In the early morning light, the red eyed human sat up in his small bed, and looked out towards the purple sky. He stretched his arms above his head, and let out a yawn.

"Morning time…" He whispered to himself.

He swung his legs out of bed and rose, looking towards the electronic calendar on the screen. "The library should be open today. I wonder if I should go?"

Those red eyes looked towards the sky again, imagining the many planets that lay beyond the purple haze. "Maybe there I can find out more about Earth…"

It had been a few weeks since Deimos the human had awoken on the strange planet of Iscarmilas; With no name, no home, and no memories.

It hadn't taken him as long as he expected to adapt to living on the planet, likely because he didn't have anything to compare it to.

The shelter was a nice home. They provided some food, shelter, and a few pairs of clothes. Outside of that, they expected you to find the money to take care of yourself. Deimos thought that was fair, it helped encourage the many people in the shelter to leave and join the society.

Some people found jobs to help provide for themselves while permanently staying in the shelter, others went to the local school to try and become a true citizen so they could move out, and others saved up to buy and ship and leave.

Though jobs were hard to find, and money was sometimes tight, it never got too difficult. Everyone in the shelter, despite being from dozens of different planets, all did their best to take care of each other.

For some reason, Deimos had been surprised by this fact at first. He had awoken one day, having run out of his food, to find the others inviting him to sit and eat. He had tried to refuse, and explained that he couldn't pay them back.

"Eh?" A yellow colored alien named Belos exclaimed. "Who cares if you don't have the Nova to pay us? You're one of us, don't worry about it? We all look out for each other?"

The realization had warmed his fragile heart, and Deimos resolved to make sure he could do the same. He searched for odd jobs to help pay for new food or clothes, helped with chores, and listened to stories others told of their home planet.

Many of them had amazing stories, talking about planets where there was only desert, or floating continents, or even nothing but water. It was all amazing… But it also made him jealous.

It's not fair… He had sadly thought one day. I don't know anything about Earth. What was my planet like? What are other humans like? Who was I? Did I have friends? Family?

Deimos didn't know, and the empty state of his head tormented him every day. He wanted to know, he needed to know.

This desire for information pushed him to seek out Franklin, and ask him about what Earth was like. Unfortunately, the other human simply gave him a sad sigh and shook his head.

"I don't know much, kid." He admitted, rubbing his prosthetic arm. "I spent the first thirty five years of my life in the same town, doing the same job. Never went to a real school either, it was expected I would take over the family farm. I didn't really get to learn anything that wasn't about farming."

Deimos frowned, disappointed. "But you know so much about the space around Earth…"

Franklin looked sheepish. "Yeah, well the benefit of living in the middle of nowhere is that you get a beautiful view of the night sky. Astronomy was my guilty pleasure." He glanced around them, at the many other aliens gathered around the table, and laughed. "Guess it's good I liked it so much, huh?"

The quip gained a chuckle from many gathered at the table, and Deimos tried to laugh too but his heart wasn't in it. He had a weak chuckle, and then turned his red eyes downward sadly.

The old man noticed and stood up, clapping him on the back. "Deimos, hey… I know it's hard, but just because I don't have the answers doesn't mean the library or the Star System doesn't."

"But what if those don't?" Deimos looked up at him sadly, he knew he was acting childish, but he felt too upset to care.

Franklin sighed and shrugged. "Then they don't. But that's just a part of life. Sometimes it knocks you down. You just gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going."

Deimos eventually decided to take his fellow human's advice. He logged into one of the few computers in the Shelter, so he could explore the different sites and programs there.

Unfortunately, the only thing he found was the odd conspiracy theories, predictions for when Earth would contact the galactic system, and sites with fake facts that Franklin had angrily ranted about.

With no other option, Deimos decided to swallow his pride and search the Iscarmilas library. He had stalled a bit, who wouldn't? If there was no information there, he was out of options. But, on that early morning, it seemed as good a day as any.

He pulled on a dark purple jacket, blue undershirt, black pants, some black boots, grabbed his currency card, and headed down to the elevator.

