Sam and his team spent the morning getting their fill of the previous day’s news. The universal exuberance was pretty overwhelming. There was so much amateur footage of their flight, remixes set to music had already started to appear. Video shot from the highway showed the crash landing in all too vivid detail, giving them the shivers. Evidence of the in-air battle was limited to a single shaky, highly-zoomed-in clip until the U.S. government graciously released what one of their own aircraft had recorded. Discreetly, they had edited out the suggestive leg-kicking portion by zooming in during that period and panning the frame upwards.
More gratifying were the headlines. The somber news agencies described it in terms like “Potential Suicide Hijacking Thwarted with High Technology”. The click-bait oriented sites screamed “9/11 Wannabes Stopped in Most Awesome Way Possible”. Several rapid analyses declared the world had entered a new era, one with a promising future. Even the cable-news channels, usually a reliable source of the most unfavorable viewpoints possible, couldn’t find a cross word to say about it.
The drive to work that day was uneventful, until arriving at the small airport where 16otaku made their headquarters. A throng of well-wishers swarmed the entrance, cheering and clapping. They left the driveway unblocked, and the approaching cars entered unmolested. Only a few security personnel, standing relaxed near their motorcycles, kept order; the crowd remained well-behaved.
Irwin arrived to find the rest were already there, in a teleconference with Eric Thompson and several more senior executives. Brian McTierney, the investor who had been so smitten with the mechas, occupied a small rectangle in the upper-left corner of their screen; even at the reduced resolution, his beatific expression was clear. Eric smiled as Irwin walked in. “Hey, there’s the wrestler of the hour!”
Irwin seemed nonplussed. “I half-expected a cheering crowd at the gate today. It’s OK; I had my fill of public interaction yesterday. But still.”
Stacy looked at him, puzzled. “What do you mean? We had a crowd!” She held Bruno in her arms; the lab cat curled up to her, content. “I was a little worried they were going to storm the airport.”
Irwin’s face fell. “Really? I missed it? The gate was quiet when I went through.”
“I guess that’s a sign of the new type of citizen we have,” Eric Thompson crowed. “Able to control themselves without a heavy hand forcing them to.”
“Guess I picked the wrong day to be late for work.” Irwin sat down slowly. “I wasn’t moving quickly this morning. They may have deemed me medically fit, but I still ache all over!”
Dwight’s expression became pained. “I’ll say! I have a newfound respect for Air Force pilots. I had no idea G-forces hurt so much.”
Isabel looked joyful. “The good news is, we gathered enough data during that flight to redesign the pressure suits in several different ways! Before you know it, high-G flights will be possible for all sorts of people, not just trained experts!”
“I’m glad you all had fun saving the world,” Eric piped up. “But your success comes at a cost.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
Eric replied stoically. “Now that you’ve demonstrated such an incredible capability, the company is going to put a lot more resources into the mecha project, and way more oversight! We want to place at least one in every major hub of our operation. Military and law-enforcement personnel will train to operate them. Just their presence alone will be a deterrent! Not to mention a huge public-relations boost.”
Gary sighed. “Well, we have a lot of design work to do before they’re ready to mass-produce. But I’m glad we’ll finally have time to do so.”
“If I may…one thing still puzzles me.” The members of 16otaku turned to look at the rectangle that had lit up. They weren’t familiar with the name, but the chyron identified him as the Chairman of the Board. A nervous pride shot through all of them; they had the attention of the big boss!
“What’s that, sir?” Sam asked, a lump in his throat.
“It’s my understanding that your team considered the mecha project not ready for real-world deployment. And yes, I realize that actual rocket flight hadn’t been tested until yesterday’s dramatic demonstration. But given how admirably it, and all of you, performed in the field…I can’t figure out why you thought it wasn’t ready.”
“Uh…” Sam demurred. “Well…”
Gary cut in. “We have our own criteria for ‘ready’, and our mechas don’t quite meet that yet.”
“What criteria?” The chairman had leaned forward in his chair, his staid expression unchanging.
“Well…they’re not able to fight hand-to-hand yet. We have a lot to do to improve their balance, and they’re too easily damaged by typical martial-arts moves.”
