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This content is produced by the artists indicated on the site, including myself, Brian Joseph Johns.

I, under no circumstance will trade, barter or otherwise swap my own identity for that of another person and I protect the same right for those who've contributed their artwork to the various projects under my management at Shhhh! Digital Media, my own company, no matter the colour symbolism involved. These rights are protected by law under the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms under section 7.

Also, FYI, I don't reverse or alter the polarity or context of my expression (sometimes referred to as "blove" by some people). I say what I mean and mean what I say, and generally only joke or am sarcastic with people I really know very well.

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Two organizations whose contribution of expertise, human and financial resources and volunteer efforts provide humanitarian solutions to real world problems the entire world over. These charities operate worldwide. The United Nations Fund supports the various programs part of the United Nations' global mandate, as much a foundation as it is a roof around the world.

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The World Veterans Federation is a humanitarian organisation, a charity and a peace activist movement. The WVF maintains its consultative status with the United Nations since 1951 and was conferred the title of “Peace Messenger” in 1987.

I'd like to point out that it was the incredible Gary Sinese Foundation that brought the issue of Veteran's rights to my attention. I've always had little respect for those who'd forget the great contribution made by those who've risked life and limb to defend those values that so many of us espouse. Perhaps the true measure of one's principles are by that for which they'd risk their life.

"None can speak more eloquently for peace than those who have fought in war."

Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize 1950

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The Reeve Foundation provides programs for research, uniting Scientists and Specialists from many different fields to find treatments for spinal cord injury translating them into therapies and support programs.

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For over 60 years, Heart & Stroke has been dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Our work has saved thousands of lives and improved the lives of millions of others.

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ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a progressive neuromuscular disease in which nerve cells die and leave voluntary muscles paralyzed. The ALS society provides a variety of programs to combat this disease and help those with it to survive.

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The Humane Society protects the health, lives and rights of animals the world over, ensuring that they too have a voice in this world. We are interdependent upon the complex web of life this entire planet over for our mutual survival. This is a world wide charity.

The Global Foodbanking Network
Ensuring that people the world over have enough food day to day in order to survive and lead healthy lives. In this challenging day and age services like this are becoming more and more essential. This is a world wide charity.

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum
Because Barris told me to put it here. If I didn't, he said he'd walk. Geez. Stardom really gets to some people's heads. Maybe I could kill him and bury his heart beneath the floor boards! Or I could encase him in behind a brick and mortar wall, for shaming my family name of Amantillado!

In all truth, there's a good chance that thanks to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herbert George Wells, Jules Verne, Dr. Seuss, Stephen King, Clive Barker and Pierre Burton (for The Secret World Of Og and his ground breaking interview of Bruce Lee) that all of us are literate. Actually that goes back much farther to the Phoenecians and their first 22 character system of symbols. Literacy is important. Really it is. Literally. It allows us to approach our employer at the end of the week (with a big club) and ask: where my money?! Math important too. It help us count our thirteen fingers and toes.

Wikipedia
The model for what may become the Encyclopedia Galactica, a complete reference and record of history, events and knowledge of humanity and its journey beyond. It is the encyclopedia of all that we know, what we surmise that we've known and will learn in the future. Yes, Wikipedia is a charitable organization of great importance. If you enjoy what I am doing here then please take the time to donate to Wikipedia. Surprisingly only 1% of Wikipedia's users donate yet the site serves pages to millions every day.

Humble Bundle
A video gaming storefront benefiting a vast variety of different Charities in the United States and United Kingdom (hopefully soon to be expanded to include other areas of the world?). By software their software bundles and choose which Charity your money benefits and how much of your money benefits that Charity. See? Gamers can do their part too.

Multiple Sclerosis Society Of Canada

Multiple Sclerosis is a degenerative disease currently affecting an estimated 2.3 million world wide. By donating you are contributing to effective research in finding a cure and tipping the scales of MS research to change lives forever.

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Shhhh! Digital Media

Brian Joseph Johns

Warning: this material is intended for a mature audience. Reader discretion is advised.

Shhhh! Digital Media Presents

The Butterfly Dragon: The Two Butterflies - Epsisode 14: Crime Of The Century

This content is produced by the artists indicated on the site, including myself, Brian Joseph Johns.

I, under no circumstance will trade, barter or otherwise swap my own identity for that of another person and I protect the same right for those who've contributed their artwork to the various projects under my management at Shhhh! Digital Media, my own company, no matter the colour symbolism involved. These rights are protected by law under the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms under section 7.

Also, FYI, I don't reverse or alter the polarity or context of my expression (sometimes referred to as "blove" by some people). I say what I mean and mean what I say, and generally only joke or am sarcastic with people I really know very well.
If you enjoy reading the content on this website, then please consider making a donation to one of the following charities below, or by the purchase of merchandise on our shop at https://shop.shhhhdigital.com.
Support Charity

Please support education and information access where you can in addition to these charities:

CanadaHelps

Not a charity per se, but a conglomeration of charities all under one donation window roof. A means by which registered charities may host online donation programs to reach a greater audience of supporters. Each entry includes a lot of information about the charity in question, including a short description of their mission, their tax status, how they keep their books and what not and certainly a means by which to support them. A great resource and living proof that CanadaHelps.

Sick Kids Foundation
Help research that provides cures and support treatment for sick children.

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

United Nations Fund
United Way Worldwide

The Dana And Christopher Reeve Foundation

The Heart And Stroke Foundation

For over 60 years, Heart & Stroke has been dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Our work has saved thousands of lives and improved the lives of millions of others.

Multiple Sclerosis Society Of Canada

If you're a resident of Ontario then please consider supporting Building Better Schools.

Other Ways To Help Using Your Computer

Donate your idle computer time to science! Join the World Community Grid by clicking on one of the links below and follow the instructions for how to participate:

Join World Community Grid

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Thank you for your support

Shhhh! Digital Media

Brian Joseph Johns

When Stories Collide: Notes On How Shhhh! Digital Media Books And Stories Sometimes Coincide With Those Of Publishers Like Marvel, DC And Wizards Of The Coast

More than a decade ago, all the way back in 2014, I began work on what I assumed at the time would be the second book of the Butterfly Dragon series of books. At that time, Shhhh! Digital Media did not exist as a company or a website as it does today but more so as an idea, and everything I published was introduced under my Poetry And Fiction personal web site, which I began back in May of 2012.

The first book Butterfly Dragon I: Heroes Of Our Own was fairly popular initially, though it did take some time to catch up with A Lady's Prerogative I: The Yearning And The Learning. The Butterfly Dragon books were born in the early stages of Disney's Avengers franchise, around the same time as The Avengers appeared on screen (Butterfly Dragon was initially published in May 2012) and a few years before Age Of Ultron.

It was never compared to anything by Marvel or Disney initially, mostly as a result of the absence of Bryce Maxwell in the first draft, as he only had a short bit in the early chapters, being one of Alicia Westin's Professors at University Of Waterloo and one of her biggest inspirations. So when during the second draft I substantially increased his presence in the book, many people accused me of copying Iron Man, who was similarly charismatic although Tony Stark was a charismatic genius billionaire, while Bryce Maxwell was simply a charismatic genius.

The irony of it all is that Bryce Maxwell was never based upon or inspired by Tony Stark, as Bryce Maxwell never dons a superhero suit in any of the Butterfly Dragon stories, though the comparison is certainly understandable because characters like Tony Stark were made possible as a result of science celebrities like Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman and the actors who portrayed characters on screen like them (Jeff Goldblum, Robert Downey Jr and Michael Douglas certainly come to mind). Stan Lee has even during interviews (most likely with Kevin Smith) pointed this out, though nothing of that sort had really found its way to the big screen.

