Interstellar Wanderlust

“He’s an Iinowaen. I examined his arm. Birthmark checks out.” She stated.

“How’d he even get here?” He asked.

“Is he alive?” Asked another. “He’s covered in blood,” They mumbled, but it was hard to identify whose voice it was this time. “He’s covered in a few burns.”

There was a pause.

“You think the Commander did this to him? He’s so…young.” The girl’s voice dropped. “Was it a failed execution?”

“What a horrific dictator, torturing a kid like this.”

There was frequent shuffling, and the voices grew irritated, speaking over each other. It was impossible to focus on just one until someone slammed their hand down.

“Shut up! We can complain about the Iinowaen government later! Top priority is saving this kid!” He groaned. “For fuck’s sake!”

“Does he have any ID on him? His birthmark reads Fuyuki Holxen, but it’s not like we could scan him and find out anything else. He’s not Xibagantan.”

“Who cares about identification right now?!” A girl hissed. “He has too many open wounds for us to be asking a hundred questions first. Open that cabinet and pass me the bin on the first shelf.”

More shuffling, incoherent mumbling, objects being placed down. I felt someone place something cold on my forehand, and then I felt their hands on the rest of me. Every time they touched me, it stung. It went on for what felt like hours—cold ointments, sharp needles, sudden pinches—but throughout it all, someone rubbed my antennae.

It didn’t completely distract from the pain, but it was nice.

Whenever I got sick, my dad would do the same, and whenever I happened to fall asleep on Hiro, he would do it too.

“Is he awake?” A voice from earlier asked loud enough to hear over the indistinct chatter. “I think he’s crying.”

“I would cry too if you were sewing up my gashes without any anesthetics.” A man taunted.

“You’re not helping.” A girl snapped at him.

The two bickered for a bit, but it was almost amusing. Soon enough, the sharp pains ceased, and my personal space was returned to me. I was picked up and transported to a different area, but the sudden movement made me groan. My whole body felt like lead, and although I was aware that something had been happening around me, I couldn’t move. It felt like I had sleep paralysis, which was something I already knew a bit too well.

“What’s the verdict?” A new voice said.

“We cleaned, sewed, and bandaged his large wounds. The worst marks were on his back, legs, and forehead. Given the bruise’s size and pigmentation, he likely has a concussion.” I heard paper crumple, and everyone who spoke sounded forlorn.

“Given how it looks and feels, we can tell his legs were somewhat crushed by something, and his lower back was struck.” Someone added.

“He may have fallen at a bad angle, but he’s paralyzed from the waist down…” They whispered.

The room went quiet for a bit.

“We know he’s Iinowaen, but we don’t know how he got here. He was surrounded by debris when we found him, but there’s no way of knowing if it was related to him or if it had already been part of Castor. He was alone when we found him too, but the Caberi Group is still searching the area just in case he wasn’t the only one stranded.” They sighed. “Regardless, we should end the trip here and return home. We did the best we could, but he should still seek professional medical care.”

“Yeah, like he'd definitely benefit from an IV, but we’re not medical students. We just have regular first aid kits.”

“That and Isaiah just has tons of medical knowledge from his parents.”

“Yeah.” A few others agreed.

It’s a shame how the Iinowaen education system markets Xibagantans. They’re always portrayed as the bad guys, but they’re nowhere close. The textbooks say their culture is backward, and they attempted to copy us but failed miserably. I doubt anyone would wanna copy us.

Here I am…somewhere, I guess, surrounded by Xibagantans. We’re strangers, and yet they’ve all stopped what they were doing to help me. They were the ones who I heard talking and laughing in the distance. They all sounded young, probably college-aged.

Imagine majoring in something where you could voyage to other planets.

After what felt like ages, my eyes finally opened. It took a while to adjust to the light, but I could tell I was on another ship based on the interior. The Xibagantans stood in a circle in the small room where I resided. Most of their backs were to me, but it was still a nice view. The various antennae shapes and hair patterns were beautiful. Some Xibagantans lived on Iinowae, but it was rare since they were discriminated against just as much as Glitches or Irregulars. However, they were nice to see up close. I liked their glowing fingertips and ears.

