“Okay,” Renn replied, unsure of whether he should pursue the conversation or wait till Dylan calmed down.
“Have you ever gone through my head?” Dylan asked.
Renn wasn’t sure how to answer that. He had never searched through memories like Desh, not on Dylan or anyone else, but Renn had overheard his thoughts before. It was like constantly hearing voices. Sometimes he paid attention, usually he didn’t, preferring to tune them out and wait till the person spoke. Then there was Leo’s dream…but that wasn’t on Dylan… “No,” Renn said, hoping that was close enough to the truth.
“Good,” Dylan said, calming down a bit. “Seriously, don't unless I ask you to.”
“Okay,” Renn replied, following them out the door.
When they entered the dormitory common room, they found a group of students in a huddle, laughing, and approached out of curiosity to find Tom in the middle, wearing nothing but boxers, while his animation was frozen.
“Seriously?” Renn said, in disbelief.
“Who turned him off?” Leo frowned.
“What’s it to you?” Jonah sneered.
“That’s low, man. Really low,” Dylan said to Jonah.
Renn looked up, seeing Tom’s clothes hanging from the rafters, out of reach, even if Tom had been awake. He walked over and turned Tom on.
Tom animated and blinked, then looked down at his half naked body, horrified.
“Everyone to your dorms!” Tom said. Everyone sauntered off, lingering long enough to imply they were leaving because they wanted to, rather than because the machine had ordered them.
“Renn?” Tom called out.
Renn held back and waited for the others to go.
“Would you mind assisting me for a moment?” Tom whispered.
“Of course not,” Renn said. He looked up into the rafters, putting a hand in the air, and pulled the clothes towards them, until Tom could reach.
“I can't imagine who would have done such a thing,” Tom said, getting dressed.
Renn could. Jonah had found someone he could bully who wouldn't fight back. “Try not to let it get to you, Tom,” Renn said, feeling bad that the android felt emotions. He thought it was cruel to allow machines to feel things like embarrassment or shame.
Renn walked up the spiral stairs to his dorm, finding Jonah standing in one of the open doorways, sneering at Renn.
“Kissing up to androids now, Renn?” Jonah asked.
Students peeked out of their doorways, as the prospect of a live fight loomed.
Renn stopped and turned around. “No. I just have no interest in seeing some guy half naked,” Renn replied. “The next time you want to take Tom’s clothes off, do it in your room. I’m sure Ava will close the door for you.”
Jonah’s face tightened and he took a swing at Renn, but his fist hit an invisible wall of energy instead. Jonah cried out in pain, holding his hand.
Tom walked up the stairs and looked at Jonah's hand. “It looks like someone needs to go to the medical bay, Sport,” Tom said.
“Oh, shut up, you stupid robot!” Jonah snorted, before walking away.
When the door closed to the dorm room, Renn flopped on his bed. “I thought Ava monitors everything,” he said.
“Yeah, so?” Dylan shrugged.
“So, why didn’t Jonah get sent to Lockrin for bullying?”
“Ah, you’re thinking of Tom as a human being, but he’s not considered human under Federation law.”
“But he’s got feelings!” Renn replied.
“You don’t have to convince me,” Dylan replied. “I’m all for equal rights. There are rallies all over the Federation, promoting equal rights for androids, but if someone tries to pass a law, then most species vote “No,” because they don’t want to give up the machines that were manufactured for slavery. Temin doesn’t even vote “Yes,” because so many of them work in the factories and get paid half as much as humans.”
“That’s horrible,” Renn said, thinking about it.
That night he had the same reoccurring nightmare he had been having for months. He was walking in a cave, looking for something, but didn't know what. Incoherent flashes of Eminites and Desh. The gory flashes increased until Desh sent the Mindeerian sword towards his neck and he woke up with a start.
