"Thank you," Omega said, smiling at Sylen, sitting in the main lounge area of the ship that also housed a fully functional kitchen. He was holding a mug filled with a steaming, black liquid, warming up his fingers as he was holding it. Miyon was also there, standing next to the table with crossed arms, constantly looking down at him, barely blinking, ready to pounce at him at any given moment.

"Pa…" she nudged her grandfather while sitting at the opposite side of the little, round table, but he was unmovable and only grunted as a reply.

Omega was not bothered by it as he took slow, deep breaths, enjoying the rising aroma of the brew in his mug. Closing his eyes, he was savoring it, a faint smile forming on his face before he reopened them.

"Coffee… yes?" Omega asked quietly, raising the mug to his lips.

"Yes." Sylen nodded. "Are you familiar with it then?"

"I don't know." he shook his head. "Only the smell… it… it triggered some faint but happy feelings inside of me. It is still hazy; I can't put it in words, but… I felt happy for a moment."

"You really don't remember who you are?" Sylen shifted her sitting posture, leaning forward, waiting for his answer while her tail wagged behind her like a mechanical fan, completely betraying her inner excitement.

"Not really." he nodded. "There are just… feelings in me. Hazy flashes of tiny, little fragments of memories. I can't call upon anything specific, but it comes to me naturally when I see something or hear something. If I know about it! Like the fact that I really like this." he tilted his head as he smiled again, taking another sip, fully satisfied with its taste.

"That must be hard… but…" she tried to find the words, but there were so many questions in her mind she was unsure where to even begin.

"There are some things I do remember, though." he continued to speak, between two small sips of coffee, "I feel like I had a long and horrible nightmare. I don't know if those are true memories or I just dreamt them, they feel… so distant by now! Yet I feel like I have just woken up from its horrors!" he explained with a quiet but trembling voice "Thinking about those… I wish I would not even remember them! I can recall those images, but they are not something I would want to speak about."

"Hmf, figures, probably a slaver or pirate! Or worse!" Miyon snorted, watching him, showing a stalwart exterior of himself, unafraid of the weird, supernatural being sitting before him.

"No… not really." Omega shook his head, putting down the cup, running his index finger around its edge, drawing circles. "It was like being trapped in a body that is no longer yours, screaming at a screen, at others, at yourself, but nobody can hear you. Not even yourself. Living as an automaton, trapped in your own mind… Minutes? Days? Years? None of it had any meaning. Everything became a blur, a mess. Slipping in and out, blink or just close your eyes for a moment and who knows how many years have just passed. Or was it only a few minutes? I couldn't tell anymore, " he murmured as his violet eyes were fixated on the coffee in the mug. As his finger drew circle after circle, the black liquid started to follow suit and swirl, just like a vortex, prompting Sylen and Miyon to look at each other. "Then I woke up." he snapped out of it, lifting his finger, blinking his eyes, and forming a small smile as he looked into Sylen's. "And now here I am."

"How did you survive in the vacuum of space? Without a spacesuit?" she asked after a minute of silence, taking in his words from before.

"I don't know." he shook his head in response. "I just can. My body simply… adapts. Like previously when your grandfather tried to turn me into one with the molten floor." he started to explain while he looked up at Miyon with a small smile but only received a serious staredown and the furrowings of his bushy eyebrows.

"It wasn't some ancient tech?!" Sylen asked again, almost standing up, wanting to know more.

"No." he raised his hands, "I have nothing on me, only this new overall your grandfather gave me!" He pulled on his orange jumpsuit that was way too short on his hands and legs, as he was taller than the two.

"We will get you something more comfortable!" Sylen chuckled, but then Omega just shook his head.

"No worries. I can deal with it." He said. Then he flicked his hand, and they saw the fabric stretching out as if it was growing naturally and soon changed its size into a perfect match for his body. "Much better!" he patted himself with satisfaction.

"How?" Sylen and Miyon asked at the same time.

"I… just can," Omega answered after a brief thought.

"Sure!" Sylen scoffed, looking at him with slanted eyes, sending clear messages that she was not happy with him keeping it a secret.

"Truly!" Omega sighed with a gentle smile. "I can't explain it; it would be like you trying to explain how you breathe! You don't even think about it; you just do."

"You are still a dangerous… thing! If you are so all-powerful, why not go back out into space and float away until-"

"Pa! Enough! You are way too… harsh!" her granddaughter reprimanded him, partly because she was interested in this strange human before them and partly because… "Wait…!" she flinched, catching her thoughts, her pupils enlarging and her eyes almost popping out of her head. "Are you a human?" she asked, gulping loudly, making her grandfather stumble.

"Yes. Kinda." Omega answered immediately, watching their faces pale, then red, then into a mix of the two colors. "What? Is that a problem?"

"Impossible!" Sylen stood up, slapping the table with two hands, making Omega's mug fall over and its content splash everywhere. "Humans went extinct a long ago!"

"Extinct…" Omega repeated the word, flinching, his face grimacing a little as a sharp pain flashed through his head, forcing him to grab onto it, squinting. "Did… we?" he asked, gasping for air more rapidly, surprising them, and Miyon already was dragging Sylen further away from the table.

"Tsk!" Sylen broke free from his grip, looking questioningly at her grandfather, touching Omega's head. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah…" he nodded, rubbing his temple. "It just… felt painful for a moment there."

"New memories?" she asked, pulling her hand back with a bit of shyness, watching him look up at her.

"No. Just… bad feelings." he shook his head. "But I am human. I know that."

"Let's test it!" Miyon stepped up. "We just need one drop of blood, and the computer can analyze it. If your genome is completely human, it can confirm your words!"

"How, if we really went extinct?" Omega asked, but he was not about to refuse it, just curious.

