“Bot coming on your left.”
A soft whirring came toward her, and it had a case in its clamps.She took the kit, grabbed her components from the extruder, and went to the workbench.She grinned and started putting her project together.
“Boss, do we have any motors and power packs?”
“What are you building?”
“Motorized scooter.This place is huge.”
“Build a helmet and knee pads.”
“Yes, Mom.”
He said,“Birun says you can’t go faster than five kilometres per hour unless you wear safety gear.”
She continued to work.“You squealed on me?”
“Yes.Birun said he will come in here and take your toys away if you don’t take care of yourself.”
“Fine.I will use safety gear, and the bots can do electrical testing for me.”
“Sensible.Now, go generate your safety gear.”
She sighed and stalked over to the unit, describing what she wanted and getting a full set of knee and elbow pads in the works.
She headed back to her workbench and kept working.
Two hours later, she set the scooter on the floor, put on her safety gear, and got on the scooter.She pushed off and cackled.The rollers glided beautifully, and this would let her work on her next projects.She picked up the backpack and said, “Boss, how close am I to dinner?”
“You have about an hour.”
“Can you ask Birun if I can pick some fruit to experiment with?”
There was a pause, and the reply came.“You can pick one pound of fruit you wish.”
“Okay.I might just zip around the halls for a bit.”
“You have an hour.”
It was enough time to see if she could build up some speed.It was juvenile to use a scooter, but she had always wanted one.Now she had made one herself from a design that had been in her head for years.She took the scooter out of the lab, pointed it toward the greenhouse, and squeezed the accelerator.She hummed along at a sedate speed, testing her brakes on the way.She turned when she got to the greenhouse and headed toward the dining area with a bit more speed.
A door was open in the hallway, and she saw Birun at a desk as she whipped by.“Hey, Birun!”
She got to the dining area and turned, heading back down the hall.Birun was leaning against the wall outside what had to be his office, and as she approached, he flared open one wing.
“Oh, shit!”She braked and still got knocked off the scooter and onto her butt.“Dang it!”
The wing folded in, and Birun looked at her from above.“Are you injured?”
“Nope.Just didn’t count on the wing popping out like that.”
He smiled.“May I assist you?”
She nodded and held her hands up.He simply grabbed her around her ribs and set her on her feet.“Well, at least you were wearing safety gear.”
She snorted and said, “I am just going to put it back in the lab, and then I will be with you.”
He nodded.“It is an interesting first construct.”
