A Visitor to the Future - 88 - Anode and Combat Proxies

A week later, an open, grassy field somewhere in the South of France was our meeting point. The Peeping Tom auditing airship cast a large shadow across the ground from where it hovered in the midday sun. The four of us stood in a small group, all looking upwards. I rubbed the back of my neck, expecting to feel pain, stiffness or discomfort from my recent operation - but everything was just fine.

"If you keep rubbing it like that, you will end up with actual pain!" said Sarkona, squinting as they looked at the airship, "Tungsten did a super job. You are absolutely fine!"

When I'd registered my interest in Resiliency with Blaise, I'd neglected to realize that a neural link was a definite requirement. Thankfully Tungsten quickly told me, and volunteered to do the installation himself. It had been a quick procedure - I was out for less than forty minutes. I'd watched the surgery footage after - a behaviour encouraged by my therapist. Apparently accounting for missing time would help me come to terms with what had happened. It was a common coping mechanism for people as nervous about Bio-development or other work as myself. As weird as it had been to watch footage of my own surgery, I had to admit it helped.

I hadn't taken the decision to get the implant lightly. The model I had installed provided only basic functionality - I was very much taking things at my own pace. But from the research I'd done on the subject, over sixty percent of Consortium citizens had some sort of neural link - it was safe and normal to have one. Admittedly, I had not activated it yet, so the next few hours were probably going to be interesting.

"I appreciate your vote of confidence," said Tungsten, similarly glancing upwards at the looming airship, "Cybernetics have always been a speciality of mine. It's almost a shame that they are far less popular than they once were. But Bio-dev has taken over most of the niches for humans these days, so I suppose it makes sense!"

Sarkona nodded, "I could have quite happily done some Bio-dev for you at the same time. But no pressure - I'm always here if you want anything doing!"

"Ah well," said Tungsten, looking away from the looming airship, "Let's take a seat. A watched pot never boils, as they say."

We sat next to Antonia, who was sat on a round picnic table. The table was interesting - it looked like it had been sculpted by hand out of a single large tree trunk. Knowing Antonia's tastes, it probably had been - she had arrived by drone-craft early with the bench in tow and a crate of food, sitting patiently to wait for the rest of us. I grabbed a slice of fruit toast from a nearby rack.

Stood at the other side of the table was Anode, who had arrived with Tungsten earlier. Strangely, I'd never met her on the Promise of Sol, so wrapped up as she was in her own Aldev projects, like the automobile that had so dirtied Sarkona on my second day in the Consortium. Though Tungsten talked about her enough that I felt I knew her vicariously. She was one of the more unusual CIs that I'd seen so far - though she was mostly humanoid, it would be difficult to call her human-like. CIs I'd seen like Gatecrash and Silence had human features on synthetic bodies. Anode was almost the opposite - her features were different, new - the product of a design philosophy I simply didn't understand. Her head was a mass of black, long, and thick synthetic cables which attached to the front of her neck, merged into braids, and then looped over her head and down her sleekly curved reflective back. She wore no upper torso clothing, but her silver body was covered with black patterns that I would almost describe as runic. She moved with precision and poise that looked unnatural, and her joints often bent the wrong way to allow movements which my brain constantly failed to expect. Her fingers seemed to be of a similar design to Tungsten's - and now that I thought it of, like both Gatecrash and Tungsten she had six fingers on each hand too.

I had initially worried that I would find it difficult to read her body language, but she was very expressive vocally which more than made up for it.

"I just can't wait to get started!" said Anode, "An engineering challenge like this only comes along every once in a while! Can't believe I've never thought to do this - ohh, I can see I'm going to have my work cut out for me!" Her cords of cables seemed to grasp at the air from where they dangled down her back in excitement.

"So you're definitely going for the engineer position, then?" I asked.

"Yes!" said Anode, nodding (at least that was familiar), "I can't pass up an engineering challenge like this one!"

"I knew you wouldn't be able to!" said Tungsten.

At that moment the drone of an aircraft could be heard emerging from the airship. It was a large tiltrotor-like helicopter, undoubtedly of Blaise's design. It descended towards the ground, coming to a slow stop about a hundred metres away. The rear ramp opened slowly to reveal a cavernous interior space, and the form of Gatecrash appeared, waving to beckon us to come closer. We all carefully made our way through the thick grass to approach as the craft's rotors span down to stillness.

The inside of the craft was dominated by three bulky humanoid forms. They stood nine feet tall, completely stationary in a standing line, one a grey metallic shade, one a reflective silver, and the final one a sort of dark yellow. Without a doubt, these were Proxies - like those I'd seen at the ERP construction site. But these only had two arms, two legs - they seemed fairly plain in comparison, but they still bulged with synthetic muscle fibres around the joints.

Blaise came out of the cockpit towards Gatecrash, where he noticed me. Alexandra and Sasha weren't far behind him.

"There you are, mate!" he said, waving broadly at the three Proxies with both of his hands. "What do you think of them? Class H-2 Combat Proxies, competition legal for Resiliency!"

"They look... tough," I said, taking in the copious amount of armour plating across the torso of the three machines, "What have I gotten myself signed up for?"

"Hah, don't worry about that," he said, "Come on, all of you, we've set up a briefing room over here. Alexandra will run you through the basics."


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