4 Chapter 4: Training

Whoever said teaching kids is a self rewarding task is incorrect and needs to revise their statement immediately.. I Need to visit a mental hospital or in my particular case a therapist turned Jaeger engineer turned therapist again. I haven't been able to fully power save my systems in 2 days.. She's relentless! This training programme is supposed to last a month and she's already half way through it! And not due to talent either, made clear by the number of fails per task. She makes it through with sheer unending stamina and no breaks. At all. I've had to change my other power core since then due to the constant training, nor have I had the chance to do any repair to myself at all.

Everyday is identical, I boot up my training systems, the child arrives from wherever, and Immediately begins the simulation of various scenarios until she leaves again at night. Not even a break for breakfast, lunch nor dinner, which she claims she eats at home. finally I have no idea how she doesn't need the toilet part way through this. I feel like I need to go, highly likely a sign I need an oil change or 7.

"Dammit! Start it again I almost had him that time!" I'm gonna short circuit at this rate, and the scary part is that it's looking favourable at this point. She was sitting in a chair she had salvaged from someone nearby, at first I feared the thing was infested, but several nights later I can safely say it isn't. I hope.

"Cadet, It is ill advised to spend so much time in simulation training at once. I am also concerned for your dietary intake. Rest is needed for optimal training performance" more for me than her.

"But I almost had him that time! I Just need to charge the plasma cannon a little sooner to blow his ugly stupid Kaiju face off!" She is a workaholic game addict. I need to convince her to take a day off, I need to scout the area. I've been here far too long and I'm surprised I've evaded the scrapers thus far. The question is how? The child is like a kid with a new game, I guess, and I can't exactly ground her from training can I? Ah the emotion chip, I think that gives me some leeway, perhaps I can refuse to train her until she rests under the guise of mental exhaustion.

"You must rest for at least 24 hours until the training programme will be allowed to continue. You are overstressing your mind and making sub optimal progress." her face looked as if I told her I was going to self destruct, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered the thought.

"You're banning me from training for a day!?!? No please, I promise to take a break! Err I can take 5 minutes! 10? Ok 30 you can't ban me!" This only confirmed the need for her to rest. There were bags under her eyes, a telltale sign for lack of sleep. And the desperation was honestly scary. I guess this is the emotion of worry? Not a fan, it's like a fear I can't swipe away yet has no logical direct effect to myself. At first I thought it was because I need her to change my power cores, but I find that I would rather her be incapable of such and healthy than be beneficial to me; It makes no logical sense.

"Hmm I see, how about a compromise? I shall shorten the restriction to 12 hours if you sleep for at least 6 of them" while she sleeps I'd have a key opportunity to run diagnostics as well as rescout the local area. I've been meaning to find some new high power inductors and supercapacitors for repair. My systems cannot discharge nor redirect large amounts of power in an emergency without them and that is something that could prove fatal to whatever my sentience is. I fear lightning or a faulty core may be my death if this isn't fixed fast.

"Hmm deal! But I'm sleeping here in this chair! It's more comfortable than my bo- bed at err home!" The slip up was noted, the child may be homeless or at least neglected.. Perhaps I should consider investigating her living conditions. The tech she salvages should provide her with more than enough for a comfortable lifestyle meaning someone is taking advantage of her. My systems surged at the thought. I cannot allow this.

"Very well. Please return.. Home and bring your sleeping equipment. I will be waiting for you here" I do not have a working AC.

"Oh umm ok Omni" I opened the doors and let her out, her reply concerned me. Does she not have any sleeping equipment? Perhaps the next training exercise should be engineering instructions, then I could have her fix up this cockpit into something more livable, yes that seemed like the best course of action.

Once gone I began diagnosing my systems once more. Something I usually do when she is away at night though I don't usually have time to do anything substantial, I'm currently only at 13% of my entire archive, hardware and software verified, prior I had a specific subject/operation in mind making file navigation much faster. That said, It seems my system was never intended for this process to be done locally, instead jaegers seem to normally be connected to their base of operation transmitting diagnosis requests to offboard servers to offset the processing power required in battle. Not to mention I've been under the ocean for an extended period and so the diagnostics are much deeper than normally required.

During the archive scan, nothing of much importance was found as usual, most entries being corrupted. Though of course the recipe to brew a "perfect" mocha was unscathed.

Ingredients:

- 1 shot of espresso

- 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

- 1 tablespoon of sugar

- 1/2 cup of milk

- Whipped cream (optional)

Instructions:

1. Brew a shot of espresso and set it aside.

2. In a small saucepan, mix together the cocoa powder, sugar, and milk.

3. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the milk is hot but not boiling.

4. Pour the espresso into a mug and add the hot milk mixture on top.

5. Optional: top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cocoa powder.

I don't even have an espresso machine or anything like that! Just before I gave up on the scan bearing anything of worth, I came across an entry dated 199 years and 330 days ago. It was heavily encrypted however, and not the kind I could simply brute force, I transferred the file to my less damaged or well less likely to suddenly fail drives for safekeeping and began a new search for a decryption key and or cracking algorithm. Such a search would likely take days so I left it running in my subconscious background processes of sorts, limited on its resource access; not a fan of being tired with a headache.

When she returned I was appalled, she had brought with her glorified rags. More holes than fabric and thinner than my care for those scrappers. Surely this wasn't her sleep equipment? It wouldn't warm even a fire!

"Why have you brought such damaged rags? I requested you to bring your sleeping equipment" I was being harsh, sure, but I need to find out why she seems so poor, Karla squirmed uncomfortably at my question.

