“Oh that.” Sally replied, “That was just a tap.”
“So you don’t remember telling me I was lucky that it wasn’t my neck that you broke? Or that you were going to have me put out of an airlock?” Mark said, still leaning over the pool of vomit in front of him, which was slowly sinking into the leaf litter.
“Forget that.” Sally said. “Come on, stand up. Mike’s brought you a drink of water. Rinse your mouth and come back to the fire.”
Mark took the cup of water from Mike and rinsed his mouth, spitting it out on the ground. He stood and turned to look at Mike and Sally, but Sally had already started to walk back to the fire. He was still shaking and felt very weak. He put his arm around Mike’s shoulders and leant on her, and they walked back.
When they got to the fire Mike picked up Mark's backpack and showed him a sliding switch just inside it. When pushed one way it made the backpack semi-rigid so that it could be used as a cushioned seat. He sat on the backpack by the fire and held his cold hands out to it. He could feel the heat starting to warm his front. He was feeling better now but was still shivering, this time from cold.
Simon had laid Orange on the ground, untied the ground sheet from the poles and wrapped it around him. The rain had stopped now but big drops of water were still falling out of the forest canopy onto the leaf litter below and kept up a quiet but insistent staccato as they landed. Ti’rrk came back into the small clearing carrying a bundle of sticks of assorted sizes and added them to the heap a couple of metres away from the fire.
“Where did you find dry wood? Everywhere is soaked.” Mark asked Ti’rrk.
“There is always dry wood in a forest if you know where to look.”
“Shouldn’t we be posting guards around the camp?” Mark asked, not looking at Sally.
“I deployed sensors in a ring around the clearing before you got here. There is a drone about a thousand metres directly above us keeping a lookout too. They will detect any life signs and movement bigger than the local wildlife for about half a kilometre from us in all directions. They are connected to the unit comm link so we’ll all get an alert if anything suspicious turns up.” Sally said.
Sally came and sat down next to Mark. “We’ve done this before. It will be light soon. We’ll stay here for a couple of hours while Orange recovers. We can use the time to get cleaned up and eat. When you’re feeling better, Ti’rrk wants to spend some time with you going over your AI capabilities and the comm link.”
She laid her hand on Mark’s arm and looked directly at him. Mark looked up from the fire and turned towards her. He had liked Sally back on Earth. He thought then that she looked - well, a bit below average, but looks weren’t everything. But here, without the ridiculous wig, the thick-rimmed glasses and the overdone makeup, she was really quite stunning. It was a pity she had turned out to be such a bitch. He shrugged off her hand and stood up.
“I’m going to check on Orange.” He said and walked over to where he lay.
“How’s he doing?” Mark asked Simon.
“He’s fine. He came around but you know how much he talks so, in the end, I gave him a sedative to shut him up. It should wear off in a couple of hours. I’m going to check over his weapons, refill his KE magazines and then have a break. Is there anything cooking on that fire?”
“No. Have we got anything to cook?”
“There might be something edible around here. If there’s any hot water on I’ll have a coffee.”
“Coffee? Is that a translation for something that you drink?”
“No, I brought a load with me from Earth. I didn’t like your food much and I can’t stand the tea you drink, but I really liked your beer and coffee. I’ve got a pack of it in my backpack.”
“Beer?”
“No, just coffee.”
“I haven’t got any tea with me. I thought we’d just be drinking water.”
“If you like black coffee, I’ve got plenty. It’s only instant.” Simon offered.
“I’ll go and see if there’s any water heating on the fire.”
“I’m going to check to see if there are any injured enemy out there.” Simon told Mark.
“You’re going to treat them?” Mark asked.
“To make sure there aren’t any survivors.”
Mark felt a bit sickened by what Simon was doing, even though it had been made plain that they didn’t take prisoners. He heard the crackle of automatic fire from a KE weapon as he walked back to the fire where Sally and Mike were sitting. Ti’rrk was a couple of metres back from the fire. She looked at Mark and said: “If it makes you feel any better Mark, Simon took a Mark Seven with him. That’s not his gunfire.”
