The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 9

"Are they filtering our net access?"

Lopaka just looked at Aoloa like he'd lost it for a moment, before realizing it was a serious question. "You mean, for real?"

"Yes."

"Of course they are. Every government filters access based on laws, regime priorities, you name it."

"No, just ours. Are they trying to keep us in the dark about what the rest of the world is like?"

"Seriously? Dude, that's a really lame question. We have no clue what the rest of the world is like."

"How do you know?"

"Think about it, Aoloa. We live in a tiny building underwater with thirty-four other beings. Our commander visits us through a special elevator that we generally don't even get to take. Our meals are specially prepared based on our dietary needs, mostly raw meat and fish. Our sex lives are completely screwed up depending on what we're mixed with. We don't live anything resembling normal."

"But..."

"Look, boss, if you're that stressed out over it, watch these live streams."

Aoloa's comms received several URLs, which he promptly opened. They each featured a person live-streaming their entire lives through Google Glass cameras. Everything. Driving to work, working, taking phone calls, everything.

Shutting his eyes, he had comms display four of the feeds in a different quadrant of the three sixty view his helmet gave him. He selectively tuned in the audio portions of the feeds depending on which one looked the most interesting.

After a few hours, he went back to Lopaka. "This is how they really live?"

"Yeah. Pretty damned boring stuff, huh?"

"But, what about all the stuff on the television feeds, and...?"

"Yeah, nobody actually cares about everyday life. Their lives are boring. They work jobs for a lot of their day, then go home to families, if they have one, or hang with friends. As slack as we are, we get more excitement in an average week than they do in an average year. They think stress is dealing with a bad driver."

"That's nuts! How can they handle it? Where's the thrill of combat? When do they flex their muscles?"

"They're fat for a reason, Aoloa. Activity is something they watch, not do."

Aoloa considered that information and shook his head. "How long have you been tracking this stuff?"

"A couple years. It was a side hobby from my computer training. If I'm gonna be able to break into networks, I should find good stuff, right? Turns out most of what people record is just boring, like this stuff. Even their sex is boring, mostly. All those pornos they watch are just fake crap to make sex seem exciting."

"Why do they watch it instead of do it?"

"Yeah, I dunno. They seem to stress over it like it's a big deal. I think it's a human thing, to be honest. I mean, most of the pack hasn't gotten laid, yet. We all started sleeping with each other around thirteen. The cast paired up and never swaps. It just is. Humans are all hung up on it, though. I don't get it."

Aoloa dodged as Keaka fled past him, chased by Mele, who was cussing up a storm about something or other. Akoni tripped Keaka, allowing Mele to tackle her, taking their disagreement to the ground. Aoloa turned his attention back to Lopaka as soon as he was sure it was nothing important.

"So, if anything, because we've only seen their TV and movies, we think their lives are more exciting than they really are?" Lopaka nodded. "And the reality is nothing meaningful is being kept from us?"

"Dude. The biggest secret in our lives is US, and that's being kept from THEM, not the other way around. There's stuff on the military computers I haven't cracked yet, but even the stuff I have isn't anything you'd really care about. They made us, they point us at targets, we explode on those targets. It's pretty simple."

"Okay, I get it. So things are the way they appear, more or less."

"Yeah. That's about it."

Mele ran past them screeching, Keaka hot on her heels.

---

"Humans make no sense."

Kawikani looked up at Aoloa from his dinner, one eyebrow raised. "You just figured that out?"

"They don't fight over things that make any sense."

Kawikani just kept eating his steak, watching Aoloa.

"They fight over the right to ship oil from one place to another, or over religion. Heck, sometimes I don't think they even know why they're fighting! You can't tell me that makes sense!"

The massive male heaved a deep sigh. "They fight for the same reasons we do. We fight for territory. We fight for mates. We fight because it's our instinct to survive at whatever cost."

"You think oil has anything to do with survival?"

"What do you think they do with that oil, dump it in a trash can? They fuel vehicles with it. They burn it for heat when it's cold. They make all their machines work with it. They even make electricity for their computers with it. If food gets scarce, their tanks protect that food with oil. And when they're all fed and comfortable, the drive to compete with each other doesn't just disappear. Our instincts are there. We're just closer to ours than the humans." With that he bit more of his steak off and swallowed.

"But..."

"You're over thinking it. They fight for dominance. Just like you, little guy. Heck, some of them fight over how to cook a steak. As if steaks should ever be cooked." He took another bite, blood from the raw meat running down his chin. "They're like us, only more... abstract."

---

It didn't take long for Aoloa to realize the others didn't care about humans that much. The cast didn't care, as long as they were fed and secure. The pack insisted they were humans. The pod just thought they needed to sing more.

Aoloa couldn't shake the feeling there was something wrong.