Encounter With A Strange Person

"Nathan."

He was asleep, yet somehow heard a voice call out to him. He knew that he couldn't respond back.

"Nathan.."

This voice was eerily familiar, yet it felt as if it was coming from the other side of the world, it was so far away.

Everything was dark.

"You.. are not apart of my almighty dream, my universe, which I oversee and watch carefully, you managed to escape the grasps of the grand laws of another universe, you are an anomaly."

"You are the only [one] who has the power to change everything."

He recalled the time when he heard this voice before, when he slept for the first time in this world.

"You have been deemed as a powerful threat, and a dangerous weapon."

"Prove to them, that you are worthy of witnessing the destruction of the greatest enemy of all life, and know of the full truth."

…

"Ugh.." He stirred, and then finally woke up.

"Why is this bed so uncomfortable? I could barely even sleep." He yawned, and rose from the bed.

"…Why did I have that kind of dream again?"

"..I guess it's best if l put those thoughts away for now, or else it'll accompany useless thoughts."

"I think I might've overslept a bit."

He went over and opened the door, but after he fully left the room, he found himself walking straight into a corridor crowded full of people, who all seemed to be wearing the same uniform he did.

"Woah.. I didn't know that there were this many people on the spaceship."

To think he had to live in such a vast environment like this, he wondered how he was gonna adapt to this place entirely.

This place had peaked his interest even more, he decided the best thing to do was to explore this place further until he found those who he called his friends.

He walked across the corridor, trying to find the way to his first lecture, but still, he found nothing cluing him towards where he was in the spaceship at all.

It wasn't until he bumped into someone and fell on the floor that he finally interacted with someone he actually knew for the first time today.

"Huh?"

It was Aiden, and he seemed to be particularly menacing, and seemed to gaze at Nathan, as if he was beneath him, at least, until he realised that he was Nathan.

Nathan was slightly intimidated by the imposing figure standing above him, and he didn't know what he was supposed to say, as he was a bit nervous.

Nathan was expecting the worst to happen, this was someone who held a particular hatred towards him, after all, but oddly enough, Aiden had extended his hand towards him.

"I.. thought about what happened yesterday, and, I reorganised my thoughts because I had a feeling that I didn't actually hate you, but instead, I was pretending to."

"I awaited the day that I would get to fight you again ever since you nearly beat me [that day], the day when we met for the first time."

"It was such a long time ago, when I was travelling different planets with my parents, and I realise now, that as angry as I was, I also felt admiration."

"So, I guess, I'm.. sorry."

He bowed his head apologetically, but for some reason, there was something odd about his expression, however Nathan didn't take mind to that.

He didn't know how to react in such a situation, since he wasn't really used to things like this, and back on Earth when he was younger, he was an huge introvert and only talked to others if he was comfortable with them.

"Haha."

"Well, I guess that's settled."

Someone appeared from behind Aiden, who turned around the second he heard this person's voice from behind.

"What?" Nathan said, it was a person he had never seen before.

"If my memory serves correct, you two aren't even supposed to be here right now, as Class-A's lecture is happening in that room right now and Class-C's lectures happen at the other side of the spaceship." He pointed to a door that was quite close to the three of them.

"..! Why are you here?" Aiden said, as he gritted his teeth.

"I just wanted to help someone out a little bit. I guess I came just in time to hear that speech of yours." He shrugged.

"Although the principal put you up to this, it did seem pretty real, to the point where it almost made you sound sincere."

"Huh?"

"How did you..! Why did you say it..!" Aiden had a very slightly guilty look on his face, but it was also mixed with a bit of nervousness, "How did you find out..?"

"Haha, I guess we'll never know." He said, and he walked away, and Nathan felt at once that he was hiding many secrets, it wouldn't be wise to get involved with him.

"So, that whole.. speech you just said, was completely fake?"

"He had no intention of hiding it any longer.

"Just to make it clear, I am not your friend, and one day, I will get my revenge. Now, because of you, I'm known throughout the entire spaceship for having "anger management issues", but I don't!" Aiden ranted on.

"That's a bit.." Nathan replied, "But, I was actually expecting that, to be totally honest. Hm, but who was that?"

"Him? ..He's what you would call, a "helper". People from other planets that the principal recruited for a strange purpose that almost no one knows, which is why he gets to act so arrogant all the time."

"Why is he seem a bit more lenient compared to before?" Nathan whispered, "Strange.."

"..He also used to be a long-time friend of mine, back in my childhood."

"…"

Nathan realised that Aiden was probably hiding many secrets as well, and that he probably shouldn't pry much further.

"Well, I guess I'll get going to the lecture then." He started to walk away at a fast pace, leaving Nathan behind in the dust.

"..! Wait for me!"

Within a few minutes, they managed to run all the way across the spaceship, and landed themselves at the objective, the door of the lecture hall.

They entered, and were immediately greeted with the stares of just about fifty people.

"This is.."

The lecture hall was grand and marvellous, the chairs were floating, and tables weren't even connected to the floor and were instead hovering, and everyone seemed futuristic.

"Woah."

He turned and saw an instructor, who was in the midst of explaining something he had never seen before.

"You two, you're late. Go and sit over there, we'll discuss the punishment later."

They went to go and sit down, Nathan sat next to Athena and Thomas right next to her, and much to his dismay, Aiden sat next to Dean and someone else he probably didn't know.

"Embarrassing.." He sighed, he looked next to him and saw Athena and Thomas happy to see him.

Then, the instructor continued from what he said previously.

"As I was saying, just in case we run into a dangerous situation like what happened with our last [Space Checkpoint], the principal decided that we Instructors should dedicate a lecture towards the planet closest to the checkpoint."

"If you don't know what a Space Checkpoint is, let me explain it for you. There are several checkpoints that spaceships like ours tend to stop at during their travels, and this is just one of them."

He picked up a greyish-black object, which seemed to have a face, and told them what it was.

"This, is a Gloombeast, a ferocious, quadrupedal hunter that originates from the Floating Palace of Spirits, a dwarf planet which name is a bit too long for me to remember, and its many inhabitants live through harsh conditions on this planet."

"Although these harsh conditions were lessened as time passed, and as technology developed they were able to create devices that were able to improve their quality of life, on some parts of this planet, these harsh conditions still remain."

"This planet is also the planet nearest to the checkpoint that I was just talking about."

After that, the instructor droned on and on, to the point where Nathan, who was super curious about this world, thinking he'd get to learn more about it, started to zone out.

At least, until they finally reached the Space Checkpoint, and a loud siren alerted everyone on the spaceship.

"We have reached [Space Checkpoint: 7] Great Floating Jade Palace of the Supreme Phantom Spirits." An automated voice sounded out.

"Preparing Maintenance Check."