by Kal Spriggs
“Really?” I asked in surprise, “You guys have time for that?”
“Well,” Mikuluk said, “Got to relieve stress somehow. Besides, most of the stuff on the Academy network is all school-related anyway. All the games are tactical or strategic sims, some of them are even scored as classwork. The videos are all historical stuff.”
“Really?” I asked. Our computers had pretty strict limits on what they could access, even in the training network. It was all class related and we weren't taking any history classes, not yet. I still hadn't been able to find out any more about why my family and Sashi's would have reasons to hate one another... or how Leo Champion tied into that. “I'm sorry I've been kind of out of it, guys, I promise I'll be here with you.”
“Great,” Ashiri said with a grin, “So, you can be our sixth player for Renwe Battle Sim.” She clapped me on the shoulder again, “Don't worry, fresh meat, I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly enough.”
***
I had to admit, I had this impression of the tactical games they played as being silly games, kind of like what my brother played.
I had no idea how wrong I was.
“Right, go right!” I screamed as I tried to get my tactical team of electronic soldiers to follow my commands. I might as well have tried to direct them with my brain for all the good it did. The simulated bullets riddled them, caught in the open as they were.
“Oh,” Tyler Zahler said with false sympathy, “So sorry, better luck next time.”
I gave him a death glare, but he just went back to his game. I logged out of Renwe Battle Sim and looked around. I knew it must be some time after two in the morning, but the cramped room still held much of my squad. The idea that I would stay up this late for any reason at all, much less to play combat and tactical games would have struck me as absurd before now. Still, I'd grown accompanied to functioning on little sleep... and while the games helped to pass the time, they also had a variety of applications and counted as elective credits, since most of them were designed to teach tactical and technical skill sets.
I'd definitely found something I wasn't the best at. Which was good, in a way. I needed to work on this side of my studies and I had already seen my grades come up in my tactical classes as a result. It shocked me a bit to realize how much I enjoyed thinking about this kind of thing.
Even a couple weeks ago I would have sighed as I dug into tactical manuals and tried to explain the difference between being flanked and encircled, now I could cite historical examples that I had played through in simulator games. More than that, I found it fun, especially when I managed to pull out the rare victory.
“How's it going?” Ashiri Takenata asked from behind me.
I spun my chair and shook my head ruefully, “Done again, whoever The Great is, he stomps me every time,” I said. “I know I should stop tilting at that windmill, but it's almost addictive. Every time I think I've figured him out, he gets me in some new way.” The tactical gaming network gave us freedom to select a login name so that the gaming was somewhat anonymous. I had gone with A-Strong, which wasn't very imaginative, but it was easy to remember. In reality, I knew everyone's login names in my squad and some from the other squads in our section, but there were thousands of players between Candidates, Cadets and even Instructors and it wasn't like I had time to go out and meet other people.
Ashiri gave me an odd look, “You don't know who The Great is?”
I shook my head, “No... Should I?”
Ashiri just shook her head, “Sometimes, Jiden, you are an odd duck.”
“That has to be a saying from Ten Sisters,” I said and rolled my eyes. I noticed she had a stack of books, “What are you doing?”
She gave a sigh, “Remember how I asked the question about the Takagi Equations in our Intro to Quantum Dynamics class?”
I remembered. The Takagi Equations were the latest refinement of the equations that made warp drive travel possible. The earliest version, the Alcubierre equation, had theorized on the possibilities, but it took another hundred and fifty years before it went from theoretical to practical... and then only due to a lab accident that transported a sizable chunk of a research base on Old Earth's Moon over fifty kilometers upwards... and then dropped it.
While duplicating the work at the Ragnos labs made a basic warp drive possible, it was Robert Alundrel's work that really mattered. Alundrel had studied the surviving lab notes from that disaster and put together the Alundrel Theorem, which pretty much no one could admit to fully understanding. His work was leaps and bounds beyond what even current technology could replicate, complete with his design of the Star Portal, a gateway built in space which allowed for instantaneous travel from any two points in the universe.
The plan had been to build thousands of Star Portals, to link all of human space in a network of rapid transit. Alundrel sold the idea to the European Union and the Russian Federation, who had missed out on the initial rush of colonization to the Chinese. That became derailed after Alundrel died under mysterious circumstances and no one else could duplicate his research. They'd managed to finish the first Star Portal, but no one knew how to replicate it.
Michele Takagi had refined some of Alundrel's notes and managed to improve the performance of warp drives as a result. While she had admitted she didn't fully understand everything about Alundrel's Theorem, she understood enough to produce results, which was why she was something of a hero to me. I'd been fascinated with her since I was a child and I knew that some of why I wanted to work for Champion Enterprises was that I wanted to do something as amazing as she had.
Still, I felt no sympathy for the stack of books that Takenata held. She had asked a question that didn't really have an answer, as far as I knew, about why the warp drive emitters for faster than light warp drives were limited on overall power throughput.
While that kind of thing did interest me, what I really wanted to do just now was to dive back into the tactical simulator and try to beat The Great again. The most irritating thing about him as an opponent was that he would always exit whatever other game he was playing to play me. It was almost like he knew me or something, which was a silly thought.
