Chapter 10 - MemTech

Chapter 10 – MemTech


Salomus woke early the next morning, feeling alert and ready, despite the fact that he hardly slept more than six hours. May was up within a few minutes. They sat down for one last breakfast together. While they were eating, Sal went over his list of supplies with her.

"Uniform?" she asked.

"Check. Both of them," he answered.

"How are you on writing utensils?"

"I've got a whole pocket full. Pencils, pens, markers and even a quill for some reason. I don't know why. Quills are just awesome."

"Casual clothes?"

"I've put all of my new clothes and my human ones in there."

"The school should provide you with textbooks as part of your scholarship, so you should be alright on those."

"Speaking of books," he said, "I went out and got you this while you were running your errands." He handed her a small, rectangular-shaped object covered in gift wrap.

"Sara told me that you had been eyeing this for a while," he told her. "So I went out and sold my old music player to an antique shop and bought you this. I ask that you do not open it until after I leave."

"Very well, then. If that is what you wish, I won't open it yet."

Far sooner than any of them would have liked, it was time for Sal to leave. He embraced May in one last tearful hug, holding her tight, not wanting let her go. For a full minute they stood there, with May softly weeping into his chest. When they finally pulled apart, it felt as though he was leaving her forever, even If he knew that he really wasn't. As he walked out the door, he told her to go ahead and open her gift.

She unwrapped the object and found that it was a novel, by her favourite author. inscribed on the inner sleeve were the words, 'In the centre seek and thou shalt see, this gift that I hath given to thee'. She opened to the centre-most page, where there was a slight gap. Inside she found a beautiful silver decorative comb, embedded with rubies in the same exact shade as her eyes. Beneath it lay a small note written carefully, which read:

To Miss Mayflower, my dearest friend. I give you this as a means of
thanking you for all of the help and kindness you have shown me. I will
miss you far more than you will ever know. I hope that you will accept
this gift and hold it close to your heart, as I have done with you. You truly
are a one of a kind friend. I will never find anyone like you in a thousand
years. Goodbye, dear May. I wish you success in all of your endeavours.
Thank you again for everything you have done for me.

~Salomus

May read the note three times over. Then she sat down on the couch, smiled, and wept.

Outside, Salomus fought back his own tears as he attempted to flag down a taxi. After ten fruitless minutes he decided to wait for a bus instead. He had saved the leftover money from his iPod sale for use as a bus fare and for any other possible fees. This time he was much more successful, and within three minutes he found himself climbing up the stairs of the bus.

"Where to?" the driver asked in a bored tone.

"MemTech," he answered.

"Pretty far away. That'll be M23.50." He pointed to the jar.

Salomus paid the fare and sat down in the only open seat, next to an elder woman and a boy only a few years younger than he, wearing a similar uniform.

"Oh, you go to MemTech, too?" the woman asked. "It's my nephew's first year, and he's all ready to return from holiday. He says he loves it there." She indicated the younger student.

"Uh, yeah," Sal answered, a little uncomfortable to have a total stranger suddenly start a conversation with him. "I'm actually just about to start. I'm a transfer student, so I don't know what it's like there. Shouldn't be too hard to adjust to; I jump around all the time."

"Oh, really? Well, good luck. Hopefully you won't need to change schools anymore. It must be hard leaving behind your friends."

"Yeah, it is. It feels like it's been two thousand years since I last saw them."

With that, he turned to look out the window, watching the landscape zip by at lightning-fast speeds. Though they were travelling at near-sonic speeds, it was several hours before the bus stopped in front of a huge campus that he assumed could only be MemTech, which was confirmed when the driver called out the school's name. Both he and the younger boy gathered their belongings and stepped outside the bus onto the grounds. He turned to face the boy.

"Hey, can you help me out?" he asked. "I need to find out where Registration is."

"Registration?" The boy looked at him strangely.

"Registration, guidance, whatever it's called. I need to pick up my schedule."

