Chapter 3 - Comfort & Responsibility

Entering inside after the mechanical sliding door opened, Zenith was greeted by a simple interior, neither cramped nor spacious, with a futuristic design. A small bedroom, wash area & bathroom, and kitchen along with other necessities made up his living space. Though his words echoed to no response, it was something he had grown used to during his time at the academy.

Walking over, he kicked off his shoes and headed to his bedroom, throwing his carry bag and the ID Seila gave him on the table. He then neatly crashed onto his bed, looking sideways out the small window that gave him a view of nothing but an alley. He closed the mechanical curtains and thought of his mother and sister.

Although they were banished from his father's family, his mother still had her own family, despite it not being as prestigious. It had some power, but it was still a dog-eat-dog world. His mother was forced to remarry, her looks and charm being her only treasure. Thankfully, the conditions she got for her kids were something. Despite Zenith's background being private here for anyone to look into, his simple but nearly desolate living was taken care of with some allowance every month until it stopped completely several years ago, forcing him to get a job. His mother and sister, though, were on a different planet in a separate system. The parting was hard, and the first months were harder.

He would always use the federation's network to email them and even pen physical letters. His mother was doing okay, the best she could, having married a man of an equal family. Zenith now had two young step-siblings, a younger brother and another sister. Meanwhile, his sister from his first family was a bit more of a sore spot for him. "She should be 15," he mumbled to himself, looking at a wall lined with drawings of scribbles that got more detailed until they became worded letters.

She had begun sending her brother letters as soon as she could. Zenith didn't get to see her grow properly. He had come to the academy when he was a bit older after his father's death in the family. He loved getting messages from his mom and sister and missed playing with her when she was little and growing before he left. Granted, he was treated like garbage by the other kids at his mother's family estate, but he didn't care; caring would only prove that he wanted some form of approval from them.

Though when his sister had turned 13, she stopped sending more, and even his mother had stopped sending him letters. He had tried messaging and sending physical letters back, but the messages were never delivered, the address deleted, and the physical letters were always returned to him, the address for the estate not accepting them. Instead, he got simple annual updates by an unknown account that only gave sentences and never replied back.

"Your mother is fine, your sister is fine" was the first message he received from it. The newest one, which he received at the end of last year, also surprised him, making him feel joyful. "Your mother misses you. Iria's resonance frequency is positive; she has a 3% chance to awaken an ability during the resonance ceremony, and a 10% chance through no use of external objects to awaken an ability through hard work." This made Zenith proud; he considered his little sister a genius, though he was obviously doting on her. Usually, the chances of awakening an ability for a normal person would be 0.3%, while those gifted people would be 1% and higher. "On an equal playing field, my sister would kick their asses," he said, smirking proudly.

Zenith soon fell into a deep sleep. Though it was early and school was finished, the mental toll of the future and his exhaustion from his late days of work at a refinement mill took their time on his body.

Within this space of black and white nothingness, Zenith was curled up in a fetal position. In this lucid dream that he had been having constantly along with nightmares of his father, he felt comfortable—no worries, no fears, no hunger, no bills, nothing except emptiness which would drive a normal person insane.

This time though, it was different. Opening his eyes for a moment, feeling something was off, he found his two hands were missing, or more so where his left hand would be, it was connected to the pitch black empty void beneath him. His right hand connected to the blank, sickening infinite canvas white above him. He tried to move his hands, but no matter what he did, they were still connected.

He felt desolation and fear, like something was watching him from above and below. Soon the white & black voids began to spread up his arms and body bit by bit. Zenith panicked; he screamed, he shouted, finally he roared and cursed at everything and everyone until both voids connected at a line on his forehead.

"Ah!" Zenith woke up from his sleep, sweating profusely and shaking as if having just gotten over a deep paralysis of impending doom. He quickly touched his body and looked at his hands; nothing was out of order, yet he trembled. "Just a shitty nightmare. I should probably get medicine for better sleep or something," he calmly mumbled to himself before his wrist device, used for all sorts of present-day activities, let out an alarm-like tone.

