Chapter Twelve
*Science Convention*
"I'm a little nervous." Lincoln said. He was usually the Man with the Plan. But he was nervous today, not sure exactly what Lisa was going to require of him, since she had been quite sparse on details.
"It's fine, Stinkin. Take a deep breath and get your ass out there." Lynn said. Lincoln nodded and headed out onto the stage with Lynn. Lisa nodded at them and began her speech.
"Greetings, fellow scientists and academic journalists. I'm pleased that you've joined me today. I have a revolutionary invention to show to you today. But first, permit me to show you a slightly less fantastic project of mine. For any here who prize their physical fitness, this invention will avail you better than any home gym set, no matter how expensive or advanced. The LoudTech Full Gym Set, as my assistant, Lynn Loud will show you, is far beyond anything currently on the market.
"As you can see, Lynn is now inputting her specifications for what she hopes to gain from working out. Her current body type, whether she aims for lean or massive muscle, her height, weight and other body specifications. Then, she puts in her thumbprint so that she can call up her profile every time she uses the gym. As she goes to the machine, which as you can see is all coalesced into a single machine. It's complex, but can be easily assembled by a professional, which I strongly recommend." Lisa said.
"After the first few lifts of each muscle group, the machine determines her capability and adjusts in weight and number of reps based on her workout desires. There is a television screen that shows the exerciser how to move their muscles to work out that part of their body and the screen tells them when to stop. Once the machine goes through all the muscle groups, it tells them they're done and records the workout in the central computer." Lisa said.
The scientists watching were reasonably impressed, nodding in appreciation at her invention. It wasn't anything new, a home gym. But it was far more advanced than any on the market and would revolutionize working out as both individuals and fitness companies and gyms could buy them.
"But onto my prize invention, which I'm sure is what you all came here to see. LoudTech Bionics. Bionics have historically been a thing of science-fiction. Well, no more. As my elder brother and sister can show you, I've produced bionics that are effective in human beings." Lisa said.
She brought down a scanner machine and showed a television screen of Lincoln's and Lynn's organs.
"As you can see, the heart, while it does not physically beat, pumps blood throughout the body at far greater efficiency than a flesh heart. The same is true of the bionic lungs. They will allow the user to do cardiovascular exercise for longer and harder than they would have once been able to. The heart and the lungs, while the main organs of the body and the ones that offer the greatest immediate physical benefit are hardly the only ones beneficial to the user though.
"If you'll look at the stomach, intestines, liver and kidneys, they too are far more efficient. The user is able to eat less and can drink greater amounts of alcohol than previously possible… Though I still recommend against excessive drinking for obvious reasons." Lisa went through the benefits of the organs, even describing the eyes, inner ears, tongue implants and nose implants as well as the bionic vocal chords and voice box. She talked about the UDOM, which enhanced the user's bones and prevented breaks. She finished with what she felt was the piece de resistance, the nanomachine organ.
"This small organ, located in the lower belly, holds a mass of nanomachines, which it is able to release into the bloodstream and control their actions. These nanomachines can be sent to areas of injury, both internal and external for repairs. It's difficult to determine how much faster they allow the body to heal, but I feel safe in surmising that it's between 4-5 times faster than a completely flesh body would allow. The nanomachines can also be used to temporarily enhance strength and endurance beyond what the user's body would allow, though doing this is potentially dangerous and requires rest and healing after.
"The nanomachines' ability to increase healing have furthermore allowed a decrease in fatigue toxins, which allow the user to exercise harder and for longer than a non-user and recover more quickly afterwards due to the enhanced healing. Finally, I have few tests in humans to show this ability in human subjects, but in my primate subjects, and thus far in Lincoln, the nanomachines seem to enhance memory retention, learning speed and have other academic benefits." Lisa said.
"Now, does anyone have questions about my bionics?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, Audrey Lesdvier. Are there any major drawbacks to the bionic organs?"
"Yes and no. The organs are heavier than flesh organs, as are the user's bones once they have UDOM implanted in them. But this can be overcome, especially if the user exercises regularly or even semi-regularly." Lisa said.
"Furthermore, the heart doesn't beat per se and thus, a user won't have a pulse and the user's body temperature will be an average of 0.5-0.75oC higher." Lisa said. The scientists nodded.
"Are there risks at being implanted with the organs?"
"Thus far, the risks I've seen are similar to that of any implantation. Rejection of the organs, though the enhanced healing factor as a result of the nanomachines can mitigate that significantly and over time, the effects of rejection will diminish until the body isn't rejecting them anymore." Lisa said.
"Can the nanomachines have other medical uses within the body?" Another scientist asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact. The healing capabilities of the nanomachines are broad. For instance, I've seen them break up blood clots and break down bad cholesterol. But there are limits to what they can do at any one time. They have to return to the central nanomachine organ to be cleaned out and their contents flushed through the waste disposal system as with any other bodily waste." Lisa said.
