When the little girl finished eating, she quickly said thanks and then went towards her room and changed her clothes. She took off her pyjamas and put on a white short sleeved shirt and long green pants. She then rushed past the kitchen and said, “I am going out to play.” The middle aged man nodded and said, “Have fun.”
The young woman however just shouted to her on the doorstep, “Be careful!” However, she just heard a faint answer, “I will.” After the little girl had left, the atmosphere in the room turned serious as the middle aged man asked the woman in a serious tone, “Has she said anything?” The young woman shook her head lightly and said, “Nothing. All we know is that someone will pick her up some day but where she came from or the origin of those scars, those are all a mystery.”
The middle aged man let out a deep sigh as he massages his temples. The man was wearing a simple T-shirt and pants. His build was slightly muscular and his hair was cut short. His hair was brown and his skin had a bronze hue from working outside. The young woman however had a slender build and her skin was pale. She usually wore simple dresses and her blonde hair dropped until her lower back.
Hedi had appeared out of thin air 4 months ago. The young woman had been hanging up laundry at that moment when Hedi just appeared and dropped into the clothes basket. Her clothes had been in a tattered state and there were some closed wounds on her. She lost consciousness immediately after appearing, so the young woman had brought her inside and put her on a bed. She even called a doctor that looked over her and said that there was nothing wrong with her and she just needed rest. Afterwards, they had offered her to stay there until someone came to pick her up.
About 2 weeks ago, a troop from Kriegrich Empire had come looking for someone, however, when the middle aged man had told Hedi about it, she had panicked and gone into hiding. Even an idiot could tell that she was hiding from them for some reason. Since this planet wasn’t under Kriegrich Empire’s jurisdiction, they had no power here and when they tried to forcefully search the area, the military had arrived. S
ince their Aldurin Republic had the same might that Kriegrich Empire had, the Kriegrich Empire did not dare to force the matter. Since they could do nothing, they left with a bitter feeling. After they had left, all they learned from Hedi was that “They were bad people.”
The man just sighed as he said, “Normally, she acts like a spoiled little child but when you ask her about anything regarding her, her eyes turn colder than a soldiers. Her past is in no way simple and if you couple it with the fact that the Kriegrich Empire nearly forcefully searched the area….” The young woman also seriously nodded her head and added, “However, she isn’t dangerous and is usually obedient. When that “Jack” comes, we may find out something. Before that, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Outside the kitchen window, squatting under the kitchen window’s sill was Hedi. Her eyes looked cold as she mumbled to herself, “Stupid Jack, when will you come and pick me up? If I truly have to wait 5 years to meet up with you under the clock tower, I will make you pay for that.” She then quietly left the spot and ran to the streets.
Her eyes flashed as she thought to herself, “To get to the Aldurin Main Planet, I need money. Time to get to work.” After that, she started wandering the streets and her hands flashed every once in a while, “borrowing” a random passerby’s wallet. The legend of “Ghost Hands” was born that day.
***
Several days had passed since Jack and the old man had their little talk. After that day, although he kept his distance, he kept talking to Jack and he agreed with Jack to buy him a little house with a big basement area to turn into a mechanical laboratory. The old man said that he would pay for everything himself but Jack promised to pay him the money back. Since Jack was exceedingly stubborn on this, the old man could do nothing but relent in the end.
However, he would not allow Jack to live alone in a huge house, so he arranged two people to also live in the house with Jack. Jack had fought back against this idea but this time, it was his turn to relent. Although it had only been several days, Jack’s wounds had healed by 70% and were of no threat to his life any more. From now on, he would only need to come for a check up every week for a period of time and if not problems arose, Jack would eventually not need to come.
Since there was no need for Jack to stay in the hospital any more, the old man brought Jack to his new home. Currently, Jack was wearing black jeans with a red T-shirt and a black jacket. He had explicitly told the old man that he disdains the colour of white and he will never wear any white clothes again because it reminds him of his previous days on the Island. The old man had then specifically picked clothes that did not even have a hint of white on them. What was the most eye catching about Jack was the red scarf around his neck.
It was used to cover up a scar he got on the Island. It was shaped like a barbed wire and ran across his entire neck, when the old man and Alex asked him about it, he maintained his silence on how he got that. He turned into a glacier as he said, “It was a bloody night when I got this scar. The person who gave this to me is probably still on the Island.” The cold aura he excluded made even the old man and Alex sweat. This same scar was actually what troubled Alex the most. Since Jack did not get proper medical treatment after getting this injury, it created permanent damage to his breathing ways.
