“Fall in!” Gunny Hauora bellowed as he led Aria into the gym. The guards that had been practicing and training stopped what they were doing and lined up in front of Hauora. Collingsworth drifted in behind them and leaned against a wall with a tablet in his hands.

They even saluted him, Aria mused. The guards dropped their salute once the Gunny returned the salute. And now all their eyes are drifting to me.

“Sarge is that your new trainee?” one of the guards asked, indicating Aria with a flick of his chin.

I don’t recognize him.

“That’s correct, Bishop,” the sergeant answered. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Aria Baird. She is our first high elf and you’re going to help her this fine afternoon.”

“How are we going to do that, Gunny?” a very muscular female guard asked.

“That’s a good question, Holder,” Gunny answered. “Two or three of you are going to spar with Aria. Holder, you’re up first.”

“I might break your elf Gunny,” the big guard said, cracking her neck side to side.

“In the circle with Holder, Aria,” Gunny said, ignoring the remark from the guard.

“Gunny, I don’t think…” Aria began.

“In the circle Aria. Now,” Sergeant Hauora said. She noticed the painted circle on the floor. There were no mats. In a near whisper he said, “trust your body and instincts.”

Why did I sign that contract again? Oh yeah, to protect my parents. Silly me. Aria grinned at herself and entered the circle opposite the guard. Holder scowled upon seeing Aria’s grin.

“The rules are simple Aria. You incapacitate your opponent or knock her out of the circle to win,” Gunny said. Aria tilted her head to the side questioningly. “Incapacitate in this scenario means knocking them out or forcing them to tap out.”

Aria nodded her understanding and chewed her bottom lip. This is going to suck. Maybe I can let Holder win by backing out of the circle.

“And don’t think of just exiting the circle,” the sergeant added. “The only way leaving the circle counts is if you get knocked out of the circle.”

So much for that idea, Aria thought.

“Begin,” Gunny Hauora said.

“Are you afraid little girl?” Holder teased. The guard smiled and quickly feinted toward Aria. Aria moved not just a step back, but to the right without any conscious thought.

Huh. It seems I can trust my body to know what to do with the new knowledge I was given. I moved to keep her from gaining centerline control over me with ease instead of just retreating out of the circle.

“Holder, stop playing around!” Bishop called out as Holder’s smile faded. Aria noticed the guard’s eyes narrowed. “I have five bucks on you!”

The guard shot forward and grabbed Aria’s right wrist and tried to pull her forward. At the same time, Aria lifted her hands up, stepped forward into Holder while pushing the larger woman’s arm up. She then turned toward her right pushing down on Holder’s elbow.

With Holder slightly off balance, Aria pushed her arm up, bending the guard’s elbow. This bent Holder’s wrist, allowing Aria to reverse who was in control without breaking the guard’s grip. With the underside of Holder’s forearm facing her, Aria grabbed the forearm with her left hand. Her index finger knuckle was pressed against the other woman’s bone, where a series of nerves ran along the inside of the forearm. She then pushed Holder’s elbow forward toward the floor.

Bishop hit the floor. Aria stepped her right foot forward under the guard’s shoulder. She then wrapped the guard’s arm around her knee. Holder quickly tapped out. A wide-eyed Aria let the guard go and stepped back outside the circle. I did it! Yonkyo came to me like I had been doing it for years.

“Damn!” Bishop exclaimed.

“Yes!” Collingsworth shouted. Gunny rolled his eyes.

“What the fuck?” another guard shouted. Others expressed similar feelings.

“Nice moves,” Holder said, getting to her feet and shaking out her arm. Aria nodded.

“Holder, are you alright?” Gunny asked.

“I’m fine Sarge. My arm is still a little tingly,” the guard answered, massaging her forearm. “I wasn’t aware of those nerves she found.”

“Alright. Bishop, you’re up,” Gunny said. “Aria, back in the circle.”

“Watch and learn, Holder,” Bishop taunted.

“Fuck you,” Holder replied. “I can’t wait till she puts you on your ass.”

“Cut the chatter!” Gunny bellowed. “Begin.”

Bishop darted forward and grabbed both of Aria’s wrists. Aria stepped slightly forward, her left hand going down and behind Bishop. At the same time, she lifted her right hand into his face. The guard let her go, bent backwards, and fell onto his back. Aria stepped back as the other guards laughed. Bishop slammed his hands into the floor in frustration.

That was Tenchinage or Heaven and Earth throw, Aria thought after recognizing the technique she had used.

“That was quick just like your sex life!” Holder shouted to more laughter.

