The Optimum Project

Chapter 20

Day 1

A loud beeping filled my ears as I surfaced to consciousness, I sat up slowly this time, knowing full well where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I was in my bunk in the triad, today was the first day of lessons, and the jet engine above me was in fact my bunkmate, Peter. I stumbled out of bed and got dressed, making sure I at least tried to shake him awake; though if the rumbling that continued to emit from him was any clue I would think it was ineffective.

We had gotten to know each other when I got back from talking to Brea; he had been plastering posters over one wall and balancing on a chair with one foot. Surprised by my entrance he lost balance and fell, cursing for a good thirty seconds before finding his manners and introducing himself. We shook hands and compared classes, we didn't share any in common and he seemed legitimately bummed about it. We stayed up and talked for an hour until we received an automated message that stated mandatory lights out was in fifteen minutes, so we hit the sack.

I stretched and walked out into the hall, yawning as I sauntered through the abandoned common area and into the elevator. We must have been in a different time zone than I was used to, I felt like I had only slept for two or three hours, nowhere near enough to function properly. I checked my watch, one of the few things I happened to be able to bring with me from the Selena. It was 0800 Alliance time, I blinked, looked at my watch again, 0800 Alliance time, that's what it said. I frowned, I had it set to Wyterian time, Wyteria was a system on the brink of the Milky Way, known for its trade ports of various reputations and ability to cater to anyone, and I mean anyone. I checked the settings and looked through the update log, it read there had been an automated update at 2400 for "alliance time modification" they were reseting my watch. I sighed, today was day 1.

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My first class was the application of trigonometry in space travel, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I walked in and sat down at a desk near the back of the class, setting my tablet down and leaning back in my chair, I  waited for the other kids to file in and sit down. Once everyone was in their seats and an announcement came on saying that anyone found outside of their class would receive a demerit, a small, thin man with wire rim glasses walked in. He had well groomed, white hair, he was fair skinned, with pointed ears, and math equations all over the exposed skin on his body, he was quite an odd sight.

He walked to the front of the room with his back hunched and was rubbing his hands together and murmuring under his breath. We watched in silence as he took a deep breath and began typing out a complex math equation on the Holo-board, when he was finished he turned towards us and spoke with such a quiet Voice I had to lean forward in my chair to hear him. "This is the equation you will be using for basic star navigation."

Immediately people began copying down the equation on their tablets, me included. The teacher turned around and pulled up a star map of a computer generated system with a couple planets orbiting a yellow sun. He typed in the equation along with a key for each variable in the equation, and a model of a basic alliance fighter was shown slingshotting around the Star and crashing into what looked like Mars. The man turned around and looked at us for a moment before simply stating, "Land it on Earth" And then he left.

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After an hour of varying inputs on the equation and finding no success, the bell to dismiss went off and I headed to my next class, xenolinguistics. I was dreading this class, my father tried teaching me Kordaran But ended up quitting because I kept forgetting key words to grammar and basic sentence structure, he himself was very fluent at it, as the Kordaran's were well known for their trade goods. I turned my tablet off as I walked in and stopped dead at the sight of my new teacher.

She was alien, and not the oh-she's-human-looking type either, she had scales, and tentacles on her face. It made her look for all the world like that squid dude from that really old movie... Pirates of the Caribbean. My dad loved that CD so much he had to rig our scanner to play it. I sat down, doing my best not to stare, but apparently from the rude looks I got from the girl sitting next to me, my best wasn't very good. I pulled out my tablet and opened up the notepad program yet again to take notes, I'd really need these. If my lessons from my father were any clue, I was going to be really bad at this.

To my surprise an hour later, I found myself able to fluently introduce myself in Cedrian, which were a somewhat short race of aliens that were humanoid and had vibrant skin colors that varied from black, to hot pink and back. I pulled my tablet out from under my shoulder and checked my schedule, it looked like I had tech manipulation and repair next.