Just as Sandra was about to leave, the queerish man said, “Wait, you should probably have those chains removed first.” As he pointed towards Jack, Sandra nodded. She then changed direction and headed towards the mechanics area. They had a lot of tools so it wouldn’t be hard to find something to remove the chains with. When Sandra had left with, George looked at the queerish man, who was called Captain, with a suspicious glance and said, “There is a lot you need to explain to the Boss.”
The Captain just let out a wry smile and nodded. He then gestured George to follow him to his quarters so he can give the complete story to George and the Boss. Sandra however, soon reached the mechanics area and found someone who used a cutter to carefully cut the cuffs. Since Jack was currently so exhausted that he was in deep sleep, it was extremely easy to do.
When the chains were taken off, Sandra thanked the mechanic and gave Jack a piggy back ride to her own private quarters. When she arrived back at her quarters, she laid Jack down on the bed and just carefully looked at his face.
The room wasn’t big, only about 20 square meters big and most of the room was occupied by various different flowers and plants. The bed was two and a half meters long and one and half meter’s wide, easily allowing two people to sleep side by side. The bed was right under the window so you only needed to adjust your gaze a bit to be able to gaze out of the window and into the vast starry sky.
Besides the plants and a bed, there was one bookshelf filled to the brim with different books on plants and a small table with a chair. If you entered the room, right after entering there would be a closet for clothes at your right hand and next to the closet was a door leading to the bathroom. Every private quarters on the ship had a closet, bathroom, bed, table and a bookshelf, as for the rest, it was up to the person itself.
If they wanted to grow plants like Sandra, they could, if they wanted to collect books or mechanical parts, they could. As she saw that Jack was completely out cold, she locked the door and fished out a pair of knee length fitting leather pants and a short sleeved shirt from the closet. She then unzipped her body tight battle suit and changed her clothes. Just as she was done changing her clothes, she heard a knock on the door.
She unlocked the door and a friendly young woman in a lab coat greeted her at the door. She had long braided hair that were brown. On her slightly round face were many freckles and her chestnut brown eyes also looked kind. Her size of her chest made even women stare.
She just smiled and asked, “Is the patient here?” Seeing the familiar face, Sandra’s cold gaze also softened as she let her in and pointed towards the bed. She then said softly, “He is the patient.” Seeing Jack, the Doctor looked at Sandra with a sly look and said teasingly, “So this is your preference.” Sandra tilted her head in confusion but then the Doctor just continued teasing, “No wonder no real man was allowed to even look inside the room. So you prefer them young.”
Now Sandra understood the meaning behind her words and quickly rebutted, “Ellen! It is not like that! I-i..” Being unable to explain it, Ellen just patted her on the head and said, “I understand, he is from the same place as you. You know that he could be very dangerous if he woke up somewhere else.”
Hearing this, Sandra cast her head down and said in a low tone, “He looks like my little brother. Even though I know that Jack is not him, Jack still looks exactly like him.” Hearing this, Ellen hurriedly said in a gentle voice, “Forget I teased you, I did not want to tear up old wounds.” A flash of regret and gentleness was evident in her eyes. She then changed the mood and said, “Now then, let’s look over the patient and heal him.”
After saying so, she took Sandra’s hand and pulled her closer to the bed that was at the other side of the room. Seeing the bloody Jack, Ellen frowned as she asked Sandra, “Do you want to undress him or should I?” Hearing the question, Sandra’s face reddened as she quickly asked, “Why do we need to undress him?!”
Ellen just sighed and said, “There are a lot of wounds on him and most of them are under his clothes or rather what is left of them, so we need to undress him to patch up the wounds.” Hearing this, Sandra calmed down and nodded towards Ellen. Then, she told Ellen, she could do it herself and she would just wait nearby.
