Chapter 12: Tests and Examinations on Campus

The next morning, at the gym, Lydia Von Max looked at all of their exercise programs. The dogs seemed to like her very much. Rather than sitting against the wall watching or sleeping, they sidled up to her to be petted as she observed the routines. She moved to the free weights to observe and evaluate strength. She was amazed to see Jason had at least two and a half times the strength of a very strong man. He looked well-built, but did not have the look of an extreme bodybuilder which she would have expected with his power. She then tested their flexibility, where she finally found an area in which Jason could improve.

They moved on to her evaluation of their trans-dim power. For this they moved to her small training room where she had armor of various types set up. She had a ball attached to a scale, which could measure telekinetic strength. She left the evaluation of Jason to last. He watched the group in action and saw that they were generally pretty competent. Despite Cyril’s bragging about his abilities, his performance was low average in this impressive group. They all had to attempt to lift the ball. The best effort was a hundred-and-fifty pound, and the worst about a hundred. They all had the capacity to shoot fire at the armor and they all had the capacity to create lightning strikes. One young woman had the capacity to move herself approximately a meter.

“Now I want to see what you can do, Jason, and no fooling around. I saw you dance around your cousin, and I saw you block his strikes with ease. I did not see other skills as I believe you wanted to beat him to a pulp for whatever reason. I must admit I thought that I did see some small burn marks on him. Now I want to see what you can do.”

Jason drilled a series of holes very rapidly across the top, down the sides, and through the middle of each set of armor plate, in seconds. He then sent powerful bursts of flame that engulfed the armor and went through it. He hit the armor with lightning that shattered it. He did his teleportation jumps, manifesting all over the room. The dogs were very excited, and couldn’t resist changing form and showing off; unleashing lightning from their horns, and spitting fire as Jason attacked the target. They disappeared into the floor and emerged elsewhere and then picked up Jason and took him through walls and into the floor then attacking targets and showing incredible team work. They wanted to show how they could assist him in his efforts as needed. They wanted Lydia to see that they were part of Jason’s lethal group. After they were done, they went to Jason to be petted and fussed over, very pleased with their behavior.

“Heavens above and dogs below; I have never seen anything like it in my life. That was beyond amazing! Now, show us your telekinesis?”

Jason looked at the ball and the chain and began slowly to lift the ball, to loosen the chain and then lift it some more holding the ball up higher and higher. The chain broke, but Jason stopped the ball and chain falling to the floor by gently lowering them.

The group stood open mouthed. Lydia, for the first time in her life had nothing to say. Finally, after a long pause she said, “That was a five-ton ball-and-chain. The scale cuts out at five tons. No one has ever lifted past two hundred and fifty pounds never mind five tons and more. Your cousin did not stand a snowball’s hope in hell, in a fight against you. Jason, people from the so-called primitive planet you come from, must be superhuman or you must be one hell of an individual.

“I hope you have not devoted all your efforts to your body without developing your brain.” She looked at the rest of the group, “And I suggest that you lot don’t open your mouth about this. You have a significant asset in your group and you don’t want to broadcast your advantage when it comes time for competition, you want to have scope for wagers. It is easy for people to believe that his cousin Hesketh was not terribly competent. He really did not look terribly competent. If you broadcast Jason’s skills someone will try and find every reason to prevent him from competing. They won’t succeed in the long-term but they will damage your chances in the short term. That is my advice; take it or leave it.

“Now one other little piece of advice; Cyril, you have a big mouth, but don’t have anything to back it up. Don’t be like your idiot of a father. I know him from when he was here, and I regret not kicking his posterior at the time. Then it was policy to be nice. I think it would have helped him. In those days I was too polite, as I was junior in the program. He has grown up to be an arrogant pretentious prick, and you have the potential to follow him. Get with the program, and learn a bit of humility. You are low average, and need to work hard on improving. There is no doubt that you have potential, but so does the rest of this group. Your academic grades at school suck, so get your act into gear! Shape up or ship out. I will kick your butt if you boast of your grandfather, just one more time. You are a small fish in a big pond and a minor predator in the sea of life,” Lydia said and turned to the group.

“You are all in a place of the elite. Competition is fierce. Your families are all competitive, so don’t imagine that you are guaranteed a place at any table.

“I report not only to the University but to your families. That is the nature of this university. You’re not an island, you are part of a group, you are part of a family, and you are part of a kingdom or Duchy or whatever, and you are part of the Empire. Yes, I report to your families and in this case, Cyril, I report to your grandfather. He wants to know if you are still a weasel, and has told me to tell you to put your money where your mouth is. Your family wants to know if you deserve a place in the hierarchy. What you do here, will determine your place in said hierarchy.

