2400 AD

A voice boomed out from the mezzanine level above them.

A large black man, his voice even larger and deeper than his personality, stood on the landing and he exuded confidence.

“Welcome to Denizen 1. My name is Patrick Nkoni. I manage all security issues in this facility. You’re all here because you’ve chosen, by free will, to fight the enemy known as Xenocon. Today is the start of your training. You will be taught combat skills, and trained to use highly capable but complicated weapons. Failure during this training will mean you will be deployed to fulfill other tasks, just know this, you are always welcome to opt out at any time. Every individual, every team is a vital cog in the wheel. Respect each other and we’ll win this war. Let’s get to it.”

Below, the crowd of men and women were separated into teams of six. Each under the control of a team commander and his or her assistant leader.

Callum was on Kendall’s team.

She called them into a circle around her.

“Welcome. The first thing we need to do is find a name for our team. Any ideas?”

No one said a word. She continued, “Color names, like red or green or blue are allowed. Rivers and mountains make good team names. Does that help?”

“Ukhozi,” a woman suggested. She stood in the middle of the group.

“Ukhozi?” Kendall repeated.

“It means Eagle.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kendall said. “Anyone else?”

No one else came forward with a name. “Ukhozi it is. We’re going to teach you how to fight, some of you are trained soldiers, and that will help. We are an independent group that will challenge all the other teams to improve their effectiveness. We play an adversarial role. In other words, we usually play the enemy in training. If it’s action you want, this is the team.

“Denizen 1 is an extremely effective and organized counter insurgence facility with strong cultures. We explore alternative futures for our combat teams so that they are effective in any scenario. You’ll be going on your first gauntlet tomorrow evening. Your role will be only to observe what we do. But we’ll also be watching you.”

Kendall stepped forward and turned as she spoke inside the circle. “We aren’t looking for bravery. Bravery is stupid. It can cost lives, including your own. In this fight, we can’t afford to lose any man or woman. So if you see something out there that requires bravery, my advice to you is to restrain yourself. Is that clear?”

The team nodded, some mumbled a quiet “yes”.

Kendall said, “I can’t hear you. Is everything clear?”

The team belched out a quick “yes”.

“That’s better. We understand each other.”

Callum watched Kendall intently as she spoke. Her voice was never too high-pitched, but always assertive, and she used wide, sweeping gestures with her hands. When she spoke, people listened.

A well-built, dark man stepped forward and asked to speak. He introduced himself as Mishak Tshabalala-Maine.

“Can you tell us where this gauntlet mission will be?”

Kendall smiled, one person in each group always had that question. “You’ll only know tomorrow night. We don’t divulge that information for security reasons. Gauntlets are steeped in stealth and secrecy, the only way we can win this war is to use surprise at all times. Only a few select people in command know where, when and how. Any other questions?” Kendall waited a moment.

“No more questions? On we go. You’ll be participating in simulated field exercises and you’ll learn the importance of teamwork. From time to time you’ll be in close proximity of our Android combat teams. These teams are out of bounds to you. If you feel the urge to socialize with these teams, simply resist.”

Callum said, “Looks like “resist” is a key word in here.”

The team heard his comment but only Kendall reacted. She walked up to him and stood directly in front of him.

“Are you trying to manipulate the group? If you are, you’ll come second best. Everything we say or do in this facility is for the security and safety of everyone in it. Never question our motives.”

Callum didn’t expect such retaliation. He stood motionless and silent.

She continued. “You’ll find that resisting most conflict situations will save your life.” Her eyes bore deeply into Callum, as though she were looking into his soul.

A team member who had remained in the background hesitantly held up a finger. His turban formed a circle around his head and fell in a loose, single drape down his back.

“I’m desperately sorry to insist on interrupting you, but what will we be calling you since I am at a loss for not knowing your name and ranking in this esteemed facility deep down in the bowels of this goodly earth.” He stopped when Kendall spun her head to face him.

Callum was relieved the man had spoken. He could have sworn there appeared a trace of a smile on Kendall’s face as the man spoke.

Kendall took a moment to compose herself.

“For those who don’t know me, I am Major Kendall.”

The Indian scratched his black, tapering goatee. “Good day, Major Kendall. I am Indranil Lakshit. Another question is blinding my understanding. May I be asking?”

