by Kal Spriggs
I swallowed nervously, remembering what my friends had said. Someone wanted to kill me and that someone might be here at the Academy. As I came up to the door that my datapad indicated, I hesitated. What if this was a trap? What if someone just wanted to lure me away from everyone else?
I swallowed and started to take a step back.
A hand fell on my shoulder, “You lost, Plebe Armstrong?”
I flinched back from the contact, and then realized that I recognized the voice. “Uh, Cadet Commander Mackenzie, good morning, sir.” I was pretty sure I was supposed to salute him, but he'd caught me entirely by surprise.
“Hello, yourself,” Mackenzie smiled. “You lost, Armstrong?”
I shook my head, “No, sir, I've got an assignment here, I think.” I held up my datapad.
He frowned down at the screen, “I guess you do. This is the implantation section, normally plebes don't ever come down here. You don't get your implants until your second year.”
I stared at him, not understanding. Then something clicked. Implants... he means the neural implants. It was something that I'd forgotten about. All cadets received a neural computer implant, with a communications device, memory augmentation, and a variety of other resources. It was an expensive procedure, though, and since we weren't obligated to stay at the Academy until after we completed our first, full, year here, they didn't do that procedure, or the life extension procedure, until they knew we'd be sticking around.
“Well, maybe they want to do some kind of calibration or something. You were injured in that crash, a few weeks back, right?” Mackenzie smiled. “Maybe they just want to make sure it didn't knock anything out of place.”
I couldn't help but smile back, “Yes sir, that makes sense, I suppose.”
Like most places, cybernetic augmentation wasn't exactly popular here on Century. I felt repulsed by the idea and it wasn't something I looked forward to at all. Still, I couldn't fault them for wanting to check me out for any kind of brain damage or something.
“Well,” Mackenzie said, “Since I've got you here, I thought I'd ask you something.”
At his words, my heart raced a bit. He was a cadet first class, what did he want from me? I felt a flush climb my cheeks, “Sure, go ahead.” I felt so flustered that I forgot to add a “sir” in there, but he just smirked at my response.
“Well, all cadets are encouraged to join a sports team here at the Academy. We do intramural events, but we also do some competitions with other colleges. Now, I don't know if you've signed up for anything yet... but I'd like to ask you to join the grav-shell team.”
“You want me to join your team, sir?” I stared at him in surprise. As far as I knew, most plebes weren't able to get on any of the truly competitive teams, not until they proved themselves. Then again, I didn't really know much about grav-shell racing. It had always seemed like sort of a silly event. That was before I got invited to join Cadet Commander Mackenzie's team.
“Yeah,” Mackenzie said. “You're small and light, I think you'd make a great coxswain. If you want to give it a shot, I'll transfer all the details to your datapad.” He looked up as I heard footsteps coming down the corridor behind me. “Now, thank you for your time, Plebe Armstrong.” Mackenzie finished, his tone becoming formal.
Before I could respond, he walked off. I turned around to find Alexander Karmazin and Ashiri walking up. Karmazin's expression was suspicious. “What was that about?” He asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “Cadet Commander Mackenzie checked in on me to make sure I wasn't lost. Then he invited me to join his grav-shell team.” I couldn't help but put extra emphasis on the ‘his’ part. Mackenzie had been our senior cadet instructor during the Academy Prep School. The offer felt like a bit of vindication with my decision to attend the Academy... and it also made me feel more than a little excited.
“Grav-shell racing?” Ashiri asked with surprise. “Isn't that a little dangerous?”
I blinked at her, “Why should that matter?” There was elements of danger in everything we did, after all. “It's a sport, right? I'm sure it can't be too dangerous.”
Ashiri shook her head, “People have been killed...”
“You shouldn't do it,” Alexander Karmazin growled. I didn't miss how he glowered in the direction that Cadet Commander Mackenzie had departed. He's jealous, I thought to myself, which is immature and stupid, plus it isn't fair to Ashiri.
