Nova Llar- Training Days Page 11

  In the base, Steve watched on the monitors as they turned back. It had certainly proved a useful test and clearly showed that Joseph was willing to give up something very precious to him for the sake of the team. If this didn't meet with Gareths requirements for a “Team player” Steve was hard pressed to think of anything else.

  Chapter 20

  It had been four days since the men had invaded the camp. Joseph had been going over the series of events again and again and there were too many factors that didn't make sense. “Where had the men come from? Why didn't they reach when he incapacitated the first one? How could they have simply disappeared after leaving such a clear trail through the forest and onto the planes?” all of these thoughts had given Joseph pause for thought. But there was one that outright told him something wasn't right here, “What happened to the defences on the module?” Joseph had several defence mechanisms built into the module that would activate should anyone other than him be holding it for more than a few minutes. The thieves didn't appear to have any kind of bags or carry cases and a pocket would be close enough to the skin for the module to detect their DNA. As far as he was aware there was currently no technology in the world that could disable the device, certainly not something a small band of thieves in the middle of nowhere would have. Since the incident, Joseph had been watching everything and everyone around him very very closely. If anything was amiss with this place he knew the key to picking it out was to remain observant.

  He was out hunting some rabbits on the plane when he thought he got his next clue. He had managed to Knick a rabbits ear earlier in the day and he just so happened to see the same rabbit dart into a hole to his right as he crested a small hill. Almost immediately another rabbit with the same Knick in its ear emerged from a hold 5 for 6 meters to his left. For a second he thought he was seeing things but as he moved towards it the rabbit disappeared down the hole it had just emerged from. Then it re-emerged less than a meter in front of him. Unless these rabbits had all suffered the same injury somehow there was no doubt in Joseph's mind that this must be the same rabbit each time. Acting quickly he flicked his knife into the rabbits head, dropping it instantly. Upon inspection, the Knick was certainly from a knife and it was very fresh, barely starting to scab. As he put it into his sack he looked around to see if anyone was watching him, “What was going on here?” he thought to himself, trying not the let his face give away his thoughts. He finished his hunting trip catching two more rabbits, neither with a Knick in their ear, and headed back to camp. In total, he had caught 7 rabbits which should keep everyone satisfied for a day or two.

  Moving through the trees he started to hear the noises coming from the camp. The fire was crackling, Bret probably put some more green wood on it by mistake, and there were voices being carried on the air to him. Emerging into the camp it was Charles and Mataire having a conversation. It was difficult to glean the topping having entered half way through but it was clearly personal in nature so Joseph ignored it and kept moving into the camp towards the storehouse. Taking each rabbit out and hanging them on the branches running along the roof he got the last one and froze after pulling it out of the bag. None of the other rabbits had a Knick on their ear when he took them out to hang, and neither did this one. There were 6 hanging rabbits and this one, he had counted correctly there were 7 when he started heading back and one definitely had the Knick on its ear. As he studied the rabbit a noise like a snapping branch overhead caused him to look up, seeing nothing he went back to the rabbit, except it now had the Knick again. Joseph's head was spinning, this couldn't be right. How was he seeing and missing details like this, there was no way he was this distracted and by all accounts, they were eating and sleeping well enough to stave off any effects like this. As he ran his finger over the Knick a small amount of blood came away on his finger. This was fresh. Well at least much fresher than one from this morning. Joseph closed the door to the storehouse and started inspecting everything around him. He found some wild herbs and berries they had found a few days ago, all of them were exactly as they were when they had been picked. No signs of decay or wilting in them at all. The other animals they had found and were storing similarly lacked any of the usual smell of decay. After taking a moment to compose his thought Joseph decided there was only one explanation for this that made sense. None of this was real.

