After days of anticipation and publicity, Aveline arrived in Capital City for the last stop of her nationwide pop-music concert tour. Local news heralded her arrival with fanfare the moment she crossed over the city limits. Photographers tried to catch candid shots of her and members of her dance troupe through tinted car windows as they moved about the city. The large video billboards around the city promoted the dates of her local performances and showed snippets of her previous concerts where Aveline was seen singing and dancing to the delight of tens of thousands of fans. Her concerts were eye-popping, stadium-sized spectacles with flashing lights; ornate, colorful costumes; thirty-foot high sets; and video animated flooring. Aveline herself changed costumes four or five times in an evening, but the one constant which never changed was her signature light green and pink streaked hair which she wore tied up into two long tails that reached down to her thighs. It flowed around her and even seemed to hover at times whenever she performed her songs on stage.

While all the hubbub was about Aveline, in the same city at the National Laboratory, Moyenne and Kylian studied a flat computer screen together. Moyenne puzzled over the results on the screen. She did not look up when Viviane walked in on them.

“Glad you’re here, Moyenne,” Viviane said, “I have to go visit Anaelle and Marielle at their High School. I want to tell them that I might be able to get them backstage jobs for Aveline’s concerts. Would you come with me?”

“Can you go by yourself?” asked Moyenne. She never even took her eyes off the computer monitor. “I have to write this report and I’m under a deadline!”

“Did you say ‘High School’?” Kylian asked.

“Yes, there’s a High School that operates inside the campus of Renard University,” explained Viviane.

Moyenne, still keeping her eyes on the computer screen, added, “It’s only for children of the people who work here.”

“Do you want to see it?” asked Viviane. “I never did finish giving you a tour of the campus.”

Kylian’s heart lifted with hope and happiness at Viviane’s invitation. “How could I refuse?”

The High School was within walking distance from the National Laboratory. Curiosity got the better of Kylian as they strolled.

“Who are you going to see again?” he asked Viviane.

“Anaelle and Marielle,” said Viviane. “They’re friends of mine.”

“You have friends that are still in High School?”

Viviane bristled at that comment.

“Is that so odd? Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to come with me.”

Kylian gulped. “No, not at all! I love kids.”

“Sure, you do.” Vivian wasn’t fooled by Kylian’s sudden affinity for children. “I don’t have conditions on who can be my friends. Anaelle and Marielle are younger than me it’s true, but I’d like to help them grow up into mature young women someday. They remind me a lot of myself when I was their age.”

Kylian and Viviane came to the entrance of the High School grounds. Before anyone could enter, however, all visitors were required to pass through a military checkpoint which was guarded by armed STS Agents. Two Agents greeted Viviane and Kylian.

“All visitors must submit to search and inspection before passing,” said one of the Agents.

“Oh, hello Ms. Fox,” the other Agent said. “Please step through,” and with a polite wave of his hand he allowed Viviane to skip inspection.

Viviane stepped over the threshold and passed through the gate to the other side. She turned back and called out to Kylian, “I’ll see you on the other side.” She waved goodbye to Kylian and exited the checkpoint to wait for him to finish inspection.

The first STS Agent looked at Kylian with a disapproving eye. “You there! Remove your shoes and belt and empty your pockets.”

“Um, OK,” obeyed Kylian and he removed his shoes and belt and emptied his pockets.

“Please step into the whole-body scanner,” commanded the Agent.

“Um, sure,” agreed Kylian.

Kylian stepped into a glass chamber where a door slid shut with a snap and secured itself with an airtight seal. All sound from the outside was silenced and Kylian listened only to himself breathing inside this glass chamber. In this eerie quiet, he became aware of the sterility of the chamber. He felt like a specimen inside of a glass jar.

The thought of being the only thing alive inside this whole-body scanner unsettled him. Before he could wrap his head around it, the chamber filled with a yellow light and Kylian’s ears filled with an alien sounding hum. Although it was physically impossible to feel anything, Kylian’s imagination was a powerful force. He somehow knew that radiation bombarded his body from all directions and he believed his skin cells becoming cooked inside this human-sized microwave oven. Before Kylian could imagine himself developing a brain tumor, the body scanner’s door slid open, and Kylian rushed to get out.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to remove your shirt too,” said the STS Agent. Although he said he was sorry, the agent’s voice showed no apologetic tone.

“Why?” asked Kylian.

“Your shirt uses metallic threads which block the body scanner’s radiation.”

“Well, if I take off my shirt, you’ll see that I’m not hiding anything and I won’t have to go back in there again, right?”

“I suppose you could opt for the manual, pat-down inspection instead,” offered the Agent.

“I suppose I should!” Kylian did not want any more radiation cooking him alive.

“Very well. You may keep your shirt on,” said the Agent.

“Thank you!” Although Kylian said he was thankful, his voice showed no appreciative tone.

“Move over to the pat-down robot which will perform the body search,” said the Agent.

“What robot?!” exclaimed Kylian. The situation was getting worse, not better.

The Agent pointed to a ten-foot-tall robot which had been hiding in plain sight, but which now had its eight octopus-like, menacing robotic arms extended and reaching for Kylian. The Agent explained, “This is the TaiKuanDu 2000 automated whole-body search robot. Just stand still while it searches every inch of you for weapons or contraband.”

Kylian could not stop looking at those scary octopus-like arms. “I’m not so sure about this,” he stammered and he instinctively stepped back away from the robot.

“Sir! Please don’t move or you’ll confuse the TKD 2000!” warned the Agent with real urgency in his voice.

But the warning came too late. The TKD 2000 stretched out its robotic arms just as Kylian tried to escape its clutches causing him to trip and fall forward toward the robot. The robot sensed its subject falling and attempted to catch Kylian from hitting the ground, but succeeded only in punching him in the stomach instead.

“Oof!” yelped Kylian.

As Kylian’s eyes spun around in circles after being socked in the gut, the TKD 2000’s arms hacked away at Kylian’s body poking and probing any hiding places searching for concealed weapons. After successfully finding none, the TKD carried Kylian’s body folded over like a towel hanging on its rod back to the STS Agent. The TKD 2000 reported its results to the Agent with a robotic voice devoid of any emotion.

“No hazardous materials found.”

Kylian slid off the arm of the TKD 2000 and landed in a disheveled pile in front of the STS Agent.

“OK, you may pass,” said the Agent.

Kylian, still lying in a pile, received the good news that he had passed inspection. However good it was, the news did not make him happy.

“What did I do to deserve this?”