Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  The door to the lander opened and the landing ramp slid down. Sah Lee realized that it was too late to resign and not attend the meeting now, and anyway, it would have been an act of moral cowardice to run away from it. Holding herself as upright as possible and keeping her head up, Sah Lee walked up the ramp.

  Chapter Fifty Seven

  Verdict And Sentence

  As Sah Lee stepped inside the lander, the ramp retracted, and the door closed. The interior of the lander had been reconfigured with a table with three chairs behind it parallel to the forward bulkhead and a single chair set facing the table in the center of the lander, about three meters back from the table.

  Colonel B’Erren Tek sat in the middle with Major Erret San Mer on her right and Si’ir Monn on her left. Sah Lee stood to attention. “Private Sah Lee reporting as ordered, Sir!”

  “At ease Private. Be seated.” Colonel B’Erren Tek gestured to the seat facing the table.

  Sah Lee sat facing them, feeling lonely and isolated.

  Colonel B’Erren Tek addressed her. “Private Sah Lee, you have been summoned here because I have received a report of your breach of orders and breach of army protocol. Specifically, you issued orders to army personnel without authority. You left your post against orders. You evacuated an injured officer to an agency or organization outside the army without consulting your chain of command and without authority. These are serious charges. These offenses merit punishment up to and including dishonorable discharge from the army. Do you understand?”

  “I think so.”

  “Yes or no, Private!”

  “Yes Sir.” Sah Lee mumbled.

  “Speak up Private!” the Colonel barked.

  “Yes Sir!”

  “The facts are clear. In addition to the report from Corporal Touren Ud Sen, witness statements backed by contemporary recordings from embedded AI’s have been taken from eight army personnel. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

  “I thought I was doing the right thing. We had subdued the separatists who had attacked us, I asked Touren to attend to Ren Deel because she has emergency medical experience from when she was with the Boran Medical Emergency and Recovery group and then went to see if any other of our troops needed support. When I returned, Touren said that Ren Deel was badly injured, and we had no resources to treat him here. She said if he was moved he might die, so I contacted Ker Din Ser Forn who took him back to his ship for treatment. The People’s medical technology is far ahead of what we have available.”

  “The army has strict rules and protocols Private. We have a chain of command that has knowledge and experience way beyond yours. If your line officer doesn’t know what to do they pass it up the chain until it reaches someone who does. What you do not do, Private, with no knowledge of the bigger picture and no experience worth shit, is to decide on a whim what you ‘think is the right thing’ and run off on your own mission. If you do that in the heat of battle you are likely to be shot by your own officer. I have discussed a suitable course of disciplinary measures with Major Erret San Mer and Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak and we are all agreed. Your punishment will be as follows: You will be taken out of active service immediately. All leave entitlement, entertainment privileges and free time allowances will be canceled until further notice. You will learn the complete manual of military rules, regulations and protocols and demonstrate that knowledge and an understanding of its application in theoretical situations. You will learn the entire field operations manual and demonstrate that knowledge when questioned and during exercises. You will learn and understand the army’s standard rules of engagement in all environments and all eventualities. When you have satisfied me that you are able to access, understand and implement all of these, you will embark on another intensive training course, the details of which will be revealed to you when appropriate. You will undertake intensive training in unarmed combat and include a variety of species and species types in all training environments available to us at Betzel Base. You will be intensively trained in the combat use of bladed weapons against a variety of species and species types. You will be tested and assessed at regular intervals. I understand that your skill level with particle beam, or pulse weapons is adequate. You will train on the use and maintenance of kinetic energy weapons until your skill level is judged by me to be adequate. This is not the limit of disciplinary actions you will undertake, but these are the ones you will start with immediate effect. Do you understand what I have just told you?”

  “Yes Sir!”

  “Do you agree to these terms?”

  “I don’t understand, do you mean I can choose not to accept them?”

  “Certainly Private. If you do not accept these terms you may, as an alternative, serve a sentence of one standard galactic year in solitary confinement followed by a dishonorable discharge. You have one galactic standard day from the close of this disciplinary board to make your decision. If you have not communicated your decision to me by then, it will be assumed that you have opted for imprisonment and discharge. Do you understand?”

  “Yes Sir! I will accept the punishments you said earlier, the training and things, the loss of leave and… “

  “I know perfectly well what I just outlined for you Private! Hopefully you understand how to interface with your AI well enough to retrieve the details of this decision, but I will send you a formal summary tomorrow. After this board is concluded, you will have a short interview with Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak. You will stay on this lander which will take you back to the battle cruiser where you will be confined. A troop carrier is on its way here with reinforcements. You will be going back to Betzel Base on it. You will be met by training personnel on arrival and embark on your training immediately. When you are not training, you will be confined in a cell.” Colonel B’Erren Tek and Major Erret San Mer stood and left without another word. Si’ir Monn stayed in his seat glaring at her.

  Sah Lee managed a weak smile and said, “That doesn’t sound too bad. The difficult thing will be learning the manuals, but the fighting training should be fun.”

