Day 10
I did two things during the weekend while waiting for my meeting (outside feeding Spot, that is): first was ‘waving myself a broken Iphone, upon which my two AIs could contact me, and second was getting, after filling up with groceries, getting as much construction material as my meagre budget could allow (along with what I found garbage hunting). I needed to build myself a place to live inside Spot, at least one much better than my current one (Spot was as circular on the inside as he was on the outside, and that meant there was only one spot where I could place something without it being crooked. And currently, that was my fridge). I’d also realized after some thought that while Spot was capable of GOING to space, he wasn’t capable of INTERACTING in space. He had no airlock, no transporter... I wasn’t even sure he had life support (I ‘waved a broken air conditioning unit into an air cleaning system just to make sure). And all of that meant materials.
I’d barely started working (and accomplished nothing. Try working with a space that grows by a little more than a millimetre and a half a minute) that it was time to prepare for my meeting. I dressed in my best clothes, and went down back to earth.
I was actually lucky about something at least. The company’s headquarters were located right next to an abandoned field, so Spot was right besides their building. I announced myself to the secretary once inside, waited the requisite ten minutes on a sofa, and was then led to a boardroom.
Where nine or so people in immaculate suits were looking at me with serious eyes, analysing my every move.
I gulped, hopefully not audibly enough that the group in front of me noticed. I’d been expecting one or two people, not a whole board.
“So, your message said you had a proposal for our company ?” Said the man at the end of the table, who was visibly the oldest present.
I took a deep breath and made my presentation. I outlined the dangers of landfills and the cost associated. Of how the land could be polluted for years, if not decades. And of how long the current processes took to remove said contamination.
Then I spoke of what I had. I told them I had a way completely destroying in form of trash. One that left no residue that could be dangerous (I had quite a bit of experience in how throughout Spot was). It would allow their company to clean up their own landfills, and expand into cleaning up waste management incidents.
The board members started talking as soon as I was done, while the old man (who I suspected was the president) looked at me in the eyes for a minute.
“Show me.” He said, cutting off everyone.
The next minute I was back outside, with the board in a half-circle a meter behind me. I was guiding an employee who was pushing a cube of trash on a hand truck. I had it placed on the side of the road, about two meters from Spot’s shell, before I went back to the group.
“You ready ?”
The one leading nodded.
“Go Spot.” I said in my phone. I had already explained this part of the plan to him, and he’d been waiting.
It was actually my first time seeing Spot work his magic in full light, and can say it was impressive. First a black hole (I know it wasn’t actually a real black hole, but that’s what it looked like from this angle) appeared right above the piece, and it started floating in that direction. Before long a whirring sound started, like the blades of a blender, and the piece started to crumble into small dust which was quickly absorbed into the hole. In less than a minute, the piece was gone.
Turning around and looking at the reactions was priceless, all except the oldest.
“Handwavium ?” He asked, instead.
“Yes sir.” I said, nodding. This was gonna be the moment of truth.
Luckily Handwavium wasn’t illegal in Canada at this moment. It wasn’t like in Australia, where they openly accepted the stuff, but mainly due to the political entropy that was common of the place. There had been studies and commissions and research, but no official ruling as of yet. But that didn’t mean it was in any way really accepted.
The man was still visibly thinking when the ending song to BPS started on my phone. Text message.
‘73LL 1M W3 H4V3 4N07H3R M3371N6 TO 60 70, W17H 4N07H3R C0MP4NY’
Raviel ?
“Could I have an answer ? I wouldn’t want to keep the other companies waiting...”
It was pure bluff, but it worked. The leader of the group visibly weighted the positives and negatives, and quickly invited me back inside.
The next three hours were passed arguing on a contract. I wouldn’t have done anywhere as well as I did without Raviel, who visibly was listening in the discussion. The final paper was for 4 millions now in exchange for cleanup of a single site in northern British Columbia (to be done within three months) plus exclusivity (in North America, Raviel had me specify) to the company for a year, along with fifty percent of the value of any outside contract. Other company sites would be discussed as a case to case basis.
I left after shaking every hand in the boardroom, and with a check worth 4 millions in my hand. A few minutes later Spot was eating his fill for the first time since his birth. We left the place a third emptier than it been the day before.
