The Commander

by Kevin Groh

  Tom gave the rock a push and it fell down, landed on a slope and began to roll. It pounded against the wall with full force and a loud metallic ›KLONG‹ was heard. At that moment all droids were moving towards the sound and the two guard droids at the command room stepped to the nearest window. Henry and Gina used this to shut them down and pull them into the room. »Perfect! We’re in. I see the correct desk. It’s not even encrypted, I thought we’d have to hack into it first.«, Henry muttered.

  The doorway opened, but Gina reported: »Shit! Guys, there’s a droid coming up to look for the origin of the rock. You have to get out of there, quickly!«

  Unfortunately, there was no visual protection for ten recruits on top of the wall. You could see through the laser barrier and the distance to the protective rock wall was too great. Carter didn’t hesitate a second and ran back. He made two big steps on the ledge above the door through which the droid would come. As soon as the machine stepped outside, it saw the recruits and the red attack light lit up. Carter acted immediately. He jumped over the droid guard and threw his electric stick against the head of the guard in mid-air. Instead of an alarm or loud shots, one could only hear a metallic sound of the small impact before its circuits burnt through and it fell over. Carter rolled off and got his electric stick back. The others looked at him in bewilderment, but he only held his side with a smile filled with pain.

  »That was absolutely stupid, Carter! You’re injured and this is just a stupid exercise!«, Kelly angrily hissed at him.

  Rod said: »But it was also the coolest move I’ve ever seen!«

  The others were all excited about Carter’s acrobatics. When Henry and Gina joined them again, they walked through the passage and disappeared across another plank into the rock niches. When they had brought a half-hour distance between themselves and the wall, they discovered another cave, which was no tunnel this time. They reached the inner chamber very quickly and it was empty. They all checked together. Leena decided that it was an excellent spot for the night’s rest, as there were no signs that the cave was a creature’s shelter. The others were equally exhausted and relieved to be able to set up their small tents. They could not secure them to the ground because of the massive rock, but since there was no wind or any external influence, there was no need. Without wood or other fuel, there was no fire, but they had long-lasting glow sticks with them, throwing a few onto a pile in a hollow. They sat around in a circle and talked. Meanwhile, Kelly looked at Carter’s injury again. Due to the dive roll at the processing plant and the acrobatic move on the wall, the wound was torn open and blood passed the SaniGel. The anesthetic had also subsided.

  Kelly sprayed a little more into it to close it again and attached a new cover pad. He sighed with relief as the fresh remedy began to work. »Carter is having a really good day today, isn’t he?«, Jane giggled in the dim light.

  The twins had already fallen asleep sitting down and Nambur was not far away. Rod sat down next to Carter and said:

  »How you killed that monster was really impressive, buddy. I was really worried for a moment.«

  »You? What about me? I was on the verge of a panic attack!«, Kelly remarked. Carter reacted slowly because he was very tired. He said ironically: »I’m sorry that my encounter with a predator and the subsequent agony made you both uncomfortable. In the future, I will try to schedule my near-death-experiences better so that it is more pleasant for you.«

  The two laughed quietly and Rod patted him on the shoulder while Kelly snuggled up to him. Leena watched the whole thing but said nothing. The others talked muffled about the day’s events and how they and Carter had got them through. When she heard that, she felt pride. She liked finally being able to show off her talents.

  He crawled into the tent Kelly had erected for him right next to hers and fell asleep after whispering goodnight to her.

  Leena stayed awake and took over the first guard because nobody could know if these creatures were hunting at night and if there weren’t more monsters out there. She sat and pondered for a long time.

  The next morning they were hardly rested because the ground was hard and uneven and the thin field mattresses did not help much. They dismantled the tents and sat down to eat their rations.

  Nambur jokingly suggested eating outside and admiring the surroundings. Nirvana was not called that without reason. Then they set off again. Leena’s bracelet showed them the way and after about two hours of walking over uneven rock fields, they came to a wall. It was a steep, high rock face. According to the signal, their target was less than fifty meters away. The scouts couldn’t find a way to go in any direction. Urma interjected that the bracelet did not indicate the altitude. Maybe it was above them.

  Since they couldn’t walk anywhere else anyway and time was running out, they decided to try and climb up. As on the previous day, Carter proposed to replace their missing climbing equipment with the ropes and pegs of the tents. The rock was not as hard at this point and with enough strength, the pegs worked like climbing hooks. Not all of them were good at it. Carter, Urma, Tom, Kelly, and Rod did quite well, so they showed the others how to do it right. Particularly bad climbers like Tim and Leena got ropes tied around their hips and were connected to one of the more experienced, who secured them in an emergency.

