The door at the end of the unmarked corridor had a different design than the preceding automatic gates and doors the boy had seen throughout the facility.
It was a shade darker, more black than gray.
On the upper middle of the door, symbols were inscribed in the same alien language that he had observed earlier.
“Lab Commander Residence”
Looking at the title the boy asks.
“Who’s…the commander?”
He was teetering on the edge of collapse from exhaustion.
“Why of course that’s you lord Alfzaar. You’re the commander of this facility and artificer Orelia was your second in command.” Arya replies.
She was standing, or more like floating, on top of his shoulder.
He was standing close to the gate but unlike the ones from before this one remained shut.
“It’s…not…opening?”
“Yes, this gate is built to protect the most sensitive information only meant for lord Alfzaar’s and artificer Orelia’s eyes.”
The boy noticed she didn’t say “your eyes” but was too tired to ask about it. His first and foremost concern was water, then food, and then rest.
Even the information he had fought the rats over came second to these necessities right now.
Information was no use to him if he was dead.
“How…do we get it…to open.”
The feeling of numbness was returning and climbing over his legs. He felt sick to his stomach and his forehead felt damp with a mixture of blood and cold sweat.
He was familiar with these symptoms since he had experienced them in his previous life. They always came before he passed out, when he was in a really bad condition.
“To open this one, you have to place your hand on the panel on the door’s left and then after that let it scan your eye. There is a voice recognition mechanism as well but I think it has already picked up on your voice and then, finally, you have to give a tiny drop of drool or blood for the genetic identifier.”
“This Alfzaar dude…..is a paranoid fuck.”
The boy looks at the sides of the doors with his tired eyes, his brows furrowing from confusion.
“Where…is the…panel?”
“My you have forgotten everything haven’t you lord Alfzaar? The entire wall is the panel, you can place your hand anywhere.”
“How…very high techy.”
He places his hand on the wall, and digital light gray circles form on the surface around it.
They begin scanning his palm using some sort of high precision laser.
The analysis lasts for a few seconds, after which it gives out a light affirmative beep and the color of the digital circles change to green.
This change in color unlocks a small circular mechanism resembling a camera lens, that pops out of the wall on the right side of the door.
Without being asked the boy moves his head close to the lens like mechanism, aligning his eye with its surface.
He was aware of eye scanners since they were widely used to secure important secrets all over earth.
After a faint whirl of machinery and the lens emits a soft light directly into his pupil. Despite its intensity, the boy did not feel any discomfort.
He feels the light move across his retina, scanning it left to right.
When the light reaches the end of his eye it stops and the mechanism slides back into the wall.
He hears several more hums of machinery before another affirmative beep comes out of the wall.
“Great, now all that’s left is the genetic identifier.”
A slit smoothly opens in the high-tech wall where he had just placed his hand and a sleek compact platform slides out.
There was a curved indentation in the middle of the smooth black protrusion; aside from that there was nothing else attached to the platform----no sensors, arrays, or displays.
“Put a sample of your blood or drool in the curved space please.” Arya chimes in her cool and calm voice.
The boy scrapes blood off his forehead and deposits it into the required space.
The platform silently slides back into the wall and the slit closes with not even the faintest outline showing on the smooth polished wall.
The gray digital circles on the wall start rotating as the apparatus inside analyzes his DNA and after a few seconds he hears another affirmative beep come out of the wall.
The digital circles turn green again and a soft mechanical voice comes out of the wall as the door slides open.
“Welcome back lord Alfzaar.”
“Yeah…this alfzaar guy…is super paranoid.” The boy thinks to himself before carefully stepping through the door.
Arya floats in beside him.
Alfzaar’s personal quarter was aesthetically not that different from the rest of the lab in its minimalism. It was a large square shape, enclosed in the same pearl white smooth walls that he had seen in the central control chamber although currently they were painted red in the flaring light of the alarm. The ceiling and floor were of the same material and shade as the walls.
The room itself barely had any material possessions and was borderline empty except for a few items. The most prominent of these was the ultra-modern circular bed on the right end of the entrance. Just like the tables and chairs he had seen in the central control chamber the bed was suspended in the air without any support underneath.
Right next to the bed there was a narrow door that presumably led into Alfzaar’s personal bathroom.
On the left side of the square shaped room there was sleek white desk with a circular gap in the middle and a white futuristic chair floating behind it.
