"Melbourne! Melbourne!"
Melbourne Acliate awoke rudely to his mother shaking him awake, something that rarely happened.
"What?" asked Melbourne, desperately desiring more sleep. "What time is it.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! It's already 2 o'clock in the afternoon!" scolded Melbourne's mother. Her right hand was on her him in the manner she always assumed when she was angry at her son. "Did you take another long hike? Today is the day the airship we've booked in your name leaves. Now, you know just as well as we do that those rides are expensive and we are already going to be late on rent this month because of the ticket. Don't you dare be late!"
"Getting up." groaned Melbourne reluctantly.
Melbourne's mother's name was Angela Acliate. She was a wonderful woman and an amazing cook. She cared about Melbourne and his younger sister greatly. Right now, though, she was in one of those moods that you did not want to cross. One wrong word and Melbourne might as well go intimidate James Curkoniff, the high school bully that regularly beat him up all throughout high school.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Angela as Melbourne came out of his blankets. "What happened to your arms?"
Melbourne looked at his skin and noticed a number of scrapes and bruises from traversing his way through dense foliage the night before. Of course, he could not let her know what he had actually been through.
"Oh, this." said Melbourne slowly, trying very hard to think of a white lie to get him out of any more trouble than he was already in. "Um, I kinda tripped and fell off a bluff last night and rolled through a bunch of dense foliage. This really big wound was bleeding out but I fortunately read a book earlier that said you could stop bleeding in nature if you applied yarrow mixed with water or your own saliva into a paste. It caused coagulation and saved me from a pretty nasty predicament. It's why I was late coming back last night."
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Angela. "Hold on, I'll go get some antibiotic cream. It's some pretty old fashioned stuff but it's superior to short term solutions like herbs found in the wild."
His mother left quickly and was back within thirty seconds to apply cream and bandages.
"That should fix you up." said Angela, embracing Melbourne in a hug. "I am so happy you are safe. I was afraid you had been caught up in the business down south since I know you like to hike in that direction."
"What business?" asked Melbourne, feigning complete ignorance but dreading the answer to be a news broadcast.
"The military has investigated a crash that happened last night. Some space capsule landed there and the news reporters are saying that three corpses were discovered, all people thought to have been in their late teens to early twenties prior to further autopsies. Apparently an old artifact from the Artilect War was drifting through space undetected and finally crashed into Mars only 10 or 20 kilometers south of here. The exact location is classified but it was confirmed that they set up a whole military investigation zone and no one is permitted into the area. I actually thought one of those corpses was you when I watched the news this morning. When I went to your room afterwards, I found you sleeping soundly."
"Yeah, that's crazy." said Melbourne, his senses starting to acclimate to being awake again. Some deep subconscious part of himself had just woken up hoping everything that happened to him last night was a bad dream that he had finally escaped, but alas it was very real. The final reminder that it was all real arrived in the form of the Aclito's GUI interface popping up as he got an unnatural shot of cortisol to his brain, increasing his alertness for the day ahead.
New Mission: Catch Airship
*You have a new job opportunity in Olympia and need to catch your airship today if you want this opportunity to leave the planet for space.
Daily Mission(s):
*2 kilometer run
*100 regular push-ups
*100 diamond push-ups
*100 wide-armed push-ups
*50 hand-stand push-ups
*10 pull-ups (palms backward)
*10 pull-ups (palms forward)
*100 wrist-raises (20kg dumbbells)
*100 punches for each hand
*100 knife hands for each hand
*100 front kicks, waist high for each leg.
*100 round house kicks, waist high for each leg.
*Note, failure to perform daily quests will result in punishment in the form of artificial serotonin and dopamine blockages designed to cause depression. This measure is put in place to keep lower level soldiers disciplined in their assigned training regimen. The result is that you will be severely depressed until you begin following the workout routine.
"NO!" thought Melbourne in horror. "I can't even do diamonds!"
"You like most untrained recruits are capable of far more than you believe." explained the Aclito matter-of-factly. "Your current tone will allow you to do that many without injuring yourself though it will be hard. Your training is designed to turn you into a formidable combatant, so you can think of this as a form of boot camp though much less intense than most military training regimens. You have a busy day today, so I will go easy on you."
"I'm your slave now?" thought Melbourne in furious incredulity.
"No." said the Aclito. "Don't worry, you'll thank me for this later. If you find yourself attacked or in any other unexpected situations like last night, you will be much better prepared. Sorry, it's part of my programming to train the human I partner with to be combat ready. The training regimen should take you no more than an hour when you have the time. If the airship you are boarding has no gym, then I will forgive the pull-ups and running just for today. You can replace the latter with 1000 jumping jacks if you like."
