Exam Preparations
"Remick, Tal!? Is there a Tal Remick
here?" The voice was demanding with an irritating pitch. Tal turned
away from the view of Conzec Board at the window with a start, momentarily
resenting the intrusion. He looked to the front of the classroom and focused
on a thin, sharp featured, slightly balding, man of about thirty three.
"Yes, that's me." he said. The man advanced a few steps, glanced
out of the window near Tal's desk, and then back at the young student. He
smiled smugly.
"Well, Remick, I hate to take you away from contemplating the finer
things in the Quadrant, but I suggest if you want to score high enough on
the Inztitut entrance exam
so you can actually live on Conzec Board, that you at least join us in our
review of today's subject matter. You do know what it is we're discussing,
don't you?"
"Uhh . . . advanced infractionalysis,
I think."
"Very goood. Perhaps you can tell us how many special probative exemptions
there are to a sanctionable infraction,
what these are specifically, and why we allow them?" The little man
semed pleased with himself. Tal stood up and answered as quickly and succinctly
as possible.
"There are two. The first exempts any enfranchised inhabitant of the
Quadrant who has not reached 18 years of age from temporary disconnection
from The System, so
long as their infraction is a direct result of the accumulation of five
dockable offenses. Probation of one year is offered.
"The second exempts a woman who has brought an unauthorized pregnancy
to term, only if it is her first birth, and only if she has previously secured
authorization out of which no birth occured, so long as birth occurs within
six months after the authorization period has expired. If these conditions
are met, the ultimate sanction of permanent disconnection from The System
is withheld in favor of a three year probation period."
"Acceptable, Mr. Remick, but you have not told us why. Will you illuminate
the class, please?" Mezner
was definitely an A-hole. Tal continued.
"In the first case, age is the determining factor. The directorate
prefers that mistakes made in youth not be a cause of damaging a potentially
promising career. In the second case, we allow the possibility of biological
miscues occuring under previously authorized conditions."
"That is satisfactory, Mr. Remick. You may sit down."