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Van Ea, Anora's kith and kin, kept her distance from all of them. No doubt on Anora's part some relief. If she had desired the same termination of this heir to the throne, somewhat in sympathy with her brothers, she was, one has to say, more concerned with them, then she was with Anora, being a threat to her health and well being!
Not that her brothers were keen to incur her wrath. She had they knew, trained regularly to keep fit and agile. Her favorite sport, boxing and that included kick boxing. Both had kept her more than capable of defending herself.
Illia had caught the full weight of her fist, on one occasion, and one only! It had sent him reeling like some displaced puppet, wrenched from its strings, to be thrown across the room with such a force he had been knocked senseless for some seconds. When he recovered, uhh, well sort of, he had been dazed for some time after. Babbling incoherently as Fre was to remind him.
All he, could recollect, was the smack he had received. His jaw, for some time after, being bruised and painful.
Fre had often remarked on his theory how, on that occasion, the blow and unconsciousness, had been the reason why his brother was so weird at times. Oxygen deprivation to his brain, well something resembling that anyway.
Van had not knocked sense into him, rather the opposite!
Needless to say, a healthy distance from Van was maintained by both of them, whether intentional or not. If they wanted to humiliate her, they could do so by showing how bad she was when it came to technology. NOT the best when it came to the Stratorium. Any team with her in it, could lose heavily on points.
Most Strat tutorials were pre programmed. A lot of the actual ultra realt simulations were generally available across the galaxies. Standard programming with code that was used even if some of it was encrypted and protected software. However, certain Ultra Realt programs were unique to the Akademy.
They could, depending on the level you were playing at, be quite intense and required a high level of skill on the part of the user. Even more should it be necessary to reprogram or create new, which happened from time to time; Strat programs.
Antint Modulars had been installed into all of the Strat and main core systems. After what had happened with the Gaisek, all of the trouble that had caused! (They're kind of sentries on guard duty to monitor and control data use.) But you could find ways as with anything technological, it wasn’t infallible.
Sometimes, SOMETIMES it was just Elder or Junior Kets, out to play tricks on fellow Kets who would buy illegal modules, that plugged in and allowed them to override MINOR parts of the program. Enough to allow them their fun. Often such intrusions were recognized and ignored.
Kinsey had been with Delise practising some tactical exercises against Ocasa and Bjoi. It had been an exciting finale.
They beat them but only because Kinsey was marginally faster than Ocasa. Fun loving Kinsey and the more reserved Delise had gloated over their win, describing it to other Kets as total humiliation for Ocasa and Bjoi! When word reached his ears, Ocasa had been livid! He had been caught out, unaware of Kinsey and her gaming skills.
“I don’t know how you managed it Kinsey “ He had growled. “You’re always the one that is anywhere 'cept the Stratorium, usually partying and definitely not learning tacticals.” “You can still party and LEARN, but it depends on who, you’re partying with." She took hold of Delise's hand. "When they’re experienced Tech 9’s with advanced Ult programming skills like my Ket Delise!"
Some were finding it hard to believe her. Delise was not the party animal by any stretch of the imagination or were they wrong? Tech? An ace. No disputing that.
A lesson in humility? She was of course right. One of the best in the Akademy. Delise had slipped behind her, still facing them, as she slid her hand onto the console making sure none of them could see, as she removed a disc to place it in her pocket.
Had she programmed a sub routine to allow them to win, by increasing her reaction times? She smiled at Ocasa.
He smiled back “Alright you win THIS time. So how about joining us for some refreshments.“
They had all left, when Cara arrived. Humana Consort Cara was an Elder Ket, one of the Humana Colony’s Adju Detante.
An extremely Hgh ranking diplomatic official is close for analogy. On Earth she would had the status of a privileged diplomat with immunity to match. A close friend of La Toyah and why she was not a stranger to the Akademy.
Whilst visiting, she would often take time out in the Stratorium. A love of Strat games, so when she could, she played.
Against the main artificial intelligence. It was not a case of her winning. She saw positive strengths in finding ways to adapt, to improvise and if she could, confuse the system enough for it to allow her, though rare, to concede stalemate.
Most of the time she lost.
How clever was she? Well most Kets could last for maybe ten minutes playing the core. She could last for up to an hour at a time!
It might have been her ‘Alter ego’ as a battle hardened warrior or tactician or strategist or simply tutorials on etiquette, customs and other functions, she might have to attend that required a skill and knowledge to ensure, she did not offend or cause to offend her hosts?
Maybe it was picking an argument with a petty! The scourge of the universe, they could argue to the extreme and you had to be clever to outwit them. If you did, you had the pleasure of watching their heads explode, with spectacular effects thrown in.
The selection was enormous. Today however, she entered a specific code, to play a game that was nothing too demanding.
Just some light relief, some fun.
Besise, Meladi and Iofnen were with Pelwa an Elder Ket, teaching them some tactical revision, on level 7 of the Stratorium.
Cara was on level 5. They had finished the tutorial and were on their way up to the main, what was known as,
the ‘Observatory.’
A huge chamber, where you could sit, recline, talk, discuss tutorials and refresh with food and drink. It also had 7 huge screens that showed what was happening, in progress so to speak re each of the levels. Kets could see what was happening at that moment on any one of those levels.
They ONLY showed the tutorials or Strat level events taking place. It was a good way for teams to see how the other members of their team played. Analyze and understand their weaknesses. It could be their own teams or others to determine who was a threat, who was not and so on? Delise, Kinsey, Bjoi and Ocasa were already there, when Besise and the others arrived?
