very, very old model filepad. After fiddling with it for a few moments he exclaimed, with more excitement than anyone currently felt, "Hey! It still works!"
"That's not treasure, either," Donghae shrugged, severely disappointed to the point of no longer caring.
Ignoring that, Shiwon read out the last thing that had been put into the filepad. "This might be interesting," he spoke up after a moment. "This is a message from Zared-Xxorlyn himself."
Hyukjae, at least, seemed interested at that discovery. "What does he say? Is it some kind of joke?"
"It says that after all his years of exploring the galaxy, discovering new planets and new fortunes to be had, and valuables to be smuggled, he realised after finding this forgotten planet what real treasure was." Shiwon paused here, regarding both the little jars they had found sealed inside the box. Clearing his throat, he continued, "He found out that the real treasure is life. So he leaves this behind, for the next person who makes this discovery. It ends with, 'Maybe you'll give this priceless treasure to this forgotten little world.'"
They all stared at each other then, in absolute silence. No one knew what to say, or what to think.
Until Donghae spoke up. "Great! This is a blasted joke! Ha, ha, Zared-Xxorlyn, we fell for it. We come all this way and the treasure is a seed for some kind of plant? What a let down!"
"Hey, remember what we talked about," Hyukjae began, trying to reassure Donghae. "It didn't matter what we would find here, it was the adventure getting here that counted, right?"
Donghae made a derisive noise through his nose, that eloquently let them all know what he thought of that.
"At least there's those stolen glittergems," Henry pointed out, looking like he didn't really care one way or the other about the 'treasure' they'd just found. "There's still a lot of money to be made out of those."
Donghae said nothing to that, only huffing again. After a moments annoyed consideration he came back over to the box, crouching down next to it. "Is that really all that's in here?" He stuck a hand into the box, feeling all around for even the smallest other thing that could be hidden inside. He huffed again, about to just give up and get them off of this forsaken rock, when his fingers came across the smoothest surface he'd ever touched. Catching the tiny object inside his hand, he pulled whatever it was out. It was small and light in his hand, and opening his fingers revealed the most perfect looking object he'd ever laid eyes on. It's smoothness was impossible.
"Is that a crayt gem?"
Shiwon, Hyukjae and Henry all turned to stare at the little gem in Donghae's hand. The blue sheen to the gem gave it away, right along with it's smoothness. It was, without a doubt, a crayt gem, one of the rarest and most valuable items in the entire galaxy. Even a single one of this size would bring them enough money to buy themselves a miniature fleet of ships, if they wanted to.
All at once they broke out into excited whoops and shouts, smacking each other victoriously across the back, or pulling each other into excited embraces, all talking over each other at once.
"There was a treasure in there after all!"
"I expect it was an accident, something that just slipped out of a pocket," Shiwon reasoned, but even this didn't deflate the mood.
"Who cares!" Donghae exclaimed, whirling about joyously. "It was real, and we found the treasure! We found it! Maybe now we'll go down in history too!" And that, that was a thought.
Their excitement was only broken when Henry chose to point something out. "Shouldn't we plant the seed, all the same?"
Donghae waved a careless hand - not the hand that tightly clutched the tiny gem, of course - "Who cares?"
"I think we should," Shiwon said, reaching down to pick up the two sealed jars. "They've been left here all this time, who knows what this will grow into? We might as well."
Donghae couldn't care less, but Hyukjae, Shiwon and Henry gathered round in a tiny circle as Shiwon dug a small hole for the seed. Henry dampened a little of the dirt first, before Hyukjae dropped the seed inside. The rest of the water was then poured over it, and Shiwon covered the hole over again.
"Maybe we can come back in a few years, and see what it grows into?" Henry suggested. "You never know, it could be something extinct now, or rare and valuable."
That caught Donghae's attention, and he nodded in agreement. "Worth a look, I guess. In a few years."
Shiwon wouldn't let them leave until he'd packed the things - bar the filepad, and the gem - back into the box, and the box back into the ground, but before long they were back on the ship, all talking excitedly as they made their way into the cockpit.
Hyukjae had hold of the filepad by then, and as old as this model evidently was it still worked, and he'd been fiddling around with it, looking for anything other than the note left on it. Eventually, he let out an excited shout, causing everyone to turn and look at him in surprise.
"So even this is pretty good too," he spoke up, looking at them all. "Besides that note, I've just found Zared-Xxorlyn's entire log on this filepad."
"You mean...?" Donghae could barely get any words out, in the rush of excitement that went through him.
Hyukjae nodded, looking pleased. "His entire exploration log. Every discovery, every adventure, every thing he did, all on here."
"That might be the most exciting thing of it all. We'll get to find out the real stories behind the legends." This, to Donghae, seemed almost as valuable as the crayt gem, in an entirely different way. And returned Zared-Xxorlyn to the fabled adventurer that he had always been in Donghae's mind, instead of the turned philosopher that he'd seemed to be at the end.
"So, where to now?" Henry eventually asked.
As excited as they all were by their discovery, the thought of returning back to normal life and normal routines was just a little deflating.
"Let's go sell our glittergems first," Donghae suggested, after a moments thought. "Knowing our luck, we'll run into Heechul pretty soon, and I want those gone before he catches up with us."
Everyone nodded in silent agreement of that.
Shiwon, strapped into his seat, began to run the ships launch system to at least get them off the planet and back out into space where they could properly decide and plot their next course. It took only a few moments, and soon they were smoothly up through the atmosphere and back within the black depths of space.
"Before we do that though, can we go somewhere and get a proper meal to eat? I think Kibum's been cooking badly on purpose, and I'm dying for some real food." Hyukjae sent a wary look at the robot, who had just entered the cockpit.
"Kibum," Donghae said, turning to the robot, "Are you purposely cooking poorly?"
Kibum, in his robotic monotone, answered, "I cannot cook poorly, only to within my programs standards. And as I am not designed to be a kitchen-bot my standards for cooking are low."
Shiwon looked unconvinced by this. "But I clearly remember you cooking really well when Donghae first asked you to!"
In an oddly human gesture, Kibum shook his head. "Your memory must be faulty, Shiwon. I'm not programmed for cooking."
They all looked suspiciously at the robot, until eventually Donghae said, "Kibum, is it possible for a robot to grow a personality?"
