Nova Llar- Training Days Read online

  Chapter 10

  As Joseph finally gained his composure, he looked at the clock in the bottom right-hand corner of his vision. “Time in the form: 29 minutes 53 seconds”. Joseph wasn’t exactly pleased with this time. “Congratulations Mr Taylor” came a voice from nearby. Joseph looked around to see an LF63 with Colonel Jones' name floating next to it. “It appears you have just made it. Eight more seconds and we would have been forced to return you to your body.” He continued with a smirk on his face. “These LF units are remarkably expressing!” Joseph thought to himself. “Now, go and stand with everyone else, Mr Taylor.” Joseph looked over to see seventeen other LF63 units standing in a corner of the yard. He tried to move towards them but found it difficult to control his body. This certainly was disorientating, to top it off the body just didn't feel right on him. Like something was sticking or catching on the inside. He made it to the other successful candidates and stood in formation with them. He noticed Clara had made it through. That was good at least.

  As they stood waiting for the last of the failed recruits to be removed from the yard, Joseph started to feel more comfortable in his body. Presumably, it just took time to adjust. He would need to push himself to make sure he succeeded. Colonel Jones walked over to them and stood a few feet off looking around at their faces. “Congratulations everyone. You have successfully passed the first test. You are still standing. That is an achievement only 30% of people that have gone through this can claim. As of right now. You are all officially training to go on the Nova Llar mission.” Everyone relaxed a little and started congratulating one another. “I'm sorry I don't believe I said we were done for that day.” the Colonel barked. “This was the first test. That!” he said pointing at the wall behind him. “That, is the second. In these bodies getting over there should be no problem. Allow me to demonstrate.” As the Colonel turned, he ran towards to wall. Bouncing off the floor and high into the air. Hitting the wall running, he proceeded up it. Only making contact twice on the way. Once at the top he stopped, turned and jumped down in front of them. “See, easy. Now it's your turn.” He said pointing at Joseph. Joseph knew he was going to be the first. The Colonel didn't like him very much and he was going to keep pushing him until he broke. Not one to shy away from a challenge Joseph stepped forward and lined up for the run and climb. As he started running, he noticed he was moving a little faster than he had planned. Before Joseph could correct himself, he slammed into the base of the wall at full speed. Never even leaving the ground. Joseph crumpled to the floor. Whilst feeling no physical pain, he was certainly nursing a bruised ego and lay there for a few moments. “Mr Taylor.” The Colonel shouted over. “My sensors indicate you are still online. Any time you want to join us would be wonderful.” Joseph sighed, at least he would have if he had lungs. He then stood up and went to join the others. “Coming Colonel.” he said as he trotted over to them. Once Joseph was back in formation, the Colonel addressed the candidates. “In all the time people have been doing this training no one had made it over the wall first time. Most do at least get off the ground though.” Everyone gave a slight chuckle, much to Josephs annoyance.

  Each candidate took their turn at the wall. Some got a few feet up. Others slipped on the runup. One or two even managed to get halfway up. But no one made it all the way, just as the Colonel had said. The main issue seemed to be with speed control. Everyone was used to their own bodies speed and capabilities. These new bodies changed the natural boundaries. Those that were used to being fast we overly caution. The people who were usually slow went flat out. Once everyone had successfully failed to climb the wall, the Colonel announced their next exercise. Laps. Three hundred laps of the yard. Maintaining a steady speed and distance from the other candidates. The first twenty laps or so were full of bumping, scraping and people randomly taking off ahead of everyone else. Eventually, people started to get into the rhythm and fall in with each other. Their pacing improved and by the two hundredth lap, they were moving as a solid unit. No bumps or knocks as they ran, just a solid block of artificial units.

