Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes by Leif Sterling Read Free Book Online Page B

place. He carefully pulled it off and then slowly opened his eye. It took a second to focus, but then everything seemed normal. He moved his eyeball around and opened and closed it a few times. Nothing hurt. His vision seemed fine. It’s better than fine, he thought. Everything seems sharper and clearer. I bet that’s the nano. Roland put some espresso on to brew. “Sky?” There was no answer. He went into the living room and found her asleep on the couch. He went back for the espresso. They both functioned better with caffeine. Roland put his espresso in the freezer. He liked it cold. For Skylar’s, he added sweetener and soy milk. He pulled his from the freezer before it froze solid and took them both into the living room. He wafted the hot beverage in front of Skylar’s nose.  
    Her eyes flashed open and were followed with a smile. “Coffee?” She took the cup without waiting for an answer and began to sip it.
    Roland threw his head back and chugged his cold espresso. “Good morning, Sky.”
    Skylar wrinkled her nose as she watched Roland chug the coffee. “The way you drink coffee is such a waste.” She shook her head and sighed.  
    Roland smiled and pretended to eye her cup.
    Skylar put a protective hand over her cup. “Nevermind. How do you feel? How’s the eye?”
    Roland looked at Skylar. “I feel really good. My eye is great.” Roland pointed his finger at his head. “I’m ready to see what this thing can do!”
    Skylar waved her hand towards the nearby blank wall. “The nano have already been working hard on you.” The wall jumped to life and showed all the health and healing data Skylar had been working on. “See for yourself.”
    Roland walked over to the wall and began looking over the data. Skylar explained to him about the healing plugin his father had made and what data was being shown.  
    Roland stepped back and ran his hands through his hair. “Wow, so the nano speeded up my recovery?”
    “Yes, significantly. Once they have replicated fully throughout you, I expect healing to come very quickly.”
    Roland went back to the health readout screen and pointed at a number in the top right of the screen. “Whoa, this is really amazing. Is this number the amount of the nanotech cells I have in my body? It says twenty million.”
    Skylar sipped her espresso again. “Yep. That’s right. You started with just over a hundred thousand right after the injection. They have replicated to twenty million while you were sleeping. Once the replication is complete, you should have about hundred million nano cells.”
    Roland turned to Skylar. “That means I’m only at twenty percent now?”
    Skylar smiled back. “Yep. You aren’t even close to being at full capacity yet.”
    “So, how do I get the nano cells to replicate?”
    “Just like any other cell, they need fuel to grow. Your dad’s notes say that a nanotech subject would have to double his daily calories. I’m guessing that if you are training hard, it may be a lot more calories than that.
    Roland headed for his room. “I’m going to get my running shoes. We’ve got to try this out.”
    Skylar made some toast for both of them and then went into the data room. “Hey Roland, I also found a plugin to send your vision as a video feed. Roland followed her into the data room to put his shoes on. “So, can you see what I see then?” He took the toast that Skylar offered him and began crunching away on it.
    Skylar also took a bite of her toast and then went and got a strip of black fabric with a communications device sewn into it. “Here put this around your neck. This is a short range comm unit I put together for you. As of right now, the data can only be sent a short distance. I was able to piggyback your nano data over the comm unit’s network. We will find a better solution later.
    Roland held his toast in his mouth while he fastened the one inch strip of fabric around his neck. “Test, test, test.”  
    Skylar put on a headset.