The body wasn't done. The check still needed to finish; it had returned some odd readings with the left arm. Even though it appeared to move just fine, Jill's soon-to-be arm had popped some error messages in the software. I needed to know if it was just the diagnostic software or if there was actually something wrong.

The arm itself moved fine when I flexed it, and providing power and isolated move commands to the part also worked just fine.
I decided to wait for the diagnostic to run its course, as trying to open up the code of a program while it was working was a stupid idea. That way lay only bad things.

My friends were hanging out, of course. They weren't playing the fighting game this time... instead, they were taking turns on the new racer that Ricky had snuck in with him.

There was coffee and snacks to be had, but I had none of it. My own cup was cold. Now that I had resolved to wait, it might be time for another.
Before I could get up, Jeanette snagged my cup and replaced it with another, this one full of steaming coffee.

"Thanks."

"You are welcome. Is there a problem?"

"Just a glitch in the software. The left arm is either malfunctioning, or the diagnostic software is. I might have to run it twice."

"I see. Good luck in finding the answer."

Very helpful, Jeanette. It had to be something in the hardware, but what? What could cause it to work when given commands, and then not work when given commands through the software as a whole?

Whatever, I set another diagnostic to run on the software itself, both in piece and the whole. Then I set another diagnostic program to run on the diagnostic program I'd been using; for all I knew, it could be that giving me false positives. I had written the thing myself in something like three days, after all, and anytime you rush a job that complex, you're going to get errors.

Well, probably. I mean it had worked a few times before just fine, so....

I typed the bad news out to Jill, and she responded in the positive, that she'd wait until everything was ready. As if she had a choice in that; still, it made me feel bad, but the programs would likely figure out the problem faster than I could... so now it was drone time.

At least that was my story, and I was sticking to it.

"I'll keep at it," Crash informed me.

"If you want to. I'm going to switch focus; I think we need some eyes in the sky. For reasons.

"I saw," Crash answered. "Just remember, anything you build, I can fly."

I hadn't forgotten. I wanted to myself. "Of course, but I'll probably write a script for them, eventually. If they can fly themselves, it would free at least a few of us up for other things."

I'd need to make some privacy protocols, which would need at least a basic A.I., some anti-collision things, but many of those scripts were commercial now, and most on the internet, so it wouldn't take me long to repurpose them... heck, some of these drone models before me likely already had something like that.

I unboxed the first one, and that garnered some attention.

"Finally, time for the good stuff?" Ricky asked as he sidled up.

"I'll be sure to tell Jill how you feel about her technical issues and how important those are," So I might be a little bitter. Her arm glitching out made no sense!

"Oh come on, you know I didn't mean it that way. I'm just looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with a couple thousand dollars worth of these."

I drew myself up. "I am in no way going to steal or plagiarize design and software ideas from them whatsoever. Any words you might have heard, or will hear to the contrary, are all foul lies and slander."

On the design front I was in the clear, since everyone had stolen the same few basic ideas from each other already, so how could anyone sue me? I'd have to be a little more careful with proprietary motor or battery tech, but that wasn't my weakness here anyway, and really all I was doing was cutting a few corners to save me a week or two while gathering data.

"Can you plug this in to charge?"

Ricky took it and passed Maggie as she wandered over: "No new girl in the sisterhood?"

I was already tired of the question, but I'd soldier on. "No, something wrong with her arm. I could print a new one, but I'd rather just find out what the issue is."

I wasn't about to throw Jill in a body that wasn't working perfectly. For all I knew, it could have been the reinforcement and differing materials - my older bots were made of basic metals and plastics, pretty easy stuff to deal with. Jill, being a cop, needed to be more sturdy, so she was made of alloys. Those alloys may have more drastic performance variation than the basic stuff.

The simulations hadn't indicated anything of the sort, but there was a reason field tests existed.

No, enough thinking about it; I'd know soon enough where I'd screwed up. The drone I'd picked first was over a grand, according to the box, and had a complete book rather than just a pamphlet. A lot going on - it could recall itself when it got out of range! You could click a button and it would reverse the commands you'd given it! Which was the same thing, when you thought about it, but still kinda cool.

