Published: 25 May 2017

Advanced Training

⚫Cpl. Robin – Hazardous Earth Creatures, Hazardous Native creatures, Winter Survival, Primitive Survival
⚫JrCpl. Gavin – Hazardous Native creatures, Grassland, Forest, Jungle
⚫SrPvt. Fairfax – Advanced Geothermal Dangers, Winter Survival, Hazardous Earth Creatures, Primitive Survival
⚫SrPvt. Ajax – Winter Survival, Near Ocean, Jungle, Primitive Survival
⚫Spec. Oliver – Advanced Geothermal Dangers, Near Ocean, Mountain, Primitive Survival

Robin piloted the flyer in for a landing, did his post flight check and grabbed his pack. Even as a couple of the others made a beeline for the dinner line, Robin helped Dwight secure his pack since the slightly older boy’s hand was cramping up. Once Robin was sure Dwight had is gear secured, he let out a long breath as he grabbed his own pack. Mrs. Anderson glanced over with a smile. “Taking both Native and Earth Hazardous Creatures classes a bit much for you?”

Robin took in another long breath. “You could have put up warnings about having extra field study classes…”

“All advanced classes have extra field study.” Mrs. Anderson patted Robin on the back. “The three weeks prior to Advanced ISTAZ is fourteen hours a day with one day off per week. It gets better after the second year, though, since there is a two week refresher and some testing to make sure no one has forgotten how to handle the equipment, especially the rifles, axes, knives, and the like.

“However taking both Zong and Earth Creatures is a whole lot of information to process and then going out and trekking around to find live examples is pretty hard work.”

“Yeah, but at least I am getting to see all these animals out in the wild, so it is worth it.” Robin responded with a truly forced smile. “If nothing else I was able to see both a tiger and a snake-pede in the same day and neither were in environmental dome zoos. Even better, since the star storm is over, I was able to get vids!”

“The tiger was awesome! The vid I got will totally freak out everyone back home, too.” Dwight agreed, then quickly changed the subject. “I just don’t understand why my group didn’t know about the effects of the Red Racer lizard thing. If someone had told us of them and how the bite makes people all goofy, we would have tried to drain the bite on Nile and made him drink lots of water.”

Mrs. Anderson let out a sigh. “First off, the zone we put you in to start with didn’t have Red Racers, so it was never brought up. Remember you walked out of your zone by over two hundred kilometers. Second, and probably shortsighted on our part, is the reliance we put on the emergency beacons we give you all. They are programmed to detect things like the Red Racer’s saliva. Before the star storm, we never dreamed we’d lose contact with a new ISTAZ team since we monitor them very carefully.

“Lastly, and probably the biggest screw up on our part was never telling ISTAZ teams to stay close to wherever they find themselves should a massive malfunction of beacons and equipment happen. When we detected the star storm and sent out the message, we should have given much better instructions. This whole thing has forced us to rewrite the manual of what we in the Explorer Corps need to do should something like this happen again.

“On the other hand, we now have the gold plated flyers. Should we get caught off guard and something awful happens again, we will be able to get out to stranded teams. Plus we are now instructing all kids out on ISTAZ to stay put once they lose communication with the space station. This will give us last known coordinates so we can dispatch one of the gold flyers. At the very least we can drop off new beacons and replace broken equipment quickly, then get to the next team.”

“Kind of late for those still out there though,” Dwight grumbled.

“Dwight, there are a number of changes we have put into effect to prevent this from ever happening again. I know saying this doesn’t make up for what happened to you and the others, but you and those like you, along with your combined feedback, will make Adventure Quest and ISTAZ much safer for all those who come here in the future.

“Actually, hearing more from you and how you are helping back here on the surface is helping to further refine procedures well into the future.”

Dwight couldn’t help but smirk, “So shouldn’t I at least get the pay of a specialist?”

Mrs. Anderson busted up laughing. “I’ll tell you what, you pass all four of these advanced classes and I will personally put you in for a rank increase.”

Dwight glanced over to Robin, “Since three of the four classes are with him, I think I can manage on my own with the last one.”

