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Chapter 33

Chapter 33

 January 25th, 2158

The next few days were a challenge for Logan.  Not only did his training with Mike resume, but the training in the ring resumed as well.  After the incident that sent Logan to the Med Bay, the engineer came to apologize for kicking him.

His name was Josh and he was a structural engineer.  He had helped design a dome that fully constructed could be folded into a stack half a meter tall.  When unfolded, it would be six meters wide and three tall.

Josh was truly gifted in spatial reasoning.  You could show Josh a picture of a Rubik's Cube and he could tell you how to solve it in the least amount of moves.  It's funny how a toy made two centuries ago is still one of the easiest measurements for problem solving and intelligence.

But what really set Josh apart from the average person was his lack of a mental filter.  He had a hard time holding his thoughts to himself.  Logan guessed that Josh had lost several friends because of this, but Logan found it endearing.  After all, Nora was much the same, and she was one of his closest friends.

Training in the ring was becoming easier.  The pressure became less of an issue, and the feeling of panic lessened.  By the third day in the ring, the training became more physical.  They started out with some light jogging and weight lifting.  The idea was to get the group use to exerting themselves, to learn what their limits were.

Major Farns pushed everyone up to the limit, and then pushed a little more.  He wanted everyone to feel himself move pass the point of control, so they could all try to pull themselves back.  So far, every time Logan tried, he ended up with a mask of oxygen-deprived air.  At least they hadn't sent him back to be observed again.

The presentations in the linguistics department were about to start, when Nora walked into the room and headed straight for Logan.

"Promise me," Nora said taking a seat next to Logan.  "Promise me, that you will not do anything stupid."

"You have it?" Logan asked, failing to hold back his excitement.

"You need to promise me first, that you will not do anything stupid."

Logan was taken aback, "Uh, yeah I promise."

Nora hesitated for a moment before pulling the OMS out of her pocket.  She held it close to her body for a moment as if she were having second thoughts about giving it to Logan.  Logan didn't move he waited for Nora to hand it over.

Several second passed before Nora slowly extended her hand towards Logan.  Logan waited until her hand was more than half way to him before he reached out and took the OMS.  It was small, and clear with exception to the hair that had been placed inside.

"Your hair?" Logan asked.

"Yes, so don't get caught because you will not only condemn yourself but me as well."

Nora's hesitation made a little more sense now; he promised himself that he would do everything possible to keep this OMS safe.

"Nora, you have my word."

Nora nodded her head, and looked as if she were going to ask for it back but turned away to face the center of the room.  Logan slid the OMS into a small hidden pouch hidden in his DNAC between the DNAC's strap and his skin.

As the presentations got underway, Logan activated his DNAC and began creating a file that he would download into the OMS.  After creating the file, he then copied all of the information from the message spike into the file.