His breath was always short and a little haggard, however, since Jack had gotten used to it, he didn’t mind it at all. As the old man, Jack and Alex walked down the street, Jack took in the scenery around him. The house he was going to live in was in the suburbs area of the city where middle class people owned houses. The neighbourhood was peaceful and the neighbours were friendly people. The reason they walked there instead of taking a car or something was so Jack could familiarize himself with the surroundings as well.
Every time they came a cross a store or a big building, Alex or the old man explained what the place was and what could be done there. As they strolled along, they got quite a few peculiar glances. Since the Four Bosses were well known figures on this planet, anyone could recognize them. Alex was the Chief Doctor of the Hospital. He had saved the lives of countless people with his amazing medical skills. It wouldn’t be weird to see the two of them have a walk but what brought the peculiar glances as the ten year old Jack. Comparing their heights with the old man and Alex, he was only a bit shorter than their rib cage.
Ignoring all the gazes, they soon arrived at the house Jack was supposed to live in from now on. Jack then turned to the old man and asked, “Gramps, will you now tell me who I am going to live together with?” The old man just smiled and said, “Don’t be impatient, they are inside the house, so you will meet them again soon enough.” Jack frowned, “Again?” Gramps let out a laugh as he said, “Yes, you are already familiar with them, so don’t worry.” After hearing that, Jack thought of a husband wife pair that might the people Gramps talked about. As they entered the house, delicious cooking aromas were spreading through the entire house. Gramps just laughed merrily, “Oi, we are here.”
Hearing that, a familiar voice came from the next door that said, “We are in dining room!” Jack followed Gramps and Alex to the dining room and there were 6 people merrily chatting there already. All of these six people were actually people that Jack was quite familiar with. There was John, Krieg, George and three others. The three others were the Boss’s of the three other Factions: Mercenary, Merchant and Government. Jack had met the three when he was hospitalized. Jack greeted everyone and then turned towards his Gramps and asked, “So the people that will be staying here are Krieg and Ellen?”
The old man let out a little laugh as he nodded his head. Krieg then added, “I am getting a bit too old to keep running around with the young ones. I had thought of retiring from active duty for quite a while already but never really had the chance to do so.” Jack took his seat and then asked, “Why?” Krieg then let out a laugh as he said, “Because I have no other skills other than raiding and smashing stuff. It is hard for me to find a job outside the ship.”
Jack then made an “Ohh!” sound as he listened to Krieg’s explanation. Krieg then turned to Jack and said, “So you have decided to settle down for now?” Jack then swung his feet on the big chair and said, “Yup, I am tired of all the fighting and bloodshed. For one lifetime, I have had enough of it. All I want to do settle down and hole up in a room with machinery.”
Everyone stayed quiet after hearing that but suddenly John laughed, “It is quite peculiar to hear such deep words from someone so small.” Jack then gave a smile filled with sadness towards John and said, “On the Island, you grow up fast or you never will.” This sentence brought the whole mood down.
Everyone were quiet as no one knew what to say but Jack, realizing he messed up, asked the Government Faction’s Boss, “Taavi, is your offer for a researcher still valid?” Taavi, then snapped out and quickly answered, “Yup, although I can’t promise work all the time, if you create something good or do a custom work for us, we will pay you quite handsomely.” Hearing this, everyone present were puzzled but seeing this, Taavi explained, “When I was visiting Jack, he asked me if we had a Research Department. Then he offered his services and since I honestly have no idea about his true skills, I can not give a definite answer.” After Taavi explained it, everyone had a face of realization.
Gramps however just pouted, “Why are you going to work already? Why not go to school for now?” This wasn’t the first time Gramps offered him a full scholarship into one of the most prestigious Academy’s in the Galaxy. Jack just said, “I first need to go and get that princess. If I truly wait five years, I have a feeling I will end up worse than a few days ago.”
Hearing this, Alex nudged him as he joked, “So the little princess is a feisty one? Interesting.” Jack frowned as he looked Alex. Alex then put on an innocent face as he said, “Don’t worry, you are not the only one with a feisty princess, isn’t that right Father?” As he finished his sentence, he looked over Jack towards his Father. Jack also looked at Gramps and he just sighed, “Jack, my grandson, take my advice. Feisty women are difficult to deal with.”
