Outlier earth, p.11
Outlier Earth, page 11
"Look," She said. "Knowing book stuff is great and all but you don't know anything until you can handle real life flying. I may look petite but I can lift twice as much as you can and have a much faster reaction time than you. You have experience I don't have. I saw some weights over in the corner. If I can prove to you I'm stronger and faster - can we finally go flying."
Legionnaire Douche had been impressed by her book knowledge but he couldn't lose a bet like that. He'd not have to take her up if she lost. Still, he hesitated even though he must have outweighed her by twenty kilograms.
"I'll press twice as much. If I lose you can tell everyone that I always let my mouth overload my abilities. Weights over there - right now?" she proposed and nodded her head toward the weights.
He popped up and started walking over to the weights he used every day. He weighed 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) and she couldn't weigh more than 8o kilograms (176 pounds) and probably not that much - but she looked like hard lean muscle all over. He walked over to the weights and slid on 109 kilos which was almost his best clean and jerk. He stretched some to loosen up and after a lot of snorting and funny breathing - lifted a good 109 kilos. He was grinning big time because he knew there was no way she could lift 218 kilos or 480 pounds. She stretched and hyperventilated. She went over to the bar and with a grunt couldn't even lift it off the ground. She stood there straining and couldn't budge it. Legionnaire Douche started laughing a bit and got louder and louder 'til tears were running down his face. He said, "Listen buttercup. I realize you women think you haul gold in those thighs but you can't do what a man can do and never will." He was impressed that she had challenged him and she had turned red and looked angry.
"You women..." he started again and Ama went back over to the weighted bar. She grabbed it and jerked it up over her head - held it for a second and set it down without dropping. She turned toward the Legionnaire who was standing there with his mouth open. Gods, he thought.
He swallowed. "Your flight suit is over there. If you need help with anything just let me know. We have some flying to do," Gods he thought. That was impossible. No one would believe me.
They had climbed into a JT-33A with Ama in the front seat. She had had all the language and culture memory cylinders she could stomach and she still liked the damn things. Two of the cylinders had been on flying. One cylinder was about advanced atmospheric aircraft and the second cylinder that had been snuck into her repertoire was one on spacecraft. The JT-33A only topped Mach 4 but that's still hopping. Ama took Douche on some basic fighter maneuvers: out-of-plane, displacement rolls, lead pursuit, pure pursuit, and lag pursuit before trying turn circles, overshoots, circle flow, barrel rolls, breaks and high guns attacks. She even did an Immelmann which she wasn't supposed to be able to do with this fast a plane.
They landed and got their land legs back and then took a Raptor-66 out for the high yo-yo, low yoyo, High-G barrel roll, Pugachev's Cobra, Cobra turn, the Kulbit loop, the Herbst maneuver to reverse direction quickly and Hineri-Komi, the Thach weave, and lastly the Isamu Mochizuki. Legionnaire Douche could fly a plane. Hell, he could fly anything, Ama thought. He had certainly proved that. They only did each maneuver once the first time through and then Ama duplicated each maneuver exactly. Her time compression sense had kicked in early and every nuance of maneuver was burned into her brain. It was exhilarating and exhausting. She was toast when they landed four hours later as well as her body being bruised from the G-forces. Luckily her body was healing as she walked around on her wobbly but strengthening legs.
The Legionnaire came up to her and said, "I thought you were such a fraud - an overly privileged aristocrat or something. I was wrong. You can fly...almost as well as me...already. It's uncanny. Show you something and you've got it. I'm Legionnaire Felix."
"Now you've ruined a good nickname. I'm going to have to change your name from Douche to Felix. I'll try to remember that. Let's not talk about the weight lifting incident. I was feeling a bit...peeved," she said and Felix eagerly nodded just as Cornicen Albus and two other armed soldiers came through the hanger door.
"Immunis Ama," Albus said. "We need to ask you a few questions. Were you out about 1 a.m. last night?"
