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(Jenny was intrigued by the Alliance training process. It amused her that her aunt had struggled with many of the opposite issues that would have been difficult for her in the training. She flipped forward in the journal in anticipation.)
As the days stretched on, things began to fall into a routine, but it was never boring.
Lizzie’s curiosity had led her to this point, she knew. But, as she continued to pursue this unusual course, she realized that she had gotten more than she had asked for. The classes and instructors were unique, and the expectations were so much different than her experiences in Earth academia.
For one thing, there were no grades. You either passed or didn’t. There were no formal exams and no written tests. Each student was evaluated by their performance and participation and, as needed, they were given extra assignments on an individual basis, either because they were struggling with a concept or because they were ahead of the class and were ready for more advanced instruction.
And the classes! There were no lectures after the first week. Assignments were given in advance of the class, and then practical application or discussions followed based on the study of the day before. It wasn’t even unusual for students to be called on extemporaneously to teach sections of the lessons.
All in all, Lizzie was both fascinated and frustrated by the process. She had been so used to being top of the class and ahead of her classmates that this new paradigm made her realize that she wasn’t as unique or advanced as she had always considered herself. Her podmates had been chosen for the same qualities she had. For the first time in her life, she was working with her equals, and in some cases, her superiors.
Nevertheless, as time went on and she got to know her podmates, she found that she was actually making friends. This in and of itself was a new experience for her. She had never really related much with her fellow students on Earth, especially in her college years. She had been so wrapped up in her studies that she had not set aside much time for socializing. Even in the cafeteria she had generally eaten alone, with only a textbook for company.
Now, however, she felt a part of something so completely different and in an environment so alien that she knew she would never make it without the help and support of her podmates.
Not only did they study together, but they also spent time getting to know one another and relating experiences in their differing cultures and backgrounds as part of their classwork. As a result, by the second week, Lizzie was feeling more at home than she had ever been before.
By far, her two closest friends were Minth and Gi. Minth was humble and earnest and so willing to help his other podmates. Gi, although she had come across as somewhat arrogant at their first meeting, turned out to be cheerful and kind, with an energetic enthusiasm for their studies.
“I’m looking forward to today’s lesson in Professor Baird’s class. He hinted it might be fun, and there were no preparatory assignments to go with today’s lesson. I wonder what it might be? He did say that we were progressing in our ability to look at the mirrors and that lessons would be shifting,” Gi said, as they left the etiquette class well into the third week.
“I don’t know. His lessons are always so strange. How long have we been staring into those mirrors now? It seems like he has reasons for what he does that I don’t fully understand. Usually, course aims coincide with some kind of logical coursework. This method of teaching is far beyond my experience,” Lizzie replied, shaking her head.
“I hear you. I know, based on our conversations, that our cultures are very different from one another, but I don’t think any of us have encountered anything quite like this before. Every time I think I have things figured out, I find I was mistaken. I know they have been training new agents more or less successfully for a very long time, but I honestly don’t understand the point of many of the lessons or the method of instruction.
“I mean, with the exception of the history of the Alliance and the science and tech classes, what does all of this have to do with representing The Alliance?” agreed Minth.
When they arrived at the classroom, it had been rearranged. Instead of the circle of chairs and mirrors, there were now three long tables, the obligatory mirrors behind each of twelve chairs facing one another across from each other, four chairs at each table.
In front of each chair was a nametag. They immediately found the tag with their name on it and sat, each directly across the table from the other facing the mirror image of themselves. Lizzie was seated across from Linlin, who smiled her wan smile as she sat, her hair waving complacently around her face.
Lizzie noticed that Geln had been separated to face three different people: Feth, Reanni, and Negoth.
Mang found himself facing an empty chair, which seemed to worry him, one eyebrow cocked and his mouth a thin line across his face.
Soon after they had all found their seats, Baird entered the room. He was wheeling a small cart, like they used in the cafeteria, upon which sat six small packages.
“Today we will be beginning an exercise we will be pursuing for the next 4 weeks of training. This exercise has more than one purpose.
“You will notice the mirrors remain, and for good reason. As you face what has now become your opponent, you will be able to see both your facial expressions and those of your opponent simultaneously. This will be instructive, as you will discover shortly.
“We are about to play an ancient game that has been passed down within the Alliance for centuries. This game is strategic. It teaches logic and tactics. Adding the mirrors to it, also teaches us how to school our expressions, to either choose to give no signals or to potentially give false signals as part of the strategy necessary to win the game.
“One of the interesting outcomes that may surprise us is how Geln, a joined consciousness, functions against three separate opponents in three different games.
“There is an element of chance in the game, which mirrors the element of chance you will experience as you encounter different cultures, political systems, and personalities in your ventures as an agent.”
