OmegaBlu: A Taekook Sci-fi Love Story

Part One: Deceptive

Tae's POV

Hurriedly, I move through the busy marketplace, tossing my old, weathered satchel across my shoulder keeping my hooded head down and eyes tightly focused on the road ahead. It's not easy with so much activity going on around me, but I must be discreet and not draw attention. I've been on the move since long before the dual sunrise. I push forward knowing I am almost there.

Not much further now. The ocean is close I can't see it yet, but I hear the crash of white foamy waves slamming into the jagged rocky shoreline. Its smell is simply clean, crisp, undiluted, and pure. Even the air around me changes, mingling with the ocean water as the lightest spray of moisture that is undetectable to humans tantalizes my cheeks and lips.

The market bustles with liveliness and motion.   It's visually appealing and bursting with enterprise, life, and vibrant colors everywhere. The square is filled with merchants, villagers, and travelers like me buying, selling, and bartering wares and services. Distractions are abundant.

All my senses are engaged, and I find the market disruptively magnificent; the joyful laughter of children playing joint with lively music, fills my ears. Carefully I center to filter the sounds that will alert me to danger. The clamoring and various other noises fall into slices of sound as I am able to discern the fluttering of a butterfly's wings as it takes flight, while ferreting out soft-spoken details of private conversations.

The scrumptious scent of sweet bread baking floats around me. I lick my lips as my tummy rumbles giving a sharp reminder that I haven't eaten today. Under different circumstances I'd be amused and delighted to be here. However, I can't afford to stop and lose time.

A ghost of a smile moves across my lips while the cherished memory of being with her floods my head as stinging fills my eyes. How excited she was holding my little hand and keeping me close while showing me everything – the performers, toys, musicians, and the candies – yum. I think she was excited as me. It was a rare and dangerous off planet excursion. I bite my lip as a dull pain presses into my chest – focus.

I pass through the market, leaving its alluring diversions behind for another day. I go on further and abruptly come to a halt as a faint gasp moves through my lips and an undiluted smile expands as warmth radiates through my chest.

"Finally, the ocean." I sigh.

My eyes squeeze shut, and I am weightless and smiling wistfully as I think of him. My hands, arms, lips, and mostly my heart, ache for him with a comforting assurance that my longing will soon end. My journey to him begins and I'll stay strong. I must.

The ocean transports me to a time of innocence. A time without worry. I give myself a few moments to admire its power and beauty while mumbling gratitude about its greatness. In an instance, I'm rocketed back to stories mother told me of her ancestor's home planet --Earth. It was home to five live oceans. The ocean before me is alive in many ways, but it's a tiny fraction of one of Earth's massive oceans.

Pulling a deep cleansing breath into my lungs fortifies me and I move. The two suns that this planet orbits are at high peak, and its midday as I approach the quiet port with caution. Unlike the plaza I recently left, there is low activity with only a few vessels in site. But what I'm looking for I don't see. I steady myself and recall the directions he gave me. He told me to look in an unlikely place. My eyes search as I continue to walk along the coastline, until I come to a grouping of massive black, rough, and ragged rocks that appear to have been pushed up from beneath the planet's surface. I then see it. The spacecraft, tucked back in a shadowy, dark cove. It's as he described, old, tattered, and not appearing to be flightworthy. It draws no attention and looks more like wreckage that's waiting to be scrapped. This is what he described. I know that he doesn't make mistakes and that looks are quite often deceptive. Like me. I puff out a sparse laugh to that thought. Shrouded in an oversized hooded black cape, dark heavy clothed pants, and black boots, I appear meek and weak – I'm neither.