How that happened without functional artificial intelligence was something I'd need to look into. There wasn't even a smart system in it; it was just hard-coded commands linked to buttons!

So weird. I'd be improving it eventually.

I plugged it in to charge. The control was an actual controller, complete with a screen; some of the cheaper ones were just software you put on a phone. Which, you know, I could deal with just fine, but I liked the idea of having an actual controller. Hm, memory was enough for maybe fifteen minutes of recording. much more if I just had it take pictures, but I wouldn't be doing that; it was video or nothing.

The controller used actual batteries. They were included of course, as they should be for what I'd paid, but it was still a little silly; even if I kept this model, I'd be upgrading that later.

Now I had to wait, but while I was waiting, I could go ahead and open another drone.

My friends were gathering around; I could put them to work too. "Go ahead and open one if you want. It'll take some time for this one to charge.

I plan to go through them all anyway."

I grabbed the next one, and Sam wasted no time: "Cute."

I looked over to find she'd claimed the smallest one, a cheap looking thing that would probably break the moment it hit something or even dropped a few feet. I guess it did look cute, in a way.

Ricky and Ralph both made a grab for the next one on the pile I'd been working from; a large beast cast in white that looked like it'd be hard to spot against the sky. They both nodded to each other and moved off together, looking for more table space.

It was good to see they could get along about some things.

Speaking of, Maggie also moved off, crowding Sam and already chattering away about something, a little too fast for me to follow. Something involving photographs?

Jeanette walking up and snagging one was a surprise: "I shall help you."

Well, she didn't need a phone to control that one at least. "Sure, if you want."

Jeeves stayed firmly behind me, quietly looming in a rather comforting way.

I could only read, really, while the batteries charged. It was slightly amusing to shoot glances at my friends to see how they were handling that idea. Sam was reading like I was, as was Ralph, but Maggie and Ricky both looked to be rapidly getting bored, just checking out the cables, cords, and machines themselves.

Crash was looking over Jill's body again, trying to spot flaws. For the third time.

Was there a reason to drag him off for some scans? Some of these were undoubtedly flawed.

Could we learn more from the flaws than the time and expense saved? Probably.

The last box was here; I could start with that. It was the cheapest one Jeeves had bought. No, that was my own impatience talking. We could always scan later, and Crash might actually discover something I'd missed. I could do that much for Jill, even if I wasn't there and checking myself.

Put that way, it made me sound like an absentee mom.

Still, the waiting was an issue; my laptop was free. I could get some more work done on the other projects I was working on. Maybe go over the armor itself again since it was in no way finalized.

The alloy steel mesh would be strong and breathe, but it needed a gel layer to avoid the pilot getting hurt or dying in flight, and the gel layer couldn't be too deep. Certainly no deeper than an inch. There were some options I had for that, I could see the atom chains in my head, but I'd need to either sim them like crazy or make samples to determine the best kind.

Contrary to the whole super suit idea most people had, you couldn't just allow your limbs free movement, especially your legs... they would swing some way or another and just throw you completely off in a way that no assist or even artificial intelligence could compensate and kill you, even at a slow speed.

The easiest solution was, of course, to lock the legs down while in flight and assume an upright stance, even if it wasnt quite as aerodynamic as I'd like. Some fins would help, and the wings wouldn't need to be large. If I used wings at all. They would help with speed and stability....

"Mistress."

Huh? "What?"

"Your batteries have charged. I thought you might..."

"Ah, right. Thank you, Jeeves." I'd clearly lost it for a bit there. However, thinking back, I could clearly follow my thoughts and logic, such as it was, and follow the changes I'd made to the design I'd been working on... which was a different series than the one I'd started with.

I hadn't gotten too far afield then, at least in one way.

"What's that, a power armor suit? Doesn't look like the one you're working on...?"

Ricky was doing his best to read the laptop screen. Whatever, I had nothing to hide.

"Why is it so large? Looks like a box with a helmet on top."

....Or maybe I did. "It has to be that large since I'm trading aerodynamics as heavily as I am; it needs an over-abundance of power if I want it to fly."