Hearing this, Ellen nonchalantly took off Jack shirt and pants. Well, there wasn’t much of a difference in him wearing clothes or not because the clothes were nearly shredded any ways. Seeing the body covered in blood, Ellen towards Sandra and said, “You go and try to find another set of clothes for him, I reckon it won’t be easy to find fitting clothes for him.”
Sandra nodded and just as she was about to go and look for clothes, she saw Ellen pick up Jack. Sandra asked hurriedly, “What are you doing?” Ellen looked at her in confusion and said, “I’ll be giving him a bath of course. His body is covered in blood and dirt, I need to clean his body before I can treat his wounds.”
Hearing this, Sandra nodded and reluctantly left to find clothes for Jack. After Ellen carried Jack to the bathroom, she filled the bathtub with warm water that was not too hot or cold and carefully washed the dirt, dried blood and nearly dried blood off of him. The cleaner Jack became, the more Ellen’s eyes furrowed as she evaluated the various wounds and scars on his body.
A thought passed through her head, “What kind of a sadistic psychopath held him to get his many scars and such wounds?” Jacks body was riddled in scars, one deeper and more painful looking than the other.
Most of the wounds that were still healing had festered from the lack of immediate medical care. When she had finally completely washed his body, she gently dried him and carried him back to the bed. Just as he was laid down on the bed, Sandra came back. She looked a bit down cast and Ellen asked her, “No luck?”
Sandra just helplessly shook her head and said, “No, we don’t even have anything close to his size.” It was just like Ellen had thought, so she hadn’t held her breath with the matter. This ship consisted of people that were at least twenty years old, so to find clothes that fit a ten years old, that was quite impossible. Sandra just sighed and said, “Well, Krieg promised to look through our loot and see that maybe something that will fit him is in there. We robbed that big cargo ship a few days ago, so there might be some clothes in there.” Hearing this Ellen sighed as well, but then she tried to change subject by asking Sandra what happened to him.
Sandra explained in detail about how he was imprisoned and hearing the extensive imprisonment method, Ellen’s face couldn’t help but change. At the time Ellen was talking to Sandra, she kept cleaning Jack’s wounds and bandaging them one after another. When all of his wounds were bandaged, she crossed her palms on Jack’s chest and closed her eyes. After a few moments, green glow manifested on her two hands that seemed to pour into Jack.
After focusing for a 5 minutes, the glow on her hands slowly dissipated and when all of it was gone, she said with a sigh, “This is the best I can do for him.” Just as Sandra was about to say something, a knock sounded on the door again.
Sandra opened the door and the Captain and George were there. She gestured them to enter the room and then locked the door. George looked at the bandaged Jack and deeply frowned. The Captain turned to Ellen and asked, “What is his situation?” Ellen just let out a deep sigh and said, “The situation is quite bad. Although I have cleaned him and treated his wounds, my ability [Regeneration] stimulates people’s own vitality to heal wounds quicker. He is severely malnourished and currently extremely weak, so his recovery won’t be easy or quick.”
Hearing this the Captain and George nodded. George then asked, “When will he wake up?” Ellen shrugged her shoulder’s helplessly and said, “At best in a few days. It is a miracle that he had been conscious as long as he had been. He should have collapsed from the lack of strength a few days ago but he kept himself going with pure will.”
She then looked at Jack with a gaze of pity and continued, “He over drafted his body and the moment he relaxed after arriving on the Ship, he fell into an unconscious state. I heard what he did on the landing bridge and honestly, I can say that it took him the last bit of strength he had left.”
She just shook her head helplessly and turned towards Sandra, “He hasn’t probably had a decent meal in months, coupled with the various wounds on his body, the recovery is going to be along one.” Seeing this situation, the Captain and George looked at the two girls in confusion. Sandra then said, “I will look over him until he recovers.” The two men were even more confused and the Captain asked, “Did something happen?”
