Physically, Ping wasn't that imposing either. She was a slight woman of barely middle height. Shorter like most originally from Earth and much less stout and muscled than most of them. She was fined boned, almost fragile in fact.
But the will that radiated from the woman was fierce. She felt like an implacable force of nature. Something that you couldn't argue with only get out of the way of.
It was Monday and the day's class was over and Katie had been called in to have a one-to-one talk with that force of nature that Miss Ping was.
She didn't know why.
She was too tired to care much.
They'd all been required to submit their first essay of the course this morning.
Something on the basis of the economic underpinnings of the ancien regime. Farming and trade not to put a fine point on it. Landowners and merchants battled it out and the peasants hardly mattered. Might be rather interesting if she'd had the energy for it. She didn't. She also wasn't sure what the application to a modern technological society was. Didn't matter.
Miss Ping wanted an essay, Miss Ping got her essay.
Katie had a rule about getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep was bad for your health, and tired people make mistakes. She'd had to break that rule to get the essay done for Miss Ping. She'd been up most of last night.
Katie knew she could be impetuous. She didn't think she lost her temper much, if ever. Right now she was feeling grouchy and short tempered.
They'd finished their class for the day and the rest of the students had stumbled out of the classroom.
Not Katie.
"Miss Kincaid, could you remain behind for a few minutes, please," Miss Ping had announced. She'd gathered a few glances of sympathy from some classmates as they fled.
Ping hadn't had much to say, not then. She'd had a "request". "Miss Kincaid, would you mind coming back after an hour for supper?" she'd asked. "I have some additional tests I'd like to give you. When you're done, we'll need to discuss them and your progress so far." She'd looked at Katie expectantly, as if there was more than one answer Katie could give.
Of course, Katie minded. The homework Miss Ping had assigned them along with time for a meal and some quick toiletries would bring her right to bedtime. Any extra time spent in discussions with Miss Ping would come right out of her sleep time leaving her short for the second day in a row.
She couldn't say that. She had to please Miss Ping, so she'd help convince the Commander to give her a break. "No, ma'am, not at all," she'd lied. "Can we do it now maybe though?"
Miss Ping had shook her head. "No, I need time to prepare," she'd said. "You should get your blood sugar levels up. I don't know how long this will take."
Like that didn't sound ominous. Katie had helped herself to an extra dessert in case Miss Ping was being literal.
Now dinner over, she was back in front of the classroom door wondering what was up. She'd know soon.
She took a deep breath and opening the door went in.
Miss Ping was standing still, and ever so erect, with a tablet held in both hands in front of her. That erect posture and stillness were quite imposing Katie noted, something she'd have to remember for herself in the future.
Katie marched up to Miss Ping. "I'm here, ma'am," she announced.
"I see," Miss Ping said. Had she just made a joke? Didn't seem possible. "Here, there are a set of tests on this tablet. Do them here now, take as long as you need. I'll be here the whole time if you have questions. I trust you used the facilities before coming."
"Of course, ma'am," Katie said taking the tablet.
She then lost herself in the tests.
There were no essay questions. There were hundreds of multiple choice ones. They gave way to short answer ones. Not only did Katie have to recall all the people and places Ping had wanted memorized, she had to remember how to spell them too. Mostly she thought she managed it.
Those gave way to worse questions. Questions that could have used essay answers, but came with the instruction to answer the question in a single sentence. Katie felt the need to indulge in some long runaway run-on sentences. She couldn't help it.
Worse, some of the questions seemed like trick ones. Like "What was the most important event of 2001?".
Katie answered, "The attack of 9-11 leading to the retardation of the American pivot from its Cold War strategic posture.".
She wasn't sure Miss Ping would agree, or that she wanted the elaboration of why it was important, but it was the best she could manage.
Finally there were no more questions.
Katie checked the time, it'd been well over two hours. If she'd answered the exam questions like any normal person or agonized over even one of them, they could have easily been here all night.
She looked up at Miss Ping. "Done, ma’am," she said.
"Very well, Miss Kincaid," Miss Ping said. "Just another minute or two while I check over your answers."
Katie blinked. Normally it'd take a few days for a test like the one she'd just done to be marked. Miss Ping must have been following her answers in real time and marking them as she went. Rather scary. At least it meant this would be over soon. She hoped Ping wasn't planning on flunking her out already. She'd thought she'd done pretty well. Only it wasn't like Miss Ping was going to be reasonable, or even fair. This could be the end of her plans for her future. Finished before they'd even really got started.
The next couple of minutes, more like five really, seemed like an eternity spent in a hell of anticipation.
Finally Miss Ping looked up. "You prepared carefully for the course, Miss Kincaid," she said.
Katie wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question. "Yes, ma'am," she answered. "I'd heard the full length course was challenging. I assumed the condensed course would be more so. This course is very important to me and my future, and I didn't want to take any chances."
"Yes, well congratulations your command of the material exceeds that of any student I've had to date," Miss Ping said. "Including all the ones who actually completed my course. In fact, I'd say your command of the facts in the topic equals or exceeds that of most graduate students and Ph.Ds."
