Next day was the shopping trip and his accounts when checked had been credited as promised. Marie turned up in a grey and cream pantsuit which made his ensemble look downright shabby. When he apologised for how he looked next to her she reminded him that this was what they were trying to fix and besides how often did you get to shop with someone else’s money. His army fatigues were well cleaned and passably ironed but it was clearly not of a standard with Maries outfit. Once in the car they chatted pleasantly all the way to the gates where they were waved to one side and told to stop. Sitting there whilst the gate guards ignored them they both just got confused made worse when Patel in a long sleeved green maxi dress with a matching jacket walked up and got in the back seat.
She looked at them and they looked at her, after a bit Marie asked “what are you doing. Sorry; hi Helen great to see you, what are you doing here”. Patel pointed at Morgan “Mr Mayhem here is not allowed off base without an escort. One escort in civilian attire reporting for duty. Where are we going?”. Marie turned a scowl on him while Patel just sat smugly with a butter wouldn’t melt look on her face. Morgan just thought out loud “I mean I was supposed to inform if I went off base. Escort?” He thought back and realised that something like that had been mentioned, looking at her he said “Ok the word escort was used but you because?”. Patel dropped the innocent act “me because if you think I’m not going to watch you treated like a clothes mannequin you’re mad”. They all glared at each other and finally Marie sighing put the car in gear.
Town was a thirty minute drive away and Marie chattered to Helen as if they were lifelong friends. Thinking about it other than him everybody seemed to both know and like Corporal Patel. He wondered where she had the time to be so sociable, time that he had because Marie simply refused to talk to him or even acknowledge his presence. Even he saw this as a rebuke for not warning her. With his attempts to be conciliatory rejected he resorted to staring out the car window while the two women talked. He was sure this was all somehow contrived because these people had not met two months ago and some of the intervening time had been Patel arresting her.
By the time they were parking in the multi-storey he was starting to rationalise this whole situation as unfair. Whether it was coincidence, perceptiveness or just timing that’s when Marie relented. “Ok not your idea and they could have picked a worse escort. Any preferences or just my choice?”. Morgan butted in straight away “Basics first. 6 pair socks, underpants, vest, plain t shirts, three shirts, casual trousers, two jumpers, two pair shoes. After that we can go dressy”. Marie nodded and Patel grinned “dressy? Going somewhere nice?” to which Morgan levelly replied “hopefully, I agreed to take her for a meal as a thank you for this trip. Since I don’t know anywhere I told her to book it” Marie took him by the arm “Ginero’s, you’ll love it and I didn’t even blow your budget. Not this time anyway” she grinned. As they walked Patel pulled a phone out of her jacket, the motion revealing the holstered sidearm that he presumed she was allowed to load. Dialling she spoke Italian into the phone leaving both him and Marie ignorant. When she put the phone back she said “ok don’t worry that’s sorted. Its now a table for three.” Ignoring his complaint and Marie’s outrage she walked on.
What should have been a pleasant shopping trip had turned icy. Marie was glaring at Helen every chance and that meant she was not talking to him. Clothes were pushed wordlessly at him to try on. Patel on the other hand seemed to like mischief and kept directing them to inappropriate clothing. When she started to suggest Marie would like him to buy a posing pouch passing her one to inspect the whole thing blew up. Morgan had been vacillating between agreeing with Marie and wanting to not annoy Patel but this was too far. He finally snapped “Look I get you were assigned but do you have to be like this about it? I was looking forward to just a nice quiet day out with pleasant company and yes I forgot about the whole escort thing but really.” Marie joined in “Helen am I stepping on toes here, is that what this is about?”. Patel looked between them and raised her hands in mock surrender “Whoa yourselves there. Look joke ok? Perhaps not in the best taste but joke.” After a slight pause she looked at Marie “he is pleasant on the eye and I like him but no, no toes are not being stepped on. He needs an escort and on the first occasion a friendly face was my thought.” Marie turned and waved the hand with the posing pouch at him “And you, what’s with this escort thing. Helen why does he need an escort?” Patel spoke “for me the question is why he’s being let out at all. Private Oxbridge had been determined to be a unique resource. Not just that but he’s an incompetent and a troublemaker, failing upwards seems to be his lot in life. Despite that the higher ups are falling over to be nice to him recently. I mean Morgan why aren’t you in prison, I heard, no belay that everyone heard about your attack on that squad”. Marie recoiled “attack on a squad – what did he do?” while Morgan asked “what’s the big deal?”.
