LIGHTNOVELONLINE 143. Targeted
Our second stop turned out to be another educational experience. Tamsin took us to the local 'Museum of Science and Technology', which actually seemed appropriate considering this was a tech world.
And even though some of the exhibits and interactive experiences were aimed at a younger audience, I still managed to learn a few things. After all, the tech on this world was a lot more advanced than what I was exposed to growing up.
The museum wasn't quite as engaging as the immersive tour thing, but it was still a nice way to spend a couple hours. Tamsin acted as our guide, since she'd visited the place a few times in the past. Although I suspected an actual museum guide probably wouldn't have spent most of the tour with their arm around our captain's waist.
Once we'd had enough education and culture we left the museum and found a nice restaurant where we stopped for a late lunch, before Tamsin brought us to her next big idea. Unfortunately it wasn't as well received as she'd hoped.
It was another 'immersive experience', but this time it was a sort of combat simulation game. Basically the idea was you'd be in a group of friends or assigned to a team, they'd issue you a sort of toy gun then you'd do realistic combat in one of a couple artificial settings.
They had three combat arenas that participants could pick from. One was meant to simulate being on a ship where you were either a boarding party or the defenders, another was an urban locale where you either attacked or defended an automated factory, and the last was a fake forest where both sides were fighting amid the artificial trees.
As for the weapons, they looked realistic and made noise and simulated recoil, but the barrels were blocked off and there weren't any projectiles. Instead they used a non-visible spectrum laser system and some kind of targeting software to determine if you were hit or not. If so, your gun would deactivate and you'd have to leave the arena.
I could see how it might be fun for local citizens, who lived in a very safe society and typically wouldn't have any first-hand exposure with combat or life-and-death situations. Unfortunately it wasn't the best idea for our group. Rebecca had probably seen more real combat than the folks who ran the simulated game place had in-game experience. Both Sarah and I had some recent real-life combat experience too, so it wasn't the sort of thing I was interested in doing for fun. And Cam spent the last few years living under the threat of attack by raiders, not to mention nearly dying in one such attack. Plus the cat-kin seemed to have a real aversion to firearms and fighting.
"Yeah ok I guess I didn't think this through," Tamsin responded after we explained all that to her. "I'm sorry folks, I hadn't considered any of that. I was mostly thinking about how you lot would easily beat any team they threw at us."
Rebecca grimaced, "That's another thing? It's probably not fair pitting seasoned combat vets with actual military training against folks who're just here for a fun game."
"Since we're already here, how about we try out the target shooting instead?" Sarah suggested. She pointed at one of the ad screens on the side of the building, "That might be fun? What do you think Rebecca? Maybe me and Amanda could get some practice in?"
It looked like the target shooting was almost an afterthought or add-on, but apparently the place used the same sort of artificial 'guns' in their shooting range. I could imagine it was a way for their customers to get familiar with the weapons before doing the combat game, along with an alternative for people who didn't want the simulated combat but were interested in simulated shooting.
"What do you think Cam?" I asked our newest crewmate. "Would be willing to give it a try, considering they're not real guns?"
They seemed reluctant but agreed, "Alright, I guess I can try it out."
Rebecca and Tamsin were on board with the idea, so the five of us headed inside. Ten minutes later we were up on the third floor where the shooting range was located, listening to an enthusiastic young man named Ryan as he gave us some very brief instructions on how to use the fake guns.
They were modelled on a generic semi-automatic handgun, and while you didn't technically have to reload them they did need to be 'reset' every fifteen shots. There was a button on the base of the grip that was the simulated equivalent of putting in a new magazine, and that's all there was to it.
Ryan also showed us how the shooting lanes worked. There were generic 'bullseye' targets, static human-silhouette targets, and even moving targets. You could have a human silhouette move across or appear in front of you, or a small nondescript orb if you didn't want to shoot at something shaped like a person. Finally there was a competitive mode, where our lanes could be linked together so we'd all get the same sort of targets and our scores would be compared after so many shots or so many minutes.
That was all he had to say, before leaving us to do our thing. We'd payed for an hour of range time, which I figured would be more than enough.
