Chapter 10: The Historical Learning Expedition

Year 3103 (Approximately nine years earlier.)

Near Magao Caves Historic site, Western Gansu district, Old China.

“Why do we have to hike when the transport could have taken us all the way there?” I heard.

I thought about ignoring the whiny teenager. He was one of the newer kids to join my rotating group and had only been with us the past three days. He was still learning how I conducted these historical educational excursions. Solomon, or ‘Sol’ for short, wasn’t a bad kid, just a bit lazy. I thought about how to handle this.

“Context Sol, context. To understand the true history of the area you need context. By hiking the local area where we are conducting our survey, we can better understand the motivations and experiences of those who once lived or traveled here. Also, if that is not a good enough reason, your shell needs the exercise,” I explained.

Therese chuckled. She was my assistant for this expedition. “Listen to the man, Solomon. Look around you and enjoy the beauty! Try to imagine what it was like to have lived here a thousand years ago. Or even further back to three thousand years ago when the caravans were crawling down this ravine carrying their loads of silk to the west.”

I smiled at the young woman. Not only was Therese a true fan of history and possessed a brilliant mind, but she was also gorgeous. Her shell was still her original and not yet thirty years old. Why she graced my tent with her company most nights, I could never understand. But I did know that my fifty-year-plus shell loved her company.

Despite its age, I was not ashamed of my shell. I worked hard to keep it in great shape, but there was still the difference of a century and a half between our true mental ages to consider. Still, I was weak to her dusky and youthful charms. Her shell’s genetic lines were easily traced back to her great grandmother, Tashira Purohit. Tash had been one of the original template colony humans and had taken shelter in a bunker in India during the reset. Someday, I’d have to ask Therese which colony her ancestor had settled in.

Solomon accepted the answer enough to stop his complaining. The seven other teenagers kept their grumbling to themselves though a few looked like they were happy with the exercise. I had a strict policy of no virtuality except for one half hour before bedtime. This upset most of the kids as they now had to endure the physical exertion without being able to escape into the digital realm and leave their augments to deal with their bodies.

My policies preventing that were making them face the brunt of the hike. Feel the burn baby! On the other hand, the policy was also letting them experience things in the real world and see things of great beauty that were more and more overlooked in this modern era.

I let Therese take the lead as I pulled off to the side of the trail to see how my charges were doing. Solomon had been behind me and frowned as he trudged past. Behind him was a girl a year younger than he was. She was also his sister and had joined the class at the same time Sol had.

“You are doing great Tamar,” I said to the much quieter, young girl.

“Thanks, sir. Please don’t mind my brother. He always complains about the chores,” Tamar said, giving me a shy smile as she passed.

“Just John, remember? ‘Sir’ makes me look over my shoulder,” I reminded the girl, triggering a blush.

From the glances and looks I had been getting from her I suspected the girl was infatuated with my fame. It was likely that she was the driving force that saw the siblings join our class belatedly a week after we had set out. I hoped I lived up to her preconceptions of that John Prime celebrity.

Solomon and Tamar Modesto were the first siblings to ever attend my class together. I set the lower age range for inclusion at fourteen which meant that most of my students were post-BM. For the pair to be traveling together as brother and sister meant that it was likely they had either not yet taken the base maturity tests or that they hadn’t passed them. But, it could also have been that they simply liked each other enough to stay together after they had been tested into adulthood.

I never bothered to verify their BM status as I had no intention of pursuing anything requiring adult consent with either of them. I’d like to say that this was because of firm convictions on my part regarding the lines between teachers and students but sadly, the truth was that it had happened a few times in the past on previous learning expeditions. I’d been weak and fallen for the charms of a few of the... ‘more eager’ older female students. Hey, I may be a prude from the past at times, but I was not stupid.

Behind the Modesto siblings came the foursome of our party. Their pod was made up of two males and two females and they were clearly a tightly bonded group. Dia and Fidel were the two boys. They were both seventeen. Fidel gave me a smile as they passed. He and Dia were holding hands and they looked happy. The two girls in the group, Karima and Amissa followed. They were sixteen and eighteen respectively and were currently busy chatting and laughing.

I smiled as I thought of the group. They were all clearly bisexual as I had seen all the possible combinations in their public displays of affection. Sometimes their tent became a bit too rowdy and festive during the nights which triggered an automatic implant admonishment for excessive noise levels. Despite that, they were all good kids and their tests showed that they were learning what they needed to from the expeditions. Let them have their fun.

The final two students in the group were Clarke and Darien. Clarke was a sixteen-year-old male whose shell was tall, lean, and very dark, well beyond the mean of the tailored genetics of this age. I recalled he had grown up in Saharan Africa and his shell had probably been tailored for the solar exposure of the region.

Darien was the polar opposite of Clarke. She was seventeen, had a very pale complexion and a slightly rounded and compact shell. I could not recall if she grew up in Norway or Iceland, but it was definitely a former Scandinavian country. Maybe Greenland? Yes, that was it. Eastern Greenland.

The two were friendly to each other and the rest of the group but were clearly more focused on learning what the expedition had to offer and less so on their relationships with their peers. I had seen them sharing the same tent a few times over the past few weeks but they also mingled and interacted with the others.

