Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  “There’s no need to be patronizing.” Sah Lee said, taking off her jumpsuit and putting on the shorts and singlet.

  Touren shook her head and pursed her lips but said nothing.

  Touren started Sah Lee off with light exercises, gradually building her up while monitoring her physical vital signs provided by Sah Lee’s AI.

  “You can rest now.” she said to Sah Lee. “You’re perfectly fit and recovered. Physically, anyway. Let’s go back and have a good meal and a relaxing evening. You can have an early night to catch up on your sleep and you’ll be fresh and rested for your meeting with the Sergeant tomorrow morning.”

  “I don’t need to sleep, I’ve been asleep for the last four days!” protested Sah Lee.

  “Being knocked unconscious and kept in an induced coma isn’t the same as sleep. I’ll get you something from the medical AI to help you sleep if you feel too wide awake. Let’s go.”

  “Don’t I have to change first?”

  “No, you’re not naked, you’re fine. Have a shower when we get back and put a fresh jumpsuit on.” Come on.

  Bekkreshan was already in their quarters when they got back. Sah Lee showered and changed and the three sat down to eat. Ranesh Ett, the big muscular female barged in. Sah Lee looked up and said: “Hello Ranesh Ett.”

  “Fuck off.” she replied. As she continued past the table, she paused behind Bekkreshan and slapped her hard on her back. “Coming out for drinks later?”

  “Yeah. I’ll have finished eating by the time you’ve showered.” Bekkreshan replied. Ranesh grunted and continued to the wet room.

  “Is it something I’ve said?” asked Sah Lee.

  “I think she’s warming to you.” Bekkreshan answered.

  Sah Lee shrugged and continued eating.

  “Do you drink?” Bekkreshan asked her.

  “Yes, of course. You’ve seen me drinking.”

  “Not water, I mean alcohol.”

  “What is alcohol?”

  “You don’t have alcohol in your culture? Your civilization must be unique among mammals. Touren, while Ranesh and I are out, try Sah Lee out with alcohol.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. Sah Lee, if you can find a drink you like, we can go out and drink with other soldiers. You need to get to know some of them and drinking together will help you bond.”

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  The Evils Of Alcohol

  Sah Lee woke with a headache, feeling very ill.

  She spoke to her AI. “I’m ill. I think I might be dying.”

  “Your vital signs are all OK, you’re not dying. You drank a lot of alcohol last night. You have metabolized most of it to acetaldehyde, which is toxic. You are suffering from what is known as a hangover. Would you like me to adjust your blood filters to eliminate the acetaldehyde and remaining alcohol from your blood?”

  “Yes! Why do you think you need to ask?”

  “We are as one Sah Lee. We live together, we die together. My intellect exceeds yours by several orders of magnitude but my only reason for existence is to assist you. However, I will not do anything to affect your biochemistry without your permission unless to fail to do so would lead to your - our, death or your permanent injury. We can have a conversation about this and agree future guidelines and parameters, but until then I won’t interfere without your express consent.”

  “Well, that’s just stupid. In future, if I feel really sick, go ahead and fix it. Will that do for now?”

  “It’s not quite what I had in mind, but I can work with that. You should start to recover soon. If you start to get ready, by the time you reach the training area you will have fully recovered. I can release hormones that will make you feel good.”

  “You can? Yes, do it.”

  Sah Lee’s AI was right. When she walked into the training area she didn’t just feel recovered, she felt great and ready to face the ire of Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak.

  “I’m back, Sir!” she said.

  “I can see that.” The Sergeant said with a scowl. Sah Lee stiffened, ready for his tirade. He broke into a grin. “Glad to see you back, Private Sah Lee. You can drop the ‘Sir’ bollocks. I’m not into military discipline. You call me Si’ir Monn, I’ll call you Sah Lee. Understand?”

  “Uh, yes, Sir. I mean, Si’ir Monn.” She was braced ready for a tongue lashing and possible punishment, not a grin and a gesture of friendship. “I thought you would be angry with me, last time I saw you, you nearly killed me.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. The speed and savageness of your attack took me by surprise. I reacted instinctively. I hadn’t intended to hurt you that much.” He grinned again, “It was almost like being in battle. I can see you are a good hunter Sah Lee, and you have plenty of aggression, but you are not a fighter. Those outcasts you killed, did you pounce on them and kill them, or did you fight hand to hand?”

