[Book Four] Chapter 37: New Toy

Chapter 37: New Toy

2210.

The year where Tali, Leeha and Rick had redefined for good space warfare.  Or were about to. They had constructed piece by piece the actual small ships they had thought about then designed to make sure it was a secret. No one else, not even their family knew about this. With the exception of EDI of course since she knew everything that was going on in the Cassiopeia.
They had tried various models and various sizes. One of the models was a space fighter, used for patrol with a base close to go back too. Its length was eight meters and would be used either to lock down a ship or the more common usage: building things in space with precision. Another model and the one that took more time to make was the forty meters long ship. With a crew of six people, it could go from planet to planet without problem and even take a Mass Relay. The problem was that his thrusters were not good enough to go from a cluster to another. To the closest maybe but the distance was below the average. The last one was still in the works. A big ship of two hundred meters long. It was mostly useless in reality as the cost for it would simply be astronomical but they wanted to make one because they could.

The trio plus anyone in security or military in their family plus Ariana and Sara were present for the demonstration. Jane was in her complete armor, helmet off and was listening to her brother’s last instructions.

“If we tell you to disengage…”
“I disengage immediately. I got it. I’m not a child, Rick.”
“... I’m worried. It’s never been tested before.”
“Just like every creation you and Tali made and that I tested too.”
“Jane, you don’t get it. Back then you could have your hand burned and your shoulder dislocated but you would never have died… This… This is another level of danger.”
“I’m sure you made sure it won’t explode. So if there is a problem you can just pick me up.”
“...Yeah, you really don’t understand. Jane, I'm about to inject you with nanomachines so you could control the ship with your mind. It could fry your brain if something goes wrong.” he said with an Injection Gun in hand.
“... That’s bad.”
“No. Shit.”
“You didn’t tell me about those nanomachines before.”
“Because they were not ready yet. I tested them in a simulation, EDI did too. They work perfectly but the actual thing?”
“... I’m sure it’s going to be fine. The both of you wouldn’t let me do it if the risk was too big.”
“Yeah but the risk is still there.”
“It’s fine, go ahead and wait! I was so focused on ‘frying my brain’ that I put aside the important part. ‘Control the ship with my mind’? What do you mean?”
“... Yeah fuck the surprise, your safety is more important.”
“Surprise?”
“This ship has two modes. Ship mode and robot mode.”
“Robot mode? As in…”
“Eight meters tall robot with arms, legs and a head.”
“...”
“...”
“That. IS. SO COOL!”
“I know, that’s why I thought about it. Anyway, when it’s in ship mode you can pilot it with your hands, not difficult, it’s like a shuttle. That’s your first test actually, your second test is piloting it with your mind. All you have to do is to think simple thoughts, like… flying forward slowly, activate one thruster only, then two. Those kinds of things, okay?”
“So far, yes.”
“Once we tell you you can push the big blue button at the very top of the console.”
“That’s the one that transforms the ship into a robot?” she asked with excitement.
“Yes but Jane, please focus. Once in robot mode, there is no manual control, at least not on this model.”
“Why?”
“Because a robot has four limbs, a head, weapons and thrusters to use at the same time and you only have two hands.”
“Even with my mind it’s too much to deal with too. How is it different?”
“Well, if you could for once in your life keep quiet and not ask questions which answers would come if you just listened in the first place, you’d know by now.” he replied in irritation.
“Sorry.” was the embarrassed apology she gave him.
“I guess some things never change no matter how many decades go by. So as I was saying… In robot mode you’re… connected to the ship. We’re tricking your mind to think it’s your body. Meaning, if you think of punching with your right arm. ”
“The robot will punch with its right arm.”
“Yes.”
“So basically I could behave normally and the robot will just do it too.”
“No.”
“No?”
“The robot does not have the same body as you. You can do a front split it can’t. It will try but fail.”
“So basic movements that do not need lots of flexibility.”
“That’s.. Yes, actually that’s it.”
“Sometimes I suspect you take me for an idiot.”
“Jane, most people are idiots compared to me. You are just less of an idiot than others but still one. I don’t mean that as an offense but as a comparison.” he said the last part quickly raising his hands in apology, seeing her frown.
“I’m letting it slide, this time.”
“... The other problem with your movement is, you’d be in zero-G. Your human body can’t really move when there is no gravity but the robot has thrusters and has different movements like… sideways… sliding. Yes, let's use sliding.”
“Hmm. Like what you did on Rannoch when we defeated that reaper?”
“Exactly. It will be up to you to properly think about moving your body like the robot would. Lastly… since you're connected to the robot and that it’s full of sensors… You will feel what the sensors record.”
“Meaning if it gets his arm ripped off I…”
“Yes…We tried to block the pain’s backlash but…”
“It’s alright, though there is a reason why it’s like this, yes?”
“You can’t fight properly if your body doesn’t give you any feedback. Did your fist hit your target? Was it a light punch? A hard punch that broke your hand? We could have displayed everything but it’s too much information at once in a fight to read.”
“Make sense.”
“Okay, that’s it. Now do you have any questions?”
“No weapons?”
“There are, we just deactivated them. Didn’t want an accident to happen because you thought about it and shot on something by accident. Depending on how you do in controlling robot mode we may try them.”
“Okay, no more questions.”