“I can do what I want!” I snapped back, angry on behalf of myself and my friend. What right did Karmazin have to think he could tell me what I could and couldn't do? And he was seeing Ashiri, he shouldn't be jealous about me!
“Cadets!” A voice snapped. All three of us spun to find a short, red-headed woman stood in the now-open doorway. “Not only are all three of you delaying the others by your absence, but you are causing a disturbance. I would advise you to step inside immediately.” She said the words in a cold fashion that made me think there would be painful consequences for not doing as she’d said.
I recognized Doctor Aisling with shock. I hadn't seen her since last summer. But as I stared at her narrow, fox-like face, I couldn't help but shrink on myself. She'd done something to me, strapped in her chair. For a moment, strapped into it, I'd felt my mind shift, as if I'd become something... else. The experience had been maddening and terrifying... and yet part of me had felt smaller since she pulled me out of her machine.
I'd overheard a confrontation between her and the Admiral. She was here for some kind of purpose, but I didn't understand her interest in me, or in my friends.
“Let's get the three of you ready, shall we?” Doctor Aisling said, adopting a friendly smile. It made me uncomfortable to be the target of that smile. It was such a real smile, so obviously sincere, that I felt fear over how she could project that reassuring smile. After all, I'd heard how coldly clinical her voice could be.
None of us could come up with any kind of argument. In moments, she had us each cocooned in her machines again, I didn't even have time to see anything more of her lab. Before I could think to ask how long it would take, I stood on the green field of grass, under a brilliant blue sky. Back in her simulation.
The others stood around me. I knew and recognized them, now. Alexander Karmazin, Ashiri Takenata, Tyler and Ryan Zahler, the twin brothers from Sand Dragon who liked to try to game the system.
“Oh,” a voice spoke from a short distance away, “Look who we have here...”
All of us spun. I recognized Bolander from Ogre. Bolander was my polar opposite. She was big and muscular, with dark hair and a tan complexion. Behind her was Thorpe, also from Ogre, and Thorpe was tall, blond-haired, and his arms were bigger around than my legs. Next to Thorpe stood Sashi Drien.
I hadn't seen Sashi since graduation from the Prep School... and the last time I'd seen her for any real length had been when she shot me in the face during our final exercise.
Two more candidates from Ogre stood behind them. Equal numbers, I realized. If this turned into a fight, the odds looked unfortunately even.
It shouldn't come to that. This was a simulation, it should all be under control... right?
“Cadets,” Doctor Aisling's voice spoke from overhead, “Welcome to Phase Two of the Sensory and Cerebral Interface and Mapping program. Now that we have confirmed neural interface, we will begin the integration process. Please relax and do not resist the procedure.”
The world vanished. In its place, there was nothing but a void.
***
Chapter Three: A Warm Welcome
You left. The voice spoke in my head, but it came from outside, from the void.
“Excuse me?” I asked. Or at least, I thought I did. I couldn't hear my own voice, I couldn't hear or see anything. I should have panicked. There wasn't up or down, there was no ground, no air. I didn't know if I was breathing. I couldn't feel anything.
Why did you leave? The voice asked. It was a familiar voice, I realized. It was my voice. Yet it was more than my voice.
This didn't sound like how I really sounded, this voice was how I wanted to sound, how I thought I should sound.
“I don't have any control over this,” I said. “This is some kind of testing. When the doctor puts me in here, this is what happens.” I couldn't imagine being trapped here, in the dark, empty, nothing. I'd go mad, I was sure. Maybe I had gone mad, maybe I was just talking to myself. “Who are you?”
The voice didn't answer. For what felt like a long time, I was simply alone. Then I felt it, the other mind: the consciousness that sounded so much like me. It joined with my mind and it felt like coming home. The world filled with light, color, and sound. For a moment, it overwhelmed me, I couldn't make sense of it all... and then the other mind was there.
It was an entire world. It was Century. From the almost temperate polar areas to the deep desert near the equator. I could see everything, every building, every road, every vehicle. I didn't need to zoom in to see those details, I simply sensed them, while still seeing the greater whole.