"Oh, that. What you want to do is go into that building over there," he pointed to a large building to their left. "Just go straight down the corridor on your right-hand side when you enter. The office you are looking for will be at the end of the corridor, on the left."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

Salomus made his way across the sunset-lit grounds to the building the kid indicated. He followed the directions, and sure enough, he found himself in the registration office. He walked up to the woman at the desk She seemed oddly familiar to him.

"Excuse me," he said.

"May I help you?" she asked, not looking up.

"Yes. I'm a new student, and I need to pick up my schedule."

"Name?"

"Salomus"

"Surname?"

"Gladden"

"Right, here you go," she said, printing out a copy of his schedule, and handing him a holo-map of the campus. "You'll be headed to your dorm today. Spring Break is a popular time for transfers, so classes don't resume until tomorrow. This is more of a 'get settled back in' day."

"Thank you very much. Dorms are..."

"That way," she said, pointing to her left, out the window. There were several small building that were unmistakably the dormitories. "Oh, I almost forgot. Talk to the woman in the next room, she'll give you your key." The whole time, she never once looked away from her papers.

"Thanks."

He then went into the next room, and sitting at that desk was the same woman in the last office, but with a different hair style.

Wasn't she just in registration? He thought. Then he cast the matter aside. He had more important issues.

"Excuse me, I was sent here to pick up my dorm key," he said to her. "I'm a new student."

He was not surprised at all when she didn't turn away from her computer screen as she answered.

"Name?"

"Salomus Gladden"

"Right," she said, still looking at her screen. "You're in the third building, on the second floor, room 1502. Everywhere else is full, but there's only one other person in this room. Bit of a loner, actually. Here's your key, and try to get along with your roommate."

She pulled a key out of nowhere and tossed it to him, her eyes still glued to the monitor. He caught it and walked out of the office, wondering who he would be living with for the rest of the year.

When he reached his dorm, he pulled out the key and unlocked the door. In front of him was a nice, large room, with two king size beds and a couch, complete with HV. Already inside it was a young Talmi girl, her back facing him, with a familiar waist-length plait of silky brown hair. She seemed to be too focused on the video game she was playing to notice him open the door. Salomus, knowing that it could only be one person, crept up behind her. When he judged that the moment was right, he lightly placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Boo," he whispered in her ear.

She jumped in fright, letting out a squeal. Without warning she kicked out at him, sending him flying across the room, where he hit the wall with a very loud thud.

"Ow. That hurt," he said, rubbing the spot on his chest where she kicked him.

"Who the hell are you?!?" Sudoku yelled. "And what the fuck are you doing in my dorm?!?"

"Don't you mean, our dorm, Sudoku?" he asked, attempting to sound mysterious.

"How do you know my name?! Have you been stalking me?! I'm about to call the police if you don't get the fuck out—" She paused as she recognised her friend.
"Oh, my god!!! Salomus?!?"

"Yeah. Who do I look like, Prince Charming?" he groaned. "That really hurt."

"Sorry, that was a reflex. You shouldn't have snuck up on me like that," she apologised.

"I know that now."

"Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I dunno. Sitting, blinking, breathing, hurting. Just overall living. Also, I came to put my stuff away. I was assigned to this dorm. They said everywhere else was full, and that there was only one person in here. What are the odds that it would be you of all people?"

"Wait a second; let me get this straight. You are my new roommate?"

"It would seem so, yes."

"Awesome. Normally I would complain about having to share my room, especially with a guy, but you seem like an okay person. I might actually be able to tolerate you. Just don't get any funny ideas," she warned.

"No worries, I won't. Anyway, which bed is mine?"

"The one on the left. There's the kitchen," she pointed to an area near the beds, "and the bathroom is the door on the right-hand side."

Salomus put his suitcase on the bed and joined Sudoku in her game. He recognised it as the one they had been playing when he first met her.

"Oh, so you finally got this game. Nice. I brought my own game consoles, but they're really old." He said, while at the same time putting a hole in her character's side.

"Yeah. It's pretty fun. And I didn't know you had any old consoles. How old are they, anyway?" she asked as she quite happily blasted his character's head off.

"Well, let's just say that they're ancient. And you win."

"Oh, you mean they're from the '40s or sometime like that?"

"Not exactly. Suffice it to say that there's something you don't know about me."

