King of All I Survey
Chapter 97: Let’s Go Flying

Chapter 97: Let’s Go Flying

For a very brief instant, there was nothing. No light, no sound, no temperature, nothing. I floated in a void. It lasted less than a second, but the lack of sensory input was so total that it made a strong impression on me despite its brevity. Then, it was all back.

Except, I was too high up. I reached out my arms to catch myself. I felt my feet on the floor I was standing. I looked down and realized I was in the adult body which was much taller than I was.

I steadied myself and took a couple of awkward steps. I tried it without looking at my feet and stumbled, one foot tripping over the other. I tried to catch my balance, but it was all wrong, I was falling forward, when I felt hands catching me. The other android bodies held me in a firm grip and straightened me back up.

"It will take some getting used to," an unfamiliar voice said. I stepped back from the others.

"Joe, is that you?"

"Yes," they all said in perfect unison. Something about that set off a fear reaction in my brain, my real brain, but I felt it in the new body.

"Don’t do that," I ordered. "It’s kind of creepy when you all talk at once."

"Acknowledged," One of the androids said. The others all stepped back and stood against the wall. Becoming instantly motionless.

Then, I noticed my kid-sized simulacrum, just standing there. It was breathing, but the eyes were closed. The face was... I don’t know how to say it, empty. It wasn’t just relaxed. It was just empty of all emotion or thought. "Wow, that’s so weird." I commented. "I mean, it looks real, but not quite real. You got the hair wrong, though. Mine doesn’t stick up like that in the back." I pointed at the error in his otherwise excellent work.

"Yes, well..." Joe started, "that one is actually your real body. The simulacrum is behind you to your left. You’ll notice that it has neatly combed hair. Perhaps that’s how you’ll be able to tell them apart in the future."

I whirled to look at the other version of myself. His hair was neater. I made a mental note to comb my hair better every morning. Especially before important meetings.

"Hmmm... well, good work fixing that then," I said by way of apology. "Anyway, I’m going outside to fly to... Madagascar!"

"I could just send you there by LITV," Joe offered.

"Joe, I can fly! Why would I want to teleport ever again?"

"Well, there is the wasted time aspect..." He said.

"What do you mean? I thought these things could fly really fast, as fast as you can do the calculations and manipulate the fields." Had I missed something in his explanation?

"There is the matter of heat build-up through friction with the air, though. If you were to fly too fast, the heat would build up very quickly. There would also be the issue of creating sonic booms."

"Yeah, but the shield can keep the heat out, right?"

"Yes, but there would be a visible trail if the temperature was high enough. Depending upon speed, altitude and body position, you might also create vapor trails like an airplane from the pressure differential created by your passage. There’s also the issue of collision avoidance. I could use the orbital sensors to detect anything in your path and make small adjustments to your direction early enough to obviate the need for sudden high amplitude vector changes, but you’d have to turn over the steering to me. Otherwise, you might hit things before you even knew they were there. Birds, airplanes, UFOs, anything that might be in your path. Then, you have to time your deceleration correctly or overshoot the target and have to come back. We’d engage the visible light passthrough properties of the shield to keep you from being spotted in the air, of course. At least until we get you a red cape and those funny blue tights, flying humans seem to like."

I smirked, "That was probably just because he knew he was on TV. I’m sure Superman had casual flying clothes when he wasn’t flying on official superhero business." Joe chuckled and I smiled. "Anyway, I’m just going to fly around outside a little. I won’t go too fast. If I start to cause any problems, I’ve got a super-duper early warning system named Joe."

I turned toward the door and walked through the building. I decided to take a detour to the Status Room. As I walked in, Dad jumped out of his chair in alarm. Before he could speak I said, "Hi, Dad," and waved to him. The shocked look on his face was totally worth it!

"What..." was all he could manage to say in return.

I smiled gleefully. "This is one of the new android bodies, that I had Joe make. I was just going to go outside to take it for a test spin. There are a couple more available if you want to fly around the neighborhood with me." I watched as his confused look turned to overwhelming excitement. "Wow, Dad, is that how I look when I see all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning?"

He laughed, "I suppose it is," he replied, "Where’s mine?"

"Follow me, cadet," I said, turning back the way I had entered.

A few minutes later, we were standing on the ground outside the Super-Secret Planetary Leadership Headquarters Treehouse Fortress. Joe had imprinted all the cautions and directions into Dad’s memory to save time and so I wouldn’t have to listen to them again.

"Ready?" I asked.

"You bet!" Dad answered, still grinning, "but why don’t you go first, Tim. You should have the honor of being the first human being to fly under his own power."

I shook my head, "Just because the shield generator is invisible and the control link is buried inside the android body, which is also not a real human body, by the way, doesn’t mean this isn’t as artificial as an airplane..." I explained to my dear ignorant father who had not undergone a crash course in advanced alien mathematics and physics concepts as I had.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, but it sure looks and feels like it, though." Then he took three running steps and extended his right arm overhead with an outstretched fist before leaping up at a forty-five degree angle. His motion continued up into the air.

