Chapter 29: Mobilisation

Alarm and mobilisation

I woke up to the sound of a general alarm. We had gotten to sleep very late the night before and I could feel that I hadn't had nearly enough sleep yet. I dragged myself out of bed and out of the barracks and met up with everyone else streaming onto the parade ground. It was still dark, with just the slightest touch of light to warn that dawn was approaching. By the time the entire Hand was formed up, Hand Evans was standing and waiting impatiently.

  "Shut up and listen," Hand Evans shouted. Everyone got quiet very quickly. "We have just got news that the fight has run into trouble. They are besieged in a city on the mainland continent. We are going to have to cut your training short and go to their aid. The cadre and Finger Leaders will meet with me when you are dismissed, the rest of you start packing. That is all. Dismissed."

  I was stunned. Our second phase had lasted just five weeks, the first three concentrating on fighting together as a Hand and then, after our three day break, we had done lots of maneuvering and drills to get us accustomed to the various possible tactical situations that we might face.

  I hurried with the others to the mess where an impatient Hand Evans was already locked in furious discussion with some of the cadre.

  "Right, everyone here?" Hand Evans asked. He didn't pause for the answer but just continued, "The situation is as I outlined it out there. For now ignore that, we will have some time during the journey to go into more detail. For now we have to concentrate on movement orders. You Knuckles are now officially Finger Leaders. This is no longer a pool of replacements for the Fight, but rather a Fighting Hand. I will remain as Hand Leader, the Cadre members will form part of my tactical HQ and will be available to assist you if necessary. I want you to return to your fingers and ensure that you have your kit packed and ready. We leave an hour from now. We will be heading for the transit base on the coast where we can trans-ship to the mainland. Any questions?"

  There were none. Everyone could see that it would be a bad idea to waste Hand Evan's time.

Travel

Two hours later we were on the road. We were all loaded down with a full load of gear and moving at a pace somewhere faster than a walk and slower than a run. It was that heavily loaded shuffle that the British Army calls 'tabbing' although slightly faster than that. We had set out from the camp along a pathway that down-river for a short distance before crossing the river at a ford and then turning East.

  Once we were settled into the journey, I had time to think about other things.

  "[Desrae, how're you doing?]" I asked.

  "[Fine thanks Cy. Feeling strong.]"

  "[No, I didn't mean that. I was thinking that I got the strong impression that Hand Evans was panicked.]"

  "[You don't say {sarcasm}]"

  "[Hey. {spank} {smile}]"

  "[{smile} Yes, I did find it strange that he was so ruffled. I have no idea why there was such a rush. Apparently it will take us some time to get to where the Fight is, so I am sure we could have taken a bit more time to make sure we had everything we need.]"

  "[A bit of a better briefing would have been nice. I am a little concerned about how he reacted. There are to my mind two possibilities; either there is something more serious than we know so far, or he is not a good commander. One of the first lessons I learnt about that was that if you panic, the men around you panic.]"

  "[He came damn close to panicing though, didn't he?]"

  I could hear my doubts about Hand Evans reflected by Desrae. It didn't reassure me in the least. I reached out to all the other Finger Leaders and checked on how they were doing. They all reported that they were doing fine physically, but all were to a greater or lesser extent worried about what was happening although it was only Lian who specifically said that he was worried about a commander who couldn't hide his panic from his subordinates. We all agreed to keep checking with each other.

Transit

It took us almost two days to get to the coast. We ran all day from sun-up to sun-down, stopping to camp on the bank of a river overnight without even bothering to build temporary fortifications or latrines.

  When we reached the coast just after lunch-time on the second day, it was to be greeted by the sight of a harbour built of stone. There were a few small buildings which turned out to be housing for the permanent staff at the harbour and a long low barracks-type building, which we discovered was for the use of ship's crews that were moored in the harbour. There was a small tavern which we were told was off limits to us as we would not be staying long enough to have time off.

  We were directed to a field and told to wait. I took the opportunity to inspect all the members of my Finger, making sure that their feet were OK and that they still had all their kit. While I was doing that, S'Alor appeared out of the undergrowth and joined us.

  After a wait of about an hour, we were called to board a large ship moored in the harbour. I was fascinated as it was the first time I had been on a fully rigged sailing ship. I didn't get much chance to rubber-neck though, as we were directed down to the lower decks pretty quickly and told to stay there, out of the way of the sailors.

  Once out of the harbour, it looked as if we were going to have a problem with sea-sickness, until I managed to move my Finger into battle-mode and focus their attention away from the problem. While we were doing that, I found that two of my Finger members had problems with their inner-ears, both as a result of child-hood infections. I helped them to focus their bodies healing abilities on the problem and our sea-sickness problems disappeared.

  We were at sea for about three hours. The sun was low on the horizon when we were told that we were about to enter the harbour on the mainland. It was a town called Port A'maine. All I could see out of the port-hole was what looked like warehouses that butted right up against the wharfs.

  Hand Evans spoke to all of us, telling us that we would be put up in the town over-night while arrangements were made to travel the next day. There were dire warnings about what would happen to anyone who got out of hand.

Chapter 28: Doubts

"Are you alright Cy?" Desrae asked.

  I was a little startled. I had been so deep into my thoughts that the heightened situational awareness that I had developed since arriving on War World had deserted me.

  "Sorry Des, just thinking about something."

  "Yes, I can see that silly," Desrae said sitting down next to me. We were on a large rock upstream from the jetty and I had been staring out over the water. "What's got your knickers in a knot?"

  "Do you think everything is coming too easily?" I asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I was just thinking that from the time we were recruited, we have been processed like mince being fed into a sausage-maker. I get the feeling that the powers-that-be have been more surprised at the fact that we have broken the mould than at what we have actually achieved.'

  "Hmm, that doesn't mean it came easily?"

  "True. What I meant though is that we have no real evidence that what we are doing is the correct thing. I keep thinking of things that worry me."

  "Like what?"

  "Like the shields. You know we have practised with the Fingers and the Hand generating shields?"

  "Yes. That was a little scary until we saw the stones the cadre threw bouncing off."

  "Yes, but the mental shields are no real use in close combat. We have to rely on members of the Finger defending each other, and on the use of the parry dagger."

  "What would you like to see then? Are you saying that you would prefer to have proper shields?"

  "Well ... sort of. It's just that I am a bit concerned about what would happen if we had any significant casualties, what happens when the integrity of the Finger or Hand is broken?"

  "Sort of like you did with the thrown dagger in our fight against Lorraine's Finger?"

  "Yes. I overheard a number of comments after that fight. A lot of people seemed to think that throwing the dagger wouldn't work because the shields protected a finger from projectile weapons."

  "That's just silly. They should realise that it only applies to arrows and things from further away."

  "Why should they realise that Des? It's what we were told ... but it was part of the dogma, not something that seemed to occur to anyone."

  "And what do you think that means?"

  "I think that things are stagnated. No-One is thinking beyond what they have been taught. I should never have been able to orchestrate the defence of a Finger like Lorraine's considering that they have so much more experience of actual battle than us. What is more important for me though is that while we have been doing this training as a Hand, I keep seeing ways that we could be attacked and defeated."

  "Really? But what about the comments from Hand Evans and the way that he has given us this three day break in training as an award?"

  "That's just it. We have done all the drills perfectly, but I spent enough time in the army before to understand the difference between drills and combat. It is easy enough to 'win' each and every battle during training when there is no enemy to confront you, and something else completely different when you are opposed by a real opponent... in fact just having trouble with the weather or terrain can mean that you can be defeated by an inferior force. What worries me even more though is that the way that we are starting to mesh now as Fingers and as a Hand means that we are starting to think that is the only way that we can fight."

  "Have you discussed this with anyone yet?"

  "Only with S'Alor."

  "And? What does he have to say?"

  "He just appears to be vastly amused by everything, but I get the sense that he agrees with me about our vunerabilities. He just isn't really talking about them. I also think that he is willing to do stuff only up to a point, after that it seems that he expects me to figure stuff out for myself."

  "Sort of like a parent hey?" Desrae said with a smile.

  I looked at her and smiled back. She had an uncanny knack for knowing just how to cheer me up.

  "I have been on an incredible learning curve here," Desrae continued, "I never served in the military before so all this stuff is new to me. I thought that the training was pretty fantastic and comprehensive. What am I missing?"

  "Well, if I had to relate the way that our role has been described to us, I would say that it is analogous to that of shock infantry, but if I look at how we are armed and configured, I think it is more suited to that of skirmishers or for reconnaissance. Something more like the 95th Regiment of the Rifle Brigade in the Peninsular Campaign."

  "Oh. I think I know something about that. You mean like Richard Sharpe?"

  I laughed out loud at that. "You have read the Sharpe novels?"

