Disclaimer: See previous chapters
A/N: Next… some random stuff about training, and we're introduced to the rest of the crew. Thankyou to all the lovely, wonderful people who reviewed. I've changed my settings to accept anonymous reviews.
He saw Shadow at lunch, looking tired and distracted. Also covered from head to foot with grease and dirt.
"I hate the stupid generator," she groaned as her head connected with the table. The noise was something like 'thunk', but rather more metallic.
"What was wrong with it?" asked the silver-haired lady from the other end of the table. At nearly seventy years of age, Veil was a lady in the best sense of the word. Kind, elegant and still as lovely as the day she had been released, she was also one of the most formidable soldiers Zion had ever known, and a mother to everyone on board the ship.
As Shadow seemed disinclined to answer, Pixel said, "Chunk of scrap steel got caught in the far cavity and she had to go fish it out."
Those around the table made various faces of sympathy. Removing something from the far cavity required taking a large part of the engine to pieces, and then crawling through the (dirty, greasy) shell to reach it. It looked like Shadow, the smallest and most flexible of the crew, had gotten stuck with that job. No wonder she looked worn.
The hatch opened and two figures came in. One was a small, slim fellow called Jump with greying hair and a cheerful, open, I-can-do-that-for-you manner. He was the ship's operator, born in the free world, lacking the machine-installed plugs. The other was an enormous man with icy blue eyes and long blonde hair, loosely tied back. He was the ship's captain, Munin. The name meant memory, and was appropriate, as he had the undeniable gift of total recall. He looked around at the table, his eyes settling on Shadow. 'Shall I assume from your dishevelment the generator has been repaired?" he asked, his faultless English sounding exotic through his liquid Norwegian accent.
She nodded tiredly. "All better."
He nodded, satisfied, and looked at Allan. "And how are you finding your training, Allan?"
Allan thought for a moment. "It's easier and harder to do it this way, sir. I keep knowing things that I shouldn't, or didn't. It's distracting."
Up the other end of the table, Pixel and Twitch were in an intense argument about the new navigation system that had recently been installed. Veil was adjudicating. Shadow had propped herself up on her elbows and was staring apathetically at her food, while Jump was talking to her softly. She nodded occasionally.
The captain nodded thoughtfully. "There are obviously flaws in this sort of training system. This afternoon, you'll be working with Shadow, and she'll be teaching you ways to deal with it – you need to make your mind very organised. The information's in your head, but you don't know it. You just have access to it."
Shadow had turned her head and was listening, her face blank. "It's hard for the first couple of weeks," she said. "You need a whole different way of thinking. It gets easier once we reach the combat training – that completely bypasses your higher functions, because it's just gut instinct and reflexes. But for data, information – you need to organise you mind, put the stuff away that you don't need."
Allan nodded. He could feel all the information floating loosely about his head, in no semblance of order or logic. "It's like I need some sort of filing system."
"Exactly," said Munin, nodding his approval. "Alright, people, break's over. Shadow, you take the new kid down to the gym and get started. Veil, you're on the nav system, Jump assisting. Twitch, Pixel, you relieve Ace and Cell. Tell them it's time for lunch."
Everybody staggered to his or her feet. The captain had mentioned all but two of the crew – Queenie and Dante. They were on off-shift, working during the dead hours when the rest of the crew slept, which meant he hadn't met them yet, only been told about them. It was essential for there always to be someone on duty. Recently, he was told, there had been a rule instated that at least two people had to be on duty at all times. Why that was, they had yet to tell him.
Shadow gestured for him to follow, and led him confidently down a level, and past the engine room. He managed not fall over or even stumble too badly, and was absurdly proud of himself for that achievement.