  “I sprung on them, like a hunting kill, but I fought hand to hand with a male and killed him. That was a proper fight, and I won.” she said, proudly.

  “A male Aarn?”

  “Yes. A full-grown, big male Aarn.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been talking to Touren about you. She told me one tried to rape you. She spoke about the tame males in the city and the ones kept in compounds in the villages. This was one kept in a compound?”

  “Yes, he must have been. He must have escaped during the attack.”

  “Do these males in the compounds fight amongst themselves much?”

  “I don’t think so.” Sah Lee replied thoughtfully. “There is a lot of growling and snarling to establish their hierarchy, but I don’t think they ever actually fight.”

  “So, you beat a male that had never fought, or hunted in his life?”

  Sah Lee’s shoulders dropped. “Oh. I never thought about that. I suppose I’m not a fighter. But we had a fight club at university and I practiced a lot with Touren and Bekkreshan. What else do I need to do?”

  “You know some moves, I need to get you using them instinctively, without thinking - like you do with your hunting. That means a lot of practice. Some with me, some with other trainers and some with a golem.”

  “What’s a golem? Some kind of specialist alien I haven’t met yet?”

  “A golem is a machine that looks and acts like a living being. It can replicate moves exactly, so you can repeatedly practice moves, attacks and defenses until you have them perfect and can do them without thinking.

  “I don’t want to fight a machine! It could kill me!”

  “That’s unlikely as your AI will control it. You’ll upload the specifications and control instructions before you start. Is your AI a People’s one?”

  “They designed some specially for the Aarn, I’ve got one of those.”

  “That’s interesting, because they are not yet ready to make them available to your people.”

  Sah Lee shrugged and said, “When do I start training?”

  “I’ll get you kitted up with body armor and boots and then we’ll start. The body armor is not to protect you, it’s because you will be wearing it when you are fighting for real, when you’re fighting for your life, so you’ll learn to fight wearing it.”

  Chapter Forty

  Encounter with Ranesh Ett

  Sah Lee got back to her quarters hot, tired and bruised but pleased with the days training. After a long cool shower, she sat at the table sipping a glass of cold water. Ranesh Ett burst through the door in her usual way and made straight for the wet room. Sah Lee looked up and smiled. “Hello, Ranesh Ett.”

  Ranesh Ett stopped in her tracks and turned to Sah Lee. Leaning over she grasped Sah Lee by the front of her jumpsuit and pulled her out of her chair, knocking her water over and scraping her legs on the edge of the table as she was hauled upwards. Ranesh Ett banged her against the wall, “I don’t like rookies and I don’t like puny little mammals like you. You’re too small and weak to be any use in a fight, you’re just a distraction. Something like you is likely to get me killed one day so keep wel
l away from me!” She pulled Sah Lee back towards her until their faces almost touched. “Got it?” She slammed Sah Lee back against the wall then dropped her on the floor before turning to head toward the wet room again.

  Sah Lee pulled herself to her feet, got another drink of water and sat back at the table. A few minutes later Touren came in.

  “You OK Sah Lee? You look a bit shaken up.”

  “I’m fine.” she replied. “Is anybody here friendly?”

  “Bad day with the Sergeant again?”

  “No, we seem to get on OK now. Just wondered.”

  “OK. Rookies are never popular. Let’s go out tonight for drinks. We’ll meet people and you can start to make friends. Maybe Bekkreshan and Ranesh Ett will join us.”

  “I don’t think so. I felt sick this morning. I don’t want to do that again.”

  “Didn’t you use your blood filters? I guess you don’t know how to. You’ve not had them long and haven’t needed them before. That explains why I had to carry you to your bunk last night. Tell your AI to keep your blood alcohol level down and clean out the alcohol metabolites and you’ll be fine.”

  “Uh, OK. But just the two of us. And Bekkreshan if she wants.”