Robin shook his head, “Dude, you showed me all sorts of stuff out there today. You really learned lots of cool stuff being stuck on ISTAZ long term…”

“Desperation, plain and simple.” Dwight cut Robin off. “Of course three days without a single bite of food kind of pushed all of us to figure out something. It was really Benjy who came through for us big time on finding something to eat when we hit the dry spell. He pointed out how all the animals, including some Earth birds were eating one type of berry we had never seen before, while they stayed away from one of the dangerous types we did get taught about in Basic Survival.

“We took a chance and gathered some up and two of us ate while the others waited to make sure we didn’t get sick. After about eight hours, the rest of us eat a few handfuls. They were kind of sour, but man, it took everything I had not to go eat more until I made sure I didn’t get sick. We forced ourselves to wait, though, just to make sure. Although, I’m pretty sure Nile and Benjy each snuck some more while we slept.

“The next day we picked as many as we could find and even shot and killed a couple of birds. They were real small and didn’t have much meat, but it was something. We then moved back to the ocean once the weather cleared and did some ocean fishing. I don’t think we would have made it without Benjy noticing the animals eating the one kind while leaving the others alone, though.”

Mrs. Anderson let out a long breath, “It was still a pretty big chance you all took, eating something you were not sure of.”

“If we would have had classes about edible plants outside our zone we would have known…”

“We can’t teach you all everything all at once. Just look at how tired you all are after the advanced classes we are giving you. Look, guys, no matter what we do, we can’t teach you all everything, especially those of you going out for first year.”

“Yeah, well, as hungry as I was, I was seriously thinking out eating the plant leafs or the grass since animals do, and Nile thought about killing and trying to cook a snake we saw.”

“The snake would have been safer than unknown berries. All the snakes in the area you traveled in are edible.”

“Then a class in how to clean and cook them would have been nice, cause we saw a half dozen of them while we were starving to death!”

Mrs. Anderson shook her head, “Many snakes are poisonous, so we don’t want to encourage kids getting close to them.” She paused and looked right into Dwight’s eyes. “Look, I understand your anger and frustration. You were left stranded out in the wilds with nowhere near enough training. What happened was way beyond the scope of what we even considered as a worst-case scenario. You and those like you were caught up in it, and I’m sorry. However, you were warned, as were your parents, about the risks of trying ISTAZ. Staying angry at us is not going to help you or those still missing. Nor will it help you study to pass the classes you are taking.”

Mrs. Anderson took a breath to calm her tone, which she realized had become a little angry, “I know you got the same warning as all new ISTAZ cadets do. There has yet to be a new ISTAZ camp without a death. It is dangerous. On the other hand the risk is what makes it so rewarding to conquer. ISTAZ is what it is because it will never be totally safe nor should it be. Also keep in mind, it doesn’t get any easier. There are lots of lost second year and above ISTAZers out there just as lost as you all were. Also, it doesn’t take a star storm to make ISTAZ risky. Just look at what happened to me.”

Dwight looked away from the eyes boring into his and reluctantly nodded, “OK yeah, but still… I mean, some of it was… I guess there really was nothing more we could have done at the cliff to save Ricky…”

“No, Dwight, you all did everything you could and your injuries show you did far more than most would have been willing to do. It is no different than what happened to half my team. This planet came pretty close to killing me, yet I still love it and don’t want it to become another Earth. And I know chances are slim, but none of you saw him dead.”

Dwight let out a sigh, “It just seems so unfair, I was so close… I should have been able to stop Ricky from falling.”

“The word fair is not something any of us can apply to life. It wasn’t fair for me to be found with part of my team while the rest weren’t. Life just isn’t fair.”

“Yeah, well…” Dwight grumbled, “Rumor has it, your two partners were found because of Robin…”

Jasper overheard the conversation and came over. He glanced and Mrs. Anderson and Robin while sending a thought, ‘Let me handle this. We have come up with a way to give you credit, Robin, while hiding just how big of a role you played in it.‘

Jasper then cleared his throat to get Dwight’s attention. “Robin is responsible for their rescue.” Seeing both Mrs. Anderson and Robin’s eyes go wide, Jasper quickly continued. “The spike he found while searching gave us just enough to figure out what happened. The metallurgical scan of the spike and the bits of wire on the end; let us know the force and the direction the E-Dome they were in was taken. With this knowledge we set up a scan of the lake so we could at least send the bodies back home. We got real lucky though. While we were doing a bottom mapping of the lake, sensors picked up movement on the island.”

