by Ramy Vance
Abby patched herself into the other recruits. “Uh…so, the orcs are preparing to attack. Figure we could cut them off before they come on over here,” she suggested.
She didn’t receive an answer immediately. Then one of the recruits asked, “All right, what’s your plan?”
“We go in on the right side. Right? That sound good?”
The recruit sighed. “You’re the one calling the shots. How am I supposed to know?”
Abby realized she hated giving orders. “All right, whatever. Just get over here, and we’ll head over on the right side.”
The recruits moved from their cover, slowly crossing the city block until they reached Abby’s side. “Okay, let’s go,” she whispered as she motioned toward the location her virtual assistant had highlighted on her map.
The block was small, and in a couple of minutes, the recruits and Abby arrived at a spot to the right of the orcs. They didn’t waste any time. Abby fired first, and the others were quick to join in. After a few minutes, they had wiped the orcs out.
Abby activated her HUD’s menu. All of the goals had been achieved.
A voice came on over the intercom. “Congratulations. Power down and prepare to be debriefed.”
Chapter Fifteen
Abby returned to the barracks while the other recruits went to the locker room to remove their exosuits. The barracks weren’t too far, and Abby was amazed at how much space Myrddin’s HQ had. It was like a little world all in itself.
The barracks felt like they were on the other side of the building, but Abby knew it was because she only really knew where the R&D department was. Once she reached the barracks, she pressed her hand to the security panel and let herself in.
Abby had been given a private room. A space all to herself. She had never had a place to herself before. She’d always shared a room with a sibling. Pa had told her that sometime soon, she would have her own room.
The memory of her father brought tears instantly to Abby’s eyes, but more than that, she felt like the wind had just been sucked out of her. All of a sudden, she was dizzy, and she stumbled over to one of the beds to take a seat. There she sobbed hot tears, grateful the barracks were empty.
Once her tears dried up, Abby composed herself as much as possible. Pushed the memories of her father, his words, his lessons, as far away as possible. Dwelling on her pain wasn’t going to help. She had to stay focused on what was in front of her.
Unfortunately, she had nothing pressing to turn her attention to. Just an empty barracks with flickering lights. “Ain’t no reason for a light to be flickering,” Abby muttered, unable to avoid thinking about her father’s lessons on electrical wiring.
Abby scanned the room for something to stand on. She grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the defective light fixture. She climbed onto the chair, undid the light’s cage, covered her hand with her shirt sleeve, and unscrewed the light bulb. Then she pulled out her trusty pair of needle-nose pliers and got to work.
As Abby tinkered with the light fixture, the door of the barracks opened. The three other recruits entered, talking to each other softly. They were followed by Anabelle and Roy. When Abby spotted the crowd entering the barracks, she finished her task as quickly as she could and jumped off of the chair.
When Roy saw Abby, he said, “Good that you keep yourself busy. Very good quality to have.”
Unlike Roy, Anabelle didn’t appear to be in anything remotely like a good spirit. Her anger radiated off her like a nuclear cloud. Abby hoped she was not the target of that anger.
The other recruits lined up across from the beds. Abby took that as her cue and jogged over to them, falling in line at the end of the row.
Roy paced up and down the line, studying each recruit, shaking his head in an almost theatrical fashion. Abby had seen this scene multiple times in old war movies. Roy must have been a fan of the genre. “So, you all passed the obstacle co—”
Anabelle stormed over to the recruits, cutting Roy off before he could speak again. “Passed the obstacle course?” she shouted. “That’s one way of putting it. What I saw was an entire squad being carried by one person. Hm…I wonder if this feels familiar to any of you?”
Abby stared at her feet, keenly aware of how the other recruits must be feeling. She didn’t want her efforts singled out at all. They’d all finished the requirements of the obstacle course. Wasn’t that good enough?
Anabelle was still pacing, shaking her head. “On paper, you four have the best score of any squad going through that obstacle course to date,” she lectured. “How you got it, I have no idea. For the most part, it looked like you were content to hide behind cover and hope you hit something. Explain yourselves. Now!”
One of the recruits stepped forward, a short human with bright red hair and a little bit of a beer gut. “Excuse me, ma’am. We—”
Anabelle’s eyes shot daggers at the recruit and she shouted, “’Ma’am’ is reserved for the elderly and your commanding officer. I am not elderly and I’m not sure if any of you are going to make it far enough to call me your commanding officer. Now get on with it.”
The redheaded recruit coughed nervously and glanced at the others before speaking. “We were having technical difficulties,” he explained. “Our exosuits malfunctioned…or, they didn’t perform as we thought they were going to.”
“What did you think your suits were going to do?”
The recruit shifted his weight awkwardly as he tried to come up with an answer. “Well, we were told that they would improve our combat abilities,” he went on. “But well, it turns out they’re really hard to move in. They’re very heavy.”
Anabelle leaned forward and got up in the recruit’s face. “It sounds like what I’m hearing is that if your equipment malfunctions on the field, you’re completely defenseless. What I saw out there was utterly pathetic. No forward movement. Content to wait for the enemy to regroup and deal with you.”
“Ma’am…I mean sir…uh…what should I call you?”
