Chapter 04: Drs. Kim and Wu attend Knowledge Corps Officer orientation and begin their first day of work at The Citadel

1: Arriving

Neil forced himself to look in the mirror, he needed to make sure he was dressed properly for his first day officially in the Knowledge Corps. He compared himself to the picture in the dress code manual displayed on the Smart Sheet on his dresser. Lab coat - check, boots - check, formal pants - check, white button down shirt (the only kind of formal shirt he had) - check, regulator vest - check. He slid his laptop into his briefcase and left his apartment.

* * *

The Horizon Line train was half occupied by KC officers by the time it reached the Citadel station. Neil followed the flow of people until he was outside of the station, he stopped and looked across the large quad at his new place of work, the central headquarters of the Knowledge Corps, better known as The Citadel. It was a massive building suitable to house the 10,000 Archival and Scientific Officers as well as their labs, archives, offices, and various support facilities. Halfway up the building, a large multi-storied terrace projected out along the perimeter of the building. On the roof, the tops of a few trees and quaint houses of the gardens were discernible. Behind it, white, fluffy clouds drifted across the pale blue sky, carried on by a gentle autumn breeze.

“Nice lab coat, nerd.”

Neil turned to see Lauren who must have been watching him look at The Citadel for some time.

“You’re one to talk, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear this much black before,” Neil replied, gesturing at her blazer.

“I know, I need to find a flower or a badge, or something, it’s so dreary,” Lauren turned around as if looking for some splash of color to attach to her clothes. Upon completing a revolution, Lauren started walking, without a word of explanation, toward the Citadel. Neil followed her.

“Where is your lab, office, thing?” said Neil, looking through his phone since he just forgot where his lab was.

“Umm, floor 20, block E7, room 0… 019 I think, yeah,” said Lauren, pulling out her phone halfway through, “what about you?”

Neil found his assignment email, “Floor 22, block E7, room 022.”

“Wonderful! We’re pretty much just 2 flights of stairs away from each other then,” exclaimed Lauren, triumphantly raising her hands above her head.

The two neared the main entrance where two Peacekeeper robots were stationed at either side of the large doorway. Even in their contracted standby state, the guards were still imposing enough to intimidate any petty thief. Lauren stared at one of the robots. The Peacekeepr robot was about the size of a refrigerator but was made taller when standing on its four legs. Despite its buik, the motorized wheels at the end of each leg allowed it to chase down any person over smooth terrain. At the front of the robot was a plate-sized dome containing the main camera which no doubt was designed to resemble an unblinking eye. Embedded along the circumference of the main body were nine smaller cameras that darted in all directions to track every officer entering and leaving the Citadel. Just when Lauren had decided that she had enough of looking at the robot, one of the smaller cameras locked onto her.

Lauren shrunk back, bumping into Neil, “Ew, are we gonna have to walk by these things every day? They give me the creeps! Nothing should have that many eyes, unless it’s a bug or something, in which case that’s okay.”

“So it’s not okay to have a lot of eyes if you’re really big, perhaps?” said Neil, looking at the robots.

“Actually, yeah,” said Lauren, “how many big animals do you know that have more than two eyes?”

“Well there are those giant squid-snakes with twelve big eyes that hang out at the bottom of quarry lakes on my home planet,” said Neil.

“Nope, no thank you,” said Lauren shaking her head.

“They’re not that bad,” said Neil, “unless you step on their tentacle while playing in a quarry lake and then it comes out of the lake at night to bite the tires of your bike as revenge.”

“That’s oddly specific,” said Lauren, eyeing her friend.

“You still want to visit my home planet?” asked Neil.

“Of course,” said Lauren as they walked through the main entranceway, flanked on both sides by Foundation era style columns.

The main entry hall was expansive but well lit thanks to the large windows making up the facade, the skylight in the ceiling, and the naturally white toughened ceramic walls. Directly underfoot, was the seal of the Knowledge Corps embodied in tile. The tile floor combined with the ceramic walls made for an echoey environment that melded together the sounds of the occupants of the main chamber: Footsteps of Knowledge Corps officers hurrying through the ID scanning gates, chatter from Terrarum soldiers watching over the people passing through, the whirring of the electric motors of delivery robots and cleaning robots, as well as the clanking of the ubiquitous Maintbot that could be found anywhere in the combined galaxies where it was conceivable the something could break. The only thing preventing the room from becoming an unbearable echo chamber was a massive tree in the center of the main chamber, its outermost leaves just starting to change from a dark green to gold and orange.

“Hey Neil,” said Lauren as they both looked at the tree, “did you know that when construction on this building started, this tree was planted as a sapling?”

“Really?” said Neil, “it must be around 300 years old then.”

“Yup,” said Lauren, “now which way to the main lecture hall?”

“That I do know,” said Neil, “follow me.”

Lauren and Neil took their seats in the Citadel main lecture hall along with 1000 other first year Knowledge Corps officers.

“Not much elbow room in here huh?” commented Lauren.

“I’d say it’s quite a bit considering this hall has a capacity of one thousand people,” said Neil.

“I don’t think even UD Sanmachi had a 1000 person lecture hall,” said Lauren.

“Gods know they’ve tried to improvise one,” said Neil.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said a voice over the PA, “the 25th Headmaster General of the Knowledge Corps, Dr. Katayuna Ivarsson.”

All of the new officers stood up and held a salute.

Dr. Ivarsson walked across the stage and stood at the lectern, “at ease officers.” The 1000 officers sat back down.

