Chapter 02: A Boy

 

The moon shines brightly up there in the sky, no clouds to cover the bright moonlight coming down to the ground.

A boy around the age of six to seven years old look at the moon while leaning onto a pole of light.

‘A moon. How very similar’ he seems to think to himself.

His face shows a contorted expression. His breathing is hard and he is sweating profusely all over his body, shivering.

He looks at the light above his head

It is a street light and it is flickering like it is about to die. A few kilometers from him is a great fire that ravages a corn field, the heat could be felt even from this distance

He looks at the fire in the distance. He shakes his head a bit like he is trying to shakes off the dizziness.

‘hah, hah, hah’ he panted. Every word, every move, every breath seems to pain him. Dripping from the side of his right rib is blood, a wound on his skin

Like the ticking sound of a clock, it falls every few seconds. There is a trail of blood from the corn field to this street light

The boy looks at his rib and he frowned.

‘This is a problem’ he thought to himself

There is something stuck onto it.

A sharp steel now drenched with his blood

‘I keep bleeding out. I could not lose more blood’ this young kid is very sensible for his age and he doesn't even seem to flinch seeing such an injury on himself.

He then looks at it and with a determination in his eyes, his hand went to the steel.

He then holds that bar of steel that is stuck on his rib and then without hesitation, he pulls it.

Shrrit!

The sound of something tearing could be heard.

He gritted his teeth as the pain jolted his entire being

Blood spurted out from that wound. More blood flows down from his rib. If before it was like a leaking pipe, this time it was like someone had turn on the faucet

This boy is losing blood and he is losing it fast

His breathing become faster and more labored.

His entire face pales.

And his hand and feet is trembling. The pain itself threatened to make him pass out but he held on

He knows that if something is stuck to his body, the wise thing to do is not to pull it out. But, he is in a foreign territory and he must keep walking.

And he has other more effective method

‘I could not fall here like this’ he thought to himself. He remembers he still have that thing. He scrambles around his torn up suit and then he found it

He brought out a pill from one of his pocket. There is a smile on his face, though it is distorted a bit, with all the pain that he is feeling right now.

‘I think I could still use it’

He then throws the pill into his mouth and began chewing it like one would chew a gum. Not before long, the entire pill is crushed in his mouth.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and then he felt energy coursing all over his body

The blood that was profusely bleeding from the wound slowly drizzles down instead of spurting out.

And then the bleeding stopped.

The kid looks at the area of the wound and he could see that the area of the wound closes itself, the speed is visible to the naked eye.

‘Hah. It still works. I guess it does survive the journey’ he felt a little bit relived. Even the wounds that is around his feet is closing itself and he no longer felt fatigue.

But the clouds are full of smokes from the nearby fire and he coughed up a bit.

‘If not for that pill, I would lose a lot of blood’ he thought to himself. This boy did not act like a normal boy.

And the action he did is not ordinary at all. Even more so for the things that he possesses. None of it seems ordinary.

His body had just been punctured by a sharp steel. Such injury would usually kill a person this young.

Not to mention his determination to pull that steel out even at the cost of such pain

Yet, he did not hesitate and pull it out. And then there is the pill. There are too many things that is extraordinary about this young boy.

However, today seems to be a day for extraordinariness. Meteors falls from the sky, great disaster that fills the Earth and then there is this boy

The young boy takes a deep breath

‘I really could breathe in this planet’ he muttered to himself. This word alone seems to point to a very terrifying conclusion.

His head is still dizzy from all the information that is downloaded into his mind just a few minutes ago.

And then there is that explosion of a factory that sends everything flying.

He did not know what that is. The closest thing that came to his mind was a factory like the ones he used to see when he would follow his father to one of his factory offworld.  

And he is still a child. But, he did not act like one.

He got up and look at the light above his head.

‘What is this?’ his eyes trying to understand what this thing is. He leans on it before and he never thought much of it because he was in pain

Now, that he is no longer in pain, he could finally take a look around his surroundings. He touches the metal pole

Then he looks in front of him and found the place where he is leaning is beside a road.

