1050 Hours, February 13, 2518 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Erandi System, Reach Military Complex, planet Reach
Carris sat with Jorge in the back of the spacious classroom. She shivered slightly and rubbed her chest with her arms, she felt like death. As the long winter grew even longer their morning calisthenics just got harder and harder. Each breath they took as they ran through the huge compound was frantic and hoarse, leaving small plumes of fogged breath before them that they had to suck down once again. Even with the thick tracksuits Mendez and the other instructors had given to the children, the cold still cut her right to the bone and each morning by the end of the run she felt like she was going to pass out and the grind of Déjà's lessons became welcome simply because the room had heating.
On the holoscreen at the front of the room a simulated battle was playing out. Men in tall hats and red jackets climbed over barricades and marched across the rutted field before cannon fire screamed from the other side of the field and cut them down; Déjà said this had taken place some seven hundred years ago at some place called Waterloo. Carris wasn't really paying attention but Jorge was watching intently, his eyes fixed on the carnage on screen.
Déjà materialized at the front of the class as the vid faded away, she looked as she always did, ethereal, elegant and wearing the trappings of a Greek goddess with barely noticeable lines of code snaking their way across her skin.
"Who can tell me why the British and their allies won this battle?" Déjà said in her soothing soft voice.
Immediately a scruffy looking boy with sandy blonde hair shot his hand into the air.
"Yes" Déjà smiled
The boy stood up, as was usual when answering a question in Déjà's class.
"Was it because the British infantry could withstand the French cavalry charges, ma'am?" He said, his voice was strong and clear.
"And why was that?" The AI pressed
"Because the British trained their infantry to fight in squares ma'am. That meant the French horses couldn't attack them from behind or charge them without massive losses"
"Good Walter, but you are missing something quite important in your explanation; does anyone else know what that is?" Déjà scanned her head around the classroom, Carris could never get used to how much she acted like a real person, when in reality she could see them all of them all the time through the small cameras in the four corners of the classroom.
"Anyone?" Déjà asked.
After another moment's silence another Jorge finally raised his hand. Carris was amazed; Jorge had never spoken in class before, and aside from her, he barely spoke to anybody and kept himself to himself.
"You have an answer for us Jorge?" The AI said.
"Yes Ma'am" Jorge said, Carris could tell he was nervous so she took his hand under the low desk. He shot her a surprised glance and she gave him a slight nod and smile.
"Was it because" Jorge said, he paused for a moment to clear his throat, bringing the words up inside him before continuing on and saying "The British were brave"
There as a slight murmuring of snickering throughout the class and a couple of the children whispered amongst themselves. Carris fired a few angry looks around at those who turned around and could feel Jorge's hand was beginning to sweat, she squeezed tighter.
After a couple of moments that she imagined must have felt absolutely painstaking for Jorge, Déjà finally spoke again.
"You are correct Jorge, thank you, you may take a seat" She said with a smile
"Thank you ma'am" Jorge stuttered, quickly planting himself back down onto his hard plastic chair. He looked over at Carris and smiled, mouthing the words 'thank you'.
"You see children" Déjà said, bringing up the holographic image of a square of British infantry seeing off a charge of French horsemen "It is all well and good to know the textbook back to back and be able to reel off strategies to counter every situation, but were a soldier's real test comes is in the heat of battle, were no amount of academic studies can save you. When you are a British infantryman armed with a slow firing musket standing shoulder to shoulder with your comrades and you are facing down a charge from the thundering horses of a unit of chevaliers, while you may know what formation to snap into it takes something else to do it and keep face in the heat of battle. The British managed to stay steadfast in such a bloody and violent battle and in the end they endured long enough for their allies to arrive on the field. That is what we expect from you, to be the bravest of the bravest and to never falter"
After class had finished the children stepped out into the yard and were once again met by Chief Mendez. Carris thought the man always looked so frightening and today was no different as he stood there chomping on one of his foul smelling cigars with his big broad shoulders, closely cropped black hair and stone jaw. Mendez did not even have to stay anything as the children filed into two lines before starting off on another run across the compound towards the training ground, Mendez following behind them at a leisurely pace in his Warthog.
By the end of the run Carris felt like death again and class seemed like another lifetime ago, she stood panting and coughing with all the other children, some of whom were laid out on their backs trying in vain to catch their breathes. She coughed and spluttered and spat a smallish wad of phlegm onto the grass, she was sure she was going to throw up until she felt a reassuring hand on her back.