Rick nodded and raised the injection gun to eye level. Jane tipped her head to the side revealing her neck and Rick injected the nanomachines in her.

‘EDI?’
‘I got her. Vitals are good, heart rate a bit fast but she must be excited’
‘Okay, thanks.’
“We got your vitals from the nanomachines and it says you’re good to go. Good luck and be careful.”
“Thanks.” she replied then gave him a kiss before putting her trademark lion helmet on. Exiting the control room of the dock and waving at everyone she walked towards the ship. It was bulky and looked very heavy at first glance but she knew better than to judge on appearance. Opening the cockpit she sat down on the pilot seat. Making sure she was comfortable, she put her harness on, closed the ship and talked through the com.

“I’m ready to go.”
“Understood. We will depressurize the dock area and cut off the artificial gravity. You have a 500 by 250 by 200 m field to do the test, don’t hesitate to take the whole space.”
“Roger that.”
“Okay. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Gravity, negated.”

The ship began to float and so did Jane. Now feeling weightless she powered up the ship and its artificial gravity automatically activated, doing its job as she fell back onto her seat.

“Artificial gravity, working.” she said into the coms.

With her hands on the controls she began to fly slowly forward to get a feel of the maneuverability.

“It’s not as slippery as the Hammerhead but definitely better than a Kodiak or a regular shuttle.”

She began to accelerate faster and faster trying to see how well it could fly and how well it responded. After a few minutes she had a good grasp of the ship’s flight capabilities and was very satisfied.

“Okay, I’m ready for the second test. What do I do?”
“Do you see the symbols at the bottom of the display? One is a hand and is green, the other is a brain and is gray. Push the second.”

Jane did as instructed and the brain symbols switched colors. Nothing else happened besides that.

“The brain turned green but I don’t see or feel any changes.”
“Did you try to use your head to make the ship do something?”
“No….” she said in embarrassment and heard her brother sigh.
“Go ahead. Try thinking ‘Move forward slowly’ or ‘Move forward at walking speed’, it can also be a simple picture of the ship moving at a certain speed..The more you’re visualizing the thought, the more comfortable and simple it is the more the ship will follow your directive.”
“Okay.”

Taking a deep breath she imagined a kodiak taking off and flying casually straight forward. As if the ship had read her thoughts which in fact more or less did, it flew forward at reasonable speed.

“It works!”
“Good. Any difficulties?”
“None. I used a visual of a simple kodiak flying at regular speed. Did it help?”
“It helped you. For someone else it may not have worked. Now try to get familiar with those controls. We’ve installed holographic light in this area for you to have a focus if needed.”
“What kind of focus?”
“Doors to go through, circles, obstacles to go around, things like that of various sizes. Think of it like an obstacle course.”
“Oh yes, it will definitely help.” she said as she saw a  twenty diameter circle on her 2 O’clock.

Thinking of moving forward diagonally, the ship followed her instructions to the letter and she went through the ring right in its middle. Afterwards she found a new target that she believed was more difficult then another and another until only one obstacle was left. A small rectangle.

