Free Beta Planet: Rise by Dayton Grey Page A

Headmaster Ulie’s angry looks all during morning assembly.”
    The group hurried into the building. A scanning bar like the one in the Glidewing station scanned their LifeCuffs and greeted them upon entry into the building.
    The four walked quickly through the curved hallway around the building, which had projections of nature scenes on the outer facing walls and classrooms on the inner facing side. Geon noticed that none of the students were carrying any books. In fact, there weren’t any books to be seen anywhere . The students were all either chatting with each other or working on their LifeCuffs.
    A voice in the walls chimed, “Three minutes to morning assembly. Please proceed cautiously to the Commons.” With that, all the remaining students rushed around to the back of the building and then into a hallway that took them into the large, round, center room. The space had a metallic domed ceiling made up of triangular pieces that extended up past the height of the classrooms. Long rectangular tables with built in benches were evenly distributed in a ripple pattern from the outside toward the middle. Each bench had a number of E-Pillars built into the centers of them as well. In the very center was a raised round white platform, with overhead lights shining brightly on it. The rest of the room was dark in comparison, with no natural lighting. They squeezed into some seats toward the back and stared down toward the center.
    “That’s him, G,” Sabien cautioned to Geon quietly while gesturing toward the stage. “Headmaster Guntan Ulie is not a man to be messed with. Keep your head down and stay out of his way. He seems nice and harmless but trust me, he has a hard side. Plus, there are rumors about him being involved in… you know .”
    Geon nodded but had no clue what Sabien was referring to. He looked to the center of the stage, which was surrounded on all four sides by students. In the middle was a tiny man with an unyielding frown on his face and a permanent crease on his forehead in between his eyes. He was bald on top with brown hair thinly covering the sides of his head. He wore a formal suit, comprised of grey pants, white shoes, and a long white coat with many buttons and a stiff rounded collar, short on the sides and tall in the back. He stood with his hands crossed behind his back and tapped his foot anxiously. The four hurried toward the back of the room and got into their seats as the meeting began.
    The lights over the seats dimmed gently and the center stage lighting increased and a hush fell over the students.
    “Good morning, all!” he said as he slowly paced around the stage. “Thank you for your timeliness and let us all be grateful for this beautiful day. As we do every morning, we have some agenda items that need to be brought to your attention, as well as some announcements to be made. So, let’s get started. Professor Keiran, are we still having problems with the, uhm, the sleep thing.” He turned and looked at the row of professors that sat in a semi-circle directly behind him. A tall, skinny woman with bronze skin and shiny grey hair sat upright and tilted her head to the side, trying to decipher what he was trying to say.
    “Ahhhh you mean the REMpod? Yes, number two is still malfunctioning,” she said with a nervous twitch of her face. She seemed worried about giving bad news to the headmaster.
    “Yes, yes. The REMpod! I’m not myself today I regret. Okay, students, stay out of REMpod Two on your breaks, else you fancy yourself oxidized into a bubbly mush, okay?”
    Some of the students quietly giggled as he continued down his list, going over general school rules and announcing upcoming events. Geon whispered to Sabien about having REMpods in school and Sabien whispered back, “Scientists at CARE have found that taking short naps during the day in a pod will greatly increase your energy and productivity. That being said, none of us does it except Kumuki on occasion, because Mama