that means."
Ricio smiles. "Let me show you." He turns to the ball and states three words that don't seem to fit together. "Lyka, off, present." And the ball floats off the desk and stops a meter and a half in front of them. Andee takes a gentle step back, slightly startled by the object's sudden move towards them. He looks to Ricio confused and suspicious. Ricio looks back at him with a smile. "Lyka, on." And immediately a light emanates out from the sphere quickly encapsulating it within a 3D free standing anime character. It's a pretty light-fairy that looks extremely realistic, but made of light, thus transparent. Only the center part of her chest is hazy enough to mask the white orb, but the rest of her is detailed in light delineating her form. Although transparent she looks very real and her movements are organic. She is tall, blond, and very pretty. From the back of her shoulders she has a set of double wings, like those of a dragonfly, hanging down like a stiff transparent cape behind her.
Andee's eyes are round with awe. "Wow this is cool. It's like the ones at the prave, but better." Andee leans in. The pretty light fairy turns to him and smiles, which causes Andee to freeze up. "Wow, she looks more solid than the light projections at the prave. Is she actually looking at me."
"Yeah of course. This is far more advanced than those light projections at the club. Lyka is fully interactive."
"Wow."
"I guess she looks impressive, but the truth is, she is really only a toy."
"A toy? Really? To you people this is a toy?"
"Don't take it the wrong way. It's yours now."
"I can't imagine what I would do with it."
"I realize you are a little old for a virtual friend, which is what this is. If you really hate it, then I'm sorry, I made a mistake."
"No-no-no, I'm just.. I'm just a little shocked. When I was a kid I played with sticks and stones, and chased baby ghimurs up the mountain. I can't even imagine how to play with this."
"It's a toy, but a very complex and useful toy. You can change the character. When I was a kid, it was a little boy, like me, but a Jasurai Warrior."
"Ah-what?"
"Oh, ah, some kind of ancient warrior. A sword fighter."
"But swords are illegal... but I guess no up here." Ricio shrugs timidly not knowing what to say. "Sorry. I don't mean to make things weird. I'm just so confused."
"It's OK, you're right. The rules are different for you than they are for me."
"So you know how to fight with a sword?" Andee perks up to move the conversation forward.
"Yes I do, and I learned it from her when she was Lykon the Jasurai warrior."
"Oh-kay... but wait. How? How could this projection teach you?"
"Let me show you." Ricio turns to the animebot. "Lyka, can you grab me that vidrom off my desk?"
"Yeah." Lyka responds with a sweet smile, then walks naturally to the desk as if her feet are really touching the ground, and then with her transparent light-generated hand, picks up the very real and solid vidrom and brings it to Ricio, handing it to him with a smile."
"Wow, how did she do that?" Andee asks taking another gentle step back.
"Tractor beams."
"Dude, you're talking an alien language to me. Now you see why I'm so pissed off at your people. I'm stupid. I don't know anything because the Bitani won't let me."
Rico looks at him understandingly. "I'm sorry man. I honestly have no idea why we have this split between our people. I fight with my father over this all the time, well, since you rescued me. Before that I just accepted the status quo. I really believed that it was natural for us to be superior, because you were naturally inferior, but now I know it's not true."
"Is that why you want to give me this... thing."
"Maybe. All I know is that I owe you. I owe you my life, but I also owe you respect. I don't agree with what my people are doing. It's wrong. We don't need to force you to grow our food. We could easily grow it hydroponically, anywhere. I honestly don't understand what's going on."
"Wow, I didn't realize that you're, well... like me."
"Being kept in the dark about the truth?"
"Yup."
"I guess we share that in common. I know this thing is probably annoying you to some extend. An ugly reminder of what you don't know, but Lyka can also be a tutor. It's programmed with most information about how things work. Science, math, biology, physics, mechanics, electronics, all the things you need to know to understand our world. I'll give you this vidrom too. You need a vidrom to access its memory, upload new information, and change the characters and settings."
Ricio starts showing Andee how its done. He first scrolls to all the different characters Lyka can become. Ricio turns it into the boy warrior, the young Jasurai.
"This is Lykon. He was pretty much my best friend when I was a kid. He helped me with my school work, pushed me in athletics, and thought me to be a Jasurai, basically a sword fighter. But there are many options, in fact hundreds." Ricio then scrolls through many more characters, from cute animals, to gruesome monsters, even pretty girls.
"You can pick witch ever character you what it to be, but be careful, because the characters are programmed to behave according to what they are. So the monsters will try to scare you, the girls will flirt with you, the animals will play with you, the teachers will teach you, and so on. I personally liked having it as a single character, so most of the time it was Lykon, and then when I got older I changed him to Lyka."
"And it can pick up solid objects?"
"Yes, it can definitely pick up solid objects, but its tractor beams are not that strong. It has two, one for each hand, and it is about as strong as the average man, so it can't pick up really heavy objects, nor anything that's too far away."
"But could it hurt me?"
"Absolutely not. It can not harm you or anyone. It is not allowed to cause damage to anything. It has never broken anything in my house, and never once hurt me, even by accident. It's really well made. You don't have to worry about that."
"And you're just giving this to me."
"It's yours."
"I-I don't think I can take it. It's too much."
"But I want you to take it. It served me well, now it can help you."
"I don't know. It's hard for me to accept gifts like this."
"Learn to accept them. You earned it."
"But you grew up with it. Doesn't it feel like a friend. When I was twelve, and Toni our alcama died, I cried like a baby."
Ricio smiles. "He's not dead, he's with you. I'll see him again. Lykon was a good friend to me, now he can be a friend to you. Here, I'll program him to 'merge' with you. Over the next few weeks he will observe you, your likes dislikes, essentially learn who you are, and he'll become the type of character that you will get along with."
"It can do that?"
"Sure, here I'll show you how. That way you can choose, what it is, and how it responds to you."
End of Chapter 7 next Chapter 8 : The Art of Parza
To read previous chapters for FREE, and explore the world of the Bitani and Carpati, go to www.LightshipChronicles.com
Lightship Chronicles Chapter 7 : Animebot Page 8