"A robot cannot grow and develop in the sense that you mean," the robot answered. "Only follow the programs input within their system. Although I do believe," he added, "that any being or robot that has been in your company for a long time could grow anything. You could drive even a robot to insanity, Donghae. Now if you excuse me, I must go and be somewhere else."
With that, Kibum turned and left the cockpit. Donghae's mouth gaped open in surprise. "Was that a joke?" He asked, shocked by Kibum's response. Then, shouting out through the cockpit door after Kibum, he demanded, "Kibum! Is that a joke? Did you just make a joke?"
Donghae didn't notice the laughter that was spilling from everyone else around him, too awed by the robot's response.
"That was a joke, wasn't it?" He continued, asking no one in particular.
"Let's get out of here," Hyukjae said, leaning over towards Shiwon. There was a nod of agreement, and after plugging in the co-ordinates Shiwon sent the ship into lightspeed, stars burning into trails of white light in front of them, a blazing path to their next destination, and their next adventure.
- end -
Fandom and OT3: Super Junior; Shiwon/Eunhyuk/Donghae
Rating: PG
Word Count: 18,466
Summary: The three man (and one robot) crew of the spaceship Sapphire favour adventure and exploration above all things - unless there's some money to be made in the process. So when an ancient myth falls into their hands the possibility of it being real, and making a fortune, is too great to resist. And there begins their adventure through the galaxy, or a wild fowlbat chase between the stars.
Warnings: None
Despite their having blasted off-world with a guest still on board the ship, and having forgotten about him entirely, Henry was as good as his word and still managed to fix the engines quite speedily. In fact, he was better than his word (much to Hyukjae's shame) as he'd inadvertently discovered that one of the links had been wired incorrectly, most likely from the last time Hyukjae had had to have a go at fixing them. This miss wiring, as Henry told them when he was finished, was extremely dangerous, and had meant that the engines could have fizzed out completely at any moment, or have exploded and taken the ship with it. This was a very frightening thought, and Donghae, Hyukjae and Shiwon had all shared a look at this news, a look that was at once both relieved and incredibly panicked. Hyukjae was never going to be allowed to fix the engines himself, ever again.
Once the engines were entirely fixed, and deemed to be safe to use again, they were off, Hyukjae plugging in the co-ordinates for the next route, and making the jump into lightspeed. Technically, it was faster than lightspeed travel, as anything slower than that would mean taking centuries to travel anywhere significant or far away, and it was a big, big galaxy hanging out there in space, but lightspeed was what it was commonly called. Making the jump sent them so fast through space that the stars streaked into bright white lines, before vanishing completely, surrounding all the viewports with the black depths of nothing. It almost seemed an alternate dimension, and indeed some space-scientists thought of it as that, that faster-than-light travel sent ships into another dimension of space in order to even achieve such speeds, but Donghae simply thought that it was handy, or he'd have been a wrinkly old man by now, trying to trade his wares.
It was also important to have exact co-ordinates to plug into navcomputers for lightspeed travel, however, and to have current maps of everything. There were occasionally tales of nasty incidents where a ship either hadn't planned properly and crashed into an asteroid right at the height of lightspeed travel, where neither ship nor rock were salvageable or recognisable after the collision, or a map hadn't been up-to-date enough and a blackhole, or a gravity well, had ripped ships flying too close at lightspeed right out of that alternate dimension, mercilessly swallowing them whole.
Luckily, Hyukjae was an excellent navigator, if not a good cook, and the Sapphire had never had such incidents in their lightspeed travel between systems.
So they were steadily on their way, and with Henry still on board. Donghae had paused long enough to ask him if he wanted to be dropped back off on Styko, but not very convincingly, as he thought Henry would be a very valuable companion, at least until after they found the treasure.
They travelled comfortably, and safely, at lightspeed for the next three days, and there was little need for any of them to be in the cockpit during this time, only Hyukjae went occasionally to check on their progress and how close they were to their destination. There was finally some free leisure time for them, and Shiwon and Henry spent a large portion of that in the main hold, which contained a small 'leisure' area, which included a long couch following the length of one wall, a couple of chairs, a table and an extra bed.
There were compartments within the wall, behind the couch where they all kept their recreational items; for Shiwon this was mostly books, for Hyukjae an assortment of games, including a deck for kkliiujkd, and Donghae kept whatever he felt like keeping in them, and sometimes no one wanted to ask him what those were. Once, sometime last year, there had been a terrible smell emanating from one of Donghae's compartments and Shiwon had opened it to find a fuzzy looking brown ball concealed within, and upon closer inspection not only was the fuzzy ball making the terrible smell, but it was alive, some kind of animal unknown to any of them. Donghae couldn't remember why he had it in the first place, and they'd dropped it off at the next stop; it had taken Shiwon a month of cleaning to rid the smell from the ship.
Whilst Shiwon and Henry spent their time themselves playing a few rounds of kkliiujkd or a few games of illinsm, Hyukjae could be found with his head buried in a number of engineering books, not wanting Henry to make him look bad, and Donghae couldn't always be found at all. Sometimes, Kibum joined in with whatever games Shiwon and Henry were playing, but he was incredibly good at all of them, winning every time, and soured the mood so much that Shiwon usually sent him off to make sure Donghae wasn't creating too much trouble; that usually had Kibum grumbling - as much as a robot could grumble - about not being programmed to babysit.
Time passed by quite easily in this manner, until the alert went out on the nearest computer that they were approaching the end of their lightspeed route, and Hyukjae made his way into the cockpit; no one else was needed for something as simple as coming out of lightspeed. Dropping into his seat, he leaned over his array of computers and consoles and buttons, checking the co-ordinates, until the ship hit the end of the route, and dropped out of lightspeed, streaks of almost burning light blazing past the viewport, until each line fell back into the glowing light of a star. Once again they were surrounded by the comforting sight of the galaxy around them, stars and planets and moons. Hyukjae always found it a little eerie, travelling in lightspeed, without the comfort of those points of light around him.
With this in mind it took him a moment of staring at the treasure map, and then staring at the view in front of him, to figure out that something was amiss. It took a further few moments for him to work out what was actually wrong, and then he switched on the intercom, and called for both Shiwon and Donghae to join him.