At first glance the chair behind the desk looked of the same design as the ones from the central control chamber but looking closely he could see that it was quite a bit larger, resembling the big leathery chairs of every superior he had interacted with on earth.
On the left of the table and chair there was a transparent wall that had smaller transparent cannisters inside. These cannisters were filled with the same viscous greenish liquid he had seen in the purification chamber.
“So, this is lord Alfzaar’s personal chamber.” Arya remarks with her calm voice while looking around.
“You’ve…never been in…here?” The boy asks a little surprised.
“I have sensors inside the room just like the whole facility but I’ve never had clearance to be here. I also have no access to the panels and information inside this room for the same reason. This was in the event of a complete takeover of the facility, if by some small chance intruders were able to hack my central OS then they would not be able to access the most sensitive information.”
Arya floats around the room while talking.
“It’s a security measure above a security measure. Of course, if people tried accessing this chamber by force, then the panel inside would self-destruct, destroying all traces of information.”
“He…must be up to some……really heinous shit.”
Despite his exhaustion the boy felt the stirrings of curiosity flicker in his tired mind. A big chunk of his life back on earth was spent searching for classified and sensitive information of all kinds.
A person can leave the infiltration specialist life behind but getting the infiltration specialist out of the person was another matter entirely.
Suddenly his parched throat causes some irritation that leads to a violent cough, as if it were reminding him of its presence.
Seeing him coughing hoarsely, Arya whirls across the room to the front of the transparent wall beside the desk.
“Come and drink this Vitarya lord Alfzaar.”
Coughing loudly, the boy shuffles across the room toward her.
Standing at the front of the transparent display, he looks at the liquid enclosed inside the see through cannisters.
“This…is safe to…drink?”
“Safe to drink? This is the source of nourishment for most life on this planet. It is called vitrya and not only does it satiate thirst but also hunger as well.”
“Wasn’t it…in the…purification chamber…below the….dark ooze…in the…tubes.”
It was getting harder and more painful to talk.
“Yes, it is made from the dark essence infecting these lands but purified and safe to consume.”
The boy glances at Arya then back at the cannisters with a furrowed brow.
“It’s made from the dark liquid?”
Despite his reservations the clear greenish liquid inside the cannisters looked inviting and appetizing. Looking at the potential food inside the display, his stomach grumbles loudly.
“Well go on then take a cannister.”
“*sigh* If its food for everyone else then its food for me too I guess. When in rome do as the romans do.”
He places a hand on the glass like display and it slides silently into the wall beside it.
Feeling cool air flow out of the enclosed space, he grabs one of the cannisters. It was as big as a 16 oz water bottle and felt cool to the touch.
But unlike a water bottle the top part of the cannister was some hard square shaped black material.
He looks at Arya quizzically and she answers.
“Just bring it up to your mouth and a nozzle will come out automatically.”
Following her directions, he brings the upper black part of the cannister to his lips and a nozzle indeed pops out.
He takes the nozzle into his mouth and glances at Arya.
She nods at him expectantly.
A little hesitantly, he sips some of the vatrya.
It feels tasteless but cool and refreshing. The vatriya flows down his parched throat, spreading its coolness throughout his body.
The sensation felt exhilarating.
Immediately he starts consuming the cool vatriya greedily, taking giant gulps from the cannister.
He could feel the refreshing cool liquid heal his parched throat.
“Be careful lord Alfzaar, a single cannister contains enough calories to feed ten adults for a day while a single gulp has enough water inside to keep one adult hydrated for the entire day.”
The boy ignores her protests and continues drinking.
Vatriya was tasteless like water but unlike water it felt much heavier in his stomach.
Finishing the cannister to its last drop, the boy exhales loudly.
“God damn…that hit the spot!”
He could feel his parched throat recover, happy to be hydrated while his stomach felt full and satisfied.
Looking at Arya he remarks.
“Vatriya is….awesome.”
Arya smiles in response and replies.
“I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it.”
After filling his body with water and nourishment, the boy feels intense drowsiness creep over his mind.
He looks over to the beckoning floating bed and makes his way toward it.
However, just as he is about to jump onto it, Arya floats into his path.
“Uh uh uh aren’t you forgetting something lord Alfzaar?”
A little irritated at the interruption he asks with an irate tone.
“What?”
