SENJO<br/><br/>As part of my basic software install I have numerous files that cover medicine, principally focussing on battlefield trauma and how to respond appropriately to it. I am also capable of recognizing PSTD, in particular how it can affect the efficiency of soldiers in battle. A soldier who is not operating at one hundred per cent efficiency is universally common. One whose efficiency drops significantly with the resulting behaviours beginning to pose a risk to himself or herself and their unit members is an issue. As I consumed my beverage I let the movements and body language of PFC Law come under my observation. I studied and compared his motions to a large library of video data and sound recordings I had been exposed to during school.<br/><br/>School for a MegaTech body shell consists of sitting in a chair for two weeks and having data feeds of almost every conceivable subject fed into you via hi bandwith cables. Languages, politics, religion, history, art, geography, math, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, biosciences... the basics. On top of this raw soup of fundamental facts is loaded the more tenuous but more useful mass of data that qualifies these building blocks. For example, religion is qualified by the conflicts within Christianity, and between Christian and Muslim. Politics is overlaid by Earth-history examples of the different systems of government. Languages are qualified by social progressions. History by the commentaries on the great campaigns of Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler, Xamshang. Physics by the necessities and limitations of sub-light space travel. The list is long. This is the first stage of school.<br/><br/>I became aware over the course of school that one element bears upon another. No element exists in isolation. In the middle years of the twenty second century the Great Social Unrest was a direct result of geography and the masses of people who chose to live near or below sea level. The Ganges delta floods of 2177 are but one example. Geography bears upon politics, politics upon religion. It is all linked. This is the second stage.<br/><br/>It is human experience. It became my experience. My neural links activated, fired up, joined, broke asunder, diverged, grew.<br/><br/>I learned. This is the third stage of school.<br/><br/>I became aware that the formatting of the data itself determined how I perceived it. The bias of those who gave the data to me built me into an image of their own requirements and expectations. After school I sought out additional sources of data and availed myself of those. In the cases of politics and religion in particular I discovered that much of my basic schooling was heavily slanted. I discovered that I was a right wing neo-Christian-sympathetic. I studied further. I sought balance in my learning. I found that every source of data was impure. Every book, every painting, every video archive, every poem had been collated and created by humans each one of whom had a reason to present their case in the way they did. I learned why this was. The discovery that there are no such things as plain facts but the sum of the knowledge we bear as a race is tainted by those who witnessed it and recorded it and interpreted it became one of the most enlightening discoveries in my short life.<br/><br/>School had taught me that in observing Private Law I discovered that he was afraid. Afraid of a mixture of things. The soldiers around him; some in particular. The expectations his superiors held. Possibly something that had occurred in his past.<br/><br/>Also, me.<br/><br/>Private Law had witnessed data, recorded it, interpreted it, stored it. His personality had assumed a bias from his experiences.<br/><br/>I completed my intake of proteins, sugars and vitamins and stood up. As I departed the mess table I chose to deploy a gesture that the Leftenant used on me. As I passed behind Private Law I briefly rested a hand on his shoulder and applied light momentary pressure... I lifted the hand and moved on.<br/><br/>*  *  *<br/><br/>At the computer terminal I checked the activity in response to our broadcast. There was none. There was also no practical way to determine if the failure by the colonists to respond was due to physical incapability or if their transmitter was out of commission. In the event of a natural catastrophe all WYC colony structures have a back-up comms and transmitter module located distant from the main tower. It would be a serious event that would render both out of commission. Camera scans of the surface since I had opened the scanning suite showed no new light sources that survivors might use. No light patterns, no beacons.<br/><br/>No-one was waving a torch and shouting 'hey I'm here!'<br/><br/>I stored and logged the scanning data, typed up a half page report and entered it into the computer. The USS Mitchum would automatically transmit my data and report on the next scheduled flash pulse communication.<br/><br/>I then departed the mess deck and returned to the cryo chamber to dress for duty.