Plus ca Change: Part 2a
by Tom MacCarrol
April 22, Anno Domini 5,632
Day 112-1111 Year of the Third Interstellar Imperium


* * *
Anne woke about a half minute before the alarm was due, feeling more rested than in weeks. Her Mom was still asleep, so she went through her morning routine as quietly as possible. Breakfast was more of a snack than a meal, over in five minutes. She was so super early it wasn't funny, odd how a decent rest made all the difference in her energy level.

Even the uphill walk to school took less than it's usual half- hour. The air was warming in the morning sunlight, soft with the promise of spring at long last. The whole world seemed to be fresh and clean, so good and normal, bursting with the intoxicating scents of life's renewal. So very different from the violence and terror of the night before. In the bright light of the new day it was very tempting to dismiss the entire subject of monsters and destiny as just the remnants of a particularly bad dream.

Tempting, but not a real possibility. Not anymore. Br. Gerrard had been right in getting her to confront the *vampire* (hard to think about such things as real) in person. The remembered sensations from grappling with it, it's inhuman strength - and those *eyes*, resisted her best efforts to sweep the encounter under the rug, to pretend that nothing had changed.

Anne left her second-block study session as soon as she could, ducking into the computer lab. Flopping into the first available workstation, she thumbed her ID to log on, then told it, "Display: Source code: 'Lab 3'." She scrolled rapidly to the loop command. Just as in her dream, there was an extra semi- colon at the end of the line. "Well, I'll be....something, anyway.", she muttered.

Deleting the offending character and saving the changed file took only a second or so. "Here goes.", she said to herself, and to the machine, "Compile: 'Lab 3'." It reported in it's flat emotionless way, "COMPILE COMPLETED. ZERO ERRORS."

"Now for the pay-off. I hope." A pause, then "Run: 'Lab 3'." Again the screen filled with rows of numbers, only this time the values matched exactly what she'd been expecting. She shook her head while slowly exhaling. "Just too strange." One more thing not to tell anyone about, or she'd earn an expense-paid trip to a loon-bin. It took only a few more minutes to re-run the program, saving the output along with her code and starting data in the proper format for submitting to her teacher. Anne spent the rest of the period idly poking around on the info-net.

Lunchtime found her in the serving line next to Liz Walker, one of the few friends she'd made here at school.

"Hey Liz. How ya doing this...still morning by a minute and a half...morning?"

"Oh jes fine. But who are you, and what have you done with Anne? Sorry. It's been so long, I'd almost forgot what you looked like, non-cranky. In point of fact, you seem downright perky today. What happened? Find a million credits under your pillow..or what?"

"Oh, just that my project is done, ahead of time for a change, I've had the first really decent night's sleep in weeks, spring is coming, and the universe is wonderful."

"Suspect maybe a connection between the first item and the rest? You really finished? Or just gave up on it? Last time I looked you were ready to beat your head on the console until one of them broke..."

"Nope. Really finished, as in working and formatted to hand in. I sorta... you could say... dreamed up the answer."

"Yuk. Not your project, this alleged-to-be-food. I can't believe they actually expect us to eat this stuff. Like, what *is* it?"

"If you haffta ask, you don't wanna know. That's why I stick to the beanpaste and cheese over rice. There's very little that's fatal they can do to it."

They wandered out into the dining area, finally finding a free table.

"I still can't believe how good it feels to be free of that thing. It's like I've gotten rid of this huge ball-and-chain I'd been dragging."

"The difference in you is amazing. We *have* to celebrate you getting out from under. Why don't we hit 'The Brass Monkey' tonight. We can go together, have a great time, maybe even meet some people..."

"I, I don't know. I'm broke..ish..."

"Reality check. Gals don't pay on Fridays, and I can spring for snacks and such if you're that short. You'll have to do lots better to wiggle out of having fun."

