Misfit's Trial (2 - continued)

Two teenagers of the future wishing to escape adolescent frustrations. After solving a riddle it takes them farther than expected...

Mariko lifted a curious brow. "Care to be more specific? Your secret is safe with me." The boy almost imperceptibly shook his head. "There will be a time for that...but that's not now." he said cryptically.

"Whatever. Suits me just fine." She stepped off the pedestal shortly followed by Jet leaping down and landing right beside her. "So...aren't you going after her?...your mother, I mean. Solve some mystery about her disappearing and perhaps bring the family together or something?"

 

Jet stretched his tightened neck muscles, tilting his head from side to side, then laying his hands around his nape. "I just don't know. Might even be pointless. I guess where she's supposed to live you can't even go by spacecruiser or anything we have right now, notwithstanding the large sleeper ships your Steward family has built heading for Alpha Centauri. Someday...maybe I'll construct...ah..it really doesn't matter...I'm just busy enough surviving every single day at T.F.P.H.S(Tailong Foundation Polytechnical High School) till graduation, plus the extra training in father's management corps."

 

Mariko thoughtfully put her forehead in wrinkles, trying to digest what her friend just had said. Sounds kinda sketchy... she thought to herself. What does he mean by "where she's supposed to live?" His mother couldn't possibly come from some place far outside of Sol, couldn't she? Barely anybody of Solar humanity has ever set foot beyond the Oort Cloud not to mention the entire solar system except of a few hundred A.I controlled drones per generation. Unable to crack that particular nut for now, Mariko decided to simply leave it that way �" for the time being. No need to be too persistent, scaring this rather interesting boy away.

"I just wonder...," she began, "why did your bossy father, who happens to be the richest man on Mars, if not in the entire system, send you to such a classy school? No offense, I know it's a Tailong branch school but it is intended for all those low class working force people who never get the chance and the money for something better...so, why you? The crown prince of the Tailong business empire?" The boy smiled. "No offense taken. But I could ask you the same question, Mariko Jade of the honorable house Steward, granddaughter and heir to Count Wilbur Curtis Apharesius Estrange Darlington Steward IX...whew...I said it, whatta long name... He's no pauper either with his shipping yards around Luna, Terra and mining operations in the Oort Cloud, or we wouldn't stand here inbetween his collection of antiques." Mariko nodded. "You first," she insisted. "As you wish, " Jet complied.

 

Both youths stopped at a nearby place, setting their gaze on a large ball of water that floated in mid air, possibly suspended by a gravity repulsion field, as what Jet's sensor googles on his forehead gave away. Colorful fish of a species unknown to the kids were swimming their rounds within that big water bubble, occasionally nibbling here and there at the leafs of seagrass which bore one or another snail or edible creature.

 

"You know, " began Jet his story, "Basically I enrolled myself to that school with this...ah...little accident at the company."

"Accident?" Mariko repeated. "Yeah... I don't know if I'd already told you, but I really love to tinker with things �" mechanics, electronics, quantum computers; totally my thing. So it was just natural that I assisted Technical Director Stephenson tweaking some stats and variables, a screw here, a bolt there. Not a big thing �" at least that's what I thought."

 

Mariko ran her fingers through her silky hair. "So what?" Jet went on: "Ah....you better keep this for yourself, coz technically speaking it's classified. There was this deal with the government's Self Defence Forces, the Space Marines to be precise, those crazy bull necked boys and girls that dive through the airlock in nothing but their underwear and take on fully armed pirates with vibroblade and bare fists..."

"Yeah, yeah, I think I get the idea...watched all the flicks on the holo-network," said Mariko. "Weell...our company concluded it would be pretty profitable and a cool thing to design a special series of powered personal combat armor, heavy duty space suits for extended deep space use, as well as upgraded escape pods. And I tell ya, it was pretty exciting...until that day."

 

Jet paused, staring into the air, as he summoned the incident that had occurred a mere six months ago on the testing grounds of the Tailong Engineering Corporation before his mind's eye. It seemed as clear as yesterday's events, as the pictures of sooty smoke, fire, sparks, flickering electrical discharge intermingled with the sounds of explosions, desperately yelled commands, sirens, the shriek grinding of metal upon metal before collapsing, blended with the piercing cries of pain and agony as bones were crushed and limbs dismembered.

 

"C'mon, what happened?", ordered Mariko, awaking the boy from his imaginary stupor. He shook his head and sighed. "It started out as a great day, all systems checked, simulations run, pretests successful. And it was a great honor to be at Director Stephenson's side, him being like a mentor and teacher, perhaps being more like the father I never had. As we were already far past the project's beta testing phase, Stephenson was giving both thumbs up for a live test. A complete platoon of Marines was assigned to pilot the new equipment. Some of them we already knew pretty well, as we had to upload their anatomical specifics and neurological patterns into the memory cores of some of the personalized gear.

 

Everyone member of the team including myself couldn't wait to get this whole thing going. We really wanted deliver a great show to the armed forces logistic's brass, prove that a civilian company was clearly capable to compete against those governmental office sitting smart asses.

 

And that's where I came into play. The day before I had written a showy algorithm with the purpose to tweak the performance levels to at least 20 percent above safety margin. No big deal in my opinion, the machines could take it for the short duration of the examination, provide some flashy maneuvers and everybody'd be happily partying that night. We'd make history with style. Stephenson however wasn't convinced. He said that this wasn't the right time to get cocky, too much was on stake now. It'd be better to play safe, serve the main dish as ordered and later on throw in the cheese cake when explicitly desired."

 

"Mmmh...cheese cake...yummy...," mumbled Mariko absentmindedly. "Huh, did you say something, Em?", asked a puzzled Jet. A slightly embarrassed Mariko shook her head. "N �" nothing. It's just..just go on, would you..." The boy considered her with a knowing smile and drew his hand closer to the digitizer-pouch which was tied to his Kung-Fu sash he wore under his tunic. With a soft humming sound two thick, brown chocolate cookies materialized in his right, as he was taking one for himself, and flipping the other one into the outstretched hands of a surprised looking Mariko. She committed her thanks with a quick nod to his direction, and unable to meet his gaze directly, shyly turned away, hiding her eyes behind the colorfully streaked bang of hair that ran across one side of her face. As she silently started to nibble at edge of the cookie, Jet himself bit a chunk out of his and continued his narrative.

 

(to be continued)