Me: It's a review driven story influenced by viewer suggestions.
Readers: Let's all agree to read and not make any suggestions unless he asks for it.
"Seal up the whole program and upload its folder onto the 2048 gig flash drive. Then download the folder on the 64 gig flash drive onto the 2048 gig one, and put the program's folder in the folder labeled 'Breach Proof'."
"Uploading files as requested."
"You putting security on that thing? Who's ever gonna hack it?"
"Once I'm done here, no one."
I began buttoning up the whole device, leaving the left and top walls open and the topmost circuit board out, since I would be wire-bootlegging a USB port directly onto the circuits underneath.
As in I would be stripping a USB cord and touching the wires to the computer board where they needed to be to upload the file, so that I wouldn't have to add a permanent one, and so no one would be able to access it without using the mechanically secured hack proof USB port, which could only send out code and not take it in.
Yes, I said touching wires directly onto a computer board to perform an upload. I may or may not be psychotic, it's up for debate.
After a lot of frustration, I finished the upload, and once it was all assembled and sealed, Tony brought over a small sealed container of...
Human blood. Yay. No idea who's it was, or how he got his hands on it, and I really didn't want to know.
"Place it under the microscope, and I'll start it up."
As he placed the... sample, under the microscope, I hit the power button on the keyboard, and the screen started running code. Then as my security was triggered, everything went nuts. Code began typing itself like mad, until I got in front of it and typed the key word. Suddenly all the code disappeared, leaving only a few lines to grow.
"What was that?"
I smirked at him. "My security protocols. It starts with ten programs, which each generate ten more programs to be hidden in. Those ten make ten more to hide in, and ten more after that, and there's no knowing which one was the right one, and with the pretty decent security JARVIS gave me to put on each of them, it's much harder to get through. Especially since that USB port on the side can only send out information, not take it in."
The program started in full, and mere moments after it was ready to read. I typed "read: sample" into the command feed and hit enter, the digital microscope began moving, and moments later...
"You're disgusting Tony." I typed "delete: current sample data" and hit enter, and the screen cleared, leaving only the command feed. "How did you even get this from-?!"
"I'm gonna be honest. You don't wanna know."
I took away the sample and set it off to the side. "Put your hand under there." He did so, and after reading the sample I zoomed in on the skin on his index finger's knuckle. I highlighted a set of chemicals in the chemical display, and the area around his knuckle was grayed out. "It can see a set of chemicals and tell you how it will look on a macroscopic scale. Not only that, it can tell you what chemicals could achieve a desired effect. Given a sample of normal tissue and cancerous tissue, it could tell you all the possible cures for that person's cancer organized by least unintended effects to most. You could literally turn a cancerous tumor into a benign one, and this would tell you how." As I spoke, I replaced his hand in the reading area with a hair growth product, and highlighted the hair on his digits. I typed "read: effects [read: sample] current sample data", and the highlighted area of hair began growing as a clock at the corner of the screen began moving at high speed. "It can also read the effects of one sample on another."
He patted me on the back. "You were right kid. You win. I am thoroughly humbled, and until you decide otherwise, I am forever in your service."
"What version of the Bible do you have?"
"I don't know, shakespeare?"
"That'd probably be the King James Version." I reached into my pocket and gave him my pocket ESV. "The New Testament is where all the important stuff is, but it's much harder to invest yourself in it and see the logic in it without reading the Old Testament first, so I want you to start from the beginning. The English Standard Version is basically the KJV translated from shakespeare, so you won't have to try and translate into modern english." He stared at me. "I don't know why you have a peeve with being handed things. It makes no sense to me. Just take the book man!"
He finally took the Bible. "When do I start?"
"Well were you planning to go to bed now, or late at night?"
"You know the answer."
"We're gonna have to change that at some point. For now, go ahead and start. Stop yourself at 11:30 and get to bed."
"Yes mam."
I turned back to the miniature box shaped computer and typed "program: lockdown" into the feed. The whole screen cleared, the original untriggered startup code screen taking its place. I typed a "3" and hit enter before the whole thing had a chance to go nuts, and after running code for a moment it shut off. I flipped off the power switch on the side and unplugged it. "JARVIS, where should I keep this?"
"Perhaps in your room under your bed, sir?"
"Works for now. This thing is how I taught myself to be a better geneticist than anyone in the world. And it makes my work a lot easier. Clear the whole program from your memory, I'd like to keep this to myself."
"Yes sir."
After Julian went to bed, Tony Stark sat down on the couch to read, of all things, the Bible, only to get a phone call from Pepper. He answered it without a word...
Because he had been paralyzed by an illegal spy tool.
"Breathe. Easy, easy. You remember this one, right?" Obadiah held up the strange device. "It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis. Tony. When I ordered the hit on you..."
Even in his paralyzed state, Tony's eyes widened, and suddenly he knew he was screwed. If he was openly admitting he ordered that hit, he definitely didn't plan on letting him live much longer.
"...I was worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived that." Obadiah took a strange device out of his briefcase, and placed it on the reactor in Tony's chest. The device burned through Tony's shirt, and with a twist and a yank of the cord, the reactor was out, and Tony started going into cardiac arrest.
Obadiah held up the Starkheart for Tony to see. "You had one last golden egg to give. Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?"
A safer one! A more stable one! Better in a thousand ways!
He removed the Starkheart from the device. "Oh, it's beautiful. Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands... The right hands."
Finally Obadiah finished his theatrics, and placed the Starkheart in its place in his briefcase. "I wish you could've seen my prototype. It's not as... Well, not as conservative as yours." He got up and walked away, as if the whole thing had been a casual conversation.
"Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived."
Julian is a geneticist, Tony's a Christian, and Obadiah's a nutcase. What a world. Also, man, splitting up a one sided conversation like that and not making it just one big block was a pain.