ALICE, page 7
“And there is a large cafeteria on the command level. Once you are more familiar with your surroundings, the attendants can provide individual food service in your rooms, if you choose,” ALICE finished.
Jake agreed with ALICE that the collective learning experience would be best to start with.
Before turning them loose to explore their new living quarters, Jake said, “If you have any questions, just speak out, and ask ALICE for help.”
“What about you?” Becky asked, sliding up next to Jake and taking his arm in her hands.
“ALICE can always find me if you need me, just ask her and she will let me know.”
With that, the bots led them off to their respective rooms, dropping bundles as directed and relocating Becky into Sandy’s room for them to share. All the rooms were close together and just a few doors down from Jake’s quarters.
On a whim, Jake wandered down to the dining room ALICE mentioned. It was a large open room, with a dozen or so tables, ranging from several two tops to one table that sat twenty people. Along one wall was a counter with multiple doors. He suspected the food came from there. He wandered over and while inspecting one of the doors, he heard ALICE ask, “Would you care for something?”
“How about a beer?” Jake inquired.
“What kind? I have a fairly extensive inventory,” ALICE asked.
“A stout” Jake answered.
Within seconds, the door opened, and a tray slid out with a frosty glass of dark ale.
Suddenly the door to the dining room opened and the group, chatting excitedly and wandered in, led by another bot. They headed in Jake’s direction.
“We haven’t eaten since last night,” Kathy offered.
“So we did like you said and asked Alice, she said to follow that,” she pointed to the bot.
“Well, we certainly can’t have that,” Jake said, taking a sip from his glass and noting they’d all changed from the rag tag night gowns they were snatched in. The diversity of their clothing, he was positive, reflected ALICE’s profiling analysis, performed on the way back.
The range of styles went from Sara in utilitarian jeans and a pullover top to Sandy’s flowery and frilly print dress that did little to hide the size of her chest. Most were barefoot, but Sandy had found pumps with heels, admittedly low ones, but heels?
Jake stepped up to the counter and said, “The food service can provide you with just about anything you are familiar with,” avoiding saying ALICE by name.
“What did you usually eat at home?” he asked.
“In good times, we had pork, chicken or beef, sometimes corn, beans or potatoes. Lettuces, greens, squash,” Sara offered, tossing out general categories.
“OK, let’s try serving family style then. Why don’t you all sit while I order,” Jake said, indicating the large table. While they sat themselves, he began ordering a combination of items, figuring they could pick and choose as they liked.
In a few minutes, the doors opened and trays of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, biscuits, tossed salad and assorted veggies. There were pitchers of tea, water, and lemonade as well. He carried it all to the big table one tray at a time with the bots providing plates and flatware for serving and eating.
Jake watched as they passed around the dishes and served up their own plates. Eventually he found a place to sit once he was sure he had taken care of everyone, serving himself a plate.
Looking around the table, he watched them all eating and talking excitedly. It never ceased to amaze him how you can sit at a table with women and they all seemed to be talking at once?
Once they’d all eaten, and the excitement seemed to be winding down, Jake announced, “I have a treat for everyone.”
Walking over to the counter, he whispered something they couldn’t hear and in a moment the door opened and a tray slid out.
He returned to the table, tray held high, then lowered it to pass out ice cream with hot fudge.
“I have never known a woman who didn’t like chocolate!”
“What IS THIS?” Becky asked after her first bite and not waiting for the answer.
“Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge,” Jake said, “good, huh!”
“I think I’m going to like it here,” Linda offered.
Chapter 5
They spent the next few weeks getting all the women settled in and oriented. Each night everyone, including Jake, was fitted with sensors before bed. This allowed ALICE to “educate” them while they slept. Some of the women were hesitant at first, but Sara was proving to be a first class second in command, keeping everyone with the program.
If Jake needed something from the women and they resisted, Sara stepped in and took care of convincing them. Not that anything he was asking of them crossed the line of proper behavior. Quite the opposite, he followed very strict hands off policies. He wanted to be sure they knew he hadn’t brought them for his entertainment.
He did have to admit, they were all lookers though. It must be that farm girl thing. However, he was firm, though, DAMNIT, they were his responsibility and there is no hanky-panky in the chain of command.
He wasn’t so sure they felt the same way. Lately he was noticing they tended to be getting in quite close when he was demonstrating things. More than once, he felt a breast pressed into his arm. He felt them leaning against him or pressing into his back as they looked over his shoulder.
Then there was the younger two, who started dressing a bit more suggestive. He seriously began to consider requiring uniforms.
The reveal of ALICE as non-human had proven entertaining. Jake led the group into the control room, pointing out the various systems. He was indicating what each did and how that worked to control the facility. He then simply introduced them to ALICE’s main control panel.
“That’s ALICE?” Becky blurted out.
“Yup, well actually it’s her main access terminal,” Jake replied.
