i command armies

[autokinetic]

Sue graduates from Tactical School a year early, he's barely fifteen. He's toned down the flirting - he treats Aegis completely platonically, in particular - and has cut down on the unhealthy amount of sleeping-with-everything-that-wants. And he's apparently, via his independent study, gotten far enough through the curriculum that they're nudging him along to Command.

They've given Sue a strange old man for a tutor, who appeared in his room and started a physical confrontation, which Sue won; Sue related this story to her with something between amusement and irritation.

And a quicker-than-average flurry of notes has been piling up in the psych data since about that time, according to the timestamps.

Aegis knows before they tell her that they're going to send her to Command early too. She's just barely fifteen herself when she gets another update of the psych files and sees that Sue's had - well, the files aren't terribly clear, some of the communication is happening via in-person conversation and memos that don't get stored in these folders, but Sue's had some kind of breakdown and the only things they can think of to get him out of it, get him back into shape to train and fight, are her friendship and Howlett. They have mixed feelings about both - Howlett's insubordination problem; their bewilderment that Aegis and Sue can be so close when "she's the one person he can't link!" - but they're desperate.

Bird? They don't talk as often over the long distance, just as there was a lull when he went to Tactical ahead of her; their schedules have nothing in common and their contexts less. But he knows her, and he can reach this far if he tries. And she wants to know what's wrong.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Mm..."

He thinks about it.

"Sure," he decides.

[autokinetic]

"Okay," she grins, and off they go.

They're put in the same room, with two simulators. The old fart is there. "You will both recognize some voices," he says, and he explains the revised scenario. They have subordinates now, who are two of Sue's old toon leaders, three of Aegis's, and one of the toonlike formation formerly known as Medusa.

"You're in command," he tells Sue. "Swan's your second. But if you check out, Swan's authorized to take command from you - all she has to do is press that button." He points out a button that appears on her console and not his. "I advise not checking out, boy."

"Do you know my guys well enough to link them up?" Aegis asks Sue.

[pythbox]

"Maybe," he hazards. "Where are they?"

[autokinetic]

"The other simulator rooms. You've been to most of them," the old dude says. "Must we take a tour before you can locate them?"

[pythbox]

"Nope," says Sue, and closes his eyes.

He taps Aegis first, then finds his old toon leaders and links them with easy familiarity. Last, he sorts through the minds in the simulator rooms and touches the remaining four, familiar enough to recognize even if he can't find them without looking like he does with Aegis and his old army.

[autokinetic]

They all join up. Aegis greets her old friends happily through the link and laughs at their surprise that she can join such a thing.

Ooh, she adds. Processing boost.

And she moves at the speed of thought.

She instantly turns off all the voice controls except the "unusual parameter" input and holds her hands at the ready over her console.

[pythbox]

It feels more like a ten-person link than an eight, especially since Aegis is in it shallower than everybody else. Sue isn't sure what's up with that. But he'll take it.

Let's kick some ass, he says cheerfully, to a concurring chorus from the other six members of the link.

And the simulated battle begins.

[autokinetic]

They proceed to kick some serious ass.

They lose no ships; one of Qiaochu's is damaged, but Blue Moon sails in to the rescue before it's any worse than that without anyone even having to tell him. They all think so fast and Aegis moves so fast and they don't need to speak or look away from their own parts of the screen wasting valuable fractional seconds of reaction time on saccades. They are on fire.

The simulation ends, and Aegis is grinning at it when the screen says she's supposed to report back to the bureaucrat's office.

"Hey, I'll meet you in a bit," she says to Sue as she drops the effort of the link and falls back into her own head. The world around her seems to speed up as she slows down. "Supposed to go have another meeting."

[pythbox]

"Sure," he says, hugging her.

[autokinetic]

Aegis hugs back, then reports to the bureaucrat's office.

[pythbox]

"My psychologists are screaming," he says conversationally when Aegis walks in. "And my security people are screaming back, but between the two, I'll take the psychologists. You might want to sit down."

[autokinetic]

"I'm not going to fall over if I don't intend to fall over," Aegis points out, "now that I'm in my gear."

[pythbox]

"You just fought and won a real battle against a bugger fleet," he says evenly. "Feel like falling over now?"

[autokinetic]

"...Lightspeed delay," says Aegis. She doesn't fall over, but she does stop swaying.

[pythbox]

"Not a factor," says the bureaucrat. "We've had faster-than-light communications since shortly after the Second Invasion. These are closely guarded I.F. secrets and I can have you court-martialed if you spread them around, by the way. The only reason you're hearing this is because so many people are so very sure that I need to tell your friend this before he loses a sim battle on purpose, and I think you're best placed to judge when and how."

[autokinetic]

"A fucking month ago," says Aegis.

[pythbox]

"If the I.F. had time machines," he says dryly, "we wouldn't need your friend to win this war."

[autokinetic]

"So we're an invasion fleet, get them before they come back and get us, we have FTL communications, the simulators are hooked up to actual ships, fuck, how many men died when Qiaochu's ship got dinged?"

[pythbox]

"I don't have that report yet," he says. "Communications may be instantaneous, but bureaucracy still takes time."

[autokinetic]

"Yes sir." Her hand goes to her forehead and massages her temple. "Fuck. I can tell Sue? Can I tell the subordinates?"

[pythbox]

He looks slightly pained.

"If you think it might leak during battle and throw them off—if you think they'd perform better knowing it—then yes. But minimize the number of people you tell."

[autokinetic]

"Yes, sir," she says quietly. "- If Sue could also link the admirals commanding those fleets where they are -"

[pythbox]

"It's been suggested," he says. "If he has the range, it could be a good idea. Besides, of course, the obvious problem with keeping uninformed students in a mental link with people they aren't supposed to know exist."

[autokinetic]

"Can we communicate directly with the fleet officers before they appear on the sim?" she asks, her mind racing. "Do they even know who's commanding them? How much risk is there of a ship going rogue and just not responding to our controls in the middle of a battle because its pilot thinks we're being idiots?"

[pythbox]

"No more risk than there is in any military operation," he says. "Which is damn little. What would you want to say to the fleet officers before they appear on the sim?"