Decisions From The Heart

February 6th, 2024 – Tuesday: 11:15 AM

Garrick’s body is having various shooting pains as nerves and muscle tissue repairs itself. Brandon left him stunned by his revelation of being a natural charmer. He had just been studying how his father interacted with everyone. Southern charm and hospitality was big in his family. He then remembered what Katherine had said to him just hours ago, “How many women did you plan on dating?”

He sent off an encrypted email to the Geist first at about 11:02 AM:

He followed that up with a bunch of texts to Katherine as he thought about their trip home from the Wax Museum.

He had thanked the Wayfarer many times before he left them taking Aaziakel the Doombringer with him. He was just unable to hide the limp, the bleeding hand that had ripped the sword away from the surprised angelic-looking form Patsy had taken on. Miss Amazing could see it and she also knew how wrecked his body looked underneath his clothing. After everyone was gone and they were about to leave the roof they were on she rested a hand on his as it gripped Patsy’s unconscious form, “You’re still hurt Gryphon.”

“I will keep the speed down to match whatever leaping speed you set.”

Miss Amazing couldn’t tell if it was the pain he was finally beginning to feel or he was still angry, but onward she went. It was 8:54 AM when they landed on his rooftop portion of the building. He carried Patsy inside and laid Patsy in his bed. She promised to watch over Patsy, but she couldn’t convince Garrick to call off today. He began to change clothes and get in the shower, and she finally saw or paid more attention to the extent of the injuries he sustained fighting the gang bangers last night. She thought she had seen bad before but he should have been in a hospital! From his pectoral muscles and shoulder blades down to his knees was a varying shade of yellow, green, purple, and black! Over 35 wounds in the process of becoming scabs roughly the size of bullet holes were dotting him like chickenpox. As well as over 12 scars given by blades or sharp objects at various stages of healing!

Having removed her mask Katherine acknowledged her ability to take a hit from multiple attackers may not have survived what he did. She asked what outfit he wanted to wear, he grimaced out a reply and apology for his tone. She was surprised he was using manners at all and got his clothes ready. They talked as he was getting ready as fast as he could, wincing with every movement. They talked about January 30th and Katherine admitted they started out being a bit rude to each other. She came clean about hearing a voice during their chat and now realizing Patsy may have been under Aaziakel’s control longer than anyone thought! She felt bad and didn’t realize what it was until it was to late.

Just after finishing tying his shoes he took her hands in his, “Hey, I would not have realized it. I was worried I was smothering her, I thought I had to let her pursue her own agenda as an adult. I had to let you two come to terms with each other as adults. Sometimes adults fight, but then make up. It would be hypocritical of me to butt my nose into your relationship with each other.” Katherine was nodding as he went on, “I am infatuated with her but fear a relationship wouldn’t work because at some point she will go home. While I promised to come and help defeat Murder Master I know I would return home to here. Look I have to get going but Wednesday morning we all need to have a long chat about how we feel about each other. After the Giving Tree tonight I will be wiped out!” He gives Katherine a very warm and genuine hug as though he wasn’t hurting at all.

When he got downstairs he grabbed some extra medical stuff and he finally allows his poker face to show much pain he is in. He walked through his office door at 9:34 AM.

At 11:12 AM he continued with two more texts:

His first meeting at 11:20 AM was with his team so he could review their long-term projects on hardware code interfacing for the parts to integrate with other systems in a form of plug and play robot building. Hana Akaikawa had been calling it adult, ass-kicking Legos! Pedro Escobar was still working an updated sensor suite for appendages and sensor drones. Mia Schmidt had built off of Gary’s old notes to explore the creation of amalgam artificial intelligence. Because code for each piece was the soul of the component she felt it could be possible to compile an A.I. from the amalgam of each assembled component creating the whole of the A.I. core neural network! Because of the variety of Hana’s plug and play features, alongside Pedro’s sensor suite upgrades, she spent much of her time trying pull it all together and smooth out all the “rough edges” in the core personality!