  Steve walked into the control room to resume monitoring team 2's progress. He had been called away on several urgent matters and while he would normally have multitasked them with his monitoring duties the complexity of some of the work he was doing had required too much focus. Sitting down and disengaging the holding AI he cycled through all of the team members to check they were performing that tasks he expected for this time of day. It was fortunate they all followed a fairly regimented routing, it was best for survival and meant Steve could foresee most issues before the arose. When he got to Joseph he was surprised to find him laying down in the cave asleep. It wasn't like him to take a break at this time in the afternoon, perhaps he was not feeling well. Steve pulled up his vital signs and despite a slightly elevated heart rate and a small irregularity in his blood pressure, everything looked fine. Certainly, there was nothing that would cause him to need to rest. Steve dismissed it as a human peculiarity for now and continued to monitor the other team members. However a little after an hour Joseph was still resting and no-one had gone to check on him. His heart rate was constant but in addition to the blood pressure anomaly, there was now a drop in temperature. Steve cycled the view around to get another angle but Joseph was completely covered over. Switching to infrared on the camera Steve was surprised to see a gradually reducing hotspot on what appeared to be a very cold mound of something. This wasn't Joseph. But whatever it was had his tracking beacon in it and that was what the camera was focused on. A slight feeling of panic started to grip Steve. Where was Joseph and how did his tracking beacon end up in whatever that was? Thinking quickly Steve switched to an aerial view of the campsite using the infrared features of the cameras. There were 5 human-sized signatures, a campfire and the smaller signature in the cave, but nothing else. Zooming out to show everything within half a kilometre of the camp there was still no Joseph, 1 kilometre, 2 kilometres, zooming all the way out to 6 kilometres and still no Joseph. Steve was now very worried. If he had made it past 7 kilometres this challenge could be over. Zooming out Steve's worst fears were realised. There, just beyond the 7-kilometre limit was a heat signature, slowly twirling outwards, past the edge of the simulation.

  As Joseph continued to somersault in the empty void around him he tried everything he could to right himself. There didn't appear to be any physical laws here so it was hard to work out how to stop let alone which way was up or down. Occasionally he caught a glimpse of the edge where he had fallen? “Was the right way to think of it?” he mused. He had been right about none of this being real at least, there was some small comfort in that as it meant he may not have actually given up Jess' module, simply a simulated imitation. He imagined this was all being controlled as part of their training, introducing challenges and monitoring their responses to them. He had to admit he was impressed with the level of detail they could put into it. Although given the clear sophistication of the technology he was surprised the errors he had noticed were so blatant. Suddenly Steve stopped tumbling, being controlled by an unseen force he was turned and righted to face the world he had fallen from, slowly being drawn back towards it. Once his feet were firmly planted back on the ground a figure appeared in front of him. “Hello Joseph.” it said. “You really shouldn't have done this, now things are going to be a lot more difficult for you.”

  Chapter 21

  Clara was sitting up in the lookout post surveying the campsite and forest below. They had managed to get the nest pretty close to the top of the tallest tree in camp. From here Clara could see a few kilometres out over the forest and more importantly had uninterrupted views of most of the clearing they were based in the middle of. Since th
e wolves invaded the camp last week, they had decided the nest was a good way to ensure the camp was at least monitored. This was the third day of its use after construction and Clara's first turn in it. They had made it as spacious as possible. Just over one and a half meters across and cylindrical in shape. A small wall ran around the perimeter and a raised roof allowed some protection from the elements. Everything was made from the wood around the edges of the camp. It was easy to work with and each tree and bush they used increased the useable space for other things.

  It was getting late as the others began returning from the day's collection. There was a strict curfew in effect now. Anyone not back by 6 would be reprimanded. Clara's shift in the nest wouldn't end until the food had been prepared. If it wasn't for the nature of the role it would almost be a relaxing assignment. Getting to sit an observe without having to participate in the more arduous tasks in the camp. As the team started setting up for dinner Clara saw a light shining upwards through the trees about a kilometre out. Shafts of bright green light emanated from the canopy. Moving in a direction that would bring it close, but not into, camp. Clara picked up the comms unit and relayed the information to the team on the ground. She saw Meihui looking up towards her and Clara pointed out in the direction of the light. The noise of everyone packing up the camp wasn't loud, but it certainly carried over the silence of the forest around them. Clara looked out again and the light had gotten significantly closer in the last few minutes. It’s direction of travel looked to have shifted to bring it straight to the camp. She passed on the update and watched has her team scrambled into the three highest pods, closing the lower ones off on the way up. Clara turned off the light in the nest and continued to observe the green light approaching. By now she could see additional shafts of light shining between the bows of the trees on the edge of the camp.