“Cyril, you will not get anything, unless you dramatically improve your attitude and perform well in your studies. Also, don’t meddle with me. You will find I have plenty of backing from the Emperor and my family.

Tomorrow, you all start on your customized programs, so be here a half an hour early.”

Lydia stalked off stiffly, but Jason was closest to the door and could see her smiling and grinning at him as she walked out. Cyril looked quite taken aback. He was quiet and pensive for the rest of the day.

Cyril noticed that his group was doing very well in the laboratory but he was struggling. It was a short session followed by an hour and a half of problems that had to be solved in a test setting. This was the routine at least two or three times per week, and up to five times a week before examination time. Jason completed the problems in about half an hour, and left to go and have a drink, to be joined an hour later by the rest of the group. He saw Cyril was in some distress. After lunch they made an early start on the learning machines.

They spent the afternoon learning the entire year of mathematics. Then they practiced the problems set, after Jason asked the AI to do time condensing, for the simulator section. Cyril was finished his information for the next week and left half an hour later. Jason and the rest of the group were busy until the evening.

Julia Farinelli got hold of Jason after the group and insisted that he took them for dinner. She was a tall striking blond, with frizzy hair. She seemed very determined, but very friendly and persuasive at the same time. The rest of the group sat listening and were smiling at her approach.

She said that they all had something to discuss with Jason. He invited them to his home for dinner, called to let grandpa know, and arranged for Robert to cook for his group. Robert was currently staying at the house and was experimenting with Earth and Empire food combinations, together with some top chefs of his lengthy acquaintance. He knew Harry well and was teaching him to cook. The kitchen was a happy place for both and was filled with joy and laughter as they teased each other unmercifully. Marie was working on Porquenta, experimenting with a truffle-like fungus that was native to the planet.

Jason’s group walked to his home with him, and they all remarked on how conveniently placed his home was. Robert had prepared a smoked salmon starter with drinks in the large formal lounge. Gamma acted as a Goth style waiter, with a frighteningly short skirt and fishnet hose. His group looked at her with some amusement. She winked at Jason, and showed him her frilly underwear. She laughed uproariously, but managed to balance her large tray, laden to capacity, and serve at the same time. Julia Farinelli looked at Jason quizzically.

Harry joined them, and Jason introduced him as his grandpa. Harry saw Cyril was not present and very quickly excused himself before returning after a few minutes, smiling smugly. Twenty minutes later, Cassius and Alana showed up to join them for dinner. They were joined by Norbert, Jonathan, and Gamma a few minutes later. Cassius and Alana were very gracious and chatted to everyone, asking about different members of their families. Alana appeared to know everyone, and surprised Jason with her detailed knowledge of the group’s family members. Norbert was introduced as a tutor for Jason by Gamma, who sat at the table apparently chewing gum.

“Indeed, Jason is my student. He comes from a primitive planet and is desperately in need of help. He was not too bright to start off with, but we have improved his performance a little over the time we have known him,” he said tongue in cheek but maintaining a straight face. Jason saw the group looking at each other. Jonathan and Gamma were introduced by Cassius, as friends of the family, trying to help the poor boy get a reasonable start in life.

“There are others who live here at times,” said Alana eagerly getting on the bandwagon, “Jason’s wife, who is with child, has gone back for a short time to her mother; but he also has many children by other women, who are in and out of his life. He even has four grandchildren on Earth,” Alana said. This turned out to be a temporary conversation killer. Jason sat and blushed while being teased.

Cassius launched into a monologue, but was soon interrupted by Alana, and the conversation continued largely around life at University.

During a lull in the conversation, Julia showed that she was a very determined, and some would say, courageous young lady. Perhaps she even felt that the company was likely to support her in her question.

“Jason has shown himself to be a pretty exceptional person in the gym, and in martial arts. The question that I want to ask does not relate to those areas. For the last two days, we have had some interesting educational sessions that are way beyond the capacity of the educational machines, and our groups’ understanding of our technology. Yesterday, I went over what I had learnt and then went back to the machine later, to see the content of the day for reinforcement of what I had learned. I noticed that the content on the education machine was but a tiny fraction of what I had learnt. Not only that but I looked ahead and did the content for today. Lo and behold, when Jason was present, I recognized that I was doing mathematics way beyond the content of the previous day. I suspect it was way ahead of most of the content for the year. Not only that, we appeared to do problems and exercises for an extraordinarily long time. It felt like a six-month period of solid work; but it was just three and a half hours, as we emerged from the machines at dinner time. This does not compute!” Julia said as Gamma looked at her curiously, and Jason’s team smiled, but Cassius and Alana laughed.

