Chapter 13: Interlude: On the Field Trip

“Ok, kids. Single file down the gang plank, and follow me. Mr. Jefferson will make sure no one gets left behind. No talking please. Dennis? Quiet, please.” Janis Albrecht led the children out of the chartered ship into a large hall. As stressful as these field trips could be, it was nice to get out of the school for the day, even if it was only to Alpha Centauri and back. The children all oohed and ahhed as many of them saw a space station for the first time in their lives. For Janis, it was a rare treat — actually giving the children something they wanted for a change.

The trip was going well, so far. There had been no surprises yet, although admittedly, in all the years that the Academy had taken this trip, there rarely had been. This was one of those excursions they had done so many times that all the bugs had been worked out down to the smallest detail, and while it was no doubt exciting for some of the students, it was something Janis could do in her sleep. She moved left into an atrium filled with small tables and chairs surrounding a large fountain in the middle.

“The Alpha Centauri Way Station was constructed nearly 100 years ago and was the first station of its kind outside of our solar system. It was originally constructed as a scientific outpost for experiments that were too dangerous to perform closer to home. In particular, the time experiments first performed by Thaddeus Sandoval were considered so dangerous at the time that even this far from Earth he was initially banned.”

There were murmurs that waved through the students. “Of course, as you all know, he was ultimately allowed to perform his experiments here, which is why we have the Academy at all, and why we are all here today.” A student raised his hand high, and caught his teacher’s eye. “Yes, Chuck.”

“Miss Albrecht, will we get to see Sandoval’s time flux meters?”

Most of the children groaned. While ostensibly the purpose of the trip was to learn about the early time experiments conducted here, most of the students just wanted to explore the station. The excitement of learning new things about time science and history was limited to a small handful of more scholarly students who were, by their very nature, less popular than most, and counted Chuck amongst their number.

“Good question, Chuck. We will get to see the time flux meters, and much more, although it is all behind protective panels now. Right after lunch, we’ll head to his lab, which has been preserved to look just as it did over 85 years ago.”

At talk of lunch, the students immediately started talking with each other, and Janis could see she was losing the room. “Ok, students. This is how lunch is going to work.” She knew they would at least quiet down a bit to get the information. “There are four different restaurants in ring around this atrium. You may order your food and bring it back here, or eat in the restaurants themselves. In either case, you must be back here in one hour. Local time here is…” she checked her watch, “13:21. Please adjust your watches accordingly, and be back here by, what do you think, Paul, 14:30?” Paul Jefferson nodded. “Ok, 14:30. If you want to shop, please check in with Mr. Jefferson or myself before you do so. I want to know where all of you are at all times.”

At that, the students broke into full voice conversations and scattered. Janis and Paul sat down at one of the tables and heaved a collective sigh of relief.

Paul said to Janis, “Boy that was a tough flight. It was everything I could do to get those Brown boys to stay in their seats. I don’t know about you, but I am definitely ready for a break.”

“You said it, Paul. Let’s go around to the Wild Boar and get a burger. At least we can get 30 minutes of peace.” She kissed him on the cheek, and they walked off, hand in hand.

Next to the fountain, Whit Strohman stood with his friends Rod, Alfie, and Cheese. They were debating which restaurant to go to, while Whit kept stealing glances off to his right. When they finally settled on the Plastic Fork, Alfie had to tug Whit to get his attention.

“Sorry, man,” Whit said.

“What’s up with you, Whit?” asked Alfie.

“Oh I just…I thought, y’know, I’d maybe get a chance to talk to her here. But I’m with you guys and she’s over there, and…”

“Well go talk to her man.” Cheese gave Whit a shove. “We’ll save you a seat.” The three of them laughed, and left Whit behind as they walked to the restaurant.

Whit geared himself up, took a deep breath, and headed over to the girl of his dreams. She was standing with two other girls, which gave him an odd kind of chance. If she had just been with her best friend, as usual, she wouldn’t want to break off, and he would be stuck with both of them. But with three, she could leave the other two without abandoning them, and maybe the two of them could have lunch together. Nervous, but determined, Whit closed his eyes and took the first step.

