FCF - The Carnivorous Plant

On planet Earth

This chapter is the first translation from Czech to English. You are welcome to rewrite it, if you make it better, I will send you 10 000 Gift Points.

Please note that I'm trying to write simplest way possible. The story is moved forwards mostly just by using various events.

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We are located in the 23rd century holographic training arena back on planet Earth. The training course is full of clay, sand, trees, shrubs and rocks ... while just behind the dividing line is a pure synthetic floor.
Old instructor William Murphy, who (judging by the scars on his face) encountered many fights, is standing nearby, watching how the young, brown-haired cadet Jerry. His opponent is a trainer android, an electronic form of life, developed for more than two centuries.
They have bare hands and Jerry manages to successfully pass another test with a smooth kick to the android’s head.
Murphy opens his palm, and it suddenly shows a virtual display with difficulty presets. Without hesitation, he is increasing the difficulty levels of the android.
"Level 15, spread out your arms! Another test weapon is a mace."
Jerry smiles confidently. A mace is his favourite weapon.
All of a sudden a mace with sharp edges appears in the right hands of both fighters. The fight begins.
The trainer android attacks. Level 15 isn’t for any greenhorn and even a very promising historical warrior like Jerry barely manages the attacks.
The android tries all kinds of tricks, first a full power straight hit, after Jerry successfully jumps away, it immediately starts a false attack from the right side and a kick to the shin bone, oh it weren’t a fair move!
Jerry starts to concentrate and moves to attack, one swipe, a second swipe, then he eliminates the android’s attack by attacking it back, as if he was hitting a baseball, and then he jumps and grounds him with both feet right into the chest!
The android falls to the ground, while quite comically pretending to have a hearth attack and muscle tics.
Murphy can no longer keep a serious face and spontaneously applauds Jerry. Level 15 is a difficult nut to crack with the classical defence/attack strategy.
The scenery with trees, shrubs, dirt and sand suddenly disappears. It was just simulation and Jerry and android are standing on a flat, synthetic surface.
"Very good! The offensive defence was an improvisation or did you learn it somewhere?" Murphy asks happily.
"A little bit. This android is very fast, so I tried a lucky shot."
Murphy has his hands in his pockets, Jerry goes to him to check out the fighting statistics.
"The android is different to what you are used to from school. We changed the program quite a lot. Theoretically, it can go up to a maximum level of 30 and still act like a human. It can do everything, one day someone will be able to do the same too." Murphy winks at him.
Now, Jerry sees the android with completely different thoughts.
"I'm just a bit upset that these machines are so cool every time. I would appreciate it so much if they got a little angry after losing!" Jerry says dissatisfied.
Murphy shakes his head at the young cadet.
"A good warrior fights only for himself."
"Sure, but I've never seen a warrior who fights for just so it can be reconnected to a charger."
Murphy is trying to suppress a smile.
"So I passed?"
"You definitely made a step in the right direction, son." Murphy agrees.
Soon they are both driven by a levitating escalator towards the offices. They are up on the other side of the building, so first they must pass through several kilometres of the entire training centre.
There are a lot of semi-permeable windows to see into a room where the training fields are. All are busy during the ongoing final exams.
One cadet is pointing his gun at a small, cute tiny squirrel. All of a sudden the squirrel jumps in his direction, becomes five times bigger and wants to bite its prey with its huge teeth, but cadet fires a well timed shot! Nice shot, Murphy thinks.
Behind another window are scarry and almost invisible creatures forming that are reminiscent of large cockroaches. They look crystal clear, like somekind of walking glass.
The cadet is holding just a sword and is shaking with fear. He can´t stand it, screams hysterically and runs out of the arena.
"So when will I go?" Jerry asks, while they both watch the show.
"Where you mean?"
"You know, into space, to inspect some discovered planets." Jerry tries a familial tone.
Murphy doesn’t seem to mind that from him, actually he likes it.
"I wish I had a good news, but I really don’t know. They instructed me to check if you're well prepared for the first mission."
"Oh ok." Jerry sighs.
They are still on the escalator, watching other training arenas.
