4 Chapter Three
Weeks passed as the testing and interview continued. In that time the three of us grew closer. Erica and I were friendlier and I found her to be a smart and interesting woman. I had no issues thinking of her as a friend. Juliet was as much a free spirit as she claimed to be. Often trading beds each night between mine and Erica's. We knew nothing would last and did not mind sharing in the short term. Juliet was very adventurous and rather fun to be around.
Many of the tests proved to be teamwork oriented and it felt we did well as we progressed through the tests. Our personal stats seemed to slowly climb the longer we stayed in the program. After entering at an 18 INT score, it rose to 21 through mind melting puzzles. Of the tests it was the Isolation and Deprivation tests that saw the most dropouts. Three teams had already been removed.
It seemed that during that phase they would begin hallucinating strange things that caused them to have a mental break. It was sad, but nothing any of the other groups could do about it. I felt myself being pushed hard as well. My mind had a tendency to wonder in the worst ways that gave me concern. Despite that I pushed forward with my group to hit the next phase of training.
"All of you have been here for three months now. You all have passed our tests and continued to persevere in harsh conditions. Now for the classes. We require you to begin learning about a variety of subjects in the hopes that one of you will complete our goals." A clean cut man in a military uniform spoke in front of us. We were listening closely and almost missed his comment about how many was expected to complete this training.
"The subjects will range widely from Physics, of many kinds, Mathmatics, Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical, Robotics as well as a host of other items relevant to space."
Felt like he got a little lazy there. I thought.
From then on we were seperated as individuals and placed in classes like were we back in college. The teachers began forcing mountains of information into our minds and it felt like I was going to have my head explode.
Little by little, day by day we pushed to learn all we could about every subject the put before us. We were tested practically with experiments and other projects. Paper testing seemed useless but those were also required as a way to maintain a record. As the individual testing continued we were further split up by changing our dormitories to single units. There were no shared common spaces.
The training moved into Sinulation practice as the end of the ninth month approached. The length of time for our training was never mentioned but it seemed like a prolonged engagement. The Simulations engaged us in laboratory experiments we had to perform. much of it was Genetics and Microbiology. Mechanical Engineering workshops were laid out before us to practice building machines and learning how to repair everything we made.
On a whim I checked my stats during a short break and it had changed.
<Name> Nathan Pres
<Age> 25
<Stats>
<Str> 16 <Dex>16 <Con> 20
<Int> 25 <Wis> 19 <Cha> 17
<Personal Skills>
Combat, Hand-to-hand: 34
Combat, Weapons: 26
Cooking: 3
Engineering, Mechanical: 30
Engineering, Electrical: 25
First Aid: 30
Gaming: 9
Mathmatics, Advanced: 25
Programming: 30
Personal Fitness: 30
Sewing: 1
Science, Physics, Quantum: 26
Science, Physics: 30
Science, Genetics: 31
Science, Astronomy: 20
Science, Astrology: 20
Science, Microbiology: 20
Science, Astrophysics: 19
<Jobs>
Trainee
<Income> 2000/mo
<Source> Settlement/Accident
<Condition> Nerve damage, Paralysis (Left Arm), Muscular Atrophy (Left Arm)
Holy Hell! My new skills were beyond what I thought to ever have. there just was no way for me to express just how much I had grown personally. My body was not at my best but my mind was sharper than ever.
It was during one of these down times that Juliet and Erica came running through the halls and nearly collided with me. they panted and seemed like the devil sent a hound onto them.
"Hey girls. That excited to see me?" The joke was responded with a middle finger from Erica and gasping from Juliet.
"Nuke... Gone... New York.... Black People..." Juliet continued to gasps.
"Racist much?"
"No Stupid...Rally.....Protest.....Boom." she followed it up with a childish explosion sound hand motion combo.
Though less often than a few years back, Black Lives Rallies were still occurring from time to time. The Government had given up on trying to do anything about that and seemed to stop letting the news report it. But when Juliet's words finally clicked I gasped. New York was nuked and it was centered on one of those Rallies.
"Shit" I said dumbly. There was nothing else I could say. I had no response. Erica finally caught her breath and dropped more onto my head.
"Six nukes hit major population centers around the globe. They are reporting a Hacker Group calling themselves Laughing Coffin is taking credit. It gets worse. A PK Guild has sprung up. They are calling themselves Bloody Dawn, and are going around killing anyone they find. Men, Woman, Children. It is a mad house."
My mouth hung open as I felt bile rise from my stomach. How was all of this possible? What would be done? Military personnel began funneling into the complex the training was taking place. Everyone was quickly rounded up and forced into the Simulation room.
