Status: Finished. No sequel.
My Favorite
Age - 18 Years
It was scorching hot in here. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and grimaced at it, before turning to my Dad beside me.
The party was half charity, and half celebratory. Though I had only successfully downsized the mainframe so far, Dad had named me successor to Stark Industries. With my new position, I had to spend a lot of time with Dad going to parties and work. I had to learn how everything operated, and Dad had started to include me in his plans and work. I was happy, really. Dad was finally making time for me, but even then I wasn’t truly for me. It was so I wouldn’t run his company into the ground
through inexperience.
But that meant I couldn’t spend as much time working with Jarvis. It made me sad, and it was difficult to be excited for the prospect of learning from my Dad. But he was proud, and that’s mostly what I wanted.
But I also wanted Jarvis to be real.
I informed Dad that I would be going to the restroom, and once inside I leaned over the sink and fanned my face with my hands. I looked at the mirror and noticed the red flush of my face and chest. I was sweaty, sticky and hot. I wiped the sweat from my head again and made a note to find some water before the night was over, otherwise I would dehydrate.
I looked again at my flushed cheeks in the mirror, before feeling like I was hit with a ton of bricks. I leaned forward more, touching the warmth on my face and facing the epiphany of a lifetime. The human body cooled through sweat and vasodilation. Some animals cooled through simple breathing. That was it, that was the key.
I burst from the bathroom and found my Dad immediately. He was at the bar with Mom, the two of them refilling their drinks. I grabbed Dad’s elbow and looked up at him beseechingly, “Dad, I need to go home. Now.”
“Are you okay, what’s wrong?” Mom rest a hand on my shoulder and pulled away immediately, “You’re burning up-“
“Yeah, I don’t feel good, I need to go home,” I urged, and the two of them looked at each other before Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Mom said she would stay and represent us, while Dad left to drive me back to the house.
“Now what’s really wrong? You’ve always been sensitive to the heat, but I know that’s not why you wanted to leave,” He asked, putting the car in drive and rocketing down the road.
“I figured it out. I can finish Jarvis,” I said through happy laughs. I felt insane for laughing at a time like this, but Dad didn’t seem to notice it. He was waiting for me to continue, I realized.
“It was so obvious this whole time. I’m making Jarvis a human-like body; why not make him a human-like cooling system? Input a respirator that vents air through the entire system? Synthesize a compound to emulate sweat, while taking that compound and inserting it into small chambers to imitate vasodilation. When he notices he is heating up, he can move the chambers to the surface to cool them down?”
He made the face again. I felt my chest swell with pride, and when we got home I yanked my heels off to bolt to the basement. When I burst into the room, I moved over the skeleton of Jarvis’ body, standing motionless and waiting. Dad came down after me, and watched as I dug through the boxes for the right parts.
“I’m going to need small hollow tubes, bigger ones on the inside. Small ones to simulate pores. I’ll need something like a bellows for breathing. I need to make the chambers kind of like blood cells-“
“Slow down, Hols. Let’s start basic. We’ll get the wiring for the main coolant set up first. Jarvis, is Jolly Green still up?”
“Mister Banner is still in the lab at Stark Tower, Sir.”
“Get him on the phone. While you’re at it, put in an order for industrial strength plastic tubing. What size, Hols?”
“1/16th at the most. Any more than that may be too big. 1/32nd at the smallest, smaller than that won’t allow for enough of the coolant to flow.”
“You heard the woman, J,” Loudly, I exclaimed and pulled out a small machine that looked like it belonged to a blow-up Christmas decoration. I set it on the desk before moving back to the boxes and digging through for tubing that would make up the breathing tubes.
“This is awesome. If I work non-stop I can probably get it finished by at least the Monday after next… Jarvis?”
“Yes, Holly?” I saw my dad mouth my name incredulously out of the corner of my eye, but I continued to coil the tubing around itself to be more manageable.
“I need you to order… some pizza and maybe while you’re at it make me some coffee.”
“As you wish,” Jarvis’ consented and I seated myself at the desk to take apart the fan. I would need to reduce the amount of air it blows out, otherwise it would be too hard on the wires, pushing them out of their spots. Too little and it wouldn’t be enough to cool. Not to mention I need to make it a vacuum, as well. My Dad just stood to the side and watched as I methodically took apart the machine and made my own adjustments to it.
“You called?” Bruce Banner’s voice sounded exhausted, but Dad paid that no mind as he put through a request. A liquid that could simulate sweat, but wasn’t harmful and could also be used as a coolant. They conversed for a while, bouncing ideas and chemical terms off of each other. I didn’t pay them any attention.
I was exhausted. Days and nights passed in a blur as I hovered around the skeleton of Jarvis, attaching wires and tubes and the new respirator. The hardest was fitting the cooling tubes into the “brain”, where I installed the majority of the mainframe.
Dad spent a lot of time in the basement, too. Sometime he’d fiddle with his suits, but mostly he would stand back and watch as I mumbled to myself, bantered with Jarvis and nearly pulled my hair out as I tried to get the synthetic skin to fit correctly over the body.
Since there wasn’t a real structure to the body to shape it like a person, I had to weld lightweight metal plates onto the frame. Because the sparks could cause damage to the wires, I had to actually solder the pieces onto the framework. I burned myself more times than I cared to count, but once it was done I had to face the daunting task of getting the skin to fit right.
In the back of the head, I flipped open a panel to reveal the shiny new mainframe. I plugged the basement’s computer into all of the appropriate sockets, most importantly a power plug, and looked up to the ceiling, “Alright, Jarvis. Begin data transfer.”
“Transferring data. Data transfer of 15 TB at 5%.”
“You’ve actually done it,” I looked over my shoulder to see my Dad coming into the basement to observe for the day. I rolled my chair over to sit at the desk, where an array of small wires and cog-like wheels waited to be put together.
“Not quite. It’s going to take about sixteen hours to transfer and organize all of the data into the appropriate mainframe centers. While that happens, I’m working on a power supply for the system.”
Dad looked down at the pieces I was using, and his eyebrows rose, “An arc reactor?”
“Yeah. I was originally planning on powering Jarvis through a rechargeable battery, but there just wasn’t enough juice in it to keep the body going. When you named me successor and started teaching me about the technology for this, I realized this would be the perfect way to put together everything you’ve taught me.”
Dad grumbled something, probably about me being too much like him, and sat across from me at the desk. He watched quietly while I worked, sometimes telling me where I could do something more efficiently. I took his advice gratefully. I had worked on this project for years by myself; I was ready to accept any help I could get.
“Data Transfer at 6%.”
The party was half charity, and half celebratory. Though I had only successfully downsized the mainframe so far, Dad had named me successor to Stark Industries. With my new position, I had to spend a lot of time with Dad going to parties and work. I had to learn how everything operated, and Dad had started to include me in his plans and work. I was happy, really. Dad was finally making time for me, but even then I wasn’t truly for me. It was so I wouldn’t run his company into the ground
through inexperience.
But that meant I couldn’t spend as much time working with Jarvis. It made me sad, and it was difficult to be excited for the prospect of learning from my Dad. But he was proud, and that’s mostly what I wanted.
But I also wanted Jarvis to be real.
I informed Dad that I would be going to the restroom, and once inside I leaned over the sink and fanned my face with my hands. I looked at the mirror and noticed the red flush of my face and chest. I was sweaty, sticky and hot. I wiped the sweat from my head again and made a note to find some water before the night was over, otherwise I would dehydrate.
I looked again at my flushed cheeks in the mirror, before feeling like I was hit with a ton of bricks. I leaned forward more, touching the warmth on my face and facing the epiphany of a lifetime. The human body cooled through sweat and vasodilation. Some animals cooled through simple breathing. That was it, that was the key.
I burst from the bathroom and found my Dad immediately. He was at the bar with Mom, the two of them refilling their drinks. I grabbed Dad’s elbow and looked up at him beseechingly, “Dad, I need to go home. Now.”
“Are you okay, what’s wrong?” Mom rest a hand on my shoulder and pulled away immediately, “You’re burning up-“
“Yeah, I don’t feel good, I need to go home,” I urged, and the two of them looked at each other before Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder. Mom said she would stay and represent us, while Dad left to drive me back to the house.
“Now what’s really wrong? You’ve always been sensitive to the heat, but I know that’s not why you wanted to leave,” He asked, putting the car in drive and rocketing down the road.
“I figured it out. I can finish Jarvis,” I said through happy laughs. I felt insane for laughing at a time like this, but Dad didn’t seem to notice it. He was waiting for me to continue, I realized.
“It was so obvious this whole time. I’m making Jarvis a human-like body; why not make him a human-like cooling system? Input a respirator that vents air through the entire system? Synthesize a compound to emulate sweat, while taking that compound and inserting it into small chambers to imitate vasodilation. When he notices he is heating up, he can move the chambers to the surface to cool them down?”
He made the face again. I felt my chest swell with pride, and when we got home I yanked my heels off to bolt to the basement. When I burst into the room, I moved over the skeleton of Jarvis’ body, standing motionless and waiting. Dad came down after me, and watched as I dug through the boxes for the right parts.
“I’m going to need small hollow tubes, bigger ones on the inside. Small ones to simulate pores. I’ll need something like a bellows for breathing. I need to make the chambers kind of like blood cells-“
“Slow down, Hols. Let’s start basic. We’ll get the wiring for the main coolant set up first. Jarvis, is Jolly Green still up?”
“Mister Banner is still in the lab at Stark Tower, Sir.”
“Get him on the phone. While you’re at it, put in an order for industrial strength plastic tubing. What size, Hols?”
“1/16th at the most. Any more than that may be too big. 1/32nd at the smallest, smaller than that won’t allow for enough of the coolant to flow.”
“You heard the woman, J,” Loudly, I exclaimed and pulled out a small machine that looked like it belonged to a blow-up Christmas decoration. I set it on the desk before moving back to the boxes and digging through for tubing that would make up the breathing tubes.
“This is awesome. If I work non-stop I can probably get it finished by at least the Monday after next… Jarvis?”
“Yes, Holly?” I saw my dad mouth my name incredulously out of the corner of my eye, but I continued to coil the tubing around itself to be more manageable.
“I need you to order… some pizza and maybe while you’re at it make me some coffee.”
“As you wish,” Jarvis’ consented and I seated myself at the desk to take apart the fan. I would need to reduce the amount of air it blows out, otherwise it would be too hard on the wires, pushing them out of their spots. Too little and it wouldn’t be enough to cool. Not to mention I need to make it a vacuum, as well. My Dad just stood to the side and watched as I methodically took apart the machine and made my own adjustments to it.
“You called?” Bruce Banner’s voice sounded exhausted, but Dad paid that no mind as he put through a request. A liquid that could simulate sweat, but wasn’t harmful and could also be used as a coolant. They conversed for a while, bouncing ideas and chemical terms off of each other. I didn’t pay them any attention.
_______
I was exhausted. Days and nights passed in a blur as I hovered around the skeleton of Jarvis, attaching wires and tubes and the new respirator. The hardest was fitting the cooling tubes into the “brain”, where I installed the majority of the mainframe.
Dad spent a lot of time in the basement, too. Sometime he’d fiddle with his suits, but mostly he would stand back and watch as I mumbled to myself, bantered with Jarvis and nearly pulled my hair out as I tried to get the synthetic skin to fit correctly over the body.
Since there wasn’t a real structure to the body to shape it like a person, I had to weld lightweight metal plates onto the frame. Because the sparks could cause damage to the wires, I had to actually solder the pieces onto the framework. I burned myself more times than I cared to count, but once it was done I had to face the daunting task of getting the skin to fit right.
In the back of the head, I flipped open a panel to reveal the shiny new mainframe. I plugged the basement’s computer into all of the appropriate sockets, most importantly a power plug, and looked up to the ceiling, “Alright, Jarvis. Begin data transfer.”
“Transferring data. Data transfer of 15 TB at 5%.”
“You’ve actually done it,” I looked over my shoulder to see my Dad coming into the basement to observe for the day. I rolled my chair over to sit at the desk, where an array of small wires and cog-like wheels waited to be put together.
“Not quite. It’s going to take about sixteen hours to transfer and organize all of the data into the appropriate mainframe centers. While that happens, I’m working on a power supply for the system.”
Dad looked down at the pieces I was using, and his eyebrows rose, “An arc reactor?”
“Yeah. I was originally planning on powering Jarvis through a rechargeable battery, but there just wasn’t enough juice in it to keep the body going. When you named me successor and started teaching me about the technology for this, I realized this would be the perfect way to put together everything you’ve taught me.”
Dad grumbled something, probably about me being too much like him, and sat across from me at the desk. He watched quietly while I worked, sometimes telling me where I could do something more efficiently. I took his advice gratefully. I had worked on this project for years by myself; I was ready to accept any help I could get.
“Data Transfer at 6%.”