“So they were out there for almost seven years… on an island?”

Jasper nodded, “Two of them were. Donny and Lucy. The third one, Jackson, we still don’t know.”

“Wasn’t he the one…” Robin started to speak only to get quickly cut off by Mrs. Anderson.

“Yeah, he was the one who took over as team lead for a few days after Donny got sick on us.”

Robin, realizing he came way to close to giving out more information than he should have possibly been able to know, let out a long uneasy breath while thinking over to Mrs. Anderson, ‘Wow, thanks. I almost blew it.‘

Mrs. Anderson shot Robin a nod and an understanding grin, “Without you finding the stake, they would still be stuck out there and neither were in great shape. They are underweight and have several exposure and malnutrition problems. Making things even more complicated, Lucy is pregnant. If you hadn’t found the spike there is no telling what would have happened once the baby comes to term.”

Jasper patted Robin on the back, “Since Lucy is deemed to need long term care before space travel, she will have the first known birth here on Zong.”

Dwight cocked his head to the side, “So does the baby get to be a citizen of Zong, or what?”

“Very good question, one I am not sure anyone has asked yet. I have to assume the child will be a US citizen, since births outside our country by US citizens get such honors, but normally the child shares a citizenship with the other country or CHZ.”

Dwight gave Robin a playful shove, “Hey, you should get credit for helping save the first citizen of Zong!”

Robin shook his head, “I didn’t do…”

“Oh bull!” Dwight shouted, “You have done everything to make all of this happen. Sure, you may not have actually done some of the rescuing, but you were part of my rescue and you’re the reason the others were found. No one, except you, forged your training camp into a… well, a well lubed worker robot, either!”

Jasper quickly agreed, “Robin, finding the stake in the ground may not have seemed like much, but it was all we all needed to find two long-time missing ISTAZers. In addition, we know Jackson tried to swim across the lake, shortly after they got what they could out of the lake, and to shore. We know what his plans were, so we are going to do a scan of the lake to make sure he didn’t drown, then head off in the direction he told the others he was planning on going.”

Dwight patted Robin on the back, “I think we just need to change your name to Hero.”

Robin shook his head, “No chance. If anything, you and the other two from your group ought to get some kind of hero medal. After everything you have been through, you could be on a ship back home, but instead you are here trying to help find others.”

Dwight couldn’t help but snicker, “I’m not sure about Benjy, but Saul and me ain’t exactly thrilled with going home at all after being away from the nastiness of the CHZ of San-San. If I never go back, I’ll be happy.”

Robin nodded in total understanding. At the same time he sent a thought over to Jasper, ‘Can he come with us when we find enough kids?‘

‘Shouldn’t be a problem, as long as he wants to and his parents are OK with it. He comes from a very low class family, so I am sure his parents would love the increase in status.‘ Jasper returned the thought, then spoke up. “Dwight, once we find everyone, I will make sure you can come back here. In the meantime, we need to stay focused on the task at hand. You both have dinner waiting and some studying to do.”

“If it was just the classes, it would be one thing.” Robin yawned, “But several of us have spent the least three nights putting together likely spots for the gold flyers to concentrate on. I finally took over the list last night and then Colonel McKnight kept me until after one in the morning asking me why we settled on those areas.”

Dwight rolled his shoulders as he moved past Robin, “Yeah, well, I still think you are wrong about concentrating over lakes, Robin. We were all told over and over if we have to drink water not put through the purifier it is best to get clean looking flowing water and then boil it. If I was the one making the decisions, I would have concentrated on small streams with good cover like caves.”

“The lakes make more sense to me though.” Robin responded.