Renn looked down at his hands. There was no spark, just the faint glowing blue tint. He looked over at Upgrade who had jumped off the bed, never taking his eyes off the blue light. Renn looked ahead of him and saw his computer screen at the foot of his bed, still intact.
“Look, Upgrade. No lightning,” Renn said, patting the bed. “Come on, boy.”
Upgrade jumped back up on the bed, resting his chin on Renn’s leg, as the sleep regulator released sleep serum into Renn’s blood stream.
***
Renn walked into the simulation room for his Mindeerian lesson and had to admit, he was starting to look forward to the lessons. He felt strong when he fought like a Mindeerian, no longer feeling vulnerable, like he was when he fought as a human. When one fought like a human, the fighter had to make contact with the other person with their fists or by taking punches of their own. As a Mindeerian, the enemy could be kept at a distance until the fight was over.
“You need to learn when to use each power and when to combine them,” Paro began. “There’s telekinesis, force fields, Mindeerian fire, swords, fire swords. You have many choices to chose from, each deadlier than the last, but twice as deadly if used together.”
They spent the next hour practicing power combinations, with Paro testing Renn to see which weapon he would choose, based on the circumstance.
By the end of the lesson, Renn felt more confident than he had ever felt before. It was exhilarating, as if he could take on anything.
“Don’t get too cocky,” Paro said, watching Renn. “Mindeerians didn’t win against the Eminites, remember?”
“How did we lose? Eminites don’t have powers.”
“The Eminites may be barbaric, but they’re not dumb, and Mindeerians are not immortal,” Paro reasoned. “If a Mindeerian is using his telepathy for one thing, then they can’t use it for another at the same time. The Eminites prepared for this by tying up our powers so we were using all of them at the same time, till we had nothing left to fight with against the Aranea and Eminite soldiers.”
When the bell chimed, Renn walked down the empty hall, whipping around and practicing the new fighting stances Paro had taught him. He accidentally fired the beginning of a blast before he could stop himself and left a shallow burn mark on his forearm. He shook his arm, cringing, and walked to his robotics class like a human.
CHAPTER 13
Fighters, Prepare
Since robotics class was on the other side of the ship, and four flights up, Renn found himself running to make it in time, stepping a foot in the door when the bell chimed. Unfortunately, the only seat available was next to Desh and he took it, not having a choice in the matter.
Professor Tamar walked around the class, talking as she went. “There is a planet,” Tamar began, “called Desia, that was once dominated by the Pelnovs, an intelligent species who are now extinct. They had A.I. and lived peacefully alongside each other for centuries, but as the androids upgraded their own software and increased their own intelligence, they took over the planet. They came up with a way to lobotomize the Pelnovs and turn them into slaves. The Pelnovs stopped procreating as a result and their species died out after a few generations. The A.I. continued to not only duplicate themselves, but build more advanced robots, creating communities of bots. If you were to land on their beaches, you would think you were walking on sand, but would soon find that you were walking on nanites that would animate and eat you alive.
“Desia is now a Class Five planet, since the computers consider anything organic to be a threat. When engaged in war, they use nanites, having learned that bigger is not always better. Nanites can be controlled killers, too small to fight, but exact, unlike gas or bombs. They're elec
tronic, so no life is lost if they are destroyed, and have a high success rate if they are sent as a swarm. I personally would rather fight against a missile launcher than a robotic fly I wouldn’t see coming. Anything you can dream up can be made or found and strategy is key.
“I want you to all pull up lesson fifteen in your tablet and look at the example. A war has just broken out between the Siggas and the Graisers. Half of you have been assigned to fight the battle as Siggas, the other half as Graisers. I want you to devise a strategy for winning the war, using technology. Use as few laser guns and bombs as possible, since your grade will be based on which forms of technology you use and how effective they are. Your simulations will be tested in class.
“You all have a couple minutes left for this class period, I recommend getting started now.”
The students got to work, researching their assigned species to figure out what they had to work with.
