They started a new block then, which blocked all sensation from her skin. This also had an antagonist that they administered after every session, which gave her that pins-and-needles sensation all over her body for two or three minutes after it was administered. She began feeling contact to her skin within the VR on the twelfth day.
The rest – smell, taste, heat, cold – tumbled into place over the next several days.
It was the sixteenth day of therapy when the doctor told her she was done. She had complete full-body VR. He explained the rest of her recovery.
"The next step is one we have found necessary for long-term patient health. We are going to turn you loose in our VR library for the next three days. After that, we will turn your VR implants off and release you back to your division. For one week, you will have no implant VR. You can use helmet-and-hands, but not your implants. At the end of that week, you come back and we will turn them on again."
"What is that for?" Jan asked.
"People can become addicted to immersive VR. I believe you saw the societal implications of that on Earth. We have found that allowing someone three days to go crazy with it, and then one week of forced non-use, is something of an inoculation against VR addiction. We still get some, of course, but it's ten percent of what it would be without that period."
Jan was moved to a recuperative wing of the hospital for the next three days. Her new room had an immersive VR chair.
She searched around in the hospital's VR library, but rather than going to the familiar educational section, she cruised around in the areas more intended for immersive VR. There was one section flagged that had training videos for new implant recipients, for them to further train their interface and explore the possibilities and limits of the technology. She spent a good part of the first day doing exercises in that section.
There was an extensive porn section. While she was only fourteen, there were no age-limit firewalls against active service members. She picked a full-immersive video there, and selected the female character to experience. She was fine until the guy in the video reached out and actually touched her, at which point her skin crawled and the familiar terror welled up. She hit the mental Stop button. She was six months out of the slums by this point, but it was apparently going to take more time to recover normal reactions to some situations. She was clinical enough about it to know it was an issue, and one she wanted to overcome, but it would wait for another time.
Jan moved on to the travel section. She had never left Houston after her parents died, and so she went on a day-long binge touring all the big attractions in immersive VR: the Pyramids, the Parthenon, the Roman Forum, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, Ankor Wat, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, the Three Rivers Dam, Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls, the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Mount Everest, the Rainbow Mountains, Amazonia.
Jan switched to experiential videos. Sky diving, snow skiing, water skiing, motorboat racing, sailboat racing, car racing, flying ultra-lights, airplane racing. There was an airplane video that was interactive, in which she controlled the airplane. She spent hours on that one.
By the end of the three days, Jan was pretty burned out on VR. The doctors turned off her implants for the time being and sent her on her way.
Basic Tactics School
Basic Tactics School was also taught on the huge fleet base at Sigurdsen. BTS was called Tactics 101 or Tac 1, the first course of the Tactics Division. It was also the wash-out course for incoming Tactics Division candidates. While Tactics Division candidates were hand selected, one third of them still washed out in BTS.
BTS graduated three times a year, in the same week OCS did. But BTS only ran three months, so there was a one-month gap between an OCS class ending and the next BTS class starting. This gave Tactics Division candidates a chance to get sorted out and to take a running head start at the reading materials.
There were still almost two weeks remaining before the next BTS class started when Jan was released from her implant surgery recuperation. The lack of complications in her recovery meant she hadn't missed the next class. She plunged into the reading materials. She went back to the hospital after one week to have her implants turned back on, and still had almost five days before BTS started to become familiar with the simulation software available in immersive VR.
Her heart ached for her friends on the Aquitaine when she walked through the light cruiser simulation.
Homework problems were assigned continuously in BTS. Many of these took the form of simulations in which the student was the captain or tactical officer of a CSF warship. They got more and more difficult as the class proceeded. Scores on the homework problems determined the student's class rank in BTS. The student's class rank at graduation was recorded in his permanent records.
The light cruiser CSS Zhanshu made a crash hyperspace transition and appeared in normal space barely two light seconds in front of the three heavy cruisers, with velocity directly toward them. She was rotating, and unlatched her reaction mass tanks in succession during the three seconds she survived before the heavy cruisers' beam weapons blew her out of space. At their velocity, the three heavy cruisers were unable to avoid the heavy tanks thrown out in front of them. All three took hard impacts to their bows and along their flanks and broke up.
"Hey, George. Take a look at this," Lieutenant Commander Ashok Summers said
"Whatcha got? Is that the Zhanshu problem?" Lieutenant Commander Richard Lenzen asked.
"Yeah. He beat the problem."
"Who beat the problem?"
"Uh, excuse me. She beat the problem. Ensign Childers."
"Not possible. Nobody beats that problem. There isn't a way to beat that problem. The best you can do is save your ship."
"Well, she lost her ship, but she took out all three heavy cruisers."
"With a light cruiser?"
"Watch."
Summers ran the external view of the simulation for Lenzen while they both watched.
"I'll be damned. That problem was designed to be unbeatable. The idea was to teach people you can't always win."
"Well, Ensign Childers didn't get the message."
"We need to take this to Captain Oladipo."
