Chapter 25 #3
So, freshly changed, she returned her now empty bowl back to the table, frowning when she saw that Hattie hadn’t eaten anything more.
However, her friend was dressed and ready to go. She put the matter aside and just gave herself a mental reminder to make sure they stopped for a good lunch before they left, sending a message to their personal driver to come pick them up in the hover.
Holly really should start taking practical flying lessons.
Alanna, Scarlet, and Peony already were, but Holly had only gone over the theoretical information.
Scarlet was even pretty good at flying – which wasn’t a shock because it seemed like there was nothing that Scarlet wasn’t pretty good at.
Holly had never wanted the lessons. Driving made her anxious, she didn’t want to add another dimension of difficulty to it.
Still, it would be nice for the sake of her independence to know how, even if it was a skill that she rarely used.
She put a pin in that thought as she and Hattie climbed into the hover. The two of them chatted amicably about neutral topics – very deliberately avoiding boys – as they flew under the canopy to one of the landing trees beside the academy.
The area had been changed significantly since the festival was over.
All the booths and stages had been removed leaving wide open areas for students and staff to gather and chat, relax, or study.
Holly already knew where the archive was and led the way as she pointed out various things to Hattie and described what the Festival had been like.
The students were staring and gossiping about them. Holly was kind of used to that by now. She already knew that they had something like social media boards and, no doubt, it was already circulating that humans were here.
She ignored those people just like Hattie did as the two climbed down to the entrance of the archive.
The building was three-fourths of the way under water now.
Holly could see lights under the rippling surface through the windows.
It felt strange to descend into the sunken room, but it had been designed to safely be submerged, so she pushed the thought aside.
As they were lowered down, the same female working the front desk lowered her holo glasses, giving them an excited look, ignoring the person trying to talk to her.
“Hey, you’re back!” She said eagerly. “So awesome! Let me get a pic!”
Holly was about to ask her not to, but before she could, the female that had been trying to talk to her turned as well and she found herself looking at Ryna. She stilled in place, staring at the Second Scholar, unsure what to do or say.
“Oh. Hey,” Ryna waved at her without any real enthusiasm. “You’re the yellow haired human.”
“Holly,” she replied automatically. Was she supposed to just act normal and casual to the lady who had tried to steal Romival’s job? Because that felt like a betrayal. But competition was normal on Turv, and Ryna certainly didn’t seem awkward around her.
“Holly. Right.” Ryna looked to her side. “And you?”
“Hattie,” her friend waved. “We met you in the market, didn’t we?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. I guess we did. Kind of forgot. Sorry. I tend to get really focused sometimes and ignore everything else. I’m Second Scholar Ryna.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Holly frowned. “Er, sorry about your loss at the competition?”
Ryna made a gesture, kind of half-heartedly throwing up her hands, that Holly knew to be the domini version of a shrug. “Wasn’t the first time. Won’t be the last.”
“You mean, you’re going to challenge Romi again?”
“Of course!” Ryna snapped, fire and passion lighting her up and banishing her earlier dullness. “I won’t stop until I’m the best!”
“Oh.” Holly leaned back, surprised by the outburst. “Well, good luck, I guess. I’d say I’m rooting for you, but that would be a lie. I’m pretty solidly Team Romi.”
Ryna crossed her arms, looking at her curiously. “Are you his mate or what? I assume you’re at least lovir tii since I caught you-”
“Ah!” Holly cut her off with a cry, her face burning.
Hattie gave her a knowing grin. “What was that, Holly? What did she catch you doing?”
“Never you mind!” Holly snapped. “So, Ryna! Er, what brings you here today?”
“Mm? Oh! Right. Study material. I need to practice those questions Romival beat me on, and I can’t find any of the equations in any of my notes. How about you? Thinking about becoming a scholar? I heard that one of the humans recently became a healer.”
“Me?” Holly chuckled, shaking her head. “No. I’m not really scholar material.”
Ryna made a face, third eye roaming around the room dismissively. “Can’t understand what Romival sees in someone like that, got to admit.”
Holly frowned, a bit hurt. But before she could ask what she meant, Ryna was already changing the subject.
“So, were you coming here to look up something in particular?”
Hattie immediately looked to Holly as she had only come here because Holly had asked.
Holly smiled and shrugged. “Well, I was planning on looking up the education system so I could learn about it, but I hadn’t talked about it with Hattie yet.”
“I’m fine with anything,” Hattie shrugged with a pleasant smile.
Ryna grinned, almost predatory. “How about a trade? I tell you everything you want to know about our education system, and you tell me everything I want to know about your home planet.”
Holly frowned, reluctant. Not because she was unwilling to make a deal with Ryna, but more because, somehow, it felt weirdly wrong.
Learning was Romival’s love language. He enjoyed asking her things, learning about her world, to the point that he had a whole file on his combot just for the things she told him about Earth.
If she gave information that she hadn’t yet shared with him to someone else, it felt strangely like it was cheating.
Which was ridiculous but knowing that didn’t ease the odd feeling in her chest.
Hattie started snickering and she looked over, flushing when she realized that her emotions had been written clear across her face and Hattie had read them easily.
“How about a trade?” Hattie suggested brightly, perking up for the first time in days. “I’ll tell you about our education system, and you tell us about yours.”
Ryna frowned, obviously displeased about losing carte blanche on asking about anything. But she grunted in agreement. “That’s fair. Shall we find a group pod?”
The small pod that Holly had been in before was just one type in the archive.
There were also larger pods in the far back for group study purposes.
Soundproof, like the others, and with multiple console access points to the archive, it was also comfortable and had a wide table to spread out belongings.
“So, our education system isn’t that complex,” Ryna said, sitting at the blue table as the clear door sealed behind them, trapping them in silence.
Only for a moment though, as Ryna, while talking, had connected her combot to one of the consoles and began playing soft music with a delightful, almost tribal, but surprisingly light, beat.
“It’s based on Coalition Standard, just expanded for our species. So, how does Earth start education?”
“Wait,” Hattie laughed as Holly frowned. “You’re excited, I get that, but we don’t know Coalition Standard. Start from the beginning.”
Ryna pouted a bit, obviously put out that she couldn’t just hand wave her end of the deal, but she obligingly continued. “Well, you know what the Coalition is, right?”
“A group of aliens, I guess?” Holly said, sharing a look with Hattie.
“Essentially,” Ryna leaned back into her chair, going into what was obviously a teacher voice.
“The Coalition is a governing body made from representatives from two-hundred fourteen different species. The point of the Coalition is to promote peace, understanding, trade, and advancement of technology. Not every known species joins the Coalition, of course, but it is to their benefit, as being a member means your planet and species are entitled to the protection of every member species, you’re involved in fair trade deals, and, most relevant to us right now, you have access to the Standard.
“To make everything easier, the Coalition created the Standard, and it exists for everything. Currency is standardized and, if your planet is part of the Coalition, you must accept credz as legal tender, and while you can keep your own currency on your planet, it must be convertible to credz. There’s a Standard language designed to be easily spoken by all species with easy-to-understand rules and no impossible sounds for any individual.
Time is standardized, which is why we use marks and cycles here instead of our old traditional timekeeping which was done in degrees.
Measurements, distances, starship specifications.
Everything is done to make relating to each other easier.
“One of those things is education. The Coalition has an education standard that includes four disciplines that it recommends every person learn. They are mathematics, linguistics, history, and biology to make sure that everyone can do basic math, speak to at least one other person, know basic Coalition history, and their own basic biology. It doesn’t include reading or intermediate math or sciences.
It’s the most basic education recommended, so of course, most species add to or alter it.