Ramos slapped Wayne on the back and said, "Gee, Bawana, I’m going to have to buy you drinks until you tell us about the first three times you needed one."
Danny looked at Ramos with exaggerated raised eyebrows. "Ba-wan-a?"
"It's an old African term from Terra. It usually was used as respect. It seems to go pretty well with the whole headhunter thing," shrugged Ramos.
Kip sub vocalized to CLYX sarcastically, "This is the group that will help save the Galaxy from war?"
"Yes, it is. I sense the rightness of it," responded CLYX. The Wayne-human is very right for you. They are all very right for you."
Kip was surprised at his Symbiont’s strong, enthusiastic response.
Kip put a hand on Wayne’s shoulder while they walked. "Wayne, while we walk, let me tell you about your first assignment. It is one you can accomplish while you are in Shadow training."
Kip smiled as CLYX admonished him, "You push this one hard. He has much turmoil and no meld-mate yet to help him."
"Relax CLYX, I understand tools. Wayne is a tool that will grow stronger with use."
Chapter 12 – Kat / KITTY and A Bit of Whoop Ass
A week earlier in hospital wing of the Shadow training facility on Cantor, a quirky blond decided to try to not look like she was talking to herself.
"OK you little multi-microbe critter, I know you are there. I can feel you and I heard you try to wake me up. They said it would be years or maybe never before I could communicate with you. So why can I hear you when I am not even out of this stark and boring hospital room yet? Have you got a name?"
"My name is KITTY. I chose that since you are called Kat. I am your symbiont. My community that shares your body is something you should call a Syrt. Collectively, I am a Syrt.
"I was not sure how you would react to my presence. I am relieved that your body and mind show no anxiety at my presence. I have been communicating with other Syrts that reside in Shadows here at the training facility. I have also been listening to conversations and holo programs in this room, the hallway, the closest six rooms, and the doctor and nurses lounge. I am trying to improve my communication skills. Given any accessible bio-data-stream, I absorb it quickly."
"Damn girl, you communicate more clearly than I do."
"Is damn girl a curse? Are you unhappy that I communicate clearly?"
"KITTY, I am going to love this! I have a new best friend and I get to teach her how to swear. This will be great! Damn girl is an exclamation. You should interpret it as me saying that I am very impressed by your accomplishment. No one told me I would actually be able to hold a conversation with you when I woke up. They said I would be out for about two days while you battled with my immune system to establish yourself and for it to let you start making repairs and improvements. How long was I out?"
"According to the nurse, you were inoculated with my viral components about ten hours ago. Kat, you should know that there was almost no resistance at all from your immune system. I am now fully established throughout your entire body and all of its systems. Based upon my conversations with other Syrts in this facility, we are apparently the first ever full-meld. I have purged your body of all toxins. This gave your nurses and doctor concerns. They have changed your sheets and cleansed you three times now. I am sorry but I pushed the toxins out of the expected orifices but also through pores, nose, mouth, ears, and eyes. I overheard that they have never experienced that level of detoxification in a newly teamed Syrt and human."
"Wow KITTY, was it a lot of work? I mean, was I really toxic?"
"Kat, you used to smoke tobacco. The ill effects of that and all the experimental drugs and bad food you ever ingested are now gone. Your heart and arteries are clear. Your muscles are able to function with greater speed and strength and will require daily exercise at levels you have not tried in the past. I am sorry Kat, but we can have no secrets from each other."
"That’s cool KITTY. At least when I smoke, you can fix any damage."
"I am sorry again Kat my new best friend, but built into my very being is something no Syrt can change. If I perceive you are going to do harm to yourself, I will have to try to prevent it. Call it a very strong sense of survival. If you try to smoke you will find that it makes you ill, tastes terrible and that you have become painfully allergic to it—hives at least. You also will not crave smoking any longer. I changed your protein receptors’ need to be filled with nicotine."
"KITTY, Shadows are supposed to take risks and know that they may get killed. Would you try to stop me from carrying out a risky mission because of self-preservation?"
