SiSU: - Accelerando

Accelerando
you got your head sorted out. I figured you need the space. Only
you haven't stopped running; you're still not -”
“Yeah, I get it.” He pulls away from her hand. “And the kittens?” 161
She looks perplexed. “What kittens?” 162
“Let's not talk about that. Why this bar?” 163
She frowns. “I had to find you as soon as possible. I keep hearing 164
rumors about some KGB plot you're mixed up in, how you're some
sort of communist spy. It isn't true, is it?”
“True?” He shakes his head, bemused. “The KGB hasn't existed 165
for more than twenty years.”
“Be careful, Manny. I don't want to lose you. That's an order. 166
Please.”
The floor creaks, and he looks round. Dreadlocks and dark glasses 167
with flickering lights behind them: Bob Franklin. Manfred vaguely
remembers with a twinge that he left with Miss Arianespace leaning
on his arm, shortly before things got seriously inebriated. She was
hot, but in a different direction from Pamela, he decides: Bob looks
none the worse for wear. Manfred makes introductions. “Bob, meet
Pam, my fiancée. Pam? Meet Bob.” Bob puts a full glass down in
front of him; he has no idea what's in it, but it would be rude not to
drink.
“Sure thing. Uh, Manfred, can I have a word? About your idea last 168
night?”
“Feel free. Present company is trustworthy.” 169
Bob raises an eyebrow at that, but continues anyway. “It's about 170
the fab concept. I've got a team of my guys doing some prototyping
using FabLab hardware, and I think we can probably build it. The
cargo-cult aspect puts a new spin on the old Lunar von Neumann
factory idea, but Bingo and Marek say they think it should work until
we can bootstrap all the way to a native nanolithography ecology:
SiSU www.accelerando.org 33