Tarik: Entry Level Warfare

by K. A. Kerr

  “She's doing fine. I'm sure she will want to speak to you privately. Are you going to be okay?” Tilla asked.

  “I will be fine. At least two good things came out of this.” Tarik said.

  “What's that?” asked Lamb.

  “First, I found out I do have some friends here.” Tarik smiled and looked around the hallway. “Second, I got all of you including Dav, to call me by my real name.”

  Lamb laughed and walked off, most of the group following him. Goddess stood in place waiting for some privacy.

  “Rarely does a male move a Dereft that easy. It was an experience I will remember. I can see why human females fell into their gender roles early on. Passion like that can be intoxicating, I should be telling you to control yourself but part of me wants to see what that passion can feel like.” Goddess made an obvious look at Tarik's crotch. “Maybe just hide those emotions when in public spaces.” With that she turned and walked off.

  Tarik was too tired to figure that one out. He took his tray and ate it while sitting on his bunk staring into nothing until his tray was empty. He sat the tray down on the floor and turned in for the night, thankful for the end of this very long day.

  Tarik woke to the image of the red giant still feasting on the icy comet. His body was still sore from yesterday but he did feel better rested. Tarik noticed a clean jumpsuit folded on his floor but he didn't remember anyone coming in to drop it off. The tray had also been removed. He put on the jumpsuit and headed for the showers thinking that the water may help ease the soreness in his muscles. He arrived and undressed, placing his jumpsuit on the same shelf as yesterday. He thought that maybe he should ask someone if they were assigned but didn't care enough to do it today. Mange exited the showers while Tarik was still in the dressing area, he didn't sneer today but simply wrapped his tail around his waist and gave Tarik a small nod. Tarik nodded back and walked towards an open stall.

  Like clockwork Goddess came out of the stall next to the one he was going for, her gorgeous nude perfect figure glistening with droplets of water. Tarik using some sense was trying to avert his eyes while still taking a peek here and there. Neither of them said anything as Tarik passed her. She let out a snicker as she walked to the dressing area. Tarik stood in the doorway trying not to look obvious as he watched her walk away, her hips swaying hypnotically. She paused at the threshold of the dressing area fumbling with a towel, which she dropped on the floor. She bent over at the waist to pick it up giving him a full view. She chose that moment to look back and wink, Tarik snapped his head forward trying to act like he had seen nothing at all. Luckily the part of him that showed the most reaction was already obscured by the walls of the shower stall. Tarik stepped into the stall quickly and turned the water on cool. He felt his heart rate slow and he let the water run down his back.

  Tarik felt better getting out of the shower, his hair starting to return to its normal light brown coloring. He stood nude in the dressing area wondering what new hell today could bring. His first two days aboard the Beetle had not gone well so far as he could tell.

  Daze burst into the room. “Hey Tarik, can we talk?” She said loudly expecting to have to talk over running water. She saw Tarik completely exposed, stood still and then quickly turned around. “Sorry. I thought you were in the stall. I didn't mean to… Well I … This isn't what I wanted … If you get the chance can you meet me in the Dome? I'm sorry.”

  Tarik was too tired to care; he didn't even bother reaching for the towel to cover himself. “Yeah, sure, I'll be down there in a few minutes.”

  “Thanks. I'll talk to you then. Sorry, I didn’t see anything.” She tried to lie. “I mean not sorry that I didn’t see anything but just saying that I didn’t see anything … oh gods, I’ll talk to you soon.” She said as she scurried for the door.

  “Am I ever going to have a normal day again?” He said to the empty room.

  Tarik walked into the Dome, the carnage from yesterday had been cleaned up already. Three pilots sat at one of the corner tables, Tarik couldn’t say if any of them were the ones who were in the hallway last night to show support because he honestly couldn’t tell them apart. Daze sat alone at the table adjacent to them, a half-eaten nutrition tray in front of her. The Gorrex from yesterday paced back and forth along the upper walkway.

