Fixer 13

by G. Michael Smith

  Chapter 22: Weapons and Combat Training

  At the formation of the new order, the laws regarding the design, possession and use of modern weapons changed.

  All weapons were of two types: disabling and killing. If you used a weapon designed to disable, it could not purposely kill. The opposite was also true. If you were using a weapon designed to kill, it would always do exactly that. If someone died by your hand and you were using a killing weapon, there was no doubt of your intent. Your intent had to be to kill because you were using a weapon that could only do what it was designed to do. You could not shoot to wound. You could only shoot to kill. As a result, killing weapons were rare. Disabling weapons were much more common. They were the weapons carried by the police and security. That is not to say that deaths did not result with the use of the disabling weapons. Deaths were not common but they did happen. Someone shot with a disabling weapon could fall and hit his head and die as a result of head trauma. It was therefore assumed that a person who wielded a disabling weapon had no intent to kill. In reality this was not always true.

  The following three days were spent resting and wearing the new suit. Jayne felt a need to be alone and did not activate Lucky’s higher level functions. She spent her waking hours experimenting with the Sergio Partelli. She never even took it off. When it was time to sleep, she simply instructed the suit to change to the appropriate attire. The suit would try its best to comply but some things were poor approximations. The nightgown extended to Jayne’s knees but it still maintained the complete lower part of the suit. Jayne looked like she was wearing pajama bottoms and a nightgown at the same time. This was really the suit’s attempt at a uniform that looked like a nightgown. No matter what you asked the suit to change to, it always put safety first and the logic of the design second. So a wedding dress became a long gown with long sleeves and a high neckline. Under the dress were full leggings. ‘Nightie’ just looked like a clown suit. The suit was always, first and foremost, designed for safety unless these standard protocols were overridden.

  At the end of break, Jayne returned to school. The course was titled ‘Weapons and Combat.’ It involved the study of all weapons presently in common use, biome weapons, basic fighting skills and gyverisms. The latter was the incorporation of articles in the environment as weapons or tools. Biome fixers often found themselves in situations that required a weapon or tool for survival. This course was designed to give fixers experiences with these kinds of dangerous situations.

  The weapons classes took place in a large, high ceilinged building. The center of the building was reached by walking through a protective tunnel. All weapons were shot, projected or thrown from the center to the outside edge of the building. This meant that the center was always safe from accidental shots. A negative gravity field prevented accidental ricochets. Safety was paramount. Students were introduced to the entire weapons array before entering a biome. None of the weapons held explosive charges similar to bullets. The biomes were, after all, spaceships. A bullet could possibly smash some important component and put the biome in jeopardy. The four types of weapons were light, sound, chemical and subsonic projectile. Sometimes there were combinations such as chemical-projectile. Jayne sat through classes that looked at many of these weapons, their construction and use. In the end, she had to choose one and become an expert user. Jayne liked projectile weapons best. They were less technological and therefore less prone to failure in strange biome environments. There were bows and arrows, spears, blow darts, crossbows, throwing blades and axes, boomerangs and slings. They were all big and bulky, except the sling. Jayne chose the sling. It was small, simple and effective.

  There were many different types of slings. The simplest—used by humans for thousands of years—consisted of leather thongs attached to either side of a leather pocket. One thong had a knot at one end. A projectile, usually a small-egg-sized rock, was placed in the leather pocket. The projectile was swung around and the knotted thong released. The rock would fly off to its target. This device was easy to make, carry and use, but difficult to master. The modern slings were of a different breed altogether. These slings consisted of a metal tube 20 cm long and two cm in diameter. The sling was secured in the palm by a flexible strap. A single extendable line protruded from one end of the tube. It held a six-fingered claw that would open and release the object it contained when the sling was at its release point. It could be carried in the hand when its line was retracted fully. The longer the line, the further the sling would throw the object. A shorter line would increase accuracy. The ammunition for this modern sling was many and varied. Projectiles were held in an ammo belt slung over the shoulder. This sling could even use common rocks when all sophisticated ammunition was expended.