  This way they set out for the ascent. The rock was so rough and coarse that in many places one only had to grab and move on without using the climbing hooks. They didn’t feel comfortable on the steep wall, above and below them nothing but fog. It would have been quite possible that this wall reached miles up, so they hoped this was not the case. Luckily Kelly reached the top of the wall an hour of slow climbing later and told them it wasn’t far. One by one they lifted themselves over the ledge and struggled to their feet. Leena looked around and gasped: »Well done, guys ... that wasn’t easy. Now we’re up. Let’s have a look around.«

  »Not necessary.«, Jimbo said, pointing in one direction. Right in front of them was the ›top‹ of the small mountain in the shape of a stone dome with several arched entrances. All this was of natural origin, but it looked like a huge pavilion of rock. Right in the middle, they saw the red flashing of the transmitter.

  »We made it!«, Gina exclaimed enthusiastically. »Yes, we made it ...«, Leena repeated quietly and her relief was noticeable.

  They slowly moved towards the transmitter. Their thoughts wandered to hot showers, soft beds, the canteen food that seemed like a feast to them compared to field rations, and overall relaxation. Carter thought of Kelly without clothes and an end to the pain in his side. The anticipation was building up and soon afterward they reached the transmitter.

  It looked like an old radio, only the antenna was much bigger and flashed intensively. The device stood on two boxes in the middle of the plateau.

  Carter suddenly got a very dull feeling in his stomach. Once again his instinct spoke. Initially, he wanted to ignore it after the last fiasco, but Rod also seemed to feel it.

  »We should grab this thing and get out of here right now. The military puts its transmitters in places that are practical and this indoor area can’t be used for landing. That’s absolutely suspicious.«

  Urma said: »Come on, this is just an exercise. We’re not really at war here, where you have to fear ambushes ...«

  She had not yet finished speaking when armed droids rose from loose piles of gravel and circled them. Tim raised his hands as a precaution, but Carter didn’t hesitate a second. He pressed the transmitter’s distress signal button and pushed it to the ground so they couldn’t destroy it. Then he knocked over the boxes, pulled his pistol, shot three droids in the head and squatted behind them. There he pulled his rifle. The others hastily took cover and fired. Rod knelt next to Carter and they backed each other up. The original droids had been killed quite quickly, but more came through the entrances. The recruits sat together in teams of two and three, shooting at any enemy who moved. Their training with Major Dunn paid off. They hit their targets in most cases
, they didn’t panic and they took care to help each other. The boxes Rod and Carter were squatting behind didn’t last long after they were surrounded. Rod noticed some debris nearby. He gave Carter a hand signal and he nodded briefly. He dashed forward, shot three nearby enemies, beheaded another droid in front of him with a rifle strike, and then fired wildly around. This gave Rod time to grab a scrap plate the size of his upper body from the debris. He attached it to the shield holders on his forearm. He used it to protect himself and Carter, and whenever they reached a droid who wasn’t shot, Rod smashed him with the heavy shield. The others stared at them all the time, for they attracted most of their enemies so that the rest could catch their breath or regroup. Suddenly a loud signal sounded and the droids ended their attack and stood still. The team looked around suspiciously to see what disaster would come next, but instead of an enemy, Major Dunn joined them through the stone arch.

  »Holy shit! I can’t believe this! That was motherfuckin awesome!«

  None of them really knew how to react.

  Dunn continued: »Of all the groups before you, you are the only one who has ever successfully completed this exercise. We are doing this kind of training to show the recruits that teaching alone is often not enough. You encounter monsters, you can’t rely on technology, you can be caught by civilians or encounter unexpected obstacles, and even a supposed victory can plunge you into chaos. But you have mastered everything we have put in your way ... unbelievable. The other two groups gave up yesterday.«

  They were just about to celebrate when Carter moaned loudly. The fight had given the wound at his side the final touch and the anesthesia didn’t seem to help either. The major waved them with her energetically and Kelly and Rod supported him. They went to the ship as fast as they could and took off with Dunn. As the fog passed by the outer windows, he sat on a box of weapons with his legs apart, holding his side, Kelly stroking his head. Rod and Leena looked over at them worried. Rod said: »Carter is quite the daredevil. I didn’t expect him to do that.«

  »He should have taken it slower. It wasn’t necessary to do such crazy stunts.«

  »Are you serious? You really want to complain? Now? You have good decisions and commands to show for and your actions led us to the transmitter. But without Carter’s creativity or his courage and his ›stunts‹ it wouldn’t have gone so well in some places.«

  She had to agree with him. In fact, she was happy that somebody had taken the improvisation away from her because she didn’t like it.

  The ship reached the military base ›Fog‹ and paramedics picked up Carter on a stretcher. He was taken to the hospital wing, where his armor was removed and the cover pad loosened. The pain became even worse. In the corner of his eye, he saw the whole group standing by the window and watching him being treated. The military doctor noticed this and said to him:

  »Your comrades are worried about you.«

  Carter just nodded and the doctor went on.

  »The wound came from a kravan. Fortunately, kravans have no poisonous or contaminated claws, otherwise, they would have had to stop the exercise. Fortunately for you, only the skin and muscle fibers were torn open, the internal organs are intact. It was good that you used the SaniGel immediately.«

  Carter felt no pain because he had been given a strong anesthetic. They rolled him from the stretcher to a free space and several mechanical arms came up from the floor. One of them spiked him briefly. Another did a holographic scan of his entire body. Then some smaller arms came along and began to work. The doctor typed a few things into the controls but kept talking.

