The Immortal Game (Rook's Song) by Chad Huskins Read Free Book Online Page A

a pawn, but you need to learn to be a player.”  Rook starts cycling up the engine and the rear thrusters.
    “I don’t understand why we cannot play a simpler game, like this checkers game you told me about, or poker.  Are those not revered games where you come from?”
    “Almost no strategy involved at all in those games, except maybe the style and rate at which y ou place your bets in poker.  Chess is the ultimate in strategy and sharpening the mind, because all strategy is about management and placement of resources.  In checkers, all the pieces can do the same thing.  That’s not like real life.  In chess, you have six kinds of pieces: king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, and pawn.  Each of those pieces can move in only one fashion—a knight can only move in an L-shaped way, for instance, and a king can move in any direction it wants but only one space at a time.  That’s more like life.  A Marine is specifically trained to work with a team on the ground and enter buildings, for instance, but cannot take to the air, while an Air Force pilot dominates by air, but cannot enter a home to rescue hostages.  Those are all pieces, and a wise player knows when to use the Marines, and when to call in an airstrike.”
    Bishop nods in a very human manner.  “Of course, I see your point, but when we first met, you said that this game helped you to defeat the Cerebs at the asteroid field.  And while I do see the analogy between the game you play here and the game you played with them, do you really find it all that necessary for your mind?   You play it obsessively.”
    “ It must be hard for you to grasp, because you’re programmed to remember so many protocols, but human beings…we have no implants.  Never did.  At least, not on the scale of your people or the Cerebs.  So we had to do most of our learning the old-fashioned way.  I’m sure your people discovered the connection between learning new skills, such as playing an instrument, and how it could improve your memory, stimulating neurons in new ways, opening up new avenues of thought you’d never previously explored?”  Rook taps a few keys, and brings up the holographic display of the chessboard between them.  “ This ?  This isn’t just home for me, it’s how I’ve stayed sane, and it’s how I upgrade my software,” he says, tapping his temple.  “Get it?”
    “ Well enough,” Bishop says.  The alien runs his right hand over one of the consoles, and pulls up a holo of the Sidewinder, looking at the rates of gamma waves bouncing off their wake.  He’s done it without even tapping a switch.  Rook still hasn’t quite figured how he does that.  “But, you intrigue me.  You say that a chess player cannot get any better unless he plays against an opponent that is better than he is.”  He turns to Rook.  “My question is, now that you’ve gone up against the Cerebs and defeated them once, do you feel you’ve improved?  Have you…upgraded?”
    “Well,” Rook says, activating forward thrusters, the ship lurching forward slightly.  “I won’t know until I play another game with them, now will I?”
    They are both pressed slightly against their seats, and a split-second later the inertial dampers kick in.  The artificial gravity adjusts.  They make their approach to the planet.  “Alright, the capacitors are holding,” Rook says.  “Guess you were right about that electrostatic influx into the—”
    Suddenly, a chime sounds.
    Rook looks at his trouble-board.  “Oh…”
    Bishop doesn’t have to ask what it is.  “We’ve got company.”
    “Yeah, we do.”  Rook does a double check on sensors, and he wants to scream.  How did they find us?  Another check to make sure the readings aren’t muddled, but he knows they’re not.  Nothing is malfunctioning, and it’s not a simple misreading of a gamma burst or cosmic wave fluctuations.
    Seekers have come.
    Or wait…have they?  Rook looks at his sensors.