Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  “What do you mean ‘made in the synthesizer.’? You can’t make fresh meat.”

  “Yes, we can, and that’s what you've been eating. Did it taste all right?” Touren asked.

  “Yes, but… it wasn’t real?”

  “It was real, exactly the same as if it had come directly from a carcass but made in the synthesizer just before you ate it. Our synthesizers couldn’t make anything as convincing as that, but this is a People’s synthesizer.”

  “Oh. I’ll need to think about that.”

  “So, you don’t want any farun?” Touren asked.

  Sah Lee smiled. “I’ll risk it. I’m not sure about the vegetables though.”

  ◆◆◆

  The following morning, Sah Lee was woken by Touren shaking her shoulder.

  “Drink this.” she said, handing her a glass of water.

  “Is it time to get up?” Sah Lee asked sleepily.

  “You’ve got ten minutes to get showered and dressed, then we’re going to run to the gym. You should have woken up by the time we get there.” Touren turned and left Sah Lee sitting up feeling dazed and holding a glass of water. “I might as well drink it I suppose.” she thought.

  Ten minutes later she came out of her room dressed but still damp from the shower.

  “How long was I asleep for? It didn’t seem as long as usual.”

  “Long enough.” Touren answered. “If you’re going to be a soldier, you will have to wear a jumpsuit, a one-piece suit like I’m wearing. Do you want to start today, or would you prefer to wear your tunic and breeches for now?”

  “I’ll stick with what I’m wearing thanks. Why will I have to wear a jumpsuit if I’m a soldier?”

  “It’s a uniform, they are all the same. It’s so you can see who your fellow soldiers are and who the enemy is.”

  “But if I wore what they enemy are wearing, they might think I was one of them and I could get closer to them, making it easier to kill them.”

  Touren sighed. “I don’t make the rules, but you will have to wear a uniform. If you were wearing an enemy uniform, your own soldiers would also think you were an enemy and they would kill you.”

  “They would kill me? That would be silly.” Sah Lee said with a frown.

  “Keep up with me.” Touren said, breaking into a run out of the door.

  Sah Lee shrugged and followed.

  Chapter Thirty

  Starting The Training

  Sah Lee ran just behind Touren at an easy pace, though Touren looked like she was running hard. Eventually Touren slowed to a stop at a door that looked the same as all the other doors in the corridor. “This is the gym.” she gasped, panting.

  Sah Lee wasn’t even breathing heavily. “I think I may be fitter than you.”

  “That’s the advantage you have of being a skinny little mammal, you have less weight to carry. And you can lose heat by sweating. I have to do it by panting.”

  “Those great thick reptilian legs can’t help.” Sah Lee answered with a smirk.

  “We’ll see how well you do in the gym.” Touren replied.

  They entered the room and a range of strange looking machines that had no obvious function confronted Sah Lee, covering half the room. The other half of the room was an empty area with no furniture, which also seemed to serve no function. Bekkreshan was already in the room standing with her knees bent lifting what Sah Lee thought must be a very heavy bar as it was making the muscles on her thick arms bulge. As she watched, Bekkreshan lifted the bar as she straightened her legs and with a jerking motion pushed it up above her head, her legs shaking slightly. She straightened her legs and with an effort, got her arms straight up. She held the bar still for a moment then stepped back and dropped the bar to the floor. She turned to Sah Lee and grinned. Sah Lee could see the sheen of sweat on Bekkreshan’s face, arms and legs. “Welcome to the torture chamber!”

  “What? I thought you called this a gym?” Sah Lee said.

  “It is. It was a joke. You will come here every day and exercise to build your strength which will hurt, and you’ll ache afterwards. The practice area,” she nodded towards the empty space, “is where you’ll learn the basics of how to fight.”

  “I don’t need to learn how to fight. You’ll find that out as soon as we start!” Sah Lee answered.