Just as he finished saying that, a voice carried over form the doorway, “Is that so, then do you want me to discipline you and show you how feisty I really am?” Everyone’s gazes turned towards the doorway in synchronisation and saw a woman with grey hair standing there with a dish of food. Jack greeted her, “Hello Grandma.” The woman’s feisty expression disappeared and was replaced with a warm smile.
She then said, “Little Jack, don’t listen to this unruly brute. I want to meet my Granddaughter-in-law even more now.” Jack then tilted his head towards the old woman and said, “What is that?” The old woman then said, “When a man and a woman love each other very much, they marry to show that they want to spend their lives together. They also sleep together, do everything together and regard each other very highly.” Hearing the explanation, Jack dropped a bombshell on everyone by saying, “Me and Hedi used to sleep together on the Island, does that mean that we are married?”
The whole room quieted down as everyone’s gazes turned to Jack. Grandma had even nearly dropped the plate of food she was putting on the table. Jack had no idea of the things between men and women. On the Island they slept in each other’s arms so that they could share their body warmth, also since they were so close to each other, Hedi could warn Jack when someone came too close. Alex then asked, “You slept together? You mean in the same bed?”
Jack looked towards him and said, “We did not have beds there, so we slept in each other’s embrace to share the body warmth and so she could warn me quickly when someone came too close.” Hearing this, everyone realized that they had misunderstood each other. They had all even pondered if kids at that age could even perform the act. Gramps then patted Jack on the head and said, “No, you two aren’t married. Well, you will understand what your Grandma meant in a few years.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Hearing this, Jack nodded his head. He was quite confused why everyone looked at him with such a peculiar gaze before but he didn’t bother himself much with it. Soon the table was filled with food and Grandma, Ellen and Sandra came out of the kitchen. After a few toasts, they all ate. The meal was delicious so it was finished quite fast. After the meal was finished, they all chatted a bit and seeing that it was already evening Sandra, John, Taavi, George, Martin, Boss of the Merchant Faction and Ivar, the leader of the Mercenary Faction, left.
All that was left was Krieg, Ellen, Gramps, Grandma and Jack. After sending everyone off, Krieg and company showed Jack around. Krieg and Ellen’s bedroom was on the first floor but Jack had the whole second floor of the house to himself. On the second floor was Jack’s room, a bathroom, a storage and a guest bedroom. On the first floor was the living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom, garage and Krieg’s and Ellen’s bedroom. When Jack arrived in his bedroom, he found it very spacious.
Besides the big two person bed there was a closet full of clothes and one wall was filled with bookshelves. The bookshelves held various books on machinery, scrapped inventions and materials. Besides the desk, there was also a balcony. The walls of the room were red with black flower paintings. After Jack had familiarized himself with the room, he was led down to the basement. The basement was filled with all sorts of blueprints, apparatuses and materials. Jack looked around wide eyed and then turned to the old man, “Gramps, I truly would not have expected you to work this fast.” Everyone’s faces changed as Gramps let out a bitter laugh, “This house belonged to your parents.”
Jack turned towards the old man and the old man squatted down to his eyeline. He then said, “All the things in the house were the done by you parents. Your room decoration included. Before they left, Freddy left the keys and the Deed to the house in my hands.” He then fished out a chip and the key’s and gave them to Jack, “They are yours now.” Jack accepted the keys and looked at the for quite a while. No one knew what Jack was thinking about but none of them disturbed him either. After gazing at the key’s for a bit, Jack put them away.
He then turned towards the old man and asked, “Are the materials I need here as well?” The old man nodded his head and pointed his finger towards a closed door, “That place is the storage of the Laboratory Area. All of the materials you need are there plus the ones left behind.” Jack then nodded his head and walked towards the door. The door opened as Jack neared and when Jack entered the room, he was taken a back a bit.
The storage area was even bigger than the laboratory area and it was filled with shelves. On the shelves all the materials were neatly organised and categorised. Seeing the extensive amount of materials, Jack’s eyes lit up as he quickly took all the materials he needed. When he brought all the materials he needed out and put them in the centre of the spacious room in a circular manner, with a little hole in the middle, everyone looked puzzled. Krieg asked, “Are you going to make this Tracker now?”