"You know I was if you're asking this question. Legionnaire Felix here had loaded me up on homework and I had stayed up studying. I got hungry and went to mess hall for food. I got food there. Took me about 15 minutes and then I walked back to my barracks, ate the food and dozed off after a nice shower," she explained.
"Did anything happen on the way back to your barracks?" Albus asked. "Were you armed? It can be dangerous alone, late at night."
"Nothing significant," she said. "I dropped an apple in the dark." Ama turned to Legionnaire Felix. "If that's all for the day Legionnaire. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for the instruction. I think you could fly anything and I'm not easily impressed. Aerial combat tomorrow?"
"See you tomorrow Immunis...yes ...aerial combat" Felix said. He knew he'd wipe any smile off her face doing that.
Ama nodded to the Cornicen Albus and headed back toward her barracks and more food.
As soon as she exited, Legionnaire Felix asked Cornicen Albus, "What was that about?"
"You heard that a knife-wielding serial rapist-murderer was killed last night. The only person out last night in the area was her. She went to the mess hall, got food and walked back to her barracks all right."
"So, she's lucky. She did really well with me today. She's brilliant and fast," Felix said. "She sure didn't seem upset by anything from last night and she seemed well rested today. She had a hard, stressful day here and she handled it much better than I thought she would."
"Somebody did a number on that murderer. His arm was broken and he apparently had a hand plunged into his chest...a hand jammed through his chest wall. He was easily 136 kilos (300 pounds)," Albus said. "It was pitch black in that area last night with no moon and no lighting in that area."
"So why focus on her. You think she went to the mess hall unarmed so she could ambush a huge armed murderer in the dark...really. Why would you think it was her?"
"She did say she dropped an apple last night."
"So what?" Felix said.
"The murderer had an apple jammed halfway down his throat. What do you say to that?" Albus stated.
Felix was getting a bit angry at them harassing his student. He was pretty proud of what she did today. "What would I say? I'd say if it was her...don't try to take her apples. She gets mean when you try to take her apples." Felix chuckled at his own dark humor.
Albus snorted his disgust and motioned for the two soldiers with him to leave.
◆◆◆
Ama arrived at the hangar the next day and Legionnaire Felix was there...the new Felix, the polite Felix...and most surprising...the pleasant Felix. "Morning Immunis. You ready to put some of those flight maneuvers we practiced to use? You fly the lead and I'll shoot you down. Let's see how you do. The last few days have shown me you are a capable flier." He smiled and indicated getting suited up.
Ama sat in the cockpit of the JT33 and went through the checklist. She was sure she was more nervous flying solo than she was worried about Legionnaire Felix. She'd flown jumpers since she was old enough to reach the foot pedals. This fighter and its forward-looking cameras were her weapons of today. Her energy weapons were disabled.
The sky-blue plane was slightly chisel shaped. She got the thumbs down that indicated that Felix was finally ready since the time it took her to complete the checklist was only based on the sensing and bootup time for any of the instruments. She gave Felix the thumbs down and rumbled to the takeoff line and waited for takeoff approval. She got approval, acknowledged and started down the runway in normal takeoff mode.
"Stud One to Muff 1," Felix called over the comm. "Aren't you going to use afterburners to boost your acceleration. You only get four minutes to get ahead of me."
"I thought I'd save my fuel," Ama replied while realizing that Legionnaire Douche wasn't a misnomer after all. She kept her plane low as it rapidly picked up speed. As soon as she lost sight visually and with scanners she banked left as hard as she could while hugging the earth. She didn't realize Felix had ground spotters letting him know which way she went. When she got a telltale ghost shimmer on her sensors she immediately broke right to gain a bit of altitude. She performed a split S where she half rolled her aircraft inverted and executed a descending half-loop ending flying level - much too close to the ground than normally acceptable. She was in level flight flying toward the heading the shimmer sensor hit had ghosted.