If only I could’ve been born as one of them.

“Shit. He’s awake.”

I slowly locked eyes with one of the boys. His frizzy hair faded from yellow to purple, and his eyes were the same color as mine.

They all turned to face me, and I tensed up, immediately growing anxious. My stomach turned. Way too many eyes on me. I thrived on being in the background, unnoticed and unbothered.

“Is he okay?” An orange girl whispered.

“I-I don’t know,” Her forest green friend muttered back. “He’s not saying anything.”

A girl with pink and blue swirled hair down to her calves took a step towards me. She had freckles like me, but they were multicolored. 

“Hi.” 

“H-Hi…” I whispered back.

“Are you okay?” She gave me a concerned smile.

I looked around, silent.

The way she gazed at me pulled at my heartstrings. Despite her spikey antennae and multicolored look, she looked like my mom, just Xibagantan. Freckles, long wavy hair, two different colored eyes—even her stature was similar. I wanted to pass back out again.

The kids awaited my answer, and when I didn’t respond, the crowd dispersed. A girl fetched me a drink and some crackers, one of the boys grabbed another blanket, and the frizzy-haired boy sat on the edge of my bed. He placed his hand on my leg, but I didn’t feel it.

I wanted to. I imagined I did, but in truth, all the feeling was gone. Was I gonna be bedbound for the rest of my life? If so, what was the point of all this? A lump in my throat started to form as the boy grabbed my hand instead after reading my expression.

“We’re glad you’re awake.” He said awkwardly. “I’m uh, I’m Wix.”

He reached his hand out, and I shook it. “Um. F-Fuyuki.” I mumbled.

He smiled a little and scratched his neck. “I feel like asking ‘how are you’ is dumb.” He chuckled. “But I’m bad at small talk. I don’t know. I’m just glad you’re alive.”

I shrugged. “Thanks. I think.”

We snickered, and I ate one of the crackers placed beside me. It felt weird to eat something. Between the attack in space, the crash, and the medical attention, I had no idea how long it had been. I also had no clue how long I was out for in total.

“So, you come here often?” He joked. “Where are you from?”

I started scratching my hand, avoiding the bandages as best I could. “Ha…Rybek, Iinowae. You?”

“Jiqir, Xibagantu. Real shit, how the hell did you end up here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Wix,” One of the girls began. “Leave him alone. Let him rest. We can ask him questions later.”

He glanced at me, and I shrugged again. “It’s fine, I-I really don’t care.” It was better than wallowing in sadness alone. I’d take any distraction at this point. Even if the attention was on me, I’d liked the ability to learn about Xibagantans first-hand. At least it was something different.

Wix gestured towards his peers, some of whom had been going in and out of different rooms of the ship. Still, it was a colorful array of them.

“We’re just on a research trip. Castor’s great for history nuts.” He snickered.

“Are you guys like—history majors? Or something?”

One of the girls walked over and handed Wix a drink, which he proceeded to hand to me. “Nah, half of us are geology or geography majors, and the others are photographers just along for the ride, like Isaiah.”

A purple-blue gradient Xibagantan in the back saluted me before returning to his notes.

“It was easiest for us to study abroad in a large group like this. There’s safety in numbers, and it was easier for the University to plan for.” Isaiah added.

“I see…” I muttered, examining the juice before taking a sip.

“Lemme guess,” One of Wix’s friends began. “The Commander would never allow something like this.”

I chuckled weakly with a nod.

“No surprise there.” A woman mumbled.

“Then what are you doing here?” Wix asked again, and his friends turned to me. 

My stomach dropped as they stared at me, awaiting an answer. As if I didn’t feel bad enough, now I could add nausea to the mix. I avoided their gaze.

“I ran away from home…I guess.”

