Sam was already on his second pot of coffee today, and it wasn't even noon yet. He hadn't been getting much sleep the past few weeks, but it was totally worth it. The Draken Dynamic's team really knew their stuff. Novatron was a marvel of engineering. It was a humanoid drone that stood head and shoulders above Sam. It had thrusters embedded in the upper arms and calves that would theoretically allow the drone to fly once it wasn't tethered to reactor. Inside each forearm was a complex array of electromagnetic field generators that could help lift debris for disaster relief. Sam had no clue how they worked, that was more Em's area of expertise, but he was excited to play around with them. If that failed, it had some pretty powerful servos for heavy lifting. It also looked kick ass. It was matte black with armored plates covering the still partially exposed skeleton. Its optical sensors glowed with a faint blue light behind a semi-opaque visor that protected the head and face. EM field generator ports where aesthetically scattered around the exo-skeleton, allowing for projection in any direction in addition to making it look awesome when they lit up. It had its own nuclear power plant, but Emily hadn't had time to examine it yet so they kept it switched off. The whole thing looked like a futuristic space suit had a baby with an antique deep sea diving rig.
The biggest problem at the moment was that apparently no one at Draken could code for shit, because Novatron's OS was a complete mess. Sam finally got so fed up he wiped the system completely clean and started over from scratch. His hope was to use his still secret predictive algorithm as the base for the new operating system, but designing the software architecture to handle it was taking forever. The drone's hardware was beefy, which meant it was also incredibly complex. Sam was pouring over old schematics and documentation, but hardware had never been his cup of tea. He should probably consult with Emily, but Alex had her slaving away on the Exo-Suit that would never see mass production. Alex had been acting strange lately, coming in to work late at night and locking himself away for hours in the AR&D lab. There had also been an alarming number of explosions in the gun range. Alex swore they were just testing a new body armor concept, but Sam wasn't convinced. He had enough on his plate with Novatron though, so he didn't push the subject.
His current idea was to use a scan of his own brain as a basic model for setting up the recursive neural network that would manage the predictive algorithm, but progress was slow. He finished his mug of coffee and grabbed blindly for the carafe, his eyes locked on his code. "Empty. Of course its empty." He sighed and went to brew another pot, only to discover he was out of coffee grounds. "Just perfect." He had a few sodas stored in his desk in AR&D, so he headed upstairs to get his caffeine fix. He cracked a can open, chugged it, and was about to grab another when he noticed something had been left in the laser cutter. Curious, Sam set the empty can on his desk and went over to investigate. It was some sort of oval, or maybe a zero? Alex was probably working on a new company logo, or just playing with the equipment again. He grabbed another soda and headed back down to the lab.
He spent the rest of the afternoon reading through the EM field projector documentation trying to figure out how to control them with his new OS. The more he learned about them the more impressed he became. Apparently electromagnetism wasn't the only thing they could project. Draken had big plans for these drones, so the energy emmiters were designed to have dynamic input and were capable of projecting almost every kind of radiation Sam had ever heard of, and a few he hadn't, provided they had a compatible power source. Pretty incredible stuff. None of that helped him with his control problem, though. Looks like he was in for another long night. Alex rolled in around three in the afternoon and went straight up to AR&D. He probably had some new toys to tinker with.
Around seven Sam heard the familiar roar of Alex's mustang followed by the squeal of spinning tires. "Someone is in a hurry." At least he had the building to himself now.
YOU ARE READING
Wonder World: Ignition
Science Fiction"In the distance sirens were blaring, but Kyle's eyes were fixed on the faceless figure staring down at him from the burning roof. 'Where are they? Where are my mother and sister?' he shouted, his voice cracking with fear. 'Come and see,' the figure...
