It came to me in a Dream
One day shortly after the visit from the Ryujin, Elvira said to me “You’ve just got to see this. This might change everything.”
“What’s up?” I replied.
“I’ve been surfing that Internet thing. Your smartphone is really handy. Look what I found. Its called a Utility Foglet.” She replied. “Some guy was talking about it in one of the Forum’s on USENET a while back. I dug into the archives. He said he might write a paper about it one day.” A picture appeared before my eyes.

“It’s dead simple in concept. Technically, not so much. Each foglet, or mote, requires a good bit of computer power, about the same brain power as ant or a bee. Not to mention the computers, communications equipment and the swarm programing that would be required to make it work. But the fundamental concept is simple.” She said. “Those arms extend, retract and wave about. The grippers on the end of the arms are designed to grip other grippers. That’s it.”
“The design is scalable. It works at any size from huge to infinitesimal. The smaller the individual mote the better our purposes. It works best when they are microscopically small. The size of a human cell would be good. UFog is what it’s called in quantity. By quantity I mean zillions, untold trillions of these little tiny things. I found it on the Internet so it must be true.” Elvira spoke sarcastically.
“Actually it’s not true. It’s theoretical. Someday humans MIGHT be able to make it but…not now. I take that back. Today’s tech MIGHT be able to build one the size of a beach ball. But it could probably be built. It’d be damn expensive though.” she said.
Hmmm…. I wonder if there’s any data in the SoulStone about this kind of thing?” She concluded. Elvira went silent then. I had become used to Elvira responding almost instantly to any question while continuing to chat. She was blazing fast when searching. Time passed, she must be going through many teraflops of searching and terabytes of data. I began to feel uneasy.
I was oddly relived when she exclaimed. “AH HA! Found it. The SoulStone does have information about that technology. I even found templates for making them. Is that cool or what? You wouldn’t believe how far back I had to dig. This some really OLD tech.”
“Talk about serendipity” Elvira said. “those neuro-links that we’ve been making are directly compatible with U-Fog.”
“That’s wonderful, I think.” I said. “What good are they again?”
Elvira was excited. “Think of it as structural smoke. A whole room full of it would weigh almost nothing, yet it could make anything! For example, chairs, tables, beds that materialize out of thin air when you need them. When you no longer need them, they go away. Imagine those wheelchairs that you are making. Enough UFog to make a functional equivalent could be stored in a small container in the setting of a small ring that you wear on your finger. A very small ring. When you need it there it is, when you no longer need it, it’s gone, back in the ring. Same concept for anything.”
I began to see the possibilities. A genie in the bottle as it were.
“Drooooonez “ she said “Using Structural Smoke it’d be a LOT easier and faster to build drones than you do now using blood nanites. Nanites take hours if not days to complete a build. Using Structural Smoke all the Nanites need to build would be the cybernetic core. Oh wait...not even that. Just link all the computing power together in a network. After that all you need to do is fill in the easy parts with motes. As a bonus the drone would be able to change shapes at will. In fact. I want some. I already have a preliminary designs in mind.” she said decisively.
“How can we make them?” I asked
Elvira replied, “We’ll that’s the problem. It’ll take a while to tool up to make the motes. We have to make the tool to make the tool to make em. There’s power in the blood. Didn’t you ever go to Church?”
I didn’t like the sound of her voice. “I went to Church once. It scarred me for life, and I didn’t even get a t-shirt. What do you mean by that,’power in the blood remark? They said that in Church too. I think they meant something entirely different than what you mean.”
“You know what I mean.” Elvira said “You use it every day. When you want the blood-nanites to do their magic you prick your finger and smear a little blood on the spot. You know quite well that I use the nanites to rearrange the atoms to suit you.”
“Well yeah” I replied. “ I know that.”
“This is the same thing” she said, “only different. I’ll need some blood and some feed stock to make a nano-foglet forge, the forge will crank out the motes. It won’t take too long before there are enough motes to be usable, a MUCH faster process than your blood-nanites.”
“Seems reasonable” he concluded, “let’s do it. What do we need first?”
“First we gather up as much plastic trash as you can find” she said. “Or grease, or oil. Oil would be best.”
“Why plastic?” I asked innocently.
Elvira almost sighed, “Work with me here please. The Plastic used to make those things comes from natural gas, right?”
I grinned evilly. I couldn’t resist yanking her chain. I played dumb. “Uh, I dunno. I thought it came from oil. Evil Oil Companies™ and… and… dinosaur farts and stuff?”
Elvira yanked back, playing the game with him.. face palm “Do you people really believe that? I’ve only been able to access the Internet independently since I hijacked your Smart Phone. Before that I had to look over your shoulder while you read. Even so, even I know better than that. Are people really that stupid?”
I said “Uh, well, yeah. Some of em are really that stupid. They really believe that, and worse! It’s amazing what they say on Funny Book late at night. Why I remember one time I was reading...”