"There are hundreds of descendant species of humans!" Miyon said, hands on his waist, doubtful of the truthfulness of Omega's words, "Taking all the human parts, we long ago reconstructed the complete human genome, so if we find one, we could tell immediately!"

"Oh! Okay!" he nodded, following them into the medical station. When they left, the two did not see the fallen mug on the table standing back up, and the spilled coffee simply climbed up on its side, back to where it was initially, leaving no mess behind.

…
….
…..

"Rerun it!" Miyon gawked, but no matter how many times Sylen did, the results were the same. The little, bright, red droplet of blood in the analyzer was the same every time.

"Matching genetic markers. Constructing… analyzing. Match: Human." Sylen read it. "Pa, we run this four times already! It comes back the same every time!" she exclaimed with great excitement, almost jumping in place, while Omega just sat on the white bed at the side, looking at them with an amused smile. He couldn't get his eyes off Sylen's wagging tail, finding it too cute.

“B-but… but…” Miyon trembled, turning his head towards Omega, finding it hard to accept the facts before him.

"This is so awesome! You are human! Truly a human! Your DNA is perfect, clean of any mutations; our computer is still modifying our own data banks and calculations, and projections as yours are even more perfect than our own scientists initially ended up with! This is huuuuuge!" Sylen shouted, completely fired up, almost running circles in the infirmary, before stopping in front of Omega, looking him up and down. "A living, breathing ancestor! What happened?! Where did everyone go?! Are there more of you?!"

"Um…" Omega blinked his eyes, finding it awkward, seeing how ecstatic she was.

"Oh… sorry!" she suddenly stopped, hitting her forehead. "You don't remember!" then she leaned closer, whispering, "You really don't?"

"I really don't. I swear," he answered, also in a quiet voice, looking into her eyes.

"Haaahh… that is too bad! If the humans would come back, we could finally be at peace again!"

"There is a war?" Omega furrowed his brows.

"Not… officially." Miyon replied in the end, after he thought about it a little, "But we are not welcomed in most places. Some territories are openly hostile towards us; no others would step in and save us if we get attacked. Our borders are constantly prayed upon by pirates, slavers, and private armies. We are lucky that only three Astropaths are leading into our domain, and we established chokepoints there. In 500 years, no assembled army has passed our defensive platforms!"

"Sounds serious!" Omega crossed his arms, scratching his chin. "Is it really this bad?"

"We are banished from the galactic community!" Sylen shook her head. "It's our luck that there are just as many conflicts between the other species as there are human-like hybrids!" she smiled with a tinge of sadness. "If they would unify behind one cause and attack us all at once, we would be wiped out completely!"

"Thank the ancestors that they squabble over territories and tech all the time!" Miyon snorted. "It's not like we bother them or provoke them! We are not a warmonger bunch; we just want to live and be left alone!"

"I'd be happy to visit your territory to see it myself!" Omega spoke after listening to them.

"That would be great! A human, returning to us! A living ancestor! Many dreams of a day like that!" Sylen said, happily wagging her tail, ready to tell everyone about their incredible discovery.

"I'd prefer if I would not be… thrust into the forefront. Can we do that? Please?" Omega smiled, asking gently and clearly troubled by the notion, "I'd like to pass along like one of you, not some special trophy that needs to be paraded all around!"

“Ah… oh…” Sylen flinched. "Sorry, I was just… excited! I didn't mean it like that!"

"Not that it matters!" Miyon shrugged, dropping his shoulders. "We fell out from the Astropath; there is no entry point here! We can't get back in!" he sat down, feeling lost and defeated, quickly extinguishing his granddaughter's great mood.

"Why is that a problem?" Omega asked, not getting why they were so downcast suddenly.

"Heh!" Miyon chuckled, hearing his words from blissful ignorance. "The natural entry- and exit points of an Astropath are fixed in space! They are like tunnels through the fabric of reality, flowing only one way! As I mentioned, we have three Astropaths leading to our territory. There are seven that lead to the outside!"

"And?" he furrowed his brows again, still finding his explanation fuzzy and highly irrelevant.

"You can only enter an Astropath at its opening and come out from the end of it! If you try to enter from the other way around, your ship will be torn to shreds by the wild currents! They are the twistings and turnings of matter itself! Any ship that tried to ride it backward was obliterated!" Miyon tried to explain even better.

"And?" he asked again, drawing a playful chuckle from Sylen, but Miyon did not find it amusing.

"And that means you go into an Astropath at the opening and come out at the ending! You don't eat food with your butt! Get it?! We are stuck here! There are no openings here!"

"..." Sylen held back her laughter as it seemed her humor was still stuck at a younger phase.

"Why would you stick food into your butt?" Omega asked, truly confused now by his analogy. "You are not making any sense here! What does this weird food fetish have to do with the Astropaths?"

"Grrr!" Miyon growled loudly, flashing his canine teeth, getting really frustrated, and the now loud laughter of Sylen did not help at all. "It means we are stuck! In nowhere's land! We would need to go with our old, already half-empty thrusters, aiming toward the nearest system! And that would take decades, even if we had infinite fuel! Maybe even centuries, as this is not a fast ship! Our reserves would only be enough for a year and only if we only eat a little every few days! We are stranded out here and doomed to DIE!" he shouted in the end, gasping for air, desperate and angry, silencing her granddaughter's laughter, making her lower her head, only looking at the floor.

"No, we are not," Omega replied quickly, blinking his eyes and looking at Miyon as if he had forgotten something.

"What?" Sylen raised her head, and Miyon fell silent, holding back his breath, waiting for him to continue.

"I pulled you out; I can also send you back in," he said while standing up from the bed, smiling, walking past Miyon, patting his shoulder, and shaking him out from the shock he was feeling. "Come, let us depart!"