Downfall of a handsome doctor
Doctor Ivono Niko was more of a mecha-suit with fortified glass jar on the top the head than a human or an android.
He did not leave the main computer room often. But now they had been without any communication channel for days. After the Peace Quarter attack Doctor Ivono Niko had shut down all the channels. The downside is that they did not hear any news. They were cast into oblivion on the far edge of the stable space.
The door swings open when Patrik brings the last of the rusty chip plates. Doctor Ivono Niko’s subordinate had been trying whole day to code new chip plates to use as a teleport ID’s for the crew. They were still fearing that teleport systems were transferring data outside, so new plates were to fix that.
“Here’s all I can find. Some of them I managed to get working already. See, I marked the ones with this blue sticker...” Patrik said and showed Ivono the small sticker on side of a plate. Doctor Ivono Niko glanced the plates with other receptor and got back to reading the code lines from the hologram screen.
“Mmm... good work. I think Harkness and Troy can check the mechanics.”
Doctor Ivono Niko’s voice came from sound box which was located in the chest of his mechasuit. The voice was mechanic and lacked all his former tone. He really did miss his real voice. For some reason. For a moment Patrik stood there in silence.
“I’m a fine engineer also...” he finally stated.
“Oh yes, from Sector City university...” Ivono could feel how his younger colleague was mustering all the courage to stand up to his ground.
“Hey, don’t give me that TerraForma high-rank attitude. It’s respected university”, Patrik said.
“Don’t mind me. It has been a long time since my last time in TerraForma’s university, but I still drag some of it with me.”
“Well, I didn’t like the university so much neither. It always felt a bit of”, Patrik admitted and looked around the main computer room. It was a mess. How was anyone able to find anything in there. Ivono would have sighted if he was still capable of.
“TerraForma was made for humans. Firstly. After a time, it of course became university for all personalities. But it was made for humans.”
*
Ivono Niko, at the moment a teacher without doctor degree, was packing his stuff in an otherwise empty classroom. Classrooms at TerraForma’s high rank university were monumental rooms, much like amphitheaters. He was teaching on the side to fund his research, but did not feel like home in any of the numerous classrooms. He dismissed the class early and was about to leave after he had cleaned the memory from digital blackboard. Class was dead silent. Ivono picked up a handwritten letter addressed to him and sighs.
“Never gets old. You really have found a place in the students hearts”, a voice came from the door. A teacher, a much like Ivono itself, was leaning on the wall. Ivono Niko sights yet again.
“I rather not.”
“You cannot say you weren’t flattered”, teacher says and smirks. Ivono takes the letter with him and leaves the room with his colleague. Same way as he, his colleague was first teaching as a part-time before ending up making it his profession. It was the same old story. First you volunteer, then you part-time, then you start teaching and before you know it, no turning back, you are a principal and lost all the free time you had for your own research.
“What are
we going to do when you finally get government funding?” colleague asks, he still hadn't stopped smiling and it pissed Ivono. He hated that smile. He knew what that smile meant.
“Find a proper teacher?”, Ivono answered. He knew they need new teachers, he knew he probably ends up being unfunded with the current government. And all he can hope is to land a teaching job in the University. It was a grayish future, but imminent. The teacher stopped and faced Ivono. Now his smile had gone and it is replaced with concerning look.
“Students love you, did you see those heart-throbbing good looking girls on the front row. You make studying a bliss for most of them.” Ivono shook his head. He felt already trapped in the University.
“I like your enthusiasm. But there’s a fine line between me and those - agreeable heartwarming - students. I’m not doing this for them. Or you.”
“I know you’re not. But think about it."
And sooner rather than later, Ivono
was forced to ponder about it.
*
They stay in silence for a moment, but after more time has passed, Patrik looks Ivono. He was still unsure what exactly to look, Ivono’s receptors or brain. Both felt wrong in a way.
“Do you miss it? I mean, your days in the university? You were a doctor and a teacher, for gravity’s sake, that’s amazing”, Patrik said.
“I had my fun.”
Patrik finally leaves the small plates on the table and is almost at the door to elevator, but refuses to leave.
“Do report back to me when Harkness and Troy have finished with the teleports”, Ivono said.
He still had some lines of code to check and Patrik’s visit made him lose some of the minutes he had budgeted into making himself new functions for his suit. He is left alone in the main computer room once Patrik hurried out. Ivono continued checking files on the computer and the data pile so that they were not leaking online.
All he really felt is just a tingling in his brain when it floated in the liquid.
