Back in the workhouses, the children would often play. Tim was no different. He played with them. Yes, he was slightly aloof than most kids his age. But cramped walls and cold rooms always pave ways for people to warm-up against each other, both literally and figuratively. He didn’t even remember what sort of game they were playing. But it needed a ball, they had one of course, a very bright blue one. They were about no less than a dozen children playing around the then unfinished roadside. The construction workers were cross-browed looking at their uncaring laughter. It was a quirk, of sorts, that kids don’t really listen to adults. Especially if they don’t give a very convincing reason not to do something.
It was to their delight when the ball finally bounced too hard and fell over an open barrel of tar.
Tim was quick to try and catch it, but when it landed into the still boiling barrel there was little he could do to save it. But, other than the horrible plastic-like stench stabbing his nose, the young boy couldn’t help look at the bright blue ball slowly dipping against the blackness of the barrel’s contents. It was a very inconsequential memory, something most men his age would bury under. Yet, the memory hit Tim like a truck when he was looking at Earthland. It looked exactly like the bright blue ball they had, even if Tim knew that ‘ball’ was his whole world up until a moment ago. Tim could only stare.
Tim had his brows furrowed the entire time he was looking at the complete darkness of the scene before him, yet his eyes had not blinked for more than a minute now, looking at the single orb painted with milky white clouds alongside the distinct green and blue, half dipped into the darkness. He was enamored, belittled, and humbled all at once. He wanted to pinch his cheeks. But there was a gulf on the surface of the planet he was looking at, it was a gulf with tightly contested territories by Desierto, Bellum, Sin and Pergrande, it was not something he could easily write off as a dream. Tim could only stare.
Tim’s father always read to him the story of the six brave wizards built an interstellar capsule shaped like a bullet and shot the moon. It was the first bedtime story he had ever heard and, even as his father read the story to death, he would always listen to him talk about it, night after night.
“I’m in space.” He finally said between two deep breaths.
Part of the milk dipped cloudy surface of Earthland cleared and the young man could now see Fiore. Looking the world over like this, without the arbitrarily drawn borders, made Tim relax. Tim couldn’t see where Fiore ended and Bosco began, where Bosco ended and Stella and Iceberg began. He imagined the maps he read, but even that paved way to the sheer oneness of everything, seeing everything so interconnected. Tim was never one who thought of the bigger picture, the scale of industry, politics, faith, nor the whims of anyone powerful enough with the sway of the former. He tried though, much to the frustration that led him. Tim never was a man who begrudged someone over their beliefs or origins, and the recent series of unfortunate events that forced him to do so only led him to needless hate. It even led him to needlessly argue with someone he should have work with from the get-go. In the end, such a mindset left him tired.
“Even our little parting was a bit awkward.” Tim shrugged. Then again, he’d never been good with people. “Once the job’s done, we never really had anything else to talk about, huh.”
The last time he tried to make idle conversation, with someone he wasn’t already close with, out of topic from the job it ended up a heated mess. And not the brazen kind.
“The parting gift from that job wasn’t bad though.” Tim huffed a laugh as he scratched his cheek, but quickly shook his head.
He was setting a horrible awareness for someone who, for all he knew, was in enemy territory. Though, his guard a little lowered was not without reason. Just a quick turn away from the transparent wall and Tim’s entire view was replaced with a room of warm cream-colored lights, smooth walls and wooden flooring. The area was large enough to be its own house yet it was furnished with things that halved the place between a lounge and a small dining room. A curved staircase crawled up into a mezzanine that contained a bed Tim’s oversized wolf companion would love to roll around, at least, when he wasn’t there to see. It was a penthouse-like place ripped straight off a starred hotel, or something his old room would look had he kept living his old life.
Tim shook his head again.
He was being more melancholic than usual, something that made him frown. He turned back to the view of Earthland, but this time tried to figure out what was up with the wall he was looking at. This was far from glass, and it didn’t feel like the screen from his iLac. It was hard. Tim took a step back and adjusted Servant’s tie and gloves. His cat-themed butler uniform-slash-armor was spick and span, but Tim wasn’t above wrinkling it to be able to go home.
He took a stance, cocked his fists up and landed a solid blow. And another. And another. And, before he landed a fourth, he stopped.
Tim looked around, trying to listen how his blows reverberated across the facility. Whatever this place was, it was big. The shockwaves from his blows were strong enough that even a few seconds after the third blow was struck it was still vibrating across everything, but the horrifying realization dawned over Tim. The place was so vast the shockwaves were more than a few seconds, now complete silent, yet he still had the feeling it wasn’t because the vibrations stopped. Another second passed and the vibration finally bounced back!
“No longer than a few kilometers?” Tim, wide eyed, stepped closer towards the wall he just slugged. It was spotless, still showing the view of Earthland. “What the heck is this place…?”
“01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00111111—brrt—skrrt—ello…? Hello?” An annoying noise screeched but was then overlapped by a voice that echoed throughout the room, sounding like it was from a speaker. The voice sounded oddly cheerful, almost comically. “Ah, a reaction! It took some time, but it finally calibrated. Greetings, Mr. Timόtheos! Now, this might come as a surprise but you are now inside an interstellar vessel—but do not be alarmed! I do not plan on taking your time for too long. In fact, I am currently standing by right beside Earthland’s moon to ease any worry on your part. Miss Delight has told me and I am infinitely grateful for your assistance—”
“Who’re you?”
“I am…Samsa?”
“Sams—who?” Tim quirked a brow. “Am I supposed to know you just from that?”
“W-well, yes. I beamed you up here along with your partner at our scheduled time.”
“You mentioned a Miss Delight…”
“You…don’t know who she is.” That sounded almost a mutter. “She said you were family…”
Tim didn’t answer, there were a lot of things not making sense. But where he was and what this place was, at least, was something he now knew. An interstellar vessel, a space ship. It was right out of the story he was just reminiscing! Tim narrowed his eyes when he noted the other thing the disembodied voice said.
“Partner?”
