Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Who Said They're Right ❯ School's The Alibi ( Chapter 4 )

Debra entered class well before time, at least a quarter of an hour early so as to copy the homework form Omri, the resident four-eyes. She just needed the best possible homework answers available to her. After the lesson she will compare her own work to his. She did it just for three specific subjects where she was terrified to show her own work. That was Math, Physics and History. She was a very good student, and her tests proved that fact, only that she was rather willing to conceal her true level of knowledge and approach to these subject. You are given marks not only for being right, but also for being discrete with your opinions, school is like that, even after the three reforms.

 

Omri had always been the conformist, even if not too bright, he still managed through hard work and careful to the millimeter following of the rules and regulations of school be the best student in class, the teacher's favorite. This being a good thing for a high school student, especially when he was a complete and utter antisocial character with only his spoiled self to blame. However he did share his homework with about anyone who could improve his position in the class pecking order (there actually is one), and Debra, being a good example of a military kid, was one of them.

 

"Why do you always insist on solving the problems like THAT?" he asked her, while she copied his homework and her reviewed hers "You can't possibly think that Irit will appreciate your approach" Irit was the 5 point group teacher of math, coming to Israel as a teenager in the nineties of the last century (Originally named Irena) was a third generation math teacher, and proud of it, though her level of knowledge never came near the one her mother and grandmother had. Unoriginal thinking got her to her niche in the school with no option for career, so she tried her best to mass produce uncreative students, to share her fate. Not that it did her any good, as the school was mostly humanitarian studies orientated and boasted both high finals scores and some famous artists and celebrities and scientists of local grade.

 

"I can't help it" Debra offered with a smile "It's something inside my head that screams in agony when I try doing it HER way".

 

"No, if you where not in the service already, this problem with working in the framework of an organization would have…" he begun his routine "conformists are better" speech.

 

"Stop right there, or I'll stop trying to get Ayala to date you" Debra's threat brought Omri to a stop and he returned to the notebooks.

 

"Hmm, that forbidden to disclosure exchange in Egypt, was that you?" Omri brought up matter-of-factly.

 

"I will nether confirm nor deny" Debra smeared his question off, and finishing the copying process, returned the notebooks to him "Good talking to you, now get to your seat, class about to start".

 

Omri moved out of the way to the front of the class and sat first line right mirror side of the teacher's table (inner near right), preparing for the lesson, with the class around him filling quickly, until the bell rang for the beginning of class. Debra assumed her place on the inner seat of the second line by window desk. Four minutes of controlled chaos erupted as the teacher took her time and was four minutes late for class. Entering with a cup of coffee in her left and her bag in the right, the math teacher surveyed the class with a mistrusting gaze and sat her things on the table. Then she pulled out of her bag the attendance diary and started calling out names.

 

"Ayala Tamir, Alon Zeisman, Oleg Simonovitz, Amir Koresh, Debra Bar-Raban…" not awaiting answers her eyes darted around class, her hand marking into the diary those who where in class and those who did not come, for further notice. After that, she said to open the homework and reviewed two questions out of it before going on with the subject of the lesson, that being linear algebra. Actually the lesson wasn't such a boring experience, the teacher spicing the dry material with a cynical sense of humor, usually at the expanse of the last line students. All in all the class ended an hour and a half later with a ten minutes recess, in which Debra moved over to her home class (the 5 point second group took the class in the Yod-4 class, when Debra's home class was Yod-2) for History. No, it's not the kind of history which Rei and Shinji have to stomach every day, the other kind, brought to them courtesy of their Pedagogue, Naa'ma Ramon. The livid red-head about thirty years of age sat on her table with a cup of herbal tea in hand, since the bell rang for recess. She considered it essential to attend her class in time. She also didn't believe in the attendance diary.

 

"Good morning class, today we start the study of the Second Impact. If anyone has interest in the subject, open the textbook "Modern History" on page 430, yep, the last chapter of the first volume. In ten minutes discussion will begin!" then she bent down to the girl who sat directly in front of her "Rachel, you have a light?"

 

"No"

 

"Very good, now, how many of you have heard about the Ikari-Katsuragi theory of the origination?" a few hands where lifted.

 

"Now, how many of you read the book of genesis?" there was no one who could claim he didn't. "You've read the original, un-translated version in our own language and you can take those books out and quote me about Adam, then open the textbooks of Judaism and quote form there about Lilith, Smaal/Samel. Can anyone tell me what the Katsuragi-Ikari expedition did wrong"?

