Bendspace: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“So here’s where your training begins.” Rookie intoned, walking past what looked like an execution chamber. Ingrid looked less than thrilled, but moved quickly on, trying to keep pace with Rookie. He moved at his own speed, as if to say, ‘if you want to live, you’ll keep up with me. Those who fall behind get left behind.’ We’ll be going in here so that you can begin with your first training situation.”

            Ingrid examined the box, sort of curious as to how it could be used for training. Pain resistance?  Did she have to fight a robot inside it?

            “All your gear is this way.” Said a rather stuffy voice. Ingrid turned to see a slightly short, pencil pushing kind of man. She could tell he’d seen combat but he didn’t exactly seem to be much of a fighter. She nodded to him.

            “I’m Kar, by the way.” He said, though he sounded like he didn’t care much. “Kar Terns.”

            “Ingrid Remmington,” she responded, glad to meet another person on the crew. He didn’t seem to care on way or another if he met her, and as Ingrid leaned past him to get her gear, she became significantly less enamored. He stared at her chest openly and smelled like a vast array of bar drugs. This one I think I’ll prefer to leave alone. She muttered softly.

            Ingrid followed Rookie as he introduced her to the rest of the crew. Virginia, who was dyslexic and lesbian, Taff, the telepath, Kar and his brother, Dizzy Terns, who was just as insane as Kar, Bruno, a massive brute of a man who was at least eight feet tall and seemed to have about as many functioning brain cells. And, of course, sauntering into the room a few minutes later, Marko, the engineer. Ingrid barely noticed Marko’s entrance; she was busy inching away from Taff, and as far away as she possibly could. He clapped her on the shoulder and she flinched in surprise.

            “Hey there, Red!” She glared around angrily at him but couldn’t quickly think of an insulting comeback that wasn’t along the lines of ‘hey there metal man’ or something idiotic like that. She instead turned and focused her attention on Rookie, who was rambling on about something or another. She felt distinctly that this crew felt like a mismatched bag of marbles, instead of a special ops team. Whatever the case, she determined that she’d excel in training, if only to impress them and avoid conscript camp.

            “ALRIGHT MY PRETTIES!” Rookie waved them to the chambers. “Time to run Red here through the ranks.” Ingrid sighed and gave up trying. Red it was, and Red it would seem, that it was going to remain. Ingrid followed alongside Rookie as he took her over to one of the chambers. “Marko, will you hook her up?”

            “Oh, I certainly will….” He winked at Ingrid, laughing in the back of his throat. Ingrid disliked him more and more with each moment. He walked over to her chamber. “Sit on the seat, Red.” She noticed the seat for the first time, and sat down on it. He took her wrists and hooked them into an elaborate thing to hold them. Ingrid officially had no idea in the slightest what was going on, but she was determined to keep up an appearance of cool, calm control.

            “Okay, so what is this?”

            “This, Red, is a simulation machine. We’re going to run you through simulated training so that you can get shot up and not die. We’d prefer you not to die in the simulation though. In fact, if you die, Rookie might even send you back to conscript-“ Ingrid couldn’t take it any longer. She kicked him hard in the shins.

            “OWW” Marko yelled. He looked angry, his handsome face distorting. “Whatever Ingrid. Just, what, the hell, ever.” He finished hooking her to the machine and slammed the chamber door shut on her.

             A cool, mechanical voice came on in the box.

            Lie back please.

            Thank you. Head back please.

            Now hold still. Hold still.

            Ingrid didn’t move, not sure if it was a person who she’d upset, or a robot who was simply making sure she didn’t interrupt the linking process. She leaned back slowly, closing her eyes…

            …and suddenly, she was standing in a room, gun on her back, pistols in side holsters on her legs, with the crew, armed and ready, standing around with her.

            “Alright,” Rookie said, slowly. “Lets move out.”

            The crew moved forwards, looking for any sign of anything wrong. They seemed to be in a sort of long cargo bay of a ship. Crates were piled high here and there. Out the few small bay windows, Ingrid could see black and stars. There were a long, long ways away from home.

            “AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!” They heard a pained cry from the crates farther up the room. Ingrid dashed forwards, not realizing she was running ahead of the others. She popped around the corner to find a woman tied up, crying and yelling. Ingrid immediately knelt to untie her before she felt Rookie’s rough hand on her shoulder, dragging her back.

            “Rookie, what are you-!?!”

            “I think it’s a trap. I think everything’s a trap. Which is why I’m still alive.” Ingrid nodded slowly and backed away from the woman, mimicking the rest of the group and sort of fanning out, guns out, watching for any sign of trouble. She couldn’t see much of anything. Behind her, Rookie was talking to the woman.

