David Brin - Glory Season

“An occupational-aptitude test. I’ve accessed your school records from Port Sanger, which show adequate preparatory work. Is there a problem?”

Maia almost laughed out loud. Then she wondered. Is this a pose? Might she have been sent hereby Iolanthe Nitocris and her allies?

But then, Odo would have checked Brill’s bona fides. The small civil service of Stratos was supposedly outside politics, and its testers could go anywhere. If this was a pose, Brill made it believable. Maia decided to play along.

“Uh, no problem.” She looked left and right. “Where are your calipers? Will you be measuring bumps on my head?”

The Upsala clone smiled. “Phrenology has its adherents. For starters, however, why don’t we begin with this?”

There followed a relentless confrontation with paper. Rapidfire questions, covering her interests, tastes, knowledge of grammar, knowledge of science and weather, knowledge of …

After two hours, Maia was allowed a short break. She went to the toilet, ate a small snack from a silver tray, walked in the garden to stretch her back. Ever businesslike, the Upsala clone spent the time processing results. If she had been sent to convey a message from Naroin or Clevin, she was good at concealing the fact.

“I saw two of your sisters after we spoke at the opera, Maia commented, aware of the watching Persim clone. “One of them played Faust…”

“Yes, yes. Cousin Gloria. And Surah, at the baton. Bloody showoffs.”

Maia blinked in surprise. “I thought they were very good at what they did.”

“Of course they were good!” Brill glanced sharp! “The issue is what one chooses to be good at. The arts are fine, for hobbies. I play six instruments, myself. But they pose no great challenge to a mature mind.”

Maia stared. It was passing strange to hear a clone disparage her own kin. Stranger was the implication of her words.

“Did you say choose ? Then your clan doesn’t—”

“Specialize?” Brill finished the word with a disdainful buzz. “No, Maia. We do not specialize . Shall we resume work now?”

The return to neutral professionalism cut short Maia’s line of inquiry. Brill next presented a wooden box, and asked Maia to grip two levers while peering down a leather-lined tube. Within, a horizontal line rocked back and forth, reminding her of an instrument she had seen in the aircraft carrying her from Ursulaborg. “This is an artificial horizon,” Brill began. “Your task, as I add difficulty, will be to correct deviations …”

An hour later, Maia’s finery was damp with perspiration, her neck hurt from concentration, and she moaned when Brill called time for a halt.

“O-oh-h,” she commented in surprise. “That… was fun .”

The Upsala clone answered with a brief, thin smile: “I can tell.”

After more physical tests, there came another break, for supper in the nearest of Persim Hold’s many dining rooms. To Odo’s clear irritation, Brill seemed blithely to assume she was invited to table, obliging the Persim matriarch to attend as well, keeping an eye on things.

She needn’t have bothered. The conversation was less than enthralling across an expanse of fine-grained Yarri-wood, embroidered linen, and fine porcelain, lit by sparkling chandeliers. For most of the time, Brill shuffled papers, except when meticulously thanking the servants for any dish that was served. Maia enjoyed the effect on Odo.

Nearly, the matron thought the test-taker’s visit a chess move by her faction’s opponents, and was writhing to figure it out. Also clearly, it frustrated Odo to spend so much time worrying over a mere pawn.

Was that all it was? A gambit to waste the enemy’s time? If so, Maia was pleased to help. The exams were exhausting, but a pleasant diversion. She only wished Brill seemed more sensitive to her own efforts hinting at messages to be relayed to Naroin and her father.

“The Upsalas are a funny lot,” Odo commented while the main course was cleared away, and she finished her third glass of wine. “Do you know of them, summer child?”

Maia shook her head.

“Then let me enlighten you. They are a successful clan by normal standards, numbering about a hundred—”

“Eighty-eight adults,” Brill corrected, regarding Odo with relaxed, green eyes.

“And my sources say their fortune is secure. Not first rank, but secure. There are two Upsalas on the Reigning Council, and forty-nine with savant chairs at various institutions. Nineteen at Caria University itself, in diverse departments. And yet, do you know what’s most peculiar about them?” A servant refilled Odo’s glass as she leaned forward. “They have no clanhold! No house, grounds, servants. Nothing!”

Maia frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“They all live on their own! In houses or apartments they purchase as individuals . Each makes her own living. Each makes her own sparking arrangements with individual men! And do you know why?” Odo giggled. “They hate each other’s guts.”

When Maia turned to regard Brill, the examiner shrugged. “The typical Stratoin success story demands not only talent, upbringing, and luck to find a niche. Gregarity is another customary requisite…self-sacrifice for the good of the hive. Sisterly solidarity helps a clan to thrive.

“But humans aren’t ants,” she went on. “Not everyone is born predisposed to get along with others identical to herself.”

Nerves and alcohol had transformed the normally-aloof Odo, who laughed harshly. “Well put! Many’s the time a bright young var gets something going, only to see it spoilt by her own pretty, bickering daughters. Only those at peace with themselves can truly use the Founders’ Gift.”

Maia recalled countless times she and Leie had been less than selfless with each other while growing up. They had attributed it to the rough passage of a summer background, but was that it? Might the tense affection between them worsen with prosperity, rather than growing into perfect teamwork? Maia sensed an evolutionary imperative at work. Over generations, selection would favor the trait of getting along with different versions of yourself . If so, perhaps the twins’ plans had always been moot, as likely as frost in summer.

“There are exceptions,” Maia prompted hopefully. “Your clan manages, somehow.”

Brill sighed, as if bored with the topic. “Eventually, we Upsala learned how to maintain the needful functions of a clan, without all the trappings or constraints.”

“She means they have grand meetings, about once an old Earth year. Half of ’em don’t attend, they send their lawyers!” Odo seemed to find it hilarious. “They don’t even like their own clone daughters. That’s why their numbers grow so slow—”

“It’s not true!” Brill snapped, showing the first strong emotion Maia had seen. The woman paused to regain her composure. “Everything’s fine until adolescence, then…” She lapsed a second time, and finished in a low voice. “I get along fine with my other kids.”

“Your vars , you mean. That’s another thing. Upsala prefer summer breeding! Makes ’em popular with the lys, it does,” Odo slurred as she sloshed more wine.

“Your way would never work in the countryside,” Maia told Brill, fascinated.

“True, Maia. City life offers public services, a wealth of career choices. …”

“Tell her about career choices! Don’t you all pick different professions ’cause you hate to even run into each other?”

While Odo chuckled, Maia stared. Apparently, the Upsala excelled at anything they tried, starting from scratch with each cloned lifetime. Maia wondered if Renna, her late friend, ever encountered this marvel during his stay in Caria. If not handicapped by one defective trait, the Upsala might own all of Stratos someday. No wonder this one’s presence had Odo nervous, despite Brill’s innocuous chosen profession.