Ron-Goron
Communications Technician
Level 5: Qualified Communications Technician

Story 1: Language: Source Code

Nearing the End

The second term was coming close to its grueling end. The examinations were drawing close, and all able troopers were finishing any last requisites to close their spots on the exam list. Ron walked stolidly through the hallway, the very picture of no emotion in a very crowded and emotional hallway. Those troopers who crowded the hallway were packed around a large bulletin board to find out who was to take their examinations. Most troopers who had passed their courses went on to the examination without any difficulty. Qualifying wasn't the hard part. Passing the exam, and actually becoming qualified in a particular specialty was another.

Ron passed through the mess of people. He knew what he had to do to get on the list. He had two more classes that he had to finish. The first of these was to be finished today, his "Language: Source Code" test. Ron honestly couldn't figure out why he was being tested in such a basic subject so late in his training. Understanding the computer language was part of everything; it was like addition is to math, it can't be done without it. The only students who could have made it thus far in their classes would have been very adept at understanding the computer language; commands, scripts, and codes being as they are- simple and very easy to manipulate. Ron even considered it a small insult to his scholastic achievement that such an easy class was part of his preparation for the exams…

But then again, perhaps it was to his benefit that these easier classes were the last that he had to complete. The empire needed more Communication Technicians badly, most troopers were too trigger happy to devote their training to mechanical and analytical paths, and so became combat engineers or heavy weapon specialists. Not that there was anything wrong with taking the more physical path of a trooper; it was all for the good of the empire. It was essential then that Ron should exceed himself to the fullest, both for his own personal credit, and for his future career.

The classroom was before him before him once he stopped to recall his destination. It was a smaller room than the auditoriums he was used to; a simple square room that fit about thirty students. The desks were wooden and small (probably built for a younger generation) and they all faced the only decorated wall in the room. Upon the wall was a large white drawing board (much akin to our modern day digital boards) which had various stylus' which could be used to write upon them. Sitting off to the right of the board was the instructor, a new professor, although his age did not reflect his relative youth as a teacher. The man himself was called by students as Major Rhodes.

Rhodes had pepper hair with a predominantly grey moustache and beard. He had dark blue eyes and a piercing protruding nose that cut through the air every time he turned his head. Most interesting of all his features were his great bushy eyebrows that furrowed together into a great unibrow when he was upset. This was a source of laughter for the troopers behind his back, but also a great mask of fear to those who had created the means of it.

Ron sat near the front of the room. His backside hurt from the long night he had spent studying beforehand; every possible code and command he was vaguely familiar with, and anything he didn't know he could certainly look up on his laptop, upon which the test would be taken. Ron looked about the room. Most of the students he had never seen before, he saw here and there bits from his old class- about five of the seven were present including Ron. Major Rhodes looked about the room and at his watch quickly before standing up to address the class.

"The test will be on three subjects…" started Rhodes.

"Code." Ron mumbled to himself.

"The computer languages code…"

"Command." Ron mumbled again.

"command…" said Rhodes almost prophetically.

"Script." finished Ron.

"And script." said Rhodes. Even as he did not hear Ron he still had placed spaces between each point for emphasis. Rhodes moved on to explain the testing procedure.

"You will all be required to stand, and I shall test you as a group in a kind of competition."

"I hate these." grumbled Ron.

Rhodes continued. "You will all stand in your place, answering questions that I give you in order of your position in the classroom. If you answer correctly you may sit down, if you answer incorrectly you must remain standing. There will be three rounds of testing, only troopers who answer two-thirds of their questions correctly will be passed for this course."

"In other words, only one chance to screw up." Ron thought.

"I will begin with the front. You there, Corporal Burns, give me two kinds of script that the Imperial Army uses for message translation…"

Question was followed by answer. Victory and defeat stood and sat side by side as troopers either pulled through or withered under the steady questions. Being near to the front (to his regret) Ron was the fifth to go.

"What is more efficient." started Rhodes. "Using source code or commands to open a hidden extension file."

"Commands." said Ron immediately. Using source codes would tell him where the file was, but it was by using commands that he could open the file itself.

"You may sit." Rhodes replied.

The first round finished after the sixteenth student had finished his question. The round stopped and the scores were tallied. Since no one had answered two incorrectly, everyone was still passing- but quite a few of them were on their honor.

Ron's next question came after watching the four in front of him answer wrong. So according to the rules, Ron had to answer the question that they all missed.

"Supposing you had to connect to an enemy terminal by cable cord and your cord was cut- the cut off piece gone missing. How would you repair or replace the cord considering that you have no extra cables available to use?"

Ron had thought about this answer while the others missed it. He had learned it during an earlier class, when they had used the wires in one of their blaster rifles as an antenna.

"I'd construct a new wire, sir, using wires from my gun and soldering them to the main cable by melting the ends off through a gun blast."

Rhodes did not like this answer.

"Too difficult." he said. "You'd get shot down during your elaborate and painstaking plan. Remain standing, Ron."

So Ron had missed one as well. There were not many students who were sitting down this round, as most of the questions had been of a similar nature. However some students still managed to pass through the round without a mistake. After the sixteenth fellow had gone (and answered incorrectly for the second time) the scores were tallied. Six of the sixteen had answered one right and one wrong. Two had answered both right, and eight people had answered both wrong. A few moments of shuffling saw the eight failures out of the classroom before the third and last round began.

"Eight of you left." sneered Rhodes. He turned to Ron who was now the first man to be asked.

"You're laptop has lost all power. You check the battery, spare battery, power cord, power supply, fan, and internal wiring only to discover that everything is in working condition. Name one reason why your laptop has no power."

It was a strange question to ask. Basically if everything was working in the computer the only thing that could have forced the power to go off was an external force. Usually a power surge. It seemed almost too easy…

"Power surge?" Ron guessed.

"Yes." Rhodes said curtly. "You may sit."

The other seven received relatively easy answers as well. All seven of them passed the third and last part of the test.

"I have sent in your test results, and you may all pass on to the final level of your preparation for the exams, which I am sure most if not all of you will be anxious to finish." several students nodded at this.

"Of course most of you must be wondering why the last round was so easy." said Rhodes suddenly. "It's primarily because I wanted to know who was really ready for the test. It's more of a precaution than anything to weed out those students who are unprepared for the examinations than anything. Once the first two rounds were over, it was quite obvious as to who was ready. You are all to be congratulated on your steadfast success."

Rhodes turned his back to the class and began writing a new lesson on the board for the next class to come in.

"You are dismissed."