“As I’m sure you all know,” said Dr. Ivarsson, “the Knowledge Corps was founded in 11723 in response to the Intersyst Armed Forces’ inability to stop the fighting that was being waged by Purians, Humans, and Youmen alike in the Zipper region of the Combined Galaxies, that dense strip of stars where our two galaxies intersect. Ships at the time could not travel far without refueling so the systems of the Zipper region were essential for travel between the two galaxies. And without the Galactic Combined Comm Net, communication between the two galaxies was very difficult as well. Just 14 years after the establishment of Intersyst, the future of our union was uncertain. The ISAF had to suffer many losses to capture systems without slaughtering innocent civilians, but quickly lost control of systems as those civilians took up arms against our forces for reasons Intersyst’s leadership couldn’t figure out. To address Intersyst’s weaknesses, the members of the first cohort of the Knowledge Corps did three things: first, they created a network of satellites powerful enough to bridge the communication gap between the two galaxies and unify the fragmented government, second they created a new generation of ship weapons that were more precise and could be non-destructive allowing the ISAF to counter the rebels’ tactics, and third they researched the culture and history of those systems to understand that the new government was treating the three species inequitably by overlooking the traits that make each species’ society unique which caused unrest in regions where the three species lived alongside one another. Empowered by these insights, Intersyst was able to restore peace to the region culminating in the Zipper Treaty of 11729.”

The Headmaster General took a sip of water from the glass on the lectern.

“The alumni of that first cohort of the Knowledge Corps went on to have even more lasting impacts on our world with half of them going on to form the Education party, the oldest extant party in the Primary Parliament; and the other half founding the Cosmic Telecommunications and Technologies Corporation, the predecessor to the now ubiquitous Cosmitech. Working together, they built the Galactic Combined Comm Net which allowed unhindered communication between any system in the Combined Galaxies and then enacting the One World Policy, allowing anyone travel between all systems. Thus, in 11749, their efforts ushered in the Collaboration Era, that economic, scientific, and cultural golden age, powered by unhindered flow of people, goods, and ideas. And so the history of the Knowledge Corps is very much a history of Intersyst as well.”

“Today, the Knowledge Corps is one of the five uniformed services of the Intersyst Armed Forces and is jointly administered by ISAF and the Knowledge and Education Administration. This speaks to the dual nature of a Knowledge Corps Officer as both a soldier and a scholar. Many of you may view yourselves squarely in the latter category, but becoming both is necessary to ensure this period of relative peace endures. It is difficult for military leadership to immediately accept tactical or strategic advice from not one of their own. Because of this some of you will have to go out onto the battlefield. I want you to view those times as opportunities to make good on the promise that we shall understand, despite our scholarly backgrounds, the things that only those in the military can know. Because at the end of the day, strategic and even tactical decisions made by the ISAF have far reaching consequences for themselves and for the whole world. Moreover, the military is often unaware of new technologies, ideas, and data that can make their job easier and less destructive. Beyond the military, remember that the Intersyst government from the Primary Parliament to the smallest sub-branch of the Board of Administrators, and occasionally even the Academy of Integrity, looks to us to solve their toughest problems and to understand the entirety of the Combined Galaxies with the greatest breadth and depth possible. By your work, Intersyst can see clearly and act effectively. That is all.”

2: The members of the Historical Technologies Group

Lauren lost Neil to the crowd as everyone emptied out of the lecture hall.

“Oh-kay, now how do I get to the E7 block on the 20th floor?” Lauren looked at her fourth Smart Sheet, it had an animated path connecting her current position in The Citadel with Location 20-E7-019.

After two elevator trips, Lauren was on the 20th floor, in an elevator lobby that extended to connect two wide, parallel hallways..

“E7 block is down this hallway.”

Lauren had resorted to just walking in whatever direction made her current location dot move closer to the destination, not concerning herself with her immediate surroundings. Eventually her current location dot was right next to her destination and she looked up. In front of her was a sliding door with a placard next to it that read “Rm 019 Historical Technologies Group; Commanding Investigator: Dr. J. D. Meiss.” Lauren pressed the PING button of her ID card, the door slid open.

Inside was a small hub room with a hexagonal table in the middle, on the right wall was a kitchenette with a refrigerator, food prepper, and sink complete with cluttered dishrack. On the far end of the left wall was a door that read “PARTS ROOM”. Also on the left wall was a polarized glass window on a door that read “CI: Dr. Meiss”. In the wall opposite the door was a hanging curtain. A short woman was washing something at the sink and turned around upon Lauren’s entrance.

“Oh, you’re the newbie, you’re here, this is great.”

Lauren was about to introduce herself when the youmen woman shouted with a volume that was unexpected for a person her size, “hey guys! The newbie is here!”

The curtains parted and a man flew into the main room riding backwards in his office chair, still wearing his headphones, and was followed by an older purian man and a stern-faced woman.

“I thought she was going to be here tomorrow,” said the older man, scratching behind his ears.

The shorter woman gently placed her coffee mug in the tangled mess of dishes, “I told you Miguel, you still haven’t uninstalled Jethro’s prank app that replaces all dates with the day after.” The man in the chair chuckled. Miguel shrugged.

“What is your name?” asked the taller woman.

“Kim, Lauren Kim,” said Lauren, shaking the woman’s hand.

“Pleased to meet you, I am Morgan Achebe, this is Jethro Souza and this is Miguel Sripol,” said Morgan gesturing to the human in the chair and the purian, “and this is Ashley Tsukishima.

The short woman grinned and waved.

“It’s funny, I thought she would be shorter for some reason,” said Ashley.

“Why would you have any expectations for her height?” asked Miguel, confused.

“Ashley’s just tired of being the shortest and the most junior,” quipped Miguel, spinning in his chair.

“Well one of those things is changing today,” said Morgan, crossing her arms.

“G-guys, I’m just saying, Lauren is pretty tall, compared to the average officer,” Ashley gestured at Lauren as if presenting a sculpture to a panel of judges that was ignoring her. She turned to Lauren, “how tall are you, 195cm”?”

“Less, with the boots I am probably 188cm,” said Lauren.

“See? The average Knowledge Corps Officer is 175cm” said Ashley, already sounding vindicated.

“Well, we can get to know more about the newbie, beyond her height, at lunch,” said Morgan, “Ashley, the tour.”

Ashley faced Lauren, “Right! As the second most junior member of the group, I’m supposed to help you get situated. Your desk is over here, next to me. This way.”

