The Ultimate Caretaker (Ch. 1) (Pt. 2) – Drop in the Ocean Fiction -- Admiration

Admiration

It’s unlikely that even one person from the small group of remaining intelligent humans can grasp what’s in the Smithman Wiss books. Bartimic has read the books several times over and he’s had a difficult time trying to understand much of what his father wrote. He’s not sure but he thinks the books may be written, at least partly, in code.

Avistriel agrees with him on the coding idea, as she too has studied the books extensively. She’s noted that attempting to align a pattern in one section, with a similar pattern in another section that should connect, fails. Each pairing she’s tried so far has ended up aligning with at least one additional pattern that makes any attempted connection with it, invalid.

Both Bartimic and Avistriel think that if Smithman’s words are encoded, it could indicate that he’d had personal doubts about the tendencies of the ethical and prejudicial components of UC6. Since Smithman developed all of its components and processes, why would he have doubted UC6’s fairness?

Bartimic isn’t sure whether his father was as evil as he’s accused of being, or that misinformation concerning him and his work is, and has been, publicly promoted intentionally in order to vilify him. He only remembers that his father was very busy; always writing something or conducting experiments. He wasn’t the kind of father who spent much time doing things with his young, growing son.

It really doesn’t matter, as far as Bartimic is concerned, if his father was really evil or just misunderstood. He was still his father and deserved his admiration for all his accomplishments. Understanding what his father’s written words reveal is what matters to all of humanity. It’s the last hope, really, of fending off the approaching human devolution.

The day of the evaluation for Lenzlar’s acceptance as a Repro Guide 4 trainee arrived, and he was ready for it. Knowing he could be questioned informally by someone there with an intelligence level far below his own, he went over, in his mind, the most likely questions they’d ask. Making sure he’s not suspected of being too smart is the only concern here.

The real test to determine his qualifications will be judged by the UC6 trainee evaluation analysis process, which returns an instantaneous approval or disapproval. It is a bit tricky, as the process has the ability to detect illegally high intelligence levels and Lenzlar’s may be the highest in the world. The fact that Lenzlar is not concerned indicates the actual weakness of this process.

It could be that UC6’s logic gives little weight to theories that some highly intelligent humans could still remain, taking into account the success of its process of lowering the intelligence levels incrementally worldwide. Any notion that Smithman may be connected would never enter Lenzlar’s mind, due to his extreme bias against his grandfather.

When Lenzlar arrived at the evaluation center, he was met by a middle-aged woman named Dorlanin, according to her badge. She told him to go to room UC-10 and take a seat. When he entered the room, there were four others seated already. Fifteen minutes and three more people later, a tall man wearing a uniform entered and closed the door.

“Good morning. I am UC agent Wekk. We already have a problem here. There should only be five people in this room at this time, and I see more than that. The only people who should be in this room are those here for their Repro Guide 4 trainee evaluation. If you are here for Repro Guide 4 trainee evaluation, raise your hand.”

Lenzlar and the seven others there all raised their hands. Agent Wekk shook his head. “Alright, we’ll try it another way.” Pointing to Lenzlar, he tells him to explain why he’s there. “For Repro Guide 4 trainee evaluation, sir.” “Very good; you can stay.” As agent Wekk queried the others, one girl told him she was there because the woman outside told her to sit in the room.

When he asked her why she raised her hand when he asked for those who are there for their evaluation, since she wasn’t there for that reason, she said she didn’t understand the question.

Agent Wekk told her to leave the room and to ask the woman outside to take her to where she was supposed to be. A guy explained that he was there for a class on retrograde rotations. Agent Wekk asked him if he knew there is a difference between the words retro and Repro, and then ordered him to leave the room without waiting for him to answer.

The third misplaced person was an older guy who insisted that he was supposed to be there because he was evaluating everything; the evaluation process, Dorlanin and Agent Wekk. When pushed to reveal who had assigned him to this task, he started to cry and scream profanities. Agent Wekk called for security and the man was forcibly removed from the room as he continued to cry, rant and carry on.

“Okay, now that we have the proper people in here, listen carefully to these instructions,” Agent Wekk said. “When I call your name, you will come to the front of the room and enter the evaluation room through the door behind me. Once inside, you will find a chair with your name on it. You will sit down in your chair. In front of you will be a circular headset. You will put the headset on your head.”

“If you don’t understand or are having trouble affixing the headset, raise your hand and an attendant will assist you. Once everyone is set, the evaluation will begin. Are there any questions before I begin calling your names?”

There were no questions, and soon the five applicants were seated with their headsets in place. The lead attendant told them to watch the countdown clock, and when it would hit zero, the evaluation process would start. Before that would happen though, an automated checking process would make sure all equipment is ready and properly connected.

As Lenzlar watched for the countdown clock to start, a red X appeared on the main screen with the number 4 displayed below it. It turns out that the guy seated at station number 4 didn’t have his headset on properly or something was wrong with it, as it wasn’t registering with the evaluation identification process.

A group of attendants gathered around the number 4 evaluation terminal, and found that one of the nords was out of adjustment. It took a good fifteen to 20 minutes for them to investigate. Lenzlar’s eyes made contact with a pretty attendant, and they smiled at each other. She was busy trying to get the guy’s headset hooked up properly. A couple of smiles later, it was ready for a second try.

Lenzlar wished it had been his headset that malfunctioned so he’d gotten the chance to meet the pretty girl with the cute smile. But now he was ready to get the evaluation over with, and maybe he could talk to her afterwards. He could at least try to talk to her afterwards. They could only throw him out of the building, after all.

Once again, everyone’s eyes are focused on the screen in front of them, which will record the incoming scan information and instantaneously show each person the results of their evaluation. The countdown clock is restarted and counting down when alarms start going off everywhere in the room.

Lenzlar’s screen is flashing “Impostor!” over and over. He looks up and the big screen is also flashing “Impostor!” “This can’t be happening,” he thinks to himself, as he begins to envision being sent to a center to be dumbed-down to a level below the current upper limit of legal intelligence, which consists of extremely dumb people. They will also impair him so he remains dumb the remainder of his life! He’ll soon be nothing more than a twit!

_{Admiration © free-reign 2019}

SpaceshipCity: Image by Steve Bidmead from Pixabay
Fractal: Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Fractal City: Image by Carroll MacDonald from Pixabay
Hallway: Image by tookapic from Pixabay

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