Mutant on the Run #2 - In the Army Vol. 1

Daily Life

Daylight fills the room around me as I stare at the frame of a quadcopter style hoverbike that sits in the middle of my large brick garage. My left ear twitches with the chilling creak of an opening door from behind, and I turn, holding a wire dome cage, I stop him as he steps through the doorway, "Hey Barrington, great timing. Could you come and hold this up for me while I screw it onto the propeller arm? I need all four props to be covered by a protective cage for safety."
"Yeah, sure, but I really came in here to show you a few final designs for your mask before I print it." He answers, placing his glass tablet on the bench before walking over.
"Oh good, I'll look at them in a minute, but right now, I need you to hold this half of the safety cage up on the arm as I screw it down. After that, I need to put the prop in, and I need you to hold the two halves of the cage together so I can put it together." I say, picking the bottom half up and putting it onto the arm. "Can you spin it slightly to the right? I need to line the screw hole up." He nods and I watch as the holes line up. Grabbing the drill and a screw from the ground, I lean over the edge of the cage and place the screw in one hole and pull the trigger. With a squeal, the screw goes in easily. Running a finger over the screw-head, I grin, "Perfectly flush." Turning to Barrington, I continue, "Just another three screws, and I'll have a look at your designs. Can you just keep holding it? It can't move." Grabbing a few more screws from the ground, I lean over and notice the holes aren't lined up anymore. Lifting the cage slightly, I can see where to move it to. "Can you shift it to the left?" Dropping it, I watch it shift over, but too far. "Just bump it to the right now, just lightly." Leaning over, I drop screws in each hole and with three more short buzzes from the drill, I lean back and walk over to the bench, putting the drill on charge. "Ok, what've you got?"
"I have three final designs based on the ones you liked most. What do you think?"
Studying each design, watching the animations of the 3D design's spin, how they come apart around my head, and how they look, I flick between them. After a minute, I flick back to the second design and point at the screen. "It's got an easy locking system, it's simply just two pieces, and it's not a fancy surface design. Print this one." Nodding, he turns to walk away, but before he does, I stop him, "Can you hand me that propeller?" I ask, making my way back over to the bike and pointing to the back wall.
Walking around the bike, he steps over and grabs it, bringing it back, "Wow, this thing is huge. It's the length of my arm."
"Well, the bigger the propeller, the more air gets sucked through."
"Yeah, but do you have motors strong enough?"
"Yeah, each one of these things can lift me. They're all the same strength, but once it's in the air, to move forward, this one and the other back prop will spin slightly faster while the front two will slow down slightly." Handing me the blade, I guide it down onto the axel, being careful to make sure the crossbars slot into the slits in the stem of the propeller so that the axel spins the prop, instead of it spinning freely underneath. With that on, I spin the propeller cap down over the end of the axel to fasten the propeller down and pick up the top half of the cage, placing it down over the other half. "Can you hold it down like this?" I ask, holding the two pieces together at eighteenths end with my hands like clamps over the bottom and the top of the cage. Nodding, he puts his hands next to mine and grips down. Walking over to the bench to get the nuts and bolts out of the top drawer and the drill off charge, I change the drill tip to fit the bolt head. Walking back over, I drop a bolt through the first hole and hold the nut up to the end of the bolt, drilling it down tight. Shuffling around the cage, I drill the rest together just like the first.
"James, can I ask how you just seem to know how to build one of these? I mean, you didn't need a plan or a list of parts, you just decided you needed to get home and knew what to do after a few days of talking to yourself. I mean...how?"
"Well, it wasn't easy. I needed to figure out what I'm going to use to get home. I mean, I can't just get on the plane with you, not only because you're going in the wrong direction, but also because that'll make it easier for them to find me. Once I get on the plane, I'll be spotted. I might not even be able to walk in the front door of the terminal with you, but I can drop you off. I've been fine out around here, but that's because the locals have had an acceptance and fascination with weird looking things for centuries. Them accepting me was just normal, but as soon as I get on the plane, or even walk into the terminal, it won't be the locals anymore. The international military police will be watching me. I needed a way to get home without getting spotted. So, I figured, I can't get on the plane, and my vehicle needs to be something that can either float on, or above the water. So, I came up with this." I say gesturing to the bike. "Once I knew what I was going to build, I started thinking about how it's going to work and how to assemble it. When I figured that out, I needed to think about how to get the pieces and what parts I needed to get."
"And, how does the mask fit into this?
"Well, it's not going to be much use while I'm out at sea, but once I get to land, no matter where I end up, I can't let anyone see my face."
"But won't they be scared of a stranger walking up from the shore with his face hidden?"
"Yeah, maybe." I grumble. "I didn't think of that." I add, watching him shrug walk back into his room with his tablet in hand. "Hey Barrington, are you hungry!? I was thinking about ordering some food for delivery. What do you want?" I say loudly while I fish my holophone out of my pocket.
"Anything. I'm not fussed."
Fishing a handgrip out of my pocket, I tap the power sensor button and watch it turn on, seeing the holographic interface display extend from the handgrip. With it in my left hand, I swipe across a couple of screens and open the food delivery app with my right hand, checking through the menu and picking some food to share.
As I'm completing the order, I see a pop-up message notification on the screen. Raja-Reddy has sent me a message. Opening the message, I see the words in Hindi slowly, and automatically, change from Hindi to English. "Hello James, one of my cousins has come to town for his brother's wedding and would like a new auto-mechanical arm. Would you be able to do this for us?"
"Auto-mechanical arm? Yeah sure, I'll be able to do that for him. When  were you thinking?" My text sends and changes from English to Hindi word by word. I wait for a reply and put my phone down on the workbench and get to work on the mechanics of the arm. Grabbing the spare servos, hydraulic joints, electromagnetic muscle scanner, and the circuitry and gather them all together on the workbench. My ears twitch with a buzz. Checking all around the bench, I can't see it anywhere. "Hey Attilika, where is my phone?" The Holographic display lights up through the gaps between the components that I gathered in a pile on top of it. Pulling things off of it, I set them aside and read the next message. "He'll be there in an hour. He would like to know how much this will cost."
"Well, unless he would like any specific extras with it, it'll be five hundred and fifty units. I'll get it ready for him when he arrives. All I need from him when he arrives are measurements for fitting. I only require half the payment sent before you arrive with him." My phone makes a sound as a message banner drops down from the top edge of the display. Not taking much notice of it, a half grin appears on my face, and I get to work.