Schooled
Page 25
Ibu pulled a tablet from her bag and typed in a message. “I invited him for lunch in half an hour. Where do we want to meet?”
“Why don’t you girls meet up with him under the big oak at the center of campus?” Natto suggested.
- - - - - - -
The thrill of full maturity had dulled for Goru. He had fallen into the daily grind of going to classes, homework and athletic practice. He was the captain for the red dormitory tactiball team. Tactiball was a game, originating on an earth alternate, which expanded outward into the old omniverse. It was played with two to three distinctly different rounds of play per game depending on whether it’s professional style, college and high school style or primary school style play. Generally there were two opposing teams per game. The school practiced the three round version common to primary and early secondary education.
Amateur games usually took place as parts of a tournament, several consecutive games where in the winners went on to the next round of competition and the losers were left to spectate. Amateur tournaments could take place over the course of a day or a weekend. In high school style they either wager for tokens or the number of turns that will occur in the next round.
In primary through college play they played the second round on boards. The round ended either when all the tokens have been played or the number of turns wagered for have passed. Occasionally when pressed for time they would play this as a timed round. The round started with each team having placed one token anywhere in the first zone of the board. During each turn the team can make up to one more move than the number of tokens on the board. When tokens were the object of wager in the previous round then each team must add at least one token to the board each round. At the end of the round the number of players for the next round is determined by the number of tokens both live on the board and un-played in the round relative to the total number of tokens at the beginning of the round. If 3/4 of the tokens are "live" or un-played then 3/4 of the team plays in the next round.
The third round was played on a modified basket ball court with three baskets on each side of the court. The play was basically like dodge ball. The number of players in this round was dependent on the previous round. The court was divided into three zones all parallel to the line dividing one side from the other, usually they just used the center line of the basketball court. There were no rules restricting players of specific positions to specific zones. They were free to move from zone to zone. The round ended when all opponents had been injured or killed or until the preset time limit is up at which point the team with the fewest "dead" or "injured" players wins.
Zone three, or the front zone, is the widest zone, any hit or touch other than to the hands* even one rolling on the ground counts as a "kill". (*As long as the ball has touched the floor or is a clean catch, contact with the hands doesn't count.) Zone two, or the mid zone, is the second widest zone, only fresh contact hits "kill", rebounds or ground rolls count as an "injury" and the player must play from a seated position on the floor. Zone one, or the rear zone, is the narrowest zone, fresh hits only "injure" grounders have no effect. Players remain "dead" or "injured" only until the end of the quarter.
Zones can be "captured", by "killing" all the opposing team occupying the zone then having one of the team enter the zone. They must then make three shots at the opposing team. The shots, must make full "killing" contact though they don't qualify as kills. Once the three shots have been made the zone is considered captured and any "dead" individuals of the opposing team are captured. Before the three shots are made the invading player can be tagged out by the touch of any player of the defending team which is in contact with a ball. The invading player is then considered "captured". All "captured" players at the end of a quarter are out of the game. The problem with capturing the opposing team's zone is that they can retake the zone at any time before the end of the first captured quarter, merely by "killing” off all the invading team members in the zone. Then all of the "dead" players from the invading team are automatically considered captured, even the ones not located on the invaded territory.
Despite the considerable risks the benefits of a zone capture are great for the invading team. Their rear zone becomes a no-kill / no-injury zone, and all of the qualities of their zones push forward from there into the captured zone; the captured zone becomes their front zone, with all implied qualities, the mid zone moves to their former front zone, and so forth. Also, all the "dead" players in the invading team's rearmost zone are resurrected. Frequently they will pull, "dead" players back into that zone prior to an invasion attempt, in part because all dead players are in jeopardy of capture during an invasion. The problem becomes that such a withdrawal of "dead" players tends to indicate an invasion is forthcoming. Many professional teams make the retrieval of the "dead" a continual maneuver to conceal immanent invasions. While within the rules, multi-zone captures aren't common, because of the severe jeopardy for an invading team.
The rules of the game fascinated Goru, when the headmistress suggest they began a team Goru had argued strongly for it. He had gotten the whole team to participate and in revenge they named him captain.
He had booked a gym for practice right after lunch. There was going to be a tournament over the weekend, and Goru wanted to maintain their winning streak despite having the smallest team in the school. His thoughts were of practice as he went from history to the dorm to drop off his tablet and grab his gym bag. The ride down in the elevator left him with several free moments to work on the reading for the next day’s tactical planning course. The reading contained excerpts from tactical works spanning the entire history of written language. Fortunately he didn’t have to read it in the original languages like Stone did. Sometimes Goru pitied that guy, but then he looked at the way Faith stared at Stone and envied him. Tina had put Goru on a cocktail of hormone blockers to prevent the premature formation of a pairbond. They had discussed his options, and he had decided he wanted to fall in love with a woman not just her pheromones.