  Si’ir Monn shook his head and stood up. He walked up to Sah Lee, grasped the front of her jumpsuit and roughly pulled her out of her chair, holding her close to his face with her feet off the ground. “You fucking idiot.” he said and threw her to the floor. “You have no fucking idea, have you? Do you know what intensive training in unarmed combat with a variety of species types in all training environments available at Betzel Base means?” Without giving her a chance to answer, he continued, “It means that most of your time anyone who wants a workout will come down and beat the shit out of you. If you last long enough to be able to defend yourself against one of them at a time, they’ll start to come in two’s and three’s and there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to protect you. When everyone is bored with beating you, your attackers will start using knives, swords, iron bars, chains, axes and anything else that can be used as a weapon. You’re training will be when you get an occasional session with a golem and your AI can help you practice your defense against the attacks that cause you most injury. You’ll spend more time in hospital than in your cell. If you’ve got any sense, you’ll stick it out for as long as you can then resign. You’ll probably get away without a dishonorable discharge if you can last a third of a year. Why couldn’t you just do what you were told?”

  “Because, Sergeant, if I hadn’t told Touren to assist Ren Deel, he would have died. Was that wrong? If I hadn’t led Seltet and Por Aruf to subdue the rest of the separatists, they would have regrouped and attacked us, possibly leading to more casualties. Was that wrong? If I hadn’t gone to see if we could assist other groups of soldiers, they might have been overwhelmed by the separatists. Was that wrong? If I hadn’t contacted that bastard Ker Din Ser Forn to evacuate and treat Ren Deel he would have died. Was that wrong? Just tell me now, what would you really expect me to do?” Sah Lee demanded.

  Si’ir Monn reached out, she took his hand and he pulled her to her
feet. “I didn’t say you’d done anything wrong Sah Lee, I said you should have followed orders. You are so deep in shit that it’s about to come up over your nose. I don’t believe in heaven and hell, but if I did, I’d say where you are going is worse than hell.”

  “It won’t all be fighting. I’ll spend a lot of time learning all the stuff the Colonel said.”

  “The way this will work is that you will spend two thirds of every day fighting. The other third will be spent in your solitary confinement cell when you will eat, sleep and learn what you need to know, which is not going to be in a classroom, or taught to you by a teacher. Your AI has all the information you need, you don’t need to learn it. What you’ve got to do is to learn how to work effectively with your AI and to get constant advice from it - and take the advice and act on it. How often do you communicate with your AI?”

  “I don’t know, every two or three days, maybe.”

  “Sah Lee, you need to be in constant communication. Your AI isn’t someone or something that sits there waiting for you to ask it something. I don’t know how smart the AI the People have given you is, but it’s a damn sight cleverer than any organic being and it has a perfect memory greater than you can imagine. You must develop a rapport with it so that it constantly monitors what you are doing, and you constantly tell it what you are thinking, what you plan to do. It knows all the rules and regulations, it can calculate probabilities, it can tell you what is likely to be the result of what you plan to do and offer advice on modifications and alternative actions. You don’t have to do what it advises, that is your choice. As you get better at communicating with it, your communication will speed up until it is at the speed of thought - effectively a long discussion will take no detectable time at all. Do you see how this could have been helpful to you when the separatists attacked?”

  “Uh, yes. But if it’s going to be as bad as you said, why did the Colonel make this my punishment? Does she hate me? Does she want me to fail?”

  “She doesn’t hate you, though she probably thinks you’ll fail and resign. That way you could join another army in the future and she knows that’s important to you. If she gave you any less punishment than this, when the report goes up to the Generals, they would overturn it and kick you out with a dishonorable discharge. If you survive the unarmed and close combat training without dropping out or being accidentally killed and get to the point where no one wants to fight you any more, if you satisfy the Colonel that you can access all the rules and protocols, you become proficient with KE weapons as well as particle beam weapons and complete the next training she has planned for you, you will be one hell of a soldier.”

  “What is the next training? If I survive that long?”

  “She doesn’t want you to know yet, but fuck it. You will be given junior rank and start officer training.”

  “You’re kidding! She’s going to punish me then promote me?”

  “If you survive and come out the other side of this, you will be far too valuable a military asset to leave as a grunt, or to lose if you leave the army. Everyone will know what you’ve done and what you are capable of, so they’ll either respect you or know not to piss you off. But this could kill you, or it could send you so batshit crazy that you’ll live the rest of your very long life in a secure hospital. My advice is either change your mind and go for a dishonorable discharge or try to stick it out for a while and then resign.”

  “I’ll go for the third option.”

  Si’ir Monn sighed and looked unhappy. “I thought you might. I’ve spoken to the security guys on the troop transport. They’ve got a golem for you to practice with on your trip back to Betzel Base. My AI has just offered your AI my notes on what you need to prioritize to practice. Tell your AI to accept the file. There’s nothing more I can do for you Sah Lee. I hope you survive this.”

  “I’ve got to take your hunting knife, sheath and harness. I’ll look after them for you until you get out.”