The chairman’s jaw dropped. “You mean…your criteria is…kung fu battle?”
Stacy smiled. “Hey, we gotta have our standards!”
An entire screenful of high-ranking suits erupted in laughter. As it died down, Brian cut in. “You see, Carl? I told you they were silly in all the right ways!”
The chairman shook his head. “You weren’t kidding!”
“Our mechas can easily handle unarmed targets,” Irwin chortled. “We lucked out yesterday; the airliner couldn’t fight back.”
“Well, despite that glaring omission,” the chairman bantered, “you’ve really captured the imagination of the public, including the ones normally hostile to us, like the government.”
“It seems a giant flying robot is all it took to bring everyone together,” Isabel quipped.
“Well, we don’t mind the increased scrutiny, or the added responsibility,” Sam assured. “We’ve all had to deal with it in our careers. The extra eyes won’t slow us down.”
“Actually, it’s more than that,” Eric warned. “A lot more.”
“How do you mean, boss?” Sam inquired.
“Remember how I told you yesterday that I had some nonpublic information to share with you? Well, things evolved heavily overnight, and I have even more to tell you now.”
The team went silent, staring apprehensively at the screen.
“The federal government finally contacted us directly last night,” Eric related. “And I don’t mean the usual set of nitpicky bureaucrats. I’m talking about…” He pointed upwards. “…the big boss.”
“Wow,” Irwin managed to say.
“They’re of course going to compensate us for their lapse in security. But the President made a startling admission last night. This has to stay company confidential until we and they make a joint public announcement. But since it affects all of you, and your mecha project, I thought you should hear about it now.”
The only noise any of them made was Dwight swallowing hard.
“He admitted that the government is close to collapse,” Eric revealed. “The relative peace we’ve been enjoying in Millenniaburg, and the smattering of smaller towns that we run, is not reflected in the rest of the country. The rioting has become endemic, the police and National Guard spend most of their time defending themselves, not citizens, and every business that can is closing up shop and heading for the exits.” Eric looked around himself, as if to address everyone participating in the teleconference. “The President tried to blame us for drawing away the talent they need to survive and thrive. But I pointed out to him that we didn’t actively recruit them; they sought us out. Retaining them was squarely on the government’s shoulders. And he conceded that too!”
“My God,” Gary stammered. “Where do we go from here?”
“Put simply,” Eric continued, “we’ve hit the big time, people, whether we’re ready for it or not.” He paused a moment. “The government has given us the authority to take over any city we like, to expand our operation across the country.”
“Incredible,” Stacy peeped.
“I, and the other executives, have a huge task ahead of us,” Eric intoned somberly. “The success we’ve pulled off in Millenniaburg will have to be replicated quickly in other cities. We need to find people that can lead those local efforts, we have to screen law-enforcement personnel, and most important, we’ll need to mass-produce the bot armies that have made such a difference here — security drones, construction droids, maid-bots, all of them. I know you’ve set up several assembly lines within Millenniaburg, but how quickly can you spin them up in other cities?”
“Remarkably quickly,” Sam promised. “We just have to pack up a nucleus, and drop it off in any suitable building, and the rest will take care of itself.”
“How?” Eric probed.
“Let us handle it,” Sam assured. “You always told us you wanted to focus on the big details. We have it all under control.”
Eric laughed. “Fair enough. I can’t argue with success! OK, we’ll give you the names of cities and locations, as soon as we have them, along with some suitable sites.”
“If we may,” Sam proffered, “we’ll screen the sites. Our assembly lines have a lot of…idiosyncratic…requirements that are difficult to explain easily.”
“You’re right,” Eric agreed, facing his palms forward. “We won’t micromanage. A list of cities will be enough. We’ll tell you as soon as we’ve negotiated for the authority.”
“Now I see why you want to mass-produce mechas,” Isabel observed. “You’ll want at least one per city. We’ll get that working as quickly as we can!”
“Maybe, as a start, you can retrofit the other two mechas to fly,” Eric suggested.
