by D. P. Oberon
The two of them ran over, dropping low as they came close.
“Change of plans. This is going to be risky.”
“I love risk.”
Saradi shot Buckingarra a look. His expression chastened, and then she told them what she had in mind.
“Well, this will get us killed, but I’m down with it,” Buckingarra said.
“I don’t know, it could work.” Peng kept rubbing the barrel of his gun as he spoke.
“It is very risky. Trying to hold a defensive position would be my preference,” Yoriko said.
Saradi smiled at Yoriko. “About time you voiced your opinions.” She still felt the high of defeating Bravo Two Eight. “Sometimes the traditional strategies don’t matter. I need you to trust me on this.”
“Yes, Squad Leader,” the all whispered back furiously.
“Bravo Two Zero, roll out,” Saradi said.
Saradi left the cover of the tall triangular obstacles that resembled small pyramids. Yoriko and Peng stayed at the edges, covering Saradi and Buckingarra.
They made it to the center where the glistening creek gurgled. The blue depths even sparkled with the occasional fish. Saradi briefly wondered if the fish were real.
“Now,” Saradi ordered. She unhitched her PG9 grenade and wafted it into the air. Buckingarra, who sat right next to her, did the same. Their grenades crossed the creek into the border of the other teams territory. Hers exploded first and then a resounding boom followed as his exploded. Saradi signaled to Peng and Yoriko.
Peng and Yoriko opened fire at the other end exactly where their grenades had blown.
Saradi stood up as her LR4 magnet locked itself against her shoulder mount and leapt at the hanging vines. She swept the ball using her ankles to grab at it acrobatically and then somersaulted to the other end. She threw the ball to Buckingarra who slammed to the ground, and tucked the ball into his chest. He’d been the baller handler before and did a great job. It helped that this game was a mixture of basketball and rugby.
Now Peng and Yoriko moved out. They lobbed their grenades. Saradi and Buckingarra leaped into the water and the cold held them in its icy grip. The explosion shook them even as they were submerged. They spluttered out again once Peng and Yoriko provided cover and the air cleared. All this had been done proactively, anticipating the other squad before they made their move.
Still no sign of Bravo Two Six. Saradi’s hope began to blossom in her. Peng and Yoriko clustered around Buckingarra and touched the ball once. It would record their touch.
“Two objectives done. Each of us touched the ball and we’ve got the ball. Now to score the damn thing and keep us all alive. We ready?” Saradi asked.
“Oorah!” the shouted back. Their shouts now revealing their location but that didn’t matter.
“Bucki, remember, go wide,” Saradi said.
“Roger that, squad leader,” he said, and then he bolted off heading towards the leftmost edge of the court.
“You, Peng,” Saradi said. Peng nodded and headed for the rightmost edge of the court.
“Yoriko,” she nodded. Yoriko went to the left middle.
“Here goes,” Saradi said, taking the right middle.
They were all solo now. They could be picked up like fat juicy grapes hanging from a vine. Chengmedu would’ve found a good vantage point and he would have each of his soldiers providing cover for the other. They wouldn’t be too far from one another.
Saradi ran down the middle of the opponent’s third of the court. Her LR4 pointed directly ahead. The shadow flitted past so quick she barely registered it before something heavy rammed into her. She slammed to the ground, the breath whooshed out of her. She threw an elbow. Somebody knelt over her pinning her down. She bucked and used both her hands to throw her assailant off. The ground rattled as the enemy crashed to the ground.
Chengmedu stood back up instantly and raised his LR4 right at her. Saradi knew it was him even with the armor on. She knew the way he moved and stood.
In the distance somebody roared and Saradi began to laugh.
Chengmedu’s visor disappeared revealing his face. “Why are you laughing?”
Just as she was about to answer the simulated court melted and revealed the huge white virtual training center. Game over.
Instructor Ali’s face did not look impressed. But Buckingarra’s loud whoop filled Saradi’s ears and then he was hugging her, pushing past Chengmedu’s surprised face. Yoriko and Peng bumped into her and then they were all squealing like some high school squad.
“Okay, that’s enough,” said Instructor Ali, her voice cutting through their celebration.
Chengmedu and his squad members gathered behind him. They stared at Bravo Two Zero balefully.