I could track them, too. In fact, I could sense the movement of every skimmer, every near-planet space-craft. I was guiding them. With a single thought, I messaged a dozen skimmers to avoid an oncoming sandstorm, transmitting corrected flight paths even as I adjusted their arrival and landing times.
What are we? I wondered. Yet I knew the answer to that. We were an integration, two parts joined together to become a greater whole. We were both human and... something else. Separately, we had functioned, but combined we had our abilities multiplied.
To what purpose? The question came from me, but as a whole, we didn't care. We were stronger together, we could solve so many problems. We were like a god, all-knowing, all-seeing...
Doctor Aisling's cold voice interrupted the moment, “Integration and calibration complete. Simulation terminating.”
No! Before I could fight it, before I could even comprehend the moment, it all ended. I blinked up at the ceiling lights and listened to the machinery come to a stop around me. I felt dull and empty, as if she'd cut open my head and removed half my brain.
I wanted her to strap me back in. I wanted to feel that smart, that powerful. All I could do, was mumble to myself. It was hard to make my eyes focus. Before I could protest, she had me up out of the machine and at the door. “Thank you for your time, Cadet.”
The door closed in my face. I trembled a bit as I tried to even form words. It was too late. I felt like I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. Dully, I took out my datapad. I had no more appointments.
I didn't remember going back to my room. I didn't remember flopping on my bed or going to sleep. But the next thing I knew, I heard Ashiri's voice.
“...and then it was gone. I mean, for just a second, I felt like so much more.”
I sat up, wiping at my face. “You too?” I asked.
Ashiri and Alexander stood in the doorway, talking in low voices. They both looked over at me. “Yeah. What was that?” Ashiri asked.
“Some kind of computer interface,” I replied. “But it felt like it was an artificial intelligence.”
“Those are illegal, for good reason,” Alexander scowled. “AI is dangerous.”
I shook my head, “I don't know. It was... weird. It didn't feel dangerous. It felt like it was...”
“Like it was me,” Ashiri nodded. “Like it was part of me.”
“This is strange,” Alexander shook his head. “We should ask someone--”
“Plebes,” a sharp voice spoke from behind him. We all started a bit. Cadet Lieutenant Webster stood in the corridor behind Alexander, “Why are you not headed to the Arena?”
“Sir?” I started to my feet and we all went to attention.
“All Cadets and Plebes attend the welcoming brief at the arena in...” he glanced at his datapad, “five minutes.” He glared at us. “If you are not there, then you will face punishment. Unless you have a reason why you three would not be in attendance?”
“Sorry, sir,” I spoke up, “we just got out of--”
“The proper response is 'No excuse, sir.' Do you understand Plebe Armstrong?”
“Sir, no excuse, sir,” I bit off in response.
“Then you three had best get moving,” Cadet Lieutenant Webster gave a nasty smile. I hated him already, but I controlled my expression and followed Alexander and Ashiri as they took off at a run.
***
We made it in time, and I was seated in the right place at the right time. The huge indoor chamber was dim, with just enough light for us to find our seats and take them.
I still felt dull and stupid from whatever it was that Doctor Aisling had done to me. In the dimness I had to fight to stay awake.
That was, until the lights came on. “Attention on Deck!” A crisp voice snapped out.
As one, we all snapped to our feet. Central to the chamber, on a platform that overlooked us, the Admiral stepped forward. She wore her normal desert-tan khaki uniform. From where I stood, I couldn't read her expression, but her posture and voice carried professionalism. “Cadets,” she said, her voice crisp, “welcome back to the Academy. Today, we start the one hundred and seventieth year of this institution. I welcome our new Plebe Class, the Class of Two-Ninety. I also welcome our First Class, Class of Two-Eighty-Seven, who will graduate at the end of this year and go to their follow-on assignments.”