Anabelle straightened and gave a sigh of exasperation before walking away. “Address me as Ms. Chase. Go on,” she barked.
“We’ve only been trained to fight with our exoskeletons. We haven’t received any other training. When the suits don’t work, then—”
“Are you telling me you’ve only been trained with faulty equipment?”
Roy stepped in, putting himself between the recruits and Anabelle. “You’re gonna need to rein it in a little bit,” he suggested. “You’re going to have to learn to work with humans.”
She bit her lip and turned bright red as she tapped her foot furiously. Before she could open her mouth, Roy grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside. “I know how to work with humans.” Anabelle spat. “My entire career has been working with humans.”
Roy shook his head as he scratched at his beard. “No, your entire career has been manipulating humans. Those are two different things. You need to speak to them like you respect them.”
“First off, I don’t respect them. Secondly, I’ve been working with you for years. We’ve never had a problem. Which means I can work with humans who are worthy of my respect.”
Roy chuckled as he folded his arms. “You respect me?” he asked. “I always thought you were waiting for me to be replaced.”
“You? Of course not. You’re my favorite person in the department. Handsome, smart, and you know how to fight. Occasionally a good joke, but don’t let it go to your head.”
“Okay, your obvious admiration for me isn’t the point of this conversation. These are your recruits. They passed the course. You’re going to have to figure out how to work with them, or you aren’t going anywhere. Got it?”
Anabelle’s stern demeanor faltered, and inside she transformed into a young elf, younger than she ever let on. “These guys are going to get killed,” she whined. “The only one who was capable of anything was Abby. She was the one who scared off those orcs and…” Anabelle stopped mid-sentence, her jaw hanging f
or a second before she caught herself and resumed her regular, hard persona. “How exactly in the nine hells did she do that?”
Roy tossed a glance over his shoulder at Abby, who appeared to be trying to shrink behind the other recruits. “You know, I didn’t even stop to think about that. She was hiding just like the rest of them. And that radio wave thing…how’d she know about that?”
Anabelle approached Abby with Roy at her side. “Hey, Abby,” Anabelle asked, the bite of her voice fading. “How did you manage all that out on the course?”
Abby jumped at the sound of her name, lost in her own thoughts and concerns. “Wait, huh? What part?” the girl asked.
“All of it. You hardly moved until you organized the strike.”
“Oh, that.” Abby raised her wrist, revealing her watch. “I hacked into the system with my virtual assistant. But once it connected to my HUD, it started acting…odd, you know. Ain’t ever gotten answers that specific before.”
Anabelle grabbed Abby’s wrist and turned it over, attempting to see what made the smartwatch so special. There were no obvious clues. “All right,” Anabelle said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s try this again. Explain to me what went wrong out there, and we can work through it while we figure out what your strengths are.”
The recruits responded well to Anabelle’s change of approaches. This time they were much more forthright with the issues they experienced. For one, there hadn’t been any clear-cut leadership until Abby made her suggestions.
Second was the equipment. The recruits expressed irritation over being given untested equipment and having all of their training dependent on whether or not the equipment worked. All three of them were frustrated.
Abby was the only one who remained quiet during the conversation. Roy noticed and nudged her. “So, what do you think we could do to improve this shit show?”
Pulled from her thoughts, Abby stumbled over her words at first, trying to find the right thing to say. When she was greeted with silence, she cleared her throat and started again. “Well, my Pa used to always say you can only punch a wall so many times. It ain’t the way you bring down a building.”
“A very rustic anecdote, but I fail to see how it applies to this.”
“I ain’t the toughest kid out there. So, I figured if I can’t beat ‘em, gotta outsmart ‘em. When you’re wrangling cattle, you ain’t trying to wrestle each one of ‘em. You figure ways to outsmart ‘em. Spook ‘em with a heel-nibbling dog or get one of the steers to come after a bell. Don’t make no sense to be pushing and pulling on them. Just gotta find a way around it.” Anabelle was studying Abby as she spoke. Abby sensed the elf’s eyes skimming over her, and it made her extremely uncomfortable. “That’s what I did with my assistant,” Abby said. “Didn’t think I’d be taking down fifteen or so orcs. So, I just started asking questions.”
Roy asked to see her smartwatch. She removed it and handed it to him. “Doesn’t sound like a typical virtual assistant, though,” Roy said. “You said it gave you detailed responses and performed its own search queries?”
Abby nodded as he returned the watch. “Yeah, ‘bout two all on its own. Never seen anything like it since I been poking around in its digital guts,” she admitted.
“Now that’s a scary premise. You said you worked on this assistant yourself?”
“Yep, tore it down and built it back up all by myself. Even added a couple of new protocols and such. Trying to make it smarter and the like.”
Roy sat across from Abby and crossed his legs. “Don’t want to alarm you at all, but what you described sounds like the beginnings of an AI. Looks like you might have stumbled onto something there.”
Abby’s heart raced, and she had to keep from screaming with joy. That made total sense. She might have already been pushing her virtual assistant into the realm of AI.