"That's good isn't it, ma'am?" Katie asked. It sounded like it should be. "Are you sure?" Too late, she realized that sounded like a challenge to Miss Ping's credentials.
Miss Ping simply smiled at her. It was a shocking expression. Worse was it seemed like a sad smile.
"I was an outstanding student myself," she said. "I'm fully qualified to be a professor of history at one of Earth's more prestigious universities. Yet here I am teaching secondary school in the Belt. You're not the only talented person, Miss Kincaid, that has managed to upset the powers that be."
"I try not to, ma'am," Katie said with heartfelt sincerity. "Does this mean I'm going to pass the course? I have to prove to Commander Tretyak that I can handle the Academy. Your recommendation is critical, ma'am." Katie really hoped this didn't sound like begging.
"As far as I'm concerned, you've tested out of the course," Miss Ping said. "It isn't that you haven't got more to learn, but that's true of everything. Your command of the material is excellent. You know as much about late modern history as all but a fraction of humanity. Again congratulations. It's an amazing achievement, especially from a fifteen year girl from the Belt. Finishing the course would be a waste of our time. It'd also distract me from trying to drill something into the heads of the rest of these numbskulls. I'm passing you."
"Ah, thank you, ma'am," Katie replied. "What are you going to tell Commander Tretyak?"
"I'm going to write Commander Tretyak a nice formal letter saying that your command of the material is exceptional," Miss Ping said. "I'm going to say I'm passing you based on a rigorous testing of your knowledge. I'm going to write that I believe more classroom time along with slower students is not the best use of my time or yours." She paused at looked at Katie expectantly.
"What aren't you saying, ma'am?"
"I'm not sayin
g I don't think you'll be a good fit in the Space Force," Miss Ping said. "I'm not going to express an opinion on that at all. Not formally."
"I see," Katie said. She didn't know how the Commander would react to that. Was just passing the course enough? Or was she supposed to have passed it in a certain way? What was Miss Ping going to say to the Commander informally?
"I doubt it," Miss Ping said. "You're mature for your age, but you're a young girl from out in the sticks."
"The sticks?"
"Not the metropolitan area where the sophisticated and powerful congregate along with their spawn," Miss Ping said. "You're not plugged into the informal networks of the people who run things."
"Is that an insurmountable handicap if you're talented enough and work hard enough, ma'am?"
"That depends on what you're trying to achieve," Miss Ping said. "You've impressed me, Miss Kincaid. I believe that you're capable and determined enough not only to have passed my course here, but to act like, and appear to be, the very epitome of a good Space Force officer."
Katie wasn't sure what Miss Ping meant. She was tempted to let sleeping dogs lie, but of course she couldn't. "You think I'd be faking it?"
"I think you're capable of it," Miss Ping replied. "I think you're capable of parroting back to me anything I want to hear, and I think you're capable of doing that to Commander Tretyak, and to whatever instructors and superiors you might encounter at the Academy and in the Space Force. I think we both know this."
"Ma'am," Katie said. She didn't want to say nothing, but neither could she think of a sensible reply. Miss Ping had as much as said she didn't believe anything Katie might say to her. If she said as much to the Commander Katie could kiss her prospective career good bye.
"Cheer up, Miss Kincaid," Miss Ping said with a twisted little smile. "What I'll report to the Commander is that I think you're capable of performing as an outstanding officer in the Space Force. That despite a formally deficient education that your capacity for self study more than compensates. That you were diligent and well behaved in your studies."
"Thank you, ma'am," Katie said.
"It may not be enough for Tretyak, but it's as far as I'm willing to go," Miss Ping said. "Also I'm not at all sure this is the best course for you. I think you should rethink it. You're an outsider, as am I. If you're outstandingly capable and don't rock the boat the powers to be will be willing to use you. They'll treat you like a valuable tool. That doesn't mean they'll ever fully trust you. If you cease to be useful or you look like you're a possible threat, they'll discard you. Is that really what you want?"
"Ma'am, I want to make a difference," Katie said. "I know I can't change everything. I want to make the world a better place, but I know I have to pick my battles. Fight the ones I can win. Avoid the ones I can't. Please give me a chance to try."
"Very well," Miss Ping said. "I'll do what I can in good conscience."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Come back in twenty years and say that."
* * *
Katie's guts were in turmoil as she made her way home through the tunnels. The extra study to prepare, the first week of the course, those crazy exams that'd eaten most of the evening, and finally that weird talk with Miss Ping. It was too much, too fast. Her head was ringing.
Bunny hoping along the dark deserted tunnels she knew she needed to be paying more attention. There were worse things than Billy and his buddies in the dark corners here. The Commander and Miss Ping might think Ceres was a staid little place that nothing ever happened in. Katie knew it had a dark underside they never saw.
She focused in the moment for the remainder of the trip. She didn't encounter any trouble, but if she had she would have seen it first. In time to avoid it this time. She hoped. She hoped she was capable of learning.
It was a relief when she reached the lifts that led into the gravity ring her rooms were in. You'd think this would be a chokepoint, a natural point for ambushes. In fact, the area was well lit with multiple security cameras. Everyone knew anything out of the normal would bring the patrol out and quickly. Whatever you might say about the vermin on Ceres, they tried to stay out of sight. Out of the light.
