An Invitation to Dance
Wheelock Technical Center for Near Space Exploration was
located just west of the main campus of what was once Dartmouth College. It was
called "East Coast" by the undergraduate cadets which distinguished
it from "West Coast", the only
other major Space Exploration Academy in the US.
Both Jim Wallace and Larry Herreschoff were juniors at the
academy. This gave them a special altitude among the freshman and sophomores.
They had been close friends since their freshman orientation week, finding
their major study concentration areas similar and the total
"disorientation" they were experiencing solid enough reasons to form a crew of two
against the confusion. The concept of "Freshman Disorientation Week"
would continue to bring smiles many years into the future, as would the way
freshmen, particularly, would attempt to mimic the attitudes, jargon, and even
the study habits of the upper classmen. At times, Jim and "Heshy"
would play with this, making up expressions that they would feed to the
freshmen. "Rare" was a classic example of theirs. "That's really
rare George. Great work." Shortly it would be all over the school. It was
not a particularly kind thing to do and would get them into trouble from time
to time. It was not "super sharp" as Jim and Heshy had picked up when
they were freshmen, and who knew where that had come from. The best of us
surely harbor a cruel intention or two somewhere. This one belonged to Jim. He
didn't really want to be studying engineering and navigation in this school, or
any school for that matter. It was his father's idea and Jim protested this in
his own way.
Today they had cooked up what they hoped would lighten up a
very heavy class on emergency communications with a bit of "rare" and
"super sharp" communication technology of their own. Heshy, who was
very gifted in most of the technology they studied had imported a new holograph
program which had been designed to fit a social "meet your match"
commercial system. In this case he was able to interface some of the girls in
the class with both himself and Jim on a "shall we dance" get to know
you invitation program. Girls and guys would appear dancing the latest steps to
current popular music all smiles and fun. It was very well done, and
considering the context, very funny. What they didn't realize was that the lab
that they were using for class had been wired to record and publicize all
pertinent notes into one corner of the viewing deck. This was common sense when
you thought about it. It allowed all members of the lab as well as other classes
in the school to view and comment on another's notes if there were enough
people interested in an item. The "rarity" and "super
sharpness" of the little dance with swirling glowing dresses and laughing
girls and guys definitely worked to attract more attention than the pair of
them had intended. Heshy couldn't understand it at first when "sure I'd
love to dance with you" and "when and where can we meet" started
coming in by the dozens and then hundreds. The stir in the lab with laughter
and comments coming out of the cubicles and growing louder soon answered their
questions. They had a hit alright. One that was carefully reviewed by the Dean
of Students who, if he hadn't had a sense of humor and an appreciation for good
communication technology would have handed out a serious suspension to the two
of them. As it was, with all of them viewing the recording, all they could do
was laugh at the whole thing. It was a very clever program and very well integrated
into the emergency communication class.
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