  »This machine will seal your wound. When you joined the military, your ID data was loaded into the database. As you know, your Holo-ID has a complete data history of your body. Once you are of age and fully grown, you will be deep scanned. Your organs, your DNA and all your biological data are captured and stored. This data package is called the original state. This is what your perfect healthy stature looks like. And this data package is used by this machine as a template. The stitch just served to determine the state of your hormones and any changes to your DNA so as not to carry out the renewal with old cells that your body could reject.«

  »Renewal?«, Carter asked.

  »That’s what sealing is, actually. These arms distribute so-called raw mass into the wound and at all other places which do not match the original condition. This is gray biomass that contains unformatted cells. Then these raw cells are encoded with your DNA using a second arm, just like a computer program. Once that happens, they are your cells, and your body recognizes them and involves them in the healing process. We basically replace damaged tissue with brand new material. Afterward, you will be irradiated with regeneration waves. They simulate the signals of your body, which stimulate the healing process and at the same time supply the necessary energy for it so that you can heal like in time-lapse. What would normally take weeks heals in hours here.«

  Carter’s dizzy head buzzed. He fell asleep while the machine replaced the injured cells and connected them so that they could heal. When he woke up some time later, he was as good as new. No pain, just a long scar. The doctor said that even an abscess threatening to form in his intestines had been lasered away. He dressed and joined the others. They greeted him joyfully and Kelly threw himself at him and didn’t seem to give a damn about the reaction of those present. Banes called the three groups to him.

  Behind him, on the base monitors, you could see the camera footage from the helmets, some fog filter footage and other video footage that little drones had made permanently.

  »The exercise is over. Two groups failed, as I had expected. In fact, it was not intended that any group would succeed in this exercise. This training unit was designed for reconnaissance task forces with high-end equipment, where silence in an unknown environment is part of their job. Recruits with simple equipment would not have been able to do this. On the one hand, we wanted to see how far you could get, and on the other hand, we wanted to see how you would do. Teamwork, command structure, obedience, initiative, ingenuity, combat strength. Group one didn’t get very far because they didn’t take their leader seriously. Everyone ran wherever they wanted and you ran to a kravan’s hunting ground where we had to get you out.

  Group three was caught by the researchers at the mineral station because they just went in to ask for directions.«

  Banes hit his hand against his forehead and Dunn laughed loudly. »But group two has done an unparalleled job today. You listened to the commands of your leader, almost used the radio channel professionally and organized yourself well. Scouts, spearheads, flanks and rearguards, a proper formation.«

  Leena seemed to be proud of herself.

  »Sanders survived the fight with a kravan and was quickly and well taken care of. I wanted to stop, but you had the situation under control, so I let you do it.«

  Rod fist-bumped Carter and Kelly hugged Leena. The others also congratulated each other. Banes interrupted the small celebration: »Now calm down. You may be promising recruits, but you are still recruits. Beginners. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that we trainers don’t spend our energy on nothing. However, you still have a lot to learn. So off to the ship! We fly back to the base.«

  Tangible Infinity

  Monday was a day off because the weekend had been so exhausting. There were no duties this week either. Whether they were trainers, recruits or employees of the base - whoever met them did so with curiosity and interest. Their group had mastered a Special Forces exercise by the simplest means. Years later, this would still occur in stories.

  Satisfied, they sunbathed on the meadow near the sports field. Carter was uncomfortable with all the attention because he wanted to spend time with Kelly in peace. Rod had made himself scarce that day and was out in town with Tim and Tom. Carter didn’t know where the others were. He had sunk into a book about a great hero who had to avert a catastrophe with his companions. Kelly lay with her head in his lap and took a nap. They loved those free da
ys to relax, but something had awakened in Carter during the exercise that he had never felt so strongly before. The fear he had been carrying since the service with Kelly against the rebels had been replaced. He didn’t want to rest. He wanted more. Learning more, getting better, using more modern equipment and going on exciting missions. He was more and more convinced to commit himself as a soldier after his training.

  Rod had already decided a while ago to work for the military in some way. As a mechanic, he could earn much more and more steadily than in his small illegal workshop.

  The next day training resumed. Their lesson plan indicated another new subject that led them to the hangar. There the Salvani technician Kwax waited with another man. He had a broad build and certainly had strength in his arms, but you could also see his slight rounder belly through his jacket. He had gray, medium-length hair, pupils of different colors and a cigar in his mouth. One of his eyes was surrounded by scars, which looked strange. »Greetings, recruits. I’m chief mechanic Willis Thompson, but Willis will do. I suppose you already know Kwax? This Salvani really knows about hardware. I know a lot about human technology, but he knows them all. That’s why he will occasionally honor us with his presence. It’s part of his deal with the military.«