by Bruno Flexer
Tom looked at the third Serpent in the hall. Ramirez's Serpent just moved in small circles. A lion inside a cage, Tom couldn't help thinking.
"Lieutenant Ramirez, what do you think of your new personal battle tank?" Tom asked.
Ramirez said nothing. He just kept moving and opening and closing his hands. On his Serpent, they really looked like claws, Tom thought.
"I've heard he wouldn't obey the mechanics' orders. They had to restrain him, Sir," Sergeant Jebadiah said.
"How?" Tom said, recalling how powerful he felt in comparison to the puny humans in the hall he had woken up in.
"Don't know that, Sir. Probably through one of them computers," the sergeant said.
A side door in the hall opened, and Tom turned to see his least favorite person, the lab-coat man, enter the hall and move to the front of the room to face the three Serpents. A child standing before a grownup. He is like a tiny lamb cringing before three giant, lithe tigers. Like a morsel of flesh confronting three huge black killing machines. Tom shook his triangular and horned viper-like head, trying to clear his mind of these thoughts.
My head is not even inside the Serpent's head, he thought bemusedly.
"Very well, gentlemen. You have less than seventy-two hours before your mission begins. This gives us much less time than needed to instruct you in the use of your Serpents. However, since this is all we have, I suggest we put to good use whatever little time we do have. You'll be going through three training exercises. To survive the last one, you'll need all the help you can get."
Tom and Sergeant Jebadiah turned to the man and listened. Tom sighed inwardly. He always hated lessons, and he didn't find this one any easier to bear. Sergeant Jebadiah had folded down so the man wouldn't have to crane his head up to the ten-foot-high machines. Tom hesitated before following the sergeant's example. What did the man mean by surviving the third exercise?
The man explained about the nerve connections and electrode-sensor mechanism, which was the system that enabled them to control the Serpents with the same ease they controlled their bodies. Then he went on to explain how their control extended beyond simple motion and motor direction. They could also feel, to some extent, whatever the Serpent felt.
Apparently, their personal battle tank had touch sensors all over its body, especially concentrated over the surface of the hands and fingertips. These allowed the pilot to feel whatever the Serpent felt. This tactile capability wasn't quite like the sensitivity they had in their own bodies, but it was fairly good and had several advantages.
Tom tried it out, moving one of the long fingers of his right hand over the surface of the armor of his left arm. He did have feeling in his finger, it just wasn't like the feeling he had in his own body. He could feel the smooth skin of the armor, its cool exterior. He realized he could indeed feel the temperature of the arm, which was just slightly colder than the air around him. Concentrating, he felt another thing, the gentle tapping of the finger on the armor.
The man was right. The Serpent had good tactile sensitivity; it was just not like the one he had in his body.
Tom returned his attention to the man and sighed inwardly again. They said they had a time constraint, but the man talked and talked. Probably he liked hearing his own voice, Tom thought, almost as much as he liked his oily ponytail.
The lab-coat man was now explaining about their power storage capabilities. He said the Serpents weren't running on gasoline and stopped to laugh, though no one joined in. The Serpents' power storage was something called a supercharged lithium-ion power cell. It could provide power for more than two weeks of continuous operation, and they were able to charge it from a wall outlet, though a special three-phase power outlet would provide speedier charging.
They had to be careful of the power cell because it was quite volatile. Although it was located next to their bodies inside the Serpent's torso, inside the most protected compartment, any hit that penetrated the torso and ruptured the power cell would create quite a spectacular fireball.
The lab-coat man's laughter died suddenly and he recoiled. Tom turned to see that Lieutenant Ramirez had stopped circling and now stood stock still, his viper like head turned to the lab-coat man. Even though the Serpent's faceplate was completely blank, Tom thought he felt a chill going up his own spine when he looked at Lieutenant Ramirez's Serpent.
"What happens when the power runs out?" Lieutenant Ramirez's Serpent had a pleasant synthesized voice, just like all the Serpents, but he spoke in such a lethal whisper that the lab-coat person become almost as white as his lab coat.