I had noticed that Clarke had spent some time in a tent with the new girl Tamar just last night while Darien and Sol had chatted by the fire. Even though the younger girl Tamar had likely not yet passed her BMs, the others in the group were close enough to her age so as to not trigger any oversight from the morality subforum on Conscientia.

Regardless, the teens were both happy the next morning so all had been fine. My assistant Theresa had once spent a night with Clarke and had commented that he was a great lover despite his young age. I had just replied that I would not and did not want to know, which had caused her to giggle.

Ohmu formed the tail-end of the group. The android was a dozen paces behind and waved for me to get back in line before she passed. I nodded and did just that, focusing both on the slippery rocks of the ravine and Darien’s striking blond-white hair bobbing down the ravine just ahead of me. Okay, maybe it was not just her hair that caught my eye.

–Please use caution as we continue to descend the ravine. When it is safe, please take a moment to observe the worn, switch-back trails off to our left. This was the original route of the road between the second and fifth centuries. The rocky remains at the far end are thought to have been a toll-taking structure as the cost to maintain the switchbacks would have been non-trivial.-

Ohmu was in charge of most of the learning portions of the expedition. The android could use the implants to directly relay information to the hiking humans no matter how separated they were. This ensured everyone heard and no one had to shout.

The kids were also able to subvocally ask follow-up questions without worry about interrupting or talking over each other. If the questions were pertinent to the entire group, the android would automatically propagate the questions and answers to all.

I saw my students bunching up behind Therese as she stopped their movement to point out the various features that Ohmu had just explained. While our progress was paused I leaned against an outcropping and took out my condensing canteen. I noticed its power charge was down to half, but it was mostly refilled to the level it had been at when I had last drunk from it an hour ago.

As I stood drinking I spotted one of our circling aerial drones. I turned to look for our ground defense bots and saw one of the quadruped mobile units at the top of the ravine behind us. Another was already at the bottom waiting for our arrival so that left the third and fourth units somewhere in the hills on our flanks.

Ohmu caught up to where I stood. She spoke to me verbally causing her implant-delivered lessons with the kids to be cut off.

“How are you doing, John? I detect an elevated heart rate.”

“I’m fine, Ohmu. These trips are getting a bit harder as my shell ages,” I replied.

“I will give you a massage tonight if you wish,” my oldest friend said.

Therese could not come close when it came to a deep tissue therapeutic massage. I suspected she would end up receiving one from the android as well. The teenagers wouldn’t miss out as they were young enough to not need a massage. Besides I was sure they would be busy with other forms of muscular exertion and release.

“How much longer do we have to go, Ohmu?”

“I have chosen a wooded area down near the river just below the cave complex as our campsite. It is just over a kilometer beyond the bottom of this descending ravine.”

I looked at the late afternoon sun. We would still have plenty of daylight when we arrived at the camp. I wondered if there was enough clean water in the river for a decent swim. This area was mostly dry desert. The hills and ravines coming down from the steppes were mostly bare rock and brush. Off in the valley below, I could see sand dunes among areas of rock and scrub. Speckled in the low laying areas of the dune were the occasional splashes of green.

Ohmu had explained that Eudaimonia’s geology sub-presence had been busy over the past century installing water evaporators and using them to irrigate new oases all across the desert. Given enough time, the spreading Gobi would be tamed, and the sands would begin to retreat. Ironically, this location would see minimal green-forming as the dry cliffs were historic and also helped preserve the cave system.

“How’s the river look? Any areas suitable for a swim?”

“The aerial drone reconnaissance shows some areas which appear deep and clean enough for swimming. Also, recent biological surveys of the area have detected no dangerous reptiles in this river system. There are larger catfish but not so large as to cause harm.”

I smiled at the thought of teaching the kids to noodle a catfish. Probably not.

“The intake hoses have already been laid to the VTOL and the pumping station is already busy filtering and storing enough water for hot showers for the entire party. I also have the auto kitchen set up and fabricating foodstuffs for the evening meal,” the android said.

I could not remember what was on our menu for tonight and I did not ask so that it would be a surprise. It would invariably be something that had once been locally eaten. All towards the goal of a complete historical education experience.

“Tell me they drank normal alcohol here?” I asked, shuddering a bit at the distilled alcohol drink made from yak milk we had to endure at our camp from a week ago.

“The enhanced beverage choice for tonight will be Gouqi Jiu which is made from goji, also known as wolfberries. From your past reactions to other, similar drinks, I anticipate that you will enjoy it,” Ohmu said.

With the lectures, questions, and answers taking place at the front of the column now concluded, the group began moving again. My implant began relaying the group’s discussion again now that I had stopped my in-person conversation with Ohmu. Over the next fifteen minutes, we continued our gradual descent of the ravine.

We were in shadow now as the ravine turned towards the north, and I put my shirt back on against the cooler conditions. Once we hit the valley floor and the river banks the temperature dropped a few degrees further. I saw the teenagers also putting on their shirts. I put on my enhancement glasses to review the map of the area and saw that the cave complex was off to the right of us.

