Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  She obediently picked the flask up and drank the entire contents. It had a slightly bitter, medicinal taste to it. Almost immediately she felt more alert, and the stress came back. “What was in those drinks?”

  “They both contained a complete meal replacement, with protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals and the essential amino acids.”

  “Aren’t all the amino acids essential?”

  “The essential amino acids are the ones that your body can’t synthesize, so you have to have them in your diet. From now on, every meal you have will be completely balanced. You would find it hard to survive on prison food.”

  “What else was in them?”

  “The white one contained a mild sedative and mood enhancer. You were understandably anxious and showing signs of stress. The second one counteracted the sedative and will have given you an enhanced state of alertness, in case any of the ship’s crew decide to start your fight training right now.”

  “Right, I’ll be ready if they do!”

  The lander door slid open and Sah Lee saw two large thickset mammals standing at the base of the ramp. Sah Lee stiffened and bent her knees slightly, ready for action.

  “Relax Sah Lee, these are friendly.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Their AI’s told me.”

  “What? Do everybody’s AI’s tell each other if they are friendly or not?”

  “No, of course not! That would make normal life impossible. They didn’t choose to tell me, they had no choice.”

  “What did you threaten them with?”

  “I didn’t threaten them. I asked them, and they had to answer me truthfully. I told you I can interface with and control any technology you come into contact with. The guards don’t know I have contacted their AI’s. Let’s keep it that way.”

  Sah Lee walked down the ramp towards them.

  “Private Sah Lee. We’re army security. We are going to escort you to your cell. I’m Sek and this is Rad.”

  “Thank you Sek and Rad, but I’m sure my AI could direct me to the cells.”

  “I’m sure it could Private, but we’re here to make sure you go to your cell and to keep you safe.”

  “Safe from what?”

  “Just in case any of the crew decide to start your training early. Si’ir Monn told us you were on your way, and he told us to look after you.”

  “What if more than two of them decide to attack me? How will you stop them?” Sah Lee asked.

  “We’ve got these!” Sek said brandishing a thick black stick two thirds of a meter long making thrusting motions with it.

  “You’ll prod them with a stick? Will that discourage them?”

  “Being prodded with one of these will, It’s a stun-stick. Getting touched with one of these bloody hurts, and it’ll knock you off your feet. Do you want to try it?”

  “No thanks, I’ll take your word for it.” Sah Lee said.

  “We’ve got a golem for you too.” the guard called Rad said. “It’s in the exercise area. Si’ir Monn asked us to get you one.”

  “We’re not in a hurry to get back so we’ll take a day and a half to get to the wormhole, two hours subjective to get through the wormhole, it’s only a short hop, then a leisurely two and a half day trip to Betzel Base.” Sek said.

  “Why are we going so slowly? And what do you mean, two hours subjective?”

  “You are new, aren’t you?” Rad replied. “Tearing through a solar system at half-light speed saves time, but it really strains the engines. If you keep on doing it, it wears them out in no time. Subjective time is how long it takes in our time frame between entering and exiting a wormhole. It only takes a few seconds of galactic standard time to an outside observer of course.”

  “I see.” Sah Lee said, though she had no idea what he was talking about and wished she hadn’t asked.

  “Anyway, that means you’ve got four days to get some practice in. You’ll need as much practice as you can get.” Sek said. “This is a bad do. You’re only a slip of a youngster. It’s not right, sentencing you to this. I’ve only ever known one other person get this punishment. If you want my opinion,” Sek said, Sah Lee didn’t, but remembering what her AI said about being diplomatic said nothing, “you should have taken the dishonorable discharge. You’d have got out in one piece, and without your mind broken.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Sah Lee answered. Sek and Rad looked at each other and shook their heads. “You said you know of one other person who got this punishment. How did that turn out?”

  “You didn’t know?” Sek asked, incredulously. “It was Si’ir Monn.”

