the room. A ruby laser rangefinder through the port confirmed her aim and the distance. Then Allan could extend the port to a little short of the target so Ell could hardly miss. However, she quickly became proficient enough that she could reliably shoot darts or inject drugs into targets without having to check her aim with the laser. The tiny flashes that appeared where the port opened seemed barely noticeable.
It was fun, p oint a finger and bang, a dart was on its way.
By 2:30AM she felt comfortable with all three of the ports she’d installed in her body. She cleaned up the wet towels and dummy darts. Before she went to sleep, she dropped by her lab to restock the Taser guns with real darts and place active agents back in the injectors.
***
Carter said, “AJ, just relinquish control of your waldo to your AI. Ask the AI to return the waldo to its starting location. That’s something AIs are good at. The more you struggle to get it back in control yourself, the worse it’s going to get.” He waited a moment while AJ released control and the AI stopped the waldo’s tumble. “Now, do you know what happened?”
“Yeah,” AJ said, thankfully without the sullen tone that Carter had been afraid he might hear. “I forgot to take the attitude jets off line once I was in place. Then when my butt got tired and I shifted in my seat, the movement fired my jets and blew me out of place.” He snorted, “Then I made it worse by trying to control it myself instead of just asking my AI to fix it.”
“Someday you’ ll be able to fly yourself back into place, but give yourself time. You probably feel like you’re terrible at this?”
“Yeah.” AJ mumbled.
“That’s ‘cause you are .” Carter laughed. “Very few people are naturals at this, but you actually aren’t doing any worse than most people in their first few days of it.”
“ Are there any people who’re ‘naturals?’?”
“Oh Jeez, you should see Donsaii fly one. It’s like watching a ballet!”
“Really? I wouldn’t think she’d have the time to practice.”
“She doesn’t. Believe me she doesn’t need it.” Carter cleared his throat, “Back to you. They didn’t hire you to fly waldoes, though I think you need to do some of it so you understand the issues. They hired you to look at the harvesting processes out here on this asteroid through your engineering skillset. Then see what you can do to improve our harvesting.”
“I’m afraid you guys may be overestimating my ‘engineering skillset ,’ remember I just graduated and have no experience to speak of. I stopped at an ore processing facility in Minnesota on my way out here and got a friend to take me on some tours. What impressed me was how every step of the processing depended on gravity. From the ore falling into the crusher, to crushed ore falling through screens to separate sizes, to ‘gravity concentration according to specific gravity. I know we’re really only trying to crush it into sizes we can send it through without using huge ports but there isn’t much out there in the engineering books on how to do this without gravity.”
Carter laughed, “I know, believe me, I know. This magnetic system we’re using is working pretty well but I keep feeling like there’s got to be a simpler way. I think I’m just too focused to see it. Your job is to think about it… outside the box if possible.” He pointed his waldo’s finger at AJ’s waldo, “Meantime, keep working a couple shifts a week in a waldo and getting a feel for what the problems and what the tools are. Donsaii’s a believer in everyone getting their hand dirty.”
***
Vanessa’s AI spoke in her ear. “Ms. Ell Donsaii is returning your call.”
Vanessa put up her hand to halt the gymnast that she had been about to spot on vault. She turned to the side, “Yes. Ms. Donsaii?”
“Hi. How can I help Team USA?”
Wanting some privacy, Vanessa headed for the door to the coaches’
It was fun, p oint a finger and bang, a dart was on its way.
By 2:30AM she felt comfortable with all three of the ports she’d installed in her body. She cleaned up the wet towels and dummy darts. Before she went to sleep, she dropped by her lab to restock the Taser guns with real darts and place active agents back in the injectors.
***
Carter said, “AJ, just relinquish control of your waldo to your AI. Ask the AI to return the waldo to its starting location. That’s something AIs are good at. The more you struggle to get it back in control yourself, the worse it’s going to get.” He waited a moment while AJ released control and the AI stopped the waldo’s tumble. “Now, do you know what happened?”
“Yeah,” AJ said, thankfully without the sullen tone that Carter had been afraid he might hear. “I forgot to take the attitude jets off line once I was in place. Then when my butt got tired and I shifted in my seat, the movement fired my jets and blew me out of place.” He snorted, “Then I made it worse by trying to control it myself instead of just asking my AI to fix it.”
“Someday you’ ll be able to fly yourself back into place, but give yourself time. You probably feel like you’re terrible at this?”
“Yeah.” AJ mumbled.
“That’s ‘cause you are .” Carter laughed. “Very few people are naturals at this, but you actually aren’t doing any worse than most people in their first few days of it.”
“ Are there any people who’re ‘naturals?’?”
“Oh Jeez, you should see Donsaii fly one. It’s like watching a ballet!”
“Really? I wouldn’t think she’d have the time to practice.”
“She doesn’t. Believe me she doesn’t need it.” Carter cleared his throat, “Back to you. They didn’t hire you to fly waldoes, though I think you need to do some of it so you understand the issues. They hired you to look at the harvesting processes out here on this asteroid through your engineering skillset. Then see what you can do to improve our harvesting.”
“I’m afraid you guys may be overestimating my ‘engineering skillset ,’ remember I just graduated and have no experience to speak of. I stopped at an ore processing facility in Minnesota on my way out here and got a friend to take me on some tours. What impressed me was how every step of the processing depended on gravity. From the ore falling into the crusher, to crushed ore falling through screens to separate sizes, to ‘gravity concentration according to specific gravity. I know we’re really only trying to crush it into sizes we can send it through without using huge ports but there isn’t much out there in the engineering books on how to do this without gravity.”
Carter laughed, “I know, believe me, I know. This magnetic system we’re using is working pretty well but I keep feeling like there’s got to be a simpler way. I think I’m just too focused to see it. Your job is to think about it… outside the box if possible.” He pointed his waldo’s finger at AJ’s waldo, “Meantime, keep working a couple shifts a week in a waldo and getting a feel for what the problems and what the tools are. Donsaii’s a believer in everyone getting their hand dirty.”
***
Vanessa’s AI spoke in her ear. “Ms. Ell Donsaii is returning your call.”
Vanessa put up her hand to halt the gymnast that she had been about to spot on vault. She turned to the side, “Yes. Ms. Donsaii?”
“Hi. How can I help Team USA?”
Wanting some privacy, Vanessa headed for the door to the coaches’
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