Chapter 4 - THE INTERSTELLAR ERA

HE woke up with the sound of the alarm. He groped down and reached for the bracelet on his left wrist. He clicked something and the sound of the alarm stopped. He wanted to go back to sleep again. But before he could do that, he was awakened by the knocking on the door. Followed by the call of a very familiar sweet voice.

"Astrid, honey, it's time to get up!"

Astrid – yes, that was his name now in this new life, Astrid Townsend to be exact – reluctantly opened his eyes. He sat up on the bed and yawned.

"Yes, Mom!" he called back to the person outside.

"Be fast, okay? You and your brother can't be late today," his mother's voice said again. Then he heard her footsteps walking away.

Astrid stood up and stretched his body. He inadvertently looked down at the black bracelet surrounding his left wrist. One might wonder how could this thing issue an alarm. Well, that's not the only thing it does. This bracelet was called a Terminal. It functioned as some sort of ID. It could also be a phone and a personal computer all at once. One might also take photos and videos with it. Just like what he did, one could also set up an alarm with it. This Terminal could also observe the state of its owner's body. If the body was somehow compromised, like it had a sudden cardiac arrest or it was wounded severely, it would issue an alarm and automatically contact the nearest hospital. Really convenient, right? Like some kind of magical item.

It was not magic though, but technology instead. You might ask why human's technology suddenly evolved in leaps and bounds. There's really only one answer. Because he was no longer at the 21st century. That's right, he wasn't reincarnated on the same century that he died. He was born again hundreds of thousands of years later. He was now living in the Interstellar era.

It's the era where humans were thriving in space. With all kinds of advanced technologies in their hands. They could now live in different planets in the universe. Well, technically they could only live there. Since the original Earth where they came from had longed disappeared.

It all started when the sun finally showed signs of destruction. The radiation it produced could easily burn the skin of people. Draught was happening in all corners of the world. Not only killing plants and animals, but also people. Because of that, different countries all over the world decided that it was time to leave their home planet. That happened during the 31st century when space travel was already a bit advanced. With the efforts of everyone, they managed to leave Earth and settled in the vast universe.

The humans were divided into four groups, settling in four different directions. From those four directions, four strong factions slowly emerged – the Moon Empire, the Kingdom of Terra, the Federation, and the Human Alliance. They ruled over the humans living in the planetary systems under their territories. All four lived in peace at first. But once space travel became more and more advanced, when a battleship could go from one galaxy to the next in just a matter of days, wars inevitably erupted.

Those wars lasted for thousands of years. It only ended three thousand years ago. And the one who came out as the last victor was the Moon Empire. Now, all of humanity was under the rule of the Empire. With their leadership, humans' lives continued to prosper.

Or at least that's what the history books said.

It's been a real shock for him when he discovered that he was reincarnated so far in the future. To the point where Earth no longer existed. Then he remembered how long he walked on that NaiHe bridge. It was probably because of that. Maybe if he only walked for a little while, he might have been reincarnated on the same year he died.

He had been living in this Interstellar era for 18 years now. It might have been hard if he was just suddenly thrown here in an adult's body. After all, it was not only the different language he had to get used to. He also had to learn to adapt to the advanced technology here. But since he had started here as a baby, it became quite easy. Especially since this body given to him had a pretty good brain. It's like he had an eidetic memory. Once he saw something, he would no longer be able to forget it.

It probably had something to do with his mental strength.

Many planets in the universe had harsh environments. In order to adapt to that, humans also slowly evolved. Completely transcending their limits. They became much smarter and much stronger. These strengths were categorized into mental and physical strengths. Both were divided into six levels – C, B, A, S, SS, SSS. C being the weakest and SSS being the highest. In rare cases, some people even developed special abilities.

Currently in the whole Empire, there was only one person who had both SSS level mental and physical strength and also manifested an ability – the only brother of the current Emperor.

Since the Empire won the war, newborn babies were immediately tested for their qualification. Having good qualification could be attributed to the genes of their parents. That's why there was a thing called gene matching. Every citizens of the Empire had their gene information recorded the moment they were born. So, with the right procedure, people could request a gene matching with their partner or their prospective partner. The higher the percentage of matching, the better the qualification of the child would be.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Astrid's parents didn't have a high gene matching percentage. But they still loved one another and were willing to spend the rest of their lives together.

How did he know about that? Of course, his parents didn't tell him about it. He found out about it himself. Well, he didn't really go out of his way to search about it. He just accidentally heard it when his parents were talking when he was still a baby. Because he was not exactly just a baby, he quickly understood what they were talking about.

He and his twin brother both have good qualifications. It was probably because their mother gave birth to them. So, some mutations occurred along the way. Women giving birth was not exactly a thing in the Interstellar era. Here, people would just have their genes literally combined and then a child would slowly form from that. So, it wouldn't matter if one's partner was of the opposite sex or the same sex, they could just go to the nearest fertility lab, have their genes combined, and wait for another nine months before they could get their child.

In short, the concept of gays and lesbians didn't exist in this era. Which was probably a great thing for a gay like him. In his last life, he had long known of his sexual preference. Because of the harsh judgement of society, he wasn't able to come out of the closet until the day he died. Especially since he was working in an industry where he would be judged severely once people discovered that his gay. So, he had always been careful in regards to that. Because for him, his career was much more important than his love life. That's why, until the age of 25, he never had a lover.

But it was completely different here. Here, he could love freely. But he wasn't in a hurry. In this era where humans could live for at least 300 years, he still had long years of life ahead of him. He wanted to take his time and have a great love just like his parents.

Done with his stretches, he walked straight to his bathroom.