Arya motions to his face and body.
“Your skin is coated with dust, blood, and sweat. You’re really dirty. There’s a bathroom right through the door next to the bed, please clean yourself up properly.”
Feeling too tired to do anything the boy was about to object when all of a sudden Arya said something that changed his mind
“If you don’t believe me then you can see for yourself in the mirror.”
“A mirror?!” The boy exclaims before shuffling toward the bathroom.
From the moment he had opened his eyes in this world he had just kind of accepted that he was in the body of a child because there was no other choice.
But that did not mean he wasn’t curious about this new body.
For start, he didn’t even know what he looked like.
The door to the bathroom slides open silently, revealing a spacious chamber that featured only shades of white and matte gray.
As the boy enters inside motion sensors seamlessly activate the room’s lighting, bathing it in a soft glow that emanate from hidden panels in the ceiling.
Reminiscent of the bathrooms on earth, there was a sink, a toilet, and presumably what looked like a shower section, however, they were embedded with the sophisticated technology that he had seen throughout the facility.
The toilet looked pristine and had armrests on its side. There were holographic screens floating in front of it.
The sink featured a high-tech faucet with sensors. When he extended his hand it not only dispensed water automatically but also blew air to dry it afterward.
Unlike the sink and toilet, the shower appeared to be the least familiar part of the bathroom. It was a sleek, cylindrical pod in the corner. On a closer look he could see countless sensors and displays inside its walls. A massive showerhead was in its top underside.
All sanitaryware like everything else he had seen were made from pearlescent polished white chrome.
As the boy looked around the bathroom Arya explained excitedly.
“The shower automatically adjusts the water pressure, temperature, and can even produce aromatherapy scents. There are micro exfoliating nano-particles infused with the water that can cleanse and rejuvenate the skin.”
“I thought…you’ve never been in here?”
“I don’t have access to the information inside lord Alfzaar’s terminal but other than that there is no space inside this facility that I am not aware of.”
“Okay, but where is…the mirror?”
“Right this way of course.”
She motioned toward the high-tech sink.
There was nothing above the sink, just an empty bathroom wall.
Standing in front of the wall, he looks at Arya with a mixture of a confused and annoyed expression.
“You really have forgotten everything lord Alfzaar, you have to say mirror.”
“uhhh Mirror?”
Immediately a hologram materializes in front of him, showing his reflection. It was a holographic mirror with various displays on its sides.
“The mirror can read the eyes and complexion to analyze health condition. It can also simulate different lighting conditions to help its occupant choose their ideal appearance!”
However, the boy had stopped listening, his attention was entirely focused on his face which he was looking at for the first time.
He had dark silver hair that looked to have been tousled by a strong breeze. They were casually swept back from his forehead with a few loose strands that cascaded forward from the crown.
His complexion looked as if he had never been touched by the sun his whole life. Despite being streaked with blood and dirt, his skin looked as if it were made of porcelain.
His ears were slightly pointed at the top. They were noticeably different than the round human ears of earth although one might not catch them at a first glance.
However, the most bizarre aspect of his appearance were his eyes. The pupils were glowing and dilated well beyond a normal human’s eye. They took up most of the space in his eyes with the irises only being faint outlines around them.
And if that wasn’t weird enough the pupils were glowing with a perpetually changing color. They were like pools of liquid color, constantly shifting and swirling, as if the entire spectrum of light danced within his gaze.
Looking at his reflection, the boy was shocked.
It wasn’t just because of the unusual hair color, the unnatural complexion, or the glowing dilated eyes. It was because if you took away the unnatural aspects then this face was very similar to his own, the one he had in his past life.
He did not remember the exact details of what he looked like when he was eight years old on earth but this face was giving him flashbacks of his old life.
“I’ve got the same face as when I was a kid on earth. What is happening here? Is this kid some kind of an alternate version of me?”
Different scenarios and thoughts were churning inside the boy’s mind only to be interrupted by a question from Arya.
“Are you alright lord Alfzaar, you look as if you’ve seen a darkling.”
Still staring at his reflection, the boy replies.
“No, it’s nothing. At least nothing…..I can find out about right now. All the questions are going to come after a much-needed shower and rest.”
Turning around to look at Arya he asks.
“By the way…do you happen to know how can I…remove this bodysuit? I don’t see any zippers or buttons.”
