WHAM!

"UGH."

Kim Namjoon woke with a start to a throbbing head and the gut-drop spinning of dreaming of forever-falling.

Except, he actually was free falling.

He'd been slammed forehead-to-ceiling into consciousness, his eyes blasting open to the sound and feeling of chaos.

Now all-awake, Joon could hear a piercing scream. His fingers struggled to find the exit latch to the dark sleep pod—but then he did, kicking the door open fast.

Instead of toppling out carelessly, Joon took quick action. He threw his belt around and braced his feet against a ceiling pipe, with each hand gripping tightly to those leathery ends, and he leaned back to walk his way down the length of the pipe in a straight almost-45 degree angle of sorts. He made his way towards the pilot and copilot's seats in rapid, careful steps.

A quick glance told him that the screaming was coming from Jin, who had wrapped his legs around the base of one of the spare chairs bolted into the floor, and was gripping the back of it for dear life. His face was beet red and glistening with sweat as Jin wailed.

Then... just barely... Joon dropped from the ceiling pipe and crawled his way through free-fall and into the empty copilot's seat. One strap, then another, and he was securely fastened.

Quick as a whip, Joon assessed and responded.

Chimin was properly strapped into his seat. His hands were still on the steering wheel, gripping so tightly that his knuckles were paper white. Chim's eyes were plastered open and bloodshot like they were being forcibly held open by surgical instruments.

"CHIMIN!"

No reaction. No response. Just that bloodshot, tense stare.

Joon didn't hesitate; he lashed out and smacked the back of his hand against Chim's cheek, as a bright white rune glowed out of Joon's knuckle as it collided with pale flesh.

Like snapping a board, Chimin went from stiff to shattered when the rune light burst like a firecracker against his skin. His body turned to slumped mush, with his eyes drooping shut and his hands falling limp. He was held in place only by the straps buckling him into his chair.

Joon shifted his attention to the dangerously close star that he realized was trying to pull them on a deadly path into its orbit.

"GRRR!"

Joon knew a push of the steering wheel wasn't enough. The momentum, the magnetic force... the way it was throwing the instruments completely out of whack...

His eyes and fingers worked electric-fast, adjusting the light-matter converters with inhuman precision, like trying to land a plane on a moving airstrip the size of a needle's eye... in nanoseconds... until...

"GHA."

The force threw Joon so hard against the copilot's seat that he was certain without the headrest his head would have snapped right off of his shoulders. It was almost skull-shattering. But Joon had made the calculations. He'd shifted the instruments. He'd engaged.

And he'd managed to shift the trajectory of their shuttle, and steer them away from star collision deaths and into the cool, calm expanse of inky space.

Once he recognized they were fully out of danger for the moment, Joon fell back into his chair and heaved a heavy sigh of relief. It was then he realized he was drenched in sweat, from the exertion of physical strength and nerves on edge. He wiped at his brow with the back of his hand and pivoted the copilot's seat around with his feet so that it was directly facing Chimin.

He realized that Jin was still screaming.

"—OD WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT PARK CHIMIN WERE YOU TRYNA ROAST US ALL LIKE DAMN PEANUTS I MEAN MY GOD THIS IS WHY I HATE CARNIVAL RIDES I CAN'T EVEN--"

Joon heard the click of a plastic latch. Lilith then rolled out of the other sleep pod, her hair a frizzy dark brown mess, like a cat caught in a static storm.

She was pissed.

Lilith slapped Jin hard across the cheek, and the earsplitting screams instantly ceased. Then she walked over to Chimin's chair and clicked open his seatbelts. She yanked Chim hard by his shirt collar and dragged his limp, unconscious body from the chair and across the shuttle floor. She dropped him carelessly, his head landing with a THUD into the floor that made Jin wince.

Neither Joon nor Lilith flinched at the sound.

Then Lilith looked up at Joon, her brown dark eyes suspicious.

"Good work."

"Thanks."

Joon was so deeply slumped into his chair now that his chin was propped up against his chest and his shoulders were slinking up over the arms of his chair in an awkward, childish shrug.

Lilith just didn't understand. "What the heck just happened?!"

"I have a theory." Jin had managed to go from clinging to the anchor post of a chair to sitting in said chair, his legs crossed and his expression as smooth and handsome as if this were a casual meet and greet.

The incongruence of him, I swear... Lilith sassed, "Well. Now would be the time, doc."

"Don't hurry my genius." He folded his hands carefully over one knee, making Lilith roll her eyes.

Jin went on, "Chimin probably just went road blind. Driving too long with no breaks? Everything starts to look the same out here. It can kinda hypnotize a person. It happens."