An older man with a buzzed cut hair and stars on his shoulder entered and stood before us.
"Program is accelerating. Simulations will be all you breath, eat and sleep. You will live in these rooms till we tell you otherwise. Then we will be taking you all who pass to the ANDROS Storage Facility where you will be tested for compatible. Those who survive will move on to the actual job. Sorry kiddies but playtime is over." He then turned on his heels and left.
"Did he say survive?" I asked. Everyone else was silent as the soldiers filed out. We were given seperate Simulation rooms and as promised, we lived inside them.
Inside the Simulations we were given harder and harder scenarios: coordinating the needs of a space station, controlling towns and cities of growing sizes, mining and engaging in trade. Everything felt like a civilization game but the age of technology kept jumping around. Everything just felt...fun. That was not completely true but it was the closest I could describe it all. Some scenarios were emergencies protocols and responses. Rescue missions also came up a few times and I was sure there were simulations to block hacking attempts against us.
When we finally came out to breath it was like the world had changed suddenly. The artificial views returned to the drab natural lighting and graphics. I chuckled internally at the mental distinctions and tried to focus my mind again. Looking around I saw Juliet and Erica but fewer of the other teams remained. It seemed besides our own, only one was left. That was a total of only seven people.
"Follow me to the Storage Facility." A soldier in military Camos stood before us. He stood at attention and moved like any good soldier would. Every move was crisp and precise and I was sure my mind was making things up as I saw a tail swish behind him.
Sighing and rubbed my eyes and the tail disappeared. I am really losing it.
The Soldier led us to a few annex buildings and stopped before a coded door. Two other Soldiers stood guard and looked each of us over. A code was entered and we were ushered inside the building and down a series of halls and stairs. After the fourth flight, we arrived at an elevator door so thick I felt a tank shell would hardly dent it.
The doors opened and we were led inside. There was only a single button other than the one indicating the current floor. Pushing that, the doors closed and the elevator moved.
Floor after floor moved passed without any of use making a sound beyond breathing. The elevator ride continued for five minutes until the elevator walls became transparent. Outside the windows was a factory that stretched miles underground.
But what was more impressive was the many partially constructed objects in the room.
"Are those spaceships?" One asked. Others began asking their own questions. My eyes took in as much as I could. Large mechanical arms moved in the process of putting ships together or moving large supplies where they were needed.I wanted to explore everywhere.
When the elevator finally reached the bottom floor, the doors opened to show scientists and doctors. Though if I was honest they looked the same in their lab coats.
"This is the part where they dissect us." I joked. One of the doctors smiled. "Yes." he replied.
Everyone lost it. One of the men went to attack the soldier but he was prepared for it. The butt of his rifle hit the man cleanly on the chin.
The doctor was holding up his hands and yelling to be heard. "I was only kidding." It took a while but eventually we calmed down.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!" We all yelled. It was impressive timing for us. The doctor sighed and shook his head. "Does not matter. Come with us and you will be show the options you have to choose from. I know you have not been told anything about this part so we will each explain as you are prepared. I am Doctor Gnollen and I will be prepping Nathan. Each of you follow the doctor who calls your name. Nathan come with me."
I looked at Erica and Juliet, and then followed my doctor. It had been a short time but I have grown close to those women. I hoped they succeeded in whatever this part of the program was.
Once inside the Examination Room, Dr Gnollan turned and looked at me. "So listen. In this part of the program we are supposed to take a few readings, hook you up to an ANDROS unit and make sure it was calibrate specifically for you. But things have changed. We are going to have to skip calibration and cross our fingers. Things are getting out of hand out side and the higher ups are panicked. That being said let's get you in a VR pod and get you in a unit."
The doctor spoke quickly and my mind finally caught up. "Hold up doc. I got questions and issues. The hell is an ANDROS?"
Gnollan sighed and looked at me. "We will be reconstructing you in space."
"The hell are you talking about!"
"Just as I said. except it won't be you, but the unit. your body will remain here."
"You are going to kill me and what? Download my brain?"
"No no no. you would not die. you mind will be controlling the unit. You just will never wake up." While we spoke I was being position in the VR pod and for some reason I never noticed it until the lid closed. How the hell did he do that? I was maneuvered and positioned without any kind of resistance. Like it was natural, all while arguing with the doctor on what was going on.
I tried to calm down and just was I was beginning to relax in the darkness of the pod, the start up sequence began. The machine whirred and just like that, everything went from total blackness to a bright white room.
