Chap. 21 The Bad Teacher-Flashback

Chap. 21 The bad teacher

Later on, both K'ndar and C'val would remember how prophetic the evaluation would be.If only...K'ndar reflected, if only. He would never forget this one evaluation.



"Why," K'ndar asked C'val, his mentor, "do we have to put up with Jenmay? I don't think I've ever met a person so angry, so resentful. She's worse than my father ever was. She treats us as if we were to blame for everything about our world as it is now. If we ask her a question, she'll say, "I told you this, you didn't listen" and yet she forgets that she never said it." 

He and C'val were in one of the barracks classrooms, where K'ndar was undergoing one of the routine evaluations of his training progress. He had taken the extraordinary step of complaining about the instructor for protocol, dealing with the various levels of leadership in Pern. Normally he'd never whinge, but he trusted C'val enough to confide in him.

C'val nodded. "I know, K'ndar, and so do the Weyrleaders. She's an Oldtimer, and few of them seemed to have been able to adjust to the 'new way' that we live now."

"She's hateful, C'val. She doesn't like our time, it's all 'wrong', and she takes it out on us. She doesn't like the way the weyr is being run. She doesn't think it's 'decent' that girls ride greens.  When she's just teaching protocol, like how one talks to a Lord Holder, then we learn. But the rest of her talk is all gas and ash.  "Girls only ride golds." she says.  She hates the girls. I don't know why. She doesn't seem to understand how important green riders are."

"K'ndar, let me say that, again, D'nis and Danelle are well aware of the problem. That being, at this moment, Jenmay is the weyr's only gold rider other than Danelle. Her Jiannath is so old that I doubt she'll ever rise to mate again, but until last clutch's gold dragons mature, we're stuck with just two mature golds.  She was a Weyrwoman for a very short time back in her time, so she should know how a Weyr should be run, but I'll bet my boots she wasn't a good Weyrwoman at all. And, to be quite honest with you, one of the reasons she's been foisted onto teaching weyrlings is keep her out of Danelle's hair. Since she moved to our weyr she's been constantly trying to interfere with the way Danelle runs things."

"Danelle is a GOOD Weyrwoman! Just ask the other riders! Just ask anyone here!" K'ndar protested.

"I know. You are right. But Jenmay isn't happy being just someone at the weyr. In my opinion, she wants to be Weyrwoman but without the work it entails. She could just be retired, like N'orald, the other Oldtimer, just take it easy and enjoy what's left of their lives…but she insists on interfering with Danelle, she 'knows better' than Danelle how to do things, or worse, tell D'nis how bad Danelle is at her job."

"Yeah. We know. She tells us that all the time. Can't we send her back to Telgar?"

C'val laughed, but it was a bitter one. "Better yet, send her back to her time. But, that is something way beyond my level. I don't know how that worked, or why, but for now, it seems, we're stuck with her. It may be, again, because before she got here, we had only Elanath for a queen. Sure, at twenty, she's just coming into her prime, she's been a good queen, but this clutch had no golds and she laid only two last year. That's one big worry that Danelle has and is trying to keep from putting on anyone else. But it's obvious a concern for the leadership. A weyr, to be safe, needs more than just one gold, just in case.  Look how close things got to disaster when the only gold on the planet was Ramoth."

K'ndar nodded, knowing his Pern history. It was precisely why Lessa had gone back in time to bring forward the other weyrs. 

"I don't know if he'd admit it to his mentor, but it seems to me she is trying to make a pet out of B'rost. She'll screw up her face, like this," and K'ndar made a scowl, "when a girl asks a question, or a boy tries to answer her questions, but if B'rost says anything, she's all smiles and puppy eyes, and "bright lad!!"  It scares B'rost to death. He told me she keeps inviting him to her weyr, after the evening meal, so that they can 'discuss the class in more detail." She's never asked anyone else this, at least not me." 

"Has he actually done so?" C'val said, shocked. This had suddenly crossed into sexual territory.

"Oh, shards, no," K'ndar protested, "he's afraid of her. He's not stupid. He's convinced she wants him in her bed. She doesn't know he's gay." 

Shards, that's disgusting, C'val thought, shivering at the thought of having sex with the old crone. Thank the egg he had a blue dragon and would never have to face the possibility of his dragon mating her gold. He couldn't blame B'rost, not for a moment. Some people should be gelded, just like bulls and stallions. 

