Coeus?

“The fusion reactors are used to charge the energy banks, which are essentially big capacitors.

They act as buffers to store the necessary energy for the pilot's spells. Once the pilot casts a spell through the rune-circuit around the spaceship, it acts as an amplifier and increases the pilot's power by pouring the stored energy into the spell.”

-Spaceship Theory Course

***Aether, The floating City, above the Atlantic Ocean***

***Gideon***

“The soldering connection is bad. Do it again. There can't be a single mistake in the circuit.” I urge Galia on. Being done with this phase of the project is of uppermost importance to me.

“Don't rush me, Gideon. I'll make a mistake. Honestly, being commanded around by you makes me feel like I am a minion. I am your cousin and I only agreed to help with your science project because you promised to help with my homework.” Galia complains.

“And I did. Didn't I?” I rock back and forth while sitting on Galia's lap.

“We can't help it.” One moment. I have to think of Grandmother's latest lesson. I have to formulate my words nicely, that avoids conflict with non-techno-mages and therefore makes my life easier. Saying the truth isn't always the best thing to do. A carefully edited version is far better than reminding people of their weak points.

First, you don't understand what you are doing. “I lack the necessary dexterity to do this, so it's only appropriate that I take the role of a supervisor.”

Second, I am afraid of letting you alone with something as dangerous as a soldering iron. “And this is my science project for school, so I've to be at least present during the important stages.”

Galia sighs and continues to follow my instructions. We are working on my science project. It's required for all students who finish the school's science course by presenting a project to the teachers.

The project has to be planned and executed by the student, though he is allowed to get a little help from outside.

Though I made a mistake in choosing our location. The computer clubroom seemed like an appropriate place to assemble the hardware, but I forgot to consider that it's used by other people beside us.

Paul is studying the entire process from the side. That's akin to industrial espionage.

“Are you sure that you want to present that toy as your science project?” He asks interestedly. “Building such a simple sprite is a little too easy for a techno-mage. You won't impress them with this.”

He tilts his head and focuses his attention on me. “The battle sprite which is following you around would be much more impressive. I could give you the resources to copy it.” His eyes wander to the window from where the huge crab-robot is watching us.

I shake my head in denial. Probably he just wants me being in his debt. The small robot on the table in front of us is made from the simplest components and the cheapest materials possible.

I used the barest minimum of gold and silver in its design and exchanged them with graphene wherever possible. It reduces the durability of the sprite greatly, but it isn't designed to be a high quality product.

The sprite is a fist sized hexagon with six mechanical legs. There is no complicated circuit to allow it to fly. It's essentially just a huge capacitor with an energy harvesting module. “Don't look down on my dreams! This is just a mechanical platform for the real project.”

Galia attaches the last rune to the board. It's filled with the circuitry to cast the required spells. The miniature computer which is controlling the sprite is a cheap standard product, though I had to buy a better memory chip to hold my program. “I think I am done, Gideon.”

“Good!” I reach for the hexagon and close the cover plate which exposes the circuitry inside the machine. “Pri One! Activate!”

Two small antennae flip upwards and signal me that the robot works within the expected parameters. I lose no time and interface with the device to upload the required program. Six legs flip out of the disc and the robot stands up.

I nod and point at the edge of the table. “Walk to the edge and return to start position.”

The antennae follow my finger and the small machine follows my command with wobbly movements, stopping at the edge of the table and then returning to its previous position.

“Congratulations. It's a really bad moving sprite. Gideon, are you sure that you want to use this as your science project?” Galia asks.

“Mwahahaha!” A strange feeling somewhere in the back of my head causes me to laugh, but I regain my composure upon realizing the strange expressions of my companions. “Ahem. Sorry. I think I got carried away. My mind glitches sometimes.”

“It's okay. As long as you don't get a bluescreen.” Paul answers carefully.

I ignore him and get off of Galia's lap. “Galia? If you would be so nice to retrieve phase two from my backpack?”

She sighs. “Finally! I wanted to know what I had to carry around for you.” She bends down and places my backpack on top of the table. “It's heavy!” A second later she gapes at the contents of the package and piles them on the table.

“I thought that you want to save up for a starship?” Paul eyes the bars of gold, silver, glass, copper, plastik, metal and graphene with interest.

“How did you even get your hands on this? Is the gold pure?” Galia asks with a shocked voice.

“This is a part of my wishes. I simply ordered them over the net. Actually I had trouble to pry the money out of Saden's hands. Have you ever played 'The Incredible Machine'?” I ask.

Paul's expression distorts and his left eye starts twitching. He hates it when I annoy him with my outstanding references to the normal's society. “I am not as knowledgeable about computer games as you. Please spare me a lesson in the normal's culture.”

“Fine. Though 'The Incredible Machine' was a really good game.” I spent months while building the craziest constructs to solve the higher levels.

I point at the pile of raw materials. “Pri One, start the project!”

The small sprite wobbles towards the pile of metal bars and digs into it. A miniature molecular dissolver makes short work of the resources, gathering and reshaping them to a new purpose. A few seconds later the first part is flung away from the robot.