Still, I felt bad to leave Ashiri Takenata to tackle that stack of books on her own. “Need some help?” I finally asked.
Ashiri looked at me with a piteous expression, “Please?”
“Okay,” I said, “but you've got to show me how you beat me that last game we played.”
***
"Candidates, come in, come in," the Doctor said with a polite smile. I remembered the coldness of her voice from my last visit to the room, though. I didn't know why I was back here, just that I'd received an official notice to come.
Apparently, Ashiri, Sashi, the Zahler twins, and Alexander Karmazin had received that same notice. We filed in and the doctor gestured at us to take seats in the chairs. As we hesitantly did so, she spoke in a calm voice, "Candidates, you have been selected for stage two of the SCIM. I have to extend congratulations to all of you, the list includes less than twenty total in your entire class. I'm certain there must be something special about your section that you have so many talented people."
I wanted to punch her for the sanctimonious way she said that. We weren't children, she didn't have to talk to us like we were.
Like before, we were soon cocooned in the chairs, with instruments and sensors surrounding us. I felt the same claustrophobic shiver as the material of the chair formed to my body and held me immobile. I really didn't like this room... or the Doctor.
"Now," she said, "I'm going to count back from ten. Ten..."
Before I knew what had happened, I stood in the grassy field under a clear blue sky again, my eyes dazzled. Nearby I saw the others. Alexander Karmazin, Ashiri Takenata, Sashi Drien, and Tyler and Ryan Zahler. We stood in a loose ring, surrounded by the pleasant stretch of green.
Ashiri looked puzzled, "This seems familiar somehow."
I gave her an odd look, "You were here
with us last time, don't you remember?"
Ashiri gave me an odd look.
Sashi nodded, "Yeah, during inprocessing week."
Ashiri looked hesitant, "Uh, in-processing week is all a blur to me anyway."
I frowned at that, this was something memorable enough to stand out. I thought about what I had overheard, about a memory wipe, and I started to open my mouth.
"Candidates, the first round of tests will evaluate your individual abilities in regards to the Sensory Cerebral Interface. I will load your testing now," the Doctor's voice said, seemingly inside my head. Before I could say anything, I suddenly stood in a dark room. "Please solve the puzzle."
"What?" I asked, but there was no response. Ahead of me I saw interconnected gears and cogs of various colors. At a glance, I could see that they weren't lined up, that if they were rotated properly it would form some kind of picture or image.
I moved the first gear and only then realized that I didn't seem to have a physical form, just a presence that hovered in front of the puzzle. As the first gear rotated, all the others near it shifted too, interlocked with it, and the gears attached to them moved too.
The entire surface of the puzzle shifted and realigned from the smallest motion in the center. I could see the second and third order effects from the tiny action I had taken.
That was when I realized that I felt... odd. It was almost like I felt an echo of my own thoughts, a reverb, at once my own thoughts and yet... different.
I reached out in that direction and I felt something else reach out in return. It was both me and not me, and I didn't know what to think.
"Please solve the puzzle," the Doctor's voice echoed.
"What did you do to me?" I wondered. Yet there was no response. Clearly, regardless of what I did or didn't do, I would only finish when I had solved the stupid puzzle.
I turned my gaze back to the wall of gears. I studied it and I could feel how that other part of me pointed out details that I otherwise would have missed. At the same time, it felt like it didn't see the entire picture, like it focused too much on the individual connections to see the whole... or to see what the whole could be.
Between it and I, we managed to take it all in, to see this massive puzzle wall as it was... and I saw the solution, a simple thing, to rotate one cog only a few degrees and bring the entire picture into alignment.
"Please solve the puzzle," the Doctor's voice repeated.
"No," I said. Because I could see what that puzzle would be. This wasn't a game, this was a test. I wasn't messing around with a simulation, this was my brain. Whatever the Doctor had us doing, it was adjusting the way I thought, the way I would process information. I liked being me and I didn't want to change it.
I could feel the other presence there with me. I could feel its discomfort at the rebellious thoughts, yet it didn't fight me. If anything, I almost felt like it wanted to agree, to communicate, but it didn't know how. Who are you, I wondered, yet the presence didn't seem to understand the question.
I hung there, in the shadows of my own mind and considered this question. What was it? Where had it come from? Obviously it was some part of this test, but just as obviously it wasn't fully under the Doctor's control.
I also wondered just how long I'd been here. I had no way to measure the passage of time, nothing besides my thoughts. How long had I studied the gears? How long had I considered the other presence and my surroundings?
I didn't know. Was it minutes, hours... days? Surely someone would pull me out. But what if they couldn't? What if the Doctor's stupid test was the only way out? I remembered the conversation I had overheard the previous time. She had wiped Ashiri's memories. Would she do the same to me? If my consciousness stayed trapped in this place, would she wipe my brain and start over... or would that leave me a vegetable, trapped for all eternity in the hollows of my own mind?
I didn't want that, but I didn't want to do things her way, either. Letting her control the way I thought, to shape my mind… I didn't want that.
