Ricochet chortled, his laughter a weird gagging cough that threatened to spill out of his nose.
“Laugh all you want,” I said. “Without me, you’re stuck with the notecard.”
But for some reason, he ignored the threat and just kept laughing, “I like the way your sick mind works.”
So we worked together, though after he explained how the mental link worked, his effort in the cause was just keeping his mouth going. The central control was simple: the system just read your brain impulses, and after it learned the specific patterns, it knew where you were at all times in the Tower, knowing your needs before you even did. If you were hungry and headed to the mess, the system read your biometrics, studied your previous menu to know what you liked, and prepared a nutritionally balanced meal to match your caloric needs. If you needed a doctor’s visit, the system uploaded any problems you had so the doctor was prepared for your needs before you even made the trip. And it could interface with your immediate needs, like having the central telescoping tentacle thing hand you a soldering iron, the flux, or even the raw materials to repair a suit.
Ricochet’s suit was a simple magnetometer, designed to allow him control of his unlimited kinetic energy projection to counteract the impact of his collisions as he “ricocheted” around. It created a negative kinetic projection angled to Ricochet’s unconscious needs, letting him manipulate the angle of rebound as he sprung off his target. The system allowed him to bounce at odd angles, even back on himself, and to slow and increase speeds (which, according to the database, were in excess of 700 miles per hour). It also spared his body and his target the rigors of impact, by “bouncing” him off before actual contact.
The ancillary benefit of the neural net system that Superdynamic had installed in the Tower were return pathways, so you could access information from databases at the speed of thought, set up the most complicated calculations and receive a viable solution instantly. Ricochet was only able to give me guest access, so my speeds were reduced and the availability of information heavily regulated, but I could only imagine the possibilities of such a system, and I was hoping to get full access after a while. It was an impressive achievement by Superdynamic, and the more time passed, the more I was linked into the network, the more impressed I grew with the man.
Fixing Ricochet’s suit was more a function of replacing damaged wiring than anything else. When travelling at near the speed of sound, while at the same time bouncing off walls and objects, the wear and tear on the reflective suit was substantial. Besides, and I didn’t want to make a big stink about it, the way the pathways were configured was quite inefficient, almost redundant, as if Superdynamic were building a dual system of controls, which only made energy routing that much more of a problem. Even though the signals travelled through the suit at the speed of light, doubling the pathways meant a longer travel time, even if it was in micro-seconds, which combined with the reaction time of the user, would mean increased chances of impact, and more damage to the suit.
“So, dude,” he said as I was nearing completion of my work on his suit. “That whole thing in Australia?”
I didn’t know what he was talking about, whether he meant Claire, or the walk through the desert, or–
“You really kill all those people?”
So they knew. I guess it must have gotten out faster than I was able to fly out of the country. Superdynamic knew and hadn’t said anything.
I shrugged, hoping he’d get the hint.
“So, you busted up Nevsky and Fenris and all those bad guys?”
“Look, I’d rather not–”
“Hey, it’s cool. Some bads get what’s coming,” he said, then thought about it a moment, realizing how I factored into that and avoided my glare. “You know what I mean. The real bads, right?”
“I was scared, and I lost control,” I said, admitting the truth, spilling it in part to make him uncomfortable, to get him to change the subject, but owning up to it, with such brutal efficiency, gave me pause.
For the first time, he was speechless.
He had finally gathered himself when Ruby came into the lab, through the entrance across the way, stopping at a booth with several scientists and