It was the twenty-seventh day of testing, and Aubrey was exhausted. Physically, emotionally, and intellectually drained.
That morning she had been run through a battery of balance tests, the likes of which a Russian gymnast would have struggled to complete. Her body, bruised and battered, now recuperated in a stasis chamber as math problems flashed in front of her eyes.
This game was particularly challenging; a series of five equations would flash in front of her eyes, and she would have five seconds to solve the problem. However, instead of simply giving the answer, she would have to remember the answer, and then give the answers to each question in a random order.
“Answer three!” a digital voice would demand.
“Four point seven six eight three,” she would rattle off.
“Answer one!”
“Two-r minus one point five”
Each day she thought she would be pushed beyond her breaking point. But each day, somehow, she pulled through.
The words her father had spoken to her when she was a young girl on the brink of quitting her piano lessons, her tiny, clumsy hands unable to reach the necessary keys, aching from the effort, echoed in her head each time she thought of dropping out. He had gingerly taken her small hands and wrapped them in bandages with ice packs to soothe the pain.
“Remember, Aubrey, every great journey is simply a matter putting one foot in front of the other.”
She repeated the mantra to herself as she worked her way through the star field and gravity map exams.
“One foot in front of the other.”
As she piloted a virtual ship through an expansive laser grid filled with shifting walls and obstacles.
“One foot in front of the other.”
As she did pattern recognition problems while standing on a pole suspended thirty feet in the air for three hours straight.
“One foot in front of the other.”
That night, as she stumbled back to the sleeping quarters, her neck stiff from exertion, she heard whimpering from one of the darkened hallways.
Though her body screamed for sleep, she searched through the nearby corridors until she came upon a peculiar looking crustacean creature with a slug-like head protruding from the opening at the top of its jet black shell.
Its featureless face glowed internally, a beautiful pattern of points of light, not dissimilar to a star field filled with nebula and glittering constellations. The thing sat on the floor, its great armored arms hugged two of its legs to its chest, the other two legs folded neatly underneath its body.
“Are you… Are you okay?”
The creature stopped weeping, its long neck extending and twisting freely to look at Aubrey.
“No. Are you?”
Aubrey smirked. “Not even a little bit.”
The creature continued to cry, softer now. Aubrey slumped to the ground next to it, leaning back against the metal wall.
“My name is Aubrey.”
“I’m called Mamre.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
Mamre’s head tilted as she considered Aubrey’s grubby and disheveled form. “You as well.”
Aubrey licked her lips, then blew out a long breath. “The tests have to almost be over, right?”
Mamre’s chitinous armor clicked as she shrugged. “Maybe.”
“I don’t know if I can keep going.”
“Me either.”
“It doesn’t help that I miss my family.”
“Yeah. I miss my parents.”
“What are their names?”
“Olorun, Ketua, and Unisa.”
“Oh, I…” Aubrey trailed off, her eyebrows arched.
“Mamre is a member of the Jayakara race,” Alzar chimed in helpfully. “Fascinating creatures, they actually have three sexes, as opposed to the more stander binary sex system you’re familiar with. Males provide the sperm, females the egg, and nuetrois, which is the gender of Mamre here, contain the womb and bear the children.”
Aubrey’s face scrunched in revulsion. “I don’t want to know about that.”
“Know about what?” Mamre asked.
“Oh, uh… nothing,” Aubrey blushed.
“I was just explaining to Aubrey about how your species reproduces” Alzar explained.
“Alzar! Shut up please!”
Mamre stared at Aubrey for a moment, then burst out laughing, clapping Aubrey on the back with her long, plated arm with its needle-like digits.
“Do you know how to turn the A.I. off?” Aubrey asked, grinning.
“Well now, there’s no need to be rude,” Alzar said in a huff.
Mamre pulled herself to her feet. Aubrey was surprised at her height, she stood nearly seven feet tall, and thin as a rail as she stretched her legs and arms which trembled from the effort. She then reached her hand down and helped Aubrey to her feet.
“Come, let’s go get some sleep.”
The two made their way through the winding halls and into the barracks, where Aubrey flopped onto her bed, exhausted.
Nube sat near her, her aglets dancing as she reviewed some advanced rocketry calculations. Aubrey could feel Nube watching her and rolled over to meet her gaze.
“Studying?” Aubrey asked.
Nube nodded her head. “I’ve never been particularly gifted at calculations with this many variables. The numbers get all jumbled in my head. You’d think I’d have a better memory…”
“Why would I think that?”
Nube sat up in bed, swiping her hands to clear her display. “There is a tradition amongst my people, where each family member memorizes their Book of Names, their chain of ancestors going back to the first kingdom of Vidar Yah. Upon reaching maturity, I had to recite my Book of Names within the House of Words, the most sacred temple of my people.”
“That sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is. But my people believe that as we meditate on words and names, we draw closer to our ancestors who have passed before us.”
Aubrey smiled sadly. “Could you teach me?”
Nube cocked her head. “I suppose I could, but why?”
Aubrey rolled over onto her back. “I’m never going to see my mom again. Or my sister, or little brother. I’m already forgetting what they look like, and I don’t want to lose my memories of them.”
“I understand. I’d be honored to teach you.”
A loud crash interrupted their conversation. Aubrey sat up, and saw Amur, whom Alzar had helpfully explained was the only member of the Istaran race in her class, sitting on the floor, dazed from the fall from his sleep pod.
“Stupid squid-brain,” one of the larger humans said as the crowd that formed around the commotion laughed.
Aubrey bit her lip. “Squid-brain?” she asked Nube.