            “Who are you?”

            “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

            “I said, who are you!?”

            “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH” crazy laughter spilled from the woman. Ingrid was beginning to feel grateful that she hadn’t untied the basket case. But what did this have to do with a combat simulation? What did any of this have to do with combat?

            “Well, we might as well untie her, no point in keeping her tied up.” Taff turned to untie her and pointed his gun. He was going to shoot off her ropes.

            Ingrid started to try and stop him. “Taff, I don’t think that’s a good ide- bang. Too late. The woman was dead. Ingrid stared at the scene in horror. Taff hadn’t even been aiming for the ropes; he’d actually shot the woman. She looked around to see if this horror had registered on any of the other people…. It hadn’t. No one in the group cared. Ingrid was too shocked to speak. How could anyone be that needlessly- but he…. He was a telepath…. Ingrid’s mind reeled with things she suppressed, which she pushed back all the harder, things she didn’t want to know at all. She focused back on the present, focused hard, and that’s how she was the first to spot the gunman.

            “GET DOWN!” She yelled, and everyone dropped instantly as the bullets began to rain over their heads, cutting a trail of molten spots into the wall and sending chunks of debris flying through the air. They all yelled and rolled behind crates, pillars, and any other form of cover that could also allow them to return fire. Ingrid was good in this kind of situation. She’d been under fire before, and even though it was larger scale now, she could handle this. She jerked her gun up, aiming it in the direction she needed to fire, but keeping herself hidden behind a metal piling column. She could hear the sounds of bullets cracking and plinking against the metal at her back. Ingrid waited for a moment when there seemed to be a slight lull in the explosives, and then fired back. She couldn’t see what she was firing at, but she did hear a few yells of pain.  Ingrid leapt out as best she could, firing shot after shot at the opposition.

            “GET DOWN!” She heard Rookie yell, before seeing the arc of a grenade flying through the air. Bruno had flung it, and with his amazing strength, it took mere seconds to lodge into the oppositions’ side of the wall. Ingrid had barely taken cover when she heard the massive explosion, which had apparently been caused by the grenade launching the detonation of several massive crates around the opposition. Rookie and Taff had leapt from their cover and were now engaged in hand to hand with a few faceless men in dark suits and masks. Computer generated men, Ingrid thought. She quickly leapt out form behind the crates and began to assist Rookie and Taff in the fight. Behind her, she saw Virginia with a large gun, blasting away at the people on the opposite side still under the cover of the crates. Ingrid crashed into one of the men, wrapping her legs around his and bringing him to the ground, before leaping up and shooting him in the throat with one of her pistols. She rolled off of him on her back, and kicked another man off of her as he attempted to grab for her gun. Just like fights at home, she thought, calm in the face of danger. Just another ugly police man. There’s nothing to worry about. In a moment, this man too was dead, and Ingrid was running to help Rookie and Taff. Arms grabbed her from behind and she spun, raising her gun to shoot the assailant. It was Marko, dragging her back and away from an unpinned grenade she hadn’t noticed. They were barely down when it exploded, shrapnel shredding the pillar above their heads.

            When the smoke cleared, the men lay dead, and Ingrid and the crew seemed to be unharmed. Rookie surveyed the damage, and nodded approvingly her way. Then he turned to Taff.

            “Points off for shooting the woman, Taff, we needed her. She had the end simulation code word.” He tapped the wall and a small keyboard appeared. “Anyone have any idea what the code word might be? No? No one? Damn.”

            “Pizza?” Ingrid offered on whim. Rookie shrugged and typed it in.

            “Sorry Red, nothing doing.”

            “Damn. Well, is there another way to obtain the end simulation word?”

            Marko nodded. “There should be some kind of…. Oh, I dunno. Like a clue, hidden somewhere.” The group spread out and began to search the room, looking for a word. Ingrid was searching a wall, when her fingers brushed against a rough cutting in the metal. Words. The Vorperal Blade went snicker-snack.

            “ROOKIE?” She called, waving him over. He looked at the phrase, curious.

            “Hmm, could be some kind of…. Earth poem? Anyone studied any of the Earth culture stuff recently?” They shook their heads, no one really had. Rookie sighed and motioned to Marko, who tapped the phrase into his wrist mounted computer.

            “Uh, something about, and with it dead, he took it’s head, and went galumphing back?”

            Rookie shrugged and tried “Vorperal Blade” and “head”. Nothing. “What’s ‘it’ Marko?”

            “The Jabberwocky?” Rookie keyed it in, everything went bright, and Ingrid was again sitting alone in her booth.