Prostho Plus by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Humour
ISBN: 9780812531169
Google: 2-4BUgYZPG4C
Amazon: 0812531167
Goodreads: 263407
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2014-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

It was every bit as bad as he had anticipated. His mind was dull from lack of sleep and his basic fund of information was meagre indeed on the galactic scale. The questions would have been quite difficult even if he had been fully prepared. There were entire categories he had to skip because they concerned specialized procedures buried in his unread review texts. If only he had had time to prepare!

The other were having trouble too. He could see their humped over their tables, or under them, depending on physiology, scribbling notes as they figured ratios and tolerances and indices of material properties. Even Treetrunk looked hard-pressed. If Treetrunk, with a galactic library of dental information filed in his celluloid brain, could wilt with the effort, how could a poor humanoid from a backward planet hope to succeed?

But he carried on to the discouraging end, knowing that his score would damn him but determined to do his best whatever the situation. It seemed increasingly ridiculous, but he still wanted to be admitted to the university. The thought of deserting this stupendous reservoir of information and technique was appalling.

During the afternoon break he collapsed on his bunk and slept. One day remained, one final trial: the interrogation by the Admissions Advisory Council. This, he understood, was the roughest gauntlet of all; more applicants were rejected on the basis of this interview than from both other tests combined.

An outcry woke him in the evening. "The probabilities are being posted!" Pincushion honked, prodding him with a spine that was not, despite its appearance, sharp.

"Mine's twenty-one per cent, not a penny more," Dillingham muttered sleepily. "Low—too low."

"The revised probs!" Pincushion said. "Based on the test scores. The warning buzzer just sounded."

Dillingham snapped alert. He remembered now: no results were posted for the field and written exams. Instead the original estimates of acceptance were modified in the light of individual data. This provided unlikely applicants with an opportunity to bow out before submitting themselves to the indignity of a negative recommendation by the AA Council. It also undoubtedly simplified the work of that body by cutting down on the number of interviewees.

They clustered in a tense semi-circle around the main translator. The results would be given in descending order. Dillingham wondered why more privacy in such matters wasn't provided, but assumed that the University had its reasons. Possibly the constant comparisons encouraged better effort, or weeded out the quitters that much sooner.

"Anteater," the speaker said. It paused. "Ninety-six per cent."

Anteater twitched his nose in relief. "I must have guessed right on those stress formulations," he said. "I knew I was in trouble on those computations."

Treetrunk—eighty-five per cent." Treetrunk almost uprooted himself with glee. "A twenty-five per cent increase! I must have maxed the written portion after all!"

"Robot—sixty-five per cent." The robotoid took the news impassively.

The remaining three fidgeted, knowing that their scores had to be lower.

"Pincushion—fifty per cent." The creature congratulated himself on an even chance, though he had obviously hoped to do better.

"Electrolyte—twenty-three per cent.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.