Near Future 1: Awakening (11 page)

Emily looked at her brother with one of her special little smiles and said, "Zeke, don't you still have one course to add to your classes for this term? You should take this class and be Miranda's partner. You two would be able to work closely together I am sure."

Zeke gave her one of the looks he reserved for his sister who was always meddling in his business. He had thought she would slow down after the disaster with the Caitlyn therapy trips. He knew that she was sorry about that one.
Hah!
At least that enabled the two of us to meet Miranda, something that wouldn't have happened without that.
But he didn't say any of that. "Well maybe. I'll have to think about it."

They arrived at the school, with Zeke letting Emily and Miranda out in front of the dorm. Miranda and Emily easily found their room and unpacked, with Miranda finishing quickly and then helping Emily. A little later Zeke drug them off on a tour of the campus. They also showed Miranda the food court and the place she suspected would become her favorite spot, the coffee shop.

Returning to the dorm, the girls spent the evening chatting. Miranda talked about her memory problem, and explained how it was funny that she could remember how to use a VR on a computer, but she didn't know what foods that she liked until she tried them, just like her love of coffee that she had discovered. The worst thing was she couldn't remember anything about who she was or her parents. When she talked about her parents, Emily saw that there were tears in her eyes and hugged her. Eventually, they moved on and chatted about less serious things, with Emily going on and on about this and that at the school.

#

The next day, Emily had to meet her mother downtown, so Miranda wandered about the campus. She had a map she could see on her HUD, but she wanted to see the real layout and what everything looked like up close. She first came to the military training area, complete with a shooting range, armory, and who knew what else. She wondered how well she would be able to do in the training program there. Somehow she felt that she had trained with basic firearm and self-defense skills, but she had no idea why she thought that and she doubted that she had done that well with it.

Moving past the training area, she came to the soccer field where the girls' team was practicing, including Caitlyn. She watched Caitlyn playing soccer and admitted that the girl was really good, but she couldn't believe the way she hogged the ball in practice. She was distracted by another student who walked up and turned back just as a soccer ball was coming toward her head. Without thinking, she snagged it out of the air. She looked up to see Caitlyn holding her hands up like it was an accident, but she knew that it was done on purpose.

Miranda also knew there was nothing she could do about it, but she couldn't resist throwing the ball back to Caitlyn. It wasn't her fault if she threw it back a little too hard. The look on Caitlyn's face when she caught it was enough.

Knowing she'd made things worse, but feeling a little smug about it anyway, she left the soccer field and came to a number of the major buildings of the school. When she got to the library, which they had not gone inside the day before, she excitedly rushed in to take a look. She saw many books and was glad that libraries had some real books even though everything today was electronic. Then she saw a sign that said "Special Research." So she followed the arrows to a new area in the library that had no books, but several computer stations and a number of small rooms that she guessed were for enhanced computer access. She heard a sound, and looked up to see an older man with white hair. When he came toward her with a friendly smile, she assumed that he was a librarian, so she gave him a nervous smile of her own.

He quietly said, "I have a treat for you, if you will follow me." He led her to the biggest of the separate rooms, just sticking his head in the door and announcing to the AI, "Grant all Access." Smiling, he walked away, leaving Miranda staring at him as he left.

Miranda couldn't help but wonder why he didn't even ask who she was or why she was there. Or if that was the appropriate access level. But then when she stepped into the room, a full-sized VR interface opened up in front of her and she stared in amazement. She had no idea such an interface existed. It filled the whole room and many objects appeared life sized when she pulled them up. She could even walk around and look at something from every angle. She spent a few minutes playing with it, but suddenly she realized that she could research her physics problem with the full tools available to the school. She then spent hours diving into the problem until suddenly a floating VR information icon appeared in front of her with a message, "The library is closing in 15 minutes. Please, complete your work and bring any books you need to the automated checkout station."

Miranda realized that she had a severe headache and was feeling a little dizzy. She also noticed for the first time that she had a VR message from Emily saying, "Pizza in the room..." That made Miranda realize just how hungry she was, too.

As soon as she could get her equilibrium back, Miranda headed to the dorm room. She didn't mention the library. Classes were starting the next day, so Emily was ready to crash early, and that was perfect for Miranda, still fighting the headache although the pizza helped with the dizziness. She dreamed of a giant VR in a hangar in what was obviously Space Tech Space Station. In the dream, a beautiful little space ship seemed to coalesce out of the VR image. Many, many years later, she would remember that dream and smile.

#

As Zeke knew, Miranda had been excused from the morning PT for the first week and she continued to walk with a limp. However, she didn't find getting to class to be especially difficult, since all of her textbooks were electronic and once downloaded, she only had to carry her pad. The notes and assignments from the professors for all of her classes were also available in a similar manner. And to Miranda, all the classes seemed easy but at the same time very interesting. The special projects class did not start until the next week, so Miranda walked down to the lab where she was amazed at all the equipment they had. She wanted to try her idea for the project, but wondered if the project class would give them a big enough budget in the class to accomplish it, and more importantly, if she could get anyone to work on it with her.

Early afternoon found Miranda at the shooting range for the first class of her military training this term. It was taught by a former Sergeant from the military. He was not only a large man that appeared very competent, but he was very smart and Miranda sensed an edge about him. That man had served in combat; of that she was certain. He told them that on their first day all of the students would be shooting for their baseline to determine their handicap for the various internal competitions for the term.

