Chapter 11
A Choosing Ceremony
[Harry]
Harry had to restrain
himself from jumping up and yelling ’I'm in!' like his brain was telling
him to. This is going to be the greatest moment in my life until of course
someone actually makes a successful escape. Harry saw an ancient cardboard
box being put on the stage. They must have raided all the ancient human
technology they could find. Where on Earth was a cardboard box even stored in
this place?
"So the names of everyone
that volunteered has been written on pieces of paper and
put into this box," began Mrs. Kane, “We've divided it depending on the skills, well kind of, its not so much skills as general sort of ability and temperament. The categories are going to be only
the very broad ones now that we've decided to go with just a party of five. I don’t
think I have to remind you that by doing this it will be a totally random pick
and there will be no outside factors influencing this but I'll do it just in case any wants protest about that. There should be no ambiguity whatsover here. If there are no objections, I'm continuing.”
Harry was at
the edge of his seat as a silence fell over the room. A few seconds later, his mother gave a nod and moved to the box. Please be me. Please be me. He watched with bated breath
as Mrs. Kane opened up the first slip of paper and read out the name.
"Kathryn
Summers"
Harry couldn't help
but let out a disappointed sigh before he joined in the round of applause that
had started. He tried to dredge up anything that he could remember about the
girl. She was one of the best in the technical aspects of things and worked in someplace near the plumbing department. She worked with Samantha I think. But
was she better or worse? Why have I forgotten this now?
His train of thought
was interrupted by Mrs. Kane calling out to Kathryn.
"Ms. Summers if
you can come here please. You're the one chosen from those that had some
experience with technology. That's going to be vital especially with the sort
of weakness that we’re planning on exploiting. So if you would like to back out
now, no one would hold it against you? If not, come up on stage."
The girl in question
walked onto the stage. She was around Daisy's height, much shorter than Mrs. Kane, only coming up to about her shoulder. Her shoulder length
black hair hung loose around her face like she'd just woken up to rush to the meeting. She was doing her best to smile, her
brown eyes wide with surprise.
Mrs. Kane waved her
over to her and asked her several quick questions turning away from the
microphone. After she had given the girl a two-minute interrogation she sent
Kathryn off to sit down in a row that had been set up surrounding the stage.
After Kathryn settled
down, Mrs. Kane reached into the box again. Harry once again couldn't stop
himself from wishing that he was going to be the next one chosen.
The mantra in his
head was back as Mrs. Kane started to read out the second name that had been
picked.
"Ryan
Haynes"
At this one Harry had
to scratch his head in confusion. Why have I not heard that name before?
Harry racked his brains to see if he could remember anything about him from
class but found that he could not. Must be someone who flew under the radar
then...or didn't attend at all. Having been unsuccessful in getting
information out of his brain Harry settled down to watch what his mom had to
announce about Ryan.
"So this is kind
of a broad category after this for the other three members. We just need one
person that's good with tech and one leader, the others can be just about
anyone that's competent in general things. Ryan here is one of them. He's done
fairly well in most of the subjects and is certainly qualified for selection. This
is from over two hundred possible choices so it's also surprising to see two
of the same age being chosen but I suppose most of those that qualified were in
a fairly small age range because of well...I believe no elaboration would be
required there."
On that slightly
somber note, she ended her announcement for Ryan as the boy walked up from the
crowd. He was one of the largest teenagers that Harry had ever seen. He
resembled an actual exoskeleton in size and build, towering over everyone on
stage. That was quite an achievement considering Mr. Summers was definitely over six feet. This guy had to be over seven feet at least and was built like a tank. He might even have trouble squeezing through the gate.
Well no
surprises about no one worrying about him getting chosen. That man looks like
he can take out an alien bare handed. Harry joined in the clapping to acknowledge the slight bow the
boy gave them all before stepping back down to sit down next to where Kathryn
was sitting. By this point, someone in the crowd had already re-arranged the
chairs down there so that now there were five seats in a separate row right next to the stage.
Points: 34
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