The Helper

'Knock! Knock!'

Heim waited a few seconds and the door opened up. Four people who appeared to be of similar age as him looked at him with a mixture of relief and happiness.

Heim flashed a small smile and entered the room. An additional chair emerged from the ground, making the total number of chairs to five.

"What did he say?"

"He agreed to help us, but on the condition that we will help him do something in tomorrow's exercise." Heim stated with a tone that expressed his relief.

"What does he want help with?" The person who opened the door asked.

"He said that he will tell us tomorrow and that it won't be too difficult a task."

"Did he tell you when he will give us the information?" One of the cadets asked excitedly. Even with whatever little information they received, they would be able to help their families even if just a bit.

"He has already provided it to me. I was going to send that to you people as well." Heim said while tapping his holowatch. The tap was followed by notifications popping up in the holowatch of the other four cadets, who immediately clicked on their watches.

There was complete silence in the room while all five of Them went through the content on their holowatch screens.

"Haaah! Man, I hope that this information will prove to be helpful to my family." One of the cadets said while forwarding the files to his family contacts. The tense expressions faded from the faces of the cadets after they sent the information to their family members.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of the five cadets. A holographic screen popped up before one of the cadets, showing the view outside the door. They could not sight anyone outside despite the complete three-dimensional coverage.

"Someone is using the surveillance disruption." The cadet tapped at his watch and a part of door became see through. After confirming the identity of the person, the cadet opened the door with another tap of his holowatch.

The newly arrived person walked inside the room and sat down on a new chair that had come out of the floor. He looked at the five cadets one by one before turning back to the cadet who had shared the information with the others.

"Is the information useful?" The new person asked.

"We have just forwarded it to our family, but it should definitely be very helpful. Much of the information that you provided us is something that we could not have gotten our hands on without any help, so I just wanted to tell you that we are really thankful." Heim replied.

"Alright, I hope that it really helps you out of your predicament."

"You said that you have one request for us, have you decided what the request is?" The cadet who had been acting aggressively in front of Regis asked the person in a polite tone.

"Can I have something to drink? I feel a bit thirsty." The person ignored the question.

"Oh.. sorry! How rude of me. Here." The cadet who lived in this room tapped his holowatch and a section of the wall detached itself and hovered near the sixth person. The person smiled lightly and reached out his hand, withdrawing a bottle.

"As I said earlier, you should first confirm with your families if the information is really helpful. And if it really is, then…" The person threw the bottle towards the cadet who had tapped the holowatch.

Before the five cadets had any chance to react, five metallic capillaries dug into their necks from behind, just below the skull and they fell down on the floor, unconscious. The person looked towards the five unconscious cadets whose bodies were now covered in a layer of protective glass which had risen up between him and the bodies from the ground.

The five capillaries that emerged from his spine remained attached to the five cadets, making the rejuvenating gases released by the room ineffective. He walked towards the five of them who were now lying unconscious inside a structure made of protective glass. Five protrusions appeared on the surfaces of the capillaries that were inside this surface and more capillaries grew out which attached themselves to the spines of three of these cadets.

The person's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot as if someone had removed a screen that covered them previously. A smile was slowly replacing the pained expression on his face as he reached closer and closer to the protective structure.

Towards the end of the third minute, the additional capillaries that had syringes at the tips detached from the spines of the cadets and fused back to the capillaries. The person drank the content of the bottle, which was then transmitted to the bodies of the five cadets through the capillaries.

"It's really refreshing to get rid of all that additional junk from my body. Now for the last part..." The person spoke out aloud while tapping on his holowatch.

The holowatch of the five cadets suddenly activated as a sequence of notification about being hacked were displayed on their screens. These notifications disappeared after some time due to the lack of preventive measures.

He looked at the time it had taken for the entire ordeal and looked relieved that everything had ended in the time limit of five minutes. If he had taken more than that, an alarm would have been sent to the authorities by the system installed in the room that was also responsible for the protective structure. Once the procedure ended, the person withdrew the capillaries and tapped onto his holowatch.

The protective structure disappeared back into the ground, the hallucinogen gases released inside the room to suffocate the assailant were immediately ventilated out and the five cadets also showed signs of waking up. The person walked to the door and opened it with a tap on his holowatch,

'They should be awake by now and discussing how I disappeared after suddenly attacking Them.' After returning to his own room, the person raised one of his hands and looked at it. A metallic powder was secreted out of this person's hands and turned into something resembling a keyboard.

The person did something on this keyboard while smiling lightly.

.............................

"Oi Heim, do you know what he wants us to do for him today?" Belem, the cadet with a muscular build, who seemed too large for his age asked. His tone was considerable lighter than the last few days. Yesterday, he received a call from his family that mentioned how significant his help had been in getting them out of the peril.

The four others who were video calling him were also in a lighter mood today.

"I think that he will most likely request help in this and all the upcoming assignments or some resources that may be easily available in our star clusters or something similar." Uelken, a member of the group replied.

"I hope it is that. My family is one of the richest families in our star cluster and our main business is closely related to special minerals and other resources which are used in the amours and other equipment. Even Orlet's Lezef family is also in the same business." Kisket the fourth cadet said with a thoughtful look.

"Oh, he is here." Heim said as he turned towards the door of his room and turned off the video call.

Heim tapped on his holowatch and the door slipped open. A person walked inside with a slight smirk on his face. Heim walked to the person and gave him a polite smile, as if he had no memories of the person attacking them with technology that wasn't meant to be used by humans.

"Was the information helpful?" The person asked while trying to sound helpful.

"Yeah, it was. My uncle messaged me yesterday that we have made out of the peril that had been plaguing them for the last week." Heim replied.

"We will definitely fulfil our end of the deal." Heim continued.

"Alright then, what I want is.......... "

"You can discuss it with the others and you can also drop it if you don't want to do it." The person replied and walked away.

Once the door closed behind the person, Heim turned his head and stared at the door with complicated gaze. He tapped the holowatch and four screens appeared before him.

"He wants us to create a slight disturbance during the assignment today, but he didn't tell me why. It's not like he will gain anything out of it and even if he does, following his plan will surely lead to complications." Orlet said while contemplating on what Heim had just conveyed to them.

"We will be at the radar of the Captain once again if we are found to be behaving strangely. Although the last thing that he said id true, but it is still too dangerous." Kisket agreed with Orlet.

"Come on, its just creating a small disturbance. Also, if it is a way to pay him back for helping my family, I can do as much. Not to mention, just like he said, since we have already been investigated and none of us have any connections with the incident of the two murders, it doesn't matter even if they grow suspicious and bring us in once again." Belem said from his end.

"Yes, but what do you think does he gain from this? Do you think that he wants to draw away the attention from something …" Orlet suddenly paused in midst of his speech.

The eyes of all five of them dilated suddenly before returning back to normal.

"So, we agree with this right? Besides, I also have a candidate in mind to create the disturbance. Trust me, I will make it look as if it was that person's fault and not mine when I create the disturbance." Belem cracked his knuckles and punched towards the wall of his room.

"Alright, its not like the captain can harm us since we are not related to the incident anyways." All of them agreed with Kisket's words.