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The Cohen Clover

Introduction

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Good morning, students. I know this is assembly isn't what was planned for you today, and I see a lot of you looking around at your fellow students. Eight of you are from Notched Speaker's class, and the four students not familiar to you are from Mr. Baxter's class. Since my assistant already handled role call, I see that we have full attendance, which is good. My name is Ms. Meyer, and I am going to be your new instructor.

This is the Unity Programme's first Transfer Class from Water Earth, which is to say the Phins and Human students here will be the first in what will hopefully be a regular exchange with a new Unity Programme location. I'm sure by now many of you have heard the rumors circulating around the Centre regarding the new Gateway structure. The administration has taken time to set some ground rules as it relates to dealing with a new Earth and, the six pairs of students here will make up the first exchange that differs from the usual Unity Programme line-up.

Human students, I know you have spent the last year familiarizing yourself with Water Earth. As exchange students, your parents have already provided signed authorization allowing you to be away from home into summer of 35 AU. Phin students, we're waiting for the same releases to allow you to leave to the third Earth that has been discovered. Together, the twelve of you will meet a new races that Phin and Human scientists have been working with for the last year. Your classes with the Unity Programme will continue there in one of three new Unity Centres that are being established in what we have named Riparian Earth.

The people of Riparian Earth, who call themselves the Ikali are peaceful and several of them are living here on Water Earth now at two facilities: one at the Gateway, and the other at a joint research station where they are working alongside Phin and Human scientists. It's our hope that we can include them in the Earth Alliance and as full members in the Unity Programme. This is the first of many steps, and we hope that all of you are willing to join in on the effort. In return, you will all be diplomats of sorts, and your partnerships will increase by one so you can learn about the Ikali, and they can learn about us.

After much discussion, the administration of the Unity Programme have determined that second year students will be allowed on Riparian Earth not just because the Ikali are friendly, but because it is important to have like-minded and like-age representatives. The Unity Centres on Riparian Earth have many different age levels of Ikali so we need to have students able to match. Although you will have a two week long training session with some of the Unity Programme scientists specializing on Riparian Earth, like me, this assembly was scheduled to provide you a basic overview and give you a chance to answer questions.

At the end of our time together, you'll decide whether or not you want to accept your position in this new class. There's no need to take notes; you'll each be assigned a new data pad with all relevant information once you sign up. Now, let's begin.

The Ikali closely resemble the otters that students from both Earths will know. Like Humans and Phins, the Ikali stand on two legs. Like Humans they move well on land but like the Phin they often use their tails to help balance. Ikali have males and females just like most life from Land Earth but most of their society is built around the water, like Phins. Males are generally taller and weigh more than the females. Much like Humans are identified by nationality and Phins are separated into subspecies, the Ikali have their own divisions as well. As second year students, you will be working predominantly with the Nokali.

The Nokali are the second smallest of the Ikali people but they form large social groups. Their social nature and peaceful ways made them the obvious choice for pairing with second year students. Expect that most of the adults will only come up to your chins, but you are still expected to behave. The Unity Centre where you'll be stationed is called Alpha, and it's located in the North Western Hemisphere. For Human students, you'll know it as the mouth of the Columbia River where it connects to the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast of the United States-- Phin students, it's north of the Deep Flow near the Falling Scar.

That location was chosen because it is a common meeting ground for the Nokai and the Lokali, which are the second largest of the Ikali. The Lokali resemble sea otters and are the widest spread of all Ikali. They are also friendly and considered socialable but tend to be nomadic, which is why they won't have a dedicated Centre. While you are allowed to interact with them, please keep in mind that your hosts are the Nokali. As the second-largest species of Ikali, you can tell the difference between them and the Nokali because they stand about a head taller-- about the height of an average fourteen year old Human... so your heights.

