The First Hand

3 PROLOGUE

Arkansas, USA.

All inhabitants and survivors of the cruel world of nature had risen from their slumber, while as some welcomed the moonlight as a day they would triumph over their adversaries, some greeted it goodbye.

The sun had slept, leaving with the moon the power to watch over its subjects till it rises again in the nearest future.

Crows howling, crickets singing, the gentle breeze sailing across a lake of about one kilometre in length. Amidst this tranquillity, was a person in a glade.

A young man laying faced up with his two hands providing stability for his head. He watched the moon as he devised a stereotype for the images carved on its surface. Unlike reality, he was rather comfortable in this his reverie. Every night he would come here to speak with the stars, that is if they ever listen to him.

All-day and night he would wish, 'Why can't I go back'. Forgetting all possibilities of impairing his existence just to change one course. Just to see them again. He wished he'd never taken that trip. He wished they were the ones.

His beloved family was cleared out during an attack. The attackers were looking for something he had. What else if not money. He blamed them all, even despite it being an accident. From what the reports said, they were three burglars that night. After formulating a good plan, it was time to implement it. Get the cash and cash out. But unfortunately for them, a member of their squad ended the life of a security guard and his mother was a witness to it. The killer then chased the woman to her house, after she had exposed this secret to her husband. And because of this, the killer decided to kill them both and avoid any roots of information from growing.

Now to him, how was that an accident? The only thing he could tell those robbers was that they should thank their odds for letting them out on this one. If not..he personally would've killed them.

Now to aggravate the issue, the government had decided already to file him into an orphanage since he had no family or any remote relation. Today was the last day he would be seeing the moon so high in such beautiful scenery.

Thoughts upon thoughts kept flooding his mind and because of this, his vision started playing tricks on him.

He saw a bright light dash across the moon in seconds. He wondered, a shooting star. But then again he furrowed his eyebrows when this light literally became a shooting star. The light changed course and diverted towards his position. He abruptly got up to rub his eyes when he saw this.

Seeing the light got bigger and bigger, he squinted his eyes to get a clearer view and after seeing what it was he muttered inwardly, 'What..the..?'

The descent of the light was exactly to where he lay. So after witnessing the falling star in close distance, he got up and ran to the opposite directions fast as he could, screening atop his lungs as he ran.

Aarrgh!

Foooosshh!

Boom!!

Luckily for him, the star fell inside the lake. But unfortunately for the lake, every last drop of water of it was turned to steam and evaporated out of sight.

This sudden phenomenon caused a deadly gale and explosion that pushed everything back. The boy was not an exception, as he too was flung away and clashed hard on a tree.

..

In the middle of the drained lake was an effulgent emerald light glowing in the dark. When the boy rose after the explosion, this was the first thing his sight rested on. Not exactly the object responsible for the light but the brightness of the light making a green ethereal river.

Slowly, he heaved himself to the empty lake while kneading one side of his head.

After reaching the edge he saw a figure on its knees reaching out towards him, 'Help..me..'

At first, he hesitated to help the person but after briefly pondering it, he rushed down to offer his hand. Little did he know that this very Encounter would change the tide of his destiny.

Like as if time slowed down, and the world took in a cold breath as it watched the two hands just inches from touching.

..

'What..happened..' the boy who was unconscious suddenly became aware of his surroundings. When he saw the environmental he was, he screamed.

He was in outer space. He could see various planets, asteroids floating and meteors travelling across the stars. On his side was a cloud of colourful dust hovering around numerous planet Kuiper belt and on his other side was a small fraction of the milky way.

'Where am I...?' he whispered to himself.

'You are in Orion Arm.' said a calm heavy voice.

The boy was confused. It was only after this voice he suddenly identified the speaker. A man wearing some kind of advanced technology warlike suit stood very close to him while holding unto his hand. Only until now the boy noticed he was holding onto the palm of a man.

'Where am I?'

'As I said, Orion Arm.' the man repeated.

'You mean like outer space..' The boy asked in confusion.

'Yes.' the man continued, 'Tell me, what calling do you bear?'

'What..?'

'What is your name.' he expounded.

'Micheal..what is yours?' the boy hesitate but later replied.