Goru reached the common room and passed through it only cursorily checking if anyone was present. Maeve sat in the corner watching soap operas. Ironically, Goru knew it was an assignment she was required to complete. Goru tapped his way into his room and shucked his book bag. He meant to leave his tablet too, before heading to the cafeteria with his gym bag, but the flashing message icon on his desk interrupted his train of thought. He tapped it. The media screen lit up. On it was the faces of his sisters. “Mr. Goru Nattan, we would cordially like to invite you to a picnic lunch in the woods. Today at twelve,” Ibu stated excitedly.
“We’ll meet you under the oak tree on campus,” Inu instructed.
It was the first time they had made contact since the day he left them behind during the test. He checked the time. He had enough time to get to the tree. Goru tapped a message out to the team that he would meet them in the gym after lunch. He instructed them to start running drills until he got there. Goru picked up his gym bag and his tablet. He could get some more reading in while he waited for his sisters.
Goru crossed the common room the dorm’s transport platform. He keyed the destination as the tree and set it to arrive just ahead of schedule. Goru flicked an acknowledging wave to Maeve in the corner. He knew she knew where he was going because he wore a lapel pin which acted as a direct link to her. She saw and heard everything any member of the team did and kept them informed of delays. Goru tapped the activation key and within a blink of time he was seated on the roots of the enormous tree which served as the metaphorical center point of the campus.
Goru began working on an assignment on his tablet but it wasn’t long before Ibu put a palm between him and the screen. He looked up at her with a smile. She smiled back. Inu was just behind her. “How ya been bro?” Ibu asked.
“Good, my tactiball team is at the top of the rankings. The headmistress is thinking about arranging a place for us in the Preserve’s yearly secondary school tournament. But if you follow the gam
e, you know that.” Goru stated.
“No, bro, how are you doing?” Inu restated.
Goru smiled, “Sorry, tactiball on the brain. I am doing pretty good. My studies are progressing. I am expecting my first term grades to be above the school average. Lyla and I are spending a lot of time together. How are you two?”
“We are doing well. We have something to show you that we found in the woods,” Ibu stated.
“You said something about a picnic?” Goru asked. He couldn’t afford to skip any meals yet he was still filling out from his metamorphosis.
Inu wagged a picnic basket in front of him. Goru smiled, stowed his tablet in a pocket of his gym bag and got up to follow them into the woods. They led him along the same path as went to the climbing wall. Then just before they would have reached the climbing clearing, they led him off along a less defined path. They stopped in a small clearing.
“Okay, what am I here to see?” Goru asked as Ibu began laying out a blanket and Inu set out a small meal.
“You’ll see. Oh, there he is,” Inu said looking over Goru’s shoulder.
Unnerved, Goru spun to face a stranger. “Who are you?”
“Smell me, your gut will tell you,” The man offered Goru his palm.
Goru sniffed deeply. The smell was familiar. His mind connected it to his father’s sweater. Then his instincts answered his question. Somehow this man was his dead father. It wasn’t possible. “You should be dead!”
“Now that is no way to greet your father,” The man stated, “I have been watching you for years. Surely you have something more to say to me.”
“Okay. Uh, hi! You are supposed to be dead and obliterated in the last omniverse!”
“Is that what you really want? Or is that what you are being brainwashed into believing?” His father asked.
Goru glared at the man, “I very personally want that. If you were alive, you should have rescued us from the abusive bitch that raised us! I have had hundreds of broken bones, dozens of concussions. All trying to protect myself and my sisters! Did you know my mother wanted to sell their virginities for drugs! She would have allowed sickos to do whatever they wanted with my sisters, and you let it happen!”
His father looked at his feet for a moment, “Goru, if I had claimed you Mae Amante would have had me jailed! I couldn’t do anything!”
“Bullshit! If you had tried to claim us, at least someone would have paid enough attention to us for long enough to rescue us! You didn’t even report the abuse anonymously!” Goru started around his father to head back to the school.
“You’re just going to leave?” his father asked.
“No, I am going to march my butt into the headmistress’s office and let her know you are lurking around the campus!” Goru had to step past Inu to get back to the path. He felt a prick in his arm and then noticed the ground rising up to meet him. His last conscious thought was that Inu had drugged him, then darkness swallowed him.
- - - - - - -
The brief assignment, weeks ago in Factor History had turned into an obsession. With Maeve’s assistance Lyla had cross-referenced the established timelines for the early factor history and her mother’s administration. She had worked very hard digging up obscure references to incidents that only appeared in the private notes of the people involved. She had discovered that Milo and Millie’s mother had a history of having male and female twins. Their mother had so neglected the first set that they disowned her and were instrumental in founding Haven. Sadly, it appeared they had perished in the old omniverse rather than rejoin any organization their mother was involved in. The reality of that parallel to her mother’s administration left Lyla swearing she would repair her relationship with her mother at any and all costs.
Lyla had even dug into records far enough to discover both Angela Daniels and her mother had secret rooms to which they retreated when the stress of the job became too much. References indicated they both shut themselves off from everyone to paint. Her mother was a Preserve wide acknowledged artist. She had released her art journals in the form of comic books. Lyla was still looking for examples of Angela Daniel’s art. On the whole the research had left Lyla wondering what her role in history would be.