It wasn't until (Doctor) Michael Crichton wrote the book the Andromeda Strain, that the archetype of the heroic and charismatic scientist had come to fruition, eventually finding the characters from the book transitioning to the big screen, alongside other scientifically informed stories like the Fantastic Voyage, however, most scientific heroes never achieved the kind of acclaim afforded action heroes, and this remained the case until the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark arrived, introducing a character who was not only well educated, but also action oriented and charismatic. Still, Indiana Jones follows the archetype of action hero more so than scientist and that's what attracted most people to the movies.

It wasn't until Doctor Crichton wrote the book Jurassic Park, that the archetype of charismatic scientific genius found its way to mainstream popularity through the character Ian Malcolm, who in the book gives the vibe of being more like a womanizing rock star, while in the film adaption, Ian Malcolm is smoothed over to behave more like a charismatic educated gentile thanks to Jeff Goldblum's performance and it was this character and Goldblum's performance that heralded the arrival of the heroic scientist archetype in popular culture.

My interest in and my subsequently having taken classes pertaining to Chaos Theory (Iterative Fractal Systems 1 & 2 and another seventy-two hours of courses dealing with vectors, matrices and quaternions) wasn't the result of Crichton's Ian Malcolm, but more so out of my interest in mathematics after having read works by science author James Gleick and a scientific paper by Benoit Mandelbrot and finally, out of my interest in a branch of mathematics called complexity theory, which can best be summed up by Conway's Life.

Ironically, Goldblum had played a very similar character, Seth Brundle, a decade earlier in David Cronenberg's The Fly and hence one could say that Cronenberg beat Crichton to the box office with Mr. Goldblum, but Seth Brundle follows the archetype of mad scientist and tragic hero more so than otherwise.

Tony Stark in the comic books is a contributor to this archetype, but was never fully realized until Robert Downey Jr. took the role in Marvel's theatrical version of Iron Man. Ironically (pun intended), the Tony Stark of the comics is someone who struggles with substance abuse issues in the form of alcoholism, and there's a very popular storyine featuring that aspect in the Invincible Iron Man comic books, which was touched upon in the films as more of an awakening of Stark to his understanding of the responsibility he'd arrived at after his experiences in the cave towards the ends of the well being of the world that his genius and fortune affords him. The soldiers, the young women and men who lose their lives during the scene of his abduction were doing their best to make a difference in the world and without a vast fortune, and when he realizes this, he becomes aware of his responsibility.

Bryce Maxwell on the other hand follows a different sort of path. He's never really been rich, but during the height of his career he lived comfortably and arrived at that place of understanding of his responsibility to the world early on, without being zealous about it. A silent realization. He was never a copy of anything that Marvel did, but in a way he's a tribute to the work of writers like Crichton, who really helped introduce the public to the idea that there is a lot of heroics in the sciences. Given his additional skills of being a talented musician (a very skilled jazz and big band piano player), he has much in common with fellow Physicist Richard Feynman, who himself was also a musician.

The intent was never to overshadow the women characters of Butterfly Dragon, but rather to give Alicia a father-like figure that guides her to her career as a Quantum Biologist. Initially she has a crush on him, but that changes to become more like a father/daughter friendship and one that helps her realize her dreams. Hence, Bryce Maxwell isn't really a copy of any character by another writer or publisher who has more money than some poor guy like myself, though because I don't have money, most cases where my characters are similar to someone else's will be defined as my having copied them rather than the other way around. I'd prefer to regard it as a case of neither of us are copying each other. We just arrived at similar ideas or interpretations thereof at roughly the same time because we're both equally able to understand our audience and what the world needs to hear and from whom.

My point in writing theses notes and commentary here was motivated by how many times I've experienced overlap with popular storylines from big publishers like Marvel or DC, which especially when there's movies involved, I seem to have a pretty good batting average including elements in my books months or even years before a similar element appears in a Marvel or DC film release. Case in point: Alicia Westin's most recent storyline regarding her relationship with Walton Norler and their recently born child (which was published about four to six months ago) in Butterfly Dragon: The Two Butterflies.

Initially, I had plans to do Alicia's parenthood in the second book of the Butterfly Dragon, which I'd first planned to be Dragon Butterfly, and a much different storyline involving a human trafficking network, from which a ballerina escapes after having adapted her dancing skills for fighting. That story line was initially created in 2014, long before the most recent John Wick inspired story: Ballerina though that isn't an accusation as much as it is a humble bow to writers of similar ilk. I might even still have a copy of the initial draft of that version of Dragon Butterfly, though the character Dragon Butterfly herself actually becomes manifest as a result of a society ignoring these issues and the trafficking network. She essentially is created as a result of an angry Japanese girl's tattoos.

In that story, Alicia was going to give birth to a little girl, who of course would have her own powers. Meanwhile, Heylyn would be caught up in a cat and mouse game of hunting the Dragon Butterfly, who manipulates Butterfly Dragon into becoming the public's enemy, while Dragon Butterfly becomes a symbol for women's rights, though her methods are very extreme, drawing the public into a lust for violence against the men who've violated women. The Ballerina would convince the trafficking victims that Butterfly Dragon was the real enemy of society, and Heylyn would find herself in a position where she had to redeem the public's sudden cruelty and lust for vengeance, while defeating Dragon Butterfly, the Ballerina and their supporters many of whom were trafficking victims. Alicia would eventually get caught up in this conflict and find herself torn between her duties as a mother, and her friendship with Heylyn. Worse, Dragon Butterfly eventually seduces Monique, and Eclipse joins Dragon Butterfly and the three vengeful women, Dragon Butterfly, the Ballerina and Eclipse must face off against Alicia and Butterfly Dragon, with one of them making the ultimate sacrifice. It was a very, very controversial storyline to say the least and very much adult oriented even more so than the harshest of the current version of Dragon Butterfly acts 1, 2 and 3.

I ended up scrapping the entire idea, twice trying to rewrite it and the second time adding Heylyn's adopted daughter Warai, which made it similar to A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity, which I never finished. Eventually I decided that What Different Eyes See, which was initially going to be a short novella, would become book two of the Butterfly Dragon series and from that point, it became a very natural fit for where the Butterfly Dragon was going by that point and without turning women into vengeful monsters (thankfully). Also, it put the focus on the world cooperating to come up with a way to make available to everyone, poor and rich alike, a potential ground breaking cure for degenerative diseases and for Cancer itself, while the nemesis attempts to isolate that cure, and instead capitalize on it, charging huge sums of money for it to the rest of the world.

In 2019, when I began work on the Dragon Butterfly that we currently have, that's when I gave hints about Alicia's pregnancy, but I didn't go full blown into that aspect of the story until 2023. In terms of how long it took to write her storyline, she's been pregnant for three years, but it was only recently that she gave birth (about four to six months ago). Rather than follow my initial plans, I instead chose to change the sex of her child to that of a boy. Heylyn adopted a little girl by the name of Warai Jeong-Min Tokama, and I wanted there to be a child that represented men and hence Nathan was born.

About a year later, and a trailer on YouTube debuts for a Marvel superhero group of whom I've been a big fan since I was a kid (like most comic book fans), and for the first time since they tried to bring the Fantastic Four to the screen, Marvel decides to include the Franklin storyline: Susan Storm's and Reed Richards' child, their child of course being a little boy. I watched the trailer and my first reaction was to slap my forehead, knowing that everyone who saw it, that hadn't read the recent episodes of Butterfly Dragon would immediately assume that I copied Marvel. It was Bryce Stark all over again.

In all fairness, the Franklin storyline has been around since 1968, though it made its biggest impact with the original version of Secret Wars 2 (which was first published in 1985), in which Franklin plays an essential role, that ties in with one of the other Marvel power houses: Molecule Man and their effort to save the Marvel Universe (Earth 616?), from annihilation in the multiverse.

I have to say that it is completely awesome that they are doing the Franklin storyline (probably with their own ideas but drawing heavily from the Marvel source material), but I can't express how much it irks me that it coincided so closely with Alicia's parenthood and the birth of Nathan. Thankfully though, knowing the Franklin storyline, I can at least ensure that I steer clear of any similarities between Alicia/Nathan and Sue Storm/Franklin, though its already established in both Marvel's and my story that their children have some special abilities.

