Very few people on the entire Earth have the opportunity to see the planet itself. To understand its vastness but also how small it is within the vacuum of space. Sora was one of those lucky few, well in his case it was beyond lucky. It was a dream. He stood by the window on the bridge and watched the mountains of Japan disappear as he went higher and higher. Then he saw the entire island, then the large continents and their blue oceans. Once they went past the atmosphere and was far enough, the big blue world he had lived on showed itself. With one side being bright, the other side being dark. His hands and feet felt slightly tingly. Was it fear? Or excitement? Or perhaps both. Even Sora didn't know how he felt. But for him, he loved it.
They were now a distance away from the Earth, which was getting smaller and smaller as they flew further away. The ship was going much faster than he thought, because the rate the Earth's view shrunk was pretty quick. It only took a few minutes for the planet to disappear from view. As if sensing his melancholic state, Maro floated up from the console and merely waited by Sora's side.
Outside's view soon became slightly distorted before becoming a light show of streams of rainbows. One could almost get mesmerized by such a scene. It took a moment before Sora could take his eyes away from view. It was beautiful to look at but straining to see so many lights. He then turned to Maro.
"Alright Maro. Start explaining everything more clearly this time. From the beginning." He said.
Maro explained he was basically an extremely advanced AI device that utilized both scientific and psionic technology, to a high level. Sora wasn't exactly well-versed in science. He only understood that the ship was capable of using Dark Matter and Energy, while also combining psionic technology. Something that was still quite rare in the galaxies.
He recounted the history of the Athalri. In short, they had an internal power struggle that caused too much damage to everything. Planets became unstable and inhabitable, economies and societies collapsed within weeks. To the point where they all died before they could expand toward other galaxies. However, they advanced through almost every scientific field to the point of being able harness Dark Matter and Energy. While they lacked in other aspects, researching and developing their technology and biology to an incredible degree. At one point they were able to genetically alter themselves, and were able to create a unique gene that allowed them Psionic capabilities. However it was difficult to awaken, as only 1 in 1 quadrillion were able to utilize their gene.
Even the Athalri knew of their coming extinction. Their people could not reproduce quick enough, all habitable planets within reach had become barren, and in the end disease broke out, spreading to every corner and wiping them all out. But before they all died out, the last remaining leaders used whatever resources they can to send out 'seeds'. The Athalri were humanoids, a race that had a very similar biology to the humans on earth. These seeds were sent out to known star systems that had signs of humanoid races. Hoping that these seeds would be able to spread and grow among the population.
The last surviving person of the Athalri was a scientist who did not leave anything behind about himself. Maro did not know the exact reason, but it assumes that the scientist did not think about leaving any type of 'will' behind, as was more focused on completing his work. From how Maro described this race, it seems they were not very cultural in general. They did not care for much besides knowledge, technology and research. And one of the most difficult subjects was Psionic powers. The ability to utilize your mind to project a power that can manipulate reality. It almost sounded like a fantasy novel…
Once the scientists completed his work of combining technology with psionic power, a new field of science was created where both the world of science and psychics become one. The ship they were on was the final product of the scientist's life's work. His blood, sweat, tears and soul were poured into this ship, creating something unlike any other.
First this ship was capable of cloaking. How it worked he didn't quite understand, but apparently it was equivalent to taking space and folding a thin blanket over the ship. Making it hide its sight, sound, heat and did not emit any type of signal. Basically making it like it did not exist in space. But it only works when the ship is not using its weapons systems and a low energy output. Meaning it can only use the basic and lowest settings to operate and use the cloaking to make it effective.
The other thing was the Sanctum, it was basically an archive of everything the Athalri learned, collected, and developed in their civilization. Not only knowledge, but also artifacts, resources and facilities that allowed him to be self-sufficient. There was always a possibility that 'unworthy' individuals might happen on the sanctum, so there was an extra safety feature, the gene. The Psionic gene acted as a key to the locks on all the things the Scientist created and left behind. Without, everything was a dead device and empty shell.
The last thing that the Scientist left behind was Maro, a special AI unit that was based on Psionic power. Maro's ball form was actually a special device that was made from a unique stone that was capable of storing and enhancing Psionic power. Maro was made with the intention of being an all purpose unit, capable of helping Sora in any situation. This was possible by having Maro travel through the locations of each seed in various galaxies to not only comb through the worlds to find an awakened Psionic Athalri gene, but also learn more about the current events and gain knowledge outside of what they had.
Maro was pretty much a galactic G**gle. Anything that Sora needed to know, Maro most likely had the answer.
