Star-Crossed

Part 37

"Welcome to GS History 101," drones the man at the front of the room. "You can call me Keane."

Keane turns around and begins to write something on the board.

I feel a paper ball lightly smack me on the back of the head. It falls to the floor. I make sure Keane's back is still facing us and quickly bend down to pick it up. I uncrumple it. It's a note from Niko.

"This is soooo boring," it says.

I look back at him and smile, even though I personally think this class is super-interesting so far. He smiles back and gives me a small wink.

"This is," continues Keane, "one of the most useful classes you will have during your training session."

Keane has divided the board into thirds and titled each column.

"Past, present and future," says Keane. "All of time is divided into these three periods."

"We look at the past to learn from our successes and our failures," he adds. "This is the importance of really knowing and understanding history. It informs the present and can help us build a better future."

Everyone is silent. I notice one girl in the back nodding off a bit.

"There will be no grades in this class," says Keane, "because what you choose to put into this course is what you will get out of it, and will only help you more in the end."

Again, another note hits the back of my head. I quickly retrieve and open it.

"No grades?! Wooohooo!"

I look back at Niko and signal for him to stop.

"Is there a problem, Ms. Ishma," Keane asks.

"Uh, no sir, nothing at all," I respond. "I'm sorry."

A few of the kids snicker.

"Very well then," Keane says. "Please press the red button on the corner of each of your desks."

I press the button and my entire desk lights up and a hologram appears and hovers above it, level with my eyes. It's a 3D sign that says "Galactic Squad: a History."

"Now," continues Keane, in order to move through this lesson, you simply make a swiping motion from right to left with your right hand, like this."

He holds his hand up, palm facing us and fingers together, demonstrating the swiping motion.

"To go back, just move your hand in the opposite direction, from left to right," he adds.

"If you'd like to pause on a person or object and expand, contract, rotate or dive inside of them or it for deeper exploration," he continues, "you must pick up the small pen at the top of your desk."

He holds up a little black pen in his hand with different colored buttons on it.

"Each color does something different," he says. "When you press the yellow button, for example and then make a dragging motion, an object expands."

"Blue means contract," he continues. "Red means rotate and green means you will be taken further inside the object or person you have chosen to explore."

I swipe through a few of the holograms until I come to a page which is a lesson on the history of the GS jumpsuit. I grab the pen and press yellow and then expand the suit a bit, to zoom in. Then, I press the green button and am taken inside the suit, so I can see how the fabric is woven together on a molecular level.

"I see you've already demonstrated an interesting use for this tool, Ms. Ishma," Keane announces.

I jerk my head up, cheeks flushed.