Joe Maya…
He sat alone in the waiting area of interplanetary departures of Saiagon city spaceport. As the largest and most prosperous capital city of Vashara nobody noticed a thin lanky 10-year boy sitting with just a small backpack in the waiting area. Behind his round thick framed glasses his eyes were red.
At 154 cm he was tall for his age, long brown hair almost hiding his deep bottomless green eyes. He was wearing white loose t-shirt with black skinny jeans and white sneakers. If one paid attention, they would find it odd that a 10-year-old typing furiously long lines of codes on his top-of-the-line laptop. In this era very few people preferred laptops as most of the work can be done through individual VR/AR glasses powered by quantum processors. Unless one needed very high processing power or needed quantum communication nodes for intragalactic communications, rarely anyone used laptops. Although he was dressed plain, he leaked aura of cold and noble.
On the seat next to the boy there was a cube containing holographic picture of a boy and a girl. The girl slightly shorter than the boy was looking at the boy with pure admiration while the boy was holding a snow-white cat for the girl to pet. The boy in picture was Joe albeit 2 years younger than now. The girl was Agatha, Agatha Snow. She was the next-door Neighbour and daughter of best friend and business partner of his father. She had platinum white hair and blue eyes.
Suddenly an announcement was made. "All passengers flying via Concorde FTL ship AL-213 for Indraprastha city spsceport are to head towards gate number 23A for boarding. Thank you". Joe closed his laptop packed his back picked up the picture cube and kept it neatly in his laptop bag which was hovering next to him and proceeded towards 23A. A black haired tall and heavy built man in black t-shirt and jeans also got up and followed behind Joe. As he got up, he sent a short message 'Boarding' via his glasses.
Both of them boarded the 1st class cabin of Concorde. These ships were pride of Vashara being the fastest FTL ships of planet also capable of wormhole jumps. Still, it will take 10 hours to reach the destination. Sam was siting 2 rows behind Joe and as lift-off was completed, he glanced at Joe and closed his eyes. A beautiful flight attendant saw cute lanky boy sitting alone and fumbling with his laptop and out of pity asked, ''Do you need any help sir?". Boy looked up and was surprised, "N-N-No thank you… Can you get me a glass of water please ?". She replied, "Certainly sir.". After drinking a glass of water Joe continued working. All of the cabin crew tried to converse with this lonely boy trying to make him smile. But all their efforts were futile as he was lost in his world. Suddenly a 7-year-old cute boy peeked at Joe and then at his screen. He was very confused looking at the codes on the screen and asked, "Big brother, which game is this? Is it very difficult?". Hearing the question Joe smiled for the first time. Seeing him smiling, the cabin crew looking towards him, the boy were all dazed. It was as if the sun was shining, and angels were singing. It was such a pure and cute smile. Then Joe said, "Little brother, this game helps me make some money so I play this game. Otherwise, it is very boring to play. Little brother, which type of games do you like to play". He replied," I like to play Tetris and shooting games.". Joe laughed and asked the boy," what is your name?". boy replied, "My name is Ronald, but everyone calls me Ron." Joe said, "Ok Ron, would u like to play Tetris with me?", "Sure big brother. Big brother what is your name?". "My name is Joe. Let's play." So, the two boys started playing Tetris on laptop and everyone can see that boy was really 10-year-old and not a 20-year-old businessman. Concorde continued to fly towards its destination.
Soon the Concorde spaceship transitioned out of FTL travel and started moving towards a heavily guarded Eden star system. This was one of the core worlds of human civilization far away from the fights and wars of Erytharies.
Ship moved to a lane where a long line of big and small spaceships was moving towards a large blue green pristine looking planet called Indraprastha surrounded by heavy orbital defenses and grey colored psionic shield.
Star system initially 3 stars, but 2 of these stars were already utilized by humans for harvesting resource or energies. One star was covered in Dyson sphere which provided energy for the entire system. Another star was used purely for manufacturing purpose as it was surrounded by some of the largest shipyards known to humans. All these shipyards were owned by Trodeau family.
Soon another 10 hours passed, and flight landed on Indraprastha city spaceport. Joe reached arrival area completed his custom and Visa formalities. Sam was quietly following him with mild sympathy in his eyes. At the exit of airport 3 black sleek hover cars with 4 bodyguards and dignified elderly man and women were standing. Man was 185 cm tall slightly tanned with heavy build. He had Deep brown eyes that were as sharp as daggers. He was apparently calm, but his eyes were showing a hint of worry. Women next to her was very jittery holding hand of the man tightly, "Where is he? Did he board the ship? Will he be, OK? Will he get lost on the airport? Will someone kidnap him? If anything happened to him Sil then be prepared to sleep on couch forever.". Silvester (Sil) Trodeau visibly trembled at the threat of his wife. He was a business tycoon of Indraprastha planet respected as the topmost businessman and also a reputed retired general of army of Eden system. Eden was not as militarized and strict as Vashara, but it had abundance of industries, culture and natural resources. Silvester gently looked at his wife Sylvia Trodeau, held her hand softly, "Don't worry Honey, he has an IQ of 200 and is genius of his generation. He is very mature for his age. He will be fine.". Sylvia glared at Silvester making him awkward, "Sil he is just 10 years old, and you idiots made him travel alone in 20-hour long flight. I will beat James to death next time he sets foot in Indraprastha and make that bitch Jennifer suffer worse fate than death.", Silvester was visibly scared when he heard his ex-special agent wife and said, "Now, now Honey calm down everything will be fine. Samuel Black is following him from Vashara". Sylvia surprised, "Sam left Maya and Black family for Joe" .
Suddenly a tall lanky boy arrived in front of them and politely said "G-G-Grandfather, Grandmother sorry to make you wait. I am here." Looking at Joe, Sylvia cried "joe, my child" and hugged him tightly and tears started flowing from her eyes. Silvester rubbed the head of the boy with wet eyes and gruffly said, "welcome son."
The only son of her daughter who passed away last year was cast out by his new stepmother. Archon James could not even say a word to his new wife and sent his son packing back to his maternal family. Though his maternal family was much more relaxed and affluent than Maya family, Joe being an introvert was more comfortable with the militaristic culture of Vashara. He was thinking about his friends and training and even family which he had left behind at the same time he was filled with apprehension and excitement about what this journey will bring to him.