Between already being in conflict with people who attempt to take my stories from me or the writing credit for them, or pit me as a character in them rather than my being the writer thereof, being pit against a multi-million (billion?) dollar publisher is a bit of a headache for a guy who brings in a few hundred dollars a month, but has the publishing and readership responsibility of someone who brings in between 300K to 600K a year. A lot of responsibility, but little reward other than the immense joy I get from writing. Again, that's not an accusation at all, but a good sign to see that we both seem to have our fingers on the pulse of society, but from different angles.

There's a gnostic dichotomy where when someone is created at some finite point in time by a specific person, at the same time another person creates an opposite, on a different side of the fence from that first thing, and if it becomes a sort of focal point along the lines of Quantum Mechanical objective collapse, of those two sides, one can win and one can lose and that can change from moment to moment. William Shakespeare vs. Sir Francis Bacon as being the writer of Shakespeare's works is one example of this dichotomy.

If you're observant, you'll notice this pattern in a lot of different things throughout history, where on a the drop of a hat, a branch point in time can flip flop from one side to the other based not upon where and when something occurs in history, but at the point at which it is evaluated from the future.

Someone might find evidence backing up the Sir Francis Bacon theory and for a generation, he gets credited with all of Shakespeare's writing, and the following generation, another piece of evidence is found supporting Shakespeare as being the writer and so on. A sort of gnostic and perhaps Quantum Mechanical insistance that history and the past is created in the present, and by such means can change from one side to the other and vice versa.

Creators who are aware of things of this nature often build some form of encrypted link to their works, that defy and break those gnostic or Quantum Mechanical dualities that can alter the origins of a work. I used practice doing this sort of thing with poetry. In fact, in a tribute to a mutual friend of mine and my employer back in 2001, I wrote a poem to a woman named Sarah, and encrypted into the poem information that only the three of us would know.

Years later, when I began writing Stories From The End, I started doing it with my written novels and in each of them, there are hidden cryptographs chapters long hidden in my written works. When you have nothing but the fruits of your labour to confirm you were here, you'd best go to lengths to protect them.

Regardless, there must be something rewarding in my writing, otherwise why would I be doing it?

Really, its my way of saying thank you to the women who inspired me and who didn't once judge me when I shared aspects of my personal likes and secrets with them and who made me feel that even if I was only ever appreciated by them, that it would be enough for an eternity of lifetimes (yes you Helen Chen).

As I stated, there's a bit of everyone I've ever loved in there, and the reward for me is letting people, especially the women I care about, know that they truly made a difference and that they'll always be heroes. They saved me.

Insofar as Marvel and DC and Wizards Of The Coast go, hopefully, our stories don't collide too often but I can honestly say that I've never copied any of them.

I look forward to the next phase of Marvel films and am already pumped about seeing (General Ross') Thunderbolts

Brian Joseph Johns

Warning: This story deals with mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

Shhhh! Digital Media Presents

The Butterfly Dragon: The Two Butterflies - Epsisode 14: Crime Of The Century

A man in a three piece suit walks from the surrounding darkness, his foot steps echoing as he steps into the spotlight. He stops and faces the audience.

Think: the movie Alfie (of Alfie) or Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Think: breaking the fourth wall.

The man then begins to speak.

"Cha-ching!"

[Pink Floyd - Money]

"Yep. That stuff, though I could honestly do without bouncing around between the 7/8 time signature (seven beats to a bar, and every eighth note gets one beat) and then off to the 4/4 time signature (four beats in a bar and every quarter note gets a beat)."

"My nephews (my brothers' kids) were really into this music, but honestly it arrived just after my generation, and was brought about by another band of hopeful dreamers."

[The Beatles - Money]

"Who like the pink ones aforementioned above, had a bit of grub-a-dub-dub to go around."

"Then they were copied by..."

[The Flying Lizards - Money]

"In a most stylish way that was really popular and probably made lots of cha-ching."

"Its what makes the world go around."

"And around. And around."

"We call it..."

[John Barry - The End Is At Hand]

"No, no, no! Not big monkeys!"

"Big Money!"

[Rush - Big Money]

"Yep. That's the stuff I'm talking about."

"Its the future."

"Its Quantum Computers."

"Its Robots and AI."

"Its Cold and Room Temperatuure Fusion!"

"How about a can of ice cold fusion on a hot summer day? Sounds good doesn't it? Its making my mouth water just thinking about it. Now if they were really with it, they'd fund the development of cold fusion by marketing a beer or vodka cooler of the same name,"

"Or how about some other research money gimmick guaranteed to lure in those deep pockets investors?"

"Mr. Maxwell? You do understand that this is a life insurance commercial we're filming..." the director addressed the aging Quantum Physicist.

"Yes... I assumed so. Why don't we throw some science in there. Capitalize on the fact you have me?" Bryce suggested to the director.

"Mr. Maxwell? Our marketing focus group indicates that the public is interested in you because you make most professionals in their mid forties feel nervous about their future and retirement. The bottom line is, that when people think about you, they're thinking life insurance," the director explained to Bryce.

"Wow! That's a big change. Only a few years ago I was part of the center stage for the sciences. A decade onward and with the entry of a whole new generation of faces gracing the social media page of the sciences and here I am, doing life insurance commercials."

"Who the heck am I you might ask? I'm Bryce Maxwell. Ex-Professor Bryce Maxwell that is. I taught a lot of great students at University of Waterloo. I gave a lot of great talks at the Perimeter Institute. I worked directly for MindSpice CEO Gabriel Asnon on a project bringing a Quantum Computing Cloud into reality, and engineering a series of classical Processors that included onboard room temperature Quantum Processors, with a little help from that upstart Zheng Ni Wong that is."

"I heard that Bryce!" Zheng Ni Wong interjects with a smile on her face, from somewhere in the distance .

"I'm an old guy. A dinosaur, as some have started referring to me. On the brink of extinction, my time at the front and center of Quantum Physics and popular science is quickly coming to a close."

"And now, tts time for me to cash-in. As much as I can."

"Lets face it. Kids these days want to see much younger hotshots. They don't want sixty-something heroic icons of the sciences."

"They want young, adventurous, scholarly, physically fit, scientists of the new era. Ageless and timeless, never growing old. Not fearful of the onset of time and pushing it forward one facelift at a time."

"Oh... who are we fooling?"

"We're at the end of an era."

"Scientific celebrities like myself are bottoming out..."

"...get ready for the life insurance plan that has your future in mind!" Bryce spreads his arms awkwardly cringing as a result of the pain in his shoulders.

"Cut! We need a bit more of a spread with your arms Mr. Maxwell..." the director of the commercial addressed Bryce.

"I forgot to stretch today..." Bryce responds, spinning his arms in his shoulder sockets to limber up.

"Ready?! Speed and action!" the director urged the crew.

"Not only do we have the bridge to the future, but we have the plan. Get ready for the life insurance plan that has your future in mind!" Bryce presented the ship with his arms fully extended.

"Hold it... hold it! That's a wrap! That's awesome! The best take we've had..." the director patted Bryce on the back as they finished the take.

"Thanks Tony. So are we finished here?" asked Bryce.

"And then some. Despite being in the retirement chair Bryce, you've still got it!" the director complimented him.

"Good to know. Look, I just thought you need to know that my wife and I are leaving tomorrow for an investor's convention. Just in case there's anything else you need?" Bryce faced the director, who turned to face his star actor.

"Lets get a playback on that last take?" the director addressed the camera operator.

Together they watched the most recent take on the preview screen and when it had finished rolling, the director turned and patted Bryce on the back again.

"Nope. We're finished here. That was perfect. We can do the rest in editing and post. Enjoy the convention and thanks very much Mr. Maxwell," the director addressed Bryce.

"...Great... uhhh... about the pay? Do I get the cheque from you or..." Bryce asked the director awkwardly.

