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

[autokinetic]

I don't trust them with shit. But if they want something and they'll do whatever they have to to get it and I can tell them that they can get it without hurting me so bad...

[pythbox]

Sure, he says decisively. And we can tell them we're not doing shit until you're back in your bones.

[autokinetic]

Aegis takes a deep breath.

"Whatever your name is," she says to the old guy, "...Sue could already link me. I had to let him in, he couldn't just do it whenever he wanted until you fucking drugged me, but he could do it, and I didn't ever let on because I thought you'd take my exo, but now you've gone and done it anyway, so give it the fuck back and then we'll link and play your fucking game."

The old guy blinks. He was clearly not expecting this.

[pythbox]

Sue smiles.

[autokinetic]

"...Go back to the office where Swan was sent yesterday," says the old guy. "Tell it to him."

Aegis pushes the directions at Sue, scowling to herself.

[pythbox]

Sue carries her thataway.

[autokinetic]

Here's hoping this works.

In some ways it's nice for communication to be this effortless, but on the whole Aegis wants her wall back, wants it to be her choice, wants this to be a special bird privilege and not something anybody could do.

[pythbox]

They arrive at the office in question. The door opens at their approach. Sue carries Aegis inside.

Your show? he says over the link.

[autokinetic]

"You didn't have to drug me. Sue can link me regardless," Aegis tells the bureaucrat flatly. "And we're not doing shit if you cripple me either which way."

[pythbox]

He blinks. Twice.

"Fine," he says. "You can go to the infirmary for the antidote and your assistive tech on my authorization, or go back to your quarters and I'll have them waiting for you."

[autokinetic]

"I'm glad you are not being difficult about that. Infirmary please," she tells Sue.

If I do ever want to make a case about this, infirmary means witnesses.

[pythbox]

The bureaucrat sends a message on his desk and makes a shooing motion.

Sue carries Aegis out of the room.

[autokinetic]

The infirmary gives Aegis an injection of something that burnsburnsburns and she winces and hisses and her wall slowly uncrumbles back into place.

And they give her her exo, and she scrambles into it with practiced urgency.

And she vaults off their table and spins and says "Well, I know who I'm going to pretend the enemy ships contain next time I play the sim."

[pythbox]

Sue laughs and hugs her.

[autokinetic]

She runs ahead of him back to their room, pausing occasionally for a cartwheel or a turn, and checks her desk for a revised schedule. Sure enough, there is one, with rather tightly blocked simulator runs. Including one in ten minutes.

"You playing?" she asks Sue.

[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.