Anabelle clapped her hands together. “All right, we’ll let’s go with what worked and didn’t. Obviously, your exoskeleton training isn’t holding up. So, we’re heading back to the field and starting a new training regimen. Abby, you’re hitting the lab.”
Abby picked nervously at the lint on her pants. “What for? How come I’m not getting any training?”
“I’m not as versed on tech as Creon might be, but I know an AI is a huge deal. I want you to talk with the goblin, figure out how to push this thing into full AI. And then I want you to structure it and get it ready for these idiots to use. Think easier than a smartphone if you can. A smartphone for your grandma. All you got that?”
The recruits barked out a “hurrah” that Abby only managed to catch the tail end of. Then the recruits marched out of the barracks, leaving her alone with Anabelle and Roy. “Y’all serious about this AI thing, huh?” Abby asked tentatively.
Roy stood and headed to the door. “AI isn’t an easy thing to come across. Sounds like you’re close, which frankly, is unbelievable. Anabelle’s right. That’s where you need to be putting your focus.”
Abby nodded. She wasn’t sure how she had stumbled upon AI, but she intended to figure out how to finish the job. Sounded fun.
Chapter Sixteen
Fred rang the bell for last call. Most of the bar had already cleared out, but a handful of regulars and folks hung about, probably looking to hook up. Everyone jumped when they heard the bell and Fred’s shout over their conversations.
Terra was still at the bar, staring down the bottom of her shot glass. She had no idea how long she had sat there, but she didn’t care. She’d had a fun time shooting the shit with Fred. The guy had some wild stories to tell. And he hadn’t wanted to focus on how bad Terra must have been feeling. That was the most important part.
Fred poured Terra one final shot for the road as the last of the patrons left the bar. “You’re welcome back anytime,” Fred said. “And I’ll make sure that your ass of an ex isn’t. Sound good?”
Terra leaned forward drunkenly and gave Fred a high five before turning to stumble away. “That sounds good to me, Red. Do people call you that? I’m going to call you that if it’s okay.”
Fred shrugged as he wiped down the bar. “Call me whatever you want the next time you come in,” he said. “Just make sure to make eye contact, so I know you’re talking to me.”
Terra staggered to the exit. She concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other. It appeared very likely that the ground might flip from under her. Concentration was absolutely necessary. By her own observation, she was faring better than most of the other late-night barflies.
Terra made it outside and leaned against the side of the bar as she fumbled in her pocket for her phone. Tonight was definitely going to be a taxi night. She could come back and pick up her car the next day. Maybe grab another drink. Lord knows she was going to need them to get through the week.
Someone in the parking lot up ahead shouted, “Hey, what the fuck is that?” The man was pointing at the sky.
Terra stared up but couldn’t see anything. She was surprised that there weren’t any stars out. And the moon was gone. Terra knew for a fact that there was a full moon out. She had seen it when she’d first arrived at the bar. There also hadn’t been a cloud in sight.
Now the sky was dark. Darker than she could ever imagine it being. Almost as if there were no lights on anywhere in the world. Just the deep void stretching out in front of her. “It’s the booze,” she muttered as she tried to focus on the screen of her phone.
A flash of green lit the sky. It was bright enough to set the whole sky emerald and jade. The green light began to morph and take shape, as if a tear had ripped the sky open—a tear that was deepening and stretching.
Terra stared up at the burgeoning portal as green mist leaked from it. Then a loud boom erupted, and a cigar-shaped spaceship was floating above the bar. The ship appeared to have been made from a sleek metal with no discernible windows or parts. It was just one long piece.
Terra had seen enough horror movies to know what was going on. She turned to run back into the bar.
But as she moved, her legs gave out. She hadn’t fallen, though. It felt like something had grabbed her by the shoulders and was lifting her up.
All around Terra, beams of light were firing from the spaceship while creatures crawled from invisible cracks in the shape. The creatures dropped to the ground and made their way to the humans who were caught floating above the ground.
The creatures—hunched-over gray monsters with tusks and elongated, muscular arms—were grunting to each other. To Terra, they resembled the orcs she had seen in fantasy game drawings.
One of the orcs near Terra grabbed another and pulled him close, snarling loudly, “We’re only here for males. Double-check them. I don’t want to be explaining any more fuckups tomorrow.”
Terra was suddenly aware that these were not aliens. They were something else.
An orc hurried over to Terra and studied her closely. He sniffed her, then coughed loudly. Then he signaled to the ship above, and Terra felt herself flying upward so fast she blacked out.
Chapter Seventeen
Terra’s eyes snapped open, and she tried to jump to her feet. Her movement was restricted, though. As her mind woke up, she became aware that her hands and her feet were shackled. Huh. That is fucking weird.
Again, Terra tried to stand but to no avail. Not only was she shackled, but the chains were connected to the wall behind her. Which was about all she could make out. It was too dark to see anything. The only light came from what appeared to be a walkway.
Even though it wouldn’t make a difference, Terra strained against the shackles. At least it gave her something to do. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out for. After a while, she wasn’t certain of how long she’d been awake, either.
Time became less abstract. Terra had the vague sensation that her body was being stretched by an outside force. And not just her body. Everything around her. Reality was growing thin and tight, ready to snap at any moment.