by Aer-ki Jyr
“That the Archons trust us to operate off the grid, no oversight.”
“And how are we supposed to operate?”
“Like ghosts.”
“No, I mean how are we supposed to do things when they’re not watching?”
It took him a moment, then his eyes flashed in realization. “This is your idea of how Arc Commandos should, what, say hi?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” she admitted.
“You are crazy,” he said in a nice, almost complimentary way.
“No, just savvy. I’ve had 6 months to think this through, though I’ll admit only coming up with this idea in the past few minutes. If there’s a fun way to do something, why do it any other way?”
“I’m still waiting on the ‘something’ bit. How does this mission relate, or do you just really need to get laid?”
“We’re not fucking,” she said apologetically. “That would inhibit thinking. I just need us exposed and on the verge to get us fully awake.”
“Oh, I’m definitely awake.”
“Good, now just listen and learn. Or rather, unlearn. I was sent here with no instructions, and I’m assuming you are the same way. We’ve been tasked to operate on our own, and how we train to use our psionics and everything else past this point is totally on us. The Archons aren’t guiding us anymore, we’re on autopilot. It finally dawned on me a while back that they’re not interested in making us into mini Archons, they want us to become something different. Something unique that we create ourselves, so we shouldn’t be holding to Archon protocol, or a lot of other stuff we’ve picked up over the years. First in the maturia, then Commando training, and in the field, and then the training you just finished.”
“So you think we should be sexually promiscuous?”
“Wow. That word is such a killjoy.”
“You know what I mean. The Archons have a strict code, and Commandos usually go along with it.”
Jyra pulled one hand off of where she had his pinned and tapped him on the forehead. “And there’s where you’re wrong. The Archons don’t follow a code.”
“No?”
“No rules. San told me that himself when I asked. He said rules are for the young, the inexperienced, and the untrustworthy. Arc Commandos are none of those.”
Linty looked at her a moment, feeling some semblance of logic working beneath her red locks and intense eyes…then it finally clicked.
“It’s a question of loyalty to the mission, which for us was answered beyond a shadow of a doubt before we became Arc Commandos.”
“Go on.”
“We don’t need the restrictive guidelines and code that helped get us here. In fact, it will probably hinder us in living up to our mandate, therefore we must ‘unlearn’ what we have learned.”
Jyra smiled, glad this little gambit of hers had worked. She’d almost been too shy to even try it. “And everything about this current situation screams a violation of everything we’ve been taught.”
“Yet we’re still loyal to the mission. And when we’re trustworthy we don’t need rules.”
“And when we don’t follow rules we can do things in…funner ways.”
“Like you getting me naked in order to explain this?”
Jyra flashed her eyebrows twice. “Savvy?”
Linty smiled. “And rather than take baby steps, why not jump in head first and strip away the lingering protocol along with our clothes?”
“You are a smart boy.”
“You planning to instruct everyone else that comes here like this?”
“Honestly I have no idea how long I’m going to be here, so I’m just playing this by ear and it seemed like a good idea a few minutes ago.”
“And now?”
“You tell me.”
Linty smiled widely. “Part of me wants to say this is just all frivolous, but another part realizes your logic is spot on. If we’re going to differentiate ourselves from the Archons and other Commandos then we have to break free of established habits…and this is about as fast of a method as I can think of stripping away established protocol.”
“So we’re in agreement? I’m not crazy?”
“Oh you’re crazy…like a fox.”
“Good,” she said, suddenly getting up off him and leaving Linty a bit disappointed. That caught him off guard, but he shook it off and stood up.
“Lesson over then?”
“The lessons are just beginning. Time for a tour and to get you up to speed on what the Archons left for us. What we make of it going forward is anyone’s guess, but there are some notes left behind by other Arc Commandos. Still, we’re near the tip of the spear and don’t have much in the way of trailblazers to key off of. We have to make this up as we go and I’ll be glad for the help.”
“Tour it is then,” Linty said, walking back to the couch to grab his clothes.
“Uhuh,” Jyra said, stopping him with a hand on his shoulder. “Habits don’t break that fast. You stay naked for now.”
“Until when?” he asked with a wry grin.
“Until we no longer feel naked.”
“And what if someone else shows up?”
“Only Arc Commandos come here, and if another comes in we get them naked too. You take the girls and I’ll take the guys and we’ll share what we’ve learned via pillow fights.”
Linty laughed. “And what if they’re older Arc Commandos?”
“Then we tell them what we’re doing and ask if they want to join in. No shame here. We’re not misbehaving, just handling our mandate in a way that most other people wouldn’t approve of. If we’re going to be off the grid, then we don’t need to concern ourselves with what they think, because they’ll never know. We can’t have their rigidity and protocol slowing us down. We have to keep open minds and clear heads, hence the reason why I’m not going to fuck you, despite the urge I have to do so right now.”
“Likewise.”
“I can see that,” she said, glancing down at his waist.
“You said no shame.”
