49 - In School - J.F. Hire

"In school you you're taught many things. Some of them you forget, and some of them you hold onto as such truth that the information changes who you are to the core-- until you learn something new.'

The administrator begins to pace back and forth from one end of the observation deck to another. The slight curvature of the room gives this an almost disorienting effect on those watching him. Each movement is amplified with the sound echoing through the place. Shoes, pencils, papers, coughs. Everyone sat, an informal setting for an informal reveal.

"Today, you're about to learn something new. I trust that you've all taken the mood stabilizers and have gotten to know our on-site psychologist, Sir Gido?"

To the left, the android known as Gido waves, and everyone nods.

"Since your briefing, what do you expect to learn here, today? Yes, you in the back?"

A young man stands up, nodding to those who are now looking at him. "Well, there was an implication of a terrestrial finding?" He was very uncertain. "Perhaps there's a bit of a trial period with which this discovery needs to be observed? I mean... We're not in suits or on a shuttle in orbit-- we're just in an observatory."

The room of people seemed to nod in unison, only momentary mutters.

The young man sat down.

"Well, you're right and you're wrong. There hasn't been a terrestrial discovery, per se. There's a discovery that we can perceive-- but the reason that we're not in a shuttle, and not in orbit-- is because well... There isn't anything physically there."

The room sort of buzzed with silence and confusion-- people leaning forward in their chairs.

"Operator, bring down the lights and start the feed, please. Broadview on the observer, please."

The front dome of the room went dark, and was soon illuminated by a live feed of the sky above. Nothing seemed out of sorts or new. There were stars, some passing clouds, a few specks of dust or bugs floating by.

"If everyone would direct their eyes to the top of the screen. Operator, zoom by 2."

The screen zoomed in, revealing a closer look at the area just next to the waning crescent of a moon. People squinted, muttering uncertainly.

"Is that a digital anomaly?" Someone asked, now noticing what the focus was.

Just around the moon was something floating, moving in space.

"Zoom by Digital 6, Operator."

The room began to stand up, craning their necks to see the anomaly. Gasps echoed against the artificial screen.

"What we have here, is not only a discovery, but an anomaly which is unprecedented in any simulation."

Above them all, was the moon, behaving just as the moon always has. And in orbit of the moon, wandering like the eye of an elderly man, was a cow. Its legs, and head moved freely. From their vantage point, it seemed that the cow even mooed-- silently in space.

"Since the most recent impact in Arizona, so many things jettisoned in space, we suspect this cow to be one of them, we have discovered a variety of livestock from the Kettler Farms of Phoenix floating in orbit of the Earth and Moon."

Laughter, disbelief and shouts were all settled by a loud clapping for attention.

"Today, professors, doctors, and scientists... We are gathered here to witness a new discovery-- We were wrong about the living conditions of space."

The speaker sat down in a chair, obviously exhausted himself.

"Now what?"