“Today we had a snap test. Jason was finished and left in half an hour. It took me slightly longer, a full hour, but I spent some time checking. It was so easy that I floated through. The rest of the group other than Cyril also recognized that they found the content of the test very easy and felt over prepared. Cyril on the other hand was sweating after the test and could not finish all the problems after three hours. Apparently, no one else outside of our group finished the problems and in most snap tests most people can only do about seventy-five percent of the problems. Something is fishy here and I want to know what!”

Cassius was sitting and grinning, Alana was grinning even more widely, as were the rest of Jason’s group. Harry seemed to find the question hilarious. Norbert looked very pleased with himself. They were all very impressed with Julia. Alana knew of her and her brothers, who were all exceptional people. This whole group had impeccable backgrounds, and was from outstanding families. It was, however, very perspicacious of Julia to pick up on all of this so quickly.

“Julia, my dear, these are very impressive observations. We can offer all of you some interesting opportunities, but I would suggest that before you accept, you get an idea of what Jason has been through. After dinner, he may show you a holo-recording of his history in a brief form, so that you are fully informed about any decisions that you might make. Norbert, how difficult would it be to set up their education and make it more convenient for them, rather than to go to the learning machines?”

“Empress, it is very easy. Regardless of whether they choose the upgrade path or not, they can be provided with the education. I have plenty of cubes and can get more in a day or so, if needed. We will first show everyone in the group a bit about Jason, and let them think on it, overnight. Tomorrow we will meet again, and visit the ship if appropriate.

“Julia to keep you and Empress Alana in the loop, Harry designated me as Jason’s contact for the University. Your aunt contacted me today much as you are doing with Jason. She is as sharp as you are. Jason, Lydia Von Max is Julia’s aunt and wanted to ask what was going on, exactly as Julia has done.

“Your aunt is an outstanding woman Julia. She is a very impressive person in her own right. Between us we can coordinate some appropriate training along with education,” said Norbert, “just remember what I have said, and think about it tomorrow.”

“The Empress tells me she knows you well and has been your trainer for some time,” Norbert said and Alana grinned widely and sniggered.

Cassius and Alana left soon after. Jonathan, Norbert, Harry, and Gamma returned to their rooms. This left Jason with his group at the table. They remained seated while Jason showed the holo-recording of the short version.

“Jason,” said Julia immediately the holo-recording finished, “there is no way I am going to delay having that upgrade. I hope it doesn’t take too long, and we can do it over a weekend. It’s too long to wait until the first vacation, but if we have to, we have to. The others will indicate the same.”

“Let whoever you want to know, know that you are going to sleep over on my ship. We will fly to my ship tonight and the upgrade will be done in ten minutes. Half of that time is getting in and out of the medical cocoon. I will show you around the ship very briefly, and give you a room each, we will wake a little early and go to the ship gym for training as bugs, then back to our uni gym in the morning. If it is convenient for you, the shuttle is available and will take us right now. If any of you have doubts wait till tomorrow. You do not have to do this; but remember; there is no downside.”

The next morning at the gym they were all bright and cheerful, including Cyril. Lydia was surprised to find that all but Cyril and Jason found the regimes that she had prepared for them too easy. Lydia was also surprised to see a sharp improvement in power and speed for the whole group, except Jason and Cyril. Cyril was totally outclassed by everyone he fought, and was distressed.

The whole group except for Cyril had a message on their Brains that the professor wanted to talk to them after the laboratory. Jason was quite intrigued by this, but forgot about it until the end of the laboratory when his Brain beeped to remind him. All of them except for Cyril made their way to his office.

Professor Horace Jenkins was the senior professor of mathematics, and a very famous professor who had received the Empire’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, twice. He was well known for his outstanding research, and his pioneering work on an entirely new branch of mathematics. His mathematics had been instrumental in facilitating the development of the concepts that lay behind the Nordak-Potak trans-dimensional engines that dominated high-speed travel.

“Ladies and gentlemen; yesterday, for the first time, we had most of a group solve more than seventy-five percent of the problems. Not only that, but all of you completed one hundred percent of the problems, with a number of unique approaches to solutions. I first wondered whether you had copied each other when I saw that you all scored perfect scores. I then went to look at how you had approached the solutions, and I found that each of you had used different and unique approaches.

“I have also seen your workshop scores and you are all doing extraordinarily well. Clearly it’s early days. I am always on the lookout for talent and I would like to arrange a test for you this afternoon.