  Desrae looked a little sheepish. "Yes. What of it?"

  "Just surprised is all. I don't know why though, I've noticed from other things you've said that you had a fairly catholic taste in books."

  "Sometimes you read what is available. I must say that I didn't pay attention to everything in stories like that; I just focused on the main plot and read it for pleasure."

  "Well, you are absolutely correct. Just like the Green Jackets or like the Roman Velites."

  "But how do you think someone could defeat us?"

  "I think we have lots of vulnerabilities. One of the most glaring to me is what would happen if the leaders were removed."

  "You mean us Finger Leaders?"

  "Yes. And the Hand leader."

  "I'm not sure. I would have to think about it a bit, but off the cuff, I would think someone else would take over."

  "Mmm. Who? That is one of my problems. I was so enamoured by the whole romance of this thing that I never thought about it properly before now. You know that there are a lot of reasons why the armies where we come from are structured the way they are with essentially a two-tiered system of Officers and NCOs. One of those reasons is so that there is a clear separation between Command and Management, but for the purposes of what I have been considering, the more important reason is so that there is someone who can hold the fort if the officer is taken out. The platoon or company can continue, at least for a while, quite happily if the officers are taken out. This structure is too flat, with very few commanders and no way for any of the subordinates to step up and take command."

  "But there is a structure," Desrae protested, " the knuckles can take over the Finger and the senior Finger Leader can take over the Hand."

  "No. That isn't exactly what I meant. We are training to fight as integrated units, and the implicit reasoning is that any injury is only temporary, because of the way that we heal. I learnt a very important lesson early on in my military career. We were involved in a war in a large, sparsely populated area where the Corporals were given command of their sections for long periods of time with only infrequent contact with their chain of command, and everyone knew that they could do his job if he was taken out. That extended up the chain with everyone training one or two levels above his rank. Here, if the leaders go down and are not returned to action rapidly, then the entire unit loses it's effectiveness."

  "I know that my husband used to talk about the Corporal's War in Namibia so I have some idea of what you mean. I am not sure quite why that is so important though?"

  "It's just an uneasiness I have. Let's do some what ifs."

  "Ok. Like what?"

  "Let's say that all of us Finger Leaders were to get together and have supper one night, and someone put a sleeping potion into the food, then as soon as we fell asleep, they attacked the base. What do you think would happen?"

  I watched while Desrae thought about that and saw various expressions chase themselves across her face. She was silent for a long time, while I stared out at the moon shining on the water.

  "I think it might be a bit disastrous" Desrae said eventually.

  "Ja. We are training to be the Phalanx, the heavy infantry, so there is little need for individual thought, but we are not armed for that without shields. It also feels to me like the Russian philosophy of centralised control. Works wonderfully when it works, but tend to prefer ability and decision making, right down to the individual solider. Means you can be more flexible and adapt faster to changes when the plan inevitably dissolves in the face of the enemy..."

  "What do you think needs to change?" Desrae asked with a worried frown.

  "I would do it differently if I was in charge. But then I don't have experience of the wars here, so I might be completely wrong."

  "Hey, how about you forget about that for now and come back to join the rest of us? We still have two days to relax before starting the next phase of training. Maybe we can discuss this a bit more and think it through."

  "You're right. I suspect there is still lots I need to know. Sorry for neding your ear by the way."

  "I did ask what was bothering you. There are some people who care for you you know."

  "Thanks Desrae. I appreciate that more than I can tell you."

  "No problem. Let's see whether there is any of that home-brew left."

  "Sounds good to me."

Chapter 27: Lectures

I hadn't realised juts how tired the swim had made me until we had been running for a while and I found myself flagging. It took some concentration on my body and some concerted effort before I felt my body starting to adjust again as it flushed all the toxins. I {tasted} how the rest of my Finger were doing, and when I saw that they were battling as much as I had been, I did the same for them as I had done for myself. We eventually completed the run back where we had started at the big rock, and S'Alor took himself off into the bush when we started swimming. It was a lot easier this time, both because all the warriors in my Finger now knew how to swim and because it was down-stream back to the base. When we got back to the base, Hand Evans dismissed us for brunch.

***

After brunch, all of the 'knuckles' were called aside by Hand Evans while the rest were formed up and started to practice normal sword drills in formation under the cadre's watchful eye.

***

"Knuckleheads," Hand Evans began, "we are going to start teaching new concepts, drills and formations to you, so that you can teach them to your Fingers. The schedule to start with is going to be PT in the mornings, then a lecture for you after brunch at 10h00 till about 14h30. After that you will have time to instruct your Fingers until 16h00. Supper is from 16h00 to 16h30. You will then be able to work with your Finger on drills and problems experienced during the day stopping at 20h00. After that you have personal time with lights out at 22h30.

"There will be no formal inspections of the Barracks, but be aware that you are responsible for them and that means that the punishment is yours if they aren't spick and span. I suggest you hold your own ad hoc inspections to ensure that we never have trouble about this.

"Depending on how things go, we will switch to a night program where everything will be reversed. Yes Desrae?"

"Hand Evans, how will we know that things are on schedule?" asked Desrae.

"We will tell you," Hand Evans answered. "When we determine that you are up to scratch, we will schedule a break and then start the night phase. When that is completed, we will have an evaluation and then we will look at a few possible specialisations. Please understand, our normal schedule for this first day phase is four weeks minimum. We suspect though that if you can get your 'Sword Dance' technique to work for you, you might be able to progress slightly faster. From what I saw of the hair loss earlier, I suspect that won't be any trouble at all... "

Everyone laughed at that.

"Right, lets begin with the order of march when crossing hostile country" Hand Evans launched into his lecture. I had to pay very careful attention to what he said because I had come to realise that a lot of what I 'knew' from my previous military experience could get me into trouble. I had to remember that there were no mortars, patrol or otherwise, to provide a quick response to an ambush to to assist in breaking contact. There were no fire-support missions or casevacs, no transport vehicles to handle logistics and no battle-taxis, or Infantry Combat Vehicles. Everything here was done on foot at the pace that the warriors could move. The essentials were the same, the same principles and concepts, I just had to remember that the assumptions based on motorised or mechanised infantry had to be re-evaluated and thought through in the light of the current situation.

Hand Evans introduced us to the concept of the 'Tactical Decision Exercise" and told us that as we progressed, we could be presented with a scenario at any time and have to come up with a solution on the spot. This was tied initially into the broader concept of the way that the Hand would move and fight, so there was very little scope for individual Finger decision making. The one place where this was different was in the skirmish line. When the Hand was moving tactically through hostile terrain, one of the Fingers would act as a skirmish line a short distance ahead of the Hand, and if they hit contact, their job was to delay the attack for long enough for the rest of the Hand to prepare for battle. One of the other Fingers was responsible for protection of the HQ element. The HQ element would be where any odds and sods would travel with the Hand, to ensure that they didn't interfere with its smooth running. Depending on the terrain, there were various formations that the Hand could travel in. Generally in forested or bushy areas, this would be with less seperation between individuals. Finger formations would generally be line ahead or a 2-up-T formation. Each Hand would be close enough to at least one other Hand so that they could provide support in need. For more open terrain such as desert or savannah, the formations would be a lot more open and dispersed, concentrating only for obstacle crossing and to confront a mutual threat.

With this very broad outline, we were dismissed to join the rest of the Hand for us to start working with them as Fingers.

My first priority was to teach my Finger the Sword Dance, and in the process start to bind them into a unit that would think and act together. I had readlly struggled on the swim and run to do any more than to maintain contact between the members of the Finger. There was certainly no team as there had been with my original Finger.

I started off by going up into Battle Mode and then pulling the Finger up with me, then I began on the simplest sword drills, one after another until they started to flow together into the beginnings of the Sword Dance. When we reached this point after about an hour, it was as if I had broken through a brick wall. After that it started to go a lot faster as I didn't need to do quite as much controlling, but could rather just 'show' and have the Finger members pick it up with less and less direct control from me.

By the time 16h00 rolled around, the Finger was performing pretty well. i could see that it was still going to take a lot of working together to get the fluidity and control that I had come to expect, but it was a solid start that could be built on.

I had considered dropping in instruction similar to the way that S'Alor had shown me how to push instructions to their bodies to lose their hair and modify their characteristics, but I was feeling guilty about that. S'Alors cavalier attitude had crossed over to me and had influenced me to feel the same way about it that he did. If I had thought about it first, I would never have done what I had without at the very least obtaining permission first. I thought that it smacked of mind control or domination and it was a violation of privacy that I would object to strenuously if it had been done to me without my permission. I also considered that it would be more efficient in the long run for the warriors in my Finger, and others, to learn how to take this sort of instruction with the least amount of interference with their minds on the part of the instructor.