“That’s the most difficult one. You have only an error margin of twenty centimeters on every side.”
“That’s… small.”
“Yes. The difficulty varies with the speed at which you’re flying to it too.”
“Can I try slow first and fast after?”
“Sure.”

She approached the squared light slowly and looked at what the sensors were displaying on her screen. Very slowly she positioned the ship correctly and went through the obstacle without touching its edge. Taking some distance she picked up speed and flew towards it again. Trying her very best to minutely adjust the flight’s direction. When she passed through she asked the results.

“You almost had it. The light was four centimeters into your right wing.”
“That’s not so bad.”
“That’s actually very good for a first time.”
“Time to test the robot mode?”
“Yes.”
“You know robot mode sucks for a name.”
“...We’re not decided yet on the name.”
“You’re being stubborn about the name again?”
“I… may be.”
“How about…PatLabor mode?”
“ For Patrol and Labor? What it was designed to do?”
“Yes.”
“... The girls and I approve. In fact we may name the whole model like that, not just the mode.”
“Happy to help. Now you said the blue button on top…”

Easily finding it, she pushed the button and things began to change in the cockpit. Her seat straightened completely and she found herself laying down, looking up the transparent glass. A platform appeared at her feet and she felt the whole cockpit move. So did the gravity from a 90° angle and settling just under the sole of her feet.

“Okay, it’s done.”
“Already?! It has been less than ten seconds!”
“We’re geniuses over here, Jane. We’re embarrassed at how long it took.”
“You’re pulling my leg.”
“Yeah, I am. We can do it faster but we didn’t know how an actual organic body would respond to the sudden change, especially of the gravity’s direction. So we played it safe. Now, do you feel anything different?”
“Not really.”
“You don’t feel hot or itchy or have a headache?”
“No. Should I?”
“No but if you do, especially if it’s related to your head, tell us immediately and switch back to ship mode.”
“Okay. Now what do I do?”
“How about moving your hand in front of your face?”

She thought just that, putting her hand in front of her face but to her surprise it wasn’t her body that answered but the ship. Right in front of the cockpit’s glass she saw a black metallic hand. To make sure she has been the one who did that she thought about closing the hand into a fist and the metallic hand did so instantaneously.

“That’s… amazing.” she whispered in awe.
“Thank you. Don’t think of picking up your nose would you? It would break the glass.”
“Ha-Ha.”
“Anyway, keep experimenting.”

And she did. First with the arms by simply moving them up and down or bending them at the elbow. She even clapped her hands. When she tried to look left the cockpit pivoted to the left. The same happened for other head positions. The legs were more difficult to use since in her mind she was on solid ground whereas the mech was in zero gravity. It took her a while to think of moving not with her legs but with the thrusters. She had to change her way of approaching the movement for them to come naturally. For example, going left was ‘sliding left’. Once she got it she quickly mastered the controls.

“I think I have a good hang of it.”
“Alright. We’re releasing debris into the dock. Use your hands or feet to either grab, push, pull or throw. The big yellow thingies are full of foam, you can punch or kick them without risk.”
“Roger that.”

She flew with precision towards the debris and did as instructed. She quickly noticed that some could go inside others and required some dexterity after a few tries she succeeded in boxing them. When she reached the area of the yellow thingies she punched on lightly. And felt the impact herself. She didn’t really pay attention when she had clapped her hands or picked things up but she could really ‘feel’ as if the ship was her own body.
She and by default the robot, took a fighting stance and she began to hit every thingies around, hitting harder and harder as time went by. After a few minutes she was very satisfied but felt tired. She found it weird, she had plenty of stamina left.

“I feel tired.”
“2 hours forty seven minutes thirteen seconds. It seems that it’s your limit. You can change back to ship mode and switch to manual. We’re done with the test.”

Once again she followed Rick’s instructions and when the ship turned back to being a ship she felt like a load had been lifted on her mind even more so when she switched back to manual.