  At the end of the laps they had the pacing worked out. Everyone was surprised they weren't tired or fatigued. “I guess these bodies really don't get tired.” Thought Joseph. There was no sensation of energy loss in the body. He wondered how long these units could function between charges. As if his thoughts were being read, a display popped up in the top right corner of his vision displaying 92% power remaining. Looking at the “time in form” display it indicated they had been going for a little over 4 hours. At roughly 2% an hour, assuming steady power drain, they had 50 hours in these forms before they needed a full charge. Without fatigue or a need to sleep that was a long time to get things done. As the unit stood to attention at the corner of the yard, the Colonel stepped out in front of them. “You have had some time to get used to these new bodies. Understanding their capabilities and working within the constraints of those around you. Now, we are going to attempt the wall again in the same order as before. Mr Taylor, you are up.” The Colonel announced while moving off to the side to allow access to the obstacle. Joseph lined up for the wall. Steadying himself and focused on the distance, height of the wall and the surface of the yard. He set off at a good speed. Judged the jump and made it two-thirds of the way up the wall before dropping down, landing on his feet. He turned and moved back to the others as the next candidate attempted the climb, they made it halfway up, repeating Joseph's drop and return. Each of the candidates took their turn, one or two got a finger to the top of the wall but ultimately fell short of getting up. As the group formed up after the last attempt Steve moved in to stand next to the Colonel. “Candidates, while you are making progress you are all limiting your performances quite severely.” Instructed Steve. “Yes, you have gotten used to the speed your bodies are capable of but you are not considering the most important aspect of them. They are not human.” he paused to let that sink in. “You are stronger and faster. You do not need to fear the fall as you are durable enough to withstand it. In these bodies you can run up the wall like any flat surface, observe.” With that Steve turned and moved so quickly it was difficult to keep up. Within a second, he was halfway up the wall, but he had stopped, with both feet planted he turned and raised his head to look at them. “What the Colonel has failed to mention” Steve called over to them, “Is your feet can be magnetised to maintain grip with any metal surface. This exercise is not only about speed and strength but also understanding what you can do. All it requires is some concentration.” Steve jumped off the wall doing a front flip landing on his feet. “That felt a little showy” thought Joseph, he didn't have Steve pegged as a show-off. With this new knowledge, the group lined up for another go. There were still some teething issues, some made it and broke concentration, losing their footing and falling from that wall whilst still horizontal. Joseph focused intently and made it to the top of the wall on his first try. However, then he went to jump off he feet didn't move when he pushed away, they were still magnetised to the top of the wall. He just hung over the wall at an odd angle whilst willing his feet to release. As he looked up to ask for help, they disengaged and he started to fall. Thinking quickly, he magnetised one foot, caught the wall, flipping himself so his feet were below him and landed in a classic superhero landing pose. There were actually a few cheers from the other candidates. Joseph got up and played it off as intentional. Once he was nearly back to the group walking past the Colonel, he heard a small crackle in his ear and then a voice. “Don't get cocky, I still have every intention of proving you aren't a team player and that little stunt did not impress me.” Joseph stopped and looked at the Colonel. “Do we have a problem Mr Taylor?” the Colonel asked him. “No Colonel, I just thought I heard something” Joseph responded, a little confused. He heard the crackle again and then the voice was back again, “Private radio channel Mr Taylor. Let's see if you can figure out that trick.” The sun was going down on the west side of the base by now. The shadows were drawing out and the ya
rd was mostly obscured. A quick look at the time display showed they had been in these forms for 7 hours now, it certainly didn't feel that long. “Alright, everyone. That is the end of this portion of training for today.” said the Colonel. “We will now all return to our bodies. In order to do this, you will need to sign out of these bodies. To do this you need to look down as far as you can, then flick your eyes up to the centre of your vision. This will pull up the menu. The sign out option is on the far right, look at it for 5 seconds, this will disconnect you. The names around Joseph started to disappear as people signed out. He noticed the heads bowed a little when not occupied. As he pulled up the menu, he noticed some other options in the menu, one, in particular, caught his attention, it appeared to be an Information icon. He looked at it for a few seconds and details for the body appeared in front of him, scrolling through a couple of pages he found the capacity details. These bodies could hold 15 Petabytes of information, he was taking up 12.4 Petabytes. That left plenty of room for Jess. After his question in the briefing he had checked her specs and she was 1.6 Petabytes in size. These bodies could be more useful than he had originally thought. He noticed Steve looking at him and quickly closed the page, moving to the Sign out option. The grey filled his vision, quickly being replaced by light as his human eyes adjusted. He was back on the table in his body, feeling very hungry and a little sore. As he got up he was others already standing next to their tables looking a little shaky. “Fatigue is a normal part of this process everyone.” The Colonel announced to the group. “Your body has been almost completely stationary the entire time you were gone, basic functions are maintained by a dummy AI but other than that it just lays there. We will head over to the canteen to get something to eat. At 21:00 we will be in classroom G31 for an hour of technical review, then you will head back to your room, lights out is at 22:30. Any questions please feel free to come to me while we are eating.” The Colonel turned and left the room, followed closely by some of the more stable candidates. Joseph started after them and stumbled. A hand reached out and grabbed him. Looking up it was Clara. “Careful there Mr You don't want to fall flat on your face again.” she said with a smile. Joseph returned it and steadied himself on his feet. “Thank you, Professor. Would you care to join me for dinner?” He looked her in the eyes and gave her a wink. She responded by hitting his arm gently and laughing. Then they both headed out of the room to recharge their old bodies.

