Work Text:
Another year, another crop of new Kel. General Kel Inessar sighed and contemplated the information documents for the top graduates.
No, Inesser, no. It's wonderful, a new crop of young people who have volunteered to become the best that the Kel can offer the Hexarchate.
Her mind wasn't rising to her attempt at self-motivation, and that was a bit alarming. True, the most recent campaign had been unusually ugly. Was it right to celebrate inducting a flock of twenty-year-old kids into this insanity? This was the problem with being on leave, with spending time with family instead of Kel. Sometimes formation instinct seemed a little too distant.
She hardened her will and decided to try watching a recording of the last Kel Academy Prime commencement at which she had been the speaker of honor. This time she was able to bring her thoughts back in line, to fill her mind with the ceremony and history of the event. Soon she was able to bend her efforts to the part she herself believed most important: the special commendations for the top cadets as they received permission to activate their rank insignia and don their gloves for the first time.
This class was smaller than the last. That was worrisome, but she'd been assured that it was within normal variation. The logical thing to do was to expand the pool of graduates to be individually commended to the top 10% rather than the top 5%. She began to input her remarks.
The graduates were all much of a muchness, which made the process both easier and less interesting. There were the usual earnest grinds, the excellent students who learned history or languages easily but mostly got by in physical training, the brilliant snipers who could barely calculate, the athletes muscled or lean whose attention at academic subjects was dutiful at best, and then the expected few that exhibited rare traits of leadership. Even in the case of these last, there were a pitiful few who distinguished themselves to her. After all, this was her sixteenth commencement as speaker of honor. She had seen and commended thousands of new junior officers.
Sixteen. Four lucky unlucky fours.
Nonsense, Inesser. Back to work.
She had set aside a handful of student profiles that were anomalies. Before she tackled those, her second wife appeared at the door with a tray of lunch: rice cakes filled with preserved fish, a salad, sliced fruit, a miniature almond cake, and tea. Inesser realized she was starving, and after thanking Vesola warmly, she bolted the lot.
The evening sun was coming through the window behind her when she once again took up the last profile. It should have been the easiest: a minority candidate who had insisted on joining the Kel, even though her best talents lay elsewhere. She was in the top 6%, almost good enough to meet Inesser's previous cutoffs for special commendation. Her final examiner had noted how she always put forth conservative solutions and that she was best motivated by appealing to her need to assimilate in the mainstream of Hexarchate culture, despite her upbringing.
At the time of her entrance exams, the girl had blown clear through the top of the mathematics skill norms required for acceptance to Kel Academy Prime. The Vidona-run Hexarchate test system had flagged the anomaly and, upon confirmation from the proctor on duty that day, had seamlessly added the Nirai qualifying exam. And the potential cadet had reached within two points of blowing through the top of that.
Naturally the Nirai recruitment officers were notified, and the girl was offered a place at Nirai Academy Prime. She turned it down.
Inesser wondered whether the young woman had ever regretted that choice, and whether Kel service would suit the junior ashhawk she was about to become. But her other Kel qualifications were very good: sound in tactics, a decent shot, strong formation instinct, and so on. It never hurt to have a truly intelligent officer, as long as that intelligence was bolstered by loyalty.
Inesser warmed to her work: a truly distinctive graduate was a rare gift in this particular task. In less than an hour, she was satisfied with her writeup of soon-to-be Second Lieutenant Kel Cheris.