Authors: Stephan Malone
They returned home again and Aurelia plopped onto the couch, tired and drained while Julian went into their kitchen to grab some water. “Want anything?” He said.
“I’m fine, no.” The smart-lamps base rings glowed and dimmed.. They were extremely low power organic computers running on less than a single volt, thin as silk and designed to be installed straight onto furniture or built in as if they were always meant to be there. They required no maintenance or batteries to change, nothing to plug in or wire up. Humans may have lost control of the world from the violent climate outside but at least they enjoyed life again without being buried in a torrent of menacing gadgets. Aurelia spoke to the lamps with their soft, basilar glow. “Message.”
The lamps responded and blinked twice softly and a man’s voice emitted from the wall console. “Guys hey this is Major Orlando from the Centre. I guess you aren’t home yet but Doc Palmer wanted me to call you about something. It’s about that Kama girl they have locked up. This is classified shit so don’t talk about this to anyone. Anyways she talked. Call the doc or me when you can. Thanks guys..”
The lamps blinked twice and then the ringed glows were gone altogether. The media wall console appeared to be a landscape painting of a barn and wheat field when not in use, a twenty-sixth century version of sleep mode. The painting bleeped a soft chime sound, a notification for Aurelia that a reminder was automatically added to call the Centre soon. If she ignored the reminder after a day then the media console’s frame would softly glow to remind her..
Julian emerged from the kitchen with a lemon water. “Who was that?”
Aurelia said, “The Centre again. Orlando.” She rubbed her eyes and forehead. “More brass. Makes me nervous. I don’t like all this attention we are getting from up high.”
“That’s because you’re a star now.” Julian sat down across from her and said, “Livin’ large. So you gonna call?”
Aurelia rubbed her eyes again and covered them with her hands. “Can you call them? Please?”
“Yeah yeah.” Julian said to the coffee table, “Call Doctor Palmer.” The table emitted several low tones in quick succession. A moment later Doctor Palmer’s voice said from the wall console, “Hello?”
“Hey doc it’s Julian. We just rolled in the door here. What’s up?”
Doctor Palmer said, “Well you aren’t going to believe this one.”
“I’ll believe anything. What’s happening now? Something with the Raider I'm guessing.”
Palmer responded, “Yeah. After you left here Kama started to talk. She said she wants to, uhh, she wants to, heh, battle Aurelia.”
Julian set his water down and shook his head. “Sorry doc, what’s that now?”
The Doctor repeated, “I know, right? I said Kama told us she wants to fight with Aurelia. She says that if she does this then she will tell us whatever we want to know. She went on saying some garbage about her honor as chosen or some-such.”
Aurelia removed her hands from her eyes and gave Julian a disbelieving look. She shook her head and extended her fingers away. “Doc, I’m here, hey. This is craziness. It’s nuts. She’s fucking crazy, you know this right? Come on, I am not going to spar with her. I’m still not feeling one hundred percent from my wound. She’d kill me anyways.”
Doctor Palmer said, “It’s not going to be a big deal Lieutenant. Really. The intel that we can potentially get out of this would be critically valuable for us and the City. Sparring her will be no different than anything that you’ve already done back in your training.”
Aurelia rolled her eyes at the ceiling and said, “Right sure that’s because I sparred with genetically modified and highly trained people in basic all the time.”
Doctor Palmer paused momentarily and then said, “Trust me, this will be simple. If you do this you will be using a combat polearm in full armor. You won’t even get a scratch. I promise. Kama doesn’t know how resilient and protective our modern armor is. She’s lived a life using hand-assembled scraps of leather and metal.”
“Doc, again, no. I’m sorry but I’m not gonna do it.” Aurelia responded.
“Okay well, The Colonel himself was informed and he is gonna contact you soon. I just wanted to break the news to you because he can be sort of rough you know.”
Aurelia bolted into a stand and started to pace around the Pod. “Doc this is nuts! Christ on a vine you guys can’t ORDER me to do this!”
Doctor Palmer responded, “Well he can, actually. Lieutenant, look you will be doing the City a great favor if you do this. I would suggest just do it.”
“Jesus I don’t fucking believe this! Haven’t I already done enough for the City already? There has to be a way out of this shit!”
