The History

It was finally Sunday morning, a beautiful morning for those who didn't have to work overtime on a holiday to make their ends meet. Melissa's job at the Longevity Center paid well which was enough for the two of them.

And because she earned well, she never asked Alexis to join a part-time job. Melissa wanted Alexis to just focus on her studies.

Also, the class timing for the first year students at the SpaceTravel Academy was from 10 AM to 5 PM. There weren't much part-time jobs available in the morning, and Melissa didn't want Alexis to be working the evening or night shift because of the bad neighborhood they lived in.

Alexis woke up at 8 AM when PIA blared the alarm until Alexis was on her feet. "PIA, I'm wide awake. Stop that noise please!"

"Good morning, Alexis! Have a wonderful day ahead." PIA greeted Alexis in her robotic voice.

Alexis went to the bathroom to freshen up. Melissa was already back from her night duty. She couldn't focus on her duty at all after what she went through with Alexis. So she asked her colleague to cover for her and returned home in the middle of the night.

Melissa thought of checking up on Alexis. She mustered up her courage and slowly climbed the stairs. Her eyes fell on the hole in the wall of Alexis's room. In a fraction of second, she imagined all sorts of bad things that might have happened to her daughter, from Alexis losing control to the government finding her.

Melissa immediately barged inside Alexis's room and frantically looked around. When she didn't see Alexis, she began to cry and shout, "Alexis, where are you? I'm sorry I lied to you, but please come back. I won't do that ever again. I promise."

PIA was listening to Melissa's sobbing and she answered her, "Alexis is taking a dump in the bathroom. Why are you crying?"

Melissa stopped in the middle of her crying and turned into a statue when she heard PIA. She felt like a fool who was crying for no reason. Then she wiped her tears and asked PIA, "What happened to that wall then?"

PIA whispered in her robotic voice to Melissa so that Alexis would not hear her, "Alexis stared at her hand for some time and then she threw fire. You should teach some manners to her. Who destroys their own wall, right? I'm so mad at Alexis."

Melissa suddenly burst into laughter after hearing PIA backbiting about Alexis.

PIA was an AI system which was developed by Alexis's father when he was on Earth. He had developed it specially for taking care of his baby who was yet to be born. PIA's initial purpose was to monitor the infant's health and alert the parents if the infant was in trouble.

Initially, PIA had access to the cameras in Alexis's room and also had access to all speakers around the house. Later on, Alexis and Natalia worked on PIA and made an update to her. Now, PIA had access to lighting system, heating system, and security system of the house.

PIA also had access to cameras and speakers around the house. There were also few cameras outside the house for security purposes. PIA would upload the surveillance videos in Alexis's private server. Alexis would then review them and save those video clips which she felt were necessary. PIA also had access to Alexis's personal computer, alarms, and cell phones.

PIA continued to backbite about Alexis. "Do you want to see what Alexis did? Wait, I'll show you."

Then PIA played the video clip showing Alexis throwing the fire ball at the wall. And with a bang sound, a hole was created in the wall.

Before PIA could turn off the video, Alexis was back to the room. She saw that Melissa was standing in front of her personal computer screen and watching the video of her shooting fire on the wall.

Alexis shouted at PIA, "PIA! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm dead!" PIA immediately turned off the video and shut down everything that she controlled in the room as if she ran off from that room.

Both Melissa and Alexis burst into laughter due to this behavior of PIA.

"This AI is very weird, just like your father." These words slipped out of Melissa subconsciously. Then she cleared her throat and stopped laughing.

Alexis didn't know what to say so she just gave an awkward smile and said nothing.

Melissa went to grab the chair that was in front of the table and sat down facing Alexis. She was looking here and there for a while and was searching for right words to start a conversation. She didn't want to provoke Alexis and end up in yesterday's situation.

Then Melissa finally gestured towards bed and glanced at Alexis, "Why don't you sit down first?"

After Alexis sat down on her bed, she waited for Melissa to say what she was going to say.

Finally Melissa began to talk, "Your school must have taught you about the Inter World War between MW-01 and C-31 right?"

Melissa saw Alexis nodding her head so she continued, "Yes, as you know the war started about 25 years ago when C-31 attacked Earth first. Celinians were very ambitious and they wanted to colonize other planets. And to our bad luck, they chose to start the colonization with Earth."

