Battle On The Marathon

by John Thornton

  Yes, we covered all sorts of handheld weapons, as well as basic projectile weapons like the bolo, the sling, the bow and arrow, and your simple rock. I did adequately with all of those, and fortunately did not injure myself like, I had with the spear. We used all of those weapons when we were on duty in food acquisition.

  Of course, I did speak to mom and dad on almost every rain day, which was not too far apart. Seeing them via the displays every tenth day made it easier to cope, but I did feel really separated from home. I never did bring up the threats that Jane had told me about, for I saw no reason to quit the militia. Some of the other students did not talk to their parents as often as I did. But those private conversations between a student and a parent were one of the few topics which no one seemed to want to discuss. I guess we all have our secrets and private things.

  Once the routine was set, time seemed to really pass quickly. We seldom saw the juniors or the seniors. They had sequestered staircases and their own schedules of duties. Once in a while we caught a glimpse of them, usually when we were doing our physical training in the river. They used sophisticated equipment and gadgets which had not yet been introduced to us. They looked so much older, but I knew it was just a year older for the juniors, and two years older for the seniors.

  As my birthday was coming up, at the end of my first year at Raven Academy, I wondered if you, Ryan, would be coming with the next class. You and I always did have similar outlooks, or so I remember. I was hopeful to see you again, even if it would only be occasionally. I dreamed we would be able to sneak away and do some talking or exploring on our own. I fantasized that the two of us would unravel all of Raven Academy’s mysteries. No puzzle would have been too hard for us to crack.

  Mom and dad explained what had happened, and well, I just accepted it, I guess.

  Being promoted up to the junior level was rather anticlimactic. I thought there would be some ceremony, or some ritual, or some acknowledgement like a graduation. Nope, nothing so much like that.

  Mister Fisher walked in one morning, after we had done our duties and such. I thought it would be another typical class. Instead, he came to the lectern and stated, “Today you will be moving to the junior level. Go and gather your gear, and meet at the junior’s stairway entrance in five minutes.”

  There were a number of questions and concerns expressed, but that time, Mister Fisher was adamant about moving quickly. “You now have four minutes. Please hasten the move.” He then left the sophomore classroom and walked out the front of the lodge.

  “Brett? How can we move our stuff that fast?” I asked my roommate.

  “I suppose we take only what we really need.” He was jogging toward his room.

  When I got there, he had already emptied all his stuff into a blanket from his bunk. He had that gathered into a bundle, and was heading out the door. I admired his ingenuity, and followed his example.

  We were not the first to be standing by the doorway to the junior level. Several others had also bundled up all their belongings, but Carol had only a small backpack.

  When all twelve of us had lined up, many with bundles like I was carrying, but some with only a few items, and Carol with only her backpack, Mister Fisher spoke to us again.

  “I see you are all here, and that is commendable. But what if I asked you all to now traverse the perimeter of Raven Academy? Carol here could do it easily, but some of you others would be very burdened. So, in that regard, Carol would have been wise. However, what if the junior level here contains only bare frames and nothing else? What would Carol do then?”

  “I would loan her whatever I could to help,” Everett stated without hesitation.

  “As would I,” added Bartlet. She was carrying her items in a waste receptacle, but they looked organized and packed.

  Mister Fisher turned around and stretched out his hand to the side of the door. There he placed it on a sensor. A green light shone over his hand and the door slid quietly back into its pocket.

  “Head on up. You may change roommates now if you both are agreeable to it. Remember, we will win this together.”

  The second floor, the junior level, was the same size as below, minus the stairwells, but it was vastly different. The interior walls were permalloy, and reminded me of the garage which was under the ground. I came to realize later that that junior level was a very close mockup of many of the places in the shell of the habitats.

  Well, before I learned all about that floor, I should say I had to pass through a GAGS. Nearly forgot to add that, sorry. I suppose the GAGS became second nature to me. Wow, that seems so long ago.

  We marched up the stairs and were met by another door. The door was labeled in large letters: “Gravity Alteration Gimbaled Sphere” what we all later called the GAGS. I had never actually seen a door to the shell of any habitat before then, so I did not recognize it as a pressure door. Beneath the large label the door had a warning sign posted to it. That sign read, “Warning: Oblique Gravity Manipulation Adjustment Beyond This Point” in white lettering on an orange rectangle.

  Bartlet, who was leading us up the stairs, stopped before it and called back. “Mister Fisher? What is this?”

  “What does it look like to you?” he replied from down by the entrance.

  She read the signs to him and repeated, “What is it?”

  “It sounds like a door with a sign on it,” he replied.

  “Should we open it?” Bartlet snapped back.

  “Do you have another way to get to the junior level?” Mister Fisher asked. There was little inflection in his voice, and I was not sure if he was serious or using some of his reflection-style of teaching.