“A nasty term for the Istaran,” she answered, shaking her head gravely.
Amur clambered to his feet. It was the first time Aubrey had gotten a clear look at him. His body was mostly mechanical, long robotic legs and a metallic torso made the bulk of his form. His head, round and soft like an octopus, popped out the top of the mechanical mess. His four arms, long, tentacle-shaped protrusions that ended in sharp clawed hands, hung well below his knees. Two smaller tentacles writhed at his chest.
Another boy shoved Amur as he clambered to his feet, causing him to collapse forward; his mechanical legs scrambling to compensate for the imbalance made him look almost cartoonish as he spilled to the floor a second time. Aubrey felt the familiar rage boiling up inside her, but swallowed hard, suppressing the urge to lash out at their viciousness.
“Why are they so cruel to him?” Aubrey asked.
“The Istaran were the only race within the Alliance that surrendered to the armies of the Five without a war. The rest of us, well - we had to be defeated and assimilated, and for a lot of races, there is still some lingering bitterness. But the Istaran willingly served as lapdogs to their human conquerors.”
“Your people were conquered?”
“Of course. How do you think we came to be under the rule of the Five? The Divona were the first conquered by your people,” Nube glanced over her shoulder. “But it was all for the best of course. With unity comes strength, and the Five have left my people to rule themselves, insofar as governmental structures are allowed to exist under the corporations and the Yassa.”
Aubrey watched as Amur finally climbed back into bed. She felt a twinge of guilt for not helping the poor boy, but did not want to set herself up as a target. She didn’t even know him or anything about this new world she found herself in. Maybe he had done something to deserve his harsh treatment. Better to lay low, keep your head down, and survive.
Not entirely convinced by her own arguments, she glanced back at Nube who absentmindedly rubbed the stub of her missing finger.
“What happened to your brother?” Aubrey asked.
Nube glanced down at her hand, and swung out of bed using her strong forearms and prehensile tails.
“I’m sorry, I need to go check on something. I’ll talk with you again soon.”
Aubrey watched her go, puzzled.
“The Divona live much longer than you or us, and only produce offspring twice during their lifecycle,” Ado chimed in from his bunk, startling Aubrey. She hadn’t even heard him enter the barracks, and wondered how long he had been there. “As a result, death becomes much more tragic to their species. And much more personal.”
Aubrey felt her cheeks flush. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know.”
Ado smiled at her. “How could you? We’re sure she understands.”
Aubrey laid back on her bed and closed her eyes, feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the newness of everything around her. Exhaustion quickly overtook her, and soon she was fast asleep.
#
The next morning she awoke to the groans of the other students as they pulled themselves out of their sleep pods. Sore, stressed, and exhausted, they each stretched and stumbled out of their rooms and filed joylessly towards the mess hall.
Their ranks had thinned further; of the initial thirty-six students, only twenty now remained. Gossip flitted across the room in hushed whispers as the students speculated on the fate of the drop outs. Some said they were sent home. Others that they were exiled, or sent to Rust World, the planet Laksmana in the Buadza system, home of the harshest prison colonies in the Seven Systems.
It had been twenty-eight days. Or was it twenty-nine? Aubrey was so exhausted she had lost track. Everything seemed to be made to test them. Frequently their sleep was interrupted by maintenance crews, or loud explosions that rattled her teeth. Even the food had changed. Gone were the rich meals and wide variety of options. Now they mostly subsisted on a warm, sour, milky gruel that tasted somewhere between cottage cheese and buttermilk. They had been told the tests would last for thirty days, but even that may have been a lie. Another test.
The students rotated between various rooms, each taking a turn being prodded and poked. Aubrey finished her morning assessment early, an obstacle course she ran through easily. She sat outside the door to Professor Enos’ office, slumped against the wall, her eyes closed. She found herself doing this frequently, attempting to take small naps whenever she could get them. She wasn’t sure if it helped or if it made her feel worse.
She was jolted awake as the door slide opened, and out came Twiki, one of the students Aubrey had seen but never actually spoken with. A member of the Abu race, she looked like a miniature version of Amaslei, though her salamander-like colorations were maroon and black, and her face seemed cold compared to Aubrey’s friend. This was the first time she’d seen Twiki alone; usually several other students trailed behind. Each seemed eager to impress her.
Twiki’s face was sullen, her eyes sunken, and she looked unusually pallid. Her hands were shaking as she stepped past Aubrey.
“Are you okay?” Aubrey asked.
Twiki glanced down as if she hadn’t even noticed her. Color returned as she snorted derisively, and muttered something under her breath that Aubrey couldn’t quite make out. Inhaling sharply, she swept past Aubrey as if the she hadn’t made a sound.
“Aubrey, I’m ready for you.”
Aubrey turned and saw Professor Enos standing in the doorway. Enos was a harsh looking woman with long, thin black hair, eyes that seemed to perpetually scowl, and two robotic limbs, her left arm and leg. Along the right side of her face, a long jagged scar caused her cheek to pucker, and pulled her lips into a sneer. Aubrey jumped to her feet and followed her through the doorway, which slid shut behind them.
The room was dark, a single spotlight fell in the center, illuminating a single black chair. Next to the chair stood a pedestal, on which sat a strange mechanical device that resembled a centipede lying on its back. The thing measured two feet long and its sharp claws varied in size.
“Please, take a seat,” Enos directed.
As Aubrey approached, she could see the back of the device had tubular canisters running along its spine.
“What is that?” Aubrey asked.
Enos glared at her impudence. “Please have a seat, and don’t speak unless spoken to.”
Aubrey opened her mouth again, but seeing the look in Enos’ eye, thought better of it. She sat down.