“ALICE is actually all around us, and we are inside her. She is all of this,” he said, waving his arm across the room.
“I suspected something like that,” Sara stated.
“She is just too damn efficient to be real,” she finished with a grin.
“Thank you Sara,” ALICE chipped in, “but, I am real, just not biological.”
Mealtime continued to be an all hands activity, though it was a lot less family style. Each of the women was developing their own favorites, but pizza was a big hit with everyone.
They received two calls from Burt, the town leader. The first was to show the Prosperity town council it worked. The second had been a medical emergency. Someone with a raging infection needed antibiotics.
ALICE flew a chopper out with a medical kit. It included additional supplies for the doctor and the antibiotics requested. She confirmed the next day the patient was improving, and the doctor was overjoyed with the new supplies.
By the end of the month, ALICE let Jake know she completed the profiles on all the new additions. Thankfully, none were a security concern, and she had recommendations for training assignments ready for review. By now, all the women had received a general education, about the level of a pre-attack high school graduate.
Early one morning Jake had just completed his regular morning workout and was heading to the couch in his room. He and ALICE decided to review her findings in private before presenting to the others.
“OK ALICE, what ya got?” Jake asked, taking a seat on the couch.
“I have organized my analysis; beginning with the ones I am most confident.”
“Starting with Sara, it should be no surprise to you she has strong leadership and organizational skills. Extremely focused, she takes to the training programs well. She does, however suppress a strong, aggressive undertone that I believe has its roots in her parent’s death. She has requested combat training twice and is regularly monitoring the LA gang areas in her free time.”
“Yeah, there’s no surprise there. Let’s start command and combat training and see if a good beating doesn’t take the edges off?” Jake knew the combat training program would require sparring with the training bots and himself at some point.
He noted in his own combat practices, his speed and responses were way up from before the stasis project. Was it the effects of the exposure to radiation while in stasis?
“Next is Becky, her interest in science and biology in particular makes her a very strong medical training candidate. Though young, she has demonstrated maturity, empathy, and strong caring tendencies. As you may have noticed, she also has a strong personal interest in you,” ALICE completed.
“Not going to happen,” Jake replied flatly.
“At some point it would be good for you to consider a personal relationship,” ALICE replied.
Jake ignored the statement, “Next.”
They continued on this way as they reviewed the entire group.
Linda was the older of the other two sisters and behind Sara by a year. She exhibited good organizational skills and the strongest computer aptitude of the group. Jake agreed she was definitely a candidate for command center training.
Linda’s sister Kathy was 19, and a few years older than Becky is. While both fell in the same category of science and biology, Kathy was not as strong as Becky was. Jake had a feeling she would end up Becky’s Jr in medical.
Bonnie was an enigma. At 20, she wasn’t a strong leader like her sister Sara but took instruction well. She was methodical and technically bent, but not overly so. They dropped her into the combat training bucket for now.
Finally, Sandy was, in Jake’s mind, more of a typical teenage girl in action and behavior than any of the other women. It was this and the fact she had no preferences that made her an undecided for an assignment. Her flamboyant, creative style and people skills slanted her toward some people oriented type work. They figured pairing her up with Linda for now might be a good start in some communications role.
The review completed, Jake stretched and walked around a little. They had been at it for three hours, longer than he realized, but they’d gone back and forth on a few items. One particular issue they disagreed with, was Jake really wanted all the girls to have basic combat training. He wanted them trained in shooting, hand to hand, heavy weapons and tactical planning and analysis.
ALICE rebutted that Becky and Kathy would chafe at all but the shooting. She also insisted that Linda would find little benefit in hand-to-hand and heavy weapons while sitting in the control center. In the end they compromised that everyone needed to know how to shoot, Linda and Sandy would also learn basic hand to hand and Sara and Bonnie got full combat training.
Since it was now close to lunchtime anyway, Jake suggested they do the brief over lunch. He headed down to the dining room and asked ALICE to call all the women there.
Once everyone arrived and had seated themselves with food, Jake began “When I extended you the offer to come here, I said it was so you could help me. Since then you have learned it’s not really me you're helping, its humanity. From the first night you got here, you’ve been learning in your sleep and learning even more while awake,” he said with a smile.
“During all that time, ALICE and I have been watching to see where we think you can excel.”
At that comment, everyone stopped eating, all eyes directed at Jake.
“We have reviewed your interests and aptitudes and come up with these suggested assignments, so please tell us if you disagree,” Jake started.
“We would like for Becky and Kathy to concentrate on medical skills, hopefully becoming doctors.”
Jake looked to see both women beaming, they would get no argument there.
“Linda, for you we think advanced computer training for work in the command center? And we would like you to work with Sandy in there?”
Linda nodded and looked to Sandy for confirmation. Sandy shrugged and whispered yes with a slight smile.
Jake added, “Sandy, communications is a starting point for you. There may be some additional things we assign for you there later.”