"No... that would be the producer you'd want to talk to. Out through that door and down the hall to the first door on your left," the director pointed it out for him.

"Alright. Thanks and give me a call if you need me again. Nice meeting you Tony," Bryce shook hands with the director.

"Great working with you. Alright people, where's my frickin' latté? Didn't I send the production assistant to get my latté...? Aren't we payin' you people enough?" the director turned and started grilling the camera operator and then the gaff.

"No..." the camera operator responded sarcastically as Bryce left the studio.

Bryce pulled his phone from from his pocket and called his wife.

"Hi honey," Wendy answered the phone.

"Hi sweetie. We just finished up so if you're done there with Valerie..." Bryce replied to her.

"I'm on my way. See you in a bit," Wendy responded.

"I'll be out front," Bryce replied and then hung up as he arrived at the producer's office.

He knocked on the door.

"The door's open," a voice came from inside of the office.

Bryce opened the office door and peeked inside. A tiny lady was seated behind the office desk as she tended to her email.

"How can I help you Mr. Bohr?" asked the lady.

"Uhhhh... Mr. Maxwell. I'm Bryce Maxwell..." Bryce corrected her.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Maxwell. How can I help you?" she corrected herself.

"We're finished in the studio and I'm here to settle up," Bryce said to her directly, getting to the point.

"Would you like me to cut you a cheque?" she asked him, adjusting the thick glasses on her nose.

"That would be wonderful. You know, the weekly pay cheques might stop around retirement time, but the bills certainly don't," Bryce responded to her with a quick quip.

"Alright. Let me get that for you. I'm just around the corner from that myself. Another two years and I'll be retiring to Victoria, British Columbia," she said to him as she filled out a cheque for him and then updated the ledger on her computer.

When she was finished, she handed it to him.

He examined it carefully and then handed it back to her.

"I'm sorry, but there must be some kind of misunderstanding. You see, it was supposed to be for six thousand, not four..." Bryce said to her firmly.

"No. We agreed to four. Its right here in your contract..." she said to him, opening her desk drawer and retrieving a copy of his contract.

She fanned through the pages until she found the negotiated payment. After reading it, she found the line indicating the agreed amount and found that it read six thousand.

"Oh... I'm so sorry Mr. Susskind. I must have been thinking of someone else..." she said to him apologetically.

"That's quite alright and its Maxwell. Bryce Maxwell..." he corrected her again.

She accepted the cheque from him and voided it, and then began writing out another cheque with the correct sum, once again updating her ledger.

"Here you are, and it was a pleasure working with you Mr. Feynman," she smiled at him.

He thought about correcting her and decided against it.

"Really, it was my pleasure. Thank you and have a great day," Bryce put the cheque in his pocket and headed out through her office door.

He made his way to the front of the office and sat in the reception area for ten minutes, then deciding to step out front of the building on account of the sunshine streaming in through the foyer window and by that time Wendy had pulled up out front to pick him up.

"So how'd it go?" asked Wendy as Bryce got into the passenger's seat.

"Good. We managed to get it done in a few takes and the director wanted a few other establishing and miscellaneous shots for editing. They even let me ad-lib a few times which was nice, but for the most part it was a pretty tight ship. I guess in this business you kind of have to balance between your own interests and those of the writers. There's a lot of egos involved," Bryce remarked as he put on his seatbelt.

"Not to mention their job portfolios I'd imagine. I mean that's their life-line. They're probably slapping their forehead when some hotshot physicist comes in and wants to change the lines," Wendy observed rather astutely.

"Hotshot physicist? Are you kidding me? I'm just a retired professional trying to eek out an existence," Bryce smiled as he retrieved the cheque from his pocket.

"Did they pay you today?" asked Wendy.

"They certainly did. I was thinking that maybe we could catch dinner and a movie tonight? There's also that performance going on at the Harbourfront Centre... Hocus Pocus. Maybe walk along the harbourfront afterward and then settle in for the night. What do you think?" Bryce said playfully as he carefully played with the cheque.

"Is the insurance paid on the car and the house?" Wendy checked her shoulder before changing lanes.

"We could do that. More than enough to cover it with this without cutting into our savings," Bryce responded.

"What about the work we had done on the back deck? Is that paid yet?" asked Wendy, pushing even further.

"There's one more payment of five hundred left for that," Bryce responded.

"And what about the getting the brakes done? You said you were going to do that two months ago," Wendy goaded him responsibly.

"I forgot about that. That'll be about a thousand..." Bryce replied, shrinking into his seat a little more.

"Both front and back?" Wendy confirmed.

"Maybe seventeen hundred. I thought this was a good haul but it certainly disappears quickly," Bryce pouted playfully.

"Yeah but think about how much easier that makes things if we get that stuff out of the way. The last thing we want is to fall behind," Wendy once again reminded him.

"Yeah... but you know what they say. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..." Bryce pulled a line from a movie from the recesses of his memory.

"Well Jill says Jack can play when the bills are paid," Wendy turned to face him with a smile on her face.

"Once again, my wife, the voice of reason. My cheque? It came, saw and left..." Bryce said, throwing the cheque in the air and watching it flutter down onto his lap.

"We've got to catch that flight to Niagara Falls tomorrow for the convention. Have you talked to the others?" asked Wendy as the light turned green.

"Katya and Victor are going to meet us at the terminal. Zheng and Briggs will be ready at six in the AM," Bryce replied, repocketing the cheque.

"What about those girls from West Meet East?" asked Wendy.

"Who? Oh...! Sienna and Fay?" confirmed Bryce.

"Weren't there more?" Wendy asked Bryce.

"Oooh, that's right. Kori and Ebtissam. I think they're carpooling with Sienna and Fay. They said to catch the flight and if we don't hook up with them at the terminal, that they'll meet us at the convention center. At the registration desk," Bryce suddenly recalled his conversation with Kori the prior week.

"It sounds to me like our night is already predetermined for us, if we're going to be up on time in the morning and achieve our schedule," Wendy pulled into the underground parking of the condo and over to their parking.

"I wonder if we shouldn't throw Heylyn a grand or two. I mean she hasn't said a thing to us about using her unoccupied real estate, but I'd feel more comfortable if we at least gave her something?" Wendy stopped the car in their parking space.

"She would say something to us if there was a problem. Either financially or otherwise. It was her that suggested that we use this place. It was essentially sitting doing nothing while she's waiting for the market to blow up. We pay the maintenance fees and I'm sure thats enough from her perspective," Bryce assured her as they got out of the car.

"Alright. Lets get upstairs and get some dinner and we'll catch a flick on television. That way we'll be fresh and energized for the morning," they made their way to the elevator.

"Honey. For once can we talk about how your day went?" Bryce smiled at Wendy.

"It went good. We'll talk about it upstairs," Wendy gave him a kiss on the cheek for asking, and the chime sounded as the elevator arrived.

...

"Now that might have sounded like the perfect day. The kind of day that most younger guys fantasize about what life will be like with their wife when they're much older, omitting the parts they fantasize about when the lights dim, which of course in our case and on that particular night was the two of us in bed rendered unconscious after having eaten, fast asleep, one of us snoring. I won't tell you which one of us that was,"

"I guess the point in this case all has to do with input and output. In this case, bills needed to be paid and we both worked towards those ends and thanks to my wife, we met the demands of our responsibilities and also managed to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Honest effort towards a worthy endeavor that yielded a future of some kind. In this case, two retirees living out the rest their days as best they could in the wake of their extraordinary careers,"

"In this sense, life becomes a little bit like the case for investment and in life, there are good investments and there are not-so-good investments. There are investments that hold potential. There are investments that are ground breaking. There are investments that are entirely return, and there are investments that are too good to be true, and that's just life itself,"

"I remember the first job that I ever had, long before my PhD or my tenure as a Professor, back in the days when newsprint was the medium for morning news for most professionals as television's news format usually arrived later in the morning and by the time a professional was on their way to, or already at work. You guessed it. I was a newspaper delivery boy and at the young age of fourteen. It wasn't a job. It was an investment, because I had buy the paper route from someone else who'd already founded it and brought it to its then peak value,"

"I did chores at home to earn my allowance, and saved all my money in a piggy bank, and when I was in the ballpark for the market of buying a paper route, I began shopping them locally and quickly learned a lot about life and investment in the process and without ever realizing that I was gaining valuable insight that would serve me until this very day,"

"You see, newpaper routes were typically sold in the buy and sell section of newspapers, and in a sense, no differently than any other business that was being sold through similar medium. They were listed as buy and sell ads, and hence there certainly was marketing involved on the part of some other teenager who'd achieved the peak potential of their route and had outgrown it,"

"Much like any investment by way of purchase, there were small investments with little return on investment but enough to be profitable. There were big investments which might have for the right teenager, returned considerably though that required considerable effort, because in that business, effort equals return. Small paper routes required little effort and therefore returned little. Big paper routes required big effort and therefore had big returns. Then there were the ??? paper routes. The ones that were marketed well, and listed as having much promised potential but that in the end..."