"If the Serpent loses power, your bodies will probably still survive for a few hours more but … I don't know. Don't lose power, okay?"
There was a moment of silence, and then Lieutenant Ramirez resumed his circling, moving his gaze away from the lab-coat man who took a moment to breathe in deeply before he went on.
Now Tom started getting a little dizzy. The lab-coat man talked incessantly, filling the air with a lot of information about their Serpents, starting from the passive visual concealment, extending to the infrared band, then on to the protection afforded by the Serpent's armor being dependent on the angle of penetration of incoming bullets, and then to the impact-resistive properties of the composite polymer material their armor was made of.
Tom's attention wandered to the computer display on his left arm. He peeled back the armor plate and the display flickered to life. Idly, he touched the Communications icon and a new display that showed three status icons appeared: short range, medium range and command networks. Tom also found that he could direct the computer's display to overlap his field of vision, either partially or completely. It was really cool technology. They had a built-in head-up display.
The lab-coat man stopped talking, and Tom looked up hurriedly and guiltily, but the man just stared at Lieutenant's Ramirez's Serpent, who was now opening and closing its right hand. The ten-inch-long fingers opened and closed like switchblade knives.
Just how did they select the volunteers for this project? Tom wondered.
"Your sensors…," the lab-coat man continued a little shakily, and Tom did not blame him. Among the three ten-foot-high, sleek humanoid personal battle tanks, Ramirez's Serpent looked decidedly demonic. "Your sensors," the lab-coat man repeated himself, "are the best our current technology could produce. You have visual range sensors, including zoom and autofocus functions. You have night-vision capability and infrared surveillance capability. You can record still images and high resolution video for later analysis. You can—"
The lab-coat man stopped talking yet again. Tom sighed out loud and turned to Ramirez. Lieutenant Ramirez's Serpent was near the wall, moving his hand slowly, creating five deep gouges in the wall, his fingers cutting into the plaster with ease.
Ramirez's second hand was slowly clenching and unfolding, looking for something else to gouge.
"You can… . There's also a radio scanning ability integrated into your visual sensors. Your system can pinpoint most ranges of radio frequency radiation. You can track all radio transmissions sources: find out their power and their locations fairly rapidly without—"
Ramirez's Serpent surged in the man's directions, claws raised, head lowered, body poised to strike.
The lab-coat man shrieked and ran out the hall.
"Are you crazy? What's wrong with you? Why can't you just listen to the explanations?"
"I don't like him," Ramirez said without looking at Tom. He straightened up and started circling the room yet again.
"You understand we need the information to succeed in the mission, don’t you? Do you realize how little time we have?" Tom asked.
Ramirez said nothing.
"Attention, please!" Jebadiah shouted.
All three Serpents stood at attention. Tom had an instant to consider how strange it was for three black giant humanoid machines to salute. He also glanced at Ramirez, whose Serpent was standing in text-book accurate attention pose. Interesting, isn't it. Abo
ve all else, Ramirez is a true soldier. Another Serpent entered the room through a large door at the back of the hall and marched inside.
Captain Emerson's Serpent unfolded from his folded state and rose to stand in front of them.
"We're moving out. The first exercise starts in twenty minutes. Learn everything you can. You better hope it will help you in the third and final exercise."
Looking at Captain Emerson's Serpent through his own visual sensors, Tom saw things he hadn't seen before. The tough black armor was gouged and pitted. Bullet holes and explosion fire, Tom thought. Looking closer, nothing had actually penetrated the armor nor even come close to that, but still, the damage showed.
We're not invulnerable, Tom thought.
This was the first thing to put a damper on Tom's elation since he had woken up inside the Serpent two-and-a-half hours ago.
Chapter 6
Day Two, Fort Belvoir, Virginia
For the first time, they stood outside the hangar, in a giant training area and firing range. Tom let his Serpent sensors follow the very tall electrified fence that encircled the range as much as he could. The range was miles wide in every direction, filled with small craggy valleys, low hills and scattered vegetation. The scars of the military forces' presence were clearly visible, with deep craters, black scorches on the earth, and metal and rock fragments scattered throughout.
