#96: Henry Drake: Video Call

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next day

Henry opened the video call to Shelby

” We have a proposal” Shelby said.

Shelby cut straight to the heart of the matter. “I don’t dis-trust you. That’s in your favor. If I distrusted you we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I don’t trust you either. I haven’t known you long enough to do so. That does not necessarily work to your disadvantage in this particular deal. Sometimes neutral is sufficient.“

Then Shelby tossed him a curveball out of no where. “How do you feel about remote kill switches?”

Henry thought about it for a moment. “It would depend on who is getting killed.”

Shelby feigned shock. “ Of course I meant ‘kill the machine.’ How paranoid of you.”

Then he grinned “Were you a Marine?”

Now it was time for Henry to be shocked “As a matter of fact, yeah. You?”

“Can’t tell you that.” Shelby said “But I’ve worked with a number of Marines. Ever hear of CuChi?”

Henry’s eyes got big for a moment. “Actually I have.”

Shelby said. “Remember the Ghost of CuChi and we’ll get along just fine.”

“Here’s the deal. We’re sending you a Fluffy. You pay us a fair price in Crystal starting immediately and keep it coming. We need Crystal and we need it right now.” Shelby said.

“Crystal ships better. We can make our own from several sources but we need to USE it rather than spend time making it. Our need is great enough that we’ll pay you to make it for us. As long as you deal with us in good faith all is well. If you quite dealing with us in good faith, all hell will break lose. You do NOT want to aggravate Fluffy. Aside from arms and legs being ripped off you might not want to deal with the detonation. It’s not Megatons but the flash will be visible from a long ways.”

“Fluffy?” Henry said.

“Had to call it something.” Shelby replied. “It’s a new type of Device. It’s much less than an Omni-forge yet it’s much more than a SmokeForge AND it contains a molecular furnace. We might have called it a Fabricator but that’s dull. One of our children called the first mobile form; Fluffy. Seemed like a good name so it stuck. What it can fabricate will be limited of course to code locked programming. If you want to remove some of the limitations come talk to us. Bring money if you want to do that. Do NOT try to do so yourself. ”

If Henry had been smoking a cigar he might have swallowed it. This was incredible. Cheat that old man? Oh hell no. He’d heard rumors about the Ghost of CuChi when he’d been a grunt. He’d just as soon put a gun to his own head and pull the trigger before he’d try to cheat Shelby. It’d be just as sure but much less painful.

“When will it be here?” Henry asked.

“It should be arriving anytime.” Shelby said “The kids saddled it up onto a fast-manta just for this occasion. Fluffy left here some time ago.”

“How much will it cost me?” Henry asked.

“That will take some explaining” Shelby said ”You knew the game would be rigged. It is. We want an upfront delivery of one unit of Crystal as quickly possible. By ‘delivery’ I mean birth. When Fluffy eats and processes enough feedstock to give birth to one unit I’ll consider that delivery. We REALLY want that crystal so I’m cutting you some breaks as an incentive.”

One:I won’t charge you for time in transit.

Two: When Fluffy arrives you have a while for orientation and ‘set-up’ time before she starts making bacon.”

“Other bonuses may apply.” He said.

“After the first ‘lease payment birth’ (LPB) you have time on the clock. Until you use it up you can make anything you want. Remember that Fluffy is a lease not a buy. However, you can manipulate the lease payment to your advantage.”

“There is a ballon payment and it’s overriding. It pretty much takes priority until it’s paid. You can pay it off as slowly, to a point, or as quickly as you please. When it’s paid off she’s yours other than making the monthly lease.”

“Just don’t tamper with her brain or she’ll kill you, and possibly every one and everything in a hundred yard radius. We’re serious about copyright.” he concluded.

Henry sat nodding. He had expected as much.

Shelby continued. “The ratio is ten hours for every LPB.

“Can I get ahead of the game?” Henry asked.

“Certainly” Shelby told him. “ You have two other options. You can apply your time to growing LPB’s, and nothing else. You can also bank your time or sell it back too me. I pay in Groats. I can’t see how they would help you pay off your lease sooner however.”

“To pay it off sooner work Fluffy harder. Work her longer hours. Fluffy is a hearty eater and she works 24/7, she doesn’t break down, and if she’d damaged (somehow) she can self repair most of the time. She’s not fussy about who or what she eats and might eat someone or something you don’t want eaten while you are asleep. Like yourself. She requires some supervision.” he said grimly.

This was actually a better deal that what he had hoped for. He said.“I believe we have a deal”

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The Next Episode Is
#97: Henry Drake: Fluffy…
The Previous Episode was
#95: Bananna Slug: Change of Plans…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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