Veridi Gothca

Chapter 3 V.E.R.I.D.I

"I wish those two would get along instead of teasing each other so much, Emma already has it bad enough at school, she doesn't need any more stress in life."   The car door opened automatically as I approached it, I sat down in the driver's seat and plopped my papers down in the passenger seat. I gripped the steering wheel and breathed in deeply, this was just another day I reminded myself. The car lifted several feet off the ground, I pushed the wheel forward and took my commute to the Technology Center. The tech center was in the middle of downtown so the drive there was always long, It was a good thing that the Cyber Core R&D facility was outside of the city. I've always loved the atmosphere that Gothca had at night, the bright neon greens mixed with the soft blues that contrasted with the greys and blacks of the chrome and stone skyscrapers. Since Chancellor Crighton came into power thirty or so odd years ago, that beauty has slowly been fading due to more lifeless brutalist architecture projects that wear a neo-gothic paint job keep popping up, replacing the beauty of the city I love. Anyway thinking about that depresses me, I need to focus on what's important right now, the exhibit.

After getting through the hell that is the traffic here, I was finally able to pull into the street where the tech center was and drove down into the garage. I stopped by the entrance scanner so it would let me in. A small robotic orb poked its head out and scanned my vehicle with a wide green light, it was all normal as usual as I had to go through an even more rigorous process at work. After it gave me the okay I found an empty employee parking spot, I slowly lowered the hovering car to the ground, and after five years of owning one, I had finally gotten the hang of parking it. I gathered all my paperwork and made my way inside, by the afternoon this place was going to be swarming with busloads of bored high schoolers. But it would all be worth it for Emma to see it. 
           

The inside was barely lit with only a few lights on around the place, it looked like the place was just getting started to open up, they would have to be ready in 3 or so hours, the government certainly doesn't like tardy employees. The center was filled with examples of various kinds of technologies from different eras, all the way back from the Stone Age to the 31st century, my favorite one being the late 21st century with all the advancements in robotics and space exploration. My exhibit was just past the medicine and prosthetics displays. I was currently in charge of the Exo suit exhibit where I would show off my newest invention, the V.E.R.I.D.I implant, short for the Veterans, Endoskeletal, Rehabilitation, Internal, Data, Intelligence. There are only two officially in existence, one is here and the other one is in a highly secure vault at Cyber Core HQ. The third, being the most advanced but unstable prototype those two are based on, that one was safe and sound in my office at home. I stepped into the exhibit room and turned on the lights, revealing the implant that was safe and secure in its thick glass casing covered with a black nano-weave tarp.

"Alright, let's do this."  I could do most of the beginning setup by myself but I was going to need help with moving the heavier props and such, ironic that the person who created most of the Exo suits used on Veridian needs help moving heavy objects. I opened a box filled with artistic renditions of commonly used Exo/mech suits that I had commissioned specifically for this exhibition. The first picture was of the model 4 - CE/3  Exo suit, It was one of the smallest models besides a few of the military ones meant for special forces that we produced. I spent the next hour hanging them up, the museum wanted holographic representations of all the different models to give it a more modern look but I insisted on physical examples and physically written information that I wrote myself as It gives kids...a more tangible example of what they're learning about. The most advanced thing that should be in this room is the V.E.R.I.D.I, everything else was second class compared to it.

Everything I could get up and ready myself, I did, so all that was needed was to get help setting up the Exo suits, those were quite heavy as they were the real thing but stripped of all their circuitry. "Hello Aiden here, I need help with setting up the Exo props, they're pretty heavy so you might want to bring a lifter in here,"  I spoke into the com. I waited a few minutes for them to bring the lifter in here to help so I wouldn't pull my poor back getting them out of their packages. The employee walked in here with the lifter Exo, each heavy step from the heavy metallic feet shook the ground, causing everything in the room to tremble slightly. - "So where do you want everything?"  The Exo operator asked. - "Here I'll show you."  I waved him over to follow me where I would show him what goes where. He removed the Exo's from their containers and I showed him where to place each one, he did his job as well as expected, unlike some idiots I've had to deal with in the government sector. Everything had been done except for one last thing, that one I could do myself.