But the road is partially tarred and most of of them are red mud.

Then he looks at the corn field not far away from him and saw the fire. And the fire is spreading and his frown become deeper.

Up there in the sky, there is thousands of trails of meteor shower falling down to Earth.

However, this young child did not seem to care about those meteors and instead cares more about the light on top of his head

‘Primitive technology of a primitive civilization’ he thought to himself

‘Though, probably because they are primitive, it is easier’ the boy remembers that when he was about to come to the atmosphere of this planet, he seems to pass through something that resembles a space probe.

But the space probe is too…. outdated. His spaceship could easily shield itself from such a primitive surveillance technology

He sighed.

‘there is too many things I don’t know’ he could see that everything in in chaos right now.

His mind quickly thinks of countermeasures. In chaos, his arrival here could be covered up. That is the advantage of the chaos.

He steadied himself. Then he sighed

‘That was the last of it’ he mutters.

That pill is the last of the nano-healing pills that he has. he did not have much time to store many things when he departed.

He looks around in the darkness and then he decided that he want to go to the corn field on the other side of the road

So, he started walking. It felt weird for a moment because it has been quite some time since he walks.

It takes a little time for him to get used to stepping on solid ground. But it did not take long for him as he quickly familiarizes himself with it

This seven-year-old kid had a different kind of outfit compared to the people of this place.

Even though he doesn't know what these people of this place wears, he is quite sure that they would not wear the same thing like he did.

He needs more information if he were to blend in.

He keeps walking in the corn field.  

but then he stopped. In the darkness of the night it hard to even see him. And even he could not see the path in front of him

But he keeps walking forward. He knew that staying near the road could get him recognized. So, he quickly jumps toward the side of the road and enter the corn field

He keeps walking forward but he actually doesn't know where to go.

So, he stopped for a while and then there is tears on his face. Memories of days’ past is still vivid and as clear as it was yesterday

‘Mother. Father’ For a moment, he stands there…...transfixed. The tears fall and then he quickly wipes it out

Once again, there is determination in his eyes.

‘I need to lose the suit. But first, I need to know how to blend in’ he thought to himself.

‘Calypso, stats’ the seven-year-old boy seems to be talking to himself but his eyes glowed

And then a voice speaks in his mind

It is a voice of a robotic woman.

[Young Master Arik]

‘Calypso, stats’ he said again

[Due to the process of merging with the tablets, normal function is severely undermined. Requiring some time for adjustment]

Arik frowned a bit and then he said

‘Did you get all the information of this planet and this galaxy?’

[Affirmative, Young Master]

Arik doesn’t known how Calypso got the information.

Calypso might have hacked this planet information system.

It is clear that while this planet is primitive, considering the invisible force field of radio waves in space that was detected by his spaceship, this civilization at least had radio technology and seeing the satellite and the space probe confirms that at least they have information that could be easily hacked by Calypso.

Though, it didn’t matter how.

Arik simply said.

‘My nano suit. Is the normal function for my nano suit is also affected?’ Arik ask. And then the voice sounded in his mind again

[No, Young Master]

‘Since that is the case, morph my suit into a normal clothes that the people around here wear’

[Affirmative]

The moment that voice sounded in his mind, Arik nano suit morph into a t shirt and his lower half turns into and a gray casual pants

‘Add some holes’ he said and immediately there is some holes.

The reason why he said that is because he is too clean.

That itself is weird considering that the entire place is like a site of war.

There is flames and destruction all over, and if he is the only one that is sparkly clean that would surely raise some eyebrows.

‘Give me all the information that you have on this planet’

[The order could not be fulfilled in its entirety as it would violate the first protocol. Initial scan shows the mental activity would burden the young master mind which could lead to insanity]

There is a pause for a second and just right before Arik wanted to issue another order, Calypso voice once again echoes in his mind

[Order modified. Only information that would not burden the Young Master mind would be transferred]

[Transfer initiated. Uploading knowledge]

Then Arik felt like someone had just smack his head with a hammer as the information is streamed directly into his mind.

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