To Rick’s astonishment he knew that voice. It was Turkey Gossage. Rick peered into the dark interior.
“You knew where I was?”
“Of course. Many’s the night I’ve done the same thing myself. There’s no better place than the outer ring observation ports to feel the size and majesty of the universe, and know there’s more in it than you’ll ever see or understand. And I knew just when you left there.”
“You’ve been watching me?”
“Not just you. Everybody.” Turkey gestured to Rick to come in and raised the level of the lights. “We learned the hard way not to let any trainee go off alone and unmonitored the night after finals. Sit down and take it easy. Are you feeling upset?”
“I don’t know if that’s the right word. I can’t stop thinking about the exam.”
“I’m sure. That’s why I’m here—to end the suspense.” Turkey thrust out his hand. He had a big grin on his face.
“It’s over, Luban. Congratulations. You passed the final. You’ll be heading on to the next stage of training.”
Rick gaped at him. “Passed? But you said that tomorrow—”
“That was my time cushion, a margin for error. We finished the final comparison and collating of results four hours ago. I’ve been doing the rounds since, telling people. You’re the last.”
Rick finally did as Turkey had suggested, and flopped down onto the padded floor. He had passed! He would be leaving CM-2 and going out to the Belt. But it had come so soon and so suddenly—it did not feel real.
“When? When will I go?”
“Soon. A day or two.”
“So—what happens now?”
“You mean, right this minute? Well, I don’t imagine you feel much like sleeping.”
“Never!”
“Good. There’s a celebration party in the senior mess, and it should be swinging along nicely by now. So I suggest you head over there.”
“Are you coming, too?”
“Eventually. But not for a while.” Turkey’s voice became heavier and all the humor went out of it. “You see, Luban, this training station isn’t Happy House. It’s not like your school back on Earth, where everybody has to do well and everyone must graduate with honors, otherwise their precious self-esteem would be ruined. Nearly a fourth of the people on the training course have failed. They won’t be going to any party, and they need me tonight a lot more than you do. So maybe I’ll see you later. But if not—you’ll understand why.”
“Who—who failed?” And, when Gossage did not answer, “Vido Valdez, and Deedee Mao, and—”
“I prefer not to talk about individuals. Why don’t you get along to the party? There will be a complete list posted there later.” Turkey nodded. “Go now.”
It was an order, in a tone of voice that the trainees had learned not to argue with. Turkey would accept no more questions. Rick swallowed, rose to his feet, and stumbled out.
His path to the senior mess, normally off-limits to lowly trainees, took him past the dormitories. All the lights were on in spite of the late hour, but the corridors and rooms were eerily deserted like ghosts of their usual selves. Rick hurried past his own dorm and the open doors of the next two along. He glanced inside each, not expecting anyone, and was surprised to see a heavyset form at the far end of the second dorm, sitting on a bunk with his back to the door.
It was Vido. Rick paused. The two of them had hardly spoken a word since their last fight. He should go on. But the other’s hunched shoulders spoke of total misery.
Rick moved forward hesitantly to Vido’s side. “I’m really sorry,” he began, then could add nothing more.
Vido turned to stare up at him, his broad black face stony with grief. “It was my fault. All my fault.”
Rick reached out his hand intending to pat Vido’s shoulder, then drew it back. “You did your best. We all did. I’m really sorry that you—that it didn’t work out for you.” He could not bring himself to say that awful word, failed.
“For me?” Vido stared in confusion.
“That you didn’t pass.”
“But I did! You thought—”
“But you said—”
“Not me. Monkey! She failed, and it was all my fault.”
Vido put his head down and stared at nothing. “She came to you for help, an’ I hated it. I asked her not to do that no more. And she didn’t, for my sake. But you could have helped her. It was the math, you see, she could handle the rest of it but she couldn’t handle that. An’ you’re a real good math teacher, Alice an’ Deedee both say so. If only I’d been less selfish, if only I just hadn’t stopped her.”
Rick hesitated again. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say next would please Vido, but he knew that he had to say it. “Vido, it wasn’t you. I talked to Monkey for a long time that day before you came along. When it comes to math, she just doesn’t get it. Not at all. I could have taught her every day, so could you, and it wouldn’t have made any difference. She’d never have passed that theory final in a hundred years. She just didn’t seem able to get the basic ideas. You know her a lot better than me. Surely you saw that?”
“I thought it was me. I thought I wasn’t explaining right.”
“It wasn’t you. It was Monkey. I’m really sorry, Vido.” Rick finally reached out and patted the other’s shoulder, knowing it was something that no sixteen-year-old male did to another male in his old school without risking mockery. But the hell with that, things were different in space. “I’m really glad you passed. Honest. Congratulations.”
Vido looked startled. “I never asked. You?—”
“I passed, too. We’ll both be going to the Belt.”
“Yeah. Guess so. The Belt.” Vido took a deep breath, then stood up and held out his hand. “Congratulations. But you’re not at the party!”
“I’m on my way. You should go, too. It’s terrible about Monkey, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Let’s go.”
“I won’t be able to enjoy the party without her. Shit, I’ll probably take a swipe at Gossage the minute I see him, for flunking her.”
“I don’t think so. He won’t be there.” Rick repeated what Turkey had told him. “He’s got the toughest job of all tonight. You owe it to him to go and at least try to have a good time.”
“Yeah. Maybe I do.” Vido sighed. “To hell with it. To hell with everything. I thought this was goin’ to be the best day of my life, or it was goin’ to be the worst. An’ here it is both.”
He sniffed and rubbed his eyes. For a change, both of them were bloodshot. “Let’s go, Luban. Before people start sayin’ I’m getting soft.”
For the rest of the way, Rick wondered about Deedee Mao. He knew she was really smart, but she might not be good at taking tests. Suppose that she, like Monkey, had flunked? It was a huge relief to enter the crowded senior mess, and see her almost at once. She had been watching the door with an anxious expression, and the moment she saw him come in her face lit up and she gave him a double thumbs-up sign from across the room.
She came pushing across to his side. “I’d really started to wonder about you.” She had to put her face close to his and shout because of the noise.
“Hell, Deedee, if somebody like you could pass, I—ouch!” Rick grunted as she poked him in the ribs. “What’s going on over there? I thought this was supposed to be a party.”
A line of trainees was forming at the other side of the room, facing Jigger Tait.
“Not just a party. This is graduation. First you graduate, then you party.”