Chapter 5: Debate Club

After taking English class and math class, Alexa went straight to the debate team meeting room. There were about a dozen other students there. Two of the other students whispered to each other and pointed at Alexa. A couple of kids, a boy and a girl, walked up to her and introduced themselves.

"I'm Matrix," said the boy.

"I'm Analog," said the girl. "We heard about the holographic greeting from Morgan Lefevre this morning! We want you on our debate team!"

"Yeah, with you on the team Verso will win for sure!" said Matrix.

"Sure, I'll be on your team," Alexa replied. "But I have a question. Does everyone at this school have a name that corresponds with a science term?"

Matrix and Analog laughed.

"Most of us do, though there are some here with conventional names," said Matrix.

"I'm surprised that anyone would even want to defend Recto house," said Alexa.

"Believe me, there are plenty of people defending Recto," said Matrix. "We're actually outnumbered by them, that's always been a thing here at the academy."

"Really?" Alexa asked. "I didn't know that." 

Another kid, a girl, approached Alexa and the other two kids she had just met.

"Hi, I'm Hellion. I overheard your conversation about the names here, my last name is Perry, and if you shuffle my first and last names it sounds like perihelion."

"That's cool," Alexa replied. "I'm Lexie."

The two girls shook hands. "Everyone knows who you are. I heard you scored one hundred percent on the neutrino dissimilator test in class today, and that a hologram of Morgan Lefevre appeared to you. If you aren't Verso material, no one is!"

Matrix pointed at the other eight students. "All those kids are representing Recto house! We're outnumbered."

Hellion pointed to the boy who was leading the other Recto house students. "Do you see him, Lexie? That's Vector, he went to the same elementary school as me. He's a natural leader, you're going to need to out debate him."

When roll call was taken, the teacher grouped the students into Verso and Recto. Alexa and her three friends were the only ones in the Verso group. An even mix of four boys and four girls were in the Recto group. The teacher asked for a volunteer from each group; Alexa from Verso and Vector from Recto volunteered. Alexa and Vector stood at podiums facing each other from across the room, and Vector went first.

"Societies since prehistoric times have traditionally been composed of a stronger group helping and aiding the weak, the disabled and the elderly. Everyone had a place, with the weaker members of society being cared for. As Futurians, we should do no different. We should blend with 21st century society and help them to achieve the society our ancestors built for us. By working together, we can create the future that spawned us."

The teacher held a stopwatch and clicked it. Vector stopped talking, and the members of Recto house clapped for him. "Okay Alexa, your turn," said the teacher.

"It is human nature for the strong to exploit the weak," Alexa began. "To quote the Bible, if you want to rob a strong man, first he must be bound. If we are stronger to begin with, then why should we cater to a society of primitives? Why should we figuratively allow ourselves to be bound? We can do more for them by taking control of them, than by letting them destroy the atmosphere of our planet with green house emissions. Maybe by taking control, we can create the conditions that allowed our society to be created in the first place."

The teacher clicked the stopwatch. "Time!" The Verso students clapped for Alexa, but the Recto students remained silent. "You've both done a good job. I want to see other volunteers when we adjourn here next week. Hopefully, you can do as good of a job as Alexa and Vector. I want each of you to type up a speech in advance for next time."

The students got their backpacks and prepared to leave.

"Professor?" Alexa asked. "Why do we only meet once a week?"

"This class is strictly extra-curricular, Alexa. I don't want to over burden my students, you all will have enough of a tough time with your regular classes." 

When Alexa exited the classroom, Matrix, Hellion and Analog were waiting for her.

"I've got ideas for the next speech," said Hellion. "Back in the 1980's when robots took over human jobs, Recto would've probably taken the side of the laid off workers. We need to find a way to show that it was more logical to replace those workers with machines, despite how heartless that sounds."

"That sounds like a good approach, Hellion," said Alexa.

"Maybe we should all do a different variation on that theme, and check in with each other before we meet with debate class next week, to use the one that sounds the best."

"I agree," said Alexa, and they parted ways.

Alexa went to the dorms for the first time. It looked like a place where the offspring of the wealthy elite would live, with a futuristic flair thrown in for style considerations. The dorms of Verso house were divided into the boy's section and the girl's section. Stratus showed Alexa around.

"Boys aren't allowed in the girl's dorms at any time, and we can't go to the boy's side, either." said Stratus.

"Where is the library?" Alexa asked.

"It's located between Verso dormitory and Recto dormitory. They wanted to encourage mingling between the two houses, so we would be exposed to different points of view."

"I want to go study," said Alexa. 

"Dinner is at 6 pm on the main dining hall," Stratus reminded her. 

Alexa wandered around until she found the library. She sat down at a desk, and pulled out her electronic tablet. She began studying for her classes. Each class had a textbook, and the tablet had a digital version of each textbook uploaded to the tablet. There was also a digital notepad so she could type out her assignments. There were plenty of othert students at the other desks studying. By the time Alexa was done with the homework for all of her classes, it was dinner time. She hurried to her dorm and put her backpack and tablet away, then headed to the dining hall.

