Nigkala Tales Pt. 17: The Emperor’s Clothes

Nanotech clothes change shape, color, and transparency

Thanks to my editor kenjisato. Also, to LanguageTool. Combined, they put me right. Any problems left all belong to me.

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I got a call, "Hello, Becky Sue, it's Tex at Red Horizons. Remember me?"

"Sure do. Co-Founder of the Zero-G club. What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping you would say that."

"Oh? What are you getting me into?"

"I've had to hang up my space spurs. Something to do with getting old and launch stress." He sighed. "I'm in management now. Given my experience in orbit and the lab, I am now involved in the Mars Mission development, and I need some help. My guys are very good at solving technical problems, but not so good at other kinds of problems. I've already tried the inspired thinkers in the company, but that didn't get us very far. The higher-ups finally decided to let me outsource this issue. Your name was at the top of my list, as you are a very original thinker, who doesn't mind getting in the technical weeds."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence. What would I be working on?"

"I can't speak on an open line about the technical stuff, but it would be clothing for the long trip."

"I take it full closets and washing machines are not too desirable?"

"Oh, we'll have washing machines, all right, but the full closet is an issue. Less weight means better economics or better resources. We have a solution, of sorts, but we are running into problems, and I think your kind of expertise is needed."

"Consider me interested. I have three weeks left on my latest promotion tour, but I can come right after."

"Great, I'll send the contract over, and see you then."

I spoke with Filipe about my change of plans, and asked if he wanted to come meet Tex, and maybe get a tour of the place and see all the neat technological stuff they have. He was interested, but needed to return for another shoot after a few days. Filipe found and rented me a bachelor pad near Red Horizons, with an enclosed garage, as I was driving my own car on tour. I spoke with the production company, and they added another stop that would be on the route I would be taking to Red Horizons.

The tour finished without incident, and Filipe went to the management office to pick up the keys to the pad. Filipe knows what I like. The pad looked nice, and even had a king-size bed, and an extra-large bath and a Jacuzzi. I called Tex to let him know I had arrived, and asked if he'd like to take us to dinner.

I had time for a leisurely bath, and I decided to wear my Space Pussy outfit, complete with ears and tail. The doorbell rang just before six, and I opened the door after checking the peephole.

"Hello, Tex, who is this lovely young lady by your side?"

They both did a double-take, but Tex was on the ball. "Hello, Ms. Galore, allow me to introduce my wife, Samantha."

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am. Please, call me Kitty."

"But Tex told me your name was Becky Sue."

"It is, when I am in disguise."

Tex whispered to Samantha, and I heard him say, "She's in character. Just go with it. She's fun."

"Very well, Kitty, please call me Sam."

"Tex, Sam, we are ready. Shall we go?"

"Sure." We followed them out to their car, and got in the back, putting my legs on the far side, while Filipe put his legs over mine.

Tex said, "I thought you could sit next to me."

"Tex, I'm sure your car is very good at what it is designed to do. However, it was not designed with someone of my stature. I will be far more comfortable in back."

They got in, and Tex drove us into the city, and pulled into a fancy restaurant. "I hope they don't have a problem with your outfit. They can be picky."

"Don't worry. I got it covered."

We all got out and Tex handed the valet his keys. As we got to the entrance, there was a bit of a hitch. The hostess said she needed to check with management, as I was not in the recommended attire. She asked for patience as she called him. I overheard it all.

"Sir, Mandy here out in front. We have a guest not in standard attire. I think it is over the allowed limits, but wanted your opinion."

"Let me check the video feed.... THAT'S KITTY GALORE! Give her the best table. I'll be out to meet her shortly."

"Yes, si-- "

She was interrupted by the call being hung up. She put her phone away, and said, "Right this way." She checked her seating chart, and led us to a table next to the orchestra. I got many double-takes as we walked there, including one busboy that ran into another, followed by several dishes breaking on the floor. I also spotted the manager closing in on us. Mandy took our orders for drinks and left.

The manager then stepped up. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Robert Johnson, owner of this establishment. Welcome. Ms. Galore, if you sit here, you will get the best view of the band, and can see how we humans like to entertain ourselves during a fancy meal."

"Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I do so love this interspecies ritual sharing. It leads to a better understanding between us."

"My pleasure, ma'am. If you or your companions need anything, just mention my name." He bowed to me, then to the others, before returning to his office.

"Tex told me you were famous, but wow. Just wow. I've been here a number of times with Tex, but I have never seen such a display."

"Kitty, do you think he saw any of your documentaries?" I knew he meant the films, but he was being in character.

"Most definitely. I'm surprised he didn't offer any catnip."

Sam asked, "Catnip?" Tex leaned over and whispered to his wife. "Oh my!"

We had an excellent dinner, and about two hours later, it was time to go. I pulled a hardback book from my purse, and opened it, revealing it was actually a book shaped container. I pulled out a photo of Kitty Galore in the Captain's chair, and signed it 'Great meal, from Kitty to Robert'. When the waiter returned with the bill, Tex paid, but I gave an envelope addressed to Robert, to the waiter. I asked him to give it to the owner.

Back at the pad, Tex and Sam stayed and chatted for another hour. Tex told me he would meet me in the lobby the next day. After they left, I undressed and had sex with Filipe, before going to bed. In the morning, after showering, I considered what would likely happen today. Filipe would leave, and I figured I would be meeting a lot of suits, so I decided to wear the Mortal Kombat palace dress, sans weapons. Almost the same as I wore at the premiere. I did summon a simple necklace, but with the circled gold dragon on an obsidian background, as a pendant. I did skip the wig, as I wasn't going to be 'in character' today.

When I arrived, I pulled into the visitor's lot, and entered the very large building. I stopped about ten feet in when I looked up. There, above me, was a replica of me on the same hang glider I used on Everest. When I looked at the walls, I saw the one behind the glider was a photo of Everest, covering the entire wall. The opposite wall was covered with an artist's rendition of the spaceship they planned to send to Mars. I must have been staring at them for a long time, because a guard touched my arm and got my attention.

"Miss, can I help you?"

"Oh! Sorry. I was taken aback by the art. It brings back memories of my expedition, and subsequent flight. Is that the same hang glider I used?"

He looked up, and did a double-take, suddenly realizing the woman flying was standing in front of him. "Ms. Tate, it is. There is a plaque on the wall below the summit. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh, yes. I am here to see Thaddeus Xander. He's expecting me. You know, Tex."

"Okay, let's call him, and get you squared away." He called, and was surprised at what he was told. "It seems, we need to take you into Security, so we can get you a contractor's badge, not just a visitor badge. Tex should be here by the time we are finished." Ten minutes later, I had a badge, with a blue stripe, and a red circle, and Tex was waiting for me, smiling.

"Welcome, Obsidian, or is it Becky Sue?"

"While I wear the outfit, I am not in character, today. I figured there would be too many suits to risk play."

"You figured right." He looked at the time, and said, "I have nearly an hour before the first meeting to get you started. Please follow me." We walked quickly to an elevator, and went to his office on the fourth floor, passing two security checkpoints on the way.

"Security is tight on this one. Your badge has a blue stripe indicating you are cleared for the fourth and fifth floors, and the red circle indicates you are working on the Mars project. Your badge is also radio monitored, so security knows where it is at all times while you are on the campus."

"How big is the campus?"

"The campus consists of this building, and five others here, with a test facility out past the woods in back. All told, a few square miles of land. So, I thought you would be here earlier."

"I was. But Everest claimed my attention until the guard nudged me."

"I forgot about that. Yeah, while the tent glider didn't pan out, it did give us great info for making a rugged heavy glider. Think we licensed it, or maybe sold it, but having the original here is just PR gold. There's a copy at the Smithsonian.... Ah, here we are; my office."

I looked about, and saw a lot of paper strewn about. Someday we will have a paperless office, but not yet. The desk was surprisingly clear. I saw a picture of his wife on the wall, and on the opposite was the photo I had sent him when 'Space Pussy' came out. The same I gave the owner of the restaurant. He saw me looking, and smiled.