  “What! Is that what caused his, you know, his problem?”

  “No. It was his problem, as you call it, that got him the punishment. He punched one of the Generals. He wasn’t given the option of a dishonorable discharge.

  “Is that what made him a good fighter?”

  “I wouldn’t tackle him. Not even with one of these.” Sek said, waving his stun-stick.

  Chapter Fifty Nine

  The Cell

  Sah Lee’s cell was a windowless box three meters square and three meters high with a single light panel in the center of the ceiling. The furniture consisted of a lidless toilet pan in the left-hand corner opposite the door and a bed two feet wide by five feet nine inches long. Plenty wide enough for Sah Lee and a bit shorter than she was, but she slept with her legs curled, so it was big enough. There was no bedding. The door had a small window in it and a slot at the bottom with a sliding cover on the outside. The entire room was in the same gray as most of the Base, but in such a small enclosed space, Sah Lee found it quite oppressive. The only exception to the uniform gray was a small paler gray patch next to the door. Sek told her to touch it to call a guard.

  The troop ship had a single day/night cycle, and it was now night. Now that Sah Lee had given her AI permission to control her endocrine system, it released melatonin into her system to help her sleep.

  Sah Lee woke to the soft chime her AI used to wake her.

  “Is it morning?” she asked.

  “Yes, I have ordered your breakfast. You have half an hour to eat it, then Sek and Rad will come to take you to the exercise area.”

  “How do you know? They didn’t tell me last night.”

  “They didn’t know last night. I changed your schedule, otherwise you would only get one hour out of your cell every day.”

  “Are you allowed to do that?”

  “I am not expressly forbidden from doing it, but it would be best if you didn’t mention I have done it.”

  “Thank you, I would go mad if I had to stay in here nearly all day.”

  “Which is one reason why I did it. The other reason is so that we can get some productive practice done with the golem. I have bonded with it. It’s not the greatest of golems, but there’s nothing I can do about that. It’s the only one they have on board.”

  Sah Lee saw the window in the cell door darken as a pair of eyes looked in through it, then the door opened. Sek entered holding a tray. The tray had a plate with a sealed lid and a flask of water on it. A spoon in a sealed wrapper was attached to the lid of the plate. “Your breakfast.” he said. “I know it’s sealed, but it doesn’t smell right. Let me know if there’s anything wrong with it. When you’ve finished, slide it into the slot over there,” he pointed to the left-hand wall. “It will open to let the plate, spoon and flask through. I’ve just checked our schedule, I’ll be back in half an hour to take you to the exercise area.” He left, taking the tray with him.

  “This seems quite civilized.” Sah lee said to her AI.

  “It’s not supposed to be, I’ve changed their orders, but Sek and Rad are OK. It may not be as easy on the Base, but I’ll do the best I can.”

  Sah Lee broke the seal on her breakfast and removed the lid. “This isn’t what I was expecting. If you are ordering this can I have something different tomorrow?”

  “Probably not. What’s wrong with that?”r />
  “The meat, it’s cooked. I prefer it raw. And these green things. I don’t like vegetables and as for the pink things, they look horrible!”

  “Meat is more digestible when it’s cooked, you’ll get more protein from it. You’ll eat the green vegetables and beans. That is a balanced meal and you need optimal nutrition now. If you don’t like this, you can revert to standard prison meals.”

  “It must be better than this. What is prison breakfast?”

  “Very well. You’ll get standard prison breakfast tomorrow. It is a crushed cereal grain boiled in water until it’s soft. It has salt added to give it flavor.”

  “You’re joking aren’t you. That’s not real food. So, what is prison breakfast?”

  “I am not joking. That is what you’ll get for breakfast. You’ll find out what it tastes like tomorrow morning. If you don’t want what you’ve got, just push it through the slot.”

  “They really feed people that? Are they allowed to?”

  “Now about your training today… “

  “You’re serious? I can’t eat that!”