Enos picked the strange device up and pressed some buttons along the spine. The insectoid twitched to life, its legs grasped and jerked rapidly. Aubrey shuddered at the sound, not unlike knives being sharpened.
“This is a device known as Pandora’s Box. It works by connecting directly to the nerve processing neuromatrix of the brain. By using nerve induction, it can inflict unimaginable pain.”
Aubrey began to sweat. Was this why Twiki looked so terrible? Were they going to actually torture her?
“I’ll be using this device to probe your innermost thoughts and fears. Are you ready?”
Aubrey looked up at the teacher. As if she had a choice. She licked her suddenly dry lips and nodded.
Enos held the device up to the back of Aubrey’s head, and the metallic legs encircled and gripped her head, face, and neck, immersing her in darkness. Aubrey was generally not prone to bouts of claustrophobia, but even she found the confines of the device horrifying. She felt five painful pin pricks at the back of her neck, and her vision returned, although she knew the device still covered the whole of her face. The metal was cold, and pressed uncomfortably into her skin.
Enos stood in front of her, just at the edge of the circle of light. Her fingers danced through the air, aglets now attached to their tips. Behind her the blackness of the room was impossibly impenetrable, and seemed to stretch on infinitely.
Aubrey’s body trembled and her head swirled as it tried to reconcile the claustrophobia of the mask with the agoraphobia that threatened to overwhelm her senses.
Enos finally spoke. “I’m going to present you with a series of images. You are not to speak or look away. Simply observe the images for as long as they are on the screen. I will be measuring your biological responses, and adjusting the program accordingly. Do you understand?”
Unable to open her mouth, Aubrey nodded her head stiffly. The Box, though less heavy than she had anticipated, still weighed a good ten pounds, and she could already feel her neck muscles stiffen and ache.
Hovering in the air in front of Aubrey, the image of a tarantula appeared, its long front legs reared, its slathering fangs bared. Aubrey could feel her palms begin to sweat. The spider faded, and another image, a clown with dead white eyes, long harsh cheek bones, and blood dripping from its sharp teeth stared at her. Next, a massive snake, its maw dripping with venom, coiled, ready to strike. A fourth image soon followed, a person falling, tumbling down a steep cliff with no bottom in sight.
This continued for a long time; different images, some unsettling, some horrifying, flashed before Aubrey’s eyes. She began to see patterns emerge, and the images became darker, more realistic, more graphic. As time went on, they seemed to focus in three directions. A small child, its clothes and skin pale white, except for the black sunken holes where its eyes should be, appeared frequently in the background of many of the images. Sometimes the child would be smiling, other times staring blankly. But there was always a sense of menace.
The second pattern she noticed was metal piercing flesh. Sometimes it was needles, other times great long pieces of steel cutting through a torso. She could feel beads of sweat making their way down her back as the soft flesh parted under the unrelenting pressure of the metal, flayed open to reveal muscle, sinew, and bone.
The third, were creatures of indescribable horror. They resembled a horrifying mixture of a cephalopod and a ferocious insect. Their long, sharp claws grasping, their long tentacles writhing, reaching, searching for her.
Slowly, the images began to move. A subtle effect at first; Aubrey thought perhaps it was her imagination as her heart rate continued to climb. She couldn’t tell how long she had been subjected to this particularly nasty test, but it felt like hours. The creatures became more terrifying in their motion, their arms and tentacles reaching out, devouring. The teeth soon became metallic monstrosities, piercing the flesh of their victims. And always the small child stood, studying her, emotionless, its absent eyes observing all.
Aubrey shook as the tentacled thing reached out and touched her. She jolted reflexively, her mind struggling to remember that it was an illusion, a creation of the torture device attached to her skull and a sadistic teacher. Her body however reacted viscerally as the slimy tentacle searched its way up her leg, across her torso, and wrapped around her neck. She breathed deep, relaxing her muscles, willing herself still. Long metal hairs emerged from the monster’s flesh and pressed into her skin. She felt sharp pain as the needles drew blood out of her.
Aubrey’s arms began to shake. The muscles along her back twitched and convulsed, jostling her in her seat. A thick scream welled up at the back of her throat, a guttural howl as she felt blood draining from her already weakened body. Her jaw locked as her eyes rolled back in her head. Her entire body seized and shook, her bones rattled.
Then, everything went black.
Her screams stopped as soon as the pain did. Her arms felt wet, and she reached out and touched them. Something sticky and viscous covered her limbs. A shudder ran up her spine. As her breathing slowed, she could make out muffled voices. A man and a woman were arguing.
“What the hell were you thinking?” the man demanded.
“My job is to push each recruit and see what will make them break. And that is exactly what I was doing,” Enos replied calmly.
“Your job is to isolate their fears, not kill them.”
“When I took this post, at your request I might add, I was told my methods would not be questioned and you would not interfere with my training.”
The man hesitated. “You have not pushed any other student this far. I will not interfere with your methodology, so long as you aren’t permanently damaging my students. Understood?”
There was a pause.
“Am I understood?” the man repeated more forcefully.
“Yes, sir.”
Aubrey heard footsteps approach, and the Pandora’s Box released its hold on her face. She looked down and saw a her clothing soaked in blood where the creature had grasped her. She felt light headed. High Commander Nam Rood stood in front of her.
“Your test is completed, recruit. Please return to the barracks, shower, and change clothes before proceeding to your next exam.”
Enos stood behind him, her eyes a mask of cold indifference and barely contained fury. Aubrey met her gaze, not moving.