Jack came out with the last materials he needed and hearing the question, he looked at Krieg as he nodded, “Yup, if I take too long with this, I may end up going against Heidi instead of Hedi.” The four people’s faces showed confusion as Ellen asked, “What do you mean by that?” Jack put down the last materials and was looking over all the materials on the ground to make sure he did not forget something. Without even turning his head he answered, “Hedi usually acts like a spoiled princess but every time we fought, she started calling herself Heidi instead and her whole demeanour changed. She turned into an exceedingly cold person that did not even flinch when she killed someone.”
When Jack answered, everyone’s eyes went wide in astonishment. They all looked towards Ellen and Ellen said in a serious, quiet voice, “She probably has a Split Personality Disorder. Growing up in that kind of an environment, it is no surprise actually.” She took a breath and continued, “A person usually subconsciously creates an another personality when their mind is on the verge of breaking. 90% of people with a Personality Disorder actually developed the second personality when they were little to cope with some terrible event.”
As Ellen explained, a thought passed through all their minds, “Is this what the Kriegrich Empire is after?” However, they decided not to speak of it more at the moment and would acquire information about it afterwards. Everyone’s eyes turned to Jack again and it was right at that moment, Jack let out a deep breath and inhaled a big mouthful of breath again as he blinked his eyes three times rapidly. A blue glow came on his right eye and a red glow appeared on his left eye. He then stretched out his arms and white threads started extending from his fingers and the other side of the threads latched themselves to different materials scattered on the floor.
When the other side of the threads were attached to the materials, they were enveloped by a milky white glow as they started levitating in the air. The different materials started changing shapes rapidly as Jack’s finger’s moved like he was playing a piano. Every movement of a finger provoked a reaction from a thread attached to that finger. Soon, gears, wires and a screen were done and were floating a bit further away from the other materials that were still being formed. In another 15 minutes, there were hundreds of gears, screws, bolts and wires floating around.
Then Jack took a deep breath as his fingers started moving even more rapidly. The entire bit of machinery started assembling itself as the pieces connected to one another. When the whole interior system was done, it was gently placed inside a box. Seeing the box floating in front of him, Jack looked at it with his right eye and then nodded his head.
He then fished out a battery from nearby and put it inside the box. He then held down a button and when the screen started lighting up, Jack smiled as he said to himself, “Done, now all that is left is to insert the program to it.”
It was then that he turned his head towards four people that were standing near the door. All of their faced showed absolute astonishment, they had not come out from their shock even now that Jack was done. Usually, it would take a few days to create a little Tracker like this with specialized equipment for it’s production. That was a conservative estimate in cases that it only needed assembly as all the gears and wires and screws are already done. However, Jack only took half an hour to build one from literally raw materials. If someone told them this, they would not believe it and would laugh at the person but since it all happened right in front of their eyes, they had no other choice than to believe it.
It was also now that they understood exactly how perversely broken this [Dream Engineer] was in terms of creating machinery. Krieg mumbled in astonishment, “Did he seriously create a working piece of machinery from raw materials in less than half an hour?” Gramps blankly answered, “Yes he did. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it.” Everyone present nodded their heads as they blankly followed Jack’s movements with their eyes. They were utterly stupefied from Jack’s display of ability.
Thinking about the possibilities of the ability, they felt their minds blank even more. Jack however, did not even pay them any attention and started fiddling with the Tracker in his hands. Even though he had created the machine itself, he still needed to program it to make it work. This was a lot harder than actually creating the machine. His ability didn’t allow him to simultaneously program it while he was building it, so he could only use the extensive amount of knowledge in his head to program this tracker now.
However, programming the settings wasn’t his forte, so it would take a lot longer than creating the actual machine did. Jack soon put the Tracker on the table as he turned towards Krieg and the rest. Seeing him looking at them, Gramps snapped back to reality and asked, “You finished it already?” Jack shook his head and said, “Not yet, I still need to program it. If I had the program done already, I could just burn it onto the Tracker to make it work but since I don’t have it, I only have an empty shell.” After hearing that, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
Unknowingly, they had started to feel envious of Jack’s ability and if he could finish the programming as well in about an hour or so, they would truly feel that fate is unfair. When they heard that Jack needed more time to create the program as well, they felt relief that his ability was not completely broken and could at least not do everything.
