Witch Of The Federation Read online

  The AI replied, “From your records, you passed out and were taken to the hospital bay.”

  The kid lay there with his nostrils flared and his lips tight. “Why don’t we simply sit here quietly until your slow-ass system boots up and we can start this thing?”

  “Of course. When the serum begins to take effect, I will give the explanation of the process and you will be allowed to begin whenever you are ready. In case of an emergency, either call out to the pod to sound the emergency switch or remove the headset.”

  Kyle grumbled, “Does an emergency mean this pod is far below my standards?”

  Chapter Two

  Stephanie settled in and stared at the ceiling as they waited for the serum to take effect. She focused on the feeling of the gloves and the tightness of the elastic material with small silver wires touched with a faint green glow. She wiggled her fingers with a grin, but when her eyes shifted to the screen that ran her physical statistics, a flutter moved in her stomach.

  The opportunity to test for a prep school was something that had almost consumed her mind, at least for the last five years. She found it easier, being of high intelligence, to blend into the crowds. To achieve this, she never made waves and never really got noticed. Her clothes were plain, a few years older than most but not anything too obvious. Her parents were similar to those of the other kids she knew. They worked hard, provided a roof, food, and the necessities, but other than that, she would have to determine her future for herself.

  Being in that class of society never bothered her that much, but when she heard that the rich kids had the opportunity to use full immersion pods practically their whole life at home, she was jealous. She had only ever used headgear and nothing that was the newest hi-tech. Now, she was in one of the pods and she didn’t know if she would be able to get the hang of it while she took a test that could quite possibly define the rest of her life.

  The voice in the pod soothed through her mind. “Your pulse has seemed to increase slightly and your muscles have tensed. Can I do anything to make you more comfortable?”

  Stephanie shook her head minutely back and forth. “No, thank you. It’s my first time in a pod, that’s all. Why don’t you tell me about the process?”

  The AI went quiet for a moment. “For this government required opportunity to be tested for a placement and possible financial assistance in a prep school, you must be checked both physically as well as mentally.”

  She thought about all those times she’d run the mile in the lower schools. “How do you check me physically if I am lying down?”

  “The system capabilities are beyond in the moment testing. Through your blood, circulation, heart rhythm, and approximately six hundred and eighty-nine other factors, the system can see what your physical health score will be. This includes during exercises and testing,” the pod answered.

  The butterflies began to tame as she thought about her last doctor’s appointment. She had always been in really good shape. Encouraged, she bit the inside of her lip and tried not to let the excitement increase too dramatically. “So, there may be a chance I could be accepted? I tried to calculate it on my own, but it seemed that the chances of that happening were too low for me to figure out the number.”

  “There might be something wrong with your calculations. It is always at least two percent. That is the statistical norm suggested. It is also the minimum before companies are required to have government oversight.”

  Stephanie’s heart sunk. “Not for us in the government-subsidized living arrangements.”

  The pod was quiet. “That is a correct statement. For those who live in government-subsidized housing, it seems numbers are closer to one in two hundred and thirty-two—”

  Stephanie’s eyes opened wide in hope. “That’s better than I thought! Man, I imagined it would be way higher than that.”

  The AI finished its sentence. “Thousand.”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head as a smirk moved slowly over her lips. “So, you’re telling me there is a chance?” She laughed at her own quote, knowing that Todd would have been proud of her for being so quick.

  The pod replied, “About the same as dying from a rare cobra bite.”

  Stephanie narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “Are there cobras in NorAm?”

  “No.”

  She paused and closed her eyes before she allowed her grin to show through. She had just been cut down by a pod. That in itself would probably be the highlight of her whole time in the thing. “I think I like you.”

  The lights flickered in the pod. “I am not programmed to like. But you are very polite.”

  Stephanie began to think she would have been better off if she’d hung out with the pod system all those years. At least it put her at ease, which was probably the entire point of the five percent humor in the system. Those kinds of things fascinated her and had done so her whole life. The pods had been around a long time, even since before she had been born, and had become an important part of society. These days, it was almost vital considering the alternate options didn’t look too exciting for her.

  NorAm—long before she had been born and even before her parents were born—constituted three different countries all operating under their own rule. From what Stephanie had read, opportunities, especially in the United States, were a lot more bountiful than they had previously been. However, there was still a serious difference in the financial institutions that catered to the rich, to the middle class, and to the poor. And debt for post-high-school education was a definite unless you were lucky enough to receive a scholarship.

  Prep schools worked in much the same way, but the chances of someone from the middle class or lower actually getting the financial aid to attend was nearly impossible. It was a separation of class on so many levels. Stephanie chuckled to herself and thought about all the times she had tried to talk to Todd about that. He hated it when she went on rants. He called her an old-world idealist. Which she wasn’t, but she admired how people used to try to make the system better. Now, she was left with a statistical chance.

  Kyle opened one eye, followed by the other, his smile now clean and brace-less. His wild red hair had been tamed back and his pimples were gone, replaced by smooth skin. He looked in the mirror and winked at himself. “I should have been able to bring my personal avatar over, but hey, I like creating them so let’s see what you have.”