Her voice went stern, “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I will tell you this. You are here to train to become officers within the Century Planetary Militia. Everything you do here, every choice you are given, is aimed at that. Every one of you is under constant supervision. Those of you put in positions of authority are there for further evaluation. Your cadet officers will make mistakes. All of you will make mistakes. You are here to learn from those mistakes, to further yourselves as potential leaders, and to perform to the best of your abilities.”
“That said, there are some things which we will not accept. Violations of the honor code will be reviewed and adjudicated by a committee of your peers. Lying, cheating, and stealing are unacceptable. You all are expected to report such violations as you witness them.”
I felt more than a little uneasy at her words. I thought about why my parents had sent me to the Admiral in the first place: I'd forged my mother's signature on my application to Champion Enterprises. That was technically lying. Did that count? The Admiral knew about it already.
I wasn't in the Academy at the time, I told myself.
“We have reasons for the Honor Code, just as we have reasons for the many other rules we have here. Violations of our administrative rules will receive administrative punishments. Violations of military law, especially fraternization, corruption, and undermining the good order of a unit, will face military justice, possibly even a military tribunal, which I will sit as your final court of appeal.”
I could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed her pronouncement. I wasn't even really certain what those violations meant, but I certainly didn't want to have to throw myself at her mercy. I might be her granddaughter, but if anything, I thought she'd be harder on me than any other cadet here if I was stupid enough to do something illegal.
“Now then,” The Admiral went on. “In a more positive but not entirely unrelated note: leave policies have been reinstated now that the construction is complete in the Bahta Town Station.” Much of the audience cheered at that, but I wasn't sure why. “All Cadets may take weekend leave passes so long as they are not restricted to campus. Plebes will have to earn passes by showing progress at learning their military duties.”
“Additionally, I'd like to introduce some of your new teaching staff,” she finished. “Commander Bonnadonna has just come back from an assignment as an observer with the Guard Marine Corps. He will teach Military Law, Military Ethics, Military History, and their introductory courses.” The Commander stepped forward into the light. Bonnadonna was a short, stocky man with a grizzled face. There was something about him that intimidated me.
“Co
mmander Pannja has just arrived from a tour at Militia Headquarters at Duncan City. He'll be taking the role of primary instructor for our Pilot and Navigation tracks of instruction.” The piloting instructor stepped forward. He was tall and handsome, with hair just inside tolerable regulation. He wore a friendly smile, his white teeth bright against his tan face, and I felt a little relieved knowing I'd have an instructor for flying that seemed to be at least a little easy-going. After all, my first flight had ended in a crash.
“Additionally,” the Admiral said, “Commander Scarpitti has recently come to us from a stint on Admiral Drien's staff. She's an active Militia officer with a great deal of engineering experience. She'll be teaching several of our engineering and technical classes and since she has a great deal of experience in logistics, so she'll be managing our Academy Logistics.” Commander Scarpitti was a tall, blonde woman, she had a friendly smile, too. That made me hope that I'd enjoy her engineering classes. I thought I remembered seeing her name on some of my class schedules, anyway.
“Lastly,” the Admiral finished, “Doctor Aisling has decided to assist with Academy Instruction.” I didn't miss the edge to the Admiral's voice. It was something so subtle that even I would have missed it... except it was the same tone that my mother would adopt when she was annoyed but didn't want to show it. “Doctor Aisling will take over instruction of the cybernetics and medical tracks of instruction.”
Part of me felt fear at that. The Doctor terrified me. Yet another part of me felt eager. I'd never felt so alive as when she'd had me connected to the device, I'd felt so strong, so smart...
The Admiral's next words brought me back to reality. “As always, all Companies, Sections, and Individual Cadets are judged based upon a point system. Your grades, your performance in exercises, and your punishments and successes will all count in this process. Last year's winners, by a slim margin, were Sand Dragon Company. The honor graduates, Anderson, Silva, and Chung, were all within hundredths of a point of one another. Honor Graduates often are recruited to some of the better units and choice assignments.”