One day John was in the bathroom washing his hands but the water in the sink was cold even dough the lever was turned right. Curious, he pulled the lever off and saw that the pipe for the warm water was dislodged and that the warm water was leaking. The supporter, for the warm water pipe, attached to the wall was broken. John ripped a piece of his sleeve and tied the pipe to the part of the supporter that was still attached to the wall. He tried to attach the pipe back to the lever part and while he was doing that, he cut his hand and it started bleeding.

“Ouch!” John said, took one of the towels and pressed it against the wound, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop. A few moments later the door to his room opened, he stepped out of the bathroom and saw the medical machine come in. “Oh no! I had a deal with the godeer that you won’t pester me again.” John said.

“I am here to help. You have injured yourself. I have come to help you.” The machine said.

“I’m fine, It’s just a scratch. I don’t need your help.” John said angrily as blood dripped on the floor.

“I can see you are losing blood. An injury like that can become infected. I am here to stop the blood and disinfect the wound.” The machine said.

“But o injections this time. Understand?” John said.

“No injections.” The machine said and came closer to John. It removed the towel and cleaned the wound with gauze. It sprayed it with a white spray that turned into foam and the bleeding stopped. It removed the wound and continued to disinfect the wound. While it was doing that, John saw a dent on its left side and some wires sticking out.

“Is the damage on your left side from me kicking you?” John asked.

“Yes.” The machine said.

“So why didn’t they fix you?” John asked confused.

“I am scheduled for maintenance in three days and seven hours. There are machines that are more damaged than me.” The machine replied. “I have cleaned your wound.”

“Then let me fix you. It’s my fault you are damaged.” John said.

“I am scheduled for maintenance...” The machine started to say but was interrupted by John.

“Yeah, I know. But you fixed me, let me fix you. Open the panel on your left.” John said and the machine opened the panel.

The damage wasn’t severe, there were some loose wires and a bent plate. John looked at the wires and matched them to the corresponding ports. He took out the bent plate, put it on the floor and hit it with his shoo until it was straight. Happy with its shape he put the plate back in place and closed the panel. “So, did I fix the...” John started to say but something about this situation triggered a memory.

He was in a situation like this, fixing a machine on a ship. Yes, he remembered, he was an engineer. He was fixing a machine on a human ship on its way to one of the planets to help the enslaved aliens. As he was fixing the machine, an evacuation alarm activated. Al the people on the ship rushed to the escape pods and he followed. John got in one of them and launched immediately. As the pod was living the ship, he saw an alien ship ten times bigger than any ship they had in their fleet coming closer to the colony ship. It fired some kind of bright light towards the colony ship and the explosion destroyed the ship and the pods close to the ship. The explosion impact pushed the other pods. Like his, in different directions. The last thing he remembered was the low oxygen warning. That’s when the pod probably put him into cryosleep.

“Are you alright?” The machine said.

“Yes. I need to go.” John said.

“But I didn’t bandage your wound.” The machine said but John already left the room.

John told the robot in front of his door to take him to the main hall as fast as he could and when they arrived he walked over to Shundi and asked. “Is there any news? Did you find my planet?”

“I think so.” Shundi said and looked at him. “Why are you in such a hurry?” He asked.

“I remembered something. I remembered a massive alien spaceship attacking my ship. It was bigger than any ship we humans had at that time. I’m worried that they enslaved my people. Can you show me what you found?” John asked.

Shundi zoomed to a solar system he found and asked. “Is this your solar system?”

“Yes, good job. That’s it. That’s my planet. How far away is it?” John asked.

“Twenty-five thousand light years.” Shundi said.

John looked at him speechless for a few moments. He looked at the map and back at Shundi. “I don’t have twenty-five thousand years. My people could go extinct by that time.” He said.

“We can help you get there faster but it’s a one-way trip.” Shundi said.

“Thank you that would be awesome. But I’m still worried about the aliens. If they see me they will kill me on the spot.” John said.

“We will give you one of our ships that has cloaking technology so that they won’t be able to see you.” Shundi said.

“Thank you, but I could never repay such a gift.” John said.

“You already have. You warned us that we share a galaxy with evil species and now we have time to prepare our defenses. Consider the gift repaid.” Shundi said.

“Thank you.” John said and walked over to Noxu.

“Hey, Noxu. I wanted to ask you something. You said that you have weapons to defend your planet. Well, does the ship you’re giving me have any weapons?” John asked.

“Only basic weapons. Why?” Noxu asked.

“In my memory the ship that attacked us was big. It was half the size of this ship and I’m worried that basic weapons won’t do any damage to ships like that. Is there a chance you could put stronger weapons on the ship you’re giving me?” John asked.

“We don’t give others our weapons. They will only use it against us.” Noxu said.

“Look, I won’t tell anybody about you. I don’t even know where you are going. How am I going to use your weapons against you if I don’t know where you are?” John explained.

“I will think about it.” Noxu said.

Noxu was so stubborn that even hearing that he will think about it was a big step forward.