“Given their design constraints, it’d be easier to build new ones,” Sam explained. “Like we said, yesterday’s flight has given us a lot of data on how to proceed. Starting over will be faster.”
“You’re right, you’re right,” Eric conceded. “I’m trying to micromanage again.” He grinned impishly. “What can I say, I’ve caught giant-robot fever too. At least we have one that can fly.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“We sustained a lot of damage in yesterday’s battle,” Irwin explained. “A lot more than we’ve admitted publicly. We’re really lucky we were even able to get home. It’s not likely to be ready for duty for some time.”
“Aw, no fair!” Brian piped up. “I wanted to pose it on my headquarters building!”
“It’ll probably work well enough for that,” Stacy chimed. “Oh, we meant to ask you…does that building have a heliport?”
Brian’s brow furrowed. “Actually, it does. Why?”
Stacy exchanged knowing smiles with the rest of the team. “Then all we can say is…keep watching the skies!”
“Yes!” Brian yelped, throwing decorum out the window. He quickly settled himself. “I caught giant-robot fever a long time ago.”
“And those large pedestals in front of Unlimited Partners headquarters,” Isabel added. “Have any statues been put there?”
“No, not yet,” Eric informed them. “We’ve never come to any agreement what we should do with them.”
“Then,” Isabel chirped, “two large packages of some value will come to you, shortly.”
“That,” Eric sighed, “would be awesome.” Suddenly, he leaned forward. “Well, what are you all waiting for?” he joshed. “Get to it! I and the rest of the suits can handle all the banal details.”
“Yes, sir!” Sam cheered, throwing an irreverent salute. “We’re off!”
“All of us!” Stacy added, moving Bruno’s paw into a salute. He meowed, annoyed. The entire screen burst forth with laughter as Sam shut off the feed.
Sam looked around at his team. “Well…we certainly have a full plate. But I know we’re up for the challenge!”
They began walking toward the mecha hangar, first entering the robot nursery. Bruno jumped out of Stacy’s arms and headed straight for the newborn spider-bot babies. “We just have to ask the bots to put together a large enough team to build their own assembly line and start producing offspring. They’ll need time to prepare for that, though.”
They passed through the bot’s jungle-gym training area. “We should probably send an instructor along with each nucleus. I’m sure some of them will volunteer.”
They visited Big Daddy’s room. Surrounding him, in smaller vats, were other cybernetically-enhanced former invalids. Gary addressed them. “Hey, Big Daddy! Did you hear the news?”
“Indeed, I did,” came the synthesized reply. “Fortunately, I’ve been training several Little Daddies for some time. I’ll get them ready to be on their own, in their new cities.” A chorus of synthesized cheers declared their confidence. Gary smiled and gave them a thumb’s-up.
They walked through the storage warehouse. Bots thronged all over, opening crates, moving barrels, and helping themselves to the supplies. “Well, they’ve certainly been busy,” Stacy chimed. Isabel looked confused. “But what are they doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Sam answered, his eyes twinkling, as he opened the door to the mecha hangar. The lights were already on; as the door rose, it revealed four new mechas; the three older models stood some distance to the rear. Bots swarmed over them as others flocked in the air nearby, all busily fabricating parts and assembling them.
Sam smiled. “They pored over the flight-test data last night, and are now applying all their advanced engineering and design knowledge to our new mechas!”
Even in the bright lights, the new designs seemed incomprehensibly complicated. Gone were the rigid lines and flat plates of the original mechas; in their place stood surprisingly lithe and flowing forms, almost lifelike.
Gary seemed incredulous. “All this from bordering-on-crows? I’m not buying it.”
“The bots form a hive mind at night,” Irwin pointed out. “So these were designed by The Big Crow, as it were. With no small amount of help from Big Daddy, I’m sure.”
Isabel seemed unsettled. “How does any of this work?”
“Why don’t you ask them?” Irwin waved Isabel toward a nearby diagnostics console. “I already have!” Nervous, she approached it and began typing in queries.
In response to a question about the skeleton, the screen displayed an intricate pattern of multi-jointed bones in the center, surrounded by thin metal strips to form the exoskeleton. Active areas could be clicked for deeper dives, revealing the intricate geometry that gave each piece its preternatural strength and flexibility.
