The stumbling threesome made their way through the dim lit hall of the Enterprise.
"No, go this way" whispered the maiden, "to the reactors."
They pushed through the door to see the waiting Farkin. He stood beside the open emergency hatch holding a rope that had frozen from his fist to halfway down the length of it. They peered outside, took their first breath of Ternian air, and gauged the distance from the doorway to the rocking boat below them.
"I'll go first, then you can slide Boukay down to me, allright?" The Terran then grasped the frozen rope from the giant's hand.
Mandy waited, then edged the drowsy Boukay into the boat. She then turned and hugged her dear friend, just long enough to get a blue tinge to her skin, then she clambered down into the waiting craft.

It was sunset on Tern. The waters were swallowing the crimson orb as the three set off for shore. Mandy's eyes were damp as she muttered "Damn frostbite." Boukay was slowly waking up, and his nonsensical utterances about the melting only reminded her of her friend. She put her arm around him as the Terran rowed towards shore.

All along the coast, the Terran caught glimpses of faces in the trees. People rushing back and forth in the twilight, but he knew where he was going. He steered between two rocks in the gentle surf, and reached a secluded bay where the Terran beached the small boat, and went ashore.

As soon as his feet hit land, a great cry arose from the forest. All of the people hiding in the trees came to the water's edge. An old man in a green cloak grabbed the Terran in the biggest hug Mandy had ever seen, and lifted him off of his feet. Homecoming, indeed.

The Terran came back and helped Mandy get Boukay to his feet. The other Ternians swarmed around to help move the man to a clearing in the woods. A roaring fire was at the center of the clearing, surrounded by small tents to which the people slowly dispersed.

Mandy found a sturdy tree at the edge nearest the fire, and she leaned Boukay up against it. Finally his eyes were open, but he couldn't seem to focus. The light from the fire had him enraptured. Thinking he was a safe here as he was going to be, Mandy stood and looked around. Trees! Dirt! Flowers! She had the feeling she was still in dreams. The smell of the food on the fire took her to a small group of young Ternian women. The girls laughed, and poked and prodded her, finally dragging her off to one of the small tents. They traded her sari in favor of jerkins, and pulled the pins from her hair.

The Terran and his father sat at the base of the tree near Boukay. The other elders were close by in conference as well, immune to the laughter and smells coming from the fire. The Terran looked up to see one of the young ones poke Mandy, who squealed and ran after the child, catching him and spinning the giggling child in an arc over her shoulders. The Terran smiled to himself, and tried desperately to concentrate on the conversation before him.

The tribes had been gathered here in an effort to fight the evil in the sky above. The Elders brought their families to this clearing partly to band together, but also to keep the fighting as far from the library as possible. A few had been left behind to guard the sacred rooms, but the rest of the population was here to fight for their planet. And as the evening wore on, moonwater flowed, mock battles were engaged, and people sang until the twin moons rose into view. The elder called order, and told the people to rest for tomorrow. Slowly, a hush fell over the clearing, with only the pops and cracks from the fire to disrupt it.

The young Terran went to check on his friends, but only found Boukay resting blankly against the tree. He looked around for Mandy, but only found her when the sound of gentle snoring drew his gaze up into the tree itself. He laughed aloud to see her, draped across a branch, head resting on her folded arms. The girls had woven flowers into her unbound hair, and it draped down the bark and became intermingled with the leaves on Boukay's head. The jerkins, coupled with the quiver across her back, and the bow clenched in her fist, did Tern proud.

He bedded down under the tree with his friends, and was just about to close his eyes when a shadow crossed the sky. The three circles of the mouse head floated silently above the clearing. There was a small hum and a click, then the two ear pieces of the craft detached and moved away from their mother. The Terran heard a gasp in the tree above him, and he looked to follow Mandy's eyes just as the two ships eclipsed the twin moons of Tern.