Progress Report
November 16th 2006 16:13
Progress Report
Thursday, October 22nd, 2054, 0545
Mess Hall B
Charlie had started in on his fourth bowl of oatmeal when a familiar voice drifted next to him.
“This seat taken?” Crone asked.
“Nah,” Charlie said.
Crone sat with an obnoxious looking dark fluid in a military issue mug across from him.
“Take your time, no rush. We can dawdle; I'm waiting on the technicians anyway.” Crone said.
Charlie slowed his characteristic inhalation of food for a bit, and then looked suspiciously at her. As she sipped at her espresso, she allowed herself to relax a bit.
“Long night?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah. Almost woke you, in fact. It turned out to be a simple robbery.” She said.
“Aw, I would have liked the action.” He said.
She nodded. “I wanted you to get some rest. Did you sleep well?” She asked.
“No.” He replied, with a mouthful of Soya sausage serving as a base to some eggs.
“You don't test well, do you?” Crone asked, rhetorically.
“Um, no. Never did like school.” He said.
“Good thing you're here then.” Crone said. “I see your marks are holding nicely, for someone that doesn't like school.”
“Well Dr. Reis and Denise have been helping. Denise knows all this English stuff, and Dr. Reis knows the math. It's almost like being home again, except what my dad knew about math you could fit in a thimble.”
Crone chuckled. “Well I have some good news. You've earned some leave time. After this test, you'll have about 12 days of leave. I'm assuming you're going to want to so see your parents?” She asked.
“Oh heck yes. I haven't seen my pa in like seven months!” Charlie said excitedly.
Crone smiled. One of the things she liked about Charlie was that he was so easily excitable. Being old, she thought, not much excites you anymore. Nothing much is new.
The mess hall clock chimed six as Charlie finished off the last of his soy sausage. The hall cleared out quickly as Crone looked at her communications link.
“They still aren't done.” She said. Another cuppa for me, how about you?” She said, standing.
“I could do with another bite.” He said. “How long do you figure it'll be?”
She shrugged. “I've got time, you've got time. When they get finished, is when they get finished. I like to take my time with my coffee anyway.”
Charlie smiled, he might be able to get in another full meal, and they got in line. He ordered fifteen slices of soy bacon, four orders of eggs, and two liters of choc nut. The mess hall was now used to Charlie's incredibly large orders, and served this mass upon a pizza pie tray. He took six slices of toast and several small containers of peanut butter.
Crone deftly avoided the robotic espresso android and waited at the beverage bar until a human was free. She handed her her mug. “8 shots, please. Extra cream, extra sugar, extra chocolate.” The woman was used to delivering Crone's beverage as well, and they smiled at each other. “Sasha,” she said, “I don't believe you've ever met Charlie, have you? He doesn't drink coffee.”
Sasha extended her hand to Charlie. “Hey, I'm Sasha.” She smiled. She was a larger woman of African descent, and had a large space between her teeth. Über looked at her a moment. “Are you Denise's sister?” He asked. “You two look a lot alike.”
“Heavens no,” Sasha smiled and blushed. “I'm her mother.”
Charlie's jaw dropped.
“Here you go hun.” She handed the steaming mug to Crone. “Pleasure to meet you son. Come by for a java.” She smiled.
“Will do, ma'am.” Charlie nodded and carried his tray back to where they were sitting before.
“You meet all kinds of folks, don't you?” Charlie said to Crone.
“I try to get out. See the world. See different perspectives. It helps.” Crone replied, blowing on the coffee.
Charlie went to work on his bacon, and while he ate politely, his bites were huge, easily twice the size of someone else. Crone looked outside. “Looks pretty clear.” She observed.
“Um, Crone?” Charlie asked. She looked at him by way of response.
He took a deep breath. “What is the test?”
She thought about it for a moment and then replied, “It’s very simple. There will be a programmed android on the field. Your job is to disable it by opening the faceplate on it. The catch is you can't use deadly force. If you use deadly force, you fail. The android will measure the amount of force you deliver, so you have to be careful.”
Charlie grunted, and pondered, consuming a half a slice of toast in a single bite, and chewed thoughtfully.
“Just open the face plate?” He said.
“Looks just like one of our protective helmets. It's programmed to react like a person. It's a prototype model, so you'll be in deep do-do if you break it.” She smiled at him.