"I might want to, but that would be much more of a risk than just trying to help you live through the experience. You see your privacy and ability to control your body and your will are the most vital to my continued existence. Your mind is larger and stronger than mine will ever be. We may totally share your brain but you require up to sixty percent of it and use fourteen to sixteen percent of it. I can barely physically interface with twelve percent no matter how much I grow. With most of your brain, I can tune in and experience your thoughts…like watching a news show. But those are your thoughts, not mine.
Even if I had the ability to control some of your thoughts, every Syrt knows that the moment its host even subconsciously thinks that it is manipulated or controlled; it will start to become insane. Then its immune system will go into constant battle with the Syrt community. Kat you must promise me that if you ever feel that I have even attempted to manipulate or control you mentally, you will tell me. I have made your immune system strong enough to easily kill me if your mind decides to end us."
"KITTY, we are going to have a fun life together! I think of myself as a good person. I am sure that the more we know each other the more we will trust each other not to betray that trust. After my mother died, I longed to totally confide in someone other than my Dad or Sister. I took her death really badly. I wanted a best friend. I can’t tell you how much I wanted someone that I could trust to not think that I was silly, or bad, and to not hurt my feelings or betray me. I wanted someone I could share everything with."
"Kat, everything I do will be aimed at trying to help you. By that, I also mean ‘help us.’ I would never try to cause you physical or mental hurt. I do not believe that betrayal is possible in a meld. However, I will try to develop what I heard someone call a sense of humor. I sense that you are mischievous, friendly, and a wise-ass. Did I get that expression right, ‘wise ass?’ I will try to learn and to incorporate some humor in my communication style."
"Wow KITTY, you nailed me to the n'th degree. Wise-ass would be the right slang expression. A word I use a lot is hilarious. Sometimes I use it to be sarcastic but most times it is a comment on the humor I find in an ironic situation. I thought I would tell you so you don't have to puzzle it out."
"Good, I am learning. Now my meld mate, I need to have you put on the sweat suit that is in the closet and find the eating place. Your body needs denser muscle mass and I need you to ingest the food that will help me provide it. I hope you already like vegetables, fruit, legumes and nuts. After you have eaten enough and are more content, I will tell you why the little holes in your ears are growing closed."
Kat grabbed her ear lobes and yelled. "My pierced ears are closing!? What are you doing? Really?"
"Sorry Kat, I thought you would be happy to have those flaws fixed. What did I do wrong?"
Kat sighed. "Sorry KITTY. The holes were made on purpose. They let me put ear rings in them. Those are a decoration that makes women more appealing to men."
"Kat, based upon the doctors’ comments, you were very appealing to men before we melded. I think you need to look in the mirror. You are going to love what I can do for you. By the way, if you would like your breasts to be larger or smaller just let me know. It should only take a few weeks. It has become apparent to me that many males fixate on them."
"Wow KITTY, you are going to give a different meaning to the phrase friends with benefits. I
t is hard to grasp how much insight and growth you have experienced in just a few days. Your ability to suck up data and culture is amazing."
"It should not be that amazing. If you think of me as a virus, I now have micro storage facilities throughout your body attached to your nervous system. Every Shadow that comes within range has a Syrt that shares months or years of data and experiences with me. Exposure to our meld actually makes their meld stronger since they can absorb from me as much data as their current storage can contain. Now, about that food…"
Sargent Minor Juan Mendez had just given his introduction to unarmed combat to the two new teams of recruits seated on the huge mat before him. He enjoyed this part of his job. After three or four days of strenuous physical training, the new Shadows were starting to understand what their Syrt communities were doing to improve their strength, speed, and endurance.
"Listen up people. By now you understand that you need to get strenuous exercise every day to avoid what we call the ‘JTs’ or ‘jerks and tremors.’ I suppose that a more correct phrase would be small-muscle-nerve-transmission-lag. You also understand that your symbiont has increased your metabolism and your food and water requirements have increased. The harder you work out, the faster and stronger you become.