"Are you ok?" Jorge asked
"Yeah" Carris coughed, "Yeah I will be fine"
Before Jorge could say anything else Mendez stepped leisurely from his Warthog's driver's seat and turned his attention to the trainees.
"Fall in!" Mendez barked and immediately all the children dashed forward and lined up in a fifteen by five rectangle as was their usual formation. Carris and Jorge found themselves unlucky enough to be standing on the front row.
"So today we have two routines to run" Mendez shouted at the top of his lungs as he marched down the line, twiddling his lit cigar in his fingers "Thirty two of you will be lucky enough to be joining me on our first round of capture the flag and the rest of you will be following Sergeant Nylund here, to run our new assault course, so listen up!"
Mendez pulled a clipboard from the front seat of his warthog and began to read off numbers of the forty children who would be playing capture the flag, dividing them up into four teams of eight for the two matches that would be running in different parts of the training ground.
Carris listened intently for her allotted number 137 to be called out. She waited awhile as the teams Mendez named as Red, Blue and Green were dispatched and sent running off towards the training grounds following their instructors
"002, 013, 052, 066, 076, 090, 122 and 137, you will be Yellow Team, fall in" Mendez yelled and without a moment's hesitation she and the rest of the team scampered off to join the other teams. She was pleased when she realised Jorge was with her, she hadn't been on his team in any of the competitive exercises yet.
The children joined with one of the Instructors that Carris didn't recognise and were led on a brisk jog down a narrow pathway into one of the forests near that grew up beside the training ground. After a very short time they found themselves at a simple structure made up of thick metal scaffolding that rose up around a thick tree that stood in the centre of a small clearing. The gaps in the free were covered by netting that was laced with leaves, doing a very bad job of camouflaging the ungainly build. The eight children stood silent and waited for their instructions.
"Right you horrible lot, I'm Sergeant Hughes" The instructor bellowed.
Carris immediately didn't like him, he was a man with cruel eyes, no neck and a veined bald head. The sergeant was built like a boar and looked as if his uniform was about a size too small as his oddly proportioned mixture of flab and muscle strained against the mottled green fabric.
"Today we are putting you through your first round of Capture the Flag. The rules are simple, capture the enemy flag before they capture yours and try not to hurt each other too much" Hughes shouted, his voice was even louder and much meaner sounding than Mendez's "This is your base camp and today's opponent, Blue Team, has theirs three clicks to the south"
Hughes picked up a furled yellow flag and stuck it into the ground outside of the base, gradually it began to unfurl and flap in the slight afternoon breeze.
"The game starts in fifteen minutes when the klaxon sounds, I expect nothing from you but the best, anything less and you will have to answer to me" Hughes snorted bullishly as started to pace around the eight children.
He stopped next to Carris and gently put a hand on her shoulder, she could feel it was cold and clammy and made her skin crawl.
"Now don't let me down" He growled as he stood towering over her, his beady black eyes staring down into hers. Carris shivered.
Hughes smiled sinisterly for a moment before finally leaving the children alone in the clearing. They stood in silence for a few minutes unsure about what to do.
"I'm Walter" Finally one of the children said "What are your names?"
And with that they went around their small team exchanging names. Of course Carris knew Jorge and then there was Walter, he was the scruffy looking boy with the sandy hair who had spoken in class earlier, he was number 013. 002 was a boy with a pug nose and a gap between his teeth called Albert. 066 was a lanky looking boy with dark skin and dark hair called Soren. 076 was a girl with short blonde hair and soft blue eyes, Carris thought she was pretty, her name was Joanna. 090 was a boy with a narrow face and mischievous green eyes, when he introduced himself Carris noticed Jorge shift nervously, his name was Maximilian. And 122 was another boy and he had tan skin and black hair that looked slightly longer that it should have been, Carris expected that Mendez would make him get it cut soon, his name was Joseph.
"We need to think of a plan" Walter said after they had finished "I don't want to get on that Sergeants bad side, he seems mean"
"And creepy" Carris added, noticing there was a damp patch on her dark grey fatigues were the fat man had placed his sweaty palm.
"Yeah" Maximilian agreed "So what do you have in mind brainer?"
"Don't call me brainer" Walter said
"You always get top marks on tests, you're a brainer" Maximilian said pointing at him.