As they came in Garrick is sitting at the table they use for meetings, he’s already got three chairs pulled out for them. He rises to greet them and Hana tells him to sit down, he’s moving like she did after a car accident. Pedro and Mia look at each other and then to their boss as he complies and chuckles, “Umm, it felt like a rocket launcher hit me. However, y’all didn’t come up from the basement lab for a play by play. Sit and let’s get this meeting started.” Garrick mentioned every scheduled patch is done. Firmware has been tested and in place, so every computer, and machine in the basement shop and server farm is finally running the latest upgrades. He has pitched a follow up movie deal to Brandon whom is going to call his contacts in Mission City about its viability but he’s excited.

Mia, showed off her her current prototype algorithm on a test server of building and A.I. from sample programs installed on a virtual server! The results dramatically varied based on which programs were installed. The more options which were introduced expanded the functionality but still increased the instability exponentially. In her preliminary experiments three test servers overheated and destroyed themselves! Brandon finally sprung for an upgraded machine sufficient for the second layer to house the new virtual server they were using. It was sufficient for now partly because it was seriously limited in how many additional programs it was exposed to. However the project showed serious merit that it even worked! It still needed a lot more testing and understanding before it could amount to anything safely practical, and destroying their new machine was a costly failure she had been warned to avoid.

Hana, shows off the first prototype of the Mallic Modular Robot. She lays out 14 black chrome spheres with orange and silver lines and circles so they are touching each other. Spherical, exposed, contact circuitry! When she type some commands on her tablet they clumsily reconfigured themselves into a primitive stick figure robot! Hana mentions using orbs were the easiest and quickest way to produce a prototype. With more testing existing robotics designs could someday be retrofitted or designed to take advantage of this technology. She envisions that eventually robotic parts with thrusters and flight suite to begin putting themselves together on site!

Pedro, managed to take a pin point radiation emitter used back in 2018 to make radiation therapy for cancer easier on patients. He then used that to design what he intended to eventually be a two-finger and thumb hand that could x-ray scan, carbon date, contact material register from up to three inches away 300 materials types, and analyze 30 different medical conditions with an exposed blood sample. All of those by themselves would be good but exist in varying devices on the market which Pedro had with him. He had them all tied to a computer running an experimental cross referencing algorithm that he believed allows him to build a chemical makeup and behavior profile. Garrick was impressed the most at the cross referencing and put his hand out. “Go ahead, Pedro, use me as a test case.” Surprised and excited Pedro does arrange the scanners around Garrick’s hand and started the scan. After he ran the scan they waited about two minutes and then Pedro, Mia, and Hana slowly looked up at their boss a little freaked out. Pedro asks, “Were you aware there are minor traces of the same explosive chemical found in some older model RPG’s!”

Garrick sighed and put his head in his hand for a second before answering, “The fact that it picked it up impresses the hell out of me, Pedro. Everyone keep working on your projects and let Constance know about your progress so her team can push them to practical testing applications. Mia here are a few notes I jotted down that might categorize the builds using the psych profiles like ENFJ and such. It should also help when using Pedro’s work to smooth out attitude fluctuations. Hana, your brilliant and work with Brandon and Constance to take the modular robot to the next phase using her socket system. If that works I am very excited to see it go to production testing.

Pedro piped up, “Was the rocket launcher joke, not a joke?”

Garrick folds his hands having worked his way through tough moments in prison before, “Okay, all I am going to say about the matter is their were some innocent people being threatened with death from a gang. I intervened and got shot by an RPG. All of you will just have to be satisfied with that answer. You have your assignments now get to them.”

As Garrick moved around the office: getting coffee, papers from the printer, and seeing if Horace wanted to go half on lunch. Everyone except Sam in security and Brandon kept a 3 foot distance away from him and neither Horace or Constance were in their offices. This distance had been going on for some time now. About as long as he had started coming to work transformed.

