College of the Rings (Silver Sea City, Titan)

The Jovian School for Future Technicians (Jupiter Station, Jupiter)

The following schools require at least an 875 to attend. Should you wish to attend one of these schools, you will need to retake the entrance qualification exam.

Alexandria University (Florence, Mars)

The Solan Institute of Reconstructive Biology (Hamilton Junction, Luna)

If you accept admission to any of the schools listed here, you will still need to complete placement tests for any given academic track. Some academic degree programmes require an additional qualification test.

If you are interested in attending a school outside of Human territory, there are many GC educational institutions with reciprocal admission agreements with the HDCHE. Admission conditions vary greatly, so please contact an HDCHE adviser for information specific to your desired school.

Based on your listed location, your nearest source for HDCHE informational meetings is:

Asteria Emigrant Resource Centre, Deck 2, Plaza 16

We highly encourage you to attend an informational meeting. All questions are welcome.

Happy studies!

*

Ras (18:80): how’d you do?

Ras (18:81): I got a 908

Ras (18:81): going to mars, baby Ras (18:81): big cred time

Ras (18:94): dude will you please talk to me Ras (19:03): whatever

Ras (19:12): I don’t get why you’re being such an asshole

*

Node identifier disconnected

System log: device deactivated

Isabel

Isabel rarely went to the theatre in the dark hours, so she couldn’t say what the usual crowd was during that time. There were a few people in the audience who were easy to predict. Old folks like her, scattered around the mostly empty hall. A young father, dozed off on the floor, his tiny child asleep on his chest, the exhausted conclusion to what had likely been a long night of walking the mostly vacant public corridors with a crying infant. But there was one member of the audience she did not expect. She sat down next to him, as she would with an old friend.

‘Hello, Kip,’ she whispered. ‘Mind if I join you?’

Kip was taken aback. Wherever he’d been, he hadn’t expected her to rouse him. ‘Uh . . . yeah, sure, M.’

Isabel folded her arms across her lap and took in the view. The projected environment was a rich tapestry of thick reeds, waving sheets of grass, protective trees, scummy water, and the calls of chittering birds with pointed opinions. ‘Wetlands,’ she said. ‘I haven’t been to a wetlands recording in a while. I tend to favour deserts. This is a nice change.’

Kip was quiet – not a contemplative quiet, but the unsure kind of quiet that kids his age sometimes fell into when addressed by an adult. Maybe he was just shy. Maybe he wanted to be left alone.

Isabel kept talking anyway. ‘Why aren’t you asleep, Kip?’

Kip shifted. ‘Why aren’t you?’

She chuckled. ‘Fair. My wife has a bad pair of legs. They wake her up a lot, and that woke me up enough times tonight that there wasn’t any going back from it.’

‘That sucks,’ Kip said.

‘That it does.’

He was quiet, again. The recorded trees rustled. The water lapped. ‘I haven’t slept great since . . . y’know,’ Kip said.

‘Understandable. Have you talked to someone about it?’

Another long pause. ‘My parents won’t stop talking to me about it. And I get they’re just trying to help, but like . . . sometimes I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Yes,’ Isabel said, with a nod. ‘I get that.’

Kip shuffled, as restless as the reeds. ‘Sorry.’

‘No, no, I asked. I appreciate you being honest.’ She watched as a great grey and white bird – some kind of predator – glided past on motionless wings. ‘So why here? Why not the sim hub, or the Linkings, or . . . ?’

‘I dunno. It’s . . . it’s quiet. I like that.’ He shifted again. ‘I like pretending I’m somewhere else.’ Isabel would’ve changed the subject at that, had he not continued: ‘That’s what the theatre’s for, right?’

Isabel turned her head toward Kip, his face silhouetted against the bright muddy green. ‘Is it?’ she asked.

‘Well, and so we know what it’s like to live on planets. So the ancestors wouldn’t freak out if they made it to the ground. They’d know what the sky looked like and . . . and yeah.’

Isabel looked back to the blue sky – that edgeless blue, streaked with clouds and birds whose names few knew off-hand. ‘Do you have somewhere to be anytime soon?’

‘Uh . . . no?’

‘Come on,’ she said, giving his arm a definitive pat. ‘I want to show you something.’ She stood. He hesitated. ‘There’s a bean cake in it for you.’

Kip got up.

The Archives were on the same side of the plaza as the theatre, so getting there took little time. Isabel swiped her patch over the locked entrance. Doors opened and lights bloomed awake. She looked around. None of her colleagues were there. Good. They would’ve gotten a scolding about still being up if they had been. No Ghuh’loloan, either, who was likely packing her things and preparing her goodbyes. Isabel and the boy were alone.