Dangerous by Default

1. The investor

You only feel danger when you're safe.

You only feel danger when you're safe.

Oh god, this really is the end. Isn't it?

Hurried steps carried Mina across polished concrete floors, each step echoing with an ominous clack that failed to clutter her mind. Her heart raced louder. She felt the small of her back and it was damp with sweat. She hated sweating. You only feel danger when you're safe. In that moment, it felt like more of a compulsive tick than a soothing mantra, the phrase repeated on a loop in her mind as if saying it enough times would magically unlock a magical well of confidence. If only she had studied witchcraft, instead of robots.

Many of her colleagues, as well as her husband, Caine, would be hesitant to describe Mina Blue as a nervous person, as someone who needed a mantra or spell just to get through a tough day. They'd probably laugh in your face if you even suggested it. From an early age, it was clear that her mind was as tough as her skin, and being both hyper intelligent and Transgender certainly required this of her. Her normally confident strut and balletic posture hardly resembled the demeanor of someone who had been relentlessly bullied for spending lunch time in the science robotics lab, or the very same girl who was kicked out of her parents home at fifteen. No, the woman whose steps paced the sleek corridor was a badass who didn't take no for an answer, and started the world's leading medical tech company, Dimensions, at just Seventeen-years-old. She was the Tech age Wonder Woman in high heels. So why the hell was she so nervous?

A voluptuous form with long raven black hair, Mina almost looked out of place in the robotics lab. Her face graced the cover of Vogue only a few months prior. "The future of A.I. is Female!" it read. You'd think that her own board members would have the same sentiment. Mina approached a metal rack and rested a clammy hand on it while she caught her breath, searching for a moment of sanctuary. Four legged robots that closely resembled dogs stared back at her inquisitively. These were just one of the newest projects that simmered on her horizon. Why are you scared mommy? They seemed to ask. She didn't have an answer.

"Don't worry my loves, you'll be dancing soon enough," she said aloud, as if to reassure them. She breathed in deeply again. "Investors love you. It's my other babies that may never see the dance floor."

Damn those other babies, she thought. It was hard to feel like herself when the very thing that she'd spent vast amounts of time and investor money on, the 'secret project' as it had been venomously referred to by the board, was putting her entire life's work in danger. Her eyes scanned the gleaming laboratory around her. State of the art machinery she had invented with her mind, and built with her very own hands. Most of it, anyway. Innovative prosthetic limbs, artificial skin grafts and soon mechanical nurse pups. Mina was content with the fact that she changed peoples lives on a daily basis because of her creations. Losing it all for a secret project was another matter.

You only feel danger when you're safe.

The first time Caine had explained the concept to her she was staring out from the open hatch of an airplane. Day two of their honeymoon, and she was, much like now, looking out into the abyss. The icy high-altitude air whipped violently around the cabin as the Mediteranean sea bent 10,000 feet beneath her. Caine had been watching with a concerned look on his face, and eventually pulled her in close to press his lips against her cheek. Having spoken so softly into her ear, it was the first time she noticed the faintest trace of a lisp that made his sultry voice so endearing.

"You're in no danger, Mrs. Blue. That's precisely why your nerves are shocking you. It's the last gasp of a body that is trying to hold onto safety, to convince you to take another path. But your body doesn't know what your mind knows - that you are in control. That you will be safe even after you leap. I promise, the minute you cast your body into the sky, past the point of no return, all of the fear will vanish. But you have to let yourself be free. You only feel danger when you are safe."