"What's the problem?" Donghae asked, coming into the cockpit behind Shiwon, his hair damp, hopefully from a recent shower. "Isn't this the point where you co-ordinate again and we jump the last stretch to X marks our spot?"
Hyukjae shook his head, his expression one of both confusion, and worry. He turned to half face Shiwon and Donghae. "This is the map, right?" he said, bringing it up larger on his computer screen for them both to see. "And this is what's actually there," he gestured at the viewport, and the space beyond it. "Now, play spot the difference."
Donghae frowned, looking between the map and the viewport, but Shiwon was quicker. "Ah, that planet, it's missing!"
Hyukjae nodded. "That planet was the next co-ordinate from where I was going to set the jump from. And it's not there, which means I don't have exact co-ordinates for it, which means I can't make the jump." And, he didn't need to add it out loud, but without being able to travel at lightspeed to their final destination the distance between here and there meant it would have taken them fifty years, at the least, to reach it.
Donghae's face fell. "Are we lost, then?"
"I don't think so. Everything else on the map checks out, and is where it should be."
"So, where's our missing planet then? Because without that, we're kind of eaten by a snarkak here."
There was a pause, as all of them considered this new and distressing information. Eventually, Shiwon spoke up. "That map is a millennia old, right?"
Hyukjae nodded.
"Anything can happen to planets in that time. It could have been blown up, destroyed, knocked out of orbit by a big enough collision and sent spinning out into the galaxy. But if a planet was there, even a long time ago, we should be able to find out it's old co-ordinates shouldn't we?"
Hyukjae frowned, thinking it over, before responding. "We probably could, but not with the resources I have here on the ship. I think we'd need to go down to the nearest planet and check out their geographical library. Even old sources there should have our missing planets co-ordinates."
"Right," Donghae began, in his 'I'm the Captain and I make the decisions' voice, "We'll land on the nearest advanced planet, and Hyukjae and I will go find the library and get our co-ordinates. We don't all need to go, so you can stay here with Henry, keep an eye on things until we get back."
"Okay," Shiwon nodded, hoping that it wasn't a bad idea, and wasn't going to end like the last time they landed somewhere.
Turning back to his computer, Hyukjae clicked around a bit, until he brought up a read-out of the nearest planet. "Oriyun," he informed them. "It's a medium sized moon, orbits the larger, but dead, planet of Tirim. They're as advanced as anyone else, mostly populated by humans, humanoids, and the Divrons. There are a lot of jungles, and apparently this is the centre for trade in mynnok meat and furs. The fur is illegal to trade, isn't it?" He paused in his read-out, to throw the question out there.
"Ah, yes, yes it is." Donghae looked a little too thoughtful over that, for either Hyukjae's or Shiwon's taste, but Hyukjae ignored it for now and continued.
"They do have large cities, beyond the jungles though, so they'll have libraries, and the sources we need. Also, it's not a place that smugglers and spacebums usually gather, so we shouldn't get into as much trouble here." No one mentioned that it was Hyukjae who had gotten into the trouble, for being caught out cheating.
"Good. Let's get down there then, and we can find our missing planet and be one our way!" Donghae enthused, grinning now. "We're so close to that treasure now."
"Ah, I've got it!" Hyukjae waved Donghae over to the computer port he was sitting at. On the screen in front of him, Hyukjae had up a picture of the view that they should have seen from their ship earlier. "It's about a hundred years old, but the planet did exist!" Thankfully, otherwise it would mean Hyukjae had gotten them lost, and whilst he knew he wasn't particularly good at everything he was pretty good at not getting them lost. Usually.
"That's great! Have you got the co-ordinates?"
Hyukjae nodded, looking pleased. "Downloaded this map onto my filepad, I've got all the information I need to get us to our next, and final, stop." There was no hiding the goofy grin that was spreading across his face; they were so close to finding out if this treasure even existed, even after all the obstacles seemingly thrown in their path. Maybe this was why no one had ever found the treasure before, maybe the hunt for it was cursed by annoying diversions. Either way, they had their co-ordinates, and Hyukjae happily tucked his filepad away and stood up from the computer port, ready to leave.
"Hey," Donghae began, as they made their way out of the library, "let's go get a drink before we go back."
Hyukjae looked across at him, surprised. "A drink, now? But we've just found what we were looking for! Don't you want to find out what this treasure is?"
"Of course I do!" Reaching out, Donghae took hold of Hyukjae's sleeve, tugging at it lightly, but quite insistently. "C'mon, Hyuk, let's go have one little drink?"
The wheedling was hard to resist, it always was, and Hyukjae gave in with a sigh. "All right, but only one! And then we go back to the ship. And I'm not playing any games while we're there, either."
"Of course!" Donghae agreed easily, grinning.
That didn't make Hyukjae feel a whole lot better about this.
Donghae led them both to the nearest tavern, talking animatedly the duration of the short walk there, and as always Hyukjae was caught up in Donghae's easy conversation, forgetting mostly about his misgivings. But whilst they were still in the dark doorway of the Spacers Run, Donghae grabbed tight hold of Hyukjae's arm, keeping him still, and hidden amongst the shadows.
"Look who's sitting over at the bar." His voice was low and quiet, and Donghae had to lean in close, his lips all but against Hyukjae's ear in order for him to hear the hushed words.
Somewhat alarmed, Hyukjae's eyes quickly scanned the patrons seated along the long U-shaped bar, until they landed upon a familiar redhead. He sucked in a surprised breath, and turned to look at Donghae, eyes wide. "Oh, blazes, it's Heechul. What's he doing here? Donghae, we need to leave, right now!" The idea of what could happen if Heechul caught up with them now, after the trick they had pulled, was just a little worrying. Heechul wasn't malicious, or vengeful, even if he was a pirate, but he would probably be suspicious and less than happy at their speedy getaway from their last encounter, and after getting this far losing the map to a pirate was the last thing Hyukjae wanted to have happen.
But a closer look at Donghae served to show that he seemed a lot less worried about the terrible timing of running into Heechul. Hyukjae frowned, a bad feeling rising within his stomach, as if he'd eaten some gone off murming ribs. "No, whatever you're thinking, whatever you're possibly planning, just, no," Hyukjae told him, and quite boldly, for him; Hyukjae wasn't known for a firm, authoritative nature. "We're leaving, right now, with Heechul none the wiser, and we'll get to the treasure soon."