Elvira said, “NO, don’t EVEN go there. I don’t want to know! FOCUS! Like I was saying about plastic bags and other plastic trash. It’s plastic, that’s the whole point. Plastic is made of hydrocarbons. Hydrogen is a good fuel. Carbon is marvelous stuff in it’s own right. Carbon can be used to make all kinds of really interesting and useful things. The odd chlorine, fluorine and other atoms are handy too, sometimes.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard.” I replied. “We have whole dumpsters of the stuff out back. If that’s not enough, well... pollution? Strain the air? Clean up the dirt? Filter it out of the water?”
“Okay we can do that if it comes to that. Pick the low hanging fruit first. I’ll send some drones. They’ll get us some. We need a metal bucket or a pot that we can heat to cook it in,” she added.
That was easily accomplished. The old building was an abandoned Steel Mill. That kind of stuff practically littered the place. Soon he had gallons of melted plastic bubbling over a flame. A little dragon, wearing a chef’s hat and an apron, was standing beside the pot stirring it with a big wooden spoon so that it wouldn’t burn.
Elvira said, “Now hold your wrist so I can slice it wide open.”
“DO WHAT?”
Elvira replied. “Don’t be such a sissy. I’ve deadened the arm where I want to cut. I’ve even marked it.”
I said, “You've done what?” I looked at his left arm. Just inside the wrist was a little dotted line …...cut here...... was neatly printed, in neon yellow.
Cut my wrist? But, but...
Elvira said “Don’t be silly. Have a drink first.”
Another dragon drone brought me a bottle. I took a sip. It was good booze. I drank some more, a big drink. Then on second thought I took another, another, then another. In no time he’d consumed half the bottle. What the hell. I drank it all.
“Good Boy. The energy from that alcohol will be useful. The alcohol never even gets to your liver. I see to that. Your nanites suck it right up. Feel better now? Okay? Sit down. Hold your arm over the rim, wrist over the pot. Now brace it on your knee but don’t touch the pot, it’s hot. That’s it. Now, don’t be alarmed.” she told me.
I watched in horrified fascination. Another dragon drone appeared. It held his left hand, carefully positioned it over the boiling froth, then painlessly sliced his wrist open with a claw tip. The blood spurted into the pot. It seemed like a lot of blood, a LOT more than I expected to be donating.
After what seemed to be much too long, Elvira said “There, that ought to be enough.”
The blood flow diminished as if a valve had been closed, then stopped.
Completely.
ALL of the blood that I’d bled had gone into the pot. There were no splatters, no drips, no smears. There were no splashes on my wrist. The blood itself had been creepy, it hadn’t acted at all like a liquid. Instead, it had seemed like it was alive, sapient, with a sense of humor. It had moved, not dripped, forming itself into little stick people. They dove into the bucket. They had done flips, spins, twists and swan dives on the way down. At any second I expected Ethel Merman to show up singing and dancing. I had stared in wonder as the wound had closed of it’s own accord. It had healed as I watched. In seconds there was no sign that I had been cut. Even the dotted line was gone.
Elvira said, “ It needs some time to cook. There’s time for supper. I’ll fix it. You just sit back and relax.”
I was a little giddy. I said “Roger that! Don’t that beat all? Cute aprons.” I said referring to the three dragons who were all stirring the cauldron carefully.
“ Cauldron?” Hmmm. I’d sworn it was just a pot. I felt oddly detached. Perhaps it was blood loss, or that massive jolt of booze? Perhaps it was both? I felt as if I were a passenger in my own body. I leaned back and relaxed while reality transformed before my eyes. I wasn’t alarmed so much as fascinated. I was seated at a magnificent table. A sumptuous meal was set before me complete with fine china, silverware and crystal. There were also candles flickering in gorgeous candelabra. Scantily clad, not entirely human, waitresses came and went, serving each course and removing the empty dishes as need be. A 'live' band played relaxing music in the background. Someone was seated across the table from him. I couldn’t see exactly who or what it was.
Elvira said, “Eat up.”
I said, “What happened? Did I bleed out? Did I die and go to heaven?”
Elvira told me. “Not to worry. You did lose some blood. Nothing to worry about. That was the plan. I needed the blood for my project. You would have felt a little dizzy and lightheaded anyway so why not have a good meal and relax?”
I asked, “Where am I?”
Elvira said “You are in your head, just as you always have been. We all live inside our heads. Everyone does. You’re just more fortunate that most. You have me in there with you. I can make your inner world whatever you want it to be. Notice the waitresses?”
I did notice the waitresses. They were something he’d expect to see in a Playboy magazine. If they had been human. “Oh. Oh, ummm, yes. Nice wings! And, and, stuff, I mean nice!”
Yeah, I was more than a bit drunk. I ate a piece of smoked salmon. Then I took a sip of fine wine.