“So that’s what you meant by frying my brain. The load is… consequential on it.”
“Yes.”
“Does that mean that the autonomy for a pilot is limited?”
“Yes and no. It was your first time and you had to learn how to use your mind to do things, how to think differently to realize some movements. It took a lot of your brain processing power to do that. With training you would last a lot longer. Though fighting would put a heavier load on you as you're hyper focused when you fight and use all your body. We calculated that outside combat the autonomy of a healthy pilot using his mind to control the ship is ten hours. PatLabor mode varies from six to eight hours depending on the task. Two hours if you’re fighting. ”
“That’s rather good, time wise.”
“Yes. Now come back and get some rest. Tomorrow we’re testing the weapons if your check up is clean.”

Happy with the experience she just had, Jane went back to the dock where she landed  and waited for the artificial gravity and air to be brought back while thinking of tomorrow.

____________________________________________________________

“I want them for the Alliance. Name a price.” an hologram of Admiral Hackett said to Rick.
“Right now, it’s 500 000 credits for one unit. It’s expensive I know, but the technology and material used is not yet massively produced. I can see the price drop to 300 000 within a couple years. That’s for the Patrol model. The Labor model is 300 000 and could drop to 150 000. The weapons are off of it, the thrusters are different and less powerful.”
“How much time do you need to make twenty of each?”
“With what we have on hand now, a Labor can be done in three weeks a Patrol in… Five, maybe six weeks.”
“We can rent you a factory to manufacture it if it’s what you need.”
“Hmmm… That’s actually a good idea. I’ll discuss it with my partners and keep you updated.”
“What about the nanomachines?”
“We can produce them ourselves. Once we inject them into someone they are DNA locked to the person’s body. Nobody could use them against you. The body evacuates them every three months for security and upgrade reasons. They are also distance limited to less than a foot so no hijacking someone else’s ship from afar. Their price is included in the PatLabor, honestly they’re almost free. A few thousand credits at best.”
“Are they battle ready?”
“What makes you think  I…”
“I’ve known you for twenty five years, son. I know how you think when you’re making something.”
“... You’re not fun anymore, Stevie. You used to have stars in your eyes every time I came to you with something.” Rick replied petulantly with a childish fake pout.
“I still do. I just have no patience left for your schemes and games. Way too old for this shit.”
“Ugh… Fair enough I guess. They are not battle ready if you’re referring to the fact that they will make someone stronger or faster or smarter or… well better in general. They are battle ready if you’re referring to closing wounds, stopping toxins like poison or venoms. They give a more detailed and accurate report on the body’s state than the helmet’s scan. Helmet that they can be linked to, of course. They can stimulate cells to start healing sooner too. It’s much but at the same time not really. Just like the nanomachines for the PatLabor they are DNA locked and evacuate naturally every three months. We’re going to sell them in… six months? Sandra, it's six months right?”
“It was six months, four months and two weeks ago.” replied his daughter from his side.
“Time sure does fly. Anyway… The dose is 1cc per person and the price is… a few thousands credits.”
“Five thousand credits for a dose of the medical nanomachines. The ones for the PatLabors are actually more expensive at 10 000.” corrected Sandra.
“I’ll make an order for them too. Anything else you have?”
“Crowd control foam gun? I’ll send you the files on it. Other than that, nothing that I’m ready to reveal.”

Hackett nodded and bid him and Sandra goodbye. When Rick turned around everyone in the command room of the Cassiopeia was looking at him.

“What?”
““““...””””
“You just spoke to Fleet Admiral Steven ‘The Hack’ Hackett, one of the most decorated men in the alliance, Hero of the Reaper War, like he was a regular guy.” said the ravenette.
“Yeah, so? He bleeds and shits like everyone else. Besides, I’m a war hero too. I mean, technically I wiped out the reapers and the Collectors.”
“Wait, everything was true?!” exclaimed a young turian behind his console.
“If you mean in Mass Effect, then yes. The only thing not true in it is the music but that’s obvious and the slow Motion to add drama and suspense but historically speaking it’s one hundred percent true.”

And with that Rick left the command room followed by his daughter who was sporting a very proud smile on her face. When they got home the place was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Father and daughter looked at each other for a moment and went to the living room. At this time of the day the place should definitely not be silent. They found Arianna and Sara sitting together on the couch and holding hands, facing a very unhappy Jane. Rick looked at Sandra who understood what he was thinking, gave him a kiss and left back outside.