***

After supper, I got together with the other knuckles and we decided to do a Sword Dance of our own. While we were busy with that, I explained my thinking about the mental instruction and the rest agreed that we needed to ensure that we started out on the moral high ground, so that as we developed this further those who came afterwards would have a good example to follow. We also agreed it just made good sense to act morally.

While we were busy, we also shared our impressions and memories of the lecture that we had received from Hand Evans. I found that this was extremely useful as it helped me to commit what we had learnt to memory and there were things that each of us had missed that one of the others had picked up on, so we filled in each other's blanks in this way. During the Sword Dance, S'Alor joined us mentally, and he had some pithy and pointed comments to make on the practicality of quite a few of the things that we had been taught.

***

This set the schedule for the next few weeks activities. Every day we followed Hand Evans' program and learnt like crazy from what he and others had to teach us. At the same time, we were teaching others what we had learnt which tended to force us to think about it and remember it. There is nothing that teaches you a subject like having to teach someone else. After two weeks of this, I felt that my Finger was fully competent, just having to have a few sharp corners smoothed, and I was starting to hope for something a little different and challenging.

***

Blog: War World Map

I have been playing with the idea of having a map of War World. My mapping skills are a little... rudimentary to say the least. Here is a first attempt.

For those of you wondering, the reason the base is on an island is to seperate the training from the "real world" envirionment of the main continent.

If anyone wants to make a stab at doing something better, let me know and I will send you the original .psd file. 

Blog: Explanations

Compulsive re-readers of my story who possess an eagle eye would have noticed that S'Alor is now described as a Smilodean NOT a Simian. I NEVER intended to suggest that he had any monkey features... :-)

Some words and phrases that have been queried:

1. Cadre - Training team (pronounced card-ra)
2. Sand-Box - Normally Iraq (aka Down-range)
3. Paras - In this case "The Parachute Regiment"
4. P-Course - more properly P-Week, the parachute selection and training course in the British Army
5. RIFd - Reduction in Force (made a verb). i.e. made redundant/fired
6. IED - improvised explosive device

BoonDock

Chapter 26: Swim

Once I got Brad sorted out, we could pick up the pace a bit. I could feel that the swimming was using my muscles in a completely different way to running and fighting had. I had known that being swimming fit was different to being running fit before, but with my new awareness of my body that came with the Battle Mode I was able to see the difference in detail. As we swam, I started working on adjusting my body to compensate for the strain that the swimming was putting on it. I could see though that the warriors in my Finger were not able to do anything like that. The changes to their bodies were still at the involuntary stage that I had experienced during the run on my first day on War World. I thought about that a bit and decided that I could ask for some advice.

"[S'Alor, can you hear me?]"

"[Yes Cy.]" S'Alor gave the feeling that he was sleepy and a little grumpy at being woken up.

"[Sorry to wake you, I just wanted to ask you a quick question. Is it possible for me to teach the members of my Finger how to control their bodies a little better?]"

"[No. You are their pack leader so you can do it for them. {image/explanation}. Now leave me to sleep.]"

S'Alor dumped a fairly complex concept in my mind which took some time for me to unravel. If I understood him correctly, I could guide the process in the members of my finger in the same way I had done for myself. I decided to be very, very circumspect in what I attempted with this because I didn't want to do anything that would be dangerous to them. I picked on the shaving thing as a good place to start, because even if I messed up, it was no big deal. According to S'Alor, once we were in battle mode with me leading the gestalt, I didn't even need their permission. I thought carefully about the way that I got rid of my hair, and reached out to the Finger and gave a {push} for them to lose theirs. There was an immediate chorus of confusion and shock.

"[Cy, What's happening?]" called Bridget.

That didn't surprise me at all. She had just lost her mane of blond hair after all.

"[Sorry Bridget, and the rest of you, I just got rid of your hair for you.]" I told the Finger.

"[That was the strangest thing,]" Bill chipped in, "[I could feel all of my hair falling out and washing away. Did you get rid of everything?"]

"[Yes. We are all hairless for now. It is fairly easy to speed up hair-growth later on if any of you wish, but I thought that for now it is better this way. I am going to make some other changes so don't be too surprised]"

"[{agreement}] came from all of them.

I thought carefully about the next bunch of changes I wanted to make. I started changing each of them one by one, basically slimming down all of them and optimising their bodies for both endurance and strength. By the time I had finished, we were at the rock that Hand Evans had told us about so we all climbed out of the water. I felt energised as I always did after being in battle mode, but once we were waiting at the rock, I dropped us out of battle mode. I examined all the members of the finger and I was truly amazed at what I had been able to accomplish. I had thought that being able to change myself was a rush, but this was way beyond that.I could see that a fair number of the changes had happened already, but I knew that some of them would take a bit of time to happen. One of the more obvious ones was that I had decided that we should all be the same height. I had tried to change us all to be six foot two, but that hadn't happened yet. The most obvious change was the absolute lack of hair on all of us, but the change in physique was also readily apparent.

Desrae's finger had got out of the water a few minutes before us and she had watched us arrive.

"[Do you have some sort of fetish for hairless women Cy?]" she asked me with barely suppressed mirth.

"[{amusement} I just did that as a first step and as a test. I also think it will be good for hygene.]" I was a little defensive, but took her teasing as a sign of her affection.

"[How did you do that Cy?]" Desrae asked so I explained it to her and to the others in the same way that S'Alor had explained to me, along with a few more detailed mental images.

It was hilarious to watch as suddenly all the hair started falling off the members of first Desrae's Finger and then, one by one, the rest of the Hand.

Just as this was happening, Hand Evans and the rest of the cadre arrived at the rock. I was watching Hand Evans' face and got to see his face when he noticed what was going on. It was very amusing to watch him struggle to get his face under control and try to pretend that he was completely unsurprised.

"Right," he said. "If you lot are quite finished playing silly buggers, let's take a run. This is going to be part of our routine every morning from now on. We will swim the two klicks from the jetty to here, run about twenty klicks on various different routes ending back here, then swim back to the jetty. In your fingers, by number, follow me."

I got into line directly behind Hand Evans with my Finger with me and we set out. We hadn't gone more than a klick when S'Alor was running silently next to me.

"[You gave me a fright S'Alor. I though you were sleeping?]" I greeted him.

"[I wasn't interested in swimming. I like to run.]" was his very curt reply.

"[I didn't see you on my Mind Map. How do you do that?]" I asked him. This was something that had been puzzling me for a while.

"[Practise. Like this {image/explanation}.]"

I tried to figure it out. It seemed that it was simply a technique that was an extension of the situational awareness that being in Battle Mode gave me. All I had to do though was to integrate myself so thoroughly with the envirionment that I was invisible so much as people would overlook me. I tried to do this and S'Alor just laughed at me.

"[It will take you some time to practice that. I'll tell you when you get it right.]" he told me.

I had to content myself with that. I took the Finger up into Battle Mode and I concentrated on practicing 'I am a rock, I am a bush' while we ran to the constant under-current of S'Alor's amusement.

Chapter 25: New Finger

I moved my kit from the Barracks room that we had used the previous night across to the Finger One Barracks. This was a move from one side of the semi-circle to the other, from the furtherest East to the furtherest West. My new barracks was right on the bank of the river. I stood in the door and waited to see what would happen next.

After a short while the Cadre Finger Leaders started sending warriors out to the different barracks; I could hear them calling names and then see the warriors leaving the formation to return to their original barracks, collect their kit and move to their new homes, just as I had done. Three warriors came to my new barracks to collect their kit and move out before the first of my new finger arrived to join me. As he walked up to the barracks carrying his kit, I tried to guess what sort of man he was. He was tall, somewhere over six feet, and very bulky. I couldn’t tell whether this was a hold-over from his previous build or not, but he looked as if he was a typical body-builder with an extreme development of his muscles. As he came up the stairs, he looked at me without saying anything, until I realised that he was waiting for me to clear the path into the barracks. I moved aside and let him in. When he had dumped his kit, I was waiting on the ground in front of the barracks and I asked him his name.

"I’m Bradley," he grunted and came to a stop next to me. We both watched as the rest of my new finger straggled in one by one. It took about ten minutes for the rest to gather. Once the last straggler was there, I looked them over.

"My name is Cy Peters. Being appointed as a ‘knuckle’ to a new Finger has been a huge surprise for me, so I have probably just as little idea what to expect as you do. I think we should spend some time introducing ourselves while we wait for more information. I come from Durban in South Africa and I was in the Army there. I saw combat in Angola and Namibia at section level in Motorised Infantry, and then later on as part of a Mechanised Battalion Group near the Lomba river. I was a reserve force soldier for twenty three years, doing time in the army for between thirty and ninety days every year. My last deployment was as a company commander on peace keeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although there wasn’t all the much peace to keep up in the North East where we were. Before I joined up for War World, I was the battalion training officer. You might recognise me from the Combat Competition. Brad, what about you?"

