Chapter 2: The Unbound Heart

Okay, so nobody wanted me to kill anybody. But for a minute there, I felt willing to. The doctor wanted no part of any promises from me. She didn't do what she did to get anything in return, she said. She did it because she could, and her daughter asked.

Before I could apologize, she kissed my cheek, hugged her daughter, and then was gone.

"Welcome to my world," Serenity McKesson said to me, as I stared at the spot where her mother had just been standing.

"Wow," I gushed.

"You say that a lot, but in this case, I agree."

"So I'm going to get myself in shape, and then I'm going to learn how to wear that big-ass hunk of steel downstairs?"

"Nope, at least not in that order. You're going to be getting yourself into shape, and while you are, you'll learn all about that hunk of steel and what its capable of. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we'll see about strapping you into it and getting you comfortable there."

Now that I had time to think about it, I had time to consider the details, minus the heroic ambiance of the initial proposal. There were questions that needed asking.

"Do I keep my normal life and do this on the side?"

"I don't know. Only you can decide that. There are some advantages to having a public identity you can use. There are disadvantages as well. People you know could get hurt. They could become targets if an enemy learns too much about you. This is a decision only you can make for yourself."

I thought about that. I could give up the job at the Star easily enough. It was make work, really. Something anyone who could read and write could do.

"If I kept that life, I'd have to keep the chair." I said out loud, only realizing it as I said it.

"The chair is good cover, but it comes with its own liabilities. You'd have to get really good at pretending to still be a cripple."

"Not too hard. I always had feeling, and some movement. A small increase in movement and strength here or there would be no big thing."

"something to consider then," Serenity offered.

"If I stick with my life now, how do I get back and forth between here, wherever here is, and my apartment?"

"I'll have something for that, when the time comes. For now you'll just have to depend on me."

"I guess so," I laughed. "I'm kind of depending on you already."

She looked at me, a hard look, for a minute before nodding slowly. "Yes, I guess you are."

My big Friday night, reading the latest radio hobbyist magazines and electronics journals was replaced by a night of ... reading manuals and schematics from the amazing work of Trey Young. I spent it alone, too. Well sort of alone. The first thing Serenity did after her mother had gone was to introduce me to Ava.

"Ava, please activate," Serenity said suddenly to the otherwise empty room. A pleasant feminine voice responded.

"Active."

"Ava, command mode please."

"command mode active," Came the reply.

"Ava, ident speaker," Serenity commanded.

"Scanning," Was the reply, followed by a brief pause. "Identity confirmed, Serenity McKesson."

"Ava, scan the other human being in this vicinity," Serenity ordered.

"Scanning," Came the reply, followed a moment later by, "Complete."

"Ava, ident for this new person is Ceferino Escobar, commonly called Spider. Confirm."

"Confirming. New ident is Ceferino Escobar, to be called Spider."

"Spider, say hello to Ava," Serenity asked.

"Umm ... Hello Ava," I said hesitantly.

"Good evening, Spider," The voice responded.

"Ava is a she, and a very feminine sounding she, but she's not real, in the sense that you and I are," Serenity told me. "Ava is the household artificial intelligence. She can close or open doors, turn lights on and off, make coffee, you name it. She is very versatile."

"Artificial intelligence?" I asked. "For real?"

"Almost for real. This is not an artificial being though," She cautioned, suddenly. "The programming is very advanced, and the computing power is so great that human responses and even emotions can be simulated. Ava's actually limited in those areas by design. She can be pleasant and cheerful or concerned and insistent, even alarmed if there is immediate danger, but she won't laugh at your jokes, won't cry or laugh at all. Ava is many things, but she is not a person."

I asked where the name Ava came from, and Serenity laughed, a rude snorting laugh and said it had started with her parents and some of their friends.

"Ava is actually short for Audio-Visual Assistant. Mom and Dad were using one of her predecessors to run the television and slide projector and stuff at their first house. It wasn't until they'd set her up and had her running things at one of their meetings that someone thought to ask if she ran the rest of the house as well as she did the meeting room. It was one of those rare times, I think, when my Dad was stunned at his failure to see the obvious."

So Ava and I were left alone, me to read my manuals and study schematics, and Ava to sit in her electronic silence and do whatever she did when not responding to a request. I had a very nice bedroom, a suite really with its own bathroom and sitting room apart from the common rooms of the 'residence' as Serenity had referred to it. There were three other bedrooms in the residence, mine being the largest. The artificial view from the common room was too nice to deny though, so I stayed there to do my reading. It was very interesting reading, to say the least.