"Put simply, the reason I asked you here was because you have innovative ideas, and are well aware of the issues clothes have. Your size means you deal with clothing far more intimately than most people. Our broad plan is to get rid of the clothing entirely. While being naked all the time is okay for some, we are not counting on that. We have created a replacement. The technical side has some issues. We think we have a handle on them. This is what we have: nanotech. Did you see the movie 'Virtuosity'?"

"No, why?" realizing he was getting into the nitty-gritty, I focused my mind on a light touch to understand him better.

"It shows nanotech at work. Basically, a lot of very tiny machines working together as a swarm to accomplish a bigger task."

"Oh, I know. Kind of like the replicators from Stargate."

"Yes, but without the evil will. They cannot create more of themselves, and have severe limits on what they can do. Basically, they can link up in different configurations to assemble as tools or even protective clothing."

"Sounds cool. What's the hitch?"

"Control. We are able to program them with a few patterns, but triggering it requires you to manually communicate via a keyboard to change what outfit it is displaying. And entering new patterns is kind of a chore. Then you have to select the color and other things. While you can save patterns, it can take over an hour to input one. We were hoping you could help us there."

"What of the other problems?"

"Weight is important, but power is a bigger problem. When the pattern changes, it takes up a lot of power. Figuring out how to reduce that power consumption is a big issue, but we are making progress. Recharging is a bitch as well."

"I would like to talk to the techs who have been working on this, to see what they have done so far."

"I thought as much. They are the last group of people we are seeing today. We have pizza and soft drinks to loosen them up."

"Good idea."

We chatted about the initial concept, and how it evolved to what they currently have. We also talked about some of the problems and dead ends they dealt with. Finally, it was time to meet the suits.

That meeting was long-winded, mainly because a number of them liked the sound of their own voices. I dropped my mental monitoring, as these folks likely would not have much to contribute to what I needed. Four stood out. Two were visionaries, trying to see in me a solution to their problem. The third was clearly against my participation because I was only an actress. The first time he said it, I pushed back, saying I was the same actress who invented the space sex industry, and I did it by hard work in orbit. I also whammied him to be cowed by my confidence, and go along with what everyone else wanted. The last, was odd. He wasn't very passionate, but he was focused on the problem. He also had a smile that leaked out when others weren't watching. I found out why when he bowed at the end of the meeting.

He said, "Obsidian, flawless victory."

I had to smile. "For the first round. But there will be more matches to come, no?"

He just nodded back.

Next up, was lunch. The meeting had taken that long. The cafeteria was on the first floor, and was rather well appointed. Even better was the fact that to pay, all you had to do was swipe your badge.

Tex said, "All employee and contractor badges are linked to the account we pay you. That way, you don't have to worry about having the correct change, and buying someone else's lunch just means letting them go first. So what do you think of the suits?"

"At least one is a fan."

"Huh? Who was that?"

"Mr. Madison, the project accountant, I think."

"Him? He barely said a thing."

"True, he sat back and listened. I mean, he listened. The few questions he asked were very astute. But did you see him hiding a smile?"

"Smile? He scowls, or is blank-faced. The few times I've heard about, his poker face is perfect."

"He was smiling. And at the end, he said, 'flawless victory', so he clearly recognized my outfit."

"Oh man, my world is shattered. Madison smiled."

"You'll get over it."

"True."

After lunch, he showed me to my desk. I shared an office with two others, but there were four desks. That's when HR came. They were there to instruct me on such things as my company email, passwords, timekeeping, and so on. The biggest subject was company secrecy. I rolled my eyes when HR wasn't looking, and my office mates snickered. Then there were the forms. I thought the legalese of movies was bad. It took nearly two hours. I was reading through some of the policies when the computer alarm beeped at me. As I heard the other two computers go off at the same time, I wasn't surprised when the guys got up.

One said, "Becky Sue, I'm Thomas, and this nerd beside me is Harold. When we learned you were coming, we were uncertain, so we checked you out. We are both fans of your movies..."

"Love your Mortal Kombat outfit."