"As it turned out, the market for buying and selling newspaper routes was somewhat prophetic because it mirrored an aspect that as a Scientist, something that we'd come to confront over the course of our careers, competing for research money. Competing for investment, whether it be Government or Corporate, and the kid buying the newspaper route is no different than the billionaire looking for a place to put their money to work in an informed, determinate, beneficial and profitable manner,"

"Little did we know that we were about to get a lesson that none of us would ever forget. And this is the story of how we changed the very nature of investment and once again, gave it credibility in the face of a collapsing bubble,"

"I remember waking up the next morning. Wendy had turned on the radio to a local classic rock station, despite my usual preference of classic and big band jazz. My wife has a say in our life, and when she takes the reigns of the radio, I usually tag along for the ride and enjoy it with our morning coffee,"

"In this case, it happened to be a song that snuck up on us and in a most timely manner, as if the universe were at some quantum level, abstracting metaphorically what was yet to come, perhaps more so akin to its namesake than the context of its lyrics, though they certainly seemed to fit the bill as well. Just like that kid I used to be riding my bicycle on the paper route of life..."

[School - Supertramp]

"And that's where it all began. The day that begat our crime of the century..."

Registration

Katya drew many eyes as she strutted her way from one of the soft drink vending machines and back over to where her husband was seated in the front foyer of the Niagara Falls Convention Centre, dressed like a million dollars on a fifty thousand dollar a year budget. Victor had his laptop setup on his lap and a folder full of notes whose papers were scattered on the bench beside him. He sat frantically typing as she arrived and took a seat beside him, several men looking out from beyond their own phones and tablets to get another eye full of her.

"Here you go my overworked, underpaid husband," she handed him his electrolyte infused bottled water.

He kept his eyes fixated on the laptop screen as he finished the last few lines of corrections in his delivery.

"Its water? I wanted an energy drink," Victor responded to her as she sat beside him.

"Relax. I got you the energy drink but you remember what Doctor said. You need to properly hydrate yourself in the morning first, and to get your electrolytes unless you'd prefer atrophe of the musculoskeletal system," she said to him.

"And what Doctor is it you refer to?" he asked her, stopping long enough to accept her offering of water.

"Doctor concerned wife. You remember her, don't you?" she asked him, picking up his folder and notes and quickly organizing them as a stack as he opened the bottled water.

"Tell me, what is prognosis of Doctor wife?" Victor asked her as he stopped long enough to join the numerous eyes upon her.

"Take drink of water and call me in the morning," she responded, handing him back his folder full of notes.

"And then can I have the energy drink?" he pressed her again with a smile.

"No. To get that, you'll need to pay Doctor's bill of one kiss. A quick one, and on the lips this time," she replied, withdrawing the energy drink from him as she crossed her legs and puckered up.

"You drive hard bargain," he said as he closed in on her labium oris.

The kiss was gentle, but deliberate. Katya withdrew first from him and handed her husband his energy drink.

"It wasn't good kiss?" he asked her.

"No. It was perfect. It remind the eyes of men upon me that I'm a happily married woman..." she replied.

"To who? Are you saying that we can't have a little bit of fun in the absense of your happily married?" Victor played with the situation much to her enjoyment.

"I was just making sure that you're paying attention. We can play later. Lets make sure we're ready for talk this afternoon my husband," she reached into her own purse and retrieved a tablet computer.

"MAZ? Can you retrieve our working notes for today's address from the cloud?" she asked the MindSpice AI assistant.

"Gladly Doctor. How are you and Victor doing today?" MAZ asked her.

"We are well, though my husband doesn't seem to catching on as to how helpful you can be. Can you check my address notes for any grammatical errors, and ensure that the side notes and cues are in Russian?" she requested of MAZ.

"Done. Would you like anything else?" asked MAZ.

"Yes. Could you do same for husband's notes, though keep original copies, but merge with any linked third party media from presentation," Katya advised MAZ.

"Done. Will that be all?" MAZ once again asked them.

"Be sure to give a kiss on the cheek to Mr. Asnon from me," Katya smiled and returned the tablet to her purse.

"See how its done? And you stressed trying to get all edits done by lonesome," Katya grabbed up the paper notes and put them back into his laptop case.

"My dear, we slow to change with age, while with time, change comes quicker and quicker. Good thing I have a wife with good sense. Now tell me, who is Mr. Asnon fellow? Should I be worried?" he asked her as he opened the laptop once again.

"Katya! Victor!" Kori waved to them on the bench as she picked up her pace towards them.

Victor put the laptop on the bench beside him and stood with his wife as they greeted Kori.

"How are you doing? You look very nice today," Victor complimented her as more eyes were drawn to their proximity.

"Oh thank you. Glad to see that you two are healthy. How's the project going?" she asked them as they took a seat together.

"Bryce's role finished last month, so its been lonely without him, but we made significant breakthrough recently he'll be happy to know," Katya explained to Kori.

"I take it your presentation today is related?" Kori asked, not really knowing much about the sciences involved.

"Precisely. Now we take idea and try to lure in more investors in order to scale up and make working production line. The expensive part is halfway done, and what remains is built on well understand principles of biological engineering," Katya surmised for Kori.

"Ohhh. Sounds interesting. Where's everyone else?" she asked Katya and Victor.

"They're not arrived yet," Victor responded.

"That's cutting it close. The program itinerary starts soon, doesn't it?" confirmed Kori.

"It does, but we need Bryce to check in and get access to booth. Maybe we should be getting nervous? Go start pushing registration desk to give us early access?" Victor suggested.

"We probably shouldn't burn down our bridges. At least not yet. Ebtissam, Sienna and Fay should be here soon. I just talked to them about half-an-hour ago. They're stuck in traffick just outside of Hamilton," Kori explained to them as she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders.

"Guess who?" a familiar male voice asked her.

"Let's see, uhhhhh, very late?" Kori replied, playing along.

"Close, but no cigar. I'm, very late's brother. Better late than never," Bryce responded, removing his hands from Kori's shoulders.

"And I'm his wife, better sense than him," Wendy smiled, having met Kori, Katya and Victor a few times before already.

"How are you two?" Kori greeted them.

"Well, the flight from Toronto got delayed. Nothing serious thankfully, and by the time we got to St. Catherines, our arranged taxi service had bailed on us. So we had to look around for an alternative..." Bryce explained to them.

"I have an old work associate whose husband owns a local limo company, and he gave us a great discount and on short notice thankfully. I would have used him in the first place, but I didn't remember until we were in St. Catherines," Wendy explained to them.

"Well you're here now and time is pressing us..." Victor tapped his watch, after which he began collecting his laptop, while Katya got their drinks.

"Yeah. Let's get that done before the others get here," Bryce quickly led them to the registration desk.

...

Mrs. Elman arrived at the booth, followed by Mr. Fenster who pushed Mr. Deeters' wheelchair as they arrived.