 

"They enraged the Devine". Everyone spoke at once.

 

"That's what the rabbis said, now what really happened we don't know, maybe Debra can?"

 

"In fifteen years ATBASH will disclose the facts, just wait until we stop the idiots form causing I3, then we'll tell you everything…"

 

"So the official records say little, that's the main problem of modern history, and what little they say is very well edited, giving rise to speculations, interest, conspiracy theories and Neo-historians, not mentioning quasi-historical fictional works. As we have little time before your Bagrut tests on this subject, we will focus on what you CAN and SHOULD know." The teacher went on form where Debra stopped. Then assignment came in the form of in study discussion of what the students considered was the true events which happened during Second Impact.

 

That subject being well chewed for Debra, she took the liberty of excusing herself form the rest of the lesson, entering only to copy the homework form the board.

 

Apart form the palm computers which where used as the main tool of study, there also where textbooks and notebooks like in the schools of less developed nations, as it was considered to be character improving to write manually and read form books, not totally relying on computers. The strong point was that the students could manage without computers and digital assistance (they could do quite good calculus in their heads or on paper), and that they knew many ways to accomplish the same task, more independent and creative. The weak point was the slight waste of time, compared to a fully digital education. It was that creative and moral people where the desired products of the Israeli schools since the triple reform six years after I2.

 

Time came (after a Judaism class) for the median brake (it is the brake which takes place about ten and a half am, between the two paired lessons of the morning and the one paired lesson before lunch)… and nothing came to disturb her fun time in the hall with her guitar. Singing quietly a religious theme, then going over to Israeli performers of the past: Meir Ariel, Ariel Zilber, Aric Einstein (noting to do with the physicist, this man was a bard) and more recent ones like Muki and Yidan Reichel. Not that it was her favorite genre of music, it was just the only kind most agreed to be good. She would have preferred to play some real rock, but that might upset someone. The coming of the brake brought Rachel's main source of entertainment in school to her.

 

"Hi sweetie, did that demon hurt you"? Asked a voice with genuine concern for the subject, followed by a hand connected to that voice, long fingers with the simplest nail job, just like Debra's, came to her shoulder.

 

"No, Alice, that's classified" Debra answered, looking up to the owner of the voice. She had heavy locks of blond hair framing an elongated face which was very attractive in any way, even without makeup, a pair of large green eyes looking at her form under heavy spectacles and black lipstick. Alisa Rosenztwig (Rosen) from Yod5, Debra's best friend and resident Goth of the establishment.

 

"You have things you hold back form your best friend"?

 

"Just things that would make me kill you if I told you them. Sorry, but what I do when I'm out of town is my business".

 

"But Dee, I'm reliable for any military subject, and you know I'm not into gossip" she whined, making the cutest face she could, knowing that it would get to Debra.

 

"Sorry, Al, But that's out of the question" Debra sighed, her friendship with Alisa was very important, and she liked her more than most of the morons in school, both being about the only girls in the loners sub-class of school society. But Alisa's apparently genetic curiosity was one of her weakest points.

 

"Oh" Alisa sighed heavily, but still giving up the idea of ever wrestling the secret of Debra, at least for now…"O.K. after school I was talking to Tal and Guy and Nir and we want to go to Nir's place to listen to some good music and maybe see him make an ass of himself again with his VR gear" Last time Nir almost fell out of the window in a middle of a flight simulator. Nir was a very funny young man who didn't take anything seriously and consumed Hashish. All of that, added to his total addiction to VR games, PC games and even antique console games for Palystation made him not the most sociable person. He was also one of the resident computer freaks and the distinctive punk style clothes he wore (the school administration had let him be for not wearing uniform because he was the Headmistress's son) made him stand out. Not that it is such a problem for originality is very highly regarded in Israel.

 

"Sounds fun, if you promise to lay of the grass for today", Alisa also indulged in hashish form time to time, but as the government regulator on drugs wasn't getting his money for nothing, the greens where all IDA approved and packaged in a licensed factory, the content of the THC was clearly written on the boxes as was the content of tar, if it was a mix nicotine, and the large warning "Smoking is Bad for YOU".

 

"I'm not in the army like some people here and I can smoke whenever and as much as I like" the army forbids alcohol (more than the regulated portion for the Kiddush in Sabbath), Cannabis products, Gat and another sixteen legal compounds form its troops.

 

"Maybe, you've could have a point. But the test team will smell even smoke I inhaled passively and ban me for a week or two form active duties, even might jail me in 400" Camp 400 is the female penitentiary of the IDF, reserved for female soldiers who broke the codes of conduct.

