Visiting Gaia Planet is a completely different experience from what happened when Koba and I went to Zephyrus. We’re flying low enough that I can see all of the green that covers Gaia. It’s nothing like Zephyrus. Nothing could grow there, it was such a dry, desolate, desert planet. Gaia, on the other hand, is full of lush greenery for as far as my eyes can see.

“What’s that?” I ask Koba as we fly toward his family home.

“What?” he asks. “The herd?”

“Yes, right down there.” I try pointing with my finger but I realize it’s futile with how far away we are. Still, it’s the only way I can draw attention to what I’m looking at. There’s a herd of animals scattering as we fly overhead and they’re making their way toward a cluster of trees.

“It’s a pack of Barralo. The hunters are out collecting meat to last them through the brutally cold winters. The Barralo are a good kill because they provide meat for an entire family as well as their fur for warmth. They move south in the winter so the hunters will be out now. I imagine that herd is on the run.”

“Barralo,” I say, testing the word on my tongue. “They look like agile dinosaurs.” Koba looks at me, confused by my words. Sometimes I still forget that he doesn’t know things that are unique to Earth. I’ve been with him long enough now that it feels so normal that sometimes I forget that we are very different from each other. “Dinosaurs lived on Earth a long time ago. Before humans. They were massive creatures. Fascinating to learn about.”

“Sounds fascinating,” Koba says. “Barralo are massive creatures. I’ve hunted them before and it takes an entire hunting party to bring down just one. You would look tiny standing next to one, you’re such a little thing anyway.”

“Hey,” I say, punching him in the arm for his teasing.

“You know I love everything about you, tininess and all.”

I laugh. He has certainly discovered his sense of humor over the last few months. The seriousness of his job has always been a weight on his shoulders, and I think I’ve been good for him. He’s able to leave his work behind him when he comes back to me. I know I make him happy. It has given me a lot of confidence in a world that is ultimately so strange for me. Slowly, I’m getting used to things and every day it feels more and more like home.

“What do you think your brothers will think of me?” I ask.

“They will love you. Considering they know nothing of humans, I would imagine they will be fascinated by you.”

Koba gets really quiet after I bring up his brothers and I know that he’s nervous. It has been a long time since he left and there’s a lot of worry that goes along with trying to mend broken relationships.

“How much further?” I ask, still fixated on looking out the windows at all of the sights below.

Koba looks at the controls in front of him. “It won’t be long now. There’s going to be a large body of water that we’ll fly over within the next few minutes. My parents’ land begins right after the water.”

“Sounds good.” The lands that we have already passed over did seem to be more like “out in the wild.” The animals roamed freely without any worry of the Gaians encroaching on their land. Now that we’re getting closer to Koba’s family home, there are more plots of land that look to be farmed. The soil is tilled and the seeds are planted. Homes are scattered long distances throughout the fields. “Is there a city at all or is everything more like these large plots of land that are farmed?”

“There is a city. It’s quite a long ways from out here, though. Once the fields have been harvested, families travel with their supplies into the city for a huge market. We buy and sell in preparation for the long winters. It’s a good two days of travel to get to the city from my family’s home. The trade is essential for survival, though. The winters are long and very cold. We have to survive on the food that we have stored to get us through. That’s why the growing seasons are so very important.”

“I’d love to see the city and the markets. It all sounds amazing. Hopefully your brothers will let us all stay for awhile.”

“Yes, let’s hope.”

And then, in front of us, the large body of water that Koba mentioned. There are tall, green stalks growing along the banks and animals drinking from the shallows. It’s quite massive, not at all what I pictured in my mind.

Koba starts pressing a few buttons and my stomach dips as we begin our descent. The ship is slowing down, heading for an open green field just past the water. Once we’re above the spot where he wants to land the ship, we stop moving forward all together. It’s like we’re idling in the air, waiting for a good parking spot to open up. And then the ship moves vertically until it rests gently on the ground. Koba flicks a few switches and kills the engine.