“But it can do stuff to me.” He said.
“It will have a side-arm, and has been programmed with some minor martial arts moves.” Crone replied.
“Fair enough.” Charlie said as he swallowed a half liter of choc nut in a gulp. Crone sucked down her coffee as her communications link vibrated. She looked down at it.
“It's done. Let me finish my coffee and we'll get this all done and over with.” She said, in a flat tone, which was far more reminiscent of her when she was teaching.
“Crone, do you like teaching?” He asked.
“Sort of. You're my last trainee, so I'm trying to do you right.” She replied.
Charlie frowned at her.
“Why?” He said. “You're a great teacher. Hard as heck, but a great teacher.”
“Thank you Charlie.” She said, and then looked away. “I'm getting older. I can't do much more in this world, I want to go home.” She said sadly.
“Where's home?” He asked.
“Where I was born or where I call home?” She said. Between the lack of sleep, and the caffeine buzz, Crone was in a bit of a stupor.
“Both.” Charlie challenged.
“Puddleby-on-the-marsh, England. I hang my hat in a small place called Shangri-Li.” Crone replied.
“Never heard of either.” He said.
“Not surprising. I moved to France when I was very little and stayed in Europe for a while, and then the Orient. Eventually, I ended up in Canada, and then America.” Crone reminisced softly.
“Wow. That's some kind of passport you've got.” He said.
“It's a good thing. Makes me a better person, to have lived in a few different cultures.” Crone said.
Charlie thought about this for a moment as he finished off the last of the toast, heavily laden with peanut butter.
“Kids?” He asked.
“Twenty. Twelve of which are still alive, and at last count forty-four grandchildren. Sixty great-grand-children, eighty-nine great-great-grandchildren, and so on.” She said.
“Whoa. So um, I guess you and your husband have been together for a while?” He said.
“My first husband died about 700 years ago, but I've remarried a few times.” She shrugged. I've lost track of them all. I think I still keep in touch with my youngest daughter's father, but not too often.” She commented, draining the coffee mug.
Charlie wiped his mouth, and took a deep breath.
“Good to go?” She asked.
He nodded, and picked up his tray.
She tossed her mug onto the conveyor and he laid his pizza pan there, and they walked out onto the concourse, idly chatting about the weather or anything else, but the test. There was a humanoid figure in the distance, on the other side of the simulated town.
Crone was dressed in her black zip up uniform, same as he was and from a distance, it looked like the android had a similar sort of countenance. Crone had him stop and told him she was going to go check the programming, and she'd give him a buzz on his communications link. He nodded, and then shielded his eyes toward the morning sun as she walked into it. It was bright, and made the unused tarmac shimmer. He couldn't look for too long, so turned to one side.
Crone got to the android, made a couple of adjustments, and tapped on her communications link. “Okay, Charlie, it'll head for a building. Alive, intact. Use any means you have available.”
“I got it.” He said and waved toward the sun by way of confirmation.
Crone watched the android walk off, as Charlie slipped into a side building. He dropped the visor to his helmet down and selected from the interior menu options that would let him mask out the photosphere of the sun. In the world of his helmet, he was in an eclipse. The corona of the sun provided more than enough light.
The droid moved quietly, methodically toward him. It drew a weapon as he crossed between two buildings and took a shot at him. A marker ball hit the side of the building.
Charlie smiled to himself, 'dumb thing', and came up with a plan. As long as the droid was shooting at him, he figured that he had a clue where it was, so he tossed a rock against the building he had just passed.
Sure enough, the droid fired on that position. He figured it tracked movement. He found the back door of this building and entered. None of these buildings had windows, all had been long since shot out, and most of them were made of concrete, some, scorched in points. He clicked to IR and got a rude surprise, by this time in the morning, almost all of the concrete buildings were radiating heat. He got conflicting signals left, and right. While he spent time trying to figure out what was where, the figure slipped across the way and circled around him. He peeked out through a front window as a marker bullet smacked at the space just above his head. He rolled, and grabbed at whatever he could find, some scorched remnant of a desk, and threw it at the figure.
It reacted with the quickness of a cat, and slipped behind a wall, but the desk slammed into it with a powerful force.