"Bradley Commons. Called Brad, not Bradley," came the surly response. I was British Army. Got to Staff Sergeant and they kicked me out. Wouldn’t let me stay in for my thirty years cause I wasn’t a Sgt Major. Did a few tours in Ireland, one in Aden. Latest was a tour to the Sand-Box."

"Thanks Brad. Next?" I asked of a short wiry man.

"Jeremy Ellis. Jerry to my friends. Originally from Kenya. I was the son of British expatriates and I volunteered for the British Army and ended up doing the P course. I instructed for a while on secondment from the Paras. Did a combat tour in Cyprus fighting the Greeks. I got out after my five years but found I was getting bored on my Dad’s farm, so I signed up with Mad Mike Hoare. Did two contracts with him in the Congo. After that I had had enough soldiering, so I bought a farm in Rhodesia. I was in the BSAP there and did a lot of tracking. I have been retired for a long time now and was living in Mooi River."

"Interesting. Seems we have eaten some of the same dust," I said with a smile. "You didn’t live that far away from me either. Next?"

"That’ll be me." The voice came from a woman around 5’8" in height with a close-cropped head of brown hair. "I’m Shelly Booth. Grew up in Chicago. I have no military background, but I know weapons and fighting." The last was said with a touch of defiance.

"I would be interested to know where you learnt about those Shelly?" I probed gently.

"I ran with a gang," came the succinct reply.

"Ok. Makes sense. That’s Brad, Jerry and Shelly. Next please?"

"Bill Riley. I did twelve years in the US Army. My last tour was with the 10th Mountain in the Stan."

"Light Infantryman hey? Carry light, Sleep Cold." I grinned at Bill. "What rank?"

"I left as a Sgt. Up or Out got me RIFd".

I could see that there was an incredible amount of resentment there. Bill had the classic American soldier’s build; heavy in the arms and shoulders.

"OK. And you?" This was to the last member of the finger. A short, blond, Barbie type.

"I grew up on a farm in Wyoming. Lived around horses and did pulled my weight but I got sick of being the butte of Dumb Blonde jokes. I decided to take the opportunity when it came up. I lost one brother to Desert Storm and another to an IED in Iraq just last year. I figured that if they had been alive, they might have liked to take advantage of this opportunity, so I came in their place. "

"OK. You didn’t tell us your name?"

"Oh. Sorry. I am Bridget Amory. Folks were of German stock."

"Ok Bridget. Thanks. Right. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s try something else. How far did you guys get with the mental side of things?"

I watched them while I asked this question. I had been surprised to see that all the men had beards and mustaches, so I guessed that they had not got quite as far along as I had with my old Finger.

"[Can you all hear me?]" I asked when I got only a few mumbled responses. As it turned out, they could all hear me, but they could not send at all. I had to pick up their replies from their minds, rather then having them send it back to me. After a little observation, it was obvious that their mental development was sorely lacking.

"[Finger Leaders,]" I heard Hand Evans calling, "[Take your new fingers down to the Jetty. We are going to start out with a bit of a swim. When you are there, swim up-river till you reach a large rock {image} on the left bank. The rock is about two klicks upriver. Get out of the river, and wait next to the rock.]"

"[Can everyone swim?]" I asked the Finger as we walked rapidly the hundred meters or so to the jetty. All of them said they could so as soon as we were there, I dived into the water with the Finger following. Two klicks was a very long way to swim to my old way of thinking, and the last time I had swum that far was when I competed in the Midmar Mile a few years before. I had experience now though of what my body was capable of here on War World.

I started out at a very slow pace, doing an easy breast-stroke while I checked on my Finger. They were all OK except for Brad who seemed to have progressed as far as doggy-paddle before deciding that was all he needed to know about swimming. I realised that I had automatically moved into the meditation state, and I was at first surprised that the rest of the Finger hadn’t followed me in doing so. I suddenly felt the other ‘knuckles’, the members of my old Finger, as they also entered the state we had used for the Sword Dance, so I reached out to them.

"[Are you guys doing OK?]"

"[Yup,]" Desrae replied, "[although it looks as though our Finger was something special. This lot {image/taste}]"

I laughed. Desrae’s image showed a bunch of drunken slobs falling around and vomiting on each other.

"[It’s not that bad.]"

"[Almost. We need to get these guys as much up to speed as we can Cy. Interacting with them has made me realise we are already light years ahead.]" Desrae’s scathing tone came through clearly.

"[Agreed. Why not start by seeing if we can get our Fingers into the ‘battle mode’ first, then we can see if that helps us with teaching them the other stuff we know?]"

"[{Agreement}]" came back from all four of them.

I reached out to my Finger "[I want you to follow me in your minds.]"

As I got each person’s attention I started guiding them into the battle mode state. I started with Brad as it seemed to me that he had the most to benefit from learning how to do it. While I was struggling with him, we were swimming at a snail’s pace. This didn’t worry me too much as I could see in my Mind Map that there were at least three Fingers that were having problems and were proceeding slowly. It took me much longer than I had thought it would, but eventually the whole section had managed to move into battle mode. Once they were there, I started pushing swimming techniques at them. The change in Brad was startling. He learnt from this process very quickly and the section started moving at last with a fairly rapid over-hand crawl. As we swam, I started trying to confirm my initial suspicions that the warriors that I had been given had barely scratched the surface of the potential of the mental aspects of what I had found available. I checked with Desrae and the others and they were adamant in confirming my thoughts. I decided to move this up the chain a little and contact Finger Roberts. He very quickly confirmed what I had suspected. He explained to me that the real forging of a Finger normally happened in battle where the bonds between the members would be created under extreme stress. it was only after this first battle that we were supposed to really start coming into our mental abilities as we fed off the synergy from a bonded Finger. He pointed out to me that we had been an aberration, which was why they were experimenting with placing us as knuckles to see whether we could use our abilities to short-cut the process.

Chapter 24: Second Phase Training

After about three hours of running, we crested a ridge and entered a small valley. The new training base was next to a broad river. It was a delightful base that reminded me of nothing less than Lothlorien in Lord of the Rings. Each Finger had a house to itself that was raised from the ground about three meters on stilts. The five Finger houses were arranged in a semi-circle around a small clearing in the forest. Off to the East side there were a number of other houses that acted as an admin area including store-rooms, a mess-hall and classrooms.

Hand Evans called us to a halt in the center of the clearing and dismissed us. Finger Roberts led us to our house which was the one closest to the admin buildings. I chose the a bed against the far wall in the corner and stowed my kit. S’Alor wasn’t interested in coming into the camp, and said that he would make himself comfortable in the forest.

Settling in took almost no time at at. We simply dumped our gear and then left the house to walk around and take a look at our new home. One of the first things I spotted was a notice board with a series of pages on it listing each Finger, their Finger Leaders, Knuckles and members. We walked towards the river and onto the jetty that stretched out into the river.I looked down and saw that there were fish visible through the clear water. We were soon joined by some of the members of the other fingers.

"Let’s go for a swim," Desrae suggested.

"Great idea" I replied, and we headed back to get our towels. On the way there, I asked Finger Roberts about showers.

"Haven’t you learnt how to warm water yet Cy?" he asked me.

"I’m on to you Finger," I replied with a smile.

Finger Roberts laughed. "Yes, I figured one day in base would expose me."

"Do we have any showers?" I asked again. I was a bit obessed with the idea by now. It was the one major luxury that I had missed during our first phase training.

"No. Maybe it’s time to re-examine that water-heating idea of yours."

"Great idea. All we need is a container for the water and some piping."

With that Finger Roberts led me off to the Admin building, all thoughts of swimming shelved. No matter how nice the scenery, this came first for me.

At the admin building, Finger Roberts introduced me to a guy I would come to depend on. "Cy, this is Mark Knoble. He acts as our quartermaster. He is part of the admin section, and not part of a Finger."

"Hi Mark," I greeted him. Finger Roberts wandered off and I was left talking to Mark.

"Hi Cy. What can I do for you?" Mark asked.

I explained what I needed to Mark and he disappeared into his store with a quiet request for me to wait for a few minutes. When he reappeared, he was carrying a length of piping.

"Will this do?’ Mark asked.

I examined the piping. "That’s perfect. What about the other things?"

"In the back" said Mark and led me around the building to where he had an outdoor shed for storage. In the shed Mark pointed out a barrel.

"What is that thing made of?" I asked him.

"I have no idea. All I know is that it is the standard barrel used to store liquids. It is very durable and can be put on the fire to heat water. We have done that before."