As he waited for its arrival, he heard a happy humming from the side hallway. Turning his head, he caught sight of a purple skinned alien with long, feet length green hair skipping down the hall.

As her yellow eyes caught sight of him, she let out an excited gasp. "Mister Deimos!" She exclaimed, and hurried over to him. "Good morning!"

"Good morning, Lala." He greeted her with a smile.

The child adjusted the bag she was carrying, and bounced on her heels. "Are you going to the market today, too?"

The elevator rang, and the doors opened. Lala jumped in, while Deimos followed slowly after.

"Maybe later. I'm going to the library today. I want to see if there are any archives on Earth, my home planet." He pressed the button to the lobby.

Lala made an excited noise. "Wow! Do you think they will?"

Deimos knew in his head what the answer would be, but his heart answered for him instead. "Well, I hope there is!"

The little girl smiled, showing off her sharp teeth, and then looked up at the elevator buttons. "Maybe me and my brother should go too. Maybe they have stories about Padlantis, or our Papa!"

Deimos kept his face schooled, despite the sadness in his heart. "Yeah… Maybe it does!"

He felt a little guilty lying to the little girl, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything honest. Out of everyone in the Shelter, he found Lala and her twin brother Lozo's story to be the most tragic.

They were young, only seven years old on their planet when they had decided to search for a special plant to make their father's favorite stew. While they were out, the twins had been abducted and trapped in a lab for weeks before they were rescued and brought to the Shelter on Iscarmilas.

Deimos knew the logic behind the no-contact planet rule, and why they couldn't go back to their home planets. He understood that it was safer for all planets if they waited for planets to make peaceful contact with the Galactic System, and go through the hoops to join the other contacted planets. It was to avoid war, and keep all planets protected…

But then he looked at Lala and Lozo, and he couldn't help but hate the rule. How was it fair to them? They were just kids, and now they had been ripped away from their family on a planet they didn't know. All the adults made sure to look out for the twins, but what if they hadn't? Then they would be two orphaned kids fending for themselves.

He wished they could just take them back to their planet, drop them off with their family and leave before anyone noticed the space ship. But the Galactic System would never do that, and so they all did the next best thing, and did their best to help the kids have a stable home.

The red eyed human was jolted out of his thoughts as the elevator door dinged again, and let them into the lobby. He walked out with Lala, and turned to smile at the child again. "So, what are you planning to do at the market?"

"I'm gonna sell some drawings!" Lala eagerly answered, opening her bag to show him her paper and paints. "Lozo isn't feeling well, so I wanna get some Nova and buy him a toy he liked! It was a toy rocket ship that really flies!"

Deimos chuckled. "Really? Well, save a paper for me, okay? Once I'm done in the library, I'll buy a drawing too!"

Lala's eyes sparkled in hopeful awe. "Really? You really, really will?"

"Of course!" Deimos held the door open for the girl. "I don't have any decorations in my room yet, what better to start with than some lovely paintings from Lala the artist?"

Lala let out a bashful giggle as her cheeks flushed, hugging her backpack close. After getting over her shyness, she gave him a nod. "Okay! I will!" She slung her bag over her shoulder, and took off down the sidewalk. After a few feet, she turned around and gave a large wave. "See you later, Mister Deimos!"

Deimos waved back and then turned in the opposite direction. If he wanted to get to the market in time, he needed to head to the library right away.


The library was hard to miss. It was a large spire in the city, with many circular rings around it that grew smaller along with the width of the building. Deimos thought the architecture was odd, but most of the Iscarmilas buildings looked similar.

As he stepped inside, he walked through some scanners at the front, and up to a Iscarmilian woman sitting at the front desk. She stared at a computer in front of her, her gaze not moving for nearly a minute before she noticed someone awkwardly waiting at the desk.

"Uh… Hello…" Deimos awkwardly began. How did this work? How do I check in? Damn, I should have asked someone!

Her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down, curled her lip slightly, and then typed on her computer.

"Name?"