A little bit later about 12:30 PM:

Garrick smacks his head into his hand, the voice to text didn’t catch every word and what was suppose to be heart warming makes it seem like he might be trying to break up with her. While he wanted to text her back he was afraid about making it worse.

A little bit later about 1:30 PM he gets two texts from Ramona:

Shorty #2 had expressed some excitement about getting to go out and meet some other kids. He thought to himself maybe he could find a way to let her down easy with poetry in return? It was worth a shot to type it out as voice to text already had him in hot water with Katherine. After taking a bit to compose something on his lunch. he wrote:

Rereading his text he only felt mildly confident. If he was lucky she would get that the death of the flower was any relationship that might be between them. The rebirth was to be a nice friendship. Yeah, he saw it and he warned her it was original poetry. He even left Shorty an out in case he didn’t want to come along. The boys had raved about the BBQ all week so he felt very confident there. If only his dad were here to help him navigate women better. How could ‘she’ even think their nights together had not meant the world to him? Now she was telling him to go have fun? Had she broken up with him already? To be fair he had never expected it to go as far as it did. Maybe she would start pursuing, hmm… she said something about secrets? I’d wonder what that was about but best to leave psychic, hornet nests alone for your mind is crunchy and goes good with bacon.

Garrick sighs. “Welp, I screwed that up, maybe. At 27, I am about to utter words no well adjusted male will ever say again. I just have to not accidentally charm or seduce anyone tonight.” He went back into his house on the first floor and got a few items out from the climate controlled storage. He returned to his office after a few minutes and leaned them against the wall on the floor. He scheduled a print job for the photo quality printer and made sure he was there to pick it up. One was a partial database table layout and the other item was the real reason he was there. He felt bad surprising the guy from marketing and he left quickly as he realized Garrick was waiting for something from the printer. Garrick sighed when he heard him whisper not quiet enough, “Damn freak forgot how to leave home at home.”

He sighed and realized if that was the worse someone thought of him, screw them he could live with that. Besides he was entitled to what he felt and it wasn’t like gang rape in prison so none of the dissenting opinions really meant anything to him anyway. He smirked and his outlook on the day got so much brighter. When he got back in his office he pulled out his own drawing tablet so he could work off of his private network. He set out an outline:

Micro Fusion Reactor

A robotic power source that is scalable

Thesis: To design a power supply that should last for 50 years in a robot before degradation. Also using the robot hands and arms as a means of offense/defense with energy blasters. These weapon systems would also double as a physical network/power circuit link to share the power load and thus create grids for a municipality that is scalable and defensible in a world with powered threats.

Goals:

• Design a reactor core using a different concept than the Daedalus Project.
  • Find out what the guidelines are for this. Talk to Jake if possible.
  • Ask Jake if he would mind helping grade my work to make sure I stay in the correct parameters so I can tell the Alien to piss off, nicely.
• Figure out how to mircosize it to at basketball at least and softball at most.
  • Make sure it has a “clean” blast vector not unlike what happened with Iron Mike.
  • If possible design an inert encompassing state to nullify the material and prevent detonation all together?
• If I can’t make the domes to take humanity to the stars then perhaps I can help create the robots that carry them there. If this works revisit the dome concept.

It had seemed like such a simple idea but tomorrow he would begin figuring out how to begin each step. Especially if he was indeed single having been in, what he thought was, the shortest relationship on record. He knew he would need something to occupy his mind. Continuing his father’s work to help his company branch out more seemed a good use of time.

Sitting in his office on the last hour of the day everyone would be gone at 4:30 PM and because he was late he knew he was working on certain code issues for user needs while trying to carefully craft an apology and explanation. He included four pictures he had done of Katherine from memory each time. She’d never known he’d made any of her and Garrick was only sharing them because he was desperate to fix a voice to text omission of words. The first picture was watercolor of her in the shower with him. He clipped his assignment review to it. She would know that he was relying on his experiences with her to get through art class. The second (going clockwise) was a reverse gradient white in black digital sketch he had printed on photo quality paper and then after everyone left he 3-D printed a simple frame for it. The third picture was a perspective in color pencil and oil pastels of the picture she sent him of her diving off a building. The last one was oil and acrylic of them sleeping together.