  “Bekkreshan is a better fighter than me, so I’ll start the combat training, later on she’ll take over.” Touren told Sah Lee. “But first, we’ll show you how to use the resistance machines and give you your program. When you’ve worked out on them, we’ll introduce you to unarmed and close combat fighting.”

  “Let’s fight first. We’ll get that out of the way then we can use these machine things.”

  “If you wish.” Touren said. “We’ll warm up with stretching exercises first…”

  “I’m warm enough already. Let’s get on with it.”

  They walked over to the mat and stood facing each other, three meters apart.

  “How do you want to start? Would you like to make the first attack, or shall I?” Touren asked.

  Without answering, Sah Lee dropped into a half crouch and sprang at Touren with her teeth bared. She had no intention of hurting Touren, but she wanted to do it properly and thought it would be funny to give Touren a fright. She wasn’t sure exactly what happened next, but she hit the ground hard on her back with one of Touren’s knees on her stomach and her hands pinned down.

  “Are you ready to start yet?” Touren asked with a grin.

  Sah Lee struggled, trying to throw Touren off her. After a fruitless few moments she gave up. Touren stood and bent to take Sah Lee’s hand to help her up.

  “You caught me by surprise that time.” Sah Lee said crossly, stretching her shoulders to make sure that everything still worked.

  “Sorry, I didn’t realize you weren’t ready.” Touren answered still grinning.

  “Right. You attack me this time.” Sah Lee said, thinking “I’ll be ready this time.”

  Standing three meters apart again, Touren stood with her knees slightly bent. “Are you ready?” she asked.

  “Yes!” Snapped Sah Lee, angry with herself for being taken down so easily last time. She had Touren’s measure now though and was fully prepared for her.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, of course I am! Get on with it!”

  “Here I come.” Touren said, still with a grin.

  She launched herself towards Sah Lee’s left. Sah Lee responded by moving her feet to brace herself against the attack and ready to duck down and catch her below her center of gravity. At the last moment Touren jinked right, swung her arm round Sah Lee’s waist and lifted her up off her feet, turning her upside down. She held her for a moment before swinging her the right way up and dropping her back on her feet. Sah Lee swung round snarling, furious, with her lips drawn back.

  Touren stood with her arms folded, smiling. “Would you like to start lessons now?” she asked.

  Sah Lee stood, heart pounding and adrenalin pulsing in her veins. She dropped to her knees and pounded the floor with her fist. “Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!”

  Touren stepped forward and held her hand out. Sah Lee grasped it and pulled herself to her feet. She was trembling with anger.

  “Come on,” Touren said, “let’s go for a run and burn some of that off.” Still holding Sah Lee’s hand, she pulled her to the door and Bekkreshan jogged up to join them. “You set the pace.” Touren told Sah Lee, who broke into a sprint and quickly left Touren and Bekkreshan behind.

  As they ran behind, Bekkreshan said, “Her reactions are quick. If we can persuade her to take lessons, she’ll be a good fighter.”

  “I’ll guarantee she’ll want to learn, as soon as she calms down.”

  They followed Sah Lee as she swung right into a corridor at an intersection and saw her in the distance as she continued to draw away from them, then they lost sight of her. After running for some time, they saw Sah Lee coming back towards them. They were both glad to see he
r. Neither were built for long distance running at the pace they had been going. They stopped to catch their breath while they waited for Sah Lee to reach them, Bekkreshan bent forward with her hands on her knees, sucking in deep lungfuls of air. Sah Lee slowed down as she approached them, walking the last few paces.

  She stopped a couple of meters from them scowling. “Are you two ready for your running lesson now?”

  Bekkreshan and Touren burst out laughing and Sah Lee grinned at them.

  “We’ll never be able to keep up with you.” Touren said, grinning, “But this is a good lesson for you, and a reminder for us. Learn your limits. We will never be able to run as fast or as long as you can, you will never be as strong as Bekkreshan or even me. But we can teach you to fight, to not allow your opponent to exploit your weaknesses and to make the most of your strengths. We are not experts, but you’ll have the basics to look after yourself if you become a soldier.”

