Chapter 2

After leaving the range, Chris and I entered the dining room where I noticed grandfather seated at the head of the table. Two of his serving bots were standing to either side and several paces behind his chair. He had his face buried in a data pad and didn't look up until Chris and I began pulling our chairs out. Another service bot came through a set of doors that led to the kitchen with a plate piled high with food.

"Ah, Son. Why have you kept an old man like me waiting so long? I would've starved in another minute if you hadn't come."

"Is that so Grandfather?"

"Of course, of course. Being a great host insists that I wait for my guests to join me before dining."

"If that is the case grandfather, I do believe that it is time to shave that beard."

"My beard?" my grandfather stated taking hold of said item. "What's wrong with my beard?"

"The storage space is just to small and you have so many rooms I don't understand why you need it for such a menial task."

"What in the hell are you talking about Son?"

"Well, the bread crumbs of course. If you didn't just take a bite of bread, then that means that it's been there since breakfast seeing that you missed lunch and all." I replied with a smirk.

"Wha ... ah, I never could get anything by you. How has the training been going? I noticed all the time you've clocked at the range. Should I be worried that you are changing career paths to become a pirate?"

"No, I just received some good advice from my oldest brother that it would be better for me to know how to use a weapon and never draw it than to draw it and never get the chance to learn. I agreed so I've been putting as much time in as possible."

My grandfather didn't saying anything but nodded his head, but I noticed the flinch when mentioning advice from my eldest.

"So what's on the pad Grandfather? Anything important?"

"Important?" He scoffed at me raising it into the air. "This here is the future my boy, nothing ever done in history has been as important."

"Well are you going to tell me what it is or are you going to die of a heart attack from the excitement."

"Die? I'll never have to worry about that again."

"What do you mean?" His excitement and his latest statement had my interest peaked. Why wouldn't anyone not worry about dieing. As humans, with the medical advances currently available, we could live for somewhere around 89 to 98 years on the average. A select few have made it into the 120's but no one has lived past that.

"I mean I've finally broken through the gap. I've created the first series of nanobots completely able to live indefinitely inside the body."

"Indefinitely? That's impossible, how are they charged?" I asked feeling my excitement rise. If what my grandfather said was true then he had definitely stumbled onto the fountain of youth. He'd been the designer and creator of the first few series of nanos but they all had the same draw back. Being so small they couldn't carry much power. And repairing cells at that level required a lot of power. They tended to last a couple of days before their power was drained. Then the body would dispose of them as waste. Nanos were used in post surgery to repair as much damage as possible before doctors began. But to create a nanobot that wouldn't power down meant it'd never be dispelled and it would have a chance to heal injuries completely.

"It was staring me in the face the whole time. I realized my mistake as I was working on my new spider bots for the military."

"Spider bots?" I interrupted before he could continue. "What is a spider bot?"

"Oh that, it's nothing special. Just small machines that carry a tiny replicator so it can work on repairs while away from a space dock."

"They just sound like large nanos to me."

"They do but nanos use a system that encourages the body to repair itself. These use their on-board replicators to create the different items needed to repair any kind of damage. Anyway, I was trying to figure out a good renewable energy source. I thought about a docking station so that they could be charged but I needed something that would allow them to keep working without having to return to a docking station, so I came up with a specialized antenna that could draw power from a ship or stations shields." He paused in his explanation to gage my reaction.