" ... But we won't go over the theorem, because that's the guaranteed
sleeping pill."
-- Professor Brown, Linear Algebra
2040 AD; University of Technology; California, United States
" -- and so you see that certain aural harmonics follow along a hyperbolic sine wave." He flew into the classroom, shutting the door behind him with as much speed and silence as he was capable of at the moment. The lecturing professor's gaze flicked his way, annoyance flaring in cold blue eyes. He ducked quickly into a chair, effectively diving under the man's radar gaze.
"And since it is now a quarter till and all of you are itching to leave, we'll finish up section 5.5 next class period. Please remember to turn in your homework at the lab, Roelynn will answer any questions you may have. Dismissed!" The professor said with something of a snap to his voice, wrapping the lecture up with a solid thump of his erasure marker and an amazing amount of finesse considering the interruption.
Using the following moments of confusion to calm himself, he studied the professor. The image he had viewed on the inside flap of the robotics programming manual was almost disturbingly precise. Blue eyes, blonde hair, silver framed glasses, sharp distant features, tapering fingers, long white lab coat, dark slacks. Not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle in sight. It was enough to make him sick.
"I knew I'd find you," he said with a grin as the last student left, not bothering to mention that it was pure luck that had made him choose this particular auditorium as his escape route.
A slender blonde eyebrow quirked at that, "And who might you be?"
"I'm -- "
"THOMAS?! ARE YOU IN THERE?! HAVE YOU SEEN ALBERT?!?!"
He looked behind him, a sweatdrop sliding down his head, "I .. er ... can we run first?"
Before he had completed his sentence, the blonde was already heading out the emergency exit, casually switching off the alarm. "Hey wait for me!!"
"I'm guessing that you are Albert," the blonde said once they had reached the sanctuary of his labs and the door had been shut behind them.
He grinned, dropping into a chair without an invitation, "That's right. Dr. Albert Schlau."
"German?"
"Yeah. Call me Wily, it means the same thing," he propped his head on a hand and watched the professor toss his bag into a corner and take a seat at the desk, focusing intently on the pile of paperwork that had bred like bunnies in his absence, "And you are Thomas Light."
"Yes."
"Not very talkative, are you?"
Thomas finally looked up at him, "Not to people who are interrupting my work."
"Sorry about that. That weird dean guy of yours started talking so I had to give him the slip."
"Luther?" he asked, amused now.
"Yeah, that's him."
"He does have that affect on people."
He smiled wryly and finally got to the point he had been avoiding since he got there, hot, tired, and annoyed at the long flight and subsequent delays, "I'm your new lab assistant. The one your government hired for this AI project of yours."
"You're the anatomist?"
"Yep, that's me," Albert leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, "Tell me, Dr. Light, what exactly am I doing here? Anatomy is hardly a necessary skill when dealing with robotics."
A moment of silence. "You do get right to the point, don't you."
"THOMAS?! YOU IN THERE?!"
The German bounced to his feet and looked around for an escape, "Ich spreche kein Englisch! Ich verstehe Sie nicht! Aufviedersehen! [1]"
With that, he darted out the side door and left Thomas Light to his fate.
[1] -- "I don't speak english. I don't understand you. Goodbye!"