Exhaustion and anger overwhelmed Aubrey, her head still swimming from blood loss. Nam Rood turned towards Enos, but realizing Aubrey was still there, turned back to her.
“Recruit, was there some confusion about my order?”
“No, sir. I’m just wondering what will happen to her. For what she did to me.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Nam Rood smiled like a rattlesnake. “What she did to you?”
Aubrey nodded without ever looking away from Enos. She could feel a hot rage building in the pit of her stomach.
“Recruit, I think you misunderstand.” He took another step closer, towering over her. “You have completed the exam. Admirably, I might add. But do not think for one second anything you experienced here was out of place.”
Aubrey finally looked up at him, and was taken aback by the coldness of his gaze. “But I heard you telling her-“
Nam Rood cut her off. “Whatever you think you heard was simply part of the exam. Now get out of here before I lose my patience and kick you from the program.”
Aubrey opened her mouth to protest, but Nam Rood’s eyes flashed dangerously. With a final withering glare at Enos, she got to her feet, and made a hasty exit.
Once in the hallway, her whole body trembled like a small, frightened animal. She struggled to keep her balance as she glanced down at the thickened blood on her hands. It was a darker color than she had expected, more a ruddy brown than bright red as it coagulated in the dry air.
She touched the wall to steady herself as her vision swam for a moment, leaving a bloodied smear across the slate metal. Her ears buzzed, but she felt better as she swallowed hard, pressing forward down the hall.
Picking up steam, she rounded the corner and made her way through the crowded main hall. Pushing through the other recruits, ignoring their sideways glances, Aubrey made her way towards the barracks.
All she wanted to do was lie down, but from the corner of her eye she spotted Oner, one of the beanbag-shaped members of the Faro race, cornered by two of the larger students. Its arms held up defensively as the others slapped at it cruelly and laughed.
Looking back, Aubrey was never sure if it was the fatigue, the stress, or the horror of what she had just been through that caused what happened next. But something within her seemed to give. She was tired. Tired of the cruelty, tired of seeing the constant abuse.
She abruptly turned and made a line straight for Oner. Pushing past several students, she grabbed one of the bullies, a female human with red, bushy hair and buck teeth. Yanking the girl by the shoulder, she spun her around.
Istar looked momentarily confused by Aubrey’s hand on her shoulder, and her confusion only deepened as she felt Aubrey’s fist crunch into her nose, breaking it and sending a spray of blood into her eyes. The force of the punch nudged her off balance, and Aubrey pressed into her with the weight of her shoulder, shoving her hard backwards.
Istar’s friend, Makru, one of the Abu students, grabbed Aubrey’s hair in his fist and pulled back hard. Aubrey felt her head yanked to the side, and reflexively countered with a high elbow, catching him in the throat. Aubrey wasn’t familiar with his alien physiology, but assumed that his joints would be points of pain, and swung her leg, kicking him in the knee. He howled and scampered back from her.
“What is wrong with you?” he shouted.
The other students had fallen silent, watching the display. Istar was back on her feet, but Nube pushed her way through the crowd. Shoving Istar back, she reared to her impressive full height.
Aubrey turned to her friend and nodded a thanks, which Nube returned.
Aubrey took another step forward towards Makru, which caused him to jump, and in his haste to escape, he tripped, falling flat on his back. The other students laughed. Makru pulled himself up, his cheeks flushed.
“She’s insane! Stay away from her, she’s crazy!” he muttered as he limped away. Istar followed, subdued, holding her nose as blood slipped between her fingers and down her forearm.
Aubrey turned to Oner. “Are you alright?”
It nodded its head sheepishly. “I’m terribly sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
“That you had to do that. That I’m not…” his voice trailed off as tears rimmed his enormous black eyes.
Nube patted his back. “Don’t worry, it’ll be alright.”
Oner nodded its head, its eyes glued to the ground. “Well, thanks.” It muttered before shuffling away from them.
Nube turned to her friend. “Are you alright? What happened?”
Aubrey caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a wall panel and saw how truly stark raving mad she looked. Her hair was matted to her skin and stuck out at strange angles as it mingled with the blood that had caked all over her face. She laughed.
“I’m fine. Nothing a shower and some sleep won’t fix.”
As she and Nube made their way towards the barracks, she noticed one of the other students, a human boy named Mardon, watching her. They made eye contact, and suddenly Aubrey felt very self-conscious. He was older than her by a few years, and his blue eyes made her uncomfortable. He seemed to be smiling as he stroked his chin before turning back to the wrinkled, cross-eyed Heruka boy he had been chatting with.
#
The following day, the students were informed they were going to be playing a game of Obloquy. There was an audible exhalation of relief from the group, until Professor Jar Breson, a stout turtle-faced member of the Heruka race, explained that the game would continue until there was a single victor; there would be no rest, no allotted breaks, and no food brought to them.
If a student felt the need to eat or rest, it would be at the expense of their game.
Unlike the one on one games Aubrey had played with Amaslei, this would be one grand game, with all twenty remaining students battling one another simultaneously until a single victor remained.
“You will each be given the opportunity for a two-hour learning tutorial on the rules and controls of the game. We highly recommend each of you take advantage of the refresher course, no matter how talented you may believe you are,” Jar Breson said. His voice sounded like dry bones being rubbed together.
Twiki snorted derisively, causing his gaze to fall on her. He stared at her until the confident smirk dissipated.
“Your score in this game will have a major impact on your final ranking.”
“What happens if we’re eliminated?” Ado asked. He glanced at his friends Nube and Aubrey.