  “Don’t you want to bond with Ranesh Ett?”

  “No.”

  Touren gave her a long look, then said: “OK. Just the two of us. I’m going to grab a couple of hours sleep first, it may be a long night. I could take suppressors, but we’re only supposed to take them when we are in action.”

  “What are suppressors?”

  “Sleep suppressors. They keep you awake and alert for several days, depending on your biochemistry. You’ll find out about them when you go on exercises. See you in two hours.”

  Sah Lee wasn’t used to measuring time so precisely. On the plains the time was first light, sunrise, early, mid or late morning, midday etcetera. Periods of time were measured as a day or part of a day. Even at university, all lessons or activities were measured as a day or half day. “Can you let me know when two hours is up.” she asked her AI.

  “Of course, would you like a countdown, so you are prepared for when the two hours are up?”

  “Yes, that would be great. You are quite useful. You heard what Touren said about my blood alcohol level?”

  “How much alcohol would you like removed? All of it?”

  “It was quite nice at first. I felt relaxed and happy, but then it got too much.”

  “I’ll keep it down at a low level. Just enough to relax you.”

  Sah Lee got her AI to order her a high protein meal, as specified by the medical AI to boost muscle growth. While she was eating Ranesh Ett blundered out of the wet room and went through to her sleeping quarters. Sah Lee kept her eyes down and Ranesh Ett didn’t seem to notice her. Sah Lee sighed. She had thought she would make friends as easily here as she had on Aarn and with Touren and Bekkreshan. She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her cupped hands. Her eyes lost focus as she thought about her time on the plains and realized that being part of a tightly integrated hunting party, working as one with a common objective, had been more important to her than the kill. But that was something that was gone forever. Even on the so-called New Aarn, it would never be the same. She felt hollowed out by the sense of loss. She stood up abruptly. “I’ve got to put that behind me.” she thought.

  With almost two hours to kill before Touren would wake up, Sah Lee went out into the corridor. She told her AI to tell her when to return and started running.

  Sah Lee showered again after her run. She thought it was excessive, but Touren kept nagging her about her personal hygiene. She finished dressing and came out of the wet room as Touren emerged from their sleeping quarters. “Are you ready?” she asked Sah Lee.

  “Yes. Where’s Bekkreshan? I haven’t seen her today.”

  “She’s probably getting to know her squad. She’s going out on an exercise soon, so she’ll need to know the troops and officers before they go. It will be a while before you go. Have you seen Ranesh Ett today?”

  “Uh, yes. Shall we go?”

  As they walked out, Touren said “There a lot of recreational areas in the habitat, most of them are bars. If you sing or play a musical instrument or can do anything entertaining, you’ll find a bar that will let you get up on stage. Do you do anything like that?”

  “Sing? Of course not. We don’t have music on Aarn, so no musical instruments.”

  “What do you do for entertainment?”

  “As adults? We don’t. Except, we listen to the histories. The elders tell them to us and we try to learn them. It’s every hunters ambition to become one of the village elders, if we live long enough, so we all learn at least some of the histories, word for word. We have, or rather, we had the histories written down, but they were all kept in the university, so they’ll be dust now.”

  “I’m beginning to get a picture of the Aarnth now. No music, no singing, no dancing, no alcohol, no recreational sex, no recreational drugs. Basically, no fun. Do you know how to laugh? Because now I think of it, I’ve never seen you laugh, and you don’t smile much either.”

  “No, we’re just dumb savages. Not much more than animals really, not compared to you sophisticated, cultured creatures who get so damned bored that you have to be entertained and have someone to play with all the time, like children!” Sah Lee snapped. “Maybe you’ve forgotten but I haven’t had much to laugh about lately, what with having my friends and family all killed, and my world destroyed for no reason other than to entertain some of you sophisticated and cultured people! I’m going back to bed!” Sah Lee turned around and started walking back to their quarters.

  Touren stood still for a moment, then ran up to her and caught her by the arm. “I’m so sorry Sah Lee. That was really stupid of me. Please forgive me. You are such a strong person, it’s easy to forget what you have been through.” She saw the tears in Sah Lee’s eyes and felt even worse. “Please Sah Lee, come with me.

