"I don't believe you're saying this!" Kreen looked outraged. "You're willing to strand us here for the rest of our lives?"

"Calm down, please," Morrus replied softly. "Can you see any other option?"

The ship was crippled. The pilot managed the emergency landing as well as he could but it wasn't enough. Half of the crew were dead. The rest, including Morrus and Kreen were recovering slowly and trying to assess the situation. It didn't look optimistic. Navigation, propulsion, communication, life support – all systems were damaged beyond repair. Kreen recommended sending a distress signal and wait for rescue.

"They will hear us and send another ship. Oh, the problem is it won't be you conducting the mission anymore but at least you'll be saving lives!"

"It's not about me commanding the mission, Kreen," Morrus sighed heavily, sitting in the hammock he'd just repaired. "I'm sorry you see it this way."

"Then what is it about?"

"We have really no idea about the Pouli technology. What if they intercept our signal and discover us first?" Kreen shook his head violently. His tousled, long fur waved around his head.

"We can't be certain!" He almost exclaimed. "We've got to try!"

"And risk the lives of the rest of the crew?" Morrus looked his first officer straight into the eyes. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"We've got to try," Kreen insisted.

"No. We'll try and gather as much data as possible first. If I'm convinced there's no danger from the local people then we'll try and contact the home world. Until then, our priority is to remain undiscovered. Send out teams to mask the hull from the outside and make the engineers look for ways to mask our energy outputs once we bring any systems online."

"Commander…"

"That's an order!"

* * *

"Woohoo!" Jake screamed while sliding down one of the pipes. The ride was fantastic. Taark took the children up in a lift and carefully picked their route down, checking it out on some monitor. It wasn't just a regular chute. They were facing a virtual labyrinth of them. Taark explained that this was the main way of transport on his planet. With their physiology, his people would have a hard time moving around level surfaces. They had space cars for long distance travel but all the transport within a city was conducted through the network of chutes.

Taark settled down on the top of one of the pipes and waved for the children to join him. They sat closely together because Taark would have to steer the whole group at each intersection. Once the children nestled tightly in Taark's arms, the ride begun.

* * *

"Who authorized this?"

"Commander, they're just children…" Taark was trying to explain.

Before the group reached Taark's house, the simulation ended and they were summoned to the command center – a building hidden in the forest, not far from the ship. Now they were standing in a room full of angry aliens. They were all bigger than Taark.

"Children or not, you had no permission to initiate contact with the Pouli!" The biggest of them all spoke harshly.

"We didn't do anything wrong!" Jake tried to protect their new alien friend. "And who are the Pouli?"

The cutworm whom Taark called 'Commander', took a careful look of the boy.

"You aren't Pouli?" He finally asked. Jake only shook his head, unsure what to say.

"We are humans," Anita stepped in. "That's how we call ourselves. My name is Anita and this is Jake," she proceeded quickly through the formal introductions. "Who are you?"

"I am Commander Maroth, in charge of this mission. What exactly have you been doing here?"

Before either of the children could reply, another alien entered the room and approached the stern Commander. He whispered something, probably to his ear. It was hard to tell, since all these creatures had fur all over their heads. The Commander looked at Taark and the pair of kids.

"What's a 'satellite'?"

After Jake explained everything he knew about NASA, NORAD and all the other stuff he'd heard of, Maroth accused:

"Now you've done it! For years we had managed to survive here, undiscovered, and now you bring these children who activate the distress signal! It was Commander Morrus' explicit order not to reveal ourselves to these people, human or Pouli!"

* * *

After the crash, the crew concentrated on survival first. Morrus saw to it that no contact was made with the local people. Kreen had tried to organize a mutiny but he never succeeded. The young commander decided he was fed up with his first officer's suggestions, leading from one disaster to another. Kreen was demoted first, then stripped of all the privileges, including the permission to have a family. He died in seclusion and his ideas with him.

The crew survived long enough to realize the Pouli were no threat to them. Unfortunately, before the decision was made to contact their home planet, a war broke out on the planet. The alien explorers once again decided to hide and wait.

A few generations had lived and died on that strange planet. They got used to living in the dark. The underground dwellings were now where most of them had been born. Much of the past had been forgotten. Only the basic order remained as a refrain to their whole existence, passed on from one generation to the next: "Let's not reveal ourselves to the Pouli."

Taark was one of the youngest children, obviously born underground. None of his contemporaries knew exactly how to operate the ship anymore. No one was concerned about exploring, either. What Taark did, was just a violation of a Sacred Word, left behind by their first leader. Maroth had a great responsibility on his shoulders now.