Mrs. Anderson glanced over at Robin and sent a thought over, ‘Is this a gut feeling thing again?‘

Robin shook his head and spoke aloud, “Look I know you have some good points Dwight, but if they are holed up in caves they may not see or hear the flyers. Besides, and this is actually something Saul pointed out…” Robin let out a long breath, “Actually he said it in passing after hearing your thoughts…”

“He’s still mad at not being seen as the team leader after Nile went down.” Dwight sighed. “I don’t even know why the others all looked to me, but they did and Saul has been trying to make me look bad ever since. He is also is pissed at you, Robin, cause you made him look bad on the Night Survival. I heard him saying he doesn’t think he would have spotted the wolves without you. And no matter what he has tried since getting here, you always seem one step in front of him.

“I think he would fall over if he heard you say you listened to him.”

Robin clenched his fists in frustration, “From what I have seen, he is almost as good out here as you are.”

“In some ways he is better.” Dwight admitted. “He, unlike me and Benjy, didn’t really care if we got rescued or not. He loved even the worst parts, other than losing our teammates… and heights… He really can’t do heights…”

Mrs. Anderson snickered, “Lots of good Explorer Corps members have to overcome looking down a great distance without having a window to rely on. Now, Robin before this gets totally off track, what did Saul say to help make your decision on where to try the overfly thing?”

“Well,” Robin looked over at Dwight with a bit of a cringe, “he said you were being dumb…”

“Nothing I haven’t heard out of his mouth a couple hundred times, Robin. Any time anyone did something or recommended something he didn’t like, we were instantly dumb. So what did he say after calling me stupid or dumb? Cause one thing he does real well is toss out what he thinks is a better idea and why, even when his idea is totally nuts.”

This got a grin out of Robin, “I have heard a couple of those out of his mouth as well, but this one made some sense to me.” He glanced back up at Mrs. Anderson, “He basically said the more out in the open the fire, the easier it would be to spot. He thought we needed to look in the most open areas we could. I picked lakes because they are exposed, there is access to fish, and wildlife would come so there should be some hunting chances.”

Dwight’s left eyebrow shot up, “And them being along a ridge with caves, like I was thinking would block the fire some… Unless they built it up on top of the ridge, which is what I would do if I was going to try to signal someone.”

Robin’s jaw dropped, “Oh, man… hill tops… high ground… I never even thought about it! How stupid could I get? I need to…”

Dwight put his good hand on Robin’s shoulder. “You already have spots picked out, good spots, right?”

“Ah… well, um… until you pointed out how dumb I was, I thought so…”

“Then leave it alone.” Dwight all but commanded. “You can’t afford another sleepless night and you gave them three days’ worth of areas to overfly. Let them try for a couple of days. While they do their thing, we can take classes. Since we are together for the next couple of days, we can look at it from my angle. During some downtime while out in the field you can let me help work up some new areas I would have picked.”

Mrs. Anderson nodded in total agreement, “Dwight is right, Robin. Now go get some chow, hit the study material for an hour or two, then get some sleep. We take off at first light to go after some of Earth’s ill-tempered jungle creatures and then fly almost a thousand kilometers to look at the worst of the worse, a real desert and all the hazards in, on, and under one. I’ll fly so you can get some extra rest or study time, but it will be a long day with field rations and lots of walking.”

As Dwight and Robin were all but pushed in the direction of the mess building by Jasper and Mrs. Anderson, Dwight glanced over at Jasper. “Mr. Montgomery, how come there is no Desert ISTAZ Areas?”

“Way too dangerous.” Mrs. Anderson stated with total sincerity. “First off water, lack of it, is a huge problem. The other problem is all the creatures. The deserts hold more poisonous nasties, both Earth and Zong, than any other areas of the planet.”

Jasper jumped in, “Then there is the lack of shelter. There are no groves of trees and in some areas almost no plant life to eat. The caves, if you are in a rocky desert, are likely critter dens. Finally, because there is so little out there, landmarks are few and far between. Just look how confused you guys got out there when you had coastline, cliffs, lakes, and rivers. You tried to go back to a resupply base but missed it even though you had used it twice before.”

Dwight shrugged, but disappointment could still be seen on his face, “I still think it would be fun to try.”

A slight smirk crossed Jasper’s face, “If you find me the missing kids, Dwight, and you can find a few others willing to give it a go, I’ll set you up with some extra classes and drop you off in a desert for a week or two before you leave Zong.”