  “Let’s go back and you can teach me to fight like you. Then it will be you laying on your back! Shall we run, or would you like to walk for a while?”

  “We’ll remember our limits and walk for a while.” Bekkreshan said. “Then we’ll run back at standard military pace, which is a lot slower than you can run!”

  Chapter Thirty One

  Preparation

  The next two days were a constant round of exercise and screen time, continuing Sah Lee’s education. She didn’t enjoy her new diet, but Touren assured her it would help her build her strength. She didn’t feel any stronger yet, but her muscles ached. Even muscles she didn’t know she had.

  On the third day, when Sah Lee woke up she heard a voice she didn’t recognize saying “Hello.” She leapt off her bed, looking for the source of the voice.

  “Don’t be alarmed. I am your AI.”

  Sah Lee ran out of her room into Touren’s. “Where’s this voice coming from!” she shouted at Touren, which woke her up.

  Touren opened her eyes and looked up at Sah Lee, saying sleepily “I prefer to be woken up with a gentle shake of my shoulder.”

  “Never mind about that, who is this talking to me? And where are they? I can’t see them.” Sah Lee demanded.

  Touren lay unmoving. “What did it say to frighten you?”

  “It said hello. And I’m not frightened!”

  “You’re doing a fairly good impression of it. Though I can understand someone saying ‘hello’ can sound quite threatening.”

  “You’re not funny. Who is talking to me?”

  “Did it say anything else?”

  “It said don’t be alarmed, I am your AI, or something like that.”

  “There you are then.” Touren answered and closed her eyes.

  “Where am I? What are you talking about.”

  Touren sighed. “You’re not going to go away, are you? All right, I’ll get up.” She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Give me a few minutes, I’m going to shower first.” She sniffed the air. “You could do with one too. You didn’t shower after yesterday’s exercise, did you?”

  “I don’t know why you are so obsessive about showering every day. I never had one until I came here.”

  “But you had a bath though?”

  “I swam in a waterhole, if that’s what you mean.”

  “How often?”

  “I don’t know. Two, sometimes three times a year.”

  “If you become a soldier, you’re going to have to learn to shower every day when you get the chance.”

  “When I’m a soldier, I’ll shower when and how often I like!”

  “Right. I’m going to add some sessions on military discipline to the agenda. Have a shower. There will be fresh clothes in the synthesizer. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  “You know the synthesizer doesn’t open for me. And what about the voice?”

  “The voice is your AI, the one you had implanted in your head, remember? And the synthesizer will open for you now. Off you go, I’m getting in the shower.” Touren stood and walked to her washroom.

  Sah Lee stood for a moment, snorted and left to have a shower.

  When she finished, she walked into the main room and ignoring Touren, who was now sitting at the table, walked straight to the synthesizer. She raised her hand to bang on the door when, to her surprise, it slid open. She took out the fresh tunic and breeches and pulled them on.

  “Come and sit down.” Touren said. “I’ll tell you about your AI.”

  Sah Lee sat opposite Touren without speaking. She hadn’t completely forgiven her for not being more forthcoming about the voice.

  “Has it spoken to you again yet?” Touren asked.

  “No. Did you expect it to?”

  “Not really. It probably realizes that it frightened you last time.”

  “I wasn’t frightened! It just surprised me, that’s all.”

  “Whatever. Your AI spoke to you. That’s how it communicates with you. What did you expect?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never heard an AI before. I’ve only just heard of them!”

  “You’re right of course. Let me tell you a little about how it works.”

  The door slid open and Bekkreshan came in. She walked to the synthesizer and took out two hot drinks. Sitting at the table, she passed one to Touren. “Would you like one of these Sah Lee?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never tried one. I’ve only ever had a hot drink when I was unwell, that was to make me better. It didn’t taste good. All we drank at home and university was water.”