You won't likely be meeting any Sakali, which are the largest of the Ikali. They live too far south to make it to Site Alpha, which is why the Programme set up Site Sigma, the sister site to the human settlement Station Zero here on Water Earth. The Sakali are the largest of the Ikali and are just shy of the size of a full grown Human or Longos. They live in family groups and have established settlements inland along large rivers in rainforests but occasionally traverse close to coastal waters. To this end, Site Sigma will serve well for both Ikali and Phin. They are territorial however, so Site Sigma will be dedicated specifically to the Sakali.

Finally, there are the Tukali, which are found on all parts of the Eastern Hemisphere. The Unity Programme has elected to set up Site Beta near the site of what would be in Land Earth, Hamburg, a city in the EU state of Germany. Water Earth students would know it best as inland of South Stair near the Amplus Province of the Ice Flows. The Tukali were one of our first contacts among the Ikali and, even though they're the smallest of the Ikali, they are also some of our strongest supporters and helped the Unity Programme meet with representatives from the other Ikali races. Your class will not be meeting with the Tukali, as we don't see any reason why they would be anywhere near Station Alpha.

That's everything prepared for our brief overview of the Ikali. I have ten minutes set aside for questions; please keep them on topic, and, before you ask: No. There is no Ikali guest speaker with me today. Assuming you sign on for the transfer, you will have an opportunity to meet Tchil-krr; she's my contact with the Nokali who will be helping to oversee all of you and make sure you settle in well at Station Alpha. So... questions. One at a time-- raised hand or slapped fluke... yes? Good. Let's start with.... you.

-- Mia Meyer, PhD

S.A. Transfer Class, Water Earth Unity Centre Secondary School, Fall Term, 33 AU (2090)

* * * * * *

Welcome back, everyone; I hope you had a great holiday break. While I have no doubt that everyone's gained a few pounds and we're all still suffering from week-long food comas, this next semester is going to include some very advanced material. Since all of you received passing grades for Fall Term I don't think we'll need to review comparative biology for Phins, which means we get to jump right into what I'm sure a lot of you are interested in learning about: the Oolau.

You should take pride to know that almost nobody outside the Unity Programme knows anything more than the fact that Dr Cohen's research team discovered another Earth, let alone anything about the inhabitants. Even other students here at the Centre have limited access to what we'll be covering over the course of the next twelve weeks. There's a lot of information to present so I encourage all of you to set your data pads to record because chances are you won't be able to take notes fast enough. So-- there's your warning. Let's begin.

The Oolau of Shattered Earth can be classified as Canidae in the same way Humans are Hominidae. Going further backwards along taxonomic classification, they are from the order of Canivora while Humans are Primates. Just like with the Phin, we assume that their version of Earth took a different evolutionary turn and thus they gained intellectual and cognitive superiority. We will be exploring brain function and physiology later this term; for now, it is safe to say that their intelligence is on par with that of a Human or Phin.

As with Humans, the Oolau are many times removed from their genetic ancestors. Scientific classification has given them the Genus and Species of Canis Sapiens; they distinctly different from 'wolves' or Canis Lupus and Canis Familiaris-- 'dogs', if you will-- which some are known to resemble. Please bear in mind that the appearance is mostly topical, and they should not be considered pets. Thank you, Nicole-- I'm glad at least ONE of you has a sense of humor. So, as I'm sure most of you are wondering then, what exactly do Oolau look like?

Well, to begin, the Oolau have distinct differences based on their lifestyles, which are separated into Nomadic Oolau, and Sedentary Oolau. The vast majority of peaceful interaction has been with the latter, which call themselves 'Seekers'. The main trait to remember is that Sedentary Oolau have curved tails; the Nomadic ones do not. Seeker Oolau are separated into castes which, over the course of several hundred years have created some degree of physiological changes that superficially make them appear to vaguely resemble bipedal versions of dog breeds we find here on Earth.

