At her unexpected appearance, the Wolf stopped swirling, deftly turned over and assumed the sphinx position.
Smiling, Alex stopped short at the doorway, staring at the Wolf’s huge body whirling like a small puppy. He slowly and proudly turned his head in her direction and, gazing her in the eye, sent a common thought form to all present in the room:
"Friends, allow me to introduce Alex Bjorg to you! As soon as the commander joins us, I will acquaint you with our guest in due order,” the edges of his chap slightly went up, showing white teeth, which evidently indicated a smile.
“I was showing guys some techniques of fight with GMAs, such as a counter-move with one’s tail and pads to ensure a swift turn-over. Come to the vending machines, our synthesizer is up and running, choose whatever you like and take a seat at the second table, which is my favorite place.
As you can see, we no longer use the notion “food” as such. Instead, we say “energy”. However our medical and catering blocks are maintained in operating mode just in case we have to host a hundred of soldiers in biological bodies or a pilot-girl”, he explained by sending another thought form.
Alex approached the food synthesizer and habitually picked up some meal from dispensers and put it in an expendable plate: protein porridge with albumin balls and a glass of pure water. She sat up on a wide bench by a long soldiery table, put a tray with her meal next to her and turned to the Wolf. Alex felt she was being looked at by the whole staff of the base through the boards with scanners.
The bizarre aspect of this situation was that artificial intelligence could be present at the room without any body, while watching the interlocutor in any spectrum of their vision, starting from infrared one. It looked as though she had to talk with empty space. Alex was more accustomed to large animated officers’ gatherings in the bar of her squadron. However not all people were able to retain their natural biological bodies. As a result of serious fight wounds or injuries, many of them had to transfer into cyber bodies that sometimes could look rather peculiar. The protracted war and diseases usually left people no chance but to abandon their natural bodies.
“Now that everyone is present,” announced the Wolf in a common thought form.
Alex told him: “Abel, let’s not stand on ceremony, just put everyone into the picture and introduce me to the guys.”
Abel looked up the black sphere under the ceiling and solemnly said:
“Colleagues, this is senior lieutenant Alex nicknamed Bjorg. It was her landing that I showed you. The aircraft is beyond repair. But, fortunately, I was able to save the second pilot– navigator. I have rewritten him temporary into myself. He is now within a separate processor of the base. It’s an artificial intelligence named Eol after the ancient God of Winds. So let’s welcome new members! By the way, we are in need of pilots, operators and simply someone to talk to!” he uttered, wiggling his ears, “Therefore I will try to convince Alex and Eol to change their job places and stay at the base. And if she accepts our offer, we’ll delegate her the north-western sector stretching up to the Ocean that Ninochka was in charge of.”
The Wolf cut himself a break and carried on.
“What prompted me to take this decision? It is technically difficult to carry a human being in a biological body over the Wastelands. And, incidentally, our base requires new members. We’ll inform Alex’s commanding officer,” at these words he twitched his tail and its color grew slightly darker.”
In fact, Alex was perplexed by Abel’s words. She had no plans of serving in intelligence and joining such an unusual team. The good news was that her friend and navigator Eol was saved. Their long joint service had made them real friends. Eol could find non-standard solutions in any tricky situation. On top of that, he was prone to scientific research with focus on astrophysics.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Abel’s voice in her head:
“Alex, the commander has finished his job and joint us. So now I can introduce you to all of us: the most short-spoken member of our team and our esteemed commander is general Nikolo nicknamed Absolem. He specializes in the Outer Space research. Doctor River, Helene, also called Cyber-screw. You’ve already made her acquaintance. Major Alim Connoisseur is in charge of analytics, geophysics. He is also Doctor of Science and our spiritual Mentor. Senior lieutenant Frol Kulibin is our programmer, printer operator and developer of artificial intelligence and cyber bodies. My body is one of his creations. Come on now, shovel down your meal, this is no obstacle to our conversation.”
Alex readily got down to her meal. As her nervous strain had receded she realized how tired and hungry she was. A thought ran through her mind: “Thank Gods, I’m among friends now, eating in a canteen. I’m really lucky to have met Wolf Abel.”
By nature Alex was inquisitive and calm person. She would be pleased to join that team. Abel was lying on the table with his legs crossed in front of him, and his tail hanging off almost to the floor. From time to time Alex caught his watchful gaze on her. The Wolf’s hair assumed iron-gray color with black scorch marks on hips.
Alex had always taken interest in artificial intelligence beings, cyber bodies with their amazing biological processes and powerful batteries. Their owners used those bodies as substitute for natural biological ones and felt quite comfortable within them.
The issue of body change was widely discussed among pilots, possibly due to the profession specifics. For the first time she found herself at a base with the whole team rewritten into a bio-processor and living in virtual forms. It was not an easy task to get used to that right away. People are generally reluctant to abandon their stereotypes.
She kept thinking about her mate’s fate. They had gone through a lot together, “How’s Eol? What state is he in?” she asked addressing to everyone present.
“He is not yet ready for communication,” someone’s strict voice uttered in her head, “I’m working on preservation of his individuality and integrity. Damage was inflicted on him. But now he is all right and is recovering. Judging by the scope of information stored, he has highly advanced mental capacity. By the way, the fact that you are alive was entirely his credit.”
“Don’t worry,” Abel’s voice was having a calming effect on the girl, “Alim Connoisseur who has taken on responsibility for your friend’s mind is highly qualified. I think you’ll be able to talk to Eol in the morning. And for us all it will be interesting to study his data base. By the way, he has willingly provided us with a great deal of information.
“That’s good news, Alim,” Alex looked up unintentionally at the black sphere as Abel did. Eol saved my life a dozen times. Officers, my understanding is that you already know everything about me; therefore I’ve got nothing to add, aside from the fact that I’m a bit tired after the recent events and really pleased to have made your acquaintance. It’s slightly unusual for me to walk along a base without meeting people. But since my mate and I have stuck here, we’ll adapt quickly. I like this place. I was impressed by the flying vehicles I saw in your armory,” Alex said through a thought form to everyone present.
Alex was dressed in a white tight shirt and sand-colored trousers. Thick blond hair was combed into a ponytail. Like all pilots, she had natural and easy manners. One could barely call her shy. On the contrary, in dealing with people, she displayed self-confidence, while her trim figure and nice-looking appearance gained everyone’s likes. Her sincerity and good temper, coupled with a habit to look one straight in the eye and lack of any flirtation, made her utterly irresistible. That was probably the reason why Wolf Abel, lying on the table opposite the girl, was ceaselessly looking at her. His gestures and the way he moved his ears showed he was truly enjoying her company. Sitting at the table in carefree pose, Alex wolfed down her meal which did not prevent her from having a leisure talk. Rest and food gave her strength and good mood. The place where the wound used to be was no longer aching.