“Ask about the electronics,” Stacy suggested. “That’ll really blow your mind.”
Hesitantly, Isabel punched up the next query. She was presented with a sponge-like diagram that apparently explained the electronic layout. Larger components blurred together with smaller components in an intricate pattern that delivered high redundancy in the event of damage. In place of plastic, it used a novel polymer composite. “The superstructure conducts heat and…absorbs shock?”
“Every shock except the one you’re having!” Irwin quipped.
“But what about the limb rockets?” Isabel mumbled. Her query presented her with the expected large fuel tanks, broken into separate volumes, together with a mesh of redundant copper-alloy lines for feeding the fuel to the combustion chamber. A series of tiny dots along the lines showed where micro-valves could divert, or cut off, the flow of fuel. This made it possible to deliver high volumes, or adapt to physical damage, vastly reducing the risk of fire or fuel loss.
A pop-up suggestion box invited her to click it for a related explanation; she did so, and the details of the fire-suppression system took over the screen. Also formed as an intricate mesh of tubes, it was able to reach all parts of the mecha. A different system, armed with more human-friendly chemicals, was in place to extinguish fires in the flight deck.
“Just one flight deck?” Isabel’s question was met with a diagram of the new flight deck, situated in the head. There was no chair, or command console; all functions and physical support had been integrated into the pressure suit, which was able to open and close at the side, allowing the pilot to enter or exit. The controls had been streamlined, allowing all the mecha’s functions to be operated more easily — no more need for multiple pilots.
Isabel was at a loss for words. “Oh…I…it seems like they’ve used all available space. I have no idea how we’re supposed to maintain these.”
“We won’t,” Dwight agreed. “The bots will. We don’t have the fine motor skills, much less the attention to detail.”
Isabel noticed a countdown on the screen. “And they’ll really be ready to use in less than two days?”
“Just this batch,” Stacy explained, pointing to a different part of the screen. “But from what they’ve learned by doing these, they expect the new ones to be constructed in six hours each.”
Isabel chuckled cathartically. “Then we already have a mecha assembly line.”
“Well, as far as the executives are concerned, we do,” Sam brought up. “As soon as the bots are well-practiced enough with their designs, we’ll ask them to make a true assembly line. Who knows, maybe one day soon, we can crank out mechas as quickly as cars!”
Isabel sighed. “The days of human design are coming to an end.”
“Hardly,” Sam disclaimed. “We’ll just move up the food chain. There’s no point in people getting involved in something that bots can do better. This frees us up to do far more interesting work, stuff that bots aren’t capable of yet.”
Isabel smiled. “I guess you’re right.” She looked at the rendering of the finished product on the screen, the smooth lines and supple curves sweeping along their height. “But I can’t help but notice that the new mechas look less like giant robots, and more like…like…”
“Like a person in a costume,” Stacy jested.
Isabel laughed. “I guess that’s a more classic shape than the one we made!”
“The bots are following their directions a little too well!” Dwight guffawed. “But I think the mechas look better this way.”
Isabel smiled sadly at the original prototypes. “It’s too bad they’re obsolete.”
“Not at all!” Stacy squeaked. “The controls have already been retrofitted so the bots can pilot them, and they’re going on public display. Those two can do public exhibitions of kung-fu battle. The console says they’re ready for demonstration. Want to check it out?”
“Of course!” Isabel yelped.
Immediately following Stacy’s well-placed button presses on the console, the three original mechas hummed to life. Irwin threw the knife switch to open the outer hangar door. All three mechas got down on their hands and knees, but instead of assuming a crawling position, they folded themselves up tightly. Without warning, wheels popped out of the bottom! All three quickly scooted over the concrete floor and drove themselves outside.
Sam’s brow furrowed. “Did you tell them to install wheels?”
“No,” Irwin confessed. “The bots must have come up with that themselves.”
“It’s a good idea, though,” Stacy conceded. “And now they’re members of a different category of classic giant-robot!”
The team ran outside. The flying mecha had already fired its rockets; they shielded their eyes from the bright light. It rose slowly in the air, then streaked upwards, vanishing quickly from sight.