The upper class tend to be the tallest and robust among the Seekers and have mostly brindle or saddle pattern fur of cream, black, roan, tan, and brown combinations; body structure-wise, they could be reasonably compared to Akitas if you ignore the coloration. The middle class of the Seekers look like what we would consider arctic breeds-- Huskies and Malamutes; in this case the build and coloration are almost a perfect match for dogs from Land Earth. Finally, the lower class among the Seekers are usually thin and wiry, but with thick fur; we haven't received any pictures, but my colleagues on Shattered Earth describe them like a mix between a Samoyed and a Saluki, and they are usually lightly colored with whites and creams, though occasionally some black furred Oolou are known to be born.

I'm sorry? I missed the question... The nomadic Oolau? Well, our allies among the Seekers refer to them as a word that translates into English as 'Purists'. They are apathetic at best toward the Programme, and at worst, hostile. We've had some run ins with them and that usually results in bloodshed. My understanding is that they are several inches taller than any of the Seekers, and resemble Wolves. They also tend to dress sparingly and don't utilize the limited technology available to the Seekers, which is to our benefit since the Seekers have barely reached Victorian Era levels of industry.

But, that's drawing us into more of a discussion of sociology, which is not why we're here. I'd like to switch gears and bring things back to biology. Go ahead and open up the Shattered Earth file on your data pads and we can explore some deeper scientific facts in preparation for this semester's study focus.

Wolves and Dogs on Land Earth have 78 Chromosomes. If you think back to our study of mammals from Water Earth, you will recall that Canidae there have 80. On Shattered Earth, interestingly enough, the Oolau have 92 but, oddly, half of them are redundant, going completely unused in normal day-to-day biological function. One side effect of the extra complexity involves the incredible resiliency of life found there. Let's take a moment so I can elaborate... you will see a diagram if you open file SEOCC in this lesson plan's folder. Ready? Good.

As you can see in the diagram, the Oolau function with 46 Chromosomes but, due to lasting ecological damage done during a cataclysmic event several hundred years ago in the history of Shattered Earth, there are incredibly high levels of environmental contamination, affecting nearly 80% of the land mass and almost the entirety of the water cycle on Shattered Earth. The surviving organisms are subjected to incredibly harsh conditions that can cause intense mutation and decay at the cellular level. The chromosomal mapping examples provided are samples from left to right of Oolau three, twelve, twenty one, thirty, and thirty nine years of age. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Based on research into the Oolau, their standard biological operation includes shedding damaged chromosomes and sliding extras in seamlessly like a shark's mouth replaces teeth. If you look at the next row of data you will see that, in the case of one Oolau who was monitored by the Unity Programme medics, a chromosome governing her metabolic growth had begun replicating incorrectly-- up until about twenty years ago, if this happened in a Human it would hav been the onset of cancer. Three days later, when she was tested again, and we discovered the chromosome was removed from the entire sequence and, presumably, from every cell in her body-- replaced by a perfectly healthy version that had originally been a recumbent coding for fur pattern. We are talking about a completely appropriated chromosome retasked with an entirely new function!

I hope you all realize what this means as far as regenerative capacity, and an intelligent guess would be right. Not only are the Oolau's bodies able to innately recode their DNA, but damaged cells at the macro level are able to heal incredibly quickly. The next row of pictures show severe trauma to a 20 year old male Oolau's thigh; yes, genitals are visible in the left of picture, and yes, I understand curiosity is a normal reaction but please: be adults. The first picture was taken within an hour of the accident that caused the injury after preliminary medical care was provided.

The next is the injury after day one; the last is after two. While there are signs that there will be obvious scarring, the rapid cellular regenerative capabilities of Oolau are easily ten-plus times faster than those of Humans and Phins-- a similar injury in one of us would take more than three weeks to get to a point where stitches are no longer needed, with at least another week before it is anywhere near what we see with this patient. Yes-- question?

That is a good question. Yes-- the injuries Oolau sustain to viscera and their skeletal system also heal rapidly and, in many cases, close to 99% viable, meaning less scarring in soft tissue and a much faster fifth phase in bone healing. The only exception in the healing process is if a limb is completely separated from the body, however I have heard of an Oolau passing through the Gateway treated by doctors here on Land Earth with a combination of Human and Phin medication able to regain use of a severed arm in less than a month.