"I'm still not sure. Maybe I ought to stay home tonight, 'cause..." How can I tell her I'm trying to beg off going out tonight, because I'm supposed to start combat training in the morning, without telling her?, Anne wondered to herself.

" 'Cause you're hoping that just maybe, Bass is gonna call?"

"Well, um... yeah, sortta." That too, but it made a really nifty excuse to cover for the funky stuff.

"Forget it girlfriend. And do yourself a favor, forget him too. Now don't get crazed on me. He's my big brother, and I love him to death, but he's turning into one colossal loser. You do know he's not gonna graduate, at least not this year. The best that boy can hope for is a C.A. ..."

"Certificate of Attendance? You have to be exaggerating. That's little more than a booby prize, they give them out just for showing up still breathing. Bass may not be an ace scholar, but he's such a bright guy, I can't ..."

"Believe it. And, if he blows off many more classes, he won't even have *that* to show for four years here. Not that any of this seems to bother him any, the only ambition he displays is for that turkey band he's been hanging out with."

Her friend stopped pretending to eat, looking Anne straight on, even putting a hand on her arm for empathy and emphasis, "Look, I know that you're more than semi-sweet on the big goof, but this music thing has totally taken over. Like this weekend, all he's planning to do is rehearse with them. In one of our now rare encounters, he told me so standing at the fridge this morning. It seems like they've found a big enough dummy to actually pay them to perform..."

"Like a gig? A real-honest working gig? 'Goddess' Children Found' have a real paying date?! Where? When? How do we get there...?"

"Hold on. He was sparse on the details, as usual, but it's not for a while yet. And they'll be practicing like mad in the mean time. I think the idea was: 'not to suck so bad we have to give back the money..', of course, he was swilling juice straight from the pitcher while talking, and I could have miss-translated some of it... What it adds up to is that while the 'band' may have a date, you don't. You're a free woman this weekend, permanently, where he's concerned- if you have any sense."

Liz shifted to a more playful tone, "Come with me, and we'll see just how many fish there are in the great big sea.."

"There'll be guys there?"

"No. It's a nun club. Duh, that's the whole idea. C'mon, live a little. Get out of the rut you're in and seize the moment."

"Seize the moment. Interesting choice of phrase. Well, you don't have to tell me twice when I've already done it once.", Anne said, shaking herself as if to chase away an afterimage.

"Alright already, I'm in. We meet at your house, say eightish? I still feel more than a little disloyal about doing this.."

"Hey, it'll be fine. We'll have a good time and, just maybe, a hint of some competition will wake his sorry butt up- assuming, that is, he even notices."

"We'll see. I gotta go, see ya later in another rousing chapter from 'History of the Imperium."

"Imp. Hist. Bleahh.", Liz made a worse face than the one inspired by her lunch. "See you then, and later."

Walking to her next class, Anne felt her good mood returning, despite the disquieting news on the Bass front. She really had become bogged down in a tail-chasing grind of schoolwork and sleepy misery for the last few, well, months. Maybe Liz was right, that this was the time to cut loose a little, and expand her horizons. She wasn't about to give up on Bass, regardless of what his sister was saying, but that was no reason not to meet new people too.

Monsters tomorrow, cute guys tonight. That was a motto to live by, she decided, practically hop-skipping down the hall. ======


* * *
"...period known as the 'Barracks Emperors'. Anyone want to venture why there was no break in Imperial authority, why this is not considered a 'Forth Imperium' today?"

Anne had only skimmed the massive readings for this era- having been tied up with her unco-operative computer project. The answer had something to do with the Ministerial bureaucracies, but exactly what escaped her.

Nobody else volunteered either. Fortunately, the about to become awkward silence was broken by the teacher's desk chiming to announce an important message. Anne took advantage of the interruption to quietly start a keyword search through the relevant text file. She stopped when the teacher looked up from her screen and addressed Anne directly.

"Anne. Vice Principal Whiplish wants to see you in her office. Now."


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