A few minutes passed but for Ratchet and the human it lasted hours. The human had opened and closed his mouth several times without a word coming out. Ratchet prayed that he would be the first to hear the sound of her voice. The human pulled his hand away and rubbed his arm, looking down. Ratchet had done the same, trying not to knock those ears out of disappointment or sadness.

Finally with several minutes of silence, the human broke it. He raised his head after a long thought and stared the young Lombax in the eyes.

"Say... where am I?"

Finally a few words. Ratchet thought he felt his heart stop for a moment. In turn, he smiled and spoke. "You're in the hospital. More specifically in the recovery room."

The human put his hand on the bandage above his head "Ah...I remember. I was wandering the galaxy. I found a planet and...my ship exploded." He shook his head remembering the images from the control panel "No. It was the right engine..."

"The authorities are going to get him, if you want to know. If there is nothing abnormal, you could recover him according to the usual procedure." Ratchet reassured. "I could even repair your engine if you wish. I'm starting out as a mechanic but I'm doing pretty well."

"That's nice..." the human gently scratching his cheek and smiled "Do you have a name?"

"I am Ratchet."

"Ratchet..." the human spoke softly "That's a nice name..."

Ratchet tried to hide his blush "What's yours?"

"Clank."

"Clank?" Ratchet bit his inner lip to remember the human being's beautiful name. "Nice to meet you, Clank."

"Me too, Ratchet." Clank chuckled

"That's a special name you have."

"It's the name my father and my mother gave me before leaving."

Ratchet felt his heart sink slightly. "Leaving ? Like...abandoned ?"

Clank nodded and rubbed his arm as Ratchet watched "I was little but they promised me I'd find them one day so I'm not too worried... Although as human, I would like to find other people like me." Clank looked up at Ratchet and observed those big ears, his face, those little fingers and his long tail. "But by the way, what kind of species are you ? You remind me of a cat but you can stand on two legs and you talk to me..."

"I'm a Lombax. Like 95% of the people here on Fastoon."

"A Lombax... Fascinating." Clank grins wondering when he can touch the creature.

"Yes, and you're in the Polaris galaxy. There's a little bit of everything with us, tyranoids, peanuts, fungoids, drophides, markazians and even robots." Ratchet counted all the species on those fingers.

"Yes, I noticed the robotic nurse who came for me this morning." Clank remembered the woman in the light blue nurse's outfit with pigtails who had come when he woke up. "A beautiful titanium alloy armor she had there. Made from an old emulator dating from 5 years ago and treated at 79% against any type of liquid, two 20,000 KiloWatt motors in her quilts, a 15 Terabite microprocessor in its belly and very good gamma ray probability vision in its eyes."

Ratchet was speechless. "W-Wow... just wow..."

"I was a good scientist on Earth." Clank smiled proudly as he thought back to his past. "Even though I was still alone because of my intelligence, it was okay."

"What happened ? What happened to your planet ?"

"She... she collapsed... First there was a virus that killed a lot of people and before I could find a cure with colleagues, all the cities and countries started to collapsed and vanished from the planet due to tremors and floods."

"It's horrible..."

"I know..." Clank breathed in, "But I managed to survive by isolating myself and escaping with my ship... and I must admit I've never been so scared for my life."

"Even when you crashed here ?"

"I don't know why... but I felt that you were good people and you will easily see that I mean you no harm." Clank rubbed his arm shyly. "In fact, I would even like to find a new home and continue my search."

"I could help you with your assignments. Well… if you need any help." Ratchet smiled.

"How nice." Clank smiled back. "But by the way, I told you a lot about me. Tell me a bit about your story and the Lombax story. I'm curious to learn more."

"It's a very long story..." Ratchet began but was interrupted by a voice calling him.

"Mr. Ratchet ?"

Ratchet and Clank turned to see Doctor Danyel standing in front of them. The old black Lombax smiled seeing that the human was talking to the young yellow Lombax.

"I see you did with XJ-0461-"

"Clank." Clank interrupted the doctor. The latter turned to Ratchet who nodded "His name is Clank."

"Great that." The doctor smiled and took a pen from his jacket pocket and crossed out the name to replace it with the real name. "So Mr. Clank, I have several questions for you... and Mr. Ratchet, we'll have to leave."

