Artificial C5 : Colleagues

Mid-afternoon and I was about to meet my colleagues for the first time. I was amazed at how quickly the first day had passed. By the time I'd been shown back to the Lab, allocated my workstation position, and met the IT Guy and some of the rest of Amy's team, it was time to go home again.

 

Late afternoon, one of the team approaches me. "Doktor Wells?" he asks, "My name is Doctor Hermann Schmidt - call me Schmiddi and this here is my colleague Dr Rolf von Westendorf." We both work in Amy's team and Dr von Westendorf here is researching the same area where we are told you are something of a specialist."

 

Schmidt gestured to von Westendorf, who walked over. Schmidt was a shorter and more rotund man, wearing a suit and looking quite happy. By comparison, von Westendorf was a taller man, with dark curly hair, glasses and a small moustache. His resting face was more sombre. 

Schmiddi starts, "Yes, we are both from Germany - me from Baden-Württemberg and Dr von Westendorf from Bayern - that's Bavaria - as you English call it. And you are from where?"

"Originally London, although I've just arrived here from Ireland."

 

"Excellent, we have another man from Ireland joining us soon. His name is Matt Nicholson. Perhaps you know him?"

 

I realise that somehow I'd overtaken Nicholson in the recruitment process. Considering I was a late afterthought of Bob Ranzino, or probably of Jasmine Summers, it was now ironic that I'd arrived in Geneva ahead of Nicholson.

 

"No, I don't know him, although a 'friend of a friend' does" I explain.

 

"Friend of a friend... It is good that we can we practice our English with you and maybe some of these idiomatische Sachen too.

"I know in England you are less formal with names, so if it is alright, I will call you Oliver. You may call me Hermann and Dr von Westendorf ist Rolf."

Rolf asks, "And what is your area of expertise?"

 

I explained it was robotics and the Human to Computer interface. They were both very interested because it was something they had worked with for several years, particularly Rolf.

"The brain is so well protected and dangerous to interfere with, " says Hermann. "We have, naturlich, a few experiments with animals and it is now possible to place electrodes very precisely, but there is still inevitable outrage at anyone considering doing this to a normally healthy person."

"But what is the specific pressure from Brant?" I ask.

"Nyah, it is an arms race, really," says Hermann.

"Exactly," continues Rolf, "They want to develop augmented humans for battlefield purposes."

"What? Like supermen?" I ask, incredulous. 

"No, nothing like the movies. Far more mundane. They want to provide logistical support from humans. The amount they would need to carry would be dramatically reduced and the on-battlefield telemetry they could handle could be ten or one hundred-fold what we see today.

"But wouldn't it apply all across NATO?" I ask.

Rolf explains, "Yes, but that's not the point. It is not about military advantage. It is about financial reward. The first mover in this marketplace can make a lot of money. That is why Brant, with its military contractor background, will want to be seen to have developed the early models."

Hermann adds, "It's also why Amy is under intense pressure from Kjeld Nikolajsen to get something prototyped."