Donghae shrugged his shoulders, a light smile playing on his face. "Oh, come on. Don't you want the chance to play a little trick on him?"
"Wasn't that what we did when we just ran away and left him hanging in space?"
"Well, yes. But it's always fun to play tricks on Heechul."
The squirming in his stomach was beginning to become unbearable now, and Hyukjae was really beginning to wonder if he actually had eaten something sour. "Donghae, really, let's just get back to the ship and go. I don't know what you have in mind, but it won't work."
The grin was widening across Donghae's face. "No, it'll work. Look, have a peek over at Heechul and the person sitting with him at the bar. Tell me what you think might be going on."
Still concealed safely within the shadows, Hyukjae spared a glance over at Heechul. He noted that the pirate was sitting having a drink with some humanoid, a Persinnin, by the looks of it, with that deep brown shading to the fur that covered what skin Hyukjae could see, and the shock of natural, green hair cropped short on top its head. The Persinnin was wearing a pair of what looked to be mechanics overalls, the faint stains of engine grease and oil down one leg. They looked to be discussing business, too.
It was fairly easy to guess at what was going on, and a moment later Hyukjae turned back to Donghae. "Looks like he's talking to a mechanic, probably about repairs needed for his ship to get running again."
"Exactly," Donghae nodded, grinning. "So it won't be too difficult. I'm gonna do it, Hyuk. Listen," and Donghae pulled Hyukjae closer, so he could whisper the plan to him. "You stay here, keep an eye on Heechul and his friend, and use the commlink to alert me if either of them leaves. I'm gonna pose as the mechanic and get aboard the ship. I won't be long, and I'll go straight back to the Sapphire when I'm done. I'll alert you when I'm on my way back, we meet at the ship, and we blast off this rock as quickly as we can and finish our treasure hunt, okay?"
Donghae sounded confident, making it seem like a simple, easy plan where nothing could go wrong, but Hyukjae still had his misgivings. But seeing the look on Donghae's face, that look of excitement and anticipation at pulling off a little trick, he knew it wouldn't do any good to talk his friend out of it. Donghae was Donghae, and sometimes, no one could talk him out of anything.
"All right," he eventually agreed, as there was nothing else he could do anyway. "But be quick, and don't try anything stupid, yeah?"
The careless wave of a hand and the nod Donghae gave him in return did nothing to assuage Hyukjae's worries. "Don't worry! Get a drink, and sit inconspicuously in a dark corner booth, and keep an eye on Heechul and his friend for me."
With barely another nod, Donghae was gone, out the door, and Hyukjae was left alone. As surreptitiously as he could manage, he got himself a drink, and found a spare seat in one of the corner booths. Thanks to the design of the room sitting in the corner meant that he was draped in shadows, so that even if Heechul were to look right over at him he wouldn't be able to see Hyukjae's face; there was a reason that taverns were most often frequented by spacers, smugglers and pirates.
Hyukjae sipped slowly at his drink, all the while keeping his wary attention on Heechul and the Persinnin, who seemed to still be discussing the finer details of their arrangement, that or Heechul's ship had really gotten itself into some trouble and required a lot of fixing. Hyukjae hoped for the latter, as it would give Donghae the most time to complete his crazy plan. He also hoped there weren't too many crew members left aboard the ship, or his friend could get himself into quite a bit of trouble.
Eventually, with the details seemingly sorted, the Persinnin left the tavern and Hyukjae quietly commlinked Donghae to inform him.
"Thanks, Hyuk," Donghae's voice came quietly back through the small comm, "I'm still on board the ship, checking out Heechul's cargo holds. I'll be done soon!"
Hyukjae had wanted to say more at hearing that information, but Donghae had already closed communication, and Hyukjae had to just settle in and wait. Or just wait, as he couldn't exactly settle.
There was a tense moment, when Heechul shifted about and pulled out a commlink, and Hyukjae's mind raced ahead to scenarios of Heechul's crew having found an imposter trying to sabotage them, or steal from them, and were calling Heechul for orders. Donghae could be blasted to pieces!
His heart seemed to be in his throat, and for a moment Hyukjae felt as if he were an Inveronian, with their three hearts, each one racing away inside of him. But Heechul looked neither panicked, nor angry, simply stated a few orders, or answered some questions, something - Hyukjae couldn't hear him from where he sat - and ended the communication. There was only a slight sense of relief, at that.
After another several nervewracking minutes in the tavern, Hyukjae caught the small vibration of the call against his arm, and knew it to be Donghae's alert that he was done, and to meet him back aboard the ship. It was about time, and Hyukjae was all too happy to get up and make his way as quickly from the tavern as he could.
"Hey," a voice said from behind him, one Hyukjae knew. He cursed inwardly, but didn't flinch, and didn't stop, didn't give away that the voice was most likely talking to him.
"Hey!" Again, Hyukjae sped up, nearing the doorway now. "Hyukjae, is that you?"
He turned his head, only briefly, and the moment he did he knew he shouldn't have, as Heechul was halfway towards him already.
"Blast it!" Hyukjae cursed himself, and without another look bolted out of the tavern, sprinting back to the spaceport as quickly as he could. He risked only one final look behind, to see that Heechul was standing outside the tavern, talking quite quickly - and looking rather angry now - over his commlink. Whatever Donghae had done had probably been found out by now, by the looks of things.
Putting on a burst of speed Hyukjae made it back to their docking port in record time, and was entirely out of breath by the time he'd run up the boarding ramp and right into Shiwon, who was emerging from the main hold, probably on his way to the cockpit.
"Hey, what's happened?" He asked, reaching out to grasp Hyukjae's shoulders when they impacted, concern crossing his serious face. "Are you okay?"
Hyukjae shook his head emphatically. "Where's Donghae?" He gasped, glancing around the corridor for signs of their captain. "Is he back? We should probably leave, right now, if he is."
"He came on board a few minutes ago, he went into the cargo hold. What's wrong?"
"Heechul," Hyukjae managed, wanting to explain but having neither the breath, nor the time, to do so properly. "Donghae just pulled another trick on him, we need to get out of here before he catches up to us."
