by Jay Korza
“Does that include me?” Jeeves asked.
“No, Jeeves.” Emily sighed. “I think the two of you are on the same rank level when it comes to giving or receiving orders. Neither of you can order the other one around.”
Jeeves’ segmented body usually sat at around five foot nine in height but had a range of between five foot three and fourteen feet eleven inches. When he fully collapsed himself during a conversation, it usually meant that he was disappointed; he did so now. “Yes, ma’am.”
Bloom nudged his buddy. “Dude, you still get to boss around all of those pansy VIs onboard the ship.”
Jeeves’ outward expression—that is to say, his robot mannerisms—didn’t change the slightest at Bloom’s attempt to make him feel better.
Emily continued. “The other two new members to my team are Second Lieutenants Jenarah and her brother Kuruk. Though they are also lieutenants, they fall into our chain of command after Gunnery Sergeant Wilks and Chief O’Connor. As newly commissioned officers, they have been put with our unit as a learning experience for them. The goal is to get them trained up so they can then take charge of the second Scientific Force Recon Marine unit that will be modeled after our own. So we need to teach them well if we want our legacy to continue.” Emily’s last statement got an “Ooh-rah!” from the rest of her team.
“Also,” Emily added, “just to get this out of the way, Jenarah is blind and Kuruk is deaf.” There were no murmurs among the operators but there were some very quizzical glances at one another.
Kuruk broke the silence. “My commlink allows me to hear anything that a teammate says, because it inputs sound directly into my brain. So you don’t have to talk any differently when you’re around me. However, I cannot hear any other sounds around me.”
“Can’t you just program your commlink to also relay environmental sounds to you as well?” Bloom asked.
“Yes, I can. I choose not to. I can hear, for lack of a better word, through my sister as she can see through me.” Now there were murmurs in the crowd. “It’s best to demonstrate our abilities rather than try to explain them. We had planned to go over this during our first training session with the team.”
Emily stepped in. “Kuruk and his sister are trained soldiers on their home world Grethnar. I promise you that they live up to our high standards in combat. We will go over their abilities in training. As Kuruk said, the demonstration makes it easier to grasp the accompanying description.”
Seth jumped in. “Speaking of which, unless anyone has any questions, I think it’s time for our first group PT session.” Seth waited a moment to make sure no one had anything further to add. “Great. Then we’ll start with a game of follow-the-leader—a sixty-minute run throughout the ship. For those of you who haven’t played our version of the game before, the rules are simple: one person leads the group on a run anywhere throughout the ship the leader cares to go, and everyone else follows. The leader is the leader until someone else can not only catch up, but can also take over as the leader, using any means necessary. Questions?”
Seth saw Joker smile in the back row. “One last rule. When I said the leader can go anywhere he wants to, I mean anywhere inside the ship. No external vacuum routes are allowed. Understand, Joker?”
“First day as a captain and you’re already taking all the fun out of our games.” Joker smiled even more.
“Be that as it may,” Seth began, “the ship’s captain was fairly pissed last time you led us outside. Let’s try to keep the old man happy on this cruise. Alright, everybody, let’s hit it.”
Seth barely finished his last sentence when he saw the team’s only remaining Shirka, Fang, spring from his seat near the front row and practically run over everyone between him and the hatchway. Bodies were thrown to the ground as the seven-foot-two-inch werewolf-looking teammate made his way to the hallway so he could start the game as the leader. Fang came from Emily’s team, so Seth wasn’t sure whether he had ever played this game before, but he seemed to understand the rules well enough—there weren’t any.
“Son of a bitch!” Snake had taken a claw to the face as Fang pushed him out of the way. “You are destined to be a rug in front of a fireplace somewhere!”
The game was on now and with a group of operators like these, everyone wanted to be the leader and it showed. Bodies were already being thrown around and even a few elbows and knees got into the mix. Having played the game before, Seth knew the best thing was to wait until the room cleared before he made his move. They still had over fifty-nine minutes left in the game and it would be easier to catch up to the leader rather than fight his way to the fatal funnel of the hatchway.
Seth put a gentle hand on Emily’s arm. “Give it a second to clear out. Neither of us are a match physically to most of these bruisers.”
Almost as if to prove Seth’s point, Davies actually picked up Jockey and tossed him a few feet back past Seth and Emily. “See. And Davies isn’t even the strongest one in there.”
Emily smiled. “Sure, but sometimes brains and agility are more important than brawn.”
Emily took two long strides towards Davies, whose back was now to her, and jumped up on his shoulders and pushed herself over his head. The group of operators, now about twenty of thirty-six still left in the room trying to get out, was so clumped together that Emily was able to crowd surf over them and get out of the conference room. As she slid out the hatchway, she chanced a glance back at Seth and raised one eyebrow at him.
Seth just smiled and knew he had to keep this girl around as long as she would have him. Finally, the crowd left the room and Seth followed. The only operator left in the room was Jeeves. Being a robot, he wasn’t really suited for the team-building exercise that was currently underway.
