# 0 : Just another day in Paradise

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In the past he had been known by many names. Among them were Icarus, Merlin and Gabriel. When he was at home, in paradise, he preferred to be called Albert. Just Al to his friends.

One day he stopped in to chat with Jenny.

“How are your projects coming along?” he asked her.

“Not too bad” she replied “if I do say so myself. I have one in particular that I’m very pleased with”

“Oh? Which one is that?” he asked.

“His name is Austyn.” she replied. “He and a group of Indians in a swamp are doing very well”

“Glad to hear it” he told her.

“What about you?” she asked him. “What have you got in mind.”

“Oh...nothing really.” he said “nothing as grandiose as what you are doing. I’ve come up with a little something that I’m going to try out.”

“What kind of little something” Jenny asked...she still recalled his time on earth as merlin.

“Oh...I’ve developed a magic wand” he smiled “I’m going to seed a few of them and see what grows.”

“Only you Al” Jenny shook her head in mock dismay “only you.”

That had been fun.

Al always got a thrill from riding the skyhook. He’d departed from paradise then unreeled before his skyhook went into low-earth orbit. A very long cable, with him at the end, began to rotate, in the opposite direct that the momentum exchange satellite was going. The cable was extremely strong and extremely long. Several thousand miles long to be more exact. It's counter rotation to the direction of orbit effectively canceled out his ground speed for a brief moment each rotation while he was high in the air.

That’s when he jumped.

He was a good bit higher than the highest free fall parachute jump yet achieved by man. At that altitude there was very little air and it was very cold.

Didn’t matter. Al was a cyborg. His body hais body had been designed for such conditions.

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Al fell toward the ground...he was in freefall. He always got a kick out of this part. When he got close enough to the ground...he opened his wings. Huge pinions made from graphene and bucky tubes spread wide. Al soared like and Eagle. His body was actively camouflaged, effectively invisible. No one would see him unless he allowed them to do so.

He swooped low...looking for likely victims....er...that would be, likely beta testers.

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During the next month or so he found several. His approach differed according to the situation.

Sally for example...was walking along the river shore one day. She gloried in the sunshine. She was a homeless lady. Life had treated her pretty bad. Little did she know that her luck was about to change.

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“Excuse me ma’am” Sally heard a voice say “Do you have any Grey Poupon?”

Sally had seen that TV commercial at one time...but what the hey? Who would be asking HER for......

She turned around to see who had spoken.

“Over here.” she heard the voice say.

Image Credit

Sally turned toward the voice and saw......and angel.

It had to be an angel. What else could it be? He was tall, handsome, dressed fancy, and had wings. Just like the paintings in the old church she had visited as a kid.

“Don’t be afraid dear.” the unreal, but apparantly kindly apparition said with a smile. “I was just having a little fun at your expense. I’m sorry. To make up for my rude behavior let me present you with a gift.”

“A gift?” Sally asked. “what kind of gift”

“Oh...nothing special” the angle said “This”

He handed her a short stick..then he leapt into the air and vanished from sight.

Sally shook her head in wonder. Had she really seen what she thought she saw or was it a dream. She thought that she had to be sleeping to dream. Was she dreaming? She didn’t think she was.

She looked at the stick....the air shimmered at it’s end.
A face appeared...in the air above it...

.

“Greeting User” it said..
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