Chapter 21: The ‘Sergio Partelli’
GravBall scouts were everywhere, especially in the hubs. They were always looking for that perfect player. A perfect player was usually a student who was excelling. If you excelled in the HUB, you must have a lot going for you, because that was not easy. It took intellectual and physical prowess to graduate from the HUB schools. The scouts were always wooing the top students by sending supposedly anonymous gifts. Bribing or paying players was formally frowned upon. In reality, it was ubiquitous.
The door to her quarters slid open and Jayne tossed her knapsack on the floor. She felt a shiver go down her spine and she knew it had nothing to do with the watchers. It was simply a natural response to being home. She smiled and flopped down on her bed.
“Hello, Thirteen, would you like to listen to some music before I inform you why I called you home?” asked Lucky softly.
“Please Lucky, just tell me the details now,” she said and she rolled on her side and cuddled her pillow.
“I am afraid I cannot. I do not know any detailed information. As a result I must also assume that it is crucial to everything by default. I can only direct you to open the package on the table. It is shielded from all of my sensors. It arrived earlier today. If you wish me to report its arrival to security, I will gladly do so. Perhaps it is dangerous? In fact, it must be dangerous just for that reason. I can think of no logical reason for someone concealing any information about you from me. I have, after all, been programmed to protect you. Yes, I will call security now!” stated Lucky.
Jayne quickly jumped to her feet. She thought of the Sentinels. Maybe they were trying to contact her or send her something. “No! Lucky, I do not wish you to alert anyone when I receive a package of this nature. It is probably just something from the new GravBall team I have joined. They said they would be sending me something. That’s all this is,” she said, calming her voice to conceal her lie.
She picked the package up off the table and dropped it on her bed.
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Lucky. “You will tell me your game times and locations. I could not bear to miss one of your games. You must tell me all the plays. I promise I will not spill the beans to any of the other teams. That is the right usage for the phrase ‘spill the beans’? It is such a wonderful phrase. I have been dying to use it. That is not true. I have not really been dying; that is just another phrase I have been wanting to use. Thank you, Thirteen, for telling me about the GravBall team.”
The fact that Jayne joined a GravBall team clearly thrilled Lucky. Even computer generated AI entities, like Lucky, followed GravBall. “Well, aren’t you going to open it?”
“Maybe later,” said Jayne. She flopped down on her bed. It felt wonderful. She slipped the package under her blanket and surreptitiously opened one end and peeked inside. It was a uniform. Someone had sent her a GravBall uniform. She sat up, realizing that this was not something she needed to conceal from Lucky. She pulled the uniform from the wrapping and stood up. She held the folded uniform out in front of her.
“Lucky, look,” she said. “It probably won’t fit.”
“Oh! A GB suit! I was going to talk to you about making sure you used a GB suit with the latest safety protocols. I know this is just a student league but it is still easy to get hurt. The proper equipment is still wise. Show me the ankle tag and I will check to see if it is up to the latest standards,” said Lucky. “If it is, you can try it on. We can always send it out for fitting modifications.”
Jayne exposed a scan tag.
Lucky scanned and exclaimed, “Oh, my!”
“What? What is it? Can I use it or not?” asked Jayne, as she ran her hand over the material. “It feels really cool.”
“You can use it but it was definitely not sent to you by any student GravBall team,” answered Lucky. “Have you been approached by any HUB department?”
“Approached to do what?” asked Jayne.
“Why, work for them so you can play for them,” responded Lucky. “If you have, I will scan their GravBall stats from last year and see if they need players. We might be able to narrow this down to the team that gave it to you. If they gave you this, they want you badly.”
“What is so special about this suit?” asked Jayne, holding it up in front of her. “It looks like it might fit.”
“Oh, it will fit alright,” Lucky said assuredly. “It’s a Sergio Partelli—the latest model. You can’t buy these, even if you could afford it.”
“I’m going to try it on,” stated Jayne, as she began to pull off her work clothes.
“I do not recommend that you try it on until we further investigate the source of the suit. You may not be able to keep it. It might require you to sign up to a team you know nothing about. Where is the specification and commitment chip that came with the suit?” he asked.
Jayne looked in the packaging but could find no chip. She searched the suit. There was nothing. “Nothing here,” she said and she shrugged. “No commitment chip to agree to, then no commitment! I can try on this beauty and no one can hold me to anything ‘cause I didn’t agree to anything. That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Jayne. As far as I can see, someone has given you the most expensive GravBall suit ever made. Shall I expound on its virtues?” Lucky asked and he then continued. “There are many. I have yet to find a single flaw. All the reviews say it is perfect. You must explore its many safety features. I will download the information to your VID. Do you prefer Standard or Iconese?”
“Either will be fine,” she said, as she slipped the uniform on and watched as it self-fitted to her diminutive figure. It was a dark gray with black trim and now fitted her body perfectly. “Boring color.”
“I think that is the neutral. This suit can assume any color or pattern you can conceive. Shall I interface with it and download all the suit colors of all the teams in HUB 169?” asked Lucky casually.
“Yes, please,” stated Jayne.
“Done,” responded Lucky. “Simply say ‘Suit’, the word ‘style’ and the team name. That should do it.”
“Suit – style – Home Grown Panic,” said Jayne. The suit transformed to a bright yellow with red trim. “Wow! Cool!”
“During my interface with the suit, I noticed some command structures that are not available to all users. I tried to follow the path but was disallowed by the AIOS (Artificial Intelligence Operating System). It seems that this new suit has some proprietary algorithms not available to other AIOSs. That, or my security designation was not adequate,” stated Lucky flatly.
“What does that mean?” asked Jayne.
“Well, simply put, that suit has a brain of its own and it won’t tell me all the things it can do,” said Lucky. “That could be dangerous. My purpose is to protect you. Upon reflection, it is my opinion that this suit may not have your best interests at heart. You must remove it and I will destroy it.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Jayne said, somewhat condescendingly. “Have you finished downloading the suit manual to my VID?”
“Yes, Thirteen, I have,” responded Lucky.
“Good. Shut down. I do not wish to be disturbed,” ordered Jayne.
An order would not elicit a protest from an AIU like Lucky unless there was imminent danger. “Shutting down high level functions,” stated Lucky.
There was silence in the room. Jayne found her VID and began to explore the instructions left by Lucky. Questions swirled in her mind. The loudest was, ‘Who sent the suit?’ If she knew that, she would be able to figure out the ‘why’. Right now, she did what she could easily do and that is to explore the suit and all of its possibilities. After all, she was wearing a Sergio Partelli. They made suits for the Pro GravBall players. They made suits for space flight. They made suits for underwater work. They made suits for just about anything where people needed a protective suit.
Jayne played with the suit and its myriad of functions. She played with it and giggled at the results. She explored various combinations.
If she was vague in her commands to the suit the AIOS chose the most likely possibility. Sometimes the final result was weird, to say the least.
Then she had an inspiration—beyond GravBall. She called out, “Suit – style – standard HUB 169 jumpsuit.”
Jayne smiled. She was now ready for work in the HUB.