She crested the hillock to see Felix's plane flying across the nose of her plane. She activated the nose camera and watched him finally jink when he detected her. She nosed up her plane and took off straight up. The JT33 had a lot of power and could accelerate straight up. Felix nosed up to and almost had Ama in his target lock but she kept outmaneuvering him as he got closer and closer. He could almost...suddenly she feinted left, jinked right and pulled a Cobra by pulling her nose up abruptly. He shot by her, then she was on his six and he couldn't shake her. She locked her camera and got her video of the target lock.
"Damn," Felix said. "Let's go back home."
◆◆◆
Legionnaire Felix and Ama took data sticks out of both planes and walked back to the hangar not talking a bit. They stowed their heavier pressure suit gear in a locker and went to the viewing room to see the videos in high depth of field. Several of the other pilots had wandered into the back of the room to watch Ama's humiliation. Felix was evidently known for coming back early if he crushed his students earlier in the day. Felix gave Ama the data sticks and told her to put her video recording to play first. The nose camera showed her plane taking off and flying with normal trust and some vectoring. Then it showed a ghost blip which disappeared and her plane changing direction to meet it by flying the nape of the earth. It was really smooth flying then it showed the detection of another plane that came out of nowhere and caught her plane out of position. Her plane moved to a better position until the other plane performed a modified Split S loop and got her. The other pilots cheered and shouted encouragement to Felix who just looked at Ama who hung her head.
Then it showed the other plane taking off straight up and jinking left and right and her plane trying to get a shot but it couldn't. The other plane did a wicked Cobra after faking Ama's plane the wrong way as it nosed up and it fell behind her. The other pilots in the room whistled and stomped feet and congratulated Felix again. Felix asked her to put the other data stick in. It showed how she had been faked but showed very competent flying. The other pilots all slapped her lightly on the back and congratulated her on good flying. Felix told them he needed the room while he reviewed his student's mistakes.
As soon as all the other had left - Felix said, "Why? Why'd you switch the data sticks and let them think I shot you down when you outflew me."
Ama looked him in the eye. "You're a hell of a pilot and a good instructor. If I'm ever in an aerial battle and I survive - it will because of you. It won't be from any books. You'll be the reason I survived. I'm leaving this place soon and I won't sully the reputation that will save my life in the future. The planes looked the same and I made sure I didn't video your tail numbers."
Felix looked relieved but then looked up all concerned. "What about my camera videoing your tail numbers?"
"It didn't get any tail numbers. I made sure your cameras couldn't see my tail numbers at any time. Let's look through this again," she said and replayed the video from Felix's plane. Sure enough, her tail numbers were conveniently never visible."
"How did you do that? You didn't have a chance to edit any of the video."
She said, "I made sure while flying that you were never in a position to video my tail numbers."
"Even while in combat at Mach speeds?" he asked.
"I have fast reactions. I had plenty of time to set up and position my plane in relation to yours. It was easy to calculate vectors," she said. "I'll never tell anyone. I think you are a wonderful instructor."
"Gods," he gasped and then paused. "Would you consider going out with me?"
"Nah. I still think you're a bit of a douche," she said.
Felix started laughing and laughed 'til he started snorting and his eyes watered. They left as friends.
As she walked back to her barracks thinking about the day and swapping data sticks she remembered the data stick that had been inside the box she had gotten with that blood vial that had disintegrated.
Chapter 15
She went immediately to her desk drawer in her barracks room and withdrew the data stick. It had a button on the side and it had a sharp bit sticking up on the button. "Frak," she said and stuck the stick into her computer while sucking on her thumb. It quit hurting and bleeding in a second and she watched as a progress bar proceeded across the screen. A dialog box popped up that said - PUT IN YOUR EARPLUGS AND TURN THE SOUND LOWER. The screen displayed - "The data stick was keyed to only your DNA." She didn't know what DNA was however as it hadn't been discovered in her world.
She did so and was suddenly looking at Alan's video. She felt a rush of emotions: anger, disappointment, loneliness, and lust all mixed up but mainly she felt - curiosity.