Jeeves rolled out of the conference room and headed towards the gym. He knew the team would end up there so he decided to get things ready for them. He had some workout ideas he wanted to go over with the training VI before the team showed up. Of course, two computers exchanging ideas over a high-speed connection would only take an estimated three point four minutes. Jeeves would have to find something else to do to keep himself occupied once he was at the gym.
Back in the hallways, things were getting fairly intense. Daria and Reaper knew they’d be mending some wounds before dinner tonight. Probably on each other as well.
Seth only had a few additions to his team since their last mission and he had trained with them for weeks now. He knew from Emily’s team’s reports what they had done, and he had even seen them training from time to time, so he had an idea of how good they were. He wasn’t really worried about the two teams integrating with each other; he just wanted it to go as smoothly as possible. Seth kept more of an eye on Emily’s people just so he would get to know them better and see how they liked to do things.
Seth saw Jenarah running in front of her brother Kuruk. For a blind woman, she sure didn’t act like one. Seth had read the siblings’ files and had a basic understanding of how they worked together. Jenarah couldn’t “see” using Kuruk’s eyes, but she picked up on what he thought about what he saw. The reverse was true for Kuruk; he picked up on what Jenarah thought about what she heard.
The details were much more detailed and convoluted than that, but that was the best way Seth had been able to reconcile with the information he had read.
Both of the siblings had implants that they could turn on and off that would augment their absent senses, but neither ever used them. The only reason they had the implants was because their own military mandated that any deaf or blind soldier had to have the implants or they couldn’t serve in the military. Seth saw that the pair did better than okay without the implants.
As Seth mulled this over, he saw Jenarah put on a burst of speed and pass a few of the other operators. Once she led the small pack, she purposely tripped up the operator behind her so he would topple the people behind him.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you there!” Jenarah already started with the b
lind jokes. Seth thought that she probably did that early on so her new teammates would know that she wasn’t at all self-conscious of her blindness. Some non-human species had extremely odd senses of humor and Seth hoped that her culture wasn’t prone to excessive puns.
Seth wasn’t sure whether Kuruk sensed what his sister was about to do or if he just knew her well enough to figure it out before she did it. Either way, he was ready for the small group of bodies that fell in front of him and he evaded them easily.
Seth thought the brother and sister team were probably working together somehow, that was until he saw Jenarah swerve unexpectedly in the hallway as though she avoided an obstacle, but none were in her way. As she avoided the phantom object, she slowed slightly but enough for Kuruk to catch up and push her into a wall so that he could pass her.
“You slime-covered mud slug!” Jenarah yelled after her brother.
Apparently, either sibling could trick the other one into hearing or seeing something that wasn’t there if they concentrated hard enough. Kuruk had made Jenarah think there was an open hatch to her left and she moved out of the way of it. Seth would later find out that only the two could fool each other; nothing else had ever given them a false sense of their surroundings.
Seth finally caught up to the head of the pack and found Fang stopped at an intersecting hallway. He also noticed that Fang had a patch of fur missing from his neck. Shirkas had extremely impressive fur-growing capabilities, along with control over it, and it was already starting to grow back.
“Why are we stopped?” Seth asked.
Fang looked at him with a bit of hunger in his eyes. “Your teammate Joker took the lead and lost us. I’m trying to scent track him now.”
“Okay.” Seth still wasn’t sure why Fang waited. A Shirka could almost scent track a human in the vacuum of space. “I still don’t understand why we’re not moving.”
Fang growled under his breath. “Joker threw some sort of spice in my nose as he ripped some of my fur out.”
“Ah.” Seth now understood. When Fang felt the pain of his fur being pulled out, he instinctively inhaled. Joker threw spice in Fang’s face—probably paprika, he loved paprika—and Fang inhaled it. Now it interfered with his scent-tracking abilities.
“Yeah, Joker is kind of special that way.” Seth looked down the hallways for any sign of his friend. “If he’s in the lead, and he can’t go outside, he’ll look for the next most annoying route he can possibly take.”
Seth slowly turned back towards the hallway on the left as his eye had caught something on the first pass. “There.” He pointed to the Jefferies tube near the maintenance hatch.
Fang walked over and pressed his nose right to the edge of the tube. He barked a confirmation to Seth. “I can barely smell him but you’re right—he went into the tube system.”
“Great.” Seth shrugged. “Let’s go!”
By the time Seth’s group caught up with Joker’s, the first team was already running into the gym. Seth saw that Daria and Bloom had stayed with the lead group, which mostly contained Seth’s men. He figured that it was the first time Emily’s team had played such a game so they understandably didn’t maintain most of the front-running positions. But looking at their two teams as a whole, he knew that from now on, things were going to be competitive between everyone.
Gunnery Sergeant Wilks was already wrestling with Joker. They had been vying for first position as they entered the gym and decided that a tie wasn’t going to suit either of them. Wilks finally pinned Joker, who tapped out. Both men stood and shook hands with an added clap from each on the other’s shoulder. They were smiling and being good sports about the match. That was a good thing, Seth thought.
“Great run, people.” Surgeon’s voice boomed in the gym. “Though I think I would’ve rather have gone outside than through those Jefferies tubes.” The other operators laughed as Joker took a bow.