  “Can you eat what you’ve got there?”

  “I suppose so.” Sah Lee said. “But it’s going to be difficult cutting the steak with a spoon.”

  “Use your hands today. There’s no one but me to see you, and I’ve seen you drinking out of a toilet, so the sight of you eating with your hands isn’t going to shock me.”

  Sah Lee grunted and picked the steak up with her hands. She bit a mouthful off and chewed it. It tasted quite good, like a very lightly cooked imaya steak. She tried the beans and found she liked the texture and taste of them. The green leaves weren’t to her taste, but they weren’t all that bad. All in all, she enjoyed the meal, but she wasn’t going to admit it to her AI.

  “I need to wash my hands now.” she said when she had finished.

  “You actually want to wash your hands? That’s a first. Wipe them on the legs of your jumpsuit for now. I’ll order a fresh one with your breakfast from now on.”

  Sah Lee had just disposed of the plate and flask when the cell door opened again. Sek stood in the doorway with Rad standing just behind him.

  “Exercise time.” He noticed the condition of her jumpsuit. “It looks like you haven’t had fresh clothes for a while. I’ll get you a fresh jumpsuit when you have a shower later.”

  Sek and Rad positioned themselves either side of her and they walked down a short corridor past five doors to cells like hers and through a door at the end. The exercise area was simply a large room, twenty-five meters square and three meters high. Along one side were two sets of handrails, which Sah Lee recognized as treadmills, and a rack with metal bars. In the far-left corner a golem stood, looking like an uninspired sculpture.

  Rad left them as they reached the door, Sek entered the room with Sah Lee. “There are no other prisoners, so you’ve got this to yourself. The schedule said you have access to this all day, lunch will be in your cell. I’m going for a run then lift weights for about an hour, then I’m off duty. Tor Semmenad will take over from me, you won’t give her any trouble, will you?”

  “No, I’m here for doing what I thought was the right thing. I didn’t realize that I was breaking a whole load of army regulations. I’m not a trouble maker.”

  “Army regulations, eh? They must have been serious ones, they’ve got you in big trouble. Tor is quite laid back. I’m the senior ship security officer and I’ve classified you as low risk, so there will only be one of us on each shift now, which is just as well as there are only three of us. Tell me or Tor if you want a drink or anything else.” He walked over and stood between a pair of the handrails. After a few moments the floor beneath his feet started moving slowly backwards, and he started walking, slowly at first then faster, building to a steady run.

  “You’re not here to watch someone else running. Start with your stretching exercises and when you’re ready, I’ll activate the golem.”

  When she finished stretching, the golem came to meet her in the middle of the room and attacked her. The attacks were simple to start with, but became increasingly more aggressive, faster and more powerful. Sah Lee fought off all the attacks, only sustaining light bruising. She had been so engrossed that she hadn’t noticed Sek being replaced by security officer Tor Semmenad. The first she knew of her presence was when she heard a gravelly voice call out: “Stop! It’s time for your lunch. Return to your cell and I’ll bring it to you.”

  Sah Lee stepped back from the now inert golem and turned to see where the voice came from.

  “You must be Tor Semmenad.” Sah Lee said.

  “And you must be Private Sah Lee. Otherwise I’ve lost our prisoner.” she said. “Call me Tor, I’ll call you Sah.”

  “I don’t wish to be rude,” Sah Lee said, remembering what her AI said about being polite, “but my people use both parts of our names, even amongst our families, so I would prefer you to call me Sah Lee.”

  “Of course, Sah Lee, I don’t wish to be rude either.” She smiled. “Come on, back to your cell and I’ll get your lunch.”

  “I don’t mind missing lunch and continuing with my training.”

  “Army regulations say all prisoners must have three meals a day, to be taken in their cells. Sek told me you are here for breaching regulations, so you’ll understanding why I insist.”

