#79: Banana Slug - Time to Get Busy Designing

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It was time to get off the pot and get busy designing a BananaSlug replacement. However Shelby felt that there was one more thing to do first. He called a VR meeting with the DragonLady

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news but,” Shelby started to say.

“You have nothing to be sorry for” The she said. “If it wasn’t for you we’d have all died a long time ago. If I know you, and I think I do, you are apologizing for not being able to extend the life of my island. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well yeah. I kinda was.” Shelby said.

“Don’t” she said “I’m thrilled it got us this far. Now what have you got in mind to replace it. I can hardly wait.”

“I’m still working on it.” Shelby grinned “But aside from that right now. We, and I mean everyone, want you to continue to be the Matriarch.”

The Dragon Lady chose not to speak. Eyes glistening she nodded acceptance.

Shelby bowed. End of private meeting with the Matriarch.

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That settled, Shelby called a general meeting. They held it in Virtual Reality naturally. It was so much easier that way. The Dragon Lady officiated.

“Ladies and GentleMen.” The Dragon Lady began. “The Banana Slug is dead. It can’t reasonably be fixed. It was a compromise in so many ways and was being held together mostly by bailing wire, duct tape, chewing gum and prayers. We are lucky it got us this far.”

Everyone knew this. Shelby might have been even more frightened had he known how many ‘fixes’ were taken care of by the inhabitants, almost on a daily basis that they’d not even bothered to say anything about. When they saw something broke, they fixed it if they could. Other wise they called for help. The inhabitants knew that there had been an extreme amount of fixing going on lately. They all knew that something can only be fixed so many times before it had to be replaced. In fact they were wondering what had taken Shelby so long.

Someone had to say it.

“Ma’am. What does that mean? What are we going to do?” someone asked the Dragon Lady. It was her Island after all. Rather it had been an island.

“I’m glad you asked that.” the Dragon lady said “We’re going to do what we’ve always done. In the tradition of the Marines we are going to Adapt Innovate and OverCome. Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. This is the planning stage.”

“This is the first of many brainstorming sessions” she told them. “We have time, we have effectively unlimited resources in one particular area of technology, and we have a great deal of new technology to examine. The depths of technology in the SoulStone has barely been scratched. We’re going to make something magnificent and we’re going to do it right. From the ashes of the Phoenix a new one will arise.”

That sounded pretty good to everyone.

“I give you the ArchMage.” she said “As before he will help and guide us.”

It was Shelby’s turn. To think that he used to fear public speaking. “Ok folks, here’s what I have in mind.”

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That had been a while back. There had been a great many meetings since then. Shelby, with input from the entire population, some more so than others, had designed a proof of concept prototype.

He had taken the fundamental design concepts that Cody had reverse engineered from the Manta Ray, other sea creatures, a lot of esoteric SoulStone tech that he barely understood and integrated the whole mess into what looked like a CuttleFish.

It was designed to be scaleable from very small to very large. He made the first one fairly small. It was about three foot long. This was the proof of concept prototype. He made enough for everyone to have one.

“Break it” he said as he gave one to each of the RowdyBunch.

Carl left the room and returned immediately with a sledge hammer.

“Carl! Seriously” Shelby said “I don’t mean break it just to be destructive. I mean ‘Ride it hard and put it away wet.”

That didn’t ring any bells. The kids had no idea what the phrase meant. Shelby felt his age. “Possibly a better term would be ‘Test it to destruction.“

“He means play with it HARD and don’t worry if it get’s busted “ Sally told Carl with a look of disdain. “Silly.”

Right!” Shelby said. “Don’t intentionally bust it just to be wrecking it. I’m looking at you Carl, but don't’ be careful with it either. Use it hard. Go places and do things with it that drones have never gone before. Find it’s limits.”

The dawning understanding on the faces of the RowdyBunch was rather frightening actually.

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The Next Episode Is
#80: Banana Slug - Test to Destruction…
The Previous Episode was
#78: Banana Slug - “We killed them right back…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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