“I have a lunch prepared for you all. One in your group scored in the average range and there was no point in embarrassing him with this examination.

“The learning machines will be made available for you as necessary this evening so you do not fall behind, tomorrow. This test presents harder problems as you solve each one, until you are stuck and cannot solve five sequential problems. The increments in difficulty are slow, but many problems can be solved quickly. This process is used to assess both undergraduates and graduates from other universities, as to their readiness for postgraduate studies. It also provides a guide to critical remedial education.

“We also use the test for transfers from other undergraduate universities. I have seen your school reports except for Jason’s; who I understand came from a primitive planet. I have some of his results from other courses he undertook on his way to the Empire

“I am delighted to see some students with potential, but it’s rare to see it all in one group.

“I don’t expect terribly much from you, as you all have just begun, but I would like to see what you are made of.”

Jason and the others smiled. The group had a full year of Charassa mathematics completed, and all of them were very interested to see how they would fare with the problems presented. The professor was very friendly and engaging, and was quite unpretentious for such an extraordinary man. It had taken the bugs much longer in their development to derive the mathematics that he had discovered.

They were given desks for their Brains, with sound deadening partitions between them. This was because it was necessary to give students the opportunity to softly talk to their Brains to create the formula that they needed to use. The entire group, other than Jason, was stuck before three hours passed. The professor suggested that they could leave. Jason continued until the professor gave him a break and some dinner. Jason was busy until eleven thirty, when finally, no more problems were presented to him.

The professor had been busy with his own work until that time. He had hardly noticed the passage of time, as happened so often, but was quite startled to see that it was much later than he expected. Jason told him he had completed the examination. He was even more startled when he looked what Jason had done.

Jason had done very much more work than his group. He had worked on his bug studies as hard as he had on the Empire’s education, while on the ship. He completed the Charassa undergraduate education in mathematics along with three postgraduate units to a master’s level and applied mathematics and physics to a postgraduate level, and an overview of biological sciences. He completed a large component of electronic engineering studies, medical studies, information technology, robotics, and AI studies.

The professor knew most postgraduate students of good quality ran out of steam after four hours. No one had ever continued as long as Jason had. He wondered if Jason was slow and pedantic.

Professor Jenkins constructed the test and built it so that it first examined problems representative of all of the fundamentals of the first year, then continued to do the same for the second year, and so on. It then continued to look at advanced fields of mathematics, and presented problems at the first level of complexity, the second level of complexity and continued onward. It then began to ask questions in more specialized highly advanced areas of mathematics, and continued till it began to present problems for which there were no known solutions. This was done to examine prospective staff for the University, and to try and establish unique talents and establish the extent of knowledge in particular fields. The test was so complex that it had taken him a hundred years to develop, with help from thirty professors from other mathematical specialist areas. The final components for testing university staff in their specialty areas was the most complex and demanding.

He did not have a familiarity with all areas of mathematical specialties, and it required a whole committee of experts to set the questions. He became intrigued when he noticed that Jason had answered every question, which should not be possible. He thought that Jason finding solutions to the unsolvable was improbable.

Jason had answered every question in every expert field! Professor Jenkins knew that he could not evaluate some of those answers, so he went to look at the answers in his own field. He was surprised to find Jason answered the questions with solutions he could recognize but also provided answers for problems for which the answers were not known. He could see clearly that Jason had answered the undergraduate and postgraduate questions correctly, but even he would have to go back to check some of the more advanced work in his own field.

He was shaken to find that Jason had answered all the complex questions in every field, and very quickly! The full test of every known problem should have taken two days! If Jason had even solved one of the unknown questions correctly, he was a genius. If Jason had answered the questions correctly in the other fields, he was beyond anyone’s capacity to evaluate! He would have to be considered to be tested out beyond the postgraduate level. Professor Jenkins knew that he needed to check with the other top mathematical brains in his department, to look at the solutions in their areas; and in particular, the solutions that had not been previously found.

“Jason, I’m terribly sorry to have kept you so long. We are going to have to evaluate how your group and you undertook this test. That will probably take a few days. You have done well, from what I can see. Relax and don’t worry. I will give all of you feedback, and we will try and structure appropriate programs to extend you if necessary and appropriate. I’m sure you are very tired, so go home and rest.” He rubbed his own eyes and indicated the door.

“Thanks Professor Jenkins. I have truly been impressed with the outstanding work you have done. Some of those problems were pretty hard. Some of those last problems were enormously complex. I realized that we don’t have the mathematics to solve the problems, so I had to make up some new mathematics to solve some of it, but it may be garbage. I have done my best, and I hope that I haven’t embarrassed myself,” said Jason. He dragged himself home feeling exhausted.