I was smiling for the rest of the day.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Compared to the stress of the morning, the afternoon and subsequent evening was a breeze (It’s surprising how easy it is to get good and fast service at a bank when you have a confirmed check of four millions in hand). I stocked up on more material, bought two games as a reward to Raviel, and invited my friends in Montréal to a good restaurant.
I was about to leave their place after a few hours of gaming when a text message came.
‘O_O RADAR JUST WENT OFF.’
I froze. I reread the message three times just to make sure. How ?
‘OVO WE’RE BEING HAILED, AND A FLIGHT OF CF-18’S GETTING READY IN BAGOTVILLE.’
I was still frozen. HOW ?
‘X_X BE QUICK. SPOT’S GETTING NERVOUS’
That shocked me out of my mental jam. Spot’s reaction to a situation like that wasn’t one I wanted to test. I rushed out, and managed to get into a cab less than ten minutes later.
It was another twenty before I was back where my ship was parked. I’d barely paid the driver that Spot grabbed me with some sort of tractor beam, shucked me inside, and got away full speed.
Inside, I took a deep breath. Crisis averted.
‘O_O YOU DO KNOW WE'RE GOING SOUTH, RIGHT ?’
South ? Fuck, the US.
“SPOT, UP. GO UP !”
‘X_X HE’S NOT LISTENING... AND WE JUST CROSSED THE BORDER.”
I slapped the sphere. “BAD DOGGIE ! GO UP NOW !”
Maybe it was the words or maybe the slap, but the gravity shifted, and was greater for a second before it adjusted, which I guessed meant we were now going up.
‘OXO BOGEYS ON OUR TAILS’
“How much before they can’t follow ?”
‘OVO A MINUTE MAX... INCOMING ROCKETS’
The screen shifted to a view of the sky outside. Two dots were growing quickly there.
“SPOT, BRACE FOR A HIT.”
-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR- He said, it came from everywhere, full of anger and loud enough to hurt. On the screen, the two missiles were now easily visible when the ship slowed for a second.
Then they exploded, I’d have guessed a meter before the screen’s viewpoint.
Spot accelerated again while I wondered what had just happened. It took a moment to click, but I was now pretty sure Spot had turned whatever it used to feed on the missiles.
And ten minutes later, I was back into space
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
I did two things during the weekend while waiting for my meeting (outside feeding Spot, that is): first was ‘waving myself a broken Iphone, upon which my two AIs could contact me, and second was getting, after filling up with groceries, getting as much construction material as my meagre budget could allow (along with what I found garbage hunting). I needed to build myself a place to live inside Spot, at least one much better than my current one (Spot was as circular on the inside as he was on the outside, and that meant there was only one spot where I could place something without it being crooked. And currently, that was my fridge). I’d also realized after some thought that while Spot was capable of GOING to space, he wasn’t capable of INTERACTING in space. He had no airlock, no transporter... I wasn’t even sure he had life support (I ‘waved a broken air conditioning unit into an air cleaning system just to make sure). And all of that meant materials.
I’d barely started working (and accomplished nothing. Try working with a space that grows by a little more than a millimetre and a half a minute) that it was time to prepare for my meeting. I dressed in my best clothes, and went down back to earth.
I was actually lucky about something at least. The company’s headquarters were located right next to an abandoned field, so Spot was right besides their building. I announced myself to the secretary once inside, waited the requisite ten minutes on a sofa, and was then led to a boardroom.
Where nine or so people in immaculate suits were looking at me with serious eyes, analysing my every move.
I gulped, hopefully not audibly enough that the group in front of me noticed. I’d been expecting one or two people, not a whole board.
“So, your message said you had a proposal for our company ?” Said the man at the end of the table, who was visibly the oldest present.
I took a deep breath and made my presentation. I outlined the dangers of landfills and the cost associated. Of how the land could be polluted for years, if not decades. And of how long the current processes took to remove said contamination.
Then I spoke of what I had. I told them I had a way completely destroying in form of trash. One that left no residue that could be dangerous (I had quite a bit of experience in how throughout Spot was). It would allow their company to clean up their own landfills, and expand into cleaning up waste management incidents.
The board members started talking as soon as I was done, while the old man (who I suspected was the president) looked at me in the eyes for a minute.
“Show me.” He said, cutting off everyone.
The next minute I was back outside, with the board in a half-circle a meter behind me. I was guiding an employee who was pushing a cube of trash on a hand truck. I had it placed on the side of the road, about two meters from Spot’s shell, before I went back to the group.