Charlie didn't figure that it would have been strong enough to shaken the android, so he slipped out the front door, and battle rolled under the front window. He kept on the infrared and tried to get a reading. He saw some movement, and the figure shake its head. Perhaps, Charlie thought, he had disrupted part of its logistical systems. That would be good. He watched it go into a small room and crouch behind a door.
It stayed there for a time, and Charlie watched it. It seemed to move in some sort of a cycle, it would wait for a bit, then move somewhere, take up a position, wait for a time. It seemed to be able to sense that Charlie was there, somehow. He figured it must have some sort of IR as well.
Charlie looked around for a weapon, and picked up a few rocks. One of these he threw through the back door near the room where it was. Curiously, it did nothing. Charlie threw another, and it still did not respond.
He wondered, if, perhaps, he had damaged it more than he thought. That was a good hope that it had simply shut down.
He switched the IR off and re-entered the building.
It slipped out moving at blinding speed and fired a salvo of shots at him, in a staccato series of shots. He slipped back behind the doorway as it did so. The back of the wall sprayed with this new sequence of shots. They were in a tight, almost perfect horizontal line.
He dropped back into IR and found that the droid's outline was not visible. Charlie was sweating profusely, and he changed tactics, grabbed some rocks, and slipped into the building next door. He heard a couple of shots come into his direction and then slowly slipped up a stairwell. He couldn't figure out if the android was following or not, but when he got to the top of the stair, he opened the door, and then laid down flat on the ground, looking over the ledge. He waited, and watched as the infrared scanner sensed it move.
It slipped quietly into the doorway, looking up feverishly, and then took the position opposite the door. Charlie waited more, a rock in each hand. It peered out after a few minutes and then took the first flight of stairs.
Charlie threw a rock at it, shattering the concrete above its head with a forceful blow. The droid retaliated by emptying the remainder of its clip at Charlie, not hitting once, but coming very, very close.
Without a distance weapon, Charlie was ready, and leaped down, on it. As he did, it battle rolled to one side, and drew up its hands into some sort of defensive stance. Clearly, it wasn't going to give up anytime soon. In fact, it taunted Charlie by beckoning him toward it with an outstretched hand.
Charlie gave it a cockeyed look as it leaped into the air, spinning, slapping at his head with both feet. Charlie's helmet absorbed the damage, and Charlie simply reached up, grabbed a foot as it squirmed away from him. Then he moved in an artful spin, and slammed the droid into a wall.
It spasmed once, with a harsh jerking move. Charlie did not wait, and crumpled himself upon it, but not as it raised a knee, jamming it into his groin.
Charlie roared with pain, and grabbed at its hands, as it writhed. It moved insanely quick, slipping out from underneath him and crouched at the doorway. Charlie imagined that it was breathing heavily, he could swear, and then leaped at it. It moved deftly letting Charlie crush the door jam, and waited for him in the narrower hall.
Charlie grabbed at the long panel of door molding that he had broken off, and snapped it in half, making a pair of makeshift batons, and stomped down the hall angrily at the droid, swinging wildly.
The droid danced like a wild animal, only narrowly avoiding some of the blows, and as it brought Charlie to the outside, Charlie knew that he would fail this test if he let it get out there. Indoors, he suspected he could corner it.
It was moving backwards, occasionally looking to one side, trying to get a feel of what was ahead of it, and still keeping attention paid to Charlie. He lunged forward, swinging one of the makeshift clubs madly, and then throwing the other one.
His gamble paid off, as the droid dodged the thrown club; he was able to connect with the swung one. It made a sharp, sickening sound, and went down.
Charlie, more warily this time, stuck his knee down upon it's chest, and then grabbed at it's hands, scooping them up with one of his, and then, with the other hand, flipped up the mask to turn it off.
Charlie shrieked with surprise.
Crone looked up at him. Her left eye swollen, she had blood coming from the corner of one lip.
She smiled at him.
“Good boy. Didn't kill me.”
“CRONE!” He shouted.
“I'm old, not deaf, boy.”
“Ah could have killed you!” He roared
“Only your breath. Do you ever brush those teeth, anyway? A Hero has to be a role model. Now do be a good fellow and help me up.”
Charlie helped her to a sitting position. She spat out a bit of blood, and licked her lips, taking some deep breaths.
