Part 3 - La Nuit Etoilee

“In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

—William Shakespeare

***

Endymion slept.

***

The Grecian youth gazed up at the heavens, mapping the stars with his eye. He settled into an alcove and sat in the sweet summer grass, gazing longingly upwards. He rested his tablet in his lap and began drawing the stars and their movements. 

After hours he set his tablet aside and just laid back, eyes full of stars.

Before long, sleep over took him. 

***

Endymion dreamt. 

***

Blaine floated gently down with the tide.

Down.

And down.

And down.

And down.

And then, as soft and subtle as snowfall, Blaine’s feet touched the ocean floor.

***

Endymion woke.

***

It was bright. 

Blaine’s eyelids fluttered. 

Very bright.

Blaine’s eyelids slowly cracked open.

Everything was white. White ceiling. White light. White instruments hovering around him.

“Blaine?”

Blaine blinked, his eyes focusing in and out as he glanced to the side.

A woman was sitting there with a gentle smiled. “Blaine, do you remember me?”

Blaine shook his head slowly, confusion washing over him. “You…seem familiar?”

“I’m Dr. Fabray. But please, call me Quinn.”

“Hi,” Blaine said slowly as he tried to sit up. His arms barely lifted four inches.

“None of that now,” Quinn urged, resting a hand on his shoulder. “You’re too weak. Your body doesn’t have the muscle mass to sustain your weight right now.”

“I…” Blaine glanced around in confusion, taking in the white room, his white bed, the white bandages around his body. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

“In time,” Quinn said calmly. “We need to work on mending your physical body first.”

“Okay…” Blaine said, nodding his head. He didn’t really know what else to do. “So, what should I do now?”

“You should rest,” Quinn urged. “And build up your strength for the next few weeks. You’re going to need it to make a full recovery.” 

Blaine nodded again as Quinn stood to leave. 

She paused at the door, turning back to him. “Blaine, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“I…I don’t remember…” he muttered. “I was on the…Theseus maybe? I don’t remember, I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine,” Quinn said gently. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

***

Quinn visited him everyday that whole next week. They just…talked mostly. Blaine quickly learned to not ask about what had happened to him because Quinn wouldn’t reveal anything. She just told him that he’d been severely injured on a mission for his star ship and that he was in the medical ward for recovery.

Blaine liked Quinn. She was nice and easy to talk to. She was very gentle and yet completely professional the entire time. She was very easy on him—if something was too hard to remember, she’d let up. When physical therapy started, she didn’t try to push him beyond what he was capable.

It was eleven days after that he remembered.

“Doctor Fabray,” he murmured halfway through his leg exercises. Quinn looked up at him in question and he clarified. “Doctor Fabray. You and I, as well as Lieutenant Lopez were the three replacements aboard the S.S. Theseus.”

Quinn smiled and it lit up her face. “Yes. We were. This is good, Blaine. You’re beginning to make progress.” 

Blaine smiled.

***

In the middle of the night, Blaine awoke from sleep, sweat drenching his body. He couldn’t remember his dream, but one word was ringing through his mind.

Endymion. 

***

Blaine thought it would go away, but it didn’t. 

Every night he had incredibly vivid dreams that he could only remember the barest glimpses of, a streak of color or a faint smell or an impression of an emotion. And each night he’d awake with a single word running through his head.

Endymion. 

He didn’t tell Quinn about the dreams.

***

But then it started happening while he was awake.

“You’ll have a few assignments, Blaine.”

“Sure,” Blaine nodded. “Anything to help me get back to how I was.”

“How you are now is fine, Blaine,” Quinn said gently. “Remember that. These assignments are just for the purpose of therapy.”

“Alright,” Blaine said. “What is it?”

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.”

Blaine’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, seriously?”

Quinn nodded. “It’s apart of a study that Dr. Berry is conducing around the productivity of theatrical literature in cognitive reconnections after a case of amnesia.”

Something tickled in the back of Blaine’s mind about Dr. Berry and studies, but he ignored it. “Well I’ll get right on it,” he smiled. “It should be interesting to delve—”

Endymion. 

Blaine froze, his eyes going wide as the high clear voice rang through his head. He looked around, but he was alone with Quinn.

Quinn didn’t seem to have heard anything and she looked at him oddly. “Blaine, are you alright.”

“I…” Blaine turned back to her, swallowing dryly. “Yes, I’m fine. I just lost my train of thought.”

Endymion. 

He bit his tongue to keep him from looking around again.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Quinn nodded. “So, we’ll get you started on Shakespeare…”

***

It persisted. 

Endymion.

Endymion.

Endymion. 

Endymion.

Blaine heard it everyday. While he was eating or reading or showering or having a session with Quinn or working on his physical exercises to get him past a shaky walk, the word Endymion was always spoken very clearly in his mind.

And every night it woke him from sleep.

Quinn began to slowly notice the difference in his demeanor, but he pushed it off as stress and frustration over his lost memory. She nodded sympathetically as they went back to their sessions.

Endymion.

***

Seventeen days later, he cracked. 

He called Quinn ahead of time and told her that he wanted to cancel the day’s session because he was engrossed in Shakespeare. He waited a good hour after his morning meal was delivered before quietly leaving his room, entering the bright white hall. He squared his shoulders and started walking, trying to look professional.

He wasn’t on the Theseus. That was the first thing he realized. It was too big and there were no key pads with the constellation of Taurus above them, the Theseus’ insignia. 

Instead it was a bright star, which Blaine quickly recognized to be Sol.

They were on Helios, the main space station that all the star ships in the Horoscopic Sector reported to.

Endymion. 

The voice was stronger now, steadier as he slowly left his ward and tried to blend into the bustle of officers and cadets and lieutenants that he quickly became lost in.

Endymion. 

Blaine followed the voice as it grew stronger, moving faster now as he passed through a hanger that held the S.S. Perseus.

Endymion.

He was headed for the center of the space station. His heart pounded in his chest and excitement rose. There was a dark blue door and he reached out to plug in his security code to open it.

Endymion. 

A hand clamped down on his shoulder and he turned, seeing a guard who looked somewhat familiar. “Anderson, shouldn’t you be in recovery?”

“I…” Words stuck in Blaine’s throat. “I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit.”

“Well you can do that in your ward. This section is off-limits.”

“But—”

Endymion. 

The voice rang through his head even louder.

Blaine stared the guard down. There was clearly something beyond the door but he couldn’t tell the guard how he knew that. So he nodded and allowed the guard to escort him away, “Endymion” still ringing through his ears.

***

He learned to ignore the curious word and get on with his studies and exercises.

Shakespeare was delightful and fun.

Quinn was a lovely source of the outside world.

He could now manage a light jog.

Endymion. 

Yes, everything was perfect.

***

He got curious.

One day, after Quinn left, he snuck out of his ward to one of the public data bases and typed in “Endymion”. 

The results came back.

Endymion.

Cnidarian-Model Space Ship.

Currently: Under Reconstruction.

Priorly: The vessel for Science Officer Blaine Anderson before its malfunction on September 27, 2419.

Blaine stared at the screen. His ship. The Endymion had been his ship. Before it had malfunctioned… He checked the date…nearly two years ago.

He’d definitely lost nearly two years of his life.

Two years in which he had no idea what had happened. 

And god knows how many years before that were still patchy from his memory.

Endymion. 

He logged off of the data base and quickly returned to his room. 

***

“Why don’t you like other humans?”

KURT sulked in on himself, sending Blaine a wave of sickly mustard yellow that smelled like mold and felt like a rotten apple. 

Blaine wrinkled his nose. “Like that. Why is that?”

They’re monsters, KURT said quietly. 

“No they aren’t—”

Yes they are. I’ve seen your head, Blaine. Humans like to take things like me and lock them up and study them and experiment on them.

“Well some do,” Blaine admitted. “But not all of them are like—”

Why are you here?

“Uh…” Blaine blinked. “Because my connection to the Theseus was destroyed?”

No, I mean why are you in space in the first place? What is the Theseus’ mission?

“To—”

—find proof of extraterrestrial life, correct?

“Yes.”

Then what were you going to do with that life once you’d found it?

“Establish contact.”

Then what?