While the godeer prepared the ship for John, he was sitting on the bed in his room thinking about what awaits him on Earth. The door of his room opened and he saw a robot standing on the other side. He stood up walked over to the robot who started walking and he followed. The robot took him to a room with two chairs. In one of them, Saiyani was sitting. She invited him in and said. “Sorry for not coming to get you myself self but this is protocol. I invited you here because this is the only place we can talk freely. The cameras in this room record only the image, not the sound. We will pretend to have an Interview but I have something important to say.”

Saiyani put a small round device on the table, pushed one button and said. “Please sit. I am Saiyani Vorte, the minister of alien rights and I am here to see how you have been treated here on this ship. I understand that your name is John. So John. Would you like to drink or eat something before we begin?” She looked at John with a serious look.

“Yeah, I would.” John said.

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“Then I am pausing the recording and we will continue after we get refreshments.” Saiyani said and pushed another button. She got up and pretended to look for glasses and food.

“I heard your talk with Noxu. He is never going to give you our weapons, he’s too paranoid and I completely understand why. Our weapons are based on making space anomalies like wormholes and black holes. They are very dangerous weapons in the wrong hands. However, for the past months, I have seen that you are a good person, so I will have my team attach the black hole weapon to the bottom of the ship we are giving you and hide it with the bottom door hatch. I trust you will not use it against us.” Saiyani said showing him a bowl of almonds.

“You can trust me. Nether I or other humans would use it against you.” John waved his hand and Saiyani showed him a bowl of fruit.

“If you use the black hole weapon on a big ship it might not disappear completely, but the damage would be so severe that it would incapacitate it. So use it wisely.” Saiyani said.

“I will.” John said and nodded. Saiyani put the bowl of fruit in front of him and sat in the chair. She pushed the button on the device again and said. “Let’s continue.”

They continued the interview and when they were finished, John was happy that he now had a fighting chance if he needed it. After two days, everything was prepared for John to leave. They all said their goodbyes, John thanked them once again for everything that they did for him and got in the ship. They explained to him how to pilot the ship, how to activate and deactivate the cloak and he was ready to go. He looked to the left side of the console and saw two buttons, one green, one red, and a small sticker with deer horns on it. So that was Saiyani’s work. Green to activate it and red to fire it, he chuckled a bit and flew out of the big ship.

He heard Noxu say. “Stay put for a while.” He stopped and saw a white beam create a sphere in front of him. “That is a wormhole leading to your solar system. Activate your cloak and go through. After you come out on the other side, the wormhole will collapse. Got it?” Noxu said.

“Heard you loud and clear. Goodbye and thanks again. I wish you good luck.” John said, activated his cloak and entered the sphere. In an instant, his ship was next to Jupiter. He saw an alien ship fly by him towards Earth, he looked at the ship, trying to figure out if it was human or alien. It looked more alien so he followed it. The alien ship docked into one of the bigger ships hangar. John stopped in front of the hangar and waited, he wanted to see the alien that was piloting the ship. The pilot got out of the ship. The alien was tall and lean, its skin and hair were white and it had three tentacles coming from the top of his head, falling down its back.

Those weren’t the aliens humans were fighting against in the galactic war. John decided to circle around the Earth. A fleet of these alien ships surrounded the whole Earth. He descended into the Earth’s atmosphere to fly over the ground and see if there were any humans left on Earth. There were humans on Earth, but as he feared, the white aliens enslaved them. It was probably the same on the other planets, on the colonies. He needed a plan. He didn’t know anything about these aliens and their weapons. If he attacked one ship at a time, they would eventually find him and kill him.

John went back in space and faced the Earth looking at the fleet of ships, thinking how he can win a galactic war with one small ship. He got an Idea and headed out of the solar system. As he left the solar system, he tested the black hole weapon to see how long the black hole lasted. It lasted for fifteen minutes, which was more than enough time. The next test he did was to see what would happen if he fired a black hole into another black hole. The black hole got bigger. That was the result he was hoping for and now he had a plan on how to win.

John went back to Earth, positioned himself in front of the biggest ship in the fleet and deactivated his cloak. As he expected after a few moments a few smaller alien ships came towards him. He flew behind Jupiter where the big ships couldn’t see what was happening and fired the black hole gun. The black hole sucked the small ships as if they were nothing.

John flew back and positioned himself in front of the biggest ship again. This time they sent even more ships after hem, he repeated the same maneuver and circled back to the biggest ship. After a few of the same laps, one of the bigger ships came after him. John flew behind Jupiter again but the bigger ship didn’t follow. The bigger ship circled around from the other side, but it didn’t matter. John fired two black holes at it and the bigger black hole tore it to shreds.

Once again, John was in front of the biggest ship of the fleet. For some time nothing was happening, no ships were coming after him, which meant that they were calling for backup. After some time, a thousand ships surrounded John’s small ship. Three of them were as big as the biggest one he was facing. ‘So four motherships. This is going to be fun.’ John thought. Backup arrived but still, nothing was happening. John activated his cloak to give them something to talk about and moved over one of the smaller ships. Still facing the Earth’s mothership, he deactivated his cloak.

