Freelancer (6 page)

Kari opened the modified drone software from the simulation. The void was instantly filled with different sections of code that managed the different behaviors of her drones. She flipped through the behaviors until she found the sections she was looking for, the parts that governed how her own drones interacted with each other.

She loaded three drones into a holographic simulation so she could see the impact of her changes. Using the current view, she could see a rough outline of what the drones would look like and still be able to see the code and performance information. It wasn’t as immersive as a full simulation, but it allowed her to be more productive.

Each one of the drones was imperceptible from the last; their small bodies were solid black and consisted mostly of four circular propellers that allowed the drone to maneuver as nimbly as a hummingbird in the air. Most other drones were large and designed to do everything from delivering goods to fighting wars. But Kari actually appreciated the small-form factor of drones she had programmed for school.

She removed the small energy canon from the design and replaced it with a little spear that she decided to call the stinger. Beneath the stinger, which stuck out of the front of the drone, she added a camera that would allow her to see from the drone’s perspective when she wanted to.
It would have been much easier to scout that military camp if I could have seen it through one of these drones. Problem solved.

Kari boosted the processing power and battery capacity of the drones’ design significantly; she wanted them to be smart and powerful. She had designed them to be capable individually, but she was much more interested in the challenge of controlling large numbers of them together as a flock. Drones were everywhere already, but a flock of drones that acted intelligently no matter how many were connected together would be revolutionary.

The upgraded drones spun around in the holographic simulation, skillfully dancing around each other without incident. Kari took a moment to evaluate their performance before deciding she was pleased enough and added five drones to the flock. She watched them fly and made several slight adjustments to their design to make them look a little sleeker. She then ordered the simulated drones to race around and perform more complicated maneuvers, updating the code whenever she saw a problem.

Some people her age liked to play sports, whereas some liked to hang out with friends or go to parties. Kari couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do than code. Here, she was in control and made all the rules, which, unfortunately, was a luxury that most high school situations did not offer.

Kari added twenty drones to the flock and watched as they swarmed together, forming groups and flying in beautiful order. She rotated the view and zoomed out her perspective. The hand-size drones were now nothing more than dots buzzing around each other with inhuman precision. They worked exactly as she had expected them to on her first try, which was a phenomenon that programmers usually only dreamed about.

She ordered the drones to fly off a distance so they could circle back to their starting point. The drones dutifully raced away and clumsily attempted to circle around in preparation to return to their origin. Using a tool she had created, Kari rewound the simulation and then manually directed different groups to where they should move as they turned around. She moved several groups counterclockwise while moving other groups in the opposite direction.
Moving in a giant cluster around a target would make them too easy to track and take care of,
but this way, the drones could disorient a target and stay flexible.

Her directions for the drones’ circling actions caused thousands of lines of code to be rewritten, and she quickly reviewed them. She ordered the drones to perform the same maneuver again. When the drones turned around this time, they split into groups and chose different directions, forming a brief whirlwind. Kari had a hard time tracking a single drone in the swirling mass.
Beautiful!

She laughed to herself and called the drones back before tripling their number. Anything was possible here.

“Why not?” Kari heard herself asking out loud. Her voice bounced off the cold, metal walls of her converted storage locker.

She doubled the size of the already impressive drone flock. She wasn’t sure when she would ever need that many drones, but part of her wanted to see what her code was truly capable of. With that thought, she doubled the number drones in her flock yet again. The simulation was now drawing a lot of processing power from the cloud, which was expensive, but Kari hardly registered that fact as she watched her flock of well over a hundred drones. It was impressive, even for her.
I’d love to see Thomas’s and Sarah’s faces right now. Imagine this flock of drones showing up to the competition today!

Before, Kari had been watching the simulation in her development environment as if it were a hologram. That had allowed her to change her perspective and zoom in and out while still being able to read the raw lines of code. Now, however, she projected herself fully into the simulation. Her perspective changed so that she was part of the action, just like in the desert simulation she had done earlier. The lines of code and monitoring metrics were no longer visible, as if she had left her development environment and stepped onto this grassy, green field with her drones in person. The simulation was so detailed that she sometimes had difficulty telling the difference between a simulation and real life.

It was the best way for Kari to know what her drones would behave like in the real world without actually printing them. The drones swarmed around her in the simulation, each one of them flying skillfully in its own direction while maintaining its position relative to the swarm
.
Kari shot her arms out, and the drones elegantly dodged around her. There were so many drones that she could hardly see the green field outside the drone-tornado they had created.

Kari looked down at herself and quickly changed her simulated clothing to a fancy, sparkling dress. She would
never
wear something like that in real life, but here she let herself feel like a princess.
Aubrey would be so proud of me right now if she saw me wearing this dress.

Kari raced across the digital grassland, laughing as her drones danced around her. She gently let herself fall to the ground and stared up into the sky as she ordered her drones to fly above her in complex patterns. As the digital sun began to set, she finally relaxed for a few minutes, basking in the fact that she could make anything she could think of.

When she checked the time, she was startled to see that several hours had already passed. She ordered the printers in the factory to start building a dozen of the latest versions of her drones. She wanted to feel one in her hands before she had to leave. The simulations were life like and great for designing, but they still didn’t offer the same experience as feeling her creations in her hands. Kari liked to print a version of her current project at the end of every day if possible. It provided her an opportunity to test her new design out and feel it in real life. If the design needed more changes, she would simply recycle the prototype and reprint the updated design at her next opportunity.
OK, enough of this, time to see what these drones can really do.