“See if it was a hostile force or not.”

And if it wasn’t?

“Well…study it, I suppose.”

And you don’t think that if I were to go in front of a ship they’d try to catch me?

“No, KURT. You’re blowing this completely out of proportion. We’re scientists. We have respect for all forms of life. Trust me, no one near this quadrant of space would ever want to harm you.”

***

Blaine awoke from sleep, not remembering what he’d dreamt of other than an impression of a kaleidoscope and the overwhelming need to protect something. It unnerved him but he settled back into his pillows, letting sleep take him again. 

***

Blaine walked through the halls of the submarine, nodding to his various crew members as he headed towards the main hanger. He went down a side hall until he reached a bright red door and opened it.

Inside was a large pressurized tank, filled with sea water. The water had turned a murky light brown color, and in the corner was a creature lying there forlornly, not even bothering to swim around. Its silver tail was a dull gray and it no longer let off bioluminescent light or shimmered iridescently. It looked up sadly at Blaine pressing its webbed hand against the glass. 

***

Blaine woke up from the second dream, remembering every last detail of it as he sat up in his bed, breathing heavily.

Endymion. 

Blaine whipped his covers off, intent clear in his mind. 

***

He took the side routes this time, doing his best to avoid the main parts of the space station. Luckily, it was the off shift so his half of the space station was currently asleep.

He pressed against tiny alcoves and side hallways to avoid being seen as he made his slow but steady way back to that dark blue door. 

Endymion. 

He reached the door and took a deep breath before entering his security code. 

Access denied.

He blinked. His code should open every door in this station. He was a senior science officer. 

Biting his lip—and feeling slightly guilty—he entered in the code that he’d seen Quinn use a thousand times on the door to the physical therapy room.

Access granted. 

Blaine raised his eyebrows. There was a door that a doctor could access but a science officer couldn’t? It wasn’t anywhere near the medical ward…

Blaine walked into the room slowly. All the lights were dimmed and the majority of the incredibly vast room was taken up by a tank. 

His brow furrowed as he walked up to the tank, mind racing. “Impossible,” he whispered.

It was a void tank—a room that mimicked the emptiness of space and replicated it. He’d only heard rumors of their existence…but then again, there could have been a lot that he’d missed in two years. 

Curious, he walked up closer to the tank, observing the spherical shape. Along the back edges, it seemed like it was…silver? He walked right up to it, putting his hands on to clear surface, leaning forward to get a closer look.

A gray face appeared right in front of his, two large white eyes staring at him.

Blaine screamed and flung himself backwards. He turned and ran out of the room and back to his own.

He tried to sleep, but those white eyes haunted him.

But what freaked him out even more was that his mind kept insisting that they needed to be sea green.

***

He went back the next night.

Blaine breathed heavily as he entered Quinn’s passcode into the door again and cautiously entered. 

The creature was once again no where in sight, but Blaine had the good sense to keep back from the tank this time. He stayed along one of the back walls and waited patiently.

After nearly two hours, the creature appeared somewhat near his line of vision, a few feet higher than him and to his right. It was just staring with its large white eyes.

Two things occurred to him.

The first being that sound didn’t travel in space which should also be applicable to the void tank, so the creature probably hadn’t heard his scream earlier.

And the second…the back walls of the tank were reflective so the whole tank would probably mimic that. So last night, the entity hadn’t been looking at him. It had been looking at its reflection. 

Blaine blinked away his sudden overwhelming sense of deja vu and walked cautiously up to the tank, right below where the creature was.

It was humanoid in shape—it appeared to even have some semblance of hair—but was completely translucent. Small wisps of gray light and a material that looked something like smoke swirled in a lackluster fashion around the creature. 

Blaine hissed suddenly, a sharp headache hitting him as streaks of light and color filled his mind.  He clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, his mind just a streaming whirl of kaleidoscopes and rainbows. 

And then suddenly there was this cool wave of silvery-blue—wait. No. Silvery-blue wasn’t a feeling. But he suddenly felt calm. And like cheesecake. How could a person feel like cheesecake? He rubbed his eyes and looked back up at the tank.

The creature was right in front of him, large white eyes gaping.

Blaine tamped down his urge to scream and repeatedly reminded himself in his head that the creature was only looking at its reflection, that it couldn’t see him, that it didn’t know that he was there, that it—

Blaine? 

Blaine’s body grew very cold as the clear high voice rang through his head and the creature leaned forward more towards the glass, cocking its head slightly. 

As he did the night before, Blaine turned and ran. 

The “Endymion”s stopped after that. 

***

He visited the creature every night.

He usually didn’t stay for longer than three hours before his nerves gave out and he ran.

But as time went on…he grew steadily more fascinated with it.

It was an alien life form. The first. It was fascinating in and of itself.

What he was confused about…was why no one seemed to be excited about it. Why hadn’t he heard of it before? This was history in the making, but Quinn had never mentioned it to him. He read reports about the space stations daily activities, but there was nothing in any of the logs about an extraterrestrial life form. He’d even tried searching for it in the data bases, but it didn’t even seem to exist.

Blaine knew he was becoming obsessed, but he couldn’t help it. His mind was peaked.

***

A little over a month after he’d discovered the creature in the void tank, he got his first visitor. 

“Hey Blaine.” 

Blaine blinked at the bouquet of red roses being offered to him and he accepted them cautiously. “Hi…Sebastian.” 

Sebastian smiled at him that same confident smile that Blaine always had liked about him. Well, before…

“Um,” Blaine coughed. “Come in, I guess.”

They ended up in his kitchen, Blaine putting the roses in a vase while Sebastian sat at his table. The awkwardness was almost palpable. 

“So,” Blaine said to break the silence. “What are you even doing out here? I thought you were over by the Augustian Galaxy.”

“I was,” Sebastian nodded. “But then I had a transfer to the S.S. Theseus so we’re actually going to be shipmates.”

“But the Theseus already has a communications officer,” Blaine frowned. “Lieutenant Lopez.”

“She was transferred to the Cassiopeia,” Sebastian shrugged. 

“Oh,” Blaine frowned. From the scarce bits of his time on the Theseus he could remember, he liked Santana. There was one memory in particular of the two of them eating dinner together that was a fond favorite of his. 

“And then I’d heard what had happened to you,” Sebastian said concernedly, leaning forward and placing a hand on Blaine’s arm.

“Well, that makes one of us,” Blaine said sarcastically. “I still have no idea.”

“I think it’s to help with the healing,” Sebastian said gently. “Which is why I’m here. To help as well.”

Blaine blinked, staring at him. “Wait, I’m sorry, did I miss something? Since when do you care?”

Sebastian froze. “We…Blaine, we made up.”

Blaine stared. “What?”

Sebastian sighed. “They told me that you might not remember because of the amnesia. But…we made up. You decided to give us a shot again.”

Blaine was baffled. “Why on earth would I give you a second chance?”

“Hell if I know,” Sebastian shrugged with a laugh. “I’m just glad that you did. Blaine, what I did to you was awful and I’ve spent every day since hating myself for it. You were always the one for me and I didn’t appreciate you while I had you and that was my biggest mistake.”

Blaine’s mind was reeling because everything didn’t make sense but neither did his life and he kept thinking back to the creature in the room behind the dark blue door for some reason—

Sebastian leaned in closer. “Blaine…if you’ll have me, I want to help you. I want to be with you again.”

“I—”

“Please?”

“Okay. We can give it a shot.”

***

blaine

blaine

blaine

blaine

blaine where are you

blaine please help me i’m scared and i don’t know what to do blaine please please come help me blaine please i’m frightened blaine

blaine

blaine

blaine

bl—

“Hello, Ganymede.”

no i’m not ganymede i’m kurt please blaine he scares me his voice keeps screaming through my head because of something called a psychic field but he’s not our kind of psychic and it hurts and blaine please make him go away where are you

“Still hiding over there are you?”

please make him go away blaine help you said everyone on your ship was nice you said blaine you promised me blaine please it hurts

“You always were the tease, weren’t you? Nearly drove my father mad trying to prove you existed. I only saw him twice a year if I was lucky. Sometimes five years would go by and I’d never see him at all.”

blaine please he keeps going on about this please where are you i don’t know what he’s talking about i just want to go back everything hurts here blaine please answer blaine please

“You were never shy about talking to Anderson. We recovered logs from his suit and his half of conversations with you. He said that you had a psychic link, but whenever we allow psychic communication within this room with you, you’re mum.” 

i’m not mum i’m screaming you just don’t understand i want blaine please hurry please please please please

“Are you waiting for Anderson? Will you only talk to him? I didn’t know that aliens had crushes on other species.”

blaine where are you blaine please blaine blaine blaine blaine blaine

“Too bad Anderson won’t show up. He’s a bit…preoccupied.”

blaine i want—BLAINE! 