“The standard rules apply. A player eliminated will immediately become a sub-commander of the conquering player’s forces. The victor will be able to set limitations on the choices the sub-commander can make. Sub-commanders receive more points the better they serve their commander. It will be self-defeating to hold a grudge or sabotage your superior officer.”
He led them to a room with twenty of the white blocks used to play the game. With great excitement, the students selected their machines, connecting the cables to the node at the base of their skulls, and the game began.
“One word of advice,” Jar Breson said after the tutorial finished. “In these large games, alliances are inevitably forged, a necessity of survival in any war. But the key to winning this game, as in real war, is knowing how long you can trust an ally. Only one student will be declared the final victor. In war, betrayal is the one truth that persists. Good luck to you all.”
Several of the students, Twiki among them, refused the refresher course, and instead watched their opponents as they ran through the various training scenarios. Aubrey could already see alliances forming among the students. She received a private message from Nube.
“Ado and I are allied, would you like to join us?”
Aubrey bit her lip. Her foot tapped at a rapid pace. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because you are the only friends I have, and I don’t want to risk that over a back-stabbing maneuver in some silly game.”
Aubrey waited in agony for a reply. It finally came. “We understand. Good luck!”
Aubrey smiled, relieved. “Thanks. You too.”
The game began. The map was massive, its complexity strained Aubrey’s memory. She felt overwhelmed initially, but realized that much of the map wouldn’t matter to her until much later in the game. By that point, she could rely on her sub-commanders for intel on the geographical particulars.
She divided the colossal map into five uneven quadrants, using her interface to mark them in different colors. Each quadrant had four players, and the quadrants were divided by natural geographic features that would prevent easy attacks. Aubrey was in the southernmost quadrant.
Within her quadrant were three students she hadn’t yet interacted with during the course of her time at Bavel. Nergal, a female Heruka, the same race as her friend Ado, had been positioned to her east. Eshcol, a massive creature with jagged stone teeth, one of the Korravai who resembled great stone bears, was to her north. Lastly, Jon Nelson, an athletic boy her own age, was dug in to the southwest.
She had seen Jon pushing his twin brother James in his wheelchair to the different exams, and had meant to speak with them. But the opportunity had never presented itself. James was the only person with a visible disability Aubrey had seen since being pulled, and she wondered if perhaps he had been taken from another time like she had been.
She couldn’t image cerebral palsy still existing this far into the future, and it was clear from his twisted, shrunken hands and jaw that he suffered from C.P. The two twins looked startlingly alike, despite the physical differences. During the few interactions she had seen, James seemed perpetually angry at his brother, scolding him and questioning his intelligence at every turn.
She identified the obvious targets within her quadrant, as well as two of the neighboring quadrants. Then, using a similar strategy she had in the her first game, immediately sent small strike forces to the medium sized objectives she knew would be ignored as greedy commanders dove head first towards the high value positions.
Aubrey moved fast with her gambit, shoring up the smaller positions, and investing all the resources in these smaller sites into manufacturing new units. Her central base she focused entirely on research and development.
“Are you sure this is wise?” Alzar chimed in. “You will very quickly fall behind your rivals in technology, and these new units will very easily be destroyed by their more powerful forces.”
Aubrey didn’t answer, she was too focused on her calculations. By the fifteenth turn, she estimated she owned at least three times as many individual units as her opponents. It was time to test their defenses.
She sent single unit scouts, the weakest units she had at each of her strongholds, out to test the defenses of each of the four highest valued neutral strongholds within her quadrant.
She also took one third of her existing forces and sent them into two neighboring quadrants, then divided the army and targetted the smaller positions there. She hoped that with this rapid expansion at the start, she could establish a foothold across the southern hemisphere, surrounding her two closest neighbors, Nergal and Eshcol.
She had received a message from both of them, each inviting her to form an alliance with a group of other players scattered across the globe. From what she could read in the message, the two were not allied, which made Aubrey’s job that much easier.
In turn twenty, she made contact in two positions simultaneously. The battles were short, the first with Eshcol, who openly mocked her strategy. After analyzing the battlefield, Aubrey picked the most entrenched position possible and simply waited for the enemy force to approach.
Eshcol was so focused on the easy victory of this single battle, he failed to realize that Aubrey’s single primitive soldier had taken out three of his higher valued units during the fight.
He even sent her a taunting message after his victory, giving her advice on how to play the game, and proposing she join his alliance. She politely declined.
The second battle, with Nergal, went much the same, though Aubrey managed to take out five of her units with a single small battalion. Immediately after the skirmish, Aubrey received a communication.
“Well, that didn’t go so great for us. Alliance?”
Aubrey again declined the invitation. She saw the size of the forces holding the two major strongholds within her quadrant. She did some quick math, and put together armies that would in all likelihood fail to take either position, barring some pretty poor play on the part of her opponents. But, they would do some serious damage to the opposing forces. That’s what Aubrey was counting on.
As she sent those forces out to attack, she shifted her focus to the new positions she had taken in the neighboring quadrants. She began to rapidly build more units, as fast as she was able.
“My dear, you got lucky with this opening attack, but I must beg of you, don’t press your luck. You need to build stronger units, not a mass of ineffective soldiers,” Alzar said. Aubrey thought she detected an edge of annoyance in his voice, but wasn’t sure if that was an emotion her A.I. was capable of conveying.
“I’ll make a deal with you, Alzar,” Aubrey replied. “If you let me continue with what I am doing, I will give you control of our home stronghold.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I’m giving you control of our home stronghold. Shore up its defenses, research whatever technologies you think will be most beneficial.”
“But most players don’t trust their A.I. with those kinds of decisions. We’re usually relegated to managing economic policy and ensuring the empire is solvent.”