There were long wooden tables with seats. Plates and silverware were set up for each student. When Alexa got there, she was in time to see Stratus and Gamma, and went to sit by them. Matrix, Analog and Hellion came up to them and Matrix asked if they could sit with Alexa.

"Sure! It's okay by me," said Alexa. Gamma and Stratus both agreed that the others could sit with them. Matrix, Analog and Hellion sat next to each other across from Alexa, Gamma and Stratus.

There were huge plates of food the students could scoop onto their plates. There was turkey, meatloaf, and pot roast for the main course. Mashed potatoes were available along with vegetables on another dish, and Mexican food and Chinese food could be had. There were dessert plates with every dessert known to man.

"Alexa," said Matrix, "did anyone tell you about the food here?"

"I heard the junk food is nutritious," Alexa replied.

Matrix snapped the fingers of his right hand in defeat. "Darn! I heard you didn't know you were a Futurian until recently, and I thought I could be the one to tell you about our culture."

"There's still a lot of things I probably don't know," Alexa replied. "Maybe you could be my guide to this strange new world!"

"I'd be glad to!" said Matrix.

The six of them ate to their heart's content. When they were full, they sat back and conversed with each other.

"So what are your life goals, Alexa?" Matrix asked.

"I wanted to be a lawyer, but now that I've read up on neutrino dissimilators, I think I want to be an engineer. I'd rather work with technology in some way, shape or form."

"You've got to be really good at math to be an engineer," said Matrix.

"Math has always been one of my better subjects," Alexa replied. "I'm one of those people who are good at math and English, not one or the other." 

"There's an extra-curricular class called recovering lost technology," said Matrix. But you'd probably have to drop debate to take it, because they're held at the same day and time. If you have any skills as an engineer, maybe you could help re-invent some of the technology that was lost when our ancestors escaped from that supernova."

"If I drop debate, will you drop it too, and take lost tech with me?" Alexa asked.

"My destiny is to become a master debater in the world of the Futurians," said Matrix. "But if you drop debate, I'll still see you around."

"It’s  too bad you can't take both," said Stratus.

"Do we have to take our dirty dishes to the kitchen?" Alexa asked.

"They have robots to take care of that," said Matrix.

Everyone departed from the dining hall and returned to their dorms. Alexa and Stratus talked about the friends Alexa had made that day.

"Matrix is cute!" said Stratus. "If you don't want to date him, I will!"

"Can we date boys here?" Alexa asked.

"Yes, but nothing too crazy. We are under surveillance most of the time here, so if you try to get too affectionate with a boy, one of the androids will break it up and you'll be reported. My sister Umbra had that happen to her during her first year."

"I won't do anything too crazy," said Alexa.

There was a common room for the Verso girls, so Alexa went there and sat on one of the couches. There were other girls there, too. Analog was having a conversation with a girl Alexa didn't recognize. Some of the girls surrounded Alexa.

"A girl like you happens once in a generation," said a raven-haired girl. "You really could be the heir apparent to Morgan Lefevre."

"We'll help you to team up with her," said an older girl. "I'm tired of Recto propaganda! We can finally get even with them. This academy is firmly in favor of Recto house, I hope you know that!"

Another girl said, "Lexie, if there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know."

"Actually," Alexa replied, "I'm trying to decide whether or not to quit the debate team and join the recovering lost technology club instead. What would Morgan Lefevre want me to do?"

The girls gathered together in a huddle and whispered to each other. Alexa couldn't make out what they were saying. When they broke the huddle formation and faced Alexa again, the oldest girl in the group said, "You should definitely quit the debate club. You're needed in the recovery of lost tech club, if you're good at science and math, you should be able to re-invent something important."

"That sounds like a good idea," Alexa replied.

A girl who wasn't part of the original group of girls walked over to the group, and addressed Alexa.

"None of you should be mentioning working with Lefevre. We're pretty much under surveillance at all times, except for the bathrooms or locker rooms. If Victoria Valerius found out you were conspiring with Lefevre, you could get in a lot of trouble."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Alexa.

The girl turned and walked away. When Alexa got up to return to her dorm, Stratus was at the top of the stairs. When Alexa reached her, Stratus said, "You're the most popular girl in school, do you know that?"

"I'm slowly figuring that out," said Alexa. "I wonder what Morgan Lefevre sees in me? What makes me so special?"

"It may take a long time to find out," Stratus replied, "but I think it might have something to do with your technical prowess. Have you always been good at fixing machines? Or good with computers?"

"Yes," Alexa replied, "but my only interest is owning a functional neutrino dissimilator. I want to go shrink someone!"

"My sister Umbra can go with you in the taxi back to Los Angeles," Stratus replied, "there are places you can go to find people who will disappear from society. You can shrink them and keep them prisoner, and the academy won't try to stop you."

"Are you serious?" Alexa asked.

"Yes, Recto has been trying to eliminate that exception to the rules against shrinking ephemerals. Just remember, you can only shrink someone who history listed as missing, my sister can show you how to use your communicator to track someone and find out if they qualify.