  Chapter 11

  The next few weeks were spent getting used to the LF63 bodies. Various training exercises designed to maximise human efficiency in them. Three more of the candidates were eliminated during the underwater trials due to panicking and trying to reach the surface after only a few minutes. The rest had gone on to succeed at all of the challenges so far, including Griffin. Clara was very upset he hadn't been eliminated yet. He was averaging around the middle of the group in the LF63 training, overall, he was performing on a comparable level to her in the theory and academic testing. She knew in order to prove him wrong she needed to be the best consistently, this was putting a lot of pressure on her and she was starting to feel it. Getting only 3 or 4 hours sleep a night and training this hard was causing her concentration to slip, she needed a rest-bite to catch her breath. Fortunately, they were advised they had 2 days of R and R and to use them well. Clara was so relieved she practically ran out of the classroom to get back to bed. As she was walking out of the door Griffin was standing there, a smug grin on his face. “Well Professor, I guess you're looking forward to a couple of days off by the look on your face. Is it too much for you trying to compete with me? It's alright most people find the same thing, they may be ahead at the start but eventually, they fall behind.” A Clara was gearing up to respond Steve walked up to the pair looking directly at Griffin. “Mr Durge. I could not help but overhear and I am very concerned with the tone you are taking with Professor Forest. She is outdoing you in every field by a considerable margin, I would have thought you would be eager to learn and grow from this challenge, but instead you appear to be resorting to intimidation tactics to attain the position on the mission. Please be advised this will not reflect well on you should it continue.” To Clara's amazement, Griffin turned his head slightly towards Steve looking at his out of the corner of his eye. “Look, Steve. You are very good at imitating human emotions and feelings but you should leave behavioural psychology to actual people. I respect the craftsmanship of whoever programmed you, they did a very good job but ultimately you are a tool, just a machine to fulfil a purpose and your 'opinion' means about as much as my toasters recommendation on how toasted my bread should be.” Clara's mouth hung open, she couldn't believe what had just happened, she looked at Steve and back at Griffin, feeling pure rage building that someone could talk like this to her friend, she curled her hand into a fist, digging her nails into her palm. “Goodbye Mr Durge.” Steve said flatly. Griffin's smug smile got so big Clara thought he face was going to crack in half. She, on the other hand, had relaxed after Steve spoke, something about it put at her at ease but she couldn't place it. “That's what I thought Metal Man” Griffin goaded. “Get going and leave human interactions to humans!” But Steve didn't move, instead, he seemed to stand taller, looked straight into Griffins eyes and said, “No Mr Durge. Goodbye!” with that he held up his hand gesturing to the two security officers that had appeared behind Griffin. His face dropped like an anvil from one of those old cartoons. He started looking around frantically for someone to save him, but no-one was coming to help, he hadn't exactly been well-liked, just feared by the less experienced candidates. They weren't going to stick their neck out for his. “Steve I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. It's just the pressure of this whole thing is getting to me, please just give me another chance, please.” Steve held up his hand instructing the guards to stop, Clara's stomach tightened at the thought Griffin was going to be off the hook. Steve leaned in within a few inches of Griffin's face and began. “Mr Durge. Your attitude has been apparent to me since you first arrived here and threatened Professor Forest in her room. I have been monitoring you and your interactions with everyone here and you have bullied, intimidates and threatened nearly a dozen candidates to build a little team for yourself. So far none of the other candidates has come forward to tell us about it directly. For this reason, we have been unable to take any action. However, as you have so clearly demonstrated you have a very low opinion of me, believing me to be no better than a toaster. That kind of intolerance has no place on this mission or on Nova Llar itself. You were selected for your brilliance, it was very difficult to build a psychological profile on you because everyone we spoke to refused to give us more than the same rehearsed spiel about you being a wonderful friend and colleague. Thank you for demonstrating the type of person you are. These guards will escort you to the transportation pads, your