He then began to set one package on the tables between each pair. No one reached for the packages, simply awaiting instructions. They had already learned that they could take nothing for granted in these classes, as surprises and subtle tricks abounded.
Professor Baird sat himself in front of Mang and continued, “In each of these packages you will find all of the components for the game.”
He unwrapped the fabric around the package in front of him. The wrapping laid out in a rectangle with symbols on it and in the center was what appeared to be a multicolored cube, four squares across and four squares tall. He removed what Lizzie now realized was a separate individual cube from the stack and held it up for them to see, revolving it in his fingers so each side was exposed in turn.
“Each of the large cubes is made up of 64 smaller cubes. As you can see, the opposite sides of each cube are inscribed with matching symbols and colors. There are three symbols on each cube... the loop,” and he showed the blue side with a gold infinity symbol on it, “the chain,” and he showed the red side with a gold circle on it, “and the gate,” and he showed the yellow side with a silver rectangle in the center of it.
“This game is essentially a matching game. The goal is to match as many sets of three as you can. The opponent with the most matches at the end of the game wins. This sounds simple—and it would be, except that there are other factors in the game.”
“You may have noticed that each of these symbols relates to something you have already seen in the Alliance culture. The agent gate pass, the chain it hangs on, and the gate itself. And this,” he said as he lifted a small key, similar to the keys Lizzie had noticed hanging around the necks of the Earth Gate Guardians, except this one was not on a chain. “Of course, it represents the Gate Guardian key. You will also notice a coin. It has no value except in the game,” and he held it up, flipping it to show each side, one with the chain symbol and the other with an infinity symbol.
He had everyone’s riveted attention. This was even more bizarre than any of the lessons they had been given so far.
“You may be wondering, at this time, what this has to do with becoming an Alliance Agent. I assure you; it is an essential tool to teach you skills that will benefit you throughout your agent experience. I will explain the rules of the game in a moment, but the game is simply a tool to teach much deeper concepts, the first of which is that things are seldom as simple or obvious as they seem to be.
“Please unwrap your packages so we may proceed to learn the game.”
Each group complied, revealing their own cubes, the small key-like tokens, a coin, and the curiously marked game board. On the board facing each player, between them and the cube in the center of the board, were two squares next to one another. Each of the squares was marked with a three-by-three lattice. In addition, on the square to the player’s left was a pocket shape, and above the same square was what looked like a swirling vortex.
“Each of you take one of the key tokens and place it in the pocket below the square on your left. To begin the game, you will also need the coin, which can be placed next to the main cube.”
They each placed a key in the pocket-shaped space and the coin next to the cube.
“For this first game, for the purposes of brevity, your cubes are pre-shuffled. I will demonstrate how to shuffle them for future games before we start the next game. I thought perhaps you would prefer to get directly into game play as quickly as possible.” And he smiled, a mischievous twinkle lighting his eyes.
He removed the little key from his “pocket” and replaced it with an ornate green stone surrounded by Celtic knots sculpted in gold.
“Avid players of the game tend to keep their own unique key tokens. This one, carved from the national gemstone of Ireland, Connemara marble, is mine. Not all are as elaborate as this one, but for each player a personal key token generally has some significance to them. Assuming you develop a liking for the game, you may eventually acquire your own. For now, the key tokens that come in the game set, resembling the Guardian or Gatekeeper’s keys, have enough significance to go on with.
“To begin, we must first determine who takes the first turn.”
He pulled a coin from his pocket. On one side was a stylized harp and on the other was a bird in flight. “We will designate the harp as ‘heads’ and the woodcock ‘tails.’ I will flip the coin into the air. Whilst it’s still in the air, Mang will call out either ‘heads’ or ‘tails.’ If he calls correctly, he will start the game. If not, I will begin it.... Ready?”
He tossed the coin and Mang called “heads.”
The coin landed harp side up.
“You will proceed first, then. Would you wish to represent the loop or the chain?”
“The loop.”
“Very well. As the first move of the game, you must remove any cube from the cube stack that has at least two exposed sides. The goal of the game is to match sets of three, transferring completed sets to the scoring area of the board to the player’s right.
“To begin, after choosing a cube from the center cube stack, you will place it on your board. That move is considered one turn. Please proceed.”
Mang chose a cube with a loop symbol on the top. He placed it dutifully, without turning it, on one corner of his game play area and waited.
“In each turn, every player can choose to do one of three things. They can remove a cube from the cube stack, turn a cube on the playing board of their opponent, or move a cube either on their own board or on their opponent’s. Any of those actions in and of itself counts as a turn.”
He turned towards the rest of the class. “Are we clear so far? Everyone determine which player goes first, and the first player may take and place a cube. Then we will proceed. For our purposes today, the chain symbol on the coin is ‘heads,’ and the player on the same side of the tables as me will flip the coin.”
