#71: Delivery to Dragon Lady.

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Shelby gave the Dragon Lady a call. He was surprised that she answered the phone herself instead of having one of her flunkies do it.

“Your order is complete.” he told her. “I think that you’ll be pleased.”

“Very well” she said.

.......................................

Once again the Dragon Lady and here crew paid him a visit. They all gathered in the showroom. For a change it wasn’t raining .... as much. It was very foggy though.

The showroom interior was VERY different from the last time she had been there. The lighting was subdued and it was foggy inside too. Shelby was wearing a long western duster-coat. He was apparently riding a mono-wheel. He bowed his greeting in the Oriental fashion.

“Welcome” he said “ As you can see there have been some changes made. We’ve moved to a higher level so to speak. There are no more individual models, no drones either. I only have one product. I don’t think you will mind the change and you are already wearing it.”

He presented the Dragon Lady,Tatsu and the two Ogres a small ovoid each.

“I call those Dragon Tears” Shelby said holding one in his hand “If you would care to be seated please?”

Shelby waved his hand and a recliner appeared out of nowhere behind each one of them. They were all somewhat startled but they sat down.

“...this little bauble, is mostly storage” he said. He held another dragon tear as an example and indicated the absolutely stunning teardrop shaped gem attached to the chain. “you’re wearing the controller, the neuro loop around your neck.”

“It’s beautiful” the Dragon Lady and her daughter Tatsu examined their own translucent crystals. There were whole constellations of tiny moving lights in the depths. It was almost hypnotic.”

“It is pretty isn’t it? “Shelby said “I call it “Structural Smoke.’ ”

He paused in case one of them wanted to ask a question. Apparently they did not. The two ladies were gazing into the depths of their gemstones, mesmerized. The men seem a little bored.

“Ahem. “ Shelby coughed discretely. The women ripped their gaze away from their stones, sat upright, almost at attention, and paid attention to him once more. They seemed a mite embarrassed...” As I said, that trinket is storage. All it is is Structural Smoke. Your neuro-loop controls it.”

“ Structural Smoke and what I was doing earlier are alike in the same way that a toy paper glider is like an F-16 fighter jet. They both fly. SSmoke is that much more sophisticated.”

The two women started at him and blinked. The men straighten up and paid closer attention. He continued.

“See the menu?” he asked.

A virtual window appeared in the air before them.

“Typical menu” Shelby said “nested items. We’ll start with an Avatar. You’ll notice that there is a lot of Structural Smoke in the air in the room? It looks like fog. I’ll use it for the demo. After you leave here, other than what you take with you, you’ll have to provide your own PixieDust.”

Shelby selected a menu item. Sparkles appeared in the air beside him and formed into a tiny whirlpool of light. The whirlpool coalesced into a small dragon, floating in the air.

“You both know my sidekick Elvira?” Shelby asked. Elvira hovered in the air and bowed.

“Elvira is beside herself with happiness to see you” Shelby said. The small, hovering dragon fissioned into two identical copies of itself. They hovered beside themselves.

“And again.” Shelby said, and then there were four.

“OK...POV change. You can see what Elvira’s sees on the screen there?” he asked.

They could...they all nodded.

“Ta DAH! Now you can see from your own eyes what the avatar is seeing...no screen needed.” Shelby said. The screen vanished.

They all gasped in unison as their Point of View shifted. They now felt that they were little dragons.

“Now you ARE the dragon, virtually. That’s why I wanted you to be seated” he said “You could have fallen just now. The transition is disorienting. But wait! It get’s even better...you can FLY! You can control the dragon with your MIND!”

They all felt and indefinable urge to flap wings that they hadn’t realized that they had. They succumbed to the urge and did so,.. somehow. They could fly! They felt like they were flying. The four little dragons darted around the room like humming birds for a few minutes, chasing and frolicking with each other. One dragon was controlled by Tatsu, another by the Dragon Lady. The other two were controlled by Marc and Captain. Tatsu was giggling with delight, the men were chuckling. Even the normally inscrutable Dragon Lady was grinning from ear to ear.

“Fun huh?” he asked “You don’t have to restrict yourself to just a little dragon either. If you have enough Structural Smoke you can do damn near anything.”

“THAT brings up the next subject” he stated ”where to get the Structural Smoke? I have this room stocked. That’s why it looks foggy. The gemstone is solid smoke...Structural Smoke that is. Enough for a drone like that dragon. To do bigger things you need more dust.”

He held something in his hand that looked like a red apple.

This is the heart of an OmniForge. Kina cool that it’s red huh? Hearts are red. We didn’t plan it that way. It just happened. Serendipitous I guess? But I digress. This is the core. I admit it’s a big one. I made it large for demo purpose. “ he smiled

“Add SSmoke” Shelby waved his hand “ here for a tail, here for some legs, here and there, and Viola...

.... you have something like Velma here. She’s cute and harmless although you can make her/it look like anything you want.”

“Consistent with the metaphor” Shelby said “ Velma here lays eggs.”

“Condensed Structural Smoke. I call em Dragon eggs” he said...they all watched as Velma laid an egg. Velma even cackled like a hen when she was done, in a hissy-dragon kinda way.

The dragon lady looked Shelby as if he were insane. The Ogre Brothers were snickering. Tatsu seemed faintly embarrassed. They all looked at the new egg and the unlikely apparition that laid it with either disgust or amusement. It was hard to say.

Shelby said “Of course she’s programmable. Her default option is that she eats trash and cleans up the area. She LOVES plastic bags. She’s in hawg heaven when she finds spilled oil. She’s ecstatic when she can eat a junk tire. She’ll gladly dispose of any inconvenient bodies for you. You can alter her programing to suite your own interests. Either way the more she eats the more dragon eggs she lays. You can then do anything you want with the dragon eggs.”

He looked at the two women. They were still looking askance at the goofy dragon. Apparently appearance mattered.

“If her appearance bother’s you there are unlimited options. Note the avatar menu. “He gestured and the menu appeared again. “There are a myriad of standard choices not to mention the custom option. It can look like anything you want it to look like, even flying piranha’s if that’s what floats your boat.”

He shuddered slightly. The two ladies and the two men looked happier.

The dragon lady raised an eyebrow and looked at Shelby.

“I know, I know, “ he said

With that he removed his coat. He wasn’t balanced on a unicycle. From his hips down there was a small cyclone.

“This is better than anything.” Shelby said. He drifted across the room and back. “ I like it better than when I had legs. Don’t be getting any ideas though. If I had legs I could still use it. I can damn near make this thing fly.”

“But there’s MORE” he said dramatically “It has options. In fact it has a bucketload of options. It can do, literally, do anything you can dream up. If you feel the need for enhanced protection...it’s bullet proof. If you want to stay dry, it’s water proof. If you need to go pottie...it can solve that problem too.”

“Of course” Shelby conceded “if you REALLY want a dragon. It can be one of those too.”

The whirlwind morphed into a dragon. “Or..it can be a ...Pony.

Unicorn..

Velociraptor...

or Army Ant”

....”It can be anything you want it to be” Shelby finished. “as long as you have enough Structural Smoke”

“How clever” the Dragon Lady was pleased. “You did not disappoint. Thank you very much. This is most excellent”

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The Next Episode will be
#72: Kidnap
The Previous Episode was
#70: It's full of stars!
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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