On the last picture his teacher was talking about putting enough work together to perform a showing at the University. On the third picture the personal note next the letter “A” was this person must be very special to you. On his second picture his teacher mentioned she enjoyed watching Garrick stream his approach to sketching and answering questions from his classmates and others viewing it on Twitch. Garrick left them stacked together with wax paper separating each one. He left a hand written note attached to the ribbon he tied them all up with.

Sandwiched between the last two pictures was another, longer letter:

Garrick nodded when he had reread it for the thirtieth time. It was 5:40 PM as he carried the package back into his house. He went downstairs to check on his three remaining Shorties. They exclaimed they would have the homework done tonight. Garrick said they had till 11 PM or their Internet access would shut off. They verbally acknowledge and go back to their raid. Garrick went upstairs and saw a sign on his door in Katherine’s hand writing “STAY OUT!” He realized that it was mostly aimed at the Shorties but also likely meant for him as well now. He set the package on the kitchen island and left one of his business cards folded into a tent. He wrote Kat’s name on it and gathered up everything for the Giving Tree and left.

When he got there early he put his Mallic Robotics apron on. He felt that he got a text message but decided to read it later because he didn’t believe it was anything other than how he had screwed up again. He waves to a few people he knows and begins to get dinner going. While the food is beginning to cook Ramona comes into the kitchen and she is beaming with glee! She comes over and he takes her hand and dips his forehead to touch it. Classic southern gentleman greeting it may have been in these days it was archaic and almost forgotten. Garrick was hoping because he did not kiss her hand she’d get the we’re friends hint. However, even when he cleaned his hands again and switched gloves she was still acting smitten. He tried to ask about the last evening and she described the prior night visit of the two Mavericks: the Gryphon and Miss Amazing. Apparently, the Gryphon had told poor Juliana that he would be here tonight to check on her. However, she was still at Koan Memorial Hospital, along with about half of the refugees from the night before. Smoke inhalation being the most common reason, and Juliana’s leg being the most severe.

It was just after 7:30 PM when Brandon Mallic arrived and he excused himself to talk with his boss. Ramona left them both, and he explained about Juliana. He gives him a promising report about his teams projects. Then he asks about two days off to work on designing a micro fusion reactor. Brandon puts his arm and hand on Garrick gently, “Let me see if I got this, you want to take time off work to work? Yes take two days off, but for the love of everything holy do not do that. Whatever you got cooking in your head can wait till you come back. Besides that lady back there looks as though she needs more of your time.” Brandon moves away to leave and talks to the Director and a few other people before saying his goodbyes.

Ramona starts talking about a book she is reading and a church she has been attending, the Church of the Reflectionist. It sounded like a cult to Garrick the more he heard or a pyramid scam of some kind. He was very respectful when she showed him her triangle above a dashed line and an inverted triangle below pendant. He made plans to be willing to attend a gathering in two Thursdays when new members were encouraged to go through orientation. He tries to turn the conversation back to the Mavericks that were here the previous night. When Ramona feels convinced that the man Garrick was just talking to may be the Gryphon, who she thought was supposed to show up tonight, Garrick mentions that armor like the Gryphon wears could easily disguise sex and appearance. Ramona nods and begins to wonder if the person in the armor was a woman instead of a man. Off she went to see if she can find the Gryphon in disguise among those present.

As Garrick left that night he sent a text and encrypted email to the Geist about this new church/cult. When he pulled into his house he finally check the unread text message from Katherine:

“Well, it appears she likes the pictures,” he thought to himself. When he headed in he found out the Shorty squad had not finished their homework. So he told Optimus to shut it off till they had it done and he scanned and checked it for accuracy. While decrying this loss of game privileges he saw them awkwardly work together to get it done. His father had always said everyone’s carrot is different but motivating nonetheless. He text Katherine he was home and heading upstairs. He saw the sign on his door was gone and he sat at the kitchen island. She apologized for not understanding how new he is to this and overreacting. He said while he was sad he felt bad she had to revisit all the hormonal changes of a late teenager. They promised each other to be better at communicating, and then she dropped the bombshell.

