“He was a very powerful empath, probably the most powerful one in this sector of the universe. He must have felt it.” The answer from Mike halted his thought process.

“Empath? You are not talking about a psychic ability, right?” Roy chuckled and asked in joking manner. However, the silence from Mike was the answer he didn’t expect. “Uncle Frank had a psychic ability? Like in those comics?” Now this was some unbelievable reveal.

“All humans have several abilities dormant in their DNA. I simply awakened the empathy ability for him since he wanted to be one.” Mike coolly answered and all of a sudden, several things clicked in Roy’s head. The reason Frank could always tell if someone was lying. The reason he could always tell if Rani was overworking herself. The reason people around the neighborhood liked him so much.

“Can you give me psychic ability?” Roy asked, excited about the prospect.

“Sure can.”

That was totally not the answer Roy was expecting. He half expected to hear something like, you need to have the right genes, or the right mutation, or some other magical mumbo-jumbo. The way Mike answered his question, it seemed like getting a psychic ability was like buying a candy from a shop.

“Why do you sound so sure?” Roy was a bit dubious. If Mike answered like, you needed to do this and that in order to have this specific ability, he would have believed.

“Believe it or not, human DNA is one of the nine wonders in this universe, ranking second only to the Tyna dual physiology. Human DNA hold a vast array of potential. It is the primary reason Commander Rohu wanted to make contact with the humans.” Mike answer amazed Roy.

“There are nine wonders of universe?” And the humans are included in that? Roy could feel pride swelling up in him.

“Yes.” A small answer from Mike. A big one for Roy, however.

“Huh, neat. Maybe in the future I will ask about those wonders. Along with many other things.” Roy stopped to think again. There was once again silence in the room for a minute. Although this time, it was a lot less suffocating for Roy. Maybe it was excitement of knowing that he would be able to do supernatural things, like those people in the comics. Or maybe it was the fact that Roy was slowly accepting the fact that now he had an incredible opportunity in front of him to escape the boring daily life of his.

“Say, what can you do?” Maybe becoming this contact person thing was not a bad deal. Someone had to do it, might as well be Roy.

“What can I do by myself? Nothing. I do have a conscious and I can think for myself, true. But in the end, I am a tool. I need to be used. It depends on you primarily. If you can use me properly, I can do many things.” Roy was sure there would be certain kind of people who would argue that Mike should be treated a person, or whatnot. But he was not one of those people. If Mike himself said that he is a tool, who was he to say otherwise?

“How do I use you?” Roy went to the heart of the matter. Basic of using every tool, read the manual that came with it. In this case, Mike himself.

“You tell me to do things. If I don't understand your command, I will ask for clarification.” Mike’s answer was not exactly what Roy was expecting to hear, but he wasn’t surprised. Perhaps, with all the things that happened in such a short amount of time, he was becoming used to it.

“As simple as that?” Roy was impressed. If it just took an obscure verbal command, then nothing could be better.

“As simple as that.” Mike answered. Roy decided to put Mike’s words to test.

Roy asked the next question after thinking for a minute or two, “What if I told you to make me a car which will never run out of petrol?” Roy expected Mike to ask a lot of questions. Like what was a car, what was petrol, how to make this and that. The answer, like all others, was not what he expected.

“I certainly would, make you a car which will never run out of fuel. If you can provide me with the material required, I will get to it right away.” Mike was upturning every expectation Roy had. Whatever Roy was expecting Mike to answer, he answered in a different way.

“Are you serious? Like, seriously serious?” Roy was thinking that this was too good to be true. Maybe the alcohol was kicking in again? He pinched himself hard, again, to confirm that he was not dreaming.

“Yes. I am absolutely totally hundred percent seriously serious.” Mike’s answer made Roy chuckle a bit. Though he had many doubts about making the car with no petrol.

“Huh. Neat. Why do you need materials?” Roy asked the first question that popped up in his mind.

“I can't make things out of thin air. Well technically I can, but creating things out of air molecules will take too much time. Having the raw material or something close to it is easier and faster.” This answer from Mike was a given. It’s not like one can wave a magic wand and things would happen.

“Right. I guess that was a stupid question to ask. Blame the fantasy stories I have been reading too much where the main character can make things out of nothing.” Roy mentally slapped himself for asking such a stupid question.

“No one can create something out of nothing. All things have to follow the law of conservation of mass. Even me.” The confirmation from Mike made Roy feel both stupid and proud. Stupid because of his question and proud because of Newton’s law applied even to the aliens. Though, was it Newton who discovered the principle of mass conservation? Most probably not, but Roy didn’t care at that moment.