Returning her attention to the simulation, she dropped in two military-grade mechs just over the hill, where a simulated tree resided. Her drones instantly stopped their buzzing patterns and turned their full attention to the new threat. She smiled to herself; their protectiveness reminded her of her family’s old dog, Loop. Kari ordered the mechs to attack.

She sat up and watched as the mechs raised their heavy mechanical arms and pointed them toward her. The mechs were twenty feet tall and were covered with dangerous weaponry. Mechs were fully automated machines of destruction and the weapon of choice for the US military. Kari was thankful that they were rarely needed anymore.
At least until this civil war starts.

Without even needing to receive the order, her drones burst forward in a rush, frantically trying to intercept the deadly energy blasts the mechs had just fired from their arm cannons. Her mind lit up with notifications—the drones were warning her she was in danger. She winced as a handful of drones burst into pieces as they effectively intercepted each of the oncoming energy blasts, thereby preventing the killer balls of molten energy from reaching her.
They’re not Loop. They’re not even real, so it’s OK if they sacrifice themselves for me. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let those mechs get away with it.

Kari ordered her flock of drones to attack. The swarm flew forward as each drone extended its intimidating stinger. Stingers were the only weapon that Kari had designed for the drones. Each stinger was an extendable spear that could become supercharged with ball of electricity—that was the primary reason she had added more battery power to the drones’ design. The drones were no bigger than her hand; however, when they extended their stingers, they looked like a terrifying swarm of giant, angry bees. Kari had designed the stingers to be powerful, capable of overloading and destroying other drones with a single strike. She wasn’t entirely sure how effective they would be against heavily armored units, such as the mechs.

Kari changed her clothing from the dress to attire that was more combat appropriate. She was now wearing full body armor and sporting a heavy helmet. Wearing the dress had been nice for a few minutes, but the body armor and battle scene felt more natural to her. She wasn’t a fighter, but many of her projects required a certain amount of strenuous testing.

Pop! Kari rolled onto her back and saw that the heavy energy fire from the mechs had caught another one of her drones. She blinked to add a review point in the simulation. Later, she would use it to review why the drone had been unable to dodge the energy blast. Kari hid behind small hill of grass and looked over to the battle. Her drones buzzed around the mechs, nimbly dodging hundreds of hostile energy blasts. The stingers were striking the mechs with little bolts of lighting, burning small holes into their thick, metal armor.

Kari ordered the drones to focus the attack on the mech to the left, for the drones didn’t seem capable of destroying both mechs at the same time. She jacked into the camera of one of the drones in the attacking swarm to watch the battle from the drone’s point of view. It was pure madness. Energy blasts flew around at every angle, and drones dodged and attacked whenever they had the chance.

Kari switched her perspective back to her simulated body just in time to watch a stray energy blast travel painlessly through her. She was instantly kicked out of the simulation, and her view returned back to the development simulation from before. As she looked down at where her simulated body had been, her stomach rolled a little bit. Sometimes, simulations were too lifelike.
Maybe I should find a new hobby where I don’t get the pleasure of viewing my blown-to-pieces, simulated body on a regular basis. I could take up the cello, but what’s a cello compared to the most advanced drone flock in the world?

The mechs’ high-powered energy blasts and tiny missiles were gradually blowing her drones from the air. The drones had intelligently begun to focus their stinger attacks on the mechs’ smaller cannons and turrets, desperately trying to bring them offline. Kari was pleased as one drone flew itself into one of the small turrets. It smashed into the mech just as a missile was about to launch, causing it to detonate before clearing the turret. The resulting explosion nearly made the mech fall over. Kari set another note to review her code; she would need to refine her calculations. More of the drones should have done the same thing.

Kari estimated that only a third of the original drone flock remained, but the drones still spun, circled, and fought. A drone in the back attacked where several other stingers had already managed to create a sizable dent in a mech’s armor. The new stinger managed to penetrate the mech’s thick, metal shell, and the electricity from the miniature lighting strike quickly overloaded the complex circuitry inside. The mech started to smoke and make an odd, gear-grinding noise. Suddenly, it collapsed into a thunderous heap.

Kari cheered as a giant dust ball rose when the mech hit the ground. Her drones immediately turned their attention to the second mech. The printers in her factory began to notify her that the drones they were printing were now finished. Kari saved the simulation and returned her attention to the real world, interested to see how the drones felt in real life.

She climbed out of her cot, walked over to the nearest printer, and picked up a finished drone. Its exterior was made of graphium—a thin, black supersubstance. Graphium was extremely strong and conducted electricity perfectly. It was an expensive substance but incomparable. It was extremely light but more durable than even the hardest steel. The graphium revolution had changed the world just as much as three-dimensional printing had, but that was all long before Kari had been born.

Kari turned the small drone over in her hands, appreciating the small fans that powered it. She then used her mind chip to connect with the drone to turn it on. Immediately, it sprang to life and floated in the air above her palm, waiting for orders. Kari let the drone hover and circled it slowly as it remained perfectly still and in front of her at all times.

She instructed the drone to turn on its stinger. The resulting flash from its activation caused her to look away.
It hadn’t seemed as bright in the simulation. I’ll have to look into that.
When she squinted, she was able to see what appeared to be a small ball of electricity connected at the tip of an inch-long dagger. It was beautiful and unnerving at the same time.

She ordered the drone to attack the wall on the opposite side of the factory. The drone bolted toward the wall at breakneck speed. Just before it looked as if the drone would shatter against the wall, its stinger erupted. Crack! The drone burned a hole in the wall and spun away from it at a ninety-degree angle, flipping over itself horizontally before leveling out and flying back to Kari as if nothing had happened.