'We'll give you the basic technology again.' Andra lifted the canister. I'd forgotten the scoop shaped to fit a human face. 'You shouldn't have trouble with this. It's just the simplified theories behind the technology you'll need to be using.'
The scoop felt cool against my skin, cooler when the mist permeated my face. I still sensed thousands of tiny needles penetrating my skull. Then came the rush of phrases, terms, and definitions mixed with interrelated equations ...
... xenon discharge... elevates atoms... wave forms above the quark level... creating two phased photons and a cascade effect down a crystalline channel... parallel wave forms pass through openings the same size as their wavelengths ... diffraction occurs ... intensity drops inversely as the square of the distance ... color does not exist except as a perception of different wavelengths ... failure of initial fusactor technology lay in unstated assumption that no wavefield interference would occur from plasma and magfields, despite superconductivity ... deuterium and tritium resonance on the quanta! level ... maximum span potential directly proportional to the strength to mass/weight ratio of materials ...
Her eyes on the screen beside the plastic collector, Andra nodded. 'Not bad.' She motioned for me to follow, then walked into the adjoining room, the one with windows. 'You remember this. Sit down at the console. A question will scroll onto the screen. You search through the information you received and press the key that represents the most nearly correct answer. This will help you integrate what you've just received.'
I nodded back and wondered if the first question would be the one about light. She looked at me, then left.
The first question was: 'Light can most nearly be described as which of the following?'
As before, when I thought about light, information flooded through me, but less overwhelmingly than four years earlier. Half-familiar as the questions were, I was still staggering mentally when I completed the exercises on the console.
Andra appeared almost immediately after I selected the last answer, beckoning me back into the nanite spray room. With rubbery knees, I followed.
'From here on in, based on the test analyses, what you get will be different from the last time.' She lifted another canister and pressed the scoop to my face.
The second blast of information was more soul-shivering ... far more.
... invariance translations ... result in no changes in charge conjugation, rotation, or transformation ... modification of the real space inversion in dimension 'n of the multiverse ... equivalent to the curvature of overspace ... requiring spinless state ... conservation of parity ... not apply with weak interactions or under overspace inversion insertion .., apparent suspension of parity selection 'rules' and potential frame cascade ...
The definitions and equations and explanations went on and on - and kept going.
Andra took my arm to steady me but said nothing, guiding me back to the windowed room and the waiting console.
She left once more, and I held my head in my hands, trying to keep it from falling off, for a time before I glanced at the message on the console screen.
'Describe in simple terms the theory which allows needle ships to employ overspace translations to cross interstellar distances in apparent contradiction of light-speed constraints. When ready, press the speech stud and talk distinctly.'
I looked at the question again. I hadn't been required to formulate answers before. Did that mean I was farther ahead? Or that they expected more as a result of my time on OE Station? Did the information I had received allow me to answer the question?
After searching and sweating, and moistening my lips, I finally began to talk, wishing I could have written it out first.
'Ah... the overspace translation system allows the needle ship to transverse overspace as a soliton ...'
The screen blinked. 'Please explain the theoretical basis of the system.'
'Under normal space conditions all inertial space-time coordinate frames are in uniform motion with relation to all others. In overspace, while the total motion of the coordinates must... balance ...' I paused, knowing my paraphrasing of highly technical theories was probably so simple as to be totally wrong, then plunged on. 'Direction and time may vary inversely, allowing a greater distance to be covered in less elapsed time than in normspace.'
The screen remained blank for a moment, then scripted, 'At how many points must a partially curved frame overspace-time surface intersect real time?'
I punched the letter beside the answer indicating none.
'What is the optimal interrelation between real-space velocity and overspace insertion velocity?'
I wiped my forehead. This was the beginning? The next question wasn't any better. Nor the one after that.
After the last question of more inquiries than I wanted to count, I put my head down in my hands and closed my eyes.
'Tyndel?'
I looked up.
'That's all for today. Nine hundred tomorrow. Ileck is expecting you at the pool.' The pale gray eyes offered neither sympathy nor disgust... just a trace of amusement.
I stood. 'Can you tell me what I have to look forward to? And how long?'
'In general terms' - Andra frowned— 'no Web pilot or needle jockey is trained exactly like any other, not until you get to Web bugs and shiphandling. Then it gets pretty standard, I'm told. Our job here is to get you ready for that.' She paused. 'You're weak on the concepts, but your sense of logic and organization is strong. That's the Dzin. If you stay on path, we'll finish with your basic structuring and indoctrination in another month.' She nodded. 'Then you can start learning what you'll really need to know.'
'This is all material that any Rykashan should know? Right now?'
She shook her head. Any well-educated Rykashan.'
At least I'd end up a well-educated Rykashan, even if I didn't turn out as a needle ship pilot.
You can be a pilot. You have the skills. Whether you have the mental toughness is another question.'
'Is this all just for education? For what I don't know?'
'No.' A faint smile appeared, and I had hope that someday she might regard me as more than a spoiled Dzin master. 'Do you still have the feeling that you know something and yet you don't - all at the same time?'
I had to nod to that. 'Not so much anymore.'
She laughed. 'That will get worse as you learn and apply more knowledge. Some of what we do won't seem to have much to do with training. It's designed to integrate knowledge and experience from all data inputs.'
'It's going to be a long fall.'
'And a long winter,' Andra promised. 'Now... you're going to be late for physical training.' So I stood and headed for the pool.
49
The effective use of symbolism is a key with knife edges.
In chest-deep water I leaned against the side of the swimming pool, my forehead against the cool black tile, panting, trying to recover from swimming several hundred meters at full speed.
'Better.' At close to two meters tall, with golden bronze skin, jet-black hair and eyes, Ileck was the image of a prestabilization god. He was also the taskmaster set to recondition me. 'In another month, you'll be able to go twice as far - say, eight hundred meters - at a sprint'
I nodded, not looking up, waiting for the queasiness to subside.
'When you're ready, come on down to the deep end.'
I finally heaved myself out of the water and padded along the side of the pool, the dampness of my footprints lost on the gritty surface of the black composite that composed the deck of the enclosed pool. The water looked black as well.