Nano Contestant - Episode 4: Arctic Survival: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series)

by Leif Sterling

  Coach nodded. “EQ is emotional quotient. It’s like IQ for intelligence, but it stands for emotion. If it’s that low, it means that he basically has almost no emotions to speak of. I’ve heard of racers trying to lower their susceptibility to emotions in the race, because emotions can influence you make irrational decisions.”

  Skylar pointed at the bottom section of Pillar’s profile. “It says here that he saw a lot of action in the Iraqi war.”

  Roland nodded. “In the SBS, you can be sure of it. If he’s a digital, he probably got an app to turn off or suppress his emotions. I’ve heard of other soldiers with extreme cases of post traumatic stress having apps implanted in their brains to help them cope with their emotions.

  Spectra continued walking on her same path, carrying her items from the equipment room. She didn’t even seem to notice that there was someone in her path.

  Coach zoomed in Roland’s video feed on Spectra and Pillar. “Watch them carefully. How they handle things off the field will tell us a lot about how they will react on the field.”

  Roland nodded and took a few steps closer to the spot where Pillar stood.

  Spectra walked right up to Pillar. She stopped one inch before she reached him. Then, also with a face devoid of expression, she stared intently into his eyes.

  Coach folded his arms. “If he starts a fight outside the field, he could get disqualified immediately.”

  Unmoved and not intimidated, Pillar stayed true to his namesake and remained in Spectra’s path.

  Skylar adjusted her glasses and then stared at the scene on the video feed. “I think they are both too professional to do anything stupid. Duke would have already done something stupid by now.”

  The thought of Duke getting thrown out was enough to make Roland half smile.

  Spectra, while never breaking eye contact, raised her right eyebrow. Then she motioned her head ever so slightly to the right.

  Pillar, maintaining his steady gaze, side stepped to his right, directly opposite of Spectra’s motioning.

  Spectra continued on her trek out of the waiting area.

  Roland leaned his head right. “Coach. Any ideas what that was all about?”

  Coach stroked his chin briefly. “No. It was a showdown to be sure, but other than that, I don’t know.”

  Skylar sighed. “Wow. Isn’t it obvious? I know exactly what happened. Spectra has not even acknowledged any of the other competitors until now. Pillar taking a stand was his way of getting her to acknowledge that he really is a competitor. It was also his way of letting her know that he was coming for her position. She did acknowledge him by staring at him for so long. Then she commanded him to move to the side. He showed respect to her position by moving, but defiance by moving the opposite way she commanded.”

  Roland shook his head. “Boy. That’s not what I got at all.”

  Coach chuckled. “Me either. But you are absolutely right. Good analysis.”

  CHAPTER TEN:

  RED

  A SHORT, RED haired man stepped into the aisle after Spectra had gone by.

  Roland leaned his head to the right. “Do we know who that racer is?”

  Skylar typed in a few commands on her terminal and hit enter. She swiped the screen to her left and pulled up a picture that matched the red haired man. “His name is Red. Seems appropriate. It says that he is a parkour practitioner and a silver medal Olympic gymnast. The rest of his profile shows that he runs in high social circles and has degrees from both Harvard and Yale.”

  Roland watched as the little, red firecracker of a man turned to address the rest of the contestants. At only five foot four, he embodied the perfect gymnast build. He also sported a red handlebar mustache that seemed to take on a life of its own as he spoke.

  Red turned towards the rest of the contestants and held his arms straight out. He bugged his eyes wide and then pointed after Spectra’s retreating form. “Wow! How totally awkward was that?” He laughed loudly. “Did you think they were going to kill each other with their eyes?” He mimicked Pillar’s expressionless face and staring eyes. Then his smirk returned. “I’ve totally got to learn how to do that!” He looked around at the other contestants, who were all now staring at him. “Dude. Everyone is so intense here.” Then he chuckled at his own joke and wandered back into the crowd.

  Skylar swiped to another page on her screen. “Red is currently in position 4 in the Tech Games.”

