calling a person names.
The prospect of their first practical exercise generally affected the students somewhat more dramatically. Chonis checked the reactions to his surprise: Student Noycannir froze up in her seat whenever she felt threatened, yes, just like that. Student Koscuisko straightened up in his seat, leaning over the table and staring at the carefully replicated artificial grain of Chonis’s semi-veneer wall-covering as if there was a text to be read there.
“The Administrator has asked me to declare an extra half of personal time, in token of his appreciation for your accomplishments. Please prepare the material issued for first lecture, Segment Two, the Preliminary Levels. We will start first thing in the morning. Thank you, Student Noycannir, Student Koscuisko.”
Fortunately by this time Students were accustomed to spending their personal time alone with only their bond-involuntary Security for company. The Administration took steps with every class to ensure that Students were isolated from each other to the maximum extent possible; training was much more efficient if Students were utterly dependent on their Tutors for approval and validation.
Now, for instance, if Students were permitted to meet and compare notes, they might conceivably recognize the schedule shift for the simple psychological trick that it was. There was no time allowance for assurance iteration.
There never had been.
Every Term it appeared on the schedule, to give the Students the false sense of temporary security that a weeklong buffer between pure theory and the first messy — clumsy — practical exercise could provide.
And every Term Students were moved straight into Preliminary, to keep them off balance and insecure and so eager for reassurance — for official approbation — that they would be willing to beat some helpless stranger with their bare hands just to get a word of praise from their Tutor.
“We start tomorrow with first-lecture, usual time. And then we’ll move to theater in a few days.” They needed some extra nudging to get them up and out of his office. “Your first exercise is scheduled for today week. We’ll review some of the previous exercises to help you prepare prior to the practicum. Enjoy your free time. Good-shift to you, Students.”
Koscuisko shook his head just a fraction, as if breaking himself out of his immobility, and started to rise. The moment Koscuisko began to shift, Noycannir was out of her chair smoothly and swiftly, unwilling — as always — to see him get one step ahead of her in anything. Tomorrow, Students, Chonis promised them in his mind, watching them take their confusion out of his office. Tomorrow we will begin to test your mettle.
And in the meantime?
In the meantime reports from the assigned Security troops usually proved amusing, as each Student sought to find some psychic balance after the unexpected shock.
The door slid together behind Koscuisko’s back, and Tutor Chonis leaned back in his chair and smiled.
###
It had been a week since the Tutor’s traditional trick of moving the Students straight into preparation for their first practical exercise. Joslire had taken his officer through the evening drill; now Koscuisko was relaxing with his rubdown, quite possibly thinking of nothing more than his supper to come.
Koscuisko seemed to be relaxed enough.
Lying on his belly with his arms folded under his head, Koscuisko nuzzled his chin into his fist like a blissfully happy young animal, making undefined sounds of contentment. Joslire suppressed his involuntary grin of amused recognition. Yes, that muscle had pulled tense during today’s training; and yes, it did feel good, when it surrendered up its tension to an expert hand. And if he was not an expert hand, at least Joslire was good enough by this time to tend to Koscuisko’s relatively minor aches and pains to his satisfaction.
He’d had Students both more and less athletic than this one in the past,
The prospect of their first practical exercise generally affected the students somewhat more dramatically. Chonis checked the reactions to his surprise: Student Noycannir froze up in her seat whenever she felt threatened, yes, just like that. Student Koscuisko straightened up in his seat, leaning over the table and staring at the carefully replicated artificial grain of Chonis’s semi-veneer wall-covering as if there was a text to be read there.
“The Administrator has asked me to declare an extra half of personal time, in token of his appreciation for your accomplishments. Please prepare the material issued for first lecture, Segment Two, the Preliminary Levels. We will start first thing in the morning. Thank you, Student Noycannir, Student Koscuisko.”
Fortunately by this time Students were accustomed to spending their personal time alone with only their bond-involuntary Security for company. The Administration took steps with every class to ensure that Students were isolated from each other to the maximum extent possible; training was much more efficient if Students were utterly dependent on their Tutors for approval and validation.
Now, for instance, if Students were permitted to meet and compare notes, they might conceivably recognize the schedule shift for the simple psychological trick that it was. There was no time allowance for assurance iteration.
There never had been.
Every Term it appeared on the schedule, to give the Students the false sense of temporary security that a weeklong buffer between pure theory and the first messy — clumsy — practical exercise could provide.
And every Term Students were moved straight into Preliminary, to keep them off balance and insecure and so eager for reassurance — for official approbation — that they would be willing to beat some helpless stranger with their bare hands just to get a word of praise from their Tutor.
“We start tomorrow with first-lecture, usual time. And then we’ll move to theater in a few days.” They needed some extra nudging to get them up and out of his office. “Your first exercise is scheduled for today week. We’ll review some of the previous exercises to help you prepare prior to the practicum. Enjoy your free time. Good-shift to you, Students.”
Koscuisko shook his head just a fraction, as if breaking himself out of his immobility, and started to rise. The moment Koscuisko began to shift, Noycannir was out of her chair smoothly and swiftly, unwilling — as always — to see him get one step ahead of her in anything. Tomorrow, Students, Chonis promised them in his mind, watching them take their confusion out of his office. Tomorrow we will begin to test your mettle.
And in the meantime?
In the meantime reports from the assigned Security troops usually proved amusing, as each Student sought to find some psychic balance after the unexpected shock.
The door slid together behind Koscuisko’s back, and Tutor Chonis leaned back in his chair and smiled.
###
It had been a week since the Tutor’s traditional trick of moving the Students straight into preparation for their first practical exercise. Joslire had taken his officer through the evening drill; now Koscuisko was relaxing with his rubdown, quite possibly thinking of nothing more than his supper to come.
Koscuisko seemed to be relaxed enough.
Lying on his belly with his arms folded under his head, Koscuisko nuzzled his chin into his fist like a blissfully happy young animal, making undefined sounds of contentment. Joslire suppressed his involuntary grin of amused recognition. Yes, that muscle had pulled tense during today’s training; and yes, it did feel good, when it surrendered up its tension to an expert hand. And if he was not an expert hand, at least Joslire was good enough by this time to tend to Koscuisko’s relatively minor aches and pains to his satisfaction.
He’d had Students both more and less athletic than this one in the past,
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