The lights flickered in the concrete underground bunker as a weathered old man scrambled through the mess of an old wooden desk. Shifting his attention to the drawers, he opened them one by one until his eyes fell on a particur medicine bottle.
Grabbing it, he took a syringe from the desk and filled it with the familiar liquid before injecting it into a reddened section of his forearm.
Sighing, the old man leaned back into his chair, looking at the buzzing capsule standing in the corner of the room, lost in thought.
Ten years.
A decade he spent isoted in this bunker, in these desote ruins cut off from the world, all for the sake of finishing what everybody else deemed to be impossible.
And he finished it. He turned the impossible into reality.
Countless times in these past ten years he thought about this day, imagined where he would return in triumph, his achievements celebrated by the world, his breakthrough written and forever burned into the annals of history.
Looking again at the big steel capsule, he gazed beyond the gss at the teenage boy lying inside, traces of frost formed around his body.
He abandoned his thoughts of the past years.
Turning back to the messy desk, the old man leaned forward, grabbing an antique bck recording device. A device he knew wouldn’t fail the long trials of time.
“Andrei”, the old man started as he spoke into the built-in microphone. “... my old friend.”
He paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say.
“I left the Institute back then, believing strongly in the promise that I would return with success. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to act on that promise now.”
The old man was interrupted by a fit of coughing that assaulted him out of nowhere, leaving a sptter of blood on the ground. Shaking his head, he cleaned the corner of his mouth with the edge of his sleeve before raising the bck device again.
“You don’t know how special he is, old friend. What he is capable of.”
He looked at the sleeping boy in the frozen chamber as he spoke the next words.
Years from now, when you find him and he finally opens his eyes again, then maybe you will understand. The reason why I decided to withhold him from the world, I mean.”
The st words came out in an almost defeated chuckle.
“The fact that the world, as I have seen, is not prepared.”
……….
107 years ter.
The cell door closed with a loud thud as the enforcer yawned with tired eyes.
“I’ll pick you up in the morning, Leon.” the man stated before adding a few words as he left. “... same as every week.”
Inside the temporary cell, a young man in his te teens was busy stretching his limbs, completely ignoring what the enforcer said. It was always the same sermon, after all.
When he turned around to inspect his pce for the night, however, he paused when the figure of a drunk, bearded man was lying passed out on a wall-mounted bench on the other side of the cell, snoring loudly.
Leon smiled wryly before sitting down on another bench opposite to the snoring man.
“Guess no sleep today.” He murmured as he leaned back and closed his eyes. It wasn’t until several hours ter when he was awakened by the door opening.
There is someone who wants to see you, kid.” The enforcer waiting outside said. Nodding, Leon stood up, following him down the few corridors of the station before stopping next to an open door, nodding inside.
It was an interrogation room with a man leaning against the wall with crossed arms.
With a skeptical gaze, Leon entered the room, only pausing briefly after hearing the door close shut behind him. His interest in the man, however, surpassed the reason for this sudden intervention.
The man wore a cssic gray vest with a dress shirt while his suit jacket was neatly folded over on top of the white desk standing in the middle of the room. His dark hair was slicked back with flecks of gray peeking out on the sides.
Just a single look made it evident that this man didn’t belong here. Neither this enforcer station, nor the entire outer territories as a whole. It was the pressure he emitted with his whole being that set him apart from everybody else, including Leon.
“You don’t look like child support.”
“Why not?” The man countered his question in amusement.
“Different vibe.” Leon shrugged.
That earned him a ugh.
“Right, that is probably true.” The middle-aged man smiled as he moved to take a seat, signaling Leon to do the same. “I took the liberty to gnce into your file. Weekly arrests public disturbance and destroying public property. Just earlier this day you took apart a service robot in the mall two blocks down because, as you said in your official testimony, ‘it would be criminal to put such a high processor into an expired trash bin.’”
“It is criminal to put such a processor into that trash bin.” Leon repeated with utmost confidence.
He was almost livid having seen such an act of waste happening right in front of him. That robot had the computing power of an antique toaster oven but a processor that could run the entire mall security system. Its potential was limited to mere scraps without any remorse by the developer. He just had to liberate it from that cheap robotic disappointment.
Hearing his response, the man on the opposite side shook his head before taking out a bright ftscreen and giving it for Leon to see.
I did some research on you, kid, and trust me that I couldn’t believe what I found.”
Putting the touchscreen on the table, the man showed him the personal file he just opened
“Leon Harper, 17-years-old, grew up in the wastends to scavenger parents until both of them died due to unknown circumstances around a year and a half ago. You entered the foster system and have been switching families more frequently than you change your clothes. Your educational report was… entertaining, to put it lightly.” The middle-aged man stopped for a moment, gncing at Leon with one raised eyebrow.
“Unexcused absences, sleeping during lectures, guessing on official tests, as well as pying frequent pranks on the b managers in chemistry and physics csses.”
“It seems like you’re exclusively stating my fws.” Leon objected.
“Outstanding expertise in computer programming…”
“Which should at least account for something...”
“... and using the aforementioned knowledge to install a virus that shut down the entire school servers for an entire week, including its connection to the AllNet, which resulted in your most recent expulsion, making it the third school that dumped you in the past year alone.”
Finishing his sentence, the middle-aged man turned off the ftscreen and dropped it on the table. Now he appeared almost defeated, as if he didn’t want to believe what was mentioned in the report.
‘You see, Leon. When I first read it, It appeared to be simply the whims of a teenage child having lost both his parents and venting out his anger at the world, at life. Of course, your special talents not only give you the perfect opportunity to execute it but also expand it to a scale rge enough where people very high up in the food-chain like me would get notice of this.”
“Now you sound exactly like my therapist.” Leon scoffed, remembering the words of his court-ordered shrink, a gift that child services gave everyone that cycled through the foster system, free of charge, of course.
