The first night of her physical training, Althea slept like she spent the night in an isolation chamber. No dreams, odd sounds, or alarms woke her from her deep slumber. This time, she woke up in the same room with Erie.
Erie sat at a desk on the end of the room that Althea had not noticed before. She held a long cylindrical tube in one hand and a flat piece of metal in the other. She looked over at Althea when she stirred and said,
“Did you sleep okay? I saw Boris working you pretty hard.”
For a second, Althea was uncertain about Erie’s phrasing, then the woman winked at her and Althea turned pink from her blush.
“Now you’re just picking on me.”
Erie set her tool down and spun around in her chair.
“Yes, yes I am. And that’s partly because I think you and Boris would be a good match.”
As much as Althea wanted to deny it, as much as she wanted to challenge Erie’s assessment of her and of Boris, she could not bring herself to do it.
“You’re saying he’s interested?”
Erie guffawed and threw herself back in her chair. It made a wrenching noise, the back fell almost level with the ground, and Erie popped back upright still laughing.
“I guess it’s hard to tell when the looks are all directed right at you, huh?”
Althea said,
“So there are looks?”
“Yes, from both of you stupid teens. If the choice is between standing here wringing your hands and running to jump on Boris’s dick, go knock yourself out!”
Althea responded,
“Oh yeah, maybe I will!”
They both laughed at her words as they held their sides and rocked. Erie ran back to her bed and they spent a few minutes joking and speculating on Boris’s prowess. An odd thought occurred to Althea as she said,
“You’re comfortable talking about sex and stuff?”
Erie shrugged,
“Sure, why not? I don’t like and am not interested in having sex. I can appreciate the beauty of a nude form, I can joke about and appreciate sex even if I am not personally interested. I am even okay with certain kinds of intimacy and romance. I just don’t dig the act.”
Althea had done a little reading. She said,
“That makes sense. I’ve just never met an ACE.”
Erie shrugged and said,
“Well, it’s hard to get us to reproduce.”
Althea looked at Erie before she laughed. The woman seemed poised to yell at Althea or otherwise express her disapproval, but then the blank look on her face cracked and she started back with laughing.
They settled down and Althea lifted the bright red dress from the floor and held it up by the straps for Erie to review,
“What is up with the weird clothing. Is that some traditional hazing or something for junior soldiers?”
Erie glanced at the dress and shook her head,
“No. Boris is teaching you something like “Practical Combat 1” or whatever CoreMil rebranded it as. It’s the quick and dirty course for training civilians, clandestine ops, or other non-combat principles.”
“Huh. I still don’t get it.”
“Right, sorry. The dress is to help you practice wearing normal clothes and not a special uniform or gi or whatever.”
“Does it make that big of a difference?’
Erie nodded.
“Without combat implants, you have to worry about terrain, clothing, lighting, sometimes even local-Gs. And Practical Combat is designed to pick apart the factors that get operatives and civies killed in combat and either correct those factors or accommodate them.”
“So I wear street clothes because the chances are better that I will be attacked in street clothes than not?”
“Yes. And learning or conditioning is state-dependent. So if you practice in one dress for a while, you’ll find yourself confused and slow when someone puts you in a suit.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but it’s not like you’ll turn incompetent or forget what you learned. It’s more like you’re reactions slow as your brain adjusts for the difference in conditions. Working and training through lots of different conditions can help that, to a point.”
“I guess I am just surprised how much of a difference training makes when we have combat implants.”
Erie said,
“It’s the great leveler, right? Training can make up for raw weight, height, or even lack of a weapon. It can make up for bad footing, poor visibility, or an injury. But the effect of training has its limits and good training teaches you to understand those limits and exploit them as needed.”
“Huh, so that’s what I am learning now?”
Erie let her smile crack and shook her head,
“Right now you’ll be learning to move around without your AI systems. At the most, I bet Boris teaches you a single technique before it’s time to leave.”
“Leave?”
Erie pointed out the gear on her desk in the room.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Among other things, that little plate will help us deal with your executive account and hopefully help me escape the planet.”
Althea walked over to the work area and Erie raced ahead of her. Erie put the desk to her back and faced into the room and toward Althea.
“It’s not quite ready. And it bugs me for people to study my incomplete work.”
Althea gave Erie a thumbs up and turned away from the desk immediately.
“Want to head to breakfast?”
A week of standing and walking one step later, Althea felt like a malfunctioning automaton, something from the second millennium that operated by gears and air pressure. The entire scope of her existence had finally narrowed to standing on her own, without the teasing, delightful proximity of Boris to comfort her, and then walking as far as she could until she fell or stopped. Even when she started to fall, Boris only had to help steady her now.
Althea felt like a fool for missing all of those chances to collapse into Boris’s arms. Too many successes would have rendered her excuse transparent, so Althea grumbled silently and pushed herself to the point where Boris would teach her an actual technique.
Walking around under the power and control of her AI after her training lessons made her feel disconnected from her body, as if her mind floated a couple meters over her shoulder directing her body like an ancient puppet. The day after that discovery, Althea crossed the entire dojo floor to Boris’s ready acclaim.
The next day, Althea rose early and made her way to the dojo on her own. Erie had stayed awake all night, tinkering with the device she told Althea about. So the younger of the two snuck off into the town to look for Boris or to start practicing if that failed.
Not finding her teacher, Althea deactivated her implants and stood on her own in the center of the room. This time her legs held steady during the full course of her walk. Althea still had to hold her arms out from her shoulders to keep from toppling over, but she returned to her original position without incident. Sitting, pausing, rising and then walking through the dojo comprised her morning activities. She could not say how much time went by, without her implant controls, she felt like a primitive cut loose from her society.
