Today is the worst day of Olivia’s life. It took all her willpower to stop from screaming manically in the middle of class. FUCK! FUCK, I AM SO SCREWED! She wailed to herself. The harbinger of her sorrow was standing at the podium at the front of the class, explaining the final to the gathered students. Professor Wu was truly beyond compare in her passion for her subject: Ecology. Olivia had to respect it; once, Professor Wu was literally brought to tears over a ‘highly neat’ graph of deer populations in the large forests surrounding the university. If anyone deserved, or was destined, to teach ecology, it was this woman.
One issue with the Professor, however, was she could be demanding. The class she taught this semester, Ecology of Universes, was notorious for its many difficult assignments. Essays, quizzes, exams, presentations, and the like were there in spades. But the real tough stuff was the field work. Usually given for the final, Professor Wu required each student in her roughly 15-person class to go out and actually see the concepts she taught them. As one might guess by the name of the class, that meant going out to another dimension and bringing back samples of interesting ecosystems, habitats, even entire biospheres. The students must then write a paper and present their samples to the class. This entire endeavor was worth 40% of the class grade. A student was graded not just on the depth of her analysis, but on the novelty and uniqueness of her finds. “I’ve hand selected a multitude of universes to go to,” she explained. “They’ve all got plenty of interesting lifeforms and you have 2 weeks to do this, so no excuses! I want to be surprised by what you bring me, that’s what’s so fun about science! Be sure to reserve a universe on the spreadsheet so two students don’t fight over the most interesting thing there. I’m sure you already know this, but please use the proper way of traveling dimensions! Remember, tunneling into universes can seriously destabilize them! You’ll be in big trouble if I find out you’re tunneling! Alright, that’s everything for now. We won’t have class until the finals period where you’ll all present. If you have any questions you can just text me. Good luck! Find me something cool!”
Olivia ran her fingers through her dirty blonde hair, pushing it behind her ears to fall at her shoulders. She could handle field work, that was fine, but 40% of the grade was just too much pressure. She walked up to Professor Wu as the teacher slid her laptop into her bag, “Professor? Can I chat real quick?” The professor looked up, “Sure, Olivia. Got a question about the final?”
“Yes, well, kind of. I’m just worried about doing the field work. I know you picked the universes out, but since we’re graded on how novel our picks are I’m uncertain how to assess my own work. I’m just not sure what ‘interesting’ look like to you, I guess,” Olivia internally cringed at how blunt she was being. Normally, she is not this direct or confrontational. The professor stayed still a moment, then spoke, “Well, I’m not sure what counts as ‘interesting’ either, to be honest. Hmm… I still want you to try and find something unique,” She tapped her index finger on her chin as she contemplated. “I used to record the presentations students gave me. What if I gave you an example presentation from a few years ago? Not for you to crib off of, but to use as a reference. All the recordings I kept were quite intriguing to me, at the time. How’s that sound?”
Olivia smiled, “That sounds good. Thanks a lot!” That wouldn’t completely stop the nerves, but at least the clarity from a prior project would help reduce the uncertainty a bit. Olivia sauntered out of the room and headed to the food court for some lunch.
-- Five hours later --
Olivia slammed down into her desk chair, mind swimming, body sore as she returned from the gym. A full day of classes and studying necessitated a long exercise session to de-stress the college junior. It may have helped, but it did not eliminate the intense pressure she felt for her ecology project. I need to pass this class. If I fail, that’s no med school for me. Olivia had ambitions of becoming a surgeon, a dream of hers for years, and applying was fiercely competitive. Even with her research, volunteering, leadership, sports, and academics, it wasn’t a sure shot she’d actually get in. With a failed class, even an elective like her ecology class, her career plan would be ruined. What would I do then? Work in labs? Teach? Maybe that’s good enough for Professor Wu, but not me.
As the anxiety threatened to leap up at her, she resolved to check out the recorded presentation her teacher sent her. She opened her laptop and found the emailed video. She saw a short redhead, jumpy and excited enough to be picked up on the camera situated at the back of the room, holding up a petri dish of what looked like tiny sea sponges, about 10mm in height. The woman began her presentation,
“Here is the apex species of the planet X80AEEB-L11-09 in universe APOE442-H554-Rose. An alien species nearby calls the planet ‘Thovax’ and these sponges ‘Porvia Ilthu’ which according to their radio transmissions means ‘Great Towers.’ These are a great example of ecosystem engineers, and are at the same time the keystone species for most of the planet’s biosphere. Here,” She advanced her presentation slides to a close-up picture of a massive forest of calciferous columns, “Is a pretty typical sponge colony. Note the different colors and hole density; I’m pretty sure these are all the same species, just different variations, which is neat! Anyway, these colonies are dispersed throughout the entire planet, and seem to be where most of the life is. Looking at the biofilters, we can see they all have DNA like us, but there are genomic signatures with different GC content on the inside of the sponge compared to the outer walls. What you’re seeing is all the other organisms that live in the sponge! The sponges likely provide a safe, stable, nutrient rich environment for the resident organisms and they probably give the sponge food and maybe certain nutrients the sponges don’t make. So that’s pretty neat! I did some dye tracking on a few just to see how the water flow through the sponges influences…”
The redhead continued on and on, never once tiring or stopping her rapid deluge of information, all coated in a nearly sickening glaze of pure passion. That woman is a born ecologist, Olivia thought. After having watched that, Olivia figured that the presentation was an actually achievable task. Just find a good looking planet, use the cross-dimensional scanners to get the basics, then go there for an hour or so, do some scans, take pictures, then grab a sample. Not too hard! Olivia closed the video once the presentation was over, shut her laptop, and went to dinner. She planned to just take all of tomorrow and knock this project out.