In a rare show from Shiwon, he cursed, pulling Hyukjae into the cockpit with him. Without a word Shiwon geared up the ship to take flight, and Hyukjae was already plugging in the co-ordinates, the ones they had so badly needed, for the final jump and leg of their journey; he'd forgotten all about that, in the face of Donghae's little scheme.
After a moment Shiwon switched on the ship's intercomm, talking quite briskly through it. "Donghae, we have a problem. Hyukjae says Heechul's on to you, and probably on his way to intercept us right now. We're blasting off immediately, so whatever you're doing, stop it and get in here right now."
After hearing Shiwon so firmly make that demand, Hyukjae spent a moment wondering why he'd never become a captain, he seemed quite capable of it. More so than Donghae probably was, at times. There was little time to dwell on this however, as Shiwon had the ship up on its repulsor engines in only moments, and thankfully, without anyone showing up unwanted in their docking port, a moment later they were up and out, blasting quickly through the atmosphere and after following the command codes for planetary coming-and-goings, were out in the black recesses of space again.
It was only then that Donghae came into the cockpit, a cheery smile on his face. Shiwon turned a questioning look on him.
"What did you do this time?" He asked.
Donghae shrugged his shoulders, leaning up against the doorway. "Well when Hyukjae and I saw that Heechul was here, meaning his ship would be here too, I took the opportunity for a little light-fingered trickery." Despite his could-care-less expression, Donghae sounded rather pleased with himself.
Hyukjae almost didn't want to ask, but he couldn't help himself. "What happened?"
Excitedly, Donghae explained. "I told them I was the mechanic come to fix their problems. There was a shaky moment where they commed Heechul for confirmation, but you'd just told me that the mechanic had left the tavern, so Heechul confirmed for them. They left me alone after showing me to the engineering bay, seems they blew out their lightspeed drive and engines somehow, extensive work needed to fix that, oh boy. But anyway," he continued, enjoying himself immensely it seemed, "I knew I didn't have long before the real mechanic came along, so I went and found Heechul's cargo hold, to see what he'd pirated away this time."
His grin widened and this time it was Shiwon who couldn't help but ask, caught between his general exasperation at Donghae's behaviour, and his curiosity over possibly getting their own back on Heechul. "So, what did you come back with? It must be something good, or you wouldn't look like the murming who had the krint bird."
Donghae shrugged, seeming nonchalant, as he answered, "Well, I only came off the ship with an entire load of glittergems."
It took a moment for this news to sink in. That was nearly triple the amount Heechul had stolen from them with the xinktacks. Suddenly, Donghae's little trick didn't seem quite such a bad idea.
Until...
"Oh, uh. So, there's a ship just left the planet," Shiwon spoke, looking through the viewscreen in front of him. "And it looks like it might be Heechul. So, it might be a good idea to leave now."
"Oh, blast," Donghae groaned. "Hyuk, have you input the co-ordinates yet?"
Hyukjae nodded, pulling up the route on the navcomputer in front of him. "All ready to go."
"Good. Shiwon, get us gone!"
There was the rumbling noise that came with the lightspeed drive firing up and a moment later, stars blazing into streaks in front of their eyes, they jumped into the safety of lightspeed.
"So, why was Heechul so quick in finding us?" Shiwon asked once they were set, turning in his seat to send an appraising eye over Donghae, eyebrows raised suspiciously. "Shouldn't it have taken him longer to find out what you did?"
It was a good point, and Hyukjae realised he should have wondered over that himself.
Donghae looked a little sheepish, when they both looked at him. "Ah, well. I might have run into the real mechanic, when I was leaving the ship."
Hyukjae and Shiwon shared a look, but neither said a thing, what was there to say to that?
Calmly, Shiwon turned back to the control panel, switching on the intercom. "Henry, can you come here please? If you're sticking around with us for a bit then I think it's time to teach you how to be a gunner."
The last leg of their journey was to take a standard five days of travel through lightspeed before they were to reach their final destination, and hopefully, the fabled treasure of Zared-Xxorlyn.
Not only was space travel such as this somewhat on the boring side - days, or sometimes weeks, depending on the distances, of travel through black nothingness - but by this point in the journey everyone was both restless and eager with anticipation. Hyukjae spent hours bent over his navcomputers, checking, re-checking, thrice-checking the map, and cross-checking that with the actual maps of their destination. Shiwon spent his time reading, or playing illinsm with Henry, and Donghae could be found spending his time just staring blankly into the distance, daydreaming. Kibum, periodically informing them of the very low odds of their finding any treasure, more often than not could not be found at all, and was assumed to be up to some kind of unknown robot business.
Two days passed like this, until Hyukjae could no longer stand to see Donghae just staring blankly into nothingness, or for himself to once again check and re-check the maps. He made his way into what was the captain's quarters; in actuality a small room that contained a short desk, a chair, a few storage compartments for personal items and clothes, and a fold out bunk to sleep on. It had once been a small hold in the ship, but Donghae had had them convert it into the captain's room for himself, insisting that it was of the highest importance for a spaceship captain to have his own quarters.
Donghae was sat in his chair, an arm propped up on the desk, with his head resting in his hand, staring.
"Donghae," Hyukjae started, trying to get his friend's attention. No sign of life. Hyukjae sighed, and came closer until he was within reach of Donghae. And then, quite suddenly and without a word, he reached out and smacked his hand against the back of Donghae's head.
Donghae's arm went flying and he almost cracked his chin against the desk before up righting himself, alarm in his wide eyes. Then he noticed Hyukjae.
"What was that for?" He grumbled, one hand rubbing at the back of his head.
"Needed to get your attention." Hyukjae shrugged, unapologetic. "There's three days to go until we reach YT-759."
"YT-759?" Donghae frowned, having not heard of it before.
Nodding his head, Hyukjae explained, "It's a medium sized moon, uninhabited even though it's got the right atmosphere for life. It's pretty much just a giant rock, otherwise, so I guess that's why no one's settled there before. But it's the last point on the map, and there are co-ordinates written on it that locate the hiding place of the treasure."
This had Donghae perking up, "X marks the spot, then?"
"Hopefully. We'll find out in three days."
There was a moment of silence, as Donghae pondered the riches that awaited them, and Hyukjae pondered the possibility of their existence. His face fell into a serious expression that didn't often cross his cheerful countenance, and eventually he couldn't hold back the question that had been burning quietly, but consistently, at the back of his mind for all these weeks.
