After lunch, all First Squad did swimming training with me. Maze says we might do some of the flooded rotations, and so we swam in our full uniforms with the breathers, and had little races through the underwater obstacles. Underwater battles have whole new levels of complications: talents like Fire and Wind are useless. Telekinesis is still viable, but you handle it differently, since picking up a rock and throwing it has an entirely different effect underwater. Lohn and Mara’s Light powers still work pretty much the same, and there is apparently a water manipulation talent, though no-one on First Squad has it. But most water environments are close-combat, except harder.
I was so tired afterwards. I keep having afternoon naps, and then waking up in the evening. Hopefully when I’m fitter I’ll be able to handle all this better.
Sunday, February 24
Seventh Squad
I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Seventh Squad captain, Atara Forel, was totally professional. Back when she was being nasty-sweet to Zan I’d already seen that she was the type whose attacks aren’t open, and she definitely wasn’t the sort to show herself in a bad light during an official testing session which was being recorded. So when I reached the testing room, all she did was nod at me and say: "Good, we can get started now. Same routine as Kanato’s squad. We’ll start with you, Mema."
Seventh is another of the big-hitter squads, and just like Eighth, were caught up in the sheer excitement of being enhanced to super-destructive levels. It’s spectacular to watch the big-hitter tests, but at the same time kind of dull, so I spent my time studying them instead.
Forel is like a cat: lithe and slinky, with a pointed chin and big eyes. I can just picture her purring and digging in the claws. Her primary talent is Lightning, and she saved her testing for last. It was important to her, I think, that her overall result was higher than Hasen’s from Eighth. When she’s pleased her eyes go all slitted.
The other guy who was with her at the pool is Pol Tsennen, primarily an Ena manipulation talent, with a secondary in Fire. He seems mainly interested in watching Forel. Then there’s the smug twins, Mema and Residen. I don’t think they’re really twins – they don’t look precisely alike, and they have different surnames – but their hair is cut the same way and they seem to use the same mannerisms and they’re very pleased with themselves and keep exchanging looks. They had a swag of talents, with a primary of Ice for Mema and a variation of Light manipulation for Residen.
Dahlen is their Sight talent, with both Gate and Path Sight, along with Telekinesis. She’s tall and strong-looking and I don’t know if it’s just because of her height, but I kept thinking of her as a tree. Cats might sharpen their claws on trees, but they’ve got plenty of bark, and don’t really care.
The last squad member, Saitel Raph, was the only one who caught me watching them. Him I couldn’t make out at all, other than an impression that he’s smart. He’s also the only one who spoke to me outside Forel’s strictly correct instructions, and then just to say "Thank you," before heading off.
Is it really the second level monitoring that makes the younger squads so disinclined to interact with me? Or do they think of me as human machinery, there to perform a task? With the notable exception of Eeli, the younger Setari never seem to consider the possibility of just chatting with me.
Or – just occurred to me – they’re all competitive with each other, and there’s an advantage in having me assigned to them. Maybe they’re all determined not to be seen pursuing me, so to speak. But…no. No-one’s ever acted like any of my assignments will be my decision.
Speaking of which, when I woke up from my inevitable after-testing nap, I had another bunch of rotations assigned. All with First Squad, so I have something to be happy about.
Monday, February 25
Bridges Rotation
I spotted Zan again, having dinner when I went for breakfast, and wasn’t slow to ask to join her. She had circles under her eyes, but almost sort of smiled at me as I sat down. I asked if she could recommend any novels to read, and tried to explain fantasy to her. I don’t want to read stories about Setari – I was getting more than enough of them in real life and from television – but hadn’t succeeded in finding any good stories which were based on mythology rather than reality, so to speak. We had a really interesting conversation about the origin of myths and the kind of stories people tell when they know what’s "out there" compared to when they don’t. I almost forgot to meet up with First Squad for the day’s mission, and had to dash off, but she emailed me a list of books to try.
Bridges Rotation is only one space, although we had to walk through an awful lot of Tare’s near-space to get to its gate. Near-space is usually fairly clear, because the Setari spend such a lot of effort killing off everything in the surrounding spaces, but we’ve a couple of times encountered things on the way to the gates and today there was this swarm of razor-tipped rabbits (O.o) which First Squad chased down and killed on the way.
The Bridges space itself was very strange. The bridges are all made of bone; the starkly curving ribs of giants. But the space is twisted, distorted, and perspective plays tricks with up and down and where things end and begin. A space designed by Escher, which I should have appreciated, but it made me dizzy, so I eventually had to concentrate just on the section of bridge in front of me.
There were three types of Ionoth there. Quite large ones, about the size of a car, that had attached themselves to the underneath of the bridges and were very similar in colour. I suppose the idea is that they wait until something walks above them and then they close these massive filigree claw-things over the top. An odd kind of Venus fly-trap. Combat Sight made these immensely easy. Maze or Zee would spot them well ahead, and then Maze just pried them loose with Telekinesis and held them up so Lohn could shoot them with unenhanced Light beams.
The rest of the time we chased about after long-legged, metallic storks with curving, sword-like beaks. They would run if they met us alone, collect in groups, and then try and rush us. The walls of light and columns of fire came in handy for them.
And there were two dog-things, rather like afghan hounds, but with possum-type claws to grip the bridges as they raced along. They trailed a pearly rainbow light, and looked strange and dangerous. Since they were a new type, First Squad paused to observe and document them, waiting to see how they would react when they sighted us.
They stopped, and sat down, heads angled toward each other as if they were talking. First Squad waited, and made no move to prevent them when the dogs loped off through one of the gates.
I was glad First Squad doesn’t indiscriminately slaughter everything they encounter, but curious as well, and asked Zee about it over dinner. I’ve learned not to ask too many questions while in the spaces. First Squad will usually answer me, but I think they’d rather keep their attention on scanning for attacks.
"Fortunately, the Castle Rotation was one of the first spaces we encountered," Zee told me. "It’s an obvious lesson: some of the Ionoth can act as our allies, if only by lowering the number of our opponents. Combat Sight allows us to judge intention to a degree, and those two today sparked no reaction. Wary, but no more. If they attack unprovoked, they’ll be put on the kill on sight list, but not until then. In some of the spaces, if we tried to kill everything there, it would take us a week, and it only makes sense to focus on Ionoth which pose a tangible danger. Still, don’t–"