The inner walls of the void tank stopped being reflective and turned into a patchwork of small screens, each showing a different clip of the same two people.

blaine

blaine why are you with him i don’t understand you said that you didn’t like him i saw him in your head and you were angry at him blaine stop blaine no blaine—

“This one’s my favorite.”

The screens morphed into one and showed Blaine and Sebastian lip-locked outside of the physical therapy center.

“Nice, isn’t it?”

blaine no please blaine please you said that everyone here was nice you gave me that feeling you said you wanted me i kissed your helmet and you kissed it as well blaine why i don’t understand i thought we were us but we’re not

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that one.”

blaine

please

come back to me

***

David smiled as he turned off the psychic field on the Aquilis and punched in the code for the reflective walls again, leaving Ganymede curled in on itself and shaking in its corner of the tank. “Good,” he whispered as it trembled violently. He ran his fingers along the edge of the Aquilis before leaving the room, shutting the door tightly. 

He headed back out towards the main hanger, taking out his com. “Lieutenant Smythe.” 

“Captain Karofsky. Always a pleasure.”

“What’s the report on Anderson?”

“Still has large portions of his memory missing. He doesn’t seem to recall any portion of his space time alone at all.”

“Good, keep it that way. Also make sure that if he sneaks out to visit Ganymede again you contact me. Is that understood?”

“Yes Captain.”

“Good. Keep up the excellent work, Smythe.”

“Will do, sir.”

Davide smirked and flipped his com down, putting it back into his pocket. 

He failed to notice Lieutenant Lopez behind the runners of the S.S. Ariadne, looking at him suspiciously.

***

Blaine managed to stay away from the creature in the void tank for three months. Sebastian was proving to be the perfect boyfriend: patient and attentive to Blaine’s recovery. He was also the perfect distraction from the haunting white eyes that still dotted his dreams  and the occasional faint whisperings of “Blaine” that ran through his head at random intervals. 

But his life was peaceful. His life was good. He finished with physical therapy. He thoroughly enjoyed Shakespeare. Sebastian was perfect. Everything was perfect.

Until he awoke one night, memories rushing through his head.

He remembered.

Not everything, but most. He remembered his time on the Theseus. He remembered the entity he’d been chasing. He remembered his ship, the Endymion becoming damaged. He remembered each and ever one of those four hundred twenty-seven days without human contact, save for those first fifteen when he’d been unconscious. 

He remembered something tapping on his helmet and waking him up.

And then it was blank. 

Nothing after that.

But Blaine lied in his bed, growing cold, for two hours. 

Because something here was horribly wrong. 

The entity he’d been chasing. Despite the chromatic differences, it had to be the one in the tank. The entity that he’d discovered. 

There was a large chunk of time he was missing. According to the data base, he’d spent his entire six hundred days in deep space, yet he was somehow now on the Helios and had made a full recovery.

What had happened those other one hundred seventy-three days that he’d spent in space?

But, even more glaring, was Sebastian.

He’d lied. 

The two of them had never reconciled.

Something wasn’t right.

***

Blaine told Sebastian that he wanted some alone time that day and staved off his offer of lunch. Instead, he headed straight for the void tank, not really caring who saw him.

He walked in and ran over to the container, placing his hands against it, trying to will the entity to come over to him. He saw it in the corner, sort of huddled up and almost…in pain?

Worry shot through Blaine like wildfire, and his hand clenched against the glass because for some reason, the thought of the entity in pain made his heart hurt.

He blinked and the entity was right in front of him. He managed not to jump but gritted his teeth instead. The large white eyes were indeed haunting but also…sad in a way. 

Blaine?

Blaine stiffened, but curiosity took over and he leaned against the glass, pressing his forehead against it.

Blaine. Is that you? 

He got the strangest urge to answer yes.

“Remarkable, isn’t he?”

Blaine jumped and wheeled around. 

Captain Karofsky walked out of the shadows with an easy smile on his face. “Just going for a stroll, Anderson?”

“Sir,” Blaine said, licking the inside of his mouth. “I—”

“It’s quite alright,” Karofsky smiled. “He truly is amazing.”

Blaine nodded, looking back at the creature. “I—yes. He, sir?”

“He,” Karofsky nodded. “Ganymede.”

Blaine ignored every cell in his body that was screaming at the name in protest. “Like in greek mythology? Zeus’ cupbearer?”

“Exactly, Anderson,” Karofsky smiled. “That’s right. You were always quite the classics buff, weren’t you?”

Blaine gave a half-shrug in reply as he turned back to the tank. “So…Ganymede. He was the entity I was chasing for the Theseus, wasn’t he?”

Karofsky looked at him evenly. “Your memory returned?”

“Not all of it,” Blaine shook his head. “Mostly just me floating alone in space. Nothing after that. There’s still a sizable chunk missing.”

“Ah,” Karofsky nodded. “Then yes, this was the same entity.”

“What do we know about it?” Blaine asked, interested. 

“Well, it appears to communicate on a psychic level. We’ve attempted to create a psychic field by using sub-stellar wave frequencies on point with Ganymede’s but…” Karofsky sighed. “Nothing seems to work. Not a bit of contact out of him.”

Blaine.

Blaine blinked. “I…are you sure, sir?”

“Quite sure,” Karofsky nodded solemnly. “Why?”

“Because…” Blaine bit his lip. “Because I can hear him.”

Karofsky raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Beg pardon?”

“In my head,” Blaine nodded. “I can hear him. I’ve been able to for weeks.”

“Blaine…” Karofsky grinned. “That’s fantastic! We can finally bridge communication! What’s he been saying?”

“Um, he was saying Endymion for a while,” Blaine frowned.

Karofsky blinked in surprise. “The name of your ship?”

Blaine nodded. “And then he sort of stopped for a while, but every now and then I can hear him say my name.”

“Huh…” Karofsky nodded. “Blaine…would you mind maybe…telling me what he has to say in response to images? It would help a great deal and we could maybe establish some communication…”

“Sure,” Blaine readily agreed, thirsty for more knowledge. “Yeah, anything to help.”

“Alright,” Karofsky smiled. He went over to the console and entered in a sequence. 

The inside walls of the void tank shifted and form a likeness of Karofsky’s face. 

“You?” Blaine asked with surprise.

Karofsky nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid that he may have come to fear me. I’ve been doing my best to communicate with him but it’s only caused him distress. He’s lost all color and has become sort of forlorn…” He sighed. “I just want to help him.”

“Okay,” Blaine nodded. “I’ll see what I can figure out.” 

He concentrated on Ganymede, who’s eyes were glued to the screen.

…breath…

Blaine frowned. “I can’t really make it out, something about breath or…” 

Karofsky frowned lightly before entering another sequence into the console. “Here, we can settle the psychic field a bit, try to get it stronger.

It was clear as a bell.

“I got it,” Blaine said quietly.

“What did he say about me?” Karofksy raised an eyebrow.

Blaine felt cold inside as he relayed the message. “You take my breath away,” he said, fighting the stab of jealously that ran through him.

Karofsky looked at him in surprise. “Really?” 

“Yes,” Blaine nodded.

Karofsky looked pleasantly surprised. “Well that’s better than I’d hoped.” 

He turned off the shield, but before he did, Blaine got one more message from Ganymede.

BLAINE PLEASE HELP ME HE’S HURTING ME OH GOD YOU PROMISED ME THAT EVERYBODY ON THIS SHIP WAS NICE BLAINE YOU PROMISED PLEASE HELP ME PLEASE IT HURTS SO MUCH PLE—

Blaine’s blood ran cold as the scream was silenced but the psychic field. Then he keeled over, hissing loudly.

