“No one should detect you,” Dick continues to assure me.
We have an invisibility cloak, he promises, our SINs constantly capturing and replicating the noise floor of any environment we’re about to enter. The software manipulates internal transmissions to mimic our surroundings.
“Signals hiding behind other signals,” he explains. “Electronic masking. Like an octopus changing colors and shape-shifting to blend with the ocean floor. Which reminds me, I have a few new pieces of equipment for you to try.”
The bed jostles as he gets up. Retrieving his backpack from the coffee table, he pulls out several generic plastic cases, showing me an oversize black Fitbit-type bracelet like the one Carme had on at the Point Comfort Inn.
“A CUFF,” he says. “A Common Ubiquitous Fish Finder, one of your dad’s acronyms.”
Dick fastens the CUFF around my right wrist, the composite material cool and smooth against my skin.
“As common and omnipresent as an Apple Watch, a fitness tracker, doesn’t look different from what most people are wearing,” he says. “But it’s your command center, a tether to artificial intelligence, to your search engines, air traffic control and a spectrum analyzer.”
He informs me that my CUFF is a direct link to software running on the host processor, a quantum computer. My new bling is water- and shockproof within reason, he says. It will do fine in microgravity but can’t be worn under a pressurized spacesuit.
“I prefer you sleep with it on, rarely taking it off,” he adds. “If you do, it shouldn’t be far from reach if you can help it.”
Also, it’s best if I wear it on my right wrist, and he assumes I’m okay with that since I’m almost ambidextrous. It connects to my other equipment, and next he shows me photochromic light-adapting sports glasses like the pair I noticed inside room 1. My Performance Enhanced Eye Protection System, or PEEPS, he explains, which can be worn with or without my new smart contact lenses, the Smart Photovoltaic Invisible Eye System (SPIES).
Both the glasses and bracelet are surprisingly featherweight and sleek, definitely not made of titanium or carbon fiber but rather a nanotube-loaded composite that’s airy light. A material that’s electrically conductive and can endure extreme environments, I have a feeling.
Probably graphene or something similar, and it could be my imagination that I sense a vague vibration around my wrist. A barely perceptible current thrumming through my blood vessels and bones, my scar gently tingling.
“Obviously, they’re not disposable,” I decide about the SPIES bathing in their conductive solution.
“No, you don’t change them daily and toss them out, please,” Dick says.
Soft and curved, the contact lenses look like nothing special at a glance, made of transparent elastic nanomaterials spun into a network of metal nanofibers and microelectromechanicals including stretchable antennas. The SPIES monitor various bodily functions such as eye movement, glucose levels and potential diseases.
Dick explains that I’ll be able to augment perception with synthetic vision, virtual reality, and not knowing where to begin, I ask the most basic questions. When do I wear one thing or another or everything at once or not at all? And what happens if something is lost, stolen or gets too close to the microwave oven?
“PEEPS and SPIES serve different functions but also many of the same,” he patiently explains, and what he’s really saying is I’ll be winging it by the seat of my pants.
“How is all this stuff powered?” I have the covers pulled up to my neck, refusing to get up until I have the means and privacy to dress.
“By motion, similar to a self-winding watch,” Dick places my gun belt, tactical knife, my bulletproof vest on the bed. “Also, photovoltaic,” adding they convert solar energy into electricity.
“In other words,” I decide, “all of my bionic equipment will stay charged if I use it.”
“Kind of like everything else in life,” he opens the closet door wide, rolling the IV stand out of the way.
Clothes hangers click against the metal rod, and from my undignified vantage point under the sheets I watch him help himself to everything about me just like he always has. Picking up my personal effects in no particular order, could be my Jockey briefs, sports bra, my gun, tampons, it makes no difference to him.
“When all is said and done?” Dick places cargo pants, a tactical shirt on top of the growing pile. “You and Carme haven’t been given equipment like this so you can leave it in a drawer. Everything will stay charged and functional as long as you’re wearing it.”
If that isn’t practical or possible, he continues his briefing, there’s always the option of recharging my special gear like the Personal Orbs Not Grounded (PONGs) that Dad and I have been working on for years in the barn.
When the flying spherical drones aren’t in use, they roost on a Perch Recharger (PRCH), the potted Norfolk pine we converted into a docking station and living light fixture.
00:00:00:00:0
“NO NEED to keep your PEEPS and SPIES constantly within reach,” Dick hovers by the chest of drawers, several pairs of my socks in hand. “But best to keep your CUFF close by at all times if you possibly can. However, should you end up separated from it or any device that links you to the host processor, there are other alternatives.”
“Such as?”
“Doing without,” he drops my socks on the bed. “Relying on your own resources.”
“That sounds like sudden death on a cracker,” I give him the unvarnished truth.
“Moral of the story, Calli, don’t get too dependent on your bionics. You’ve got to stay fit, sharp, resourceful and self-reliant,” as if it’s that simple. “You’ve got to be able to build a fire or a fort, to survive any way you can.”
“And when people notice my new accoutrements, what am I supposed to tell them?” and mostly I’m worried about Fran.
“An early Christmas gift from your mom and dad,” Dick scripts. “A combo smart watch and fitness tracker. And all-purpose sports glasses that also serve as eye protection on the firing range.”
“You know as well as I do that Fran will be suspicious. She’s well aware I’ve been here for days. She’ll notice I’ve got new gear. In fact, she notices everything, and that only makes my day to day more difficult since I work with her, and she’s a relative, our neighbor, an old friend.”