Now... please open up the final file in the folder, and we'll move right into a study aid you can use for the next twenty minutes before I present a baseline competency quiz on the material we're covering...

-- Adam Hayworth, PhD

Tier 6 Biology Class, Land Earth Unity Centre University, Winter Term, 34 AU (2090 CE)

* * * * * *

Phin students, welcome back to class, and Human students, welcome to Water Earth's Unity Centre, Tier 6 advanced placement. Although you have not had the opportunity to familiarize yourself with your new partners, I assure you that you will have ample time in the future, especially as you are made ready to either serve as mentors here for Ikali joining us on Water Earth or transfer to Riparian Earth so you can get first hand experience with them there. Bear in mind that only half of the teams here will actually receive Ikali partners this year and, of those, half will go to Riparian Earth and the rest will remain here. Put your hand down please, Filmore Clarke; I am not answering questions at this time.

I am aware that all of you have spent the last 18 months learning about comparisons between Human and Phin societies; that will be useful for integrating information about the Ikali. To understand them, we first need to revisit the similarities and differences between our own species because there are important overlapping areas as well as distinct contrasts; we will find some dramatic shifts from what we share when we look at the newest members to the Unity Programme. Let us start with community outlook.

Phins have, throughout much of our history focused on what is best for the community. Our outlook is based on caring for one another and seeking mutual benefit. In many cases, some of our older-yet-still-modern laws are looked at unfavorably by many Humans because of the focus we place on keeping the peace and maintaining the overall contentment of the society, occasionally to the detriment of the individual. In fact, this is one of the greatest points of contention for most Humans learning about Phin culture. Conversely, many Phins are surprised at how Human society functions, an for similar reasons.

Unlike Phins, Humans have a very dramatic range of personal ethos when it comes to interacting with others, both individually and as part of a society. Most Humans tend to find a middle ground between the extremes of 'self' over 'community' but there are as many outliers as there are 'moderates'. This, understandably, can make things awkward, or at least confusing for Phins not educated in the Human mindset. The fact that Humans are familiar with societal thinking and expectations, however, means that they share a common ground with us even if there are certain discrepancies in our lines of thinking. Ikali, however, are another matter altogether.

While there is some variance in each of the Ikali species, the general atmosphere among them is more of an extended family than any full method of governance or social structure. Ikali are both very social oriented and yet very individualistic at the same time, tending to focus more on immediate family members and neighbors than a settlement or community as a whole. Most contribute to their society so long as it benefits them and the settlements are set up specifically for that very reason: if a village fails to benefit its population then eventually it is abandoned.

During my time interacting with the Ikali I learned three things. First: Ikali live life with their wants equaling their needs. If an Ikali wants something or wants to do something then they will strive to get or do it; likewise, if an Ikali does not want something or does not want to do something then they will avoid it. This drive to satisfy their desires means that Ikali are both simultaneously incredibly motivated, and also very difficult to motivate. This has lead to a very self-centric society that is driven by personal gain. This is fueled by their monetary system known as Paws.

Paws are small, pearlescent, circular stones that are comprised of five seperate parts called 'chits' that link together to form a whole. Unlike the Human monetary system, the components of a Paw are not valued evenly, as each represents a part of the day, which all hold a different significance to the Ikali. Money is a form of bartering, with the value representing a certain timeframe of work, and an entire Paw presenting a full day from dawn to pre-dawn. When an Ikali works for another, he or she is paid in segments based on how much time they provided a service.

The smallest chit of a Paw represents the small finger, and the hours of dawn to mid morning. The next portion represents the annulary finger or, as Humans often call it, the ring finger. This chit identifies the working hours between mid morning and noon. The middle chit is the largest of the individual components and represents the middle finger, and the afternoon working time. The fourth chit is a stand-in for the index finger and is valued at the hours between when the sun touches the horizon and when it has fully set. The fattest-but shorted chit represents the thumb and includes the night time hours.