Behind the curtain was a short corridor with a window at the end and lined with workstations on either side with two on the side closer to the kitchen and three on the side opposite. Ashley was standing next to the third workstation of the opposite side. Her desk was occupied with colorful circuit boards in neat rows, Smart Sheets in short stacks, and small fluffy charms hanging from the hutch while Lauren’s desk was barren in stark contrast. Miguel and Morgan took their seats at the workstations on the other side of the corridor. Lauren stood in front of her desk, to her right Jethro was using his desk in the standing configuration. His desk was covered with Smart Sheets and various notepads, pens, conference badges, a few water bottles, and a tennis racket, which all covered every square centimeter of his desk save for the area around his keyboard and mouse.

“You sure like free stuff huh?” guessed Lauren.

“He doesn’t throw anything away,” whispered Ashley so that everyone could hear her.

“All this stuff will come in handy someday, there’s a method to this madness,” said Jethro, pushing a stress ball away from his mouse.

Lauren started putting her stuff in her desk’s drawers and hutch.

“You slide your laptop into that slot,” said Ashley pointing at a narrow slot on the left edge of the drawers, “yeah like that.”

Lauren slid her new laptop into the slot until she felt a click and the two monitors attached to the desk flickered to life.

“Oh, that’s nifty!” said Lauren.

“Yeah, and it charges your computer too,” said Ashley.

“I’m surprised that you guys have just the right amount of desks, did someone just leave?”

“Nope, although these look like rooms, almost all the walls are moveable. Every year before orientation, all the rooms are rearranged as groups grow and shrink or make modifications,” explained Ashley.

“Yeah, the robots were here this weekend,” said Jethro, “I don’t recommend coming in to work when they are rearranging, the robots are so loud and the noise comes from above and below too,” Jethro squeezed his headphones just at the memory of it. Ashley walked up next to Lauren.

“If you’re ready now, I can give you a tour of the rest of the important parts of The Citadel,” said Ashley, “by the time we finish it should be about time for lunch.”

“Alright, let’s go,” said Lauren. She followed Ashley out and through the wide hallways. Various people and robots walked or trundled by.

Ashley took Lauren to various spots and described them one by one:

“Over here is the closer restroom of the E7 block, and here are the conference rooms.”

“Can I use them whenever?” asked Lauren.

“You can request them on the portal,” replied Ashley, “The community room is over here in the center of the block, they have pretty much all the standard vending machines in Sanmachi as well as a few special ones.”

“Such as?” prompted Lauren.

“Hmm, the one that sells potted plants is pretty popular,” said Ashley, “oh, there’s also a few game tables if you’re into that.”

“Have you guys played any of them?”

“Jethro and I like Rift in the Forest, but we stopped playing that once Miguel started crushing all of us every time. Plus Morgan says that the game is a thinly veiled reenactment of the Schism Era played by cute woodland animals.”

“Yikes,” said Lauren.

“Ah right, the bulletin board for the E7 block is here as well. Lots of interesting things and opportunities come from the bulletin board.”

“Things?”

“Yeah, like recruiting events or potlucks. That’s about it for this floor.” Ashley called an elevator with a few deft keypresses at a panel.

“Where’s the closest stairwell?” asked Lauren.

“Oh, that’s by the closest restroom,” said Ashley. The elevator brought them to an elevator hub from which they took another elevator that delivered them to a cavernous warehouse.

“Where are we now?” said Lauren looking around.

“One of The Citadel’s many basements. This is storage and repurposing, this is more useful for the experimental labs but we usually come here for electronics parts and equipment.”

“Do they have the sorts of electronics you’re looking for?” asked Lauren, recalling how hard it was to find parts for her dissertation project.

“No,” said Ashley, “but Miguel put together a table indicating under what circumstances it is possible to swap in modern components to old circuit boards.”

“I wish I had that table when I was in school.”

“Same here,” said Ashley, “anyways, you just enter what you’re looking for into one of these consoles and if they have it, a robot will bring it to you.”

“Sounds like this system can be abused.”

“Yeah, that’s why normally you have to give the same amount that you take but our commanding investigator Dr. Meiss can authorize a requisition extension that would allow us to take more stuff for a while.”

“Interesting,” said Lauren, “although I’m curious why you are telling me all of this.”

“Ah, you see,” said Ashley, “as the most junior member of the group, you’re the new errand girl. If there was a hat associated with that title, I would be giving it to you right now.”

The two officers went back to the elevator, which they rode directly to another floor, Ashley led Lauren out of the elevator and then turned around.

“And here is Personnel Services, I’m not going to show you each block individually but here you can find Officer Health Services, the Fitness and Recreation Center, Psychological Services, and most of the administrative offices like Payroll, Floor Space Allocation, and the EMB.”

“What’s the EMB?” asked Lauren.

“Email and Messaging Bureau, they decide what emails can be sent to which groups so that our inboxes don’t get inundated. If you want to send something to all the Archival Officers, you have to get their approval otherwise you have to use the bulletins instead. Also the floor above and below here also belong to Personnel Services.”

Lauren and Ashley went back to the elevator.

3: Lunch

“Did you bring lunch with you today?” asked Ashley.

“No, they said at orientation that we would get a free meal at the Market Hall,” said Lauren.

“Perfect, I need to go there and get lunch too,” said Ashley, she punched in some numbers into the elevator, “we can get our food, meet up with the crew and eat our lunch on the Terrace.”

The elevator whisked them upwards. When the doors opened, Lauren found herself in a long, high ceiling hallway. Vendors lined the walls. The sound of clanking came from above as people walked across a series of catwalks that connected a second row of stalls, every now and then a randomly placed staircase connected the upper catwalks with the lower floor. The disorganized layout of the Market Hall contrasted starkly with the orderly design of the rest of the Citadel that Lauren had seen up to that point.

“I’m going to Snaptic Mart,” said Ashley, “do you want to come?”

