He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Eighty Nine - Finding Truth In Pictures

"Kyan, it's time for breakfast!"

"Coming!"

Kyan stood in front of the full length mirror and adjusted the sleeveless, black over shirt which lay loosely as intended upon the white, slogan T-shirt. He wore a black watch upon his wrist, that happened to have black three crystals imbedded in it's white face. Orion happened to have it commissioned for his birthday after Kyan described it to him once.

It had been a long year, his rehabilitation had taken up most of his time after the surgery as his brain had to learn to communicate with his body once more. Actually, the doctors had been quite surprised how quickly he relearned this, usually it could take up to five years for a full recovery considering the length of time his body had been out of touch with his mind. Kyan wondered if this didn't have something to do with his time in the Archive, after all, his mind had been actively commanding virtual bodies in there, it was just his body that needed to relearn.

He'd taken to studying while rehabilitating, refining his already able mind to understanding knowledge for this day and age, but within six months, he had taken and passed his first selection of exams for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and had then taken on the challenge of other courses. They had called him a prodigy, a genius, but in truth, most of his knowledge was an amalgamation of almost a hundred lives learnings, some useful, some not.

And now he was enrolled into university and had taken on a double major. He'd chosen Advanced Technological Sciences, not hating this subject and wishing to help Orion when he graduated and Astronomy for his own reasons.

He glanced up at the small, two dimensional image stuck to the corner of his mirror and smiled sadly at it, as he did every morning. "See you, Dominic. I'll be leaving first."

He bounded down the stairs and grinned as he saw his two dads sitting impatiently at the table. No matter how busy the two men were, Orion with his Electronics business and Damien with his new security firm, they always made time to share breakfast with him. This morning it was pancakes. These were not as good as what his lover used to make, but they were still good.

"We'll have to import flour again," Orion was complaining as he tucked into the fluffy cakes, drizzled with maple syrup. Since being out of the Archive, none of them could stand replicated food anymore, which meant going out of their way to reach out to traditional and farming planets, mostly found within the Empire. Only the settlers and natives upon them knew how to grow good foods rather than rely on mass produced alternatives that were supposed to 'taste as good as the real thing.' However, importing was not cheap, even if it was generally en masse. Real meat was even more difficult to find due to restrictions in animal farming, hunting and imports.

"I will contact Chelsea," Damien said, as he cleared his plate. Chelsea was one of the survivors, one of the final five to leave the Archive in fact. She also now found the replicated food unpalatable, so had started up a fresh produce business that Orion had helped invest in. It was not strange to find that the survivors who Kyan had helped rescue were now her core customers.

Most of the 'survivors' had kept silent about the matter of the Archive, though not all.  One of the first to escape was rather over dramatic about the whole thing, but seeing as no one would confirm or deny what he claimed happened to him inside the Archive, only the tabloids and cheap magazines would publish his story upon their sites.  Apparently his words began an initial frenzy of questioning and protests, making the people, who were trying to keep the whole thing on the down low, job harder.  It blew over in a couple of weeks due to some celebrity scandal or other.

Of the last eleven to leave, not including Kyan, only three did not keep in touch.  One was Juanita Olivios, who had only vague memories and wished to forget everything that occurred.  The others were the married couple Destiny Canterbury and her husband,
Dominic Monticello.  Yes, Kyan's virtual lover, capturer of his heart and soul was already spoken for.  It was painful to find this out, but not as much as what Orion had discovered; Dominic did not remember him at all.