Dreams of Jupiter

Dak Bennett's Birthday Surprise for the Governor's Daughter

With a flash of light and a loud pop, the thumbnail-sized circuit board shorted and began to smoulder.  Hissing tightly in frustration, Dak threw his micro-torch down hard onto the work bench's battered plastic top.  The clatter quickly drew the attention of his friend Chin, who was working behind him.

"Dak!" the wiry engineering tech exclaimed with a frown as he turned away from the robot torso he had been working on.  "Why'd you do that, man?  That micro-torch is a 250 credit piece of equipment!"

"If I break it, I'll just build another," Dak growled without turning around.

Chin's eyebrow climbed at that.  Normally his friend was cheerful and relatively easy-going.  Today, however, ... he could almost feel the tension rising off him.

"Alright, buddy, you've got my attention," he said, turning around on his work stool to face Dak's work station.  "What gives?"

"Just nervous, man," Dak said after a slight hesitation.  Sighing, he pulled the circuit board out of the tiny clamp array holding it in place.  He gave it a quick look before discarding it into a nearby bin.

"About what?  The micro-torch?  Bud, you're the best engineer and inventor on Honeywell and could macgyver a micro-torch out of tin foil and a glow stick if you needed to.  But you're never this careless with gear or clumsy."

Dak sighed again as he turned back to his bench.

"It's Governor Crail.  Rather his daughter, Jela," he said, tossing a colorful pamphlet over to a curious Chin.  Catching it, he looked down.

It was a press tour announcement, the kind politicians handed out to build crowds at each stop.  This one detailed the governor's visit to the western mining communities that dotted the shore of the Silicate Sea, Honeywell's largest desert.  Including Dry Well Station, their hometown.

"Think she, um, I mean, he'll want to come see the shop?" Dak asked.

Chin shrugged nonchalantly in an attempt to reduce his friend's anxiousness as he dropped the pamphlet onto the work table.

"Don't know why they would, bro," he said.  "Yeah, it was your phased mag field invention that let the mining stations on the western plateau finally come above ground for the first time in a decade, no longer afraid of the metallic mist storms.  And sure, that harmonic filter you made, the one that used ultrasound to eliminate even the finest metallic dust in the air, wiped out metal lung disease forever."  He shrugged again.  

"No reason to visit with you at all there, man.  None."

"Not helping," Dak said with a grimace.  "Like, what do I even say if they do visit, Chin?  Hi, I'm Dak Bennett and my inventions make it possible for human life on Honeywell?"

"Yeah, I'd stay away from that particular icebreaker, bro," Chin said with a wry smile.  "Any time you remind a politician that you've done more to improve local conditions than they have, they tend to get a little ... antsy."

"Then what, man?" Dak asked, clearly concerned.  "I seriously can't talk mag fields with Jela, erm, I mean, the governor."

A wry smile found its way onto Chin's face.  Could his gifted friend be any more stereotypical?  Genius inventor with the social skills of a pylon, especially when it came to girls.  Knowing him, Dak would try talking mag field flux variances and zero tolerance balancing systems with the pretty Jela Crail.  Who just happened to be only a couple years younger than the young and gifted inventor.

Before he could say so, however, there was a commotion at the shop's entryway.  Both turned and watched as several powerful looking men in dark weather cloaks and body armor stepped inside.