The universe never seemed so small. With the introduction of nuclear fusion powered technologies, mankind has seen a rapid expansion into the previously unknown galaxy. The humans had reached the so called Stage 3 civilization, exercising total control over an entire sector of our night sky. Of course humans could never hope to achieve this without war and we wouldn't be ourselves if history didn't repeat itself.

And so the thousands of colonized planets, trillions of humans, and one galaxy turned on itself in a bout of mutual destruction. In the aftermath of this free-for-all, three superpowers formed: The Alliance, The Empire, and The Syndicate. This was known as the First Galactic war.

Hardly after any time had passed, war sprung up again in the Second Galactic war, this time with the elimination of the Empire as a result. This happened a few months ago, and with the signing of the Larinsk - Mengsk treaty, an armistice was decided on and a ceasefire put in place for 10 years.

I wonder about the destroyed planets of the Empire, their still smoking husks a bare remnant of past glory. Each had their own history, now reduced to a no-man’s land between the two remaining superpowers.

*Ring*

*Ring*

*Ring*

A bell noisily disturbed my thoughts, bringing my attention back to the present.

"Hand in your exams" the professor yelled, while throwing marbles at other students still furiously attempting to fill in the last new answers.

This guy is mad, I thought to myself as I passed over my exam hurriedly before exiting the room. Why we still wrote exams on paper was beyond me. Perhaps it was one of those things old universities call tradition. To maintain their prestige of something, anyways, it was not important.

I was nobody special, at least not in the grand scheme of things. A university freshman, male, scrawny, 18, although in name only. I have at least been recognized internationally as a genius, being a lead developer for integration of systems harnessing the power of quantum mechanics into the Alliance's fleet.

But this was nothing amazing. I’m sure in the quintillions of other humans out there, at least thousands of them have accomplished similar tasks. And so, for myself, I was content with living a peaceful life on Earth, the motherland of all humans and the capital of the Alliance.

As for now, I headed upwards at a quick pace to my independent research room in anticipation of the experiment to be performed today: creation of a miniature black hole. Alas, fate wouldn’t allow me to peacefully reach my destination.

A hand near my right shoulder, I instinctively snap around, nothing.

“Haha, Siyu”, a cheeky voice cried out to my left.This time there was somebody there: a short sandy haired classmate named Leon. He wore his trademark smile, which I sometimes wondered if it was permanently stuck on his face. Also one of my few friends. “How was the exam?” he asked inquisitively.

“As usual”, I replied indifferently, too excited about the upcoming experiment to care.

“You never need to study, AND you get full marks. How come I can’t be like that”?

“You should study”

“Don’t wanna”

“Study”

“No. And stop walking so fast”

“Ahh”, I sighed as we arrived at the foyer room, it really was top of the line, fully furnished and every possible expense provided for. I guess this is one of the perks of being a national treasure.

“You do know this is a restricted access area right?”, I questioned Leon, “you would have been arrested over 50 times if I wasn’t beside you”.

“Yup Yup” he happily nodded, “so can I come in?”

This guy was was infuriating in a way, but he was still a good friend. However, the challenge of getting him to leave remained. I took a deep breath and said slowly “You do realize you’ve followed me here 14 times already and I was never even close to letting you in right?”

He grinned “Sure, but today you’re impatient to get in, I can tell. Also, 15th time’s the charm... or was it third...no matter, I’m sure multiples of three work as well!”.

/Facepalm. However, he was right, and I didn’t want to throw him out either, so I sat down on a couch and waited.

Leon did the same thing, while staring at me, never blinking. It’s creepy.

*tick-tock*

*tick-tock*

*tick-tock*

The clock slowly ticked past, each valuable second mercilessly disappearing until I could hold myself back no longer. I was starting to get impatient. Usually he would leave by now but it seemed today he was aware of the circumstances.

I sighed and muttered softly “If I let you have a look, will you leave?”

As much as I hoped Leon would agree to this compromise, I was convinced that he would stay for the duration of the experiment, something akin to thievery of military secrets and could land him in the darkest dungeons, something far worse than death.

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As for why I didn’t call security, last time I tried, he knocked out all the guards while I was in the lab and piled them in front of the door. I had to spend hours pleading with the council for his pardon from capital punishment.

Leon, being himself, didn’t care the least for my feelings and said in his suffocatingly cheerful voice “Of course n...”

He was cut off by my lab door opening. Strange, I thought I had made it to be unopenable by any remote means and coded so that only I and some other important people would be able to unlock it from the outside ... which meant ...

Error 404 .. brain buffering

Somebody was inside.

“Umm, hello”, a very faint voice sounded out before its owner appeared. Even I, who could claim to be fairly stoic about my expressions stared wide-eyed at this appearance. Black shoulder length hair, deep brown eyes, one slightly darker than the other. Her lips were thin, pale, similar to the rest of her skin. All in a one piece dress. Everything about her screamed perfection, but regardless, I quickly attempted to rein in my gawking at her and regain composure.

That is, until Leon burst out laughing. His guffaws echoing in the otherwise silent room. Clutching his sides as he rolled around on the couch. “S-so this i-is w-w-what you w-were hiding...right?”

I felt like shooting him; this was awkward to say the least. I attempted steer the attention away from Leon, but his next action, that is, throwing something at me in a break of laughter and saying “use this” before rolling onto the floor, still laughing.

I gave a quick glance at what he tossed over. A condom. I raised an eyebrow and muttered darkly.

“Leon, remind me to install a body dump from here”

“S-sure thing” he replies

This time I really did shoot him. Not fatally, just with a tranquilizer, which I am allowed to carry by the way, before proceeding to dump his body down the stairs along with that thing he gave me. Then I straighten up and question the mysterious girl.

But before I could

“You are Siyu..?” She asks carefully.

“Yes, but who are you?” I respond. Instead of answering, she looks dejected.

“I’ve always wanted to meet you...but..”

“Dissapointed? What were you expecting? I walked toward the lab and gestured at the couches. “Wait here until I come back...I’ve wasted enough time as it is”, the latter a soft murmur.

Disappearing into the lab, I being preparations for my much anticipated experiment. I say that, but I’ve already done just about everything, the only step remaining was to start the machine and collect data. Of course, making a black hole is nothing easy. To do so would require a stupendous amounts of energy to condense a mass such that its escape velocity would be greater than the speed of light.

The machine designed here, and taking up the majority of the lab has been specifically made for this task, by individually piecing together highly charged ions accelerated through a powerful electric field. The black hole itself would dissipate after a short amount of time via hawking radiation (Who was Hawking anyways). To be honest, I had little hope for this method to work, it seemed too simplistic, too unrefined. But for the dream of opening a wormhole, everything had to be investigated.

“Can I watch” A soft voice broke into my thoughts

A sense of foreboding came over me.

“How did you get in here?”

“You left the door open”

I let out a soft groan. Thats right, I usually don’t have anybody who can come in anyways

“You won’t leave regardless of what I tell you right? At least grab some safety equipment before you come too close. You wouldn’t want to be unprotected if this thing goes boom.” I caution. While thinking that I really am too soft... I remind myself to properly lock doors next time.

“Ok, here goes” I say as I flick the power button. With a burst of noise, the machine switched on. I should have brought headphones I remind myself.

Suddenly, even faster than I can register, someone had pounced on my back and stabbed something, probably a needleless syringe into me. Judging by the fan of black hair, I guess my trust in that mysterious girl was ill founded.

My first thought was that it was soft. My second thought was that the floor was getting really big really fast. My third thought was wondering why the sky was suddenly the floor...