“Hey, not bad for civvy trash, eh?” said Buckingarra. “Maybe you grunts got meat instead of brains in there.” He tapped his helmet.
“Enough,” said Instructor Ali, though she didn’t hide her lips that quirked in wry amusement. She held out her hands and brought them together. “Gather around. I want to talk to all of you.”
Even though they’d won — they had won hadn’t they? — Saradi felt a twinge of apprehension as she strode closer. She smiled at Chengmedu who shook his head at her. He probably just worked it out, thought Saradi smiling at him. Up close he wasn’t too bad to look at. Behind him Yasmie Lasi chewed Saradi out with her unblinking stare.
“Firstly, Bravo Two Zero will get the twenty points. Well done,” Instructor Ali said, nodding toward Saradi’s squad. She looked at both squads. “A note on the strategy that was used.” Here she definitely gave Saradi a look before turning her eyes onto everyone else. “If you’ve done your research, you’ll have noted that SOHIC squads have gone solo before. While we engage in squad Selection, unlike other groups in AAEDEF we can operate solo on the battlefield. But generally, we advise you to always use the squad strategies. There were many ways to win that game besides the foolhardy risk incurred by Bravo Two Zero. Especially considering the vast brains they have at their disposal.” Here Instructor Ali’s eyes rested on Yoriko.
Saradi felt her face flush. She remembered that in the heat of the moment she’d been quite autocratic with her squad. Maybe she needed to delegate more.
Instructor Ali’s dark shades retracted to the sides of her head. She looked so much less like a dragon without those shades. Her upper lip shifted up in the tell-tale sign that she was thinking deeply about what she was about to say. She seemed to come to a decision because she looked up.
“In my mission we were deployed with Bravo Zero Alpha. My squad, Bravo One Alpha, was probably one of the best squads in SOHIC history. I’m not saying that because of me, I had Michiko Toyoda.” She smiled at Yoriko fleetingly. “And Bheemasena Anantadevi.” She nodded at Saradi. “Nathaniel Bontrager too. You’ve surely read of their achievements on the localnets.” Her voice dropped and Saradi strained to catch each and every word. “And despite how good we were, we were ambushed, and our mission failed.” She’d been looking at the ground, pensive. “The one thing I wish we had done better was to work as a team across the squads. Bravo Zero Alpha and Bravo One Alpha didn’t get along. We lost the entire squad of Bravo One Alpha. You’re both good squads. Keep that in mind.”
Saradi thought she understood what Instructor Ali was saying. She reached out her hand to Chengmedu. “Teamwork,” she said.
Surprisingly he clasped her hand just as quickly. “Teamwork,” he said.
Then each of the opposing squads shook hands, though Yasmie Lasi still wore a vitriolic look upon her face.
As Saradi and Chengmedu walked back she said to him, “You know, you guys owe us a beer for that trouncing.”
Chengmedu laughed. She caught him staring at her out of the corner of his yes. “Maybe if both our squads make it past Inferno Week.”
“If both our squads get past Inferno Week you’re going to owe me more than a damn beer.”
“Oorah,” he said, his face crinkling into a smile.
#
“You’re looking very happy,” Yoriko said. She sat on one of the windowsills at the rear of their barracks — wide enough to make a seat — and swung her legs like she were a little girl enjoying a picnic. She kept tilting her head from side to side.
Saradi’s huge smile became even bigger.
Buckingarra ran past Saradi. His hands pretended he held the ball up above his head as if he’d just caught it. Peng ran next to him with his hands held up as if he held his LR4 re-enacting their win for the tenth time, and it got more outrages with each re-enactment. Apparently Buckingarra did a triple jump while ‘that bitch Yasmie threw a ’nade at me’ and that’s how he slammed the ball into the goal.
“I’m just happy,” Saradi said.
“Bullshit, Sara. I saw you and Mister Big Boobs,” said Buckingarra, walking around and jutting out his chest.
“Bucki looks like a rooster with a stick up its ass,” Peng said, chortling.
Buckingarra said, “Sara’s happy, Yoriko, because she’s going to get laid. I saw Chengmedu staring at her ass. Like he had no dinner and he got a feast now.” He turned to Saradi. “Yo ass ain’t even curvaceous. It’s kinda small.”