Desh glanced at Renn's burn mark and shook his head. “What'd you do, electrocute yourself?” Desh asked.
“What, like you've never done it?” Renn replied.
“Sure, when I was four,” Desh mumbled before going back to his assignment.
***
In species class, Professor Zaneer looked at one of the First Year humans, Remi, seeing through him with her large green eyes.
“Remi,” she said, waking him up. “Would you like to tell me what I just said?”
“Not really,” he replied, prompting a couple students to snicker.
“Can you please tell me then why you feel you don’t need to pay attention in class?” the professor asked.
“No offense,” Remi replied with a tinge of sincerity, “but I plan on going into the Temian Fleet Academy after graduation and I’m just waiting for aviation next year. I don’t plan on meeting any hostile aliens face to face, so I really don’t see the point in spending all the time memorizing what they look like.”
Professor Zaneer nodded. “I see,” she said. She pulled up three aliens on the hologram and turned back to him. “Remi, you have been ordered to Clyness to kill the Zekrians, and save the Picrognas, with the help of the Tolx. You crash land in the forest and these three aliens walk up to you at the same time. What do you do?”
“I wait to see which one acts aggressive and shoot it,” Remi replied.
The professor pointed out the species while she spoke. “This one growls and bares its teeth, this one runs behind a tree, and this one lowers itself to the ground. Which one is acting aggressive, and again, which one do you shoot?”
“The one that growled,” Remi replied, as if that had been a stupid question.
“The one you shot was a Picrognas. The Picrognas language consists of growling and if you had been able to speak their language, then you would have understood that it was asking you for help. The Tolx ran behind the tree to wait to see if humans could be trusted, which it will now reply back to the Picrognas, and other Tolx, that they cannot. The Zekrian crouched down so it could increase the spring in its bounce when it attacked, which it did, killing you. Unfortunately, the entire war was lost for the Picrognas because the Picrognas needed the help from the humans to survive, but would no longer accept it. All of which happened because you weren't paying attention in class.”
Remi lowered his head and avoided making eye contact with the other students.
“This goes for everyone,” Professor Zaneer continued. “Whether you're entering the military after graduation or just crewing a ship, your training has already begun. It takes more than the ability to pull a trigger to win a war.”
***
The day had finally come for Renn’s first BOTS game and he was grateful for the sleep regulator, feeling certain that his nervous knots would have kept him awake the night before without it. He thought about the extra training that he and Dylan had done, feeling confident that no professors would stop him in the hall this time.
The boys ran out of their room, all except for Leo who once again said he had to study. Dylan and Renn ran into the fighters’ holding tank, looking around at their opponents while they finished putting on their suits.
The suits came with shoulder pads that had a flexible spine brace attached to them, strapped from the back for comfort. Despite the comfort, they required others to strap the fighter in, if one wasn’t a double-jointed Gopeck. They were an extra precaution for fighters who were required to swim, float, or become weightless ― instances when Ava would emit energy bursts or air from the ground to aid the illusion. If the player died in the simulation, the energy and air would vanish instantaneously and there had been a couple instances of fighters breaking their backs when Ava lifted them into the air and dropped them faster than their bodies could tolerate. After that, braces and pads were required from then on, despite Ava being reprogrammed to slowly deplete the air and energy, upon the fighter’s death.
Dylan strapped Renn in, while they looked up at the board to see they would be in the third game, against Grus and Jonah.
Dylan looked up at the list of fighters. He and Renn were listed two slots down from Desh and Kia at the base of the winner’s tree. “All right,” Dylan said to Renn, “We’re up next, fighting against Jonah and Grus. If we win, then our next battle will be against Desh and Kia. You ready to kick some butt?”
“Absolutely,” Renn said. He couldn’t help grinning about being able to fight both Jonah and Desh, without getting into trouble. Not only was it allowed, but encouraged. He wondered about what he would be doing right then if he had remained in school on Earth. Planting a very practical vegetable was his best guess.