Mark nodded and continued towards Sally and Mike. “Simon asked if anything was cooking on the fire, but I can see there’s nothing there yet. Is there anything to eat around here? I could probably shoot one of those small furry animals that are lurking in the undergrowth.”
“You can if you’d like to prepare and cook it. We’re all vegetarians.” Sally told him. “You’re the only meat eater in the unit.”
“Really? Even Simon?” Mark asked, somewhat surprised.
“Even Simon.” Sally answered.
Mark turned to Mike “I don’t mean to be rude, but your teeth, they look too pointed and sharp for a vegetarian, on Earth they would be the teeth of a carnivore.”
“That’s OK.” Mike replied with a grin, revealing her teeth. “My race evolved as carnivores but we put that behind us a long time ago.”
“And you,” Mark said to Sally. “you don’t look like a vegetarian either.”
Sally pulled her lips back to show her teeth. “Not like the prosthesis that I wore on Earth.” She said, showing upper and lower canines that were quite a lot bigger, longer and sharper than you would expect to see in humans. They seemed to go well with her cat-like eyes. Mark remembered the lipstick smears that she always had on her teeth back on Earth. The prosthetics must have been awkward and uncomfortable. “My people are - were, hunter-gatherers, mostly meat eaters, but over the years I have eaten less and less meat and eventually just, stopped.”
“What about Orange?” Mark asked.
“Satan knows what he eats. It doesn’t look like food, or that it was ever alive.” Sally answered.
“Don’t ever try any.” Advised Mike.
“Are we going to heat up any water for drinks?” Asked Mark.
“Mike, put some water on to heat. Mark, go see Ti’rrk, she needs to talk to you. I’m going to get an update from the unit commanders.” Having given her orders Sally sat back down next to the fire.
“The privilege of rank.” Mark thought, looking at Sally as he picked up his backpack and carried it over to Ti’rrk.
Ti’rrk was sitting on the ground about four metres from the fire. “Sit between me and the fire Mark.” She said. “I don’t need the heat like you do.”
“You need to speak to me?” Mark said.
“You have had far too little training to go into battle, but here you are.” Ti’rrk said in her low-pitched, calming voice. Mark smiled wryly. This was definitely a case of stating the bleeding obvious. “You are going to have to learn a lot as you go along. You did remarkably well in that skirmish but I fear for you when we get into a real fight. Mike will speak to you about your armour and weapons when we have finished. We don’t plan to leave camp until she has finished with you but we probably won’t be ready to go then anyway.”
“Yes, here I am. Nobody knows why Sally made me come along, but, here I am.”
“Sally wants you here because she wants to be near you. She wants you to become the man you could be.”
“I really don’t understand what you are talking about. Anyway, you said there are plans?” Mark said. “What went wrong with the plan just now?”
“Only that Orange got too far away from the main group of us. Otherwise, it went exactly to plan and we met our objective with no losses.”
“What, you mean apart from the fact
that we managed to land almost in the middle of a load of enemy soldiers and got straight into a firefight?”
“We were lucky that we found a much bigger group than we were expecting. It took long enough to find them. We reduced their numbers, and a few escaped to get back to report our presence. That was the plan. Apart from you, we all knew what the plan was and our part in it. You were not allowed for in the plan because it was not expected that you would be able to contribute. It was well that you did, otherwise we may have lost Orange.”
“So you’re saying the meticulous plan worked except that we almost lost one of our key members? That doesn’t sound great to me.”
“Mark, in almost every army throughout history, commanders have worked out detailed battle plans in the certain knowledge that if they didn’t, their attack or defence was bound to fail in complete shambles. All of those commanders also knew full well that no battle plan survives intact after first contact with the enemy. That doesn’t mean they are a waste of time as long as everyone in the army knows what part they are expected to play and what their objective is. That’s part of my job as communications specialist, to make sure that the plan is propagated down to everybody involved. You were missed out because the schedule got moved forwards before you got briefed.”
“Er, wasn’t there a flaw in the plan there? If it was planned to wait longer, shouldn’t we have waited?”
