"Gordon Eklund - Serving in Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

flashing him puzzled looks. He didn't care. If he was trembling,
there was good reason for it. Today was graduation dayтАФand
Jan Jeroux was frightened for his life.

The stage was nearly as crowded as the floor. Jan tried to
focus his attention up there. He saw various administrators,
functionaries, and instructors. The Captain himself, head of the
entire time corps, sat rigidly in the center of everyone. Jan had
only seen the Captain twice before, but even this rare sight could
not wholly draw his attention away from his private fears.

Would he make it? Would he fail? Would he die? These were
the only questions worth asking. Un-fortunately, none of them
had as yet been provided with an answer.
 The Captain seemed to be looking at Jan, studying him, but
when Jan tried to meet his eyes in hopes of discovering some
form of reassurance lurking there, the Captain looked quickly
away.

He knows, Jan thought. That's why he can't meet my eye. He
knows I failed and that I'm going to die.

It had taken Jan two full months to reach this predicament.
Two dreadful months of teaching, learning, studying, testing,
and failing. The history of the ancient world; European
civilization; the Americas; Russia; Chinese history; political
history; military history; cultural history. And on and on and on.
History, history, historyтАФfacts, facts, facts. His mind had
become so saturated with details of the dead world that, by the
time of the final examination, he had suffered enormously trying
to recall who was who and what was what. It hadn't been fair. He
was convinced of that. If he failed and died, his death would be a
stain upon their hands. Not his own. The blame and guilt would
be theirs to bear.

The third squad was now filing into the room. One more to go
and the entire class would be present and waiting. Jan moved his
eyes down the row seated in front of him. Although he couldn't
see any of their faces, he knew each one of them simply from the
back of his or her neck. He knew them that wellтАФbetter, in some
respects, than his own family. Altogether there were thirty-nine
in the class. In the beginning, there had been forty, but one boy
had dared to risk quitting after a poor first exam, and no one
had seen a sign of him since. Thirty-two of those remaining were
boys. They shared a common barracks, as did the seven girls.
The oldest of the boys, a former teacher named Arthur Dodge,
was actually a full-grown man, in his late thirties. But most of
the restтАФand all of the girlsтАФwere in their teens or very early
twenties. Jan had no particular friend among their ranks, or any
real enemy, either.