TechnoFish: Chapter 1

Present Day: Florida Marine Science University

The professor looked like a performing seal, Alex McAlpine thought to himself as he gazed down from his vantage point.

There was a bit of jealousy at work there. Professor Droste was tall, well-built, and dressed all in black. He was one of the most popular professors at Marine Science University - all the girls swooned over him.

Except the girl Alex McAlpine wanted. Well...maybe.

Alex risked a sideways glance. The lecture hall seated 500 students. The professor spoke from a stage-like platform, addressing students seated in the tiered rows of seats that stretched high over his head.

Alex hadn't intended to choose a "nose-bleed" seat when the semester had first started. Indeed, he preferred to sit in the first row of seats for all his classes. He was ambitious and he knew that all of his professors at Marine Science University were experts in their field. If he made a good impression on them, they could help his future career tremendously.

But he'd been delayed in getting to his Marine Law class, on that first day, and had been shocked to find that all of the front row seats had been filled. There were a handful of seats a few rows further up, but as he'd scanned the rows he'd seen a woman seated in the very top row - in the nosebleeds seats. There were four rows between her and the next row that had any students at all.

Alex had found this odd. Oh - he understood all about students wanting to sit as far away from the professor as possible. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves. But by choosing a position all alone in an otherwise empty series of rows, that was exactly what this girl was doing.

More than that, Alex recognized her.

There was a Seaworld in town, and he'd visited it a week or so before classes had started - having moved to the coastal city of Crystal Beach, Florida just a few weeks earlier to attend Marine Science University. And he'd seen her - she was one of the trainers working with the dolphins. Not the presenter, who'd not only been beautiful and blonde but also smiling and cheerful. This girl was beautiful too...she'd had a cap of black hair over an ivory-white face, but she'd never smiled... well...she had smiled...but only at the dolphins.

Intrigued, Alex had climbed up to the nosebleed seats opposite her, so he could look at her across the room without her noticing him.

He'd never seen her smile, he thought now. Her head was bent over her notebook and she was taking notes, her face expressionless. Occasionally Professor Droste would make a joke, which would draw a chuckle from most of the students in the class. Even from Alex. But he'd glanced at her a few times during these chuckle-fests...and he'd never even seen her twitch her lips upward in the ghost of a smile.

Now, after a month, he wished he'd been smarter to start with. He'd like to sit next to her and talk to her...but if he did it now, it'd be soo conspicuous. But if he'd done it on that first day - sat next to her - it would have been natural. He could have made some joke about liking to watch performing seals from a great height, the better to take in their performance...something like that, anyway.

But he'd missed his opportunity and now all he could do was sit and glance at her occasionally from across the room.

But one day, he thought....one day...