Kendall found the Indian fascinating. “Fire away, Lakshit.”

“Why would we be training in combat when it is common knowledge the Androids are deployed to do this very necessary but truly wicked job?”

“It is true, the Androids do the fighting. But not all the fighting. They are unable to feel. They have no emotion so they cannot assume to make decisions based on how they feel. They base their decisions on the directives we give them. Does that explain it enough?”

“Yes, thanking you very much, Major.”

Kendall waited for another question from him, or from anyone but the group seemed satisfied.

“We continue then. Lakshit, step forward.”

Indranil was taken by surprise. He didn’t expect to be called. He looked around trying to find someone else with the same name.

“Lakshit, I’m waiting.”

He stepped up to her, held his hands in front of him.

“An Android’s power is based behind the eyes. Just here.” She touched his forehead at the bridge of his nose. “If you lose your weapon, the only way to stop the Android for a few seconds, is to lash out at the bridge of the nose, like this...”

She spun around, brought her right hand up and aimed it at Indranil’s forehead. With perfect control her hand stopped centimeters from the bridge of his nose.

“Oh,” he exclaimed before fainting.

Callum broke formation, rushed up to him.

“Leave him, Ingram. He’ll come out of it in a few seconds,” Kendall ordered. Callum stopped in his tracks and returned to the unit.

A few moments later Indranil opened his eyes and began laughing. “I must say indubitably your power is truly great, Major.”

“Jesus Lakshit, I didn’t even touch you. Fall back in.”

Shaking, Indranil joined the group and remained silent the rest of the time.

“Ingram!”

“Major.”

“French Foreign Legion. Step forward.”

Callum joined her and she stepped up to him, staring at him with those burning eyes once again.

“Human combat contact is predictable. We have an action and a reaction every time there is body contact. I punch you, you retaliate, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“You can punch me several times and each time I’ll get up and react. But there is a limit to the human body. There will come a point when I will stay down, either by injury or death. Androids don’t work that way. You can punch an Android a million times but they’ll keep on coming. A punch to the eyes gives you enough time to run, or shoot. It doesn’t mean death. Let’s say there are six or seven Androids all coming towards you. What is your move?”

“Shoot I guess,” Callum imitated a gun out of his fingers.

“Stand where you are. The rest of you gather around him. Face the other way, not at me.”

The group mustered around Callum.

Kendall took three paces back and fell to the floor.

“Keep in mind they only know one thing, and that is to stop you. You drop to the floor. Stiffen your body, hands by your side. And roll towards them.”

Kendall rolled forward, collided with Callum and all the candidates beside him. All fell to the floor. Kendall leapt to her feet and aimed her laser directly at their foreheads.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! They’re immobilized. Their circuitry damaged. Our gauntlet teams will clean up, bring them back to Denizen where we reprogram them,” she paused. “Get up all of you, turn around and watch me, then I want you all to practice. In half an hour I’ll be taking you to the anti-simulation room for some entertainment. Get this right, otherwise we stay here all night.”

Gideon waited for them in the Observation Lab. Callum found himself attracted to the way he walked and dressed. In particular, the wire-framed glasses he wore, made him wildly attractive.

“Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all time, once said that reality is a persistent illusion. Philip K. Dick, a science fiction writer from the 20th Century, supposed that fake realities create fake humans.

“Going further back in time, Plato created the Cave Theory. A simple rendition is that three beings are born in a cave and are chained up so that they may never leave the cave. They face a wall. Behind them is a platform and a perpetual fire built into a primitive fireplace. They know nothing of the platform nor the fire. As they grow older, all they ever see are shadows on the wall of beings crossing the platform behind them. This is their reality. They do not know anything else. If one were to tell them that a sunlit, flourishing, sentient world with animals and humans and plant life existed outside the cave, they wouldn’t believe it nor understand it because all they’ve ever known are the shadows crossing the wall. The physics of our world does not resemble the physics of the world these cave dwellers observe. It’s all about observation.

“During the 21st century it was widely accepted that humans evolved from the Ape. That the universe was created from a single spark known as the Big Bang. That everything is matter and matter is made of atoms and molecules.

