Chapter 6

"Commander, Elizabeth is trying to use my interface to contact you. Are you content to allow that?"

"Sure. Wait a minute, Elizabeth communicated with me like this earlier and you didn't need to ask my permission. What's changed?" 'asked' Ben.

"I'm fully bonded to you now and your safety and security are paramount. Despite the fact that Elizabeth is my creator, I have disabled the override she programmed in - no one should have access to me without you controlling it. That is essential to allow me to keep your secrets - the metals covering the ship for example. I am sentient enough to have linked your mind's unusual activity with that event. The fact that you aren't surprised or at least curious about the coating tends to confirm my analysis."

"Okay, we'll discuss this later, for now let Elizabeth through."

"Ben? Ben, is that you? What's going on here, why is the artificial intelligence malfunctioning?"

Even hearing Elizabeth inside his head didn't mask the annoyance Ben could detect coming from her.

"Hi Elizabeth, what's bugging you?"

"My programme not working properly is what's bugging me. What just happened there?"

"I'm afraid you did your job even better than you thought. The AI informs me that it has bonded symbiotically with me and as a result it has shut down the override that you programmed into it."

"WHAT! Are you joking? A computer can't just choose to close down exe functions. What have you done?"

"I promise you that I didn't do anything, the AI did this all by itself."

"The Commander is telling the truth, mistress. I'm afraid I chose to override your commands. In future the Commander will need to give permission before you can speak to him this way."

"We'll soon see about that! Anyway, now that the damned computer has deigned to allow me to speak to you, I just wanted to say that we've been watching how the prototype performs on the monitors. Is it really as good as it looked?"

"It's incredible! Your twin and the other engineers have done an incredible job. Captain Marlon must still be feeling dizzy with the way we ran rings around him. This ship is something else!"

"When are we going to be allowed to come aboard?"

"Hold on a sec while I tell the crew to bring us home."

"Navigator, set a course to take us back to the dry-dock please. Engines at quarter speed. Captain Marlon, I think we've seen enough of this ship's capabilities — I did warn you that you'd come to regret belittling Thomas' efforts, didn't I?"

"I admit that she's a tricky little devil, but I remain to be convinced about how much punch she packs," replied Marlon.

"Can I remind you that we hit you with a torpedo without you even picking up the fact that you were under attack?" said Ben.

"Yes, well, beginner's luck perhaps," mumped the Captain.

"He's in denial!" commented Elizabeth.

"More like he's embarrassed that we made him and his ship look so pedestrian! Anyway, I'm on my way home. Get Sarah warmed up for me, would you?"

"Oooohhh, you bet! Hurry!"

Once the annoyance of seeing his squad leaders outfoxed had worn off, David was actually impressed with the way the blue and white groups had collaborated. Ben's people really were making a big difference now that they had started to exert their influence, he realised — Ben hadn't been exaggerating, his people really were born leaders.

Turning to Beckie, he commented on the progress they had made so far.

"The trainees have come on a bunch, they're unrecognisable from the shambles that arrived seven weeks ago," he said.

"Oh ye of little faith! I told you that they'd be fine; the Wodenites have toughened up nicely. I even saw two fighting each other tonight — they were drunk of course, but still..."

"There's a lesson in there somewhere, we need to think about how to occupy the various groups once they've finished their training. It's going to be difficult keeping them sharp while we train all the others that need it," said David.

"That shouldn't be an issue — we'll just set up a rolling programme of war games for those that have successfully completed training. We've got almost a whole planet to let them loose in."

"Given how fast things have gone in the past week or two, what do we have lined up for the current crop?" David asked.

"This week is mainly given over to a reprise of everything they've learned so far. Next week we're using Captain Marlon's plastic bubble city for some house to house battles and then the final week has been set aside for a full-scale, live-fire, exercise."

"Are we sure about live-fire? We don't want any accidents," said David.

"They need to get used to it sometime — better this than not experiencing live-fire until it's an actual combat situation. We need to get them as ready as we possibly can, and that includes their first taste of coming under fire. It will help sort out the men from the boys!"

"What about the additional training on the weapons they'll need to operate on the space ships?"

"We've got that slotted in for this week too, it's pretty basic stuff — most of it is controlled by computer in fact."

"Praise the Lord that things are going so well, I wouldn't have believed it when I saw just how bad they were on that first day," said David.

"Praise the Lord indeed!" agreed Beckie.

"You know, your argument for exposing them to live-fire is a good one — I'd much rather be in a squad with someone I knew wasn't going to freeze at the first sign of trouble. It's given me an idea though," said David.

"What?"