“Sure, why not?” said Lauren following her through the doors

Orderly rows of shelves lined with colorful merchandise greeted the two.

“What do you usually get?” asked Lauren.

“I don’t have any one thing that I get,” said Ashley, punching in her order to a terminal then scanning her Snaptic member card, “but I do recommend the youmen broccoli and fish.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Lauren keyed in her order and scanned her member card which she only had because of Neil.

In reality she had the fish and youmen broccoli dish before but found it, like most youmen dishes she had since coming to Daiterra, to possess a pleasant but not very noticeable flavor. She was able to go one winter break eating only youmen food once when all her roommates went home. By the end of the break, her palate started to pick up the complexities of the flavors in the dishes, which she hadn’t tasted since the end of that break by eating at a human restaurant with the return of her roommates. The muffled sound of machinery behind the wall that the terminal was mounted to told Lauren that her and Ashley’s dishes were being prepared.

“Are all of the stores here automated?” Lauren asked Ashley.

“Pretty much,” said Ashley, “it seems that the less people that work in the Citadel that aren’t Knowledge Corps officers, the better. Oh hang on.”

Ashley’s member card was flashing. Then Lauren’s did the same. They both went to the wall of cupboards at the end of the line of ordering terminals and waved their cards over the scanner there to open two cupboards, each containing their orders contained in neat boxes with handles.

Ashley and Lauren exited the Market Hall through a large set of double doors onto the Terrace. Lauren ran up to the edge and leaned over the railing. Looking south, she could see the towers of Markova and beyond that, the bay and finally the outer cities. Being an especially clear day, she could even make out the faintly glimmering thread of the Denavita City space elevator.

The Terrace was a set of 3 wide balconies that completely wraped around the outer perimeter of the Citadel, separated from each other by 4 floors to give each an open air feeling. Aside from the regularly spaced trees, each part of the Terrace contained different things, depending where along the perimeter one was. In some parts, there were benches, others were short stretches of grassy lawns, and others had small fountains. Where Ashley and Lauren were, there were tables. Morgan, Miguel, and Jethro emerged from the same set of doors Lauren and Ashley just passed through.

Jethro set his lunch box on the table, “Praise be to the Lunch Master for giving us this beautiful table on this gorgeous day. And just as we welcome our newest member,” proclaimed Jethro with an excess of decorum, he then dragged his chair out with an unpleasant screech. The rest seated themselves.

“Who is the Lunch Master?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah, they don’t tell you about that stuff at orientation, now do—” began Jethro until Morgan cut in.

“They manage the logistics of who eats where and when, every day they send an email out to everyone on the listserv saying where their group will eat and when.”

“Turns out that if you were to count up all the ‘good’ places to eat, you’d have seating for about 7,000 people, scheduling means we don’t have to wander around looking for a table,” said Miguel.

“The best part is that it’s a service run by the officers, for the officers,” added Ashley.

“Did you hear that the current Lunch Master is going to step down soon?” asked Jethro.

“It’s unconfirmed,” dismissed Morgan, “so, Lauren, what do you think of the Citadel so far?”

“I’m very impressed by the resources that are available to everyone,” said Lauren, “but if I’m being totally honest, my favorite thing about this place so far is just the amount of greenery in this place.”

“It is quite unexpected,” said Jethro.

“Is it okay for me to work out here?” asked Lauren, “like forever?”

“Yes, but you’ll get used to it,” said Ashley, “first you are stricken by the beauty of the outdoor areas of the Citadel but you soon realize that there’s no better place to work than at your desk.”

“Where are you from originally?” asked Miguel.

“My home planet? Have any of you heard of Plei?” The table was silent. Miguel tugged at his collar.

Jethro broke the silence, “is that a resource colony or something?”

“Jethro,” said Morgan, “...shut up.”

“...Okay,” said Jethro, he took a sip from his bottle.

“It’s okay that you guys don’t know where that is, it’s a quiet, fully autonomous, planet on the edge of the Human Federation,” said Lauren, “Ever since I left my home planet, only one person I’ve spoken to has heard of Plei before. And they’re my best friend, he works here too, you’ll probably meet him.”

“I am sorry none of us know anything about your home planet let alone heard of it,” said Morgan, “However, I’m sure we will all come to know a great deal about Plei before the year is out.” Miguel nodded, Ashley nodded vigorously.

“Thanks, guys, I appreciate it,” said Lauren, trying to lighten the mood, “so, what about you? Where are you from? I’m betting one or two of you are from Sanmachi.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” said Miguel, “I grew up in one of the outer cities just north of Sanmachi. Nice place, you’ll get to see it within a few months for sure. I host our social outings when my wife is out of town.”

“Can I speak now?” asked Jethro, “since my stomping grounds are the next closest, you know?”

“Yeah, why not,” said Ashley.

“Well I grew up in Denavita City,” he said pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the space elevator. “Hot place, lots of travelers, lots of good food, worked for the Space Port Authority inspecting shipping containers as a youngster for a couple summers just like everyone else.”

“Speaking of good food,” interrupted Lauren, “where did you get your lunch? It looks incredible.”

Jethro beamed, “I made it last night.”

“Wow, I never would have guessed,” said Lauren.

“Jethro is an exceedingly good cook and baker, it’s the only reason I invite him to our social outings,” said Ashley, looking him in the eye.

“Wow, ‘only’ reason,” said Jethro.

“I guess if we’re going in order of distance, I’m next,” said Ashley, “I grew up in the capital of Kairexa, somehow escaped becoming an engineer by convincing my mom that I could go the academic route.”

“And I grew up and lived in the port city of Altaria before moving here to join the Knowledge Corps,” said Morgan.

“So, knowing that, can you guess which species we all are?” said Jethro, somewhat excited.

“Ah, we’re doing that now huh?” said Lauren. “Ashley is likely a youmen because she has grey eyes and grew up on Kairexa which has an 85% youmen population. Miguel is Purian since he has forward facing ears on the top of his head.

“Aka cat ears,” chimed Jethro.

