The Dangers of Saving a Life

Chapter 9: Milo

Hock note: Now that we've introduced Kwin and her troubles with the cyborg, Alec, let's check in on Milo again. He's having some troubles of his own with multidimensional calculus. But what about Dr. Chocka? Has he given up on Milo and the infant? 

"Milo Skart, I'm not very happy with you today."

Milo slumped near the back door of his multidimensional calculus class. It was a small and cozy room except with a high-bay vaulted ceiling. Only a handful of students sat in the mostly empty place. Professor Hanna Nudny projected the current discussion problem as a hologram overhead while she stood at the front, a squat lady with a round pleasant face.

"Juana Razon, do you have the answer?"

Juana sat across from Milo. When the correct answer rolled off of her tongue, ancient Greek symbols streamed as white figures in the form of matrices and arrays above the class, illustrating Juana's solution.

"Very good, Juana."

Professor Hanna droned on, talking about gamma and theta and alpha, the Greek symbols swirling around the room, forming matrices and then recombining to make new equations. Although it had been a week since Professor Aidan accepted the infant, Milo kept thinking of Cale Vals. He'd grown a fond of the little guy. Of course, Milo was more than thankful Professor Aidan took the infant. The generous professor even gave him a scholarship since he lost his job at the hospital. This way he could stay in school.

As matrixes revolved overhead, thoughts swirled through Milo's head. His brain tried to synthesize the events of the past days. Who was that baby? Why did the doctor want him dead? And why was the mother executed?

Professor Aidan told him the infant was powerful, but Dr. Chocka said he carried a terrible disease. What was dark energy and what would it do to him? What would Cale's childhood be like? What would the disease do to everyone around him? Had he infected Professor Aidan and his class? Had he infected all of Atraville College? And then, he heard other students calling Professor Aidan the demon of dark energy. Was that because of the infant?

Milo imagined the disease spreading. He pictured Professor Aidan bubbling with terrible sores, his body expanding like a giant monster, passing it along to all his students, the disease spreading out from Newton Hall, turning everybody in Atraville into bloated beasts, all because of-

"Milo?" Professor Hanna said.

"Yeah?"

"What is the derivative resultant of Alpha and Theta in this sequence?"

Milo looked up at the Greek symbols overhead and then down at his sheet. He had no idea.

"I want you to have the answer by tomorrow."

Milo was thankful to attend Atraville College in person with real professors. Almost everybody in the world learned from robots or attended holo classes. He was especially thankful for the scholarship Professor Aidan gave him. But at that moment, he didn't want to be there. He didn't want to do any homework. He didn't want to work out the answer for tomorrow.

He fished through his school bag. There it was, a small black cylinder that fit comfortably in the palm of his hand. Last week, after the professor had accepted the infant, while Milo watched, the professor had snapped the cylinder together from five smaller puck-sized blocks. A tiny switch protruded from one of the pucks. The professor switched it on and handed it to him.