On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1) (14 page)

“Okay, now what does the next icon on screen say?” she asked.

“It says, ‘Neural Interface,’” he replied.

“Okay, this is where you turn on the neural interface of the helmet, and it will take over for you.  Now, go ahead and touch the icon for ‘Neural Interface.”

Mike touched the screen.  The icon for neural interface went amber, and then turned green.

“At this point, you no longer need to use your hand to press the icons,” she said, “Now, look at one of the Icons.”

Mike looked at one of the icons on screen.  As his gaze lingered over the icon, it grew just a little bit larger, and turned a shade lighter, indicating that it was active.

“Did the icon change?” she asked.

“Yes it did.  Is that part of the neural interface?”

“Well, partially.  The helmet tracks where your eyes are, and then you can activate the icon by speaking, and as the neural interface gets used to your brainwave activity.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, for instance, if you wanted to arm the weapons system, then you would look at the weapon system icon, and say or think, ‘Weapons, Arm.”  That’s the command to arm your weapons.  The neural interface will only be able to help you make the armor move right now, but the computer interface will begin to learn how you control the machine, and eventually, you’ll be able to do a lot of things without having to consciously thinking them.”

He looked at the icon for weapons.

“Weapons, Arm.”  The icon started flashing amber, went to flashing black, and then shifted back to red. 

“Sorry, cowboy, no shooting today.  What happened as you relayed the command?” Lieutenant Pang asked.

“Well, it turned from red to flashing amber, like the other icons did, and then flashed black, and then turned back to red.”

Lieutenant Pang confirmed that the system was working correctly, “Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to do.  The amber means that the system is running a check.  Black means that the system is damaged, or not present.  Red means that the system is offline or turned off.”

“Damn, so no weapons on board,” he replied.

“What, and have you burn down the facility.  I don’t think so.”

Mike grinned, “So it’s an energy weapon?”

There was a pause on the other end, “Please don’t repeat that.   You’re not cleared for that information and it would end my career.”

Mike said, “Mum’s the word.  I won’t say a thing.”

“Thanks, Chief.”

“Please Lieutenant Pang, call me Mike.”

She replied, “And please, when we’re away from here, call me Jennifer, or Jen.”

Mike said, “I guess your boss doesn’t like his officers to use first names.”

Lieutenant Pang replied, “It’s not just him, we have a lot of junior Airmen here, and it’s bad for discipline.”

Mike nodded.  He was so used to his team he sometimes forgot about the problems conventional forces had.  Of course, this unit wasn’t necessarily what he would call conventional.

Lieutenant Pang continued with her checklist, “Okay, so we have everything going well, all lights are green.  Now, go ahead and stick your arms in the tubes for the arms.”

Mike complied.  He pushed his arms in.  At the bottom of the tube, he could feel what seemed to be a glove.

“Okay, I have what feels like a glove down here.”

“Yes, that’s the control for the hand of the suit.  Go ahead and put your hand inside of it.”

Mike put his hands inside both gloves.

“Alright, now once you have full control of the suit, you’ll be able to make a fist, or grab with an open hand.  You’ll even be able to pick up equipment, and throw it if necessary.”

“Texas Rangers, here I come,” he replied.

She chuckled, “Nope I don’t think that fifteen foot suits of mech armor are allowed to play.  It gives an unfair advantage to the pitcher.”

He replied, “And the pitcher wouldn’t have to worry about anybody charging the mound, either.”

“That’s very true,” she answered.

“Okay, there are three more things we’re going to do, and then we’re going to break,” she said.

“Break? I’m just getting started,” he replied.

“You may be just getting started, but it’s almost lunch time, and I want to get something to eat.  I’m hungry.”

“Food’s a crutch.”

“But it’s a crutch that I like to use.”

He conceded the point, “Okay, what are we going to do?”

“Well, you’re going to foam up.  See the icon?” she asked.

“Yes, I see it.”

“Okay, go ahead and activate it.  Just look at the icon, and say, ‘foam activate.’”

He looked at the icon.

“Foam, activate.”

He felt the foam expand around him.  As it expanded, it didn’t feel too uncomfortable.  He could feel foam at the back of the helmet, but there wasn’t any in front of his helmet, or to the sides of his helmet.

“Hey, there is no foam in the dome of the suit,” He exclaimed.

“We did that for a reason,” she replied.

“Why is that?” he asked.

“Well, you’ll see once you do two more things for me.”

“Okay, I’m game, what’s next?”

“Next icon, look for the icon that says, ‘Engage.’”

“Got it, amber, now green.”

The tension in the suit seemed to increase.  There still wasn’t any sound.  The mech armor was strangely quiet.

“Okay, Mike, don’t do anything else just yet.  I have to get a thumbs up before we go to the next part.

“Roger, Wilco.  Standing by.”

Nothing happened.  He lay there for a few minutes, and then he heard the Lieutenant speak again, “Now, Mike, I want you to slowly move your right hand.  You’ll find that you don’t have to move much to get a reaction from the armor.  You just have to make subtle movements, and think about moving your arm,” she said.

“Uh, how do you want me to move it?” he asked.

“Just bend the elbow, not much.”

He moved the elbow slowly, and felt the mech armor shiver.

“Damn, I hope I don’t topple over,”
he thought.

“Okay, that was good.  Now push back and you want to shift your weight back on your legs and squat.  No big movements.  Remember, everything is multiplied.”

Mike gently applied pressure and felt the mech move in the direction he wanted.  He was trying to get the weight of the mech armor over the legs.  He pushed back, and then he felt the armor shift and topple backwards.

“Lieutenant, get off the suit, I’m losing it.”

