Confession

The surge of fear and worry that overcome her earlier was then flooded with love which was trying hard to come out from her chest.

Inhaling deeply, she slowly opened her mouth to speak.

"…." She did not know where to begin.

Her hands reached out towards his hand and the familiar comfort enveloped her. With him, she felt safe, complete and satisfied. The man who made her feel whole. By his side, she was home.

"Francis, for 25 years, you are the only man that I love. I don't know when it started, but…. I just found myself mesmerized by you. In school, I was always late. But as I slowly walk inside the room and see you my heart beats rapidly in excitement, in anticipation. At first I thought it was all just infatuation. But who would have thought that my heart would only beat for you." Helen said softly as he held on to his hands gently.

"when you said that you wanted to become a researcher, I wanted to follow you to planet Trace, I wished I could have followed you. But despite the distance, my love never faded not even once….Do you know that I feel like you are my own child, I wanted to protect you from harm, keep you safe and happy. I am sorry if I was not able to accompany you in fulfilling your dreams. But Francis, your happiness is my happiness. There were a lot of times when I wanted to climb on your bed, to seduce you or to simply express my love for you, but I know that I am not the woman in your heart. The only reason why I did not fight for your love was because I wanted you to find your happiness. It was not me, so I remained by your side and will remain by your side. Showering you with all the care and gentleness that I can give." Helen has so many things to say, the unspoken feelings that she held on for 25 years were simply too many that word were not enough to express all of it. "I love you."

When the words "I love you" entered his ears a strong force emitted from his body shaking the entire continent. He was still asleep but, in his dreams, the memories from when he was 29 years old until he was 35 years old were slowly being recovered.

----Flashback when Helen and Francis where in the meadow in planet Dawn---

"I will keep you safe for the rest of my life." Francis promised as he held on to Helen's hands. He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell her how he feels. How much he loved her. But he can't. Being held captive by an organization, he was tasked to work for them in exchange for her safety. As the king of research, he was force to find the way to immortality. The type of study which was forbidden by the intergalactic alliance. It was against his morals to study the topic. It was a terrifying and heartless research. But for her….

He looked at her innocent eyes. All the suffering and pain that he felt in planet Trace where all erased by this short chance that he could be with her. In this short vacations, when they would spend their time with each other, with no care about the universe.

[This girl was innocent about how strong my feelings are for her. Do you know, that I am willing to sacrifice the entire universe for your safety? Do you know that whenever I wanted to die from despair, when I am about to break down from sorrow, your memories are what kept me moving? You are my strength.] The strong cold winds from the meadow embraced his heart filled with sorrow. How he wished to make this woman beside him his wife.

Then he remembered what is like in his research laboratory. Knowing Helen, she would be willing to sacrife her life to stop all of the killings. But he would not allow it. She should not know.

The humans developing multiple tumors, their screams, their plea to be released from the torment was his living nightmare in planet Trace. The research about immortality was built on the foundation of the ancient people's knowledge about quantum entanglement.

Entangled codes are codes bounded by quantum entanglement. In each DNA there are more than 100 trillion of entangled codes. These codes can change as one code changes.

A best example for these are the codes that are affected by genetic mutation. For example, the cells of the kidneys may mutate and become cancerous. It may not affect the other cells which did not originated from the mutated cell, but the entangled code in the mutated cell of the kidney may also alter the codes in the sperm or egg cell. It will then be passed on to the offspring following the Albeit theory of genetic inheritance. Making the next generation susceptible to having a renal cancer as well.

Because entangled codes can be manipulated, scientist had once used this knowledge to test theory about the nature of DNA. They gather entangled codes, study it in the laboratory and try to alter some of it. (The art of Witchcraft and sorcery). The observations made allowed the scientist to read and decode some important parts in the DNA.

But after 20 years, the human rights organization and the Animal welfare organization won the fight against this research. Many sacrifices were made because of this study. Torture, pain, deformity, incurable diseases were among the results of the research. One of the most tragic research was the "path of immortality" or the so called "the tree of life".

It was long believed that cells have its clock, one of the determinant for apoptosis (programmed cell death). They planned on editing the clock to prolong life or even gain immortality. Paired with the theory of DNA classification per code (entangled DNA) scientist engaged in an elusive project to try to control the cellular clocks using the concept of entanglement.

But a tragedy happened. Not each cell is entangled in a way that scientists expect. There was more to the human body than the physical realm that the scientist could reach during their time. The project ended up in many disastrous way, such as having different types of uncontrolled growth of tumors which further mutated and became more aggressive.

It was like an ancient disease referred to as cancer but was more aggressive and fast in terms of growth. It caused many subjects to die, mostly animals.

The second tragedy happened when the project was almost complete. The discovery of code J19 which specifically instructed the life of humans to be limited to 120 years turned the research in new light.

The hypothesis was that by removing this specific instruction, human's life will have no limit. With this, the path to immortality (Name of research), created monsters with majority of immortal cells. But, unfortunately the thing that binds the consciousness or the soul into the body was not sealed. It started the zombie apocalypse which almost wiped out the entire human race in planet Trace. Having a living body driven by instincts with no soul.

The forbidden study of path to immortality was reawakened once more and he was leading the abominable research. Now the new concept that they were working on was the matching of removal of code J19 and the method to lock the soul into the body.

He closed his eyes trying to erase the screams and sufferings of his experimental subjects in his mind.

"Preparing a safety pod code blue for Master Francis. Please enter the safety pod immediately." The warning of the AI awakened Francis in his deep thoughts. He looked at Helen who has a pale expression.

"I don't have a blue pod Francis" She said in frightful expression.

Without second thoughts, she pulled her inside the blue safety pod which was meant for a single person. He was hugging her tightly unwilling to let go of the most precious treasure he had in his life.