“Where is it going?” Irwin gaped.
“To its first public display, probably,” Gary suggested. “It already had its instructions. The other two should depart shortly, once we get our martial-arts demonstration.”
The two mechas assumed kung-fu starting poses. Quickly, they began to punch, kick, and dodge, their bodies and limbs flailing dexterously in fluid motions. Without warning, one jumped into the air! The other one caught it, and quickly spun it around. As one landed on its feet, it began to whirl the other one around in the air.
“Acrobatics, too?” Isabel gasped.
“Oops,” Stacy demurred. “I guess the bots took me seriously. I don’t suppose they also…”
In an instant, the bots separated themselves and began a synchronized dancing routine, ending by spinning on their backs, then their heads, then flipping up to their feet and striking poses. The team turned to look at Stacy, staring uncertainly at her.
Stacy covered her mouth and giggled. “I guess that answers that question. Oh well, too late now.”
Flashing lights suddenly poured forth from their heads, as wheels arranged like inline skates erupted from their feet. With fluid strokes, they began skating toward the front gate. The guard began opening the gate, to let them out, but they simply sprung skillfully over it, landing gracefully, and turning right smoothly to skate down the street, merging with traffic.
Brian McTierney heard a roaring noise; he looked up from his desk in the corner office to see the mecha streaking towards his building. With a giddy yelp, he bounded out of his office, neglecting the elevator to race up the stairs to the roof. As he arrived at the door, the roar became deafening; he found two of the younger employees there, covering their ears. He did likewise, and then let out a long, joyous whoop, causing the two juveniles to break out in wide grins. Finally, the noise died down, and they opened the door to the roof.
Brian and his junior team members watched in awe as the mecha strode from the heliport to the corner of the building. Slowly, it put one leg over the side, coming to rest on its thigh. Gingerly, it moved the other leg to dangle over the edge. As Brian covered his mouth with his hands and watched with glee, the mecha slowly adjusted its position so that it was sitting stably on the building’s edge. It placed its left arm down, gripping the corner with its hand. Slowly, it raised its right arm to line up with its upper chest, curling its fingers into a fist, as its head descended. With a clank, the head and fist came together, making a perfect mimic of the “Thinker” statue. The electrical hum died down, and the robot’s lights turned off. Moments later, four spider-bots emerged and crawled expertly down the side of the building.
Brian continued to gape. Finally, he dropped his hands from his mouth, and looked at his two junior charges. “I feel as young as you two right now.”
One grinned broadly. “And I feel like I’m back in kindergarten.” The other couldn’t speak, but tears of joy streamed down her face.
The drivers in the mid-morning traffic could hear the klaxons of an emergency vehicle, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. Without warning, two roller-blading mechas, taller than some of the buildings they were passing, skated towards them. Cars obediently pulled over for the flashing lights and the blaring klaxon. Some people left their cars to gape at the spectacle as they glided out of sight.
Eric Thompson spoke on the phone. “I really think we should get together, in person, for this next meeting. Video conferences are fine for internal use, but when we’re dealing with the outside world…especially these people…we should present more of a unified front. As in, physically unified.” He paused a few moments. “Excellent. See you all soon.”
Without warning, the door to his office opened. Eric looked up from his desk to see Danielle, his protege and long-time second in command, enter. She could hardly contain herself. “We have visitors. Very big visitors.” A wide, silly grin erupted from his face, and he vaulted from his desk and out of his office, Danielle not far ahead of him.
By the time he reached the building’s front door, a large crowd of employees had thronged to gape at the wonderment. The two mechas had climbed to the top of the vacant statue pedestals in front of the building, and were now turning gingerly to face outwards. When they had done so, each struck a dignified salute.
Eric reached the edge of the crowd and looked back at the mechas. “Aw, c’mon,” he pleaded. “You can do better than that!”
After a short delay, the mechas moved their arms, so that one hand was on their chest, and the other extended upwards to the side, mimicking the pose of a famous movie duo. Eric smiled as he pumped his fists. “Excellent!” The crowd burst into applause.