Aaditya sat in stunned silence as the interrogation room hummed with tension. The officers from the Human Center observed him carefully, their piercing gazes unwavering. The sterile, metallic walls of the facility seemed to close in around him.
The questioning had begun the moment he arrived on Earth—an event he still struggled to process. The last thing he remembered was being surrounded on Velmoda by officers in dark uniforms, their expressions unreadable. One of them, a high-ranking official, produced a sleek, black card and pressed it against a device embedded in his wrist. Before Aaditya could react, the world around him dissolved into a blinding light. When his vision cleared, he was no longer on Velmoda. He was here—on Earth, inside the Human Center that controlled the secretive Frigate Mission.
"Explain again how you arrived on Velmoda," one of the officers demanded.
Aaditya took a steadying breath. He had already fed them the same lie multiple times. "It was a teleportation glitch. I was caught in the transfer and ended up there by accident. I didn't even know a Human Center existed on that planet."
The officers exchanged skeptical glances. They weren't convinced. Aaditya knew normal civilians weren't supposed to travel to other planets. Even trained personnel required years of experience before being approved for interplanetary missions. His mere presence on Velmoda was an anomaly they couldn't ignore.
The questioning dragged on. Every answer he gave was met with another round of scrutiny, another attempt to poke holes in his story. Hours passed before they finally reached a decision.
A stern-looking officer leaned forward. "We have one way to determine if you truly belong here or not. A test."
Aaditya's stomach tightened. "A test?"
"A strength evaluation. If you can meet the minimum requirement for planetary travel, you'll be allowed to live. If you fail…"
They didn't need to finish the sentence. He understood. His life depended on this.
He was escorted into a simulator chamber, a vast, enclosed space lined with advanced technology. The test was brutal—
Aaditya stood before the simulator, his heart pounding. The three officers watched him with sharp eyes, knowing full well that the standard strength test wasn't something an ordinary person could pass. It required military-grade combat skills, something that took years of rigorous training to master. Yet, here he was—an unknown man claiming to have survived on Velmoda.
The simulation chamber lit up, and a holographic battlefield materialized around him. The test was brutal. A series of mechanical drones, armed with stunning projectiles, launched towards him at lightning speed. Aaditya had no formal combat training, only the desperate survival skills he had picked up on Velmoda. He dodged the first projectile by instinct alone, his body reacting faster than his mind. But the drones adapted quickly, their attacks becoming more aggressive.
He stumbled, barely managing to roll away as a drone fired a blast where he had stood a second ago. His breathing was ragged. He had no plan—only the sheer will to survive. With a desperate lunge, he grabbed a fallen stun baton from one of the defeated test drones and swung wildly. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough. Every movement was unrefined, driven more by instinct than skill, but somehow, he endured.
The final wave of drones appeared, faster and stronger. Aaditya felt his strength draining. His limbs ached, his reflexes slowing. If he made one mistake, it was over. He gritted his teeth, using every ounce of his willpower to push forward. In a last-ditch effort, he spun the baton in a clumsy but effective arc, managing to strike the last drone just before it fired at him.
Silence.
The test ended. The battlefield faded, and Aaditya fell to his knees, gasping for air. The officers exchanged glances. One of them muttered, "Impossible…"
He had passed—just barely. If his stamina had been even slightly lower, if his reactions had been a fraction of a second slower, he would have failed. And failure meant death.
Aaditya didn't celebrate. He knew what had just happened. He had survived by the thinnest margin possible. The officers now had to decide—was he really worthy of knowing the secrets of teleportation? Or had he simply been too lucky for his own good?