Mosa

  Chapter 25

  The Machina Suit

  Krieg grabbed the hand full of potato chips and started munching it. On the nearby table, there was an orange goldfish puking bubbles, long poop lingering from its ass for half an hour now. Jessica brought it yesterday, excited about her new pet, and named it Goldie. She went to the engineering lab to test the machine suit again.

  Grumbling, Krieg frowned at Goldie and turned on the discovery channel, showing Goldie a great white shark. Goldie didn’t seem to notice anything, her big dumb face just floated in the water. Krieg was glad that the machine suit project was almost done, although Jessica told Krieg it has a long way to go. Four days ago, there was an unfortunate accident with Dr Potts, who fell from the stairs and broke his leg, so he had to stay in the hospital wings for a while.

  Jessica came in from the lab, looking for some machine part. She looked through her thick glasses at Krieg, shaking her head.

  “Nina will be checking upon us soon,” complained Jessica.

  “The suit is almost done, don’t worry about it. We can nail that thing,” said Krieg.

  “Well, she seems to be late today. I wonder what’s gotten to her. I hope nothing serious,” mumbled Jessica. The door made a clicking sound and Nina walked in. Krieg pushed the remote controller and turned the television off. Nina appeared with her breezy hair and dark circle under her eyes, they could see the wrinkles at Nina’s forehead. Her mouth seemed to be bloated a little. Jessica was startled by her appearance.

  “My teeth hurt…” murmured Nina, her eyes filled with tear.

  “Oh,” said Jessica.

  “I went to the dentist,” Nina frowned sharply, spilling her speech, “and… they drugged me. I couldn’t… aww!... concentrate. So I had to stop taking it.” Nina’s eyes were gurgling with tears. Krieg looked at Jessica with an expression that he knew this was going to happen, and turned to Nina.

  “Suit is ready admiral,” he said.

  “No, no it is not ready admiral, we still need to check details…” said Jessica.

  “It,” said Krieg, interrupting her, “is quite ready, it will be available whenever you need it admiral. Now, can I offer you some bag of ice, I can just grab it from the medical room.”

  Nina nodded, constantly making balloons with her left cheek to ease the pain. After Krieg brought the ice, Nina put it on her cheek. They went to the open area which looked like the junk yard where they sell the old machinery part. Jessica wanted to ask about current strategies which Nina had in her mind, because she sensed that Nina will go to war soon. In the last week, Stein requested the suit to be completed by next month. This left Jessica and Krieg work overnight and focus only on the suit. They’ve successfully functionalized the amplifier which gets synapses from the Central Nervous System, programmed to pick an appropriate behaviors regarding the length, speed and heat of joints when they contract and extend the muscle.

  “Well, while Jessica thinks this beauty is incomplete. Let’s cut to the chase! Let us see for ourselves,” Krieg walked up to the thing covered in a white sheet, his eyes beaming with excitement. Nina stayed in silence, putting the ice bag on her jaw.

  “Now, be aware… I mean behold, the vicious, the beautiful, magnificent, legendary machine, the world have yet seen. It is grand and marvelous…” said Krieg.

  “Oh shut up Krieg,” interrupted Jessica, pulling the sheet away.

  Nina looked at the machine, and bit disappointed as she was imagining some sexy robot suit. The suit wasn’t big, only slightly bigger than Stein, looked like one dirty little fur ball.

  “It looks hideous,” murmured Nina.

  Krieg scratched his head, looking at the suit. Nina gave Jessica the ice bag and stepped into the suit. Surprisingly, it grabbed with a great comfort. A motor rotated, locking her body like an exoskeleton of the insect, it has a soft spot on the inside. It sleeved in and locked in her body. The machine arm moved in a way Nina wanted.

  “Oh,” said Nina, little shocked on how well it moved, forgot about the pain she was having on her jaw.

  “It is a good stuff admiral,” said Krieg. Nina started walking with a suit. It made a humming sound, moving softly.

  “It is just a basic helping suit, admiral, like an aiding device. It is extremely efficient, it requires almost no energy,” added Krieg.

  “We are still working on the battery issue, admiral,” said Jessica.

  “Manipulation task is complete. Amplifier from muscle, check, wrist connector, check, motor housing, check, operating system all right to go. Various size and shape can operate, aided by brain signals,” said Krieg.

  “There will be some excess fluid rupture when damaged from outside, and if we can’t eliminate the rupture, we will be very vulnerable against the external forces,” said Jessica.

  “Yeah, if you are hit by a tank shell,” sneered Krieg, arguing against her. “But this is awesome! More than your stupid goldfish!”

  “What? I’m only stating the fact, and Goldie is not stupid!” hissed Jessica.

  But Nina seemed to be not listening, fascinated by the movement and speed she started jogging and jumping with it. Grinning, she punched the big titanium fist into the air.