Shi Lang received the headings and other information and controlled his ship to move in that direction. After five minutes, the systems detected a base with a couple of spaceships docked inside. The communications sounded again, “You have been spotted, proceed to dock at bay three.”
Shi Lang replied, “Copy that.” and did as he was told. Earlier when the system detected the building, it also detected that the ship was locked on with all the weapons inside the base. it would be alike to say that he was neither frightened nor enraged.
He did not like to be at the hollow end of the guns, no matter what size. However, since he had come to this place where he had no jurisdiction, no authority, he had to swallow down his pride. The ship docked at the bay and he stood up from the seat. The person responsible for communication said, “Leave all your weapons, inside the ship and come out.”
Shi Lang raised his eyebrow and put down his handgun and knife inside the ship and left. As he came out of the ship, he found three people dressed in full combat gear standing in a distance with some unknown model of phaser gun at him. Shi Lan could tell that if he made a sudden move, these people will not hesitate to shoot.
The youngster slowly moved forward to the people. A person among the three said, “Raise your hands.”
Shi Lang gazed at him with a plain face and said, “No.”
Things had to be done within a limit. They locked on his ship with canons, had him give up his arms, and now he was being treated like a criminal. Might as well go ahead and shoot him and see if he cared.
The person was shocked and said, “I will not repeat.”
Shi Lang replied, “You can repeat as many times as you want but I will not budge. You are also Terran forces, yet you treat me like a criminal. Believe me, if not for the fact that this place is unknown to me and I am alone, I would have broken you piece by piece.” throughout his dialogue, the voice was calm and unmoved.
His eyes were cold and unfeeling. The person who asked Shi Lang to raise his hands raised his gun and aimed at him, but Shi Lang showed no movement in his defense. A ray of light flashed, yet Shi Lang stood there like a mountain. The ray of light was the phasor beam shot from the gun, it did not harm him but passed just two inches above his shoulder.
The person did not shoot again and lowered the gun. He said, “Follow us.”
Shi Lang nodded but did not speak. On the surface he was calm, but the moment that phasor beam flashed in his vision, his heart did skip a beat. Putting aside everything, he followed the people. They led him to the door at the side of the spaceport. They moved climbed a flight of stairs and the three men came to a stop.
The one in the lead pressed his thumb on the side panel of the door. The door opened and the man said, “Go in.”
Shi Lang nodded and entered the room, he had yet to register the room set when the door closed from outside. The dim light was not a problem for him. He could see that this place was more like a meeting room. At the end of the room, behind the table sat a man with a mask.
This was the person who told Shi Lang the coordinates to come over to this place. The man spoke in his muffled indifferent voice, “Welcome to Mythya.”
Shi Lang nodded gently and the man said, “I am X. This planet is our home base, Including the three people you saw outside, we have a population of fifty-one Terrans. Now with you taken in the count, we are fifty-two. You can ask questions now.”
“What is the purpose of this place?” asked Shi Lang without any second thought.
X raised his head and said, “The purpose of this place is to communicate with other forces.”
Shi Lang was surprised, “What do you mean by other forces?”
He could guess what the man meant but he would rather have this fact cleared. X replied, “Other forces means, other life forms that are capable of celestial conquest. These life forms could look like us, or a pet that you might have back home, but they are all strong enough to wage war with the federal empire.”
Shi Lang was shocked, he could not help but open his eyes wide. This information was never made public that there are forces, other than the Terran civilization that is capable of celestial conquest, and one day they might attack them. He could guess why they did not make it public, it would have caused a massive uproar through the whole planet and even frontier forces.
Shi Lang asked, “How do we interact with these forces?”
X replied, “Frontal and covert battles. Do you think we would have to come so far from home for diplomatic talks?”
The youngster shook his head and X continued, “You can go out, settle inside your room. You have the access to communication back home, but if you mentioned anything related to Mythya, to anyone, that person will be apprehended, and executed for the sake of security while you will be imprisoned for your whole life.”
Shi Lang did not listen to what he said as his head was still lost in the thoughts of other civilizations that were comparable to Terrans. He wanted to ask, how can a population of fifty-two people stand against the whole civilization, like this was too overpowered. Yet, no one back home knew about this.
X seemed to have seen through his thoughts and said, “You will know the rest in the future, for now. Go back to your room and rest. The journey was long. Even if you stayed back at the edge of the border to rest, it was not a complete one.”
Shi Lang was shocked again, how did this guy know about his rest at the edge? The youngster stood up with a lot of questions in his mind. He saluted the man and walked back to the door he came inside from. X pressed a button on the table and the door opened.
…
Outside the room, the three people led him to a room, and said, “This is where you will be living.” They upgraded his biometrics inside the system earlier when Shi Lang was talking to X. So the guy just had to place his hand on the scanner and the door opened. On the other side was a generic room. A bed, a table, a cupboard, and a washroom. No windows but a ventilation duct.
Shi Lang got inside and closed the door. He took off his clothes and united with the bed. As he was thinking about what the future will hold for him, his mind drifted to sleep.
…
Somewhere in the vast space, a huge warship was floating. Inside the warship, a secret meeting was being held. The host of this meeting was the first general of the Federation, General Edwards. The attendees were all his counterparts.
On the head chair, a middle-aged man with a sharp face sat, while gazing at all the attendees. One of them was Charlotte Knight. General Edwards said, “Neomons have agreed to the student exchange program. Any recommendations?”
Charlotte Knight asked, “How many slots do we have?”
Edwards said, “One.” his voice was calm.
The other generals began to discuss with each other. A man asked, “Sir, how many representatives does Neomons want to send over?”
Edwards only raised his finger, indicating the sign one. Charlotte Knight said, “Let X decide which one he wants to send over. The Card Class has better people than any of the proteges we can find.”
Edwards gazed at the others and they all nodded. After all, the card class was their trump. The first general nodded and said, “I will issue the commands after the meeting.”
Then they moved on to other topics. Edwards and Charlotte Knight sat quietly most of the time, after all, they had complete command of the sectors they were in charge of. After a couple of hours, the meeting was finished and the generals all disconnected their connections. They all attended the meeting digitally.
As Charlotte Knight was about to go, Edwards asked, “Your son-in-law, he made it to the Card Class.”
Charlotte frowned and asked, “So quickly? How?”
“He completed a SSS level task from his secret division to rescue his teammates. This was the first time they issued such a task. However, the boy did a splendid job and attracted X’s gaze.” said General Edwards.
Charlotte nodded and said, “If that boy knows, you were impressed by him, I would probably start walking upside down.”