“Congratulations!” Rick said, breaking the silence as he went to embrace both his eldest daughter and her girlfriend at the same time. “You are getting married, right?”
““We do.”” both young women replied with a happy smile.
“Hell no!” Jane protested standing up. “You’re too young!”
“Did you forget that Sara is three years younger than me?”
“I’m talking about our daughter!”
“Jane, she’s twenty three.” he replied flatly.
“That’s too young! And they’ve only been dating for two years!”
“Jane, I married at twenty one after dating Analysse for six months.”
“That’s you!”

Rick sighed and signaled at his daughter and soon to be daughter-in-law to leave as he would take care of Jane but Arianna refused.

“Mom…”
“No and it’s final!” Jane said as she left the room.
“The two of you should go. I’m taking care of her. Sara, I approve though I’m disappointed you didn’t ask for my and Jane’s blessing.”
“Actually, I sent you an invitation to dinner tonight specifically for that.”
“Oh?” he exclaimed and checked his unread messages on his omni-tool. She was telling the truth. “My bad, then.”
“It’s alright.”
“Dad… What’s wrong with mom? That’s the first time I ever saw her acting like this.”
“... I’m not sure but I think it’s about you leaving home.”
“Matt has been living on Celeste for a year now! And he’s her favorite! That can’t be it!”
“First off, your mother doesn’t have a favorite. She spent more time with Matthew because you were always with me or wanting to go with me so in return she spent time with him. For the record I don’t have a favorite either. Anyway… In a sense you mean more than Matt to her. No that’s wrong… You… had a bigger impact on her life than Matt because of the time she had you.”
“What do you mean?”
“That seems pretty personal, should I leave?”
“No, Sara, you are family, have been for a while and will make it official soon, so stay.” Rick replied and invited the couple to sit down as he did so. “Now… about what I meant… Well…You know your mother was pregnant with you during the last months of the war, right?”
“Yes. I was born in early December and the war ended six months earlier on … On your birthday.”
“Correct. That means you were conceived late February early March, though that’s not important, here. What’s important here is that your mother didn’t know until after the end of the war that she was pregnant with you. Nobody did.”
“Really? Not even you?”
“Not even me, I was stuck on the Citadel since April. You, you were… more than just a surprise for her. You were her miracle and her lifeline.”
“Why?”
“Because you were the only thing she had left.”
“Didn’t she have you? And Grandma?”
“Your Grandma was heartbroken and busy. I… was dead.”
“.... What?” Arianna asked, confused.
“But… How?” commented Sara.
“The Lazarus project?” the redhead inquired.
“Yes. What was never shown to the public was when we exploded the Reapers, we quickly backtracked down the Citadel to take the beam that Jane and Anderson had used to get on it from Earth. There we saw the red energy spawning from the station and propagating, killing any Reapers it touched. We thought we had won and… we let our guard down. We were ambushed by a lone Marauder. I barely remember pushing your grandmother away with my body and taking the shots in her stead. After that? Total darkness. Anderson killed the Marauder and called for an immediate evac’ with a medic but I was already gone. Miranda was fortunately on Earth with Jennifer and her students. They were not far from our position and answered the call. She intervened quickly and preserved my body. As soon as she could she made me her second patient for the Lazarus project. Thankfully I didn’t go through what your mom did so in a few months I was back among the living except… I wouldn’t wake up. Something I finally did in March 88. But between the end of the war and my awakening, you were the only source of light for your mother. She didn’t want to go on. Not without me. She couldn’t do it again until she found out about you. You became her everything, especially when I was technically alive but for an unknown reason wasn’t waking up. In her mind, as long as she had you, she was fine, everything would have been fine. What happened then… It scared her deeply, Arianna. You can say she has an untreated PTSD. Perhaps you leaving home is making her feel like she’s losing everything again. Even if she has Matthew or me.”
“...”
“So us getting married and being too young is just a pretext?” questioned Sara.
“I think so.”

Arianna stood up and went to her mother’s bedroom. They had a lot to talk about.

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