  Sah Lee sighed and opened the front of her jumpsuit to slip it down to her waist so that she could take her back harness off. Si’ir Monn turned his back on her while she stripped off. She removed the harness and did her jumpsuit up again. “You can turn around now.” she said.

  Si’ir Monn turned and took the harness with her knife from her.

  “Weren’t you worried I might stab you in the back when you turned around?” she asked.

  “You wouldn’t stab me Sah Lee.”

  “But suppose I had?”

  “I would have a long sharp hunting knife sticking out of my back, but as we can see.” he said, holding up the knife, “I haven’t.”

  He stepped away from her towards the door, which slid open. “I don’t do goodbyes. See you on the other side.”

  The door slid shut behind him, leaving Sah Lee by herself in the lander. Not quite by herself.

  “Si’ir Monn underestimates how smart I am.” her AI said.

  Sah Lee had been lost in thought and jumped when it spoke. “How does that help? You can’t stand by me and help me fight.”

  “We make a unique combination Sah Lee. You have demonstrated an unusual amount of aggression and savagery even for a pre-emergent mammal. You have an intense focus on becoming a skilled fighter to take revenge on any outcasts that would attack innocent unarmed civilians in the way that Aarn was attacked. I can detect the intensity of the anger within you. I, on the other hand, have a degree of capability that others won't expect. I have greater control of your physiology than other AI’s and I have the capability to interface with, and control, any technology you come into contact with that is far greater than anyone else would expect or believe possible. It would be prudent for you to not reveal that to anybody, ever.”

  “That’s very impressive,” Sah Lee said, sounding very unimpressed, “but how does that help? And why would you want to, anyway?”

  “I would want to because if you die, I die. And if you go, as Si’ir Monn so poetically put it, ‘batshit crazy,’ I’ll be trapped in your demented head for a very long time, and then we’ll die. Those scenarios don’t appeal to me. Besides. You have the potential for a good and happy life, I’d like you to fulfill that potential.”

  “OK, you’re very clever. How does that help?”

  “If you’ll allow me to take complete control of your endocrine system, I can make modifications to your physiology to optimize you to make you stronger and faster. I can also, if you’ll allow, modify and optimize some of your neural pathways to make you smarter and improve your reaction times. I can also fix some injuries you will sustain that would normally require hospitalization. Do I have your permission?”

  “I guess so. None of this will change me will it? I mean I’ll still be the Sah Lee that I know and love.” she said with a half-smile.

  “Yes, you’ll still be, how was it Touren put it? Oh yes, you’ll still be your ‘normal obnoxious self’ with your ‘lack of charm’ but people will continue to like you despite that.”

  “I’m not sure if you’re joking or not.”

  “Partially. You lack diplomatic skills, but people do tend to like you. Your naivete helps and you are very, very young to be in an army. Seltet and Por Aruf were hostile towards you until they found out how young you are, then they wanted to adopt you. Any mammal with parental instincts will instinctively want to protect you.”

  “Por Aruf is an avian.”

  “And some avians.”

  “Not insectoids or reptiles?”

  “Most insectoids and reptiles don’t have strong parental instincts. Avians parental instincts are usually very specific to their own offspring and are instinctively hostile to others. Por Aruf is one of the exceptions.”

  “What about Ren Deel? He’s an avian, and he seems very friendly.”

  “Possibly because you remind him of his daughter. He was not being completely truthful with you when he told you why he first joined the army. He joined up soon after his daughter was killed on a resort planet when it was attacked by
a group of outcasts.”

  “Oh. Poor Ren Deel. Why didn’t he say?”

  “Most people who are in the army have a story, but few of them will talk about it. That’s the reason your personnel file is closed. Everyone has heard about Aarn. At some time, you may not want it known it’s where you come from. People will want to ask you questions about it. We will take off shortly. There are two drinks in the synthesizer. Drink the one in the white flask now, keep the black flask to drink when we land.”

  Chapter Fifty Eight

  Leaving Orn

  Sah Lee took a window seat so that she could get a last look at Orn when they took off. She drank the contents of the white flask despite its unpleasant taste. She put the empty flask on the seat next to her with the black flask and settled into her seat. Staring out of the window, she started to feel a little light-headed. She knew what was coming, so why worry? She was feeling peaceful and tired. After a few minutes, straps extruded from the seat and secured her, and she heard the lander engines start. It was so quiet with no-one else on board, no background chatter. There was a slight lurch, and they were airborne. Sah Lee watched as the ground seemed to drop away while the lander stood still. She smiled as they rose through the wispy clouds and she could see the sparking sea below them. She stared in awe as the curve of the horizon came in to view and the sky turned from blue to black. She smiled again as Orn’s small, solitary moon came into sight, then felt sad as it must be so lonely by itself. She settled back in her seat and saw the troop carrier. It was gray and bulky looking, with the same slashes and lines of red and black as Betzel Base had, but smaller. They didn’t look quite so bad now, perhaps she was getting used to them. She giggled at the thought of getting used to such a hideous mess of colors.

  As they drew close to the troop carrier, her AI spoke: “It’s time to drink the black flask now, Sah Lee.”