Meanwhile Tamsin seemed a little disappointed by how the lanes were set up, since it meant we'd all be standing by ourselves in our own separate little shooting range. Still, she made sure her lane was next to Rebecca's.
At that point the boss spoke up, "Toys or simulations aside, I expect to see you all following proper safety procedures. Amanda, Sarah, I know you two have had the training. Cam, Tamsin, if you don't know safe firearms handling I'll teach you right now."
"My pa taught me when I was young," Cam replied quietly.
That just left Tamsin, who didn't actually have any experience with real weapons. And naturally she was very happy to have Rebecca spend the next ten minutes giving her some one-on-one training, while the rest of us moved to our lanes to try it out.
The targets were generated with hologram emitters, and you could set the distance to whatever you wanted from two to twenty meters. I found the fake gun had a realistic kick to it, but the simulated gunshot noise was a lot quieter than the real thing. Which made sense, otherwise you'd need ear protection. There were a couple other things missing too, like there was no smell of gunpowder and no spent casing ejected after each shot. They got the aiming and handling fairly accurate. It wasn't quite realistic enough to bring me back to my academy days learning to shoot in the Navy, but it was close enough.
The first twenty minutes or so we all just did our own thing, then Tamsin suggested we try the competition mode. Cam and I were both reluctant, and actually Rebecca was too. We went along with it though, I figured it didn't really matter who won or lost since it was all for fun.
Still, it was probably no surprise to anyone when the ex-special forces marine won the first competition by a wide margin. That was shooting at static bullseyes at a distance of ten meters. What did come as a surprise was Cam's second-place finish. I had a modest third, while Tamsin and Sarah were both well back as if they were competing for last.
We tried a couple more competitions like that, with the bullseyes at different ranges. The results didn't change too much, the only real variation was how badly Rebecca beat the rest of us. Then we switched to moving targets, using the orbs since Cam refused to shoot at the people-shaped silhouettes.
The first round had Rebecca way out in the lead again, while Cam got a modest second place again and the rest of us were all well back. However the results of the second set left everyone stunned. Cam won with a perfect score, while Rebecca got second place with a respectable eighty-percent hit rate. I was a distant third with only forty-five percent, then Sarah and Tamsin were at the back with twenty and fifteen percent respectively.
"Sorry folks," the cat-kin apologized while their ears and tail drooped. "I kind of cheated that last round."
"You did? How?" Rebecca asked, and she sounded genuinely curious rather than upset.
Cam admitted, "I figured out where the hologram emitter and shot sensors were hidden? Then I found out if you shoot straight at the sensor it records a bullseye hit, no matter where the target is. So every time the bouncing ball appeared I just shot the sensor. It was lots easier on account of being motionless. So I didn't really earn that hundred percent, that was Rebecca's win."
The boss smiled and shook her head, "I disagree. I think you earned it fair and square Cam. You outsmarted the game, and the rest of us. In a real combat situation that's the kind of thinking that can win fights and save lives."
The rest of us agreed that Cam won that round, which left the cat-kin blushing. There was a faint smile on their face though, and their ears and tail were all standing up proudly.
With the cat-kin's secret revealed we didn't bother doing any further competitions. Instead Rebecca used our last ten minutes at the range to evaluate my shipmates and I. With generic bullseye targets at fifteen meter range Cam and I both did pretty well, with the cat-kin scoring about seventy-five percent versus my sixty-eight percent. Sarah was down around forty-five percent, but in her defence she was about three-decades out of practice.
Ryan returned to collect the fake guns when our time was up, then he tried to talk us into joining in a combat game that would be starting in about fifteen minutes. We politely declined though, and finally made our way back out to the grav-sled.
That was the last of the 'fun activities' Tamsin had in store for us, but it wasn't the end of her plans. It was dark out by that point, and the ravenette mechanic was excited to get us all onto a dance floor with her. Or perhaps more accurately, she was excited to get onto a dance floor with Rebecca specifically.
So our last stop of the day was a dance club after all, just like Tamsin teased when we met her that morning.
