It wasn’t much later that evening when Ian finished his shift and began heading back down the hall towards his own living quarters. Still lost in deep thought over the conversation he had just had with Kyle, Ian absently began pulling down the top of the zipper on his own suit only to be caught when he stepped around the corner next to his quarters and found Jared about to enter his own nearby cabin.

“Hey,” Ian greeted the younger man with an attempt at an expressionless nod down the hall in Jared‘s direction.

“Me?” Jared stammered a bit as he turned back from where he was about to swipe his own badge and forced his eyes up to meet Ian’s.

“You see anyone else here?” Ian attempted a short-lived response.

“Guess not,” Jared returned after an uneasy glance around the surrounding hallway.

“You’re up late,” Ian attempted to continue the interaction.

“Yeah, you too,” Jared returned with another uneasy swallow.

“This is when my shift usually ends,” Ian returned.

“Yeah, I guess,”, Jared allowed a slight shrug, more than a bit confused by this sudden strange attempt at socialization.

Ian allowed another sigh before managing the next statement, “Well, as long as we’re both up, may as well come in and have a drink, right?” Ian offered as he started the entry procedure to his own quarters by swiping his badge.

“Me?” Jared repeated, more than a bit startled by such an invitation.

Ian just allowed a slight chuckle, “Come on,” he prodded as he typed in his own security code as he gestured for Jared to make his way over.

“Um, ok,” Jared swallowed again, wishing his strange psychic tendencies had prepared him for this situation, at all.

Jared remained dead silent as they went through the entry procedures before gaining access to Ian’s quarters where Ian then gestured for Jared to take a seat while really not sharing any more words of his own just yet either.

Ian sighed as he finished lowering the suit’s zipper to his waist and moved to open the tiny refrigerator of sorts that was in each of their quarters, “Blue, red, or green? Any preference?” he asked over his shoulder as Jared nervously took the offered seat while Ian glanced over the pre-packaged drink mixes inside the small compartment.

“Um, blue, I guess?” Jared responded with a shrug from his awkward place on Ian’s couch.

“Yeah, I like red myself,” Ian returned as he tossed the sealed cup across the tiny counter to the couch, where Jared somehow managed to catch it, despite the odd angle, “Surprising reflexes, for a science guy,” Ian returned as he set his own selection on the counter a moment later.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jared offered quietly as he turned his eyes downwards to unseal the container.

Ian narrowed his eyes a bit at how quickly Jared broke off eye contact, though that was still pretty usual for someone as introverted as this boy seemed to be, “Be right back,” Ian stated through a still distracted sigh after another brief moment.

Ian then moved to head toward the sleeping quarters at the back of the cabin, beginning to pull the black jumpsuit down off his arms as he moved through the doorway to the bedroom. Not bothering to close the door behind him, Ian still remained out of sight around the corner of the room for a few brief moments of continued silence. He then finally returned to the living area a moment later, now dressed simply in a more comfortable pair of black jogging pants below his painstakingly chiseled torso, a reward for his years of physical training there onboard the ship.

It was another awkward moment after Ian returned to the room, moving to open his own drink as Jared nervously forced down a few sips of his own, “So, how you been, Jared?” Ian finally broke the silence as he moved to take a seat at one of the bar stool type chairs on Jared’s side of the small counter.

“Been?” Jared repeated with more than a trace of confusion apparent, “Since, when?” he asked, a clear reference to the fact that the two of them had hardly ever included one another in whatever social circle they may have considered themselves to even be a part of at all.

Ian just smirked again as he took his own sip, “Is it wrong for me to wanna get to know my other shipmates better?”

Jared narrowed his eyes again at that question, but his own hand-held computer, tucked safely into the pocket of his lab coat, then beeped loudly to cut off any response he might have been able to find to Ian’s question, “Pardon me,” Jared said quietly as he moved to retrieve the hand-sized computer from his pocket. Jared’s expression only seemed to adopt further confusion as he glanced down at the screen, moving through whatever message the alert had denoted. He then shook his head as he finished reading the message, “Strange,” was his only mumbled response as he slowly slid the machine back into his pocket.

“Let me guess, a message from the boy genius?”

“Yeah,” Jared swallowed again, not sure how Ian guessed at that fact. Though, before he could question it, Ian spoke again.

“So, I suppose he sent you some strange message about reading every medical document available on the web, or something?” Ian offered as he took another sip.

“How’d you know that?” Jared stammered a bit.

“Security guy, remember?” Ian reminded pointedly, “I’m supposed to know everything that happens on this ship, after all,” Ian added, a bit of bitterness apparent in the words, though seemingly not directed at Jared himself, on this particular subject, anyway.

Jared was a little caught again by the strange comment, but his own curiosity couldn’t stop him from asking, “So, why does Kyle want me to read all that stuff?” he then added, “If you know everything that happens on the ship, does that mean you know that?”

“Cause, we need a medical expert. And Kyle’s picked you.”

“Me?” Jared returned, his voice finally rising only a slight decibel over its normal soft tone, “I’m just a lab assistant, and just an eighteen year old kid at that,” he had to add.

“And yet,” Ian returned pointedly as he took another swig.

Jared let out an uneasy scoff as he set the drink aside, “Why the heck would he pick me? And shouldn’t I really be the one to pick my whole career, anyway?” he added more quietly.

“Guess he thinks you can do it.”

“Yeah, and so could anyone else, if they decided to spend the next decade studying all the stuff he just told me to read, like he was just ordering lunch or something.”

“And yet,” Ian repeated.

Jared just shook his head at the glib response, before continuing, “Ok, so what am I missing here?”

“You tell me,” Ian said with a gesture of concession as he leaned back in his own seat against the counter behind him.

“What do you mean?” Jared scoffed again to cover his own confusion.

