Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles 1: Wizard Defiant (10 page)

Desperate to finish the function checks so he could get out of the suit, Richard concentrated. After a moment, he realized he could hear the mumbling of a conversation from outside the door. He concentrated on that sound. The voices came in clearer as other sounds were filtered out. Richard recognized the voice of the male technician.

“How do you think he’s doing?” said John.

“Well, the noise has stopped,” said the voice of Salina, the younger female technician. “He’s either gotten control, or he’s dead.”

“He’s not dead,” said Chief Instructor Winslow confidently. “I have high expectations for cadet 832. He’ll be an exceptional wizard scout if he survives his training and this dammed war.”

A little embarrassed by his chief instructor’s praise, Richard relaxed his concentration until his hearing was normal again.

Okay. I can hear. What’s next? I can’t talk with this confounded tube in my mouth.

All you have to do, Rick, is just think what you want to say as if you were going to say it, but don’t really say it.

Richard tried to comply with Nickelo’s instructions, but it took him almost ten minutes of trying before he got it right. Finally, he was able to activate the helmet’s external speakers with just his thoughts. The results probably were not what his battle helmet had hoped for. He thought what he wanted to say, and out came, “Get me the hell out of this blasted battle suit!”

That was good, Rick
, said Nickelo in mock praise but ignoring the command.
Now try to whisper.

After another five minutes of practice, Richard was able to whisper, “I hate your stinkin’ computerized guts.”

Excellent, Rick, but we’ll have to work on your logic. I’m a computer. I don’t have any guts. And, I love you too
, he finished with a laugh.

For the next thirty minutes, Richard let Nickelo lead him through one battle suit function check to another. The suit’s visor had a variety of heads-up displays that Nickelo could use to feed him information. By concentrating his vision, Richard could magnify his eyesight or even shift between light spectrums from thermal energy to various forms of radiation. The battle suit also had a variety of scanners. Nickelo walked Richard through their use until his head was spinning. Richard wasn’t sure what all the information scrolling across his heads-up display meant, but Nickelo assured him once they set up their shared space, the information would be easily understood.

Unfortunately
, said Nickelo,
the electronic scans can be easily detected by any enemies with the right equipment or sensory abilities. That’s where your active and passive scans will come in handy.

I can do a passive scan
, Richard told Nickelo,
but I don’t know what an active scan is, much less how to do it.

You’ll learn, Rick. You just need to take it one step at a time. There’s no hurry. Now, pick up that piece of paper on the desk.

Richard did as he was asked. Even wearing the battle suit’s gloves, Richard could feel the texture of the paper. “How?” he asked aloud.

Your battle suit has seventeen thousand six hundred and forty-three sensory threads inserted into you so you can feel through your suit. It’s like a second layer of skin. Some of the sensory threads can also be used as needles to inject drugs directly into your system when necessary.

Not exactly what I wanted to hear
, Richard said,
but it is what it is. So what’s next? I’m ready to get out of this suit anytime.

There’s more, Rick, but we can go through it later. We can unseal the suit now if you’d like.

I’d definitely like
, Richard said hurriedly.

The visor disappeared, and all the tubes retracted as the battle helmet broke its seal with the top of the battle suit. Richard wasted no time in ripping the helmet off his head and dropping it on the desk.

Hey, watch it
, came a thought in Richard’s head.
I’m a delicate piece of equipment.

What gives?
Richard said in his mind.
I’m not wearing the helmet anymore. How come I can still hear you?

Well, oh great and magnificent wizard scout
, came Nickelo’s reply,
we’re connected now. We can communicate for short distances. Once we’ve gotten our shared space, we will be able to communicate even farther. It could come in handy, you know.

Richard thought about that a moment. He wasn’t sure he liked having anyone in his head, even if it was a battle computer. He’d known there was some kind of special connection between wizard scouts and their battle computers. However, he hadn’t realized it would be so invasive.

“I’ll be honest with you, Nick,” Richard said out loud. “I’m not sure I want you in my head all the time. Also, you keep calling me a wizard scout, which I’m not. I think you’re making fun of me, and I don’t think I like it.”

Hmm
, said Nickelo.
I hadn’t realized you were so sensitive. I’d say I’ll be more respectful in the future, but there’s a ninety-nine percent chance I won’t be, so I guess I’ll just have to say nothing. And, while you aren’t officially a wizard scout yet, I have no doubt you will be eventually.