The solution, I felt, was in the puzzle. I turned my attention to it again, to its complexity and the obvious image that the Doctor wanted me to form. What if I formed a different one? What if I found a solution that she didn't intend?
The presence with me seemed to quiver at those thoughts, yet as I turned my attention to the puzzle, it was there with me. We delved over and through every aspect and I felt a new pattern begin to emerge. Far more complicated and unique, different from the boring imprint that the Doctor wanted me to form. This, I felt, was me. This, was what I wanted.
"Please solve the puzzle," the Doctor's voice said... and was it me or did I hear the slightest trace of impatience in her voice?
I went back to the central gear, a symbol, I knew, just as all of this was a way for me to comprehend my own mind. I rotated it ever so slightly and the entire contraption, every bit of what made me, aligned to the pattern that I had chosen.
As it did so, the entire thing lit up. At once, the presence felt immediately closer, it felt like a part of me, a part that I had lost... for a moment, golden light seemed to fill me and I could sense and feel everything.
The moment passed, though, and then I lay cocooned in the chair, surrounded by instruments... utterly alone.
I barely bit back a sob. It took everything I could do to control the sense of loss, as if a part of me had been ripped away.
"...not authorized, Doctor Aisling," I recognized the Admiral's voice immediately, though the tone of anger shocked me. "You endangered the lives of these candidates."
"Their lives were never in danger, I assure you, Admiral," Doctor Aisling responded. "The testing process took a bit longer than expected with a couple of the candidates –”
"Sixteen hours is far more than expected," the Admiral snapped.
"Tell me, Admiral Armstrong, is this concern for the all of the candidates' wellbeing, or for one in particular?" the Doctor had a snide tone to her voice.
"My concern, Doctor, is that if you injure or kill one of my candidates, regardless of who that one is, then there will be serious questions asked," the Admiral said. Her voice had gone cold and I repressed a shiver at that tone. “Questions that I will have to answer... such as how could I allow children to be put at such risk? No, Doctor, there was no need for this level of testing.”
"But they all passed," Doctor Aisling said quickly. “All of them. The last two, they did better than pass. Do you see what this means?”
"I do," the Admiral said. “And despite what you may think, I fully understand the importance of this project, which is the only reason I haven't thrown your sorry backside out of my school.”
“If you did, you would find yourself out of a job in only a few hours, Admiral," Doctor Aisling snarled. “Because I've succeeded. Not only succeeded, but I've managed to integrate candidates who weren't initially capable. Do you know what that means?”
“I do, you've increased the potential pool from a one in a million to something larger than that," the Admiral said. “Now before you continue to bluster and threaten me, as well as spill state secrets, perhaps you should note that one of your test subjects is awake and has been listening to us.”
“What?” Doctor XXX said, "Impossible, the neural monitor should keep them in a quiescent state..." she trailed off. “Her vitals. She is awake."
A moment later, the chair receded. Doctor Aisling gave me a fake smile, “Candidate Armstrong. You did excellent in the test. I have a few questions for you...”
“I'm sorry, Doctor,” the Admiral said. “But you'll have to ask your questions another time. Candidate Armstrong needs to get some food and rest.”
I sat up, about to say I felt fine, when a wave of dizziness hit me and my stomach suddenly protested that it needed my immediate attention. The Admiral took my arm and helped me out of the chair. She gave the Doctor a nod as we stepped out of the lab.
“What was all of that?” I asked as she helped me along the hall.
/> “A pet project of the Defense Department, one which you won’t have to concern yourself with since you won’t be continuing here at the Academy. Really, you shouldn’t have been on the list in the first place, but Doctor Aisling pulled your file,” the Admiral said. She shot me a perceptive look, “I'm well aware that you overheard quite a bit. I would advise you to keep it to yourself. The Doctor has friends in high places and they won't take well to having this secret get out.”
“Was I in danger?” I asked. I already felt like I knew the answer, but I was curious whether the Admiral would tell me the truth.
“You and Candidate Karmazin were in there the longest,” the Admiral said quietly. “In theory, she could have pulled you out, but the fact that she didn't tell me that two candidates were still integrated and that I found out through... other channels, tells me that there probably was substantial risk.”
“Did she... do something to us?” I asked. Somehow, knowing I wouldn’t have to worry about the Doctor again made me both relieved and somehow… sad. I remembered that presence I had felt… and that golden feeling of completion. Knowing I would never experience that again gave me a hollow ache.
The Admiral didn't answer my question. A moment later, Senior Cadet Instructor Mackenzie arrived. “Ma'am,” he said with a salute to the Admiral.
She returned his salute. “Senior Cadet, please help Candidate Armstrong to the mess hall and then to the infirmary, I'd like her checked out by the same doctor who looked at Candidate Karmazin a few hours ago. Both of them are to be excused from classes tomorrow, or longer if Doctor Tam says they need the rest.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
The Admiral looked at me, “Candidate Armstrong, continue the hard work.” I stood a bit straighter at that and felt a flush climb my cheeks. The few words made me feel inordinately proud.
With that, the Admiral turned and strode away.