  Roland nodded. He was at the very bottom of the list to receive equipment for Game Two. He watched as more contestants were called into the equipment room, emerging a few minutes later with their chosen items.

  The first few contestants that had gone in returned with items that were identical to Spectra’s choices. Now, those items must have run out, because contestants were coming out with all sorts of different things.

  Ivan wandered up behind Skylar and coach. He was toweling off his head and beard. “Ivan never seen such an expensive room.”

  Coach gestured towards Roland’s video feed. He motioned for Skylar to mute his mic. Then he gave Ivan a quick overview of the different screens that they had pulled up and what some of the pertinent data meant.

  Ivan nodded vigorously as he watched where Coach was pointing. Then his eyes lit up. “You seeing through Roland’s eyes because of Ivan’s work, da?”

  Skylar continued typing and did not look up. “Yes. That’s right. You injected nano cells directly into Roland’s optic nerve. Those cells are now in every part of his body. We can control them with the plugins that we’ve developed.”

  Coach gave Ivan one of their spare headsets. “Put this on. Then you’ll be able to communicate with Roland too.”

  Ivan yanked the headset from Coach’s hand and crammed it down on his head. Then he fiddled with the microphone placement. He moved it closer and farther from his mouth.

  Skylar watched as Ivan continued messing with his microphone. Finally, when she could take no more, she stood up with a huff. “Stop. Just stop.” Then she carefully adjusted Ivan’s headset to the proper position. “Now. Don’t move it.” She sat back down in her chair.

  Ivan grinned his big, toothy smile and with one finger, nudged the microphone ever so slightly. “Roland? You are hearing Ivan?”

  Roland kept his head down. “Yes, Ivan. I hear you.”

  Coach motioned for Skylar to mute his and Ivan’s headsets. “Ivan. There is a lot at stake here. We need your help to make sure that we select the best cold weather equipment. Roland will only get to choose five items from the equipment room.”

  Ivan nodded and stuffed his hands comfortably behind the flap of his overalls. “Five items, da? You not need to worry.” Ivan pulled out one hand and pointed his thumb towards his chest. “Ivan knows exactly how to stay warm. Ivan is expert at two things in life: staying warm and drinking vodka.”

  Coach pointed at a contestant that was coming out of the equipment room. He motioned for Skylar to unmute their headsets. “Ivan. Look at the items this contestant has. What do you think of them?”

  Ivan leaned closer to the holographic monitor. He reached in with both hands to zoom in on the objects the contestant was carrying. “No good. Him is an idiot. Him going to freeze to death on first day. Him has no coat. His clothes not going to help him. They too thin. Frostbite in four hours.” He shook his head most violently side-to-side. “Ivan know cold.” Ivan pulled out a hundred dollar bill and set it on the desk. “Ivan say he freeze to death on first day. Ivan have one hundred dollars to say that he freeze to death on first day.”

  Skylar shook her head. She got up and pointed at the very thin, nearly see through garment that the contestant had selected. “Ivan. This is the latest in cold weather technology. You are saying that this contestant will die from the cold on the first day, even with the latest cold weather protection?”

  Ivan nodded vigorously.

  Roland’s turn to enter the equipment room finally came. All of the other racers had already gone in, selected and left with
their equipment. The Pinnacle employee motioned for Roland to step forward. “You may select only five items from the equipment room.”

  Roland nodded and walked into the room.

  Coach had Roland’s video feed pulled up on the largest holographic screen. “Okay. Roland. Walk around the room and look over the items. Ivan will help us to find the best equipment.”

  Ivan adjusted his headset again. “Yes. Ivan help you find equipment to stay warm, da?”

  Roland looked around the room. There were tables along three of the walls. They were mostly bare, picked clean by the other forty-seven racers. Above the tables were cubbyholes built into the walls. Most of those were also empty. Roland walked over to some bright red cloth. “This looks like a giant undershirt of some kind.” He picked up the shirt. As he did, the rest of the material unfolded. It was a full body pair of long johns complete with leggings sewn to reach Roland’s ankles. Roland sighed and set them back on the table.

