5.8 KiB
Chapter II -- The New Cyber Kids
'So, I'm standing there like an utter idiot, and all of a sudden the syringe flies across the room and into my shoulder!' Adir was telling several of his new coursemates, all huddled excitedly.
'Into your shoulder?' Karin asked with silent awe. She always spoke silently.
'Still have a nasty mark,' he answered, 'Look'. He lowered the thick green uniform to reveal a blackened old bruise. 'This is where it went in', he gestured just below the neck.
'And I though I had it bad', said Dennis. 'I still think I had it bad. Bastards wouldn't let me out for a smoke. We sat there for hours'.
'Well, you got in front of me in line. You have the bigger Personal Number.'
'That's Time Length!' Sharon excitedly pitched in. 'Nothing's more important!'
Adir found the whole concept of 'Time Length' incredibly stupid.
'Alright, line up', Shani said from the now open classroom door, just enough for them to hear. Adir has yet to decide his stance on the whole constant shouting business, now that's it's over with.
They lined up in front of the classroom, all fourty two of them.
'One minute to attention', Shani said coldly. 'Look nice for the Course Commander'.
'ONE MINUTE TO ATTENTION!' bellowed Roi. Well, maybe not entirely over with.
After much more than a minute, the CC showed up.
'Alright, alright', he chuckled. 'Come on, get inside'.
It was 11AM and Adir was fiercly struggling to stay awake. The CC was vigoursly instructing them on Operating System Internals, and Adir realised that for the first time in all these months he is in real jepoardy of dozing off. He stood up -- joining most of his coursemates at this point.
Much to his surprise, Re'em nudged his shoulder. He had fallen asleep.
Adir suddenly felt a wave of despair. What else is he supposed to do?
'Could I go?' he suddenly blurted out to the CC.
The CC stopped mid-sentence, and everyone turned their fragile attention to him. The officer was so surprised he did not even seem about to scold him.
'Go?' he asked, frowning with puzzlement.
'Yea'.
Silence fell, and eventually Adir realised the CC was expecting him to say something else.
'Pee, I mean'.
Yotam did not expect this from Adir, who had never piped up before.
'Be a bit more professional next time, please', he said, and gestured at the door. Adir fuddled out with elation.
'The key,' Yotam added.
'Here man', mumbled Bar and tossed the keys at him. They hit his face and fell to his hands.
The heavy metal door closed behind him. He stood at the small, empty space outside, overlooking the muddy nothing with the few benches in between. Everyone was still studying.
He took a deep, exhausted breath. He felt the warm sun on his uniform. He stretched lazily, feeling some strength returning.
Adir rounded the small classroom towards the restrooms, very slowly, humming to himself.
He inserted the key in the door -- to his surprise, it was unlocked.
A tall, red headed coursee opened the door. Behind him was another squat, dark haired soldier.
'What?' he demanded.
Adir saw his stripithings. Black and white. These must be the new Cyber coursees.
Asocial as he was, even Adir picked up on the long lasting rivalry between the Computer Systems Infastructure Managers and the Cyber Security Defense Specialists. He could not understand why -- they do pretty much the same thing -- but this was a fact of this place, inherited one course cycle at a time. He did not buy into it, though. He would treat this person with utmost respect.
'Pee', he answered diplomatically.
The Cyberer sighed.
'Don't make a mess', he reprimanded. 'We clean this up later'.
'Everyone cleans this up later', he said. The Cyberer looked at him as one might a deranged, fuming chimpanzee.
He 'ugh'd and left.
By the time he got back around the classroom, everyone was outside. How long has it been?
Naturally, he went to his desk for his three minutes of intense sleep.
When he sat down in front of the computer, however, he did something else -- and was not quite sure why.
'I don't understand why you would act like this', Commander Dan told him. 'You've been a good soldier so far. Where is this coming from?'
Adir was vaguely aware of the situation. They were sitting around one of the tables outside, after Dan pulled him out from class. He suddenly felt cold.
Adir did not answer, because he genuinly did not know what this is about. Why can't he hold on to thoughts lately?
Dan did that thing where he sits and stares until Adir blurts something out to break the silence. Every single soldier ever trained for command used this tactic liberally, certain all the enlisted would break under their steely gaze.
It never worked on Adir, and he quite liked seeing confusion creeping up their faces.
Dan was a bit proud for that, though. 'You skipped out on the CC's lesson,' he continued, 'And now you write this nonsense on the course forum. You're one of the better soldiers here. Why?'
Adir's poem burst out from the nothing, and he was supremely proud of it. It read thus:
The New Cyberers / Pooshellu
The Man Bar hands me the key,
Methinks to meself, make water I shall
And just when the hand reaches out for the trousers
Into the room enter the new Cyberees.
The first's eyes fall to my stripthings
Purple is great, yet he did not see it thus
His nose rising just shy of his brows
'What, do you have a bathroom key too?' he asks
The restrooms are for all coursees, says I
Yet Cybereeno remains unimpressed
Do me a favor, he begs with a look of plea
Don't thrash the bathroom
Wer'e cleaning them later.
'I thought it was funny', he stated.
'And you came here to laugh?', Dan inquired.
He stared Adir down again. Adir mulled the question over.
'I know things are difficult', Dan finally gave out, 'But get a grip. You've been given a great privelege. Act like it'. He left.
The others were just pouring out, and as soon as Dan was out of sight many they flocked to Adir.