Ian then sighed again, “According to Kyle, you’re a little genius too, and that’s what we’ll need.”

Jared’s eyes widened a bit at that accusation before making another response, “Since when?” he asked with a shake of his head, “And what do you mean, that’s what you’ll need? The ship already has a doctor,” Jared reminded.

“And yet,” Ian stated once more.

“Could you please stop saying that, and just say what you really mean?” Jared returned with as much authority as he could muster through his otherwise docile personality.

Ian tilted his head back a moment before giving into Jared’s request, “Summary: We finally found another planet out there, and we’re gonna need the most brilliant medical, and scientific, mind we can get once we get out there. And you got the golden ticket, according to our current resident genius.”

“Since when?” Jared repeated, seeming less shocked by the prospect of a new planet, somehow, than he seemed to be by being told how important of a role they were expecting him to fill at a moment’s notice.

“Maybe you need to go have a chat with the boy genius too. You’d be amazed at how much shit they don’t tell us here,” Ian added with a trace of that bitterness arising once again.

“Like, what?” Jared asked with another hard swallow, his thoughts not able to keep from wondering back to the secrets of his own he had chosen to finally share earlier that very night.

“I’m sure Kyle’s still awake,” was Ian’s only offered answer as he stood once more, heading back toward his sleeping quarters again, closing the door behind him to leave Jared to decipher everything he had just told him, and go find those answers, himself.

It was only several minutes later when Jared found himself taking a deep breath as he stood outside Kyle’s own cabin, waiting for the younger man to allow him inside, “Do you not have a clock on your link up?” Kyle greeted him after buzzing Jared inside with a tiresome sigh. Inside, Kyle was now dressed in his own t-shirt and sweats, reclining on the couch with one of his many computers atop his lap.

“I figured you’d be up. Considering it’s been like ten minutes since you sent me that message,” Jared returned as the door slid shut behind him.

“So why are you here, instead of finishing the first ten books I told you to look up?” Kyle returned as he continued to look down at the screen before him, rather than at the distressed looking man who stood inside his door.

“Ten medical books in ten minutes?” Jared returned with a raised eyebrow, “You live in an interesting world, Kyle,” Jared allowed his own trace of sarcasm, which usually never breached the surface of his normal demeanor.

“Please, I was there when they tested us. I know speed-reading is in your vast skill set,” Kyle mumbled as he continued tapping away at the keyboard.

Jared shook his head again before continuing, “Speed-reading aside,” he began, not actually denying the claim, “how did you suddenly decide that I’m qualified to be any kind of medical expert, let alone one good enough to be responsible for this entire survey team?”

“Wow, they really have you snowed too, don’t they?” was Kyle’s non-answer as he finally looked away from the screen.

“Who are they and what is that supposed to mean?” Jared finally returned.

“Come on, Jared, you’re too smart not to know how different you are.”

Jared’s breath caught again, forcing him to quickly find some response, “Different, how?”

“You tell me,” he repeated Ian’s earlier statement as he actually set the computer aside for once, “What have you tried to do, and then succeeded at?”

Jared just shook his head again as he nervously began pacing the small area, “You’re gonna have to be more specific than that,” was his eventual response.

“I tried to know all there was to know about technology, and then I learned it, and more, just like that,” Kyle offered his own answer with a slight snap of his fingers.

“Well good for you,” Jared scoffed, then added, “But we all already know you’re a genius. That doesn’t make me one.”

“Please, you already know plenty about science, and you’re only a couple years older than me,” Kyle reminded.

Another slight scoff as his pacing continued, “I only know what I’ve read, Kyle, and what I’ve learned in the lab. Same as anyone else there.”

“Yeah, and have you ever had to read the same theories or documents twice, or take longer than a minute to get through all that sci-babble. Have you ever had to even do an experiment twice cause it didn’t work the first time?” Kyle pointed out knowingly.

Jared shook his head as he turned back, “Have you been spying on me, or what?”

“Call it intuition. Something else I’m sure you’re pretty good at,” Kyle added, “Not exactly the ‘same as anyone else,’ really, are you?”

“What are you really saying, Kyle?” Jared finally allowed himself to ask, his pacing finally stopped.

“I’m saying you’re the same as me. Or at least your brain works just as much as mine does. And way more than any of theirs do,” he added more quietly, “And that’s why I know you’d be one of the people we’d need out there.”

“But, why? Why am I like you?”

“Admittedly, it’s not just you. There’s a few of us that are like this. But you and Serena are the ones with the most potential right now, out of all of us.”

“All of who?” Jared had to ask.

“Us, the ones born up here,” Kyle answered before allowing another breath, “It all really begins when our bodies start aging to adulthood, then our brains catch up, real quick, and keep going. You and Serena are the oldest, the ones who are finally adults. And frankly, between the two of you, she’s not the one I’d wanna trust with my life. It’s hard enough to trust her with my baby,” he added with a gentle pat upon the computer that still sat next to him.

Jared was silent for another long moment before managing to digest enough of Kyle’s words to continue, “So we’re all a bunch of super-geniuses, like you? And we just didn’t know it?” Jared raised an eyebrow again.

“Something like that. And they didn’t want you to know it. Not until we needed you to, anyway.”

Another shake of his head, “That doesn’t make a lot of sense, Kyle. I mean, wouldn’t they want as much brainpower as possible trying to get us to this new world?”

Kyle ran his hand through his hair once more, “Not at the risk of losing what control they still could have over us. That’s just the way they are, the way they’ve always been.”

“They who?” Jared had to press for more of an explanation.

“The human race, of course.”

Another shake of his own lengthy locks before Jared responded, “You almost talk like you don’t think that we’re part of that race, ourselves.”

“Tell me, Jared, how often do you think that you actually are just like the rest of them, honestly?”