“Are you hurt?” He asked.
“You broke four of my ribs, I think, and my left hand.” She said to him.
“I'll call the medics!” He said worriedly.
“You will do no such thing. Give me the better part of an hour and I'll be fine. Even sooner if you can find my staff.”
Charlie looked around.
“Back in my quarters. Just give me a hand back, eh?”
Gently he eased her to a sitting position on a piece of debris. She coughed raggedly, but managed to get solid breaths. Charlie was scared, speechless and in shock.
“Well done.” She smiled at him.
“Where's the droid?” He asked.
“There is no droid. It was an illusion.”
His jaw dropped.
“You...were the test?” He asked.
She smiled at him. “Smart and strong, good way to break that stereotype. I set up specific parameters to see whether you could beat me. You did.”
Charlie head tilted like a dog whose owner had made an odd noise.
“I've not slept for three days, I allowed myself to consume as much caffeine and alcohol as my palate could absorb, and the only magic’s I allowed myself were life-preserving ones.” She said. She tried to stand, wobbled, and then slumped back down.
Charlie tapped on his communications link and raised it to speak in it.
She held out a pair of fingers and tapped upon his wrist.
“I said no. You've always been very good about following my instruction, Charlie, please don't disobey now.” She said tersely, almost growling.
“You're hurt.” Charlie whined.
“Yes, I am. Nevertheless, I will heal. I've broken many bones in the course of my lifetime. My magic has healed me then, and will heal me now.” She said smugly.
Charlie wrinkled his nose, and she could see that she was loosing him. She raised her communications link to her lips and spoke:
“End training exercise. Objective met, overall score, eighty-two. Signed Crone, Senior Trainer, Gteams Heartland Division. End Dictation, end communications link.”
Charlie tilted his head and then spoke, “so I almost kill the teacher and I pass the test?” He said.
She nodded. “Almost is what you needed. I felt you could do a bit more in the finesse department, and you rely on the IR too much. Look for some more day training, I think. Late afternoons. Perhaps we can get Denise to help.”
Charlie asked, “did you do this to her, too?”
“She was just as miffed. You two can go compare notes. I'm going to bed.” Crone stood, stretched, yawned, and, with a little assistance from him, made her way out of the simulation town and to a well-deserved rest.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2054, 0545
Mess Hall B
Charlie had started in on his fourth bowl of oatmeal when a familiar voice drifted next to him.
“This seat taken?” Crone asked.
“Nah,” Charlie said.
Crone sat with an obnoxious looking dark fluid in a military issue mug across from him.
“Take your time, no rush. We can dawdle; I'm waiting on the technicians anyway.” Crone said.
Charlie slowed his characteristic inhalation of food for a bit, and then looked suspiciously at her. As she sipped at her espresso, she allowed herself to relax a bit.
“Yeah. Almost woke you, in fact. It turned out to be a simple robbery.” She said.
“Aw, I would have liked the action.” He said.
She nodded. “I wanted you to get some rest. Did you sleep well?” She asked.
“No.” He replied, with a mouthful of Soya sausage serving as a base to some eggs.
“You don't test well, do you?” Crone asked, rhetorically.
“Um, no. Never did like school.” He said.
“Good thing you're here then.” Crone said. “I see your marks are holding nicely, for someone that doesn't like school.”
“Well Dr. Reis and Denise have been helping. Denise knows all this English stuff, and Dr. Reis knows the math. It's almost like being home again, except what my dad knew about math you could fit in a thimble.”
Crone chuckled. “Well I have some good news. You've earned some leave time. After this test, you'll have about 12 days of leave. I'm assuming you're going to want to so see your parents?” She asked.
“Oh heck yes. I haven't seen my pa in like seven months!” Charlie said excitedly.
Crone smiled. One of the things she liked about Charlie was that he was so easily excitable. Being old, she thought, not much excites you anymore. Nothing much is new.
“They still aren't done.” She said. Another cuppa for me, how about you?” She said, standing.
“I could do with another bite.” He said. “How long do you figure it'll be?”
She shrugged. “I've got time, you've got time. When they get finished, is when they get finished. I like to take my time with my coffee anyway.”
