Chapter I : The First Visit To The Netshasdey Preparatory

‘Hey Anakin! You must be excited, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah! A bit!’
‘JUST A BIT! You know… sometimes I doubt that you are a human or not? I couldn’t sleep the entire night man! I am so nervous …What if something goes wrong?’
‘They haven’t got it wrong a single time since the last hundred years or so… Why do you think you are going to get such a special treatment?’
‘You know what Anakin? If I hadn’t met you … I wouldn’t ever have believed that in the world there existed people as cold and disinteresting as you …’
The conversation unhurriedly continued as the two teen boys rubbing shoulders with each other in a friendly fashion entered the large hall, along with several others in the queue. The colossal auditorium seemed to be infinitely large spreading out seamlessly in all directions . A faint blue pacific light bathed the entire place.
Derek, the one in the reddish gown with yellow spots continued in his excited tone of voice …. ‘Look at it boy… The entire place has got such a geekish look……. ‘tis awesome.’
The automated gate closed behind them and they continued to move along the golden railings that furnished the pathway along which they were supposed to move. The glass pans that accompanied the twisted golden rails and glowing blue veins embedded within them and as they moved along, they could see the veins twisting and slithering. They seemed to interact with each other in a typical snake-ish fashion occasionally splitting into sparks and then recombining to form glowing blue streaks.

Anakin, the sober boy in dark grey outfits and modest in appearance, uttered as usual in his dismal demeanor …. ‘There must be a reason for that. This entire setup has been designed for some purpose.That I can be sure of…’
The glassy floor formed dim reflections of the surrounding vicinity. All in all the Netshasdey preparatories had a glamorous outlook- far more stylish than the boys had expected .
Anakin pondered closely over the transparent glittering sheets and kept muttering to himself, as he always did.
This habit had annoyed Derek, his best friend, since ages. Anakin was, by nature, very conserved and spent almost all his time lost in dreams. He never shared his thoughts with anyone, not even Derek. although he was friendly and always ready to help him he never disclosed anything about his world of fantasies. Ironically, though he had always topped in the pre-foundation courses, many distant relatives thought him to be ‘abnormal’ and many of the neighborhood folks even found it sporty calling him lunatic. But Anakin seldom paid any attention to these trivial happenings. Calm, Sluggish and dreamy … that was how he was.
There were empty unoccupied seats on either sides of the pathway confined between the railings. On neither side they were able to see any wall. There seemed to be an infinite array of seats and they could figure out people sitting some rows beyond but they appeared hazy.
‘Why do you have to look out for logic in everything that you see and hear…. Why can’t you just appreciate…?’
Before he could complete the sentence, he was cut short by Anakin….
‘Did you notice something …?’
‘What’
‘It is not possible for us to make out how many people are sitting here with us….’
‘Now what d’you mean by that… But yes…. You are right. The light is dim around the corners … I can’t make out even the faces of the people a couple of seats away. As if there is some kind of fog…’
‘Aurlewhiskan aberration technique’
‘For heaven sake, can you speak english’,
They had reached an elevator that led them to some sort of cabinet located above the room at a height of about fifteen feet.
A red haired girl ,about three to four people ahead in the row,suddenly noticed Anakin just as she turned back to talk to the girl next to her and gave a bright glowing smile. Anakin returned a silvery smile, though much fainter.
‘who was that ?’Derek shot the question straight to Anakin, still gazing at the girl.
‘It is a high end physico-digital effect that makes it impossible for you to make accurate estimations of distance and dimensions, or identify faces of our companions unless they are too close. If I am correct and this is what it is then you will always feel that the light is gradually getting dim at places away from you irrespective of where you are standing.’
‘what ?’
‘what happenerd ?’
‘What are you telling me about ?’
‘I thought you were curious about the Aurlewhiskan aberration……’
‘yes, but then I asked you about that girl in pink gown … !’
‘Oh !sorry, but I hadn’t heard that , just missed out !’
Derek had expected Anakin to say more but he again focused his attention to the glass sheets along the railings.
‘ANAKIN !’
‘What ? ‘
‘What about that girl …. ? ‘
‘I met her in the café a few days before …. She’s a student of basic Lemord algorithms ‘
‘Have you got some supernatural ability to magnetise computer enthusiasts ? How come you you know so much about computers … You have not even completed the foundation.’
‘I just keep looking up things here and there ……’
Anakin’s voiced dimmed down to silence and Derek knew that no more could me extracted out of him .
They approached a blue coloured panel equipped with several associated panels and instruments.
‘Anakin J. Oleanderfrost? Verify vocally!’
‘I verify!’ Anakin courteously answered to the digital face bit-mapped in the screen in green and violet pixels. A red light flashed upon his face and within fractions of seconds the digitized voice replied ..
‘Voice verification successful’
‘Face matching confirmed. Please proceed’
Derek too had to go through the same procedure and minutes later they found themselves descending another elevator that was apparently changing its directions and curvatures to lead the candidates directly to their seats.
‘Engineering marvel’, uttered Anakin as the spiny staircase after releasing the boy standing in front of him at a place swooshed past several rows rising raptly into the air and then descending down to another location.The gate in front of him opened and he landed upon solid ground. Derek too had to land there. Just as they stepped upon the glassy floor the gate behind them closed the helical staircase sleekishly swep past them and within the fraction of second was nowhere to be seen.