"I am at your service Sora-sama." Maro declared, with a hint of pride in its voice. Sora chuckled and smiled while taking a look around the bridge. Everything felt like a dream, as if he could wake up at any moment and be back to the everyday boring life. But now he was the first on Earth to truly travel the stars. Reaching other galaxies, meeting different species, races, planets and stars. Almost made him go giddy with joy. They were already going toward the sanctum, and started the entire journey. There was no point in looking back now. From here on out was the adventure of a lifetime.
"Alright. I'm guessing it's going to take some time to get to the sanctum. How long till we get there?" He asked.
"The Sanctum is located in the Virellion Galaxy. A galaxy located approximately 100 billion light years away. Normally such a distance would take an extraordinary amount of time. However this ship is capable of traveling using both Dark Matter and Psionic capabilities. Thus making the trip only a month's worth of time." Maro explained.
"I don't really know much but even that sounds fast to me. But a month huh? I don't know if that's a long time or short time. But it gives me plenty of time to explore and learn stuff. I wanna check out the ship since we're free. But man. The size of this thing is pretty big and makes me wanna explore." Sora said clearly, feeling ready to go. Maro merely agreed and followed him and guided him, explaining the various sections of the ship. With the ship full activated now, Maro explained that the ship also has an elevator which they could now use. And started head down from the bridge.
First off, there were 3 decks on the ship. The upper deck was where the bridge was located. The upper deck was the smallest portion of the deck with it having only the bridge. But the bridge itself was relatively spacious, where you could fit more seats if you wanted. The bridge had 5 seats for crew members, to help operate the ship. In the Athalri civilization, ships of this size were meant to be piloted by the captains. Especially with the additional use of psionic power. The other seats were for subpilot, communications and operations jobs.
They went down to the middle deck, which was where the main living section was, including a training room and medical room. Coming out of the elevator you could see the main living section straight ahead. To the left was the medical bay and the right was the training room. The medical was what you expect: a futuristic medical room on a spaceship. Several beds, cabinets full of medicine, and devices Sora had zero clue on what it did or how it worked. The most noticeable part would be 3 large vats in the far back.
The training room was also pretty spacious and wide. The mat on the ground was a strange material that wasn't similar to anything on earth. It was firm when you walked on it and moved but when you fell on it you didn't feel much force or pain, as if it absorbed all of it. By the walls were types of exercise machines that let you train various parts of your body like a normal gym, only more high tech. There was a wall of handles and sticks that could be used as sparing weapons. The handles could be either a blade that could extend depending on the setting, or even a shield. The sticks were for spears and the like. When you turned them on the metal itself would extend and transform into the weapon you set.
There were a total of 9 rooms placed around the main living area and kitchen. The room was mainly empty with no furniture even though it was spacious. Just a basic table and chairs, with the kitchen looking nothing like a normal kitchen. There was no stove, only a food heater that was pretty much a futuristic microwave and a large fridge-like cabinet with a bunch of drawers that were empty. Instead of a stove there was a big box like device on the counter on the walls. There was a large monitor on the front with a little conveyor on the left like it was meant to dispense something. But the monitor didn't show any items, so he assumed it must be out of whatever it usually had. There was also a long rectangular counter top in front of the kitchen area, where something like a sink was in the middle. It had no handle and was just a faucet head that turned on and off without touching it. There was some kind of paste in a container, but he didn't mess with that because it didn't look appealing at all.
8 of the rooms were decent sized just shaped a bit different depending on where they were. But the largest room was the Captains Quarters, or his room to be precise. It was located on the front of the ship and had two side windows. The bed was in the center of the backwall. Like the main living area and kitchen, it was empty besides the bed like every other room. Each room had their own little closet and a bathroom. Sora found it strange that the bathroom was quite familiar to a bathroom on earth. But he didn't think too long about it before moving on to the next place.
Finally was the lower deck, where the work was done and things were stored. The lower deck had the cargo hold, extra storage, armory, a workshop, and other important rooms like engine room and utility. Since Sora didn't have any knowledge or experience in science or engineering, there wasn't much for him to see in those rooms. But the cargo hold was already something he had seen. A large empty room to hold large supplies such as minerals from asteroids, or crates of supplies. It was where the droids were actually called Salvage Drones, were also stored. One of them helped him bring his stuff when he first got on. According to Maro, these drones were meant to be the heavy lifters of the ship. Anything under a certain max weight was their job to carry and move. They have the ability to move in space and mine or cut materials to bring back to the ship.
The armory was probably the only place that had some items in it. The first noticeable item was a large armor suit placed in the center of the room. Every part of the wall either had a weapon mount or shelf. Only one part of the wall had weapons mounted on them though, the rest were empty. Sora went up to the armor in the middle of the room. The design of the armor was pretty similar to a knights armor, with the only difference being the purple glow coming from it. The back even had some kind of stumps coming out the back, like wings should be there. Its size was twice the size of a person.
