Vostok Station

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Professor Hamlin had absolutely no idea what a momentous shift his life was about to undergo, or how swiftly this dramatic change was going to happen. Quite the contrary. As far as he was aware, everything was under control and going very much as planned.

He strode briskly down the wide, empty hall, thinking of the papers sitting in a neat pile on his desk. They were his focus now, but only for a short time—assuming he could find the necessary motivation to wade through them. Once they were marked, he would have an entire semester of research to savor and enjoy. He noted the clicking of his heels on the terrazzo floor as the retort echoed crisply down the empty hall. The sound had always appealed to him for some reason. Maybe a little more so at this exact moment, with the positive mood he was in, as he savored the transition from his busiest term to the appeal of working out of the classroom. No more students; no more teaching; no more daily deadlines for the associated preparatory work. That line of thought led him to almost regurgitate the words of a song from back in the day that reflected a similar sentiment—no more teachers, no more books, no more something, something—Alice Cooper, or Pink Floyd, or something along those lines. He wasn’t motivated to chase after the tune as it flitted through his memory and disappeared just as quickly. In either case, a truly wonderful scenario, he concluded.

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