“Yeah, I guess that’s what most people would think, if that report was the truth that is.”
"... Sorry?" Hearing the st part of the sentence, Leon got confused for a second before a hint of suspicion formed in the back of his mind.
“Don’t get me wrong, the story checks out and that is what the AllNet has officially registered. Not even the highest Tier 1 Special Clearance could get a different report. Still, you never were the child of two scavengers. In fact, everything about you before you came under the foster system as a citizen of the United Human Territories is completely made up.”
With every word he spoke, Leon understood this man didn’t come from any of the regur agencies. No, this man was someone entirely different, someone that came specifically for him.
He knew who he was.
This man had information that wasn’t even recorded. Otherwise, there would be no way to know about a past that officially didn’t exist.
“Sir, what did you say your name was again?” Leon asked, gaining him a slight shake from the middle-aged man.
“Of course, I probably should have introduced myself first. My name is Jim Irvine. I am Head of Development at Alpha Dynamics.”
“Alpha Dynamics?”
That was a name Leon heard of before. It belongs to one of the few mega-corporations that currently dominate the Human Territories. The unrivaled contender in the market for robotics and hardware components.
“Why would an executive, not to mention a department head of such a company, look into my story, Mr Irvine? Was that robot I took apart perhaps a product of your company? In that case, I recommend you fire the idiot who designed it.” Leon joked, an effort to make himself feel more confident.
The fact he didn’t belong to this time was… unique. More a result of unfathomable luck than a true miracle. Most people wouldn’t even entertain the idea that it was possible for a teenager. And yet, this man acted like he just found a gold mine.
That’s why the next words surprised him even more.
“It’s because you’re Ben Harper’s son, kid.”
That name echoed in his mind like a never-stopping wave of torment. A name he thought was buried, long forgotten in the past.
“My father?”
“Yes, a remarkable scientist, maybe even the greatest of his time. More than 120 years ago, your father id the foundation for our current state of peace. His genius among few others saved humanity from the brink of extinction.”
“My father was a university dropout turned mediocre mechanic.” Leon replied with a scoff.
“Maybe when you knew him. Still, it doesn’t change what he accomplished. My grandfather once had the opportunity to work alongside him. I still remember what he told me about him, even after so many years.”
“What use is it to hold on to some stories of the past.” Leon said, his expression turning into disinterest.
“The past is what makes us who we are, Leon. Who you are.”
“Not to me, sir. The past doesn’t hold any weight for me at all.” Leon retorted as he stood up from his chair. He moved over to the exit, trying to notify the enforcer-in-charge that he was done talking.
“Are you not even the least bit interested in your father’s legacy, Leon?”
That again. He didn’t know why hearing that word made him stop in his tracks.
His father.
The person who would have done everything for him, and then turned into the biggest mystery.
“Why would that change anything? My father has been dead for over a century.”
“Because you could get answers to your questions.”
“What questions?” Leon asked with crossed arms.
“isn’t that why you’ve been doing all this. Meaningless pranks and thefts from pces like the garbage dumps. Taking apart service robots and scanning devices. Using your boundless genius for making trouble. Isn’t it because you think nothing matters anymore? After you’ve been cast into a time away from everything you know and cherished?”
“I woke up here to find a cure for my illness. Incurable cancer with the only hope being in the future.”
“But you never expected it to take such a long time, right?”
He was right. Leon never entertained the idea he would be in cryogenic sleep for so long. Ten years, maybe twenty. It was shocking when he learnt that 132 years have passed and the world has forgotten him and everything before the Great Cataclysm.
Still, it didn’t mean he was throwing tantrums because the future wasn’t like he imagined.
“I’m doing those things because I’m bored and a brilliant genius.”
“Then I’ll give you something more interesting to py with.” The man began. “It’s more of a sponsorship, really. When you graduate in six months, which I have no doubt you can manage with that brain of yours, you’ll take the qualification test for the Adkins Technical University in the Central Territory, the Capital. As a Tier 5 citizen, you can only apply under a sponsorship, which Alpha Dynamics, represented by me, is willing to give you. In return, you will be filling an internship slot in my department where I’ll introduce you to all the research and projects that are happening in one of the biggest tech-conglomerates in the world, including the work of your te father that has been left unfinished and abandoned in the world.”
Leon listened to his pitch, his eyebrows narrowing in confusion.
“Why am I going to university if I can just start working on those projects immediately? It seems like a waste of time.”
“Because it’s the w.”
"What?" This caught Leon off-guard.
Jim Irvine just smiled in return, looking at his silver wristwatch.
“In your time, it may have been different but working at higher-css jobs requires a formal three-year degree at minimum. It’s been that way for decades and everyone, including the successors of top companies have to follow it. Without it, the door to Alpha Dynamics will stay shut.”
“So I have to go, even if I don’t want to?” Leon was completely baffled.
“If you want to see what your father failed to finish, yes. But even without it, you should make that sacrifice to get a decent career in the future. That is, if you don’t want to remain a lower tier citizen for the rest of your life doing menial work.”
Hearing the answer, Leon wanted to ugh at the absurdity of this system but no sound came out of his mouth. He understood that there wouldn’t be an easy way around it.
The new government ensured ws were held up with enforcers that worked more efficiently than the police of the past.
“Not to mention, Adkins Technical University is the gathering spot of the highest talent the United Human Territories have to offer. People like you pop up there like grass on a field. You could learn a thing or two from there, that much is sure.”
At that, Leon smirked as his eyes filled with unshakeable confidence.
“Sorry to pop your bubble, but there are no people like me.”
……….
‘Every fortune and disaster begins with one single spark of ambition.’
~~Dr. Benjamin Harper’s Memoirs~~
