Yu Yan studied the knotted compact wires and their respectful ports and bundles. He blindly reached out for a cable above his head and inserted the into the antique USB port. It took him quite some time to order such an outdated cable from an antique collector in the Star Network.
He plugged the other end to his terminal, a small window immediately popping up with streaming words and numbers. It was the cryofreezer's code.
Yu Yan thought about how this ancient thing doesn't even have a proper interface, nor a firewall or an encryption; clearly forgetting that he didn't even know what a firewall meant several months back.
He clicked his tongue. It's one of the greatest wonders of the Galactic Alliance that this thing has even managed to resist until now. Though if you think about it, the less sophisticated machinery tended to be more resilient and durable sometimes, with a long lifespan.
(A/N: Pre-historic Nokia, anybody?)
"YanYan", a head peeked into the room.
"Oh." Yu Yan grabbed the edges of the cryofreezer and pushed himself out from underneath, the wheels of his creeper fluidly fishing him out.
A hand stops the top of the creeper from moving further, letting Yu Yan sit up.
"Do you really have the time for this? Aren't you worried about the entrance exam?"
"It'll be fine, Old Tin", Yu Yan smiled. "There's still time anyways."
Old Tin was the Trite's mechanic. Yu Yan treated this man, who was older than his Captain, like his older uncle.
In any case, all the men aboard the Trite are either called young uncle or old uncle. Except Kenji. Kenji was Kenji.
The worrywart of an old man had taught Yu Yan how to use the tools and where to find the toolboxes on the ship.
Old Tin had howled in laughter at how Yu Yan turned the whole mechanic's room upside down in search of wrench, and then howled some more at the child that had a look of befuddlement when he tapped a sequence on the wall to pop out a wide table and a wall aligned with various tools came out.
The Yu Yan of that time just wanted a wrench. After seeing the pop up workplace, he still wanted the wrench, however, he also wanted to use it to unbolt the whole wall and place it unto his cabin's wall instead. Him, who now had a big cabin, a mini digital library, a simulation-room-turned-clinic, and a storage room for the cryofreezer, stared at the workstation with longing.
Nyx: Keep up the pace and Yu Yan just might end up owning the whole Triton one day.
That day, a ping had sounded from the terminals of almost everyone aboard the Triton ship. An upload notification! Very quickly, they opened the shared database and saw a moving 3D graphics of Yu Yan's face slowly, artfully, morphing into shocked confusion. Right next to the file name was the uploader—Tin.
The Trite Pirate's 'YanYan is bestest baby' group chat exploded!
Old Tin: I'm not so old that I don't know how to make a 3DGiphy ah. :))
Yu Yan walked to his work table and uploaded the code from his terminal to his tablet. He tossed the all-in-one screwdriver in his hand into the air.
"Help me clean up", he said to a robotic arm. The robotic arm helper enthusiastically waved its arm up and down, as if nodding.
The sensor on the wall had an command function, that when activated, would detect the electromagnetic signature of human touch. If a tool had this signature, it would disable the magnetic lock on the tools but to attract all tools to the wall when enabled.
Yu Yan had created such a function so that Old Tin, who kept losing his crowbars and screwdriver tips, would only need to command a clean-up instead of forming a one-man lost and found brigade.
The two of them trekked the path to the hanger where a few people were already loitering. The tall captain was also among them, inspecting an auxiliary ship.
"Dad~" Yu Yan pounced on Nyx who caught him by his scruff and put him down properly on the floor. "Boo~ Boo—"
Nyx grabbed his face with one hand and forcefully made him exhale the air he puffed into his cheeks.
"You smell like crude oil." He frowned. "Why didn't you take a bath?"
With a righteous face, Yu Yan answered, "Conserving the ship's water supplies is important, Dad."
"Smelly rock." Nyx teased.
"You're my Dad, I got my smelliness from you!"
Yu Yan walked ahead like a peacock and entered the smaller ship in the hangar, with a smirking Captain in tow.