"Ensign Childers reporting as ordered, Sir."
"Come in, Ensign. At ease," Captain Francois Oladipo said.
"Yes, Sir."
Jan crossed to Oladipo's desk and stood at ease. Oladipo was the head instructor of BTS, but it was the last week of the course and she had never been called to his office, had never heard of anyone being called to his office, so she was more than a little nervous.
"The graders brought me your homework solution to the Zhanshu problem. I watched it with interest. You lost your ship."
"Yes, Sir."
"Moreover, the tactical approach you took to that problem guaranteed you would lose your ship."
"Yes, Sir."
"Would you care to explain your thinking on this problem, Ensign?"
"Yes, Sir. The simulation was presented as a must-win situation, the defense of a Commonwealth planet by the only ship in position to intercept. Further, the enemy ships were not yet within the system periphery, having perhaps miscalculated their hyperspace transition. That suggested a hyperspace solution, Sir. The Zhanshu, as a light cruiser, would be unable to penetrate the shields of more than one heavy cruiser at a time, by concentrating all three of its beams on one target. So some other weapon had to be used. Zhanshu was also carrying almost full reaction mass tanks. By rotating the ship before coming out of hyper, and timing the release of the tanks, I could send a stream of heavy tanks on a collision course with each enemy cruiser that they could not, given their velocities, avoid. While their shields would protect against beam weapons and small particles, shields are notably ineffective against massive objects."
"And your ship was destroyed, Ensign."
"Yes, Sir. I judged the loss of a light cruiser to be acceptable against the
probabilities of destroying one or more of the heavy cruisers, and at least damaging the others, before they were able to effect an attack on the planet."
"Would you do the same thing in a real combat situation, knowing you and all your crew would be lost."
"Yes, Sir. It's in the reading material, Sir."
"In the reading material?"
"Yes, Sir. The reading material for BTS. 'Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.'"
"Sun Tzu."
"Yes, Sir."
Oladipo considered her for a long minute. Fourteen years old, not even five feet tall, standing at ease, outwardly calm, having explained to a T the terrible calculus of war, and comfortable with a decision that would, if she had to make it in real life, cost her her ship, her life, and the lives of the eight hundred spacers that made up her crew.
"Well, you beat the problem, Ensign. You destroyed three enemy heavy cruisers at the cost of a single light cruiser and protected a Commonwealth planet, which is CSF's prime mission. It was a good call, and an elegant solution."
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
"But there is one thing I don't think you understand. Ensign, no one ever beats that problem. It was designed to be unbeatable."
"Really, Sir?"
"Yes. The idea was to show BTS students that sometimes you can't win, that there is no solution, that someday CSF may fail in its prime mission." He looked up at her sharply. "But you don't accept that, do you, Ensign?"
"No, Sir."
"Well, if we graduate enough young officers like you, maybe it will never happen."
"I hope so, Sir."
"Ensign Childers, that problem by itself carried a thousand points in the homework assignments, because we knew it was impossible. The full thousand points are awarded only for destroying all three enemy cruisers, in which case there is no subtraction of points for losing the Zhanshu. The most anyone has ever gotten for that problem is one hundred points, for getting the hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned Zhanshu safely out of harm's way. You, however, have been awarded the full thousand points for achieving the impossible victory. What that means, together with your current points score, is that you have achieved the highest points score ever awarded in BTS, and will graduate first in your class, rank one out of three hundred. Let me be the first to congratulate you."
Oladipo stood behind his desk and extended his hand. Jan shook it.
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
"Dismissed, Ensign."
Unarmed Combat School
The Tactical Division wanted to immediately put Ensign Childers on shipboard duty as a junior tactical officer, but CSF had made commitments to Jan as part of her enlistment. She was quietly but firmly insistent on keeping to her program, and argued she would be a better tactical officer if her full course of study was completed. In the end, Tactical Division relented.
Jan's next commitment from the CSF was for the PhD in Mathematics. She was comfortable at Sigurdsen, and the University of Jablonka was located in the capital of Jezgra, near the fleet base. The University of Jablonka had an excellent reputation in the Commonwealth. More to the point, its mathematics department was in the top three in all the Commonwealth, and compared favorably to that of the best universities on Earth.
Jan discussed pursuing her mathematics doctorate with the dean of the mathematics department at UJ. She had submitted to him her certification for the Master of Science in Mathematics from Harvard On-Line and her scores on the Citizenship Exam, and he was both supportive and enthusiastic to have her attend UJ.
She submitted her application and was accepted immediately, for admission the next semester, which was three months away. She already had some thoughts toward her thesis work, which Tactical Division had insisted have some relevance to the CSF.
In the meantime, there was a session of Unarmed Combat School, also a commitment from the CSF on her initial enlistment contract. UCS was two months long, and she had just enough time to get it in before enrolling in UJ.