“Well, I’m not most players.”
“That, I can see.”
“Is it against the rules?”
“No. An A.I. can be put to use however a commander sees fit.”
“Do you think you’ll do worse than me?”
“Indeed not. In fact, I’m quite confident I could maximize your resources and recover any technological gaps you may have incurred due to your… current strategy.”
“So you accept my offer?”
“It… it would be my honor,” Alzar replied.
“Please keep me posted on your progress every other turn. Just a short summary of your actions will be sufficient.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And, Alzar?”
“Yes?”
“Have some fun with it.”
Alzar chortled. “Oh, I plan on it. There’s a particular economic strategy that Sati Larunda implemented during the quarterfinals of the Shenzo tournament seven years ago that I believe I can improve upon.”
Aubrey smiled. Over the next couple of turns, she expanded her forces in the second and third quadrants, building up a sizable force in both areas.
Her larger forces finally arrived, simultaneously, at the two high value strongholds she had probed earlier. Nergal had shored up her defenses with additional units. The battle was hard fought, and ultimately Aubrey lost. Nergal’s forces were decimated, and it came down to a handful of units for both sides.
Eshcol hadn’t bothered to re-enforce his position, and in fact had sent about half his units towards another location, Aubrey assumed south towards one of her smaller positions. His overconfidence cost him the stronghold. Aubrey won handily, losing only about a third of the army she had sent.
Now came the real part of her plan. She hadn’t really expected to win either battle; taking Eschol’s stronghold was a fortuitous bonus. She ordered the two new armies she had just built in the two neighboring quadrants directly to Nergal and Eshcol’s home strongholds. It was a gamble, but she assumed both players would immediately send reinforcements to the positions Aubrey had just fought for, leaving their home strongholds temporarily defenseless.
She was right. Both home strongholds hardly put up a fight against her larger forces. She took heavy losses in both battles due to the technological gaps between the opposing armies, but managed to firmly entrench herself in two home strongholds in the same turn.
“Alzar?” she said.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I have two more home strongholds for you to manage.”
“It would be my pleasure,” he replied. “Thank you.”
“Just keep up the good work.”
From there, it took her three turns to defeat Eshcol, and two more to defeat Nergal as both players scrambled to move armies across the map far too slowly to react to Aubrey’s army. Both students were stunned by their loss.
Aubrey set an open com channel between the three of them.
“How on earth did that happen?” Eshcol asked, more shocked than angry.
“She outplayed us is what happened,” Nergal answered before Aubrey could. “Brutally outplayed us.”
“I got lucky,“Aubrey lied. “I gambled on Eshcol moving to attack my smaller position. And Nergal, you defeated my army. You both played really great games.”
“Two players defeated in under thirty turns, that has to be some kind of record,” Eshcol said. “So now what?”
Aubrey pulled up the display she had devised. “Do you see how I’ve divided the map into five quadrants?” she asked.
They both studied the map for a moment.
“Each quadrant has four players, and a fairly equal distribution of strongholds. That’s brilliant,” Nergal said in a hushed tone.
“As you can see, I’ve targeted the weaker strongholds within the two neighboring quadrants. I’d like each of you to take control of those forces while I focus on our home quadrant.”
“Really?” Eschol asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Most conquered players are relegated to either menial tasks to minimize their end-of-game point totals, or are given control of the easy, one-sided battles,” Nergal answered.
“Well that seems wasteful,” Aubrey replied. “You’re both solid players, I trust you’ll use our forces wisely.”
Eshcol snorted.
“Did I say something funny?” Aubrey asked.
“Yeah,” he answered. “You said ‘our’ forces.”
“I consider them ours. You’re on my team now. I only have one rule. Never intentionally commit a full army to a battle unless you know you can win. If that means we lose some scouts to probe the defenses, so be it.”
“But we’ll lose the element of surprise,” Nergal protested.
“Possibly,” Aubrey replied. “But there’s really no use in surprising a superior force.”
“Fair enough.”
“I’m going to concentrate on taking out Jon, the third player in our quadrant. You two shore up our defenses as you see fit, and focus on taking one stronghold at a time.”
The next twenty turns were a flurry. Eshcol made little headway in his quadrant. He managed to take one additional stronghold, but mostly was on the defensive. Nergal managed to take three new strongholds, and had begun to lay siege to another player’s home position.
Aubrey had been in a drawn out battle with Jon Nelson’s forces. Jon was a much more competent commander than Aubrey’s first two conquests. He didn’t fall for any of her feints, played very conservatively, and actually wrested a stronghold from Aubrey for a short time.
But the sheer volume of resources Aubrey was receiving from her conquests eventually won out, and Jon joined her ranks.
After adding Jon to their group communication, Aubrey divided her main army in half, and told Jon to move northwest.
“And then what?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ll move this half of the army north, and then what?”
“Then do whatever you think is best.”
He laughed. Aubrey waited.
“Oh…” he said. “You’re being serious.”
“She’s definitely weird,” Nergal chimed in.
“If it hadn’t been for my greater resources, I might not have been able to defeat you. I think you’ll do just fine,” Aubrey said.
Jon laughed again, this time, happily. “Well alright then.”
In the north, they met their first alliance, three players who had divided the surrounding neutral strongholds evenly amongst themselves.
“Hey, Eshcol?” Aubrey asked.
“Yeah?”
“How’re you holding up?”
“Doing alright. Kinda stuck here.”
“Jon, can you take over? I need Eshcol helping me in the north.”
“Sure thing,” Jon replied.
“I can figure it out,” Eshcol protested.
“I know you can, but I need your help.”
She started a private com with just the two of them.