The room she led him to was about three times the size of his own small cabin, and had mats all over the floor and antiquated gym equipment scattered about. "Siddown," she said, closing the hatch behind him. Only to happy to obey, he collapsed in a heap on the padded floor. She leaned against the door, sliding to the ground with a sigh. "Okay. This session – which we'll be doing every afternoon for at least a couple of weeks – has two purposes. To teach you how to store, learn and quickly access the knowledge you have inside your head. This'll become easier very quickly. The other purpose is to get you strong enough that you don't need a wheelchair to get to the head. Kay?"
He nodded, too tired to be embarrassed about his weakened state.
"We'll do half an hour of lessons, then half an hour of physical exercises, then another half an hour on lessons, then finish up with physical. After that, all you'll want to do is sleep."
He nodded. "All I want to do now is sleep."
She smiled. "I hear that. Okay. Now I want you to imagine that your mind is like a room."
"What kind of room?"
"A big one. With lots of filing cabinets."
"Like an office?"
"Sure, if you want to live in an office. You have to live inside your own head, remember. Make it a nice place."
Allan concentrated, and thought of a large, pleasant room, the walls lined with filing cabinets.
"Now, think of heating."
The thought triggered a series of information that made him blink. "You need to take that data flow and put it in a drawer in one of the filing cabinets."
He tried. It was a struggle that left different temperature markings floating in front of his eyes. "It might help if you try and sort of fold it first."
He thought of folding the data flow and putting it carefully into a folder before stowing it in the top drawer of the cabinet closest to him. It worked. He let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, and opened his eyes. "Okay."
"That's the easy part."
"That was easy?" he asked, only half facetiously. He felt drained by the effort. Of course, it might have the cumulative pressure of the day, but that wasn't the point.
She nodded. "That was just one fraction of the information you've been given. You need to file it, cross-reference it, and be able to find what you need in a microsecond without getting tangled up in anything unnecessary."
He looked at her for a long moment, trying to gauge if she was joking. She looked back at him blankly. She wasn't joking. He sighed. "Okay. Let's do this."
If anything, the physical training exercises were worse than the mental organization. She had him on a machine that looked like a cross between an electric chair and an iron maiden. It was currently delivering low-grade electric shocks to his muscles while he did aerobic exercises and she sat and watched him. "What's the point of this again?" he gasped.
"The aerobics build your cardio-pulmonary endurance and the electric stimulation encourages muscle development."
"Ah. Can I stop now?"
She glanced at the clock on the wall behind him. "Yep. We're done for the day. Go get something to eat and drink and then go to bed."
He ceased the repetitive movements and lay still, trying to work up the courage to attempt standing. Shadow looked at him. "Oh, right. I forgot." She leaned down and slid a hand behind his shoulders, helping him to stand, then led him from the room. She didn't allow him to lean on her as he walked. When he started to sway with exhaustion, she reached out and steadied him, then as soon as he stopped, removed her support and made him walk by himself. He supposed it had something to do with independence, but right now he was only focussed on getting somewhere he could sit. At least all the information wasn't drowning him at every thought.
They reached the ladder, and he stared at it helplessly. No way would he be able to climb that. He watched as she leaped up easily, with what seemed to him to be an obscene amount of energy ad grace. She had a nice backside, he noticed. She held out a hand to him. 'Come on," she coaxed. It's not that far. You'll make it, and then beddy-byes. Promise."
With a Herculean effort, he managed to scale three steps, and as he started to fall, she grabbed his collar and pulled him easily up the rest of the way. He sat at the top of the ladder, trying to get his breath back, and she waited patiently, gently rubbing his back. After several minutes, he felt well enough to continue. He tried to walk past the mess, but she gently guided him in, saying, "You need to eat and drink after all your exercise."
He managed to eat about half the bowl this time before becoming too exhausted to go on, and she calmly fed him the rest of the bowl and a tin cup full of musty-tasting water. All he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep, but she pulled him to his feet firmly.
"I'm not carrying you to bed again," she said. He was too tired to react, but simply leaned on her, staggering down the corridor. He was in a haze when he reached his cabin, and was asleep before he was quite on his bunk.