Tom turned his head around, letting his sensors perform a full sweep of the area. Not far from them was a heavily reinforced concrete bunker with a host of surveillance cameras and antennas hanging from three tall, nearby masts. The enormous hangar itself was several miles away, the firing range's fence enclosing it well away.
Another thing a few miles away that made Tom do a double take as soon as he saw it was a town, complete with roads, buildings, small gardens, advertisement signs, working traffic lights, lit-up stores, gas stations—the works. An urban combat training site, Tom realized.
It was still two or three hours till dawn but the Serpent's sensors had no trouble seeing in the star-filled night.
"Look at the stars, Sir," Sergeant Jebadiah whispered. Tom followed the sergeant's example and craned his head up, letting his sensors fix on the stars above. Tom did not feel he was breathing—he hadn’t since he had woken in the lab a few hours ago—but now he felt how his breath stuck in his throat, though his lungs, throat and face were all safely asleep inside the Serpent's body cavity.
"They are … beautiful," Tom whispered. The Serpent's optical sensors enhanced and sharpened every star, nebula and planet in their field of view. The colors were breathtaking, vivid and alive, pulsing with a radiance Tom had never seen before. The stars danced, huge fireballs of life burning with unrivaled magnificence. The two planets Tom could see were actual worlds, with clouds and their own moons and landscape and even their own rotation. It was more than Mars and Venus.
It seemed to Tom that all he had to do was just lift his Serpent's black armored hand to reach out and touch alien worlds. It was an uplifting experience, just to bask in that sight.
"Idiots," Ramirez whispered, bringing Tom shuddering back to earth, shaking at the coldness in the Marine Corps lieutenant's voice.
"The firing range will give us the opportunity to test the abilities of your Serpents, testing their capabilities, your control of their abilities and their limitations. You've got to learn to pilot your Serpents as well as you'll be able to, in order to succeed in the mission and not put to waste the billions of dollars already invested in this project. We will only have one opportunity against the enemy and we must take advantage of it. We have less then seventy hours to complete your training course," Captain Emerson said unperturbedly, his pleasant Serpent's voice steady and calm.
"Yes Sir," Sergeant Jebadiah said.
"Questions, Sir," Ramirez said, making Tom turn to him in amazement.
"Yes, Lieutenant."
"Aren't you going to tell us that you'll be working our butts off, that anyone who doesn’t complete the course will be required to do it again, that failure is not tolerable and all that bullshit?" Ramirez's voice was quite insolent and Tom cringed on the inside.
"No, Lieutenant. Because of our unique circumstances, failure to complete the course can only occur because of a pilot's death," Captain Emerson said evenly and without anger.
To Tom's surprise, Ramirez nodded silently and approvingly, and he said nothing more.
"The first thing you'll learn is how to pilot the Serpent. The Serpent is piloted by your mind, the same way you control your own body. However, there are differences. The control and feeling of the Serpent is not like that of your body. The Serpent's capabilities are far superior to those of your own human flesh-and-blood body. You must really start piloting your Serpent. Position target," Captain Emerson said. Tom realized the last sentence was not directed at them; the Captain had activated his medium range communication radio link.
Standing there out in the field, Tom realized something else as he looked at the three other Serpents. Sergeant Jebadiah's Serpent was standing at attention, its hands and feet in exact regulation position, every one of its sensors directed at the Captain, occasionally moving or tilting his head slightly as if to hear and understand the Captain better. Ramirez’s serpent stood with a slight slouch, apparently at attention, but its hands were constantly moving behind its back, its head always in motion, scanning around him at all times. Ramirez trusts no one and nothing, Tom thought. The Captain himself stood completely motionless, hands at the sides, his Serpent ramrod straight. The model of calm command, perfectly in control, thought Tom.
How do I look to the others? Tom asked himself.
