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Authors: Orson Scott Card
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it?”
“Do what?” Jase asked. Am I a good liar? Id better be—my life depends on it.
“The last question. We never studied it. I never so much as wrote down Crack's Theorem.”
“What's Crack's Theorem?”
“Don't be an ass,” Torrock said. He touched the keys and called up into the air the answer Jase had given to the last question. He made one set of numbers glow brighter than the others.
“How did you learn the value of the curve of the straight line at the edge of light?”
Truthfully, Jase answered, “It was the only number that could fit there.”
“To the fourteenth decimal? It took two hundred years to even know the problem existed, and years of work by the best mathematicians of the Empire to determine the value of the curve to five places. Crack only proved it to the fourteenth place some fifty years ago. And you expect me to believe you duplicated all this work here at your table in five minutes?”
The other students had been looking away from him, till now. Now, to learn that he knew the value of Crack's Theorem and how to use it in a problem— now they looked in awe at Jase. Whether he cheated to get the value of the curve or not, he had known how to use it, when they were only just getting the hang of Newton, Einstein, and Ahmed. They hated Jase with all their hearts, and hoped that he would die. He made them all look so stupid, they thought.
Torrock too noticed the other students watching them. He lowered his voice. “I don't know how you got the value of the curve, boy, but if they think I wrote it down or taught it to you, which by God I did not, then it's my job, it's my somec , and God knows I get little enough as it is, one year under for three years up, but it's a start. I'm a sleeper , and you're not going to take it away from me.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Jase said. “I figured it out on my own. It's not my fault if you asked a question that made the value of the curve obvious.”
“It was not obvious to fourteen places,” Torrock whispered fiercely. “So get out of here, but come back tomorrow, there'll be questions to ask you, you and your mother and anyone else, because I know what you are , and test or no test I'll prove it and see you die before I let you ruin everything, for me.”
Jase and Torrock had never got along, but it still horrified Jase to have a grown man say in words that he wanted Jase's death. It frightened him, like a child that meets a rabid wolf in the forest, able to watch nothing but the streaming jaws, the foaming teeth, able to hear nothing but the low growl in the throat.
Still, he must pretend not to know what Torrock meant. “I didn't cheat, Mr. Torrock. I've never cheated before.”
“There are only a few thousand of us on Capitol who know how to use the curve, Master Worthing. But there are millions of us who know how to notify Mother's Little Boys about a person who seems to show symptoms of the Swipe.”
“Are you accusing me of—”
“You know what I'm accusing you of.”
I know, said Jase silently, that you're frightened half to death of me, that you expect me to be like my father and kill you where you stand, small as I am, powerless as I am.
“Be prepared for questioning, Master Worthing. They'll know how you learned to use the curve, one way or another—there's no honest way you could have done it.”
“Except figuring it out on my own!”
“Not to the fourteenth decimal.”
No. Not to the fourteenth decimal.
Jase got up and left the classroom. The other students were careful not to look at him until his back was to them. Then they stared and stared. The explosion had come, after all, from nowhere, out of silence, out of the tension of the test that they had all been struggling with. What have I done to myself?
He put his palm on the reader at the worm, and the gate chimed to let him through. As long as he was going home from school, there was no charge. The worm was not crowded at this hour,
“Do what?” Jase asked. Am I a good liar? Id better be—my life depends on it.
“The last question. We never studied it. I never so much as wrote down Crack's Theorem.”
“What's Crack's Theorem?”
“Don't be an ass,” Torrock said. He touched the keys and called up into the air the answer Jase had given to the last question. He made one set of numbers glow brighter than the others.
“How did you learn the value of the curve of the straight line at the edge of light?”
Truthfully, Jase answered, “It was the only number that could fit there.”
“To the fourteenth decimal? It took two hundred years to even know the problem existed, and years of work by the best mathematicians of the Empire to determine the value of the curve to five places. Crack only proved it to the fourteenth place some fifty years ago. And you expect me to believe you duplicated all this work here at your table in five minutes?”
The other students had been looking away from him, till now. Now, to learn that he knew the value of Crack's Theorem and how to use it in a problem— now they looked in awe at Jase. Whether he cheated to get the value of the curve or not, he had known how to use it, when they were only just getting the hang of Newton, Einstein, and Ahmed. They hated Jase with all their hearts, and hoped that he would die. He made them all look so stupid, they thought.
Torrock too noticed the other students watching them. He lowered his voice. “I don't know how you got the value of the curve, boy, but if they think I wrote it down or taught it to you, which by God I did not, then it's my job, it's my somec , and God knows I get little enough as it is, one year under for three years up, but it's a start. I'm a sleeper , and you're not going to take it away from me.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Jase said. “I figured it out on my own. It's not my fault if you asked a question that made the value of the curve obvious.”
“It was not obvious to fourteen places,” Torrock whispered fiercely. “So get out of here, but come back tomorrow, there'll be questions to ask you, you and your mother and anyone else, because I know what you are , and test or no test I'll prove it and see you die before I let you ruin everything, for me.”
Jase and Torrock had never got along, but it still horrified Jase to have a grown man say in words that he wanted Jase's death. It frightened him, like a child that meets a rabid wolf in the forest, able to watch nothing but the streaming jaws, the foaming teeth, able to hear nothing but the low growl in the throat.
Still, he must pretend not to know what Torrock meant. “I didn't cheat, Mr. Torrock. I've never cheated before.”
“There are only a few thousand of us on Capitol who know how to use the curve, Master Worthing. But there are millions of us who know how to notify Mother's Little Boys about a person who seems to show symptoms of the Swipe.”
“Are you accusing me of—”
“You know what I'm accusing you of.”
I know, said Jase silently, that you're frightened half to death of me, that you expect me to be like my father and kill you where you stand, small as I am, powerless as I am.
“Be prepared for questioning, Master Worthing. They'll know how you learned to use the curve, one way or another—there's no honest way you could have done it.”
“Except figuring it out on my own!”
“Not to the fourteenth decimal.”
No. Not to the fourteenth decimal.
Jase got up and left the classroom. The other students were careful not to look at him until his back was to them. Then they stared and stared. The explosion had come, after all, from nowhere, out of silence, out of the tension of the test that they had all been struggling with. What have I done to myself?
He put his palm on the reader at the worm, and the gate chimed to let him through. As long as he was going home from school, there was no charge. The worm was not crowded at this hour,
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