“Blaine?” Karofsky asked in concern. “Are you okay?”

“Headache,” Blaine gritted out even though his head felt fine. “Sorry, today’s just been a lot because of remembering and now this—”

“Of course,” Karofsky nodded. “You should get some rest.”

“But I do want to help tomorrow,” Blaine said with forced eagerness. “This really is truly fascinating.”

“Excellent,” Karofsky grinned. “Just rest up tonight and then first thing tomorrow it’s back to this.”

“Sure,” Blaine nodded and he turned to leave, the smile dropping from his face.

***

“I was lost in the Pollux Quadrant.”

The words were out of his mouth before Quinn even sat down. He’d called her over to his room as soon as he’d gotten back for answers.

She looked at him, surprised. “Yes,” she said evenly. “Yes, you were.”

Blaine nodded, folding his hands. “I…I don’t remember everything. Just the first four hundred twenty-seven days, and not even all of that last one.”

Quinn nodded evenly. “Well, I guess you can learn the circumstances of your conditions.”

Blaine nodded, eager.

“You suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” Quinn sighed. “Which triggered your amnesia because your body wanted to forget what had happened to you because a massive strain had been put on it.”

Blaine kept nodding, rubbing his hands together. “I’d surmised as much. And my physical injuries?” 

Quinn bit her lip. “Well, there was the obvious disuse of limbs in space that caused you to need physical therapy. But the cuts and crushed lungs and broken bones…” She trailed off uneasily.

Blaine stared. “What?”

Quinn looked at him long and hard. “No one would tell me about it. I only found out a few months ago from Lieutenant Lopez, and she got kicked off the Theseus for telling me—”

“What?” Blaine stared. “Is that why she was reassigned to the S.S. Cassiopeia?”

Quinn nodded. “I think so. The…extraterrestrial—”

“Ganymede,” Blaine nodded. “You knew about him this whole time?”

“No, Santana told me,” Quinn shook her head. “And you’ve obviously known longer because you’ve been using my passcode to go see it. And…you’ve never called it Ganymede before.”

Blaine blinked. “What are you talking about?”

Quinn heaved a sigh. “Okay, this is what I know through Santana because I was kept completely in the dark. On your four hundred twenty-seventh day, a transmission was received from you for the first time since contact was lost. You apparently said something along the lines of, “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you forever.” It was hypothesized that that’s when you made contact with the entity. It appears to be made out of some sort of energy so it ended up boosting your signal. Over the next hundred seventy-three days, various fragments of transmissions were received from you but we were never able to find your location. Then, on day six hundred, we assumed that you’d died, but suddenly there was a force that seemed to attack the ship. It got passed the shields and defenses and slammed against the main viewscreen, for everyone to see.”

Blaine sat there, absorbing all of the information. “What was it?”

“You,” Quinn said quietly. “And the entity. It had sped you across nearly the entirety of the Castor Quadrant and god knows how much of the Pollux Quadrant. That’s how you sustained your physical damage. Your suit crumpled under the speed and started deteriorating faster than usual and actually ended up crushing you in the end. But you were brought aboard—and that’s the first I saw of you. I had no idea what else was going on or even the circumstances, but according to Santana, they captured the entity and attempted to bring it on board but…it didn’t fair well without the void of space.”

“Which is why they needed a void tank,” Blaine muttered. “But…so many things aren’t adding up. Sebastian’s presence doesn’t make sense, I just saw the entity and Captain Karofsky was there and everything’s just so confusing—” He broke off, putting his head in his hands.

“I don’t know what’s going on either,” Quinn said. “This whole thing is weird, especially since no one else is questioning it.”

“I just wish I could remember,” Blaine groaned in frustration. “I want to remember what happened with me and Ganymede or the entity or whatever because this is just so frustrating…” He sighed. “And there was just this moment,” he said softly. “With the entity. He was just so…scared. And I wanted to jump into that tank and protect him from all harm. And that urge fills my body every time I think about him and I don’t know why. I would die if I did it.”

“It’s a very human trait, Blaine,” Quinn said quietly as she pushed her glasses further up her nose. “The need to leap without looking. Do you know where it comes from?”

Blaine shook his head.

Quinn rearranged her legs, tucking them underneath her. “It’s genetic heritage, from when we were primates in the trees. It’s our body’s way of testing us, calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch.” 

Blaine nodded quietly.

“But I think the best thing for you right now is more rest. I’ll look into some things because this whole thing is fishy,” Quinn said uneasily. “Just rest.” She got up to leave.

“Oh, and Quinn?”

She turned.

“You should know that Dr. Berry’s music therapy exercises don’t work that well over a long period of time.”

She rolled her eyes. “I could’ve told you that. Rachel severely overestimates everyone else’s obsession with music in correlation to her own.”

***

Santana knew something was up. The fact that Blaine’s discovery of the first extraterrestrial being was being hushed up was the first indicator. Her losing her job over filling in Quinn was the second.

And now she knew for sure that Karofsky and Smythe were up to something. Karofsky had been unnerving her since the night they’d lost contact with Blaine…

“S.S. Theseus, this is Endymion. I’m tracking an entity across the Castor Quadrant and it appears to be heading towards Pollux. Should I engage?”

“Negative, Endymion,” Lopez said firmly. “The Pollux Quadrant hasn’t been successfully explored yet. Pull back and do not eng—” She frowned as she realized her channel had been cut off and started pressing her code back in, trying to reboot.

“Endymion.”

She wheeled around to find Captain Karofsky speaking into his com. He’d overridden her systems. 

“Can you confirm if it is a life form?”

“Negative, Captain. It’s too fast. But it does seem to have intuition as well as a purpose.”

“Can you describe the form?”

“Akin to a condensed form composed of multiple refractions of light. Almost like a kaleidoscope or a…”

“A rainbow.”

“Yes, Captain. A rainbow. But it can’t be any longer than six feet or any wider that one foot, I’d say.”

“Thank you, Endymion. Engage.”

“Sir!” Lopez wheeled around in her chair. “The threat to Anderson’s life—”

“There is minimal threat,” Karofsky said evenly. “And this is the closest we’ve come—”

“Speculation. We don’t even know if it is and besides, the Pollux Quadrant—”

“Lieutenant!” His voice rang through the bridge and everyone became very still. “That is enough.”

Lopez swallowed her pride and gritted her teeth. “Yes, Captain,” she said monotonously as she went back to her screen, tracking Endymion’s movements.

It had been a nerve-wracking three hours, waiting for Blaine to respond again, and when he had it was to tell them that his ship was damaged. And then, as they’d been trying to transport him back onto the ship, his signal had been lost.

The entire thing was suspicious and she had a feeling everything was going to blow up soon.

She kept her eyes open. 

***

Blaine couldn’t sleep. Everything from the whole day was running through his head.

He attempted Shakespeare, but that didn’t really help…

“O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From the world-wearied flesh.”

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.”

“And when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”

Blaine threw his Shakespeare book onto his desk and laid back, rubbing his eyes. He was tense. He didn’t know what to do.

And then something occurred to him. Something he hadn’t been able to do while he’d been floating through space. Something that he hadn’t done this whole time on the Helios. Something that he hadn’t even thought of, because for once Sebastian hadn’t pushed him for it.

He wriggled his head into his pillow slightly before breathing out, trailing his hand down the front of his shirt. 

He was tentative at first, just lazily running his finger along the outline of himself through his loose cotton pants before his body gave in, craving that one release he’d been missing for roughly two years.

He palmed his cock roughly through his pants before slipping his hand beneath the fabric and letting out a soft “unnnhhh” at the relief, a hot flush running down his body.

What’s sex?

Blaine froze mentally but his body went on autopilot, tongue licking his palm, other hand shoving resting at the inner crook of his thigh and stroking rhythmically as his pace picked up and the memory played before his eyes with vivid clarity.

Blaine spluttered, glancing over at KURT in surprise. “What?” 

Sex? KURT asked inquisitively. I keep seeing it in your mind and something about…masturbation?

“I—” Blaine flushed. “It’s the human’s way of reproduction. Creating more of us, if you will.”