Yes, Filmore Clarke, I understand you have questions, hence your hand sticking up into the air again, but I have said once, and will say again: maintain your questions in silence until I ask for them at the end of this lecture. We have a large amount of material to go over today and this is all presented as an overview; we will be going into greater detail over the next several weeks. Now, back to a discussion on their monetary system and relative value.

I have learned from firsthand experience that Humans and Phins often have some amount of confusion over the Ikali's monetary system. We see flaws in their thinking, such as implied value for rare skills or an increased value for skilled services; the Ikali do not share this outlook because they do what it is they enjoy and, if they do it well, they benefit for their skill with pay. Allow me to elaborate.

My group spent two weeks on Riparian Earth and, during that time, I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time with several different Ikali; I will review two of them today. The first was a fish farmer. He tended several pools that provided aquaculture services for his community. He enjoyed farming fish and he was good at it. Fish take time to mature and with a good crop he could offer ten fish for a dawn chit. This allowed him to make money and cover the cost of his time while doing something he enjoyed. In his case, he was considered a very successful and very respected member of the community.

Now, the second individual I got to know had no marketable skills and no great enjoyment for doing any task aside from sleeping. He, in fact, did not like the day time and preferred to sleep those hours away. Still, he was not lazy, but his schedule was not the same as most others. He was often chosen by those who needed someone awake at night for simple purposes: standing watch, collecting a kind of flower used by their herbalists that only blooms at night, and serving as a companion for those seeking company during the dark hours.

This individual would often ask to be paid in night time chits, which were not often used by others, thus allowing him to corner the market for his services and being the obvious choice for those not wanting to 'break a paw' paying for an entire week of his services with a full Paw rather than breaking it into chits. Incidentally, he was also seen as something of a con-man since he didn't conform to popular culture, which is another important aspect of the Ikali: their social conformity aggression can be as bad if not worse than anything we learned about the Humans perpetrating in the early 21st century after the social integration of computer communication into their daily life.

In conclusion regarding the Ikali monetary system and barter-style economy, Ikali live by an unspoken creed that amounts to "Do what you want, and get paid to do it if you can. If you don't want to do it but have to, get paid or pay someone else to do it." This brings us to an important discussion regarding what Humans refer to as 'prostitution'. I know it is an alien subject for Phins, but I have confidence that all students here understand the basic implication among Humans. For Ikali, the thought of paying a prospective partner for their time, whether sexual or not, is an obvious next-step for those seeking companionship. This has created some very specific misunderstandings among the Ikali and the Humans who have met them... but we will be covering 'The Golden Night' rule next week, so more on that later.

No, Filmore Clark-- I am still not taking questions; please continue to hold yours. Everyone, please take out your data pads and open the file marked Ikali3...

-- Chosen Educator, TED/PhD

Tier 6 Sociology Class, Water Earth Unity Centre University, Winter Term, 34 AU (2090 CE)

* * * * * *

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Advanced Physics. I recognize many of you from prior classes and I have no doubt that you may still have nightmares about my prior lectures, so I will skip the theatrics. This is a much smaller starting class than I'm used to because, let us be frank, less qualified students have already been cut from the roster. My registration sheet shows forty, and I assume by the time we are done that our attendance sheet will be halved. No, this is not any assessment of my faith in your abilities, this is merely a statement that what we are covering is so advanced and so new that I am still learning it myself.

I will not spend any time reviewing The Cohen Loop, of which all of you should be familiar, except as a segue into the first topic of discussion this semester: Cohen's Quadrifolium or, as it is more well-known, the Cohen Clover. While the Cohen Loop has two points of contact between our Earth and the Phins' Water Earth, recently, Dr Nathan Cohen discovered two more intersect points, changing our understanding of the energy flow previously thought to be limited to two Gateways. We are now learning that there are four actual contact points and that, in turn, creates a four-way interchange of this energy flow, creating a quadrifolium when graphed.