“Normally we would but these are exceptional circumstances. The enemy force we just stopped could only have been on a mission to engage with the Gnn’Ath front line. The Gnn’Ath are poorly armed. They only have primitive KE weapons that are not even as advanced as your civilisations weaponry. That means they are unlikely to be able to overwhelm the enemy’s energy field armour, and even if they did, their weapons would not penetrate the enemy’s body armour. They do have light artillery, and if a shell from those hit an enemy soldier, it would spoil their day, but the Gnn’Ath are not good at using them and they have a very low rate of fire. The enemy would have walked straight into the Gnn’Ath lines and hacked them to pieces. There is a small settlement of about two thousand civilians just behind their lines and the enemy would have gone in there and butchered them all. This is happening all over the planet. Do you understand now why we came down as soon as we possibly could?”
“Er, yes, I suppose that makes sense.” Mark felt a bit abashed that he was complaining about his inconvenience when a whole planet full of people were being slaughtered, and that the recent unpleasantness saved a couple of thousand innocent civilians from a rather nasty death.
“Mike has already given you our overall mission objectives, Sally will brief you on our next objective before we leave. I wanted to complete your training on your AI. Yours is very similar to ours so I have an insight into how it works.”
“But mine is a People’s AI. Everyone has told me that its miles ahead of anything anyone else has. Is your technology as advanced as the People’s?”
Ti’rrk gave one of her throaty chuckles. “We are nowhere near advanced as the People. They are billions of years ahead of us. No doubt Alan has told you they don’t share advanced technology with any civilisation, which is, of course, true. But, they have been known to give help in developing technology when it has suited their purpose.”
“And it suited their purpose to help Ants develop very advanced AI’s?” Mark asked.
“It did. Enough of our history, You have started to develop a relationship with your AI and you need to build on that. I will make this brief, we don’t have time to discuss it. Your AI is very advanced. Although very small it has enormous processing power and storage capacity, well beyond the total computing power and storage available to most advanced civilisations, and they are billions of years ahead of the Earth technology that you are used to using. It has a personality that you will hopefully develop a good working relationship with, but even if you don’t it will serve you well. Its only reason for existence is to aid and assist you and although it has its own sense of self-preservation, it will sacrifice itself in the interests of your well-being. Sally has told me that many humans fear that AI’s could take over your civilisation and displace you. That is unlikely but not impossible, but you have nothing to fear from your AI. You humans have animals that have co-evolved with you. They bond with individuals and family groups and are dependent on you. They repay you with total and unconditional devotion and sacrifice. Think of your AI as being an extremely clever and devoted dog.”
“I like dogs, but I wouldn’t want a Labrador snuffling around inside my brain.”
“Mark, by human standards you are very intelligent. Try using that intelligence. The dog analogy is just that, an analogy.”
Ti’rrk almost sounded irritated. Mark thought he’d better try to get more into the spirit of this, even though he still felt deeply uncomfortable about having an alien machine inside his brain, however benign and cuddly it might be.
“This is general advice. Use your intelligence to understand what is going on. If all you do is learn what you are taught and do what you are told, all you will ever be in this army is a grunt. If you really want to be part of this team and get any kind of respect and not just be a tool, you will have to get involved and contribute. Do you understand that?”
“I’ve never been a team player Ti’rrk. Nobody ever wanted me in their team. I don’t know how to do it.”
“You need to start making things happen for yourself and think about other people. Sally has spoken to me a lot about you. Don’t worry, it was all in confidence. She observed you closely while she was on Earth, at first as a research subject and I can tell you, to start with she wasn’t impressed. As she came to understand your background, history and motivations she became more forgiving of your shortcomings, and when she started working with you, she began to grow fond of you. Sally sees something in you that is not immediately obvious to others, and she is an almost unnaturally good judge of character. She is very lonely. That is one of the disadvantages of being in command. You can never be friends with those that you command. That is why she reacted so badly when you left without a word, particularly when she discovered you had left with Alan, just as she was starting a relationship with you.”