Oh. Do you like it?

“Um…yes. Sex is very pleasurable. But it’s best when it’s shared with someone you care about and love and stuff.”

Oh. KURT smiled his odd way of smiling and sent a wave of bubbly emotions over to Blaine. Then what’s masturbation?

“Uh…” Blaine bit his lip because honestly, there wasn’t anything in his training that had prepared him for explaining the finer nuances of human sexual relations to an overly-curious extraterrestrial rainbow being. “It’s basically a way to get rid of excess sexual energy by yourself without a partner.”

Okay. How do you do it?

“You…well, it depends on which sexual organ you have, but basically you find a person or scenario that’s sexually pleasing to you and you use both mental and physical sensations to get off the excess energy…yeah.”

KURT gave him a nodding emotion. Do you find me sexually pleasing?

Blaine nearly choked on his own spit. “What?”

Do you find me sexually pleasing? Would I be a good candidate for a mate?

“KURT…um, I don’t think we have compatible biology.”

Oh. So you don’t think I’m sexually pleasing?

“No! I mean, yes. I mean—” Blaine sighed and for the millionth time he wished he could run his hand through his hair. “KURT, you’re a very attractive and visually aesthetic being and I’m sure you’d make a lovely mate. Um…human sexual relations are just sort of…complicated.” 

Okay. 

“But…” Blaine tried to turn the conversation around. “What about you? And your…people. Race. Family. Isn’t there anyone else out there for you?”

No. I…there was a group that I was with but I was…exiled, I’d guess you’d call it. 

Blaine frowned. “What happened?”

We…my kind travel in groups. It’s how we survive. It’s all we know. And so, within the groups, we were all paired off to become…mates. But my mate…wasn’t good for me. And I didn’t join.

“Join?”

Two mates will become one. They’ll travel together. Inseparable. My kind believe that you must fuze yourself with another because we are all just halves looking to make a whole.

“So…” Blaine frowned. “You didn’t join with your intended so you were banished?”

There is something wrong with me, KURT said quietly. We were supposed to join but I just couldn’t. I’m not right. So I can’t travel with the others.

“That doesn’t seem very fair,” Blaine muttered. “And there’s nothing wrong with you, KURT.”

Really?

“Really. You’re perfect to me.”

A violet haze overtook him and he laughed. “I do like that idea though. Your kind’s, that you have to become one with another to be whole. It reminds me of an old Greek myth.”

Tell me!

Blaine chuckled. He could always cheer KURT up with a myth. “It was said that Zeus created man with two heads, four arms, and four legs. But they were too perfect so he split them into two different beings, each with one head, two arms, and two legs. It’s said that they are soulmates, condemned to searching forever until they find each other and can be whole again.”

Wow, KURT said quietly. I like that.

“I knew you would,” Blaine smiled. 

Blaine cried out as he came, shooting cum all up his chest as his mind flooded with images of bright technicolor. 

KURT. 

How the hell had he forgotten KURT?

It was like there was a snap in his brain and suddenly everything started to make sense again.

KURT was in danger on this space station.

He had to get him out.

“KURT,” he said aloud, and tried thinking it as hard as he could.

Silence.

The psychic field, he realized. It had to have been keeping KURT from fulling linking with him. But emotions seemed to get through to KURT just fine so he did his best to project, searching, feeling, try—

Fear. 

He was consumed with complete and perpetual fear.

Blaine was on his feet, hastily wiping himself off with a spare shirt before tugging a clean one over his head and running out into the halls. 

He rounded the corner and barreled past Sebastian who he felt a brand new disgust for and kept going. 

An alarm went off. He knew it was for him but he kept running, keeping to the side halls. He could hear footsteps chasing behind him but he ignored them, concentrating on the fear that was leading him forwards and trying to send calming and soothing waves back saying I’m here, I remember, I’m sorry, I’m coming. 

He got to the blue door and jammed the key code in, running inside when it opened, right up to the void tank.

It was empty.

“No,” he muttered. “No no no no no, this can’t be happening.”

He could still feel KURT’s fear. It was strong and nearby. He looked around wildly. He hazarded a guess and ran over to the shadowy corner that Karofsky had come out of earlier that day. He felt around the walls, trying to find some exit as the pounding footsteps of guards entered into room. His palm hit something and a door was revealed. He slid it opened and entered it quietly, pressing it quickly closed. 

He took a deep breath and turned around. 

He was in some sort of large chamber, full of tanks containing liquid, it appeared. He walked steadily down the aisle, looking for KURT, trying to follow the thread of fear that was leading him.

“Hello Blaine.”

Blaine wheeled around and Karofsky was behind him, a light smile on his face. 

Blaine grabbed him by his collar and shoved him roughly against the nearest tank. “Where is he?”

Karofsky just looked mildly amused. “What, Ganymede?”

“His name is KURT!” Blaine yelled. “What have you done with him?”

“He’s in a special holding compartment right now,” Karofsky shrugged. “Where you can’t get to him so easily. Since you apparently worked everything out.”

“Sebastian,” Blaine said evenly. “He’s working for you, isn’t he?”

“Of course,” Karofsky replied. “We had to keep an eye on you. He was just the most convenient way.”

“He tipped you off when I stormed past him so that you could move KURT before I got here.”

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

“Out of your reach.”

Blaine took a deep breath. “Listen here, Karofsky. I’m going to—”

There were four large and bugging eyes right behind Karofsky.

Blaine let him go with a shout, stumbling backwards. 

Karofsky rolled his eyes. “Come now, Blaine. Manners. It’s just Joe.” 

Blaine looked in horror over Karofsky’s shoulder at the tank of fluids. There was a vaguely humanoid slightly spidery-looking…thing in it. It had four large chartreuse eyes staring out blankly.

“Or Arachneus, but that’s his formal name,” Karofsky shrugged. “Joe’s so much easier, don’t you think?”

“What…” Blaine stared. “What the hell is that?”

Karofsky raised his eyebrows. “Really? It’s an extraterrestrial. Being a science officer you should be able to recognize other forms of life.”

“An extraterrestrial?” Blaine stared. Then a cold sort of horror sank in as he looked around him. 

In each large tank of fluids was some sort of figure.

There had to be dozens of tanks.

“I know he looks a bit freaky, especially with the eyes. But don’t worry, he’s quite dead.”

“What’s going on here?” Blaine asked quietly, desperately not wanting to know the answer.

“Come now, Blaine. You’re the brightest of the bright. How do you think the Helios gets its income?”

“No,” Blaine shook his head. “There’s no way.”

“It’s the only way,” Karofsky said coldly. “There’s no funding for deep space exploration with the government. We had to get private investors. And their only demand was to play with the findings…”

“That’s sick,” Blaine said, horrified. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since Commander Madison Sr.” Karofsky idly drew shapes with his finger into the glass of Joe’s tank. “He came up with the idea.”

“So…for nearly fifteen years there’s been extraterrestrial discoveries that no one’s known about because they’ve been sold off to the highest bidder?” 

“Basically,” Karofsky said cooly. “Aw, Blaine. Did you think that you were the first one to discover extraterrestrial life? Sorry, you’re a bit late for that. You’re not even the first one to discover Ganymede.”

Blaine blinked. “What?” 

Karofsky smiled at him. It wasn’t a nice smile. “Twenty eight years ago, Captain Paul Karofsky found an extraterrestrial life form that looked like a “rainbow or kaleidoscope” on the edges of the Castor Quadrant. No one from the science board believed him or would fund any of his journeys. He was obsessed with proving it existed.” He let out a humorless laugh. “As you can imagine, it made for a really fun childhood, with your father always absent because he’s chasing after a pipe dream.”

Blaine opened his mouth then closed it. “Revenge.”

“What?”

“Before you shut off the psychic field, KURT yelled at me about how you wanted revenge on him for something. I didn’t understand it at the time.”

“He did?” Karofsky raised his eyebrows. “Good. At least we know he’s still somewhat intelligent. Not like the one behind you,” he nodded and Blaine turned around to see the shape of a young adolescent female with webbed hands and feet and an abundance of long silvery gold hair floating around. “She was returned because she kept speaking nonsense. Ganymede had me worried with his whole “You take my breath away” saying, but good to know he’s cognitive enough for the buyer.”