 

"No, form what you did tell me, they have absolutely no one to take your place so even if you come to wherever you go, as far as you're concerned, you might even show up stoned. But where do you exactly go" Alisa was using an old tactic to get an answer form Debra by messing with her mind.

 

"No, No, and no again, Al, I'm not telling you anything unless I'm ordered to! The rabbi and general might be nice guys, but they take their job DEAD serious" Debra was saved by the bell which rang for classes to resume.

 

"Right" Alisa said sarcastically, but in reality giving in to her friend. She might be a good person, but she took her responsibilities seriously, and that was inspiring.

 

"Now let's leave this talk alone and go for class"

 

"Why?"

 

"I don't know, but that's my alibi. Bye".

 

"Meet at lunch in the Technical Cafeteria".

 

"Ok, Bye"

 

Two classes of English followed the recess and separated it form lunch. Two complete hours with the witty and charming Ph. D candidate for English literature, William Cohen. Nothing short of entertaining and useful, for he was practicing on high school students before they will approve his doctorate work and let him teach real students in the college.

 

Lunch itself in the Technical Cafeteria wasn't anything unusual, except for Alisa trying to prove a point to Tal and by doing so driven Debra mad. She did that only to annoy the surrounding people, as even this cafeteria, the creeping place of the geeks housed too many boring people who needed to be livened up, in her opinion. She also used the good location (with a view onto the school lobby) of the cafeteria to do her sketches for the series of paintings "Recess".

 

But at lunch came a man in uniform with the ATBASH badge on his shoulder and asked her to leave everything she was doing and come with him to a briefing held in the General HQ.

 

Half an hour later (after all, it was midday in Gush Dan) they sat in the ATBASH section of the sixth floor of "the pit", the high command bunker. Even though their unit had a better equipped meeting room, they had to do this meeting here to maximize security for they where debriefed on the subject of the latest events in the Geo-front in Tokyo-3.

 

Head of the Institution (HaMosad), the Israeli foreign intelligence organization sent his second in command to brief the twenty leading people of ATBASH and the relevant persons in the IDF high command.

 

"Commander Ikari and broken all codes of conduct, again (as if he even tried to look a respectable military man, humph!), appointing his son, fourteen year old Shinji Ikari to pilot their second prototype Bio-robot (The first prototype went out of control, hurting Rei (02) Ayanami, a clone of a retro engineered clone of his late wife based on the DNA harvested form Lilith). He then sent his son promptly without any training to combat the Nephil which came at Tokyo. Somehow the boy managed to survive and defeat the Nephil (another proof of our opinion of the commander as an irrational man), and then he was sent to live with NURV's operations officer, Captain Misato Katsuragi (his son would have probably murdered him, as he abandoned him when Shinji was five years old). Rei is still in hospital and without training Shinji is as good as any kid you shove into a cockpit."

 

"Now they still unaware of our existence neither NURV nor in SELEE, their expanses on the Attempt on humanity go into billions of dollars. Our agents found a way to siphon about 10% of those funds into ATBASH through TAAS and RAPHAEL subcontractors in Japan and Russia. Congratulations, you've just gotten your budget quadrupled".

 

The crowd erupted in cheers as they where happy to finally have the funds for the finishing of the third and fourth Bio-robots and making a fifth and even maybe as sixth, if the timetable would allow. As the audience calmed down he went on.

 

"Our agents also inform that the third unit of NURV is undergoing testing in Germany, and maybe we can infiltrate someone into the innermost sanctum of SELEE and fight them form there. For now all I can suggest is that you finish the two Biomechs in production and start testing, for by a fluke of chance we've gotten 33% superiority at this point in firepower. Any questions" he asked, hoping to have finished and be free to return to his own office.

 

"Why was it important to bring the pilots to this briefing" asked Gabriel, who was still not in his best condition and very miserable to have been called form whatever he was doing.

 

"Ask your commanding officers, not me. So if that is the level of questions, I see that the meeting is adjured" he said smugly and crept out of the room in a way fit only for a spymaster like him.

 

"Don't get mad, Gabi, let's go and drink coffee in Azrieli"

 

"K, freak" he said kindly.

 

*************

 

Author's notes:

 

Azrieli is a very modern office center and mall just across the boulevard form the General HQ, connected to it by a pedestrian bridge.

 

In the next parts I'll try to better explain the structure of the ATBASH, it's relationship with the IDF and with NURV and who is the agent who pays for them (you know that character, he's in the series)