“Don’t even have to look at Morgan’s eyes because she’s from Altaria where the population is 95% human,” continued Lauren, “and you Jethro, you have to be human because you have black eyes. How did I do?”

“Well, you’re 3 for 4,” said Jethro triumphantly.

“Jethro has an excess of pigment in his irises which makes them black, it happens to 1 in 700 youmen and is somehow not genetic,” said Ashley.

“Similar to your homeplanet, no one outside of my family that I’ve talked to have guessed my species correctly,” said Jethro.

“My apologies,” said Lauren.

“Naahh, forget about it,” said Jethro, “you can’t hurt my feelings.”

“Can you wield?” inquired Lauren.

“Nope. Unless you can wield, the only one who can wield at this table is little Ashley over here,” said Jethro, leaning back in his chair. He suddenly sat upright, grinning, “Oh, did Ashley tell you about the time she ruined my laptop in a fit of anger?”

Ashley laughed and scratched the back of her head, “Oh yeah, I did do that. Well I can do kinetic wielding, I can move objects near me, the closer they are the heavier they can be.”

Miguel leaned over to Lauren and said in a hushed voice, “in case you couldn’t tell, these two have a bit of an ongoing feud.”

“So I was really mad at Jethro for some reason, what did you do again?” continued Ashley.

“I moved everything that was on your desk onto the top shelf of your hutch and moved everything on your hutch onto your desk before you came in,” said Jethro as if reading from a script.

“Yeah, so I was really mad at him for that because it takes a lot of energy for me to get things off my hutch by wielding and even more to put them back. I then thought about how fitting it would be if all of the stuff on Jethro’s hutch was on his desk. And then all of the crap he keeps up there flew off onto his desk and lap. I was surprised because normally I can’t move that much stuff, that fast, and at that distance.”

“You’re missing the best part,” said Jethro, “one of my textbooks landed on my coffee mug which spilled coffee all over my laptop dock. And the laptop wasn’t in its protective shell, so my laptop was immediately bricked. I had to go down to Storage and Repurposing to get a strictly worse laptop, then I had to use that thing for a month before I got my replacement.”

“Is that why you don’t have any open containers on your desk?” guessed Lauren.

“Oh? You noticed! That is precisely why,” said Jethro, smiling.

“Great, I’m learning so much about you guys,” said Lauren, “how about this? Why did you all end up joining the Knowledge Corps and how did you end up in this group? I imagine that you would agree with me that this is a pretty niche research focus.”

“I guess I’ll start again,” said Miguel, “I really wanted to join the Astratum, and ride in those shiny ships, you know?, but I couldn’t hold my breath for long enough, so they wouldn’t let me join. Then I found out about the Knowledge Corps and how the physical exam is more lenient. So I did my time in university and became a Scientific Officer, part of the Experimental Weapons Division as an electrical engineer.”

“Wait, you were originally a Scientific Officer?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah that’s right,” said Miguel, “anyways, I did a bunch of tours, got to ride in all the ships that were testing experimental energy based weapons. After several years of that, I figured it was time to start a family and I needed to transfer to a job that would let me stay on-planet more. Pretty much every lab that’s a part of the Experimental Weapons Division is half occupied, officers spend half of their time amongst the stars. J. D. must have seen my CV on the bulletins because he offered me a position in his new group soon after. So I was readmitted to the Knowledge Corps as an Archival Officer and joined Morgan.”

Lauren was hanging onto every word, awestruck. “Wow, you actually switched branches?” she finally said.

“That’s right,” said Miguel, “I didn’t know it was possible until J.D. told me about it.”

“I guess I’ll go next,” said Morgan, “my story is shorter. I entered grad school with the intention of being a professor of first human colonial era history. But by the time I graduated, interest in the topic in the academic world had waned considerably and all the positions had been filled with young professors. I contacted pretty much every university in all of the Federated Academies to no avail. During my search I came into contact with Prof. Meiss. He told me that there was still a lot of interest in first colonization history in the Archival Officer Corps and said he would start a group if I agreed to be his first officer. I said yes, and that’s how we started.” Morgan thought for a bit, “I guess my story wasn’t that much shorter.”

Lauren was equally impressed with Morgan’s story. “Wait, so you’ve been with the group the whole time?”

Morgan and Miguel nodded.

“I plan on leaving as soon as openings start showing up for professor positions in my focus area,” said Morgan, “but that may be a while.”

Jethro had been gradually slouching in his chair to the point where he could rest his head on the back of the seat. He straightened up and sat in his chair normally again.

“I guess we’re going in order of descending age,” said Jethro, looking at everyone to gauge their reaction, “So you know that youmen custom where every extended family has to have at least three people who’ve dedicated their life to higher learning?”

“I thought it was two,” said Ashley.

“That’s the norm, on Daiterra it’s three,” replied Jethro without missing a beat.

“Oh,” said Ashley.

“Well, I was chosen to be that guy. In grad school I finally figured out that I needed to plan my career. I was really bad at interviewing---”

“I can’t possibly fathom why.” said Ashley.

“Shut up,” said Jethro, “but I knew that Knowledge Corps Officers were highly sought after by academia and industry alike. I was afraid of the ‘going into battle’ part, so when I found out about this group, I thought ‘this has got to be the safest KC group I could join.’ Its focus was already pretty close to my research, so I changed my research direction a little to match and then boom, here I am.”

“So you’re here for the recommendations,” said Lauren. Jethro nodded.

“Alright,” said Lauren, satisfied, “that’s too bad that you didn’t get to choose your path, though.”

Jethro shrugged, “the world of higher learning still has lots of options.”

Ashley spoke up, “so on Kairexa there are a lot of old buildings, still in operation, from eons ago in the early days of youmen colonization. I loved going to those old buildings and piecing together their stories. “I used to tell my dad that I wanted to be an old buildings expert. The thing is, youmen history is pretty well documented so there isn’t much new research going on in early youmen history. But then I learned that early human history had lots of gaps. So I started studying that and when I started grad school, I heard about the Historical Technologies Group, and I started studying computer science and electrical engineering to better fit the group. When I graduated, I applied for this place and now here I am.”