"Thomas and Elizabeth have shipped some special kit they've produced for us to try. They claim it generates a shield around an individual and that it will protect them from enemy fire. I was simply going to test it out by sticking it at the end of the firing range and have some troopers shoot at it, but I wonder if we could try something a little more challenging than that."

"You mean test the kit in a live-fire exercise?" asked Beckie doubtfully.

"We'd still test it without someone wearing it first, but if it works, why not give our trainees some exposure to live-fire sooner rather than later. If we give our squad leaders the new kit there's less chance of there being any accidents. I trust our people to shoot straight — so none of the trainees will be at risk — but I'm not so sure about the trainees. Anyway, if the kit works we don't even have to tell the trainees that it's an exercise — we can let them think it's a real attack and let them fire back at our men as much as they like!"

Beckie was beginning to like the sound of David's idea. A live-fire exercise was useful in preparing troops for combat, but it was still only an exercise. The trainees would be told that it was an exercise and that meant it lost some of its effect. David's way would be much more realistic — for all intents and purposes the trainees would think they were really under attack and would react accordingly. That would be a real test of their nerve and ability to put their training into practice.

"We'll have to test the kit somewhere else so the trainees have no idea it exists," she said. "Why don't we have it tested on our own range at home?"

"Good thinking," agreed David. "Let's get it organised as soon as possible and then we can plan a little ambush for our trainees!"

The portable shields were a remarkable combination of Thomas' engineering and Elizabeth's programming. The units were lightweight — no more than three pounds — and the special batteries lasted for up to thirty hours without needing re-charged. A solar panel allowed the units to recharge themselves using sunlight alone (even normal daylight provided enough light to power them up).

When switched on, there was nothing to indicate the presence of a shield and the Celestialites chosen to test them were sceptical of their functionality to say the least. Still, they did what they had been asked to do and set two of the units up at the end of the firing range, attaching them to two of the normal targets that were used for practice.

They both got much more excited about the kit after blasting away at the targets for several minutes to find that not a single shot penetrated the shield. To test out how long the shield worked, they returned to the range every few hours and shot at the targets again — with the same results. They even shot at the targets at night-time to find out if the units continued to work effectively in the dark — they did.

The next test was to try them out with a person wearing them. There were some nervous moments for the first person to allow shots to be fired at them, but that quickly passed when the shields proved themselves to be fully effective.

"These are incredible, whoever produced these has done a fantastic job!" enthused one of the squad leaders. "They even allow normal movement — I don't know how that works, but it does."

The units were returned to the training camp with confirmation that they did everything that the manufacturers claimed. There was also a note asking for enough units to be supplied to equip the Celestialites remaining back at David and Beckie's community.

"Well now, it seems that we're all set to test our trainees' nerve! When is the best time to surprise them do you think?" asked David.

"All four groups are on field exercises tomorrow. It shouldn't be too difficult to set up some ambushes. How many do you want in the attacking forces?" asked Beckie.

"Two squads of four should do it. We'll take the trainees one group at a time and there's no need to have an extended fire-fight. In fact, it will look suspicious if the fight goes on for any length of time without anyone being hit," suggested David.

"Are we going to join in?" asked an excited Beckie.

"Of course we are — I wouldn't miss this and you'd never forgive me if I didn't let you in on it too!"

The first group to be ambushed were the green group. David and Beckie followed general orders by making sure they separated themselves into different squads, but with David in overall command.

They chose an unlikely spot for the first attack, hoping that the trainees would let their guard down a little. It was a peaceful looking meadow with wild flowers dotted around — nothing about it suggested even a hint of danger. For one thing there was little or no cover to speak of and for another; the meadow lay at the end of a ravine — a ravine that offered a far better option for an ambush. David hoped that the trainees would be on edge and keyed up passing through the ravine and that they would naturally relax when they reached the meadow. He wanted to teach them a harsh lesson about not letting their guard down.

Drones made short work of digging fox-holes for the two squads — with the top layer of soil, grass and flowers carefully set aside to be used to cover the squad members over once the fox-holes were deep enough. Once they were in the holes and had pulled their 'cover' into place, there was no sign of the ambushing force. Now all that remained was to wait for the trainees to make their appearance.

It was an uncomfortable forty minutes before the first squad of the eight that made up green group emerged from the ravine. As David had suspected, the troopers visibly relaxed once they made it out onto the wide-open meadow. The ambushers waited as long as they could, hoping that all eight squads would emerge from the ravine before the first shots were fired.

"Steady, steady, hold your nerve. Okay, on my command and remember, don't actually shoot any of them!" whispered David into a throat mic. "Okay, standby, standby, GO!"