She nodded, smiling broadly this time at what she considered special attention.
“And for you two,” Jake said, turning to look at Bonnie and Sara “it should be no surprise that Sara wants to kill bad guys for a living.”
Everyone laughed since that was the first thing she asked Jake about “So you are both headed to advanced combat training, but be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!”
Bonnie jumped in with a mock objection, “Hey, that wasn’t me, ” she said, holding up both hands “I was hiding in our farm when you showed up!”
There were more laughs.
Jake continued when it quieted down, “Everyone will learn to shoot. Linda and Sandy will also get hand to hand,” Jake turned to Becky “unless you and Kathy wants to do that as well?”
They both shook their heads no, “we pass” Kathy said.
ALICE nailed it, Jake thought with a shrug.
----*----
“Ok, we start tomorrow on our new training assignments. Actually, we will all start tonight as it will be included in your sleep lessons.”
Then Jake added, “Sara, will you stay after for a minute please.”
She nodded and as lunch was pretty much over, everyone else took that as a cue to leave.
After everyone filed out Jake moved to sit across from Sara at her table, “Tell me why you want combat training so bad?”
She stared at him hard for a minute and then blurted, “When those men came to our farm, all I could think was to run away. I was so scared, but I had to get my sisters to safety. I knew what they would do to us if they caught us.”
“Then, when we were hidden in the barn, I saw them drag my parents from the house. They’d gone inside, away from the barn to distract the bandits and let us get away. I watched as they shot my father and then argued about whether my mother would be worth trying to sell. They finally just shot her too.”
Sara continued, “Bonnie and Becky didn’t see because I buried them in the hay, up in the loft, but I saw. I grabbed an ax, and I ran to kill the bastard that shot my parents. He just knocked me down and laughed.”
She stared at Jake, then continued, “He was going to rape me right there, next to my parents' bodies, but someone shouted that there were people coming. So, he pulled me over to the wagon, tossed me in and tied me to the others. On the way out he grabbed me by the hair and bragged how he was going to use me before selling me.”
Jake remembered watching that scene in the wagon play out. At least he now knew he shot the bastard that killed her folks.
“I never want to feel that helpless again. I want to be able to leave a field full of bodies, knowing those bastards will never rape and murder ever. That’s why I want combat training!”
They sat there for a few minutes just staring at each other. Jake could see the rage and frustration Sara tried to suppress for so long.
“You will get your training,” Jake said finally, “but understand, you need to let go of your rage or you won’t be effective. I wasn’t angry when I killed those men. I focused on the job at hand. To be able to free you and your friends, I had to select and prioritize my targets dispassionately, based on the threat to you. Not who I was most angry with or who was the ugliest,” he said with a smile.
She smiled back, and then it faded.
“Just so you know, I saw that bastard as he pulled your hair, then backhand you. That did make me move him up from 6 to 3 on my priority list.”
She smiled again at that.
“But not because he was cruel to you because that indicated he might try to use you as cover instead of fight. Just so you know, I put one through his head.”
At that, Jake stood up and said, “When we are finished with you, you will never feel helpless again.”
----*----
Jake sat stretching in the middle of the floor mat in the workout room. Even before he had gone to rescue the women, he started a morning routine that included 1 to 2 hours of workout. Working with weights, the treadmill, martial arts, hand-to-hand practice, he went through them all. He continuously discovered new things he didn’t know he knew!
Jake had plenty of combat training and experience before the stasis experiment, but ALICE fed him many of the military’s best combat skills training programs while he’d been in stasis. The sensors he wore would actually stimulate muscle memory in addition to the mental images. She said it helped keep him somewhat conditioned while in stasis.
Whatever the reason, he was grateful for the new skills now. What he was still unsure about, was the continuous improvement he was seeing in his training.
His running was under 4 minutes per mile, for 20 miles! His best PFT was only 18 min for 3 miles. His lifting weight was way up, more than twice his previous bests. Most interesting of all, his reflexes, and response times were unreal. We are talking pluck a fly out of the air fast, he thought to himself.
This morning, though, was to be different. Today he started sparring with the women. It had been three weeks since they started their advance training programs and, other than meals, he’d hardly seen any of them.
So far it's all been either book learning or with the training bots. This would be their first instructor led experience. As previously arranged, Becky and Kathy would sit this one out, but conversation in the dining room led him to believe they were all coming to this first session.
They wanted to see how good the Captain really was. Apparently, ALICE had been taunting them during training with the bots that, “The Captain will kick your ass if you don’t improve!”
Truth be told he had no clue himself, so he was just glad they would be wearing training pads. A cool invention, they worked like the uniform materials. You could hit someone in pads, full on, and they only received less than half the force of the blow. Any joint snapping moves locked out, so no over extensions of the limbs. The full set included a faceplate on the headpiece.
He never actually used them before, since the bots he sparred with didn’t require them, but ALICE assured him he couldn’t hurt more than their pride.