She'd seen the news casts and documentaries about the no-go zones in some of Earth's large cities and knew that wasn't true everywhere.
She got back to her room on automatic.
Once there she sat down on the edge of her bed. She had to clear off a bunch of hardcopy papers she'd been studying first. Papers she didn't need anymore.
She let the feelings come.
They were confusing.
There was relief. Miss Ping might not be quite the monster her students thought she was, but her course was a trial all the same. After all the preparation, Katie was a little disappointed to not be doing the whole course. She wasn't going to miss another five weeks of stress, exhaustion, and confusion.
There was bafflement. She really didn't understand where Miss Ping was coming from. She knew she was missing something. Maybe multiple somethings. She didn't know what.
There was apprehension. Sure she hadn't failed the course. Sure Miss Ping wasn't going to denounce her to the Commander, whatever she thought privately. On the other hand, it didn't appear she was going to give Katie a ringing endorsement either. Who knew how the Commander was going to react to that?
Finally there was determination. Miss Ping had added herself to the long list of people who believed Katie ought to rethink her goals. Reminded Katie she had no intention what so ever of doing so.
So what to do?
She could accept what had happened and steam straight on as she was. Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes, as one famous American Civil War hero was supposed to have said. That would have been her favored approach. Just march into the Commander's office, assuming she'd done what he'd asked and daring him to break his word.
Alternatively, she could back off a little and study the situation. Maybe there were new tactics she could try. She would like to have a better idea of what was going on. She'd always tried to be as prepared as possible in the past. At the very least, she could ask for advice. She knew Calvin would volunteer something. Seemed like he worried more about her than she did about herself.
Her parents she feared were secretly hoping her whole quixotic quest failed, and she'd return home to the Dawn Threader and life would go on as before. No help there.
Sam now. Sam would be willing to help. He sometimes expressed reservations about her ideas, he never discouraged her from trying them. He'd once said, "Failure might not be an option in some circumstances, but generally if you're not willing to fail, you're not really trying and won't get much done." She'd had the feeling she was missing some context there, but the gist was clear.
She'd get a good night’s sleep.
She'd go talk to Sam.
* * *
Ceres had been founded by people with no time for caste distinctions. In particular, everybody ate together. Executives and managers didn't get their own better places to eat.
So Commander Tretyak was eating his lunch in the same cafeteria dining room that everybody in the administration offices section did. In the senior's corner. It wasn't a formal designation. Everybody simply understood that that was where the Commander and other top officials of Ceres liked to sit and eat.
Other top officials included Yuri Tretyak's colleague Guy Boucher, who headed up Ceres' logistics department.
Normally, Yuri enjoyed sharing his lunch with Guy, who was an easy going pragmatic kind of guy.
Only Guy had just added to Yuri's growing headache. The one labeled Katie Kincaid.
One of the first things that'd gone across his desk this morning had been a notice from Miss Ping. She was testing the Kincaid girl out of her modern history course. Said the girl was the most academically gifted student she'd ever seen. She'd written that she had no doubt that despite a formally deficient academic foundation the young lady could not only handle the academic work at the Academy
, but excel at it.
If he'd not been so surprised the Commander might have shrugged and appended his endorsement to Kincaid's application then and there. Case closed. Problem solved. But he had been surprised. He'd expected another several weeks at least to let the issue percolate in the back of his mind.
To be completely honest with himself, he'd expected the Kincaid girl, who however smart she was an arrogant trouble magnet, to either quit the course or to so annoy Miss Ping as to be expelled.
Still, he'd given his word and technically Kincaid had done the task he'd set her. As a concession to his gut uncertainty, he'd delayed the decision until after lunch. He'd been fully expecting to return to office after he was done with his soup, crackers, and assorted bits of vegetable and sign off on the girl's documentation.
That had been before he talked to Guy Boucher.
"That Kincaid girl up to go to the Academy," Guy had asked.
Yuri had hesitated before answering. Technically, the process was an open one. On the other hand, it wasn't exactly any of Guy's business and personnel decisions were tricky. Yuri liked to avoid gossip and any possible suggestion of favoritism. He had a policy of not talking about personnel issues if at all possible with anyone not directly involved. Still, it was Guy and he couldn't see the harm in the question. "Yes," he answered.
"You know I had to take my boy Billy into the medics for a concussion about a week ago?" Guy asked.
"No, I didn't," Yuri answered. "Sorry. Is he okay? What happened?"
"Not sure," Guy said, "but I think Kincaid was involved. Billy won't come clean. I think he's covering for her because she's a girl. I think she gets away with a lot because of that and being cute."
"Smart too," Commander Yuri Tretyak said. If there was one thing that stood out in this mess that was it.
"Maybe not as smart as she thinks she is," Guy replied.
"You're free to make a formal presentation if you wish, Guy," the Commander said. His friend was placing him in a bad situation.
"Nah, can't prove anything, and I bet she'd find some way to make Billy look bad."
Katie Kincaid Candidate: Katie Kincaid One Page 6
