Milo Skart had a terrible decision to make.
"Help me."
The pregnant teen girl stumbled into the lobby of the Atraville Hospital. Barefoot and tattered, she appeared ready to give birth.
"Help my baby."
However, the girl and her unborn child carrie...
Hock note: Let's take a breather from Milo, Sally, and Dr. Chocka to zoom in on Mustafa Baskan, the Atraville College president. He's having some indigestion over a dynamic young physics professor.
"I can set you free."
Professor Aidan Scelestus stood alone in the green area at the center of the Atraville College campus. It was a large rectangular area filled with lush mossy ground cover. A walkway bordered the area and various buildings of the college surrounded the walkway.
"Axion watches everything that you do. It hears every word that you speak. I bet it even reads your minds."
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Aidan spoke in front of Newton Hall, a boxy three-story building composed of dark aluminum glass. Concrete steps led up to a row of doors across the entrance. Although a number of students stopped to listen to him, they kept a good distance, scattered along the walkway.
"I can show you a place where Axion cannot watch you, where it cannot hear you, and where it cannot touch you."
The bright afternoon sun shone above Newton Hall. A wide shadow reached across from the building and grazed the young professor. He appeared to be barely out of college, a tall figure with hair combed straight back from his bold face.
"I can give you something that Axion cannot take away."
Mustafa Baskan, the college president, listened from his office. Aidan's image was displayed big and loud across the far wall from his large old-fashioned wooden desk. Some of the students called him the demon of dark energy. That made sense. Aidan was doing some illegal protons.
"I can show you a new realm of existence," Aidan said, raising his amplified voice, "a place where Axion has no power. A place where Axion cannot even go. A place where you will be free."
Mustafa's entire body tensed. Didn't Aidan realize Axion was listening to him right now? Axion would shut down their college. Aidan would be executed. Mustafa would be out of a job, blackballed, or worse. Maybe, as the head of the college, he'd be executed along with Aidan. His heart pounded in his chest, and his head grew hot. Sweat leaked down his armpits. It would be bad. Very bad.
Axion had rebuilt Atraville College some years ago. Coincidentally, Mustafa hired Aidan Scelestus shortly after that. Although Aidan had proved to be a prolific professor up until this point, the school owed its existence to Axion. Then there was the fact that Axion ruled the world. This rebellion could not be tolerated by even the most prolific of professors.
"I will show you true liberty," Aidan said as a couple of students approached him. "I will give you a life without Axion."
When the afternoon classes let out, hundreds of students piled out of buildings—Zweig, Graham business, and Wright architecture among others. Many stopped to listen to the preaching professor. Aidan would be the end of the college. Mustafa needed to do something, and he needed to do it fast.