The audience's eyes widened during the entire process. On the third part Paul can't keep it in any more. “It's a fucking 3D-Printer!”

“It's a von Neumann machine.” I correct him.

“It's what?” Paul watches in amazement as the sprite starts assembling a second version of itself.

I turn to Paul. “A machine that's capable of replicating itself. Don't you read any books?”

“I don't care about the normal's literature! Are you sure that it's safe?” He points at the sprite. “It won't bug out and start reproducing uncontrollably?”

I shake my head. “No. That's what my project is about. I wrote a semi intelligent code for the sprite. No, that's wrong. It's not intelligent or capable of learning. Unlike Cronos, this one is just a set of building instructions.”

“They have no intelligence and can't develop one. I thought I would create a semi automatic assembly sprite as my first project. Programming a real KI like Cronos or an examination sprite is troublesome.

Not the mention all the troublesome laws about creating an intelligent entity. I don't want to take the responsibility for educating my creation.”

I watch as the second machine starts moving and immediately gets to work. It has been just two minutes since the first one started. “Originally I wanted to use them to build my spaceship, but first I've to buy the resources.”

Five minutes later they are done with the pile of resources and I've twenty identical discs. So I tap with my finger on the table. “Assemble.”

The twenty sprites follow my command and the first one folds itself back into a hexagonal disc. The second one attaches itself onto the first, followed by a third, stacking on top of each other. Moments later I am left with a nice and compact, hexagonal, tubular block. “What do you think? Once I attain the necessary blueprints I can have them build almost anything for me. I call them IM's, like Incredible Machines!”

Paul grabs his hair with both hands. “I don't know how many people tried this, but everyone who tried failed because they didn't manage to write the necessary code! So far everyone tried to realize this by using a swarm intelligence, which went insane in all cases I know of.”

“So the teachers will approve of my science project?” I ask.

“NO!” Paul calls out, dazzling me with his sudden outburst. “I mean, yes. But first promise me to put a patent on those things!”

I blink. I honestly didn't think about this. “Is something like this even a patentable invention? I didn't really invent anything. I just applied already existing technologies after looking them up. All I did was writing the program. The IMs are really basic constructs. Honestly.”

Paul grabs both my shoulders. “Please. We'll go and get Saden. And I'll call my company's lawyer. This invention has to be handled carefully.”

I lick over my lips, trying to find the right words. “They are safe. I made sure of that.”

The left corner of his mouth starts twitching. “I am not concerned about safety after seeing your programming skills. What I am concerned about is their influence on the market.”

“Gideon, I understand that you don't trust me for some reason, so let's talk from techno-mage to techno-mage.” He pauses for a moment to put his thoughts in order. “As ingenious as you are in some aspects, as stupid you are in others. Have you ever thought about what this technology means for our automatic assembly lines?”

“I guess if you gave me a blueprint the IMs could build you one? You just need the resources and one IM to start.” I answer.

Paul's nostrils flare. “Exactly. All those poor workers who live from building assembly lines. Don't you care about them at all?”

“No.” I turn and grab the stack of IMs to put them into my backpack. Why should I care about people whom I don't know?

“Wrong approach! Let me rephrase that!” Paul raises his hands. “If you give me time to patent this in your name, I'll take you on a round trip with my family's personal yacht. A round trip through the solar system! Just don't carry this out of this room where someone else could steal it!”

“You really think this has potential for making money? I intended to throw one of the IM's onto an asteroid and give it a year or two to build my spaceship.” I grab my backpack tighter and let my eyes wander to Galia.

But the person whom I expected assistance from shrugs her shoulders. “I am just a teenager. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“I would never cheat you. I promise. Think about it. You didn't even realize what you have here! I could have asked for an IM and run to my company to have them analyse it. But I am a businessman. Our company's code of honour is fair trade.” Paul puts his hands together in a pleading gesture. “And I would never betray Saden's family.”

I narrow my eyes, remembering some things about his interactions with my cousin. “Ew... oh my... It can't be! You and Saden! You are children!”

“No!” Paul starts pulling at his hair. “No, no, no! It's just a platonic friendship! We are children! What are you thinking!?”

“The internet didn't spare me from the dark side of human biology. You wouldn't think what dirty-” Paul jumps forward and covers my mouth with his hand. “Shut up! We've a mental minor here!”

His eyes wander to Galia who is watching us with a questioning expression. I nod slowly and he takes his hands from me.

“So you and Saden aren't?” I ask without ending the sentence.

Paul drops to his knees. “Please! I'll do anything if you don't mention this discussion to her! Why is the world so unfair?”

I step backwards, totally taken aback. I could swear that he is crying. Did he have a mental breakdown? I can't have the one who is paying me all that money go loony on me. What to do in a situation like this?

I step forward and pat his head. “There, there. I don't have to present my project to the teachers... yet. We will wait for Saden's opinion. I won't even mention your dark desires to her.”

.