Nero withered in his seat.
"Second, you seemed to be listening to me, not to find out useful information, but to try to catch me in a logical fallacy. This tells us all that you are used to being smarter than your teachers, and that you listen to them in order to catch them making mistakes and prove how smart you are to the other students. This is such a pointless, stupid way of listening to teachers that it is clear you are going to waste months of our time before you finally catch on that the only transaction that matters is a transfer of useful information from adults who possess it to children who do not, and that catching mistakes is a criminal misuse of time."
Bean silently disagreed. The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching them--noticing them--that was essential. If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement.
The part of the man's statement that was true, however, was about the uselessness of speaking up. If I know that the teacher is wrong, and say nothing, then I remain the only one who knows, and that gives me an advantage over those who believe the teacher.
"Third," said the man, "my statement only seems to be self-contradictory and impossible because you did not think beneath the surface of the situation. In fact it is not necessarily true that one person has the highest scores of everyone on this shuttle. That's because there were many tests, physical, mental, social, and psychological, and many ways to define 'highest' as well, since there are many ways to be physically or socially or psychologically fit for command. Children who tested highest on stamina may not have tested highest on strength; children who tested highest on memory may not have tested highest on anticipatory analysis. Children with remarkable social skills might be weaker in delay of gratification. Are you beginning to grasp the shallowness of your thinking that led you to your stupid and useless conclusion?"
Nero nodded.
"Let us hear t
he sound of your flatulence again, Nero. Be just as loud in acknowledging your errors as you were in making them."
"I was wrong."
There was not a boy on that shuttle who would not have avowed a preference for death to being in Nero's place at that moment. And yet Bean felt a kind of envy as well, though he did not understand why he would envy the victim of such torture.
"And yet," said the man, "you happen to be less wrong on this particular shuttle flight than you would have been in any other shuttle filled with launchies heading for Battle School. And do you know why?"
He did not choose to speak.
"Does anyone know why? Can anyone guess? I am inviting speculation."
No one accepted the invitation.
"Then let me choose a volunteer. There is a child here named--improbable as it might sound--'Bean.' Would that child please speak?"
Here it comes, thought Bean. He was filled with dread; but he was also filled with excitement, because this was what he wanted, though he did not know why. Look at me. Talk to me, you with the power, you with the authority.
"I'm here, sir," said Bean.
The man made a show of looking and looking, unable to see where Bean was. Of course it was a sham--he knew exactly where Bean was sitting before he ever spoke. "I can't see where your voice came from. Would you raise a hand?"
Bean immediately raised his hand. He realized, to his shame, that his hand did not even reach to the top of the high-backed seat.
"I still can't see you," said the man, though of course he could. "I give you permission to unstrap and stand on your seat."
Bean immediately complied, peeling off the harness and bounding to his feet. He was barely taller than the back of the seat in front of him.
"Ah, there you are," said the man. "Bean, would you be so kind as to speculate about why, in this shuttle, Nero comes closer to being correct than on any other?"
"Maybe somebody here scored highest on a lot of tests."
"Not just a lot of tests, Bean. All the tests of intellect. All the psychological tests. All the tests pertinent to command. Every one of them. Higher than anyone else on this shuttle."
"So I was right," said the newly defiant Nero.
"No you were not," said the man. "Because that remarkable child, the one who scored highest on all the tests related to command, happens to have scored the very lowest on the physical tests. And do you know why?"
No one answered.
"Bean, as long as you're standing, can you speculate about why this one child might have scored lowest on the physical tests?"
Bean knew how he had been set up. And he refused to try to hide from the obvious answer. He would say it, even though the question was designed to make the others detest him for answering it. After all, they would detest him anyway, no matter who said the answer.
"Maybe he scored lowest on the physical tests because he's very, very small."