Into the Lost Universe

Chapter 3 - Secrets and Manipulations

Chapter Three

It took us a week to arrive at the intergalactic space station. On the way, I was always aware if Mister Zhao needed something, as each of the attendants had their own button that would shine if their diplomat needed them. When I was not assisting Mister Zhao, I was with Alina. She brought me to a holographic display board on the lowest level of the rocket, and promptly brought me up to speed about the latest events in the galaxy.
The first few days, I felt my head was whirling. Even though we had artificial gravity that imitated the pull of Earth's core, it felt distinctly unsettling to look out of the windows and see stars all around us. In order to distract myself from the potentially upsetting situation, I threw myself into work, trying to keep myself as busy as possible. Alina taught me how to identify which galaxy people came from, according to their appearances. People from the Milky Way galaxy were the easiest to identify, as they look most similar to people from Earth. Then, the further the distance, the more their appearances vary. People from the Andromeda galaxy have a genetic mutation in their genes that allow their hair to appear in colours that aren't natural to people on Earth. Green, purple, blue, pink, varying shades of neon, etc. People from the Triangulum galaxy are generally all very pale because the planets they live on are generally quite far from the sun, so they live in freezing temperatures. People from the Sombrero Galaxy live in a tight-knit community, so they developed a strong culture, and many people could be found with tattoos all over their bodies. I immersed myself in this hoard of new information, absolutely fascinated, as it was so different from anything I have ever come across in school.

"Are you understanding everything?" Alina inquired one day, her onyx eyes boring into me.

"Yes, I think so," I replied affirmatively.

"Really?" One of her eyebrows was raised in disbelief.

I then proceeded to tell her everything that she taught me the past few days.

She looked speechless once I finished. "It took me half a year to learn all of that."

"Oh. Really?"

"Really. Say Aydan, did you have your IQ test done in school?"

"Oh, my school doesn't do IQ tests."

"What? Why?"

"I live in a remote village in China. By the way, where are you from?"

"I'm from Singapore."

"Singapore?"
"Yes, didn't you know? This trip is international." She pointed to one of the blonde girls. "That's Aimee, she's British." She then pointed to a darker-skinned boy. "That's Omar, he's Egyptian."

"Oh wow! I didn't know that."

"Yep."

Then a voice came from the speakers on the wall, something that never happened in my 5 days on the rocket.

"We just received a message that a group of diplomats are lacking transportation, and therefore, we will be making a small detour to the NGC 3109 Galaxy in order to provide them transport to the Intergalactic Space Station. Please, there is no need for any change of living quarters or such, so please continue your regular routines. Thank you, have a nice day."

The voice transmission ended with a slight echo.

Everybody suddenly started talking at once. I looked at Alina, and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"This is unheard of," she said. "Having diplomats from another galaxy before meeting at the IGS may have political repercussions..." She looked horrified.

I, for one, just could not see what the big deal was. As long as we didn't talk to them, we would just be providing them transport right?

Turns out that wasn't true. The day after the incident, I almost walked down a hallway where I heard one of our diplomats talking with a person that had a strange, accented voice.I immediately turned around and laid my back against the adjacent wall.

"It's ironic, isn't it? Funny how the universe works." The sound of their voices could be faintly heard.

"Coincidences do happen, you know,"

I reflected that the standard that the other diplomat was speaking had a slight tilt to it. I've never heard anything like it. Like Aina said, this was probably a type of Standard other galaxies spoke.

A pause.

"Maybe this is a sign-"
A chortle. " A sign? For what? We shouldn't even be talking!"

"Meiyan-"

"Never mind. I'll meet you at the IGS. Let's pretend this conversation never happened."

The sound of footsteps seemed to be getting louder. I drew in a sharp breath when I realized that someone seemed to be heading in my direction. I quickly made it seem like I was busy, and started heading down another hallway.

The sound of the footsteps behind stopped abruptly. I winced. Hopefully the person ignores me.

"You there!"

I ignored it.
"Attendant!"

I slowly turned my head around, and my heart nearly stopped. The person was Ming's sister. And she was staring straight at me. Ok, stay cool, I thought. She doesn't know you know anything.

I spun around on my heels, and walked up to her. I discreetly wiped my sweaty palms on the back of my shirt.

"Aren't you the boy my brother was with? What are you doing on this trip? Who authorized this?"

Now, after five days of coaching from Alina, I know better than to have her believe that I was an inexperienced boy accidentally sent to space, even though that was what I actually was. The problem was, how to convince her of it?

"I'm sorry, I don't understand you? I'm Mister Zhao's attendant."

"Don't give me any of that rubbish. I know that my brother dragged you into the launching station. I repeat my question. What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"

Clearly, denying everything wasn't going to work. I switched to another tactic.

"Oh, yes, now I remember! I was getting something for Mister Zhao, and halfway, I met your brother who wanted me to meet you! It was just a misunderstanding between him and I."

She looked thoughtful for a moment. Then, she narrowed her eyes. "How come I didn't see you before then?"

"Oh, that's because Mister Zhao-"

"You realize that I'm going to report this to the authorities? How can we have an unauthorized boy here in potentially dangerous diplomatic circumstances?"

I had to salvage this situation quickly. I steered myself and adopted a pondering look.

"Speaking of potentially dangerous diplomatic circumstances... I could've sworn a heard voices down the hallway there..."

Her face paled immediately. "Y-yeah?"

"Yeah. One of the people spoke Milky Way standard, and the other..."

"What...what are you i-implying?"

"Oh, nothing. It's almost as if...Never mind. They would never believe a lowly attendant like me anyway."

I looked at her and her bottom lip was trembling. I felt vaguely guilty, as I wasn't sure what her situation was, but I believed mine was more important in this case. 

"O-oh, I'm sure it was n-nothing. Get back to your duties, attendant."
I inclined my head in her direction. "Right away."

Only until I was back in the safety of the attendant's quarters did I allow myself to relax. That was far too close for comfort. Far, far too close. I had to be more careful in the future.