“You ready ?”
The one leading nodded.
“Go Spot.” I said in my phone. I had already explained this part of the plan to him, and he’d been waiting.
It was actually my first time seeing Spot work his magic in full light, and can say it was impressive. First a black hole (I know it wasn’t actually a real black hole, but that’s what it looked like from this angle) appeared right above the piece, and it started floating in that direction. Before long a whirring sound started, like the blades of a blender, and the piece started to crumble into small dust which was quickly absorbed into the hole. In less than a minute, the piece was gone.
Turning around and looking at the reactions was priceless, all except the oldest.
“Handwavium ?” He asked, instead.
“Yes sir.” I said, nodding. This was gonna be the moment of truth.
Luckily Handwavium wasn’t illegal in Canada at this moment. It wasn’t like in Australia, where they openly accepted the stuff, but mainly due to the political entropy that was common of the place. There had been studies and commissions and research, but no official ruling as of yet. But that didn’t mean it was in any way really accepted.
The man was still visibly thinking when the ending song to BPS started on my phone. Text message.
‘73LL 1M W3 H4V3 4N07H3R M3371N6 TO 60 70, W17H 4N07H3R C0MP4NY’
Raviel ?
“Could I have an answer ? I wouldn’t want to keep the other companies waiting...”
It was pure bluff, but it worked. The leader of the group visibly weighted the positives and negatives, and quickly invited me back inside.
The next three hours were passed arguing on a contract. I wouldn’t have done anywhere as well as I did without Raviel, who visibly was listening in the discussion. The final paper was for 4 millions now in exchange for cleanup of a single site in northern British Columbia (to be done within three months) plus exclusivity (in North America, Raviel had me specify) to the company for a year, along with fifty percent of the value of any outside contract. Other company sites would be discussed as a case to case basis.
I left after shaking every hand in the boardroom, and with a check worth 4 millions in my hand. A few minutes later Spot was eating his fill for the first time since his birth. We left the place a third emptier than it been the day before.
I was smiling for the rest of the day.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Compared to the stress of the morning, the afternoon and subsequent evening was a breeze (It’s surprising how easy it is to get good and fast service at a bank when you have a confirmed check of four millions in hand). I stocked up on more material, bought two games as a reward to Raviel, and invited my friends in Montréal to a good restaurant.
I was about to leave their place after a few hours of gaming when a text message came.
‘O_O RADAR JUST WENT OFF.’
I froze. I reread the message three times just to make sure. How ?
‘OVO WE’RE BEING HAILED, AND A FLIGHT OF CF-18’S GETTING READY IN BAGOTVILLE.’
I was still frozen. HOW ?
‘X_X BE QUICK. SPOT’S GETTING NERVOUS’
That shocked me out of my mental jam. Spot’s reaction to a situation like that wasn’t one I wanted to test. I rushed out, and managed to get into a cab less than ten minutes later.
It was another twenty before I was back where my ship was parked. I’d barely paid the driver that Spot grabbed me with some sort of tractor beam, shucked me inside, and got away full speed.
Inside, I took a deep breath. Crisis averted.
‘O_O YOU DO KNOW WE'RE GOING SOUTH, RIGHT ?’
South ? Fuck, the US.
“SPOT, UP. GO UP !”
‘X_X HE’S NOT LISTENING... AND WE JUST CROSSED THE BORDER.”
I slapped the sphere. “BAD DOGGIE ! GO UP NOW !”
Maybe it was the words or maybe the slap, but the gravity shifted, and was greater for a second before it adjusted, which I guessed meant we were now going up.
‘OXO BOGEYS ON OUR TAILS’
“How much before they can’t follow ?”
‘OVO A MINUTE MAX... INCOMING ROCKETS’
The screen shifted to a view of the sky outside. Two dots were growing quickly there.
“SPOT, BRACE FOR A HIT.”
-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR- He said, it came from everywhere, full of anger and loud enough to hurt. On the screen, the two missiles were now easily visible when the ship slowed for a second.
Then they exploded, I’d have guessed a meter before the screen’s viewpoint.
Spot accelerated again while I wondered what had just happened. It took a moment to click, but I was now pretty sure Spot had turned whatever it used to feed on the missiles.
And ten minutes later, I was back into space
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.