There are lots of them! There are more filing in, too. "Hello!" says the one he addressed.

Teaching so many is going to be strange... I am not a professor. I am not going to make exams or grade work. I don't even have a curriculum, I have to see what you all know already. Does teaching at the most advanced level still typically involve those things?

"At the most advanced, no. By then the teacher's usually supervising original research."

I am letting whatever blue has fallen into the job track attendance and choose students, involving myself in that is probably a waste of time. It will be impossible to properly get to know everyone. I shouldn't even try! ...There should perhaps be some purples here, though.

He sniffs and addresses a ring of the closest greens. How much nuclear physics do you all already know?

They can start talking about that in a rather disorganized fashion. Someone else calls a purple colleague.

...I think I have an approximate knowledge level to start with, he says at length.

He glances to gauge how full the place is. Oh wait, he has a schedule. He checks the time.

Four minutes to go. The stragglers are fewer.

He starts the lecture exactly on-time with a short introduction. For now he is going to teach a relatively narrow topic: The general theory behind nuclear weapons and anti-nuclear-weapons-devices, and how to build the latter. Whether he will teach fusion power after that is not certain yet. He will be moving through material fast. He will be supplementing the usual telepathy with mental images because that's faster, if this is uncomfortable you can leave. He usually teaches one other person at a time and is unsure how well this will work, since he'll have almost no time for individual attention for anyone, but is confident that Voa's best are here, and the discussion and office hours will probably help.

Any questions before I bite into the meat of the first lecture?

"Do you object to us talking to each other during the lesson?"

"Do you have a syllabus or lesson plan?"

"Or any kind of written material."

No, but if you are distracted it is on your own heads. No lesson plan, I'll move on as people seem to understand. I'll make a syllabus. Written material - I will generate some each day in local formats - if anyone volunteers to set up a way to share it that will be appreciated.

They can use standard classroom software this one green expects she can expense if she buys it now.

He gives a wavey sort of tail-gesture that means agreement/approval to anyone who has read about tail body language.

Good initiative. If you want to set it up right now, I will cover anything you missed afterwards. And be irked at important people for you if you can't actually expense it. What's your name?

"Nonmai be-Finda de-Zon."

He nods.

And then: He starts lecturing about particle physics at a level vaguely calibrated to the least-advanced front row greens! One of his shiny gadgets unfolds into a huge screen, on which diagrams and math and his email address go. He stops for questions every few minutes and answers a lot of questions with 'Ask again in office hours or discussion'.

The greens write down the questions as they go, and take notes using various idiosyncratic notetaking schemas.

Discussion sections are twenty minutes long in the same place, just a lot smaller. He's utterly tireless but clearly finding teaching so many people somewhat frustrating.

They're doing their best not to go to him if the answer can be found amongst themselves but there are lots of them.

He teaches every single day - weekends have no lectures but loads of discussions and office hours. He ends up picking a clawful of favorites, Nonmai be-Finda de-Zon included, and using them as a litmus for everyone else.

After two weeks he starts bringing in pieces of lab gear and asks his favorites for contacts to get this lab or that university to provide some more. Also, evening office hours in three days is cancelled for the day. (He would like to meet blues at the capital on that evening, he emails the person arranging that).

This can all be arranged as he likes it! Blues are waiting when he arrives.

He lands in the river surprisingly gently, for being bigger than a bus.

Hello! I just want to be clear that while I am a political figure of the Draak, I certainly don't want to make any promises or negotiations that aren't on my own behalf today.

"Understood," says Asonde. And he introduces a bunch of blues with titles like Secretary and Ambassador and Representative and Governor.

Thank you for coming to see me, he tells everyone. I'm interested in hearing about what the Voan central government does, day to day. I'm interested in hearing how laws are decided upon from a non-textbook perspective as well. Perhaps there are some subtleties my kin in our Senate could stand to hear.

The oldest blue present says, "We handle problems that the lower layers of government escalate to us and solve federal level coordination issues. For example, yesterday a suspected voting fraud case made it to my desk because the person reporting it suspected provincial level involvement and I assigned an internal affairs agent to it; tomorrow I'll be in a meeting about intellectual property law."

...I should probably concern myself with intellectual property law. But I can do that with a textbook. What makes one suspect voting fraud?

"Statistical irregularities and motive."