“As you can see,” said Jethro, “Ashley is the only one of us who’s actually interested in what our group does and as a result is the only one that has all the necessary skills in the right amounts.”

“Now that you know our stories” said Morgan, “tell us how you got here.”

“Well my story is similar to Ashley’s in some ways,” said Lauren. “Growing up on Plei, there were a lot of ruins, which no one knows anything about. However, being relics from the First Human Colonial Era, they were mostly operational. I would explore them as a kid trying to figure out what they do, what they were for.”

“Like, just for fun?” asked Jethro.

“Yeah,” said Lauren, “I didn’t even know what a Knowledge Corps officer was at the time. It wasn’t until this one moment where I decided to join the KC. One summer there was a beetle outbreak, a freighter accidentally introduced a few beetles from another planet. Then they just spread like wildfire, the whole ecosystem was nearing collapse. Then three Scientific Officers were brought in from the Ecological Protection Division.”

“You think it was the Minihouse lab?” Jethro asked Miguel.

“Probably?” said Miguel.

“They enacted a bunch of new laws like increased fines for littering,” continued Lauren, “they had entire forests razed, they did all sorts of drastic stuff.”

“Definitely the Minihouse lab,” confirmed Miguel, “burning the invader’s food is their thing.”

“I saw them everywhere,” said Lauren, “and they must have seen me too, the lead officer let me sit in on their planning sessions because ‘I don’t know why’. By the end of the summer, the beetles were gone. I was so impressed by how calmly they saved our planet while my parents were freaking out. I decided I wanted to be a hero like that someday. I started out studying electrical engineering and then shifted to first colonization era history when I found out about this group and that I could still work with electronics as a historian. Sorry, I’ve been talking for so long.”

“No it’s great, you and Ashley are actually here because you embody the spirit of this group. It makes me think this group will go places now,” said Miguel.

“Aw thanks,” said Lauren, “I have to say, I’m really glad you guys are such an energetic and lively bunch, I was worried you would all be mellowed out like most late stage grad students.”

“Are you kidding?” said Jethro, “only crazy people join the Knowledge Corps. You have to have some weirdness in you that makes you want to go who-knows-where and risk your life in the name of progress and justice. All of us secretly, somewhere have that lust for adventure, even me, that draws us in even as the risk of death pushes us away.”

“I wish you would share those kinds of thoughts with us more often,” said Morgan.

“Too bad, you’re only getting jokes from me now,” said Jethro packing his lunch box. “Yeah our allotted time ended, like, 15 minutes ago, we should get back.”

Everyone got up from their seats, packed their things, and went back to the E7 block of floor 20.

4: Actually working

Lauren and Ashley were in the “Parts Room” which was a narrow room lined with shelves and bins.

“So your first task is going to be searching through all these parts and categorizing them based on era, system, and manufacturer. The smart sheet over here has the categorization chart already loaded. Jethro’s probably going to say something like ‘this is why we’re excited to have you here’ or something, but this needs to get done and you’re the only one who isn’t actively working on a project right now, so think of it as a relaxing exercise,” said Ashley. She went to the door.

“Ping me if you need anything, bye.”

Lauren sat down at the desk, scanned the smart sheet, and pulled out a circuit board from the bin. She looked at the orange circuit board. On it were three microblade configurators, that component which was so rare such that finding just four of them was the most time-consuming part of her research. She looked at the categorization chart to make sure she recognized the part correctly. The chart confirmed that there was no mistake.

“What the fuck?” she said to herself.

Seeing three configurators on a single board at first made her feel like her thesis project was trivial, but that dismay was soon replaced by the exciting feeling that the ceiling of her experience in grad school had just become the floor.

The next board was a common adapter board between the old human hardware standard and the even older pseudo standard. Lauren had fond memories gutting hundreds of boards like these in high school and undergrad to make her first piece of First Human Colonial Era custom hardware. She checked the chart and saw that all of the adapter boards were to go into the same bin. Right there she plucked all of the adapter boards out of the cardboard box and put them in the adapter boards bin. No need to consult the chart, she knew what every adapter board looked like.

Thirty minutes later, she was done. Her hands were covered with black dust. Lauren wiped them on the dirty rag hanging next to the desk. She got up, opened the door, and stepped into the empty main room. Despite wiping her hands on the rag, she still felt like her hands were contaminated, she was holding her hands away from her body. Lauren turned the handle on the kitchen sink with her knuckles and washed her hands clean.

Ashley heard the faucet running while working at her desk, got up, and walked to the main room.

“Are you done already?” Ashley asked.

“Yeah,” said Lauren.

“Wow, that was, like, a hundred parts,” said Ashley, “in that case your job now is to update our Mission Bounty filter settings.”

“The what?” asked Lauren, confused.

Miguel had noticed their conversation and joined them in the main room and now inserted himself into the conversation, “it’s how we get funded. Besides the ISAF which can force-send messages to all the labs and groups it wants to, other institutions like universities, corporations, and planetary governments can solicit our expertise by sending mission descriptions to the KC coordinators.”

“Exactly,” said Ashley, “they also attach keywords to better find the right lab or group. We set up filters that search through the body of the application and take the top... 18 was it?”

Miguel nodded.

“...the top 18 mission descriptions and bring them to our attention,” finished Ashley.

“What missions are you working on now?” asked Lauren.

“Currently we have the Arcturan Corpse Freighter,” said Ashley.

“Woah,” said Lauren.

“Yeah it sounds weird,” said Ashley, “basically a derelict Arcturan mega-freighter at least 200 years old was found drifting a few months ago by an Astratum patrol ship and Jethro and I are going through its shipboard computers.”

“Wait a minute,” said Lauren, “200 years ago is pretty much in the middle of the Collaboration Era, i.e. hundreds of years after the end of the First Human Colonial Era.”