That was welcome news. I went to man-handle the barrel out of the store and found it was made of an extremely light material. Once I had the barrel outside, I rolled it along away from the admin building towards the river. When I got it there, I turned around and found Mark had anticipated my need; he was standing behind me with a two-handed wood saw in his hands.I gathered up a number of large stones and created two piles of them for the barrel to rest on, then I took the knife that Mark offered me at my request, and cut a hole in the top of the barrel and another on the top of the one side. I attached a pipe to the hole on the side for siphoning off hot water and got a bucket from Mark. While I was fetching water to fill the barrel, Mark started cutting wood for a fire.

It took me a while, but I eventually got the barrel filled with water. When we got the fire going I placed the pipe into one bucket and fetched another bucketful of cold water. I waited for the barrel to heat up, chatting to Mark while I did so. once I thought it was hot enough, I poured the bucket of cold water into the top of the barrel and collected the warm water that came out of the other. I would at last have some hot water in future.

Finger Roberts and I went back to our barracks room and grabbed some towels to join the others in the river.

* * *

The next morning we were woken up early as usual. It didn’t bother me; armies since the dawn of time have had to instill this habit in soldiers to be ready for the typical dawn raid, so it was something I was completely familiar with. This morning though we were in a new place and I was unsure of what the routine would involve, so I went with the others down to the river for a quick wash and got dressed. We were called shortly after that to form up in the central parade ground.

We formed up under the guidance of the Finger Leaders into a large formation, but each finger formed two rows of three, with the Finger Leader at the head of the right-hand row. Once everyone was in place, Hand Evans addressed us.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Today we will start your second phase training. We will start with a reorganisation. Your Finger Leaders will now withdraw from you and become part of the training cadre, while those of you who have been identified as potential Finger Leaders will take over in those positions. While you are learning about how to fight as a Hand, these people will be learning what is involved in being a Finger Leader. While they are under training, they will be addressed as ‘Knuckle’ but you will treat them as if they are actual Finger Leaders. Think of them as ‘Candidate Officers’ in that while they do not hold the rank yet, they will have to perform as Finger Leaders and the cadre will back up their temporary authority.

"Once that has taken place, we will start with the drills that you already know from Finger training, and how they apply to fighting together in the Hand. Finger Leaders, carry on."

Finger Roberts turned to us and called us aside. "In case you hadn’t guessed it before now, you lot are the new ‘Knuckles’ for this training Hand. Cy, you will take Finger One, Desrae two, Lian three, Elaine four and Geraint Five. Go to the barracks and move your kit to your new barracks rooms, your new Finger members will join you there shortly."

I looked around at the others and realised that they were just as surprised as I was at this latest development. I shrugged and went to do as I had been ordered.

Chapter 23: S'Alor & Second Phase

I woke up the next morning in the barracks room with the rest of my Finger. Lorraine and I had spent a good three hours the previous day exploring all the various athletic options that are possible between two consenting adults, and a few that I hadn’t known were possible. I had made my way back to the barracks room and gone to sleep after having to endure the friendly joshing from Desrae and the others.

I got up and took care of my morning routine, only too happy to have access to a hot shower for a change. It was still early when I was finished and dressed. I had given some thought to how I was going to handle introducing S’Alor to the powers-that-be, so I reached out to make contact with Finger Roberts.

"[Finger, It’s Cy.]"

"[What is it Cy?]" It seems I had woken Finger Roberts for a change.

"[I need to see you as soon as possible. There is something that you need to know.]"

"[OK. I will meet you on the parade ground in 20 minutes. I just need to get myself sorted out.]"

"["No Problem, Finger.]"

I woke up the rest of my finger and once they were all firing on all cylinders, told them the story of S’Alor. Desrae told me that she had suspected that there was something going on as she had detected what she thought was a dream character on the periphery of our Sword Dances while we were training. That surprised me. I had often felt S’Alor hanging around mentally when we were busy, but I hadn’t know that anyone else had sensed him. Lian confirmed that he had also sensed something, but Geraint and Elaine claimed to have been oblivious.

I left them to get ready and walked out to find Finger Roberts.

"Over here Cy," he called me and handed me a tin mug of coffee. Ambrosia. Something else that I had missed. While we sipped coffee I told him the story. It’s one huge advantage to mental communication, you can talk while eating or drinking.

"[Remember when you detected that I was speaking to someone who wasn’t on your mind-map?]" I reminded him.

"[Yes. Are you going to tell me who he is now?]" Finger Roberts didn’t sound at all surprised.

"[How did you know?]"

"[I have sensed him since then on the fringes of the Sword Dance, and once or twice while we were on runs I felt that we weren’t alone. Nothing definite, but you forget that I have been doing this a while Cy.]"

"[Why didn’t you ask me about this?]" I asked in puzzlement.

"[{Amusement} I consulted Hand Evans about it and just watched you. I could sense that this was something that you thought was important, but we decided to wait until you felt you were prepared to tell us on your own.]"

"[Hand Evans knows?]"

"[Yes. He’s waiting for us. I suspected that you wanted to tell me about this and gave him a heads-up.]"

"[Can he meet us near the edge of the parade-ground?]"

"[Sure. I’ll let him know.]"

Once I got over my initial surprise, I realised I had been thinking like a typical recruit. The instructors often see things that the recruits think that they don’t, and just as often choose not to do anything about them for one reason or another. I had been on that side of the fence, and I should have known better. We walked on and we were joined by Hand Evans at a spot under some trees.

"[Morning.]" Hand Evans greeted us curtly. I took a careful look at his communication then realised it was simply tiredness, and not anything to do with me. It seemed that I was not the only one to have celebrated a little last night.

"[Finger Roberts. Hand Evans."] I began, "[I need to tell you about someone that I have met.]" I went on to tell them the bits of the story that I had left out before; about S’Alor and our communications. Hand Evans seemed to be most interested in S’Alor’s ability to move close to us without appearing on our mind map. I didn’t realise it, but somehow I didn’t tell them, and they didn’t realise, that S’Alor was Smilodean.

"[S’Alor is right near by. Can I call him in?]" I eventually asked.

"[Sure.]" I got back from Hand Evans.

S’Alor had been waiting. I had barely got the permission from Hand Evans when he appeared out of the shadows and came to stand at my side.

Hand Evans and Finger Roberts looked as if they were going to die from strokes. They had the most incredible looks of shock and horror on their faces that I had ever seen. I couldn’t help smiling, and my mind was full of S’Alor’s "[{Amusement}]".

"[S’Alor, this is Hand Evans {image/taste} and Finger Roberts {image/taste}.]" I introduced him.

Both men replied politely enough, although I could see that they were seriously shocked about the fact that S’Alor was a Smilodean. They had all considered the big cats to be a particular danger to humans in the forest, and I could see that they were pretty nervous about being this close to S’Alor.

Just then I spotted Marek walking up, with Shiyla in tow.

"[Good morning S’Alor,]" Marek greeted calmly.

Hand Evans swung around to stare at Marek. "[You know him? You knew the Smilodeans were sentient?]" he asked, the fury obvious in his voice.

"No need to panic Hand Leader Evans" Marek said calmly. "S’Alor specifically asked on behalf of the Smilodeans that you not be told of their nature. They have spent some time observing the operations on War World with a view to joining in. S’Alor contacted me last night to tell me that they have made the decision to test the relationship. He seems to like Cy Peters here and has chosen to be his Battle Companion. It is in the nature of a test of the relationship. If it works out, then there might be further members of his race that will decide to join."

"[{Agreement} I have watched Cy. He tasted to me like a predator, but told me that he was a cub. He was open to me and seemed more prepared than most to act like a cub in order to learn new things. This thing he calls a Sword Dance is something that I helped him to achieve. It was already within him, but I just pushed him to focus on it.]"

I was very interested by this. Not only did it seem as if S’Alor could understand our spoken language, and not just our mental communications as I had at first thought, but he was a lot more erudite than he had appeared at first. I was to discover that he was learning just as much from me as I was from him.

"You are about to start your second phase training. Might I suggest that for now you consider S’Alor to be a companion to a warrior in one of the fingers, and we can see how the relationship develops?" asked Marek.

"That sounds good to me," replied Hand Evans, "do you agree Finger?"

"Yes Hand," Finger Roberts answered. "It is going to make things interesting though!"

* * *

To say that the rest of the the warriors who had been on War World for some time were surprised would be stretching the concept of under-statement to the breaking point. The other recruits took it basically in their stride as for them it was just one more aspect of their new situation. Once Fist Ryon had stopped pissing and moaning, and the rest of the leaders had calmed down somewhat, the entire training Fist was assembled on the parade-ground.

Fist Ryon addressed us again as he had at the start of our first phase.

