FB1-21 "Application"

A Chapter by dw817

SIM spoke his digital tone, "AFFIRMATIVE. THE USE OF HORAS WOULD BE REQUIRED." Tyr interjected, "What's a w***e's a*s ?" For a moment I blanched afraid SIM would tell her perfectly what that was !

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F U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The 1st Novel )
Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance

© February 2014 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

CHAPTER 21 - APPLICATION

[ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER TO READ ]

* * *

This chapter is Rated: EVERYONE

I had to be certain. "Nothing at all, no explosives, combustion, concussions, percussions, lasers, radiation, nuclear weapons, anything at all ?"

Tyr had re-entered the room drying her hair with one towel and had an additional wrapped loosely around her midriff and waist below.

"What's all this talk of weapon stuff huh ? You gonna blowed up the holy Pentagon with SIM now ?" she asked in an excited voice.

I turned to her, a little surprised at her sudden appearance and was unaware she even opened the door. I spoke sheepishly making sure not to bring back up the topic of SIM knowing Tyr before she was born.

I nodded to her, "I'm just seeing if anything could penetrate the force-field we were playing with earlier."

Suddenly SIM spoke louder without being asked a question. Almost as if asserting it's authority at being able to do it. Rather frightening really for an artificial intelligence I thought originally was subservient. Clearly it was not.

IS PROOF REQUESTED ?
FORCE-FIELD IS 100% SOLID, DEV AND TYR.
ONLY A UNIQUE CLASSIFICATION OF BERYLLIUM CAN PENETRATE THE FORCE-FIELD.

I had to ask, "What kind of Beryllium ? Can it be man-made ?"

Being impatient for an answer I added, "Why beryllium ?" Finally wondering why anything at all could pass a force-field if not that. I mean, isn't the purpose of creating something clearly impenetrable to make sure NOTHING could get through it ?

INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION.

I felt better knowing SIM was acting more like a computer now with not enough data to work with.

Tyr however had to ask her question to SIM now, "Why does berry-wheel-um penny-trace an um-penny-traceable fours-field ?"

Sim addressed Tyr directly now, and how he made out her jumbled English I had no idea.

FOR SAFETY, TYR.

She listened to the answer from SIM, then thought about it for a second as I scratched my head, still puzzled by SIM's answer. But she got a better answer than I did.

"It's a key." Tyr said finally, snapping her fingers in finality. "Iffen you made a locker without a keyed-hole it gone be very bad iffen you got trappered inside it I'll betcha." Tyr sniffed certain that was the right answer. And I could agree with her there.

I remembered a time Scant locked me in my own locker and I had to pound on it until the janitor after lunchtime came to let me out. There was no keyhole on my side and I didn't know how to activate the mechanism without it.

Bad memory that, but then I stated the obvious to her. "Tyr, I'm just concerned if we made a nice place for us to live, would ANYONE bother us at all."

"If someone got hold of beryllium and knew how to make a unique kind of it like SIM is talking about, it could be very bad for us."

"That's a good keschun, sweetiepop." she spoke, "Sim ?"

YES, TYR.

"Can somebody lived inside alla the fours-field."

SIM paused for a second before returning. Clearly he was translating her bad English. I smiled a bit realizing this.

CONDITIONALLY.

"How so izzat I wanna know huh ?" questioned Tyr slurring her words in her excitement.

Despite her rhetorical question directed to no-one, SIM answered her all the same.

OXYGEN SUPPLY WOULD BE NEEDED TO SUSTAIN HUMAN LIFE, ADDITIONALLY ABILITY TO DISPOSE OF WASTE. A PERPETUAL ENVIRONMENT WOULD REQUIRE EXTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT.

"But it could be done ?" I asked.

YES, DEV.

"So it could be done, you are saying, to build a device to generate air and convert carbon-dioxide back to oxygen without requiring the plugin for its operation. Can THIS be done ?" I was determined to know the limitations of this device.

* * *

AFFIRMATIVE. THE USE OF HORAS WOULD BE REQUIRED.

I paused in thought for a second and pushed the glasses back up on my nose to think about what to ask next. SIM mentioned horas earlier when we did the duplication of the device. Could it's energy supply run out ?

"Whatsa w***e's-a*s ?" Tyr interjected suddenly and loudly.

