That night she slept fitfully, remembering the incidents in her life that had sent her on this journey. How her mother had been relocated to another campus, and she had been sent to the dormitory. The sadness of her mother's departure. Her isolation in the dorm, with its enforced focus on the competition for seeding in the mate selection list. Her low status on the list itself, which did not favor artists. The unsettling prospect of a Long Weekend with Dr. Wimmiebonn. The day she had discovered the staircase that led to the room with an old computer and discarded toys from another era. The antique rocket she had left for Dr. Trockelheim. The way Ned had looked at her in the Old Stadium.