“And you went to Castor? This place is inhabitable nowadays.” One of the girls raised her eyebrow.

“I-I know.” I rubbed my face. “I was trying to get to Earth but…we got caught, and our ship crash-landed here after being shot down by the cops.” Summarizing the disaster only contributed to the lump in my throat. Maybe we should’ve just stayed on Iinowae and dated secretly until someone inevitably found out. All this did was speed up our demise. 

All our hard work—incinerated and in shambles—with debris scattered around this wasteland of a planet. 

“Earth…God, that’s quite a long shot…” A spotted Xibagantan girl mumbled.

“We?” Wix repeated.

The Xibagantans talked amongst themselves for a moment, before focusing their attention on me again. Eugh.

I fiddled with my bandages. “My boyfriend and I…” I muttered. I guess there was no harm in telling them—they were Xibagantans. “While it’s low on the totem pole, our parents work for the Commander. If we went to Xibagantu, I’m sure they could track us down. Even though there was much to be wary of on Earth, I knew we could survive there, at least.”

The adults gave me a sad look.

“Then it’s good the Caberi group is still out searching,” Isaiah began. “I had a feeling he wasn’t in that ship all alone.”

“Caberi group?” I perked up. “People are looking for Hiro??”

Some of the Xibagantans smiled at my reaction. “Yes. While this planet is pretty big, it’s barren enough to see someone from a mile away. They took one of the cruisers to search the debris radius.”

My heart started pounding. “Thank God.” I held my head, staring at my lap. “It’s not like I can fuckin’ do anything.” My voice cracked. “Even though I should. I would. God, I hope he’s okay. This is all my fault…”

Wix rubbed my antennae as I quickly broke down. It only exacerbated my headache, and the tension made the aches in other areas worse, but once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Isaiah sat on my bedside and handed me a tissue. “Hey, hey…it’s gonna be okay. We’re not departing for another few days. We still have time to search for him, okay?”

I nodded and blew my nose, but his words couldn’t erase the guilt drowning me. If anything, Hiro deserved to be the one discovered by these Xibagantans. He should be in my place—safe, inside, relatively okay—while the others searched for me. He deserved this treatment.

The students did their best to comfort me, but most left to give me some space. There was no way to prove whether it was the stress or the concussion, but I ended up throwing up into the trash can beside my bed. I felt like I was having a fever dream. Given the circumstances and numerous wounds I had obtained, I wouldn’t put it past me.

Since Isaiah had more medical knowledge than the others, he continued to monitor me, whereas Wix stayed around just to raise my spirits. I could tell the two were close friends, and the freckled Xibagantan who resembled my mother, happened to be Wix’s girlfriend. 

All of them seemed so happy.

It must be nice to have numerous friends who share your hobbies and sense of humor. Seeing them interact felt bizarre, given I had only ever been close to Hiro. Even if I stuck around these guys, I doubt I’d ever really connect to them. Not only was I younger, but I was a different species, had a different background, and now I couldn’t even walk.

It was sad, but I still enjoyed being with them more than being alone in Castor’s creepy lack of wilderness.

Alas, each time I woke up for a few minutes, I felt even more groggy and discombobulated than before. I had no idea how long I’d been out for. The room felt like it was spinning as I fell in and out of consciousness for hours. I wasn’t sure if the conversations around me were real or if they were more fever dreams, and then I heard one of the doors on the ship slam.

“We need to go now!”

I jolted awake, trying to make out the new blurry collection of figures at the foot of my bed. I spotted Isaiah at the door, talking to a ton of people outside of the room.

“What’s going on?” His friends anxiously asked, glancing around the room. 

“We’re not scheduled to leave until the fifth!” Isaiah reminded them, panicking.

“The IITA’s on the other side of the planet!” The girl exclaimed. “We were surveying the area on the cruiser, and I swear to God they almost saw us!”

“Did they land here because they saw our ship?”

“I don’t know!”

“What if it was because of Fuyuki’s ship!”