"Just in time for my shift." Getting ready and eating a quick protein meal kit, he then headed off to the mill. Thankfully, this was owned by Kalen's family, as he had helped get him the job, though Zenith didn't dare slack off. The work itself was advanced and required care, but once one understood the workings, it was easy to manage.

Zenith would feed several types of refined ore chunks on a tray-like conveyor, then insert it into a rotating mechanical furnace that would smelt the ores into an alloy used for everyday construction.

"Zenith, congratulations," two men in protective gear walked over with grins, soot and dirt covering their clothing. One walked over and gave Zenith a pat on his shoulder as he worked. "Thanks, chief!" Zenith spoke. The man he talked to was the foreman. One might expect a foreman to be yelling at others to work harder and not get their hands dirty, but here, this man did his all for his workers, earning their respect, even more so for how many years he had been here and his fair treatment of them. "We got you a gift!" the man beside him smirked, giving it to Zenith.

"Hmm?" Zenith grabbed a chunk of Velium ore, a base ore stronger and more resilient than iron, and 10 times stronger than steel when mixed with copper. His fingertips tingled for some reason, not noticing a slight white static leave through his gloves and enter the chunk of ore, yet he ignored it for a moment, placing the ore chunk in the tray as he focused his attention towards the gift after inserting the tray into the furnace.

"Alcohol?" Zenith laughed quietly. "Is it for me or for you guys?" he teased. The two men laughed softly; the man holding it spoke. "Well, we figured with you graduating, you're not gonna be stuck here anymore like the rest of us, right? Celebrate with us a bit after work."

Zenith nodded, but then something caught their attention. The gigantic rotary furnace suddenly clinked and stopped rotating. The slits that allowed a view inside to see the flame and the molten ores to a degree revealed something unusual.

At several furnace sections above, one of the slits emitted a blue and grey flame before turning a heavy blue, seemingly out of control. "What the hell!? MOVE, MOVE!!" the foreman suddenly yelled, his instincts kicking in, pushing the man aside and grabbing Zenith's arm to bring him away. Soon, every other worker suddenly madly dashed away.

The section of the furnace suddenly began to leak a blue metallic liquid that seeped out of the slits. It seemed as if the weight of this liquid was too much for the furnace to handle, and it soon crashed, causing a miniature explosion of molten metal and flame.

Thankfully, there were safety measures in place, and even robotic devices, spraying a special foam over everything that emitted a high heat signature. Eventually, things calmed down. Despite this, the refinery mill was shut down for the day, everyone was given a day's pay of credits and sent home.

An hour or so later, the foreman had a troubled look on his face, his hands behind his back, appearing guilty. Beside him, a man in business attire looked at the mess, sent over by the upper management and part of Kalen's family who owned the mill. "Do we know what caused it?"

The foreman spoke respectfully. "The digger bots are about to clear the remaining debris and show us the section. Maybe it was a maintenance issue?" he said, trying to save his crew's reputation.

With the bots finally removing the debris and spraying the foam away with water, the foreman and management official sent down furrowed their brows. They looked at a hardened, almost crystal-like substance that emitted a soft glow.

"Eh..." the foreman fumbled for a moment, pulling out a radiation detector, yet it gave no readings at all. "This... I've never seen this material before. It's not giving any radiation, at least none that I can detect with this thing."

The individual beside him looked stunned, approaching the hardened substance despite the foreman's warnings. He then lightly touched it as if it were a treasure. "I've memorized the entire encyclopedia of ores, crystals, minerals, all other materials inside the Federation, Eltanian, and Retoran spaces. I've never heard or seen this sort of thing before! Looks like crystal, feels and rings like metal!"

He then looked at his hands, which were somehow frostbitten. "To give me frostbite, it's at least -15°C. What's going on?!" Excitement was in his eyes, or maybe it was the prospect of a promotion for the find.