  “We could scale the exterior, and come in a window,” Timofei offered. A few chuckles followed his comment.

  “Good idea. Timofei, come on down here and get busy on doing just that,” Mister Fisher commanded. “I heard Jane and Tudeng laughing at the suggestion, and I take that as support for his idea. You two also come down and begin your work at scaling the exterior of the lodge.”

  The two girls mumbled a few choice comments, including a profanity, as they followed Timofey down the stairs. They had their gear with them. I heard Mister Fisher strongly encourage them to make the attempt, but they would be limited to the supplies they were carrying.

  “Hey Bartlet? What is your solution to this situation?” Mister Fisher then called back up the stairs.

  “The other juniors came up here, and they must have successfully used this passageway.”

  I noted that Bartlet had not called it a door.

  Bartlet went on, “So, obviously, this is an egress point. I would like to open it. Do I have your permission?”

  “You may attempt anything you feel will help you gain access to the junior level. You have been at Raven Academy for a year now, and I trust your instincts. However, your classmates here will also be attempting to enter, by scaling the exterior of the lodge. Does anyone else have any ideas on how to get to the junior level?”

  None of the rest of us offered any suggestions.

  Bartlet looked at the nine-section control pad that was next to that strange door. Its various sections were each glowing a different color. She pressed the center section which was blue, and it flashed off as she touched it.

  “Would you give me the correct sequence, or combination?” Bartlet asked. “This door appears to be locked.”

  “Ask me again in a few moments, your friends down here are struggling to find ways to climb up the exterior,” Mister Fisher said. He then disappeared from view. I could hear Marie barking, so I wondered what they were doing.

  “Try pressing the blue three times,” Everett suggested.

  “Why?” Bartlet replied.

  “My uncle in Olathe keeps his alcohol locked up,” Everett answered, “and has a door with that kind of color pad. He always just hits blue three times and it opens.”

  “Why do you know how to get to his alcohol?” Carol asked, but her voice was low. “Is it can
e-cane, beer, vodka, or bourbon?”

  Everett was blushing, and stammered some response. “So, I like to pick locks, what of it?”

  Bartlet hit the blue section three times. It did not light up again, but a voice came from the door.

  “Access denied. Please entry proper security sequence,” the mechanic voice was annoying.

  “Well your idea was stupid,” Bartlet said.

  “Leave me alone with it and I will get it open,” Everett said, but scowled and looked away. “I know I could crack it.”

  “Right, just bragging again.” She then pressed each corner, making a pattern. All of those colors went dark right after she pressed them.

  “Access denied. Please entry proper security sequence.”

  Bartlet then pressed each of the remaining colored sections, which all also went dark.

  “Access denied. You have exceeded maximum attempts at entry. The proper authorities have been notified,” The mechanical voice from the door stated.

  Mister Fisher stepped back in at the bottom of the stairs. “I was just notified that you have been locked out.”

  “You were notified?” Bartlet asked.

  “I am the proper authority for this class. Your friends down here have not been able to scale the exterior. I allowed them to even use a ladder. Marie even tried to jump onto the ladder to help them, but even with the dog’s help, they could not do it. They will be joining you.”

  He adjusted something on his own watch, and the lights on the nine-section color control pad came on again.

  “How many possible combinations are there?” Mister Fisher asked.

  I answered that one, “It depends.”

  “Kalju is correct. You have insufficient information to give an exact answer. It could be one to nearly infinity. So, shall we run some mental gymnastics? If the sequence is ten symbols long, and each color is used, how many combinations are there?”

  No one wanted to answer.

  “A quiet group. So, Radha, how many possible combinations with the parameters I just set?”

  She gave the correct answer.

  “And if the sequence is only six letters long, but can use any color any number of times, or any combination of the nine colors?”

  Pilliroog gave the correct answer.

  Mister Fisher asked several more variations on how many combinations were possible, and we tried our best to answer them. Finally, he then suggested, “Try blue, yellow, green, white, white.”

  Bartlet grudgingly tapped in that code.

  “Access granted. Be aware that gravity is altered beyond this threshold,” the mechanical voice of the door said.

  The door slid open. Inside was a sphere about ten meters in diameter. I was astounded. I knew the first floor where we had lived for the last year was only about three meters tall. The second and third floors looked, from the outside, to be about that same height. Yet here, the GAGS was too big for the lodge. My eyes said that was what I was seeing, but my mind objected. The doorway we entered was one of many pressure doors located at various places around that sphere. The flat floor in front of the door had room for only about four of us. Bartlet, two others, and I, stepped onto that flat space. We grabbed onto hand rails which were located near the pressure door.

  Mister Fisher’s voice came from our wristwatches, “This sphere is gimbaled to be able to pivot and align with other doors. Gravity manipulation is variable in the gravity altered gimballed spheres.”

