Battalion 1

Colonel Kraft escorted Rhodes to a different part of Coleridge Station. The station teemed with technicians, officers, soldiers, pilots, and hundreds of other Aemon Legion personnel.

None of them so much as glanced at Rhodes. They didn’t act like him walking around with half his body replaced by robotics was anything out of the ordinary.

The Battalion 1 project definitely wasn’t a secret if this many personnel manned this station.

Coleridge Station looked like every other Legion station he’d visited in his career. Multiple wings radiated outward from a central concourse of supply stores, commissaries, meeting rooms, auditoriums, and every other thing the station personnel needed.

The side wings contained personnel quarters, the station’s power plant, loading docks, medical bay, and all the station’s accessory departments.

He didn’t see anything different about Coleridge Station—except that he was here—and the rest of Battalion 1 was here.

He and Kraft crossed the station’s main concourse and entered a side wing. This was as far as it was possible to get from Dr. Neiland’s lab and the other members of Battalion 1—if they survived long enough to become its members.

Kraft took Rhodes into another long, rectangular room—without all the computer equipment this time.

This room had been set up as a normal Legion barracks with a row of beds down one wall—but these weren’t normal beds.

They were modified versions of the beds Rhodes had seen the other lab subjects sleeping in—the same kind of bed Rhodes had been sleeping in.

These had mattresses inside, but holes had been cut in the mattresses at strategic intervals down the length of the bed.

The same electronic equipment attached to these beds, but not as much equipment as in the lab.

The beds did have just as many wires, tubes, and conduits running to them, but these wires, tubes, and conduits didn’t hang from the ceiling. They attached to each bed through the wall and ran across a short stretch of floor to keep everything out of the way.

Tables, benches, bookshelves, and a few computer terminal desks lined the opposite wall.

“This will be the battalion’s quarters while you’re at the station,” Kraft announced. “Each of you has a capsule assigned to you. It’s programmed to your own individual needs, so it’s important that you use the same capsule each time. This is yours.”

He pointed at the first bed in the row. The control panel on the end of the bed read out Rhodes’s name and rank.

Captain Corban Rhodes. That was still him. Maybe he wasn’t really a robot after all. Maybe he just looked, acted, and felt like one.

“Your capsule will interface with your systems when you come back here after training or after battle,” Kraft went on. “The capsule will regulate your conversion cycle to carry out any repairs, adjust your nutrient levels, and make any necessary modifications to your systems before your next active phase. The conversion cycle is the equivalent of sleep, but it isn’t sleep. The conversion cycle replaces that part of your neural system.”

Rhodes stared down at the bed. Kraft called it a capsule because it wasn’t a real bed. Rhodes didn’t eat or sleep anymore. He really wasn’t human anymore at all.

“The doctors recommend that you go through a conversion cycle to help you adjust to waking up from stasis,” Kraft told him. “You probably want to take some time to come to grips with all of this. The conversion cycle is the best way to do that. It will help you process everything that’s happened. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

“So….” Rhodes asked. “What do I have to do?”

“Just lie down in the capsule the way you would if you were going to sleep—at least, that’s what it’s supposed to do. You shouldn’t feel a thing.”

Rhodes sneered at him. Everything Rhodes would ever do from now on would be one giant experiment. It would be the first time anyone had ever done any of this. Spectacular.

This capsule might not repair, adjust, or modify anything. It could kill him—but wasn’t that what Rhodes had just been hoping would happen? Then he wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.

He really did want to shut down his brain for a while. He didn’t want to think about any of this. He didn’t want to be any of this. This capsule was the next best thing.

He took a step forward. He didn’t know how to approach this thing, but anything would be better than staying awake with all this information crammed into his head.

One glance at Kraft convinced Rhodes to turn around, sit down on the bed, and stretch out. Kraft stood there watching, but Rhodes didn’t detect any judgment or deceit in Kraft’s expression or body language.