Ratchet felt his heart clench again but with sadness. He felt his ears drop and turned to Clank who reassured him by talking to him. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"I'll be back here first thing tomorrow."

"I don't think it will be worth it." Danyel cut him off and resumed "According to our analyses, Mr. Clank is doing very well and his head injury did no damage. So he can be discharged either this afternoon or tomorrow morning depending on what the other doctors say..."

Clank watched Ratchet's ears and tail swing as the other Lombax spoke to him. He considered several options available to him. He could get out soon. Either get his ship back and leave planet Fastoon, or stay here for a while. The choice will be slightly difficult, The Lombaxs don't look very bad and he would like to discover their culture and on the other side, he was still thinking of visiting several Galaxies in order to find these parents. Clank felt somewhere deep in his heart that his mother and father were out there waiting for him.

"Okay." Ratchet stared at Clank who was lost in these thoughts. "Clank."

The human looked up at the Lombax "I'll pick you up first thing tomorrow, ok ?"

"Okay, Ratchet." Clank smiled and put his hand on the transparent glass "So... see you tomorrow and... it was nice to meet you."

Ratchet smiled, trying to hide his blush. He in turn put his hand on the glass as he had done "Same here... Clank. See you tomorrow."


Once Ratchet left, the doctor readjusted his glasses over his eyes and chuckled as he glared at Clank "Awesome..."

"So what, doctor ?"

"I have never seen Kaden's son in person but my wife had often told me that he had an antisocial character, sometimes aggressive, that he was reckless in his work and that he was often stubborn but I do not see that's not the case given how he reacts to you..."

"Well…" Clank was scratching his head "I must say that my first contact with a person, even if it's a Lombax, makes me feel a little warm."

"Heartwarming ?" Doctor Danyel raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Clank smiled "That's one of the human expressions that means it makes us feel good."

"I see..." Danyel writes on these documents. "Well sir... Clank. I have a few questions for you. The first question is where are you from ? I know you are from planet Earth but we want to know in detail what brought you here. Why aren't you on your planet ?

Clank sighed softly. He had already prepared himself for a potential future interrogation in case any creatures wanted to examine him. And Clank had a lot of information in his head but he limited himself to a few truths "Planet Earth no longer exists Mr. Danyel..."

The doctor took a chair in the hallway and sat down on it, opening a blank page. Clank did the same on his side. "What happened ?"

"A deadly virus called Corona has affected the inhabitants of the planet. For months, I and other scientists have been trying to find a cure without success. As time passed, more people and my colleagues collapsed."

Danyel wrote the details of Clank's story "And this virus, have you been touched by it at any time ?"

"No..." Clank sighed. "As I always remained alone, I did not know how to get closer to a person and no one had approached me."

"You don't have any friends ?"

Clank shook his head "The few people who saw me didn't pay attention to me... because of my hair or even my intelligence."

"Your hair ?" The doctor inspected Clank's head and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Yes... they didn't think it was normal because I had white hair since I was born. On top of that, people were jealous of the scientist brain that my parents gave me."

"Where are your parents now ?"

"I don't know..." Clank lowered his head sadly "I'm looking for them right now along with a new home..."

"I see..." Doctor Danyel nodded smiling and went no further. He had all the information he wanted. But by simple measurement, he changed the subject "Mr. Clank, I have to assess your level of intelligence. How much is 144×15÷48 ?"

"45. And I could easily guess that's your age." Clank smiles.

"How long is a week ?"

"128 whole hours."

"How many days in a leap year?"

"365 or 366 days. February at 29 days every 4 years."

"Alright then harder." Danyel smiles mischievously inside him "You have to choose a number between 1 and 10. You add 1 (+1) with your number. Then with the total you have to multiply by 2 (x2). Then you add another 4 (+4). Then it's more complicated, you divide by two (÷2) and finally you subtract the total of all that with the original number that you will have chosen (-X)..." the doctor smiles in thinking it would be a tricky puzzle for the human but nearly dropped those glasses when Clank spoke after him.

"Whatever the answer would always be 3." Clank replied quickly "I chose 7 because not only is it lucky but it also represents the 7 days of the earth calendar. I easily calculated 7 according to your numbers. 7+1=8/8×2= 16/16+4=20/20÷2=10/10-7=3." Clank had his fingers crossed "and it would have been the same with 19, the number that represents my age. I calculated it while I was talking to you: 19+1=20/20×2=40/40+4=44/ 44÷2=22/22-19=3."

