Free Mechanical by Bruno Flexer Page B

and a man entered.
                In his mind, Tom gritted his teeth, and he tried to pay as much attention as he could to the lessons. He had never liked lessons in his life, and now, having to take one after the other wasn't making things easier.
                It was also funny in a way, seeing the awesome black mechanical monsters towering above the puny men who lectured them. It would have been so simple just to extend a claw and rip a man's head clear off his body. No doubt Ramirez had already considered it.
                Tom had to admit the subject matter was interesting, but sitting down, or actually standing still in the Serpent while various tech people droned on and on about infrared concealment, advanced encrypted radio protocols and frequency-hopping capabilities, power core management and power conservation, optical surveillance and target management, diagnostics display and self repair abilities, and mobility in various terrains was grueling. It just went on and on, hour after hour.
                One interesting thing concerned their computers' communications. The Serpents' computers had no radio link. Every kind of radio communication was voice only, no data. The only way to upload information to the internal computers was through connection cables. Apparently, computer security was paramount in the Serpents' designers' minds.
                Another thing that was interesting concerned their Serpents' thermal signature management. Apparently, the Serpent's power core generated heat: more heat as the Serpent exerted itself more. Now, the Serpent had built-in chemical heat sinks able to absorb a certain amount of energy, but their capacity was limited. This meant that the faster and the longer they ran, for instance, the more heat that was generated. When the heat sinks' capacity was overloaded, the entire Serpent began radiating excess heat away.
                The lab-coat man who had been there when Tom awoke came to give them one lesson about Serpent development history. The man kept his eye on Ramirez's Serpent, standing near the door and looking ready to bolt at an instant's warning. He perspired continually, and even his round glasses were covered with fog. He actually ran out of the hall when he finished his short lesson, even though Ramirez had done nothing, and had just held his Serpent perfectly still, its black, blank faceplate directed at the man.
                "What have you got against that poor man?" Tom asked, but Ramirez just ignored him.
                Tom sighed, wondering again exactly why Ramirez was selected to pilot a Serpent.
                Sergeant Jebadiah, however, was completely another matter. Tom was really impressed with the man, his openness and his cheerful disposition.
                "I'm just worried about my folks, Sir," Jebadiah had openly admitted while they waited for another lecturer. "I haven't heard anything from them for more than a month. They won't let me make a phone call from here, Sir. They say everything we do here is top secret. It is a matter of national security, Sir. They did say I could make a few phone calls after the mission."
                This caused Tom a little pang of sorrow. He hadn't thought about his own sister for some time now. He had worried about her often before, but he supposed the mayhem during the last two days was just too much. Sergeant Jebadiah did have the time to worry about his parents, Tom thought guiltily, though his parents weren't in the occupied cities.
                "How about your sister, sir? Got news about her?"
                "No, Sergeant, nothing. She's been in Atlanta for three years now. I haven't heard anything from her since the Twelve Cities War began, and she was captured," Tom said. He was surprised that it hurt less than he remembered. "Funny, I haven't talked about her with almost anyone for