The main entrance to the caves was on the southeastern side of the river against the rising ground we had just descended. The river was lined on both sides with clusters of trees and grass, and it was to one of these green spaces that we were headed.

I spotted the camp and the VTOL transport aircraft parked nearby. There were also four tents already set up and a portable toilet and shower cubicle. Between that and the small toilet on the VTOL, we had enough capacity for the whole group with the aircraft toilet providing some privacy.

We began the final stretch across the flatter sandy region between the hills behind us and the river ahead. Our pace picked up at the thought of a cool swim followed by a hot meal. The water would be warm but that would be perfect as the desert temperatures dropped quickly as the sun set.

I had to laugh as the happy foursome bypassed the camp and instead, began stripping out of their clothing as they ran to the river. The rest of us were patient enough to first go to the camp and get towels and swim shoes before we also stripped and joined them. Ohmu did cleanup duty and picked up the clothing strewn across the sand.

Our supper meal had been stewed camel meat over a wheat noodle base. There were also carved melon chunks with a sweet goat cheese sauce. It was a hit, and we all ate our fill. As Ohmu predicted, I loved the fermented wolfberry alcoholic beverage.

After supper, we had a jam session around an evening fire. Instead of a wood fire, the equipment on the VTOL had provided a nice gas fire in an improvised rock fire pit. Tamar played a mean synth-fiddle. Amissa tooted her flute and Clarke banged an amplified membrane drum. The rest of the teens danced and sang.

The songs were a mix of contemporary covers of songs from the nineteen sixties. For some reason, that era struck a chord with today’s youth. Having English as the sole universal language meant that much of pre-reset western culture had the advantage of being adopted by the newer generations.

After a third shot of wolfberry tonic, I began to dance with Therese. My older shell did not allow me to do the twists as fast or the bends as deep as I would have liked but we still had fun. Later, when the party wound down all the teenagers went off to enjoy their daily limited allowance of virtuality. Therese abandoned me to do the same, so I sat by the fire with just Ohmu for company.

We watched the stars and the visible moving satellites and space stations. I’d try to guess which ones were which and Ohmu would correct me. After twenty minutes I decided to take a long shower and go to bed. In our tent, I got undressed and adjusted the small aircon unit to compensate for the cool evening.

Therese joined me after her own shower and after checking to make sure all the teens were in agreeable groupings in the remaining three tents. She reported that tonight had been drama free which, I was happy to say, was normal. Ohmu would be standing watch all night and the four patrolling mobile units would ensure our camp was undisturbed.

Therese and I made love before turning in for the night. I was very tired from today’s hike and Therese rose far earlier than I did to get the camp going in the morning so we both fell asleep quickly. I woke once in the middle of the night to use the toilet. The camp was quiet and Ohmu reported everything was secure, so I was quickly back to bed and once again in dreamland.

The next day, after a hardy morning breakfast, Therese and I lead our eager students up to the cliff face and to a restored entrance that led into the Mogao Caves complex. Of those caves or chambers that had survived the reset eleven hundred years ago, there were now over two dozen that had been cleared by mobile units and restored to viewable status. The rest were either still buried by shifting sands or had been filled in by erosion during the past millennia and likely lost to time.

The entry of the first cave was a newer tunnel about twelve meters long. The sides and top of the tunnel were chemically hardened earth. We had to go through an airlock to enter as the environment inside was kept as clean and dry as possible. Inside we found an amazing mix of history. Parts of this cave had been open to tourism in the twentieth century while the original cave was almost two millennia older.

This meant that there was an eleven-hundred-year-old outer restored area with modern toilets (to me) and a gift shop (all empty) that lead to the deeper sections filled with various statues of Buddha and the intricate and beautiful murals that covered most of the walls.

One of the old toilet rooms was even in working condition as the mobile units had repaired the plumbing and attached a reduction unit and a small water purifier-recycler into the short loop between the drain and the water supply. I had to smile as the giggling kids just had to try the old-style water flushing mechanisms.

The working toilets would make the job of preventing the kids from pissing in the corners so much easier. Although I had to admit that I doubted they would go against procedure to do such a thing. We spent the morning moving from cave to cave.

They had been linked by a new climate-controlled underground gallery. We were the only humans here, which I had expected but had been unsure of as the place was not exactly off limits to the casual tourist or traveler, just lesser known.

Even though the chambers we explored were well lit by ESU-powered emitter arrays, I was also wearing my enhancement goggles. Ohmu had been projecting digital images and video overlays onto many of the ruins which the kids and Therese were able to view with their smart irises. I was using the goggles to follow along as my older shell did not have the fancy gadgets.

After a lunch break, the group split up into smaller development units. What that basically meant was that a few of the kids were seeking more than just a history lesson. The youngest girl, Tamar, was a budding artist and wanted to sketch a few of the Buddha statues. She had even had the VTOL produce the equipment and art supplies needed to create an oil painting.

Amissa was also interested in anthropology and wanted to dig deeper into the lifestyles of those who built the caves in the first place. Ohmu was going to work with her for the next few hours and do renderings which approximated the original living conditions and works of the cave builders.