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THE SEARCH 

    Yohan looked up at the ceiling of his motel room.  Sleep eluded him again.  It was already well past midnight but he couldn't get his mind off of thoughts of home.  He had adapted to life on this planet but the old yearnings had never been stilled.
    Originally, the team he was a part of was assigned to sweep through the different societies on this backwater planet and evaluate whether or not the inhabitants were making progress toward an eventual change in the planet's status.  Usually a planet was opened only after they had achieved sustained space flight.  In some cases where the society could accept the changes that came with discovery of the Axia by their explorers, the Watcher service had to reconsider their approach.  
Now it was deemed wiser to closely monitor a society well before it reached the point of sustained space travel.  Helping a planet mature faster with little nudges was also becoming standard practice.  
    Being part of an evaluation team was a rare treat, and Yohan had joined eagerly.  He was especially thankful for the support of his wife as the assignment would entail months and often years of separation.  Months of intense training followed his acceptance for the assignment during which he both learned the crude languages and studied their cultures.    
    The awaited day finally arrived when the team had been secreted onto the planet and took up their reporting.  Yohan found the multi-cultural society he was studying both intriguing and at the same time repulsive.  How the natives could survive and even prosper with such cultural restrains was beyond him.  
    All too soon his time on the surface ended and he made his way to his assigned pick-up point.  Yohan was looking forward to getting back among civilized people.  He was also looking forward to seeing his family again.
    It had been a shock to see the shuttle that was to transport him off of this backward planet suddenly attacked as it came in to the pick-up point.  The shuttle pilot abandoned his landing approach and desperately tried to escape the attacking fighter planes.  Yohan watched in horror as several missiles hit the shuttle causing severe damage through its weakening repulsion field.
    The shuttle was out of sight over a hill when he heard the impact explosion.  Military aircraft of nearly every description seemed to descend on the crash site.  The surrounding countryside lit up bright as day when subsequent explosions rocked the area.  Yohan couldn’t be sure if the explosions were caused by the failure of the shuttle’s internal systems, or if the barbaric pilots had launched more missiles at the downed spacecraft.  He could hear the sound of rapidly firing weapons being discharged. He knew it was time to abandon his position and await further instructions.
    Using his original cover story as a visiting linguistics professor, Yohan buried himself deeper into this alien culture.  He feared discovery by their military or covert governmental agencies so he disposed of any evidence that he was an Axia citizen.  Thanks in part to the cumbersome bureaucracy of the educational system, Yohan was able to remain undetected while he fleshed out his original cover identity.
    Since Yohan had linguistic skills, it seemed quite natural to pass himself off as a visiting language professor when he first landed on Sol-3.  Everyone seemed to accept his bogus identity papers and didn't bat an eye at his obvious accent.  So Yohan Nashar, language and mechanical linguistics professor, became a bonified reality.
    It was during the process of creating a false past that would bear scrutiny that Yohan ran across the details of the shuttle crash.  All aboard had apparently perished in the explosion.  Their bodies, along with the remains of the shuttle, were taken away to some secret military installation in the southwestern section of the country.  After that, Yohan didn't hear any more news about the incident other than the fanciful fiction portrayed in the supermarket tabloids.
    Yohan continued to play the part of a visiting language professor while he waited to be rescued.  The university that he had originally been visiting was glad to have him become part of their language department.  By a strange twist of fate, Yohan found himself part of a research team trying to develop a universal language with which they hoped to communicate with alien space cultures.  
    During the intervening years, Yohan's thoughts rarely left the dream of returning to the Axia.  He tried several times to signal the Watcher ships he hoped were still observing this backward planet.  Unfortunately, his cover now proved to be a hindrance.  Try as he might, Yohan couldn't gain access to the equipment he needed to build a signaling device that could alert a Watcher ship.  He was also unaware that the Watcher service had listed him and the rest of the Watcher team killed in action and had temporarily abandoned service over Sol-3 after the barbaric attack on the shuttlecraft.
    Finally, after a couple of years he realized that he was on his own.  The emotional blow that came with this realization was almost more than he could bear.  Lost to him now was the life he had always known.  Also lost were his beautiful wife and the two young boys that brought him so much pride.  All Yohan could do now was wait and hope to be able to contact any Watcher personnel that might be working on the planet.  Yohan knew that it was a long shot but it was the only viable hope he had.
    Rolling out of bed, Yohan got up and crossed the room to the small refrigerator to get himself a snack.  He didn't dare drink anything that might numb the emptiness he felt.  He and Pete had to fly again tomorrow.  He put his robe around him and opened the curtains.  He sat down with his snack where he could look out the window.  A single tear rolled down his cheek while he sat staring into the clear, starry night.

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