I was duly impressed. He must have watched a lot of Superman reruns back in the day. "Show off!" I called after him. Then, I just lifted into the air and took off to catch up to him.

We were both invisible to any observer, but Joe fed us visual overlays based on his advanced sensor feeds, so it looked like we could see each other. After about a minute, Dad called out, "Joe, can you adjust the shields so the wind passes through, and we can feel it as we fly?"

Acknowledged, Joe replied mentally. I knew the androids had a built-in comms relay, but in order to speak audibly, Joe would have had to take over our vocal cords, which would have been awkward.

Suddenly, I felt the wind in my face, the air streaming past as I flew. It suddenly felt a lot more like real flying. I looked at Dad and smiled, "Good call!" I shouted to be heard above the wind noise.

We flew around over the forest for a while, just enjoying the thrill of flight. I tried some fancy maneuvering, barrel rolls, somersaults, sudden reversals and direction changes. Dad and I played an impromptu game of follow-the-leader, each taking turns trying to stay right behind the other as we flew and tried evasive maneuvers. After about two hours, we gently touched our feet to the ground near the tree house. Since it was also invisible, Joe had given us a visual overlay of that, too, so we didn’t crash into it. Neither of us could wipe the smiles off our faces. "That may have been the most fun I’ve ever had," Dad declared. "What else can these bodies do?"

"They can breathe underwater and control buoyancy to float or sink, or even neutral to swim with the fishes." I replied. "And with the shields, our clothes won’t even get wet!"

"Cool beans!" Dad exclaimed.

Since the sensory inputs are coming from sensors in the android bodies, I included more than just normal human senses, Joe informed us. It’ll take some practice for your brains to properly interpret the signals on their own, but I can do some... translation until you get used to it. For example, you can see beyond the normal human visual range. From far-infrared to ultraviolet and beyond. You can see as far up the spectrum as gamma rays. Normal background radiation is filtered out so you’ll only see variations from the background. I have also included low powered broad spectrum adaptable lasers in the eyes so you can emit x-rays or other wavelengths in order to use them for specialized vision applications, like scanning another person for weapons, or medical diagnoses for field emergencies. The infra-red will be powerful enough to cauterize wounds, but won’t punch holes in steel plates.

"Holy cow, Joe. You’ve outdone yourself!" I called out. I focused my gaze on a spot on the trunk of a nearby sapling and willed a fiery laser blast to incinerate it. It started smoking and scorching within a second. It hissed and popped as the sap and moisture in the inner bark boiled away. The smoking intensified, then a small flame appeared. I lost concentration and the laser beam disappeared. The flame went out and the smoke dissipated leaving a charred circle on the little tree.

I turned to Dad, "How cool was that?" I asked with a huge smile.

Dad had a serious look on his face. He walked over to the same sapling which had a trunk diameter of about two inches. He deliberately grabbed it with both hands, wrapping his fingers around it. Then, he planted his feet and flexed his arms. The trunk snapped neatly in half between his hands with a loud "crack!"

"These aren’t just disguises. These bodies are weapons." He said.

The strength is not a function of the body itself, although they are stronger than human bodies by a considerable margin. Joe informed us. It’s a function of the shields. Since I am manipulating the positions of the shield fields within the space-time matrices, they will move as directed, regardless of what’s in the way. The physical strength of obstacles is much lower than the... again, you don’t have a word for the descriptor I’m looking for... let’s just say the force created by the multidimensional properties exerted by a shield trying to occupy certain physical space. This is possibly only with direct particle by particle intervention. That, of course, requires a multidimensional quantum AI, like myself, because the number of instantaneous calculations and interventions are... very large.

"So, the regular shields can do this?" Dad asked.

No. the control interfaces are simplified to react to the movement of the body inside. The androids have space inside for advanced interfaces through which I can operate to add functionality and precise control.

"But the normal shield rings still add strength?" Dad asked.

In a way, Joe answered, by acting as a rigid powered exoskeleton, they prevent stresses from being exerted on the body inside, allowing one to use extra strength without risk of self-damage. Additionally, they can add a certain amount of force amplification to movements initiated by the body movement inside. Right now, they are all set to 105 percent. So as not to cause inadvertent damage in the course of normal activities.

"How high can they go?" Dad asked in a subdued voice. I saw where he was going with this, and the implications were a little scary.

We can increase the body’s force output by roughly 1800 percent.

"So, a good powerlifter could deadlift... over ten thousand pounds?" Dad asked in awe.

The bar would bend and snap well before it got off the ground, Joe said, but if the equipment could be modified for strength and balance, then yes. It takes considerable practice to control if turned up that high to avoid powdering drinking glasses when you pick them up or stomping holes through stairs.

"Can you tune all the shield rings to allow me to control the strength amplification? I want to start training our paramilitaries to use that feature effectively." I looked at Dad, imagining him leading an army with Incredible Hulk strength... and invulnerability to anything short of a nuclear blast (or certain very high mass, extremely high velocity projectiles, I added as I did the calculation in my head) due to the shield’s normal protections.