Celeste, Uruk System, Erebus Planet, Titania City

Across the double-layered fiberglass, a man was staring deeply to the twin inside the incubator from. The green-patched outfit shrouded in a blue armor-vest and the custom long-barrel gun tied in its hostler on his waist. Added to the rough face filled with a deep scar on the right eye, the intimidation from his appearance alone enough to scare strangers.

Perhaps, it would be difficult to recognize this man as a normal human if it weren’t for his gentle expression while raising his finger to lure the babies into a reaction.

Behind the man, was a scientist in lab coat looking at the holographic screen projected from his glasses and was reading the content with a small, non-disruptive voice.

“The child’s heart pulse is at a constant 50, there is no abnormality existing from the child.”

“One of them has genetic rating of A++”

“The operation was a success, Sir Hassan”

“I see” Hassan lightly replied.

The scientist concluded the report as the screen dimmed off, he then saluted before quietly moving out from the area. Hassan made no regard to the scientist and was still playing with the baby by twirling his finger again and again to gain the twins attention. It wasn’t long before one of them was attracted and raising his small hands following the movement of the finger.

Hassan was excited by the reaction and he continued playing to gain more attention. Although, it didn’t last too long as the baby exhausted his little energy and switched his attention to other things while the other was already sleeping. Realizing that he was ignored and being a burden, the man put down his finger and smile wryly.

He glanced at the twin a little while longer before leaving with a tinge of bitter loneliness.

“Captain!” Outside the building, Hassan was already welcomed by salute from a pair of soldiers outside the facility as well an uniformed woman whose hair cut short.

Hassan ignored the girl and was walking inside the glass tunnel connected to other buildings in the area, the girl just smiled and followed beside him while the other two soldiers standing behind 10 meters away.

“How’s the situation, lieutenant?” He asked in a low but clear voice.

Hearing the word, the girl quickly gave him a glass-sized tablet and with a little touch it projected an overview of a small planet with small details such as spaceships and its trajectory.

“There are a total of twelve hostiles and three spaceships hijacking our asteroid base, our crew stationed there was also kidnapped.”

“They had demanded a ransom delivered in the next 24 hours, it has been 1 hour since then”

“The upper echelon direct order was to send your team to re-capture the base, at all cost”

“Your order?”

Hassan kept quiet for a moment, he focused himself on the projection of the glass tablet. With few swipes from his hand, he tweaked the angle of the asteroids and was looking at it at different perspective.

“Sortie our four elites from the nearby region.” Hassan turned off the device and then gave it back to the girl.

“Yes sir.” The woman received the order and immediately wrote typed command lines on her device with a hand. It was obvious to see that she had received training by looking at the speed of her hands

“Congratulations for being a father”

In the middle of her typing, she made a small smile towards her captain.

Hassan’s face twitched as he heard the words from the woman and the commanding air around him was dissolving as the memory few minutes ago played in his mind. He gave a quick look to the woman and nodded awkwardly.

The woman giggled at the sudden awkwardness but it didn’t stop her from talking further.

“As expected from the teacher, even the birth of his child brought news to the colony.”

“Genetic rating of A++ and B+, that’s talent flowing from the bloodline”

Hassan was quiet and didn’t seem to be moved by the words of the lieutenant, instead he raised a critique in a flat voice.

“I don't care about rating, if they have time to ponder about that. They should commit those energy into something more productive.”

“But.. It’s A++ rating you know?” A disbelief filled the woman’s face, it also showed how the importance of genetic rating in the heart of society.

Hassan lightly sighed, “How superficial, talent alone doesn’t mean success” “Discipline, Perseverance —”

“And diligence are more important, right?” The woman interjected in between the sentence and said it in a condescending tone.

Hassan nodded in satisfaction.

“But, isn’t it still better to have good talent instead of having none?” The girl made a quick look to Hassan, she was no longer typing on the tablet.

“I mean, discipline perseverance and diligence are something you could learn and attain”

“But talent are something that came through luck and hard to obtain even with hard work”

He became quiet for a moment before he replied with a cold tone,

“Not necessarily, innate talent may bring complacency. Easy success tends to bring destruction.”

“The world is fair, those with talents will not experience hardness unlike those who doesn’t. It’s harder for them to understand the bitterness of training and enjoyment from advancing.”

The woman became quiet as she was digesting the word of wisdom from the man. The soldiers at the back was also attentively listening and seemed to gain enlightenment.

…

“Thank you for the teaching and please take your time, captain” She gave a bow towards him, not long after was followed by a salute and the two guards followed suit afterwards. Hassan stood for a moment, with no reply he entered the door into the next facility while the three soldiers were looking as the man disappearing into the distance from the transparent door.

After the man’s shadow was no longer to be seen, the women outside let out a sigh of relief.

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“Gosh! That was sooooo tense..!” The lieutenant conveyed her feeling in words.

