Chapter 24

When Mat entered the club room after Thomas, he was immediately stopped by Ember.

"Did Lucas, really say that?"

"You mean…"

"Prominent history!"

"He did say that, yes,"

"That makes me so happy! I send you the past essays and papers that came from this club. So what do you think?"

"I knew about some of it…I just wanted to know if the history is about politics,"

"Politics? No nothing like that, only science!"

"I see, good," Mat said and looked at his computer, but then looked Ember again.

"Have you ever been to the Free convention?"

"No, but I know people who were, why? You want to go?"

"I am going, so I wondered if you have any experience,"

"Sorry, only what I heard. It is nothing scary or complicated. There will just be some

presentations from big out world private firms or free societies. Sometimes a free pilot shows up to talk about his hustle, but it is more about business and politics than exploration,"

"Weird, I would think that they would have some great field experience,"

"Right! But sadly no. Or more precise, people who have those, have no need to come to Earth to give a presentation,"

"I see, oh well. Then I guess I ask Suzy,"

"Suzy?"

"The school journalist,"

"Right, she might know more, I forgot she wrote an article about you," Ember said, but Mat sat down on his chair and already ignored her. Only a little bit later a new person entered the room. It was a slightly more chubby person with dark black hair. They looked at Mat surprised and then cleared their throat.

"Hi! My name is Norr, nice to meet you,"

"Hi! The last mysterious member!" Thomas replied and they looked at him and smiled.

"You must be Thomas!"

"Right! How did you know?!"

"How could they…" said Mat sarcastically and Norr looked at Mat and smiled at him brightly.

"You are nicer than I thought!"

"Norr!" Ember yelled jokingly.

"I see where you get your info!" Thomas laughed and they sat next to him.

"By the way, I am Mat, just so we are clear," he said awkwardly not wanting to be left un-introduced.

"Of course, nice to meet you too. How is the club so far?"

"Very low effort, I like it," Mat said honestly.

"I am playing with a 3D modeler right now,"

"Right, Ember told me about it, what do you get?"

"Let me show you!" Norr put their chair closer to him and he starts showing them his models.

Meanwhile, Mat asked Suzy about the convention and she quickly responded.

"I have never been there, but it sounds interesting, would you If I join you? It would make for a good article!"

"Sure, you can come, we might as well make it a bigger group."

"You don't sound so happy about it…"

"What? This is just how I write."

"Sure…anyway tell me when are we going to meet and If you are planning to spend a night in a hotel in the city."

"I am still not sure about the time, but we will stay there for the night. I will send you the info after my friend figures it out."

"The sooner the better, so I can fill out the paperwork and get some money from the school."

"School?"

"It has a budget for club activities, why not use it up!"

"Interesting…"

"Interesting!" Mat said out loud and everybody looked at him,

"Do you think that the school would give us money if we went to the convention as a club?"

"Hmm, we would have to make an argument for it to be relevant for the club," Ember thought.

"Convention?" Norr asked.

"Oh, Mat and Thomas are going to the Free convention!" Ember explained.

"I see, are there any speakers that could interest us?" Norr asked further.

"I have no idea, I just skimmed their website…"

"Let's look!" Thomas said and everybody came closer to his seat, to look at his screen.

"That is a lot of people!" looking at the screen it was obvious that there were more than fifty speakers.

"There are not just presentations, but also discussions,"

"Can you filter the events by topic?"

"Sure…I guess for us Science tag…what else?" Thomas asked, and let everybody read the list of possible tags.

"Put the Logistics and Safety," Norr suggested.

"Also Gates," Mat added.

"Well then just put Ships as well," Ember added the last tag and Thomas laughed at the still big list of events.

"You can also filter it by the day,"

"It already is…"

"Let's just scroll around…" Ember decided.

"Wait! The Safest route in the Milky Way, couldn't that be used as a topic for how to be safe during exploration?"

"No," both Norr and Ember shook their heads. "The talk will be about a frequently used path, not the frontier…" Ember explained.

"The Sun-Group research facility presentation could be fine," Norr made Thomas stop scrolling.

"Private research company on a frozen planet. They research vaccines…maybe…" Ember hesitated.

"What about the one under it, The experimental scavenger style refueling," Mat pointed at the article.

"This is still fairly theoretical, but it looks promising…"

"Well, it looks like we might make a case about this. I will look it up and tell you tomorrow! Good idea Mat,"

"Thanks, it was Suzy idea,"