Charlie smiled, he might be able to get in another full meal, and they got in line. He ordered fifteen slices of soy bacon, four orders of eggs, and two liters of choc nut. The mess hall was now used to Charlie's incredibly large orders, and served this mass upon a pizza pie tray. He took six slices of toast and several small containers of peanut butter.
Crone deftly avoided the robotic espresso android and waited at the beverage bar until a human was free. She handed her her mug. “8 shots, please. Extra cream, extra sugar, extra chocolate.” The woman was used to delivering Crone's beverage as well, and they smiled at each other. “Sasha,” she said, “I don't believe you've ever met Charlie, have you? He doesn't drink coffee.”
Sasha extended her hand to Charlie. “Hey, I'm Sasha.” She smiled. She was a larger woman of African descent, and had a large space between her teeth. Über looked at her a moment. “Are you Denise's sister?” He asked. “You two look a lot alike.”
“Heavens no,” Sasha smiled and blushed. “I'm her mother.”
Charlie's jaw dropped.
“Here you go hun.” She handed the steaming mug to Crone. “Pleasure to meet you son. Come by for a java.” She smiled.
“Will do, ma'am.” Charlie nodded and carried his tray back to where they were sitting before.
“You meet all kinds of folks, don't you?” Charlie said to Crone.
“I try to get out. See the world. See different perspectives. It helps.” Crone replied, blowing on the coffee.
Charlie went to work on his bacon, and while he ate politely, his bites were huge, easily twice the size of someone else. Crone looked outside. “Looks pretty clear.” She observed.
“Um, Crone?” Charlie asked. She looked at him by way of response.
He took a deep breath. “What is the test?”
She thought about it for a moment and then replied, “It’s very simple. There will be a programmed android on the field. Your job is to disable it by opening the faceplate on it. The catch is you can't use deadly force. If you use deadly force, you fail. The android will measure the amount of force you deliver, so you have to be careful.”
Charlie grunted, and pondered, consuming a half a slice of toast in a single bite, and chewed thoughtfully.
“Just open the face plate?” He said.
“Looks just like one of our protective helmets. It's programmed to react like a person. It's a prototype model, so you'll be in deep do-do if you break it.” She smiled at him.
“But it can do stuff to me.” He said.
“It will have a side-arm, and has been programmed with some minor martial arts moves.” Crone replied.
“Fair enough.” Charlie said as he swallowed a half liter of choc nut in a gulp. Crone sucked down her coffee as her communications link vibrated. She looked down at it.
“It's done. Let me finish my coffee and we'll get this all done and over with.” She said, in a flat tone, which was far more reminiscent of her when she was teaching.
“Crone, do you like teaching?” He asked.
“Sort of. You're my last trainee, so I'm trying to do you right.” She replied.
Charlie frowned at her.
“Why?” He said. “You're a great teacher. Hard as heck, but a great teacher.”
“Thank you Charlie.” She said, and then looked away. “I'm getting older. I can't do much more in this world, I want to go home.” She said sadly.
“Where's home?” He asked.
“Where I was born or where I call home?” She said. Between the lack of sleep, and the caffeine buzz, Crone was in a bit of a stupor.
“Both.” Charlie challenged.
“Puddleby-on-the-marsh, England. I hang my hat in a small place called Shangri-Li.” Crone replied.
“Never heard of either.” He said.
“Not surprising. I moved to France when I was very little and stayed in Europe for a while, and then the Orient. Eventually, I ended up in Canada, and then America.” Crone reminisced softly.
“Wow. That's some kind of passport you've got.” He said.
“It's a good thing. Makes me a better person, to have lived in a few different cultures.” Crone said.
Charlie thought about this for a moment as he finished off the last of the toast, heavily laden with peanut butter.
“Kids?” He asked.
“Twenty. Twelve of which are still alive, and at last count forty-four grandchildren. Sixty great-grand-children, eighty-nine great-great-grandchildren, and so on.” She said.
“Whoa. So um, I guess you and your husband have been together for a while?” He said.
“My first husband died about 700 years ago, but I've remarried a few times.” She shrugged. I've lost track of them all. I think I still keep in touch with my youngest daughter's father, but not too often.” She commented, draining the coffee mug.
Charlie wiped his mouth, and took a deep breath.
“Good to go?” She asked.
He nodded, and picked up his tray.
