Datasets:
BlinAI
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Testo

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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"Interest versus boredom."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Caine was interested in your strategic brainstorming but bored by the circuitry test."
Downing reared back in his seat. "Well, isn't that simply awful for him. Next time, I will create an amusing vignette involving the circuitry."
Nolan smiled. "It can be challenging working with a true polymath. We don't see many in our line of work, mostly because they lack either the depth of interes...
"Hmm. That doesn't sound like a polymath; that sounds like a dilettante. Or a spoiled brat."
Nolan shrugged. "In some cases, they are both. But for most polymaths, that's just how they're wired. The intensive detail work that intrigues most field-spec...
"So that's why Riordan can't memorize the circuitry?"
"Maybe. Or maybe he's just bad at it. Or maybe he's subconsciously responding to the inconsistency between what we've been telling him about the mission versu...
Downing folded his arms. "I see: he must be trained in a 'special way.' Most edifying. Except you've never answered the more important question."
"Which is?"
"Which is: why in bloody hell is a polymath any good for us?"
Nolan smiled. "Because, if sufficiently interested or motivated, a true polymath can learn almost anything. They don't see the world as a big pile of discrete...
"Ah," exhaled Downing with mock reverence, "a Renaissance man."
Nolan shrugged. "That term may be increasingly accurate."
"Why?"
"Because in the Renaissance, broadly integrative thought was at a premium; empirical method was in its infancy. Now, with the tools of measurement so highly r...
"Well, I doubt expansive thought is going to help Mr. Riordan when he gets into the field." Downing rose. "And that time is approaching all too quickly. With ...
ODYSSEUS
Caine squinted through the gloom of the generic shuttle's cargo bay. On its far side, he could see the partial silhouettes of the two terrorists who would surel...
Why the terrorists had been on the shuttle, and what they were after, was not clear and probably never would be. Their attempt to hold the bridge crew hostage...
Caine had heard that much over the comm system before the carnage had spiraled out into the small ship's passageways. As one of the last persons out of the po...
Finding the bay access doors closed, he had presumed he was the first to enter, but as he stepped inside and hit the reseal button, he caught sight of hurried...
And so here he was, pinned down by the very terrorists he had been hoping to elude. He had no time to wonder what the terrorists were doing in the cargo bay, ...
Scanning, he saw nothing but the freight and tools common to a cargo bay. Wait: common tools. Caine scuttled over to a power tool bench-box, found a pneumatic...
Caine inserted an undersized bolt, adjusted the wrench's torque and pressure settings to maximum, and popped up. Before the two terrorists could react, he sna...
Caine ducked down a moment before his enemies' return fire sent two rounds thumping into his cover. Well, since they're not charging at me yet, they at least ...
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see, and almost none of it was useful. There were numerous spools of reinforced cargo netting on the floor and affixed to ...
Studying the locations of the nearby containers and boxes more carefully, Caine also realized that he had a mostly covered route back to that panel. There was...
Caine flinched as the main entry opened. A young boy-no more than nine-ran in, shouting as he did, "Hello? Anyone? We need help! We've almost taken back the b...
"Get down!" shouted Caine at the same moment that one of the pirates' guns spat.
The boy fell forward sharply, as if someone had swung a bat into his kneecaps. He shouted in pain, then terror as dark blood began leaking out of a through-an...
Caine felt his molars grind together: he could sneak over to the controls using the boxes as cover, trigger the bay doors, and then help retake the shuttle. B...
Or maybe there was a third option-
Caine quickly scanned the lashings on the plat in front of him and snatched off the biggest carabineer clip he could find. "I'm coming!" he shouted at the boy...
More shots whined off the containers that covered his route to the hanging access panel. Once there, he reached out for a spool of cargo netting affixed to th...
At the other end of the hold, a small wedge of stars and a sliver of blue-Delta Pavonis Three-appeared, widening rapidly. Shots were already barking after Cai...
Caine finished his short sprint to the boy just as the outbound hurricane intensified into the full, ferocious suction of hard vacuum. He dove, caught the boy...
The two terrorists, screaming, shot past them, arms flailing to grab something-anything-to arrest their fatal tumble outward. Caine closed his nostrils tightl...
-when the cargo netting snapped straight out to its limit, humming like an immense, just-fired bowstring. Caine jackknifed at the waist, but held on to the ch...
But then the netting's inevitable return flex began, pulling them away from the widening panorama of airless death even as the cyclone diminished, the bay's a...
-the world faded to gray. Its sounds ended more sharply, as if someone had turned them off. The temperature and pressure extremes faded back to norm within se...
Around him, the sensory suit sagged with uncommon suddenness: the sensa-gel in which it was immersed was being speed-purged from the simchamber. What the hell...
The hatch behind Caine opened with a breathy hiss and Downing's voice-sharp, unpleasant-was audible even through the full-enclosure headphones. "Riordan, get ...
Caine complied, but without any particular rush: you may be my trainer and handler, Downing, but you don't own me.
But before Caine had his second leg all the way out of the simulation pod, Downing was acting very much like he did own his impressed recruit. "Mr. Riordan, w...
"Uh-completing the mission."
"'Completing the mission'? Do you even know what your mission was?"
"To retake the shuttle and get down to Delta Pavonis Three."
"Yes. And you jeopardized that by stopping to rescue the boy."