“None at all,” she agreed. “Though that’s got to be awkward walking around with.”
“It is, trust me.”
“How long before you deflate?”
“Good question. If you’re not putting your clothes back on either, could be a while.”
“I would offer to pop you off, but that would be counter-productive I think?”
Linty shook his head in dismay. “I swear, when you first started that pillow fight I thought you were…”
“Out of bounds?”
“Yeah, but to your point. When you’re loyal to the mission, or in this case mandate, there is no out of bounds. I guess this is a weakness I’ve got, and the only way to get used to being around you naked is to see it through the less fun way. Just try not to bump into me or you’ll kill whatever slack I start to get.”
“No promises rookie. I may do it intentionally now. Just enough to keep you on edge and burn away whatever protocol you’ve got clogging your mind.”
“And what about you?”
“I don’t have external sex organs, but feel free to poke where you like. I can take it without losing my head.”
“This is by far the strangest lesson I’ve ever had.”
“Is that a complaint?”
“We really are off the grid here, right? No monitoring at all?”
“Nada. It took me a while to really wrap my head around that and loosen up. Didn’t realize how constricted I was beforehand until it happened…then I got a little crazy to push it further.”
“Well, I like your crazy and see the wisdom in it. On top of that, I think this next stage of training is going to be the funnest of all time.”
“Why not?” she shrugged. “As long as we still accomplish our goals?”
“And keep it a secret from everyone else.”
“No one else is supposed to know what we do anyway.”
“Well, then. If we’re going to jump off this boat, how about we make
all leisure downtime nude? Not just for us, but everyone. We can put up a sign that says so.”
Jyra laughed. “I’m glad you didn’t include training. Running naked is…uncomfortably bouncy.”
“Ditto there.”
Jyra raised an eyebrow at him. “Is my crazy rubbing off on you?”
“Looks like.”
“Good,” she said, lightly tapping her wrist against his crotch as she walked by. “Follow me and I’ll show you around your new digs.”
Linty took a moment to center himself and followed her, feeling exposed and stupid, but in a fresh way that, honestly, was going to take some getting used to, but he already could feel a wall forming between himself and the outside world, with Jyra on the inside of it and the both of them being saner for it. He’d never have done anything like this on his own, but coming from another Arc Commando he was less resistant…and it did make sense. Perfect sense. And he wasn’t going to let the fun aspect of it discourage him.
Then he began to wonder why ‘fun’ should ever discourage anything.
10
December 2, 2900
Epsilon Eridani System
Corneria
Mace Ortel descended the T-shaped stairway entrance to the Nest on the left side, turning an immediate right and spotting two people sitting on a couch watching a vid screen. Before he said anything to them he turned the corner and looked at the holo, seeing some 18 dots circling above it. That surprised him, for typically the Nest only had 1 or 2 Arc Commandos in it at a time. Maybe the growing number of their ranks was changing that, but still 18 seemed damn high.
He used his Lachka to toggle the hidden switch, adding another dot as he logged himself in and pressed the doorbell to announce his presence to the facility, though the pair sitting with their backs to him didn’t hear it in this chamber.
“Hi,” he said, retracting his helmet into the lump of material around the back of his armor’s neckline as he looked down at the pair of heads, both of which turned around, apparently a bit shocked to see him. The vid screen was loud, and if these Arc Commandos were new then their Pefbar and Ikrid probably weren’t that advanced yet to pick him up coming down behind them.
“Hey, new guy is here.”
“Old guy, actually,” he said as the pair stood up and he saw that both the guy and girl were naked. “What the hell?”
“That’s the standard reaction we get from new people,” Veronica said, pointing to her left. “Read.”
Mace followed her finger line until he saw an addition to the Nest in the form of a sign on the wall that read:
Sexuality can have a strong influence on the weak minded.
We are NOT weak minded.
So prove it.
“What exactly does that mean?” Mace asked, a bit peeved.
“I thought the same thing when I got here,” Chad said, raising a hand to forestall the typical reaction. “Thought everyone had gone civie and insane, but there’s a method to the madness if you take long enough to think it through.”
Mace looked at both of them in turn, then back at Chad. “Regale me then.”
“You’re…Mace, right?” Veronica asked.
“Yes.”
“Thought so. I tried to memorize the personnel files. By the way,” she said, pointing two fingers at her eyes, then moving them down to her chest, “my breasts are down here.”
“What she means to say,” Chad interrupted, “is that we’ve instituted a…voluntary…program of sexuality training into our private culture.”
“Program, huh?”
“Yeah,” Chad said, rubbing his sandy blonde hair. “You’re the first old timer we’ve greeted. Or rather, that I’ve greeted. Mostly we see newbs coming in.”
“And you just wait here naked as a doorman?”
“Easy, Mace,” Veronica cautioned. “We just got finished with our workouts and we’re on downtime. Everyone else is either training or sleeping. We haven’t gone nuts, just taking an angle on sexuality that the Archons wouldn’t approve of.”
