Page 16.
Machine Man (serial)
“One of the problems with legs,” I said, “is they can’t survive on their own. They need to be attached to a body to function. They’re not—”
Lola Banks looked up from fiddling with her access badge, her eyes wide. “Standalone?”
“Right.” I realized this was a quip. “Right.”
“I like your thinking, Charlie. I’m just not sure what benefit you get, in a practical sense, from a self-powered leg.”
The elevator doors slid open. My chair-leg rollers clickety-clacked over the uneven exit. “Well, you’re no longer limited by the body’s energy supply.”
“How far down are we?” Lola Banks said, looking around at the steel buttresses that reinforced the walls.
“About a hundred feet. So obviously if you can install a small reactor in the leg, and raise the energy supply from around a kilojoule per second to, say, 4.2 megajoules per second, that increases the functional possibilities.”
“Why are we down a hundred feet?”
“In case something goes wrong.” I swiped my card. The first set of doors to the Glass Room began to depressurize.
“Wait,” said Lola Banks. “Back up. Did you say you reactor?”
“Small. Small reactor. We build those here.”
“What are you doing with a small reactor?”
Comments
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Location: Los Angeles, California (school) | Akron, Ohio (home)
Quote: "Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."
Posted: 5796 days ago
Matt (#808)
Location: AZ
Quote: "The only 3 books I've read in the last few years have been from the Barry Collection"
Posted: 5796 days ago
Location: Work, Maryland, USA
Quote: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes that cigar is ploughing your mother."
Posted: 5796 days ago
I've been keeping up, but basically coasting until today. I like the ridiculous-cyborg possibility that you've created. Although, I kinda hope the science is prevalent throughout. I don't want him to become half cyborg just to end up doing the lawyer he fell in love with and have normal problems. I'd rather see the cyborg leg become sentient and conspire to create it's own black hole, tearing him apart and leaving a crater the size of Dallas underneath the building, into which the building (and a solid 4 or 5 mile radius spread) crumbles.
That would be neat, too.
Location: London, United Kingdom
Quote: "We are all history's middle children."
Posted: 5796 days ago
Abgrund (#3357)
Location: Atlantis
Quote: ""Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority." - Ayn Rand"
Posted: 5796 days ago
I'm sure you wanted to know that.
Location: Work, Maryland, USA
Quote: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes that cigar is ploughing your mother."
Posted: 5796 days ago
towr (#1914)
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 5796 days ago
Location: St. Louis
Posted: 5796 days ago
...hehe, I Googled Lola Banks. :P
I like the pacing. It's fast without feeling rushed, and the balance between exposition and action feels very natural. Keep up the good work, Max!
Chris Makowski (#3926)
Location: Charlotte, NC
Quote: "All morons hate it when you call them a moron. ~J.D. Salinger"
Posted: 5796 days ago
Location: Alberta, Canada
Quote: "I don't wanna ride the elevator."
Posted: 5796 days ago
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Quote: "I'm my number one fan!"
Posted: 5796 days ago
Location: Darwin, Australia
Quote: "Inconceivable!"
Posted: 5795 days ago
Abgrund (#3357)
Location: Atlantis
Quote: ""Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority." - Ayn Rand"
Posted: 5795 days ago
@Max: Curses, foiled again! But you'll be glad to know that, under reasonable assumptions concerning drive train efficiency and Charlie's (if that's his name) stature, that leg should enable him to leap about 25 stories (neglecting air resistance and the discomfort of the 150g acceleration).
Engineers are lousy science fiction readers.
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Quote: "I'm my number one fan!"
Posted: 5795 days ago
Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada
Quote: "Soylent Green is people."
Posted: 5553 days ago
stanley becker (#5283)
Location: black hole
Quote: "DON"T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!!"
Posted: 5081 days ago
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