The other alien ships immediately started firing at their own ship underneath him, destroying it. John activated his cloak again and moved to another ship. When he deactivated it, the aliens started firing again, destroying that ship to. He cloaked again, moved away and started laughing. He could win just by jumping from ship to ship so he tried it again. This time the aliens didn’t fire. John returned to his original position, in front of the Earth’s mothership. ’Well, it was worth a shot.’ He thought.

There were still around a thousand smaller ships and four motherships left. John had to get them to attack him somehow. He didn’t have to worry about that for long. Five hundred smaller ships started to charge their weapons. His smaller ship was more agile and a smaller target so he decided to start flying to the edge of the solar system, to Pluto, where he had more maneuvering space. The five hundred ships followed him, firing at his ship.

As soon as he reached the edge of the solar system, he fired multiple black holes towards the sips following him. Six ships turned around and headed for Earth. They were probably going to report how the small ship destroyed so much bigger ships, but John couldn’t let them do that so he fired at them and damaged their engines. They crashed into Saturn. “Ufff… That was a close one.” John said and returned to Earth.

Again, John stopped in front of the Earth’s mothership. This time one symbol on the console was blinking. “I think they’re calling me.” He ignored the blinking symbol and just sat in his ship waiting for their next move. The symbol started to blink again but he just ignored it. A few moments later, the rest of the smaller ships and the three motherships changed formation and started charging their weapons.

‘Finally, some action.’ John thought, turned his ship and headed out of the solar system. The fleet and the tree motherships followed him. When he, by his calculations, was far away from the planets, he stopped and waited for the fleet to catch up with him. When all the ships were in the range of the black hole weapon, he activated his cloak and started firing black holes one after another. The black hole got bigger and bigger and started sucking in the smaller ships whole. John backed away from the black hole and kept firing. The black hole was so massive now that it sucked the mother ships in.

John returned to Earth and stopped in front of the last alien ship, the Earth’s mothership. This time he pressed the symbol that was blinking before and on a screen, in front of him, a white alien appeared with confusion on his face.

“A human?” The alien said.

“Yes, I’m a human. I’m John and I can’t say that it’s a pleasure to meet you.” John said.

“What did you do to my fleet?” The alien asked.

“You know, you have manners like you were born in a sewer. Your fleet is gone. Puff!” John said.

“You will pay for this.” The alien said and the ship started charging weapons.

“I don’t think I will.” John said, aimed the black hole weapon at the alien ship’s weapons and fired. In an instant, the alien ship’s weapons were gone. “You have anything else you don’t need?” John asked.

All kinds of alarms went off on the alien ship and the alien was shouting orders. When he finished he turned towards John and said. “How did you undo the Brakubra?”

“The what?” John asked.

“The enslavement ritual.” The alien said. “How don’t you know about Brakubra?” The alien asked confused.

“Ooooooh… That’s an easy one. I’m twenty-five thousand years old. I wasn’t here when you came.” John replied. “So, let’s see what else you don’t need.” He said and started shooting black holes all around the ship.

“So what did I hit?” John asked with a happy voice.

“Stop shooting at my ship!” The alien said.

“Let’s make a deal. Tell me how to undo the Braku bla bla. Whatever you call that enslavement and I’ll stop.” John said.

“Alright, you have to perform a ritual and chant a specific set of words.” The alien said.

“Wait, let me record this. My memory is not what it used to be.” John said. “Go. Tell me the words.” He said and the alien explained the ritual and said the words.

“Are we done? Can we leave now?” The alien asked.

“Just a sec.” John said and pushed the red button for the black hole weapon a few times. The black hole destroyed the mothership. “Now you can leave.” He said, landed his ship on Earth, performed the ritual to break the enslavement on a group of humans and thought them how to do it.

In a few years, all humans were free and all the white aliens were dead, even those on other planets, on the colonies. John was celebrated as a hero and savour of all mankind. He received all kind of medals, awards and they even named a day after him. There was a statute of him on every planet.

Technology development didn't stop for the last twenty-five million years he was gone. It made a giant leap forward but humans couldn't use it for themselves because of the white aliens. Now that the white aliens were gone humanity used the technology and built all the things they have been building for the aliens. The black hole weapon was a discovery of the millennium and was implemented as a defense system on Earth, ships and all colony planets.

But all of that didn't matter to John. The only thing that mattered was getting his memories back and the thing he missed the most, his name.

One day he went to see the statue they made of him. They totally messed up his chin. Behind the statue was a wall of names and pictures of people that died in the first galactic war. There were more than two thousand names written there. Two thousand for two ships lost in battle and the rest from the ship headed for the colony to help the aliens. On the colony list, there was a picture of him.

Next to the picture, was his name, Leon Dawkins. He put his hand on the wall, next to his name and said. "It's good to finally meet you Leon."