“Keep your cool, Bishop,” Gunny commanded. The big guard nodded. “Again.”

This time Bishop threw a punch, Aria slipped the punch by sidestepping it. This happened twice more.

“Fight me!” Bishop shouted.

As you wish, Aria thought as he punched again. This time, she raised her right arm, keeping it loose, and let the punch slide along her forearm. She sidestepped around him as Bishop extended and continued past. Aria pushed his back, making the muscular man tumbled forward out of the ring.

Uke Nagashi Irimi, Aria thought, naming the parry technique.

Bishop came back into the circle swinging a wild haymaker. Aria used the same parry with her right arm, except this time instead of circling around him, she used her left to push his side while bringing her right arm up. This forced the guard down enough that as he continued forward, Aria’s right arm caught him under the chin. She used their combined momentum to throw him down.

“Fuck!” Bishop shouted, slamming his hands to the floor again.

“That’s enough. Stand down Bishop,” Gunny bellowed as the other man got to his feet.

“You got your ass kicked by a little slip of a girl!” another guard taunted. Bishop glared at the guard and then back at Aria. Bishop then rushed forward, aiming to throw a right hook at the back of Aria’s head.

She heard the intake of Gunny’s breath and the rustle of Bishop’s clothing as well as his steps. Aria spun and stepped toward the irate guard. This made Bishop flinch back instinctively even as he punched.

Aria slap-blocked his elbow into his body, making him twist to the side away from her. She continued moving forward and punched him under the jaw. Aria followed this up with a double punch to under Bishop’s jaw and neck. Two rapid smacks cracked over the noise of the others.

“Dammit! I said stand down!” Hauora bellowed at the same time as Aria attacked the guard. The sergeant’s eyes widened in shock as the large guard crashed to the ground. He didn’t get up. “Medic!”

Holder bent to check her fellow guard as Aria stepped back. “He’s breathing.”

A medic rushed in to check the man. Gunny Hauora turned to Aria, who looked a little afraid.

“Yes! The Wing Chun program worked too!” Collingsworth shouted.

“You did good,” the sergeant told Aria. “Let’s get you back to your room.”

“Will he be alright?” Aria asked. The medic glanced back and gave her a thumbs up.

“Looks like it,” Sergeant Hauora replied. “Come on.”

22

I wonder what I should do with myself the rest of the afternoon, Aria thought as she towed off after taking a bath a short while after the sergeant had left her in her room. She dressed and started brushing her hair when a message arrived.

Sergeant Hauora: Baird, we’re going to change up your routine for the next couple of weeks. You’ll still do cardo training in the mornings. After breakfast, you’ll do some weight training and then the scientists and doctors will poke and prod you for a bit before lunch. After lunch, you’ll do martial training of your new skills. After two hours of that, you’ll be given study time.

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Aria: Will have to see the doctors and scientists every day?

Sergeant Hauora: Yes. Dr Roth and the others want to make sure your new skills don’t cause any side effects or health complications. The only exception is Sundays. You’ll get that day off from the doctors and training.

I wonder if I can change the name of the other party like I did mine on these messages. She checked the message app’s settings. There wasn’t a way. She finished brushing her hair. That sucks, I’ll have to write a script to force a change.

Sergeant Hauora: Any other questions?

Aria: Will I still be allowed outside when I want?

Sergeant Hauora: Yes, that’s the deal you made. In fact, you’ll be able to roam the facility except for a few off-limits areas like labs and the orcs’ area. You’ll be monitored and will have to be back in your dorm by 2100 hours each night though.

Aria: Thanks Gunny. I hate the curfew. I’m not a kid.

Sergeant Hauora: You’re still a kid to me. Anyway, it’s for your protection and part of training. I had wanted to force lights out by 2000 hours, but Dr Roth and others overrode me saying I couldn’t do that to a civilian.

Aria: Lucky me. I suppose it was the others that did the real overriding.

Sergeant Hauora: Indeed. How did you change your display name?

Aria: There’s an option in the message app’s settings. It won’t let you change other people’s names though. That was a major quality of life oversight by whoever wrote the program.

Sergeant Hauora: Thanks for the information. Anyway, enjoy your evening. You can make your own way to the mess hall for supper with the rest of us or have something delivered to your room as always.

Aria: Alright. Thanks.

So, it looks like I can do what I want for part of my day until the gunny changes things again. Guess I’ll read more about the implant and these nanites.

*

Interesting. But I wonder what else this could be used for, Aria thought after reading about the quantum communications the implant used. I know they mentioned a satellite being used for communications, but I bet they have backup servers or something throughout SL3’s territory. I mean, quantum communication is basically teleportation, so line of sight and all doesn’t matter.

