callisto, an alien from a far away planet, is trapped in a museum of alien artefacts. a man with no name and only a job title finds her and invites her to join him and his companion through space and time.
invasions happen, strange visits and many m...
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YOUNG STUDENTS FILL a science classroom, finding their seats around the room. the teacher strides in after them, placing his bag on the teachers desk at the front. he turns to the woman sitting at the back of the room, looking at her over his glasses, his teaching assistant for the time being. the doctor smiled at callisto, who returned it smaller, crossing one leg over the other, hating the fact she was stuck in a room full of children. scrap that, a building full of them.
"good morning, class." the doctor greeted. "are we sitting comfortably?" he picked up a pen and began to write 'physics' messily on the whiteboard. "so, physics. physics, eh? physics. physics. physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics! not one of your is getting all this down. okay, let's see what you know! two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and are hung from a string so they can swing freely. what would happen if they were brought near each other?" a boy wearing round glasses put his hand up sharply. "yes, uh, what's your name?"
"milo." he answered.
"milo, off you go." the doctor instructed.
"they would repel each other because they have the same charge." milo stated.
"correctamundo! a word i have never used before and hopefully never will again." the doctor muttered. "question 2: i coil up a thin piece of nichrome wire and place it in a glass of water, then i turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water temperature is affected. my question is this: how do i measure the electrical power going into the coil?" milo's hand had shot up even before the doctor had finished the question. "someone else?" no child made an effort to answer. "no? okay, milo, go for it."
"measure the current and pd using an ammeter and a volt meter." milo responded.
"two to milo. right then, milo, tell me this, true or false: the greater the damping on a cistern, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings?" the doctor asked.
"false." milo answered almost immediately.
"what is non-coding dna?" the doctor inquired, leaning against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest.
"dna that doesn't code from a protein." milo replied.
"65,983 x 5?"
"329, 915."
"how do you travel faster than light?"
"by a quantum tunnel with an ftl factor of 36.7 recurring."
as the rest of the students exchanged smiles at milo's quick and correct answers, callisto and the doctor caught eyes, sharing a look at the young boy's unlikely, inhuman intelligence. mickey was right to put them onto this very odd school.
