The Test

Quences had come to Thete again and again encouraged him to do his best, immediately threatening him with dire consequences thereafter. Thete sat in a room that, so that ordinary beings may understand, was not unlike the college lecture halls of Earth. The test sat before him and would decide whether Thete would be a true Time Lord, or a simple Gallifreyan. Thete decided that he would pass with barely the required score. He would have a chance for greatness, though not a good one, and Quences would be nevertheless disgraced.

Question 317: "When disabling or enabling a simple mechanical device with a sonic device, what is the simplest and preferred method?"

Thete laughed. That was easy. One needed only to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow, but that isn't what he wrote: "Unsonic it." He wasn't even certain if "unsonic" was word, but so much the better if it wasn't. Thete cringed. He hated having to pretend to be stupid, and he knew his instructors would see through him, but there would be nothing they could do. At the same time, he praised his own ingenuity for ensuring that he would at least pass.

Of course, his teacher knew immediately, begged him to retake the test, not to throw away his career because he disliked Quences. Thete stood firm.

"Well," Professor Magnus said, "I will try to negate some of the damage you have done by putting in a good word. The Council sometimes takes these things into consideration, you know. What will Quences do?"

Thete shrugged, a decidedly unintelligent gesture. "Likely he will disown me; possibly try to kill me. I only hope Amara doesn't suffer for it."

"Well, he won't know until next cycle at any rate, so you have some time."

But Magnus was wrong. Quences' contacts had informed him that very day of the test. It had yet to be graded buy Magnus, but Quences was perfectly capable of determining the score for himself. He sat in shock and did not acknowledge Thete when he came in. Thete, for his part, resolutely avoided looking at Quences. He went back to the looms and told Amara what he had done.

"Oh, Thete," she said, her dismay palpable. "I should be disappointed, but I can only be proud that you made such a sacrifice on such principle."

"Proud of 51 percent?" came Quences' voice from behind.

Thete turned. How had Quences known? "I'm sorry but I don't understand you."

"Don't understand me? Question 239: 'Through how many dimensions does time flow?' Your answer, 'However many it feels like.' Question 199: 'Describe time and its components.' Your answer, 'A big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.' Have you an explanation?"

Thete raised a single finger and said, "You know, on both points, I'm not actually incorrect. After all, dimensions shift through the flow of time as space expands and contracts, and time is rather circular with no real form."

"Both correct answers. If you want to unlock a door with a sonic device, what do you do?"

Thete answered automatically, before he could stop himself. "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow."

"You ungrateful snake! You could have passed that test with a perfect score and you deliberately failed!"

Thete had never seen Quences quite like this. He had heard such euphemisms describing a person as though he might explode. He never took them literally until now. Quences really looked like he was going to explode like some comical keg of blasting powder. It was incredibly frightening, actually. Thete actually feared for Quences' health, and for his own!

Amara raised a calming hand. "Quences, please. It is only a test."

"Only a test!" he literally shrieked. "All my life I've waited! All my life, and this is what he does to me!" He pointed a crooked finger at Thete and said, "Leave Lungbarrow." He staggered over to the loom controls and activated them.

"What are you doing?" asked Thete. "Lungbarrow is already at full capacity. It's illegal to grow another cousin."

"You are no longer a member of Lungbarrow," Quences said, his voice barely a whisper. "We now have room for another. Leave and never return."

Thete turned, not in defeat, but in anger and stormed through the corridors of Lungbarrow, leaving the house directly. Quences sought to become more than the Lord of Gallirey. Over the years, Quences had divulged his plan of conquest to Thete, always derisive, as though chiding Thete for not having the imagination of a tyrant. Now, the tyrant had gone too far. Abuse of the looms was a crime of the highest magnitude. It devalued what was left of Gallifreyan life. It reminded the Time Lords of how easily they could become insignificant slaves and automatons.

The burnt orange sky was still bright above the city, and Gallifrey wasn't so alien that its inhabitants did not base their daily cycles on the course of the daily sun, so the Council would remain operational until sunset. This was where Thete went now, anger burning through him like an unquenchable flame. He didn't even notice how everyone in the entry hall stopped and stared at him as if he was an oddity. He did not realize that, in fact, he had become a person of interest.