[Rudy - Supertramp]

Meanwhile, Ebtissam led Sienna and Fay through the convention hall towards the end where the shared booth was situated.

All six of them converged on the scene, where Victor and Bryce stood on chairs as they attempted to hoist the signage into place above the booth, while Wendy and Katya guided them towards having it centered.

"Its looking good so far. Sorry we're late but we got..." Mrs. Elman began but paused upon seeing the LCD screens they'd already setup.

"Its alright. We heard. Did you get caught in the same traffic?" Bryce said as he fastened the last clip holding their sign in place.

"Just outside of Hamilton unfortunately. A messy accident but at least nobody was hurt," Mrs. Elman explained.

"Is there a place I can plug in? Ran out of juice this morning. I forgot to charge last night," asked Mr. Deeters, referring to his wheel chair.

"Let me get that for you," Ebtissam offered, taking the charger pack from the back of his wheel chair and plugging it in to the power bar.

"Nice to meet you Miss...?" Mr. Deeters addressed Ebtissam.

"Ebtissam. Yara Ebtissam, thank you for asking and with whom am I speaking?" Ebtissam asked politely and professionally.

"I'm Patrick Deeters at your service. You seem to be familiar with my round legs here?" Mr. Deeters inquired.

"I've done work for charities, assisting those with mobility issues," Ebtissam replied.

"Mobility? My phone plan is fine thank you very much. Its my legs that need an upgrade or two..." Mr. Deeters said jokingly.

"What's the issue if you don't mind my asking?" Ebtissam asked him.

"Spinal dislocation. Severed my spinal chord ten years ago in a car accident. So are you the entrepreneur that's got the other side of the booth?" Mr. Deeters answered her.

"Yes. With my peers here Sienna and Fay. We're from West Meet East International, but our business manager, Valerie Aspen recently came up with a very profitable cost cutting solution that entails registering the seamster/sewing side of the business as its own separate service bureau, which means we could actually do business with our competitors and make them our customers. Sienna and Fay suggested doing the same thing with the hair dressing and make-up departement. Monique, one of the models working there helped us to get going on this as she likes to move fast, and here we are a month later," Ebtissam explained to Mr. Deeters.

"Where are you from. You have a very unique accent and style too. Very nice," Mr. Deeters complimented her.

"I'm from the United Arab Emirates. I came here to Canada about ten years ago. I studied under Ryerson's Sewing for Design program, at that time, with the intent of trying to get work with one of the major fashion houses. Heylyn was one of the first to respond when I sent my resumé out and so here I am," Ebtissam smiled for him.

"Well its very nice to meet you. I'm the guy they come to when they need guidance and to drum up finances, so they brought me today to keep the dance floor warmed up," Mr. Deeters joked.

"You should see his moves, especially after he's oiled the wheels," Bryce added, drawing a bit of laughter from Mr. Deeters.

"Hi Katya. Always a pleasure to see you. How's that Victor man of yours doing today?" Mr. Deeters asked.

Victor pulled the last clip from his mouth and fastened his end of the sign into place, nearly stepping off of the back of the chair as he did.

"There. It seems like we're caught up with everyone now. Oh, Mr. Deeters? How are you?" asked Victor.

"A lot better if you can guarantee for me that we'll be delivering that presentation today and on time?" Mr. Deeters asked him.

"Everything is put together for the talk. We pulled a few wee hours of work, but got it done," Victor explained to his employer.

"Glad to hear. Mr. Fenster's presentation is also ready, which is good as there's a sizeable attendance of the nano-engineering community from what I understand," Mr. Deeters replied.

"Well its the bio-engineering community we're looking for, because I think we've got this baby in the cradle if you know what I mean," Bryce interjected on Victor's behalf and his genetic solution based upon his work with phages.

"And that's why the both of you - both Mr. Fenster and yourselves will be delivering your talks despite the fact that they're both built on completely different technological platforms. Its the applications that are the same, but if we can get the engineers bidding on the most cost effective production pipeline in either case, we'll have this in the bag. This is an important branching point for the future of nano-technology," Mr. Deeters adjusted his wheel chair, backing it up to take in the entirety of the booth.

"The only question is, do we go with a machine oriented mechanical nano-framework?" Mr. Fenster asked rhetorically.

"Or a DNA/RNA based Hyperphage biological network based system?" Victor added.

"Now at this point, many of you are probably baffled by the technobabble. Yes. That's right. Technobabble, because when we come up with the names for this technology, its a bit like a game for us. A mixture of applicable technical labels that describe the science behind what makes these things operate, and the catchy marketing terms. Something that sounds both friendly and innovative thats easy to remember for the people who will be investing in it and certainly the people whose lives will be affected by it,"

"In this case our two candidates for the same technological application deal with two very different mediums. Advanced materials based engineering and manufacturing, and phage based reproduction, augmented with DNA/RNA technology. That is, either wee little tiny robots that are made of metal parts (of titanium-carbon alloy), or living pseudo-cellular life forms based upon the phage life cycle. The kind of stuff that used to keep guys like Jon Von Neumann up all night playing with math and feasibility,"

"The stuff that drives the future of the entirety of humanity. When someone, or a whole group of somebodies work together to bring innovation to life and keep going through the worst of it all. The nay saying voices that try to convince you that you can't do it. You can't achieve it. That thing that keeps you going when you're at the doorstep of a profound revolution, held back by the kind of people who want to wear you like you're an outfit to make them shine but who keep you hidden in the darkness. The kind of people who will, left right and center, deny you of your existence until the strength of your dreams breaks through the gates behind which they keep you locked."

"And just like a song, the stuff of dreams and dreamers..."

[Dreamer - Supertramp]

"But for every realized dream, there's a hidden nightmare lurking in the shadows as we soon found out,"

Sea Of Green

We've spent our lives
one moment one time
to chase our dream
fortunes sublime

Elude us they have
our ideas too
when we plead science
they cry woo woo

Our heart's pursuit
a worthy scene
expecting riches
that's where we've been

We built this thing
so strong and lean
investors: give us
our sea of green!

Hans Erhman
(Gregory Epsen's ninth grade science teacher)

"What makes the economy strong as with any lifeform of which we're aware is movement. Motion. The flow of sustenance from one part of the body to another and in a continuous flow. Like our circulatory or respiratory system. In a healthy economy, money moves, and is always in motion,"

"Each of us within the population is like a reservoir. We all have a stash of the green stuff. A pile that is our net worth, our finances both coming into and flowing out of this reservoir at roughly the same or a growing rate. When that growth is on the incoming side, we're in a good way. Our reservoir is growing. When its on the outgoing side, that's not so good. Our reserves are shrinking."

"The bigger the reservoir, the longer we can go when times are tough and this is the concept of security. Its what gives people the confidence to spend money, and spending money is in a consumer economy is what keeps it moving. Chances are and if its being spent by consumers, its also coming in at roughly the same or a bit greater rate and the stability of each person's reservoir is fundamental to their security and the economy, so says Walton Norler. Yep, I'm here to help Bryce do the heavy lifting behind the fourth wall because this story is as much about economics as it is science..."

[Bryce Maxwell]
"And people I might interject,"

[Walton Norler]
"And people. The most essential part of any economy as it stands currently and seeing as my wife just gave birth to our son, we're very much hoping that things stay that way for some time,"

"When our expenses are the same or just a little bit higher in terms of rate than our income, again that affects the size of our reservoir and our confidence in spending. When for a large part of the population there are many consumers for whom their reservoir is little if non-existent, the only motion that occurs is as a result of their mandatory expenses. Food. Shelter. The bare essentials. No growth into other assets like real estate. No luxuries. Just plain survival. A sad state of affairs in which to live, but often a breeding ground for innovation as Gregory Epsen can certainly attest to,"

"If you'll recall, he was the young(er) lad that developed Medi-Friend, a handheld diagnostic unit that combined mobile tablet based technology with modern... uhhhh... Bryce, could you help me here...?"