Jason woke refreshed at his usual time. He did his run with the boar and the dogs, and made his way to the gym. He met up with his group who wanted to know how he had done.

“I continued until eleven thirty, but I really battled to solve some of the last few problems. I am not confident that I solved them all. I had to make up some solutions. Even some of the bug math is a bit thin for the last few problems. I wonder if I have fully grasped much of what I have learned. Math here may be much more advanced than I expected. Some of the last problems were a nightmare. I think I embarrassed myself. I made some stuff up on the fly, to solve the problems. I think it could be rubbish. I suspect I have made a fool of myself, and let the bugs down.”

Professor Jenkins had not been able to sleep. He again went through the problems in the areas with which he was familiar, and noted that the solutions were correct. When he got to the unsolvable questions, he could not recognize whole sections of the mathematics. He sent the answers that Jason had provided in the areas that were not familiar to him, to professors in those specialist areas of mathematics. He included the solutions to the previously unsolvable problems. He marked the messages for urgent attention, and indicated that the student may be somebody special. He could solve everything in undergraduate and his own familiar areas of postgraduate mathematics, but Jenkins did not recognize the mathematics used in some of the solutions of the unsolvable problems. He proposed that they meet urgently at mid-morning break, and discuss the issues further.

Jason in the meantime became more and more upset and worried about his answers. He was concerned that he might need more mathematics and asked his AI to deliver and to continue to deliver the Charassa mathematics to more advanced levels and check that he had a full grasp of the material to date.

Jason managed to catch Norbert just before he ran with the dogs, told him what had happened with the professor, and said he was sure that there were some holes in his understanding. Norbert wanted the problems and Jason gave him the problems and solutions as downloads from his Brain.

Norbert said he would send the problems and Jason’s solutions to a mathematician friend of his in Charassa, and would upgrade the education if indicated.

Jason said to Norbert that he was not absolutely sure if he was facing having made an ass of himself, but said he would know more once he had spoken to the professor in a few days.

Jason pushed himself while running with the dogs. He then pushed himself very hard with his weight routine and then did his forms in preparation for sparring. He sparred with several of the group and found that they were able to push him very much more than they would have been able to do previously. Lydia Von Max introduced a new person who was going to assist her in training. He looked vaguely familiar to Jason, but Jason was unsure where he had seen him previously.

He was very friendly and went through teaching them several techniques that were clearly derived from the martial arts of the Collective, modified for humans. Jason then recalled what Norbert had said and saw Lydia was grinning at him. She then said that she and her associate would demonstrate the techniques and proceeded to spar with each other.

Cyril was quite despondent. He was making slow progress with sparring, was clearly behind everyone in the group, and could not follow the demonstration. He was struggling in class while the members of his group were moving ahead at full speed. They were finishing much faster than he was and he had to ask for assistance. He had never felt so foolish and inadequate in his whole life. His father had constantly told him how superior he was, and how superior the two of them were. They could do anything, and the world was their oyster. He now knew that such talk was drivel. His father was a pretentious ass, who had skated through at the University at a time that no one confronted his personality problems and lack of skills. He, Cyril, was getting no such free-ride courtesy of his grandfather.

He was pushing himself in the learning machines, and ensuring that he was solving all of the problems. He was working to make sure that no matter what, he would succeed in the laboratory component of his studies. It was a matter of his and his grandfather’s honor, while not accepting the idiotic ideas of his foolish father.

His younger brother had never been fooled by his father. From a very early age, he had spent a lot of time with their grandfather, who Cyril now knew he had never appreciated. His grandfather was the builder of their family. His father was a parasite. He was determined he was not going to repeat his father’s mistakes and go down the same path. He wanted to respect himself and hoped that others would respect the effort that he was putting in. He knew that he had a good brain. He had never needed to push himself and his father constantly praised him. He did well at school with minimal effort, but realized that in this elite institution he was going to have to put in a supreme effort.

Cyril systematically pushed himself at the gym. He saw how Jason drove himself, despite his ability. He saw how Jason put maximum effort into his studies, as did the rest of the group. He was sure that Jason had pushed himself his whole life, and that was why he was doing so well. Jason was not arrogant. He was a very helpful pleasant person who was even nice to Cyril himself, even when he had been a total twit. Cyril knew that he was going to have to push himself to his limits. He might not catch up quickly, but catch up he was determined to do. He realized that he was paying for a lifetime of lack of effort and a lack of application to both his physical state as well as his intellectual capacity.