“KURT,” Blaine corrected distractedly because his focus was on the extraterrestrial in front of him who had just…blinked. “Oh my god,” he whispered. “She’s still alive.”

“Not for much longer. We usually get them back after they’ve died—part of the contract with the investors—for scientific research, but occasionally if one’s defective they’re sent back early.”

“Defective?” Blaine yelled, whirling around. “It’s an intelligent life form from a different galaxy!” 

Karofsky cringed, looking at the tank behind Blaine. “Not that intelligent. Echo—or Britt was her nick name—would say nonsense all the time. It annoyed the investors.”

“So you’re just leaving her here to die?” 

“Pretty much. She’s worthless.”

“She’s priceless!” 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Blaine looked around at the dozens upon dozens of tanks. “Everyone on the station knows?”

“All but three. Well, two now. We choose our replacements very selectively to ensure that they’ll agree with our methods. You, Lopez, and Fabray were all chosen for you ambition. But you had to go and form a close connection with an extraterrestrial and Lopez had to stick her nose in other peoples business. So you’re both being replaced.”

“Yeah, I noticed that Sebastian came to take Santana’s place,” Blaine glared. “Who’s taking mine?”

“Chandler Kiehl.”

The universe had a funny sense of humor.

“Great,” Blaine snarked. “But what happens to KURT?”

“Ganymede? Well he’s actually a special case. High profile and all that. Probably one of the most unique specimens. So he’s going to the commander.”

Of all the worst case scenarios that Blaine’s mind had come up with, this was one he hadn’t even considered. 

“Wait…” he breathed. “Commander Chase Madison Jr?”

Karofsky shrugged. “He put up the money.”

If Commander Chase Madison Sr. was a heartless bastard—and truly, Blaine was just learning the full extent of his heartlessness—then Commander Chase Madison Jr. was the utmost personification of a spoiled brat. He’d only gotten the title of commander because of his father and at the ripe age of twenty-nine, he spent excessive amounts of money buying various rarities and trinkets that quickly fell by the wayside once he’d found another.

“You can’t. You can’t give KURT to him, I won’t allow it!”

“You won’t allow it?” Karofsky snorted as he turned on his heel. “You’re not exactly in a position of power here, Anderson. The guards are already on their way. Enjoy your time in confinement.” 

Blaine usually prided himself on being extremely non-judgmental and exceedingly forgiving. But in that moment, there was nothing and no one he hated more than Captain David Karofsky. “Just tell me one thing, Karofsky.”

Karofsky turned back to him, an eyebrow raised. 

“Why did you disable my signal?” Blaine asked quietly. 

Karofsky laughed. “Anderson, I didn’t disable your signal.”

“You’re lying,” Blaine glared. “It had to be you. No one else would do it. Come on, you’re laying all your cards on the table now. So why did you do it? To get rid of me?”

“But why would I?” Karofsky shrugged. “You were tracking the entity that my father spent his entire life trying to find that would bring in enough money to this space station to keep it running for another decade. Why would I jeopardize any of that just to get rid of you? I needed you to find Ganymede first then I was planning on offering you a cut. Your signal was definitely tampered with Blaine, I can tell you that. But I can also honestly tell you that it wasn’t me.”

And then the guards entered the chamber and escorted Blaine out. 

***

Blaine and his ensemble drew many eyes as they walked past, most of them knowing. Blaine searched around, looking for…

There.

“Santana!” he hissed, twisting his arm out of the guards hold and running over to her. 

She looked at him in surprise, nearly dropping her papers.

“Come to my holding cell in an hour.”

“Anderson—”

“You owe me!”

The guard grabbed his arm and pulled him away. Blaine hope that that one time he’d helped her study for her astrophysics final in academy would inspire her enough to at least hear out what he had to say.

***

Apparently it did. 

Santana showed up at his holding cell two hours later, arms crossed. “Talk Anderson.”

“There’s not much time,” Blaine muttered. “You have to spring me out of here and then we have to set off the alarms, evacuate the ship, then crash it.”

Santana turned on her heel.

“Wait!” Blaine called out desperately. “Santana, you know that there’s been something strange going on. Something that no one will talk about, right?”

Santana paused, turning back to him. “Okay, fine. There has been. But what you’re talking about is suicide and why the hell would I do any of that anyways?”

Blaine leaned in closer to her. “Because I know of a reason that would make you want to.”

She stared at him. “I’m listening.”

“Go to the Spiral Section of the ship. There’s a dark blue door with a key code. Enter in yours and you’ll find yourself in a room with a void tank.”

“Void tanks are only a—”

“Trust me,” Blaine said urgently. “That’s not the part you need to be worried about. Go to the adjacent corner from the door and move you hands along the wall until a door appears. Slide it open and go inside.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Blaine nodded. “You’ll help me afterwards.”

Santana stared at him hard before nodding. “This better be good incentive, Anderson, otherwise you’re in trouble.” 

***

Blaine laid down to take a fast nap as he waited for Santana. Something was still bugging him. Karofsky’s words. The one’s about his connection being tampered with. They actually made sense.

This whole time he’d just assumed that it had to be Karofsky who’d tampered with his connection.

But now it made sense that he wasn’t.

So who had?

He groaned and turned on his side before reaching over to the personalized console and clicking for music. He smiled bittersweetly as he realized it was a Killers song, one of the ones he’d listened to a thousand times while floating in space.

He settled against his pillow. There was an odd comfort to the familiarity of the music. It helped him drift off to sleep. 

***

I did my best to notice when the call came down the line. Up to the platform of surrender I was brought, but I was kind.

***

Blaine was floating in the water, a rope tied tightly around his waist as he waited for the submarine to pull him back.

***

But sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door.

***

Santana cautiously slid the door open and walked into the vast chamber. She walked slowly, looking around, trying to—

She gasped when she saw a figure in one of the tanks. A girl. No, it wasn’t a girl. She glanced to the side and saw a plaque that said: ECHO (“Britt”). 

Britt looked up up at her and blinked, pushing a hand against the glass of the tank.

The cold chill of realization settled over Santana and she looked around wildly, wrenching a loose pipe off the wall and marching back over to the tank, hitting it repeatedly, desperately, until the glass broke.

Fluid splashed everywhere, drenching Santana and the whole floor as Britt slumped out, her long hair flowing everywhere. 

Santana rushed over to her, pulling her up in her lap and trying to clear her airways, but she was unsure of the physiology of it all.

“Hello,” Britt said quietly. Her mouth was much higher up than on humans. “Thank you. They put me in there because I couldn’t speak correctly.”

“There’s no such thing as not speaking correctly,” Santana said, horrified as she tried to tilt Britt every which way, completely at a loss of what to do. “I’m a linguistics major, trust me, I know.”

Britt blinked. It seemed to be her favorite pastime. “You don’t think I talk stupidly?”

“I think you talk beautifully,” Santana said, trying to tamp down her panic. “Now we need to get you out of here, Blaine will know what to do—”

“Blaine,” Britt smiled. “He was here earlier. He was like a cute little olive. He was talking about KURT, the rainbow boy.”

“KURT,” Santana muttered. “Okay, let’s—”

“4-7-8-5-Omega.”

“What?”

“4-7-8-5-Omega. You need to tell Blaine that code. He’ll need it later. That’s the one they were entering at least.”

“Okay,” Santana nodded, confused. “Let’s get you up.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m dead.”

Santana’s brow furrowed and she looked down.

Britt was dead in her arms.

She gave her a slight shake. “Britt?”

Silence.

***

Close your eyes.

Clear your heart.

…

…

…

…

Cut the chord.

***

Blaine snapped awake, tears in his eyes and a cold sweat drenching his body.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. He pawed frantically at the console, nearly crying with relief that he still had doctor contact because of his condition and called Quinn.

Ten minutes later she came into his dark holding cell and looked around. “Blaine?”

“It was amnesia,” Blaine said quietly from the corner, his eyes wet.

Quinn pulled her hand down from her chest. “Yes, Blaine. We went over this earlier yesterday. You blocked out nearly two year—”

“No!” Blaine said urgently, walking forward. “Not that. I mean, yes, that too, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now. No. It was the fifteen days.”

