CHAPTER THREE

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Northampton England, Wednesday August 6th 2262

09:05:47 hours

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"Momentarily I will tell you all about this exciting new building that you have just port into," said Simon as the children of SRK 6-1 stood in excited anticipation.

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"First though, I must check that we have you all here."

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He studied his dat-com strap. "Oh dear, it appears we have a problem."

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He frowned. "I've had ten of you arrive in the teleporters, but I'm only picking up nine of you on my strap...I'm guessing one of you isn't wearing their dat-com strap." A good start, he thought as he looked over the children.

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"Right...I want everyone to check their wrist and put up their hand if they have their strap on."

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The children checked their wrists, hands started shooting up sporadically around the group. After a few seconds all hands were aloft, apart from one little girl who stood there looking down at her cherry-red buckled shoes. Simon walked over to her and crouched down in front of her to be at her height.

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"And what might your name be?" he asked affectionately of the English girl who was trying desperately not to cry.

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"Gillian," she mumbled through pursed lips; still not looking up from her shoes.

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"Am I right in saying that you're not wearing your strap this morning?" he asked. The other children had put down their hands and gathered round.

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"It might be in my rucksack," Gillian answered sheepishly to the floor.

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"If it was in your rucksack  then my dat-com strap would have picked up your signal," Simon pointed out. Gillian remained silent.

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"Look at me please," said Simon.

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Gillian slowly looked up. "Why are you not wearing it Gillian?"

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"I don't know," she answered after a moment's thought.

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"Did you forget to put it on this morning before you left home?" he asked, wondering what sort of parents she had if they let her leave home without it. She shook her head first but then nodded, her long auburn hair swaying about the shoulders of her white long-sleeved top.

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"Do I need it today?" she asked innocently.

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Jeez! Simon thought, what kind of an upbringing was this poor child having? Several of the other children giggled.

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"Do you know what a data and communications strap is used for?" he asked, perhaps a bit too sternly. Gillian looked down at the port floor again. She wasn't going to reply.

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"For a start," Simon said, standing back up, "it tells me and everyone else that has access to your details, including your parents, exactly where you are in the world. It also allows you to communicate with other people that don't speak the same language as you." He paused as he checked his own. "How are you going to speak to Megumi here if you're not wearing it?" he asked, pointing to the dark-haired Japanese girl. Gillian said nothing. Megumi smiled.

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"Should you fall ill and you're not wearing your strap, how will we know? We won't know what is wrong with you or how to treat you before you start feeling poorly."

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Not expecting her to answer he continued. "You could make us all ill with your germs before we even realised you were sick yourself."

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This was all pretty rudimentary; information a child of this age should be fully aware of. Again, he questioned the responsibility of her parents. He would have to send a full report to her now, something he could have done without.

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Gillian started to cry quietly, fat tears were running down her freckled cheeks. Simon felt a little guilty. He crouched down in front of her again and handed her a clean tissue from his pocket.

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"I didn't mean to upset you," he said softly. "I just want you to see how important it is that you wear your strap in future."

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Gillian wiped the tears from her face.

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"It's only been a few minutes since you arrived, will one of your parents still be at home?"

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"Yes. I...I think so," Gillian stammered.

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"Good," Simon answered with a smile. "We can sort out this unfortunate situation without too much bother. We will contact them and ask them to teleport your dat-com strap to us." Simon stood up again and spoke into his own.

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"Contact the port floor manager, strap display."

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Simon's strap started to pulse against his wrist, moments later contacting Colin MacKenzie appeared on the display. The strap stopped pulsing as Colin answered; his head and shoulders filling the small screen.

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His location materialised in text form at the bottom as Simon lowered his wrist slightly to chat.

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"Hello Simon, nice to meet you, how can I help?" Colin chirped in a distinct Scottish twang.

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"Hi Colin, good to see you too," replied Simon. "I have a six-year-old girl here without a strap," he added, getting straight to the point.

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"Oh dear."

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"She has only just arrived so there is a strong chance one, or both of her parents are still at home and could port in to us," Simon informed him.

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"Let's hope so," Colin replied. "I will send someone over to collect the child; they can then find her details on the database and contact her parents."

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"Great!" Simon said cheerfully.

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"I see that you are halfway down row H," said Colin, checking his own strap. "I will have someone with you in a few minutes."

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"Thanks Colin, much appreciated...End call." The connection was terminated.

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Simon turned to Gillian. "Someone will coe and collect you in a few minutes." Gillian nodded.

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"Okay," Simon announced as he stepped back to address all the children. "Let me tell you all about this amazing place!"

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The children's earlier surge of excitement returned.

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"We have to wait here until someone comes for Gillian," he explained. "So we will start our lesson here."

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The children hung onto his every word.

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"I want everyone to move to the middle of the aisle so that we are not in the way of anyone using a teleporter." They followed him to the centre of the aisle. He raised his arm and spoke into his strap again.

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"Lock out and activate audio recording for SRK 6-1." It pulsed to acknowledge the command. The children's straps pulsed as they were overridden by Simon.

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"Your dat-com straps are now recording the audio for our lesson," he informed them. "All features on it, other than emergency contact and health alerts, have been disabled for the duration; so there will be no sneaky listening to music while you're with me!" he quipped. Several of the children giggled.

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"Gillian,when you get yours it will catch up with what we have done so far; so don't worry about missing anything. She nodded again.

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"We are in the newest museum in the country," he announced. "With this and the other buildings included, as well as the grounds and outside exhibits, it is also one of the biggest in the world!" Simon revelled in the amazement and happiness on the faces of the children.

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He continued. "The main building, which we are in right now, is forty floors high. We are on the top floor which, as you can see, is the port floor. Over the next year you will get to see a lot of the exhibits and artefacts we have here; and even interact with technology from our ancestors. You will learn how the human race used to live throughout different eras. At times we will go back hundreds of years. You will learn a lot; but will have some fun along the way too." Simon suddenly noticed a female member of staff had joined the group; she was waiting patiently for a suitable time to announce her presence.

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"Hello Simon, I'm Valerie, I've come to collect your strapless child." Valerie had short blonde hair and looked immaculate in her long grey-checked skirt and matching jacket. Her lips had a fiery red covering of lipstick. Simon smiled, a little flustered by her beauty.

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"Ah, good...I...I mean hello Valerie. Sorry. Gillian, will you go with Valerie so she can get your strap for you?"

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Gillian walked over to Valerie and looked up at her.

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Valerie smiled. "Hello Gillian; you silly sausage you." Gillian smiled back.

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Valerie turned to Simon. "I will check where you are when we have reunited young Gillian here with her strap and bring her back."

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Simon smiled again. Were all the women here going to be so attractive, he thought?

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"We will be looking at travel and transport today," he said quickly, having paused momentarily too long. "We will be outside looking at vehicles in section M1."

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"Okay, hopefully we won't be too long," she replied. "Come on then Gillian, let's go."

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Valerie turned and walked away, Gillian skipped after her. Simon watched for a few seconds before turning back to the remaining children.

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"As I said, for your very first history lesson we will start with travel and transport. We will be learning about some of the earliest forms of travel, from public transport to personal...now follow me and we will make our way to the traversolls."

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The group meandered through the lively port floor and up to the traversolls. While they waited for number six, Simon asked, "Has everyone taken their sun repellent tablet this morning? We are going to be spending most of our lesson outside; I don't want anyone getting sunstroke."

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All the children confirmed that they had. He dictated a message to Valerie, which she would receive in text form on her strap, asking her to check whether Gillian had taken her tablet. If any of the parents were going to have forgotten, it was going to be hers.