Chapter 8

Zeke looked around, fascinated, as he passed through the circular entrance into the underwater habitat area. The water was crystal clear, and Zeke almost felt he was floating through the air. Overhead, a diffuse light filtered down through thick, semi-transparent plantlife. Dozens of Maeoglaiere's species floated gracefully below the plantlife, their round bodies contracting and expanding as they moved forward. Other than the sentinent aliens, nothing else was in the water or on the barren, rocky bottom of the habitat.

The only sounds were muted swishings, probably from the aliens as they moved through the water. Interestingly, the only aliens Zeke saw were Maeoglaiere's species. Was this a situation like the Earthling habitat, or was this because of a specialized environment only suitable for a single species?

The suit continued to move through the water as Zeke took in his surroundings, and shortly Zeke was approaching the far wall. The wall was a light blue and was covered by circular entrances; light streaming from some of them. Freed of the limitations of gravity by the watery medium, the entrances covered the entire wall from top to bottom. The openings were arranged in a spiral pattern, with numbers at the top of each spiral. Zeke was headed for the third arm of spiral 261, and soon entered the lighted eighth circle from the tip.

Inside, the room was brightly lit, barren, and open. The floor and ceiling were a smooth light-blue color, with shelf-like recesses in the walls displaying objects Zeke did not recoginze, but took for artwork. Completely devoid of furniture, the area was a circle about 50 feet in diameter.

Zeke saw Maeoglaiere floating to one side, tentacles wrapped around a set of thin bars descending from the ceiling. Noting more descending bars near Maeoglaiere, Zeke had to revise his earlier impression about the furniture -- it was there, just of a type Zeke did not recognize.

Would Maeoglaiere be able to hear Zeke when he talked? "Hi, Maeoglaiere," said Zeke.

"Hello Zeke," said Maeoglaiere, "wrap yourself around a bar and we will continue our discussion from this morning."

Zeke swam forward and grabbed one of the bars. There wasn't much current so he was in no danger of floating off, probably this was Maeoglaiere's equivalent of a chair.

"We had just started talking about sexual profiles," said Maeoglaiere. "And how you had a slight sense of dissappointment in not being informed about sexual profiles and how they worked. When we stopped our conversation, you were no longer dissappointed."

"Right," said Zeke, feeling a faint tingling sensation in his head.

"All species also have aesthetic profile," said Maeoglaiere, "which describes your emotional and physical comfort in a particular environment. The environment in this habitat is slightly outside the range of your profile, meaning you would be comfortable here for a few days before becoming emotionally distressed. Did you know about the aesthetic profile?"

"No," said Zeke. He had an aesthetic profile? Zeke felt his whole body relax, his grip on the bar slowly loosened.

"You were not informed of the details of the aesthetic profile before." said Maeoglaiere. "How does this make you feel?"

"Well," considered Zeke, "it really doesn't make me feel anything." Zeke felt he could float here forever.

"In your thoughts," said Maeoglaiere, "compare your present feelings about the aesthetic profile with your past feelings about the sexual profile. Consider your current feelings, and re-expereince your past feelings."

Zeke focused his thoughts inward, thinking about those feelings.

"You are now awake and alert," said Maeoglaiere.

Zeke blinked and tightened his grip on the bar.

"How are you feeling?" asked Maeoglaiere.

"I'm feeling pretty good," said Zeke.

"Excellent," said Maeoglaiere. "Our discussion was very productive tonight and I would like to continue next week. Would you be agreeable to meet in my office at nine on the next third-day?"

"Yes," said Zeke, pleased everything had gone so well. "I'll be here."

"Suit," said Zeke, "take me to the transport room."

The suit obliged and Zeke was soon floating over a transport platform.

"Computer," said Zeke, "to my quarters."

"Environmental profile is 80-10-130-90," said the computer. "Significant variation from current location. Unable to comply without override."

"Computer," said Zeke, "to my quarters, override environmental limitations."