"Warriors," he said, "we have had some excitement the last day or so, but we need to put that behind us now and continue with the next phase of your training. To this point you have focused on individual skills and Finger formations. In the next phase we will continue to work on improving those skills, but we will now move into fighting in larger formations, the Hand and the Fist, as well as how some of the other pieces of the organisation work. The Hands that you were assigned to yesterday will be the Hands you are in for this phase of the training. We will move out as Hands to the Hand training bases where this phase will begin. I will be seeing you from time to time both as I observe your Hand training and when we finally get together as a Fist to train. I encourage you to pay attention to what you are taught and to work hard. Some of you have experienced what it is like to be defeated in battle in our Combat Training battles here yesterday, and I am sure you can attest to the fact that it is not pleasant. Keep this in mind for this next phase. During this phase we will also be confirming our evaluations of you and we will make some decisions about who will be earmarked for leadership positions. That is all. Hand Leaders, take over."

Hand Evans called his Finger Leaders to him and they spoke quietly together for a few minutes, then they all returned to their Fingers. He gave the order to move out and we started walking in finger formations behind him. Once we were off the parade-ground and on the pathway through the forest, he pushed up the pace and we started running. S’Alor found this way too restrictive and started ranging out to the side.

While we were running, I discovered that my connection to S’Alor extended the range of my mind-map. Ever since the decision had been taken that he could join me as a companion, we had started developing a connection between us that seemed to be constantly ‘on’. I couldn’t see through his eyes, but I found that the my mind-map included the normal area that I could normally cover, as well as another area that was centered on him. I mentioned this to S’Alor, and he seemed to be surprised that I thought that there was anything strange about that.

"[That is how the pack works Cy. We are each individuals, but we bond into groups very similar to the way your Fingers do, but each is boosted by the connection to the others so that we can range widely and even when we are not thinking about it, our mind maps are the sum of all the contributions from the individuals. Don’t you do that with your pack mates?]" S’Alor asked.

"[I have never tried it. We will have to experiment a little later. There is not much room to test our boundaries here.]" I replied.

Blog: Battle Diagrams

In case you hadn't noticed, I have added some diagrams of the battle in Chapter 19. No-one has commented on them. Were they useful? A waste of time? Should I go back and do the same for the first battle and/or do them for future battles? Should I draw a Map of War-World? I am just wondering how important readers feel that is. All the best John

Chapter 22: In the Forest

I was a little unsure where I should start. Figuring that it was best to be safe, I decided to walk Lorraine through the process I had followed to get to where I had. I started out by explaining a little bit about my background and how I had gotten to War World, just in case there was something there that was important, and then talked her through the process I had followed. Lorraine picked up on it pretty quickly. It took her four attempts, but she managed to get a Sword Dance of her own started on her fourth attempt. She didn’t keep it up for long; just long enough to be sure that she could do it.

"That’s pretty amazing Cy," Lorraine said as she flopped down onto the grass.

"Ja. I thought so too," I answered with a smile. "I really wasn’t sure that what I had done was anything really out of the ordinary, then everyone made a fuss, and now you picked it up within half an hour... so I am really not so sure."

"I had a quick mental chat to Hand Evans after your demonstration earlier and he told me that I can explain some things to you that you couldn’t know."

"That sounds intriguing?"

"Yes," she smiled, "it’s not that interesting. Just that you are comparing your abilities to the people you have interacted with the most, your finger members and the various leader types. Not everyone is as talented. You and other members of your finger were identified by Marek and his crew as having a high aptitude, which is why you were grouped together."

"An aptitude for what exactly?"

"Maybe potential is a better word. Potential or aptitude for leadership, which in this place implies mental ability more than anything else. The physical is easy enough for the Sidhe to rectify."

"OK. So what exactly does that mean?"

"Just that there are not very many leader types. Very few have the mental aptitude. You’ve been taught about the structure we use. Why do you think we have no Officers and NCOs?"

"I had wondered about that. It seemed very strange to me. The Finger/Hand/Fist leaders seem to be a strange combination of the two. Half Officer and half NCO. Finger Roberts wouldn’t go into much detail about it at all."

"Yes. In your second phase training you will learn a lot more about the practicalities of how things work at the levels above a Finger. The problem is that people with the ability to lead are scarce. Contrary to what you would know about a traditional army, we have only warriors. Everyone fights. What support we need we provide ourselves. The ‘tail’ functions are generally provided for us by the Sidhe in training, and by the local population out there in the world. You should know that everyone in your finger has been ear-marked for a leadership position. There are another two or three fingers in this group marked as well, although your finger has the members with the highest potential. The rest are most probably going to be warriors only. I think you will find that it is a lot more difficult to teach the Sword Dance to those without the same potential, and pretty much impossible to teach them what you have taught me today."

"That bears some thinking about. Do you think that someone without the mental aptitude could have the pace of their fighting training speeded up by the Sword Dance?"

"I think so. That we will have to find out."

I was thinking about this when I noticed Lorraine was looking at me slightly differently. it felt as if she had switched mental gears.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Do you remember I made you a promise when we were in the shower?"

"Umm. Yes. You said that you would teach me about the more private aspects."

"Exactly." Lorraine stretched and it drew my attention to her body. "The finger you are in," she said, "is like family. Sex within the Finger is absolutely taboo. Worse than incest. We have found that it decreases a Finger’s effectiveness and cohesion almost without fail. Other than that, there is no limit. No taboos except ones that squick the individual." Lorraine moved closer to me and reached out to touch my leg.

I found my body was reacting involuntarily to Lorraine. I had not been with any other woman since I had married my wife over twenty years before. Before I could say or do anything about what she was doing, she kissed me. I started to relax and return the kiss and brought my one hand around to caress her back and run my fingers through her hair.

"[{Amusement}]

"What? What was that?" Lorraine shot up, looking around for a threat. She had grabbed up her sheathed sword and drawn it before I had even had time to draw breath.

"I think there is something that I haven’t told you yet Lorraine," I said, struggling past the frustration I felt at having our kiss interrupted.

"Oh?’ Lorraine managed to pack a world’s worth of sarcasm into that one syllable.

"Yes. [Lorraine, this is S’Alor {image/taste}. S’Alor, this is Lorraine {image/taste}.]"

I could see Lorraine’s shock on her face as she processed what she had just learnt.

"S’Alor? A Smilodean? Sentient?"

"[{Amusement} Why should this surprise you so much Lorraine?]" S’Alor spoke to us both again.

"[My apologies S’Alor. Nothing we have heard has suggested that your kind was anything more than what you appeared. I did not intend to offend. Will you forgive me?"]

"[Sheath your claws Lorraine. I would like to come closer.]" said S’Alor.

Lorraine sheathed her sword, then swung to glare at me. "I nearly had a heart attack. I suppose you have been chatting to S’Alor all this time?"

"Well, yes. Shortly after I discovered the Sword Dance, I discovered that S’Alor had been watching me. He has been very friendly, but I have never actually met him." As the words left my mouth they became untrue as I spotted movement in the bush at the edge of the clearing. S’Alor moved into the clearing and I was amazed at the way that he seemed to ooze out of the undergrowth as if he was some dream made real. I had a particular love for cats, and had thought that my domestic pets were a poor substitute for the large cats. My favourite character in any story when I was growing up was Bagheera from the Jungle Book, followed in short order by Shere Khan. S’Alor seemed to be a combination of both. He had the bulk of Shere Khan combined with the elegance and grace of Bagheera. He was big though, probably a meter and a half at the shoulder, and about four meters long.

"[Greetings]"

Lorraine and I almost stumbled over ourselves to return the greeting. I felt mesmerised by S’Alor’s presence. It seemed to me that he was the epitomy of steel gloved in velvet and I had an almost irresistable urge to run my hands down his coat. He had stopped about two meters away from us.

"[You can touch me Cy.]" S’Alor said.

"[Can you read my mind without me sending?]" I asked him.

"[No. Just emotions and desires.]"

I moved forward and reached out tentatively to touch him. He was covered in short fur that lay flat against his skin. His fur was coloured in green and yellow stripes that swirled all over his body. I could see that he was superbly camouflaged for the jungle. As long as he stood still, it would be impossible to see him. He was warm to the touch, and when I stroked him, I felt a deep rumble in his chest. I couldn’t believe it, he was purring.

Lorraine approach tentatively and asked "[May I?]" and waited for the affirmative before starting to stroke him on the other side. We looked at each other across his body and I could see my awe and amazement reflected in Lorraine’s expression.

"[This is very nice. Thank you. It is not why I came here though,]" said S’Alor. "[I wanted to meet you properly and talk about some other things.]"

"[Sorry S’Alor.]"

"[No need to apologise, that feels wonderful.]"

"[OK. What did you want to discuss?]"

"[As you know, I have been watching you and I have decided that I want to be a part of what you are doing. We have had enough of being treated as vermin, and I have volunteered to start a relationship with you humans to see if we can’t change that.]"