Doctor Palmer sustained a calm tone and said, “I don't know, Aurelia. Honestly my guess is that the Colonel will bump you up a rank if you go through with it. Just think of the pay increase! It’s not like this wouldn’t come without any benefit to you.”
Aurelia sat back down. “Doc thanks so much for the heads-up but I have to go. Jesus I don’t believe this shit.”
“No problem, take it easy and think it over. And be ready when the Colonel calls you. Bye guys.”
Aurelia and Julian simultaneously said, “Bye” into the wall console. Julian looked at Aurelia with a screwed up look on his face and said, “Are you gonna do it or no?”
Aurelia looked at her feet and without raising her head said, “I don’t know,” lay down on the couch again, sighed and then closed her eyes.
Four days passed until Aurelia finally decided to go through with the sparring exercise with Kama. It took three urgent calls from Colonel Palmer and a personal visit to their Pod but in the end she consented. They guaranteed her a military promotion although Colonel Palmer stressed that it was off the record he even mentioned such. Promotions were supposed to be administered
after
a heroic event, not before.
All told it was still a strange way to get information from a military prisoner but Kama was not an average combatant. The Colonel added an additional ten thousand credit bonus for Aurelia and Julian but only after he felt that he was losing the bargain with her even though he really wasn’t. Aurelia was an excellent bluffer. Perhaps it was this instinct within that kept her alive against Kama and her deadly Coilgun just a few short weeks ago out there in the borderline forests.
She was told to report back to the Military Centre in 48 hours in full armor and to take the standardized regimen of vitamins and trace minerals the night before. She liked to throw in cayenne pills into the mix. The pepper helped flush out her lymph and dilate her blood vessels even if they did hurt her stomach a little.
Aurelia and Julian arrived back at the Centre and walked by the familiar stir-fry stand they passed a thousand times before. There was a strange and undefined comfort to be found as the cook clanged and sizzled with his wok. The sounds and smells of the food permeated the Centre’s lobby hall. Aurelia was not hungry though. She supposed that an order of lo mein noodles with sesame oil, garlic and white pepper would be an unwise choice so close to a physical workout.
Was this an exercise?
She thought as they walked to the elevator. Julian walked faster than Aurelia since she wore her full battlesuit while Julian was unencumbered in regular casual City clothes. She shouted to Julian who was about 10 meters ahead. “Hey slow down. You’re pissing me off.”
Julian spun around in an instant and paced back to her. “Sorry I was spacing out thinking about this shit. Hope you kick her ass.” He smiled slightly.
“Won’t be a problem. Even if she is a genetic freak or what the fuck ever she is. Mutant.” Aurelia stifled out a brief, evil chuckle, amused at herself. “She can smack me all day long and I’m not going to feel shit in this armor.” She extended her right hand forward as they walked. “But what about her armor! Fucking toy leather is all that getup is.” She wiggled her hands in front of her. “Wooooo. Badass Raider armor, I'm so scared. Well, she’s asking for it. Stupid idiot. Chosen my ass. I’ll show her chosen.”
Julian raised his eyebrows. “Damn you know something?”
“What?” Aurelia huffed out.
“I think you really need to do this. For you.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. What I do know is after I’m done smacking her silly I’m going to thank her for knocking me up a paygrade.”
“Wow, heh,” Julian said.
Aurelia tried to look straight at Julian who now walked abreast of her but couldn’t swivel her head around since her battlesuit was too stiff in the neck. She moved her eyes all the way to her left as far as she could push them. “Yeah, you’re gonna see
wow
in about fifteen minutes.”
Julian knew her well enough. Aurelia was dead serious. “Just hope you’ll feel a little better after dishing out some payback. You’ve been through a lot. I don’t feel like I’m doing enough for you though.”
Aurelia looked forward and said, “Shut up. You know I love you. Some things a girl just has to do on her own. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You do what you gotta do baby. I’m with ya,” Julian said.
They passed the security drone and reported to Special Training Arena number five. The Arena was in reality a twelve meter square shaped room, about thirty-two by thirty-two feet. The floor consisted of a hard rubbery substance that softened only when it was forcibly hit. Walking or shuffling on it had no effect for it remained firm and relatively solid otherwise. The walls were padded all-round and the ceiling was about 15 meters high which gave the Arena a visually unusual appearance.. The tall ceiling made the room feel much larger than it actually was but it was a necessary choice for the Military’s training needs.