Dwight glanced over to Robin, “You game?”

Robin chewed on the inside of his lip, “Only if you are willing to join us on our expedition to two uncharted worlds and stick with us.”

“DEAL!” Dwight tried to shout but ended up coughing, as the force of the loudly spoken word irritated his throat.

Jasper rolled his eyes and glanced at Robin, ‘Do you always make friends this fast?‘

‘For some reason, yeah. But some really don’t like me because of it, like Randy and most of his team.‘

‘Don’t worry about him, Robin. His team is being led by Frank and will probably tap out and head to regular Adventure Quest within a couple of weeks. You stay focused on getting the missing kids found. No one can force friendship, but your ability in doing so is the best I have ever seen. Now go eat. I can feel you thinking about food so much my own stomach is starting to growl.‘

Robin gave Jasper a nod and headed to the chow line with Dwight. As soon as they were out of earshot of the adults Dwight glanced over, “How come it seems like you are talking to Mr. Montgomery even when you don’t say anything?”

Robin felt his heart speed up while he pointed to the cheesy potatoes, which in turn got him an extra scoop of them. “Um, what do you mean?”

“Not sure, really. It’s just… well you and him, and to a lesser degree Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Reid… You exchange looks and nods, or shake your head at each other like you are talking, but you don’t. Even weirder, you all seem to get on the same page after you do it. I have seen you do the same thing with your teammates too.”

Robin forced a shrug as he tried to figure out a way out of answering. The last thing he wanted to do was lie to his new friend. Finally he decided on a middle ground, but was in no way happy about it. “Jasper… Um, Mr. Montgomery thinks it is kind of a gift I seem to have. Me, I am not so sure.”

“Pretty cool gift if you ask me. Can you show me how it works?”

This got a full fledge cringe out of Robin causing Dwight to stop and eye his new friend. “Dude, if I am treading on bad ground or something…”

Robin let out a long breath, “I just want to be seen as a normal kid.”

“Too late, Corporal.” One of the older kids behind the serving line stated firmly and with a tinge of jealousy. “You have rewritten ISTAZ testing standards and smashed all the records ever held by individuals, teams, and camps. Just look at your collar. You outrank all of us and will outrank us even after we graduate. I bet they fast track you into officer courses and you come out of the Academy with a real officer rank instead of the warrant officer rank the normal officer grads get.”

The next kid in the serving line nodded, “Yeah, Corporal. You have real rank and are getting real pay. The rest of us should be calling you ‘sir’, but Dakota made it clear you don’t want it so we aren’t; but once you get back on Earth at the Academy, they’ll have to figure out how to deal with you. This is especially true since you are bringing in a whole bunch of Explorer Corps enlisted, all of whom are over us since we are cadets.”

Even as the kid put an extra-large serving of lasagna on Robin’s plate, the teen continued. “Look, we all saw the vid of the landing you did over water. There is no way any of us could have pulled it off, no way. And half of us have wings on our uniforms. You also have saved four kids, two long term stranded ISTAZers, and found the missing Major so she could go back home. We get why they dropped real rank on you. But Dean is right. There ain’t no way you are going to be seen as a normal kid.

“Hell, your face is going to be on Explorer Corps recruiting vids and in training vids for your water landings. Every one of us has been show the vid and have been told to get advanced wings we need to be able to duplicate what you did!”

“Great, so I am the weirdo.” Robin sighed.

“No,” Dwight responded with as much force as he could through his damaged throat, “you are a… Well, I’m not sure what really. All I know is, unlike me or Saul, you do small things I can’t even point to, but you do them. Right or wrong, there is a… trust… a sense you give others under and around you of confidence in you and in us as well… I’m not sure what it is, but it is there.”

Dean looked back at the other kid serving with him, “You ask me it’s called leadership, don’t you think Mario?”

The other teen nodded, “Yeah, his face ought to be on the opening page of Leadership 101 in our note pads, if not 102, 201 and 202! Even Dakota says you are a perfect team leader, and he has been our team leader for two years and is the best we’ve seen.”