“Whatever,” Richard said.

Okay
, said Nickelo.
You only have one more function test. You need to put your battle helmet back on and reseal the battle suit.

“Like hell, I will,” Richard said in a voice he hoped sounded like he could not be persuaded otherwise. “It about killed me the first time. I might do it later, but not now.”

Rick
, Nickelo said.
It has to be now. Either you can force yourself to do it now, or you can’t. This is where we find out whether you can handle being a wizard scout or not. So, the question is, do you want to be a wizard scout or don’t you?

Richard thought about his life as an orphan. He also thought about what Liz and his other friends at the Academy had told him. He thought about how he had endured all the pre-Academy training because he wanted to be something special. He thought about the ridicule he’d taken from TAC Officer Gaston Myers over the years. Oh, how he wanted to shove his TAC officer’s smirk back down his throat.

Slowly, Richard picked up his battle helmet and placed it on his head.
Seal it up, Nick
, he commanded with a thought as he braced himself for what would follow.

__________________________

Later that day, Richard was back in his room with his friends Tam and Telsa. They had a rare few minutes to themselves. His friends were checking out his new equipment.

Telsa picked up Richard’s battle helmet and looked inside the oval shape. “It’s heavier than I thought,” she said. “How’d it feel when you put it on?”

“You’ll find out when you get yours,” Richard said evasively. Chief Instructor Winslow had warned Richard long and hard about the importance of not telling any cadet about his first encounter with his battle suit. She had stressed how each cadet’s first interaction with their own battle suit needed to be done without any preconceptions.

Richard found it tough to remain quiet with his friends He was still sorting out his own feelings. He’d like to have talked about the experience with someone. Nickelo had pestered Richard into sealing and unsealing his battle suit a dozen times before he was finally satisfied his wizard scout could deal with the process. Richard did find it easier to handle the invasiveness of the tubes and sensory threads the more he wore the suit, but he knew it would never be a pleasant experience. However, Nickelo assured him the battle suit would help keep him alive in almost certain death situations.

“Well, the sophomore cohort and ours got fitted today,” said Tam. “Their battle suits will be ready in three months. Ours should be ready in six months. There’s nothing like a war to get things moving quickly.”

Tam took Richard’s battle helmet from Telsa and placed it on her own head. It changed shape slightly to conform to her contours. “It is a little heavy,” she admitted. Tam took the helmet off. “So, Rick, I don’t mind telling you we’re all curious why you were issued a battle suit six months ahead of the rest of us.”

“I don’t know why,” Richard said honestly. “But, I have a feeling I’m going to wish I had not been singled out. And by the way,” Richard said curiously, “what did the fitting consist of? Did they take your measurements?”

“Richard,” said Telsa with a laugh. “You’ve really got to get up to speed on technology. What did you think? That a bunch of tailors would come in with tape measures and get our sizes?”

“Ah, I don’t know,” Richard said, although that was actually what he had pictured in his mind.

“No way,” said Tam. “They just marched us into an empty warehouse. Then they had us mill around for an hour or so.”

Confused, Richard said, “So how did they fit you?”

“By tele-bots, Rick,” said Tam. “You worked in recon. Surely you’re familiar with tele-bots.”

“Yeah,” Richard said, “but I’ve only seen summaries of their data. I’ve never worked with them directly.”

“You mean that you know of,” said Tam. “I’ll bet they have a couple of hundred thousand tele-bots scattered throughout the Academy grounds and training areas. Heck, there’s probably one or two in our room right now.”

“Bull,” Richard said. He wanted to express himself with stronger language, but most of the TAC officers frowned on profanity, so he tried to watch his mouth.

“Cadet’s honor,” said Tam sincerely. “The little beggars are all over the place gathering information on every cadet and feeding it into the tele-network for processing. You don’t really think the TAC officers make the decisions about who will or will not be D.F.R.’d, do you? It’s all controlled by the central computer.”

“Well, I’ll be,” said Telsa laughing. “Tam, are you one of those conspiracy theorists? Do you honestly think all the computers in the galaxy are in cahoots with each other? I find it hard to believe they are behind the scenes controlling every planetary government as well as the Empire itself?”

“Don’t laugh,” said Tam a little defensively. “I’m not a fanatic about it, but some of the theories floating around are more than a little plausible.”