To the soldiers the array of twelve Special Training Arenas, six on either side of a secured soundproofed hallway was simply referred to as The Pit. The Pit had an anteroom where people could change and shower and/or be debriefed. There was even an emergency basic medical bench available if needed.
A soldier dressed in standard fatigues greeted Aurelia and Julian in the anteroom and saluted her straight away given her rank. “Lieutenant, ma’am, Specialist Noonan. Assigned to assist you with this exercise.”
Aurelia waved his salute down with her hand. “Thanks, I’m ready though I don’t need any warming up. Just give me my polearm and unlock number five and we’re about good here.”
Specialist Noonan paused and looked at her feet for a second and said, “Uh, sir, ma’am, sorry but I got these special instructions to do this exercise.”
“By whom?” Aurelia asked.
Specialist Noonan raised his head up and with a respectful tone said, “By the Colonel himself and Doctor Palmer. They were specific on this one, ma’am.”
Aurelia resigned her voice and said, “Okay sure. Whatever.”
Noonan said, Hold on a second,” and then reached into a nearby storage locker. He removed a thin headband with two tiny adjacent-to-the-ear transducers. “Here, this is a translator comm set. It’s bone conducting so your hearing won’t be affected. It is toothed into the City computer translation cloud so it’s pretty fast on turnaround time. Kama only speaks Mandarin so we are gonna let you talk to her while you two are together in there. She will also be wearing the same device. Translation starts as soon as you pause for more than six hundred milliseconds.”
“So we will be able to talk to each other,” Aurelia asked.
“Yes ma’am. Doc Palmer thinks it will be a good idea. He says it will help her tell us more.” Specialist Noonan shrugged. “I don’t know ma'am, I’m just the peon here.”
Aurelia looked at the Specialist and briefly laughed. “Great. Noonan can you do me a favor?”
“Uh, sure ma’am. What?”
“Please stop calling me ma’am, I’m like three years older than you. You make me feel like I’m ninety.”
Specialist Noonan tweaked his mouth into a subtle smile and saluted out of nervousness. “Yes ma’am, I mean Lieutenant, ma’am.”
“Just Aurelia. We’re not in combat.”
Noonan glanced over Aurelia’s shoulder toward Julian who stood directly behind her. Julian shrugged and nodded with his eyes closed as if silently telling the Specialist,
Just how she is
.
The Specialist said, “Okay Lieutenant. Aurelia.” He saluted once more and then fitted the headband over her head. The transducers sat directly ahead of her ears. They would send audio vibrations to her inner ear by way of her skull bones.
He placed her headgear armor and the band seated perfectly snug against a small ridge built into the helmet. Aurelia couldn’t even tell that she was wearing earphones at all. They were feather-light and completely flexible and soft all the way around. If there was any metal in them she couldn’t feel it for they felt like a singular piece of molded soft silicone.
Aurelia adjusted her helmet to her liking and said, “Okay, now what?”
Noonan produced a one and a half meter long polearm, not terribly long as far as polearms go, but it looked tactically useable. Aurelia shrugged. “Cool.”
She took the polearm from him and smacked it into a row of lockers with a sideways thrust. The polearm beeped and a synthetic voice emitted from it. “Critical!”
“That's polearm trainer. It is intelligent. Got a six-axis accelerometer and pressure sensors throughout. It calculates a critical blow to the enemy with the sensors. If the strike is non-critical or ineffective it will just bleep once with a quick bloopy sound.”
Aurelia said, “Well that’s cute as all hell. So is this how you determine the winner? A critical blow?”
“Three actually. Three crits and the winner will be declared.” Noonan paused and waited for Aurelia’s response as she studied the polearm some more. She considered that things were a little different with this venue than in her basic Military centre training days.
“So say she wins. Will this be for nothing? Will she give us any intel?” Aurelia asked.
“Doc Palmer thinks she will talk either way, but he also said, uhh, what was that he said. Oh yeah.” Specialist Noonan scratched his head. “Actually ma'am, I mean Aurelia, well hell the doc was kinda confusing on that point.”
“Right,” Aurelia smacked the polearm ends, right first then left against the lockers.