Photo Chalet. Video quadraped robot like Splat.
AN/ We wanted to Celebrate 1 year since Cyborg's pet first release, hence this chapter!
/Earth/Europe/Switzerland/Redrock Chalet hotel/Balcony Lounge area 8:50
That evening we ended up covered in aches and bruises happily partying in a chalet house on a deck over looking the fantastic mountain landscape. The get together had brought more party goers desperately seeking company from all over the planet. Lucy turned up with Binks, I ended up looking out of the late evening on the slowly cooling balcony with George, Leo, Lucy, the man I only knew as 'Smith' and Smith's friend called Jason. I noticed George kept looking at Smith when he wasn't noticing. He was a handsome if very lean boy and so cool you set your could clock by his five o'clock shadow. Do they have earth schools for that? Seems weird that you can learn astromechanics and how to program a 3D printer but they can't teach you how to be cool. I guess if they could, you would meet people at parties one says 'oh what are you studying?' and the other says 'Me? I'm studying Coolness, I'm going to do a Phd in it one day and go on to do cool research'. So the first person says 'are you being hip now?' and the second person goes 'no I'm on break' and the first one goes 'sorry I thought you were being Malcolm X' . I guess in the end you would have people having to set exams on cool, but you could going into a book shop and by a text book on how to be cool. I wonder how big that text book would be? Would it have illustrations. It was quite so Yeah my mind runs like that.
Dante passed by with a blonde in a sarong on his arm.
"You staying here for long?" I said making random conversation to Smith.
He nodded "I feIl love this time of year, lets you get back to nature reconnect to your roots with mother earth, life form" Smith said sipping on a Martini cocktail. "It's all about the simple things in life. You know. Like this music it's just a human voice."
I listened out and caught the music being played in the air.
"It's Billy Holiday" I said recognising the music my dad would play when he was trying to design a particularly difficult dome.
"I love his music" said Smith.
"Yeah .. me ... to.. err. What are you doing next?" I prodded. George looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't think of anything cool enough. I kept trying to create a space for her.
"I might go out into the mountains backpacking, nothing but you a nature, you know"
"You know George likes backpacking" I said. Creating a gap big enough to put a surprised whale into for George.
George looked at Smith's robot. Smith had a robot which was like a dog with a long arm for a neck called Splat, apparently these robots weren't very good at washing up.
"I thought the fuel cells on those sports robots only last a day" said George nodding at Smith's robot. Geeky but a start for George.
"Yeh, I have an Asimo for long distance tracking. It's a civil version of the robots the military use. I have a new Lombok one man tent I am aching to try out"
I touched my earring "<zing> Lombok self erecting tents are one of the best tents on the market, they include touch screen fabric, which can display the best picture, it is also capable of heating or cooling the tent in any weather down to -80"
Somebody was really roughing it.
Jason moved and I could see the tattoo on his arm. It had writing in a long hand font. It said 'without struggle, There is no process' except the word process had been crossed out and the word 'progress' had been tattooed beneath. My dad told me never to get a Tattoo drunk, to this I also added or while you have a cold, or likely to sneeze.
Later a robot had come and taken an order for pizza.
"You like that 12 inch pizza cut into six or twelve pieces ?" said the machine taking the order.
Smith looked up "six, it would be too much to try to eat twelve pieces of pizza. We all need to learn to take what we need from the Earth not what we want.".
I looked at Smith. George was a smart girl would she really be happy with Smith?
Dante drifted by with another girl on his hip. I thought for a second. This was a brunet in a mini skirt. Either Dante was dating a quick change artist or had the relationship equivalent of ADHD.
"Hey" started Jason "why is it they only make one man tents never one woman tents?"
"Yeh I wondered that" said Smith. "like there are no women explorers."
"Almost like there were no women space explorers in history" said Dante walking by with the Brunett.
George looked up at Dante. "Dante" she said clearly warning him off. Dante shrugged and walked out. In the distance I saw Dante get a call and it put funny look on his face. He said good bye to the random girl he was with and walked out. I wondered what was up with him.
Smith continued "After that I'm going to the Monaco Grand Prix"
When Smith said 'Prix' he sounded the 'X' .That was enough, I went to explore.
I took my pizza and walked away. The chalet was stuck in the sloping side of the mountain and had a number of empty balconies jutting out along the side. Near the front where I had been with George and othe others, the drop was enough to make me feel uncomfortable, if I got to close. Near the back the balconies were closer to the ground. I had this idea that if I started low get used to it and I could move up to higher and higher balconies. This whole vertigo thing was so not like me. It was so bad I was even considering getting a psychotherapy program for Kentro.
