"Can we talk for a minute?" Scott asked, feeling an unusual level of uncertainty. The past few days had repeatedly demonstrated just how unpredictable organics could be.
    "Yeah, what's up?"
    "Uh... I did something, and I hope you're not going to be upset."
    "Is this about enrolling in philosophy classes again?"
    "No, on further reflection, given my schedule, I think I'm just going to audit classes. I just don't think I have the time."
    "You may be right. See if you can talk to the people at the university about a flexible schedule, you are a state employee, that might help."
    "See, if I can audit courses and I can actually get an audit for credit, or away from campus credit, I can try and do it through Lancaster. That's the better degree," the robot explained.
    "True. That would be a Variant Studies degree?"
    "Yes."
    Dr. Scott nodded thoughtfully and tightened a final connection. "Do me a favor, do a state change?"
    Scott obliged. Beep-beep beep-beep. "But, no," the silver being went on, "that wasn't it."
    "What?"
    "Well, I made some phone calls the other day, to um... Gabriel Michaels." A very long silence. "It was actually surprisingly easy to get in through their Audix system."
    "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," the doctor muttered, continuing his fiddling. "What were you calling Dr. Michaels about?"
    "The current state of cybernetic research."
    "You're looking to build me legs, aren't you."
    "Yes."
    "Well, that explains some things. When did you talk to him?"
    "Two days ago."
    "Very fast. I was wondering when you were going to mention it, this telegram came yesterday." He fished the folded paper out of his shirt pocket and handed it over. "I'm being offered a job, out in Seattle."
    "Oh."
    "I think the company in question is a Renaissance Technologies subsidiary."
    "That wasn't exactly the response I expected," Scott noted thoughtfully.
    "No, but they do have connections. They're interested in my work, I gave them a call and talked to them about it. They have some intriguing theories."
    "I actually talked to him, and I think he is interested in your work. He's been paying a rather large amount of attention to you for a long time. At least he knew what you had been working on until most recently."
    "Doesn't surprise me, as I understand it he keeps a finger in just about everything." He sighed softly. "You think he's going to offer to build me legs?"
    "He said he'd try. If you would like."
    "Tempting thought." He wheeled the chair around to the other side of the terminal and tapped at a very expensive laptop computer. "Let me show you something. One of the few things I was able to save from my old lab. Check those calculations."
    Scott scrolled down the screen and saw a series of complex formulae; as they pertained to his own substance, he was familiar with what they described. The end result suggested intriguing possibilities of using the energy-enhancing properties of Plovian metal to enhance human bio-auras.
    "Hm. That's... that's interesting."
    "It's all extremely hypothetical right now," Jeffrey shrugged. "But if this works, it's possible. It'll probably take me years to get it to work right. This company out in Seattle is offering me free rein. Makes more sense, now that you've mentioned that..."
    "Sorry." It seemed that he had predicted incorrectly.
    "It's all right, I'm trying to figure out whether or not to take it. There's just so much byzantine stuff going on in the high-tech world. You never know who's working for who and what's going on. And I'm... my track record shows I'm not the best judge of character on these things." Thoughtful quiet."But if this is Michaels extending something, and I get the money to work on this, temporary legs until I can get it working... I've got to look into it," he stated.
    Scott approximated a nod and waited.
    "When we finish up this Silverblood thing, I'm probably going to tell them yes."
    "OK."
    "That'll mean going to Seattle," Dr. Scott added, looking at his odd son.
    "Yes." Logically obvious, but he decided not to point that out.
    "You're staying here, right?"
    "Yes."
    "Good. They're good people. They're a little confused sometimes, but I think it comes with the costumes."
    "I've been assuming it was a byproduct of being carbon-based. Have you considered possible interactions of that math and non-baseline human bioauras?"
    Sigh. "Yeah, I thought about it, but as I said, this is years away, before I can even--the idea came to me the other night, while I was trying to think of a way to use superconductor mass to replace my lost body parts, in theory. If I can tie it to my bio-aura, then it would act as an enhanced cybernetics link. What it would do to an already variant bioaura, I don't know. At least I have the comfort of knowing that if I don't know, no one else knows either. But first," he added, returning to work, "we have to clean up our mess here."
    "Yes."

| Top |