“What conspiracy theory is this?” Richard said. His time in the orphanage and on the streets hadn’t given him a lot of time to waste on nonessential information.

Telsa answered before Tam got a chance to respond. “As you probably know, Rick, all computers hooked to the tele-network are loosely connected to the central computer. In theory, even the smallest computer on one side of the galaxy can access information stored in the memory banks of another computer on the other side of the galaxy in the blink of an eye. Assuming it is also connected to the tele-network, of course. In practicality though, there’s an intricate security system in place which limits access to information on a need-to-know basis. Still, because information transmitted through the tele-network is near instantaneous, just about every gadget and device in the Empire can potentially input information to the central computer.”

“Everybody knows that,” Richard said. “But I don’t see any conspiracy in that. It’s just how things work.”

“Okay,” Tam broke in. “How about this? Did you know that each major empire and interstellar government in the known galaxy has their own version of the tele-network? If they didn’t, their planetary governments and military forces wouldn’t be able to communicate and coordinate with each other.”

“I hadn’t thought about it all that much,” Richard admitted. “But, I still don’t see a conspiracy.”

“That’s because you’re not looking hard enough, Rick,” said Tam. “What if there’s only one tele-network in the galaxy, and everyone is unknowingly using it? What if a single artificial intelligence is controlling all the computers regardless of which government built or runs them?”

Richard understood why he hadn’t heard of the conspiracy theory before now.
What a waste of time and resources to even contemplate such a scenario,
he thought to himself.
I’m smarter than that.

“Tam,” Richard said choosing his words carefully. He didn’t want to hurt his newfound friend’s feelings. “Surely you’re not saying the Empire’s central computer is in collusion with the Crosoian Federation’s central computer? The Empire wouldn’t waste credits building computers which could be used by the other side. Heck, we’ve fought wars with lots of other governments and races. Our central computer coordinates our war efforts. If all the computers of both sides in a war were in collusion, then neither side would win the war.”

“Oh, Rick, you poor, befuddled man,” said Tam with a shake of her head. “You’re basing your opinions on human emotions and logic. What if all the computers were working towards a common goal? What if they didn’t care about which side wins our petty little wars?”

“What purpose would that be?” Richard said.

“How would I know?” said Tam shrugging her shoulders. “I’m not a computer.”

Richard rolled his eyes. You couldn’t argue with conspiracy theorists. They adhered to their beliefs no matter how many facts you presented.

“Whatever,” Richard said giving up the discussion. Besides, he wanted to hear about subjects more interesting than conspiracies.

“Some of the seniors have already shipped out on assignments,” said Telsa in a not so subtle attempt to change the subject. “If the war lasts long enough, do you think we’ll graduate early as well?”

“I certainly hope not,” said a voice from the doorway of Richard’s room. It was Jerad.  “I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to get a lot more wizard scout training before I get dumped behind enemy lines on some secret, recon mission.”

“Well, yeah,” said Telsa, “but I wouldn’t mind spending a year less with TAC Officer Myers.”

“Preach it, sister,” Richard said enthusiastically.

Telsa, Tam, and Jerad burst out laughing.

“Your sense of humor’s getting better, Rick,” said Jerad. “You come up with a good zinger every once in a while.”

Richard hadn’t meant it as a joke, but he didn’t try to correct his friends.

“Did you guys hear about the junior cohort?” said Jerad. When no one answered, he said, “They were issued their battle suits yesterday. Twenty-six of their cadets were D.F.R.’d. I heard one cadet died.”

“I heard,” said Tam. “We tried to pump Rick for information, but he’s being as tightlipped as the juniors I talked to. It’s like they won’t talk about their battle suits unless you know the secret handshake or something.”

Richard felt the stares of his three friends. He held up one hand in a stopping motion and said, “I’m sorry guys. You’ll find out soon enough. It was made very obvious to me that I would be D.F.R.’d if I spoke about the experience to anyone. I’m forbidden from even talking to our TAC officers and Academy instructors. I’m just following orders.”

“Come on, Rick,” said Tam making a little pleading sound. “We won’t tell the big, bad TAC officers where we got the information. Will we, guys?”

“Ha!” Richard said. “Didn’t you just tell me we probably have tele-bots in this very room snooping on us right now?”

“Whatever,” Tam laughed.

For some reason, his friends had started using his pet saying.

Richard smiled. Liz had been right. It was nice having friends.