Ch.1Return!

Dexter, still on his knees, instinctively raised his hands and placed them behind his head.

“Lower your weapon.”

“But—”

“For goodness’ sake. I said lower it.”

The man in the suit who had snapped at the National Guard slowly walked toward Dexter.

He tucked his sunglasses into his front pocket as he spoke.

“Scan him.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah, not you, sir.”

The suited man shook his head, maintaining a stern expression.

Another man beside him began examining Dexter with a silver device about the size of his palm.

“Um, how long do I have to stay on my knees…?”

“Shh.”

‘Who does he think he is?’

The man, oblivious to Dexter’s inner irritation, began carefully inspecting Dexter’s body.

“Didn’t you receive the transmission?”

“What? What transmission?”

“…”

The man fell silent at Dexter’s clueless response.

A few minutes later, the silver device that had been making sounds like a Geiger counter went quiet, and the man looking at it nodded.

“Director, he’s confirmed to be human.”

“Ah, I apologize for the misunderstanding.”

The man’s previously rigid expression had vanished, replaced by a smile as he extended his hand toward Dexter.

Bewildered by the sudden change in demeanor, Dexter awkwardly shook the man’s hand.

“Welcome back to Earth. Why don’t we talk in our vehicle?”

“What? Oh, yes.”

Dexter found himself nodding and following the man into a black sedan.

As the car started moving, Dexter looked out the window at his spaceship growing smaller in the distance.

National Guard members and men in black suits were still guarding the area around his spacecraft.

“Don’t worry about your ship. Our agents will keep it secure.”

“Agents?”

When Dexter spoke in a tone suggesting he had no idea what the man meant, the agent replied somewhat awkwardly.

“Ah, I realize we haven’t introduced ourselves. We’re from the OSA.”

Seeing that Dexter still looked confused, the agent hesitated before speaking.

“You… don’t know who we are?”

“Not at all. Is that a government department?”

The agent couldn’t comprehend Dexter’s ignorance.

“I suppose he might not know.”

The agent driving the car shrugged and continued.

“We’re agents from the Outland Security Agency. Our division specifically handles Earth entry and exit management.”

Dexter nodded with curiosity.

“So you’re like an immigration office at an airport, but on a global scale?”

“You catch on quickly.”

Now Dexter understood why the agents had been looking at him strangely.

It would seem odd that an Earth human returning from space wouldn’t even know about the existence of the Outland Security Agency.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t leave officially. I was abducted by a space freighter when I was 15.”

“Abducted?”

“Well, ‘abducted’ might not be the right word. I was playing near a river and accidentally touched what turned out to be a distress beacon. Next thing I knew, I was transported to a space freighter.”

Dexter scratched the back of his head as he explained.

“One of the freighter’s obligations is to rescue people in distress. So when a distress beacon is activated, it automatically transports the person to the nearest freighter.”

The agent listening to this story showed clear signs of dismay and closed his eyes tightly.

Dexter had no idea why the agent was reacting this way.

“That’s… seriously bad luck.”

When the driving agent spoke, the agent sitting next to Dexter opened his eyes and exclaimed with a grimace.

“Jake!”

“What? It is seriously unlucky. How many cases have there been of distress beacons activating on Earth?”

“That may be true, but is that an appropriate thing to say to a victim?”

“It’s fine. It was bad luck.”

Dexter said with a slight smile.

“It’s hard to blame the freighter, right? Can’t really fault anyone. So I worked on the freighter for a while, even got captured by space pirates at one point.”

“Wow, really…”

“Stop saying it’s bad luck, Jake. Mr. Hughes, you’ve been through a lot.”

Dexter briefly explained what had happened afterward, and both agents sighed deeply in unison.

“Well, now we know what happens when you go to space without a penny to your name.”

Ignoring the still tactless Agent Jake, the senior agent patted Dexter’s shoulder and said:

“We’ll hear the details tomorrow. For now, I think you should get some rest.”

Instead of answering, Dexter nodded as he noticed the surroundings gradually brightening.

Turning toward the window, he saw dazzling lights coloring the night sky.

“We’re approaching the Strip.”

The Strip.

The most famous and glamorous area in Las Vegas, the gambling city filled with hotels and casinos.

After passing the diamond-shaped sign that read ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas,’ Dexter noticed replicas of famous world landmarks and flashing billboards.

His eyes widened at his first glimpse of Las Vegas, a place he had only heard about.

“So I landed in Nevada?”

Though Dexter had traveled throughout space for 15 years, on Earth he had been just a small-town boy from Boston.

Hearing the excitement in Dexter’s voice, the senior agent asked:

“You didn’t know?”

“I just looked for an empty spot near a city and landed there.”

His answer clearly showed how unprepared his arrival had been.

“That explains it. The control center kept trying to get you to match frequencies, but you never did.”

Thanks to that, the OSA had scrambled with the National Guard for an emergency response.

