[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

everything else. Tell me, why did you choose the College of Business,
anyway? Why not the College of Languages, or the College of
Mathematics?"
"Why should I study subjects in which I am already proficient?" Kren
said, "I chose to study business because I would like to become rich."
"Wouldn't we all? But I really don't see how I could recommend you to
the College of Business with these test scores."
Dol said, "Please excuse me, but did you know that Kren has been
personally granted a scholarship by the director of athletics?"
"The director of athletics?" The advisor's voice squeaked. "Well, that,
of course changes everything! You really should have told me that
earlier! Kren, I am delighted to welcome you to the College of
Business! Of course, there will be certain remedial courses you will
have to take in order to prepare you for a successful academic career,
but you are definitely on your path to the future! Just give me a few
minutes to arrange your class schedule."
"The director said that I would need three hours a day for physical
training."
"But of course. Is there any particular time that you would like that to
happen?"
"He said that we could arrange that around my class schedule."
"Really? You must be very special indeed. I've heard that the director
prefers to work in the afternoons. Let's give you from seven to ten for
him, and put all of your academic work in the morning. That will leave
your late afternoons and evenings free for study, or whatever else you
choose to do."
The Mitchegai use a two-dozen-hour day, with sunrise being at zero.
They do not use time zones. Rather, the clocks on all public
transportation slowly change their speeds, and sometimes even
direction, to reflect local time. On a fast aircraft traveling near the poles,
the clocks sometimes did surprising things. The pilots lived and worked
on Planetary Standard Time, of course.
Dol noticed that the advisor had changed the class schedules of five
other students before he was done.
As they were leaving the building, Kren said, "The director seems to
have a remarkable amount of power."
"Indeed he does, as well as status. He is the second most powerful
person on campus, which means the entire city. Only the chancellor
outranks him."
"And why is that?"
"Because the College of Athletics brings more money into the university
than student tuitions do! The ticket sales to sporting events and the
payments made by the television channels are what keeps this institution
going," she said.
"Remarkable. And which individual comes in third?"
"The director of drama, although they only bring in a third of what
athletics does. Our next stop is the book store."
Here it was a simple matter of giving a clerk a copy of Kren's class
schedule, and sitting down and waiting for half an hour. She returned
with a cart full of books, and four hefty cloth bags to put them in. She
took Kren's credit card, deducted the cost of the books, various
supplies, and the bags. After some stern discussions with Dol, in which
the director's title was mentioned, she exchanged nine books that she
said had been placed on the cart by mistake, and gave them a receipt.
"Why is there such a problem with receipts?" Kren asked as they
trudged along with two heavy bags each.
"Well, it sometimes happens that a new freshman finds out that he has
not paid for his tuition at all, but has made a donation to the Clerk's
Civic Betterment Fund, or that he has purchased a set of obsolete
books that have nothing to do with his class schedule. Also, I think that
your military uniform leads some fools into thinking that you are stupid.
Always get a receipt. And anyway, you'll need the receipts to be
reimbursed by the director's office."
"For this timely aid, much thanks!"
"Thank Bronki. She's paying me," she said.
"Do you like working for her?"
"To answer that, I would have to ask, compared to what? Compared
to living with an independent income of a gross thousand Ke a year,
what she has to offer is decidedly inferior. At the time that I accepted
her offer, however, the only other employment I was able to locate
involved collecting juvenals from the countryside and delivering them
alive to the city, on commission. By comparison, her offer was
outstanding."
"And what does she pay you?" Kren asked.
"Something much better than three dozen Ke a week."
So my servant gets paid more than I do! Kren thought, Someday I'm
going to have to do something about that!
They decided that because of the weight of the books they would
return to Bronki's house to drop them off.
When they got there, Dol said that they might as well get Kren's credit
card number loaded into the household computer, so that he could use
the doors without needing someone to let him in.
"She trusts you with so important a task?" Kren asked. "I would think
that the value of any one of these paintings is worth many gross times [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]