Joon grumbled, "I'd say that's highly unlikely in this case."

Jin sassed, "Well, it's my professional opinion. I don't see any medical credentials after your name. Or ANY anymore, Joonie boy."

Joon didn't even stir from his slumped-into-himself position. "I'm just saying."

"And I am just saying that your ass doesn't even know the front from the back of a canary, much less a human—"

"BOYS."

Jin glared. "He started it."

Lilith wanted to pull out her hair and scream with the incomparable rage of a woman who's been pressure cooked beneath the lesser competence of men with bigger mouths and fancier titles. She also wanted to knock Jin and Joon's heads together until they were both unconscious, and fly that shuttle on its way in blissful silence.

Like the mature and reasonable woman she was, she didn't do those things.

Instead, Lilith said, "This is a crisis, you idiots, not an excuse to see who knows more about human anatomy."

"I know plenty about human anatomy," Joon interjected.

Lilith walked over and smacked Joon hard on the top of his head. He squinted and rubbed at the mark.

"Shut up, Joon."

"YEAH. Shut up, Joon." Jin made a taunting face over Lilith's shoulder like a middle school boy.

Lilith walked over and gave an equally forcefully SMACK onto the top of Jin's head where he sat so smugly.

"HEY."

"Shut up, Jin."

Jin looked a touch more wounded than Joon as he rubbed at his mark.

Lilith went on, "Well, Chim's weirdness aside, we need to get to the Library still. We need to check our fuel and reserves. And we need to make sure we can make it still without a pit stop to refuel. Joon, what's it look like?"

Joon swiveled in his chair by clumsily pattering his feet against the floor. "As long as there's fuel for us at the Library of Mirth site, we should be golden."

"Ok. Joon, set a course for the Library."

Jin began to protest, "But he can't—"

"I'll sit as copilot. Jin, I need you to do a proper medical assessment of Chimin. Because of the nature of this trip, we have a surprisingly large amount of medical equipment, as well as a fully stocked laboratory compartment in the back part of this shuttle. You'll only have full access to it once we land, but for now, some of the gear in the storage units attached to this main compartment should have enough tools to get you started."

"I don't see why Chim needs any attention. He looks exhausted but otherwise fine." Jin nudged Chimin in the cheek with the toe of his shoe, unimpressed.

Lilith usually loved Jin's sass--but at that moment, she just felt tired. "I just want to make sure he's ok. And that we're all ok, too."

"Aye aye, captain." Jin gave a mocking salute.

Lilith acted like she was going to swat him on the head again, but froze mid-swing when she saw him flinch away.

"Geeze, since when did you get so bossy?"

Lilith scoffed. "I've been telling you what to do from the beginning, Seokjinie. You just didn't realize it."

"Hmph."

--

Jeon Jungkook felt uneasy, and he couldn't put his finger on why.

He strolled along the circular hallway of their ship by himself, thinking. Each door that he passed brought a different person to his mind, and each person brought a different woe. And yet, somehow, Shae remained the center of his orbit, like a sun holding him and everyone else around him into place.

Somehow.

But then--

Jungkook froze in his tracks.

"Did I just hear...?"

A familiar whisper.

A fierce warning.

He looked over his shoulder. His eyes searched for an open doorway to his left and his right, but all the doors he saw were sealed, and there was no one else around. Just a mess of files, boxes, and oddities to keep him company in that empty hall.

Don't let them in.

"Hello?!" Jungkook pivoted left and right, looking for a face.

As soon as he spoke, the feeling--the cool presence that had washed over him, as invisible and real as the words it had brought--was gone.

He shuddered.

Then all at once, Jungkook felt a sudden surge of the spacecraft. He braced lower into his knees and held his center of gravity while folders slid out of their proper place and papers spewed and fanned across the floors. A few boxes crashed and echoed as well, exaggerating the feeling of the ships sudden drunken movements.

Then another whisper sounded again, just as close to him as his very breath and yet with no source to be seen. Like a blind man using his ears to see, somehow Jungkook knew that this voice... this one was different. It was warm and nauseating all at the same time.

Welcome to the Isle of Reed. We have been waiting for you, Jeon Jungkook.

Then the ship lurched forward. Disoriented from shock, instead of catching himself, Jungkook sailed forward and landed flat on his face. A wooden box fell and landed onto his left shoulder. Random objects crashed and spread around him.

An intercom system crackled throughout the ship, and Jung Hoseok's voice echoed for all to hear. "EMERGENCY LANDING ENGAGED! HOSTILE TERRITORY! EVERYONE, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"