UCS was intended to provide students with a basic ability in Enshin, the martial arts form preferred by the Navy. Enshin dated back to pre-space Earth, and had the goal of turning an opponent's power and momentum against him while positioning oneself in his weak spot to attack from a better position. It combined the kicks, punches, and chops of karate with the grabs, sweeps and throws of judo. The assumption of the course was the interested student would continue his involvement with Enshin beyond the course, in bouts with other interested students of the form.
UCS began with classroom instruction mixed with physical practice of a series of katas, choreographed sequences of Enshin moves carried out by the student on his own. The students had twenty-five-hour-a-day access to the gym to practice their katas at any time. Because of the compressed nature of the instruction, students were working on multiple katas at any given time.
The second month of UCS continued with reduced classroom instruction and katas, but emphasized sparring matches between students. While Enshin was a knock-down, full-contact style in its pure form, for training and bouts they used protective gear, and the bout would only continue to the first three-second hold-down.
Jan liked UCS. Her diminutive stature and speed made her hard to hit, but proper nutrition and physical training after years of malnutrition and starvation were resulting in greatly increased muscle mass and power. She was underestimated a lot in bouts, and pressed any advantage relentlessly. She was also more willing than most students to take damage in scoring on her opponent, always pressing for the three-second hold-down. As a result, at the end of most days she felt pretty banged up, but she had impressive scores for her size. Her class rank at the end of UCS was seventh out of fifty.
There was a tradition in CSF Unarmed Combat School that any graduating student could challenge the head unarmed combat instructor to a bout of Enshin. No one ever won, of course, but the tradition stood, and every class had one or two people who challenged the instructor. Perhaps they thought they might get lucky.
This class was no different. After all the students had been given certificates of completion, the CO, Captain Pokhrel, announced the tradition and opened the floor to challenges to the Sensei, Senior Chief Petty Officer Brigham Nokimuri. Like most Commonwealth citizens, Nokimuri was a mix of ethnicities, and, despite his last name, he was tall, wiry, and muscular.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Curt Johnson, a big fellow who was pretty quick for his size, stepped forward.
"I challenge."
Nokimuri nodded, and they both donned helmets and gloves.
It didn't last long before Nokimuri took Johnson down and held him the required three seconds.
The second challenger was dispatched with similar ease.
"Any others?" Pokhrel asked.
Jan stepped forward.
"I challenge."
"I do not accept challenge from a child," Nokimuri said.
Before Pokhrel could say anything, Jan walked up to Nokimuri, and looked up into his eyes.
"I've killed bigger men than you. Hand-to-hand," Jan said loudly enough for all to hear.
Nokimuri looked down at her, and reddened with anger. He seemed about to say something, but instead looked over at Pokhrel and nodded.
Jan donned protective gear. They faced each other across the mat, and bowed.
The bout was a curious one. Nokimuri couldn't hit her. Jan had the reflexes of a cat, and was light and extremely quick. Every time Nokimuri tried to hit her, she simply wasn't there. She landed blow after blow, but they seemed to bounce off the big man, like she couldn't hurt him – or wasn't really trying. They did serve to anger him further, however.
It couldn't last forever. Nokimuri finally landed a kick to the body, and Jan went down in a tangle of limbs and lay still on the mat.
"Oh, shit," Nokimuri muttered.
He walked over to where Jan lay sprawled, leaned down, and shook her shoulder.
"Ensign Childers, are you OK, Ma'am?"
Jan's arm shot out like a cobra, grabbed his arm, and jerked herself up and him down as her leg shot out with an unblocked snap kick to the head. She hit him with everything she had, the front of her ankle to the side of his foam sparring helmet, then dropped to the mat and wrapped both arms around his ankles and latched her hands.
The kick to Nokimuri's head really rang his bell. He straightened up and staggered, or tried to. With Jan hobbling his legs, he couldn't regain his balance and he fell heavily backwards onto the mat. Jan jumped up from the mat and flopped onto his sternum, driving the air out of his lungs. Nokimuri lay on the mat, wheezing with Jan on his chest.
"Thousand-one, thousand-two, thousand-three," Jan cried out, then jumped up off Nokimuri.
Pokhrel stood there dumbstruck.
Nokimuri rolled over onto his knees, still struggling for air.
"Wasn't fair. She suckered me," he said.
"No halt was called. He never held me down," Jan said to Pokhrel.
Pokhrel looked at her, at Nokimuri, now staggering up onto his feet, at the stunned class of graduating students.
"The rules are the rules. Childers wins."
Doctorate in Mathematics,
University of Jablonka
Jan already had the Master of Science in Mathematics through the Houston Public Library connection to Harvard University's on-line studies program, Harvard On-Line. The University of Jablonka was happy to accept her Masters and additional credits toward her PhD in applied mathematics, and Jan planned out her remaining coursework around her current interest.
Hyperspace.
During BTS, Jan had noted the central role that hyperspace, its availability and, more often, unavailability, played in various tactical problems. It was known that transition to or from hyperspace within a vaguely defined system periphery would often result in the loss of the ship attempting it. Why that was so, and what the actual bounds of the system periphery were, were not well understood.
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