  A calm voice echoed through the white room around him. “Prepare to create your avatar.”

  The room whizzed past him while his feet remained planted firmly in place. It stopped again with a sudden jolt to display rows and rows of clothing, weapons, and modifications of personal attributes.

  He nodded. “Well, I guess this is one I can’t complain about too much. At least you have the updated closet function.”

  “We updated approximately two hundred and forty-five days ago. Please choose your avatar’s presentation. Remember, this exercise is for your assessment and we recommend one of the test preparation suits directly ahead,” the voice replied in a pleasant tone.

  Kyle’s nose wrinkled and the creases made his freckles that much more noticeable. “Yuck. So, do I have to wear one or can I do whatever?”

  The pod replied, “You can choose your personal look. Please do not linger here for too long. The test must begin shortly.”

  He ignored the voice as he sauntered through the racks of outfits. He walked down halfway and had already discarded the initial options. “Nope, too pink…. Ugh…that’s so my parent’s… Nope…nope…nope…and— Wait a minute.”

  The boy tapped the outfit twice and walked out to stand in front of the mirror and turn from side to side. He wore what looked to be an Earth play on the Dreth battle gear. The shoulder pads were large and leather with spikes on them. The front of the armor made him look much larger than his scrawny self actually was, and the black boots also sported silver spikes.

  “Sweet,” he whispered and selected the hair options. “This is exactly what I need.”

  He tapped his preferred option twice and looked up. His red hair was now in a foot-tall mohawk with a long braid down the back. Kyle flexed his fake muscled arms in the mirror and growled. He chuckled, selected a huge sword and a Dreth laser gun from the weapons area, and clipped them to himself.

  The voice spoke into the room once more. “Have you completed your avatar?”

  Kyle snickered at his reflection. “Hell yeah, I did. Let’s get this over with.”

  “Checking vitals—”

  He jumped and rubbed his shoulder. “Ouch, you damned droid.”

  “I am not a droid,” she replied automatically. “Readings have returned. Your physiology does not scan in a way that suggests pain.”

  His lip twitched. “It was psychomaniac.”

  “Indeed,” the voice replied after a momentary pause. “Did you mean psychosomatic?”

  “Of course.” He sniffed. There’s a difference? “Didn’t you hear that word, you dumb machine?”

  The AI didn’t respond to his question—or his attitude, for that matter. It was not programmed nor had the capability to have its own personality. “Your physical and neurological readings are completed. You are ready to proceed to testing. Welcome to the Mandatory Audition for Enhanced NeuroSync Prep Testing. Please answer—”

  Kyle waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Just start.”

  Stephanie opened her eyes and glanced around when she realized that she now stood inside a white room. A voice echoed in the space. “Prepare to create your avatar.”

  The room whizzed past her and she put her arms out to stabilize herself. When it stopped again, she stood in some sort of huge closet. She looked at herself in the mirror, shocked at how close they had achieved her true appearance. Even her hair was back in a braid like her mom used to do for her when she was younger.

  “What do I do?”

  The same calming tone spoke once more. “Please choose your avatar’s presentation. Remember, this exercise is for your assessment and we recommend one of the test preparation suits directly ahead.”

  She focused her eyes on the selection in front of her and ran her fingers across the blue and white jumpsuits. Surprisingly, she could actually feel the fabric—it was wild. Finally, she attempted to pull the one on the end out since it was all black with what looked like 3D boxes that moved constantly on the front. It wouldn’t budge, though. “How do I select it?”

  “Tap the choice twice,” the voice responded.

  Stephanie raised an eyebrow but immediately followed the instructions. Suddenly, she no longer looked at it but actually wore it. It fit tightly like spandex, and military-style combat boots on her feet laced up her calves. She took a step back and chuckled at the way her avatar moved—almost cartoon-like but with facial shadows and the anatomically correct motions of her hips and legs. It was beyond what she’d imagined.

  After a quick glance at the other things available, she decided that she would simply go with what was recommended. “It’s not like I have a reason to wear a full metal suit of armor—”

  “Have you completed your avatar?” the AI asked.

  She shrugged. “Sure.”

  “Checking vitals… Your physical and neurological readings are complete. You are ready to proceed to testing.”

  Stephanie fisted and unfisted her avatar hands nervously. “Sweet.”

  The AI paused a moment before it proceeded. “Welcome to the Mandatory Audition for Enhanced NeuroSync Prep Testing. Please answer truthfully, as lies will be noted and will reduce your score. Besides standardized testing, there will be questions asked of you. These subjective question and answer sessions represent forty percent of your score. There will be an immersion test which will account for thirty percent of your score, and the core questions represent another thirty percent. At any time, the testing agent will be able to suggest that you be moved for consideration regardless of the score. While this does not guarantee acceptance, it means you will be reviewed for your subjective answers and possibly pass to the next stage. Good luck. There will be a period of darkness as we proceed.”

  She drew in a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror. “Well, here goes nothing.”