It was in an unusually serious voice when he finally voiced his question to Donghae. "Hae, do you think we'll even find any treasure there, really?"
For a moment, Hyukjae expected one of Donghae's usual retorts, a confident of course! or a joke of some kind, but when Donghae looked up and caught the expression on Hyukjae's face, his own seemed to change with it. There was a look of actual anxiety on Donghae's face, of uncertainty, that wasn't often seen.
They'd been friends for a long time though, back since they were silly young teenagers at school together, and then the academy, and Hyukjae knew better than anyone else probably that despite Donghae's often cheerful disposition he could be serious, when necessary. They'd been getting themselves into sticky situations long before Donghae had won the Sapphire, and Shiwon had joined their crew. Since before even graduating the academy together (and that was by the skin of their teeth, as one of those 'situations' had almost resulted in an expulsion for the both of them). And yet it didn't happen often, and Hyukjae was still always somewhat surprised whenever the smile fell from Donghae's face.
"I really don't know," he answered eventually, with only the slightest shrug of his shoulders. One hand reached up to brush the unruly fall of dark hair from his eyes, before continuing, "I've been thinking about that for weeks now. I mean, how do we know, really know, that the map is genuine? And if it is, then how come we managed to buy it from some spacebum in Bad Market?"
Hyukjae nodded in understanding. Between one thing and the next, there had been little time, or too much excitement, to truly voice the worries and the questions that sat between them. "What if when we get there we don't find anything, and that this whole thing has been for nothing? A wild fowlbat chase?"
"It hasn't really been for nothing though, has it?"
Both turned in surprise to see Shiwon standing unannounced in the doorway. He looked less worried than either Hyukjae or Donghae, which was in itself unusual.
"We've had an adventure getting there, haven't we?" He continued, stepping further into the room, closer. "We have a new companion, and even if there isn't any treasure there, Donghae here insured we'll still have ourselves a small fortune."
Donghae perked up at this reminder, nodding emphatically at Shiwon. "You're right! I forgot about that for a moment. This won't be entirely for nothing, if it turns out there's no treasure to be found." Pushing himself up from the chair, he came over to stand between Shiwon and Hyukjae, looking between them with a smile growing on his face.
That smile was beginning to infect Hyukjae, until there was one to match on his own face. "Well, we really have had an adventure, just getting here. It's been fun, hasn't it?"
Shiwon and Donghae nodded in agreement.
"Doesn't matter what we find or don't find when we land," Shiwon said. "As Donghae's always saying anyway, we're in it for the excitement and the journey, not for the certs."
"Although those are an added bonus," Donghae amended.
"Guess we'll find out when we get there, won't we?" Hyukjae said, almost outright grinning by then at his two crew mates. They were right as well, treasure or not, they'd had an interesting time following that map he'd bought those weeks ago, and that was usually what they ended up doing, having an adventure, discovering something new, exploring. This was why the three of them ever did anything, and it was why the three of them were still together, aboard the Sapphire.
"Though I must admit," Shiwon added, looking between his two friends, "it'd be nice if there was a treasure. At least then we'd have enough certs to buy ourselves a good ship."
There was laughter to be heard then, even as Donghae reached out to smack Shiwon in the shoulder.
"You leave my ship alone!"
"So, what are you all looking for, anyway?"
Henry's words were rather non-committal as he barely looked up from the game of illinsm he was playing to address the room. Looking back at the game he was playing with Shiwon, he missed the looks that crossed all their faces.
"Um, what do you mean?" Hyukjae carefully asked, sharing a look with Donghae, who was lounging on the bunk in the main hold, whilst Hyukjae himself was at one of the computer ports.
"What are you actually looking for? Kibum told me you're all after some kind of treasure and following some questionable map in the hopes of finding it," Henry answered lightly. "So whose treasure is it?"
"Kibum told you?" Donghae looked surprised at this news. That traitor! Not that Henry could do a lot with his new found knowledge, and he was now one of the crew, after telling Donghae that he wanted to stick around with them for the time being, but that was beside the point. Kibum still shouldn't be sharing information like that with just anyone.
"Yeah, we've been hanging out."
"Oh." Kibum never hung out with him, Donghae thought. Traitor.
Shiwon ended up answering for them. "He's right, Hyukjae found an old map that supposedly leads to the treasure of Zared-Xxorlyn, so we're on our way to find that."
This news didn't have quite the affect on Henry that it had had on the three of them. His face looked blank at the name and he asked, sounding puzzled, "The treasure of who?"
Donghae groaned, a hand covering his face. "Kids these days! They're not taught anything!"
"Zared-Xxorlyn," Shiwon explained, pointedly ignoring Donghae, "is a legend among smugglers, pirates, rogues and spacers in general. He's thought to have lived over a millennia ago, and there's all kinds of stories surrounding his exploits. He's supposed to be the first being to have successfully traversed the Mouth, alive."
The Mouth was what a particular region of the galaxy was known as and it referred to the large amount of blackholes all concentrated in one small area; with their ravenous gravity continually pulling anything that got to close into their eternally hungry bellies, sucking everything away into non-existence. There was, however, now a known route through and between these blackholes that a hardy pilot could carefully fly their way through.
"And, he was the first to discover crayt gems!" Donghae sat up on the bunk, excited now; the stories and legends of Zared-Xxorlyn had always been his favourites. "That's what his treasure is rumoured to be, the biggest, finest crayt gems that the likes of the galaxy has never seen before!"
"Really?" I've never heard these stories before. Oh, I win," Henry added to Shiwon, smiling a little in victory, and for a moment turned his attention to resetting the table for another game, before continuing. "Is it likely that there's actually a treasure waiting for us, though?"
Donghae shrugged. After his talk with Shiwon and Hyukjae a few days ago, his mind had been put at ease on that matter. "We'll find out soon either way."
An alarm rang out through the ship then, alerting them that they were about to drop out of lightspeed.
"Sooner than I thought!" Donghae chirped excitedly, all but leaping off the bunk and surging towards the corridor. Everyone but Henry followed him into the cockpit, even though all three of them weren't necessary for this.
Each settling into their respective seats, the streaks of white quickly settled into the familiar glow of stars around them, and then through the viewport they saw in front of them their final destination.