The lights dimmed while Ava announced the next two pairs of fighters. A picture of each fighter lit up on the scoreboard as his name was called.
Renn ran out to the middle of the arena with his heart racing. He looked up into the stands, getting more and more nervous by the second. If he made a fool out of himself, the entire school would see it and his self-doubt festered.
“Level one. The planet is Earth,” Ava said.
The top of redwood trees were the first to appear from the white arena floor, rising into the empty space. A forest with moss covered rocks and rolling hills ascended, frozen in time, then a clear blue sky was painted above with white, wispy clouds scattered about. No sign of students or a ship remained. The only thing hinting that he hadn’t been teleported was Ava’s scoreboard floating in the sky. It was quite beautiful, rather peaceful he thought. He had to walk around a few trees before finding Dylan, but there was no sign of either Grus or Jonah in the dense woods.
“Fighters, prepare,” Ava said, resonating from the sky. Renn didn’t know what to expect. Everything was so vivid; it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t. He could hear a muted cheer from the crowd, but couldn’t see anyone, just the serene woods surrounding them.
“This place is amazing!” Dylan said. “This is where you live?”
“Not this exact area, but same continent,” Renn replied, feeling a little homesick.
“Are you allowed to actually go to places like this or do they have them blocked off, like on Temin?”
“Blocked off? Wow, no. And you don’t have to go anywhere to find nature. You just have to walk outside.”
“Incredible,” Dylan said. “All right, let’s get focused. It doesn’t matter how tranquil it looks, this is battle. There will always be a species trying to kill us. Got it?”
“Got it,” Renn said, trying to get into fight mode.
“The game will begin in five, four, three, two, one.”
Renn and Dylan felt a breeze and heard leaves rustle all around them. Birds chirped and a placid creek flowed nearby. They looked around, looking for signs of life.
“So, what are we looking for?” Dylan asked.
“Bears…bobcats…rabid raccoons,” Renn snorted, and then looked up to see a doe staring at them in the distance.
Dylan scrambled into a kung fu fighting stance, ready to attack.
Renn laughed.
“Dylan, it’s a deer! It won’t hurt you,” he said. “They’re completely docile.”
“Are you kidding me? Like these things just walk around freely?”
“Well, yeah,” Renn replied. “Okay, am I losing it or can I really hear the deer thinking?”
“That’s still Ava. It’s an auditory illusion. She knows you’re Mindeerian.”
“Oh.”
Desh and Kia continued watching from the holding tank, looking rather perplexed while they watched. From their point of view, they could see the mountain lion creeping up to the fighters as the fighters’ fascination with the deer continued.
“Seriously?” Kia asked.
The crowd yelled, some trying to warn them, others heckling them, but all the voices were distorted by the time they reached the fighters.
Dylan looked up towards the faint voices that reached him in jumbled whispers. He scanned the area until he spotted the mountain lion, heading for the deer.
“Renn!” Dylan yelled.
Renn whipped around in time to see the mountain lion dive for the doe. Renn ran after it, grabbing the puma’s tail. The mountain lion’s ears went back and it whirled around, hissing, with its claws swiping at Renn’s face. Renn blocked its paws, and then backed up to get into a fighting stance.
The doe continued running, safe from its predator. Dylan looked up above the trees and saw they had already gained 1,200 points, between Renn saving the doe and blocking the mountain lion’s paws.
Dylan ran up to Renn’s side, further angering the mountain lion. “What do we do?” Dylan asked.
“Unstrap me,” Renn said, not taking his eyes off the animal.
“Are you crazy?” Dylan asked.
“Do it!” Renn said, prompting Dylan to run behind him and take off Renn’s shoulder pads.
Once they were off, Dylan threw it at the puma, but the mountain lion dodged it and hissed. Dylan turned back to Renn who had now taken his shirt off and was wrapping the shirt around his hand.
Galileo (Battle of the Species) Page 22