Patel looked round and then bundled all three of them into a changing room pushing past the startled staff. Putting her hand over Morgans mouth she whispered “shut up” and then still with her hand over his mouth whispered to Marie. “He was doing some work with people the joint command had told him he could help. They were lippy and he brawled with them putting the whole squad down. They were less than happy” turning to Morgan she continued to whisper “the big deal is that this was a tactical team, best of the best, better than you and don’t care who knows it. Then some CROW beats the tar out of them .From what I hear you did everything short of pissing on them” Marie waved her hand still holding the posing pouch at Morgan and hissed “And you beat them up for pissing you off. Shit.” Patel snatched the posing pouch out of her hand and threw it over the cubicle door “Look he is irreplaceable thats true. Calm down. Everything is alright. As a SCAR physician you may be getting some updates on special function and organisation. Without saying too much it came from him. So shut up stay calm and snog when I’m not looking”. Marie grumbled and leant back, “Snogging is right off the cards mister”. Morgan gently moved Patels hand and then smiled “well I wasn’t arrogant enough to assume it was on in the first place. Mmm. How about we finish our shopping have a meal as just a group of friends and we will organise a more discrete thing some other time?” Both ladies nodded and they left the cubicle.
Three staff and the store security were outside, the guard waved a hand at the posing pouch on the floor. “Dont know, don’t want to know. You are going to be the ones to pick that up and you are going to buy it”. Marie actually blushed and Patel wordlessly started to pick up the clothes. The guard stopped Morgan by waving the baton and then moving closer spoke quietly “look mate no offence but you are nothing special, about once a week someone thinks its kinky. I say the same thing every time. Take her someplace nice, not here”. Morgan swallowed then “thank you for the advice” he replied.
Not quite escorted but watched by the guard they paid for the purchases and left. Marie cleared her throat on the street, paused and then said “that never happened. Neither of you are going to tell your army mates and I am not going to tell any of my colleagues. It never happened.” There being nothing to disagree with both nodded and they started to go to the next shop. As they approached the shop Morgan leaned over to Patel “how are we going to explain the posing pouch?”. Marie stopped, turned round grabbed the bag looked in and pulling the posing pouch out threw it in a rubbish bin then threw the bag back at him. Patel nodded seriously “Doctors, very wise people”
The rest of the day went smoothly and Marie seemed to enjoy spending his money. Getting changed too look presentable in a cubicle Patel did a check for tags on him and they went to Gineros. Morgan liked Italian food and he was looking forward to non army rations. As they sat down and ordered Patel told him not to get any drinks for himself. When he raised an eyebrow she told him that with his cores it would take prodigious amounts to get tipsy. Morgan nodded and thinking back to helping her in a certain hotel wondered how far off the mark Marie had been. The food was lovely, the live music ok and the company was good. It should have been a lovely evening but there was just an undercurrent of tension.
It was getting dark as they drove back and Marie drove Helen to her quarters before they both drove back to the civilian accommodation. Pulling up in the car park they awkwardly shook hands and then she leaned in giving him a peck on the cheek and left. “Ah well, next time” he promised himself.
Approaching the house there was an envelope sellotaped to the door. His mood improved when he read the outside. Dad was such a simple address but it told him much he wanted to know. Taking the letter inside he put his shopping down and after making a cup of tea opened the letter.
Dear dad.
I hope you are well. I am getting better after a life that was filled with horror some of which happened round me and some of it to me. I reacted by retreating to a place of quiet contemplation. Literally a retreat. The nuns could not have been better to me. I accepted the help and support though I do not think before my trauma I would have contemplated the religious life. For my health I needed the peace and quiet to consider. That peace and quiet was shattered by your arrival at Father Emmett’s rectory.
Though its hard to follow the mayhem that swirls around you on reflection I cant think of any bad thing that has happened to me as a result only good. My time at the convent was a moment of peace that I presume will be hard to find in the secular world. Even so your arrival shocked me sufficient to make me engage with the world again. Because of you I have a voice once more.
I also understand that you intervened at the hospital to help save my arm from the thing growing in it. I was too medicated and ill to take much in but the medics assure me that my useless arm would have been amputated without your efforts.