This was the first time that the Captain saw Sandra care about someone else this much, so he found the scene to be quite peculiar. However, neither of the girls clarified for the two so they could only remain in a confused state about the matter. The Captain looked at Jack again and then said, “Okay, Sandra, you will be the one in charge of him for now. Does anyone know what his ability is?” Hearing this, everyone started thinking about it. Jack had not said what his ability was and also from the tight lock down he was under, it was obvious that it was not something trivial.
George said uncertainly, “Frost called him “Engineer”, so I guess it has something to do with mechanics.” All Sandra could do was nod to that, she did not have any better guesses either. After chatting a bit, Ellen said, “Okay, let’s give the patient some peace and quiet now.”
As she said so, she started showing the two loud mouthed men out of the door. After they had exited the room, Krieg turned around the corner and waited for the three to leave. Seeing Krieg standing there, Sandra asked him, “Did you find anything?” Krieg nodded and gave Sandra a set of black clothes.
Currently, Krieg did not look like a man made of steel but rather like a big muscular soldier. His face was quite rigid, and he wore camo pants with a black tank top. His black hair was cut in a crew cut, his skin had a tanned bronze hue. Mixed in with his black hair were streaks of grey. Sandra accepted the clothes and invited Krieg in.
Since everyone else had left, there were only the three of them left in the room, if you counted in Jack. Krieg looked at Jack and said, “I did not attend the Academy but from what you have told me before, that place is not nice. Seeing the various scars on his body, I can tell that he has been through more life and death situations than most on this ship.”
Hearing him, Sandra only nodded. Krieg patted Sandra on the head and said, “I have said it before, that if you need someone to talk to, my wife Ellen will be more than happy to listen to you. If need be, I can listen as well.” His low voice carried a hint of softness and Sandra only nodded her head to Kriegs words.
On this ship, there had previously been three people that knew of her past: the Captain, Krieg and his wife, the Head Doctor, Ellen. They all treated Sandra with care and as if she was their own child. Well, the Captain was like the weird uncle in that case. Sandra said in a sorrowful tone, “Nothing is wrong, thank you.”
Seeing this, Krieg did not push it either. He gave Jack one last glance and then left the room. When everyone had finally left, Sandra locked the door again and took off the covers on Jack again and dressed him in the clothes Krieg had brought. The clothes were quite comfortable and they actually fit Jack.
When he was finally dressed, Sandra looked at him again. Jack was now dressed in a black T-shirt and black long trousers that weren’t tight. After all of it was done, she gently pushed Jack nearer to the wall and laid down next to him. It didn’t take long for Sandra to fall asleep as well.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed already and the ship had reached their headquarters already. Most of the personal had disembarked and gone to do their own things. Some went home to their families, some went drinking, some went to visit the brothels. During the three days, the ships atmosphere had returned to normal and most people treated Sandra with more warmth than before. Not a single one of them was a pirate because of the heck of it, they all had their own stories and reasons, Sandra’s was just one of the countless amongst them.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
On the ship, there weren’t many people left. Only a few mechanics working on the ship, the Captain who actually lived on the ship and a few others that did not have anything to do outside. Krieg and Ellen were also left on the ship and currently, the three of them, Krieg, Ellen and the Captain, were in Sandra’s room. Every day, Ellen would check up on Jack three times and at the moment, it was the routine check up. However just as they were about to leave, Jack’s eyelids trembled.
Seeing this, all of them stopped and turned to look at Jack. Jack slowly opened his eyes and took a moment to look around. After taking a few moment to confirm his surroundings, his gaze fell onto the four that were about to leave. Seeing him wake up, Ellen asked with a smile, “How are you feeling?” Not recognising anyone besides Sandra, Jack stayed vigilant towards all of them. He answered with caution, “A lot better.”
Seeing the vigilance, Sandra said, “You are currently on the Little Ghost. You have been out for three days.” Hearing this, Jack was surprised but before he could say anything, Sandra introduced them all. She pointed towards the Captain and said, “He is John, the Captain of the ship.” John immediately extended his hand towards Jack and said with a smile, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jack cautiously shook his hand and then Sandra pointed towards Ellen and said, “She is our Head Doctor Ellen, she was also the one who treated your wounds.”