My ears folded back and my tail drooped down almost between my legs as we entered, in response to the loud throbbing music and the bright flashing lights that punctuated the darkness in time with the bass beats. Cam was the same, their ears were folded back while their tail puffed out and dropped down low.
We managed to get a table despite the crowd, and fortunately it was off in a corner where the music wasn't so loud and there weren't quite as many people around us. Cam and I had only just sat down when our host grabbed Rebecca's hand and dragged our captain off towards the dance floor.
"She's not even trying to be subtle, is she?" Sarah smirked as she sat down next to me.
I shook my head, "Nope. Not even slightly."
The cute blonde rolled her eyes then stood back up again, "I'm going to grab us a round of drinks. Be right back cutie!"
"Or I should say, cuties!" she added with a grin and wink towards Cammie.
That left the cat-kin blushing, and I couldn't help smiling at their reaction as well as my girlfriend's antics. In fact despite my first impression I found the energy in the club to be kind of infectious. The music was pretty good, with a lively beat that made it hard to keep still.
Tamsin had that same kind of energy, and it had a similar effect on the rest of us. Even though her attention was mostly focused on my tall amazonian girlfriend, the cute ravenette made sure none of us were left out. Over the next couple hours she made sure to drag us all onto the dance floor a couple times. Cam was the only one to successfully deny our captain's enthusiastic young friend.
Although to be fair the cat-kin looked kind of frazzled by that point, and I couldn't help thinking maybe they'd had enough of the crowded dance club and its loud music. They insisted they were ok though when I asked if they wanted to head back to the ship, or if they just needed to go outside for some fresh air.
It was somewhere well past midnight when we finally headed out. I'd had the least to drink so I volunteered to pilot the grav-sled back to the ship, with Cam seated next to me in the front row. Rebecca and Sarah got into the seats behind us, then Tamsin hopped in and settled herself onto the tall redhead's lap.
As usual Jenny was ready for our return, she had the Demeter's ramp down and main airlock open so I was able to bring the sled right in and set it down in the middle of the deck. Our android shipmate was even there to welcome us all back in person as we climbed out of the small craft. The pink fringe in her hair meant she was operating independently which was unusual considering she was on the ship, but nobody asked about that as we all headed up to the main deck together while the ship sealed itself back up again.
"I hope you all had a good time today?" Tamsin asked as we settled down together in the lounge with another round of drinks.
She joined my girlfriends and I on the sofa this time, squeezed in between me and Rebecca. And I had Sarah on my other side, while Cam and Jenny sat in the big chairs by the small round table again.
Rebecca had a sip of her whiskey then nodded, "It was good. I doubt we'd have ever visited the first three places on our own, so thanks for sharing them with us."
"Where did you go?" Jenny asked.
Cam gave the android a run-down of the universe tour and the museum. Then Sarah told Jenny about the shooting range, and how our cat-kin crewmate surprised us all with their shooting skills. That earned her another blush from Cammie, and I couldn't help wondering if my blonde girlfriend had set her sights on our newest shipmate the same way Tamsin was obviously still trying to get into Rebecca's bed.
"How was your day Jenny?" I asked, after Sarah finished embarrassing Cam. "I hope you weren't bored nor lonely being stuck on the ship by yourself all day long."
She shook her head, "I was neither bored or lonely, but thank you for your concern Amanda. There's a few ongoing projects that are keeping me busy while all of you are out."
"More studies?" Rebecca asked. "How long before you've taken every course the local universities offer?"
Jenny smiled, "That's still quite some time away. I have download a few more courses, but the project taking most of my time right now is some additional upgrades and enhancements for my body."
"Oh?" our blonde engineer was obviously curious about that. She looked like she was about to ask for more information but after a brief pause grimaced, "Actually I'm going to wait until I'm sufficiently sober before asking about that."
Tamsin slipped an arm around Rebecca and suggested, "Good point. It's been a long day, maybe we should all get some sleep?"
The tall strong redhead looked at her friend for a moment, then turned towards me and Sarah. With a slight grimace she asked, "Do you two mind if..."
"Not at all," Sarah grinned.
"Have fun," I added.