“Screw you, Bucki,” she said, launching a pillow at him. It flew right at his head, and he ducked letting it smack right into Peng’s face — but Ganmi materialized out of the air and the pillow smacked into her and dropped to the floor.
That elicited a burst of laughter from Yoriko. A warmth of affection ripped through Saradi as she looked at her friends.
Peng turned and patted their engineer-bot against the side of its chassis and she made crooning sounds.
Buckingarra shook his head. “You’re all crazy. I think Yoriko is the only normal person in our squad.”
“Ganmi is upset because she wasn’t there today,” said Peng. “Aren’t you, darling?”
A very coquettish face plastered itself over the front face of the cube-shaped robot. She bobbed up and down in the air.
“Dumplings, how come you talk to that robot like it’s real? Get some real pussy, yo,” Buckingarra said.
Peng just hugged Ganmi and kissed her. Buckingarra scrunched his face up in disgust. Yet, as Saradi watched Peng, she thought there was something sweet and genuine about the way he interacted with Ganmi.
“I programmed her to be like my girlfriend,” Peng said.
“Was her name Ganmi?” Yoriko asked.
Peng nodded. Behind him the engineer-bot’s face now showed digital tears.
“Shit dood, that’s kinda sick, naming a robot after your girlfriend.” Buckingarra shook his head.
“It’s sweet, Bucki,” Saradi said. She didn’t consider herself to be one of those dewy-eyed people, obviously Peng did.
“Man, can’t believe you actually had a girlfriend. You always zoning out to the tech. You get lucky boy?” Buckingarra asked. “Dipped your spring roll into her soy sauce?” He laced his fingers against his stomach and laughed uproariously.
Yoriko gave him a disgusted look. “That’s such a thick-neck comment.” She turned to Peng with a raised eyebrow. “Ganmi? Was she Japanese?”
Peng nodded. “Yeah, from Kyoto.”
“Kyoto is nice. I prefer it to where I lived, Tokyo.”
“My girlfriend, Ganmi … she well, committed suicide,” Peng said. As he said this the engineer-bot Ganmi flew out of their barracks.
Saradi sat up and Buckingarra’s laughter died.
“Whaddya mean man? How she die? You did at least get pussy before she died?”
“Buckingarra, show—” Saradi said but Buckingarra had already prepared his next rejoinder.
“Did she kill herself because she was going out with you?” Buckingarra said.
Yoriko stood up, walked to Buckingarra, and the slap she gave him resounded in the barracks.
He stood immediately, his face twisted in fury. Saradi got up and got between them. She eyed Buckingarra.
“Bucki, get out,” she ordered.
His thick eyebrow furrowed. “Why the heck should I get out? She’s the one who hit me.”
“Because, Bucki, you don’t seem to understand basic empathy and you don’t understand that words have power. Because you’re an asshole, Bucki. Get out. That’s an order,” Saradi said, pointing towards the door.
“This is bullshit,” Buckingarra said, he stalked away but before he did so he punched the door putting a noticeable dent in it.
“We’re sad for you,” Yoriko said, moving towards Peng. She gently reached out and patted him on the head.
“Yes, we are,” Saradi said, suddenly finding it difficult to swallow. She stood up and walked to his bed and sat next to him. An ungainly crying hiccup came from her mouth. Peng stared at her with puppy dog eyes.
“My husband committed suicide,” Saradi found herself saying. “Roped himself from a beam in our living room.”
“You were married?” Peng said with astonished expression.
“That’s very sad,” Yoriko said, “for the both of you. I think my daughter thought about it. Maybe everybody thinks about it.”
Peng nodded. “Yeah.”
“My husband’s name was Claas,” Saradi said. “He was from the Britannic Europan Empire. Swedish. He was so calm.” Recollections of him when they’d first met at university flared through her mind. He was athletic, good looking, but he wasn’t like the other young men filled with macho veneer and their loud raucous voices, he was quiet, even reserved.
“Hey, come sit here, Sara,” Yoriko said, patting Peng’s bed. Saradi moved next to Yoriko. The Japanese woman held her hands over Peng and Saradi’s shoulders.
“I’m here for both of you,” Yoriko said.
Saradi cried. God, how she missed Claas now. A sharp guilt over her lustful feelings for Chengmedu stabbed at her. She gasped.
