In Rehearsal

169.

Of all the applications, codes, algorithms, devices and their resulting utilities, none are more impressive than The Helmet. The Queen of Hearts has put special emphasis into its design and prototype manufacturing. By leveraging her many contacts in the fledgling world of virtual reality she has mashed-up a device that might be the modern day equivalent to the technological inflection point rushed into reality in 1945 by a small group of the worlds best and brightest. Robert Oppenheimer was nicknamed the American Prometheus for his genius engineering and hurried development of the first atomic weapon, saving — by force — perhaps millions of human lives through the ultimate shock and awe destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Of course that was the spin put on it by the Department of War, later to become the softer sounding Department of Defense. Harry Truman knew full well this was his only chance of a favorable review in the history books after that infamous August day. However devastating Fat Man and Little Boy were to Japan, The Helmet held the potential to impose another type of justice upon the criminally unjust. In both cases it is vital to see the wisdom behind the chilling warning, ’when used for peacekeeping purposes.’ 

The Helmet, part Robocop, part Terminator and part Spielberg, is a wearable combination that augments sight, sound, touch and smell if you so desired. In the latter olfactory category, The Queen insisted that there are medical applications that have, to date, gone unexplored. The helmet itself looks like the modern headwear used by jet fighter pilots with a painted dome, heads-up display face mask and an assortment of wires, hoses, sensors and a pair of matching antennae. Because of its weight it sits atop a padded neck and shoulder brace. That is the upper portion of the apparatus. The lower part is what the design team calls the Iron Fist. The fist is connected by Blue-tooth technology to the helmet allowing motion control with similar maneuverability as a gaming joystick. The combination the two gives the operator control over whatever objects are connected via 5G wireless technology. In this specific case The Queen has successfully paired the Helmet with the drone. All the operator, called the Pilot, needs to do is see, feel, hear, point, lean and direct the drone in much the same way that one operates a flight simulator. With these basic operating functions the drone can maneuver into and out of situations previously considered impossible. The myriad functions of this technology is, in the opinion of those desperately trying to patent its power potential, profoundly robust. 

As always,  Queen has other plans. Anybody can build something and sell it, license it or mass manufacture it, but to her way of thinking, a style that I have quickly learned to respect and appreciate, the true test is in its application. 

At this point in the history of The Helmet fate has intervened. 

A series of ‘what if’ questions has led us to the formulation of the foundational strategy holding Operation Firecracker together like C-clamped flat-iron pressing a thousand pounds of torque. 

It is this crucial bit of technology that gives us the plan. With it, we live to fight other days, without it we are dead in the water. 

The Queen has provided me with a script. My role as Colonel Mason, is to demonstrate the superior firepower capabilities of this revolutionary new device, one that could have similar impact on society as Oppenheimer’s, to Warden Daniels. 

That is the easy part. There is another, altogether more complex and vitally important component to the operation that hinges on my sales performance. 

The script calls for me to goad the Warden into trying out The Helmet for himself as the drone hovers one-hundred feet above his SuperMax prison facility on the evening of the test.

Today I am in rehearsal.