The group turned to me. “Shit—he’s up.”

I looked around awkwardly. “Well…kind of, yeah.”

“Doesn’t matter.” A woman said. “We need to go now. It’s not up for discussion. We’ve done drills for shit like this, remember?” She turned to Wix’s girlfriend before scanning the room. “While we’ve caused no issues in Xibagantu’s case, our presence is breaking Iinowaen laws, so we gotta book it out of here before they snatch us.”

The varied students nodded, and many flocked out of the room, cleaning up their belongings while racing around in panic.

“A-Am I supposed to do something? Where are we going?” I asked, sitting up.

“No, you’re fine.” Isaiah glanced at me. “We’re going back to Noxum.”

“Noxum?”

“Xibagantu,” He clarified. “A city in Mzoi—specifically where our university is. There, we can get you looked at and get you a wheelchair. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

I gulped, clinging to the sheets. “Xibagantu…” I muttered. I’d only ever seen photos of the planet. Being able to step foot—er, or at least take in the sights in person, seemed surreal.

“Don’t worry,” Isaiah closed the door as I heard the ship power up. “I’ll stay in here with you.”

“Oh…thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” He saluted me again, and I grinned a little bit. 

It was odd for the ship to power on and to not feel it in my soul when it started moving. I looked out the window beside me as we lifted off. Their ship was significantly larger than mine, but given that it housed three or four different classes, it made sense.

I watched as Castor’s environment appeared smaller and smaller, and my stomach dropped.

Hiro.

I looked at Isaiah, who fiddled with his camera, fighting with the settings. 

“H-Hey,” I began awkwardly and made eye contact with the gradient Xibagantan. “What about searching for Hiro?”

The boy paused and adjusted his glasses with a sigh. “Don’t lose hope—this is just a temporary roadblock. Once the IITA leaves, we can return, especially since we still have research to do. We can keep looking for him while we work.”

“You promise?” I swallowed the lump in my throat, and he gave me a sympathetic smile.

“Yes, even if we—as in this specific group—don’t return, we’ll alert the University and the police about your crash landing.”

I flinched. “Wait, won’t we get in trouble?! I don’t want them to search for him if that means they’ll kill him when they find him!”

“Hey, it’s okay!” Isaiah scooted over to me and placed a hand on my arm. “This is Xibagantu—not Iinowae. You’re not in trouble. We can and will help you two.”

It was weird to hear that. My entire life, I feared needing to get the police involved in anything. I feared somehow, they would turn on me, and I’d wake up in front of the Commander. It’s happened to Iinowaens before.

“You have nothing to be scared of. Promise.”

The Xibagantan smiled at me, and while that would’ve felt like an empty promise, it was relieving hearing that from someone like him. 

Xibagantans were never the bad guys.

Hanging around Isaiah lessened a lot of my anxiety. He was so laid back that it was weird freaking out when, to him, there was nothing stressful happening. I felt awful not knowing Hiro’s whereabouts, but there was nothing I could do, and blaming myself wasn’t helping.

A lot of his classmates would check on me, especially after we landed on Xibagantu and I was admitted to the hospital. I was there for at least a week while they monitored my recovery, checked me for infections, and tried to reverse my paralysis, which apparently was a medical breakthrough that the Xibagantans had made progress on.

Still, thanks to everything else I had endured while crash landing, my entire body was too wounded to be a potential candidate. 

I was heavily disappointed, especially since I wanted to roam Xibagantu on my own two feet. The planet looked like a storybook brought to life. The colors were blinding to both the scenery and inhabitants. Every place I had been had a fantastic view.

Unlike on Iinowae, I wasn’t in a concrete jail. Sure, the planet had its parks and suburbs, but given how much more land Iinowae had than Xibagantu, it was weird that you could rarely take in the views outside of Central Command.

When I was discharged, Isaiah and a few of his friends pushed me around Noxum to take in the sights and pleasant weather. Still, I wished Hiro were beside me to take in every experience. Xibagantans had already returned to Castor to search for him, and Wix gave me every update, but they’d yet to find him.

