The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(38)

I thought—I found some shoes in my room today. They look like basketball shoes, but displayed differently on my IPU. Did you send them to me? They weigh a ton.

‘Theodore, the popular and trendy shoes that you currently see lying at your feet are not what they seem. They are actually shrouded by a hologram. Their true nomenclature is X73-21. They are the twenty-first model from a series of porta-transmechanical lifters. In fifteen-year-old language, they are shoes that can help you fly, dude. I suppose that explains their weight. These shoes operate on the same technology as your palm device and function on your brainwaves. You can use these shoes to jump higher and run faster. I apologize. I am not trying to sound like a shoe jingle from the nineteen-fifties.’ He paused because of my confusion. ‘The one and only disappointment is that you must reprogram the shoes to present a holographic image of the current shoes you own. We don’t want you to be obligated to explain where you received your X73-21’s.’

I took a glance at my old shoes. They had been so worn and dirty that they were grayish brown, rather than the original white. He was right.

Nezatron had the tendency to release too much information. Like back on the Uriel, when he said my great grandpa Willard cheated on his wife. Although, it was the truth, it wasn’t necessary information to divulge. It also pained me to hear it.

I slipped the shoes on. The paired contraption wasn’t as comfortable as one might imagine. After the shoes formed to my feet, they made an uncomfortable connection. It felt like a million needles stabbing into my feet at once. My tingling feet seemed asleep, like when I sat for far too long.

I thought, can you tell me how to use these things, and can you do it in kid language?

‘I will grant you your request,’ Nezatron said. His upcoming uneasy pause alerted me to a disclaimer to follow: ‘but you must know that I have strict instructions from Zane regarding my explanations on your nanocom. Namely, high, exact standards in my pontification. He didn’t give me clearance to speak using ‘kid language.’ So I will have to take it up with him, Teddy,’ he said, and then he broke into an awkward robotic laugh.

‘Hey that is cool. I like it when you talk like that. How is it that you are laughing? Robots don’t have feelings.’

‘You are going to get me into a bind with my maker. Listen, robots in my time are advanced beyond anything you could fathom. Even with all the modifications we just made to your neuro-pathways, you still could not understand. I am Sepheran—not robotic. I am programmed to feel. I have been programmed to respond to one million, three hundred thousand, and two hundred and six humorous stimuli. The stimuli cause me to react to a laugh or joke. It is my program, but occurs without hesitation and processing. It is similar to your conscious state of mind. I know humor by definition and try to compute it and respond—dude.’

Wow, that is awesome—I thought.

‘No Teddy, Zane is awesome, after all, he created me,’ Nezatron said, before he switched to an audio playback of the tutorial for the X73-21.

After I began listening to the tutorial, I heard a muffled crackle, then a rustle outside my window. It sounded like someone stepped on a cockroach.

Someone was watching me. I could feel it.

Nezatron interjected, causing me to temporarily disregard my own uneasy feeling:

‘Oh, did I forget to mention the shoes can make invisible anyone who wears them. I saved the best part for last. So, surprise!’ I could detect a slight quiver of glee in his voice. He continued, ’I spoke with Zane just now, and I now have his permission. He said I could translate information into a form that might be easier for you to understand. Therefore, I guess that makes us pals. I will be monitoring this channel as well as Migalt. I am not your personal assistant. I have a job to do too, so please don’t rely on me to answer every time I am summoned. Relax dude, and let me know if you need anything. The shoes take about five minutes to calibrate to a human’s feet. See ya, would not want to be ya.’

I was curious for a moment about how the shoes made me invisible, but instead chose to understand that some things just cannot be explained. I left it alone.

With Nezatron absent from my thoughts, I rubbed my forehead. There were trickles of sweat running down my temples. I remembered where I had felt that dread. Fear seized my heart like a vice. Afraid to verify anything, I turned slowly, rotating toward the window.

I gave a short silent scream.

Travis was staring into my room! He looked around curiously, but he didn’t stop to lock onto me with his eyes.

Frightened and desperate, I attempted to channel my thoughts to the loquacious robot:

Nezatron, he is here. Travis is outside my house!


Nezatron replied calmly, as if speaking in a tut-tut manner, ‘I am running a check on the perimeter and the only heat signatures I am finding are yours and your grandmother’s.’

When I looked again, there was a burst of light and singed grass. Travis was nowhere to be seen. I sighed with huge relief. I guess I was experiencing hallucinations because of all the overwhelming changes pre-ordained into my mission.

Yes, crazy things were happening: flying shoes, communicating telepathically across light-years of space with a mechanical being, and invisibility. It all was every kid’s dream come true. It took a while to complete the programming but the shoes finally calibrated to my feet. I moaned happily. The comfort I had from these dream shoes was amazing.