"Acknowledged," said the computer. "Please remain in your protective suit until arrival at destination."

The faint background noises ceased and the suit oriented Zeke towards the floor as the platform rose. By the time the platform arrived back in a familiar transport room, the water had been evacuated. Zeke looked down at his suit and the platform and was surprised to find both completely dry, as if they had never been underwater.

Once Zeke was back in his quarters, he deactivated the suit and put it away with his clothing. The clock read 15:41, later than he had thought. Zeke decided to go ahead and get some sleep for tomorrow.

Zeke awoke the next morning with the nagging feeling he had forgotten something important, but couldn't remember what it was. Well, if it really was that important, he would remember sooner or later.

The clock displayed 21:03. Determined to excell in his training, Zeke grabbed an early breakfast and headed for the simulator room. Only three others were here so far; Zeke claimed the same spot as yesterday and started his simulator.

The simulator was really just another video game, and Zeke knew his video games. Only in this video game Zeke didn't have a particular goal to aim for -- or did he? If Zeke was being trained to be a pilot, there had to be more to the simulation than flying around a solar system. So there had to be more to the simulator than Zeke had seen so far.

Zeke turned his ship and headed out of the solar system at top speed. As the ship cleared the outer planets, the ship suddenly came to a halt and a message appeared on the screen: Turn back to continue practice, continue forward to begin stage one skill assessment.

Cool, thought Zeke, time to meet the end-of-level challenge -- or whatever this game held in store for him. Zeke moved the ship forward and another message appeared: Navigate to 01593317.732409285, -00001358.028571284, .229201285.

Zeke moved the ship in that direction, noticing the highlighted portion of the numbers expanded. Apparently the destination was well outside of the solar system, but the ship was fast -- fast enough the stars started to shift position slightly. In a few minutes, Zeke was nearing the destination; proximity screens indicated a large artificial structure at the given coordinates.

Another ship, a grey disk, darted in from above and moved toward the structure. The next message appeared: Follow the ship.

Zeke quickly manuvered his ship behind the other, copying its course. So far it was easy, the other ship was making a beeline for the structure. As they neared the structure, the other ship slowed. Seen from this close, the structure was an open lattice of beams. Obviously the test was to see if Zeke could fly through the beams, and the slow speed was giving Zeke a chance to study the layout before entering.

The lead ship sped up and entered the structure. Zeke followed, surprised it was so easy. The beams were far apart and flying through them was no challenge whatsoever. Zeke effortlessly matched the lead ship as it darted back and forth through the beams. Before much longer they both exited the structure and were back out in open space.

Another message appeared: Try to elude the ship using the lattice structure.

Now this was more like it, Zeke though, bringing his ship around and zooming back into the lattice. The other ship followed, matching Zeke's speed. Zeke started weaving in and out of the beams, trying to shake his pursuer, but the other ship matched his moves exactly. Increasing his speed to as fast as he dared, Zeke swung past and circled the beams, twisting in and out, at a dizzying rate of speed. But the other ship hung fast.

In fact, Zeke realized, the ship was probably just copying his moves exactly -- easy enough for a computer simulation to do. The real test had to be something else, perhaps as simple as going through the beams as the leader. In any event, it was a good chance to practice manuvering the ship, so Zeke took advantage of the opportunity.

The simulation stopped and a final message appeared: Stage one skill assessment completed. The message was soon replaced by another: Stage two -- manuvering in proximity to other ships.

Zeke leaned back and watched as the computer gave a short presentation on the subject. In sparsely traveled or unmanaged areas, the ship closest to the galactic center had the right-of-way. The ship's computer would make the calculations, displaying the ships with higher precedence as solid circles, those with lower precedence as outlined circles. Diagonal lines through the circles indicated a pending change in right-of-way ordering, and blinking circles represented unknown or hostile ships. The proximity displays showed predicted courses as solid lines eminating from each ship, the lines fading into fainter, wider, bands as the predictions became less reliable.