'Taurus...Taurus Optimus.'

'Is that a name..?'

The man chuckled, 'It is.'

'How did I get here, Mr Taurus?'

'I brought you here, little Michael.' said the man.

'Why..?'

'What I am about to tell you is of great importance. You have been selected amongst the billions of your kind and infinite of your realities to save your shelter.'

'I don't know...know what...that means.'

'I am not of man. I have come a long way to reach here. A very distant place which I was in my prime before my transit. But because of my inaccurate calculation, I traded my time, my existence and life force to get here. I do not have much time left of me, that is why I have chosen you to be my successor.'

'Why me..?'

'Like I said little Michael, destiny has a way of bringing us together. Out of the infinite realities of your time, it chose you.'

'What..am I supposed to do..?'

'Listen to your heart. Make the right choice no matter the price to be paid.'

'How do I do that...I can't.' At this moment the boy started shedding tears, 'I couldn't...' *sniff* 'Help..them..'

'When bad things happen to us, we're not expected to break down...but instead, it is meant to rebuild us piece by piece into something better. I believe you have what it takes, little Micheal.' the man said, like a father pep-talking his son.

'Not like I have anything left at all.'

The man sighed, 'You couldn't save them, but now you could save all. I will transfer my Will, memories and my conscience into you, little Micheal. Time is not on our side.'

'Wait..how do I know what to do?'

'When you go back to your Sun Shelter, I want you to embark on a journey to my homeworld..in there all your questions would be answered.'

'Wait..homeworld..?' the boy could hardly comprehend the old man.

'You will know what to do..little Micheal of this world.'

'I...I still don't understand any of this..?!'

The man smiled at the boy's confusion. He knew even if it was just coincidence that they met, he had already dropped his fate on this young man. Needless to say much, he began transferring his remaining sentience inside the boy. The boy was shocked to see his hand glow like a touch in the night before all part of his body was infected by the light and in few minutes, he had the feeling of weightlessness in him. It didn't take long before he turned into a streak of light and shut out into a far off distance in space. Under minutes he travelled approximately 150 million kilometres.

..

In the middle of nowhere a pair of azure eyes awoke to greet the brightness of the sun. It continued to flutter until it gathered the strength to vanquish the blinding rays of the sunlight.

'Ugh..' the owner of this azure eyeballs contorted his face in response to his body's unresponsive condition. And with the last ounce of strength in him, he made an interior noise from his throat as he unwillingly got up.

Looking around, the environment was very unfamiliar to him. Just as he started to devise a plausible reason for this environment, a memory suddenly struck him. He recalled the last moment before his blackout. The old man in the shiny armour suit. He abruptly stood to re-study this environment.

Instead of moving planes in the skies, they were moving mini jets around. Not just one, but uncountable of them. From his peripheral vision, an extremely large hologram was projecting some kind of advertisement. The funny side to this vision was that he saw all this from the forest he woke up in. That was to explain how high all these objects were to the extent one could see them from miles away. Even the humongous trees couldn't hinder his vision.

'You there!'

Abruptly he turned around.

'You shouldn't be here!'

He tilted his head in conjunction with the fantasy he saw. A pot-bellied man in some kind of advanced machinery cloth rode on top a scooter that suspended itself in mid-air.

This pot-bellied man yelled again, 'You are trespassing in a private property, I will have to take you in Mister!'

As the pot-bellied man spoke to him, he got something from his statement. Mister. Wait a sec...

He calmly exposed his hands to his vision. It was bigger than he last remembered. Subsequently, he realised he was taller than his memories and he wore a black futuristic body hug that projected glowing lines which he couldn't remember wearing.

He slowly took his sight back to the pot-bellied man hovering in the air, 'Where am I?'

'What..? Are you nuts?!' the man yelled.

'What exactly is this time?!'

'Erm..10 in the morning. Obviously.' the man replied with a dull face.

'No, I mean what year?'

'Didn't you go to Learning Academy? We're in the five thousandth century... Year of Solomon's Reign.'

As if he spotted something, he looked the other way and stared into the camera which you used to imagine things, whispering word afterword, 'Fuck...Me..'