The young Time Lord, known to his friends as Delta, although that was not his given name, thumped his foot against the bench he was sitting on. Finally, after hours of waiting, his parents arrived with his little brother in tow. Three years after Delta himself had entered the Academy, his little brother would be evaluated and placed with the new class. Delta had been worried about this day for months. He had realized, since coming to the Academy, how different his family was, and his brother more than anyone else.
He remembered his first day at the Academy. All the other students seemed to know each other already. In his first class, Delta had realized that this must be because they had all grown up in the Citadel, while he had lived outside the walls. This was confirmed in his biology class; when the teacher was explaining the ecosystem, Delta had mentioned the birds that lived his house, and the other students had looked amazed.
"You've seen a bird?" a rather snobby girl asked.
"Sure, and trees and…haven't you?"
"Of course not, there's none of that in the Citadel!" Satisfied, the girl sat back and the teacher went on with the class. But Delta had wanted to bury himself in the floor, thinking that they must see him as a backwards country farm boy. He didn't know why his family lived outside the Citadel, but he was suddenly a little resentful. He hadn't realized that it would hold him back. Ever since then, Delta had worked hard to be the best, to make people forget his unorthodox childhood.
But, Delta thought, his brother had always been even more unique. Even before he'd come to the Citadel, he'd noticed how strange the younger boy was. Delta had always tried to be a dutiful son, helping his parents and doing his studies; his brother, however, had run wild, exploring the countryside and learning from the hermit who lived beyond Mt. Serenity. He hoped these eccentricities wouldn't hold his brother back at the Academy. But even more, he hoped that his brother wouldn't embarrass him. Not after how hard he had worked to prove himself.
Delta was jerked out of his thoughts by the sight of his parents and brother. His parents were calm, as befitted their Prydonian station. Delta resembled his father, tall and somewhat stocky with brown hair, although in his father this projected an air of authority, while it just made Delta bigger. His mother was thin and graceful, her hair light blond. Delta's brother took after her, a thin boy with blond hair pushed back from his face. He quivered with excitement and nervousness, in spite of trying to imitate his parents' calm appearance.
"Is it time to go in? What will he ask? Is the Academy exam hard?" Delta's brother asked without preamble. Delta took a breath, about to answer when his father cut him off.
"Quiet, son, you know excitement like that is unbecoming in a future Time Lord. Especially one of our station."
"Sorry, Father," Delta smiled as his brother whispered the apology and fell silent. Their father did not often chastise them to keep to their station, but even he could not afford to be seen as anything less than perfect in the Citadel. It was the price he paid for living outside the walls most of the time; he only managed to hold onto his station by maintaining a perfect appearance when he did enter the city. Delta had learned this the hard way in his first year.
Delta turned to his brother. "No, the examiner will ask you in and measure your intelligence, and then he'll ask you some questions. He won't expect you to know most of them. They're very difficult, and most students only know a few of the answers." He was very proud of the fact that he had answered a full quarter of the questions correctly. Only the highest level of students at the Academy did that, and there were only three others in Delta's year that had.
The door opened, and Lord Borusa walked in. Delta's eyes widened. Lord Borusa conducting an evaluation himself was unusual, and reminded Delta that even though they did not live in the Citadel, his family was extremely highly placed. Again, he bit back his anger at being forced to grow up outside the dome. Their family would have been even more respected and powerful than they were now. Why would anyone choose to give that up to live a lonely life in the mountains of Gallifrey?
He was brought back to reality when Borusa said, "Well, is this the student, Cordon?"
"Yes, Lord. My younger son," Delta's father answered.
"Come in then, let's get this started. You may watch from this window," Borusa showed them to a small room with a window that looked into the examination room, then took Delta's brother with him to start the test.
Delta watched the evaluation worriedly. He was due to learn trans-dimensional engineering from Borusa next year, and he knew that if his brother made a bad impression, he would never be able to live it down. Borusa was known to be a tough teacher, and set a great deal by one's status in life. His stomach sinking, he watched his brother talk animatedly and ask questions, pointing to the equipment. Borusa hated what he called "impertinent youngsters who asked too many questions," he was well known for it. Delta knew the eminent Time Lord would hate his troublesome, eccentric brother.
As Delta watched, Borusa placed the device around his brother's head. It measured brainwave and electrical activity and used them to determine intelligence level. Delta remembered how scared he had been during his own evaluation, but his brother simply appeared fascinated. He picked up the machine, examined it and appeared to ask another question, at which point Borusa put the device back on his head and took the measurements, asking questions as he did so. Finally, the test was over. Delta saw Borusa look at the results and appear surprised. He called up some information on the computer, which only seemed to increase his surprise. He then motioned to Delta and his parents to enter.
"First, let me say that this child is one of the most impertinent I have ever seen. No respect for elders, or anything, it appears. What are you teaching your children in that backwater, Cordon?" Borusa asked, looking stern.