"[Ok. I am not sure how it will work, but I would be very happy to fight with you S’Alor. We will have to see how this is accepted by the guys in charge though.]"

Lorraine laughed. "[This is something I would not miss for the world. I can’t wait to see the faces when we go waltzing in to base with you S’Alor!]"

S’Alor turned his big green eyes to look at Lorraine. "[I can {taste} that you want this almost as much as you wanted to mate with Cy a short while ago... should we wait for you to do that first?]"

Lorraine and I both blushed bright red at that.

"[It might be better if we left the meeting till morning, now that you mention it]," I said.

"[{Amusement} In the morning then,]" said S’Alor and bounded off into the undergrowth.

Chapter 21: Debrief

We had a great lunch. Nice and hot, steaks and potatos, salad and bread; all cooked for us and served on plates. It felt almost civilised. Finger Roberts warned us not to get too used to it because, he said, our second phase of training would be hard.

After lunch, we got called to see Fist Ryon. We were directed to a room in the main base that looked like a mini conference center, similar to but larger than the one that we had been in to receive our first briefing on arrival on War World. Sitting at a table in the front of the room was Fist Ryon, and he was flanked by Hand Evans and a couple of the other Hand Leaders that I hadn’t met yet. I was directed to the front row of seats facing the table and I sat, with the rest of the Finger following suit. It looked as if we were the last to enter the room as there were a number of other people in the ‘spectator’ seats, and after we entered the door was closed.

Once we were settled, Fist Ryon looked around the room and then called on Finger Roberts. He proceeded to grill Finger Roberts about all the aspects of the training that we had been through, with the odd question thrown in by one or the other of the Hand Leaders sitting at the table, and even a few questions from the seats behind us. Once he was finished with Finger Roberts, he moved on to me and I had to tell it all again. I explained everything that had happened to me from my perspective, although I left out any reference to S’Alor as I figured that would just cloud the waters. After that, there was some too-and-froing with questions put to us both, mostly just to clarify something that we had said. Once that was out of the way, Hand Evans took over from Fist Ryon and started on a different tack.

"Can you explain to me the tactical choices you made in the two battles you had today Cy?" he asked in a rather friendly voice. He had the ability to make it seem as if we were the only people in the room and were having a little chat over a drink, not as aggressive as Fist Ryon at all.

"Sure Hand Evans. I decided that we would have to approach the first battle as if we were in the meleé..." I started out and proceeded to go through both battles step by step, explaining exactly why I made the choices I had and being forced to think about them to answer the questions. A lot of the details of the action had happened so fast, I couldn’t believe that they had even been seen, never mind having to explain and justify them. I decided that Hand Leader Evans was an absolute master at debriefing as he wrung me completely dry without ever making me feel defensive or scared to voice an opinion or to shade what I was saying to satisfy what I thought he wanted to hear. It was impossible to tell what he thought about the things he was asking; there were no clues from his face or his voice. Each member of my Finger got a chance to answer questions from him, and then he moved on to Lorraine’s Finger and repeated the process. It was an incredible learning experience for me, as it showed me how a proper post-combat debrief should be run, and also taught me how to look at the action from all sides and extract ‘lessons learnt’.

Once Hand Evans was finished, Fist Ryon took over again. He summarised what had been discussed in the first part of the session and then thanked us all for cooperating so well in the second.

"Do you think you would be able to demonstrate your Sword Dance to us?" Fist Ryon asked.

"I would be only too happy to do so" I replied and the whole crowd of us moved outside.

Once we were all outside, Fist Ryon asked "Please demonstrate the Sword Dance and then, if possible, pull me and a few others into it."

"I will try my best Fist," I told him.

I focused on moving into the meditative state and entered it smoothly and easily. I started doing the Sword Dance and without any concious thought swept my finger up into doing it with me. Once I started, I contacted Fist Ryon mentally and went through the same process of showing him what was required as I had done with the others the first time I showed them the Dance. Fist Ryon caught on incredibly quickly. It was obvious to me that the Battle Mode I had seen in Lorraine’s Finger was pretty much the same thing that I had discovered, and that Fist Ryon knew it very well. The difference lay in how I used that state, and in how I applied it to learning. Within a minute or two Fist Ryon was moving through the forms with us and I moved on to Hand Leader Evans and the other Hand Leaders standing there. Within a very short period of time, they were all moving through the forms with us. On an impulse swept Lorraine up into it as well, and it turned out that she was only too happy that I had. Once we were all moving with the forms, I began accelerating both their speed and complexity. After a few minutes, I asked Fist Ryon "[Is there something from your experience that we don’t know that you could show me?]"

"[Sure. {image/taste}. How’s that?]"

"[Perfect.]"

I took the manoeuvre that Fist Ryon had given me and passed it out to all those involved in the Sword Dance. Once I determined that it had ‘settled’ in all the minds involved, I moved us into the sequence of forms that comprised the manoeuvre. We executed it flawlessly, almost as if it had been something that we had rehearsed. I was feeling pretty good, and a little peeved that Fist Ryon had not taken what he was told about us seriously, so I moved up the pace; getting faster and faster until I hit my limit. They were all sucked along with me. I kept it up for as long as I could, then started to wind it down and eventually stopped. I looked at Fist Ryon, and could see that I had wasted my time. he was obviously just as fit as we were.

"Dammitalltohell" exclaimed Fist Ryon. "That was incredible. Amazing to be able to teach and learn like that, and I think I like the Sword Dance. What is your limit on the number of people who can take part knuckle-head?"

It seemed like that was his way of keeping me in place. Not that I minded being called names. I was not something that had ever bothered me. More importantly, it reminded me that I had been told that there was a limit to the number of people that someone at each level could communicate with, and I had just exceeded the limit for a Finger Leader, never-mind of a knuckle-head.

"That is the most I have done Fist. I have no idea what my limit is," I answered him.

"OK. Can you teach anyone else how to do this?"

"I’ve never tried Fist."

"Try. This could make a huge difference to us. We will have to think this through. Decide what impact it could have on us."

He turned and walked away, with all the Hand Leaders following after him. Hand Leader Evans gave me a brief smile and a nod before he left.

"You did good!" Lorraine told me. "I really enjoyed that. I would like you to try and teach me how you do it. I will teach you some of the stuff you need to know in exchange. OK?"

"Sure. Do you know what we are supposed to be doing now?"

"As far as I know, all the others have been assigned barracks. You will be over-nighting here and leaving in the morning," Lorraine shrugged.

"That’s right." Finger Roberts confirmed. Your room is [here {image/map}]. You are on your own ‘till morning. Enjoy." He walked off leaving me with my Finger and Lorraine.

"Cy," said Desrae, "I’ll take the others to our room. Why don’t you spend some time with Lorraine and see if you can’t teach her what you know?"

"Ok Des. Thanks. See you later."

"Have fun," Desrae said and walked off with the others trailing her.

"Let’s get to some shade and we can try this," Lorraine said and I followed her across the parade-ground to collect my kit. We wandered between the trees for a couple of hundred meters until we came into a shaded grove.

"This ought to do it," Lorraine said and we dumped our kit and looked at each other.

Chapter 20: Luxury

One of the things that had irritated me beyond belief was that in spite of all the progress we had made in the more esoteric arts of meditation and mind communication, I still could not get water heated up to have a decent bath or shower. I had spent three weeks bathing every day in an ice-cold stream, and I was sick of it. Every time I queried Finger Roberts on the issue, he just grinned at me and told me that it was still an important lesson for me to learn.

As we walked away from the infirmary, I decided to ask Lorraine about it.

She burst out laughing. "I cannot believe that they are still doing that." she gasped out.

"Doing what?"

"It’s a game. The Finger Leaders who act as instructors during first phase training always pick up on something practical and say it is only possible to do it using ‘magic’ of some sort. They have learnt that it introduces a wild-card element. If you think that it must be possible, then you will strive to get it right and often find you can do some other things that others haven’t thought possible. Obviously it worked with you."

"Damn! You mean you can’t heat water?"

"Nope. If you think about it, you will realise that everything you can do is bound up in how you can affect your own body and mind. There is nothing external that you can do. No telekinesis, no levitation. Although, that jump and twist thing you did in your first fight today almost looked like it."

"Dammit. That’s true. I guess if I had thought about it properly, I would have realised that! How do I get a hot shower or bath then?"

"You mean you haven’t been shown? Follow me."

I turned to give Desrae a rueful grin as we walked along with Lorraine. She knew how much I had bitched about the lack of hot water. She just shrugged at me and smiled.

"Oh, by the way, there is something that you can do about the cold now that I think of it." said Lorraine.

"What’s that?"

"It is possible to raise the temperature of your skin slightly if you have enough control. If you are in still water, that does have the effect of warming a tiny layer of water close to your skin, sort of like a wetsuit. It also works for water trapped in your clothing. It doesn’t help much for bathing, but if you are hiding in a wet, muddy marsh or something, you can stop yourself freezing to death."