I think I have many issues to work through and you are at the heart of many of them, Even with my sheltered life having issues with my dad seems the most mundane thing about me so I will get through this. I have much to think about and plan which hopefully you can help with. I must say that having tried it the contemplative life has its charms but I do not relish a return to service.
I had been informed that you were incommunicado due to joining the army – you will have to explain how that was allowed at your age – but are now no longer training? Since that is the case we should meet up and explore what we are to each other.
Her contact details were scribbled below but not her address.
Checking the time he typed a quick email to the address on the letter thanking her and agreeing to meet basically at a time and place of her choosing. Pressing send he leaned back with a smile thought about what a great day it had been. He wondered what Marie and Annie would think about each other and then stopped with a mental chuckle, talk about going too fast. Probably at both ends of the discussion.
Despite frequent refreshes of the screen no reply was forthcoming in the next 20 minutes. Looking for something to do whilst having an excuse to stay on screen he logged onto a historic news site and started watching local news bulletins in the past. Since each local bulletin was about 15 minutes he gave himself 20 minutes to watch each one including search time. Spacing them at one month apart he got the year of his hospitalisation over with and resolved to do six months every day. In a month he should get up to date and catch up with today as everyone else had though perhaps at an accelerated rate.
Eventually running out of excuses to refresh the screen he went to bed.
The next morning after his ablutions he was basically at a loose end. Deciding to check his status he wondered how he was going to make progress today.
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
96%
99%
Senses assistance
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
13%
100%
Physical assistance
18%
100%
Build systems
Not Implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
17%
2%
Recovery systems
81%
100%
Status – other
98.3% pending
One million forty eight thousand two hundred and seven functional clusters installed of which one million twenty seven thousand two hundred and nineteen functional clusters are currently unassigned. Would you like me to list all clusters Y/N
No, just short of four hundred cores from his web browsing presumably. Lets see he thought, is there a way of improving that approach. Going to the mess hall he made some tea, grabbed some biscuits and started thinking. The people who had created the discussion thread had been hoping for weird and wacky ideas, something they had achieved and then some. The assumption was he had done all the sensible things but how sure was he that he had done all the sensible obvious options. Ok first things first find out if there was some sort of database about specials abilities catalogued somewhere. Next go find a bunch of comic book fans and see if there was a list of superpowers he could try to gain. Nothing ventured nothing gained after all. Ask everyone at each of these locations if they could suggest alternate sources. Plan for the day, possibly several in hand he went to Channings secretary, a guy called Rupert and asked about how he would go about organising a trip to a comic shop.
This led to some incredulity on Ruperts part when Morgan claimed that reading comics was work and eventually he called his boss. “So you are looking to steal other peoples ideas to get stronger?” Channing half asked and half mused. Morgan replied “actually to get closer to stronger but essentially yes. It was just when I thought I should be methodical about ripping ideas this was one of the ways I thought of to cover as many options as possible”. Channing scratched his chin and then said “come back in thirty minutes, I want to check something”. Mystified about what he was going to check he went away. Deciding to ask something that had bothered him he decided to nag voice. Finding a out of the way corner he thought his question. Voice some guidance on the status screen please, specifically the percentages. I assume this applies to all of the numbers but lets start with physical assist. I am at 18% but 18% of what precisely. If you say my base physicality well thanks but I was never even close to what I am doing now so what is it doing or measuring?
Physical assistance is a measure of how much your bodies performance is being improved. It is of necessity an abstraction as performance can be further subdivided into many categories such as endurance, strength, balance, reaction time and so on. Whilst sub menus on these matters are available information overload was a concern when the interface was designed. The percentage is considered to be a percentage of the maximum possible augmentation of that category.
Ok voice thank you for that. He paused for a while then asked his next question. Voice the corporal has a maximum physical capacity of 18% whilst mine is 100%. Could you explain the disparity please.
It is likely that her physical augmentation maximum has increased as a result of the strength and health cores assigned to her. All augmentation suffers from the law of diminishing returns and the closer to the theoretical limit you reach the more cores must be assigned to achieve an increase. The maximal return per core is to a large extent debatable and therefore the optimum percentage is not determinable. In your case you asked for everything and so a large number of cores were assigned, the exact amount in fact were adding one more core would reduce efficiency. Therefore you have 100% potential as there is no way to augment you further. Not all of these cores are functional as they are being staggered for most efficient integration.