Hearing this, Jack extended his hand towards Ellen as well but Ellen instead just hugged him tightly, burying his head between her massive breasts. Being alarmed like this, a crude metal knife appeared in his hand and he instinctively stabbed it towards her throat from the back. Seeing this, Krieg immediately caught his hand and pulled Ellen away. Everyone in the room was alarmed and Sandra quickly stepped between the Jack that was gasping for breath and the serious Krieg. The Captain just looked at Ellen and said with a sigh, “You should have known better than to suddenly hug him like that. It is just like with Sandra all over again.”
rieg looked at Jack in the eyes and tightly gripped his little wrist. Seeing this, Sandra said, “Lets calm down now.” However, Krieg locked eyes with Jack and tightened his grip on his little hand. Feeling the pressure from the grip, Jack dropped the knife and only then did Krieg let go of his hand and his gaze also softened. He understood very well that it was Ellen’s fault for suddenly hugging him like that.
Ellen looked a bit sheepish as she scratched at the back of her head saying, “I’m sorry, I did not want to frighten you but you just looked so cute and adorable, so I couldn’t help myself.” Jack’s gaze also softened a bit and he lowered his head towards Ellen, “I am sorry as well, I did that out of reflex.” After both of them had apologized to each other, the atmosphere lightened a bit and Sandra cleared her throat, “This is Krieg, the giant steel man that was with me when we rescued you.” Hearing this, Jack looked at Krieg in confusion and seeing the confused gaze, Krieg just let out a hearty laugh as he said, “Well, can’t blame you for not recognizing me.”
He then put his hand on the wall and starting from the palm of his palm, steel quickly covered his entire arm. He then turned towards Jack and said, “My ability [Absorption] allows me to absorb the properties of any material I touch and for example, if I absorb steel, I become like a steel man. It is classified as a SS Rank Ability” Hearing this, Jack nodded in understanding and lowered his head again, “I thank you for saving me back then.” Krieg just scratched the back of his head and said, “Well, I should thank you as well for saving us when Frost showed up.”
Jack shook his hand as well and then turned towards Sandra. Sandra then said, “We met before as well but let me introduce myself properly this time. My name is Sandra and my ability is called [Wind’s Blessing].” As she said so, she extended her left hand and on her palm a little transparent tornado appeared. She then continued, “I can control the Wind and as a thanks to that, I can make my body float or shoot out compressed bits of air that are like armour piercing bullets. The ability [Wind’s Blessing] is an A Rank ability” She then smiled and a said to Jack, “Now then, we have all been introduced, how about you?”
Jack, who was sitting up on the bed, slowly edged to the side of the bed and tried to stand up, however, since he was currently too weak, he still didn’t have the strength to do so. Ellen just made him sit down again and told him that it would be okay to sit while introducing himself. Jack then took a deep breath and said, “Well, My name is Jack Lumi and as you know, I escaped from the Garden of Eden.” Everyone present nodded and Jack continued, “I am actually a Double Ability ESP-er. From my dad I inherited the ability [Metal Manipulation] and from my mother I inherited the ability, [Eyes of Destruction and Creation]”
As he explained his abilities, everyone showed an astonished look. Double Ability ESP-ers were not unheard of but they were still quite rare. Only one in a thousand of ESP-ers would be a Double Ability ESP-er, however, most of the people had abilities that either conflicted or did not complement each other. John asked with a thoughtful face, “I understand the [Metal Manipulation] ability, I have met others with this ability before but I have never heard of [Eyes of Destruction and Creation].” Everyone else looked at Jack with a confused face as well.