“Welcome home,” I say, clicking off my restraints. I look through the windows but we are still too far away from his home. Once I’m standing outside of the ship in the grass, I’m really struck by how beautiful this place is.

“It’s so beautiful, Koba.” He walks up behind me and grasps my hand.

“It is. For so many years I’ve only pictured it in my dreams. It was too painful to think about what happened to my family and our people because of the war. But being here now, it’s like all traces of the past are gone.”

He looks around while reminiscing and I can’t help but marvel at how much he means to me. It is a jolting experience to unexpectedly lose family. We have both experienced it and dealt with it in our own ways, but somehow the powers of the universe brought us together and now here we stand on Gaia Planet, mere miles from Koba’s childhood home.

We begin walking through the field toward his family’s home over the rise of the hill. The tall grass swishes against my legs, kicking up dust that tickles my nose and makes me sneeze. It’s in this moment that I have a strange feeling of deja vu, like I’m back on Earth, walking through the wheat fields behind the house where my mom and I lived when I was a young girl. The cows would wander right up to the wire fence on the edge of our property and eat tall sweet stalks of grass right from my hands.

“This place reminds me of Earth,” I say. “The green, the fields, even the warm climate.” It is pleasantly warm since we stepped off of the ship. Not the kind of sweltering heat that you’d feel in the summer on Earth but more like an early spring day when all of the birds are returning from their trip South for the winter.

“Then I would have liked Earth,” he says. “We are catching the weather at a good time. A few more weeks and winter will move in. I thought it would be nice to offer help getting the crops harvested and the pantries full before the snow falls and the ground freezes. If they want my help, that is.”

“They are your brothers, Koba. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be happy to see you. It is your guilt that has built all of this up in your mind. I’m sure they understand that you did what you had to do at the time in order to deal with what you lost.”

“You always do a good job easing my worries. How did I get so lucky to find you?” He stops and lifts me high off the ground, twirling me around.

“Ahh!” I yell as I close my eyes and try to keep from losing the contents of my stomach. “Koba, stop! Put me down.”

He obliges me and sets my feet firmly on the ground in front of him. “Sorry, it’s just that you fill me with such happiness.” He leans down and presses his soft lips to mine, stealing a kiss while my head still spins from his playfulness. He has a way with being firm with his kiss, and yet still soft and yielding against my lips. It is the kind of kiss that always leaves me wanting for more.

“If you keep that up, I’m going to take you right here in this field,” I say. “Imagine what would happen if your brothers found us like that. Then you’d really have some explaining to do.”

He chuckles and kisses me one more time before we continue our trek over the hill. “All joking aside, I really do hope things work out. It would be really nice to be able to bring the other women here so they can heal and re-establish a home.”

“I know. Lunis Station isn’t meant to be a forever home. On Gaia, however, the possibilities are endless. If it reminds you so much of Earth, the other women would probably really enjoy it here just as much.”

“You’re right. And I do have a good feeling about it.”

We reach the top of the hill that looks down over his family’s farm. The house that sits in the middle of it all is quaint, built with large bricks that make it look like it could withstand the strongest of storms and protect them through the coldest of winters. The crops are well kept, weeded and watered. Half of the fields are already harvested for the winter. As we watch, we see the first sign of life from the abrupt movement in the middle of the field. An animal shoots out, taking off full speed carrying something in its mouth. Just behind it, a tall bluish Gaian comes running after it.

“Get out of here!” he yells. “Go on!” He’s holding something in his hand that he winds up and chucks toward the tail of the retreating creature. It makes it safely away and the Gaian abandons the chase.

“Dazi,” I hear Koba whisper under his breath.

The wind takes his brother’s name from his lips and carries it across the field. He lifts his head and looks toward us standing on the hill. He’s too far away for me to see the expression on his face, but I hear his words when he yells toward the house: “Tudak, he is here! Koba has returned!”

The door to the house bursts open and another Gaian stands for a moment, looking at us.

“Go to them,” I tell Koba.

He takes off down the hill at the same time his brothers come running to meet him.