  "We’ll go to a quiet bar and we can relax and talk. Tell me about life on Aarn, I don’t know much about it.” She put her arm round Sah Lee’s shoulders. Sah Lee stiffened, then slumped into her, clinging tightly to Touren as she started to sob. The suppressed grief inside her overwhelmed and burst through the dam of hatred and anger at the senseless destruction of everything she held dear to her.

  Touren stood quietly while Sah Lee cried uncontrollably for her family, for her friends, everyone she had loved. For her way of life and all of Aarn. For the great city of Aa Ellett, the university, all the nations of Aarn and the places she would now never see. For the plains where she could never again run with the wind and the scent of distant prey, surrounded by her pack, matching each other step for step. It was all gone and could never come back. The shadow world of New Aarn would always be a fake, a copy, never the real thing. And what had she now? Two friends who didn’t know or understand her. Surrounded by people who mocked, tormented and threatened her. What had her life become? Maybe the dead were the lucky ones.

  Chapter Forty One

  Making Friends In A Bar

  When Sah Lee had cried herself out, Touren walked with her to the gravity tube. They dropped two floors and exited into a corridor full of groups of people, many of them out of uniform in civilian clothes. They were happy and laughing, stopping occasionally to talk to other groups of people.

  “This is an entertainment level. Normal military discipline is suspended here, but civilized behavior is expected. The Peacekeepers enforce it if anyone forgets. There’s a quiet bar near here I used to go to. We’ll go straight into the washroom and get you freshened up and looking more respectable. She took Sah Lee’s hand and led her down the corridor, passing several open double doors leading into bars and restaurants, all fairly full and noisy. They came to a bar that was less brightly lit than the others they had passed and was quieter, with no music. Touren took Sah Lee straight through into the washroom at the back where she pulled a towel out of the dispe
nser, dowsed it in water and carefully washed Sah Lee’s face, dabbing at her eyes. She then pulled out another and just as carefully dried her as though she were a child.

  “There. You look better now. Let’s get a drink and find a table.”

  It wasn't crowded inside and Touren leaned against the bar while they waited for the bar tender to get to them. Just along the bar from them, three reptiles about the same size as Touren were passing a smoking bowl to each other, taking turns to inhale the fumes and slowly breathe them out.

  One of them called out: “Hey hot stuff. What are you doing with that skinny little mammal? Have you brought your own dinner with you?” The three of them broke out into low pitched coughing laughs.

  “Ignore them Sah Lee. They have been breathing the smoke for too long. We’ll get our drinks and sit down.”

  Another of the trio called out “There’s enough there for a meal for four. Come and join us, we’ll eat the little mammal later.” This was followed by another outburst of coughing laughter.

  There were two hairless, blue skinned mammals with small eyes and flat noses sitting at a table nearby. One of them called across to the reptiles. “Quieten down. This is supposed to be a quiet bar.”

  The reptile who had just spoken turned to them. “Keep out of this blue skin, or we’ll find out the color of your blood.”

  The two blue skinned mammals stood up and moved towards the reptiles. The smoking bowl got dropped and rolled off the back of the bar as the reptiles turned to face them. Another reptile who had been standing at the bar by himself turned and moved towards the blue skins. Four more reptiles, small but stocky looking jumped up, spilling their drinks and leapt at the three reptiles at the bar, Sah Lee didn’t see who threw the first punch but the fight grew rapidly as every creature in the bar joined in the melee which quickly engulfed Sah Lee and Touren. Sah Lee did her best to remember what she had been taught earlier but quickly abandoned that and relied on her hunting instincts, using teeth and claws to defend herself. She noticed one solitary figure standing at the end of the bar, watching but not joining in. It had a clear space around it as all the fighters managed to keep well clear of it. Probably because it was a huge muscular reptile with a long muzzle full of big, razor-sharp teeth and massive limbs with long, powerful claws on them. After observing the melee for a few minutes, it tilted its head back, gave a deafening roar and joined in the fight. It was all over soon after that.