“But no one could explain what existed before the Big Bang. No matter how scientists tried, no one could explain the physics of the universe before the Big Bang. All they could postulate is that space and time are directly interwoven.

“The mainstream scientific community accepted the Big Bang theory and evolution and still do. But those theories are filled with holes, and many scientists still seek the real reason we exist.

“In the year 2019, a Swedish philosopher, scientist and quantum physics expert, Nick Bostrum, wrote a paper called ‘Are we Living in a Simulation’. And suddenly, everything made sense.

According to Bostrum we were switched on.

Someone pressed a button and switched on the computer. That was the Big Bang.

“Now, you may be thinking I’m crazy,” Gideon said staring at the disbelieving audience of six. “You may be thinking that this is the right time for you to leave. Except, the moment you leave here, you are suddenly immersed into a reality you’ve never known before. On the surface, right now, we have a cold, grey earth caused by the eruption of Toba ten years ago. How people can still live up there with their masks and now this mark they must wear on their wrist, I cannot understand. Right now, up there, children hold the power. They have developed telekinetic powers that can make anything appear or disappear, whether organic or non-organic. Up there, these children can simulate an entire experience. You’ve all experienced the simulation elevator.” He addressed one of the candidates, Jack Langley, a thin, balding, middle-aged man with one hand. “Jack, what did you experience out there?”

“I was on the Space Shuttle Challenger.”

Holographic images of Challenger lifting off and then exploding seconds after launch, filled the room.

Gideon explained, “On January 28, 1986, the NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members, which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists. Cleo, what did you experience?”

Cleo du Preez, one time teacher in a junior school. Red hair. A sleeper in her left ear. The right side of her temple tattooed with a black Scorpion.

“The Christmas Tsunami of 2004.” A simple answer.

Suddenly, a bulletin issued from The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center early on December 26, 2004, appeared before them.

Gideon explained, “The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26 December with the epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. 230 000 people died.”

Callum repeated softly, “230 000!”

“And you, Callum. What did you experience?”

“The sinking of the Titanic.”

The hologram changed to show the Titanic leaving Liverpool.

“The ship was supposed to be unsinkable. It left England in 1912 and struck an iceberg. 1,503 souls were lost. 300 bodies were pulled from the sea the next morning. All dead.”

Constance Malope, a teller in a supermarket, experienced being a cook on the slave ship The Meermin. In 1766, the Meermin was carrying 140 slaves from Madagascar to the Cape Colony when they mutinied and gained control of the ship.

Jim Craigson, was just an average cartoonist for a daily newspaper when he came to Denizen 1. He looked strikingly younger than his 35 years of age with his long, red ponytail and perfectly manicured fingernails. He carried a pencil with him wherever he went. Even now, it protruded from his top pocket.

He experienced Krakatoa.

“1883. One of the largest eruptions known to mankind. Krakatau is an island volcano. Approximately 1,000 people were killed in Sumatra; there were no survivors from the 3,000 people located on the island of Sebesi.”

An image of the explosion filled the room.

John Liversage, an engineer, looked tired. Dark rings beneath his eyes gave the impression of sleepless nights. He was distant and almost absent from the others. He experienced being on the beach at Dunkirk. The scariest moment of his life.

“Indranil, what was your experience?”

“I experienced the 4th Great War. In a bunker, hiding from the North Koreans. They bombed us goodly and left us all for being very and completely dead.”

“We all experience different things,” Gideon said. “And you may ask yourselves why. The answer is very simple: Simulated reality is where anything is possible and nothing is determined. The reality plays over and over again at random. It’s never ending. You’ve all been exposed to these simulations inside this facility. These are controlled simulations. The ones up there are not controlled. We believe it’s coming from Xenocon’s children, but we can’t prove it.

“So, you’ve all observed history. The Simulation Lab is different and when you appear on the other side, if you panic, you’ll probably die. Maintain calmness, and you’ll survive. Tomorrow, we will all be going to the same place. Our mission will be to scour and observe only. No heroics. Before we immerse you into a simulation program, we have one little surprise for you.” Gideon signaled Kendall to continue with a nod of his head.

She took to the podium in full military fatigues.

