The Optimum Project

Chapter 18

Elevating the situation

My email had an attachment and I pressed on it, pulling up a 3 dimensional image of the Tetrad, identical to the image General Quade showed me. I turned and spoke to Teach, who was filling out another form for my bunkmate Peter, "can you show me the route to my bunk?" he nodded and walked over to the map. Pulling out a red marker he drew a path and I committed it to memory, I then turned around and said goodbye.

I opened my eyes back in the orientation hall, leaving was disorienting. When Teach told me how to leave I had repeated the code word and accidentally ended up back here early. I shook my head and got my bearings, heading down the hall that had been marked on the map, I walked towards the elevator that would get me to my floor, noting some kids clustered together on the side opposite the elevator bank. I pushed the button and began fidgeting while I waited, the kids across from me had huddled together and were talking in whispers, by the way they were looking over here I got the feeling that they were talking about me. The doors opened with a slight ding and as I moved towards the doors a hand grabbed my shoulder and threw me back across the hall, I fell to the floor and cursed quietly as I watched the kids pile in laughing at me. As the door closed I got a good look at their leader, a bulky, well muscled kid with long black hair that hung over his eyes and streaked with a deep red, I also saw the smirk he had as I looked at them; I didn't really like that guy.

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I got up and brushed myself off, calling a different elevator and waiting until it came. Inside was a girl in the same dark blue jumpsuit with a ponytail in her hair. She smiled and I gave a quick smile and nod back, Reaching over and tapping the button labeled for my floor at the same time. The doors closed and we sat in silence as the elevator ascended. We stopped at what I assumed was one of the girls dorm floors and she walked out. I waved as she turned back to look at me and she smiled as the doors closed. I fidgeted for a bit until I reached my floor and got out, I looked down the hall and started reading off room numbers, trying to find mine.

As I looked around I walked into a large commons room smack dab in the middle of the floor, with four hallways stretching off in each direction. The common room was furnished with some couches and a few chairs of various kinds, on one wall was a fairly large tv, currently on an Alliance news channel, with some other boys watching it. I waved at a few who looked up at my entry, and they nodded politely back, quickly looking back towards the tv. I followed the directional screens at the start of each hallway, mine was room 3464, I knocked when I got there but there was no reply. I walked in and looked around, on one wall there was a porthole looking out into space, other than that and the bunk beds with drawers built into the bottoms that was it, I walked over to the bunk bed and noticed a note taped to the bottom of the top bunk it read, quite poetically, "Hi, I'm Peter and I get top bunk."

I snorted and tossed a duffle bag I had received when I left the lobby on the bottom bunk, inside was a brochure, a stack of three more neatly folded jumpsuits and two pairs of casual clothes all in my size. I pulled my tablet out of my back pocket and opened the screen based UI. It looked like your basic interface including a web browser, settings, notepad, calculator, all the basics. It even had a preloaded game. I sighed, it would take a while to get used to this place, but maybe that was a good thing.