1??????????Soul Bound


    1.2????????Taking Control


    1.2.2??????An Awakening Epiphany


    1.2.2.24???Fiddler on the roof


    Inside the barn, Heather was hard at work. Against one wall were a set of shelves, on which she’d placed completed products sorted by the local they were destined for. At the other end were racks of components and raw materials. Filling half the remaining space she’d assembled a wide variety of extruders, printers, lathes, forges, assembly frames and other tools of her craft. More than a score of bots and drones were busy carrying pieces between the tools. Nadine looked about in wonder, while holding her hands over her ears.


    Nadine: “Heather. Heather! HEATHER!!!”


    Heather finally heard her and looked up, then gave a wide smile and switched off the shatter rock she’d had nine owl-like drones playing as they perched on the barn’s rafters. The barn grew a bit quieter, though the whirring of drone fans, the screeching from the lathe, and the deep thrum from a generator still made it noisier than Nadine liked.


    Heather: {I usually talk via orglife when crafting. It’s easier. Here, have a set of ear protectors.}


    Heather walked over to the completion shelf labelled “N-T” and handed Nadine a package from it. The package was nearly wrapped and contained a pair of wide padded ear muffs designed to fit over her crown. They matched the colour of her hair and the pads looked like coiled braids. She put them on. They were insanely effective and very comfortable.


    Heather: {Better? They use active noise reduction and tie into the soundscape from my owl speakers.}


    Nadine: {Much. It’s like someone has cast a “silence” spell. But it is going to make it a bit hard for me to play my violin for you, if you can’t hear a thing.}


    Heather: {Not a problem. I’ll give you a sound pickup to stick on your fiddle. I’ll even make the bots react to it.}


    A drone carried a device over and placed it carefully on the floor next to her before whirring off. She picked it up and started examining it, to work out how to attach it.


    Nadine: {You’ve certainly got enough bots to form an audience. Where did all this stuff come from? You couldn’t possibly have brought it all in the suitcases you arrived with.}


    Heather looked sly. {I’ve been smuggling them in past the satellites, in dribs and drabs. Hang on, I’ll share my overlay with you. You can see for yourself.}


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    Minion: [My queen, do you wish to accept and use the data stream and settings from Heather? I will save your original settings safely.]


    Nadine: {Thanks. Yes, go ahead.}


    The world came alive around her. Every bot acquired a name. Many took on the form of animals, depending upon their function; chipmunks, beavers, gorillas, ravens and owls. If she focused on something, she could see what it had done and was going to be doing, where it had been and would be going. Financial information, customer information, blueprint originators and ratings, estimated times and resources - all the information was there, tied together neatly.


    She focused on the device in her hand, using her sight to navigate through expanding menus until she brought up instructions, and was rewarded with an animation overlaying her violin showing where and how to attach the device. She followed the moves and tested it by playing a riff on her violin. Perfect.


    She looked around for her audience. Heather was arranging the chipmunks and beavers into rows, but with her new overlay she could see out beyond the walls of the barn. In the distance, large areas of land were covered with moving circles miles wide in size which were annotated with the specific low-orbit satellite or passing surveillance drone responsible. Blue dots representing drones carrying things for Heather were hiding in designated safe areas, such as woods or under overhanging rocks. Only when not inside a watched circle would they scurry from one safe area to the next.


    Heather: {Ready when you are. I’ve got them cued up for Fiddler on the Roof type dancing, but I want to customise it by type. I think teaching bots to react in-character to external stimuli like people will be part of the eventual Bosnian Bot design. Some will hate it, some will watch, some will dance precisely, some will pour their soul into it and some will be like the weird drunken uncle at the family gathering who thinks he can dance but can’t.}


    Nadine played through “if I were a rich man” twice, helping Heather with her customisation, enjoying watching Heather dancing arm in arm with a pair of beavers. She spotted a set of sturdy glowing wooden stakes on the shelf, used for marking out temporary landing areas, and had an idea.


    Nadine: {We’re in a barn. There’s another style of dance I’d like to try. If I send you information about the dance, do you have an expert system set up to translate it into bot movements? And I’d like the bots to each be holding one of those stakes.}


    She pointed out the stakes she meant and sent Heather a series of links about the C?lu?ari, a secret Romanian warrior society who saw themselves as a revival of the ancient cult of Diana, the chaste Roman goddess of the hunt. Some variants of the dance were rich in symbolism and some were full of athletic leaps into the air; all of them were fast paced whirls of activity, which reminded Nadine of the scene in the barn when she’d arrived. The variant she liked the most mixed in stick dances from other sources, where pairs formed seemingly at random, exchanged sticks, then split off carried away by the dance.


    She and Heather worked closely together, perfecting the effect, even getting the gorilla bots to stamp in time from the audience. Blow being hugged, this sort of joint creativity was a better balm for her soul than any moaning. She gave herself over to her playing. If the world wanted to stop this, then she would damned well change the world so she could do this, so everybody could do this. Who the hell did the world think it was, anyway? Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Well, she had her levers, and the will to keep pushing. She just needed stable ground to stand upon. One unchanging undoubtable fact on which to base certainty upon.