"Any further questions?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, Jacob Myskowski, head advertiser for LedCorp Electronics. How much are you asking for a full set of these organs and how soon will they be available on the open market?" He asked.
"I'm not certain. Thus far, I've only considered them for medical purposes, such as people who need implants for survival. I've used my brother and sister as my first human test subjects. But so far, I see myself using these to aid in the advancement of human medicine. I can't give any specifics on how or if I plan to market these." Lisa said.
"When and if I do come to such a decision, I'm sure that it will be front page news." Lisa said to chuckles from the audience. When it seemed apparent that no other questions were forthcoming, Lisa bowed politely and left the stage, having her androids aid her in bringing the gym machine off the stage as well as the scanners that had been needed to show the bionic organs.
"Thank you, Lynn, Lincoln. You're relieved of your duties for now. I appreciate your assistance in showing my newest and greatest invention to the world." Lisa said.
Lincoln nodded and drove home while Lynn took her bike, taking the long way home. While Lynn was 18 now and had enough people sponsoring her to afford an apartment, she was happy to continue living at home while she trained for the Olympics, though she also was considering buying a home for herself once the Olympics were over so that she would have space enough to lay out all of her workout gear, including the LoudTech Home Gym. Lisa was also working on increasing how advanced the LoudTech Treadmill and Stationary Bike were.
Currently, the treadmill could provide speeds of 25 miles an hour, which Lynn could exceed on foot and the stationary bike could provide up to 35 pounds of resistance, which was good, but Lynn habitually went up that high and while her legs were burning and she was a bit out of breath afterwards, Lisa was dedicated to making a machine that would surpass even Lynn's standards and was convinced that she could. Before Lincoln left, he sat with Lisa.
"Lisa, I'm amazed sometimes… Okay, all the time at what you're able to do. But don't neglect your own personal needs at the expense of your science. I've said it before, you're only ten and while you may be the smartest person in the world, you're still ten and you deserve to be able to have a life outside your experiments and inventions. Go, have fun. Hang out with Darcy, make some new friends if you want to." Lincoln said. Lisa smiled, hugging Lincoln. She didn't hug very often, but she was grateful that Lincoln seemed to care so much about her.
"I'll make sure to take regular breaks from my work. Now, if you have room in your car for me and my experiments, I would appreciate a ride home." Lisa said.
"Oh, um… I definitely have room for you. Probably even your androids. But I'm not sure if my car can fit your gym machine." Lincoln said.
"No matter. I can call in a favor. I have some friends with large trucks that can carry the machine home." Lisa said. Lincoln nodded. The androids packed up the machine into a box and labeled it.
Lisa called her friends.
"We can probably be down in about an hour to pick up any machines you have from the symposium. Are there any special instructions that you need followed?" The friend asked.
"Yes. Make sure that you abide by the instructions on the box. It will tell you which side must remain up. All contents in the boxes should be considered fragile and please, whatever you do, do not put the boxes on their sides or leave the boxes in the back unsecured.
"They must be strapped down until they are to be removed from the back of the truck." Lisa said.
"You got it, Doctor Loud. We'll be down in an hour with men who can carry the boxes to the truck. We'll be extra careful. Do you want to have someone there to make sure that everything is done right?" The man asked.
"I'll have one of my androids there with instructions just in case." Lisa said.
"Android B589120-C. Remain next to the box and when the men come to pick them up, accompany them to the truck and make sure everything is put in correctly." Lisa said. She chose this android because they had both defensive capabilities and lie detecting capabilities. The android would be able to determine if the men who came were actually Lisa's friends.
-0-
She went home with Lincoln and went up to her room, taking a short nap while Lincoln went out for a run and trained for a while with Lynn. Lynn was still far better than Lincoln in martial arts, but Lincoln was getting better and Lynn was actually impressed by him. He was more cunning than he was strong or fast. But his cunning allowed him to get the drop on her occasionally and he was picking up the new martial arts he was learning quickly.
After he finished with that, he went and worked on his newest comic that he was making, a dystopian science-fiction comic about a world where bionic enhancements allowed the wealthy to become so powerful that they truly took over and crushed the poor into little more than a slave race the world over. Over the years, bionics and other enhancements allowed the wealthy to live longer, become stronger and faster and smarter and more powerful while the poor languished in evolution and became the inferior race.
But the poor began to revolt and because of their superior numbers, the rich weren't so assured of their victory. The comic he was making was about those events. He was still on the first graphic novel, going through the history of the world and how it came to all this in the first place. He was already proud of his comic. But after about three hours, he set the comic aside and began to work on his SAT prep, knowing that Lisa would know if he had been keeping up with his studying or not.