Ok. Lets stick with Physical then. So 18% of the cores available are currently activated? Voice is there any actions I can take that will speed up Physical integration or activation or whatever the right word is?
Integration can be sped up by doing activities that use and stretch your current abilities. Activation can be sped up by doing new activities that are most relevant to the new cores function. Activity programs may be suggested by this unit.
Ok that definitely needs to be done. Organise a daily activity program for me tailored to speed up both integration and activation. Assign two hours a day to this program and suspend it whilst going through basic, think the instructors might take a dim view of me wandering off to do my own thing. Resume it after basic is over. Send me a daily activity sheet each morning in my display. Looking at his watch he decided to saunter back to the office. Coming back he waited a few moments before being called in. Channing was with a squaddie who was standing at ease.
“Private Oxbridge, this is Private Trelawney he will be your escort and guide to the local comic activities. Private Trelawney is something of an aficionado on the subject I believe having gone AWOL to attend a bon or con or something so I am sure he can be an effective guide. Private Trelawney whilst you are expected to help Private Oxbridge to broaden his knowledge and understanding of the field your overriding concern is to ensure Private Oxbidge’s safe return to this facility. Clear?” They both yes sirred on cue and he continued “Private Oxbridge you may leave the facility in the company of Private Trelawney his duties permitting and after giving at least 24 hours notice to me, corporal Patel or at a pinch my secretary. Clear?”. Another yes sir and then they were both dismissed to make their own arrangements. They wandered over to the mess to talk.
Private Trelawney was a short wiry man with buzz cut hair some light colour that was hard to discern with his hair so short. He had a way of moving that made you think he was nervous at all times and a thick Cornish accent that did not seem to match the rest of him. Once the tea was collected he started talking “Meur ras for that. Thought I was never going to be allowed to a con again and now I’m ordered to go to one. The army really is mad”. Morgan nodded in agreement “yup. Ok for reasons of my own I am trying to get an exhaustive list of superpowers and cross reference them with known special abilities. Some sort of strategy study I think. That’s why comics. By the way I’m Morgan”. He leant over to shake Private Trelawney’s hand and instructed voice to record his status without displaying it. Somewhat to his surprise that worked so he instructed it to always do that in the future which meant he had to ask Trelawney to repeat himself. “I said Hugo and that’s a sweet gig, how’d you swing that one?” Checking that Morgan had been listening this time he carried on “I assume you’ve checked the fan sites- wikis and the like?” Shaking his head they started to talk.
Hugo really liked comics and his enthusiasm was infectious apparently his favourite being a porn/horror crossover called battle pope that sounded suspiciously made up to Morgan. One of the things he talked about was different ways to do the same thing and how each of those ways had different implications for how a power could be used or more dramatically nullified. Moving things with your mind was great but did you use magnetism (attack with baseball bat) concentration (break concentration then use baseball bat) magic (hide and then use baseball bat) or some other way. An awful lot of his suggestions involved baseball bats but having multiple ways to do the same thing was his preferred solution.
Apparently the next con was in a few weeks but they agreed to meet up in a few days after Morgan had done some reading to focus what he was going to look for. They left with Harry claiming he was really going to enjoy the expression on his LT’s face when he told him he was ordered to go to con’s again. Moving to the science building he tried to talk to some of the staff who normally dealt with him but there was some sort of uproar happening. He bimbled about until he found somebody who could not ignore him and he explained what he wanted after which he was quickly dismissed with an Email containing a link and a password to a research database.
Returning back to his house he logged onto his computer and saw a mail alert. Amidst the spam about his refunds and packages awaiting customs clearance he decided to ignore the prizes he needed to claim by providing his bank details, instead he opened Annies reply. She apparently was helping out by volunteering at the hospital she was in so whilst technically still a patient she could leave for short periods without difficulty or escort. Would she be allowed on base to meet him or would he have to go to her? Morgan realised that was a very good question. The chances were she would not be allowed on base and he would need an escort to meet her off base. Problems, problems. Making a note to find out about this he wrote a reply basically hoping everything was ok and to hang fire whilst he checked on when he would next be allowed off base.
At a loose end he decided to do his days historical news bulletins. They were grim watching, the alien arrival had caused massive financial ructions and several countries had started to have religious difficulties as various doomsday cultists went on the “we told you so” tour. In an ominous foreshadowing one panel of experts talked about how robust the international trade community was.
