Industrialisms

This is a piece of fiction for Casiella’s Friday Flash Fiction for the 6th of March, 2010 with the phrase “Polycarbon Engine Housing”.

The class always started the same way. The instructor stood at the front of the class with a severe expression, more akin to a drill sergeant rather than a teacher. There was a gigantic piece of polycarbon shaped like some form or another resting on his lab table and it seemed to engulf the table’s surface with its edges.

“Can anyone tell me what this might be?” the teacher glared at the young students.

No one raised their hands, and stared blankly at the instructor.

“Not one of you knows what this could possibly be?” his voice boomed to the audience, “Not one?”

Meekly, a girl in the back of the classroom raised her hand, shaking in nervousness. Wild blue eyes shone from behind a tangled and dirty mass of hair.

“Yes?” the instructor demanded.

“Please sir, I believe it’s a polycarbon engine housing from a small engined CF-4 skimmer,” she said, her voice wavering slightly.

“You are absolutely correct. How could you possibly know this?” he said with a surprised but angry look on his face. He hated to have no excuse to punish the class for ignorance.

“My father was a docking station manager. He brought me home small scale models of different machines and ships from different places that he got from traders. I used to build them in my room and I learned a little about how they worked. The CF-4 skimmer was one of my favorites,” she said with more confidence this time.

“Good. Well. You have been elected to come up here and show the rest of the class how to dismantle the housing and access the engine inside. There will be a test tomorrow on the correct procedure.”