  Tarik grabbed his nutrition tray and drank a full glass of cold water before leaving the unit. He refilled it and went to join Daze. He knew he was only supposed to sit at the kiddie table but he wanted to know what the hell happened yesterday. He sat down across from Daze and got an alert that he was docked two points for not sitting where he was supposed to. Tarik decided he wanted her to tell him what happen, and then ask the questions for details, it’d be better that way so she could say what she wanted before being interrogated. So he sat and started eating, not saying a word.

  “Are you mad at me?” Daze asked.

  “No, I just want to know what the hell is going on.” Tarik replied.

  “First off I’m sorry about walking in on you; I didn’t know you’d be naked. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” She put a heavy emphasis on nothing.

  Tarik just looked up at her from his tray a small smile at the corners of his mouth.

  “No, not, ugh… Anyway sorry about that. So yesterday, it was just an argument about a drop ship she was repairing, or supposed to be repairing. She seriously fucked up one of the attitude compensators and in the process also fucked up the return sensors which originally didn’t even have a problem. If any of these pilots had flown that they’d probably not make it back. It wasn’t a huge deal, I caught the mistakes and fixed them but she’d needed to know. We were sitting here and I brought it up, I wasn’t yelling or being mean, just telling her what was going on.” Daze took a deep breath before she went on. “I guess she thought I was trying to embarrass her, she started yelling about how I was nowhere near as good a mechanic as her, which isn’t a big deal, then yelling about how I wouldn’t even have a job if it weren’t for my father.”

  “Wait, who is your father?” Tarik asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Dav is my father, sorry thought you knew that.”

  “Shit.” Tarik said under his breath.

  “No, it’s not like that. My father is the most logical man on the ship; he didn’t just give me a job. I earned this job, I was raised on this ship. If my father thought I wasn’t doing my job he’d have no problem firing me.”

  “Okay so your father is the boss, we’ll come back to that later. Continue on with the story please.”

  “Oh, so she stood up and started yelling in my face. She was drunk and does that sometimes. But then she grabbed me by my hair and pulled my head back. She yells a lot but this is the first time she’d ever grabbed me like that. I tried to pull her hand away but she had a good grip and started to shake me by my hair, all while screaming inches from my face.” Daze looked down like she was disappointed in herself. “I punched her in the face. I shouldn’t have but I just lost my temper and wanted her off of me.”

  “Sounds to me, like you were defending yourself.”

  “I was but it only made things worse, Bink ran over and pulled Rye away. Drang, or Lamb as you probably have to call him, came over and pulled me away.” She looked him in the face “That’s when you came in; nobody thought she would go after someone else, but she was mad and drunk.”

  “I’ve had two encounters with her so far, both of which she was drunk and threatened me.” Tarik said feeling himself getting angry again. “I’ve never even been able to introduce myself.”

  “I know, it’s unfortunate, she can be really sweet when she is sober.”

  “So I hear. I also hear that is a rare occurrence.” Tarik said not wanting to hear excuses for Rye.

  “Nobody expected her to come at you like that, you are still an unknown here, and you would think you’d be innocent in her eyes. Even more nobody expected your reaction, we’ve all seen your assessment, and you would have destroye
d her.” Daze was mostly using her hands to talk.

  Tarik couldn’t disagree with that, he wanted to hurt her. If he hadn’t been stopped he had no idea what the outcome would have been but Rye would have been hurt one way or the other.

  “Nobody blames you.” She went on “If I was full Northern European and she said that to me I think they would still be holding me back.” She smiled trying to make light of the situation. ”Dav has decided to not have a talk with you, he doesn’t think it's necessary, he does however need to fine you.”

  “Fine me? For what?” Tarik asked, shocked at the thought.

  “For the inappropriate touch on the ship leader. It’s a formality really, he has to or it would void out your contract completely. Normally something like that you’d be working free for six months. He’s reviewed the security footage and decided to only fine you the minimum of one hundred points. If the incident didn’t need to be logged with our parent company he would have probably let you off with a warning.”