Quinn’s brow furrowed. “The fifteen days?”

“You’ve read my file, Quinn,” Blaine said impatiently as he paced back and forth. “After I lost connection with the Theseus, there were fifteen days that I lost.”

“Yes,” Quinn nodded. “Because you were unconscious.”

“I wasn’t.”

Quinn blinked. “What?”

“I wasn’t unconscious,” Blaine said, his voice barely above a whisper as he looked at her with haunted eyes. “It was amnesia. I made myself forget what happened because my body couldn’t take it.”

“Couldn’t take what?” Quinn said quietly, becoming very still.

“Knowing.” Blaine took a step forward. “All that time, I knew who had destroyed my connection to the Theseus but it was so horrible that I made myself forget.”

Quinn gazed at him, unsettled, and she looked almost scared as she asked her next question. “Who was it, Blaine?”

“You were wrong.”

She raised her eyebrows, blinking rapidly as she was thrown for a loop. “What?”

“About what you said regarding primates. The urge to jump just to test our own capabilities. But that’s too kind. It goes deeper than that, right to our bones. It’s not the urge to jump…”

Blaine breathed heavily in his suit as he punched in the code on the keypad console, ducking his head just to concentrate on the hull of the ship and nothing more. He leaned his head to turn on his emergency transmitter. “Captain! My ship has sustained damage from pursuing the entity. I’m attempting to repair the external damage now.”

“Leave it, Anderson.” Karofsky’s voice crackled back. “We’re locking onto your signal to transport you back to your ship.”

“Yes, Captain. I—”

There was thrumming vibration through the ship as suddenly the gravity on the ship magnified and Blaine flipped, his back smacking into his ship hard.

“Anderson, what was that?” Karofsky’s voice came over the com full of static. 

“The ship is deteriorating, Captain,” Blaine panted. “I only—”

“Just hang on, Anderson. We’re locking onto your signal right now.”

Blaine prepared himself for the transport, ensuring all of his systems could withstand the journey.

Then he blinked his eyes twice and really saw for the first time in his life.

Space. 

Complete and utter oblivion.

And it was so… 

 “Countdown in nine.”

Beautiful.

“Eight.”

And vast.

“Seven.”

And terrifying.

“Six.”

And perfect.

“Five.”

It was only there for extreme emergencies. Most of the astronauts had forgotten their sequences.

“Four.”

But Blaine hadn’t. “Violet-4-8-7-3-Epsilon-1-4-2”

“Password?”

“Three.”

The stars were so hauntingly beautiful.

“Two—”

“Endymion.”

And then Karofsky’s voice was gone. The static was gone. 

There was only silence as the stars swallowed him up.

“…it’s the urge to fall.”

***

Sometimes I wish for falling, wish for the release. Wish for falling through the air to give me some release. Because falling’s not the problem. When I’m falling I’m at peace. 

It’s only when I hit the ground it causes all the grief.

***

Quinn stared at him, tears in her eyes. “It was you.”

“Yes,” Blaine nodded.

“You severed your connection with the ship.”

“Yes.”

“But…Blaine, why?”

“I don’t even know,” Blaine half-laughed, half-cried. “And that’s what freaks me out the most. All I knew was that the complete and utter oblivion of the stars was beautiful and terrifying and I just felt the need to let myself be consumed with it all.”

“Blaine—”

The evacuation alarm went off.

Blaine and Quinn both looked at the ceiling at the white light which was the signal for them to get to escape pods.

The door opened and Santana walked in, soaking wet with a grim expression on her face. “Come on,” she said angrily. “Let’s blow this joint up.”

“Wait, what?” Quinn looked around in alarm. 

“We’ll fill you in on the way,” Blaine said as they rushed out, heading back towards the main hanger, lost in the hustle and bustle. He turned back to Santana. “I take it you found the chamber?”

“Yes,” she said curtly. 

“They’re using the extraterrestrials—”

“—for profit to fund more space exploration by selling them off to private investors, I know,” she said angrily. 

“What?” Quinn asked, outraged. 

“It’s true,” Blaine sighed. “Karofsky filled me in. Santana, how did you find out?”

“I hacked his files,” she said as they made their way to the engine room. “So what’s the plan, Anderson?”

“I’ll set the engines to explode in twenty minutes which will give everyone enough time to evacuate. Santana, please tell me you got a copy of Karofsky’s files.”

“Duh.”

“Good. Getting rid of the Helios will get rid of the main thoroughfair of extraterrestrial trafficking. It should give you two enough time to get back to Earth and exploit all of this.”

“What about you?” Quinn frowned. 

“I’m going to get KURT and there was another alien who was still alive, Britt—”

“Britt’s dead.”

Blaine paused. “What?”

“She died,” Santana said simply. “Right after I found her.”

“Oh,” Blaine said quietly. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine. Anyways, we need to get KURT out.”

“Yes,” Blaine nodded, snapping back into his plan. “I’ll set KURT free back into the Castor Quadrant and then I’ll meet you two back on Earth.”

“You two do know that we don’t have a hope in succeeding,” Quinn said. 

Santana shrugged. “Better than the alternative.”

***

Blaine wrenched the circuits open, reconfiguring them around so the engines failed. He rigged up the defense mechanisms on the panel and—when push came to shove—started pushing random buttons and levers. Something finally gave and set off his twenty minute timer. He ran. 

***

Quinn and Santana were already in place in their pod, set for Earth with the bare necessities as well as what appeared to be a large lumpy pile of blankets. 

“You have the files?”

“Yes,” Santana nodded, pressing her thin stylus to her chest. “And everyone else has evacuated.”

“Good,” Blaine nodded. “Wreak havoc. I’ll follow shortly.” He ran off.

“Wait, Blaine!” Blaine turned back. “4-7-8-5-Omega.”

“What?”

“4-7-8-5-Omega,” Santana yelled over at him. “Britt said you’d need to know it.”

Blaine nodded in thanks and they closed the hatch.

He ran to the Spiral Sector of the ship and pushed the blue door in, not even needing a code in the emergency. He slid open the secret door and skidded across all the fluids from Britt’s tank (he curiously noted that there was no Britt in sight before remember the odd pile of blankets in Santana and Quinn’s pod) before hitting the far wall. He ran his hands along it, searching, hoping…

Another wall slid away to reveal a door. But this one had a key code.

He entered in his. Then Quinn’s. Then Santana’s. 

Nothing.

Frowning, he entered 4-7-8-5-Omega.

The door slid open. 

It was like a smaller void tank. Much more box-shaped then the last. But it didn’t have those odd reflective walls. 

KURT was hovering in the middle of it, curled in on himself. 

Blaine ran over to the wall and punched in code to lift the psychic field. 

There was a soft snap and it gave way.

Blaine ran back to the tank. “KURT!” 

KURT’s head lifted as they were both bombarded with each other’s emotions, but then Blaine felt himself fill with KURT’s fear and dread.

Blaine! Behind you!

Blaine turned just in time for Karofsky to punch him clean across the face. Karofsky grabbed him and shoved him roughly into the glass of the void tank, punching him again and again and again and again—

“You’ve ruined everything! Everything my father worked for over somefucking freak alien!” 

There was a ringing in Blaine’s ears along with KURT’s screams. He tried to defend himself but Karofsky was relentless and darkness was creeping along the edges of his vision…

CRACK.

The sound smacked through the space station like a whip and both Karofsky and Blaine fell forward from the force of the void tank breaking. 

KURT stood there, in the shattered glass, body contorting oddly in the alien climate. 

Blaine could feel his discomfort and knew that KURT wouldn’t last longer than maybe fifteen minutes outside of a void without protection.

But KURT’s discomfort was quickly overtaken by anger. He took a shaky step forward. Then another. Then a third. It was almost eery how stilted and alien and terrifying it was too see him walking.

Karofsky stared at him before backing away slowly. He turned to run but then KURT was on top of him, contorting both of their bodies this way and that and there were screams and shouts and then there was a sick snap and a thump. 

***

June 13, 2391

Captain’s Log, Personal. 

The science board still doesn’t believe my claims of the entity I saw in deep space.