Turning his attention toward the weapons, he saw there were some familiar shapes and strange ones. A handgun-like weapon was mounted on the wall along with a rifle-like gun. Like everything else, futuristic design with additional attachments that were unknown. The next thing were 2 sticks that a neon purple line in the center. Sora didn't want to mess with anything since he wasn't experienced in using anything. More importantly he was afraid he might hurt himself because he didn't know how to use them.
With that, all the main rooms were explored. Sora was now just wandering aimlessly checking random things out. He eventually got hungry and went to get food out of the wagon and bags, bringing up to the living area to store. When he was out shopping for food and supplies, he chose ones that would last for long periods of time. Canned, dried, vacuum sealed and instant meals.
A cup of ramen was always a good go-to, to fill one's belly. At least for Sora it was, since this was his comfort food. He took a look around and there wasn't anything like a water heater anywhere. So he took out a burner and a mini propane tank to heat up some water. He was taking out a stove when Maro floated next to him.
"You are preparing to boil water to eat this, 'ramen' cup correct?" Maro asked.
"Yup, nothing like a ramen cup after a long day." He said as he got everything ready.
"I understand. However, I believe the ship's food processor should be able to provide sufficient nutrients."
"Are you talking about that paste I saw earlier? No thanks. See, Earthlings have grown to have a need for good tasting food as part of our lives. Its not just for nutrients for the body, it's a blessing for the heart! In my 25 years of life, only food, beer and games kept me sane. Now, it's my luxury." Sora said proudly as he took out a beer and placed it in front of Maro on the counter. Maro was watching from the other side of the rectangular counter and observing every moment and expression that Sora made and said.
Then Maro floated over to the stockpile of drinks and food Sora brought up. One of each drink and food item began to float around Maro who brought over the items to the box machine he saw before. Sora was actually more focused on the fact that Maro was able to make things float.
'Must be the psionic power Maro keeps mentioning. Basically telekinesis huh? Neat.' Sora thought to himself.
Maro's body shimmered and the machine started to turn on. A hatch on the side opened with a tray that slid out. Maro started opening the contents one by one and putting each thing into the machine separately.
"Hey wait! What are you doing, that's my supply!?" Sora exclaimed when it felt like Maro was wasting his precious supply of goods. Seeing Sora move to stop Maro, it blocked his path.
"Please wait. This machine is intended to expand the amount of items you have in a more convenient manner. I assure you that the results will at least be satisfactory." Maro explained as it went back to putting more stuff into the machine.
"Alright, fine! But seriously. You need to talk to me first before you just do things. It stresses me out when you just suddenly do shocking stuff." Sora complained but stood back and watched Maro work its magic. After all, he was also curious about the machine and what it did.
"… I understand. I will be sure to discuss these matters with you before performing any action." Maro sounded a bit quieter than usual to Sora. He wasn't sure if he heard right or maybe he heard wrong. In any case Maro continued to do its work and put things in the machine. The screen started to light up and different images popped up then disappeared. After everything was put in it stopped making noise from the inside. Surprisingly there were images that looked like the stuff that Maro put in, and not only that, they were even organized into categories.
"This device was intended to recreate provisions of any kind once imputed and analyzed. Using a special biopaste made here on the ship. So you may recreate any meal you wish so long as you have a sample for it to analyze."
Hearing this, Sora wanted to try using it. With new options on the monitor, he was able to see an option for boiling water which he used to pour into the ramen cup. Then poured that ramen cup back into the machine. This was in the hopes of getting ready made ramen without the need of making it again. Several noises came from it then the conveyor started to move. A metal bowl came out with ready made ramen already piping hot. He took the bowl close to mouth and used chopsticks he prepared to eat the ramen. The taste, texture, the warmth and comfort. There was no doubt that it taste exactly likeHis eyes began to sparkle to awe then turned to the machine.
"This is by far one of the best thing I encountered on so far. Damn! If I knew it would be like this I would have bought more snacks!" Sora knelt and shed a single tear. But for some reason he felt a gaze that made him feel slightly cold. When he turned, he only saw Maro floating.
'Is, is it mad? I can't tell. But I feel like I said something I shouldn't.'
"O… oh yeah… Yknow Maro you're pretty cool to, especially how you can basically do everything in this place." Sora said while trying to smile.
"Thank you for your compliment, Sora-sama." Maro responded, almost cheerful.
'I guess it also has feelings too. I gotta watch what I say.' Sora left out a breath of relief. Sora left and went into his room with his food. He wanted to watch the scene outside of the ship from his room.
Once the meal was finished and he enjoyed enough of the light show, he turned in for the day. Closing the shades to block the light, Sora laid in the bed and drifted off into sleep pretty quickly. Maro went over by a nightstand that was part of the wall by the bed. It moved and landed down while the light from its body dimmed.
"Sleep well Sora-sama." Maro said.
Then the ship was silent.