belongings will meet you there. I remind you that you signed a gag order upon arriving here, should you go to anyone with knowledge of the mission, training or fellow candidates within the next 10 years there will be severe consequences. Goodbye, Mr Durge.” With that, the guards held firmly onto Griffin's arms and walked him down the corridor and out of site. The whole way Griffin just looked down at his feet as he walked without offering the slightest protest. Clara watched him until he was out of site and then turned back to Steve. “That was amazing Steve.” She squealed with a giddy look on her face. “How did you know all that about him? Have you been planning this? I don't remember signing a gag order, where did that come from?” Steve held up his hand to indicate he needed Clara to calm down and let him speak. “To answer your questions Professor. The psychological profile was indeed incomplete, given his brilliance we believe he deserved a chance, we 'knew' about his as my connection to your terminal was still active when he came to see you, I heard everything but as you were both unaware of my presence I could not legally record or intervene in the conversation. As we suspected Griffin was not a suitable candidate my report of this incident gave us precedent to monitor him further,
allowing us to ascertain his nature with the other candidates. Yes, we have been planning this, however, we never expected him to be quite so openly offensive towards me. The initial plan was to confirm our suspicions in a recordable conversation between myself, Griffin and one of the other candidates. That plan would require an additional 2 months to complete as we needed to be certain we had a candidate that was not afraid of him. This opportunity expedited matters considerable. Lastly, only 3 candidates were required to sign gag orders. Mr Durge was one of them and it means should he talk to anyone regarding the information mentioned he will be placed in prison, until the completion of the Nova Llar mission.” “Wow, having to stay in prison for nearly 300 years wouldn't be fun.” Clara responded. “Who were the other two candidates?” she asked inquisitively. “I'm afraid I cannot share that information at this time, needless to say, you were not one of them and you should be satisfied with that. Now would you like to return to your room to get some rest? I believe your 2 days of R and R commence at midnight tonight. Clara thanked Steve again and headed off back to her room. Once there she could barely contain herself. Not only was Griffin gone and the pressure off, at least with regards to their competition, but she could also finally focus on exactly why she was here. There was no longer any need to prove it to anyone, she had made it longer than Griffin and that was her original goal. Was this still something she wanted to go through with? Would she actually want to dedicate the rest of her life to this? As the questions went around in her head, she found she was already getting ready for a shower. “These thoughts didn't need to be for tonight” she mused to herself. For now, she was just going to enjoy a warm shower, a full night's sleep and no responsibilities for a little while. A knock on the door pulled her back and she quickly grabbed her robe, tying it securely as she walked to the door. Through the monitor, she saw Joseph standing outside. Opening the door, she greeted him with a small, “Hello Joseph, is there something I can help you with?” “As a matter of fact Professor, there is.” Joseph responded with a mischievous look on his face. Whether it was because of the hour or the state of her attire but suddenly all sorts of possibilities were running through her head. As she was getting ready to respond Joseph continued. “A few of us are planning to head over to the shipyard tomorrow to see the ship being built. Apparently, most of the superstructure and some of the sections have been completed, should be a real motivator. You up for it?” It was difficult to hide the look of disappointment on Clara's face, though she did try. “Sure, sounds like fun. Was there anything else?” she asked with hope in her voice. “Don't think so. We will see you at 10:00 tomorrow morning downstairs. Get some rest.” Joseph responded. Then he slipped away from the door and back down the corridor. Clara looked after him then closed the door, turning to lean her back against it. She didn't get like this over guys, it was weak and beneath her. There was something about him though. “Snap out of it.” she said to herself. “He's just a man, it's not like he's even that interesting. Now let's just get a shower and get some sleep!” With that Clara proceeded to do just that. She thought she would have trouble sleeping given the events of the day, but as soon as her head touched the pillow she was lost to the world, dreaming about her life and what the future might hold.