YT-759. As Hyukjae had explained already to Donghae, it was a small lifeless moon, geologically dead, but for the atmosphere that still clung to the rock. It was so far out along the rim, the furthest planet from the core and the closest to the unexplored wild depths of space beyond it, that the moon didn't even have a name, only a numbered code assigned upon its discovery millennia ago. Despite an atmosphere that was breathable to a large amount of species throughout the galaxy, and acceptable gravity to most of them, the planet remained nameless and uninhabited, mostly because it was just rock. No ores or minerals to mine for, no plantlife or wildlife to trade, not even a gas worth mining for in its atmosphere. It was a lonely, lifeless, rock, hanging on the very fringes of the galaxy.
And this was where X seemingly marked the spot.
Slowly they approached the moon, Hyukjae busily inputting the approach vector into the navcomputer, so that they would land almost right on top of the co-ordinates given on the map. From space, the moon's atmosphere was a red-orange swirling mess of clouds.
"Those aren't storms, are they, Hyuk?" Donghae asked, sounding just a touch worried; atmospheric storms were a pain to fly through.
"Just a moment..." There were a few clicks, a beep, and then Hyukjae had a read-out of the moon on the screen in front of him. "Nope, no storms. It's as calm as can be down there. Read-out tells me that the unusual colour is just from the mix of gases down there. Breathable, though, we won't need masks or suits."
Donghae nodded, relieved. "Okay, take us down there I guess. It's time to find out how real that map is."
There was a look shared between them, a moment, where all three seemed to be waiting with baited breath, nervous, excited, anxious. And then the mood was broken, as Shiwon began the landing process. It was simple out here on YT-759, with no traffic control to go through, no one to authorise them or assign a docking port. It was simply fly down through the atmosphere, turn on the repulsors, and land the ship. It took only minutes, and then they were down.
According to Hyukjae's computer, they were as close to the X without actually covering it with the ship, which was what he wanted.
"Let's go," Shiwon said, even he was unable to hide the excited tremor from his voice. Grabbing the original flimsy-paper map, Hyukjae followed Donghae and Shiwon from the cockpit. Henry joined them on their way out, and even his blue-skinned face held a look of curiosity.
As they stepped out onto the surface of the moon they discovered it consisted mostly of dirt and rock, and was firm enough for them to walk across. Hyukjae paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the view around him; all he could see was rock, dirt, and more rock. From where they were, at least, it was very flat, with only a few rocky hills in sight.
"What a dull place," Donghae commented, making a face. "Good place to hide treasure, though. No one would come here for anything."
Henry made a noise of agreement.
With map in hand, Hyukjae lead them all the short walk out from under the ship's shadow to the spot the co-ordinates had given them. There was nothing in plain sight, only more dirt beneath their feet.
"This is it," Hyukjae said, pointing to the exact spot. "I guess we'll have to try digging."
"Already thought of that." Grinning, Shiwon held up a hydroshovel. "Who wants the honour?" With no one offering, Shiwon made a face, and set to the digging himself.
The dirt was tightly packed and hard, almost like rock, but after a few jabs of the shovel's edge Shiwon had himself a hole, and the digging became easier after that. They were all silent, watching, for the several standard minutes that it took Shiwon to dig a fair sized hole.
Impaling the hydroshovel still deeper into the dirt, there eventually came a heavy thunk, and Shiwon's eyes widened. "I've got something!" Carefully, he began to dig around the object, until eventually he uncovered a box.
"It's not very big, is it?" Donghae sounded disappointed, as Hyukjae and Shiwon reached into the hole and pulled it out. Dropping it lightly to the ground, they all peered curiously at it. It didn't look like it had been in the ground for a millennia, except for the dirt that still caked it, so it was obviously made out of a strong, durable metal. Probably vacuumed inside, too, so that nothing could affect whatever was in it.
Unable to contain his anticipation, Donghae shoved at Shiwon. "Well, open it then!"
He didn't need to be asked twice, and leaning down towards the smallish box Shiwon studied it for a moment before finding the release button. Sucking in a deep breath, he pushed the button. Slowly, the lid released, and Shiwon pushed it open. From the angle, he was the only one with a view of what was inside the box; he let out his breath, all in a long whoosh, but said nothing.
Impatient, Hyukjae leaned over to peer inside the box.
"Is this a joke?" He questioned, sounding more than a little confused. "What is that?"
Soon, they were all crouched down around the box, peering in. The look across all of their faces was confusion.
"Is that it?" Henry sounded less than impressed. "I thought there were supposed to be gems. From all the stories of this guy, you made it sound like there was a fortune waiting here for us."
"That's what I thought would be in here." Donghae was frowning, disappointed. "Shiwon, hand us out what's in there. Let's have a closer look."
Shiwon obliged, reaching into the box to pull out the first item. They all stared at it, their confusion deepening. It was a small, transparent, sealed jar, and lying at the very bottom was what looked to be a tiny seed of some sort.
"A vacuum jar, with, I don't even know what in it," Donghae commented. That, as far as he was concerned, was not a treasure.
Another hand in the box produced another transparent, sealed jar, though this time it was filled with a clear liquid.
"Probably water. Okay, that's not a treasure, either. This is a joke of some kind, isn't it?"
And finally, Shiwon pulled out the last object from the box, to reveal it as a very, very old model filepad. After fiddling with it for a few moments he exclaimed, with more excitement than anyone currently felt, "Hey! It still works!"
"That's not treasure, either," Donghae shrugged, severely disappointed to the point of no longer caring.
Ignoring that, Shiwon read out the last thing that had been put into the filepad. "This might be interesting," he spoke up after a moment. "This is a message from Zared-Xxorlyn himself."
Hyukjae, at least, seemed interested at that discovery. "What does he say? Is it some kind of joke?"
"It says that after all his years of exploring the galaxy, discovering new planets and new fortunes to be had, and valuables to be smuggled, he realised after finding this forgotten planet what real treasure was." Shiwon paused here, regarding both the little jars they had found sealed inside the box. Clearing his throat, he continued, "He found out that the real treasure is life. So he leaves this behind, for the next person who makes this discovery. It ends with, 'Maybe you'll give this priceless treasure to this forgotten little world.'"
They all stared at each other then, in absolute silence. No one knew what to say, or what to think.