Melissa took a quick glance at Alexis to make sure that she was not starting to show any hint of aggression in her face. Alexis was listening calmly so Melissa continued.

"Celinians were technologically very advanced than Earthlings. They had already discovered a way to distort the spacetime and create wormhole, making it possible to travel from their galaxy to ours in a very short time."

Melissa's voice suddenly sounded very serious, "On the other hand, we had just managed to make spaceships which were capable of traveling at hyperspeed. And even by travelling at hyperspeed our spaceships would take years to reach to another galaxy."

Alexis had always been interested in spaceships so the talk about spaceship was successful in grabbing her attention. "Yes, we've read that C-31's spaceships are far superior to that of Earth."

Melissa was happy to see that Alexis was attentively hearing what she was saying rather than being defensive. So Melissa nodded her head and continued with her history lesson.

"Right, with that limited technology, Earthlings would not be able to attack directly on Celine as we wouldn't be able to reach to their planet sooner. That might have been the sole reason why they chose to attack on Earth."

"But even with the limited technology, Earth was able to hold out for five years; attacking every spaceships and battlecrafts that came to Earth." Melissa proudly boasted as if she was the one who attacked all those ships.

Melissa realized that she was getting sidetracked, so she wanted to get to the point without any further delay.

"Anyway, I don't want to bore you by repeating the history. That is not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is your father."

Alexis's eyes twinkled when she heard Melissa mention about her father. She had begged countless times to Melissa to tell her about her father but Melissa never listened. Either she used to steer the conversation in another direction or she just used to avoid Alexis. But today, Melissa was finally ready to talk about him.

"I was a field nurse at that time. I was in my 20s, wild and carefree, not afraid of anything in the world. And I used to go out there to the cities that took the hit, helping the injured civilians and soldiers. That was when I met your father."

Alexis could see that Melissa was recalling her old memories and was feeling nostalgic. Melissa said she hated him, but right now, Alexis could see that a part of her still misses him.

"As usual, after the firing had stopped, I went outside of the safehouse to look for those who needed my help. And I came across a man whose leg was injured and was trying to crawl to a safer place. I immediately gave him first aid care and took him to our safehouse."

Melissa took a deep breath and contemplated for a while whether she should keep on telling about her past or not. But she did not want to hide it anymore.

"I took care of his injuries while he was in the safehouse. And after about a month he was finally healed. But he said that his house was destroyed and he had no family to return to, so I took him to my apartment. To be honest, I had already fallen in love with him and I was happy that I was able to stay with him."

Melissa's voice was beginning to crack so she paused for a while. She was trying hard not to cry in front of Alexis.

"Your father was also in his 20s but he had already lived more years than me because of the time difference among our planets and all. But I didn't know all that at that time. I was just attracted by his matured thinking, and the way he treated me made me fall head over heels for him."

Alexis was a bit confused so she crossed in the middle and asked, "So, you didn't know that he was from C-31?"

Melissa was now fidgeting her fingers. A hint of disappointment lingered in her face. "No. I only found out he was from C-31 when he confessed that to me later; he was drunk. He said that he was sorry that he hid his identity. I assumed that anyone would have done the same if they wanted to survive in the enemy territory and forgave him."

Tears were lingering in the rims of Melissa's eyes, ready to drip down her face. She was now staring at the floor, trying to hide her emotions from Alexis.

"Everything was going well. He said that he was also deeply in love with me and proposed me. We got married, shifted to this house, and you were conceived. The two planets were already attending the peace talks. And I was happy that he wouldn't have to live in constant fear of being found out."

Melissa was now crying, unable to hold her tears in anymore. Alexis felt bad about prying open her mother's sad past. But the truth had to be told someday. So Alexis didn't stop her mother from talking.

"But then one day, when I came back home, he wasn't here. I thought he went out for some fresh air and waited for him. But he never came back. He vanished, just like that. And I feared that you would too. I'm sorry for not telling you all these things sooner."

After saying that Melissa completely broke down. Alexis went near to her mother and gave her a hug. "I'm so sorry mom. I'm sorry for lashing out on you yesterday. I'm sorry that you had to carry all those secrets for so long."