I’ve come to realize that this is a godsend. 

I don’t want others to find out about this creature. 

No doubt there are many of my race who’d like to exploit it for its uniqueness instead of just observing it in its natural habitat. 

This is not a creature that should be kept in a lab. It’s one that should enjoy the freedom of space.

So I’ve stopped pushing for missions to find the creature. I don’t want others discovering it. 

Instead, I will spend my own personal time trying to find it again and let it know that I mean it no harm. I merely wish to enjoy the wonder of its existence. 

One day I hope to take my boy, Dave, up here with me. I’ve told him multiple stories about the entity—about its speed and form and how it looks like a rainbow.

No, not a rainbow. Like a kaleidoscope. 

I’ll be looking for it. I hope I can find it again.

It truly is indescribably beautiful. 

Captain Paul Karofsky, prior captain of the S.S. Theseus. Current captain of the Tithonus.

***

The space station lurched and then there was a sense of almost free fall.

KURT turned back to Blaine. What was that?

Blaine smiled sadly. “The last of the escape pods.”

KURT did a once over of his mind. Blaine, no.

“Kurt—”

I already risked everything to save you once! You can’t just die now! 

“Kurt.” Blaine said calmly as the ground beneath their feet shook. “You need to get out of here. Get out of range. This whole place is going to blow.”

I can’t just leave you—

“Yes, you can. I’m the one who got you into this in the first place—”

You think I care about that? Blaine, I’d give up everything to save you a hundred times over! Don’t you understand what you mean to me?

Blaine stared at the odd silvery gray creature in front of him and shook his head. 

We’re linked, Blaine. I thought you knew.

Blaine’s brow furrowed. “We have a psychic link…”

Yes. A psychic link.

“I don’t under—”

But he did. It had just taken his mind too long to catch up. The clues had been there the whole time. 

KURT had said that psychic was the best word to describe their link. But Blaine had misinterpreted. KURT’s favorite tale was Cupid and Psyche. Or, directly translated, Love and Soul. The psychic field that Karofsky had created only worked on a mental level and didn’t fully block out all thoughts and emotions had free reign.

KURT hadn’t linked their minds.

He’d linked their souls. 

“When you told Karofsky that he took your breath away…” Blaine said slowly. “You were talking about me, weren’t you?”

Yes. Blaine…after I was exiled…I just assumed that there was no creature with whom I was destined to be. I thought I’d travel alone for the rest of my existence. I thought I’d never find someone like you. Then there you were. You strange odd little man. And you held out your hand to mine. And I took it. And we were linked. Simple as that. 

“KURT…”

You were my other half, Blaine, my spirit, my breath, my life. Like the myth about the humans split up, we just had to find each other. And you said that the gods would sometimes put people up in the stars so maybe they put me up here to make it harder but look, we still found each other in the end. 

“KURT.”

I—yes?

Blaine stepped forward and touched what appeared to be his cheek before leaning in and kissing him. 

It was like being struck by lightning and doused with ice water and being thrown into a fire, all at once. Blaine felt actual electricity shooting underneath his skin and burning in some places and tingling in others. He pulled back gently and stared into KURT’s eyes, which were once again a sea foam green-blue-silver swirl.

“I love you.”

I love you too. Which is why I’m not going to let you die.

***

They half-ran, half-flew to the repair deck, trying to find a model that could at least not collapse under the pressure of space. 

All of the ships were a bust. 

Except…one small ship that had recently been repaired.

“You got to be kidding me,” Blaine muttered. 

The Endymion sat in the hanger, looking as good as new.

Blaine clambered inside and started firing up the controls, KURT latching himself to the outside. He shot through the doors as part of the ceiling fell near them.

“Hey KURT. Want to know something funny about Endymion?”

Blaine do you really think this is the time for Greek myths?

Blaine stuck the tip of his tongue out of his mouth as he concentrated on navigating out of the space station. “Endymion has two meanings. The first, the Carian meaning, is the obvious one, it’s the personification of sleep.”

Blaine, look out!

Blaine flew around the falling piece of wall.

“And the other, the Greek, meaning sunset. It’s derived from two Greek words. The sun, and to fall. Helios, on the other hand, was the sun god. So in a way, we’re making the sun fall, like the name Endymion.”

He felt an emotional smile. I guess that is kind of cool.

“I knew you’d like it.”

And then they were out. KURT grabbed a hold of Endymion and flew it clear away from the space station, out of the blast zone.

***

It was quiet and calm and peaceful.

Just the two of them. 

Blaine moved to the front area of his small view screen, where there was just enough room in front of it for him to sit and stare at the stars. “I know nothing for certain,” he whispered. “But the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

Who said that?

Blaine smiled at KURT who float it up next to him, on the other side of the glass. “A painter named Vincent Van Gogh. One of his most famous paintings was of a starry night that looked remarkably similar to this…”

He gazed outside at the stars and galaxies that swirled and sparkled in yellow and blue. But it was nothing compared to the beauty of KURT in his natural habitat, all of his colors and vibrancies restored. 

So now what?

Blaine gazed at him sadly. “Now is goodbye.”

What?

“Small ships…they all have links to larger star ships and space stations. When those links are broken, like now because the Helios was destroyed…all ships automatically return to their place of origin in exactly an hour. There’s no override. It’s absolute.”

KURT stared at him.

Blaine licked his lips. “In forty-seven minutes, this ship will return to Earth.” 

I’ll go with you.

“No.”

I’ll hang onto the outer hull.

“You’ll be incinerated at the speed it’ll go at.”

I’ll just meet you there later—

“No! KURT, you know what they’ll do to you. Earth isn’t a safe place for you to be around. Maybe someday, but for now you need to stay away from humans as much as possible. And I need to go clean up the mess about the alien trafficking.”

Blaine, I can’t say goodbye to you, I’ll never say goodbye to you—

“KURT, you have to,” Blaine begged. “Please, will you promise something, for me?”

KURT was hesitant, but he nodded.

“Run,” Blaine whispered. “Run away and don’t ever look back.”

Blaine…

“Please.”

… Okay.

There wasn’t a whole lot of talking those last forty-six minutes. Lots of thought and emotions and each of them with their foreheads pressed against the glass. 

And star-gazing. 

You’d think they’d both be sick of it by then, but those last eight minutes were spent star-gazing. 

The last seconds were the hardest because KURT floated back a few feet from Endymion and Blaine sat back in his seat, buckling in. 

I love you.

“I love you too,” Blaine whispered. “Don’t worry, we’ll find each other again.”

And then there was a pull and the stars streaked by as he was sucked away from his true home and Endymion fell back down to earth. 

Epilogue - Across The Universe

“We are dancing in the hollow of nothingness.  We are one flesh, but separated like stars.”

-Henry Miller

***

Two years later

***

“Thrusters on standby.”

“All channels clear.”

“Engines at maximum.”

“Why am I always on the bridge?” Quinn rolled her eyes. “I’m a doctor.”

“We just like having you around, sweet cheeks,” Santana drawled from her communication board. “It’s nice to have something pretty to look at. 

“Now now, Santana. Play nice.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Captain Anderson.”

Blaine smiled wryly, waiting…

“…the Elder.”

Blaine just rolled his eyes and raked his hand through his silvery white hair that he’d been sporting ever since he had kissed KURT. “Tina, set the coordinates for the Pollux Quadrant.”

“Coordinates set, sir.”

“Excellent. Lieutenant Chang, take us out.” 

The S.S. Endymion paused briefly before shooting through the stars.

Their connection had been faint, but present. And more and more increasingly in the past few months, there’d been a thrumming repeatedly in Blaine’s chest and along the swirled starry burn on Blaine’s hand from where he’d touched KURT’s cheek.

Come find me, Endymion. 

Blaine smiled as the stars streamed by. 

I’m coming, KURT. 

***

When stars were entertaining June, 

We stood beneath an amber moon 

And softly murmured someday soon… 

We kissed and clung together 

Then - tomorrow was another day 

The morning found us miles away 

With still a million things to say. 

And now, when twilight dims the skies above 

Recalling thrills of our love 

There’s one thing I’m certain of… 

Return, I will…

***

The end.