  “Well at least, he’s not angry with me.”

  “I wouldn’t say that, I think he wants you to control yourself more. I should say he wants you, Rye and me to control ourselves more. We’ll be getting more cleaning duties over the coming month. Rye is banned from drinking, so that should help.”

  “Bink had mentioned she saw her sister die and that’s why she’s always drunk. What’s the rest of the story there?”

  “That was a few years back. Her sister was a pilot, Rye had just finished repairing a scout ship and they took it out for some canyon runs. I don’t know the whole story but her sister either misjudged a turn or one of the repairs failed during the flight. In any case, the scout ship crashed and they were both trapped. A drop ship had been sent to rescue them, by the time the rescue party got there her sister had bled out. Rye had been pinned under a crossbeam and saw her die without being able to help her. She’s had a hard time moving on.”

  “Sounds like it was rough, I could see myself having a hard time with that. Was she always so racist though? Talking so casually about genocide doesn’t seem like something that just comes up every once in awhile.”

  “No idea, we are close and she never said anything like that to me before yesterday. Then again I’m only part European.”

  Tarik thought it over; he didn’t know about Rye’s sister and felt himself wanting to forgive her. On the other hand it would only excuse the occasional drunken fight with people she knew. They didn’t know each other at all, and she had no excuse to target him like that.

  “So what are you going to do?” Tarik asked. “I mean you still have to work with her right?”

  “It won’t be a problem, I mostly do work on the Beetle. Rye mostly works on the ancillary ships. From now on the ship AI will evaluate our work and check for errors.”

  “What do you suggest I do?”

  “For now I’d just focus on your own work. You probably will only have limited interactions with her.”

  As if on cue, Rye walked into the Dome. The pilots halted their conversation and looked to Tarik to see if he would go off again. The Gorrex stopped his pacing on the walkway and took in the situation. Daze turned to see Rye walking toward the nutrition unit. Rye kept her eyes forward and didn’t even acknowledge the presence of Tarik or Daze. Rye drank a glass of water, placed her cup into the cleaner and walked out the room having not said a word.

  “Well, I guess that’s an improvement.” Tarik said has he rose put his tray away. ”I’ve got bathrooms to clean, let's catch up again later. It was nice talking to you.”

  The next day, Tarik woke up to the red giant staring back at him. The comet the sun had been devouring had broken apart into several pieces which each had its own icy tail. The streams of ice swirled and reminded him of a sprinkler. Tarik made his way to the showers, relieved to find no one else there. He cleaned himself, and dressed without anyone bursting in. Tarik thought today may actually be his first normal day on the ship.

  He checked his log, he had an appointment with both Lamb and Goddess; he also had six bathrooms to clean. After end of day meal he had a tentative appointment scheduled with an unknown instructor. Why the appointment was tentative he had no clue but it was on his schedule nonetheless. Tarik managed to clean three of the assigned bathrooms before he met with Lamb.

  Tarik entered the range and Lamb was standing in the briefing area waiting on him. As Tarik walked over Lamb said nothing but pulled up a battle scenario. Multiple glowing orbs were on the battlefield, there were no walls this time but small trenches where enemies were highlighted in red. A group of twenty green points sat off to the side.

  “I am going to teach you about situational analysis today.” Lamb said. “You can see here that you have multiple objectives. I want you to ask me questions, gather your data, and finally you will decide how you will achieve your goals with your forces. Proceed with your questioning now.”

  Tarik studied the board, the orbs were common enough, and the defenders seemed evenly placed. He thought he knew what to do, but then he remembered that he should not make assumptions.

  “What’s my goal?” Tarik asked.

  “You're off to a good start. Your goal is to capture and hold each objective, especially those with the highest priority.”

  “Which objectives have the highest priority?”

  The scenario changed, the orbs changed to a numbered values the highest being fifteen.