Jack took a breath and closed his left eye. Everyone were curiously watching him as he blinked his right eye three times and a light blue glow appeared on his right eye. He then said, “This is the [Eye of Creation], it allows me to improve everything. For example, if you put a blueprint of a ship in front of me and I looked at it with the [Eye of Creation], I would be able to use all my knowledge and immediately find all the places that could be improved.” He then blinked his eye three times again deactivating the ability and continued, “If you put a broken piece of machinery in front of me, I would be able to fix it.”
The Captain just looked at Jack in astonishment and said, “Well, that is very useful.” Jack then just shook his head, “It is useful only as long as I have read a lot of books on machinery or seen a lot of blueprints for ships and weapons. The whole ability works like a computer, by having a large database of knowledge it would give me the most optimal solution with the least amount of time by combining all the useful parts of the knowledge possessed.”
Krieg was also thoughtful and asked, “So the more books on machinery and different types of technology you read, the more formidable that ability would become?” Jack nodded his head and added, “So, unless I am allowed to read a mountain load of books on different ships, weapons, shields or engines, this ability is quite useless.” Everyone understood the basic principle behind the ability.
It was similar to the ability [Great Tactician] that allowed a person to memorize a tactic with only a glance. These kinds of strategists were very sought after by every military because if you allowed them to cram every known military formation and strategy inside them, they would only need a glance at the enemy line up and formation to formulate a counter plan to it. However, the prerequisite for this was that the person had sufficient knowledge.
Sandra then asked curiously, “What about the [Eye of Destruction]?” Jack then closed his right eye and blinked his left eye three times in succession. When he opened his eye again, it was covered in a red glow. He then said, “This is the [Eye of Destruction], it allows me to see the weak point of everything. This is not only limited to technology but also extends to someone’s attacks or defensive stances. For technology, it still has the prerequisite that I have to have the knowledge of how it works but for attacks and stances, it does not have this kind of requirement. Thanks to the good synergy between the [Eyes of Destruction and Creation] and [Metal Manipulation] I was ranked as a SSS Rank ESP-er and enrolled at Garden of Eden.”
The Captain sucked in a deep breath as he said, “Well, those abilities truly do complement each other very well.” Jack nodded his head as well. Although it was a short chat, Jack was exhausted. He was still quite weak and seeing Jack with the sleepy face, Ellen said, “Okay, you should eat some nutrients and then head back to sleep. It will take you a while to recover so don’t push yourself too much and allow your strength to return to you.” As she said that, she looked towards Krieg and said, “You carry him to the mess hall, we will all have a good meal.” Seeing her so serious, everyone’s mood lightened up as well.
Although Jack was still very wary of all of them, he slightly lowered his guard. These three were actually the only people that Sandra had ever showed her smile to as well. She came to the ship four years ago but the only ones she opened up to, even by a tiny bit, were these three. Krieg and Ellen tried to care for her like they would for their own daughter and for them, she was like that. The Captain was that weird uncle that showed up at Christmas and brought gifts to everyone despite being completely broke.
The general atmosphere they gave off was that of a gentle family. Jack couldn’t remember the last time he felt like this and slightly grew accustomed to this gentle atmosphere. While they were moving to the mess hall to get something to eat, they gave Jack a tour of the ship as well. Ellen, had actually run off in advance with Sandra to prepare the food. Since there were very few people left on the ship, they didn’t run into that many of them during their tour. However, the ones that they did meet, they introduced them to Jack and Jack introduced himself to them as well.
All of the people on the ship were friendly towards Jack as well and after having three days to digest everything Jack had said to them, they all eased up towards him and actually felt sorry for him. They could not imagine the environment that he had grown up in so everyone on the ship took it as a duty to make his stay with them as good as possible. On their way to the mess hall, Jack suddenly said, “The atmosphere here is very friendly. Everyone seems like one big happy family.”
Hearing this, the Captain laughed and answered, “Well, everyone on the ship is here because of a reason and none of them are ones that were happy. Everyone on the ship treats each other like family because they can somewhat relate to each other. Well, your case is a bit special….” As he said so, Jack nodded in understanding. Also, since the hallways were quite high, Jack was now sitting on Krieg’s shoulders instead of having a piggyback ride. Soon, they reached a big hall that had over a dozen long tables.
