A small group, around a few dozen, of people/bots crowded around a gigantic building with a smooth, semi-spherical roof. It was the famous ‘Eshort Space Centre’. They cared all sorts of banners, posters or even religious symbols (in the middle of the crowd was a gigantic Cross made of polystyrene boards and spray-painted gold). This reminded Tann of her original task: observe the bots’ reaction to program changes. Thus, Tann stopped and joined the crowd.
“TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON!” one shouted.
“LONG LIVE THE LORD!” another echoed.
“WE NEED AN EXPLANATION!”
Tann looked around, the protestors consisted of people from different age groups. There were a few younger ones dressed in full black suits and a bunch of beard man in priest uniforms.
“What’s happening here?” Tann asked a close by a girl who was waving a book that had a large title—‘Bible’.
The girl looked at her curiously, “Don’t you know? All the galaxies, stars started to orbit our planet in an instant. We’ll see if ‘rationality’ or you may say as science can give a valid explanation, but if not, we’ll try to solve this mystery from the perspective of supernatural powers, i.e. God.”
“Oh,” Tann turned and pointed at a young man who appeared to be the leader of the protestors (he was standing on a plastic chair), “do you know who is that?”
“Aha,” the girl replied, “that’s Julian Paradise, the student head of Philosophy Department. He’s quite famous you know? Do you read the Red Sun ?”
“No, what’s that?”
From her large pocket, the girl took out a folded magazine and handed it to Tann, “Have a read of page 19 to page 24. That’s his article blog on the magazine.”
“Do you not need it?” Tann asked, taking over and unfolding the magazine’s cover. In the centre, there was a gigantic wooden cross with a blood-red sun painted in the back and bold captions that read ‘A New Christ?’.
“Nah,” the girl laughed, “I have a photographic memory, so you can keep it if you want.”
“Thanks,” Tann put the magazine into her carry-on bag (she tried very hard not to accidentally show her bloodstained Nova).
A loud cheer from the crowd made Tann turned her focus back to the entrance of the brick-red building. The steel door swung open slowly and a rather skinny man appeared from the gap, “Can you people quiet down a bit…”
“Tell us the answer!” the long-haired young man named Julian Paradise shouted with a loudspeaker in his hand, “We don’t care about the details for now, but we want to know generally what happened to our universe.”
The skinny man sighed, “I was about to tell you, our senior professors are currently undergoing a formal debate of all the existing theories and you people are interrupting their presentations.”
“Fine,” Julian backed down, “We’ll let them be for now, but next Saturday, we are going to host a mass rally right here and we have the right to know the truth.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Alright, Imma heading out.” after hearing Julian’s words, Tann turned around and headed towards her original destination.
The school had changed quite drastically since her last visit. The previously half-empty notice boards were overfilled with layers of posters, stickers or even pages that were ripped from a journal. Many of these documents were debate invitations with location and time details. Not only the notice boards but all the street lamps were also coated with these items too. Right across the path, Tann saw two students: one of them carried a huge bundle of papers under his arm while the other held a bucket of glue and a brush. However, Tann didn’t have much time to look deeper into her impact in her world—she had more important things to do.
“Thanks to all your efforts today!” Loci Parametric said across his home/lab, “Did you all enjoy the designing processes? I can’t hear you? YES! That’s the attitude!”
Unlike Tann’s visit last time, the room finally contained more people than engines. Also, at it seemed, with more people, the room became far tidier.
“Well,” Loci looked at his clunky, home-made watch that was crafted out of a cross-section of a steel pipe, “I am very sorry that we did more clean-up than crafting, but if you show up at 3:30 pm again tomorrow, you can fully commit to your creations. That’s it for today, feel free to leave…Oh! Remember to think about which team you want to enter.”
As the students took their leave, Loci sat down on a tall chair and took a self-adjusting wrench from the table. He drew the wrench behind him and shoved it under his clothes. He reached for a short while, and finally, ‘Click’ the wrench held onto a steel bolt on his back. Skillfully he rotated the wrench followed by a few quiet clicks.
“Feeling any better?” A student who was about twice Loci’s height sat down beside him.
“Still hurts like hell when I stood for too long,” following a final click, Loci withdrew his wrench, “I should probably go for an x-ray check soon and see if they can give me a new exoskeleton.”
“Stop talking to the old man, McCro and help me do a software check,” Rosy demanded as she typed speedily on a keyboard.
“Coming mama,” the tall student stood up, and brushed his clean trousers with a tiny white brush which he took out from his pocket, “by the way, who’s that student you were talking about? Did she come today?”
Rosy sighed and stopped her typing, “Nah, she probably has other things to do.”
“That’s a shame,” McCro walked towards a computer that was still on. He sat down politely in front of it and started scrolling through the programs, “well, it is her choice in the end, but this guy, the boy in orange hair who used this computer, seemed quite good. His functions skills were basic but neat and well structured. What’s his name again? Is it Isaac Hook or something?”
“That’s right!” Loci said from his seat, “Have you not heard of him? He was the new kid who did 20 B levels in high school and got 6** for all of them? He’s even on the news!”
“You watch the news?!” Rosy gasped ironically, “Interesting, you hardly knew the news about the whole universe starts spinning around us but you managed to memories these kinds of weird things.”
“I am random person,” Loci replied and straightened his back a bit, “damn it, I adjusted it too much.”
“You really should go swimming,” McCro suggested, “it is the best cure for scoliosis.”
“NOOOOOO!” Loci screamed, “I HATE SWIMMING!!!!!”
“If you want a floaty,” Rosy giggled, “I can buy you a pink one.”
Loci blushed with anger but before he could put forward an attack, the door slammed open. The golden-haired girl marched in.
“Hello,” Tann glanced at the shocked faces around the room, “ummm…are you guys done?”
“Yes, but may I please ask you who you are?” McCro walked up to Tann, “My name is McCro Alexander, the secretary of Builder’s Club and member of Team NEKO, may I please help you?”
Tann looked at the overdressed guy (‘are you going to a wedding or something?’ she thought to herself), “Well, do you know where’s Loci Parametric?”
“Aha!” McCro’s face light up, “Are you here to register? Our club host right over there. May I please apologies for him: he cannot welcome you while standing now, because he has a spinal problem and he is currently fixing his spinal supporter.”
“It’s alright,” Tann walked pass McCro and accidentally exchanged a glance with Rosy. Tann stopped and approached Rosy slowly. Rosy turned her face to her screen, pretending to ignore Tann’s presence.
“Hello Rosy,” Tann smiled awkwardly.
“Where were you?” Rosy asked sharply and pressed the ‘enter’ button heavily.
“Sorry,” Tann bowed her head slightly, “I was at a protest…”
“DON’T TELL ME YOU ARE A JULIAN FAN!” Loci cried.
“Whose Julian?” Tann turned to the angry little person.
McCro Alexander stepped between Tann and Loci, “ Please allow me to explain, Julian Paradise is the most recognized philosophy student at Qchong University. Loci here doesn’t support of Julian’s ideologies, that’s why he is very passionate topics related to Julian.”
“I see,” Tann shifted her attention back to Rosy. Suddenly, a strange feeling caused her face to redden a little when she met Rosy’s warm gaze from her green eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…” Tann looked at the ground, “May I ask you for something…”