[Bryce Maxwell]
"Certainly. He's talking about Medi-Friend, a tablet based medical diagnostic device that combines a mobile operating system and modern miniaturized Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices which are basically really, really sensitive magnets that are capable of detecting the magnetic fields and interactions of minute particles, including the interactions between neurons in the nervous system. Neurons are gargantuan when compared to the scale of particles that these babies were designed to detect,"

[Walton Norler]
"Thank you. Couldn't have said it at all, let alone have said it better without you. (Financial) necessity is the mother of all invention..."

[Bryce Maxwell]
"...and the father of all procrastination as my father used to say from the big chair in the living room..."

[Walton Norler]
"That too, though lets hope that's not entirely the case with fatherhood. Gregory was driven by two factors. The first and the one that I'm primarily concerned with is the economic factor. A need to create something that liberates one from the confines of their limited economic situation. At a convention like this one and in the midst of current economic factors, an entire generation of such innovators has come here, hoping to change their situation with the fruits of their inventive labour, while attracting the investment of somebody that can give them the sea of green,"

[Bryce Maxwell]
"What Walton failed to mention was the fact that economics isn't exclusively the driving force behind innovation and that some of us in the science community are driven by something else entirely different that eludes economic thinkers. Determination. Obsession. Motivation to make a difference,"

[Walton Norler]
"What Bryce failed to mention was that the road to bankruptcy is paved with the best of intentions. A fact about which most investors are aware thankfully. They didn't get to the position of having investment capital by just blindly giving it away or by ignorance and greed. I mean, look at Nikolai Tesla. Obsession is and can be an investor's worst nightmare, seeing as that gifted inventor died flat broke and alone in a hotel room,"

[Bryce Maxwell]
"Obsession is also their best friend. Nikolai Tesla's patents, especially those linked to his designs of alternating current are worth hundreds of trillions of dollars today, not to mention that our entire planet's power grid and infrastructure is built upon the foundations of his designs... and obsession. Thomas Edison may have given us light. Alexander Graham Bell may have given us words and grammar at a distance. Claude Shannon may have given us error correction akin to linguistic grammar (based upon the mathematics of Georg Cantor), but it was Nikolai Tesla's designs that power it all. All of it until this very day and all of it from a man who essentially died broke, making his benefactor George Westinghouse very rich. Some of us aren't motivated the same way as everyone else and yet in the absense of a lust for riches and a thrift for finances, came the entirety of the global power grid, and is essentially what made possible the civilization and infrastructure we have today. Without it, it would be impossible to support the current world population,"

[Walton Norler]
"And all of that was made possible by big money investment with an eye for the future..."

[Bryce Maxwell]
"And the dedication and innovation of scientists and inventors,"

[Valerie Aspen]
"I hate to be the voice of reason here, but not everything is always what it appears to be and the absense of sensibility in the midst of dreamers within a dream can be a dangerous combination. Especially when you've got to keep a good business sense and your head on your shoulders,"

Jason paced the stage at the Future Tangent booth, a devious smile on his face.

"Do you have any idea what this costs to produce? Come on. How about a ballpark figure from one of you?" he asked his audience, his voice amplified by the powered audio system.

"Three hundred per unit... when ordered in volume. Say a hundred at a time?" one of the members of the audience.

"That's about what most purchasers project for something like the Digital Doc. Looking to capitalize on volume purchases to maximize their margin. About thirty-thousand for a hundred units. Now, what would you say if I told you that you're all wrong?" Jason stopped, picking up one of the Digital Doc units from the nearby podium and raising it above his head.

"You see this? If you sign on to order a hundred per order, and only while we're here today, we'll give you a price of eight-thousand. That's eight-thousand for a hundred units. That's eighty a unit. A bit more than three hundred percent under MSRP, meaning you'll have plenty of room to play with when offering sales incentives to your customers without cutting into your margins. Not to mention great incentives for your sales force. Now you might ask yourself, how can we afford to do that? I mean, given the actual cost, we're practically giving them away, right?" Jason asked the audience.

A man raised his hand from the audience, clearly ready with an answer.

"What do you think?" asked Jason of the man, who them stepped into the clear enough for Jason to see his face.

"I think the reason is that you're using substandard parts. Especially the sensors. Your sensors are based upon variable phased array magnetometers. A sound technology when applied to large scale integrated platforms such as NextGen Pseudo-SQUID MRI, but not in a portable platform given the extra energy requirements. On battery power, your sensor array is less than ten percent as effective as MediFriend, which uses real SQUID technology with the addition of AI to amplify its sensitivy enough so that a medical professional can use it to diagnose a patient even through a foot and a half of concrete. Digital Doc on the other hand can only make sensor based diagnosis from within three feet of the device," Gregory explained to Jason and the rest of the audience.

"The distance that most medical professionals are from their patients in the hospital I might add," Jason responded, recognizing Gregory upon seeing his face.

"So what you're saying is that your market doesn't cater to front-line responders in emergency situations where a victim is trapped and unaccessible, such as in many car accident scenes or building collapse and wreckage. MediFriend is rated for all of these situations and recommended as a tool for medical professionals in the hospital and on the go, including the medics corp of the military. For fifty dollars more a unit, you have access to all of those markets with MediFriend," Gregory showed the audience his unit, holding it up over his head and then, as if by accident, dropping it from a height of almost seven feet, onto the concrete floor.

"Ooooh! Looks like you wrecked your friend there Gregory. For those of you who don't know, this is Mr. Gregory Epsen, co-founder of MediFriend technology with ex-Tynan and Associates CEO Walton Norler. They're competitors of Digital Doc who are currently in legal hot water with our legal department for intellectual property infringement. Isn't that right Gregory?" Jason informed his audience, looking facetiously to Gregory.

Gregory leaned over and picked up his MediFriend and examined it carefully.

"Not a scratch, as a result of the high impact carbon based bezel we designed for the unit. Lets see if it powers up?" Gregory said, holding the unit up for everyone to see.

He then pressed the power button conveniently with one finger and the device immediately powered up, playing a short piece of music with instrumental chimes that sounded as if they were saying MediFriend. The audience were immediately captivated.

"Any volunteers for an analysis of the information content of their nervous system?" Gregory asked the audience.

"I'll give it a try. Its not radioactive is it?" responded one of the audience members.

"Not at all. I just press the screen and navigate the menu and select the nervous system menu and analysis mode and its ready to go," Gregory showed the audience, and then held it in the direction of the man who'd volunteered.

A half-second later, a visual representation of magnetic activity appeared on the screen, along side a spreadsheet interface, which indicated the nature of information flowing through the man's nervous system.

"Now if my friend here was in a coma, the spreadsheet would be able to distinguish which parts of the brain were functioning, and the kind of information flowing through the nervous system at any point, meaning the Doctor would know instantly which part of his brain was affected, without invasive surgery for the purposes of diagnosis as is the case in many situations," Gregory explained to the audience.

"While Digital Doc can in pulse mode, do the same thing from a distance of six feet..." Jason shot back with the features of Future Tangent's answer to MediFriend.

"But only at three second intervals, given the power demands and the face that the sensor tech Digital Doc is using is very power hungry and relies on a capacitor for any sort of diagnosis at range. MediFriend on the other hand has default range of three meters and is always capable of realtime display with a frequency of sixty hertz in high power mode and thirty hertz in low power mode," Gregory showed the audience.

Gregory then pressed a button on the interface, and the MediFriend spit out an undeveloped polaroid.

"Not to mention, it can do this..." Gregory pulled the polaroid image from the device and waited while it developed, then giving it to the volunteer.

"No charge..." Gregory smiled, the audience laughed.

When the photograph developed, it was a well lit photo of the volunteer, with a transparent heatmap overlay of neural activity.

"And this is rated for military standards?" asked the volunteer.