Robin eyed the two teens while cocking his head, “Then you two must love it out in the wilds. You ought to sign up to be on Dakota’s team to follow us into promising areas. He only has two signups and should have at least a five person team.”

“And be under you?” Mario asked with a hint of disgust in his voice.

Robin shrugged, “You could look at it like you are under me, if you want, but if I were you I wouldn’t. The way I see it, Dakota will be the team leader of his team and will be working with me, not for me. We all have the same goal and if you love this place as much as Dakota and I do, then you sure don’t want to see it become another polluted nasty version of Earth. Plus, you will get more time out in the wilds of Zong, with a team leader you know and trust, trying to save like-minded kids. If all that isn’t enough, you will also get out of food serving duties and won’t have to go to the camps to check on a bunch of non-ISTAZers who really don’t love what this world is like we do. What could be better than all of that?”

The two teens exchanged glances for only a couple of seconds before Mario keyed his Explorer Corps wrist radio, “Hey, Dakota, you there?”

“Yeah, Mario,” Dakota answered, “what’s up?”

“Well, me and Dean just talked to Robin…”

“Not as bad as you thought, huh?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Mario admitted, while giving Robin an embarrassed smile and dropping more food on his tray.

“Told you he was a cool little dude.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t rub it in. Anyway, we just changed our minds. Add us to your back-up search team.”

“Kick Ass! You two gives us five so I can declare us a team, but it would be nice to have one more.”

“We’ll talk to Vance. Just get us on the list before some else snags our spots.”

As Dwight picked up his plate and walked to a table with Robin, he grinned, “And you just did it again.”

“Did what?”

Dwight couldn’t help but snicker at the truly befuddled look on Robin’s face, “Dude, those two all but hated you a minute ago. They talked to you for just a few seconds and it all changed. In one minute you twisted their hatred into something akin to trust. They just put their full confidence in you and even agreed to help you and your team. Whatever the hell you want to call it, you got it and you got it big time!”

“I just pointed out the obvious…”

“If it was, they would have already signed up, but they didn’t until you talked to them!”

“They just needed a good reason to join. It’s not like I did anything special.”

Dwight couldn’t help but to snicker, “Oh, come on Robin, they hated you, yet somehow you knew just what to say, how to say it, and even figured out what they were thinking all within what? Um, maybe three seconds? You got to teach me how you do it!”

Robin let out a long exhale, “OK, fine. Let’s get some studying in, pass these classes, and find the missing kids so you can join us in deep space exploration. Then I can show you just how weird I really am.”

“If I get some of what you got, and it makes me weird, I’ll be happy about it.”

“We’ll see,” Robin grumbled between bites of food even as he pulled out his note-puter and pulled up a list of creatures. “But for now tell me what is considered the nearest we can safely get close to a tiger, cause somehow I am willing to bet it will be on the test.”

“Why would anyone get any closer to a tiger than we did today? Those things eat meat, including people!”

“Which is a good answer, but they look awesome and as much as I know better, I’d still love to pet one.”

“OK, yeah, I’ll give you that!” Dwight snickered, “so what is the book answer?”

“If you can see it without visual aid you are already too close.”

“So how do you think they will word it on the test, since they don’t tend to use book answers?”

Robin closed his eyes for only a second before he smirked, “If you can see it, it can see you.”

Dwight snickered, “Nice! I could almost see that being the answer!”

Robin nodded, “Yeah. Keep in mind it can swim, climb trees, jump, and run in burst up to about sixty kilometers per hour. Why the Earth ever allowed such an awesome animal to become extinct and have to clone them here just so we can have at all is beyond me.”

Dwight let out a long sigh, “Which is why we can’t let Zong become another Earth. This is a second chance for hundreds, maybe even thousands of Earth creatures, and we don’t have a third option to save them. This world almost killed me and did kill one of my teammates, but we can’t let humanity kill off a whole nother world populated by the plants and animals we almost wiped out.”

From the table next to them, Patrick nodded, “Yeah, let Earth screw up a terraformed world, not this one!”

Jasper walked up to the two tables, “Boys, I could not have worded it any better, so get some studying done, pass those tests, and find me those lost ISTAZers!”

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