“We’ve run into our first alliance. Do you know any of the players well?”
Eshcol paused, scanning through the bios. “Not well, but I’ve eaten lunch with Tashmit a couple of times.” Tashmit was one of the Gish, long and lean with nasty teeth hidden behind his protective Gaberlunzie suit.
“Do you think you can convince him to betray his teammates?”
“I dunno. Maybe.”
Aubrey pulled up a map.
“If you look here, his ally Kingu has left his rear flank completely exposed to his forces. With one move he could take four strongholds from him, crippling Kingu and doubling his own holdings.”
Eshcol thought for a moment. “I can certainly try.”
“Take whatever tact you think will work best.”
“Can I offer him an alliance?”
“Sure, if you think that’ll work. But give a turn limit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tell him we will ally with him for ten turns. That way he knows exactly how long he can trust us. And of course, any agreements are up for negotiation when they expire.”
“That’s… a really great idea.”
“Take it and run with it.”
Eshcol performed remarkably. Two turns later, the three-way alliance was broken, and Kingu crippled. Aubrey captured his home stronghold, by far the most valuable of his positions, while Tashmit absorbed most of the losses from the fallout, and the brunt of Kingu’s fury.
In the meantime, Jon had made significant headway where Eshcol had not. Another home stronghold would be theirs within seven more turns.
“Nice work, Eshcol!” Nergal cheered.
“Yeah, really great stuff!” Jon agreed.
“Who else can we put you to work against?” Aubrey asked.
“Are we going to betray Tashmit?” Eshcol asked.
“No.”
“But he’s wide open!”
“I realize that. But we gave him our word. We won’t attack him until the terms of the alliance you set have expired.”
Eshcol began to protest, but stopped.
“Nergal, explain to Eshcol what you are currently working on, then go get some food.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Well, sure, but…”
“If you’re hungry, your judgment will begin to cloud. I need you at peak performance, so each of you will be taking periodic breaks to eat and move around. You’re first. Just try and be quick.”
Nergal ran through her current strategy with Eshcol, and then disconnected. Aubrey knew the campaign would stagnate under Eshcol’s command, but they had been playing the game for over ten hours, and the strain of the effort showed in their performance. They had lost a couple of skirmishes due to sloppy decisions and slow reactions.
The hours clicked by. Aubrey’s power base expanded, and soon she controlled three of the five quadrants she had delineated. Her ranks had swelled, and she now controlled eleven sub-commanders.
No longer able to micromanage every piece of her expansive empire, she instead analyzed and compiled personal notes on each of the students under her command. She would observe their battles, add some comments and general guidance here and there, but for the most part she stepped back and let them control their fights as she pushed forward to the north.
A loud crash accompanied her next victory, as Sar threw anything he could get his clawed hands on. His armored fist pummeled the wall in impotent rage.
“This game is rigged! I ordered my units south, but they didn’t react quick enough!”
She waited as he panted. “Are you done shouting?”
“Yeah.” He was absorbed into her ranks.
On the other side of the map stood Twiki and her alliance of five, the other four players having been absorbed into her swelling forces. They had fought to a stalemate of sorts over the previous fifty turns. Aubrey was exhausted, she hadn’t yet taken a break.
Noticeable mistakes had begun to creep into her decisions. Ordering too many forces into a battle, or worse, not enough. Alzar had managed her economic and technological positions beautifully, and her financial and scientific advantages were the only thing keeping Twiki in check.
It didn’t help that Twiki was an experienced and skilled commander. Aubrey was still new to the game, and lacked the familiarity with the battle tactics and command strategies. It was beginning to show. Aubrey only had four or five battlefield tricks to defeat her enemy. Once Twiki realized Aubrey had a pattern to her tactics, it was easier to pick her forces a part.
She was losing ground.
She hadn’t made any costly errors, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she did. She opened a team com with all eleven of her sub-commanders.
“Everyone is ordered to take a thirty minute break. Revert control of your forces to me,” she said.
There were immediate protests.
“Are you insane?”
“That’s suicide!”
“So you’re just giving up?”
Aubrey let them bellyache for a few moments. Then continued. “You are to return here in thirty minutes, showered, fed, and ready to go. While you’re gone, I want you to think about the map as it currently stands, and come up with recommendations on how we should proceed.”
A few students hesitated, but eventually they all left. For the next turn, Aubrey could only tread water, shoring up defenses, realigning her position, and pulling back from all current attacks. She had to run a few small combats, from which she either withdrew or won handily. She didn’t have energy to engage in a complex battle and succeed.
Her team eventually returned. They were chatty and seemed more alert. Refreshed. They plugged back in.
“Now talk me through your ideas.”
Each student, eager to impress their commander and earn extra end game points, had several ideas, to which Aubrey listened carefully. Only once they had finished did she speak.
“I am dividing our forces up into eleven armies. You will each take control of one. I’m assigning the positions based on which recommendations I think are the strongest, and where they will be the most effective. I want you to follow your instincts. The armies are fully yours, and I will not be giving any new orders. If you have questions or want a second opinion, ask another sub-commander - whoever you think most qualified to provide guidance.”
She was met with stunned silence.
“Any questions?”
Still silence. Finally Jon spoke up.
“Are you… Are you sure about this?”
Aubrey smiled. “Absolutely. Now let’s win this thing.”
Aubrey switched off her com, sat back, and observed. Glancing up from her screen, she noticed several of the faculty, and a stern faced Nam Rood, watching as the game unfolded. They were huddled together, whispering. Probably amazed at her stupidity, but Aubrey didn’t care. She wasn’t going to win this game alone, she knew that much. At least this way, she had a fighting chance.