  Jayne loved the simplicity and the versatility of the sling, and spent weeks practicing. After the first day, her right arm felt like it was pulled from its socket, so she practiced with the left. She would alternate arms and soon became equally proficient with both the left and the right. She was the only student who chose the sling. She practiced on her own. Once she was proficient with simple striking projectiles, she graduated to the more sophisticated types of ammunition. There were scatter pellets, sound bombs, flash bangs, listening and tracking burrs, fliers, splatts and boomerangs. Splatts could mark a path or disperse an irritant. Boomerangs would return a sample of their target. All of these types of ammunition were computer controlled and almost always found their target.

  The focus of combat training was to protect, deflect and avoid. After all, biome fixers were not warriors. They were trained to enter a hazardous environment, repair or fetch something and get both themselves and their team out unscathed. The focus of hand-to-hand fighting was not to harm or kill, but to disarm and disable. It had many aspects of the ancient martial art called Aikido, which focuses only on defense and the use of the opponent’s momentum. It was in combat training that Jayne was weakest. Her small size was a disadvantage. She found it difficult, if not impossible, to disable a larger opponent with her bare hands. On the flip side, however, others found it nearly impossible to disarm or disable her. She always seemed to know what they were about to do before they actually did it. She could slip out of the most carefully planned submission hold and escape.

  School and study consumed all the Biome 3 apprentice fixers. One day Jayne was standing on her bed in the dorm, assuming the defensive stance and imagining someone attacking her with a knife when Sara entered, threw down her knapsack and flopped on her bed.

  “This is impossible. I will never get through this,” she moaned.

  “What?” asked Jayne.

  “Diagnostics!” Sara spat. “They expect me to figure out what is wrong with a machine I have never even seen before, just by a list of symptoms. It is absurd.”

  “Do you know where the machine is located and its purpose?” asked Jayne.

  “Yes. How is that suppose to help?” she said, covering her head with her arms and hands.

  “Know the function, know the machine,” answered Jayne matter-of-factly. “You always want to see all the specific bits and how they work together in that specific machine. Back up. What part groupings are required for the function? They will be very similar for all the machines that require that particular function. Study the common malfunctions for those part groupings and apply the one that is most likely. Simple.”

  “Easy for you to say. You are a whiz kid,” Sara answered sarcastically.

  Jayne made a face and said, “Oh, yeah, I forgot the most common problem with everything in Biome 3.”

  “What’s that?” asked Sara.

  “Dirt!” answered Jayne. “It is everywhere and causes 98% of the problems. Yeah, they say things like the filters are clogged or the quantum crystal array is overheated or the bearings in the domahickey are dried out or the thingamabob is plugged up. But it usually comes down to the fact that dirt somehow got into the system and messed something up. So always consider dirt first.”


  “That’s your best advice. Dirt!” Sara moaned.

  “Yep. Now help me with some combat moves. I’ve got to disarm someone in my hand-to-hand combat class. Anyone will do. I’ve even thought of trying to bribe someone to let me succeed,” said Jayne, as she shouted and struck at her imaginary opponent. “Hiyah!”

  “That’s the best you got—hi… yeh?” said Sara sitting up. “Disarming someone is all about knowing what happens to a body when it performs a specific action. Know the action—know the response. The more force that is put into the action, the easier it is to deflect.”

  “You mean the more likely I will get stabbed. I can handle surprises by preparing and avoiding ’cause I’m quick. But it is tougher when it is obvious to everyone what is about to happen. I just can’t seem to stop it. I get flicked away like I’m an irritating insect,” said Jayne. “I am supposed to use their weight and offensive actions against them but I am just a fly that they swat away. Help me, pleeeaaassse!”

  “Wait. That is the best thing to do. Wait. Wait until your opponent commits, and then act. That is the best advice I can give you,” said Sara. “Here, I will show you. Pretend I am attacking you with this knife.”