"And you're not very nice" Joanna piped up
"Just saying what he is!" Maximilian protested before adding "Shut up"
"We need to work as a team" Joseph cut in "We cannot start fighting already"
"Hmph" Maximilian shrugged "I bet I could capture the flag all by myself"
"Could not" Carris said,
"Could so"
"Could not"
"Well you just watch me!" Maximilian pouted defiantly "I'm the fastest and the strongest one here"
"You are not" Albert said "I am stronger!"
"And I am faster!" Soren added
"Liars!" Maximilian shouted waving his arms around and pointing at the two of them "Liars, Liars!"
Carris was sick of this.
"Just stop it!" She said, stepping forward and pushing Maximilian's pointing hand down "You aren't going to help us win if you keep being such an idiot!"
"You're an idiot!" Maximilian said and pushed her back "Don't call me an idiot"
Carris stumbled back and tripped over root, hitting the leaf strewn forest floor hard. She was taken aback by how strong the boy actually was; maybe he wasn't lying when he said he was the strongest. But even if he wasn't a liar he was still a bully.
"Take it back!" Maximilian said "I'm not an idiot!"
She tried to stand back up but Maximilian stepped forward and pushed her back down again hard. She fell back and hit the ground even harder this time, slamming her head against the root of a tree that was jutting from the dirt. She let out a scream and rolled over onto her stomach clutching the back of her skull.
"Hey leave her alone!" Jorge shouted as he stepped past the other children.
Carris rolled back onto her back and scrambled to her feet to find Jorge standing squaring up to Maximilian. Carris had never seen him like this and she could see he had raised himself to full height and was standing taller than the other boy.
"What are you going to do wimp!" Maximilian spat "Coming to save your girlfriend? Remember what happened last time!"
Carris could see Jorge's hands were rolled into fists; he was shaking and fighting back tears.
"You gonna cry?" Maximilian taunted "Just like before, crybaby!"
Carris guessed Maximilian must have been the boy who had beaten up Jorge for stealing his crackers a few days before they had first met. Carris had expected Jorge to be quivering through fear, he didn't like confrontation with anyone, she wanted to protect him but the other boy was much stronger than her. But then as she crawled to her feet she could see in Jorge's eyes was not just fear, there was something else, anger.
"Crybaby! Crybaby!" Maximilian taunted again and again.
"Stop it!" Walter yelled, trying to make himself heard over Maximilian's shrill repetitive cries "We don't have time! We have to think of a plan!"
But before anyone had realised what had happened Maximilian crumpled to the floor clutching his gut and letting out loud mewls of pain. Jorge stood over him shaking, his fists still clenched.
"Say sorry!" Jorge bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"No!" Maximilian weakly cried as he lay bawling in agony.
Jorge stepped forward and kicked the boy in the stomach causing him to scream and cry again.
"I said say sorry!" Jorge roared
After another few moments of loud yowling and rolling around on the floor Maximilian finally let the word slip from his lips and he apologised.
"Good" Jorge said and stepped away from the boy, allowing him to cautiously climb to his feet, his face now streaked with dirt and tears.
Carris gave Maximilian a slight sneer as she walked past him and re-joined the team next to Jorge. The seven children crouched around and watched as Walter drew out a plan of attack and defence in the dirt with a stick. After a short while Maximilian joined them and listened quietly as he choked on his sobs of pain. Walter let him be involved, he gave him the job of over watch and sent him up the tree their simple base was built around, and when he spotted blue team he was caw twice like a blackbird.
Joesph and Albert were to also be on defence and guard the two entrances with sticks broken off nearby trees. Walter made Carris and Jorge his distraction team, and as they ran around the enemy base and drew off and confused their defences, he and Albert would slip in the back and grab the flag. Then as they ran away and were chased, they would give the flag to Joanna who would remain hidden as they drew off the last of the enemy team before she ran in and captured it, since they finally came to the conclusion, that she was the fastest.
Walter's plan went off mostly without a hitch except for Soren being floored while he and Walter ran away the other team's base; he claimed that the girl who did it could run faster than Mendez's warthog, but no one believed him. Joesph and Albert saw off the enemy attacks with nothing but a broken nose and a few cuts and bruises. Maximilian played his part quietly and well and even smiled and joined in their celebrations when they were all reunited and realised they had won.
Carris was of course happy with the victory but she felt happier for Jorge. She didn't say anything at the time with all the other children around, but she was proud of him. She had always felt like he was her little brother, but now she was so happy to see her little brother was growing up.