Danyel stood up, staring Clank in the eyes. "..."

"With the number 666, we get 3. With the number 1, we get 3. With the number 69, we get another 3 at the end. I think even a child would find the riddle easy since the number we had chooses will be calculated at the end to get 3." Clank put his hand over his mouth, holding back a laugh.

"Impressive." The dark doctor put his pen back in his pocket and put away the chair. "We tested this puzzle with several staff members or even Lombax children in a private school and almost no one found the trap." the doctor started to leave but glanced at the clock in the room "By the way Mr. Clank, if you have to stay here until tomorrow, do you have any food preferences or even allergies ?"

Clank put a hand to his chin "I don't have any particular allergies and for food I prefer to experience your local food."

The black Lombax nodded and left smiling and muttering "Really impressive..."

Once left alone, Clank sat back on his bed still smiling. For the first time in all these years, people spoke to him quite normally and didn't stray too far from him. Of course, being locked up and isolated from the rest of the 'creatures' reminded him of his loneliness but seeing how welcoming and reassuring the 'Lombaxes' were, Clank didn't worry about that. He also thought about Ratchet, how he had looked at him, how he had spoken to him and he felt his heart beating a little too quickly.

Clank shook his head. Maybe that little twinge in his heart was the fact that for once he was going to have a real friend. He had always been alone and now he has found refuge on a welcoming planet. Clank watched as several Lombax nurses and orderlies passed through the window looking at him curiously and then resumed their work.

He was fascinated by the Lombax race. For Clank the Lombax were so beautiful but so impressive and he couldn't wait to get out of the hospital to discover the rest of the planet.

Deciding not to be too intimidated, Clank sat back up in bed and resumed reading his science book.


Ratchet was sweating cleaning an elderly person's ship. He was already hot when he left the hospital and now, thinking back to Clank several times, he almost instantly burned on the spot. Ratchet gasped and closed his eyes several times and opened them again trying to forget the human in the hospital. It was a waste of time since in the minutes later, these thoughts were filled by Clank. And even Grim's yelling didn't change anything.

Changing position on the ship, Ratchet inhaled and exhaled several times. The ship was nearly finished but Ratchet wasn't done yet. To catch up, Ratchet had asked Grim to be able to work late. Young Lombax wouldn't mind, even though he had a room in his father and mother's house, a room for himself in his godfather Alister's apartment, and another here in Grim's garage, Ratchet. was at home wherever he went.

Young Lombax finished repairing the ship and when he checked the cables, he was glad to know that everything was in order. He then moved on to the last part which was a complete cleaning of the ship. His mind was still filled with Clank. He too was eager to get to know the human and his culture. Ratchet shook his head as he resumed his work and picked up the garden hose and flipped the switch.

"Ratchet!" Grim ran as fast as he could and closed the water tank.

Finally Ratchet paid attention to his boss who was staring at him and glaring at him, pointing to the ship still open.

"Are you still dreaming..."

Ratchet scratched the back of his head. Even though he knew Clank was safe, he couldn't stop thinking about him. The Lombax knew that if he kept dreaming, he would never be taken seriously in his job. "Sorry Grim...I'll do my best."

"What's bothering you about that?" Grim crosses his arms as he walks over to his intern. "This is the human you, your father and your godfather saved yesterday."

Young Lombax said nothing. Instead, he nodded, blushing.

"And if you tell me a little about it... I might be able to help you."

Ratchet put the pipe down and sat down on the ship. "I don't know Grim...I've had a lot of adventure, a lot of boyfriends or girlfriends and...I've never had anything as strong as what I had with Clank. .."

"Clank? Funny name for a human, sounds more like a robot."

"It's a pretty name I think." Ratchet gently put his hand over his heart "I feel like some kind of connection or bond when I'm around him and looking at him. There's...something screaming at me just not to let him go. When I first watched it, my heart was in a torn between stopping and beating in my chest harder than I had before and... I have to say that even though this is the first human that I meet, I find him quite... beautiful."

"You look so much like your father."

Ratchet and Grim turned to see Alister at the entrance to the garage. Ratchet's uncle walked over to the other two people while staring Clank in the eye. Then he turned his gaze to Ratchet.

Both, the animal and the human, were quite special cases according to him. Maybe something special was going to happen.