"But I can tell you that I didn´t expect such good results as you have." He's trying to calm him down and continues: "In a moment I’m going to test some new graduates from the cognitive training department. One of them might be your colleague." Murphy winks conspiratorially.
Jerry apparently doesn’t quite understand what the instructor means and nervously scratches his neck.
"But why?"
"You'll have a much better chance to get somewhere this way, trust me."
Students with cognitive skills are trained differently to normal agents or staff for the office. It's the second year the academy has used so-called telepathy. Subliminal image sequences and sounds are sent from a computer to a subject’s brain that change their moods and stimulate different feelings.
These agents learn to act despite their feelings and make their decisions in a far more rational way.
Telepathy is very progressive for the 23rd century, yet still an unknown area. Doctors don’t always evaluate the situation correctly, and so, for example, a month ago during an expedition to the universe one student had gone crazy, he turned back and attacked the Earth with nuclear weapons. Fortunately the Earth´s own weapons can be diverted by the military headquarters at a distance, so the event wasn’t even in the news.
Jerry thinks that an expedition with one of those freaks wouldn´t be a bad opportunity. At least he could soon go on the trip!
Nothing is worse than rearranging data and drinking coffee in the office, Jerry thinks. Just sitting in front of virtual monitors and doing something that another two billion people can easily manage.
After a moment he says to Murphy. "I thought only old veterans can go out with them."
"Not anymore. Since that incident with the weapons fired at the Earth, they better keep them a bit out of the way. Who knows, cognitive lessons could be cancelled completely."
"Hmm."
The holographic training arena is busy again. The natural 3D scene in the middle is already in its place. Nobody is fighting yet because Sammy the cadet still hasn´t arrived.
This time Murphy is not alone behind the dividing line. There are two men in white coats beside him who look like doctors.
"Cadet Sammy Scoopers is already ten minutes late," says Murphy and adds with anger: "I hope for his own sake he comes up with a good excuse."
One of the doctors makes a special circular gesture. A two-dimensional display listing Sammy’s characteristics appear in front of him in the air.
"I wouldn’t be so disappointed, Mr. Murphy. Check out his profile."
Murphy thoughtfully passes all the data.
"What is this man doing in the final exams?" He asks puzzled.
"For the cognitive-emotional training, Sammy chose an unusual personality. Arrogance and passive aggression are the dominant, minor features are curiosity and caring. Check it for yourself." The other doctor joins in and shows Murphy another graphically processed analysis.
"I hope he will be better in combat than the last one."
The doctors laugh.
"You'll see. He feels almost no fear. Therefore, he seems quite reckless at times." A more patient doctor tries to explain the basics of cognitive psychology. "As one of the few students he managed to fully take advantage of the part of the brain we call cerebellum. He knows how to be fully automated, so also, his reactions in man to man combat are lightning fast. Furthermore, when he was in a good mood, he asked for the most brutal scenes and subliminal perceptions that we could think of, sent telepathically into his unconscious."
The second doctor shakes his head in confusion.
"Sammy seemed to us as if he was just making fun of us."
"Exactly. We thought he might be unstable after such intense telepathy, but it looks like he can handle anything he wants. So far we haven’t figured out how his mind actually works, but it looks very promising."
The doctors are talking among themselves, as if they were dealing with somekind of cardiac surgical intervention.T entire conversation quite disgusting for Murphy. They intentionally adjust someone’s personality using this new technology, and yet they still appear to believe it´s a completely normal thing, unbelievable!
"Let me ask you another question. Do you think he´ll be dangerous? What if they’ll sit him in a spaceship next week and send him somewhere?" Murphy's trying to get straight to the point.
"He will certainly behave “safer” than any of us in this room. Only a small fraction of such a telepathic signal would make a psychopathic killer out of you. And now imagine that telepathy subconsciously only awakens what´s already been inside you."
Murphy thinks for a moment, this explanation quite satisfies him. During the last ten years have some really strange mannerisms have been introduced, the old instructor thinks to himself.