She tossed her mug onto the conveyor and he laid his pizza pan there, and they walked out onto the concourse, idly chatting about the weather or anything else, but the test. There was a humanoid figure in the distance, on the other side of the simulated town.
Crone was dressed in her black zip up uniform, same as he was and from a distance, it looked like the android had a similar sort of countenance. Crone had him stop and told him she was going to go check the programming, and she'd give him a buzz on his communications link. He nodded, and then shielded his eyes toward the morning sun as she walked into it. It was bright, and made the unused tarmac shimmer. He couldn't look for too long, so turned to one side.
Crone got to the android, made a couple of adjustments, and tapped on her communications link. “Okay, Charlie, it'll head for a building. Alive, intact. Use any means you have available.”
“I got it.” He said and waved toward the sun by way of confirmation.
Crone watched the android walk off, as Charlie slipped into a side building. He dropped the visor to his helmet down and selected from the interior menu options that would let him mask out the photosphere of the sun. In the world of his helmet, he was in an eclipse. The corona of the sun provided more than enough light.
The droid moved quietly, methodically toward him. It drew a weapon as he crossed between two buildings and took a shot at him. A marker ball hit the side of the building.
Charlie smiled to himself, 'dumb thing', and came up with a plan. As long as the droid was shooting at him, he figured that he had a clue where it was, so he tossed a rock against the building he had just passed.
Sure enough, the droid fired on that position. He figured it tracked movement. He found the back door of this building and entered. None of these buildings had windows, all had been long since shot out, and most of them were made of concrete, some, scorched in points. He clicked to IR and got a rude surprise, by this time in the morning, almost all of the concrete buildings were radiating heat. He got conflicting signals left, and right. While he spent time trying to figure out what was where, the figure slipped across the way and circled around him. He peeked out through a front window as a marker bullet smacked at the space just above his head. He rolled, and grabbed at whatever he could find, some scorched remnant of a desk, and threw it at the figure.
It reacted with the quickness of a cat, and slipped behind a wall, but the desk slammed into it with a powerful force.
Charlie didn't figure that it would have been strong enough to shaken the android, so he slipped out the front door, and battle rolled under the front window. He kept on the infrared and tried to get a reading. He saw some movement, and the figure shake its head. Perhaps, Charlie thought, he had disrupted part of its logistical systems. That would be good. He watched it go into a small room and crouch behind a door.
It stayed there for a time, and Charlie watched it. It seemed to move in some sort of a cycle, it would wait for a bit, then move somewhere, take up a position, wait for a time. It seemed to be able to sense that Charlie was there, somehow. He figured it must have some sort of IR as well.
Charlie looked around for a weapon, and picked up a few rocks. One of these he threw through the back door near the room where it was. Curiously, it did nothing. Charlie threw another, and it still did not respond.
He wondered, if, perhaps, he had damaged it more than he thought. That was a good hope that it had simply shut down.
He switched the IR off and re-entered the building.
It slipped out moving at blinding speed and fired a salvo of shots at him, in a staccato series of shots. He slipped back behind the doorway as it did so. The back of the wall sprayed with this new sequence of shots. They were in a tight, almost perfect horizontal line.
He dropped back into IR and found that the droid's outline was not visible. Charlie was sweating profusely, and he changed tactics, grabbed some rocks, and slipped into the building next door. He heard a couple of shots come into his direction and then slowly slipped up a stairwell. He couldn't figure out if the android was following or not, but when he got to the top of the stair, he opened the door, and then laid down flat on the ground, looking over the ledge. He waited, and watched as the infrared scanner sensed it move.
It slipped quietly into the doorway, looking up feverishly, and then took the position opposite the door. Charlie waited more, a rock in each hand. It peered out after a few minutes and then took the first flight of stairs.
Charlie threw a rock at it, shattering the concrete above its head with a forceful blow. The droid retaliated by emptying the remainder of its clip at Charlie, not hitting once, but coming very, very close.
Without a distance weapon, Charlie was ready, and leaped down, on it. As he did, it battle rolled to one side, and drew up its hands into some sort of defensive stance. Clearly, it wasn't going to give up anytime soon. In fact, it taunted Charlie by beckoning him toward it with an outstretched hand.
