Battlefield: Control (Book Two)

Chapter Seven - Alan

Every day while his charges were in school, Alan took the time to do as much research as possible. He'd go to what the earth people called the city library. For a supposed treasure trove of books, he found it to be a bit limited in materials.

There were old books with information so outdated there was little purpose of keeping them on the shelves. Most of the content was also fictional, a trait that the earth people had in common with Alturans—they loved to read. At least, that was the impression he got from the multitude of stories available for browsing.

There was hardly ever anyone in the library, so it made for great place to spend time and not be disturbed.

What he especially enjoyed was the access to a tool the earth humans referred to as the Internet. It was easy and handy, with so much information on it for him to access.

A lot of what he found wasn't necessarily factual, but he didn't have problems sorting the truth from the lies. He could see what was happening all over the world, even see what his people were doing elsewhere on Earth. The Internet had websites from all over the planet on it, and most he could translate either with the program already on the computer or with his own technology from home.

On Altura, in his home nation, such unlimited access was rare. So many things were filtered by the government and certain technologies were frowned upon despite their convenience.

It took him a little time to get used to the different style keyboard. Back home almost everything was done through a touch screen, a technology that was just starting to boom on Earth. Though he didn't much like the touch ability on the humans' devices. It wasn't anywhere near as accurate or reliable as the Alturans'. The physical keys were more accurate on Earth, so he used those as much as possible.

What he continually searched for were stories of the mysterious. Mysterious deaths pertaining to an unexplained illness, or a disaster caused by unknown forces. Even a sighting of something considered supernatural would be a good lead for him. More often than not, they were hoaxes, but it was worth at least looking into.

Part of him simply enjoyed playing around online as well. The culture was fascinating, and all of the silly games provided a good way to kill time when he wasn't sure what else to do with himself. No doubt his shipmates would think that shameful, but sometimes it was good to clear his head. Working all of the time wasn't healthy.

If nothing else, it helped him feel like he belonged on the planet. The more time he spent with the people of earth, the more he could figure out how they ticked. That was useful too, wasn't it?

A lot of his conversation with Sir Tuliy was still being processed. So much to think about. On the one hand, Sir Oriol and Sir Tuliy had both made it clear he was doing something unique and productive with his charges. On the other, he struggled with knowing where to draw his lines. He could easily get more productivity out of them.

The way he ran the group, he tried to be as respectful of them as possible. JD had mentioned that being important for him and his peers. They wanted the respect an adult had earned without necessarily having to act like them, and that was the part that "tripped" Alan up, as JD would say.

It had been normal on Altura too. Alan vaguely remembered going through his own awkward stage of growing up. Going into the military had been his way of trying to be a real adult, of taking responsibility. And the only reason he had done that was to be with Mondae, to prove he was mature enough to marry her.

She went and made things more complicated by running off to help the blue tribe, one of the rival nations who had started the war. That was her native land, and he tried hard to keep in mind that she might not have a choice in the matter. A hard thing to remember given some of the things she had said during their last conversation.