"Excellent. That is something I will definitely practice. Thanks Lorraine."

"No problem. You should know that once you have joined the Fight, and been accepted by the veterans, you will pick up a lot of the little tricks like that.."

"Yeah, sounds like the art of soldiering in general; experience counts for a lot."

"Yup. Here we are."

We were standing outside one of the doors in the main base building. Lorraine pushed open the door and we followed her inside. As I walked through the door, I could feel that we were in some sort of of ‘bath-house’. There were long lines of wire lockers with place to keep your clothes.

"Pick a spot." Lorraine said as she started to strip out of her clothes. "You are going to enjoy this."

I wasted no time and was soon joined by the rest of the finger. We picked up towels from a stack on a table and walked through another door. I walked behind Lorraine and couldn’t help admiring the view. She turned her head to talk to me and smiled slightly as she told me "There are showers here to get the bulk of the muck off you. The hot baths are in the next room."

I blushed when I realised she had caught me looking.

Lorraine laughed. "I don’t mind you looking. I think you need some education in more private aspects of life in a combat Hand though. We can chat about that later, maybe tonight?"

I mumbled a faint affirmative and climbed under a shower, grateful both for the warm water and for the fact that I could hide my embarrassment.

The water felt glorious on my skin. I looked down and say that the water was running red from the blood I had got all over me in the battles. There was a dispenser on the wall that I figured out was liquid soap from watching Lorraine use it. I turned to check on the other members of my finger and saw that they were also luxurating under the hot water. Desrae had a funny smile on her face when I looked at her, but she just shrugged and shook her head when I raised an eyebrow at her in query. I wanted to ask her what she was thinking, but I was still unsure about just how private the mental communication was, so I decided to leave that discussion for later.

After we had all showered, Lorraine took us through another set of doors to the the bathing room. There we found a series of pools filled with water. Lorraine explained that they started at the one end with extremely hot water and then the water got progressively colder from pool to pool. The idea was to start in the hottest pool and work your way, by floating, from pool to pool until you got to the cold one and got out. The pools were arranged in a circle and you ended back where you started.

We all eased ourselves into the hottest pool and then spent the next hour or so soaking ourselves as we moved around.

Once we were finished with that, we got dressed and went looking for food.

Chapter 19: Veteran Finger Battle

I looked away from Lorraine at the guy who was watching her back. His eyes were completely flat and I realised that he was dangerous in a different way. There is no-one more dangerous than someone who doesn’t care about the consequences, and that is the feeling I got from him.

"[Listen guys, watch out. These guys are doing this in earnest. This is not a game for them,"] I sent to my finger members.

I took a few steps away and rejoined my finger. I noticed that Lorraine and her companion took care not to take their eyes off me as they did the same. Well, at least we had respect from them; now to test just how capable we really were.

Fist Ryon asked "Everyone ready?"

When he had received an affirmative response from Lorraine and I, he gave the command "Fight".

For a few moments no-one moved, then Lorraine’s finger shifted into the three-up/two-back formation, with her in the centre. Pretty much what I expected, and for the same reasons that I would have chosen that formation in their place. They had sufficient strength up front to hold off any attack, two in reserve to reinforce the front and to guard their flanks. They were also sufficiently far back that my up-and-over trick from the fight before would not work. They held still, obviously quite happy to initially hold a defensive pose until they had determined what we intended to do.

I shifted my finger into a two-up formation. We were one short, having only five warriors to their six, so we ended up like the five on a dice, two-up, two back and me in the centre. Geraint was front left and Elaine, now slim, fit and strong, was on the right. They were paired as they had the strong bond between them of lovers and, I suspected, soul-mates. Lian was to my right and Desrae to my left.

"[Advance to contact.]" I ordered.

We moved forward and Elaine and Geraint started dueling with the front three. I watched them for a few seconds. They were both extremely fast and I saw that they were holding their own. Their speed and skill allowed them to fight against the three that they were confronting, but more than that, coordinating two people was definitely easier to do than three. The outside two were also not able to pay one hundred percent attention to the fight as they knew that they could be threatened by Lian and Desrae as they had seen us go around the flanks before and I knew that Lorraine would expect us to try something similar against her. Geraint was left-handed and Elaine right, so that we had swords on the outside and parry daggers on the inside. To start with, they were fighting conventionally; essentially keeping the parry-daggers unused and concentrating on using their swords. I closed up on the line to support the centre with my sword, but they were fighting so well that I was not needed.

It didn’t take long though to see that they would be able to hold us like this for as long as they needed and that if I didn’t act soon, we would surrender the initiative. I knew that if I allowed Lorraine to dictate the course of the fight, she would soon move to the attack.

"[Ok, ready {image/schematic}. Steady. Steady. Attack!]"

I moved as fast as I was able. The plan was that I would run straight through the centre, throwing my parry-dagger at the man in the middle to get his sword off-line was he tried to deflect the dagger, and try to use that gap to run him through and breach their line. It work better than I had expected. The centre man had just extended himself in a lunge at Elaine when I threw my parry-dagger and it went right past his guard and pierced his chest, he was down and I was through their line and engaging Lorraine in a flash. The momentary surprise that this caused Lorraine worked entirely to our advantage as it caused the rest of her finger to lose focus for the tiniest amount of time, just long enough for Geraint and Elaine to move around their outside opponents to attack the pair in the rear at the same time as Lian and Desrae moved up to take over their battles with the front pair. As Geraint and Elaine made their moves, it pulled their opponents around to the outside to follow them, and created opportunities for Desrae and Lian to put their new opponents down. They quickly joined up to gang up in pairs against the back pair, while I was left fighting Lorraine in the centre. Desrae quickly saw that Geraint was going to be able to handle his opponent without help and turned to help me out, and I needed it.

Lorraine was a brilliant swordsman. I was finding myself hard-pressed to match her, and now that I had thrown away my parry-dagger, I had no way to shield myself. Her watchdog was no slouch either. He was managing to both keep Geraint occupied and assist Lorraine’s defence. When Desrae joined me, we were pretty evenly matched. It took Lian and Elaine getting rid of their opponent and moving to join us to finally tip the battle our way, and all of a sudden it was over. The watchdog went down and Lorraine stepped back and out up her sword in an admission of defeat.

It took me a few minutes to wind down from the fight and confirm that everyone in the finger was OK and then I slowly relaxed. It felt as though I had been fighting for hours, but as I found out a bit later it had only been about three or four minutes.

"Hell! Where did you guys come from?" Lorraine asked.

"What do you mean?" I replied, puzzled.

"You are recruits. We were supposed to walk all over you and yet that was one of the hardest fights that I have had in years. I cannot believe you have only been here for three weeks!"

I grinned at her. "That was a hard fight. If we hadn’t surprised you, we would have struggled to beat you."

"You don’t understand. We are the best, not just in the War Brothers Fight, but we have been undefeated as a finger for the three years we have been together. Not in any competition within the Fight or in any battle with other fights. Not ever. This is the first time. What has made you guys so good in such a short time?"

"Good training." I grinned at her.

"Bullshit! There is more to it than that."

I could see that Lorraine was actually pissed off. She obviously thought that she had been cheated somehow and that we weren’t actually recruits.

"Are you from some other Fight?" she confimed my guess.

"No. I was serious about good training. It is just that we discovered a slightly different technique to assist us and it sped up our ability to learn."

"OK." I could see she had accepted what I said reluctantly, almost as if she was reserving judgement until she could confirm it for herself.

"I will happily show you what we did and how if you like."

"Thank You. That would be a very good idea I think." Fist Ryon interjected. "Let’s clean up here then I think we need to get together so that we can talk about this. We need to do a proper debrief."

I saw that all the Hand Leaders were standing in a group just behind Fist Ryon. They were easy enough to identify as they looked the same to me on my mental map as Hand Evans.

We all helped the downed members of Lorraine’s finger to get to the infirmary. It was the first time that I had gotten to see it, so I was very interested in how it looked and worked. It turned out to be a simple barracks room with about thirty beds in it. The warriors who had been wounded had been carried in and laid in the beds where they were given the pretty rough-and-ready first aid that was all that was needed to kick-start their self-healing. I asked about the warriors who had bee n more seriously hurt, such as the Finger Leader I had run through with my sword, and was told that they were handled by the support staff, Malek’s cronies, who took them off and sorted out their major wounds before returning them to the infirmary for a short rest before they were able to rejoin their Fingers.

Once we had finished at the infirmary, Finger Roberts told us that we would be fed our lunch, then after lunch we were scheduled for a comprehensive debrief session. I was a bit nervous that it would be more along the lines of an interrogation, but I kept my own council on that.