TechnoFish: Chapter 2

"Class," said Professor Phillip Droste, "Who among you has heard of the TechnoOcean corporation?"

Most of the students raised their hands.

Droste nodded. "I'm glad to see that. For the benefit of those of you who don't seem to know, TechnoOcean is the largest employer in Crystal Springs, Florida. They built research ships and underwater habitats. Some of you - if you maintain a 4.0 grade average - will probably be hired by TechnoOcean once you graduate."

Alex nodded. He knew all that - and that was his goal. To work for TechnoOcean - that was every oceanographer and engineer's dream

Droste continued. "This is the month when we'll be going out to TechnoOcean for a field trip. We've got over 500 folks in this class so we can't go all at once, of course. Every weekend, 100 of you will be going. On Saturday, 50 of you will go to their main facility - the one on Marlinspike Road, while the other fifty will go out on one of their research boats, and on Sunday, you'll reverse the process."

This is it! thought Alex excitedly. If he was in the same group as that girl...or could get into the same group - he could start an innocent conversation with her.

"Your schedule has been emailed to you," Droste finished. "Check your email after class, and it will give you the date and time when you're to show up here. You'll all be loaded onto buses and taken out to TechnoOcean.

Damn, thought Alex.

He'd hoped that Droste would have handed out a list of names, divided by the weekend on which their field trip was to occur. But privacy laws probably prevented that. Well...not to worry. He'd show up every Saturday, and if the girl was in line to get on one of the buses, he'd get on to!

Droste had started his lecture.

Alex turned his attention back to class.