It still wouldn't fly too high or fast, barely two hundred miles per hour if everything else went according to spec, but that wasn't terrible. The armor also had another function, another mode, because why shouldn't it?

I wasn't about to show that one off just yet. No sense opening myself up to all the squealing and noise as everyone went nuts over certain prospects. The thing would be expensive to make if I didn't have my printer, but with it, I could make one of these for everyone. Eventually. If I needed to.

I shouldn't, but such things would keep my friends and family safe, safer than just a bunch of watchers and cameras could make us. That was a good thing, right? It outweighed the idea of giving a bunch of us potentially lethal weapons, without even counting the armaments I'd be making for the suits... right?

No, I shouldn't. I could design all I wanted, but actually making the things crossed a line. A line I didn't want to cross. Not unless something happened; there would be time enough to complete a build then. Until then, Jill and her suit would be enough, surely.

I mean, it might not even happen, whatever it was. For all I knew, the people watching us would be enough, even in this chaotic world.

I found myself shoving the chair away from me, jumping up, and making Ricky jump back: "Right, time to test the first one."

"Right, let's go!" Ricky didn't even seem phased by his near miss, just ready to go.

By the time I'd taken two steps, everyone was gathering around, crowding me. "You all can go first, you know."

Jeeves already had the drone itself in hand, unplugged and ready to go. The controller for it was also done and on the table, and no one had snagged it first. Nice of them, really, they were giving me the maiden flight.

I snagged the thing and joined everyone, already outside somehow as if they'd ran out or teleported or something.

Just outside, Jeeves was already placing the drone down in the middle of the yard. Everyone else fanned out, keeping well away from it, which was for the best. I was going to stay near the open shed door just in case, so I couldn't really blame them.

I powered the controller up and noted the display. I'd use the auto stabilization feature provided.

It took off, straight up, and then just drifted off to the left without any input from me. I tapped the stick to bring it back, but then it drifted right...

Right, I was going to hit something unless I took it up higher.

Taking it higher was a mistake. I couldn't see it anymore, and all I had to go on now was the wildly shaking camera, which was showing how screwed I was in high definition; it was an amazing view of the neighborhood, but the drone had to be a mile up!

I hit the hover button, and the thing evened out, even though the winds up there had to be significant.

"I know that look," Ricky claimed, stepping forward. "Where is it?"

"It's fine. I got it hovering above us."

Ricky leaned over to look as everyone else decided it was safe to join in: "Then why the look of sheer panic?"

"It was more powerful than I thought it would be. Look at how high up it is! I only pressed the stick for a second."

Ricky looked up. "Yeah, it's about 500 feet up? Maybe a bit more, kinda hard to tell."

Surely it was more than that? My eyes were trash, but not that trash. Right?

Who was I kidding? I had trouble seeing across the street, even with my stupid coke bottles on my face.

I could still fly this thing, of course, using the screen.

That turned out to be a mistake; forward had the thing moving more left and forward.

"Ah, the wind is North at that height. move your thumb about two degrees over. Yeah, right there, it'll compensate."

Crash knew what he was talking about; that slight shift and the drone was flying straight.

"What's the range?"

"About five miles. We can cover this entire town if we want; it's not that big."

"Does it have a warning light? Some way of indicating it's at maximum range or close?"

"It does. This little orange light here. It'll light up at five hundred yards away from the maximum control range.

I eased off because five hundred yards didn't sound like nearly enough space to stop.

The view was fantastic, and I hit hover again as everyone crowded around. It was time to pass the controller around so everyone could see it.

The assorted gasps and oohs and ahs were all worth it.

A little fun, but I was done with it now. This would be much better when I stuck a series of scripts in it, or maybe even a form of virtual assistant.

I'd simply be able to tell the drone where to go with either commands or maybe even voice? Sure.

Time to hand it off to Crash. "Alright, you guys can try yours now."

"Right, we better hurry, it's going to get dark."

There wasn't going to be any order this time - they were going to drive theirs all at once, it seemed.

Which was cool; it would be sheer chaos. Crashes wouldn't be a problem; I could scan broken drones as easily as any other; the computer would compensate.

Crash was focusing on piloting, but he gave me a smile anyway as everyone made their chosen drones take off together.