  Ivan held out his hand. “Wait! Long johns keep you very warm. What they made out of? Cotton or wool?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN:

  FIVE

  ROLAND PICKED UP the embarrassing looking, bright red long johns once more and read the material tag. “Wool. Probably don’t want that then, right? Cotton would breathe better.”

  Ivan shook his head vigorously again. “No! You not want cotton! Cotton will quickly cause hypothermia! It trap moisture between your layers. You want wool. You want those long johns!”

  Coach nodded at Skylar and raised both eyebrows.

  Skylar was typing away on her holographic keyboard. “Roland. I hate to say this, but it looks like Ivan is right about the wool versus the cotton.”

  Roland wadded up the hideous, bright red long johns and put them under his arm. “One down, four to go.” He walked forward to the next table. There were two sets of gloves left. Roland picked up the first set of gloves and tried them on. The gloves were extremely thin. “They are almost like surgical gloves.”

  Ivan shook his head again and crossed his arms. “No. You not want those gloves. Those are new tech. They only you get frostbite before first day is over.”

  Roland moved on to the second set of gloves. He picked one up and looked at it. It was a huge, furry mitten. Nearly two inches of thick animal fur lined the outside. It was cut in the shape of a very large oven mitt. Roland slid the glove on. It was so large that it covered his entire hand and half of his forearm. Roland could not suppress a chuckle as he looked at it.

  “It looks like I put my whole hand inside of a rabbit.”

  Ivan gave a big thumbs up. “Yes! Those the gloves you want. Ivan have pair just like those when him used to live in Siberia!”

  Skylar smirked. “That does not surprise me.”

  Roland walked to the next table. There were several pairs of winter shoes. On the left side of the table were several light and thin pairs of shoes. The further right that Roland looked, the uglier and bulkier the shoes became. “Let me guess. Pick the giant, ugly boots?”

  Ivan smiled and pointed towards the right side of the table, despite the fact that Roland could not see his suggestion. “Yes! You very smart, like Russian! You want waterproof, insulated work boots.”

  Roland took one last look at the sleek looking running shoes on the left hand side of the table. “You know I have to go sixty-four miles a day in these boots, right? Are you sure that the lighter ones would not be better?”

  Ivan nodded his head. “Ivan certain. You pick those Cinderella slippers, you not even make it half a day until you get frostbite.”

  Roland walked all the way to the far right end of the table. The boots he was looking at seemed to be the illegitimate spawn of his old military boots and an astronaut’s moon boots. Roland found a pair of the chunky looking boots in his size. He grabbed them and stuffed them under his arm along with the long johns and the furry mittens. He turned towards the center of the room. There was a mobile coat rack that had many empty hangers and three sad excuses for winter wear left on them.

  Before Roland could make a choice between any of the coats, Ivan pointed excitedly at the monstrous green one in the middle. “That one! That green one!”

  Roland walked over to the green coat. He took it off of its hanger. “Of course, it is the most repulsive thing I have ever seen.” Roland ran his hand along the fur, which lined the hood of the coat. “This coat has the leftovers from my gloves.”

  Ivan smiled as he looked at the coat. “That parka from the Russian Cold War. Ivan’s whole family have one of those. Very warm!”

  Roland tried on the heavy parka. It smelled musty, but it did feel warm. Roland took the coat off and wadded it up under his other arm. He headed towards the last table, which had a few accessory items on it. There was a rusty pocketknife, a small book of matches and a brown stone about the size of a deck of cards.

  Coach looked over the few remaining items. “Well. The knife is definitely out. You don’t need a rock to weigh you down, so how about the matches?”

  Roland picked up the matches and looked at them. He opened its cardboard flap. It held twenty-four matches.

  Ivan zoomed in on the brown stone next to the matches on Roland’s video feed. His eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands twice. “No! You not want book of matches! You want stone!”

  Roland set the matches down and picked up the stone to look at it more carefully. It was smooth and brown and seemed to be a rather ordinary piece of rock. “Ivan? What’s so special about the rock?”