A medium-sized fighter shuttle was repainted by Old Tin into appearing like an old household shuttlecraft, complete with family stickers and an inconspicuous 'Yu Yan is the bestest' sticker near the bunker lights. Should Nyx had seen that, he might've made Old Tin change it to 'Yu Yan is the smelliest'.
The pair of adopted father and son strapped themselves in and slowly drove the small ship out. A handful of crew members came over just in time to see them out.
"YanYan, bring home the pig!"
Quinn hit the back of the man's head, "Idiot, it's 'bring home the bake room!'"
"Oh", the man beside Quinn quickly looked at him like he was looking at a smart person.
"Bacon", Kenji smacked his lips. "Bacon ah."
Quinn, with a default intimidating serious face, "What?"
"Nothing. You want bacon? I'm suddenly craving bacon", Kenji expressionlessly headed to the canteen in large strides.
Quin: ???
With questions in mind, he tagged behind Kenji to the canteen. If single-celled microorganism Quinn followed, how could the handful of fellow single-celled microorganisms in the hangar also not follow? Thus, another wild party ensued.
On the other hand, the captain was quizzing the rock to pass the time.
"You really memorized the whole lecture I gave you?" Nyx was pleasantly surprised. "Even the subjects covered in the entrance exam?"
"Yup~ Memorizing is easy. It's comprehension that's a little tricky. Oh, and practical exams. I heard the difficulty varies depending on the course."
"Have you decided on the course you're going to take?"
"Medicine!" Yu Yan's eyes twinkled.
"I thought you like electronics? Don't you want to be scientist or a researcher? You could be an engineer if you wanted?"
"And end up locked in a research institution with a busy work life? Don't want~"
"An engineer then?"
"I saw the syllabus for the engineering course and it doesn't look as fun as the machine classes in the combat course."
"Combat course?" Wasn't that the same class he took before getting into the military? It was one of the harder courses in the Academy that had a medium to high student drop rate.
"Yes. The engineering classes don't let you study the machines used for combat. They also give classes on how to train and control a person's spiritual power. It's a win-win decision for me, since it'll be easier to transcode too, with a higher level of spirit control. So I changed my mind and applied for the combat course!
The shuttlecraft stuttered in space.
"You...", Nyx trailed off, yet wasn't ultimately able to say anything. He glanced a few times at Yu Yan's small frame.
In the end, he didn't have the heart to dissuade those excited eyes. With a slightly dark face, Nyx, who forgot that that Yu Yan can disarm ten Kenjis and five Quinns, said to Yu Yan, "Tell me if anyone bullies. List their names and their addresses, got it? It doesn't matter what background they have, just list their names and give it to me."
"Yes, Dad!" Yu Yan readily agreed like the good and obedient child he was.
Through the craft's glass window, a wide metropolis came to view, with tall towers and skyscrapers piercing the clouds, as they descended into Blue Star Empire's capital planet.
Nyx maneuvered the craft unto an airway road and drove straight to the Academy.
Margaux Academy was a large university city that could stand on its own. Just its size took about a third of the whole metropolitan area. Even in terms of money, the whole academy used credit points that couldn't be converted from or to money.
This was to promote a healthy competition, and a fair learning environment where rich students couldn't flaunt their monetary prowess. It was also a way for their students, especially in the entrepreneur classes and business section, to have practical experience in the flow of money without any adverse consequences except the loss of their credit points. They'd still survive outside or the Academy if they had money, however, they'd be quite disadvantaged the longer they stayed credit-less inside.
In Margaux Academy, it was talent and intelligence that students used as their capital. A poor but talented man outside the Academy could very well be a millionaire inside.
While Nyx stayed inside the parked craft, Yu Yan walked over to the guards stationed by the tall, wide golden gates to ask for instructions and directions.
Yu Yan's terminal code was scanned to prove his application. The guard checked the two courses he had enrolled to. It wasn't unusual to see a student enrolling two, three or more classes. Margaux was after all, a dwelling place of small and big geniuses. However, what stunned the guard was the courses the student planned to take.
He looked at the applicant and back at the paper when the other person smiled at him. It was good to have ambition, but getting into this course seemed more like a dream than an ambition if you looked at the student's small physique.