  “This cannot be this tall,” Kulm said as he stared up at the ceiling.

  Matkaja took a rolled-up pair of socks out of her bundle, and tossed it straight up. It bounced off something about three meters high. Although, what it hit I could not tell. The sphere’s far wall looked like it was ten meters away in that direction.

  “Is this all illusion? Are these all just displays in the permalloy around us?” Matkaja wondered.

  “An emulator, to visually simulate this type of room,” Kulm affirmed. “Very well made. I am impressed. The designs behind a…”

  Suddenly, the floor beneath me shifted, and I was jostled around. Kulm was hanging onto the handrail. The room was turning and the small platform we had been standing on was becoming a wall.

  “I left my stuff on the stairway!” Bartlet cried out. “The door is closed and moving away from us.”

  “It feels very real,” Matkaja stated with awe in her voice. She tried to say something more, but coughed. Then she finally got the words out. “Kulm must have it right. This is a simulator.”

  “I called it an emulator, but I might be wrong! It is genuinely shifting gravity vectors!” Kulm cried out. “This is more than just visual images.”

  Right then, I tripped and dropped all my bundle. “Hey! This is real!” My clothing, toiletries, and conservation slate flew in different directions, all following the new vector which was perceived as down. “Grab that!”

  Bartlet caught some of my stuff, but Matkaja snagged my conservation slate before it bonked into Kulm. He had fallen to his knees to avoid my junk. My bedding was flailing about like the proverbial sheet on the clothesline, in a wind.

  A doorway aligned with where we were standing. I gathered up my belongings and stepped to that door’s platform. Then I looked around for the door where we had entered. It slid back into its pocket, and the other students were peering at us from an oblique angle. It was sure strange. They were not quite upside down, but they were canted in a peculiar manner. I felt like I was standing upright with gravity beneath my feet, but the students I saw looking at us, appeared to be standing with their feet to the floor, but it was way off how I was standing. It made me dizzy.

  “How can this place be this big?” Tudeng called over. Her voice sounded far away. “The physics from the outside prevent this much interior space.”

  “Beware! Do not fall! It is real!” I yelled.

  Kulm looked confused, but nodded his head.

  “We are stepping out of here. Would someone over there please bring my things?” Bartlet asked.

  “Sure!” Pilliroog answered. “I will bring all your stuff.”

  Bartlet, Kulm, Matkaja and I left that GAGS and entered the junior level. As the door shut behind us, it had those same warnings on it which were on the door at top of the stairs. “Gravity Alteration Gimbaled Sphere” with the sign below it. “Warning: Oblique Gravity Manipulation Adjustment Beyond This Point” in white lettering on that orange rectangle.

  Now that I think about it, I am surprised I nearly forgot to tell you about the GAGS. That was our only way in or out. We soon learned that even though it did look to be a sphere of about ten meters in diameter, that was all illusion. It was actually a chamber about three meters square, but it had extremely advanced gravity manipulation fields, and optical illusions within it. Only four of us were ever allowed to enter it at a time.

  “So, you made it to the junior level,” Mister Fisher stated. He was standing behind us in the main dining area. I never did figure out how he had gotten up there.

  “Why is that GAGS there?” Bartlet demanded.

  “Obviously, it is part of your training,” Mister Fisher stated rather causally. “I will inform you that Gravity Altered Gimballed Spheres are located at key points throughout the Colony Ship Marathon. I suggest you familiarize yourself with its operation.”

  “Does it get zero gravity inside there?” Kulm asked.

  “A reasonable question. Did you feel like zero gravity?” Mister Fisher asked.

  “No.”

  “Kulm? How many times have you been in zero gravity?” Mister Fisher asked him.

  “Never, but I would think I would know what that felt like, right?” Kulm asked, but his question lacked confidence.

  “Familiarize yourself with that entry. You will be using it often,” Mister Fisher stated.

  By then four more students had entered, including Pilliroog who was carrying his own gear as well as Bartlet’s.

  I looked around and caught Brett’s eye. He no
dded, and so we agreed to be roommates again. Actually, no one switched, which sort-of surprised me, as I knew several of the other students who had complained at length about their roommates. I suppose, sometimes the familiar just feels comfortable.

  Our room had permalloy walls, as well as two standard beds, and desks which were similar to what we had before. Brett complained about the lack of bunk beds, but not with a lot of energy.

  I went to the window and looked out. We had picked the opposite side of the building, or I guess Brett had, as I had just followed him.

  That junior level year continued our training, but built heavily upon the prior things we had learned. The basic classes were replaced by more advanced ones. Major areas we studied were: science, marine biology, oceanography, anthropology, chemistry, sociology, several kinds of zoology, all manner of mathematics, astronomical plotting, stellar cartography, political theory, as well as some engineering classes.