Part 21 of some new science fiction. If you're just tuning in, consider starting with part 1. The image above was created with stable diffusion.
Adina Boyko met James in Georgia to help with the nuclear waste cleanup. They set up an assembly line of nuclear materials dematerialization and accomplished their task over the course of a few days. It was a major media event, which Adina navigated gracefully. For his part, James was still unused to talking with reporters.
Normally, James spoke only with Tina Dew, his favored journalist. But at the cleanup site, he offhandedly mentioned to another reporter that the nuclear industry and weapons stockpile were ticking time bombs managed by boneheads. James went on to say that he'd gladly dematerialize warehouses full of nuclear arms. And that he'd consider doing this without permission.
This scored points with Adina, who talked about disarmament regularly. After their last day dematerializing nuclear waste, she had dinner with James in a hotel restaurant. "You seem better, somehow," she said. "Are you considering the United Nations invitation?"
"Not really," said James. "But I did want to tell you about a new project. I'm using my Servant to produce seeds with incredible properties. They'll produce food in a day instead of in a season."
"But what about the Servant's bio safeguards?" asked Adina.
"I hacked mine," said James. "The real problem is in the logistics. I can make corn that ripens in an afternoon, but it sucks up water and carbon like mad. If there isn't a ready source of these things, the plant takes them from the surrounding area, which isn't great. I mean, I can materialize a big tank of carbon water then drop the seed in it. That just doesn't seem that useful. But I'm still thinking about seeds. About the possibilities."
"Please promise me you'll stay away from viruses," said Adina. "Actually, I'd prefer it if you worked within your safeguards, even if you can circumvent them."
"I hadn't considered viruses," said James. "Have you made any progress on the science behind the Servants? Our people have gotten nowhere."
"Planck scale imaginal automatons," said Adina. "Nanobot swarms. They have clever words for it, but no idea how it actually works."
"You ever worry about yours ... running out of gas?" asked James.
"I was told it would outlive me," said Adina. "And my device has no fuel tank."
"Yeah, I'm sure it's fine," said James. "Listen, you're aware that my Visitor Pink was kidnapped and experimented on? Have any other Visitors you know of gone missing?"
"The whereabouts of North Korea's Visitors are unknown," said Adina. "All others are accounted for as far as I'm aware."
Leaving the restaurant and heading back to his room, James passed Janet, who gave him a funny look. "Enjoy your date?" she asked.
"I guess," said James. "She doesn't think our Servants can run out of gas."
"Oh, if Adina says so, then it must be fine," said Janet.
"Uhh, everything okay, Janet?" asked James.
"It's fine," said Janet. "Everything's fine. Your dematerialization of radioactive materials here proved one of my theories about the Artifacts wrong. And now you're apparently dating Adina from Kazakhstan. But yeah, everything's good."
James grinned, suddenly making sense of Janet's words. "You got more work to do tonight?" he asked.
"Not really," said Janet. "Why?"
"Come to my room and I'll show you," said James.
When the hotel room door closed behind them, without warning, James kissed Janet. The kiss was awkward at first, then surprisingly passionate. After a couple of minutes, Janet pulled away. "I can't," she said. "You're my subject. It would be unethical."
"So quit," said James. "Come work for me on my new project. I need a good physicist."
"What exactly do you need a physicist for?" asked Janet. "Also, no offense, but I'm not sure you can handle my salary requirements."
"Hold on," said James, producing a small red box with a switch on it from his pocket. "Here," he said, flipping the switch. "I had the Servant make me a device to scramble nearby audio signals. As long as we're within six feet of it, their microphones won't pick up what we're saying."
"What about lasers reading our sound from the window glass?" asked Janet.
"You think they're doing that now?" asked James.
"Probably not," said Janet. "But we should still be careful what we say."
"Whatever," said James. "Even if you don't report me, they'll figure it out soon enough. As far as I'm concerned, the thing with Pink voided any agreement I had with the government. And I've learned that being a celebrity doesn't really pay all that well. So I'm going to commence materializing gold and jewels and stuff like that. Now, the government can prevent me from selling these things by intimidating buyers, so I'm going to use the valuables as backing for a new cryptocurrency. Anyone holding it can redeem it for an equivalent amount of gold or jewels or whatever at any time."
"You'll get shut down right away," said Janet.
"American businesses might shut me out, but there's a whole world out there," said James. "At this point, I'm even prepared to leave the country myself if your bosses don't back the fuck off."
"Wow," said Janet. "Who else knows about this?"
"You're the first person I've told," said James.
"How much gold do you plan to make?" asked Janet.
"About ten cubic meters initially," said James. "Assuming fifty million per ton and nineteen tons per cubic meter, that'll be worth just shy of ten billion. I'm still working out what other commodities will be included in the index, but I'm shooting for around twenty-five billion to get my crypto token started."
Janet startled James by kissing him again. "You know they might kill you for this," she said. "There are plans in place for that."
"What, are they going to nuke me in the middle of a city?" asked James, chuckling.
"If they have to," said Janet. "There's also poison. A blast from an IR combat laser. They could literally use heavy equipment to bury you in your bubble of protection. You're not invulnerable, even with your Artifacts. And I, for one, am becoming quite used to having you around."
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