you?â
âThis is unbelievable,â he said excitedly. âItâs you in there!â
I blocked out my front view and switched to a side lens. It showed my body on the bed again. I zoomed in close. My chest rose and fell as the body breathed.
âYes,â I said, âitâs me in here.â
I kept watching the bed. It was very strange. That was my body on the bed, but it wasnât my body. My brain was working, controlling a robotâs body. Very, very strange.
I switched to the rear video lens, then the other side, and then the front again. In a blur, it showed the back wall, the side wall, and Rawlingâs face.
Big mistake. Going in a circle that fast made me dizzy. I wouldnât do that again.
âCan you move?â Rawling asked.
In my mind, I pictured shoving back in my wheelchair.
Both robot wheels responded instantly. In a flash, I was going backward. Too fast!
Without thinking, I switched to the rear video lens.
The back wall was approaching too quickly.
Stop, I commanded the wheels. Stop!
In that instant, I fell into blackness again. Off that high, invisible cliff into that deep, invisible hole.
Just like that, I was back in my body. I felt the straps against my stomach and chest. I felt my itchy chin. And I heard a loud crash.
âTyce!â Rawling shouted. âAre you all right?â
âYeah,â I said from the bed. Iâd forgotten the stop command would disengage me from the computer drive. âBut howâs our robot?â
CHAPTER 18
Hello again, journal. I feel like a person in a cave who has just found enough gold to make him rich for the rest of his life, then watches as the cave entrance gets covered by a landslide. What good is the gold going to do then?
For me, the experiment with the robot was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had freedom for the first time in my life.
Rawling spent the rest of the afternoon with me. The robot wasnât damaged from smashing into the back wall, so we put it through dozens of trial runs. Each time I got a little better at using it. All the years in virtual-reality training have paid off for us.
I rested my fingers, thinking about what Iâd write next.
The robot is amazing. It has heat sensors that detect infrared, so I can see in total darkness. The video lensesâ telescoping is so powerful that I can recognize a personâs face from five miles away. I can also zoom in close on something nearby and look at it as if using a microscope.
I can amplify hearing and pick up sounds at higher and lower levels than human hearing. The titanium has fibers wired into it that let me feel dust falling on it, if I want to concentrate on that miniscule of a level. It lets me speak easily, just as if I were using a microphone.
It canât smell or taste, but one of the fingers is wired to perform material testing. All I need are a couple specks of the material, and this finger will heat up, burn the material, and analyze the contents.
Itâs strong too. The titanium hands can grip a steel bar and bend it.
Did I mention itâs fast? Those wheels will move three times faster than any human can sprint.
I love this robot. I can hardly wait to get back into it tomorrow.
All of this is the good news, just like finding gold.
The bad news is that we are one day closer to the dome running short of oxygen.
I finally have my freedom. And now I might lose it.
But worseâway worseâis the scary thought that Mom has volunteered to leave the dome so others can survive. I canât handle it. Life seems so unfair. I keep telling myself that somehow the solar panels will be fixed before tomorrow at noon.
Because thatâs when 20 people must get sent onto the surface of the planet to die.
CHAPTER 19
The next day, two hours before the deadline to have the solar panels fixed, Director Steven called another general meeting. It took me and Rawling away from our experiments with the
âThis is unbelievable,â he said excitedly. âItâs you in there!â
I blocked out my front view and switched to a side lens. It showed my body on the bed again. I zoomed in close. My chest rose and fell as the body breathed.
âYes,â I said, âitâs me in here.â
I kept watching the bed. It was very strange. That was my body on the bed, but it wasnât my body. My brain was working, controlling a robotâs body. Very, very strange.
I switched to the rear video lens, then the other side, and then the front again. In a blur, it showed the back wall, the side wall, and Rawlingâs face.
Big mistake. Going in a circle that fast made me dizzy. I wouldnât do that again.
âCan you move?â Rawling asked.
In my mind, I pictured shoving back in my wheelchair.
Both robot wheels responded instantly. In a flash, I was going backward. Too fast!
Without thinking, I switched to the rear video lens.
The back wall was approaching too quickly.
Stop, I commanded the wheels. Stop!
In that instant, I fell into blackness again. Off that high, invisible cliff into that deep, invisible hole.
Just like that, I was back in my body. I felt the straps against my stomach and chest. I felt my itchy chin. And I heard a loud crash.
âTyce!â Rawling shouted. âAre you all right?â
âYeah,â I said from the bed. Iâd forgotten the stop command would disengage me from the computer drive. âBut howâs our robot?â
CHAPTER 18
Hello again, journal. I feel like a person in a cave who has just found enough gold to make him rich for the rest of his life, then watches as the cave entrance gets covered by a landslide. What good is the gold going to do then?
For me, the experiment with the robot was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had freedom for the first time in my life.
Rawling spent the rest of the afternoon with me. The robot wasnât damaged from smashing into the back wall, so we put it through dozens of trial runs. Each time I got a little better at using it. All the years in virtual-reality training have paid off for us.
I rested my fingers, thinking about what Iâd write next.
The robot is amazing. It has heat sensors that detect infrared, so I can see in total darkness. The video lensesâ telescoping is so powerful that I can recognize a personâs face from five miles away. I can also zoom in close on something nearby and look at it as if using a microscope.
I can amplify hearing and pick up sounds at higher and lower levels than human hearing. The titanium has fibers wired into it that let me feel dust falling on it, if I want to concentrate on that miniscule of a level. It lets me speak easily, just as if I were using a microphone.
It canât smell or taste, but one of the fingers is wired to perform material testing. All I need are a couple specks of the material, and this finger will heat up, burn the material, and analyze the contents.
Itâs strong too. The titanium hands can grip a steel bar and bend it.
Did I mention itâs fast? Those wheels will move three times faster than any human can sprint.
I love this robot. I can hardly wait to get back into it tomorrow.
All of this is the good news, just like finding gold.
The bad news is that we are one day closer to the dome running short of oxygen.
I finally have my freedom. And now I might lose it.
But worseâway worseâis the scary thought that Mom has volunteered to leave the dome so others can survive. I canât handle it. Life seems so unfair. I keep telling myself that somehow the solar panels will be fixed before tomorrow at noon.
Because thatâs when 20 people must get sent onto the surface of the planet to die.
CHAPTER 19
The next day, two hours before the deadline to have the solar panels fixed, Director Steven called another general meeting. It took me and Rawling away from our experiments with the
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