Hearth

Qufiil's first orbital space station. (This is not the Faulfenzair's first ever space station, just the first they built on arriving to their new homeworld).

History

"The Hearth had been built after the settlement of Qufiil, assembled in orbit from ores mined from asteroids and refined in space. But the vessels that had brought them from Quzen had been deemed too important to be relegated to scrap after their service… so they’d been used for the core of the station."

Administration

The head of the Hearth during Zafiil's time is Wolen Liiza Oodenii.

Structure and Layout

The Hearth is a torus, though it doesn't need to rotate to maintain its artificial gravity. It is arranged in spokes (there are at least four) that connect the outer arc with the nexus/core.

It is painted with lines that tell people which direction to go where:

• Orange - toward the center (nexus)
• Blue - toward living quarters (?)
• White - school's administrative offices

Parts

• Nexus - The center of the Hearth, made from the ship(s?) that had brought them from Quzen. The ceiling is "vast" and "rounded."
• Place-of-Dancing - one of the largest single chambers on the station, and one of only three with vaulted ceilings. This round room is lined with a breezeway, separated from the center by pillars, and the depression in the center is filled with earth imported from Qufiil.
• Place-of-student-living - is located on the outer arc, between spokes 3 and 4. Quarters face outward, and have windows.

School

The institution on the Hearth teaches the skills needed by crews that want to leave the solar system in search of the Lost Kin, or the Others. Over time it has expanded to include disciplines that serve those missions, like the space sciences, and engineering and technology.

Time to graduation for most students is six years; those studying to be faulfiirla (heads of the missions) need an additional four, and take a special culminating exam, which must be passed for the student to become faulfiirla. Additionally, faulfiirla must serve twenty years of community service prior to embarking on their missions.

Curriculum

First Year: Mathematics, Scrolls of History, Local Astronomy.

Other classes: Classes of Ships.

Teachers

During Zafiil's time:

• Azenu, Mathematics.
• Jener Zefara, teaching first-year Scrolls of History. "A prim ascetic."
• Paraina Neldu, Local Astronomy. "A slow-moving creature."