I13DT - Cained

[Narrator]

"So you're looking for proof that I am who I say I am or that I'm not up to no good? The first one is easy, the second is always more difficult to prove."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"How much say did you have in the liquidation of your assets?"

[Narrator]

"Little to none. I was indisposed at the time that the bankruptcy happened."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"What capacity have you encountered Michael O'Dell in?"

[Narrator]

"He was an investor during the heady start-up days. He's living proof that I should have screened my investors more carefully."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"He seems to have managed to refine some of your designs."

[ASHLIE]

"More that he wastes their potential."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Ashlie here can be a bit opinionated on these matters," she smirks faintly.

"But yes, I rather did think it was swatting flies with a bazooka to just turn it into a locator beacon."

[Narrator]

"He always did strike as a relatively small-minded man with a great deal of money."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Most of that he was frozen out from, but he seems to have some squirreled away."

[Narrator]

"I'm not surprised."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Well then, I believe Ashlie wanted to show you what we've found?"

[ASHLIE]

"Indeed. If you would care to follow me." she says, heading for the door.

[Narrator]

"Of course," he said, following ASHLIE, but stopping in front of Dee. He held out his hand, "It was nice to meet you, Dr. Quinn."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Oh, don't mistake me, we're all taking this little tour," she chuckles and goes to shake his hand.

[Narrator]

"Even better," he said, shaking her hand anyway. She would get the immediate sense that he had more metal in his body than most normal humans, though it seemed to be free-floating rather than some sort of actual structure. Some of the metal might possibly be of the 'heavy' family.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"...some rather serious medications you're on, aren't you?"

[Narrator]

"Serious medications for a serious condition," he said, releasing her hand.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Sorry to pry, it's just hard not to notice some things, with my powers."

[Narrator]

"Everyone has their own trials. Maybe if we collaborate more..." He smiled at ASHLIE. "Shall we?"

[ASHLIE]

"Certainly." she says and leads them out of the mansion, across the grounds and to the Point, taking a route to the workshops that avoids any sensitive areas.

"Please excuse the clutter, some of the students use this workshop." she says, heading towards the work area in the corner that's very clean and organized. Next to it is a large aquarium containing all kinds of electronic scrap. In the middle a small narrow 'tower' stands out from the scrap. A small six-legged robot is scrambling around inside the glass confines.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"As you can see, she's taken an interest."

[Narrator]

He leaned down to peer at the aquarium. "And that incorporates the induction chip?"

[ASHLIE]

"Yes. It has a controller chip with basic heuristic algorithms that control it's movement and behavior. The only energy source is the station in the middle and it has learned not to move further form it than it's charge allows. Initially it depleted it's charge aimlessly, requiring backup batteries but it has since reprogrammed itself to utilize the backup to store additional energy from the charging pillar and increase it's range. It's what gave me the idea for a stacked array of induction chips."

[Narrator]

"An intriguing possibility," he said, snuffling and rubbing his nose. "So now that the power transition problem is handled, that does open up quite a bit more possibilities. Have you contemplated hardening it against outside static interference?"

[ASHLIE]

"No. It introduces imperfections and it will eventually harden itself. Of course the probability of that would increase if I could reproduce the chip and create more of them."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"She's a big proponent of letting things happen in a test environment, and adaptive algorithms."

[Narrator]

"With your specifications, we could probably put together some more chips. Assuming you have the fabrication facilities to do so."

[ASHLIE]

"We likely do." she smiles.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Have to use the clean room, but I'd imagine we could arrange something."

[Narrator]

"Well, if you can give me the name of a good place to stay in Maldon, I can certainly remain around to help with this. I'd like to see my creations put to some good use."