Gramps raised a brow and asked, “You said that this Tracker works on a special frequency, right? Couldn’t you have programmed an already existing Tracker to find that frequency?” Jack turned towards the old man and said, “The ability of a Tracker is determined by two things: The materials and the program. All military grade Trackers are made from good materials that complement the program written on the Tracker. This is also the reason some Trackers find some signals but other Trackers can not find that signal no matter what.”
He then looked at the Tracker on the table and said, “This Tracker is made for the specific reason to find that signal. The materials the pendant was made from are able to discard all jammers and are untraceable through other Trackers. It is kind of hard to explain to others.” He could only put on a helpless face as he slowly shook his head.
The Tracker’s materials had special interactions that allowed it to find frequencies that were usually unfindable. Gramps thought about it for a second and asked, “Could you create communication channels using these frequencies?”
Jack nodded his head and said, “It is possible to tap into these frequencies and use them for communication. It works on the same principal as other communication channels. If you tune two or more communicators to the right frequency, they can converse on it without other’s knowing about it.” Hearing this Gramps’s eyes lit up as he asked, “If I asked you to build these types of communicators that worked on these frequencies that were usually hidden, how long would you need?” Jack thought about it for a second before saying, “Well, since I have not done these kind of communicators before, I would need a bit of time to make a working prototype. Then I need time to write the program for it as well, after that comes the testing period of whether it can ignore jammers and how long the range is to use it and so on.” Hearing this Gramps nodded seriously. He understood from Jack’s words that it would take a while to create them because there were a lot of things that needed to be tested before he could give them over. Even if he can create a working prototype in a short period of time, he still needs time to test the limits of the communicator. It would not be a short process and would need at least half a year.
Ellen then pointed towards the Tracker and asked, “How long would you need to program it?” Jack just sighed, “A couple of days are needed at least. I have to write the program from scratch and then configure it to work together with the Galactic Map. Even then I can’t be completely sure of the results before we follow the coordinates and they match up with the origin of the signal.” Jack then walked towards the door leading outside of the laboratory and said, “Well, I am going to go and sleep.” They all looked at Jack with a blank face.
Seeing that, Jack just pointed out, “I am currently tired and rushing things will make more work for me as there will most likely be more mistakes made if I push myself too much. It is more beneficial to rest up and continue in the morning. Hearing Jack’s words, they all left the laboratory. They however felt a bit awkward about having their roles switched. They had turned into eager little children while Jack had turned into the adult.
Gramps and Grandma also left for home and the three left in the house were currently all sitting in the living room. Krieg looked at Jack who was having a cup of cocoa and asked, “When do you plan to go and pick up that girl?” Jack took a sip of cocoa and said, “As soon as I can. However, before anything else, I need to pinpoint her location. If she was caught by the Kriegrich Empire, it is going to be a lot more tricky than before.”
Krieg seriously nodded his head to that. Jack then continued, “If she was caught by the Empire, then I am just going to have to resort to some drastic measures.” Hearing this Krieg felt a shudder from the cold smile on Jack’s face. His battle prowess was something he had seen first hand and now having seen the assembly of such an intricate piece of machinery like it was a child’s play, he started fearing what would happen if Jack decided to go all out. It would probably be easy for him to create weapons that no one could guard against and if he created a ship that was nigh indestructible as well then, he could create a calamity. However, there was one thing that no one knew. In Jack’s head was a very special blueprint: Nuclear Fission Bomb.
He had continuously modified this blueprint from the day he was sent to the Island. Currently, he could create the bomb to be as small as a small bouncing ball but have the explosive power to completely evaporate a 100 square kilometer asteroid. Although the materials needed to create this thing were very precious and rare, it would only be a bit of a challenge for the Merchant Faction to obtain them.
If Hedi truly was held by the Kriegrich Empire, he would first send a request to them to release her. If they ignored the request, he would use the bomb on one of the Planets under Kriegrich Empire as a warning to them. If they still ignored him, he would just drop one of these bombs directly on the Imperial Palace.
There were two types of men who the world feared: First of all, Extremely powerful people with a lot of connections and an army. The second would be Madmen.
The first kind of people were feared because they could make it so that you would lead a life worse than death with a word. However, madmen were feared because they simply did not give a shit.
It would be wrong to say that Jack’s mentality hadn’t deviated from a normal persons from his time on the Island. Although it wasn’t very obvious, he could actually be listed as one of the most dangerous madmen out there.