He looked skeptical. 'I think Doctor Russell Gaines-Barklen has probably dealt with them as fully as they need to be, although we'll probably have some chances to catch things survey teams miss. That's the benefit of being trained to look for specifics.'
She finally sent him back with mixed feelings. He was arrogant, no doubt about it. But he was also competent He shared her interests, but his pet theories differed wildly from hers. He was possible, if there were no other choices, but he wasn't what she was looking for.
'Chria Chance is up next,' CenCom said when she reported she was ready for the next. 'But you won't like her.'
'Why, because she's got a name that's obviously assumed?' Neither CenCom nor the Academy cared what you called yourself, provided they knew the identity you had been born with and the record that went with it. Every so often someone wanted to adopt a pseudonym. Often it was to cover a famous High Family name, either because the bearer was a black sheep, or because (rarely) he or she didn't want special treatment But sometimes a youngster got a notion into his or her head to take on a holostar-type name.
'No,' CenCom replied, not bothering to hide his amusement. 'You won't like her because, well, you'll see.'
Chria's records were good, about like Garrison's, with one odd note in the personality profile. Nonconformist, it said.
Well, there was nothing wrong with that. Pota and Braddon were certainly not conformists in any sense.
But the moment that Chria stepped into the central room, Tia knew that CenCom was right.
She wore her Academy uniform, all right, but it was a specially tailored one. Made entirely of leather; real leather, not synthetic. And she wore it entirely too well for Tia to feel comfortable around her. For the rest, she was rapier-thin, with a face like a clever fox and hair cut aggressively short. Tia already felt intimidated, and she hadn't even said anything yet!
Within a few minutes worth of questions, Chria shook her head. 'You're a nice person, Tia,' she said forthrightly, 'and you and I would never partner well. I'd run right over you, and you'd sit there in your column, fuming and resentful, and you'd never say a word.' She grinned with feral cheer. 'I'm a carnivore, a hunter. I need someone who'll fight back! I enjoy a good fight!'
'You'd probably have us go chasing right after pirates,' Tia said, a little resentful already. 'If there were any in the neighborhood, you'd want us to look for them!'
'You bet I would,' Chria responded without shame.
A few more minutes of exchange proved to Tia that Chria was right. It would never work. With a shade of regret, Tia bade her farewell. While she liked a good argument as well as the next person, she didn't like for arguments to turn into shouting matches, which was precisely what Chria enjoyed. She claimed it purged tensions.
Well, maybe it did. And maybe that was why her favorite form of music, to the exclusion of everything else, was opera. She was a fanatic, to put it simply, And Tia, well, wasn't.
But there was certainly a lot of emotion-purging and carrying on in those old operas. She had the feeling that Chria fancied herself as a kind of latter-day Valkyrie. Hoy-yo to-ho.
She reported her rejection to CenCom, with the recommendation that she thought Chria Chance had the proper mental equipment to partner a ship in the Military Courier Service. 'Between you, me, and the airwaves,' CenCom replied., 'that's my opinion, too. Bloodthirsty wench. Well, she'll get her chance. Military got your classmate Pol, and he's just as bloody minded as she is. I'll see the recommendation goes in; meanwhile, next up is Harkonen Carl-Ulbright.'
Carl was a disappointment. Average grades, and while he was congenial, Tia knew that she would run right over the top of him. He was shy, hardly ever ventured an opinion, and when he did, he could be induced to change it in an eye-blink. 'However, Carl,' she said, just before he went to the lift, making no effort to hide his discouragement. 'My classmate Raul is the XR One-Oh-Two-Nine. I think you two would get along splendidly. I'm going to ask CenCom to set up your very next interview with him, he was just installed today and I know he hasn't got a brawn yet. Tell him I sent you.'
That cheered up the young man considerably. He would be even more cheered when he learned that Raul had a Singularity Drive ship. And Tia would bet that his personality profile and Raul's matched to a hair. They'd make a great team, especially when their job included carrying VIP passengers. Neither of them would get in the way or resent it if the VIPs ignored them.
'I got all that, Tia,' CenCom said as soon as the boy was gone. 'Consider it logged. They ought to make you a Psych; a Counselor, at least. It was good of you to think of Raul; none of us could come up with a match for him, but we were trying to match him with females.'
If she'd had hands, she would have thrown them up. 'Become a Psych? Saints and agents of grace defend us!' she quipped. 'I think not! Who's next?'