For some reason Rhodes couldn’t pinpoint, he actually felt like trusting Kraft. Kraft was the only person Rhodes had met so far that he would ever even consider trusting.

Rhodes stretched out on the mattress. The instant he got into that position, seven metal prongs stabbed him in the back.

They punched into his implants in his shoulders, his hips, his feet, and one impaled him through the back of the head.

The prongs locked with his implants and he blacked out.

He woke up an instant later. He didn’t think any time had passed, but he really did feel better.

He felt rested and maybe even relaxed. Whatever this capsule did, it made him feel like he really did go to sleep.

The capsule’s top cover was still in the process of lifting off him when he opened his eyes. He didn’t see or hear it close, but it must have been closed all this time.

He didn’t feel the prongs unlock from his implants, but they didn’t hold him down anymore.

He sat up and put his feet on the floor. He actually felt okay even though he was still…whatever the hell he was.

He stood up not sure what to do with himself. If he’d just woken up any other time, he would have gone to the bathroom, taken a shower, and gotten himself something to eat.

He didn’t need to do any of that anymore. He didn’t feel hungry. He wouldn’t need to go to the bathroom if he never ate.

He crossed the barracks to look at the computer terminals, but right then, Dr. Neiland walked in. “Good morning. How do you feel?”

Rhodes nodded. “I feel rested. That thing really worked.”

“That’s excellent,” she breezed in her usual casual tone. “If you come with me, we can get started on your training. The sooner you finish, the sooner we can wake up the rest of the battalion.”

“What is the training?” he asked.

“I would have to show you to explain it to you. The first step is to activate your implants.”

“Activate them how? They seem to be working just fine already.”

“I’ll have to show you. Come with me. Everything will become clear once we turn them on.”

He didn’t know what she meant, but his curiosity got the better of him. He followed her out of the barracks, down the corridor, and into a different much smaller room.

This was not a lab, an office, or anyone’s quarters. There was nothing in the room—nothing at all.

The same industrial tile covered ten square feet of floor. Plain white walls surrounded Rhodes on all sides. That was the whole room.

Dr. Neiland closed the door behind her, took a step toward Rhodes, and pointed to something on his right arm—the robotic one.

“You have two scourge guns installed on your arm implants, laser and thermal cannons here and here, four seeker missile ports here and here closer to your elbows, another four Viper launchers on your back, and six booster rocket ports on each of your legs.”

Rhodes waited for her to say something else. “Um….okay. Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

She pulled out her remote device and tapped on it. “Once I activate your implants, you might see some strange things, but I’ll be with you and I’ll explain everything to you. Are you ready?”

“Um….I guess.” Rhodes couldn’t know if he was ready since he didn’t know what to expect. He might never be ready.

She tapped her device again. “Here we go.”

She pushed one last button and the room vanished. The white walls and floor turned black except for a vast field of intersecting perpendicular green lines.

They formed hundreds of equally sized squares. Rhodes couldn’t see anything else in the sea of black.

For some reason, the place still had enough light for Rhodes to see both himself and Dr. Neiland. This strange landscape didn’t cast either of them in shadow.

He spun right and left trying to figure out where he was, but he wasn’t anywhere. He just stood there in the center of this wide expanse of squares.

“This is The Grid,” Dr. Neiland told him.

Rhodes snorted at her. “Really creative name for it.”

She barely smiled. “This is the foundation background for your neural interface programming. Everything you experience in battle will happen here.”

“What does that mean? Explain it in plain English.”

“Your neural interface programming system will feed you information from your implants to help you process what’s going on during any battle. The Grid allows you to adjust and use your implants so you can react and respond in the best possible way.”

Rhodes shook his head. “I still don’t understand.”

“I’m going to activate one other element of your implants. I won’t be here anymore, but you won’t be alone. Do you understand?”

“No,” he replied.

She tapped her device anyway and she vanished off The Grid. Now Rhodes really was alone.