“Chief, no worries, I’m already off of the suit.  Everybody is far away from you.  There’s nothing that you can damage, or that can damage you in the vicinity right now.”

Mike was relieved.  He felt the suit fall backwards.  Now he was lying on his back, and the mech was rocking.  He stretched his feet down, and his arms out, so that the suit was lying on its back as flat as he could get it.

“Ah, this is disconcerting.  I can feel my position, but all these cameras are messing with my concentration. I can see the arms and legs, but I’m having problems getting them to work correctly.”

A man’s voice spoke up. “Chief, can you hear me.”

“Yes, I hear you,” Mike replied.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.  We’re going to shoot you a video feed of your suit.  What I want for you to do is watch the video feed, and try to move your arms and legs.  Once you’re comfortable with that, I want you to roll over the suit into a push up position.  Do you think you can do that?”

“Yep, just give me the feed, and I’ll see what I can do.”

A window appeared on his head’s up display. It was video feed of his mech armor on the ground, with a lot of people standing around it.  The other four suits were still in their linebacker stance.

“Using me for the guinea pig, eh, Lieutenant.”

“I don’t like the phrase, ‘guinea pig.’  I prefer, ‘experimental subject,’” she replied.

Mike watched the video feed.  One by one, he experimented with his arms and legs.  He started with the hands.  He checked to see how much range of motion the armor gauntlets had.  They bent forward very well, but the movement was checked as he tried bending them back.  It was that way with both hands.  Then he watched as he moved his arms around.  He bent the elbow, and saw how little pressure was needed to move the arms around.  The movement was quick and jerky as he started.   The movement smoothed out with practice and the motion was not as rapid.  The servos and the lightness of the mech armor were not bulky, and the arms and legs felt unencumbered when he moved them.

He moved the foot of the armor.  There wasn’t as much play in the foot of the armor as there was with the gauntlet.  He moved and bent the knee, and then pulled the legs towards the abdomen of the mech armor.  The mech armor rocked, and he was able to sit up.  With the legs of the suit straight out, he explored the range of motion by turning the shoulders of the mech so he could place the right hand of the suit on his left hip.  Slowly, he worked different movements into the suit to get an idea of how the suit responded to him.  Once he had an idea of what he could do, he set the suit in motion so that it rolled over onto its belly.

“Folks, I’m going to try and take this further than just the pushup position.  I’m going to try and stand up in it.  Are there any reasons why I shouldn’t do this?”
              The male voice spoke up again.  Mike had the feeling it was Dr. Ed, “We have a go.  If you think you can do it, then try to get it standing.”

Mike put the hands down on the floor.  He moved the suit slowly, getting used to the positions, the shift of mass, the individual positions of the arms and legs.  He was getting used to the capabilities of the armor.  The hands were covered with some kind of material that produced friction against the floor.  He hoped that the bottoms of the feet were covered with the same material.

He felt comfortable with the way everything was moving and shifting.  He pushed up off of the floor, and moved one of the legs of the suit forward.  The foot held in position.  He moved the other foot forward.  He stayed in that position momentarily, and then he tried to stand the mech armor up.  The armor trembled as it moved into an upright position.  Then it was up.  The armor was standing in an upright position.  He stopped, and stood still.  He brought the arms of the armor down so that they were directly in contact with the sides.

He couldn’t really hear it, but he could see the group of engineers and his team clapping as he maneuvered the suit up into the standing position, “Alright, I feel like I may have accomplished something today.”

“Can you get it back into the linebacker position?  We want to get you out of there and then its lunch time.”

--------------------------------------

Things went very well for the next two weeks.  Mike’s team integrated with the engineering team, and his team got to play in the mech armor.  This was becoming a vacation.  The team explored the area, and found out that steak, both bison and cattle, were best when eaten in cattle country.  Soon they were thinking about taking a trip down to Wyoming to see Jackson Hole, and Yellowstone Park.

The only clouds in their sky were Jamison and Mitchem.  Mike was in Mitchem’s office at least twice a week, getting bitched at for some reason, usually for some perceived lack of respect for the scientists, engineers, and techs.  He never heard any of this from the people he worked with in the play room.  Mike was getting the feeling that Mitchem did it to prove that he was superior to Mike.  Mike occasionally saw Jamison in the hall on the first floor, but the psychotic little prick pretended he didn’t exist.  Mike took great pleasure in saying hello to him and wishing him a good morning.  It was this back drop in which the next big blow up happened.

It was lunch time on Wednesday, their second week in Montana. Tom liked to go out to the rental car every day for lunch, get his cell phone, and call Barbara, to find out how she and the kids were.  Today, he was leaning against the rental car when he called home.  Daniel, their youngest, was sick, and since he was sick, it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the house was going to be sick too.  Such were the problems small children encountered in school, where viral airborne diseases spread through the class like wild fire.  One was sick, they were all sick.  Being the loveable little disease vectors that they were, the families of those children were soon commiserating in snot laden misery.  It sounded like Barbara was coming down with whatever Daniel had.

“Hey, you can’t lean against that car!  That belongs to one of my workers here, you’re going to scratch their car.  What the hell are you thinking?”

Tom knew that voice, and knew that he wasn’t going to like what was coming next.

“Hey baby, I need to deal with something.  I’ll give you a call back.”

Tom hung up the phone and turned towards Director Jamison.  The guy was blinking like a mole in the sun.

“Director, how are you doing?” Tom tried to be polite.  A laconic man, He hated dealing with people.  To him, they all seemed to be crazy. If it didn’t involve his job or his family, he really didn’t want to have deal with them.