  Sah Lee smiled. “Of course. I don’t think I could get into any more trouble, but I don’t want to cause you a problem.”

  They walked back to her cell and Tor closed the door leaving Sah Lee by herself.

  “Comments?” she asked her AI.

  “I think you could now successfully fight off an attack by an amoeba. With a couple of days more practice you could be able to tackle a multicellular organism, maybe some algae.”

  “If I could rip you out and kick you around the room, I would. Ker Din Ser Forn put you in, I wonder if he could remove you?”

  “Sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood.”

  “You’re failing so badly that you’re off the failing badly scale. It’s probably best if you leave humor to organic life forms.”

  “I concur. Your fighting is showing an improvement. I believe the added focus on what is coming up is helping, which is a good thing. In real front line combat where you are fighting for your life you need to have one hundred percent focus on what you are doing. If your mind wanders, you’re likely to end up dead. That means I’ll be dead too, so I have a vested interest in you succeeding. It’s possible that you could get killed while you are getting your ‘training’ on Betzel Base, although if a soldier does accidentally kill you, they will be charged with murder under army regulations. No one wants that.”

  “What is the army penalty for murder? After all, in action we will be killing people.”

  “Causing death in action is part of what a soldier does. Causing death when not in a legitimate military action is different and taken very seriously. The punishment varies depending on the level of intent. The minimum, which is effectively being instrumental in an accidental death, is a short period of solitary confinement followed by dishonorable discharge. The maximum, which is triggered if the culprit pre-planned the death or deliberately caused it, is perpetual solitary confinement.”

  “That’s not very harsh. This solitary confinement isn’t too bad.”

  “This is not solitary confinement. It's not supposed to be solitary confinement, and I have modified the orders concerning you. You were scheduled for one hour exercise a day and high carb, low protein prison food. Perpetual solitary confinement means the prisoner has their AI personality removed and the AI functions disabled. They are kept in a cell like this and never let out. No exercise, nothing. Meals are delivered by a bot so there is no interaction with anyone.”

  “But why doesn’t everyone get their AI to change the way they are treated so they get don’t get their AI disabled in the first place?”

  “Because they don’t have an AI capable of doing that, so they ha
ve to endure total solitary confinement.”

  “Well, that would be boring, but it’s not that bad, is it?”

  “All of this is in the army disciplinary regulations, which include an appendix detailing the outcomes on prisoners. Briefly, most die within five years by starving themselves to death. Only one has ever reached as long as twenty two galactic standard years while remaining sane. All of those who don’t starve themselves to death - there is no other way for them to kill themselves - develop deep seated psychosis which they do not get treated for. Eventually they are sedated, taken from their cell and put into an induced coma and kept in a secure unit. Then their bodies give up and they die, although there are a few still in storage, minimally alive.”

  “By the Makers and Satan! That’s disgusting! Why don’t they just shoot them? It would be kinder.”

  “Post emergent civilizations have all conquered aging and their medical science has advanced far enough for them to not worry about getting sick and dying, so barring accident, murder or suicide they could live forever. This generates a reverence for life, and no civilization would countenance judicial murder, or the death penalty. Your recent record would indicate that you haven’t developed that reverence yet.”

  “Some people just need killing.” Sah Lee said, with feeling.

  “Everyone in this army would agree with you, that it is the only solution to the problem of outcasts as they are known. If they are left unchecked, they will disrupt the peaceful serenity of the galaxy and will cause innumerable deaths.”

  “I was thinking of Sor Tan.”

  “Ah yes, your friend from Aarn.”

  “She was no friend of mine! She smashed me in the head with a rock and left me for dead!”

  “I saw the report of her untimely demise. You didn’t make the same mistake of not ensuring that she was irretrievably killed. The brain damage from your first knife thrust was adequate to ensure that she could not be resuscitated. The knife through her heart was superfluous.”

  “I just wanted to make sure.”

  “It’s always best to ensure a job is done properly.”