As she sat back down in the middle oft room, she heard clapping. Boris walked around the corner wall of the building, still clapping for her. He looked genuinely pleased when he said,
“I have been waiting for you to take the initiative and practice on your own. Nice work!”
He kept clapping as he walked into the room and sat down in front of Althea, mirroring her almost perfectly.
“Thanks, why not tell me to practice on my own?”
Boris opened his hands as if displaying their emptiness,
“It’s an old officer’s trick. See who is going to be a drag on the team and who is going to be a rudder.”
“Did I pass?”
Boris shrugged,
“It doesn’t work like that. You’re not wholly self-motivated, but then very few people are. But you’re willing to lead, especially if you think no one else will.” Boris waved his hands as if wiping the thoughts out of the air before him, “but more important for us, you seem to have mastered the initial parts of your training. I think today is a good time to start actual fighting.”
Althea felt warmth in her upper chest.
“That sounds awesome. Erie said you can teach some of this stuff really fast?”
Boris nodded.
“I can, but first you have to make a choice: learn a technique for sitting or standing?”
Althea pulled her chin into her neck,
“That sounds… what’s the difference?”
Boris shrugged,
“Which one sounds better?”
Althea said,
“I think standing. I can’t imagine much call for a sitting attack.”
Boris grinned and said,
“You have that right. We’ll start standing.”
Althea suppressed the urge to raise her hand and said,
“Why did you ask if that was the plan?”
Boris shrugged and winked as he stood in a single fluid motion, as if his legs bent and elongated instead of folding to raise him. Althea’s rise lacked every aspect of Bori’s grace, like her lumbering awkwardness made a parallel mirror of Boris’s movement.
When she finally stood, Boris closed the distance between them, bringing them within centimeters of each other.
“Let’s start with the basics. Where possible, you want to initiate a battle at maximum range. But for our purposes, this does not count.”
“Why?”
Boris said,
“A smart professional, one who’s been trained, does not want to close with his target. But you’re not a professional yet. And playing the stats, most hand to hand combat is resolved at this distance.”
Less than a handspan lay between them as Boris rolled his hands into fists and clutched them to his sides.
“Most martial arts teach you to fight from here. But watch…” He put his left arm on her shoulder and shook his right arm to bring attention to it. “Now watch and feel.”
He moved and struck her right in the upper chest where the chrome metal of her implants had replaced much of her ribs. The thunk reverberated through her body and made her rock back on her heels. But Boris’s hand and her newfound balance served to keep Althea on her feet.
Boris smiled when she did not fall and said,
“Did you feel it?’
Althea started to nod, but considered the force of Boris’s impact.
“I expected it to be harder. Did something go wrong?”
His smile grew even larger and he shook his head.
“No, that was perfect. No matter how advanced your implants, no matter how strong your limbs, you don’t get out of physics. It is impossible. In a short distance, I can still build up speed and momentum, but nothing like what I could build if I were back and swinging from range.”
“So what, step back or something?”
Boris shook his head and said,
“Nope. This is all about winning and controlling the battle. There are a few good reasons to close with your enemy. One of them is that no matter how skilled or strong they are, they will have trouble reacting to attacks at their back. But if you step too far way…” he put his hands on Althea’s shoulders and turned her to face away from him. He took a step back and said, “now, use the mirrors and your own eyes to find me.”
Althea looked up turned to try and look at Boris. He varied the distance between them as Althea looked and she noticed that, excepting the mirror, she could not see Boris when he closed the distance between them.
“I can’t see you if you scrunch up on me. Is that the point?”
Boris grinned and said,
“Actually, it is. Now, without throwing yourself over, try a slow motion elbow strike at me, but without looking over your shoulder, just use the mirror.”
Over and over, despite the fact she could see him, her attempt at hitting him missed the mark. With one hand on her back, Boris seemed to lead Althea around the room. At no point was he in danger from her.
“How do you do that?”
“It’s a matter of balance, and that is an advanced trick. I wanted to illustrate how important positioning is in a fight. If you can take the initiative and strike from a blindspot, your opponent will die before they even know you struck.”
Althea nodded, feeling oddly enthusiastic about the training.
“You mean I can do what you’re showing me one day?”
Boris nodded and said,
“Probably. I would definitely not be surprised. But let’s work on the approach first and a single decent deathblow. With those beastly arms of yours, that last factor will be pretty easy.”
Boris pivoted around her body to her side. Althea tracked his movements in the mirror and warmed when he ran his hand down her arm to her hand. She wished she could make out the subtle sensations of his fingers on her arm. The dull, uncertain pressure was no substitute.
Althea reset her two hour timer during their practice. What Boris taught her barely felt like martial arts. Expecting flying kicks or intricate grips, Boris’s methods seemed directed to one and only one objective: finding a target’s back and stabbing or punching them to death before they noticed.
By the time they finished for the day, Althea felt sweaty and exhausted. When she started to teeter over, Boris grabbed her waist and said,
“That should be good enough for today, why don’t we call it and go grab a late lunch?”
Althea turned to follow him as she reinstated her implant control.
“Wait!”
Boris turned around and Althea started to choke on her words. For a moment, she considered shaking her head and forgetting the vague urge. But when Boris’s broad smile faded by a single byte, Althea shook her head and spoke, letting the words tumble over themselves like she was eighteen again.
“Do you maybe, I don’t know, want to eat together. I mean privately, I mean not that. Just two…”
Boris grabbed Althea’s hand and said,
“Ms Thompson, are you asking me out on a date?”
Her face betrayed her with a massive blush, but Althea refused to back down now.
“Yes?”
Boris did not laugh, he did not even snicker. He said,
“Then I would be honored.”