"What are you staring at, boy!" asked Angela angrily, putting her hand on her hip again in response to Melbourne's furious scowl in response to the Aclito's demand.
"Oh, I'm sorry." said Melbourne, snapping out of it and then intentionally rubbing his eyes for show. "I'm just a little grumpy because I got home late and had very little sleep."
"Well I have coffee, eggs and bacon ready for you on the way out." said Angela in a mildly impatient and suspicious tone. "I'll give you an extra caffeine shot to wake you up further. Come along. The food you prepared yourself earlier has gone bad, by the way. I threw it out. It had dairy products and was sitting out way too long."
***
As Melbourne was in the middle of eating his eggs, Angela received a call.
"Hello Johnny." said Angela to Melbourne's father. "Where are you, taking a walk?"
A brief pause and Angela's face morphed into anger. "You took the car?" demanded Angela. "Why? You know Melbourne needs to be at the airport today…. Oh, he is? How? Well why couldn't your brother take him?... Ah, he's on a business meeting in New Venice is he?...Yeah. Fine. If it's that urgent, I won't be angry with you. You can have the car back in an hour and a half? Alright. Melbourne should make it barely in time if we hurry when you get back." Angela finally hung up the phone.
"Melbourne, your cousin Alensi has fallen ill with the new virus that's been going around. It's Makolia."
"That bad?" asked Melbourne in shock and worry.
"Don't worry, most of the people who die from it are either elderly or infants. He's getting hospitalized by your father because your Uncle Leo is on a business call out of town. Anyway, the car will be back in an hour and thirty minutes. You should still have time to catch your flight."
To Melbourne's horror, a cursor appeared in his eye in response to the situation.
*A change has been detected in your schedule that has opened up an opportunity.
*Opportunity for daily workout routine opened. Penalty for failure to complete daily quest today reinstated.
"Alright then, I think I'm going to get some exercise in the meantime." said Melbourne with a pale face.
Angela's mouth opened up in shock.
"What happened to you?" asked Angela. "I have never seen you so interested in working out before. You usually shirk your workout regimes and your father and I are lucky to get you to the gym twice in a week."
It was true. Since quitting martial arts in early high school in the interest of joining a robotics extracurricular team, his own physical activity had considerably diminished. He was only a brown belt but even that ability he had developed had become rusty over the past few years and so is ability to fight on his own was diminished to the point that he was prey to bullies in school. Without the tactical advice of the Aclito, he would never have won the fight against the three thugs that attacked him last night.
"Yeah, well, I decided that if I'm going to space that I should definitely get into shape." said Melbourne. "I'm quite sick of being pushed around as it is and private vessels venturing outside the protected spaces of Martian orbit are not safe from attacks from pirates and mercenaries employed by rival companies or nations to sabotage the competition."
"I already told you I'd prefer if you just join the Navy if you want to go to space but no!" retorted Angela.
"Even more reason for me to train." said Melbourne honestly. "I don't meet the physical requirements to join the military yet. Maybe I'll join up if I get there in the future but in the meantime I need a job and this one sounds far more exciting and pays much better than some factory job."
Angela sighed in grief but accepted her son's decision as Melbourne went to his bedroom and looked up grudgingly at the pull up bar his father had installed in his doorway for the Aclito to conveniently notice as he walked in and out.
"Well, I guess I better get the hard part out of the way." groaned Melbourne as he put in hands around the bar and began the excruciatingly painful process of performing the exercise he was the worst at.
***
Melbourne didn't think he could pull off 10 pull-ups before but he surprised himself today as his adrenaline worked in fear of the Aclito's punishment. After the after doing 10 pull-ups with his arms facing the rear, he reversed his palms to work a different set of muscles with his arms in agony. He knew he was weak and couldn't do 10 more without stopping for a break, so he was relieved when the he performed three and fell off due to muscle failure when the Aclito's quest display said:
*10 pull-ups (palms forward) 3/10 complete
The Aclito System recognized his effort and did not punish him for not accomplishing what was impossible at his level. It pushed him to his limits and well past what he believed he could do, but it knew based on an analysis of his anatomy what he was capable of more deeply than he did. As such, it forcefully administered a daily workout regimen that most people would never perform by the virtue of their own personal discipline.
After an agonizing 45 minutes of brutal punishment to Melbourne's upper body muscles, it was time for the 2 kilometer run outside. Finishing this drenched in sweat, Melbourne walked into the bathroom and prepared to step in the shower as the sound of the car coming to a landing outside the house could be heard outside.
"Melbourne, your father's here! It's time for you to go to Olympia!"