  Her image faded and the darkness overtook her.

  Outside the pods, everything was perfectly silent.

  Chapter Three

  The walls were plain and darkly painted with no windows to allow light into the keycard-accessed room in the main government building for Enhanced NeuroSync Prep. It was filled with monitors and those who operated them using 3D interfaces. The screens changed and flashed constantly. When you walked into the room, you would be met with an insane barrage of technological wonder.

  Around eighteen individual cubicles were spread as far apart as they could be in the space across the wide expanse of the room. They weren’t separated by thin walls, but instead, used the latest sound dampening technology. No sound emitted from the space, and that helped to regulate the noise since all the engineers and programmers spent their time giving information to the students engaged in the Virtual World as well as seething in frustration. They couldn’t hear a single word unless they chose to talk to each other, which wasn’t really encouraged at all.

  Down the center row, poised relatively close to one another, two engineer-programmers sat and talked with their students while they moved their hands around to navigate the program in front of them. Aaron had been an engineer and programmer with the company for a couple of years. He liked the job but not that particular part of it. Having to actually interact with the students was often a source of enormous frustration.

  He sat with a blank expression on his face and watched his current student battle the virtual Dreth pirates along with a team of other students. While almost everyone else wore training jumpsuits which were recommended, this guy had gone all out with Earth-inspired Dreth battle gear and a tall red-haired mohawk. He could tell almost immediately that the kid thought he was above everyone else and didn’t need to follow the recommended course of action.

  The earpiece was pressed firmly into Aaron’s ear and the mic perched directly in front of his lips. “No, you can’t simply shoot everyone and hope that your EI support shuts the gun down if you have friendlies targeted.”

  He pressed two fingers on each side of the bridge of his nose and leaned on his elbow. “No, you can’t program that in the heat of battle— What kind of sim is this? A real one. Have a nice day.”

  He went to remove the headpiece when the kid made another smart-ass answer. Aaron slammed his palm on the desk. “What? Do you really want to know the answer to that? Or is this one of those sarcastic statements you can’t seem to refrain from making?”

  Aaron slapped his forehead with his palm and held his arms out to each side.

  His friend, who had joined the company at the same time as him—Gene—sat beside him in his own soundproof cubicle. He finished one section of testing with his student and asked them to wait so he could prepare the rest. As he put them on hold, he glanced at his friend. The exasperation was evident as Aaron flung his arms into the air and waved his hands around wildly. This seemed to happen to the poor man at least once every season and it looked like it was in full swing.

  Gene glanced at his computer to make sure the next section was loading and hit the mute button on his microphone. He paused, turned, and set his hands in his lap to wait for Aaron to finish. He knew this would probably be a good story. No way could he even imagine that it would end with him calmly moving on to the next student in his queue.

  Sure enough, he didn’t have long to wait.

  He winced as the veins in Aaron’s head seemed about to explode. The engineer shook his finger and stood as he shoved his chair back. His mouth went crazy and whatever he was saying, he said it with passion. Suddenly, he very pragmatically rolled his sleeves up one at a time. Then, with anger raging across his face, he raised his right arm high into the air and slammed it down on the disconnect button. Gene flinched and chuckled.

  Inside the soundproof cubicle, the irate man screamed, “Failed!”

  Aaron, at that point, had lost every shred of patience left in his body and didn’t even try not to scream. He knew the damned sound dampeners wouldn’t allow him to bellow at the student anyway, and no one in the office would be able to hear him. That, however, did not stop him from pounding his hand down on the red button repeatedly until the computer sent him an error message. He backed away, panting, and plopped back in his chair to bring his hands to his face and scream into them. For a moment, he seriously considered finding the kid and beating the hell out of him.

  With a loud groan, he dragged his hands down his face. The motion stretched his skin so there was a gap under each eye and his bottom lip flapped open to reveal the crooked teeth in his lower jaw. His hands still holding his face like that, Aaron’s gaze shifted to his left and settled on Gene, who sat there and laughed. He swished his left hand to the side to deactivate the sound barrier between them. As soon as it dissipated, he could hear his friend’s raucous laughter and the sound as his hand slapped against his black dress pants.

  He spun his chair to face him, gritted his teeth, and shook his fists violently in front of him. Gene smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Eye D 10 T?”

  Aaron tried, he really, really did, but as he sat there in front of his best friend, he couldn’t restrain himself any longer. “He only wishes he was an idiot! That kid is probably sucking on the tit of Mom and Dad’s bank account. But, of course, they most likely use a Virtual-Nanny so they don’t have to deal with that festering boil on the butt of society.”

  Gene raised both eyebrows and Aaron continued. “You would think a parent would notice that their child was a little devil heathen sent from the depth of Tartarus to wreak hell on Earth and do something like set him ablaze. Or cook him in an oven. Maybe shove a dry stake of wood through his black, hollow heart. All that would happen would be that his body crumbled and blew wistfully off in the wind. Isn’t it a parent’s responsibility to not unleash their spawn on the rest of the world simply so they can suffer too?”