[24 April, 2235 | History Lesson]
The class of fifty-seven students takes their seats in the sterile but brightly lit education room. Everything within the Auckland Education Institute, the premiere (or only) Government-approved school within the city, is white: a reminder to the students that they are here to learn, and to learn only. Ms. Quadro, the class instructor, enters the room twenty-seven seconds late after traveling to the megaschool’s seventy-eighth storey. At least, she reasons, she can afford to have her pay docked for that time. SMs. Quadro addresses the class immediately; there is no time for anything other than education.
“The story of the ANZACs is as old as time itself,” the instructor begins. “Or it might seem like that to you youngsters, with your lack of comprehension of anything prior to the twenty-third century. With ANZAC Day tomorrow, and the long weekend to commemorate New Zealand’s finest warriors, this morning’s lesson is dedicated to their history.”
Looking at the education room, the teacher asks, “The ANZACs formed in 1914. Can anybody tell me how long ago that was?”
Alexa Maas is the first to put her hand up. Again. It’s always Alexa, the ten-year-old know-it-all that Ms. Quadro believes is certain that if she has the answer to every question, she’ll forever be her favourite student. Surely should mean that she skips ahead to engineering class ahead of schedule, right?
Ms. Quadro nods in Alexa’s direction. At least she has her hand up, unlike all other those reprobates packed into the room.
“321 years, Ms. Quadro.”
“Correct, Alexa. As you children should be aware, the ANZACs formed in 1914. 2235 minus 1914 equals 321.”
As Alexa sits at the front of the room, her self-satisfied smile inching across her face, Ms. Quadro punches a command into her desk terminal. Suddenly, the children’s minds are transported from the year 2235, the Nanny chips implanted in their heads at birth now filling their mind’s eye and ear with a time prior to the First World War.
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