Home sweet home. And even sweeter...

“Transfer complete. Analysis performed. Five hundred and seventy eight golden years were deposited into your account.”

I had the money to upgrade regeneration and that was exactly what I did. I could’ve chosen my memory instead, climbing the bureaucratic ladder, but I didn’t want to rely on rules to keep me alive. Regeneration was the beginning of a path to self-sustainability and I wanted it. I lived under other people’s mercy my whole life, teaching while power shifted as heroes and villains rose to their path for supremacy. For now I still must watch from the sidelines, but that wouldn't always be the case.

Three days have passed since I asked for our records to be reviewed. As expected, Julia was thoroughly analyzing them as we speak. And by thoroughly analyzing, I meant they were already shredded and on their way to the Legionnaires recycling facilities. Even though I didn’t have to, I made sure that I stopped by to give her a box of chocolates. Thank god she had a sweet tooth. She told me her panties were off limits as she took the box from my hands, which I guess it’s her way of saying thanks.

Nonetheless, she gave me even more guides and commentary to read. This time manuals from other powereds were also among them. A normal person would take months to go through everything let alone understand it, but I had some cards up my sleeve.

Sweeney wasn’t talking to me. That was until she received six boxes of honey buns and now every time I walked past her she gave me a thumbs up and said ‘you are a stand up guy.’ Sweets were the way to both of my foul-mouthed colleagues so far, I just hoped my luck would hold up to my other endeavors as well.

During the time-capsule I shot at things and kneaded as much as I could. When I was fed up with both of them, I would read what Oberyn and Julia gave to me. I was slowly getting better, but I still needed more time and more money. The monetary part of this equation I was hoping to solve today by participating in my first meeting as an employee from The Company.

Laying in my bed I felt jittery thinking about the hurdle I have yet to overcome. But as time went on, it was getting harder to fight off my sleepiness. My eyes were getting heavy, trying to win over my anxiety. My eyelashes closed once and I shook my head dreading the moment. My eyelashes closed twice...

Suddenly I was at a rectangular table. Fifteen people around me, only three of them looked human. I was using my official suit and I saw the same attire in a colleague on the other side of the room. He was a white bald man with one of those long mustaches that escaped his own face, playing dangerously between being a beard or an elongated mustache, perhaps it was both. The tip of the beardstache was braided. My beardstached chubby coworker was seated in a round chair, his legs dangling.

I didn’t know why the scene looked funny. It might be that he was on the head seat of the table and the egg look of his chair didn’t help any. Thankfully, I was able to hide my amusement. His seat had the same format as the one Cedric was in when we last met, but this one had a purple color on its rim, grey plates all around it with half circles on the center.

Matching our seats, the whole decor looked futuristic. As far as I could tell, we were in some kind of spaceship. The windows held all types of geometric shapes, filling the room from all angles. Outside a majestic assembly of constellations passed us by.

Even though some part of me knew that I was still in my bedroom, I couldn’t help but feel this mixed emotions that rose from the loneliness of the universe and the edginess of the last frontier. It felt good to be here, in an intimate and powerful way. My life was heading to something that I could never have dreamed of and I knew that I would never be the same again.

Beardstache rose from his seat, only half of his chest stood over the table.

“Counselors,” he nodded to the people on his right. “Friends,” he nodded to the people on his left. As he did so he glanced at me and winked. His warm smile seemed out of place in a setting like this. He reminded me of that hillbilly uncle that cracked inappropriate jokes at dinner parties, not someone who would conduct an intergalactic meeting. I dipped my head in acknowledgement and he continued.

“As most of you already know, my name is Olivier Stone, but I’m better known as Gekko. It is a pleasure to have you all here. We spent a great deal of time and resources for this meeting alone, but I’m glad to see this dream coming into fruition.”

A lot of murmurs, cackles and other strange noises echoed around the table. Even though the sounds were new to me, their intention was easy to grasp. Gekko had influence and it showed.

Without skipping a beat, he continued.

“I know we are here today for different reasons. Some are chasing recognition. Some are chasing power…” He looked upon a tall pink alien on his side, dressed in a caramel vest. “Some are chasing knowledge. But there is much more at play here than just our own selfish desires”

“We stand together today to celebrate friendship, to celebrate life, to celebrate love. Poverty, sickness and death roamed this tiny blue planet for far too long, but finally we have permission to help. Together we can build a better place for our brothers and sisters, a planet where none shall suffer. I only ask for the help of our deemed guests.”

A tall lime-skinned creature was the first to comment. “Surely we would like to help. We are all friends after all. But we must help many other emerging planets besides Earth, so we must be careful.”

His voice was calm and soothing, no different than a human, but its eyes were huge, reminding me of ostrich eggs. They were completely dark with no irises, leaving nothing to focus on.

“You my friend are a builder and a dreamer, but much more the former than the letter.” The being chuckled, shaking his elbows. His clothes fitted like an oversized armor. His ostrich eyes showed color on its bottom, like the dye was tainting the abyss. “And the practicalities of this titanic endeavor are not a priority for you.” The being shook his oversized head, chuckling. The indigo dye in it’s eye turned to liliac, something made me think that the way the colors shifted inside his eyes were somehow connected to his emotions. Gekko retorted and they delved into a friendly but heated conversation.