During the first few turns, things continued to stagnate. But then Aubrey noticed a subtle tidal shift in the war. Twiki began to lose battles. The change in command styles from battle to battle threw Twiki off as she continued to micromanage her alliance and armies. First one, then two, then four major strongholds fell into Aubrey’s hands.
She could hear Twiki shouting through her com from clear across the room. She was enraged. She attacked her own allies in a desperate attempt to regain financial stability after losing a valuable mining facility. Two of her allies turned on her, and chaos broke out amongst her ranks. Aubrey’s team was smart enough to press the attack, Eshcol negotiating peace with Twiki’s two former allies and her team pushed harder into her enemy’s rapidly diminishing forces.
Twiki couldn’t adapt fast enough. As her allies fell before Aubrey’s onslaught, they were absorbed and assigned an army. Scorned by her betrayal, they relished the opportunity to attack Twiki, who became more and more unhinged.
Aubrey noticed that Kingu’s performance began to suffer. When attacking an ally of Twiki, he had done marvelously and had shown himself to be one of her strongest sub-commanders. But against Twiki, he seemed tentative and lost. She re-assigned his armies to someone else.
“But why?” he protested.
“Because you’re losing,” she replied. “And I don’t want to lose points because you aren’t at the top of your game.”
He muttered something under his breath and switched off his com. Aubrey assumed he wouldn’t be of any use to her, but at this point it didn’t matter. Her team had Twiki on the ropes. It was now just a matter of time.
“Mardon, you there?” she asked in a private com.
“What do you need?”
“Think you can wrap this up for me?”
He snickered. “Well yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Thanks,” she said, as she reassigned Kingu’s forces to Mardon. All of the players she had defeated were quite skilled at the game, but four of them stood head and shoulders above the rest. Kingu, Mardon, Sar, and Paltit.
However, even with Mardon in command of the main attack force, Twiki wasn’t going down easily. She was obviously the best tactical player in their class. She would beat the odds time and time again, outnumbered, outgunned, yet somehow emerged victorious. But with only a fraction of the resources and armies that Aubrey had, her defeat was inevitable.
Finally, Mardon captured her home stronghold, and the familiar victory sequence played out. Aubrey felt the flood of Rexotocin that was released into her bloodstream, euphoria mixed with adrenaline, as her teammates cheered and congratulated her. As the players disconnected, Nam Rood strode to the center of the room. They all quieted down and watched him. All except Twiki, whose face bent in rage as she glared at Aubrey.
“She cheated,” Twiki said before Nam Rood could get a word out.
“I’m sorry?” he replied.
“She cheated. She didn’t even command her own forces, or run her own economy,” she hissed.
“An accusation of cheating is a very serious thing here at Bavel. What rules of engagement did she break, and what evidence do you have?”
Twiki looked up at him. “She didn’t break any rules exactly, but she didn’t play the game herself. She let other people win for her, and I had to deal with Amur, who is nothing more than a squidbrain. It’s not fair!”
Nam Rood approached Twiki, who was at first defiant, but shrank in her seat with each step he took.
“My dear child, do you think for one second anyone here cares about what you think is fair?”
He stood over her, a glowering tower of controlled anger. Twiki shook her head.
“Good. You think something isn’t fair? Well what in this life is? War isn’t fair. And when you lose a battle, if you’re lucky enough to survive, no one is going to want to hear that the battle wasn’t fair. Only the weak and foolish beg for fairness. The strong make their own way, no matter the obstacles. You lost. Accept it, and learn from it.”
He continued to glare at Twiki, who nodded feebly. A painful hush had fallen over the students. He returned to the center of the room.
“I want to congratulate you all on your fine performance over these past weeks. With the completion of this game, your assessments have concluded.”
The students cheered. Aubrey smiled at Nube, who smiled back, visibly relaxing. She felt like she could sleep for days. Nam Rood held his hands up, and they fell silent.
“You all performed admirably. As you have probably noticed, not everyone has the mental and physical fortitude to complete the tests.”
“What happens to the students who quit?” Ado asked, unaware that blurting out a question was inappropriate. Nam Rood glared at him, but couldn’t help smiling at the goofy grin on Ado’s face.
“They’ll be back at the barracks when you return. Though penalized heavily for quitting the exams they will be allowed to continue their studies if they so choose.”
Aubrey smiled. At least no one had been hurt. Not seriously anyway.
“Now, return to the barracks. You will be given three days to recover while we assess the results of the exams, and assign your class rankings. Well done, and good luck to you all.”
Aubrey’s entire body ached, from her toes up to the back of her head. But she could already feel the tension that had built up over the previous weeks melting away. She had never been more excited to sleep.
Twiki stormed out of the room, shoving Amur hard, causing him to fall clumsily to the ground. Aubrey bit her lip as she watched him climb to his mechanical feet. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should help, but was interrupted by a tackling hug from Ado.
“You won!” he exclaimed as they crashed to the floor. He pressed the side of his inflatable head against her chest as his fat, stubby arms grasped her.
“I got lucky,” she replied, her grin matching his.
“No, you performed beautifully,” Nube interjected, pulling the two of them to their feet with her long, strong arms.
The three friends made their way to the barracks, recounting their favorite moments from the game. From the corner of her eye, Aubrey couldn’t help but notice some of the glares being shot her way. It was clear that Twiki’s sentiment was shared by more than a few of her peers.
But none of that mattered now. As they entered the barracks, Aubrey collapsed face first into her sleep pod. As exhaustion overtook her, she didn’t care if everyone in the world hated her. She just wanted to sleep.