Charlie gave it a cockeyed look as it leaped into the air, spinning, slapping at his head with both feet. Charlie's helmet absorbed the damage, and Charlie simply reached up, grabbed a foot as it squirmed away from him. Then he moved in an artful spin, and slammed the droid into a wall.
It spasmed once, with a harsh jerking move. Charlie did not wait, and crumpled himself upon it, but not as it raised a knee, jamming it into his groin.
Charlie roared with pain, and grabbed at its hands, as it writhed. It moved insanely quick, slipping out from underneath him and crouched at the doorway. Charlie imagined that it was breathing heavily, he could swear, and then leaped at it. It moved deftly letting Charlie crush the door jam, and waited for him in the narrower hall.
Charlie grabbed at the long panel of door molding that he had broken off, and snapped it in half, making a pair of makeshift batons, and stomped down the hall angrily at the droid, swinging wildly.
The droid danced like a wild animal, only narrowly avoiding some of the blows, and as it brought Charlie to the outside, Charlie knew that he would fail this test if he let it get out there. Indoors, he suspected he could corner it.
It was moving backwards, occasionally looking to one side, trying to get a feel of what was ahead of it, and still keeping attention paid to Charlie. He lunged forward, swinging one of the makeshift clubs madly, and then throwing the other one.
His gamble paid off, as the droid dodged the thrown club; he was able to connect with the swung one. It made a sharp, sickening sound, and went down.
Charlie, more warily this time, stuck his knee down upon it's chest, and then grabbed at it's hands, scooping them up with one of his, and then, with the other hand, flipped up the mask to turn it off.
Charlie shrieked with surprise.
Crone looked up at him. Her left eye swollen, she had blood coming from the corner of one lip.
She smiled at him.
“Good boy. Didn't kill me.”
“CRONE!” He shouted.
“I'm old, not deaf, boy.”
“Ah could have killed you!” He roared
“Only your breath. Do you ever brush those teeth, anyway? A Hero has to be a role model. Now do be a good fellow and help me up.”
Charlie helped her to a sitting position. She spat out a bit of blood, and licked her lips, taking some deep breaths.
“Are you hurt?” He asked.
“You broke four of my ribs, I think, and my left hand.” She said to him.
“I'll call the medics!” He said worriedly.
“You will do no such thing. Give me the better part of an hour and I'll be fine. Even sooner if you can find my staff.”
Charlie looked around.
“Back in my quarters. Just give me a hand back, eh?”
Gently he eased her to a sitting position on a piece of debris. She coughed raggedly, but managed to get solid breaths. Charlie was scared, speechless and in shock.
“Well done.” She smiled at him.
“Where's the droid?” He asked.
“There is no droid. It was an illusion.”
His jaw dropped.
“You...were the test?” He asked.
She smiled at him. “Smart and strong, good way to break that stereotype. I set up specific parameters to see whether you could beat me. You did.”
Charlie head tilted like a dog whose owner had made an odd noise.
“I've not slept for three days, I allowed myself to consume as much caffeine and alcohol as my palate could absorb, and the only magic’s I allowed myself were life-preserving ones.” She said. She tried to stand, wobbled, and then slumped back down.
Charlie tapped on his communications link and raised it to speak in it.
She held out a pair of fingers and tapped upon his wrist.
“I said no. You've always been very good about following my instruction, Charlie, please don't disobey now.” She said tersely, almost growling.
“You're hurt.” Charlie whined.
“Yes, I am. Nevertheless, I will heal. I've broken many bones in the course of my lifetime. My magic has healed me then, and will heal me now.” She said smugly.
Charlie wrinkled his nose, and she could see that she was loosing him. She raised her communications link to her lips and spoke:
“End training exercise. Objective met, overall score, eighty-two. Signed Crone, Senior Trainer, Gteams Heartland Division. End Dictation, end communications link.”
Charlie tilted his head and then spoke, “so I almost kill the teacher and I pass the test?” He said.
She nodded. “Almost is what you needed. I felt you could do a bit more in the finesse department, and you rely on the IR too much. Look for some more day training, I think. Late afternoons. Perhaps we can get Denise to help.”
Charlie asked, “did you do this to her, too?”
“She was just as miffed. You two can go compare notes. I'm going to bed.” Crone stood, stretched, yawned, and, with a little assistance from him, made her way out of the simulation town and to a well-deserved rest.
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