A voice, young and female, called out. It was impossible to know her age under ordinary circumstances, but Thete knew that she was just a year older than he. "Theta Sigma, just the man we've been wanting to see."

He turned, surprised that he was expected. The woman who spoke was a cousin of the House of the Jade Dreamers. She was beautiful, and Thete had found her alluring before, not for her beauty, but for her mind. She was an oddity. She was as brilliant as Thete. "Rani, certainly you weren't looking for me."

Rani smiled. Thete supposed other beautiful women were even more attractive when they smiled, but the Rani gazed in such a manner that when she smiled, she looked like a predator on the prowl. It did not suit her. "The Council has big plans for you."

"They'll be disappointed. I only just barely passed my test, and I certainly didn't score enough to qualify for anything beyond guard duty."

Rani frowned. It was a pouting, whimpering expression. Again, it did not suit her. "Yes, I know. 51 percent. Thete, are you so clever that you think everyone else is stupid?" Thete was taken aback. Rani didn't miss it. She flashed that predatory smile again. "If you can come up with a ploy, there are others who can figure out that you're pulling a ploy. Please...your scores at the Academy are the highest in the history of Gallifrey. Your most important exam, you fail. Who needs to know. The Council has already decided. You are Chancellor."

Thete actually stumbled. "Chancellor, me? The next highest office to the Lord President?"

"You're more brilliant than any other."

"It's absurd! Not to mention a gross misuse of my talents. Perhaps when I am older, but now? No, my dear Rani. One does not begin his career at the top of the ladder. That's no way to make history."

"But you have made history." Rani draped her arms around Thete. "The youngest Time Lord in history appointed Chancellor! Your manipulation of the exam was brilliant. The examiner was stunned! You deliberately passed by a single question! Your math was infallible! But nobody can know. Your exam is sealed. Sensitive. Council's eyes only."

Thete's rage welled up in him. He burst. "Unacceptable! Chancellor! Sealed tests! This has been a farce, and I have played the jester! To name any fresh graduate Chancellor merely shows that the Council has grown flaccid and corrupt. I'll not have it. I have plans that do not involve the Council. I'll not a be a prisoner here, or on Gallifrey. Chancellor indeed!"

A dangerous look of warning crossed the Rani's face. "Thete, think on what you are saying. To refuse the Council and spurn them is one thing but you are talking of going rogue."

"Indeed, and what care have I left? Lungbarrow has disowned me. Quences knew this ended his hopes for the Council. He is making a new cousin as we speak. Indeed, I am here to report his behavior! I've no anchor."

Rani's eyes widened in horror with each word. With the last three words uttered, her horror turned to heartbreak. "What about me? Am I not an anchor?"

Thete smiled wanly and looked down at her. She really was quite beautiful. "Once, perhaps. Then I saw with my own eyes that your experiments were more important to you than the subjects you tested them on. Not only did I not approve, but even if I did, I realized that you could never care so much about me."

Rani paused, clearly stunned, and took several deep breaths before speaking. "Thete, we've had our little disagreement before. You have both of my hearts."

"Really? Suppose I asked you to give up your experiments entirely; change your branch of science?"

Rani did not answer.

"Hmm? I thought so, and we both know that if I were to ask such a thing, it would do you a disservice as well."

Rani's eyes fell to the floor. Her hands slipped from Thete's shoulders. She stood deep in thought and after several seconds, Thete turned to continue to the criminal reports department. Her voice stopped him again. "Easily! I could change it easily! Astronomy? Temporal mechanics?" She grabbed him by the wrist and brought him around so that her face was barely an inch from his. "You and I, Thete! Can't you see? We are the greatest minds of our time! Our genius together! To hell with ruling the universe. We can shape it to our whims! We can be gods!"

"And therein lies the reason that you and I can never be. It's not your experiments that define you. It is your philosophy. Whatever course you choose, your destination remains the same. It's not the same place I'm going." He wrenched free from her and walked away.

She called across the hall, heedless of who heard. "Theta Sigma! A thousand years from now you will remember this day as a mistake. If you leave you leave alone! No Time Lord will walk with you! And when that day comes, I will be the only one who will take you! I'll be your only shelter, and you will beg me! I'll be the only one who cares, then you'll ask my forgiveness! I won't give it until you ask, Thete! You have to ask!"