“Holy shit!” Aria exclaimed as she bolted up into a sitting position. Since quantum communication is basically teleporting data. And that should mean the particles could teleport other things because the entangled particles are essentially gates to whatever device is on each side of them.

“This means I might be able to teleport myself out of here altogether or at the last come up with a dimensional storage like in games instead of just a blink step or whatever I had considered before,” Aria muttered aloud. “If so, that would really make Collingsworth lose his poo.”

She thought about it a bit more. The sticking point is the nanites. Can they break things down and reassemble them or make a copy? Also, can they create particles or something else to store things in? I don’t see why not because that’s pretty much what they do to heal me.

Aria tapped her fingers along her thigh as she considered things. There’s only one way to find out. She searched through the nanite documentation and coding. I’m amazed they gave me access to the source code of the nanites and implant even though Mrs. Laurent said they would.

She found what she was looking for in a coding comment sometime later. The nanites can be reprogrammed or even programmed to create other nanites with different functions so it doesn’t interfere with their job of keeping their host healthy. Someone is just keeping that information hidden from others and is why the documentation doesn’t mention it.

Her stomach grumbled. Aria thought about ordering a burger and fries from the mess hall. Hmm. It’s only 5pm, but I better order more food if I’m going to do what I’m considering. She smiled and ordered a large cheese thin crust pizza and pitcher of sweet tea to be delivered to her room.

You little buggers are going to need the energy and material because you’re about to get a workout. Aria started writing code.

*

“Hi mom,” Aria said happily after answering the call later that night. I think I got all the bugs out of my code. I’m not sure what was done to enhance my thinking process or if it’s the implant doing the heavy lifting, but something has changed for the better and I think I like it.

“Hi sweetie. Is everything alright?” Piper replied.

“Yeah. Everything is fine. Why do you ask?”

“You didn’t call earlier like you promised to.”

Aria glanced at the time. It was 9pm. “I’m sorry mom! I got distracted working on something.”

“It’s alright. You’re like your dad and me when it comes to getting caught up in a project,” Piper said. “So, are you working on a song?”

“No. It’s a coding project,” Aria answered. Wait a minute. From what I’ve read quantum communication is supposed to be very secure. But I wonder if the company had whoever code this put in spyware because that sort of thing makes sense for a corporation working on secret projects. She checked her nanite code and saw it was still being compiled. Aria pulled up the communications software in another window and started going through that code.

“Sweetie?”

There you are! Cutting that spying out is an easy fix, Aria thought. She smiled as a prompt announced the nanobot code was done with no errors. Aria smiled and cut out the spying code module and started to compile the code.

“Aria?”

“Sorry mom. I got distracted again.”

“Just what are you working on? Do you want me to call back tomorrow?” her mom asked. Aria could hear the hurt in her voice. Her updated communications code finished compiling and showed no errors.

“No! I’ll call you back in 5 minutes and we can talk all night if you want to,” Aria replied. “And I promise to tell you what I’ve been working on when I call you back.”

“Alright,” her mom answered. “I love you, but the clock is ticking.”

“Love you mom,” Aria said before hanging up. She ran the new communications code and watched it replace the old code. She smiled again and called her mom back with a minute to spare.

23

“You look… a little rough,” Gunny said, greeting Aria the next morning while giving her an appraising look.

Maybe I don’t look flawless this morning or whatever he usually thinks I look like. Yeah, right. I’m not that conceited. I know I never look flawless. “Thanks, I think.”

“Did you sleep?”

“A little,” Aria answered. “I stayed up working on a personal project.”

“Want to tell me what you worked on?”

“Nope,” Aria answered. “At least not yet. I’ll show you if things work out like I want them to.”

“Fair enough,” Hauora replied. “Well, it’s still your fault for not sleeping. Let’s get moving. You can sleep tonight.”

“You’re a saint among men, Gunny.”

“I know.”

*

Okay. Let’s see what I need to do. I need to harden my implant from the company, Aria thought as she ran around the building. I should have started doing that before working on quantum storage. I’m sure the implant’s OS has spyware in it just as the comm app did.

Aria kept running and passed two guards at a side door. That’s a lot of code to go through. I suppose I could write a script to search the code.

She nodded to herself and started writing a script, trusting her senses to keep her on the running track. Halfway around the building she stopped working on the script. What am I doing? I already have something that should work thanks to some of the programmers in dad’s division and guys I went to school with.

Aria smiled and accessed a secure site on the net. Thankfully, this is still here. She downloaded a couple of small programs and turned them loose on the implant. Now, I just need to run and wait.

