Machine Man (serial)

“The equipment carried by the average modern-day soldier weighs a hundred fifty pounds.” The Manager spread his palms. The light flooding in the window behind him made this gesture vaguely Messianic. “That’s your standard grunt. Start talking specialists, they’re lugging half that again. We have equipment that could radically increase their effectiveness that they simply can’t carry. War has become a load-bearing exercise. A logistics puzzle. And sure, tell me it’s never been any different. Tell me that throughout history, battles have been won on the back of resource co-ordination. And I’ll agree with you, Dr. Neumann, to a point. But let me say this. An army of soldiers who run at fifty miles per hour, leap twenty feet into the air, have an inbuilt arsenal capable of handling any contingency, and walk through enemy fire like it’s rain—that army would get respect.”

“Charlie has some interesting spine work in the pipeline,” said Cassandra Cautery. “I should get you an updated report.”

“And I’ll tell you what else excites me. The after-sales support. Now there’s some vendor lock-in. We outfit a military with Better Future Combat Augmentations, they’re going to need servicing. Training. Upgrades. They’ll live and die on our bug fixes. I mean that literally. It’s a never-ending revenue stream.”

“I liked Better Future Bioreplacement Technology,” said Cassandra Cautery. “What happened to that?”

“Marketing. Didn’t test as well. People are uncomfortable with the concept of replacing. They prefer to add.”

“Ah.”

I said, “I don’t want to be a super-soldier.”

Cassandra Cautery smiled. The Manager said, “Of course you don’t! And I don’t want you to be. You’re a thinker, Dr. Neumann. Your role is hands-off.”

“So to speak,” I said. This was a quip. I had become a bit of a quipper, since Lola. It was becoming compulsive.

“What I mean,” said the Manager, “is there’s no need to put yourself through the QA for every Better Future Combat Augmentation. We have people for that.”

I was already shaking my head. “I don’t want to make parts for other people. I want to rebuild myself.” Cassandra Cautery inhaled, so I added: “And I guess you need a product at some stage. But that’s off in the future. Right now, I’m experimenting. On me.”

The Manager scratched his ear. “The thing is, Dr. Neumann, that’s not completely realistic. These in-house test subjects, they’re not something I’m proposing. We’ve already begun.”

87.