HAWK

CHAPTER THIRTY: GENESIS (3/4)

The following week saw the most significant announcement in Primi's history since the arrival of the Federation.

In an hour-long speech that was simulcast across the solar system, President Mantana disclosed the existence of the Intelligence and announced that the Federation was to be disbanded. Soon, not just Primi but every other federal solar system would be closed off from one another, destined to evolve in their own time the way they had before the Federation came along and changed things for everyone.

Considering the scale of the event, Mantana tried to keep the facts simple and easy to understand. He repeatedly asked that all citizens remain calm in order to avoid a system-wide panic; the last thing they needed after all that had happened was for humanity to tear itself apart.

Fortunately, everyone was just too shocked to know how to react. Even the Rhaspians - who had good cause for celebration - were curiously subdued. Their dream of leaving the Federation and taking back control of their solar system had been unexpectedly fulfilled, but the suddenness and circumstances of how it had happened had stolen their voices.

Meanwhile, eight floors below the streets of Sadoka, Worm's rented equipment had been cleared out of Kas's apartment, only to be replaced by a wealth of mechanical instruments that gave Kas's home all the bothersome smells and sounds of a workshop.

The largest piece of kit was a 3D printer the size of a chest freezer. Thanks to some clever hacking by Worm, Lor could wirelessly access the printer and use it to create his own custom designed pieces.

Kas watched on with fascination as Worm fed several sheets of white bio-steel into one end of the printer and one hour later removed two curved pieces that looked like a tyre cut in half. Worm sandwiched them over the exposed X1 computer and welded them together so that it had a white halo around it leaving two halves of the sphere exposed.

Over the course of the next two days, Worm and Lor added more custom-made pieces, including a spine and an articulated abdomen. The only pieces which weren't designed by Lor and printed off were some high-charge power cells and a pair of bionic arms and legs which they'd ordered and could more or less just plug in. When their work was finished, Lor stood up and paced around the room in bigger and more confident strides, and before long, he was running and jumping and doing handstands.

'Is all that really necessary?' Kas asked.

'I need to calibrate,' Lor replied as he balanced on one hand.

His "calibration" went on for several more hours.