Everyone was given a pistol and strongly worded safety instructions on how to load and how to handle the pistol for shooting. Then they were each assigned to a shooting station, and were all instructed to take a test shoot, each student firing five shots at the target. Miranda stepped up to her station and without thinking, rapidly fired her five shots. She gasped when she realized that she had hit the center of the bull's-eye five times. When the instructor walked up and retrieved her target, he assumed that she had missed four times and luckily hit the bull's-eye one time, because each shot had passed through the same hole at the exact center, leaving only one mark. Realizing that she should not have been able to do what she had just done, she wisely kept quiet about it.

When it was time to take the real test, Miranda deliberately placed her shots, each time hitting the exact spot where she aimed. Now that she was being watched, Miranda made sure that she was firing her shots slowly, so that to her it seemed like slow motion. She put the first one slightly away from the center grouping but almost within them. The next three were placed in the area around the bull's-eye. Finally the last one was again inside the bull's-eye, slightly off from the center.
 

When they scored her test, Miranda found that she had a really good score that was in the top five for the class. The instructor requested that she stay after class with the other top five shooters to discuss putting together a shooting competition team for the school. Realizing that she would get advanced training, Miranda agreed. She was surprised to see another girl in the top five, but she was glad to see her. The instructor requested that they think about it and return the next day if they decided they wanted to join the team.

Classes for the rest of the week continued in the same vein. At the shooting range, they all returned to be on the team. The team practiced together separate from the others in the class for the rest of the week. They learned to shoot with light rifles, a different kind of pistol, and on the last day long rifles. Miranda continued to place her shots where she thought they should go, but when she came to the long range she was the first one up. She was not sure what was expected of her at that range, so she hit the furthest target with her shots.
 

The instructor gave her a surprised look and instructed her to do it again. When she again hit the same target, he proclaimed that she was going to be the long-range shooter for the team. No one else was even able to hit the last target, so they all agreed and one of the guys slapped Miranda on the back saying, "You get to buy the beer when we win the first match!"

Miranda laughed and said, "Sorry, underage." Miranda tried not to act like it was a big deal, but she really liked being accepted as part of the group.

The instructor told them that they had a virtual shooting range that they could use outside of class for practice work, allowing extended practice without using ammo. He gave them all an access code to the VR system that operated in the warehouse type building near the shooting range.

Stopping Miranda before she could leave, he asked her, "Since you did so well at the long rifle, would you like to take a try at the sniper rifle? Although they do not officially have a sniper rifle event in the competitions, they are doing sniper demonstration events with the idea of adding a sniper class event in the future. I personally served as a sniper in my military years, and I believe I will be able to teach you to shoot very well. You are a natural. I'm not easily impressed, but you impressed me today."

"Sarge," Miranda told him. "If you will teach me, I would love to learn. That's one of the reasons I am here, to learn and to be the best that I can be."

"Come back tomorrow at this same time slot and we will begin your training. And I warn you now. I'm going to give you the full training program, so that if you complete it, you will receive the sniper accreditation which will be included in your permanent military record. But it is not going to be easy."

"Thank you, Sarge. I will be here and promise you that I will give it my best, and I will consider it an honor."

#

That night Miranda used her special access to research her shooting instructor, Master Sergeant John Lewis. Although she could not find any details about specific missions, she was able to determine some of the locations where he had served, and she found out that he had received a Purple Heart and a Silver Star for his actions in saving several of his fellow soldiers after being injured in a battle. Her opinion of the man increased even more, and she decided that she would not hold back in her shooting while he was teaching her. He deserved that much as a measure of respect.

The next day Miranda showed up early and watched her instructor finishing up with the class before her time slot. For his part, the Sergeant had begun to wonder about this new student. He actually believed that she had been holding back in her shooting. Now that he had seen her shoot, he believed that he had been mistaken that first day when he had been checking her first target. He now believed that she had actually hit that first bulls-eye all five times, but for some reason did not want it to be known. Ever since then, he could almost sense her choosing where she would hit the target before she fired her shots, and that she was also shooting much slower and deliberately than she was capable of doing. Already competing at an amazing level, that was absolutely unbelievable, but after all the number of years at this that he had, he had learned to stay with his gut feeling. That had saved his life more than once.

When she came up after the previous class left, he walked her to an area in the armory that no one else could enter without his access code. "I need to clear one thing up with you before we get started," he told her. "We have complete privacy here, so no one will be able to hear our conversation. I promise on my honor as a soldier that I will tell no one your answer. When you have been shooting in our class, are you really showing me all that you can do, or are you deliberately shooting at the level you are expecting others to see?"

Miranda gave him a big smile. "You know, I researched you last night and found out about the Purple Heart and Silver Star medals you have." He gave her a look at that. He had no idea a student could find that information. "And Sarge, I decided then that you deserved the best that I could give you. I have been trying to keep a low profile, so I have very definitely been shooting at the expected level. I can hit any spot on a target that I aim for as long as the shot is physically possible. I don't know my limitations at this point, although obviously in the sniper training, I will have much to learn such as handling the effects of the wind and other things."

"So that first target on the first day, just what did you really do when you fired those five shots?"

"You already know the answer to that. Of course no one but you and me would believe that is what happened." Miranda smiled at the look in his eyes. She knew he was pleased, something not easy to do with this soldier who demanded perfection from himself, if not from his students.

"So if you can shoot for this training where we cannot be observed, will you promise you will do your best?"