Corinth: A Battle for the Homeland

VIII : Dalikamata

Cretil 24, 2095

Danny had never felt this vulnerable, but he still continued smiling. After being declared as "dead" by the woman she just met, and had claimed to know her, Danny already started questioning his existence while Alexander and Matilda showed him around the central chamber.

"So this is the Central Chamber, this is where our team of hackers and some gifted programmers do their magic in entering the files from all of the nations! And also hack in to the satellites of each." Alexander turned around and out his hands on his waist. Matilda was positioned behind Danny, her hands clasped together. "But, there is more than what you can see as of now." Alex grabbed a chair and slid it behind Danny. "Sit please, we're going to see if you happen to be one of the infecteds in a bit... forceful way."

"But I'm fine! Really!" Danny said, forcing Alex to accept the fact that he's normal. No one listened to him. After all, he was just a kid.

No one listened to a kid. And this was what made him rather sad about almost anything. The reason he tried to smile everything out.

Alex sighed. He rubbed his wrinkled forehead and said, "I can't. You see." He sat down on a desk beside Danny and knit his thick eyebrows together. "Since you're unregistered, I have to run some tests, just in case you are from Flower or born from a Reject. People from those nations have been wept out of the planet's database since both nations don't want the data to be read and manipulated by the Aluction, so most of us here are practically unregistered, except for those who were re-verified during their colonization..."

Danny swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in his throat. As a kid, he was already used to suspense and thrilling things. Robbing and pickpocketing things with Aaron, running from the cops, the authorities, and in some cases, killing some of the Aluction because... because of what? The persistent voice in his head that insisted him to get the Sun Sphere? The thought suddenly entered him that the man could just be an embodiment of the ALC virus Alex was talking about. Danny shuddered.

Chills swept down his spine as what "forceful" procedure would Alex do to him. Electiric chair? Some technology that required something from his thumb? Or would they review his memory? Well, the latter would be the least of his worries since they wouldn't see anything at all except for the parts when he woke up on the shore with a broken staff on his hand. But still, the rest of his thoughts worried him.

"May I ask, have you seen those... things? Do we look like them? I'm really worried about what's to happen since, you can already see that I'm a human," Danny asked to distract and comfort himself from his thoughts. "I am also a Reject. Isn't that enough since the finger thingy you've used on Fiona said she was from Minaden? Is technology really that reliable here?" he added.

Alex sighed. "Then we'll see through this test if you really are human."

He wondered what how would Aaron react to this. Surely, he wouldn't be scared. Danny had to be brave like Aaron so he could save him soon.

Alex was fixing a combination of pills at his hand. If the medicines in his hand was the "forceful way", then he shouldn't be bothered. Or maybe he should still be.

Something cold and thin grasped Danny's shoulder. He turned around and saw the looming figure of Matilda smiling at him. "Your questions will all be answered later, darling. But for now you have to do this. Don't worry, it will be quick and painless." She touched Danny's cheek and went into the crowd that was forming by a large computer found beside the door.

"So what you're going to do, is drink this down! Easy and quick," Alex said, his hand holding a cup and on the other, a blue capsule with a swirling liquid inside.