"Hi Am. I needed you to get this training if you're going to be around me in the future. People will actively try to kill me in the future and some of them will be competent. You wouldn't be safe if you were ever seen with me. This is the only way I think I could protect you. The Centurion owes me his life from where I saved him in the past. He also likes wealth and I've helped him there. Do not trust any of the staff except him and that's only if you are desperate. I've tried to insulate you a bit by telling the Centurion what will happen to him by me if you are damaged."
"Now the reason for this message is to let you know what was in that vial and what it did for you. It was extremely painful. It always is painful because your body was getting rid of a lot of waste products. You will have gained muscle mass and tone. You will be stronger than any unenhanced humans and will be able to lift a bit over 230 kilograms. Stress will trigger a biomechanism that will speed up your reflexes to superhuman speeds. You will retain anything you see or read or hear or smell if you want. You will not get sick and your body will flush out toxins or poisons. You'll never get drunk unless you want to have a buzz. You will heal fast. You could cut off a finger and it would grow back…eventually. Don't do that because it is painful and slow. You have nanites in your blood that will seal wounds and prevent diseases."
"Here is the big one. You can live a thousand years if you want. I gave you a rare form of nanites because I didn't want to go through life and watch another wither and die. I thought you'd be a possible partner but if not, maybe a companion or, at least, acquaintance for life. I'm not proposing a thousand-year marriage because I'm a lot older than you. We will look young 'til we die. We'll need to keep changing names every few decades. I've been in my job as an agent for over fifty years because as a low-level agent – nobody questions the young-looking guy with no seniority. The upper management changes all the time as people jockey for better positions."
"You're really smart. Needing less sleep and near perfect memory will make you seem smarter as well as your enhanced reflexes and strength. You'll have to tone down reactions so you won't hurt the 'normals'. You'll be able to hear better and in broader frequencies. You'll be even able to see infrared heat if you concentrate on electromagnetic radiation in some wavelengths. You'll have to concentrate and practice that trick to get it to work. You'll be able to see in less light and different frequencies. To reiterate one part of this – you'll look like a sexy, saucy wench with a great body forever…a win-win." The data stick disintegrated as soon as she pulled it out of the computer. Damn, she thought. She realized she didn't even know his full name – nothing but Alan. It certainly wasn't Danuwoa Ostenaco. She supposed she should go to her afternoon assignment since her morning finished so abruptly…but first…food! How old was he???
◆◆◆
Her next afternoon was to be spent with the armorer and rangemaster. She had her pugio in a boot, instead of a waist scabbard as her only weapon and went to the armory. As she entered an old man – very short, came out of the back and came out to the counter. "What do you want dearie?' he quipped.
"My name is Ama…Immunis Ama." She looked around. I am a bit familiar with handguns and rifles that are kinetic or energy based. I've been shooting since I was three. I hope that hasn't caused me too many problems for you to correct sir."
The armorer looked shocked for a second and then laughed. "Sounds like you have the right attitude. Let's go to my workshop and we'll go over the different weapons we'll be using today. Come on with me," he said and lifted the section of the counter to let her go back to his workshop off to the side. It had a full machine shop where you could manufacture weapons instead of just servicing them. The armorer pulled out a couple of kinetic slug throwers and rifles. "Let me show you how they each break down and then you can repeat it until you do it smoothly. All right. This is a 12 round semi-automatic pistol. You remove the magazine first and do a press check here from reaching under the slide to check if the chamber is empty." He then disassembled the weapon – even taking apart the magazines, lubricating it and reassembling the weapon and then function checking it. "Now you do that as fast as you can."
Ama had been intently observing and felt herself go a little bit into the 'zone'. She removed the magazine and then removed the round the armorer had slipped into the chamber, disassembled the weapon and its magazine. She then lubricated, reassembled and function checked the weapon before handing it back to the armorer with the magazine removed and slide locked – butt first. She did that all very fast.