“I’m missing my husband so much. The small things I took for granted, like being able to just call him and talk without being judged. He would always listen.”
Peng started crying more after seeing Saradi cry. Saradi felt even guiltier. Peng kept nodding his head saying, “I know, I know.”
Eventually a silence took over the room. They sat on Peng’s bed cocooned by Yoriko’s embrace.
Peng stirred and he chewed his lower lip while staring at the ground. His knuckled his forehead as was his habit when he thought hard about something. When he turned to Saradi and Yoriko his cheeks drooped and his mouth shook as he spoke.
“When my Ganmi died, my real life Ganmi that is.” He shook his hands. “I was at Tsinghua University with a study group in our finals, which was based on the brain interface module.” He paused and looked up at Yoriko. He laughed shrilly. “Imagine my shock when I come to Selection and I meet you, one of my heroes. The creator of the brain interface module. It was just … unbelievable.” He turned to the air and said, “Ganmi manifest.”
Apparently Ganmi had come back in after flying out. She decloaked herself above them. She crooned as she saw them, feeling their sadness. Her face gushed out digital tears. A sudden intuition seized Saradi and she thought she knew what Peng was about to tell them next.
Yoriko held Peng’s shoulder. She doesn’t know yet, Saradi thought, surprised. As intelligent as Yoriko was she hadn’t put it together. Peng’s next words stunned the Japanese woman.
“I took one of the brain interface modules that a student, Chen-Ning Yang, had done something miraculous with. He had connected it to a dying nun.”
“Really?” Yoriko said.
“Yes. But I stole it that day Ganmi died. I feel terrible for what I did to Chen-Ning Yang and the nun.”
“Oh my,” Yoriko said, putting her hand to her mouth. “The nun died?”
It was Saradi’s turn to be surprised. She felt her mouth open. Peng just nodded. Saradi said, “But she was dying anyway, right?”
Yoriko gave her such a furious look with those wide open eyes that Saradi felt like she’d been slapped.
Peng said,
“Chen-Ning wanted to make parent-bots that would look after orphans. He was an orphan himself. Anyway, my parents work for the People’s Favor to develop war-bots. They have their own private labs at Tsinghua. I had access to the civilian and military labs.”
“You were the one?” asked Yoriko with surprise.
Peng continued, “When Ganmi died, I was in a state of shock. Ganmi’s body was destroyed, but a part of her brain was still in good condition. I managed to take her brain from the forensics department and brought it back to Tsinghua to my parents’ lab. They had these robots, engineer-bots, lying around. I used the brain interface module and transferred Ganmi’s brain contents into this engineer-bot.” He pointed up. “This really is Ganmi. Or what’s left of her.”
Yoriko’s mouth lay wide open. “You actually managed to?” Peng nodded, but Yoriko already turned and addressed Ganmi. “Ganmi, how are you feeling today?”
“Sad,” Ganmi replied. “I wanted to play basketball. And now I’m even more sad because of this story.”
“What’s your favorite food?” Yoriko asked.
“Muffle Berry Puff Cake!” Ganmi said, and this time she wore a big smile.
Yoriko turned to Peng. “That’s why you ask Chef Ananda to make all those sweets? For Ganmi?”
Peng nodded. “She can eat.”
Ganmi’s front chassis swivelled open revealing a bunch of teeth that looked like dominoes.
“She’s not like other bots. Doesn’t run on juice. Runs on food.”
Yoriko hand’s caressed Ganmi’s chassis. “Really? Do you poop?”
Ganmi laughed. “No, I’m not like you. I can use one hundred percent of the food I consume. I just burn it.”
“Just for the sake of clarity. Are you saying that your girlfriend Ganmi and this robot — this engineer-bot are one and the same?” Saradi asked.
Peng nodded. “Well kind of. This Ganmi comes with a raft of modifications my parents applied to her chassis prior to her personality download. That’s why Trisdale allowed me to keep her. We do have an advantage. It’s Ganmi!”
“It’s a pity they haven’t really allowed us to use our engineer-bots,” Saradi said.
Saradi wanted to ask Yoriko something about her own daughter, Michiko. But Bheemasena’s dog tag kept calling to her so she went to her inventory closet and grabbed it out. She stared at it wondering if the yellow color was slowly changing, becoming darker?