The other two soldiers nodded in agreement, releasing the pent up tension had made the two slightly light-headed and weak.

“Lieutenant, you are really brave. To converse with the captain like that. Aren’t you afraid?” One of them ignored the difference in status and asked nonchalantly.

“Afraid? Of course I am! He’s the least popular captain in the entire Lux colony, the cold-blooded Eliad Hassan.” She retorted to the girl.

Although the answer was well within their expectation, hearing it directly from their lieutenant still made them speechless in awe.

“But…” she continued,

“One has to take risk if one wants to receive reward.”

“??? Reward? You mean sucking up to the higher-up kind of thing?” The soldier asked.

“Not that! Didn’t you just understand how smart and wise he is? I am learning many things from his advice.”

Hearing that, the two soldier understood the meaning and nodded in agreement.

“Now that you mentioned it… His advice earlier was quite motivating.”

“I know right? Come on, let’s sortie” The lieutenant cheerfully replied and grabbed the two by her shoulder and moved out, she was also recalling her impression to the name of Eliad Hassan in her life, whom she had served for the last two years of her service time.

‘At times, a strict superior with ruthless decision. Other times, a scholar sharing his wisdom to his students.’ She thought.

Inside the other building,

Hassan was walking on the circular corridor while looking at the number pasted beside the plastic partitions that separated the corridor from the space inside. The narrow, long path gave him time to recall the words of the lieutenant earlier.

Many colonies in different galaxy came with the standard classification of ‘Genetic Rating’. It’s a system to measure the compatibility of human with [Human reinforcement program]. A++ rating means a child could be reinforced 10x at the rate of 100%.

He then stopped in front one of the room and made a wry smile.

“I am grateful enough to be blessed with two sons.”

“After all, at this age, I am almost at the tipping point of having none at all”

Hassan went through the plastic partition with the room number #7877

Inside the room, a woman wearing a long, blue dress was lying on the bed while looking at the artificial scenery from the display. Her weak and thin body was a little bit concerning for Hassan; but knowing that it was a natural occurrence, he let it slide.

With a chair, he approached the woman from the side and blocked the view of the display.

“How’s your body, Sarah?” he held the woman’s hand.

“Two weeks… before the doctors let me out.” She answered with irritation, although the little voice made it sound exhausting to hear.

“Hassan, can you tell them to let me out earlier?”

“Im going to be stupid looking at this display as my only entertainment.”

Seeing the woman on her 40s bawling on her bed while she was still in recovery, he quickly grabbed her shoulder to stop her from moving erratically.

“Easy there, you know it’s for your sake.”

“Ain’t the portable medics enough at this point?” She made a pleading expression towards the man.

“Looking at your antics, even 2 portable medics would not be enough to contain you” He retorted without batting his eyes towards the woman.

A silence ensued,

“Ahahaha!” a hearty laughter came from the husband and wife in the room. The earlier tension had dissolved into a warm atmosphere.

Hassan then released his grip while tenderly patted her hair,

“I just saw our baby. They were energetic just like you.”

“They seems to take my personality rather than yours.”

“Well, their genetic talent seemed to take mine though.”

“You mean those ratings?” Sarah questioned him.

Hassan nodded in confirmation which was followed by a spiteful remark of the woman,

“Bah! Since when the Eliad’s care about ratings. We are the ‘cultivator’.”

Hearing that made him smiling wryly, “Well, I was just saying…”

The wife knew that his husband was just teasing her, she knew his personality all too well. She made a short sigh then made a wry smile afterwards.

“How long will you be staying here?”

Hassan made a small pause, before answering in clarity, “I have to sortie in the next hour.”

“That’s quick. The colony is working you like a machine lately.”

“Next year I’ll be decommissioned from the frontline to civil servant. Bear with me, Sarah”

“No problem, just focus on your work and leave other things to me.”

Speaking of the devil, a beeping sound was constantly ringing from inside his pocket; it was the call of duty. Sarah also knew this sound all too well, she made a smile and then gripped his hand weakly.

“Go”

There was determination on her words, she was sincerely supporting the man on his path. Hassan also understand the consequences of working in this kind of field and always showering his love when he had the time but he felt it wasn’t enough to compensate for the time lost.

Thus this mutual understanding, was probably the strongest bond of the husband and wife, that keep them moving forward.

He removed his hand, stood up from the seat and starts to move out from the room but was stopped by the Sarah’s voice.

“You forgot the most important thing today.”

Hassan was puzzled by the vague statement and looked back as Sarah continued talking.

“Name… You haven’t decided of their name yet.”

“Ah” He remembered the conversation they had before the operation that he had promised to think of the name for the twin.

“Azai and Aron”

Hassan opened the partition and left the room, leaving the woman alone.

The woman left with the two names and jokingly muttered,

“You are a muscle-brain, dear”