“Oh, was that what it was? My computer was giving warning sounds about some private communication.”

“That was probably it.”

The spacecraft had picked up the emergency communication frequency from the control center and alerted Dexter.

However, caught up in the feeling of homecoming, he had simply ignored the alert notifications from his ship.

The ground team had done everything possible to contact Dexter.

At least the OSA agents couldn’t be blamed for inadequate handling of the situation.

After passing through the bright and flashy Strip, ordinary and quiet streets came into view.

“Normally, Mr. Hughes, you would be classified as an unauthorized and unidentified entrant—an illegal entrant—and would be detained.”

Dexter quickly anticipated what was coming next.

“But you’re not going to detain me.”

“Correct. In fact, since our federal government failed to protect you, you’re considered a victim. You’ll be staying at OSA-supported accommodations for the time being under the pretext of protective surveillance.”

“Oh, really?”

Dexter, who had thought he would be inevitably detained because of the sudden appearance of the National Guard and OSA agents, breathed an inward sigh of relief.

The six-lane road was quiet, with only the occasional long trailer truck passing by and few other vehicles in sight.

Unlike his memories of Boston with its densely packed warm brick houses, the area around Clark County beyond the Strip showed scattered buildings with a sandy hue.

“This is toward Nellis Air Force Base, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

‘Surely the accommodations aren’t on the air force base?’

Contrary to Dexter’s concerns, it appeared to be literally a lodging facility near Nellis Air Force Base.

A three-story building with a deep yellow color appeared, along with a glowing sign that read “Giving Day Inn Express.”

“Here we are.”

Dexter and the two agents got out of the car and entered the motel.

Everything seemed to have been arranged in advance, as the front desk clerk handed over a key card without saying anything more than necessary, then quietly disappeared after showing them to the room.

Upon entering the room, it wasn’t much different from what one would expect of a typical motel room.

It had beige-toned wallpaper giving an overall cozy feeling, a TV, microwave, mini-fridge, and a king-size bed.

“I’ll inform headquarters that Mr. Hughes has arrived at the accommodations.”

As Agent Jake went outside to make the report call, the senior agent spoke instead.

“If you need anything, please use room service. Even small things are fine. We’ll cover the expenses.”

The senior agent was explaining that they would provide underwear and clothes by early morning when they were interrupted.

“Um, senior.”

“What?”

“You need to take this call. It’s from upstairs.”

“I’m in the middle of explaining something. Later.”

“No, sir. If you don’t take it now, they said they’ll shove your shoes up your—”

‘Whoever it is, do they kiss their wife with that mouth?’

While Dexter was dumbfounded, the two agents went outside to take the call.

Curious about the call, Dexter put his ear to the door and began to hear some rather interesting sounds.

-That was 15 years ago. It’s not my fault! Commissioner Charleston, who was my supervisor at the time… Wait, why are you blaming me for this? Didn’t I say that crashed spaceships need to be processed within 10 minutes? Whose fault is it that the beacon drifted away?

-Senior, Mr. Hughes might hear us.

-I clearly suggested at the time that we needed to recover it as quickly as possible, that there was a risk of losing parts of the hull because the river was rising due to heavy rain. And what happened? Wasn’t the distress beacon lost? And now you’re blaming me, the field agent? Just because you got promoted by sucking the Chairman’s—

-Senior! Your voice is too loud!

“…”

Dexter could understand the gist of the conversation from the senior agent’s call.

“Just a simple mistake? That’s the reason I suffered for 15 years?”

Suddenly feeling a surge of anger, Dexter slumped down on the bed.

“What the hell is this nonsense?”

Dexter was so dumbfounded that he could barely speak.

“Um, Mr. Hughes. We need to get going now.”

The door opened slightly, and Agent Jake peeked his head in.

With his anger still evident, Dexter merely nodded without much reaction, so Agent Jake took out a business card and placed it on the table.

“Please contact us if anything comes up.”

Barely acknowledging Agent Jake’s farewell, Dexter was alone again.

“Huh. What is all this?”

Dexter looked at the digital clock in the room.

11:30 PM.

Only about two hours had passed since he landed.

The facts rapidly revealed by the two OSA agents, their unfiltered true feelings, and the shock of seeing soldiers—all of it was swirling in Dexter’s head.

He felt like his mind was being sucked into a void.

Moreover, the joy of returning home after 15 years mixed with the fact that he had spent 15 years in space due to the OSA’s mistake left him unsure of what emotion to express.

Too many things had happened at once.

His directionless anger gradually subsided, replaced by a sense of emptiness.

“Ah… I don’t know. I’ll think about it after I sleep.”

Dexter lay down on the soft bed, ready to burrow into it as he tried to fall asleep.

‘Wait, what about my spaceship?’

His new spacecraft, not even a month old.

‘Surely government officials wouldn’t just abandon my spaceship.’

Dexter buried his face in the pillow and surrendered to the waves of sleep washing over him.