The next thing he knew, he was on the floor. “Watch where you’re going, kid,” a well dressed man with a briefcase shouted at him. Whit had walked right into him without seeing, and having less inertia, ended up the worse for it. The man with the briefcase went on his way without helping him up.

Whit straightened himself up and lost heart. She had completely disappeared. He looked all around, but didn’t see her anywhere. What was he going to tell the guys back at the Plastic Fork? If he told them the truth, it would sound like he was making it up to avoid saying that he had chickened out. He looked around the atrium one more time, out of desperation, but didn’t see them anywhere. Then, when he had all but completely lost hope, out the corner of his eye he saw a flash of glowing orange so bright it could only be coming from one of the girls. He stained his eyes to make sure, and sure enough it was them. They were heading down a hall at the far end of the atrium, and he immediately followed in pursuit. By the time he got to the hall, they were almost out of sight, but he could just make them out turning into another hall, and he picked up his pace, certain he would catch up with them any second, and started to panic about how he could possibly make running into them seem casual now. When he got to that hall, though, it was empty, and didn’t look like it led to anywhere.

“I wonder what they’re doing down here?” he asked himself. He walked down the hall trying each door, but losing heart with every step.

At the end of the hall was a path to a storage bay and Whit walked in, looking for a place to sit and sulk a bit. The bay was filled with boxes and barrels, as well as a few larger shipping containers, and he walked behind one and sat down on a plastic box that had been set aside. He tried to think again of what he would tell the guys when he got back, but became more disheartened with every thought. This story was even less believable than the first. He listened in the vain hope that the girls were hiding in here too, but he couldn’t hear a thing. Then, as he focused his listening, he heard a conversation from two people that had just walked in the bay.

“I can’t thank you enough for taking care of me this morning. Boy I was really out of it.”

“Well, the way you were drinking, I’m not surprised. Why did you drink so much anyway?”

“Space sickness. I thought I was gonna die, and the first drink helped, so I just kept going. If I’d known how much worse the alcohol sickness would be, I would have never started to begin with.”

“You’ve never been drunk before?”

“Never. Teetotaler my whole life before last night.”

“Hell of a way to start of your trip.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re alright. Now where did you say your ship was docked, because I don’t think we’re going to find it in here.”

Whit tried to steal a look. One of the voices sounded strangely familiar, and he wanted to see the face it came from. He leaned around the shipping container, but tripped over a stack of locking mechanisms and made a huge crashing sound. Any hope he had of remaining undiscovered was instantly lost, but instinctively, he cowered in the smallest position he could put himself into, and tried to think himself invisible.

“Who’s there?” shouted the familiar voice.

“Stay here, I’ll check it out,” said the other one. Whit heard footfalls approaching and considered running, but thought better of it. He wasn’t really doing anything wrong. He would simply tell the grown-up he was lost and ask for help finding the atrium. Everything would probably be ok.

Whit gathered his courage and stood up. “Hi.”

“It’s only a kid.”

Both voices walked over to Whit and looked him over. The familiar one said, “Well, I’ll be. Is that little Whitty Strohman?”

Whit looked back up with shock. “Uncle Peter?”

Pete Elbert laughed heartily for the first time since he had left Earth. He turned to his new robot friend and said, “Ninety, I would like you to meet my young friend Whitty Strohman.”

“It’s Whit, Uncle Peter.”

“Ok, young friend. Whit it is.” He stuck out his hand and they shook. “I haven’t seen you in a few years, boy. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“I recognized your voice,” Whit replied.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story. You see, I’m on a field trip with my school and...”

Whit explained the whole thing. How he had come here on a field trip and they were on a lunch break. How he had followed the girls here, but lost them, and had just about decided to go back when he heard their voices.

“Well I suppose we’d better get you back to your friends,” Elbert said, and put his arm on Whit’s shoulder. That was when the corner of the storage bay exploded.