Yu Yan: I can see your doubts through your eyes! Are you letting me in or not? I'm tired of smiling ah.
Inside the auxiliary ship, the terminal on Nyx' wrist kept vibrating non-stop since a while back. He pressed his lips into a straight line, his forehead slightly wrinkled at the notion of trying to ignore it.
Soon, it stopped. He was about breathe a sigh of relief until it vibrated and ping-ed much fiercer and more annoying than before.
With reluctance pasted all over his face, Nyx hesitatingly looked at his messages. There was a pile of unread messages, and yet he didn't have to backread them one by one to know what they were after—
Pirate 5: Don't forget +1
Pirate 1: Captain, don't forget! You definitely can't forget!
Pirate 9: Don't forget +7
Pirate 3: Don't forget +12. We really won't ask for anything else, Captain, pwease~?
Old Tin: Captain, I won't ask for payment about the paint job. Just a picture of Yu Yan at the Academy gates will do. You'll do it for me, won't you :))
Pirate 1: Old Tin, I love you! Captain, you'd better reading this!
Pirate 3: Old Tin 666
Kenji: Why am I here? What's this group chat for...
Pirate 4: Yanyan appreciation group chat
Pirate 2: Yu Yan 3D giphy fan club
Pirate 7: yanyantilthead.tgif
Quinn: Child raising association group chat
Pirate 6: yanyancutesmile.tgif
Quinn: We provide child rearing advices to Captains with newfound children~
Kenji: ....
Pirate 5: Guys, don't change the subject! Captain, Yu Yan is going to university! This is a milestone! A milestone! We need a record of this milestone!
Kenji: yayanshock.tgif
Nyx closed the chat room like he was burned.
"Dad, non-students aren't allowed passed the gates", Yu Yan grumbled. He had come back to complain, half his body hanging outside of the vehicle's glass window.
Nyx nodded. He quickly opened his terminal, closed the dreaded group chat, and sent Yu Yan a more detailed interactable 3D blue print of the whole school. He already knew about that policy, given that it was his alma matter after all. As a graduate with a lot of achievements, Nyx could easily ask for the principal for a pass. Unfortunately, that would reveal that he was alive and kicking with a bounty on his head.
The only reason he could calmly sit there was that his terminal had an automatic signal blocker for all surveillance cameras within a fifty-meter range.
"But I wanted to roam the grounds with you~" Nothing was as disappointed as Yu Yan not being able to showcase his handsome, intimidating father to the whole school. He wasn't even able to brag inside the Triton! (He had though).
"Be good. Take your requirements for the entrance exam and come out quickly."
"Will Dad wait for me here?"
"En."
Yu Yan grabbed his bag and was about to leave.
"Wait."
"Hm?" Yu Yan looked back to see an internally conflicted Captain.
Though a bit disgruntled, Nyx commanded with a tone that didn't allow for a negative response, "Make a pose quick." He aimed his terminal at Yu Yan, who was stunned at first. Then, he eased and took a few steps backwards. He tilted his head in a very practiced manner and stood slightly to the side of the gate so the terminal's shutter would be able to know where he was currently at. Nyx took the photo, not even bothering to take another.
"Go." Nyx commanded when he'd finish. Although his tone a bit forceful, he was simply worried that he'd taken up to much of the child's time when he could have been preparing. If it weren't for those squiggling microorganisms, he wouldn't have had to keep Yu Yan back. Therefore, he had resolved to settle them when they come back.
Upon getting his go sign, Yu Yan waved back as he dashed inside the gates, not forgetting to yell, "I'll finish it quick so take me out to eat! You better promise! No, I promise! I promise to make you take me out to eat!"
Similar to the captain, the rock didn't allow negative responses. Like father, like son.
When the overbearing child finally trotted inside, Nyx finally eased a little. He leaned back a little on his seat for a while, before tensing his shoulders. His usual intimidating aura came out as he started the shuttlecraft.
It's been a while since he's been in the capital. It'd be a shame not to visit his friend.