Rise of the Horde

Chapter 869 - 868

The conversation between Sakh’arran and Kael lasted nine hours.

Not nine hours of presentation. Nine hours of argument in the specific sense that two analytical minds used argument: not disputation for its own sake, but the collaborative process of testing each assertion against every available objection until what remained was the thing that the objections could not dislodge. Productive argument between people of similar capability had a rhythm, a back-and-forth that distinguished it from the kind of argument that was about winning.

This was not about winning. Both of them understood that.

Sakh’arran showed Kael the administrative system’s structure over the first two hours. Kael examined it with the systematic attention he brought to everything and asked twelve questions in the first hour. Four of the questions were about the system’s design, which was sound. Eight were about the system’s assumptions: what the system assumed was true about the population it served, and whether those assumptions were still accurate given the city’s growth.

"Your civilian intake assessment assumes a functional literacy rate of approximately twenty percent among new arrivals," Kael said. "That was accurate two years ago, when the learning hall had not yet been operating for a full season. Your own learning hall data shows the current rate in the existing population is closer to forty percent. The hall has been producing results for over a year. But the intake assessment has not been updated."

He paused. "You are misclassifying incoming residents at an increasing rate because the city’s internal condition has changed faster than the intake measurement tool."

Sakh’arran looked at the intake documents. He had not caught this. The data was in the system. The conclusion it produced had not been drawn because the two relevant data sources had never been compared against each other by someone whose job was specifically to look for discrepancies.

"Correct," he said. He made the note. "What else?"

"Your supply allocation model uses a fixed ratio of warriors to civilians to calculate the protective force requirement. The ratio was calibrated for the city’s composition eighteen months ago. The civilian population has grown substantially. The warrior component has also grown, but not at the same rate. The ratio has drifted and the supply allocation does not reflect the current force structure." Kael set the manifest down. "You are over-allocating to the warrior component by approximately twelve percent and under-allocating to the civilian infrastructure support function by the same margin."

"A significant error," Sakh’arran said.

"A systematic error. Not a judgment error. The model’s logic is correct. The input data is stale." He looked at Sakh’arran with the directness of a man who was making a point that he expected would be heard rather than defended against. "Every system you have is well-designed. The design reflects clear thinking about how the components relate to each other. What has not kept pace with the design is the maintenance discipline. You are one person running the administrative intelligence function for a city of forty thousand people. You have been doing this since the city had just a few thousand. The work has grown faster than your capacity to manage all of it."

Sakh’arran had known this. He had not stated it explicitly because stating it felt, in the formulation his own mind produced, like acknowledging inadequacy to a task he had defined himself as adequate to.

"What would you do?" he asked.

"I would create a gap-detection function," Kael said. "Two administrators whose specific job is comparing data sets from different system components and flagging discrepancies. Not general administration. Not intelligence analysis. The specific function of comparing what one part of the system says against what another part of the system says and identifying where they disagree. The gap-detection function does not need to understand why the gap exists. It needs to find it and report it. Understanding why comes after finding it."

He moved to the wall map.

"The girl at the learning hall, Skarra. The one the Highland chieftain’s son met during his visit."

"Yes," Sakh’arran said.

"She was comparing data sets when she identified the literacy gap in the intake assessment data. She did it informally, because she was curious, not because anyone had asked her to. In six years, possibly less, she will be capable of running a gap-detection function if it is built into her development deliberately." Kael looked at the map and then back at Sakh’arran. "Flag her. She is an asset that has not been formally recognized as one. Assets that go unrecognized tend to go to work for whoever does recognize them."

Sakh’arran made another note.

They moved from the administrative review to the strategic situation, and from the strategic situation to the coalition’s shape, and from the coalition’s shape to the specific practical arrangement for the Arch’s highland garrison. Kael’s proposal: twenty warriors, sixty-day rotation, first unit in fifteen days. Sakh’arran’s counter: twenty warriors was inadequate for the current deviation readings. Kael’s revision: forty warriors if Yohan provided full logistical support for the rotation’s supply and billeting. Sakh’arran’s confirmation: yes, done.

By the ninth hour they had covered everything Sakh’arran had flagged and several things he had not, and both of them had revised their positions at least twice.

When Kael finally stood to leave, he said: "You should sleep. You look like you have not been sleeping enough."

"I will sleep when the Arch situation is resolved," Sakh’arran said.

"That is a bad policy," Kael said, without particular warmth or harshness. "The Arch situation may not resolve in a timeframe that permits it. A person who has not been sleeping enough makes systematic errors. You have identified several systematic errors in your own city’s administration today. Consider whether sleep deprivation contributed to them."

He left without waiting for a response.

Sakh’arran sat at the table for a few minutes after the door closed, looking at his notes. Then he went to his sleeping room, which he had not used properly in several days, and slept for six hours.

The gap-detection function discussion occupied the fourth hour of the conversation. By the fifth hour they had moved from what the function should do to who should run it. By the sixth hour they were discussing the monitoring protocol for the Arch’s garrison rotation and what skills the rotating warriors needed beyond combat readiness.

"The monitoring instruments require patience and literacy," Kael said. "Not specialized knowledge initially. Aliyah has trained one person in a week to basic competency. She can train more at the same rate if the people sent to her have the relevant aptitudes." He looked at the warrior manifest that Sakh’arran had produced. "Your aptitude assessments. How are they structured?"

Sakh’arran explained the assessment process: physical capability, tactical assessment, literacy level, and a fourth category he called attention quality, which measured the ability to maintain focused observation over sustained periods without the variation in attention that most people showed over time.

"The fourth category," Kael said. "The attention quality assessment. That is what Aliyah needs in her monitors. Show me the scores for the current contingent at the Arch."

Sakh’arran showed him. Kael read through the scores in approximately three minutes and pointed to four names without hesitation. "These four. Their attention quality scores are the top four in the current Arch contingent. Assign them to instrument monitoring training first."

Sakh’arran looked at the four names. He had not grouped them that way himself. He had been thinking about the problem by contingent assignment rather than by specific skill score. Kael had found the answer by looking at the data in a different sequence.

"Done," Sakh’arran said. He made the note.