  “Try this.” Bekkreshan said, sliding her mug across.

  Sah Lee took a sip and screwed her face up. “No thanks. That’s horrible.” She slid the mug back to Bekkreshan.

  “My AI is checking the data we have on the Aarnth tastes and physiology and it will order something you might like.” Bekkreshan said. She stood and walked to the synthesizer and returned with a mug of hot liquid.

  Sah Lee took the mug and sniffed it carefully, then took a tentative sip. “It’s quite good.”

  “Now your AI is active, you can have the pattern and order it yourself.” Touren said. “Your AI. It does lots of things. The way you communicate with each other is by talking. You can give it a name if you like, everyone does. Although we call it a machine, it is not like the machines you are used to, like a train. The AI is very clever. They are much cleverer than we are, and it has a huge memory. If it is close enough to talk to a main database, it can find anything that is known by the civilization you belong to, although the Aarnth won’t have built one yet, so I’m not sure how Ker Din Ser Forn has arranged for you to get information. The AI’s have real personalities like people do. It is effectively alive, even though it is artificial. It knows what it is, and it know what you are. Hopefully you will make friends with it. Not everybody makes friends with their AI, but they usually go mad. Do you have any questions?”

  “Uh…”

  “Good, I’ll continue. An important function is to act as a translator.”

  “Why do I need a translator? Everyone speaks Aarnth.”

  “No, they don’t. Everyone speaks in their own language. Our AI’s translate it into Aarnth, so you hear it in your language. If you met someone whose AI doesn’t have the Aarnth language files, you wouldn’t be able to understand them. Normally as soon as you meet someone new, your AI’s will have a quick dialog and unless you have prohibited it, they will swap language files so you can talk to each other.”

  “That’s clever.” Sah Lee said.

  “It makes life easier, which is what the AI is supposed to do. It will monitor what you are saying and feed you with information relevant to your conversation, so that, for instance, if we were talking about my home planet…”

  Sah Lee heard the strange voice in her head “Touren’s race is called the Trenor. Her home planet is Eron, which is a colony planet, occupied by the Trenor for one hundred and sixty thousand years. Eron is approximately nine-tenths the size of Aarn with lower gravity, point
eight five of galactic standard gravity. The planet is hotter and more humid than Aarn with a relatively high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The population of almost three billion lives mainly in the tropics.”

  “Eron.” Said Sah Lee.

  Touren smiled. “Excellent. Your AI is working for you already. How do feel about that?”

  Sah Lee gave a hesitant smile. “It’s strange, but… useful. I can see it will be useful. How do I talk to it?”

  “You speak to it. Out loud if you like but it’s best to learn to speak to it without making a sound. We call it sub vocalizing. When you have practiced a lot, you will be able talk to your AI much faster than you speak, and it talks to you almost instantaneously. I don’t know how much it told you, but the time it took for you to answer with my planets name was so quick it was as if you already knew it.”

  “It told me that it is a colony planet of the Trenor, your race, it has a population of almost three billion and has been a colony for one hundred and sixty thousand years. That seems a long time. Is that right? Oh, and it told me some stuff I didn’t understand.”

  Touren made her coughing laugh. “Yes Sah Lee, all that is true. When you get used to each other, it will know better what you do and don’t know. You can give it a name and ask it to speak in a voice that suits you. If it has the original voice in its files it will speak to you in exactly that voice. Finish your drink and we’ll go to the gym.”

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Reunited With Traf Dek

  Now that Sah Lee’s AI was active she was able to start taking lessons in virtual reality. It fed the virtual world directly into her visual and auditory cortex’s and fed sensory information into her brain too, so the experience was totally immersive. This made the whole experience so much fun that Sah Lee wanted to spend more time learning, but she also wanted to spend more time in the gym, more time practicing fighting and more time running. As these were the only things she did all day - apart from meals eaten quickly, she had to be content with the time allocated to each activity.