Cadet Sammy Scoopers has finally arrived. He stops for a moment as if something startled him, then he immediately continues toward the centre of the arena.
The training android also appears and mechanically confronts Sammy.
"This one looks like a Formula One racer. So there are only robots that can just jerk off a shift lever?" He says towards Murphy.
"No comments," Murphy shouts and turns curiously to the doctors: "Have you turned it on yet?"
"It has been running from the moment he walked into the arena, look."
A new display appears in front of them. It shows a lot of special shots in rapid sequences that are sent to Sammy’s head, with the purpose of a nervous breakdown - "you can’t make it, give up now!", then cute animals dying, tortured facial expressions, huge disasters like the bombing of innocent villagers and so on. All the shots are thematically linked to interfere with self-confidence, caring, to increase the panic and the need to get help and ask for mercy.
Murphy feels annoyed to see this. Previous cadets from cognitive training were influenced by some nervous faces, dark circles and flashes, but this?
"What's that?"
"We had to increase the speed, connect together the shots into a rational topic, and create many diverse scenes. His standard program is different, but this is supposed to be a test, right?" The doctor explains and he just hopes it will pass by Murphy.
"Well, let's see what it´s going to do to him." The instructor finally agrees and continues towards the Arena: "Level 10, spread your arms! Your trial weapon is a big battle axe."
Offensive weapons appear in Sammy’s and android’s right-hands. The surprised student looks at it as if he saw it for the first time in his life.
"You know, I've never fought with this one?"
"No talking during the test, please!" Murphy answers abruptly.
"Why did he ask that?" He turns to the doctors.
They smile at each other again, this time with conspiratorial smiles.
"Sorry instructor, but this is a good opportunity for us as well. We still don’t have enough information about Sammy."
The second doctor is checking a display and is very thrilled.
"Look, he asked only because the signal surprised him! Perfect timing."
"Yes, but he’ll soon adapt. Start now!" The first doctor answers impatiently.
Via a small handheld display Murphy gives a command to the android’s attack. Combat is a bit slower than Jerry’s test.
"What the f*** are you doing, have you gone crazy?" Sammy protests and barely manages to block the first assaults.
"It’s impossible, you assholes. How the hell am I supposed to attack with this heavy f***er?"
"Stop whining and fight!" Murphy shouts again.
It looks like a battle that will be decided very quickly by the android. Sammy tries to defend himself as much as he can, but with a simple push the android took Sammy´s axe and leaving him unarmed!
The android is not yet using its advantage, he stands opposite and quickly calculates the next strategy. He has obvious advantage, so “thinking” doesn’t take long.
Sammy, meanwhile, looks busy too. In a fraction of a second he notices where his weapon is as well as where the android is. He is trying to concentrate only on necessary movements, because its current rashness is obviously caused by the telepathic signal. At the last moment he had an idea.
He begins to imagine himself in a situation where he came into the arena to show off in front of a group of pretty girls and this electronic f***er doesn’t want to let him go for it.
It works! The tension is easing.
The android makes an uncompromising assault to the right side of Sammy’s head. This is my opportunity! Sammy does a somersault towards the android’s feet and with a hard kick to his knees he jumps on the ground to get the axe.
The android "feels" as if it has had both legs broken and helplessly holds them for a moment. Everybody laughs at that.
Sammy, however, picked up his axe and barely manages to defend another android attack. This time he doesn’t panic. He blocks the android’s axe with his as with forceps and quickly turns both hands. Then Sammy quickly pulls it from robot’s grip and with a fast flick he cuts it right on the head!
A direct hit with an axe makes the robot do a few gestures of "dying". It falls to the ground with its muscles twitching.
Sammy straightens up and stretches. There are no emotions on his face, but his gestures show that he´s glad how the duel ended.
Everyone is silent, the doctors have sly smiles on their faces. Murphy is serious.
"Good job, Cadet. We will contact you soon."
Sammy looks like he´s in pain. Then suddenly feels calm as he´s put down a very heavy backpack, such a relief! The doctors have just deactivated the telepathic devices.
Murphy observes the situation with a worrying wrinkle on his forehead.