  “Do the objectives need to be captured in a specific order?”

  “No.”

  “Is the terrain static?”

  “Yes.”

  “What type of weapons does the enemy have?”

  “The exact same that your forces have.”

  Tarik considered the battlefield. It seemed simple enough. All he had to do was use his overwhelming force to engage the enemy on one side. His forces would start on the left and sweep right, weakening the enemy via attrition. Tarik placed his forces to do just that and was about to hit the begin scenario button when a thought occurred to him.

  “What else do I need to know?” He asked Lamb.

  Lamb smiled wide. “The right questions make all the difference. The enemy is expecting reinforcements; their numbers will grow to four times their current count.”

  “So my plan won't work?”

  “No, you would have failed. Knowing what you do now do you still attack?”

  “No, I would request additional forces.”

  “Rules number one and two in action. Go ahead and hit the begin button just to watch what would have happened.”

  Tarik hit the button and instead of the scenario playing out on the small display in front of him the range came alive. Numbered flags took their spots representing the objectives. Trenches formed around them with the defending forces standing by weapons ready. Tarik's forces charged from the left side taking the first three objectives with ease. Tarik's forces continued their push to the fourth objective when the defending reinforcements arrived. His attackers were still trying to follow the plan and push further when they met the superior force. Tarik's attackers lasted only moments before they were all defeated.

  “Say you didn't ask what else and you executed your plan or if I didn't know about the reinforcement. Could you have saved those people?” Lamb asked.

  “I would have ordered a retreat.”

  “When?”

  “When those defenders were reinforced.”

  “Lesson three, always have a contingency plan and trigger to implement that plan. Setup your contingency plan and trigger now then rerun the battle.”

  Tarik did as he was told. The two forces reset to their starting numbers and positions. Tarik's attackers pushed forward to their fourth objective when the reinforcements arrived. The attackers fell back to the safety of the starting point. Tarik still lost two attackers but he managed to save the rest.

  “That's enough for today. I will update your log with new training times shortly. Finish your duties.” Lamb said and wa
lked back into the shadows.

  Tarik left to clean another bathroom before his torturous session with Goddess was set to begin. Cleaning the bathrooms should have been a chore but Tarik actually liked the quiet time to himself. The scrubbing and mopping were just simple repetitive tasks which could have been automated, he guessed that it was another sort of hazing. Tarik let his mind drift, he thought about the mob of Gorrex that wanted him dead, the thought about the fight yesterday, he thought about Goddess and her beautiful body, and finally he thought about Daze and the way she smiled at him. A timer went off alerting him that he needed to leave for his next training session.

  Tarik walked into the large room with the pools. Goddess was standing tall in the center walkway waiting for him. He pushed his fantasies from his mind; he just wanted to get the punishment over. He walked to meet her, careful not to get too close. Goddess said nothing; she just turned and ran off. Tarik ran after her, they followed the same path as last time. As Tarik crested the first incline he was careful to watch out for an attack, when none came he chugged along. They ran the same route and she kept the same distance as before but at a considerably faster pace. When they got back to the start of the track, Goddess again paused at the edge of the pool and dove in as graceful as ever.

  This time she waited on the surface, her jumpsuit had lights on the front a rear. Tarik jumped in feet first and swam to meet her. Goddess swam to the middle of the pool and submerged herself, disappearing under the walkway. Cautiously, Tarik followed her under the water. Goddess swam underneath the water back to the wide edge they had both jumped in at, exiting on the right side of the walkway. Tarik did as best he could to keep up, by the time he reached the end of the walkway his chest burned and panic urged him to get out from the under the walkway as soon as he could. He tried to break early but his path blocked by a clear barrier, there was only one way out of this and that was to finish the swim. Tarik spun around and kicked with everything he had left, he tried to crawl along with his hands but couldn’t get a grip. The panic caused such a distraction he hadn’t noticed how far he came until he bumped his head on the wall at the end of the pool.