“True,” said Ashley, “but we’re the go-to people for interfacing with anything relatively old.”

“Then there is the Scrimale Family Records project,” said Miguel, “which Morgan, Ashley, and I are going through, basically recovering family records for rich people’s nostalgia. Morgan and I are also working on the Meixoto History Museum Decoding Project with a bunch of universities in Sanmachi and Altaria.”

“Plus we all have one solo project,” said Ashley, “except for Jethro, he has two.” She put her hands on her hips and sighed, “Ah, what a lone wolf.”

“I heard that,” called Jethro from behind the curtain.

“Sounds neat, is there a guide for this too?” said Lauren.

“Yeah, I think we have it loaded up on a smart sheet somewhere here,” Ashley pulled open a drawer . To Lauren’s surprise, there were almost fifty smart sheets in there.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just pull it up on this sheet?” said Miguel holding up a smart sheet that was on the table.

“Yeah, but I want to use what’s on that smart sheet later, it feels like too much work to change that one and then change it back,” said Ashley, rummaging through the drawer.

“It... it really isn’t,” said Miguel, “it actually defeats the purpose of smart sheets.”

“Well it doesn’t matter because I found it,” said Ashley, coming back to the table, she handed the smart sheet to Lauren. “There you go, see how our current filter is designed then try and develop a better version comparing their outputs. Hope you’re comfortable with regular expressions.”

Lauren had been dialed in for at least an hour, she had her headphones on, her favorite music was playing, and she had gotten the 16th and 17th results to be more relevant. She looked at the clock, 17:30, the new officer happy hour was going to start in half an hour. She took off her headphones and looked around. All the desks were empty, had everyone left without saying goodbye? Seeing that Jethro’s chair was missing led her to believe that they weren’t far off, especially if her assessment that Jethro likes to take his chair with him everywhere was correct. She could hear talking in the main room. She got up and went to the curtain.

Jethro was sitting backwards in his office chair while Morgan and Ashley were seated at the table holding their coffee mugs. Miguel was standing and dressed as if he was about to leave.

“I’m telling you, she’s gonna say that her specialty is in acquisition and decoding,” said Jethro adamantly.

Morgan shook her head, “you saw her application Jethro, she published in the three human history journals, she’s an all rounder like Ashley.”

“You’re right but you’re not listening to me,” Jethro turned his seat to look at Lauren. “oh hey you found us, take a seat.”

Lauren sat down next to Ashley. Jethro resumed talking:

“So our group does three different kinds of work. There’s acquisition which is reviving old machines, connecting to them, and cataloging the traits of the machines themselves, among other things. There’s decoding which is making that data readable by modern machines. And then there is interpreting which is figuring out what that data means in terms of the history of the First Human Colonial Era and human history in general. Miguel is best at acquisition, Morgan is best at interpreting, I’m best at decoding, and Ashley is good at all three.”

“I see,” said Lauren.

“What we want to know is what combination of the three jobs you think you excel at,” said Jethro, “you can say all three.”

Lauren thought for a bit. She did publish in the top three human history journals as Morgan noted: the Federated Academies Proceedings on Human History, Meixoto Human Historical Review, and the Altarian Publishing Group’s Journal on Human History. But she couldn’t have done that without her advisor’s guidance and name.

On the one hand, she had to do many tasks in all three areas Jethro listed for her graduate research. But on the other hand, she focused on tasks that could only be described as acquisition in undergrad, giving her a good four years of experience in that area over the other two.

“I would just say that acquisition is my thing,” said Lauren.

“You were both wrong,” said Miguel.

“I think her response makes me even more right, again you guys aren’t listening to me,” said Jethro leaning back.

“Well, it’s been another successful round table, I have to get home,” said Miguel, leaving.

“Bye, good night,” said the rest of the group.

Ashley turned to Morgan, “But our table is a hexagon.”

“It’s an expression from human hyper-antiquity, I think,” said Morgan. There was a pause.

“So is it true you can get a distinction badge at the bookstore?” asked Lauren.

“Yeah, they’re like ten bucks,” said Ashley.

“Yeah, if you want to pay to feel distinguished,” said Jethro.

“I just want to add color to my uniform,” said Lauren.

“Oh, hah!” said Jethro.

“I think I’m going to head home,” said Ashley, stretching.

“Same,” said Morgan.

“I also have somewhere to be,” said Lauren.

“Guess I’m holding down the fort again,” said Jethro.

5: Day’s end

Lauren exited the bookstore with a lovely magenta badge on her blazer, she checked her watch, 17:55, she was going to be right on time at this rate. She now needed to get to the top of the Citadel which probably meant three elevator rides. She activated the wayfinder in her glasses and a blue path was projected onto her surroundings leading her through the halls and lobbies and between the crowds. Not many people were going up at this time so she quickly found herself on the roof. The elevator had brought Lauren to a peaceful garden not dissimilar to the Terrace. The flowers and trees that lined the path added a subtle fragrance to the crisp night air and diminished the strong winds that circulated around the tall building. The sound of rustling leaves was accompanied by the babbling of a fountain. Through the foliage Lauren could see the brilliant multi-colored lights of the city below. Above, she could see the two moons, one white crescent and one pink disk. What was a faint murmur at the start of her walk had grown into a muffled din. Lauren found herself at the front door of Caffeine and Ethanol, the bespoke bar and cafe of the Knowledge Corps. In contrast with the sleepy garden, the cafe-bar was well lit, sitting atop a tiny hill.

The inside of Cafe-nol was packed with regulars and nearly all the new officers, music was playing over the speakers but was drowned out by the energetic conversations of the patrons. Lauren forced her way through the crowd, occasionally getting glances at the bar until she spotted Neil’s afro. Lauren squeezed her way through the crowd into the open stool next to Neil.

“Thanks for saving me a seat,” said Lauren.

“No problem,” said Neil, “how was your first day?”

“Great! Give me a minute to order a drink,” said Lauren.