"Deimos…" He paused, before recalling how last names worked in the Galactic System. "My name is Deimos Earthborn"

Her expression looked even more annoyed. "I see…" She sighed and typed something on the screen. "It will be thirty Nova for the day pass."

The human frowned, as he turned his eyes to look down at the sign on the desk and reread what it said just to make sure he hadn't been mistaken. "But the sign here says that it is fifteen Nova."

Her eyes narrowed and her frown deepened. "That is the price for Iscarmilians."

What? Deimos frowned, caught off guard by the hostility. He was so stunned he couldn't argue with her, handing over the currency card which she snatched and scanned without saying anything. Then, she reached down and grabbed a metal strip, handing it to him.

"Use this to download an archive to read. You can only download one at once. When you finish one, put it in the slot again to remove the archive, and then you can download another." She sent him a glare. "Return this by the end of your visit, don't try to steal it or the scanners will know."

Do you tell that last part to everyone who comes through here, or just people like me? Deimos wondered, but thought it best to not say these thoughts aloud. He accepted the metal strip, and hurried into the further interior of the library before she could say anything else.

For a while, all he could do was wander around the library. It was huge, much bigger than it looked on the outside. The floors were a gentle blue, with large windows to show off the purple sky outside. The large square hard drives of data that were set around were a gray-white color that complimented the carpet, and several had slots which you could put the metal strip in.

Each slot was an archive, and each was labeled to show what they were. The first floor was mostly related to the Iscarmilas History and their relations with other planets, so Deimos moved on to the next floor, and then the next after that.

With every floor that the human climbed, the more varied the topics he could find became. It went from being one floor about a broad topic, to every shelf having a few or only one slot from which he could download an archive.

Higher and higher he went, until one of the last floors. There, he found a shelf dedicated to no-contact planets. Deimos froze, and reread the label again to confirm it was what he thought. Hope fluttered in his chest, maybe there was really something on Earth.

Deimos hurried over to the shelf, his hand running over each carved label. Several planet names he didn't recognize, over and over until…He stopped and read the label. Yes! There it was! A slot that was labeled Earth!

Taking the metal strip, he pressed it into the slot which closed quickly. There was a whirring noise, and the light by the slot glowed green with a happy chime. Once it finished downloading, the metal strip returned.

He hurried to a nearby table, and set the strip down. With a press of the button on the edge, a holographic screen appeared, displaying all the information from the archive he had downloaded.

But, as soon as the screen was fully displayed, he found himself confused. "Huh…?" His glowing red eyes scanned the holographic screen, all the way to where the text stopped halfway down. He read it once, twice, waiting for something else to change, but nothing did.

The information on Earth didn't even fill one damn page!

All the archive stated was the things Deimos already knew. Planet Earth was inhabited by humans and many animal species, was mostly covered in water, and had not yet contacted the Galactic System in a way that could change their status as a no contact planet.

At the end of the already-known info was a note by the writer that he read aloud. "As is custom for no-contact planets, the information we have is what has been observed from outside the planet and that is all that can be officially reported until contact is made. Expect this information to expand or change when Earth joins the Galactic System, and researchers are allowed to go and examine the planet"

Deimos shuddered, and wrapped his arms around himself. "So… Unless Earth makes contact with the Galactic System anytime soon… This is all they have…" He let out a shaky sigh, and lowered his head. "I'm never going to learn about Earth, am I?"

Then, a pessimistic thought pushed its way into his head. Why do I even care? I can't even remember my own name… He sighed. What if I went to Earth and… And nobody missed me? What if nobody cared that I was taken?

He turned his head, looking at the dark purple clouds outside. "Is anyone out there…?" He asked the universe. "Has anyone noticed I'm gone? Do you wonder where I am? Or… Or am I alone in the universe?"

His red eyes landed on the holo-screen as he sighed. "I guess… Unless Earth makes contact… I'll never know for sure…"

Deimos pressed the button to turn off the screen and then just sat there for a minute. His curious side, which wanted to see all the library offered, was now drowned by his own sadness and disappointment. His desire for information had been painfully quenched for the day, now he just wanted to go back to the Shelter, and lay in bed until the pain was gone.