4.6 KiB
[Ender's Game] A Leap of Faith. (Short)
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Author: u/ancientcampus juggling kittens*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2pqvbw/enders_game_a_leap_of_faith_short/
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Score: 37
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Created: 2014-12-19T02:02:08
Post:
A short story at an alternate Battle School, in which the teachers adapt to the changing meta-game.
"Just don't look south," I joked.
The kid, bless his heart, stared at me like a cow in a trigonometry class. I gently smacked him upside his theoretically-brilliant head, and pointed at the floor. “South, you lactiferous launchie. The enemy's gate is down, neh?” I gestured down the hall, towards the battle-room and where I knew the enemy army was waiting at the other side. “That way. Down. So, we call the ceiling north, thus giving us east, south, and west too. Compreende?
The new recruit nodded, and I left him to take my place at the front of the line. I discarded all uncharitable thoughts towards the younger generation, flexed into a sprinter's crouch, and allowed myself to simply enjoy the battle-high. This, right here, was what I lived for. It was always best before the fight, before things went inevitably pear-shaped and replaced the good vibes with stress, confusion, or if the teachers were feeling particularly creative, outright gibbering horror. The days of standardized battle conditions were far over. Adaptability under pressure was the name of the game these days, and in the null-G of the battle room, anything could happen. I could feel the adrenalin rising, the slight feeling of giddiness, the discomfortable awareness of my racing heart. The light turned green, the field transparent, and one well-trained corner of my mind instantly began cataloging the battlefield. A few scattered stars, central wall blocking vision of the enemy, long tubes at each side of the entryway in place of traditional hand-grips. Straightforward enough. I sprinted for the door at full tilt and leapt into empty space, picking a trajectory that would send me up and over the wall.
That was when everything went pear-shaped.
It didn't immediately register what, exactly, had gone wrong. I simply wasn't moving as fast as I should. Either that, it occurred to me, or the obstacles were moving upwards too. That wasn't too concerning, but I couldn't quiet the voice coming from my lizard brain, which was busy banging cymbals, kicking my hypothalamus in the balls, and screaming that the ancestral environment had quite a lot to say about this scenario.
Meanwhile, my parietal cortex helpfully updated me that everything in the battlefield was now moving upward relative to my orientation.
My mind thus distracted, my instincts took over. My traitorous, primitive, brilliant instincts took over, and I committed a heinous crime I'd thought drilled out of me years ago.
I looked south.
Freefall in zero G feels exactly like freefall in one G, dummy.
I was confused. And as sometimes happens even to the mightiest of soldiers, I panicked a little. Fortunately, as my mind started gibbering in horror at the ground southern wall ground moving rapidly towards me, my hindbrain dutifully shoved it aside and started flailing my arms madly. This turned out to be a rather adaptive response, as I slapped one of the rails to the side of me (which, as was now obvious, were to serve as fireman's poles) and proceeded to cling on for dear life.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHH THEY TURNED THE GRAVITY OOOOONNNNNNN!!!!”
Comments:
u/Farmerbob1 [+3] Level 1 author (2 days later)
The duty monitor watched as Colonel Graff stood silently by the main screen, monitoring the start of the current battle, ready to disengage gravity if the first students into the room didn't recognize the danger quickly enough, and looked to be at risk of serious injury.
As the first student jumped into the battle room and commenced to fall, Colonel Graff tensed slightly, but relaxed as the frantically grasping student managed to get a solid grip on one of the vertical poles.
The wail of the panicked student ended after a couple seconds, then more students entered the room and began deploying themselves, initiating their battle.
After a moment, Colonel Graff turned and walked away from the main screen, muttering something that sounded like "Gravity's a bitch." The duty monitor was certain that the Colonel was smiling when he left the room.
u/eaglejarl [+3] (4 days later)
Once the Colonel was out of sight, the duty monitor flipped the gravity off.
And on.
And off.
And on....
u/Nevereatcars [+1] The Greatest Is Behind (14 days later)
Would this be the appropriate time for a "trololol"?