Morgan realised his problem was that he did not have a job to do and soldiers were supposed to do well something. As he sat back and thought about it inspiration struck and he dug out the details given him to a few days ago. Poppy sat across from him and burbled on about various social activities organised for officers wives. She had come over straight away when he had called and immediately got to work grilling him about himself. Whilst he thought it was good natured and she was essentially harmless it was interesting to see how often his resist interrogation had flared to life amidst her babble. Finally she ran down and her approach became more business like “So if I understand properly you want to learn and practice skills to keep this lovely place in tip top shape whilst doing PT to keep yourself fit for the next intake. Also you have an invalid daughter –sorry by the way- who may be visiting and you also want to engage in social activities with lady friends on base. Do I have it right?”. Morgan nodded agreement so she continued “well I wont be helping you acquire lady friends so forget that mister”. Waving his hands Morgan interjected “No ah, gods no I can, I mean I have got that as a work in progress. It was to tell you that my time might be taken up not a request for an introduction service.” Looking slightly less indignant she continued “And I wont intrude on your training either – that means no teaching clothes, beds, polish, dusting, packing, cleaning. What that does leave is cooking. We have a kind of basics course for new army wives and a few volunteers who will help with the basics including preparing a shopping list. I’ll get you in touch with Carly for that. We also have a volunteers program for the local hospitals, we cant get you off base but depending on how infirm she is we may be able to get an escort for her to come here. You’ll have to find the name of the hospital but once that’s got I’m sure we can do something”. She gave him a look that dared him to complain and giving a broad grin he replied “sounds just what the doctor ordered. When I have the name should I drop by or text? Ok text and otherwise wait for this Carly to be in touch?”. They talked for a little while thereafter mostly about base politics and who was currently in favour. When she left he sat by himself and thought for a short while about what she had said.
Two things stood out to him, firstly Helen Patel was considered a sad case who was medically unable to have a boyfriend. This odd statement was never explained but just a throwaway line whilst talking about the people he knew. Also SCAR was having funding issues. It was being suggested that Civilian authorities could control specials and many prisons were being built with this proposal in mind. What that meant is that SCAR was being slowly defunded and was really looking for something that would prove the concept and get a budget increase to counter all the current cuts. Deciding not to ask about the first as it sounded horribly personal he resolved to be less awkward with the science teams. Everyone had problems after all.
The next day started disturbingly. Looking at the blinking icon in his view he pulled his thoughts together. Voice? Can you explain why my daily training regime that I asked you to set up includes some strange items?
Define strange items. All entries are maximised to integration of existing cores and activation of new cores prioritised by probabilistic analysis of your needs.
Uh huh. So the request that I electrocute myself whilst getting someone to drip acid in my eyes. Is that to integrate or activate?
Activate. There is a high probability that failure to control you via manipulative means will lead to more direct measures. For this reason a torture resistance core is advised.
Jesus what sort of society do you come from. Put torture resistance at the bottom of the list ok. Bottom. I mean where did you even get these ideas from?
These are the suggested childhood play exercises suggested by the torture lords of bnyehgsliin . They are the experts in these matters having even adapted themselves to feel enhanced levels of pain.
Ok for the record if I start a file marked kill all Xeno’s make sure that is the first entry. Remove the torture entries and I will do the rest of these items. An updated list appeared and in what he presumed was editorial comment it was labelled SubOptimal training program. Most of the remaining activities struck him as absurd calisthenics some of which only made sense with explanatory diagrams. The rest did not make sense even with the explanatory diagrams. Nevertheless he persevered and got most of them attempted prior to heading out to meet the Corporal. Today was HTH training and he hoped it lived up to its billing. When he approached the clearing he saw Patel waiting for the squad with Graham in attendance. Graham might be constantly in gym clothes but this was odd enough that he frowned a question at Patel who steadfastly ignored it. Shaking Grahams hand he subtly checked and there were no cores there so that could not be it, throwing caution to the wind he decided to ask. “So Graham what brings you here?”
Graham shook his head and said “lets wait for the rest of you, that way I can explain once.” Ignoring Patel’s frown that promised words later he started to stretch. Whilst some of the contortions still struck him as absurd he had to agree the earlier efforts really had loosened him up. While contemplating whether or not to pull up status the rest of his old squad arrived.