  Ivan continued pointing at the rock. “Not rock. Flint. Flintstone. Strike with metal and get spark for fire! Much better than matches!” Roland picked up the crummy looking pocketknife from the table and pulled the blade out. He struck it a few times against the edge of the stone. Sparks jumped off of the stone and fell onto the table. Roland’s eyes widened. “Wow. I’ve read about flint stones, but I’ve never seen one before.”

  Ivan’s smug look filled the room. “That’s because you are City Boy. But you not need to worry, Ivan make you into a good Russian yet!”

  Roland grinned as he showed his five items to the Pinnacle employee that was posted at the door. The man scanned each item and then nodded at Roland. Roland headed back to the teams’ overnight room for one last good night’s sleep before the race.

  CHAPTER TWELVE:

  UPGRADE

  BACK IN THE team’s overnight room, Roland carefully laid out his five items from the equipment room for everyone to see. “Okay. These are all I have to make it through Game Two.”

  Ivan heartwarmingly whacked Roland on the back hard enough to make him lose his breath. “These are more than enough! Ivan live through long winters in Siberia with less than these.” Ivan put his paw of a hand on Roland’s shoulder. “Ivan pick items warm enough to make City Boy sweat like Russian in the winter.”

  Skylar tucked a lock of purple hair behind her ear.

  Roland did not look convinced.

  There was a knock at the door. Coach went to answer it. It was the valet service.

  “A package has arrived for you sir. Please sign here.” He held out a small holographic device for Coach to sign his name on.

  Coach signed and took the package. He walked over by Skylar. “It looks like this is what we’ve been waiting for.”

  Roland poured himself a frosty cup of espresso.

  Ivan watched Roland as he downed the espresso in a single gulp. “Shame you drink coffee with no vodka.”

  Skylar opened the box and pulled out its contents. “This is from Angela, our other plugin designer. She was able to work out an upgrade for this race. Do you remember how you lost control of your nano system when you were under the ice water?

  Roland nodded. “I wish I could forget it. How does it work? Do you just upload the new software?”

  Skylar unwrapped the paper that was around the contents of the package. She held up a syringe with a six-inch needle. “This is not your average upgrade, I’m afraid.” She handed the syrin
ge to Coach but directed her words to Roland. “The syringe contains modified nano cells that should not be disrupted by the extreme cold.”

  Roland rolled up his sleeve and came to stand next to Coach. “Okay. Let me have it.”

  Coach shook his head. “Roland. This one is a little different. It is not injected into your arm. It has to go directly into your heart so that the upgrade will get circulated as quickly as possible.”

  Deep furrows appeared on Roland’s brow as he removed his shirt. “I don’t like the way you guys keep saying ‘average’ and ‘a little different.’ Right in my heart? You guys really have to come up with better ways of delivering upgrades.” He lay down on his bed. “Sky. Crank up the pain blocker.”

  Skylar shook her head. “You are out of luck again, Roland. The nano system must be completely shut down during the upgrade. I can turn it on only after the injection has been made and has had two minutes of circulation.”

  Roland’s eyes widened. “This just keeps getting better and better. Let’s get it over with.” He turned towards Coach. “Coach. I’d rather have Ivan do this. He did my injection to the optical nerve, so I feel he’s best qualified.”

  Coach handed the syringe to Ivan. “Sounds like a good plan. Sky, get the holographic x-ray pulled up here so they can see.

  Ivan held the syringe steadily and turned towards Skylar. “Pretty Girl, you have nothing to worry about. Ivan is also very good at heart injections. Ivan used to work on pig farm. Ivan give lots of shots to pig hearts.” Ivan beamed with pride at his statement.

  “You inspire such confidence.” Skylar pulled the x-ray holograph up over Roland’s chest. It showed Roland’s rib cage. Then she overlaid that image with the image from a holographic sonogram to better reveal the soft tissues. “Ivan. You need to go in through the left ventricle and make the injection.”