96 CHAPTER 95

He could see the life that burns in her eyes as she slouched down on the floor and watched him carefully. The yellow light dancing on the ceiling glittered with the calmness in the eyes. They were gray and contrasted with the dark hair that hung on her pink colored skin. A black skin folded her skin. From her ear down to the side of her face, running through her lips until they broke and started up towards her forehead, disappearing and blended with the dark hair. He had never seen anything like this before, not in his lifetime. From her voice and the way she tilted her head, there was a feminine characteristic that gave her gender away. She also looked young, no younger than ten or eleven, but he couldn't say for sure. A child within that age bracket in Anadan would never go near tobacco or its relation.

"Kira," He said, and stood up gently, glad that she understood, Araen, the general tongue in Anadan, "Please where am I?"

"We found you lying in the engine room," She said. Her head tilted to the side. She was still analyzing him with those gray eyes, weighing, judging. There was still distrust hanging around her. She really was not one to trust people easily.

"In the engine room?" He asked, perused by her words. Kira nodded in affirmation but did not say a word. Her head tilted to the side again and this time she sniffed the air, like some kind of animal. It was strange. Her behavior reminded him of the snake he had killed on his father's farm in Candanian when he was still a toddler.

In Candanian? The word hung on his head, making his heart leap with excitement. He remembered now. Yes, he remembers everything that had happened. He had been sitting and having a drink with Matt and Pinna in his apartment when suddenly there was this strange blast and darkness enveloped him. The darkness had enveloped him so greatly that for a moment he thought he was going to remain in their abode. Waking up to see himself immersed in some kind of water was not pleasant in itself. He had seen himself die. He had died three times.

"Don't worry," Kira said as if reading his thoughts, "It wasn't real,"

Ham's eyes widened, "You mean, the sea and the shark were illusions?"

"They were stimulations. High-tech stimulations that create an environment which is not real. We use it to ascertain the behavior of new infants that were born in space." She shrugged, "Captain Boze placed you in it."

Ham hugged himself as he took the environment in. It was some kind of green cube, with wires and lines running at the top. There was also a yellow light bulb hanging on the apex. The light he had confused for the sun. He swallowed and returned his attention to Kira.

"I must get back to my friends. They are in danger." He looked at the cube again and swallowed when a strange thought popped into his head. Prison.

"Where are you from, Ham? What kind of creature are you?" Ham swallowed at the girl's question. He would have shouted at her but tried to restrain himself, for fear of causing any unwanted provocation might lead to him staying in this cube for heaven knows how long.

"I am from Anadan. I am a human,"

"Human?" Kira stepped back, gray eyes spreading wide on her face. It was as if Ham held her heart in his palms and was about to crush them to nothing. "That's impossible." She whispered, holding her pink-colored neck as she backed away.

"What's impossible. I am a human." Ham repeated, resting his hands on the cube wall so that she could see he was harmless. The way she was stepping towards the door made him want to break out in tears. A part of him wanted her to stay. The fear that if she walks through the door, he might never see her again, was trying to overwhelm his entire being. He hated being confined in a place. That was one very good reason why he hated his parents. They had abandoned him in an orphanage home because the doctors had said he was suffering from sickle cell anemia. They had left him there to die with the rest of the abandoned kids. But for the help of Bright—his roommate and a healer—he would have been buried six feet below.

"Impossible," Kira said as her back finally leaned on the wall, just beside the door, "Y—you" She swallowed, "Your kind was extinct. You don't exist."

"Well," Ham shrugged, "What do you think? Do I look like an extinct creature?"

Kira shook her head as if the whole thing was just too hard to accept at the moment, "You are either lying or another stimulation created by Captain Boze."

"That's hilarious," Ham chuckled, despite himself, "Any creature that can create a stimulation as handsome as myself if really a genius. Hold him and never let him go because he might just be a god walking among people."

That was meant to catch the girl's attention and ease the tension between them. But the reverse became the opposite when the girl's face folded with a deep frown. She was walking back towards the green cube, but to Ham's dismay, she pushed a button on the wall and it suddenly felt as if all the oxygen in the room had suddenly ceased.

Ham held his throat and whizzed for air as his lungs began to burn. Try as hard as he wanted to, he just could not breathe. He was choking. It was as if he was back in the water, with no air or oxygen to keep the constant rhyme of his heart. Giving in to the agony in the vacuum, he slouched down on his knees and kicked. 

How long he continued to kick was a mystery to him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Kira walking towards his direction with a gleaming dagger in her hands. She said something about truth before walking out of the cube and shutting the door behind her. That was the signal. The room that had felt like a vacuum before was suddenly springing back with fresh air. The oxygen also swerved in, flowing into his nostrils and covering his lungs.

Ham whizzed noisily as he inhaled the air greedily. Nothing else mattered as long as he was concerned. Just him and the air and nothing more. His lungs seemed to his relaxed and his tensed body eased as they returned back to their normal physiology. He hadn't died this time. He hadn't choked to death, unlike his three previous experiences with the water.

"I think you are telling the truth," Came the calm voice of Kira.

Ham rolled to his side and struggled up to his feet. His head was becoming light, but the thought of sleep terrified him. He was not ready to dive into that darkness again. No, he wouldn't.

"You should have believed me initially, instead of choking me to death," He said. Kira was still standing beside the door, with the dagger in her hands.

"I had to make sure," She pointed with the knife. Blood was dripping from the tips of the dagger. Red and rich. Wait, was that?

Ham looked down on the right arm and was surprised to see a small cut below his elbow. The cut had been so insignificant that it had passed unnoticed initially.

"Sorry, does it hurt?" Kira asked, letting her lips spread with a small smile.

"Ah, not really," Ham patted the arm and returned his attention to the girl. 

"This will be very news to the people, your presence I mean," Kira said. She had dropped the dagger on the small table and was walking back to the green cube. Those black lips of hers were beautiful. Ham swallowed.

"And why will that be?" He asked, hoping his words had not betrayed him and had revealed the longing in his chest. Damn, his body was also heating. He had not felt like this before. He was not meant to feel anything, not for a creature he didn't know.

"Because Lord Vortex destroyed your kind a very long time ago. He made us believe that humans were no longer in the galaxy. He himself was also destroyed, and the galaxy had been at peace…." She stammered, "Not totally at peace. But there have been no wars for the past six hundred years."

"Oh, I see," Ham said thoughtfully, ��So If the humans were back to this world, it means Lord Vortex was never destroyed?" 

Kira nodded. They stood in silence for a while before Ham said.

"But among my people, we believe that Lord Vortex is enslaved in his prison. We believe that he is in Ogred. The real Ogred."

"Prison," Kira laughed, "Lord Vortex cannot be imprisoned. Only those who have not seen what he is capable of will make such claims."

"And you have?" Ham chuckled, "You just said that the war had ended for the past six hundred years. How could you possibly know what Lord Vortex is capable of?"

His question made her face twitch. He must have offended her without realizing it.

"And how old do you think I am?"

Ham jaw dropped, "W—wait. You mean to tell me that you are—are—six hundred years old?"

"No," Kira grunted, "I am six hundred and sixteen years old"

"What?" Ham exclaimed