“Now,” Surgeon continued, “we’re going to mix everyone up and break into groups of four or five people in each group. The idea is to get to know one another in a training environment so we’re ready to work together in a fighting environment.
“Each group will rotate through the stations that are already set up in the gym. We’re only doing forty minutes per station, so don’t lollygag around. I’ll let Gunnery Sergeant Wilks explain the stations since he set most of them up.”
Emily liked the way the first sergeant from one team set up the gunnery sergeant for the other team. It showed all of the operators that both team sergeants worked together and agreed on things that were being done.
Wilks stepped forward. “Thank you, Mike. Or Surgeon. I’m still not sure which you prefer to be called.”
“I’m not either.” Mike smiled. “But since I’m the only Mike or Surgeon here, either will do.” He turned to address everyone else. “My team has a history of being pretty awful at coming up with call signs, as is apparent by my own. Which I would like to add for the record, I didn’t come up with.”
“Sure you didn’t.” Daria teased her husband.
“Anyway, for those who are new to either unit, we’ll think of call signs for you guys as we go along and figure out what suits you best. For everyone else, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. I’m truly sorry for that, Fang.”
“You humans are not very creative with Shirka nicknames.” Fang scoffed. “But I don’t really care what my packmates call me, so it doesn’t matter anyway.”
“How very magnanimous of you, sir,” Surgeon joked. “The only call sign that will change will be Captain Fields’. We can’t have our CO being called ‘Cadet’ by those in his command. We also can’t go with Captain because that could get confusing with Captain Riley when our teams are together on a mission. I think Wilks and I will get together later and think of something fitting for our captains.”
“Great,” Emily and Daria said in unison.
“Well then,” Wilks continued, “as I started to say, here are the instructions for each rotation. The first station is hand-to-hand practice. Go through the standard Marine Corps advanced tactics drills. Feel free to add to the drill with your own variations and teach the others in your group.
“The second station is in the virtual reality chamber. Jeeves is setting up quick scenarios that will take only two to three minutes each. The idea is to get a lot of quick reps in for building clearing and hostage rescue tactics.
“The third station is physical team-building exercises. You’ll have twenty different tasks to perform. The group that gets the most tasks done will get a surprise later.”
“Pudding. It’s gonna be pudding. Wilks always gives us pudding as prizes.” Hood crossed his arms. He didn’t like pudding.
“It’s not pudding. When we’re in the field, what else can I get but extra pudding?” Wilks said in mock defensiveness. “It is food-related, but it’s pretty awesome. You’ll find out tonight at dinner.”
Wilks went through the rest of the stations and then the teams started on the rest of their nine-hour training day.
That night at dinner, Fang, Shar’tuk, Stroth, and Demetri shared their prize. The latest supply freighter to enter the system had fresh steaks from one of the nearer outposts. Coupled with the steaks, Wilks added a bottle of Scotch from the Fernap Nation. Wilks wasn’t much of a Scotch man but he had been told that the Fernap Nation made some of the best Scotch in the Coalition, maybe even the galaxy.
Both teams sat, ate, drank, and shared stories with one another. Emily and Seth purposely sat apart from each other but had made plans to meet up after dinner. They looked at each other and shared a conspiratorial smile.
Daria, on the other hand, had no problem with sitting next to her love. “It’s good to see everyone getting along so well.”
Mike had his arm around the back of his wife’s chair. “Did you think they wouldn’t?”
“No, I knew that they would work well together on a professional level, but it’s good to see them actually becoming friends. We
both know that people fight harder when their friends are next to them and not just someone they see as another soldier.” Daria took another bite of her chicken—probably chicken—dinner. She made a sour face as she choked it down.
Mike took a bite of his. “It’s not that bad.”
“Yes it is.”
“Try harder next time.” He teased his wife. “It pays to be a winner. Just look at those four eating their steaks.”
“Yeah, you try working with Boddie some time.”
“Was he being difficult? He’s one of the new guys on the team. His record is pretty good, nothing extravagant for deployments but nothing too mundane either.” Mike sipped the swill that passed for beer on the ship. “I’ve noticed a slight bit of an attitude but I was attributing it to be young. But if he needs an adjustment, let me know.”
“Oh he does, believe me.” Daria pushed her plate forward. She had had enough. “But I’ll be the one to do it. I just didn’t want to mess with him on the first day.”
“Thanks, babe.” Mike just snickered and thought about the wakeup call Boddie was going to get next time he crossed Daria.
Emily leaned over to Jenson, who was also new on Seth’s team. “You did really well today.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” Emily began, “but you’re a bit older than most soldiers starting out in special operations.” He didn’t show it other than some gray hair.
“Yes, ma’am.” He saw that Emily waited for a bit more of a conversation. “Since I’m a human and Nortes hybrid, I age a bit different than either species. Nortes live on average for about one hundred and seventy years. Humans are up to about one hundred and ten if they don’t participate in any age reduction therapies.
“Even though humans are living longer than they ever have in their history, they still kind of stick to their old ways when it comes to life progression milestones. They get married in their twenties and make lifelong decisions in that same time frame. But why should they?”