“And that being?”
“We use it.”
Mace rolled his eyes. “Oh boy.”
“Are you the ‘never get laid type?’”
“No, I’m the ‘do the mission, not your buddy type.’”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Veronica insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.
“How about I let you two talk this out,” Chad said, pointing off to the other side of the room. “I don’t have the compatibility to ease the introduction.”
“That’s probably best,” Veronica said as Chad walked over and sat down on a distant couch, turning on another vid screen and ignoring that the two of them were there. “You and I have a lot to go through.”
“That’s right, you were going to explain why you’re not acting like a Commando.”
“Want to have a seat first?”
“No, I think I’m better standing. Now talk before I feel like kicking your ass.”
Veronica’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t let the lack of clothes fool you. I can handle myself.”
“You’re fit, I’ll give you that, but you’re not going to stand up to more than a few punches,” he said, flexing his armored hand for emphasis.
“News flash, bro. We’re basically naked outside of our armor anyway. Putting a T-shirt on doesn’t change that much.”
“Granted,” he allowed.
“We figure that if we’re vulnerable outside of our armor then we might as well have fun with it, so long as it serves a purpose. Everyone here goes naked when not in training. Just a part of our secret little society. No Archon has come to beat some sense into us, like you’re thinking about doing now, so it’s also a way to confirm they’re not spying on us like they promised, but the bottom line is what the sign says. If we’re not weak minded then we shouldn’t have to avoid sexuality. For us, we’ve taken it as a challenge. We don’t avoid it, we embrace it. And if someone can’t keep their focus then they don’t deserve to be an Arc Commando.”
“Then why not go nude in training too?”
“Because most of the time you bounce, whether you’re a guy or girl, and that creates problems, but where we can without disadvantage we do. We even spar nude on occasion, for training sake.”
“Explain that.”
“Battle can come at any place at any time, and our enemies aren’t going to wait for us to get dressed if they catch us naked.”
“What about the ‘bounciness’ then?”
“We learn to work around or negate as much of it as we can, and that requires practice.”
“Is that why so many of you are here? Typically the Nest doesn’t see more than 3 at a time.”
Veronica shrugged. “Maybe. When I got here there were 9. Some have come and gone, including a couple of old timers like you. Once they gave it a chance they understood what we were doing and joined in. If you don’t want to strip down right away that’s fine, just don’t write us off as traitors. We’re loyal to the mission, and per our mandate we’re thinking outside the box. We’re just also thinking outside the Archon box as well. They may avoid sex like a plague, but we’re using it to our advantage.”
“So you’re just not walking around naked, you’re banging each other as well?”
Veronica nodded. “No more than once every three days, which is standard when scheduling will allow.”
“Scheduling?” Mace said in dismay.
“We have to practice,” Veronica emphasized, “in order to learn. Ignoring it isn’t something we choose to do anymore…though to be honest some of us never did to begin with. Now we’ve just taken it from being a random thing and turned it into a beneficial culture.”
Mace shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. “You guys have gone nuts.”
“Please have more faith in us than that,” she said, not arguing but asking openly. “The outside world doesn’t exist here. We’re off the grid and we’ve found a way to maximize that. The Archons wouldn
’t approve, but we’re supposed to do things our own way. They didn’t give us a plan for just that reason. We’re meant to improvise, learn, and craft the Arc Commandos into something of our own making. We’re not mini Archons, so why would be pattern ourselves off of them?”
“Because they kick ass.”
“Of course they do. And the ‘no sex’ rule works for them. This works for us.”
“Fine,” Mace relented, glancing over her body again, head to toes and back up. “I’ll hear you out…and me not having to look at someone else’s dick while listening was a good call.”
“Simple biology dude,” Chad said from across the room.
“Lose the armor and we’ll take a walk,” Veronica suggested.
“Do you go topside like that?” Mace asked as he triggered the automatic release and his armor peeled apart, with him stepping out of it a moment later.
“Nope. This part of being an Arc Commando only happens in the Nest. Though there is never any guarantee of safety, this is about as close as it gets. And like I said, we’re pretty much naked without our armor anyway, so we’ve chosen to just go the next step here, but only here.”
“What about the other Nests?”
Veronica raised an eyebrow. “Other Nests?”
“There are two more, at present.”
Chad’s head turned around as they walked behind him towards the door leading to the rest of the facility. “Why haven’t we heard about that?”
“I’m guessing because you’re newbs,” Mace said with some disdain. “Such information travels by word of mouth only.”
“To answer your question, I guess it will eventually,” Veronica said as they passed through the open doorway leaving Chad and the commons room behind.
“If you have your way.”
“It’s not my way, or at least the initial idea wasn’t.”
“Who started this craziness?”
“I’m told it was Jyra, but we’ve been adding other bits and pieces as we go along…like the 3 day rule. We experimented with every day but found it left our minds gummy. 3 days allows us to stay sharp, and we wouldn’t have figured that out without trying to figure it out.”