“Lyla!” Maeve blurted through the speakers in Lyla’s room at full volume.
“Tone it down Maeve,” Lyla glanced at the time on her media screen. “I’m not late for practice yet!”
“No! Lyla it’s Goru!”
“I know, practice!” Lyla closed the magazine she had been reading around her pen.
“NO! He has been kidnapped by his father! His sisters helped! Inu drugged him with a stun capsule and they placed him in a stasis loop!” Maeve rushed.
Lyla blinked, “When? Wait, his father is dead!”
“No. Goru seemed to be pretty sure it was his father!”
“Okay! Here is what we are going to do. Call everyone to gather in the common room!” Lyla took a breath, “Do you have a location on Goru?”
“No, but his sister said something about the portal before they tucked him into the loop and cut off my feed.” Maeve’s voice kept getting louder.
“Maeve, pull back on your emulation subroutines. We do not need simulated panic. Have you reached the others?”
“Yes, and I called the headmistress,” Maeve said in the flattest most emotionless tone Lyla had ever heard her use.
Lyla pulled her emergency kit from the closet and headed for the common room. Beaker and Stone were already present, armed with capsule rifles. Milo was coming out of his room with a third rifle. Faith was hauling a full med-kit down the hall and trying to calm Hope at the same time. Millie arrived in the elevator and rushed to aid Faith. She toggled an out of the way switch on the side of the med-kit and it levitated off the floor and assumed a position behind Faith, “Thanks, I wasn’t thinking straight!” Millie just nodded.
“Okay people, we’re assembling a rescue! Is everyone clear on what they need to do?” Lyla asked.
Beaker, Stone and Milo answered by priming their rifles. Maeve ran down the hallway from her room on the end, dressed in a burgundy camo assault outfit. She had a smaller pistol locked and loaded with stun darts. “Maeve fill us in,” Lyla ordered.
The media screen lit up with a view from Goru’s lapel of a forest clearing.
“Okay, what am I here to see?” Goru asked. The view was of Ibu and Inu setting up a picnic lunch.
“You’ll see. Oh, there he is,” Inu said looking over Goru’s shoulder.
Goru spun to face a stranger. “Who are you?”
“Smell me, your gut will tell you,” The man offered Goru his palm.
There was an audible sniffing sound and a pause before Goru stated, “You should be dead!”
“Now that is no way to greet your father,” The man stated, “I have been watching you for years. Surely you have something more to say to me.”
“Okay. Uh, hi! You are supposed to be dead and obliterated in the last omniverse!” Goru’s tone was angry.
“Is that what you really want? Or is that what you are being brainwashed into believing?” His father asked.
Goru growled back, “I very personally want that. If you were alive, you should have rescued us from the abusive bitch that raised us! I have had hundreds of broken bones, dozens of concussions. All trying to protect myself and my sisters! Did you know my mother wanted to sell their virginities for drugs! She would have allowed sickos to do whatever they wanted with my sisters, and you let it happen!”
“Goru, if I had claimed you Mae Amante would have had me jailed! I couldn’t do anything!”
“Bullshit! If you had tried to claim us, at least someone would have paid enough attention to us for long enough to rescue us! You didn’t even report the abuse anonymously!” Goru started around his father to head back to the school.
“You’re just going to leave?” his father asked from behind.
“No, I am going to march my butt into the headmistress’s office and let he
r know you are lurking around the campus!” Goru had to step past Inu to get back to the path. Inu jostled him and Goru went down.
He landed face down so the camera was obscured but it easily picked up Ibu’s voice, “Now what Father?”
“We put him through this loop.” Natto grunted with effort.
“How are we going to get through the portal? They don’t let just anybody through,” Ibu stated.
“We’ll try to rush it, and if I have to I will threaten to harm one of you long enough to get through. Goru was lifted from the ground and the camera picked up him being tucked through the quicksilver event horizon of the stasis loop until the feed cut out.
“That is all I have for the moment!” Maeve stated flatly.
“Okay, so they are headed for the portal out into the omniverse,” Beaker stated.
“Sounds like, do you think we can cut them off in Sugar Town?” Milo asked
“We can try, let’s go,” Lyla suggested. They boarded the elevator and rode it up. They were surprised when the elevator door opened revealing the headmistress standing next to a stone portal.
“I believe this is exactly what you are looking for,” She said with a smile.
“Will it get us to Sugar Town faster than them?” Beaker asked.
Ms. D’llen smiled, “That isn’t the right question or destination. This portal will take you to exactly when and where you need to be. You will know exactly what to do when the time comes.”
Lyla looked at her mentor. Ms. D’llen was saying things between the things that actually came out of her mouth. It was like Andrea knew more than she could tell them. Lyla had the sudden epiphany that time travel was involved in a much more integrated way than the explanation that they had built the school in the past of the Preserve. Andrea clearly knew more than she could share. Lyla started to step through the portal. Andrea held up her arm and stopped her. “You might want some kind of coms…” Andrea suggested.