One of the bartenders came up, “what can I get for you?”

“One City Mosaic please, no ice,” said Lauren, putting down her phone with the drink ticket code on display.

“I’m gonna need to see your ID please,” said the bartender.

“Still?” exclaimed Lauren, pulling her wallet out.

The bartender looked at her ID card and scanned the code which promptly disappeared, the bartender then left to make the drink. He came back and slid a cocktail glass with three differently colored liquids, green, yellow, and blue, stacked on top of each other. Lauren took the glass in her hand.

She stirred the drink causing the different layers to combine into a light green, “do you remember that this was the drink that was being given out for free at the new student happy hour at UD Sanmachi? That was where we first met.”

“I remember,” said Neil, “I remember they said that the different colors represent the different sub-cities of Sanmachi: Markova, Musea, and Materia.

Lauren held up the glass to look at the contents better, “it’s an okay drink. I wish they would make a drink that is just the middle layer though.”

“Do you want to go outside?” proposed Neil, “similar to the new student happy hour, it’s pretty noisy in here.”

“It’s not that bad,” said Lauren.

“The weather’s pretty nice.”

“That’s true. Okay let’s go.”

Neil and Lauren stood at the railing of the roof garden looking at the city below. Neil was hunched over the railing, resting his elbows on it; Lauren was standing, grasping the railing with both hands. The orange glow of sodium lamps clashed with the colorful rainbows of LED signs while rivers of red and white lights from cars criss-crossed the landscape, the actual rivers being marked by conspicuously dark areas in an otherwise brilliant nightscape. For all the youmen’s environmental consciousness, their cities were havens of light pollution. A strong wind tugged at their clothes and hair.

“Yeah, it was a good first day,” said Lauren, “the group has four other members. A purian man that is a real adult with a family, two youmen people around my age, a cheerful one to keep the group positive and a spikey one to keep things interesting, a commanding investigator that is never around so we have free reign, and a human that is strict enough to keep us all on task.”

“Wait,” said Neil, “your group has just five members?”

“Yeah,” said Lauren, “why? How many members does your group have?”

“Thirty eight.”

“Holy smokes, that’s a lot.”

“Well it is the Kensington lab after all,” he said proudly.

“Kensington? She’s the grandmother of modern wielding science right?”

“I’m glad you remember something about one of the most famous scientists in all of history.”

“I thought she was a professor at UD Sanmachi.”

“For most of her life, in her later years, she founded and ran a lab at the Knowledge Corps. But that’s besides the point. Your odds of getting drafted if your group gets tapped by the ISAF are one in five but with a group that small, everyone could just nominate you.”

“You worry too much,” said Lauren, “my group studies obsolete technology. We have practically no use in battle.”

“Hrmm,” Neil pondered, “I guess.”

“Anyways, we talked a lot at lunch and also at the end of the day in this cool discussion session thing,” said Lauren, “how about you? How was your day?”

“It was also pretty good,” said Neil, “my lab isn’t as social as yours but I think I actually prefer it that way. Like I said, our lab is pretty large, so we broke into three groups for lunch. We all ate in the Market Hall, nothing as exciting as the Terrace.”

“Did you check out the Terrace after lunch at least?”

“No, we didn’t have time.”

“Aw you should have, you could see the space elevator today.”

“There’ll be plenty of days like that.”

“You only get one Knowledge Corps orientation day in your life,” said Lauren, “I think the clear weather is a sign that we’re going to learn a lot while we’re here.”

“That’s the plan,” said Neil.

“What did you have for lunch today?”

“Snaptic mart. How about you?”

“Uh, actually the same,” said Lauren, sheepishly grinning.

Neil turned around to lean against the railing, “really?” he said with smug delight, “you? I have you on record as calling that place a glorified convenience store.”

“Well it was certainly convenient.”

“Now you get it,” said Neil, clearly amused, “it looks like your prediction that we are going to learn a lot has already come true for you.” Having finished his sentence, he allowed himself to chuckle.

Lauren laughed, “oh shut up!” Lauren always enjoyed the moments where she could get Neil to show positive emotion, even if it was derived from smugness. Those moments were rare but that just made them more rewarding.

“But seriously,” said Neil, “I have to admit, coming here was a good idea. I really get the impression that we as officers are highly valued, treasured even.”

“Really? I’m glad you feel that way.”

“Really, I mean—oh man—in our lab we each have our own cubicle on one floor, and on the floor below we each have our own lab bench.”

“No more people messing with your setup then?”

“Exactly,” said Neil, “it’s so good!” Neil calmed down, “I actually already have a project.”

“Really?” said Lauren, “what is it?”

“Making educational material about how wielding works for schools across the combined galaxies.”

“Oh that’s so sweet!”

“Yeah, I’m glad to be working on something that’s going to reach so many people.”

“Even those on Esika and Plei?”

“Even those on our home planets.”

“None of my group-mates knew what Plei was,” said Lauren.

“That’s annoying,” said Neil.

“Tell me about it,” said Lauren, frustrated, “your home planet is, like, all that you ever knew growing up. It was more than you could comprehend, at a scale larger than anyone could grasp, and then someone says they’ve never heard of it?”

“Yeah,” said Neil, taking a sip, “hearing that is like someone saying that they didn’t know it was even possible for you to exist in the first place.”

“At least they were apologetic about it,” said Lauren, extracting the last few drops from her glass, “if they cared about knowing, I wonder why they didn’t.”

“I think it’s a case of travel logistics,” said Neil, “we know the names because a large portion of privately owned spacecraft belong to fringe runners who make a living flying around the fringes of the combined galaxies, carrying with them the names of other fringe systems.”

“And occasionally invasive species.”

“Isn’t that what nano-bot stations are for?”

“Our shipment was late and the pilot insisted on landing because they were in a hurry.”

“What a terrible person.”

“It’s all good, they’re never flying again,” said Lauren, “well, shall we call it a day?”

“”Let’s,” said Neil, “It’s starting to get cold up here.”