I was pretty much lost in the early sections that discussed the metallurgical theories and methods Trey Young had invented or adapted to his uses. The sections on fabrication methods and assembly were also pretty confusing, but I felt some of it I at least knew well enough to appreciate for what it was.

The wiring and electronics though!

This entire thing reeked of genius, but the electronics I could wrap my head around. It was way into the wee hours of the morning before I put my reading down. I'd decided I was seeing two types of systems overlaid on each other, and they were starting to make my already heavy eyes water with confusion.

"Ava, I'm going to bed," I said out loud.

"Very well, Spider," Ava responded. "I've turned on the lights in your room. Is there anything else you would like me to do?"

"Just turn off the lights out here once I'm gone, thanks."

"Very well, Good night."

A wobbly walk to the bedroom, a quick visit to the bathroom and I was out like a light. Hey who could blame me? It had been a big day!

Saturday started out pleasantly. Ava woke me with a little cold air in my face, some music and the announcement that I had time to take a shower before breakfast was served, and to please be dressed when I came to the kitchen, as Serenity was serving breakfast.

The shower itself was the first revelation of the day. There were multiple shower heads, blasting hot water in needle jets. The towels were warm and fluffy, like they'd just come out of the dryer. I felt like I was in a five star hotel!

Breakfast was oven-baked French toast and sausages, with fresh orange juice and coffee. Again I felt a little pampered.

Serenity was not in her Midnight uniform today. She was wearing jeans and a sweater. She looked nice in a sweater. Very nice. While we ate, we talked about my reading.

"I was completely lost in the metallurgy and assembly sections, but I really got into the electronic controls and communications stuff. Some of it had me really confused though."

"There are several reasons that even someone with a lot of expertise in electronics could be confused, and we'll look at some of those reasons as we get into looking at the suit," Serenity told me. "What was your general impression though?"

"Its very advanced stuff, some of it I don't get at all; it looks like two completely different systems have been integrated together, using some stuff I don't recognize at all."

"That's because it is two completely different systems. Two completely different technologies, really. We'll get into that when we start digging into the systems. Meantime, keep reading what's there. It'll start making sense as we go along."

It was already starting to make sense to me. I could feel myself wanting this. Wanting to be a hero, and just maybe, a super-hero. The suit seemed capable of making me one, if I could master the complexity of it; if I had the brains to use it effectively.

If I had what it takes to stand and fight.

Saturday alternated between studying Trey Young's notes, and climbing over, in, and around the suit. The climbing in part was very interesting.

"Trey and I never discussed whether the suit was capable of being worn by more than one person," Serenity told me as I stood at the hatch. "It was custom fit to him, and you are more or less the same size, one of the reasons I thought you were the best candidate for this, actually."

So I slid in, feeling my legs and feet slide smoothly into the recesses made for them, down in the giant legs of the suit. My legs didn't even make it to the knee of the suit's legs though. Not even close. There were a series of metallic fiber loops that they slid into, and at the bottom stirrup-like rests that my feet slid into.

I wiggled a bit afterwards. "Okay, this doesn't feel to bad, and I think I'm solidly in.

"Good. Look to your right, just about shoulder level at the front of the hatch. There are a vertical double row of indicators. The top left one should be glowing green."

I looked, and there was indeed a glowing green indicator light exactly where Serenity suggested there should be. "Got it! I called out. Green indicator on the top left."

"That tells you the lower torso is seated properly..." She began

" ... and the hatch won't close until that light is green," I finished.

"You got it!" She called back. "Okay, so what's next?"

"I find the armlets. Their should be a row of three on each side, and a glove just past the last one to slide a hand into."

As I said it, I did it. The armlets were of the same woven metallic cloth as the leg bands. I slid both arms through their series of bands and both hands into their respective gloves. As I knew it should, the top right indicator blinked on, glowing the same warm green as the first one.

"My arms and hands appear to be properly seated, the top right indicator is green," I hollered.

"Good! To close the hatch you just pull both arms in, like you were going to hug yourself. Keep pulling until the second light on the left indicator column goes yellow."

I pulled, and sure enough, the top of the suit began to tilt forward as the sides clam-shelled in. A second later, I had a glowing yellow indicator.

"Got it!" I yelled. Damn! My voice was loud in the suit, but I didn't know if Serenity could hear me or not. I hung there in the dark of the suit, my only light the meager collection of indicators, now just barely visible at the bottom of my vision.

I was just beginning to think Serenity was pulling some sort of joke on me, when I heard her voice inside the suit. It sounded tinny, has if it was coming from a very small speaker.

"You are effectively stuck, at this point, with no control access, and no way to do anything. Did you read enough last night to remember what the next step is?"

Oh yeah! What's the point of reading the frigging manual if you're going to panic in the dark and not remember it?