It's impossible to concentrate. I keep losing track of what the teacher is saying. I've stopped taking notes. Soon he's going to notice. I glance at the wall clock for what must be the hundredth time.
I told the elders of the strangers. They were angry at first because I woke them up before the morning toll, but I think I made my case quite well. They went into a loud discussion the likes I have never seen, and forgot all about me still standing there. Some of them wanted to send a search team out to find the strangers at once; others thought we should be careful and hide. A few didn't even believe me. They thought I had been dreaming. In the end they settled on sending the search team.
I didn't see them go out. To reach the Outerworld you have to wear protective suits and pass through a long row of airlocks. Anyone working in the passage takes a big risk each time they let someone out and no one is let near without the proper authorization. But I know they went out and I've been counting every minute since, wondering if they've found the strangers yet.
"Dila! Listen up or I'll have you on detention."
Snapped out of my thoughts I feel my face heat, but I try to meet professor Colch's eyes. He doesn't like cowards.
"Sorry, sir."
The professor nods. I'm off the hook this time. He goes back to his lecture and time turns back to a crawl. The numbers turn over on the clock. Lunch comes and goes. At least while I eat I don't have to pay attention. It actually helps if you try to not notice what you're shoveling into your mouth.
We're well into the afternoon lessons with Mrs. Flooy when the announcement goes out on the PA system.
"This is elder Rand, calling all inhabitants to the Gathering Hall. Repeat, all inhabitants to the Gathering Hall. Thank you."
The class rushes out the doors before Mrs. Flooy has time to call 'class dismissed'. We are like a river running down the hills in the spring. At least I imagine it so; I have never seen any water that didn't come out of a tap. I try to push my way through but I can't go faster than the others. Streams of all ages join us children and the flow bottlenecks in the doors to the cavernous Gathering Hall. I tap my feet in impatience and inch forward. When I'm through the doorway I rush to find a seat at the front.
The hall fills up quickly, though we run out of people long before we run out of seats. It was built to hold a much bigger crowd. Elder Rand steps up on the dais. The murmurs hush immediately.
"My fellow inhabitants, this is a momentous day. We have visitors."
The silence is broken to a million pieces by the return of hundreds of voices. Everyone has an opinion on the news, and most of them seem to think it is a joke or a vicious lie. I have to curb my irritation by sitting on my hands. Up on the dais Rand is shouting for people to calm down, but it takes him quite a while to regain the room. By then I have moved on from sitting on my hands to clasping them tightly and biting my knuckles.
"We have visitors," Rand repeats and halts another eruption with an upheld hand. "They have travelled far to reach us and claim to come in peace. The doctors have given them a thorough examination and I can assure you that they untouched by the scourge. They are entirely safe, and they have agreed to participate in some genetic tests that may prove helpful to us. The arrival of these visitors is an opportunity and I ask you all to welcome them as friends."
I listen halfheartedly to his speech. Most of what Rand ever says is political nonsense, sometimes containing a kernel of useful information. I have long since learned to sift through the balderdash while I employ my eyes to observe. What I see now is a group of peacekeepers entering the Hall, herding the four green clad strangers towards the dais. It doesn't take long before others start noticing. The strangers stick out in more than one way. Their clothes clash with the dull gray we all wear, but most of all none of us have seen their faces before. We all know each other here. A new face is just short of extraordinary.
I study them hungrily. Drink in every detail. They're all adults, one a little older than the others. His hair is gray and there are lines on his face, but he still looks strong. The leader for sure, perhaps an elder of their people. Next to him walks a man with dark skin. I've never seen someone so dark, or so obviously dangerous – even unarmed. The third man looks younger and he is wearing glasses. A scholar. His gaze seems to drink in everything they touch with the same ferociousness as mine. The last of the strangers is a woman. Her hair is blonde and short and she carries herself with the air of a warrior. I've never met a woman who was a peacekeeper before, but I think she could be one.
The bespectacled man steps up on the dais. He flashes a bright smile across the room.
"Thank you for your warm welcome. I am Daniel Jackson. These are my friends Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter and Teal'c. We are peaceful explorers from a planet called Earth. I hope our peoples can become friends."
In contrast to elder Rand, Daniel's speech is short and succinct. I like him straight away and I keep watching him while Rand gets back to speaking without a point. He listens politely but his eyes keep dancing around the room. For a moment his eyes connect with mine and I think he gives me a wink. At last Rand finishes up his rant. The visitors are ushered out again and the hall plunges into clamor.
Under cover of the chaos I sneak to the door and glimpse the visitors disappearing down a corridor with their peacekeeper escort. I follow them, keeping my distance so the peacekeepers won't notice. I only want to see where they'll be staying, I tell myself.
We walk far, into parts of the Fuge I've very rarely been. The structure was built to house up to ten thousand inhabitants, and to call it huge would only be a fitting description. Not even someone as restless as me has explored it all. The further we go, the more I start to suspect that the visitors are intentionally being placed as far away from the living quarters as possible. I wonder why.
Once I've seen where their room is I pick my way back to the children's sleeping hall. I'm in bed before lights out. No one has missed me. I smirk under my cover as I listen to the other children fall asleep.