As the discussion progressed, I confess that I was too absorbed in the creatures to pay attention to what was being said, especially when they started talking about the specifics of what they wanted to build. I have a formal education, but I couldn’t even pretend to follow what was being discussed. It was intergalactic engineering talk along with intergalactic ultra-advanced physics talk. To be honest, it might as well just be regular physics, I wouldn’t know the difference. The point was that the creatures were far the most interesting thing right now. Their size, their colors, their shapes. Some of them were as small as a toddler while some were bigger than a bear. Every single one of them seemed knowledgeable in their own way. I lost track of time and the green creature with ostrich eyes pulled me back into the conversation.

"Don't you know it is impolite to stare?" It was odd how I could read his mood so well, despite any human features.

"I apologize, I just find everyone here fascinating. I meant no offense."

Some strange noises followed from several beings at the table. The same alien that scolded me, responding. "It was just a jest." He waved his hand. Two long green fingers with no nails. "I know how diverse the universe can be, especially for someone who was just introduced to it. What do you think of the negotiations so far?" The liliac in his eyes shifted to a caramel color while sparks of bright orange sparkled attempting to dominate the canvas of his gaze.

"That I have plenty to learn. I thought I knew nothing, but knowing nothing is still too flattering to describe my ignorance."

It's eyes shifted once more. His sparkling interest pacified while a forest green now simmered softly in his place. "That is a very wise assessment."

Gekko chimed in. "An honest one too."

"I'm Anaximanes by the way. A pleasure to meet you." His long green finger pointed at me. On its tip, a tiny spherical green light showed.

The meaning was unknown to me, but Gekko instructed me. "Channel your essence on the tip of your finger." I did just so. "Can you project it?" I shook my head negatively.

Anaximanes interjected, "Don't worry." As he said that the green light stretched from his finger and touched mine. Immediately a clear image invaded my mind. I saw his kind eating a golden rounded fruit resembling apples. It was crunchy and meaty and right there I realized that they were family. Every single one of them had a carnival happening in their eyes. The luminescent pink color showed everything you need to know. It reminded me of warm socks in the winter. Rain pouring on a hot summer day. It was the last moment before the little birds left their nest. Never to happen again.

On the other hand, I knew he was watching me too. Much less flattering, he caught a memory in which Audrey farted in the kitchen and I happened to catch her right then and there. For the indomitable woman that she was, I never saw her so flustered or embarrassed. Stuttering between excuses and denial while I laughed uncontrollably. It was a very intimate moment between us, we were freshly married and every major hurdle in our life was yet to come.

Anaximanes laughed. The context of the scene transferred with the memory I presumed, since it was provided for mine.

"I thank you for your gift, Mister Montgomery. It was a cherishable moment indeed. Ah...to be young." He mused. His eyes went from crimson to a strawberry color. The shape reminded the branches from a tree, slowly the spectacle in his eyes turned into a navy-blue and the conversation proceeded. Once again I was lost in the details. Shortly after, we said our goodbyes, but Gekko motioned for me to stay. Everyone crumbled to dust, we were alone in the room.

"I apologize for bringing you along without further explanations. It must not be easy to keep up." We were still far from one another. His rounded chair lowered itself and his stubby legs walked closer to me. One of his hands fiddled with his facial braid.

"It was interesting, but I am afraid that I am still unaware of my role in all this."

"You are one of us, Mister Montgomery. You are the only agent from The Company working on Earth and you are from the Orion branch. This speaks volumes about your situation." He was pacing next to me, hands behind his back. His belly standing proudly.

"Even if I don't have either the knowledge or the power to help in any way?"

"Not for now."

"Maybe not for a long time."

He chuckled. "What is the saying that you have? The apple never falls far from the tree." He slapped his leg, laughing. "Every other branch would try to sway me, to promise heaven and earth but never one of yours." He shook his head, sitting right next to me. His beady blue eyes shining with excitement. "You would go out of your way to discourage us, to highlight every risk, to unravel every hiccup in our plans. Due to our norms, I can't give you more money that I am already paying you, but I can provide three meetings a week and anything else you need in the future."

"And I thank you deeply for it." I sat a little bit straighter. I needed more, leaning back and just trusting others didn’t work for me, so I asked, "There might be something that you can do for me at this moment."

He opened his chubby arms, a smile appearing on his face. "Anything."

"If you could lend me some books just so I can have a rough idea about this... venture, that would be fantastic. Perhaps, you might have access to a teacher or something of sorts that can explain to me some of the matters that were being discussed here. I hope I’m not being too bold."

"Not at all. I can provide as much help as you need, but it will take a lot of time or a lot of mind-learning upgrades for you to grasp half of what you heard here in this room today."

"Time will pass anyway, I might as well learn as much as I can in the meantime."

"I like the way you think, Mister Montgomery.“

We shook hands on it. He left. I stayed behind thinking about the things that were still ahead of me.

The rest of my day, I spent doing the same drills that I had practiced during the week. Kneading was getting easier. The flame jumped sluggishly from finger to finger now, staying alive as long as I concentrated. Mastering this thing was addictive. Even now I still wanted to make it smoother, sharper, faster. Time was never enough, but it would be one day. Hopefully.