“A relationship? Really? And why particularly because I had left with Alan?”
“Sally has history with Alan. She blames him for things that weren’t his fault.”
“What history?” Asked Mark. This was the second time this ‘history’ had been mentioned, and he was curious about it.
“That is something Sally and Alan will have to tell you. They each see different facets of the same story. I was there for some of it. If you ever hear both sides, come to me and I will tell you what I saw.”
“Is this what you needed to talk to me about?” Mark asked, a bit annoyed because was not being given this whole story again.
“No, but it is good that you understand some of this. We have almost finished. I do not have time to tell you everything you need to know about your AI, but from this conversation, it will now know to help you to learn how to make the best use of it. Most people give their AI’s names and treat them as a friend, teacher, helper, adviser and part of themselves. Ask it anything you need to know. Ask it for help and advice. Ask it how it can help you and what you need to know to get the most benefit from it. Next to your own intelligence it is your most powerful asset. Use it properly and you will prosper.”
“Er, OK. I’ll try that.”
“It is important that you do. Mark, will you give me your word, on your honour, to do everything you can to understand and make use of your AI?”
“Shit.” Thought Mark. He now felt obliged to do as she had asked him. “OK.” He reluctantly told Ti’rrk.
“We have finished now Mark. You may have questions about your AI. Ask me whatever you need to know at any time - though preferably not when we are in the middle of a firefight. Go and see Mike now.”
“Thank you Ti’rrk. You are like my personal
Yoda, though your grammar is better.”
Mark walked back to the fire and sat down between Mike and Simon. Without saying anything Simon picked up a mug and passed it to Mark. Mark took it and sniffed. Black coffee. He smiled and took a satisfying mouthful.
Change Of Plan
Sally stood up and broke the companionable silence around the campfire. “Listen up, I have a status update. I have ordered a tactical withdrawal of our troops from the Southern Continent where they are taking a hammering. Two-thirds of the enemy invasion force are there, our intelligence is that they have seventeen thousand troops still active on the ground, twelve thousand of them are either involved in fighting our soldiers or moving in to reinforce their effort to roll over our stronghold - although with so few of our people there, stronghold is probably the wrong name for it.” She smiled wryly. “We can’t hold back such overwhelming odds and if I leave our people there they will be crushed. Six hundred and twenty four of our troops are being evacuated to Alan’s ship. Of those, there are five hundred and seventy two who are either fit and uninjured or fit with minor injuries that can be healed with the People’s medical technology within one day.”
Sally paused to let the information sink in. “The enemy have become disorganised and overconfident. The good news is that they have depleted their numbers on the other three fronts and our contingents there can hold their own with minimal reinforcements. We are going to regroup and re-invade with a reorganised and heavily reinforced attack group. We are going to approach this in the way that we would have done if we had had more time before committing ourselves to our first landings. I have requested extra support from the Ants for the spearhead attack for the re-invasion of the Southern Continent and they are making four hundred and eighty troops available to us - thanks to Ti’rrk for making a powerful case for their support. Alan is going to get them as soon as they are ready to leave, which should be within a few hours. Within approximately twenty hours we should have nine hundred and forty of our second line reserves assembled. Alan will get them as soon as they are set to go. They will have four hours to equip themselves with whatever equipment they are short of. Then, in a day from now, we will launch our assault on the Southern Continent with fifteen hundred troops and four hundred and eighty Ants. The timing on this is a bit vague because I have ordered not to wait for deadlines but to get moving as quickly as possible. That force will be supplemented by more reinforcements as they arrive. The analysis of this is that if we can break them on the Southern Continent and take out their command structure their whole invasion will fall apart. If we fail, the Ants will take over, which won’t be good for anyone and will probably signal the end of our army as a credible fighting force. The strategy and tactics AI has several optimal scenarios for the assault, I will review them with Orange when he wakes up and will confirm an approved plan within an hour. It will then be down to Ti’rrk and Orange to devise and implement the communication of the plan to all those involved. Any questions?”
Unwilling From Earth Page 20