"What all Shadows learn while they are still Smudges like you, is that the absolute best workout is full contact sparring with other Shadows. When you graduate from Smudge to the lofty realm of Shadows, you will get to opportunity to spar with some that have developed a better relationship with their symbiont than you currently enjoy. After that experience and the inevitable trip to the infirmary that will follow, you will understand that if a Shadow turns down an opportunity to spar with you it is not personal. It is just that you might not present enough challenge for them to get the workout they need. Then they would have wasted some time with you and would still have to go find a challenging sparring partner.
"Your chips show that six of you have had significant martial arts training. You know whom you are so stand up and move to the circle on the mat. Is there anyone else with martial arts training?"
He saw Kat slowly raise her hand, checked his sheet, and told her to stand up. "Kat Johnson, what training have you had and where did you get it?"
"I have training in Karate, Aikido, Judo, Systema, and Tae Kwon Do Sergeant Minor. I learned them at home from my mother, father, uncle, and a little from my sister. My dad learned in the Navy and my mom learned from her dad."
"And what made you want to learn to be lethal, Trainee Johnson?"
"I was not that interested in being lethal, Sergeant Minor. I learned so I could be their sparring partner. It made them happy and I needed the exercise."
"That is an interesting attitude for someone wanting to be a Shadow. Join them on the floor Smudge Johnson."
"You six on the floor each pair up. You are going to spar one-on-one for ninety seconds. Then we will stop and reshuffle you so we can get more even matchups. When I blow the whistle, you start. No rules but I strongly suggest you do not hit each other in the face or groin area. If you do, you can probably expect the favor returned. When I blow the whistle again, you immediately stop. Try not to break any bones. If you do, your Symbiont will help them heal correctly and in days instead of weeks. We have excellent medical facilities on site."
The SM blew the whistle. The seated trainees kept their eyes mostly on Kat anticipating the worst for her. She just stood casually waiting for her opponent, Jason Pak, to make a move. When he finally did, there was a confused blur of movement, which ended with Kat’s knee in the middle of Pak’s back as he lay face down on the mat. Since the ninety seconds had just begun, Kat stood up and let Jason get to his feet. Jason was too disciplined to let anger rule him. He knew he had seriously underestimated Kat.
He would no longer treat her as an attractive young airhead. He came at her with a feint punch that was usually able to disguise a punch to the mid-section. Kat did not move or flinch until the punch was close. Because Pak was right handed, she blocked the punch down and right. She then smacked his right butt cheek hard enough that it seemed like a gun shot in the gym. His next punch and kick combo attack was easily thwarted and another loud smack was delivered to his left butt cheek.
Knowing that the SM would make some remark about ass pats being non-lethal and not wanting to appear passive, Kat decided to go on the offensive. She pointed at Pak and touched her right cheek and her left cheek. The watchers were curious. Then Kat jumped low to the ground and landed on her left foot in front of Pak so close to him that few noticed the knee to his stomach that pushed him back. She walked straight into Pak deflecting every punch, kick, elbow, and knee he could throw. After getting in a clean open-handed smack to each of his cheeks, she stopped and bowed to him just as the whistle sounded.
She stepped up to Pak and whispered, "Sorry about the bruises you will have on your ass, but that is the cost of taking a shot at the title. Thanks for the workout Jason."
“Kat, you could have killed or injured me anytime you wanted. Thank you for being kind. Please forgive that I did not give you the respect at first that you deserve.” He bowed to her.
Sergeant Minor Mendez always considered himself to be quick on the uptake. He knew he had just witnessed something extraordinary. So extraordinary that he knew he had to get advice from higher.