Sudoku decided not to press the issue any further at the moment, as she was falling behind in the game. After a while they turned it off, and she managed to persuade Salomus to tell her what his secret was.

"All right, fine. I'll tell you. You will find it extremely hard to believe, but I assure you that I am most definitely telling the truth."

He related his story for the fourth time in two weeks. He told her everything that happened, even his origins as a human and how he came to be a Talmi. He then told her what happened after he acquired his scholarship, though he left out what happened on Friday night. When he finished, Sudoku just stared at him in awe.

"I told you it would be hard to believe, but it's true. Ask my Cybee, Milo; he'll tell you."

Milo poked his head out of the side pocket on Sal's suitcase. "Yep, he's really from the past."

After a few moments of silence, Sudoku finally spoke.

"That is so... awesome!!!" She exclaimed. "I've never met anyone from the past before! What was it like?"

"It sucked. That's all I really need to say. It really sucked compared to this time period. However, some of the technologies we had were pretty cool. In fact, I have a few of my old possessions in my suitcase right now. They got caught in the accident and were transported here. Among them were the consoles I told you about. This is why I said they were ancient, because they really are."

"Really? Show me! I want to see them! Do they still work?"

Salomus opened his suitcase and took out some books, a few DVDs, his PS2 and his Dreamcast, along with a few games.

"I didn't know you liked to read. And what are these little plastic circles in these boxes?"

"I love to read. And those 'plastic circles' are DVDs. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. They are a means of holding data such as games, music or movies. Some of them, the ones with the light-green backs, are actually CDs, which were the predecessors of the DVD. CD stands for Compact Disc. A CD holds less data than a DVD, but it was still widely used in my time. Some of those CDs hold music, but most of them are games for this." He held up the white console. "This is a game console called a Dreamcast. It was old even in my time period, having been discontinued eight years before I even bought mine. It is my favourite console, and even though it had a really short lifespan, it was revolutionary and had many great games. The best part about the Dreamcast was its ability to play pirated copies of games without any modification. In fact, every game I have for it is a backup that I recorded onto a blank CD."

"Whoa," she said, looking at the Dreamcast. "This thing is so cool."

"Yeah it is. Now this," he indicated the black console. "is my PlayStation 2. It was my first game console, and still works today, just like my Dreamcast. The difference between the two is that most games for the PlayStation 2 used DVDs as their storage medium, whereas the Dreamcast used CDs. Since a DVD can hold about twelve times more data than a CD, the PS2 generally had more complex games with better graphics than the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast games were more fun, though. The rest of those DVDs are movies, which the PS2 can play back."

"That is really awesome."

"You wanna play some archaic video games?"

"Hell, yeah!"

The two spent most of the night playing games on both systems, though it took a bit of time to get them set up. Sudoku kindly went to the dining hall and brought back food for the two of them. They ate quickly so they could get back to the game. Sudoku particularly enjoyed the fighting game on the Dreamcast, because it allowed her to face Salomus directly in a one-on-one environment, in a battle of skills. Sal was surprised when she ended up with more wins than he. After about four hours they finally called it quits.

"All right, I'm gonna hit the sack. Into the bathroom with you, so I can change into my night clothes," she ordered him.

"Yes, ma'am," Sal said fearfully, grabbing his old gym shorts, which were a favourite of his to sleep in. "I might as well get a nice, hot shower and change into these while I'm in there."

By the time he emerged, Sudoku was already finished and was reading a book on her bed. He recognised it as one of his.

"This is an interesting book," she told him.

"Yeah, it's one of my favourites. You can borrow it if you like, but remember that it is written in ancient English. By that I mean, 'before the Celeste found humans and before English evolved into the GET used today'. I don't know how much the language has changed since my time, but there might be a few words in there that you may not understand."

"Thanks. And if there are a few words I can't understand, I can always have you translate for me, right?"

"That's if I am still awake to translate. Good night."

He killed the main lights and climbed into his bed. Sudoku had turned on her bedside lamp so she could read. Fortunately, it was not bright enough to keep Salomus awake, and within minutes he was fast asleep.