After being forcibly exiled from his home, a mercenary alien wakes from stasis on a planet unlike any he's seen. Lost and far from home, he tries to focus on the trustworthiness of his apparent rescuers. Still reeling from recent events, he finds focusing on much of anything difficult.

This short story is an alternate look at Aether's arrival on Earth in NHEverland, and is a companion piece to the main NHEverland story. It was originally written for a short story class during Fall 2017.