As soon as she disappeared, a different shape materialized out of The Grid.

It started as a random scramble of much smaller squares of green grid lines. They tangled around each other in front of his eyes, blurred for a second, and started to take shape.

The lines formed the grid outline of a bird, then a flower, then a dog, a man, and finally some random alien creature Rhodes didn’t recognize.

The lines kept jittering around each other, dissolving into confusion, and reforming until they settled on one particular shape.

It looked like a face, but not a human face. Rhodes didn’t recognize this, either. It might have been a combination of a human, ape, cat, and bird face all merged into one.

The lines faded and the face developed color, but it didn’t look like human skin. Colors kept rippling across its surface before the grid lines reappeared and then faded out again.

The grid lines kept appearing and disappearing as the face kept adjusting and morphing in front of Rhodes’s eyes.

The face made eye contact with Rhodes and the expression changed. It recognized him and opened its mouth to speak in a calm, smooth, male voice like some kind of diplomat. “Captain—it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Um….who the hell are you?” Rhodes demanded.

“My name is Fisher. I’m your SAM.” The face cocked its head slightly. “Captain Corban Rhodes, 249th Platoon, Aemon Legion. May I call you Rhodes? We should be on a first-name basis, don’t you agree?”

Rhodes opened his mouth to say that, no, he didn’t plan on getting on a first-name basis with anyone here, especially not some…..

“What’s a SAM?” he asked.

Dr. Neiland’s voice came from somewhere out of sight. “Fisher is your SAM. It stands for Simulated Augmentation Matrix. He’s an onboard systems analysis program that interfaces with your neural network to help you process information and…..”

“Will you shut the hell up with that gibberish?” Rhodes snapped. “Just tell me what it is.”

“I am an enhancement program installed in your central neural processing system. I process data from your sensory system and reconfigure it….”

Rhodes held up his hand. “Stop right there, pal. So you’re a computer program—installed in my….in my brain. Is that it?”

“Yes, exactly. I help you interface with…..”

“Just….shut the hell up for a second, okay? You aren’t helping me process anything.”

Rhodes looked around at nothing. There was nothing to see but more and more of The Grid.

He would have liked to ask Dr. Neiland for a simpler explanation about this, but she wasn’t here. She’d already given him the same line of nonsense that didn’t explain anything.

Rhodes turned away from Fisher. Rhodes already started to sense himself thinking of this thing as a person. Rhodes couldn’t let that happen.

He turned his back on it, but nothing happened. He was still here in The Grid. He didn’t even know how to get out of it.

Fisher moved with him. No matter which way Rhodes turned, Fisher remained hovering there in front of Rhodes’s eyes. Rhodes couldn’t get rid of this thing.

“I believe I can help you understand if you let me, Captain,” Fisher went on in the same undertone.

“Just stay the hell out of my head,” Rhodes snapped. “I don’t need you making this worse.”

“I wasn’t trying to make it worse, Captain,” Fisher murmured. “We’ll be working together from now on. If I can help you understand, I will. It will be the best thing for both of us.”

Rhodes would have liked to stay mad at this thing—and the rest of everyone at this station. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this.

He sure as hell didn’t want some computer program talking to him in his head. That was the absolute last thing he needed.

Fisher didn’t say anything for a minute. He just hovered there in The Grid while Rhodes seethed in silent resentment.

“May I make a suggestion, Captain?” Fisher finally asked.

“That depends on what it is,” Rhodes snapped.

“May I suggest that you start walking?”

Rhodes stiffened. “What?”

“Start walking. Start walking through The Grid. The Grid only works when you’re in motion. Once you start walking, The Grid will activate and you’ll see for yourself what it’s for. I promise I won’t interfere. You’ll only be walking along. I promise.”

Rhodes didn’t understand what Fisher meant. Rhodes didn’t believe a word of this thing’s promises, but what the hell else did Rhodes have to do?

He turned away somewhere else and set off walking through The Grid in no particular direction.