They greeted them, but sat aside from them, whilst their tutor Pelwa, fetched refreshments and sat with them, going over the previous Strat activity. It was not unusual for those present to be so engrossed in talking, that they were not taking too much notice, of what was on the screens?
The odd comment between Kinsey and her group re Besise and Iofnen with tomorrow’s challenge looming, they had to make sure they won. Distracted and attempting to concentrate, Kinsey was trying hard to stay focused. Suddenly she glanced at the screen to the left of her. Those Kets sat with her saw her as she stood up, stepped over to the screen and peered at it. Motionless, transfixed? There was a howl from her.
“NO WAY! Is she for real or what.“ There was a laugh from Delise. “She certainly has a nice looking moniker babe!"
Looking at Cara and her game CGI character or as they called it ‘Moniker’.
Younger and warrior like, nothing unusual. Her foe, enemy or opposition; call it what you want, was sizeably bigger and not to be trifled with! But what had attracted Kinsey’s attention was neither.
“Have you seen this, look, here!" She pointed to the screen as Delise moved in closer. “What the!”
Her loud exclamation and the alarm in her voice had caused others to look up, notably Ocasa. “That’s not allowed!“
Ocasa was stood next to Kinsey, as they stared at the screen the data stream to the left and controls ident unit showed clearly the status of play.
However there was an additional small screen with a clock, that was indicating, at some stage in the game, a trigger would be activated. Ocasa had seen this before and knew what had followed! The game wasn’t a game, it was for real, played to the death.
Death being, whatever that trigger triggered, when deployed. Cara wasn’t gonna get a trashing from this hulk, it was going to go all out to kill her.
It doesn’t matter how much armament you carry or weapons you use, against an enemy, its HOW you deploy it and odds add up to being in your favor or against, but its either or, it can’t be both at any one time, its EITHER OR!
The trouble with Cara was not her armaments! To those less informed WEAPONS! She was packing, as they say! Her to put it in simple terms, ‘muscle power’, didn’t add up to what she was about to face.
The program had generated this thing and logic would be to treat it, as it was clearly identified to her, with all bells and whistles blowing. It was stacking the odds against Cara simply on its recognition of her enemy's body mass. Muscles, and brawn. Whereas according to the data it was receiving, its opponent, namely Cara was almost the opposite.
As far as the Ai was concerned its calculations, she was no match for her opponent. A foregone conclusion. She would lose!
“What the heck is it.“ Ocasa peered at the figure. Instantly recognizing it? “A killing machine! A bionic Tentric Symbiotic Organo creature from Orxellei system. 5,pp02 used to protect settlers on the Oryx home worlds.
Those things were reprogrammed by Vatchi (Raiders, thiever, pirates.) in such numbers they almost wiped out three colonies, before they terminated the things. Its ancient history this and bad taste, on the part of whoever programmed it into this simulation.
Corky told me about them. Merciless killers. If you take her life score against that? Takes more than she’s carrying to terminate that. With what the Ai has given her for her energy and fuel ratings, she'll go a few rounds with that and be terminated."
He looked at Delise.
"Its got a zero code. When she is terminated by the game, it will trigger whatever has been on stand by to kill her.“
“We’ve got to do something!“
TOO late! The thing, had pounded Cara’s moniker with such a fury, all of her energy and life level had been rapidly depleted. What happened next was not a simple game over scenario.
Her body was splattered all over the screen. Besise gripped Iofnen’s hand squeezing it as Ocasa and Bjoi tore out of the hatch into the corridor to run as fast as they could to level 5.
All around them the screens those huge screens were showing Cara’s moniker splashed across them, the blood running down it, the various body pieces the ..
Kinsey stepped to one side, to be violently sick. On releasing the modular unit recline cover, Ocasa could see that Cara was dead. From the outside of the RAlt unit, she looked as though she was sleeping. Her body was seemingly intact.
What had been shown on the screen, was due to whoever had killed her and their gross interpretation, of how they would have liked, to have seen her, die.
Inside her, on further examination later, it would be discovered to their horror, that her internal organs were scrambled, she had bleeding from the ears and the eyes. Usually found from the use of a sonic disruption weapon..
Corky was there in less than ten minutes from being aware of what had happened. Serenia was not far behind him.
The moment Ocasa told him what had happened they sealed the whole level and immediately confined all to the observatory with NO one else, being allowed in, other than security and similar.
The Shelde in Cara’s pocket, was unusual. It had been tampered with. It also had no data on it, it was blank!
Wiped clean and there could be only one explanation. Whatever had been on it, whoever had put it there did not want others to find it.
Only the interim recorder, had the code requirement, that Cara would have had to enter, to play that specific game.
Had someone reprogrammed some of the RALt code? Corky was not the only one convinced, that they were dealing with a murder.
The work of a very clever assassin. Someone who had the skills, the knowledge to create and engage that code, with the RALt interface. Plus manage to bypass the security safeguards in place.
Further investigation showed that it was never on the Strat system, as one of the programs? Could they find the initial footprint that might indicate its origins? Whoever the murderer was, was a very dangerous individual. NOT to be treated as anything but a deadly opponent.
To unravel this, Corky knew they needed someone who was as formidable. Having the skills to find a weakness in their activities. If there was any possibility of that, he knew exactly who could find it.
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