The energy field created by the transfer of energy between the FOUR versions of Earth means that, until recently, two additional versions of our world remained completely undiscovered. Dr. Cohen's continued research on these alternate realities have resulted in an increased understanding of our own world and, at the same time, how the flow of the transitive energy as it passes through each gateway affects each reality it enters. No, we are not discussing science fiction, students-- we are talking about our improved understanding of physics, and the laws of energy.

Famed Theoretical Physicist Nathan Cohen first proposed a transfer of energy into and out of our understanding of existence and it was late proven when the Gateways at B72 and Chimborazo were discovered.. That theoretical exchange was further explored with the recent discovery of the new gateways. How recent? Less than eight years ago; when I said this is cutting edge learning in a new field of study I was not over representing the facts.

In addition to the energy field in effect between the points closest to and farthest from the Earth's center, a similar flow of energy occurs between points equidistant from the poles and the equator. Site 1 here on Land Earth is located at the geographical coordinates of 45 South and 90 East, a point in the Atlantic Ocean in which we've been able to create a stable Gateway into yet another version of Earth. Similarly, an identical point was located on Water Earth which leads to a fourth iteration. Both Gateways lead to a point identified at 45 North and 45 East in their corresponding new Earth.

You will recall the now famous experiment first completed by Dr, Cohen in which an energy tag was applied to the flow between arms of the Cohen Loop. This tag took exactly 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 41 seconds to manifest at the opposite contact point-- the precise time it takes for the earth to complete one full rotation around its axis. When a similar test was done on both our Earth and Water Earth at the 45S-90E Gateway the results we received were the same. This has led to the postulation that we are dealing with a Quadrifolium. The hypothesized connection between the Earths means that ours is connected to Water Earth and this third version identified as Shattered Earth.

The fourth Earth is connected to Water Earth and, presumably Shattered Earth; we have been unable to test the connections yet due to the inaccessibility of the B72 and Chimborazo Gateways on both recently discovered versions of our planet. It is expected that we will have more information in the coming months which will allow us to more effectively explore our new understanding of the flow of energy between iterations of Earth. The possible implications for this knowledge is still being considered, especially with regard to how it is affected by geographical location.

Interestingly enough, unlike the points found on our version of Earth and our neighboring Water Earth, there seems to be no specific connection in relation to the distance from the Earth's core, but Dr. Cohen's study team is attempting to find out if there is, in some way, a similar connection of energy flow as it relates to the distance between poles and the equator. If that were to be the case, then it is very possible that there may be other gateways for the flow of energy elsewhere on all versions of Earth, leading many up and coming theoretical physicists to postulate the possibility of many more realities of our planet with which to make contact and explore.

Now, this brings us to the heart of the introduction to Advanced Physics today. Over the course of the past fifty years, much of Theoretical Physics has been moving into the realm of Applied Physics. What this means for us is that many of you who have thought of Physics as an extension of mathematics and philosophy will be switching your understanding at a speed which will likely cause intellectual whiplash, so I encourage you to be ready for it. Secondly, with the rate at which our understanding grows, many of you will be recruited to work as research students working directly underneath Dr. Cohen's staff. Yes, this is an incredible honor, and yes, this will likely involve you relocating to a different version of Earth, so, as of today, you will be taking on extra classes as it relates to understanding our fellow sapiens.

You are correct if you believe this will double, or perhaps triple your workload. Does this seem like an unfair expectation? If you answered 'yes', then you are welcome to show yourself out. Any of you who remain, I anticipate burnout, exhaustion, and high amounts of stress and anxiety. Welcome to the world of Advanced Physics. Today, we start with a comprehensive aptitude test. You will have two hours to complete the 100 questions; you are expected to document your work for the math portions; a passing grade is 85 or more correct. Please pick up your data pads and begin-- your time starts now.

-- Phillip Grant Simpson, PhD

Advanced Physics, Land Earth Unity Centre Advanced Studies Hall, Spring Term, 34 AU (2090 CE)