"... but it was the work you did inventing the zero-gravity sex machines that convinced us you are legit. That is for this project."

"But we can't stay. The meeting starts shortly. Since you won't know where anything is, we've been tasked as your guides. We are both also attending, so please, join us, and we'll show you the way."

We chatted about my films on the way. At the meeting, Tex introduced everyone, and he introduced me as a very smart person in her own fields, and she knows how to think out of the box. That got a few snickers. It took nearly an hour to describe all the things they thought the nanotech should be able to do, and the many problems they were having with control. When they asked my input, it was clear they didn't think I would be able to come up with a miracle.

"Let me see. You have over ten varieties of nanites, that need to interact in controlled ways, but the management overhead is dwarfing the productivity. Correct?"

Heads nodded, and several voiced their agreement.

"Sounds like a classic case of micromanagement." More nods. "But the sheer scale is the driver of the productivity loss... Well, what examples of real systems can we use?"

Tom said, "There aren't any."

I replied, "I can think of several off the bat. Biology: the hive mind. Termites, ant colonies, coral, and others. I read somewhere that they use some very basic rules to create great works. Another general system: CGI landscapes. They use simple rule-sets involving fractals somehow, but they generate random, but realistic alien landscapes. Also, CGI have motion capture systems. They collect the geometry of the artist, and the computer translates it into a different form on screen."

There was stunned silence. Nearly twenty seconds later, I heard someone say, "We've been examining the trees so much, we forgot it was part of a forest. And that termite example, I remember reading it. The rule-set involved defining things on the local scale, but when carried out over a larger area, it translated into something far more sophisticated."

Before they could get going, I dropped another bombshell. "About that pattern inputting, that CGI I mentioned is also used for making realistic people. They need geometry data of how people are built, and they apply gravity, flexibility, and other things to the clothes worn by the characters. Check out high-end simulation games. Some even let you scan a picture, and it translates that into the clothes worn by your avatar. You could license that for your clothes-pattern input. As to control, these days everyone has a watch with a screen, or a smartphone. You can view pictures and text, and you can answer by text, or even by voice. Let that be your operational control, leaving the fancy stuff, like new patterns, for better ways."

That set off even more talk. It got so heated, that everyone practically ignored me. So when the pizza arrived, I started passing it around. Tex noticed, but not many others did. When I finished passing out a slice to everyone, I took two for myself and sat down next to Tex.

"Becky Sue, I think you just passed a miracle. They have not been this animated in months. And the ideas are flowing by at a rapid clip."

"You think any of them will pan out?"

"Most won't, but they will spark other ideas. Do you have any ideas for this project?"

"Actually yes. When you said protective clothing, I wondered about non-protective clothing."

"Non-protective clothing?"

"Yeah. Like casual clothes such as we are wearing now. If you can get it light enough, and changeable enough, it could take the fashion industry by storm. Remember I mentioned Stargate? Some characters had armor that collapsed into a collar or belt. Imagine a shirt that could be long sleeves for business, but short sleeves when you leave the office to go to a party. Or a dress that could vary its length based on how the wearer felt? Fashion gold that. I, of course, would be glad to model it for you."

"I bet. And if you wore a toga, it would go over one shoulder, but it would leave a breast bare."

"Yep, if I thought I could get away with it. I did have another idea about control, but it would be a bit more advanced."

"Oh!"

"Yes. If the outfit could sense when you touched it, it could follow your touch for redefining its shape. It could select colors by displaying a series of colors, and you selected the one you wanted. But the most ambitious would be some kind of mental interface. If much of the scalp were covered in a very thin layer, allowing hair to pass, it could act as a receiver or even a transceiver of thought. Yeah, I know, we don't have it yet, but if you can invent it with some kind of learning neural net, think of the possibilities. If they are willing, the user could have an interface chip implanted. They already do that for blind folk. Pushing that technology, however, is a lot more difficult than a mesh that reads your mind."

"You're right, but we don't have to implant anything. The gamers already have VR headsets. Those would work just fine, and are already on the mission equipment list."

"You're right. I think they can even track eye movement to control an interface projected onto the goggles."