Currently, no one else was eating so Krieg and John took Jack to sit at the table closest to the kitchen. John explained to him, “Since most people are currently on leave, there is no point in having the cooking staff stay behind as well. Everyone that is left can either cook for themselves or just go out to eat and then come back.” Suddenly, Ellen poked her head out from the kitchen and said, “We will be done in a second, so be prepared for a feast.”
Hearing this, both John and Krieg seemed very eager. Seeing their excitement, Jack asked in confusion, “Is it rare for Ellen to cook?” Krieg nodded his head seriously as he said, “Her food tastes absolutely delicious but she doesn’t cook that often. Only on rare occasions, so it is your lucky day.” John also nodded and said, “After you taste her cooking, even the most luxurious gourmet dishes will taste like stale bread in comparison.” Hearing this, Jack also eagerly waited for the food. He had not had a decent meal for years as in Garden of Eden, they usually dropped a fixed amount of dry rations in a designated spot and left it up to themselves to see who got how much. About ten minutes passed and the table was covered in various dishes.
There were boiled potatoes with sauce and different kinds of salads, there were also a few types of different meat. Jack couldn’t honestly remember when he had last seen this much food, not to mention the food was warm and not some dry military rations. Seeing the almost salivating Jack, Ellen immediately filled his plate with a big portion of food and after everyone had taken a plate full of food, they all expected Jack to eat first.
Jack was cautious and it hadn’t been the first time, he had eaten poisoned food, so he was quite reluctant to eat it. Ellen immediately guessed it and smiled, “You don’t have to be afraid of poison. If we wanted to kill you, we could have done so during the three days you were unconscious.” Hearing Ellen’s statement, Jack just smiled wryly. None of the people present actually blamed him for being cautious because they had heard some bits and pieces about the Academy from Sandra. Actually, it was a bit of a deja vu for them all. Sandra had been just like Jack when she first arrived. She had graduated only a few months prior to deserting here position and being picked up by John.
After taking a deep breath, Jack finally took a bite. After that he just started ravenously devouring everything in front of him. Seeing him eat so heartily, everyone just let out a laugh and also started eating. It didn’t take even 15 minutes for the table to be completely cleared of food. After everything had been eaten, Jack just sat there and said, “That was delicious.”
Krieg, who was sitting to the right of him just patted him on the back and said, “Isn’t it like I said? Even top class gourmet food can’t compare to Ellen’s cooking.” Jack eagerly nodded to Krieg’s statement, agreeing whole heartedly. Ellen however blushed and said, “Maybe I should cook more often then.” Jack eagerly nodded to that and even John and Krieg did so as well. Suddenly, Jack felt tiredness come over him as he jawned.
Seeing this, Sandra asked Jack, “Do you want to go back to sleep?” Jack nodded his head sleepily as the answer. His body had not recovered enough for him to be able to be up for too long. His body had also obtained a lot of nutrients and he needed time to digest them. Sandra nodded her head and stood up to walk next to Jack. She then said, “Okay, let’s return to the room then and you can have a long nap.” Jack took her hand and followed her to the room.
After the two had left, Krieg looked at John seriously and said, “That little guy dropped his guard quite a bit compared to the first time I met him. Although he is still wary, it doesn’t show that much any more.”John also nodded as he added, “He is good at adapting to the environment. Also, is it just me or has Sandra developed some kind of a connection with him already?” IT was then that Ellen came back from washing the dishes from the kitchen. She heard John’s sentence and she said, “Sandra told me that he remind her of her little brother. She knows that Jack isn’t him but she said that he looks exactly like him.”
Hearing this, both John and Krieg nodded in understanding. As they were discussing this, George and a robust old man who seemed to be about 60 years old walked in.