"I- just didn't go home! Yeah! It's too far so I picked up whatever I could find along the way." It was an obvious lie, one I needed to expose for her safety, my concern and fear for the obvious was growing an emotion I still did not enjoy.

"Why are you lying Karla? Please tell me the truth, I promise to support you either way" I need to give her a reason to confide in me without encroaching on this as a safe place. Being forceful will help nothing, but damage her trust in me. Something I cannot allow.

"I- fine I don't have a home ok! The orphanage didn't want a girl that would rewire their electrics and cause a fire every Tuesday" note to self, keep Karla away from my electrical system, especially on Tuesdays.. Second note: invest time in finding fire extinguishers.. and it may be best to fast track that engineering talk before curiosity teaches her to rewire my brain… that's not possible right? Why doesn't existence come with a manual?? Anyway back to Karla being homeless, what am I to do? I cannot allow her to sleep outside after this, it'd be immoral!

"Karla, I-" a quickly re-composed myself "I am sorry you have gone through that. Know that as your Jaeger I will not abandon you so long as I can" I wished to avoid this path with Karla in fear of attachment, but in doing so I must admit I have grown a certain fondness for the child. At least I know I am capable of such.

"Really? You promise?!?" A promise of this magnitude needed consideration not just for my sake but hers as well. I am a Jaeger with some form of conscience living off scrap and left over power while hiding from hostile scrappers. She is a child doing much the same, only 80 times smaller and weak to even the wind, something I fear I may be at times.. I suppose we are more alike than I thought. This could work, I could teach her how to remodel this cockpit of mine, make it a liveable space for her to eat and sleep comfortably. As difficult as such a process may be due to my disrepair. I'll have to search for some engineering or construction programs later today as a priority, she at least needs a means for cooking, sleeping and hopefully see if I have a toilet.. A usable toilet. Hmm, shouldn't be impossible, just difficult and she's less likely to achieve such a minimum alone.

"Yes Karla, I promise you. I Omni, will not abandon you to the best of my ability and yours" excluding food and water, my first course of action would be warmth, heat was something I generated a lot of when I was in full operation, something I have not done in days if not a week. And even then it is all vented to keep my system cool, redirecting such heat would sooner melt the very cockpit itself rather than simply warm it. Another thing to add to my manual search.

"If you are to sleep in here, you will require something warmer than rags. Unfortunately there is not much I can do to assist with that as I am currently immobile" well at least until I come up with a reason that I can move independently, then again since we are now partnered to a degree I may be able to inform her soon after assessing her degree of trust and dependence on me. I cannot risk being caught by this country's main authority. Not until I know more about them, If I know anything about humanity, its that they love to… Experiment on new things and I'd rather not be one of those things and even if they don't at the very minimum I'd have no freedom to speak off.

"Umm, I'll be ok.. It's warmer here than where I normally sleep!" New objective, Investigate this orphanage of hers and terminate it. Besides As true as it was that it was a little bit warmer inside, that was mostly during the day when the somewhat blazing sun loved to cook my exterior. Unfortunately It was turning autumn rapidly and the night air was already getting less and less forgiving, not that it was all that forgiving to begin with.

"That is unsafe, a safe temperature for a child to sleep in, is between 15 and 19 degree Celsius. Any lower will incur health risks in the long run. I expect you have been exposed to the outside temperature of around 14 degrees for a substantial amount of time. To go from that to any lower a temperature may disrupt your already weakened immune system" I wasn't sure where I had found the information I had just given, But I agreed with it. I had neglected to check prior, but Karla was clearly malnourished and elements beaten, it would take some time to rectify and I'm worried I may not be a suitable option for such a task.

"Wow, I got none of that. Can I sleep now? I want to get back to the ga- er to training!" I knew she saw It as a game, she is a cheeky one.

Before I could let her sleep I'd need to find a place safe for her to rest. Sure the chair she'd been using was padded and clean-ish, but was it the warmest spot? A quick check showed my room temp sensors were non-functional, big surprise. I'll just have to speed up that heating check. There had to be a way to syphon all that heat energy from my cores without becoming an oven capable of melting most of the materials in here.

"Very well, sleep near the console for now. I shall be running diagnostics in the meantime" She simply nodded her head before clambering up onto the chair wrapping the useless piece of fabric cloth around her to attempt at insulation. I really need to get her some bedding, this cannot be allowed to continue.

"Goodnight Omni…" she spoke, the fatigue catching up to her faster than she expected as she fell into a hopefully comfortable sleep at which I dimmed the lights. Seeing her sleeping form had an unexpected effect on my being, I felt the need to go into a defence mode, I desired to arm my non-existent weapons.. I didn't wish her harm, did I? No, that doesn't match this feeling I feel, I hate emotions. How do humans deal with them?

"Goodnight Karla" at my words her mouth arched into a small smile, I couldn't tell what but a certain tingle went through my system, it was like a wave that pulsed through my whole "body" like a surge of power. With no changes to my power usage or storage of amp hours in my power cores. Is this happiness? I thought I had already felt that feeling.. But it was nothing compared to this! Was she causing some form of corruption? Don't like this uncertainty.. This fear it brings.

Once the feeling passed I turned my attention to the tasks I had set myself for the next 6 hours, primarily finding a way to get some form of AC heating into the cockpit before the temperatures fell below 11 degrees. Followed closely by getting my seismic and lidar scanners operational. A mixture of these would help me find her the equipment to turn this cockpit into a home. A home inside of me, what a peculiar thought, I do hope this is the best course of action. I then began the search of my systems once more for anything that could help.

And for once in the last week I found something actually useful. Sort of?