“We’re not riff-raff. Denizen 1 security personnel are disciplined, we take pride in what we do, how we carry ourselves, and how we dress. From here you’ll be kitted out with Denizen 1 military combat uniforms. You won’t be carrying weapons, not until you’re fully trained. At all times you will look a little sharper than others, walk with more confidence than most, be calm in the midst of chaos, speak with head up and your eyes focused. Take care of your physical body. Practice doing the opposite of what most people do today. Have honor and integrity. Keep your word, ’cause if you can’t keep that, you have nothing. Treat women with respect always. Weak men terrorize women. Do the best you can in your deployment, quit complaining and bitching. Nothing worse than watching grown people bitch and moan about a life they created with their shitty choices. Basically, own your life. Own your choices. Own your reputation. Own your fitness. Own your responsibilities. Do this and you’ll stand out from other men and women. Your fatigues have been specially designed for you, you’ll find them in your apartments. The time is now 10.30. We’ll see you in the assembly area tomorrow at precisely 06.30. Don’t be late. Go now and get some rest.”

Maybe it was co-incidence, maybe luck, whatever it was placed Callum in the same elevator as Indranil Lakshit. The doors closed, the elevator began moving. For a few seconds there was silence as they took in the view as the elevator dropped.

“I will be calling you Foreign Legion,” Indranil extended his hand and Callum took it. “You can be calling me Lakshit.”

Callum accepted his suggestion with a beaming smile.

“You are indeed a handsome specimen, please don’t be thinking I am propositioning you. I don’t know you at all but I am acquainted with and appreciate all.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, Lakshit.”

“Oh, come now, Foreign Legion. You are indeed very attracted to men. Your secret is my secret. I see inside of you. No worries. If you need to be talking on whatever subject you deem dire or important, I am volunteering my ears. They are the only things on this temple that listen to what is being said.”

Callum wanted to laugh. In his own washy way of speaking, Indranil demanded attention, but Callum felt he was way out of line being so forward.

“I can assure you, if I want to speak about my sexual orientation, I’ll definitely come to you, first stop.”

The elevator stopped. Both alighted on the same level.

“It seems we are both domiciling on the same level. I am going left.”

“I’m right,” Callum said, walking away.

“Foreign Legion,” Lakshit called. “You are okay. I’ll be seeing you in the morning, unless I could be persuading you to share a glass of water with me.”

“A glass of water?”

“It is all I drink. Water. It keeps my mind awake.”

Callum thought for a moment. “Sure, I’ll have a glass of water with you.”

Indranil’s butler, Susan, welcomed Callum and closed the door behind them.

“How long have you been here?” Callum asked.

“Two long frightful days and nights, why do you ask?”

“You’ve managed to make this place your own in two days? The carpets, all Indian I guess. Flowers from your garden in vases yet? What happened to your couch?”

“I told them I will not be needing bum comfort.”

Callum laughed. “Bum comfort...,” he mumbled.

“Indeed, in the small village I come from – it is called Dilibad – people do not know what a couch is. They are placing their bums on a takiya. It is a pillow to rest or lay upon and also used for support when reposing and is filled with feathers, down, hair, or other soft material.”

“I’d hate to ask you on what do you sleep.”

“A bed. Easy. It is called bistar. So I will pour you a glass of the coldest water and then we will be making cheap conversation before I must kick you out.”

Andranil left him for a moment and returned with two tall glasses of water.

Callum accepted it gratefully. “You wouldn’t by any chance have ice?”

“That is very ungrateful to be questioning the ice content in a glass of pure water without ice. No ice.”

“No problem. But if you were a guest in my apartment I would add ice.”

“That is your prerogative, Foreign Legion. But let us move onto a more current subject.”

“And that would be?”

“Why, you of course. As I see it, you are irrefutably stronger in mind and body than any of us on the team. It would be foolish of me not to see that and of course even more foolish not to be your friend. As friends I think we can extend to each other some rather special gifts. I can read minds. You can protect.”

“You read minds?”

“You are perceptive. Yes, indeed. I read your mind today. It was not done with intent, but your mind was the most powerful and it sang to me. This is why I know you are being gay. I know how you feel about Commander Gideon. Your mind told me.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say nothing. Words are simply a means to an end. So, I will offer you my mind, if you offer me protection. Is that acceptable?”