“Not bad, not bad. I could get used to this!”
Elvira replied, “And you will, you will.”
I marveled, “Oh, I love what you’ve done with the place. I like it a lot. I really do. What’s this all about?”
“I believe we have reached a cusp. We’re at the transition point. We can make ‘smart matter.’ This is a celebration, of sort,” she said. “To make the first batch of smart matter we needed a fair number of your blood-nanites to make a high definition molecular manufacturing factory. We needed the plastic as a source of carbon mostly,”
She continued. “The hydrogen and the other elements are nice but mostly we need the carbon. Once the extremely high density, highly precise factory core is completed, we’ll have U-foglets in greater quantity. Using your blood-nanites to generate them is too time consuming, over-kill and you’re likely to get tired of being cut and constantly being bled. You might say we’re tooling up. Making tools to make tools etc.”
“Oh Noes, the horror!” I gasped in mock fear. “Runaway nano thingies in the environment, grey goo, I must panic, I must run in circles and scream and shout! Do I have a cigar left?” .
“Certainly” She replied. Cigars appeared magically before him, on the table. I picked one up and smelled the rich earthy scent of it, a fine, fine Havana.
“You are exactly right,” Elvira said, “there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The technology for dealing with UFog is millions of years old. I got that information from the SoulStone.”
I could barely see her when she lit my cigar, but what I could see looked NICE.
The cigar floated across the table to my waiting hand. we talked long into the night, over candlelight and we drank fine wine. Pleasant music played unobtrusively in the background.
”The time has come,” the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings.”
“Okay, time's up.” Elvira eventually told me. “The Forges should be done by now.” Reality shifted. I was once more sitting by the, now cold, pot. It was no longer full bubbling molten plastic. It had a in it. I looked like it was made out of diamond. That was one mighty big diamond . I was surprised
“What?” Elvira said. “Surely you know that diamonds are just a form of carbon?”
“Well yeah” he said. “But, but,..... ”
“It’s elementary my dear I” Elvira said. “That is a special diamond. It’s a forge.”
“Oh pretty forgery.” I held it in my hand. It was damn near the size of a cantaloupe “Huh, Why red?”
“Not Forgery, Forges. It makes things. It’s a ForgeForge. It can make anything. The first thing I’m going to use it for it to make specialized smoke-forges. And some drone cores. hmmm. I might as well combine the drone core with the smoke forge....in fact I could yadda, yadda..mutter...yadda...techno-babble ” Elvira went off on a tangent..
“ STOP! Back up. What’s a ForgeForge?” I asked.
“You should love it ! Unless you like being cut?” Elvira scolded me. “It will replace the Blood Nanites. It can do anything the Blood Nanites can do but on a massive scale. Not cutting.”
“Good point,” I said. “VERY good point!”
Elvira winced a little at the pun, then continued unperturbed. “A better name would be Atomically Precise Fabricator or just Fab, Fabber, or something. Just pour the feed-stock in one end, what you want comes out the other end. In a manner of speaking I mean. The actual assembly process might vary depending on what it is you want it to fabricate. Obviously it can’t make very big pieces. Something large would require subcomponents, and possibly small robotic assemblers. The size of ants maybe? The whole programming process is controlled by the neuro loops. The Red Forges can make neuro loops too.” she said.
“Can they make more Red Forges?” I asked.
“Yes” Elvira said.
“What powers the little buggers?” I wondered.
“That’s the magic part.” Elvira said smugly.”N-Stat-Fusors. It’s integral to the design of the forges AND to the Structural Smoke. I don’t know how to apply them for other applications -yet- but Forges and Smoke will never run out of power.”
I frowned.
“I know, I know. “Elvira sighed theatrically. “No baffle-gab. To make a long story short its a form of fusion. Each one can make more than enough power for it’s own use, forever. It uses water vapor to.....techno-blather, geek-speak”
“Hmmm.” I pondered while she chattered. I could only catch about a tenth of what she was saying anyway, “Great Products. Sucky names. Who ever heard of a forge-forge. I’ll have to consider the marketing aspect more. Then again, I might just keep the red one for myself. Actually I’ll have to. Only you can program it? Hmmmm.”
To Be Continued
Yarn
.
Perhaps you might also enjoy
Other Books
that I have written.
.
AND
.
Follow me @everittdmickey
.
That's my Blog
in which I pontificate on Technology,
Philosophy, Religion,Politics, Economics
and occasionally
ShantyBoats
.
In my Blog I write about,
and hopefully engage my readers in discussions about,
the possible lifestyles that we will encounter after
TEOTWAWKI happens.
.
It WILL happen, one way or another,
probably something in between.
One thing is for sure and for certain though,
the world will NOT remain the same.
.
So Come on Down!
Sit a spell.
I got the Coffee on.
The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay