Robot Skin

Josh, wearing his suit, decided he felt like an old earth Superhero, having read pretty much all of the archive files on the subject. Graphic Novels had not been published for over 200 years. Nothing had been PRINTED in over a hundred. All of the old text was converted to electronic media. The only printed documents were those of significant historical value, The Declaration of Independence, The World Peace Alliance, and the Admission to The Galactic Union of Worlds; all great documents and major milestones in the history of mankind.

Josh had come to enjoy the comic books, as they were called back then, as they provided him with an escape from what he did most of the time. He was a nano-technician. He built things, very, very small things. He had been making things since he was six. His parents had been told he was exceptional and provided anything to stimulate his learning.

He had also liked hiking. On one of his hikes, about two years ago, he found a meteor. It was an odd color, constantly shifting from a muted golden to a dull black. Instead of turning over to the authorities he took it back to his lab and began to experiment with it.

Over the first year he found that it was nearly indestructible, at least as far he could test in a lab environment. It was malleable though with just a tiny electric jolt it would go from a solid to a kind of liquid instantly. While the electricity was applied it stayed in the liquid form.

 He created and programmed a nano computer that applied jolts to the material allowing Josh to control when it was liquid and when it was solid as well how long it stayed in each state, or keeping it in the state of flux in between.While in the liquid state he was able to separate it into several smaller portions.  After a few moments it would pull back together and reform the meteor or in this case meteors.  He also found that by changing the shape of the liquid state it would keep that shape until it returned to the solid. Then when the jolt was applied again it and it again transformed into a liquid but also into the shape it was in before returning to the meteor shape.

He had made his suit out of it an integrated some of his best nano ideas. Ideas he never shared with anyone.

 He found that a little of the meteor rock went a long way. It was nearly indestructible. No part of his body exposed to the elements. He had worked for years on this suit and now was the time to try it out.  He went over to his desk and picked it up even  though normally he had to have someone  else’s help to just move it.  The nanos for strength seemed to work on a small scale.    Now for the speed test.  He had designed a storage device in the fashion of a ring.  The ring was  essentially a bio-reader with some of his nano enhancements. He touched the dark, unimpressive ball on his left hand middle finger.  The suit seperated from him starting on his back and slid like a living creature being sucked into the ring. The suit was golden in color  but the color could be controlled to a small degree. He could cause it become a deep almost black color or become a super polished color.  The was, of course, accomplished by his nanos. Once the suit was contained he could just stroll out of the house,  no one the wiser. He did just that.

 He went to an area of town with a low population. Normally he would not go into the area but he felt with the suit just seconds away the could risk it.  He walked until he was at the docks.  It was almost ten at night. No one should be there.  There were lots of crates of veered weights he could test on and he could test some of the other features with out too much risk.

 He placed his right index finger on the ball of  his ring and the suit oozed out and over him and sealed  in the back. He began with the speed test He started running, faster and faster until all he saw on his periphery was blur. I will have to compensate for that. He had no idea how fast he was going, he would fix that too. He stopped  running and started picking up shipping containers, then stacks of shipping containers.

That was enough for now.  He touched his ring and was back to being Josh again; he walked home thinking up other things he could add to the suit.