Sheepishly, Delta's father tried to save himself, "I realize he is young and over-confident. But no doubt his years at the Academy with such teachers as yourself will cure him of that."
Borusa answered, "Yes, well, normally I would agree. But these results, well, I must say, they surprised even me."
He motioned to the test questions. Looking them over, Delta could tell their difficulty. They ranged in subject matter from biology and physics to history and law. They covered time travel and the legends of Gallifrey. Even after three years at the Academy, Delta could still only answer less than half correctly. But he knew that answering them correctly wasn't the point; the machine measured brainwave activity as the student tried to think of the answers. The guess answers were only to determine the student's capacity for logic and critical thought.
"These are the questions I asked your son," Borusa said, "As you can see, they are very difficult."
"Yes," Delta's father said. "I graduated with 150% and I would still find this difficult."
"These are his results," Borusa said. He motioned to the computer screen, and Delta felt his jaw drop in astonishment. His brother had answered more than half correctly. This was unprecedented, and Delta saw his father turn to Borusa, looking confused.
"Is this correct? From what I know, this type of result should be impossible."
"I checked it twice," Borusa answered. "His brainwave activity did not correspond to a child merely guessing at answers. He was thinking them through logically and arriving at correct answers through his own knowledge and ability. These results are astonishing."
Borusa called up the intelligence measurement on the computer, continuing, "For example, this is the intelligence measure of an average Gallifreyan." The chart on the screen showed a level that would have matched that of most Academy students. "For comparison, here are your older son's measurements." The chart now showed a fairly higher than average level. "And this is mine," Borusa continued, bringing up a measurement that was clearly high into the genius level.
Borusa sighed, "I have never seen results as high as your son's."
"Seriously, never?" Delta's father seemed unable to take it in, "You have been teaching for centuries, Lord Borusa. I realize the results are high, but never?"
"I am as astonished as you are," Borusa said, "I even went so far as to check the results against much earlier results in the Matrix of our ancestors. I checked against all our most famous scientists and leaders. The only one whose results came close was Rassilon himself."
Delta's brother looked up at this. The older boy had the distinct feeling that none of this was surprising to him. But everyone else was shocked. They'd known he was clever, but this level of genius was unheard of in modern times.
"You mean his measurement is almost as high as Rassilon's?" Delta's mother, Mea, spoke for the first time. She appeared to be struggling to take this in. "But that's-"
"Unprecedented? Unheard of? Yes," said Borusa. "But you misunderstand me. When I say that Rassilon is the closest to your son's levels, I mean that Rassilon's measurement is almost as high as your son's. Not the other way around."
Shocked silence followed this pronouncement. Rassilon, as the revered founder of Time Lord society and the inventor of time travel, was undoubtedly a genius beyond all knowledge before or since. No one like him had been seen since. Until now.
"You mean…" Delta's father trailed off.
Borusa leaned forward, looking very serious, "Your son's results, Cordon, show that he is the greatest genius our Time Lord society has ever produced. Greater even than Rassilon. Probably the greatest genius the universe has ever seen up to this point. I never thought to see a student of this caliber."
Delta was having trouble processing this. He had been worried about his brother embarrassing him, but now it looked like he would constantly be playing catch-up to his genius little brother. He had been used to being one of the clever ones. Trust his brother to ruin that for him too.
"-only thing left is to see what he will make of his life. He will likely need some extra attention to ensure that he can go ahead if he needs to," Borusa was saying, "but with such intelligence, he could do anything." Turning to the little boy, he asked, "What do you like? What are you interested in?"
Delta's brother thought about it, fidgeting slightly and not meeting Borusa's eyes, "I don't know. I like history, but I really like science." He looked up, growing more animated, "I used to learn biology by exploring the hills around our house. That's it! I like to explore, to see the universe, other worlds and learn what they are. That's what I want to do."
"But our society expressly forbids exploration and interference unless absolutely necessary," Borusa said, not unkindly. "We observe." Delta couldn't help feeling annoyed that his brother still did not understand this. It was an idea he'd mentioned a few times before, but why would anyone want to visit such uncivilized places when they were the highest life-form there was?
"What's the point of having power over space and time if we don't use it to explore and learn?" Delta's brother asked sulkily. Delta knew from experience he was ready to argue.
Borusa seemed to realize that an argument would get nowhere. Assuming that the child would simply grow out of this unorthodox wish, he said, "While our society forbids frivolous exploration, you may still study whatever you wish. You could be a council member, a teacher, an engineer, a doctor in whatever subject you wish…"
"That's it!" Delta's brother exclaimed. "I want to be a doctor."
"Of what?" their father asked.
Delta's brother thought for a minute, then said, "Of everything."
A/N I kind of invented this little ritual to get into the Time Lord Academy. I guess it's sort of based on the Sorting ceremony. And I invented a family for him, so Delta, Cordon and Mea are mine. Please don't use without permission!