"Good job trainees. Kat you are with me. The five left on the mat all seem to have karate skills. Those of you seated will pair with one of the five on the floor. He or she will explain a technique. Then you will practice the technique on each other ten times. You will go through five techniques he decides to teach you in a similar fashion. Then rotating partners, you will spar for five minutes with each partner. When you are done, you will all participate in a five minute free for all with no head or groin shots allowed. If you break a bone or bleed significantly, stop and report to the infirmary. It is forty feet to the right down exit A. When you are all done with the free for all, get a shower, eat, and be ready for your next rotation."
He turned to Kat. "Go to team talk Kat. How did you know I was about to blow the whistle with your back to me?
Team talk meant that there was no need for formality with non-commissioned or commissioned officers. Everyone talked as equals.
"I asked my Syrt to let me know when I had ten seconds left and to count them down for me. KITTY did exactly that."
"You talk to your symbiont? It has a name? It talks back?"
"First of all, they call themselves Syrts just as we call ourselves Humans. Her name is KITTY. And she doesn’t just talk to me. She has been my best friend since we woke up together."
"Kat, his vital signs say that he very agitated. His Syrt is not yet fully aware but it does have meld awareness. I am working with it to calm him. Apparently he perceives some danger related to you."
"Kat, I think we need to visit Colonel Tarik at the med center in blue wing. Please don’t talk about KITTY until we are secure. What you have, the meld you experienced, and your newbie ability levels are so far off normal that I need higher to decide if we need to keep it under wraps. However, I will say that you did a convincing job on Pak. You apparently did not know that he won the Teaman open Martial Arts Invitational last year. What did you say to him afterward?"
Kat managed to smile and wince at the same time. "I thanked him for the workout and I apologized for the bruises he will have on his ass for a while. I told him that it is the price you pay for a shot at the title."
The SM chuckled. "Did you get that comment from your dad?"
"No, I got it from my mom. She taught martial arts sometimes. If a student insisted on a Rhondori, or if she thought they were too smug, they left with a handprint bruise on their butt and a new respect for her in Jiju Waza. Outside of the dojo, she was the sweetest, kindest woman you would ever meet. I learned to respect all people from her example. Just because someone is kind and giving, it doesn’t mean they can't kill you at will."
Mendez rais
ed his eyebrows in acknowledgement. He puzzled over that and the reassuring wave about Kat that came from his Syrt. This was a day of surprises.
"Kat, how much of your match with Jason was based upon your prior training and how much on new abilities from your Syrt?"
"Funny Sarge, I was just thinking about that. I felt as if I had complete ability to recall every move I ever learned, analyze what Pak was doing like it was in slow motion, make new moves up that fit the situation, and execute them while thinking about what to do next. I is mostly Kitty. I really cannot separate KITTY versus Kat. We are a meld. We are one entity with two separate personalities that totally merge when it is necessary. Based upon what I just learned sparring with Jason, I am somehow sure I could have handled several more at the same time."
Mendez quickened his pace slightly without realizing it. He was smiling so hard it hurt his cheeks. We are going to need some more medics. I hope she can find people that will spar with her more than once. So, my Syrt CAN talk to me? I wonder how I can get that to happen. Doc Tarik is about to crap laser charges. Maybe he will let me hang around a while. This is going to be interesting.
Chapter 13 – Brief Insights
Brief Historical Insights: In the first half of the 21st century, a team of scientists worked on applications of entangled photon encrypted transmissions. They were trying to find better ways to exploit the potential of almost instant communication across infinite distances. Eventually, they varied the power a number of times. A simple holographic recorder and transmitter kept a record on a good but uncomplicated pocket holo-personal computer. When they quickly varied the power from low to high, a traumatic event took place.
One team scientist working between the EP transmitter and the holographic recorder lost an arm at the elbow. The cut was laser-clean. The arm appeared, along with the EP encrypted information, at the manned space lab that was the target of the transmission. It took less than a week to understand the physics involved and to discover that the speed of transmission was many times the speed of light. The young woman that received the severed arm had nightmares, developed an aversion to the EP receiver, and eventually left the space station. The scientist who lost the arm was so excited about the discovery that they had to force him to take time off to heal.
GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Page 15