I worried that he had fallen into the polluted water like me and couldn't swim to the surface. According to Dean, one of Isaiah’s friends, almost every body of water had been polluted with rubble and oil during the Metagalactic Strike centuries ago.

So, Hiro either drowned or died on impact upon hitting the ground.

I stared up at the entrance to the museum Isaiah’s crew had brought me to.

I shook my head.

Hiro was strong. It took a lot to keep him down, and no matter how many times people hit him, he’d always get back up. I never knew how he did it—handling all those bullies and borderline terrorists. I’m sure he was still on Castor and still alive. It had been a few weeks since I’d been brought to Xibagantu, but Hiro was the survivalist, whereas I would quickly give up, dig myself a grave, and sleep there until I died of starvation.

I guess that was the issue, wasn’t it?

Hiro would fight to stay alive, whereas I would only fight to keep him alive. There was no doubt that my recklessness caused the crash, but it’s not like I could go back in time and fix it.

“Would you like to do a little more sightseeing, or would you rather us roll you home?” Wix asked, standing at the bottom of the ramp to the museum. 

The entire front of the building was glass, and some panes were prisms, which reflected rainbows onto neighboring buildings. Iinowae had breathtaking architecture, but Xibagantu’s love of color brought everything together in a different way. 

“Home?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Isaiah began, smiling. “I invited you to stay with me for the time being, remember? I have my own apartment—I don’t stay on campus.”

“Oh. Oh yeah.”

His friends awaited my response. I could never get tired of examining Xibagntu’s sights. I might as well keep myself distracted for a while before I get another update about the search on Castor.

“We can keep walking around. I like it here.”

Wix’s girlfriend hugged me from behind, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Of course, you do! After taking one breath of Xibagantan air, you’ll never wanna go back to Iinowae.”

I chuckled awkwardly as she rolled me up the ramp and into the prismatic building while Isaiah and his friends fought over which exhibit to investigate first and who would be the tour guide.

In the end, we investigated every exhibit we passed: Art from centuries ago, bones from organisms that were now extinct, every rock and mineral that had ever been discovered on the planet, crowns and garbs from when the planet was still run by a monarchy, debris from the war—it was amazing.

Apparently, each major city had a museum, and Noxum’s wasn’t even the biggest. Jiqir had different exhibits about the geography and war damage, Mbantu had historical art and photography of areas that were nothing like any other Xibagantan continent, the Wry Isles had a small museum about previous islands that existed and what life was like beforehand—and then there was Coyio Dirzi.

According to Wix, they had the biggest and most significant museum, exhibits, and artifacts since the Caberi kingdom took place on the same continent. Second to theirs was Xanryx since the capital is the most heavily populated place on the planet. When the kingdom dispersed, most flocked there.

Nothing like this was ever taught on Iinowae. While the biggest museum in Sequoia, the capital, was filled with fascinating artifacts, the history we were taught was always warped. If you had common sense, it was easy to figure out. Especially if you dug around and found the old fragile books hidden in the back of libraries. 

Not much could be said about the other continents since leaving the city was always a pain.

We were in the museum until they kicked us out, though the students seemed to enjoy that I finally smiled for once. I couldn’t lie—it was a good distraction. For the next week, we visited other museums, monuments, and notable areas in northern Mzoi, so I’d stop visibly panicking about my boyfriend.

One of Dean’s friends bought me a journal to take notes, and after two days, it was already full. The group bought me others, some of which I used to take notes on the planet and others to journal about Hiro. I couldn’t survive without vomiting my mind onto something physical, otherwise my head would quite literally explode.

I started using one of the notebooks to summarize each day to give to Hiro when they found him. I wouldn’t be able to verbalize the consistent beauty of the planet or how many history diehards blew my brain to pieces. Xibagantu wasn’t our plan, but we could definitely settle. Hell, even Castor was better than Iinowae.