Free Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes by Leif Sterling Page B

coffee?”
    Roland kept working on his second helping of eggs and bacon. “Good morning.” He gestured to a steaming cup of coffee on the table. “All yours. More in the pot if you need it. I’m going to need your help through training.”
    Skylar blew on her coffee to cool it. “And I’m going to need coffee to make it through your training.”
    The microwave beeped. Roland got up and came back juggling a potato between his hands. “Ooh, hot! I thought I should have some carbs to keep me going today.”
    Skylar spread jam on a piece of toast. “Hey, I’m having a programmer friend come over later today. I need help getting some of the software to work with you.”
    Roland put big chunks of butter on his potato. “I thought you were a programmer.”
    Skylar had a bite of her toast. “I can do coding, but I’m better at working with systems. She’s an expert.”
    Roland’s mouth was too full to talk, so he nodded.
    Skylar sipped her coffee. “We need custom software for you to be able to control the nano yourself. I don’t know how to build an interface like that. I was thinking of having her join the team, but most of her work would be done remotely. She doesn’t really like being around people.”
    Roland chugged a whole cup of cold, black coffee. “Fine by me. Sky, if you think we need her, then we need her.”
    Skylar wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Thanks.”
    Lincoln knocked on the front door.
    Roland opened it. “Come on in, Lincoln. You don’t have to knock.”
    Lincoln shook Roland’s hand and waved to Skylar. “Good morning. Thanks. Hey, you guys can just call me Coach.”
    Roland gestured towards the table. “Want anything to eat? Or coffee?”
    Lincoln held up his hand. “Nope. I already ate.” He sat down. “I’d like for us all to put together a strategy for the games. First, though, why don’t you fill me in on the tech we are using. All I know so far is what I saw during registration.”
    Roland gave a half smile. “Wow, and you still came back today?”
    Skylar rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t expecting them to make Roland do all those tests, especially in front of everyone.”
    Lincoln poured a glass of water. “And Duke wasn’t exactly helping.”
    Roland crossed his arms. “Neither was the news crew. That was the last thing I needed.”
    Lincoln took a big gulp of water. “Nope. No team wants to be the butt of a joke, especially on national TV, but you handled it well. Best thing you could have done was nothing, and that’s what you did.”
    Roland finished off his potato. “You sure?”
    Lincoln’s face was serious. “Without a doubt, it was the right thing to do. It took a lot of discipline to not start a fight. Discipline I can use. You will need a cool head in the games, because there’s a lot of pressure. Street brawling will just get you injured and probably kicked out.”
    Roland turned to Skylar. “Do you know if they aired the little ordeal from yesterday?”
    Skylar swiped her hand and a small hologram appeared near her hand. She scrolled through the headlines with her finger. “Yeah, looks like you were a hit, all right.” She swiped her hand towards the wall and the video clip began to play. “Duke’s comments about you dying are making you really popular.” She swiped her hand to change the channel to a sports caster. “They are already analyzing your chances.”
    Roland sighed. “Chances of what? Winning the Tech Games?”
    Skylar swiped her hand and the wall went blank. “No, of dying before the qualifying round finishes.”
    Coach leaned back in his chair. “Oh, don’t worry about that. All of this publicity is actually good for you, because it will get you fans. And you’ll need fan votes in order to actually advance in the later rounds of the Tech Games.
    Roland grabbed a sports drink from the fridge. “Wow, my adoring public…”
    Lincoln took another drink of water. “Ok. From this point forward, though, don’t pay any attention to the