“Rolling in five, four, three, two…”

And the producer throws to the reporter seated on a plush white crash couch, in the middle of a small studio. The reporter is dressed in a bulky beige jumpsuit, capable of near instantaneous release of her atmospheric helmet and respirator re-breather. Not used to being in the studio, this intrepid reporter usually reports live from location, out on a ships hull, the outer surface of a far off space station or in a war zone. The reporter, named Janet Hawke, is about forty years old, slightly graying down her part line, with her salt and pepper hair pulled back into a severe ponytail. “Good evening, this is Torus station news, channel seventy three. I’m your host this evening, Janet Hawke. Tonight we are welcoming a very special guest, an historian on the emergence and use of our current biometric interface. Welcome, welcome. Please have a seat.” Gesturing off camera, the view pulls back to place the older gentleman in frame, as he steps through a dark purple curtain, to cross the few steps and step up onto the dais to his pristine white crash couch, under intense white lights, from a rig overhead. After a brief musical interlude the man scoots up into the raised gel couch and makes himself comfortable. “No!, thank you, it’s a real pleasure to be here today. I was told I’d be interviewed by Rosie Reyes, but YOU, the one and only Janet Hawke wow!, you’ve reported on some truly auspicious events. I’m positively tickled pink, I am. Wait until my husband sees this!” With a charming giggle, he affixes his game face, and cues the producer with a subtle gesture that he is ready to proceed. “Now, dr. Benjamin Hoyt, as I’ve come to understand the history of our current technology stretches back more than five hundred years.” “Oh, yes, it really is a marvel, we have so much documentation, patents, interviews and research dating back to the nineteen fifties if you can believe that.” The two, on camera appear to be talking directly to one another, but in studio you can see the fancy white gel couches are actually on gyroscopic frames, and are about three meters apart. Safety, and precaution preclude the old fashion face to face interviews of centuries gone by. The magic of editing, and camera work. Do wonders never cease. “That is truly astounding.” “Quite, but things weren’t always so compact, nor non intrusive like they are now… ah, may I?” Gesturing to a media monitor, cutting back to Ms. Hawke. “Oh, visuals!, please do.” She says, leaning back into her couch and out of frame. A water bottle at her side, she carefully unscrews the lid and takes a sip. “Here you see, are the originals… most archaic huh! A waist band, held with velcro and button snaps, loaded with only a few simple sensors and outputs, with leads to ECG Electrodes, attached to the heart, lungs, kidneys and a power source. This design stayed virtually untouched from the nineteen fifties until two thousand twenty one.” Panning backwards the camera then fades to black, then comes to life as a voice over, with the archival video playing of ancient astronauts talking about their medical devices. “After this period, the devices were miniaturized but still held in place externally with a waist belt. That lasted from two thousand twenty one until roughly twenty sixty.” A new slide show is queued up by the producers and the staff in the editing suite behind the cameras. “Things then start to get very exciting, now we enter the first draft of the wrist control. Though these units were bulky by today’s standards, it was a massive leap forward in technological advancements. We now had a modicum of room in which to affect the body at the atomic level. By all accounts painful to wear, and we have numerous stories of people cutting themselves, and tearing through suits while maneuvering in eva. These units didn’t last much beyond four or five years, somewhere in the vicinity of twenty sixty to twenty sixty four… Yes, yes, we have a clip of one such incident. Sit back and watch.” Dr. Benjamin Hoyt’s feed is cut short, so that he might grab a quick drink, or flush his old suffering bladder. It always makes him pull a funny face as it happens. Makes his husband laugh hysterically every. Single. Time. The producers welcomed the insight given by his publicist Danielle, and built in several such cues into the segment. His inner ear piece clicks on. “We’re back in three, two….” the voice fades out. “From this we leap forward to the first ever capsules designed by oh my, I can’t quite recall…” From off camera the Doctors chipper publicist named Danielle Del Veccio prompts him with the requisite information. “Flight commander Neil Todd and his wife Jen.” Closing her binder, she steps away from the dais the crash couches are upon, and out of the field of view of the studio lights overhead. With a slight flush in the cheeks, Dr. Hoyt starts in again. “Flight commander Neil Todd and his wife Jennifer Todd. Though their work on the Non Sequitur was seminal, they opted to have the sensors removed from their person and integrated thoroughly into the ships systems. Ugly hard shell yellow boxes were placed through all crew areas, and had redundancies built in that are the framework of the systems you see in use today. In my professional opinion I think going external was a mistake, as when their cascading catastrophic failure happened, we weren’t able to get a full diagnostic on his state for well over three weeks. But they were brilliant, so they must have known something I don’t. However, given the era, and what was going on at the time politically, there was very little that could be done.” A sweeping camera shot of the studio as the show moves to commercial break. The lights go up, as an indistinct murmur pervades the room. Notes are added to the script, and portions of the slide show are clipped and tightened up for the repeat cast in several hours time. A large red countdown clock ticks over, as the seconds drop away. The bright studio lights dim.

“And we’re back. If you are just joining us now, expert historian Dr. Benjamin Hoyt is giving us an in depth look at our current state of biometrics, and how it came about.” Reporter Janet Hawke, once again smiling into the camera, her poised position on her gel couch a welcoming visage on the late hour news program. “Well, as I stated before the break, the Non Sequitur and all of the following designs are fairly similar, except that now you find our fully realized subcutaneous implants, with nano bot technology. These units, buried just below the skin, the size of a match book, are now interlinked with nano bots that infiltrate every organ and tissue fiber within the body. Just remarkable technology. We can now keep everyone from catching the common cold, flu, sinus infections, simple blood borne infections, ear aches, tooth aches, blood clots and even regulate the bodies temperature to stave off hypothermia, and hyperthermia.” The camera pulls back to show the good doctor with a massive grin upon his face. Cut to video feed of crowds oohing and aahing, as though they were in the studio. “Though the system is great, we still have to go to medical bay for treatments for Cancer, Aids, and a few other radiation related maladies.” “That is truly, truly remarkable. Man kind has achieved so much!” Janet is gearing up for her closing remarks, but Dr. Benjamin chimes in. “Oh, for the layman, the best thing about the nano integration is that the body sock waste system has been interfaced with nano’s, so no more catheters or Colostomy bags for waste expulsion!” “Can’t forget that! , and with that bombshell, this is field reporter Janet Hawke signing off for channel seventy three news. No exceptions, and no exemptions!” Stepping in front of the cameras the producer announces. “Ok, and we’re out, that’s a wrap people…” the sight of sound boards clacking, lights coming up to full strength, and studio personnel begin to walk about the small studio space. A very tall Venetian walks over to Janet to say. “If we have any pick ups, or pre-roll we’ll come find you in your dressing room. We might have to do a promo or two with Dr. Hoyt, so we’ll keep him out of the green room, and prepped to go on short notice.” Without waiting for a response, the large individual from the Venus science base is heading back to her booth, to triple check the data, and facts on the time lines. Over Janet’s ear piece she can hear her say, “We’ll need to interject some graphics into the slide show that Flight commander Todd’s Non Sequitur and subsequent classes of capsule ran circa twenty two forty until twenty two sixty. Let’s make sure our time line display really pops this time.”

PART XIV