A noise from the direction of the base's huge hangar made all of them turn their heads. A heavily armored Hummer jeep, its headlights two blinding spotlights in the darkness, trundled slowly in their direction, leaving a black cloud of hot smoke behind it. It stopped about thirty feet away from them, its engine idling.
"The first thing to remember is that the Serpent is a one-thousand-five-hundred-pound personal battle tank and not a human or biological body. Remember, the limitations and the practices you had in your body are not relevant now. This training exercise will teach you this. Your mission is to catch the Hummer. You have less than two minutes."
"Catch it, Sir?" Tom asked.
"Stop it dead, Lieutenant Riley. Lieutenant Riley, commence," Captain Emerson said. He made a small motion with his hand and the Hummer roared away into the night.
"Should I start now or—"
"One minute, fifty five seconds remaining, Lieutenant Riley," Captain Emerson said matter-of-factly.
Tom stared at him and then took off.
He ran. It was the first time for him, running with the Serpent, and it was nothing like running in his own body. The Serpent was fast. Its long limbs moved in giant strides. Tom did not breathe hard or feel effort of any kind; he only felt and heard the wind of the Serpent's motion.
It was quite exhilarating in its own way. It was not unlike flying at low altitude, watching the terrain zooming past him at terrific speed, a speed he felt only as the wind howled louder and louder around the Serpent's frame.
Navigating—placing the Serpent's clawed feet—was as easy as running on a fitness treadmill. His sensors mapped out each step with ease and the talons on the Serpent's feet grasped earth, rocks and whatever was on the ground with magnificent and frightening effortlessness.
Some part of Tom's mind thought that there was something strange here. The Serpent had a different balance than his own biological body—a different body shape—and the Serpent's clawed feet were certainly different from Tom's own feet. But still, Tom had no problem running and keeping his balance. Tom knew that a walking or running man needs to see six feet ahead in order to avoid pitfalls and obstacles, and he figured that the Serpent needed to see at least twenty feet ahead. Still, running in the Serpent was effortless, exhilarating and seemed eminently stable.
The details of the grou
nd zooming beneath him were crystal clear, yet passed so fast it almost made Tom giddy. The feeling of power returned, flooding Tom's mind. It didn't seem he was flying anymore, it seemed to him he was exploding across the training range, like a powerful rocket. Nevertheless, Tom felt he was completely in control. It just made him feel still more powerful.
Tom gradually became aware of a little window that popped up in his field of view. It showed him how fast he was moving, the drain on his power core, the amount of heat he was radiating, and a lot of other information, some of which Tom didn't understand.
Tom now glanced ahead and was surprised to see the Hummer was gaining distance on him. Its V8 engine filled the night with a loud roar and smoke that was quite visible to the Serpent's sensors. It was moving in a large circle around the other Serpents and was slowly but surely getting away.
"You can do it, Sir! Go get him!" Sergeant Jebadiah's voice shouted in Tom's radio transceiver.
"Sergeant, maintain radio silence. Lieutenant, thirty seconds for mission termination," Captain Emerson's voice was pleasant as always.
In his mind, Tom gritted his teeth. He pumped harder with his arms, lowered his head and willed his legs to move faster. Am I doing thirty miles an hour or forty miles an hour? he wondered.
Tom sensed something else now, something coming from within him, within his Serpent. It was a steady whine, slowly growing stronger: a vibration traveling down his body till he felt it from the tip of the aerials on his head to the black armored talons on his feet.
The power core, Tom thought in surprise. I'm actually feeling the Serpent's power core.
Then the sky and ground tumbled around Tom so fast he couldn't make out what was what. Rocks, plants and earth flew in all directions. Crashing noises filled the Serpent's hearing sensors and Tom felt powerful blows against the Serpent's head and torso, and then the left leg.
It took forever for the universe to come to its senses and for Tom's Serpent to finally stop its tumbling. Tom found himself laying face down in the dirt, his Serpent’s arms spread out, its left leg doubled under him and its right bent to the side.
