She stopped.
Derek did not move and continued staring at nothing in particular in front of him.
“I realize that my story sounds absolutely bizarre and probably confuses you even more, taking into consideration your memory loss about any events that happened to you on Earth.”
“I guess you̓re right…” the young man answered, puzzled.. “All this is absolutely incomprehensible… The two hundred years in stasis, the people who had left Earth before my birthday and who continue living now in a space city…”
Lora sighed heavily.
“And we still don’t know why your ship went after us…”
“Why are you so sure that it followed ‘Solar Flotilla’?”
“Our ships headed in the same direction. This data is supported by your onboard computer and the calculations of our experts. And although they don’t know how your on-board navigation system managed to trace ‘Solar Flotilla’, there is no doubt that our ships were meant to meet, but failed for some reason. The fact that we found you in space was a total accident.”
Derek frowned.
“I don’t know the answer. I can only recall some vague images…”
“What images?”
“The clearest is of a wooden house… It’s far away from the city, but the megalopolis towers are so tall that they can be seen from dozens of miles away. There is smog hovering over them… Black clouds… I’m sure it’s hot and stuffy there. While here, far away from it, there are trees and you can breathe much easier.”
“Is it your home?”
“I’m not sure,” he shrugged, “Also, I see a building without windows. Inside there are many gadgets like monitors, flickering lamps, some beeping sounds. There are people, many people, all dressed in the same clothes,” the young man looked at Lora’s white uniform. “Their clothes are different. They’re dark blue, I think.”
“I have an idea!” Lora abruptly jumped from her seat. “Let’s go to the archives. There’s a lot of information about Earth and, thus, it’s more convenient to look through the old files. You’ll probably be able to find something familiar.”
“Alright,” nodded her guest, a little shocked by her enthusiasm.
The interior of the archives was shaped like an enfilade, whereby a row of rooms were successively attached to one another with doors placed on one axis, creating a sense of cross-cutting perspective for hundreds of meters away. Derek unwittingly compared this place with a giant library, where thousands of shelves would stand against both sides of the central corridor, and hide in the dark under a sky-high ceiling. They were full of tiles that looked like books with glowing neon spines. Lora paused at one of the information boards, which looked like a tall table presenting holographic data.
“OK, let’s see,” she swiped the surface with her hand and a blonde-haired woman’s projection appeared over the board.
“Welcome to the data backup programme. Please state what information you are interested in: the time period or the location.”
“The period is the beginning of the twenty first century according to the Earth calendar. Let’s begin with the uniform of the organizations on Earth.”
“Please specify your request. The data volume based on these parameters is very large.”
“A blue uniform,” added Derek.
“The data has been sorted out. I’m forwarding it on the holographic interface.“
The woman’s face disappeared and in its place a virtual stack of cards appeared over the table.