"Yes. And TEMPEST rated. It can't be scried upon from the outside thanks to the Faraday cage integrated into its bezel, which in no way interferes with its sensors, thanks to the fact that the bezel to sensor spacing is smaller than the Quantum tunneling threshold," Gregory explained to them.

"I have no idea what you just said, but do you have a card? I represent a medical technology supply wholesaler, and we'd definitely be interested in this unit. Sorry Mr. Santers..." the volunteer accepted Gregory's card.

"Our units are fifty more per unit when bought in batches of a hundred, but our prices remain fixed, meaning that we don't fluctuate in terms of volume pricing. A hundred is our volume pricing cap. Our MSRP is two forty-nine, which gives plenty of room for sales to work with while giving an appreciable margin," Gregory made sure that he spoke confidently and projected his voice enough for the rest of the audience to hear.

About a two thirds of Jason's audience turned and dealt with Gregory, while the remaining third placed orders with Jason.

As Gregory dealt with his customers, Jason turned to one of his security personnel.

"Keep an eye on him. Discretely. He just completely wrecked our promotion..." Jason ordered.

"But you still got a better turnout than you projected?" his assistant reminded him.

"I don't care. He just made fools of us and on our turf. Keep an eye on him and let me know who he's with. Mentis needs to deal with this," Jason said to his assistant, who immediately made his way to the back of the booth to organize a security team to keep watch over Gregory.

...

Gregory spent the next twenty minutes sorting out contact information with his potential customers and then felt the warmth of a familiar hand on his torso and the fragrant smell of a woman's hair.

"I'm so proud of you," a pair of luscious lips whispered into his ear.

"That went much better than I was anticipating. I thought he was going eat me alive," Gregory said to Aikiko as they turned to face each other.

"I'm going to eat you alive when we get home," she said to him flirtatiously.

"Not before I'm able to give you that massage I promised you..." Gregory responded.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she replied, planting another wet kiss on his lips and then backing away professionally.

Behind them, a balding older man in a powered wheelchair pulled up.

"Mr. Epsen I presume," Mr. Werner addressed Gregory.

"Helmut? Is that you?" Gregory and Aikiko gave the man their full attention.

"The one and only, forgive my hoarseness. How are the two of you keeping?" he asked the couple.

"We're managing. Enjoying. How about you?" Aikiko asked him.

"At my age, every extra day is icing on the cake. I haven't been mobile for some time given some health issues, but my Doctor recently gave me the OK to get out to this convention. I have to say that its wonderful to see some familiar faces. Tell me, how are Alicia and Walton?" he asked.

"You didn't hear? Alicia gave birth last week. A bouncing baby boy, and a healthy little fellow too," Aikiko explained to Helmut.

"I can't begin to tell you how joyed I am to hear. I was worried that Walton was going to be one of those fellows who spent so much time polishing other people's lives that he overlooked his own. I'll bet you that the two of them are likely wonderful parents, and probably enjoying every moment of it too..." Helmut said to them in hoarsely joyous voice.

...

Toronto: Alicia and Norler's Condo

"Its alright honey. I'll get the diapers this time..." Norler said to Alicia as she placed Nathan on the change table.

"I don't think that it would be a..." Alicia urged him to stay back.

"Honey, don't you think that this has gone on for long enough? I want to be a part of this and his diapers clearly need to be changed and I haven't done my part that way yet..." Norler attempted to push her aside.

"Norler? Listen to me. I don't think that this is a good idea. As I said, there's something you should..." Alicia tried to reason with him, but he wasn't having any of it.

"I insist! I'm the father an I insist that I contribute to his upbringing!" Norler finally got her to move to the side, where she watched carefully.

"Fair enough, but I warned you..." Alicia said to him in a matter of factly voice.

He began to remove the diapers when the smell hit him full force. He immediately became dizzy, struggling to stay on his feet, the world around him spinning. He was about to fall when Alicia caught him. She quickly carried Norler to a nearby chair and left him to recover while she took care of the call of doo-doo.

By the time Norler came to ten minutes later, Nathan was in a clean pair of diapers and laying on the sofa beside him.

"...what happened?" Norler looked around, still feeling a little dizzy and queezy as Nathan laughed joyfully upon seeing his father's face.

"Remember how we said that he inherited some many of my abilities?" Alicia responded to him.

"Yeah? So?" he replied to her.

"He also seems to have a few of his own. Oddly enough, I seem to be immune, so I'd suggest we leave diaper duty to me from now on," Alicia said, putting her hands on her hips.

Norler looked to Nathan, whose smiling little face was the crowning symbol of laughter and innocence, but then Norler was suddenly reminded of the smell and the world began spinning once again.

He gripped the sofa with white knuckles, before it eventually stopped spinning.

"Fair enough..." Norler replied.

...

Niagara Falls Convention Centre

"Yes... from what we've heard too they're just loving parenthood..." Aikiko responded awkwardly.

[Bryce Maxwell]
"Parenthood much like the nature of diaper duty it seemed thanks to Alicia's alter ego, Night Style, had forever changed not only the nature of changing diapers, but the level of participation by other members of the household,"

Werner turned his wheelchair slightly to take in Gregory, whom he could clearly see was enamored of Aikiko and insofar as much, Werner admired them all the more.

"Did you see the game last night?" asked Werner, his chair having stopped to face him.

"What game? You mean the eSports finals for PUBG?" Gregory responded, indicating to Werner fully that Gregory at least had some interest in competitive sports despite the fact that there was little traditional physicality to that which Gregory referred.

"Not really, but that sure sounds like a great sport. Probably lots a fun to watch with an ice cold beer, much like the sport to which I'm referring: ice hockey. The NHL. Are you into that Gregory?" asked Werner, having enjoyed a few games from corporate booths over his career and having acquired a taste for the game, despite his first love having been golf during his younger years.

"Sometimes... I wasn't really a sports kind of guy when I was younger. It kind of scared me," Gregory explained to Werner.

"You too? Well things haven't changed as much as some of us would like to think, but let me tell you from the perspective of an old man that you should never take for granted that wonderful instrument of immense capability you have there..." Werner told him, folding his hands across his arm rests.

"What? You mean MediFriend?" asked Gregory.

"No. I mean your body. Enjoy it. Fully. Feel it. Exercise it. Get to know it before its too late. That's what got me into golf initially, and then into watching hockey games from our corporate booth. Watching a game like that really teaches you a lot. Like with your MediFriend. How all the members of your team play a crucial role in getting that puck into the goal. How the competition, despite being your adversary isn't necessarily your enemy. At the end of the game, there's no harm in having a beer with the other team," Werner explained.

"I don't think Jason and I see things eye to eye..." Gregory replied.

"True enough and I'd recommend that given your unique situation you stay away from him. He's part of something that us older players in the game never took part, but that doesn't mean that everyone else is out to get you like he is," Werner leaned forward in his wheel chair.

"Could have fooled me," Gregory replied a bit sarcastically.

"Gregory, if I could give you one piece of advice, its to learn from your competition, despite how far behind them or ahead of them you are. Don't think of competition as the means to an end, but rather the beginning of an education where the teachers are the players. No different than a good game of ice hockey," Werner looked Gregory in the eye, perhaps an older man of the ages peering at the younger one through the lens of experience.

"Not all of us started out feeling like we were a part of something. A school. A gymnasium class, and part of a team and all. I'm sure that you remember how it was. Like me, I wasn't the best of sportsmen myself and could barely run a hundred meters without collapsing to the gravel, but that doesn't mean that you can't play in the game. Some guys don't like to pass the puck while others pass it too much. You're welcome in this game by the way, and you need to learn from those who are already familiar with it, and somehow by hook or crook managed not to be intimidated from the field by those who wanted to make sure that only the select few of their ilk could play. Nerds and jocks. Preppies and punks. No matter, we all learn from each other and don't let them take that education which finds us later in life from you. Don't be bitter about it. Just be square. In business my friend, that's the way you'll end up swimming in the sea of green," Werner held out his hand to Gregory, who paused for a moment before accepting it with comprehension and understanding.