*

Aria nearly dropped her fork as she saw the results of the two little programs she had used. That’s an awful lot of spyware and other unknown programs in my implant. With this much going on, I’m surprised the blasted thing works as well as it does.

She checked one of the unknown programs. Her eyes widened in shock and fear. There’s a damn explosive pellet in my head! And this program activates it.

“Aria are you alright?” Gunny Hauora asked.

“Uh yeah,” Aria answered. Does he know? Did he approve of the decision? Does he control the trigger so to speak?

“Are you sure? You don’t look alright.”

“Yeah. I’m sure Sarge,” Aria replied as her fear and shock gave way to anger. The anger quickly gave way to resolve and certainty. She smiled, though it didn’t quite touch her eyes. He didn’t notice. “I just had a setback for my project and realized it’s going to take a bit more effort than I had anticipated.”

Hauora nodded. “Alright then. Dr Clarkson and Collingsworth are expecting you in 30 minutes to start their testing.”

I will survive this and get out. I’m going to have to warn my parents to flee too because I’m sure Mrs. Laurent knows about this pellet even if Gunny doesn’t. And that’s why she gave in to my demands so quickly. I’m going to have to get out of this and make the company pay somehow.

“Alright,” Aria replied. Okay nanobots. It’s time to program you to disarm and dissolve this fucking explosive pellet.

*

“What’s up, doc?” Aria asked as she entered the lab.

“Very funny,” Craig Clarkson replied. Aria shrugged. “Why don’t you hop up on the exam table and get comfortable?”

“You’re not going to ask me to strip first, are you?” Aria asked. He and Collingsworth flushed.

“No!” Craig quickly replied. “Why would you even think that?”

“Isn’t that what doctors do when they want someone on an examination table?” she asked as she sat on the edge of the table. Collingsworth snorted a laugh.

“Oh. You’re teasing me,” Craig said. Aria grinned. “Anyway, this isn’t that type of exam. “We’re just going to do some scans of your brain and implant. Later, we’ll ask some questions and do more scans.”

“So, that’s it for today?” Aria asked.

“Yes,” Dr Clarkson answered. “As I said, get comfortable. This is going to take a while.”

“If you want something to drink or need to use the restroom, let us know,” Collingsworth chimed in.

“Thanks. I will,” Aria said. She laid down on the table. “So, can I read or work on some programming stuff while you do these scans?”

Clarkson and Collingsworth exchanged a look and shrug. Then they nodded at each other.

“I suppose,” Craig answered.

“We’ll let you know if you need to stop,” Collingsworth added.

“Thanks guys,” Aria said. She started working on adding the new nanite programming she needed.

*

“What kind of programming project are you working on?” Collingsworth asked an hour later. “It’s not anything to do with the leveling system, is it?”

“No, I’m not messing with your baby,” Aria answered. I’m not telling you that I just created some explosive destroying nanobots. It turned out that creating a small swarm of new nanites programmed for the one task was much easier and quicker than reprogramming her other nanites.

“Good. So, what are you working on?” Collingsworth asked.

“Just some quality-of-life improvements to some of the implants apps,” Aria lied as the new swarm descended on the explosive pellet and began isolating it. It’s working!

“Like what?” Craig Clarkson asked.

“Well, like the comm app. It won’t let you change the display name of anyone who messages you even if they’re on your contact list,” Aria answered. That’s true enough from what I’ve found out. And it was an easy fix too. “So, I thought I would change that.”

“Not bad,” Collingsworth said as Craig snorted and turned back to studying the scan.

“What was that?” Craig suddenly asked as Aria flinched from a quick spike of pain at the base of her skull.

“What was what?” Aria asked innocently. Holy poo! Those nanites work fast. The swarm just finished eating the explosive!

“There was a little energy spike near your implant according to the scan, but I’m not seeing anything now,” Dr Clarkson answered.

“Perhaps it was a glitch,” Collingsworth said. “I haven’t seen any change in the implant.”

“Perhaps,” Craig replied. “Aria, did you feel anything?”

“Nope,” Aria lied. She smiled. The pain was already gone and according to the nanites not even a trace of the explosive remained. She activated the second programming change she had written. The nanites throughout her body started scanning for any foreign material. Better safe than sorry.

Collingsworth whistled.

“What’s up?” Craig asked.

“Aria’s mental stat just went up to 9. Whatever you’re working on is working Aria. Keep up the good work!” Collingsworth said.

“Thanks! I will,” Aria replied with a satisfied smile on her face. “Hey! Can I get some orange juice?”