I confidently walk into the building. Surprisingly, there is an actual human staff behind the welcome desk. A cleanly dressed man with graying hair, with that special kind of handsomeness some people manage to pull off in spite of being clearly past their prime. Clerk work is usually handled by robotics nowadays. Although this is a place of great decisions, so it does make sense in a way. His slightly bored look lights up when he sees me walking in, large double doors sliding silently before and behind me. The place has changed a lot since the last time I was here, the hall used to be massive, capable of hosting well over a hundred people in the rush of the early days of The Offer but it has been greatly sized down so that it barely feels uncomfortable in spite of us being the only ones there. The overall atmosphere was toned down from screaming "this is the future", with metallic and shiny surfaces everywhere, to the warm and cozy feel of wooden interiors. The impressive displays haven’t changed much though, and they are currently showing two landscapes straight out science fiction : one is a massive spaceship building factory, currently crawling with workers, while the other is an elegant city of silver with impressive spires, bridges defying both gravity and the winds, and skies swarmed by tiny flying vehicles.

The man immediately stands up and approaches, his spot smoothly filled by a Robotic seemingly coming out of nowhere.

“Hello, and welcome to this S.T.U.D.Y. evaluation center. What can I do for you? Are you here for an uplink or simply for information?”

“An uplink, scheduled for this morning.”

“Ah yes, splendid. In that case, please come this way.”

He led me through a barely noticeable door into a short corridor, then into an office to the right. Barely a ten seconds walk, but the importance of the occasion gives a certain tension, and we remain silent. Well, he probably isn’t feeling any particular tension, but I sure am.

The office is nice. A warmly lit place, with a pair of windows opening towards some trees. There are two simple but comfortable chairs on opposite sides of a wooden desk carrying a flat device that covers almost all of its surface.

My guide walks in a little after me and motions me to a seat.

“Alright, I might as well introduce myself since this is going to take a while. My name's Alexander and I'll be your evaluation officer. That's mostly pretty words for sitting here and helping you fill-in forms. Later on there will be a physical scan but this first part is easy enough.”

While he’s talking, the device on the desk powers up and a solid holographic display appears floating between us. At a glance, a pretty regular form.

“Fancy.”

“I know right ? Well that’s just how it is with the Knowledgeable, it’s either going to be beyond expectation or not happening. To fill the form you can just speak out loud your answers and it should pick them up as you go but I can also ask you the individual questions. I've got the same display as you except I can edit your answers if something is wrong. This first one is just needed to match you with your ID in the city system. What do you prefer ?”

We're starting classic and boring then. The voice recognition is a nice touch. I lean back into my seat as I start answering, quickly improvising a phrase matching the fields.

“My name is Marc Rosel, I'm male, born in the city of Nantes, in France, the 17th march 2007. I'm 1,75m tall, not married and no kids, blood type uhhh… AB minus I think?”

At that point, a large close up of my ID shows up on screen, and the rest of the form in the background is automatically filled up with the rest of my info, social security number, fingerprints, eye color... A large button showed up.

Confirm Data?

“Seems good,, can you show me your physical ID for a second?”

he gives it a quick glance over and nods again,

“Perfect, confirm it with a touch.”

Somehow, the hologram feels solid. It has no texture, no heat, just a place that my finger can’t go through. Alexander also hit the confirm button on his side and the screen changes, time for the personality assessment test apparently.

“Right, personality assessment next. This one includes 100 questions to answer with yes or no and 150 statements that you need to grade from 1 to 5 meaning 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. I'm afraid it's a bit dull, but it’s straightforward at least, feel free to take your time. I'll leave you to it and a Robotic will come your way in case you have any questions.”

I answer with a slight smile.

“Alright, thanks Alexander.”

Show people that you've remembered their name to make them like you a bit more. A simple trick but it might be worth it, I definitely want him to like me. He seems friendly, but as the intermediary between me and the experience I’ll live through in the Study, he has a lot of power over me. I’d rather have him choose to do something helpful for me than choosing to screw me for kicks and giggles.

- - -

Alexander was right, answering those endless questions got boring fast, at least the Robotic (this one is a shiny cube on wheels with a built in coffee machine) offered me a drink and I ended up with some excellent tea. I’m done with it now though, and I’m trying to make sense of the result while waiting for Alexander's return.

There’s a lot of sliders and scores that remind me of the ‘big five’ personality test I’ve passed for my first job. Except this one must be called the meaningful twenty or something, there’s a lot of data.

Thankfully, there is also a short recap at the end that helpfully puts a few words on the figures. Even though it’s a bit of an unpleasantly brutal read.

{Based on the given answers, the subject shows characteristics matching those of functional introverts, struggling to talk about himself but still somewhat social. In spite of his altruistic side, subject also shows an almost cynical, grim outlook on the nature and intentions of others. Subject does not trust easily, and generally favors safe behavior, preferring to commit to actions after considering the associated risks.}

I don’t have to wait very long before Alexander walks in with a smile, barely glances at my results before confirming, and then looks straight at me.

“Looking great, I’m no psychologist, but if something was seriously wrong, the system would notice. As you know, your behavior will be observed, so this is more a basis that will be built upon. Of course, we expect that your mentality will evolve as you live new things. Which brings us to the best part! Tell me Marc, where are we going to send you?”