There was a ringing sound as coins hit the tables. Linlin tossed the coin and Lizzie called “heads.” She won the toss and pulled a blue cube with the loop on it and placed it on the right-hand corner of the board.
They all made their moves and paused, waiting for instruction.
“Now you will each take turns, making as many matches as you can as you go. At some point you will run across a cube that looks like this.” He held up a cube, with the yellow gate side up. Inscribed on the rectangular gate symbol was a keyhole. “This is what is called a ‘locked gate.’ Its purpose is to pause play and create the necessity of strategy, planning, and tactics. It is also one of the two ways your key token comes into play. There are two situations where the locked gate is found, and each has its own strategy.
“The first possibility is that it may be found face up at the top layer of a column of cubes in the cube stack. When that happens, that entire column is taken out of play and placed in the vortex.” He indicated an area on the game board that looked like a small cyclone. “None of those cubes are accessible for the remainder of the game.
“The second possibility is when it is found on an exposed side of a cube during play. When that happens, the one who takes the cube can instantly turn the locked side up or may leave it hidden until ready to play it.
“At any point during their turn, they can rotate the cube lock side up and place it on another’s game board either on a cube or space on that board during their next turn. This effectively locks that space or cube until the player uses their key to unlock it. Unlocked gates are placed onto the vortex and cannot be used again. Once you use your key to unlock a gate, it cannot be used again and will also be placed in the vortex.
“You can also use your key as if it was a locked gate to lock another player’s cube. If you have already used your key and someone locks your cube either with a locked gate or their key, that cube remains locked for the entire game.
“As you can see, there are strategic options built into the game.
“For purposes of this class, you have two goals. One is to do your best to win the game as often as possible. The second is to learn to ‘read’ your opponent’s while either hiding your own or appearing to express opposite or different emotions than you are feeling during play.
“In diplomacy, both of these skills are often necessary. Learning to either give no clue or present false clues to your intentions may be vital to your success as an agent.
“Please begin.”
Immediately every pair became focused entirely on the task at hand, and it became evident, even though everyone was communicating with mind speech, that this was not as easy a task as it first appeared to be. Lizzie was beginning to suspect that this was a theme in her new educational challenges. Every time she thought she had figured out where they were heading, her instructors came up with something new and perplexing.
But she couldn’t complain. She had asked for this.
In her early school years, she had been challenged only in physical education but decided that this was unacceptable, so she had started to put real effort into physical conditioning. She never became anything like a star athlete, as that wasn’t her goal, but she never got picked last for teams, and that was enough for her.
Now, here she was in the middle of a matching game that looked so simple on the surface and proved to be a bigger challenge than any of them had expected.
On the one hand, it took a while to learn to play the game, even in its basic form. On the other, trying to figure out strategies and pay attention to the facial expressions and body language of the other player while trying to control their own seemed nearly impossible to do.
In the exertion of doing so many things at once, the expressions on faces vacillated from intense concentration to utter immobility to sometimes bizarre contortions. Even using mindspeech, there were often muffled sounds of frustration interspersed with some verbal expressions which Lizzie could only assume might have been cursing in their various languages.
Each round of the game took about fifteen to twenty minutes to play, and they rotated around the table, each facing Professor Baird at one point or another. By the time it was Lizzie’s turn to play against him, she was feeling a little less stressed about the game play and more engaged in changing her view from the mirror behind her opponent, glancing at her own expression, and the face of the player in front of her.
Professor Baird grinned at her and addressed her in mindspeech.
“Well, me lass, how do you think this is going?”
“For me, or in general?”
“Either one,” he replied, as he flipped a coin to begin the game. “I am guessing you are getting about a 50/50 success rate, and that isn’t pleasing you much.”
Lizzie found herself wondering how much of that he had gotten from her own facial expressions and body language.
“I don’t like to lose, professor. And I’m not much for playing games.”
“Ah, me fine lass, I’m not so surprised at this. I marked you from the beginning as focused to the point that it might not be healthy. Gaston tells me you are very exact and not very compromising when it comes to success or failure.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Perhaps not, if you don’t ever want to get any real joy out of life.” And he turned one of her cubes to unmatch the one next to it.
Lizzie realized that the conversation had been intended as a distraction from the game. She should have expected it. He wasn’t the only one using this tactic. She didn’t answer but gave him what she hoped was the expression he had been looking for.
She lost by a considerable margin to him, which was no surprise. As he finished with her, he called out to the group in mindspeech, “Time’s up. Please reset the games to the starting point and leave them there for tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to a nice hard work out with Lall. We’ll give it another try tomorrow, shall we?”
They complied and, unless they were continuing to try to hide their emotions, she guessed that most of them were relieved to be done with this game for the day.