  “You don’t have a knife,” said Jayne.

  Sara scrabbled around in her knapsack and found a stylus. She brandished it like it was a knife. “OK, now I have a weapon. Stand up here and stop me from stabbing you in the eye with it,” stated Sara.

  She approached Jayne.

  Jayne held up both of her hands, as if to block any stabbing motion.

  Sara dropped her hands. “No. No. Put your hands down. You are giving too much away. You are quick. I have seen you in the GravBall arena. So put your hands down and use your speed. Wait for your opponent to commit and then use one of the moves they taught you. I know you know them. A little over-achiever like you would know all the moves on the first day. Am I right?”

  Jayne nodded her head. “OK. But how long do I wait before I defend?” she asked.

  “As long as possible,” said Sara. “If the knife or the fist is not within a hair’s breadth of contact, then you wait. If you wait that long, then two things will happen. One—your attacker will have fully committed to the action, and two—he will feel confident that his action cannot fail. That is when you act. How you act is up to you and the situation, but I know that part will not be a problem for you.”

  She crouched and held the stylus out in front of her in a threatening way. “On guard!”

  Jayne stood and watched and waited. She blanked her mind and waited. She moved only so that she could watch all the actions that Sara made. Sara faked a jab with the pretend knife. Jayne did nothing. The stylus had not come close enough to move. Sara made a roaring sound and ran at Jayne but stopped a good 40 cm from her. Jayne did not act. She waited.

  Sara turned around and spoke, “That’s it. I think you’ve got it.”

  She turned back around quickly and ran at Jayne with full speed and full force, the stylus held in a stabbing position. Jayne raised her forearms vertically in front of her at head height. They were offset; one further away from her body than the other. As the stylus stab approached her, the heel of her left hand struck the back of Sara’s stylus-wielding hand and the heel of her right hand hit the inside of her elbow joint. At the same time, Jayne turned her body sideways so the pretend knife, if it made it through, would miss her completely. But the stylus did not make it through. It went flying from Sara’s grip as her arm folded at the elbow and she gripped the muscle of her arm.

  “Ahhh. Take it easy. I was not going to really hurt you.”

  “It looked like you were going to. If I had missed or frozen, you would have stabbed me,” retorted Jayne.

  “It wouldn’t have hurt,” she said, picking up the stylus and pressing the end. The device retracted into itself. “I snitched one to practice with a while back. It is harmless.”

  “Oh,” said Jayne.

  “How did that feel? You waited until I committed and then you struck. And by the way, you didn’t have to hit me so hard,” whined Sara. “How are you doing with the gyvers? No, don’t tell me.” She held her index fingers to her temples. “It is coming to me. Yes. You are acing them. Am I right?”

  The optional course activity was called Gyvers. Jayne did not know the origin of the word, but a gyverism was a quickly-rigged creation from the common objects in the vicinity to enable you to solve a problem or escape a precarious situation. In short, you used what was at hand in a way other than what was originally intended. A good knowledge of common chemistry and physics would be beneficial. Jayne loved gyverisms. She was a whiz at solving these kinds of problems.

  “You are right. And it really felt good to block your stab. Thanks for the help,” said Jayne.

  “Good. I have done my part. But telling me that it all comes down to dirt does not make us even. You still owe me. I will, however, give the dirt idea a try,” she said and flopped down to begin scanning the ElecMech manual on her VID.

  Jayne sat back on her bed and reflected on the ‘wait’ concept. She liked it. The three-month course would end with a series of competitions. All competitions were judged on four aspects: accuracy with your chosen projectile weapon, problem-solving while respecting the natural order of the biome, defensive combat and an ability to work with others. Jayne found this last aspect of the course the most difficult. She liked to work on her own and did not readily tolerate the shortcomings of others, especially when her safety was at stake.

  Jayne thought about entering the competitions. It was not mandatory but it was expected. In the interim there was GravBall.