I had gone to the silent rear of the chalet. The mountain bikes was a summer thing, the chalet was design for the larger winter crowds skiing so it was quite here. I stood near the balcony looking out on the space between the hotel and the next one. From my experience at the Parkour classes I knew I could jump and get to that one. I was thinking of stepping over and jumping across, just a little practice. I wasn't going back to my old ways just... keeping in practice. Just then Io came along. She was wearing a long floor length skirt which reminded me of some victorian dress. The long skirt was a compromise between Io and Cleo. Io could have her mechanical tail on beneath it, so unless you knew Io had a tail you would not notice it.
"What Scarlett doing?" said Io approaching.
"Practicing heights" I said Looking down. Here I was about a story up. Below me on the ground a few yards away was a doorway and outside I noticed Dante come out. I looked a closely and realised he was now confronted by five large well built men wearing ski masks. I could see that behind him someone had one of those video cameras attached to a helmet. Dante didn't know it but he was being filmed.
"We have a message for you from Don Kipperbatche, We are going to teach you some manners" said the bigger one.
"You going to deliver that message your self or are you too weak and you need your...close friends hear to help you" said Dante slowly.
I summoned Kentro on my ring and then climbed over the edge of the balcony.
"What Scarlett doing?" said Io as I swung my legs over the thick wooden balcony.
"You go get Dante's robot tell him he's in danger" I said.
"Human in danger. Must stop from getting harm" said Io.
I guess she must have picked up the first law from her robot step parents.
I jumped from the balcony and caught myself on the bottom of the next balcony. I was swinging over the heads of Dante and the others no one looked up in time. I swung to the wall beneath the balcony, pushed off the wall and used that to reduce my landing speed Parkour style.
"<zing>Now might be a very good time to talk to you about Apple-IBM warrantee and after care service" said my earrings.
I landed to everyone's surprise just behind one of Dante's foes.
"Hi Dante, whatcha doing ?" I said casually.
The ski-mask gang turned round.
"I'm just chatting with these life forms" said Dante casual fists clenched.
The whole atmosphere sounded tighter than Rebel Wilson's knicker elastic.
"Got your girl to do your fighting for you?" said the middle man menacingly.
"No I hate him. I wanted to watch the live show before anything get's on you-tube" I said.
Just then Io swung from her tail and let go and landed on the ground. She had ripped her skirt off and stood up with her tail posed like a scorpion. She didn't say anything. I hadn't had much of a plan apart from getting to the ground. I looked around at everything and tried to imagine using it Marcor style. There was a drain pipe I could climb then drop on to someone. Over here a window I could use to leap up with. I wasn't sure what Io would do but the tail did look dangerous.
"Your polo playing, potato eating friend won't help you" said the first man. He must have had something which talked into his ear like an earring. I noticed the man next to him had 'freedoom' tattooed on the fingers of his hand. Just then Kentro landed on the ground almost silently.
"Is Madam in need of assistance?" said Kentro calmly.
While Kentro could give a good impression of a stick insect his robot arms could be quite strong. I'd been in a cave where a robot had kept a support beam up while it's owners and others had run past it. A robot wouldn't fight for you but it could wrap its self around who ever struck first like a straight jacket until police arrived. That had happened at my old school were Hindy Kane had told her robot she could 'kill herself' after her break up with Frank Sugar. I told her at the time, a good ship name does not a relationship make. The robot apparently wouldn't let her go until she had received a full psych evaluation.
Io altered the equation, especially if x represented the amount of total freak our points available and y represented the number of girls with machine tails.
"We will get you" said the head thug to Dante breaking off.
"Yeh and your going to tell your big brother and he's this high" said Dante Holding his hand high above his head.
"We know where you live" said another.
"I doubt your can even remember where you live . If you do go to where I live remember to water the plant it's desperate"
The doors near by opened up and George, Leo and some of the others including more robots came to look or help.
"Hey that was mad." said Dante loudly to me "You want to come on the Crazy rock run tomorrow? show you don't intimidate easy?"
The crazy rock run was the most dangerous run on the alps. Made the more dangerous by permanent snow field high above it.
"Sure I've to do the crazy rock run with you" I said.
*****
A/N Thanks for indulging us with this chapter - See you Friday (for surprisingly Chapter 30 Crazy Rock Run) Reb