Until Donghae spoke up. "Great! This is a blasted joke! Ha, ha, Zared-Xxorlyn, we fell for it. We come all this way and the treasure is a seed for some kind of plant? What a let down!"
"Hey, remember what we talked about," Hyukjae began, trying to reassure Donghae. "It didn't matter what we would find here, it was the adventure getting here that counted, right?"
Donghae made a derisive noise through his nose, that eloquently let them all know what he thought of that.
"At least there's those stolen glittergems," Henry pointed out, looking like he didn't really care one way or the other about the 'treasure' they'd just found. "There's still a lot of money to be made out of those."
Donghae said nothing to that, only huffing again. After a moments annoyed consideration he came back over to the box, crouching down next to it. "Is that really all that's in here?" He stuck a hand into the box, feeling all around for even the smallest other thing that could be hidden inside. He huffed again, about to just give up and get them off of this forsaken rock, when his fingers came across the smoothest surface he'd ever touched. Catching the tiny object inside his hand, he pulled whatever it was out. It was small and light in his hand, and opening his fingers revealed the most perfect looking object he'd ever laid eyes on. It's smoothness was impossible.
"Is that a crayt gem?"
Shiwon, Hyukjae and Henry all turned to stare at the little gem in Donghae's hand. The blue sheen to the gem gave it away, right along with it's smoothness. It was, without a doubt, a crayt gem, one of the rarest and most valuable items in the entire galaxy. Even a single one of this size would bring them enough money to buy themselves a miniature fleet of ships, if they wanted to.
All at once they broke out into excited whoops and shouts, smacking each other victoriously across the back, or pulling each other into excited embraces, all talking over each other at once.
"There was a treasure in there after all!"
"I expect it was an accident, something that just slipped out of a pocket," Shiwon reasoned, but even this didn't deflate the mood.
"Who cares!" Donghae exclaimed, whirling about joyously. "It was real, and we found the treasure! We found it! Maybe now we'll go down in history too!" And that, that was a thought.
Their excitement was only broken when Henry chose to point something out. "Shouldn't we plant the seed, all the same?"
Donghae waved a careless hand - not the hand that tightly clutched the tiny gem, of course - "Who cares?"
"I think we should," Shiwon said, reaching down to pick up the two sealed jars. "They've been left here all this time, who knows what this will grow into? We might as well."
Donghae couldn't care less, but Hyukjae, Shiwon and Henry gathered round in a tiny circle as Shiwon dug a small hole for the seed. Henry dampened a little of the dirt first, before Hyukjae dropped the seed inside. The rest of the water was then poured over it, and Shiwon covered the hole over again.
"Maybe we can come back in a few years, and see what it grows into?" Henry suggested. "You never know, it could be something extinct now, or rare and valuable."
That caught Donghae's attention, and he nodded in agreement. "Worth a look, I guess. In a few years."
Shiwon wouldn't let them leave until he'd packed the things - bar the filepad, and the gem - back into the box, and the box back into the ground, but before long they were back on the ship, all talking excitedly as they made their way into the cockpit.
Hyukjae had hold of the filepad by then, and as old as this model evidently was it still worked, and he'd been fiddling around with it, looking for anything other than the note left on it. Eventually, he let out an excited shout, causing everyone to turn and look at him in surprise.
"So even this is pretty good too," he spoke up, looking at them all. "Besides that note, I've just found Zared-Xxorlyn's entire log on this filepad."
"You mean...?" Donghae could barely get any words out, in the rush of excitement that went through him.
Hyukjae nodded, looking pleased. "His entire exploration log. Every discovery, every adventure, every thing he did, all on here."
"That might be the most exciting thing of it all. We'll get to find out the real stories behind the legends." This, to Donghae, seemed almost as valuable as the crayt gem, in an entirely different way. And returned Zared-Xxorlyn to the fabled adventurer that he had always been in Donghae's mind, instead of the turned philosopher that he'd seemed to be at the end.
"So, where to now?" Henry eventually asked.
As excited as they all were by their discovery, the thought of returning back to normal life and normal routines was just a little deflating.
"Let's go sell our glittergems first," Donghae suggested, after a moments thought. "Knowing our luck, we'll run into Heechul pretty soon, and I want those gone before he catches up with us."
Everyone nodded in silent agreement of that.
Shiwon, strapped into his seat, began to run the ships launch system to at least get them off the planet and back out into space where they could properly decide and plot their next course. It took only a few moments, and soon they were smoothly up through the atmosphere and back within the black depths of space.
"Before we do that though, can we go somewhere and get a proper meal to eat? I think Kibum's been cooking badly on purpose, and I'm dying for some real food." Hyukjae sent a wary look at the robot, who had just entered the cockpit.
"Kibum," Donghae said, turning to the robot, "Are you purposely cooking poorly?"
Kibum, in his robotic monotone, answered, "I cannot cook poorly, only to within my programs standards. And as I am not designed to be a kitchen-bot my standards for cooking are low."
Shiwon looked unconvinced by this. "But I clearly remember you cooking really well when Donghae first asked you to!"
In an oddly human gesture, Kibum shook his head. "Your memory must be faulty, Shiwon. I'm not programmed for cooking."
They all looked suspiciously at the robot, until eventually Donghae said, "Kibum, is it possible for a robot to grow a personality?"
"A robot cannot grow and develop in the sense that you mean," the robot answered. "Only follow the programs input within their system. Although I do believe," he added, "that any being or robot that has been in your company for a long time could grow anything. You could drive even a robot to insanity, Donghae. Now if you excuse me, I must go and be somewhere else."
With that, Kibum turned and left the cockpit. Donghae's mouth gaped open in surprise. "Was that a joke?" He asked, shocked by Kibum's response. Then, shouting out through the cockpit door after Kibum, he demanded, "Kibum! Is that a joke? Did you just make a joke?"
Donghae didn't notice the laughter that was spilling from everyone else around him, too awed by the robot's response.
"That was a joke, wasn't it?" He continued, asking no one in particular.
"Let's get out of here," Hyukjae said, leaning over towards Shiwon. There was a nod of agreement, and after plugging in the co-ordinates Shiwon sent the ship into lightspeed, stars burning into trails of white light in front of them, a blazing path to their next destination, and their next adventure.
- end -