No one said anything.
"Excellent. History encompa.s.ses thousands of years and countless cubic pa.r.s.ecs. Only the big things count. We will forget the little things.
Little things belong to little people and we of the school are the elite of a transtellar culture. Questions?"
There were none.
"Good, because I have some. What would you say was the first event of importance? Luog of Panden, talk."
Said green-skinned Luog, a very young Pandenian: "You mean ever?"
"I would have specified had I meant otherwise. Yes, ever. Talk, Luog of Panden."
"Well--"
"Halt a moment, please. Who thinks the question is a relative one which cannot properly be answered? I clair it is Brandog of Hulpin."
An albino woman three seats down from Smith flushed. "I am sorry," she said.
"Who told you to talk now? This is not Hulpin, Brandog. The course is intensive. You must concentrate. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.
No extraneous thoughts." The instructor smiled. "Luog of Panden, talk."
Smith felt the little beads of sweat forming on his forehead. The instructor could read minds--and how many of these others could? They just sat there as if it were the most natural thing in the world....
Only Brandog of Hulpin seemed ruffled, and it would be many moments before her albino skin looked again like soft alabaster. But no one seemed to notice. Luog was saying, "--exodus from the prehistoric Sirian worlds to the first culture in the Denebian system, the Var one. More than ten thousand Vars ago."
"Satisfactory for a Receptive, Luog of Panden," the instructor smiled.
"The Dominants would go back a bit further and talk of the Sirian wars, but that much is a matter of opinion, since the wars are largely mythical, anyway. And so we have set the stage for history. We have--"
Smith wanted to get up indignantly and tell the instructor, tell them all, what the most glorious epochs of history really were. You would find it in the museums of earth, on the plaques and in the statues and on the old old records of Earth. There was a lot Smith wanted to tell them because there was so much only he could tell them, so much they had forgotten.
But he merely sat and stared politely at the black-uniformed instructor.
You don"t show yourself as a provincial--what was the word?--rube, not when your culture, while temporarily the oldest, is in a lot of ways the most neophite of them all.
You just sat and stared, looking interested.
The instructor"s voice cut into his thoughts, "Earth of Smith--"
"Smith of Earth," he said, automatically.
"I did not tell you to talk, Smith of Earth. And if your card says Earth of Smith, how am I to know? A mistake, yes--but an understandable one.
I"m a historian, and I have heard of neither planet. Where is this Earth? Talk, Smith!"
He stood up, although it wasn"t really necessary, and he could feel his knees trembling slightly. "Earth is a few pa.r.s.ecs from Sirius, and Sirius I think you know."
"I know Sirius. Now talk!"
"What is it you want me to say? I don"t feel much like talking--"
"Yet you speak so loud that the room fairly rocks with it. I wanted you to tell us why you did not agree with the answer just now rendered. It is, I feel, a good one. Talk."
"Then I agree, it is a good one." Smith did not want to get involved. He wanted to be a good, quietly efficient student. Nothing more. But he forgot that the instructor could read minds.
"You lie, Smith of Earth. I won"t go into it any further, because it is your privilege if you want to lie. But you are not to listen for the remainder of this lecture. Do not listen."
Smith nodded, cursed himself mentally because he had made such a mess of things here at his very first lecture, and headed for the door.
"Smith of Earth! Just where under the red sun do you think you are going?"
"You told me not to listen, so--"
"I didn"t say talk. Talk now."
"--so I"m leaving the room."
"No one leaves until the lecture has been concluded. Sit if you will, or stand, but stay here. And do not listen."
Smith nodded, turned back to the row of benches dumbly. He found a place next to Brandog of Hulpin, sat near the albino woman. Down the bench, he saw Jorak grinning broadly. Smith did not know how he was going to sit there without listening, but he decided he"d better not ask that question now.
"This is your course in Wortan fighting," boomed the giant of an instructor. "Dominants only, or such Receptives as question their cla.s.sification." The instructor"s ma.s.sive face was beefy, the color of new-spilled blood, and the muscles rippled and bulged and seethed under his black uniform.
"Me for this!" confided Kard of Shilon, slapping Smith"s back. "Perhaps Jorak has told you that I am not without ability on the Wortan mats."
Smith hardly heard him. Two dozen paces across the room, on the other side of the circle that surrounded the instructor, stood Geria, hands on hips, lips soft-smiling when she saw Smith, silver tunic to her knees, yellow hair hanging free to shoulders.
"Join me, Smith of Earth?" she called, and knees watery again, Smith made his way around the circle.
While Jorak gaped, Geria took Smith"s hand when they met half way around the circle, and she smiled up at him. "I wouldn"t have believed it, but you"re blushing again. Earth trait, Smith?"
"No, not really," he stammered.
The slim girl was about to say something, but the instructor cleared his throat ominously, and the room became silent again. "Now, then,"
declared the giant, "there"s no trick to fighting with psi-powers.
Anyone can do that, and the women of Bortinot, as you know, are particularly adept. But the people of Wortan have no such powers, and they must depend on tooth and nail, on sinew and bone and animal cunning. Such is the way the Wortanians do battle--and, purely for sport, such is the way of Wortan fighting. Any questions?"
"Yes," Geria told him, "I have one. Are we not permitted to use any psi-powers?"
"None. They disqualify you."
"Well, then I suppose I must withdraw from the course. I can"t be expected to stand up to a man physically. I"m not built that way--and very few women are, Dominant or Receptive."
Smith had not expected this, but now he felt a warm glow in his breast.
He almost wanted to put his arm about the woman"s shoulders, protectively. How could such a delicate beautiful thing be expected to fight?
The instructor said, "I won"t argue with you. I can"t remember a woman ever lasting in Wortan fighting, but if they"re Dominants they"re automatically entered. The rest of you can do like--"