Aric was back in his room at the hotel. While at his home in his world, he had switched on his secret communicator and searched for any signal that could be from the Milky Way galaxy. But there was none, and this gave him quite a relief. It was a leap of faith that Aric had to take.
Now that he knew Earth was disconnected from the universe for some reason, he could move towards the plan that he had been formulating. After returning to the hotel, he opened up the non-AI communicator. He started scrolling and with some manual search started to gather information.
He looked for the Milky Way Galaxy.
Answer: None.
He searched for Earth.
Answer: None.
He searched for famous actors and actresses over the hundreds of years. For some reason, Aric had the thought that he had traveled to the future and the previous world that he had seen was in the past. It was a fleeting thought, but he wanted to make sure nonetheless.
Answer: None.
This stumped Aric a bit, but on second thought, it was good. He didn’t have to worry about the butterfly effect and affecting the trajectory of Earth. Then he looked up at the library and searched for public information. The more he looked, the more surprised he was. The knowledge of how to build nuclear fusion and nuclear fission reactors was available to the public.
This came as a shock because the knowledge was enough to destroy civilizations, but then he understood why the knowledge was public and people still didn’t bother to bomb others. The first problem was the availability of materials for making one. Water can be used as a source for making a nuclear reactor, but water wasn’t the only source. One would need tritium, which was only available after irradiating lithium.
Lithium, even in this interstellar age, was a valuable material, and each civilization kept a close eye on some of the minerals like lithium, gold, and others because they were important. Another reason was the security in civilizations and planets had better security and safeguards. Of course, Aric wasn’t stupid to think everything was peaceful around the universe, and for sure, there were planets that were knee-deep in problems and even radiation.
He even found some articles that there were planets that had been ruined by nuclear fusion bombs. Then there were nuclear fission bombs, and those were more difficult to build and get materials for. The plus side of nuclear fusion bombs was that there wasn’t nuclear fallout, and a planet would still thrive if not many bombs were used.
But the main point here was, there was enough knowledge in this digital library to build nuclear fusion reactors at his home with proper funding. But of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to go for that. In fact, until he was powerful enough, he wouldn’t take any drastic measures in his own world.
It required meticulous thinking and planning. He downloaded tons of knowledge ranging from agriculture to technology onto his communicator. After sorting through it all, he returned to his place. He wanted to go out and explore more, but it was already 4 am on the clock, and he was too sleepy to continue. It had been an eventful night, and his brain needed rest.
----
When Aric opened his eyes again, it was 10 am. Thankfully, it was summer break, and his mother didn’t wake him early, or else it would have been a drowsy day for him. After waking up, he checked his wrist, only to find the communicator again. Whatever happened last night was real.
After freshening up, he went to have breakfast. Seeing his mother working, his heart ached a bit.
"Mom, you should rest when you can."
"Yeah? Who will take care of your father, you, and this home if I stop? You? You can’t even cook," his mother said.
"I can cook," Aric replied, knowing he could. It might not be as good as his mother’s, but he could manage.
"And destroy things in the kitchen in the process? No need. Just have your breakfast," his mother dismissed his suggestion, not noticing that her son was sad when he had asked her to stop working and take rest. Aric wanted to protest, but he couldn’t find the words.
In order to save her, he would need the same medical technology he had been exposed to, and also lengthen their lifespan as he had read about online. After breakfast, he said, "Mom, I’m going to Nana’s place for a few days."
"Nana’s place? Why? Don’t you have homework to finish?" his mom asked.
"I’ll finish it there. It’s too hot here," Aric said. His mom thought for a moment before allowing him. It was summer break, and her parents would be happy to see their grandchild for a few days while she and her husband could have some time to themselves.
"You can go, but don’t disturb them too much. Help them with their chores," his mother instructed. Aric nodded and proceeded to pack his belongings.
After making sure he had everything, he left for his Nana’s place. His grandparents lived away from town, so he needed to take a state transport bus to get there. Aric had to wait for an hour for the bus to start and another hour to reach his destination. While traveling, Aric was filled with nostalgia since he hadn’t taken a bus to his grandparents’ place in years.
His grandparents from his previous life had passed away after three years, and he sometimes missed them. Now that he had another chance, he would also try to help them if he could. After a long and tedious sweaty journey, he arrived at his grandparents’ place after so many years.