"And don't mention Aivas. She's really against anything that he's taught us. Every class we hear stories about how dreadful Aivas is, how it's ruined Pern.  One of the girls asked her if Aivas was so bad, why was she willing to use the fans he taught us to make that keep her weyr cool, and she went for her like a dragon going for a lame wherry. I thought she was going to hit her."

C'val sighed. Sounds like an Abominator who doesn't have the courtesy to reveal herself as such. Some people, he realized, you just can't reach.

"As I said, everyone is aware of her being a problem. She's at least 75 years old, she's not going to change now. For now, all I can advise is to listen to her when she's teaching just protocol and ignore the rest. If you have any questions, DON'T hesitate to ask me, or B'rant. Don't be afraid to keep me informed of these things.  And lastly, don’t worry. Too much. You have a lot to learn, you shouldn't be wasting time worrying about something..or someone..you can't change. I must say that you've been an exceptional student and I'm happy to be your mentor. I think you and Raventh will go far."

"Thank you. But what about B'rost? He's my friend, and my roommate. He's…well, he's afraid of her, afraid she might get him in trouble if he doesn't…doesn't…"

"Submit to her? I understand. Do you think he would be willing to talk to the Weyrleader?"

"No, I don't. Know, I mean. He's doesn't know what to do, but he does talk to me. So far, I've been telling him I won't let her get to him, but what if she orders me to leave our weyr?"

C'val tapped the table, thinking. His classes in protocol had never covered an old crone lusting for a 16 year old boy. 

"In her time, as a Weyrwoman, an order from a gold rider was an order. But in our time, in our weyr, at least, she is not your Weyrlingmaster, or Leader, or Woman. She's not a wingleader or even a mentor, like me. She's just…Jenmay, an Oldtimer who's 'helping' by teaching you protocol. Should she order you to leave your weyr, it's an 'illegal order'. She can't force you to do something that you know is illegal, or wrong. So you needn't obey it. I seriously doubt she could physically force you," he said, laughing at the idea. "You look as if you've muscled sows into obedience in the past."

K'ndar laughed. "Well, not sows…but definitely cows. Maybe I could rope her?"

"I've seen how good you are with a rope. You'll have to teach me that trick someday." C'val laughed, remembering the first time he'd ever seen K'ndar. 

"Not much room in our weyr to throw a loop, but I could probably catch her heels," K'ndar said, still laughing. "Shards. I left my best rope at home."

They both took a few moments to enjoy the images. Then, K'ndar said, '"So how do we, or me, or him, handle this?"

"Let's game it a little, like when we plan on thread falls.  Let's say she enters your weyr and orders you to leave. You can legally say, "I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving MY WEYR."  Be respectful, of course. If she insists, say something like "If you have problems with me being in my weyr..or wherever you may be, "ma'am, if you have problems with me, please talk to my Weyrlingmaster first."

K'ndar felt relief that he had some high powered backup. 

"B'rost can say something like, "You've taught me protocol, and protocol says a Weyrling has no business interrupting a person of her rank's valuable time or entering her weyr, alone, for any reason." 

"But she's the one interrupting HIS!" K'ndar argued. C'val put his hands up.

"I know. I know. But sorry to say, B'rost has to play this like one plays a tunnel snake. He has to  twist her words into making her obey the very protocol she's teaching. It would tell her that first, B'rost was indeed 'listening' when she taught protocol and knows that both her and him know it. So that, IF by some unusual chance she actually takes a complaint to the Weyrleader, B'rost can honestly say he was only going by protocol AS SHE TAUGHT HIM."

"Hmmm. That's clever."

"I will talk to his mentor, and the Weyrlingmaster. You weyrlings have too much to learn without having to fend off that woman. I can't change the way she is, but I can at least let the leadership know what she's doing, and how it's affecting you both."

"I'd just as soon never see her again," K'ndar said.

"You're not alone, K'ndar, and I appreciate your telling me all this. It took courage. I suppose I needn't tell you to never leave B'rost alone with her?"

"No, you don't have to. B'rost already begs me to stay with him at all times when she's around. I think he'd chain himself to my leg if he could."

"Insist he talk to his mentor. Two mentors telling the same story to the Weyrleader and –Master are better than just one."

"I will."

"And, K'ndar, tell him this: if she catches him anywhere alone, tell him to RUN."