Leo and Pneuma are the only ones left in the workshop, not far from where Zeta is restrained. The others have gone about their own business - Niki for a drive in Otto, the Aleph Team to have their own discussion about their rebellious younger brother.
"I don't think he can be trusted," is Pneuma's sober assessment. "Circuit did something to him. Altered his memory somehow. How were you able to restore it?"
"Limited thought transference. I remembered what he said, and I played those memories through the halo and into the AI factory. Once injected into his brain, the chains of memory reconnected themselves." Leo laughs. "You know, that's everything that I do, isn't it. Start with something simple, stupidly simple, and it just works itself out."
Pneuma takes this in for a moment. "Alright. So you should be able to connect him to the halo and truthsay, right?"
"Yeah. We can interrogate each other, and our brains will be directly read by the machine for honesty. We have to be able to trust each other, or this doesn't go anywhere." Leo rummages around until he finds a syringe, and holds it out for Pneuma's inspection. "Speaking of mutual trust, I want you to inject this into me."
Instantly wary, the girl takes hold of it and stares at the contents, turning it this way and that. "First you'll tell me what it is, then why I shouldn't, won't you."
Leo smiles fondly. "You know me too well. Alright. This is Mu. It's the successor to Lambda. Or little brother, I guess. Lambda is micro-machines, incorporating the suit systems in a modular package. The human cell is about 30 to 50 µm, about the same size. Mu is nano-machines, operating at the 1 to 100 nanometer scale. They're about the size of an antibody individually. They work like Lambda, but are far more primitive. No sensor package, no independent power source. But they bind together into self-organizing networks, and share power and sensory information. They're the expression of what I'm talking about - connection as a source of strength."
Pneuma cocks her head. "You're proposing to inject yourself with nanomachines. Wait a minute. The heating problems, the power problems, all of those things--"
Leo laughs. "Oh! Yes, about that. You see, the solution to the heating problem is the solution to the power problem. Agent Waters finally let me have a crack at the Ice Pirate's cold-generating equipment. They wanted to know what the Shadow Syndicate found so interesting about the ice weapon. Well, it turns out that the way the device produces ice is to siphon heat from the atmosphere. The heat is pulled into storage molecules within the device. Instead of vibrating the atoms in three-dimensional space, it expands the extra curled-up spatial dimensions and they vibrate there. Almost unlimited storage capacity. Well it turns out that you can siphon that heat back, and drive a thermoelectric generator. Mu's own kinetic energy will be used to power Mu itself. It's not a perfect system - but the efficiency is absurdly good. The difference is made up for by my own body heat and metabolism."
"How well tested is it?" Pneuma is still not sold, but that's what Leo wants right now - a clear-eyed critic of his ideas.
"It's been running in a Petri dish ever since my first production run of Lambda." Leo brings up displays on a nearby computer workstation, showing the results of his research. "Like Lambda, it's built to automatically instrument and reinforce surrounding matter. For Lambda that'd be the walls of a building or something. For Mu, it's my living cells. I should be able to survive things that'd kill a normal man, even without the suit. On that note, I can probably do without the Link Suit entirely, and just wear Lambda over myself - Mu and Lambda will connect together."
"Leo, I don't know." Pneuma puts down the syringe, gets up, and paces. "I don't know that I want you sacrificing your humanity for the sake of this quest you're on."
"You wouldn't object if I had a weak heart and got a pacemaker, would you?"
"That's different!" Pneuma turns and scowls. "This is... this is invasive. And risky. It's risky because it's a new technology, you have one test subject, and if it hurts you, there's nobody else who knows it well enough to undo the damage. And it's risky for another reason. You're doing this so you can put yourself in more danger, and I don't like that."
Leo, deflated a bit, lets out a soft sigh. "More danger is upon us. Zeta. The Gnome. That guy with the flame thrower, who knew my name. Who knows who else the Gnome has told about my identity, who wouldn't mind showing up at my home when I'm asleep. And there's whatever the Gnome was at Enforcers HQ to do. There's what he told Zeta, but... Anyway, the point is that if we wanted to avoid increased danger, that ship has sailed. All we get to do now is respond to it."
Pneuma points at the discarded syringe. "Why is that the only answer?"
"It's not," Leo answers candidly. "It's the one that I understand. It's the one I've most thoroughly tested. And since we're going to have to hit the Shadow Syndicate's HQ under Touchstone soon, I need something soon."
"I'll think it over," promises Pneuma. "We'll talk in a few hours."
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