For a moment I blanched, thinking the way she said it, SIM would tell her exactly what that was. Fortunately to my relief, it interpreted her pronunciation incorrectly.

HORAS IS UNIQUE TO EARTH, TYR. NO MATCHING LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION KNOWN EXCEPT TO SAY - ENERGY. HOWEVER THIS IS A BROAD AND HIGHLY INACCURATE DEFINITION.

"Is there a limit to the horas on the plugin, SIM ?" I asked concerned.

NONE EXPECTED, DEV.

I leaned back satisfied. "Do it. Make the air device I described earlier, SIM."

USE DEFAULT PARAMETERS FROM LAST REPLICATED CONSTRUCT OF THIS TYPE, DEV ?

"Ahhm ... sure." I said uneasily.

RETRIEVING DEFAULT PARAMETERS FROM LOOK-UP TABLE #SWQ8294.5681. 1 METER BY 1 METER SQUARE AREA SELECTED. INPUT DEPOSITORY.

I smiled. Was it possible that people from the future used the metric system ? Maybe a kilodec that SIM mentioned earlier could be converted on a calculator ? I might get some interesting answers with that but I would save that for later.

I got up off the bed thinking for a moment. I knew a meter was about 3 feet so SIM needed a fair amount of space for this thing after all.

I moved one of Tyr's pink cabinets with effort for the space of it as she had so much clutter and toys on her carpet. I grunted, "How heavy is it going to be ?"

5 KILOGRAMS, DEV.

"In pounds, please." I wheezed as the cabinet got stuck on her Polly-Rocket emblazoned carpet in my effort to move it and I really didn't want to convert at the moment.

CONVERTING, 11.0231 POUNDS, DEV.

"That's not bad." I said under my breath. I had cleared a space and scooted her toys away with my foot. Then seeing everything was ready, I tapped my finger soundly on the ground in the center of the area while speaking clearly to SIM, "Here."

I jerked back my finger quickly after that. I was concerned what might happen to my finger if SIM couldn't tell I yanked it back in time.

It was like a laser-light show once again. First the yellow laser-lined cube appeared and expanded to fill the 3-foot area. A kind of transparent steel was rapidly woven in mid-air around it.

"With an on/off switch that lights up white when on and off when turned off." I told SIM, adding to its definition.

CONFIRMED.

The shimmer wove dancing around like the most brilliant holographic screensaver for reality. Beneath the grid I could see a control switch being fabricated from the light threads on the side.

"What is its power supply ?" I asked as SIM busily built the device. There was a kind of high-pitched whistling in the air as lasers bounced on and off around the holographic area so I had to raise my voice a bit in my query.

INFINITE.

"So it just works automatically, no need to plug it in, to anything, right ?"

NO. DERIVED FROM SIMILAR TECHNOLOGY AS MYSELF. BUT AT A LOWER FUNCTIONING LEVEL.

"Cool beans." I remarked noting a bit of smugness in SIM's voice.

After another minute the device finished. I lifted it off the ground with one hand, heavy but manageable, but how could I hide if I needed to ?

"Can it be made smaller and still function correctly, SIM ?"

YES. WHAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS, DEV ?

Then I froze, afraid. Perhaps I was a bit too much of a programmer for my own good, but SIM had clearly anticipated that I would next give it dimensions, though all I asked it was a simple YES or NO question.

I had no doubt in my mind now that the more I used SIM, the more sentient and intelligent and -questioning- he became through my conversations with him.

This might be a serious problem later if I needed SIM to do something important and he decided NO, he wasn't going to, in his own best interests.

Perhaps every time I had SIM do something he might be more in a position in the future to NOT do it and perhaps he might even hurt me or Tyr for asking him ?

I dismissed this thought for now. Computers should always be servant to man I told myself.

"One-foot by one-foot square, and make it lighter too, one pound exactly if you can, for convenience." I said finally scooting the remaining conflicting thoughts on a back burner.

CONFIRMED.

A shimmering yellow grid appeared briefly over the cube again and this time it shrank in size suddenly.

And what was scary was, apparently enlarging or shrinking something by adjusting the depth of it's molecules was dirt simple for SIM to do because it happened so rapidly.

I filed this away in the back of my head for later reference as it might be useful knowledge.