Earlier that day while Garrick was brainstorming his reactor project Patsy almost woke up but Katherine realized it was a bad dream. She went in to her mind to look and see if it was serious, it shocked her to see Patsy fighting Jake in her world! Gryphon had been informed about Jake being from a different dimension, and he had talked with Patsy enough to know that there were many differences between her world and theirs, some subtle some not subtle. Perhaps, in her world the Jake of Millennium Station got rid of problems he didn’t want to deal with and he sealed the dimension Garrick came from! That version of Jake had become the super villain, Murder Master! He knew what he was going to be doing in the morning with this info. He asked Katherine if she would mind staying the night as he was going to sleep on the floor. She was excited and then let down when she heard the sleeping arrangement. When she told him not to worry because Shorty and her both went to Waingroh High School and even he was doing well. When he found out she lived in the Dreadzone he mentioned for the second time she could have the room on the first floor if she’d rather live here. In Garrick’s mind anything was a step up to that hellhole!

Kathrine was so excited and made plans to move in the next day since Garrick was staying home! Wait… Second time? Then she realized Optimus had mentioned that room had been assigned to her before, had she missed the first time Garrick had invited her to move in? She saw him looking around the very industrial home that had no windows to speak of. He started nodding and realized Katherine had not really moved anything but had done a deep cleaning of the second floor. She told him his roombas sucked at her version of clean and he was forced by empirical evidence to agree. Kat ran down stairs to check out “her room” on the first floor. Her badge caused the door to unlock at two feet from touching it! She went inside and saw that it was 25ft. by 25ft. in size! This could easily have been 4 and maybe 5 different bedrooms anywhere else in Brisby Flats! Four of her could sleep in the bed, and the second bed had been converted into a 5′ deep by 10′ wide and 8′ tall storage unit. With the extra mattress rolled up in plastic wrap and stored above it. There was a post it note taped to multi-tiered 10′ wide by 3′ deep desk.

“I look forward to being partners in crime”stopping” with you. :-)”

There was dust on the desk and note, suggesting it was likely a week old. When she touched it the 27 inch wide transparent display with holo-projected keyboard went dim as the top tier of the desk expanded up and a TV with speakers was now visible with game controllers and a remote. She turn to thank Garrick and realized Garrick had slipped away. She found him in a corner of his room curled up on the floor, asleep. He had managed to take off his apron and rolled it into an almost non-existent pillow. Two spare bed sheets were rolled up and laid out like a do not cross line. There was a note in his handwriting taped above him:

Then pen trails off without even finishing his name. Katherine sees him twitch and punch the wall. She concentrates and just scans the surface thoughts. After 60 seconds she breaks the connection. A dark room and a prison guard with seven prisoners. They are beating and doing despicable things to Garrick! The guard walks over and cups Garrick’s chin while he is suspended spread eagle. When the guard asks about the boxes from the truck and he refuses to talk. The guard nods and glowing red hot thread rod is dragged across his back while he is violated by another inmate. The only verbal thoughts she got was “this is how I loose my virginity?” She was shaking and wanted to snap that guard in half, fold him like a pretzel, and use his compressed body to beat the other prisoners until they stopped moving. For a ‘moment’ she didn’t dislike Patsy at all for giving him any comfort. Then a smile took over his face and he seemed at peace. With great trepidation she peaked in on his thoughts once more and it was an image of them and Katherine in the image had just fallen asleep on his chest. Now the thoughts read, “With enough of these I will destroy the bad ones!”

Katherine knew what she meant to him. And now she had a good idea how she could finally show him how much she cared for him. She removed her hands from the table, not noticing that her angry grip had left an indent in the metal.

Art by: AZ_Artisan