Road Of Advancement

After leaving his refreshing lesson with Mr Jones Theodore hurried along the corridors to get to the elevator. His next lesson was scheduled with Mr Boulton at the 11th story workshop.

As the elevator descended from the 46th to the 11th Theodore was filled in by Summit on whatever the galactic net could find on Mr Boulton.

"Mister Matthew Boulton is a rumoured illegitimate child of Mr Jasper Boulton. Boulton senior has once responded to the rumours stating that he has been in a 'loving and caring' relationship with Miss Catherine Welsh and he has never cheated on her. He claims he adopted Matthew after seeing his talent with tinkering during a charitable visit to an orphanage."

"At the time, Matthew was eight-years-old and presumably his love for the craft of engineering and his ability to create working prototypes impressed Mr Boulton. He has stated multiple times that 'Matthew is an incredible genius and asset to the company, but he is not a legitimate heir to his business and that his son Connor will inherit his enterprise after his death."

"Rumours started when pictures surfaced on the net of Mr Boulton's frequent patronage of a certain miss Hawkings. The pictures suggest he has an intimate relationship with her. She also greatly resemblances Matthew. Some rogue reporter then linked large transaction from an alias of Mr Boulton to Miss Hawkings. The story just drags on from there."

"Matthew Boulton has several degrees in engineering-related fields. He's known to have the highest written test score at KMU when he attended eighteen years ago. His record still stands to today."

"His has graduated c.u.m laude in 'Material Science', 'Engineering Physics', 'Engineering Mathematics', 'system engineering', and mechanical engineering. He also had above-average grades for 'artificial intelligence' and 'Mech design. He completed the 'Engineering' track as the best of his class."

"After graduation, he joined his 'fathers' business as a mechanical engineer. After contributing to several projects he was promoted to chief. However, this didn't quite work out as he later resigned from his function after frequent discussions with his superiors."

"Nowadays, he had his own team of researchers and pretty much has carte blanche to research and develop whatever catches his interests. His father funds all his projects. He has been quite successful for the company in this way as he developed a few key patents that rack in large amounts of credits for the family business. " Summit gave a thorough rundown on the public information available on the galactic net.

Theodore wondered how his grandfather managed to get this bigshot to offer his help.

Though he knew the family was a 'large' client of the Watts and Boulton business as they bought their transportation shuttle and carriers from them, it shouldn't be enough to warrant such a big shot to help Theodore out?

With the size of the Boulton and Watts company, they weren't depending on the commissions of the Thompson family. It didn't quite add up to send one of their top researchers, a man who was worth his weight in gold with the patents he registered, who was heavily favoured by Mr Boutlon to teach Theodore for three and a half month.

Theodore couldn't find any reasons that made this man's appearance logical.

According to his grandfathers' introduction, he was here on behalf of their mutually beneficial and friendly relationship over the years. Theodore did not buy into this reason.

The elevator halted at the 11th without ever making Theodore feel anything of the vertical transport. He couldn't help but admire the brilliance of this system.

'Quite nutty indeed.'

He then proceeded to make his way to the workshop. Summit gave him directions and indicated his route on a map that he projected in front of Theodore. Even the original Theodore had never been in the workshops so this visit was his first. Theodore suddenly felt Summit was actually useful for a change. He had only asked 'where to go' and summit gave him such great directions.

'I won't compliment this AI but he might not be so bad. Maybe he'll improve?'

He quickly found his way to the workshop. It was a giant hive of activity.

The workshop had several assembly and production lines, various tools for creating and researching could be found in designated areas.

There, however, was a distinct difference between the people who worked here. You could say there were two different kinds of people working in the workshop; the researchers and the servicemen.

The servicemen were the grunt-engineers. They were busy fixing up shuttles in their hangar bay, fixing mech's in their stations or fabricating new parts or refurbishing old parts. They were the type of people with greasy hands, wrinkled faces and friendly chats.

The researchers, however, were clean, tidy, reserved and had a steady and thoughtful expression. It was if they were constantly contemplating various extremely hard subjects. Just in the way they walked they oozed confidence and a certain type of arrogance bordering a feeling of superiority.

The stark contrast immediately made it so that Theodore felt more connected with the engineers on the floor. They seemed much more approachable and likeable than their stern counterparts.

"You're looking for Mr Boulton?" An engineer gave Theodore an inquisitive look after Theodore asked around for where he could find his teacher.

"Yes, Is he around? I'm supposed to meet him here?" Theodore explained.

"Well, I know where he is, alright." The man answered warily.

"You can find him at the office on the second floor on the right. Used to be Mr Langley's office that is. He barged in yesterday, escorted by the big' man himself and then took up the office there."

Theodore could see the man's fleeting look at the office and the way he warily explained where he could find him.

"Thanks, can you tell me about him? He's supposed to mentor me for some time."

"Hmm. Well, you're in for it now, kid. Knowledgeable man that one, but he's a real pain when he's on the floor. Better watch yourself when you're dealin' with 'im. You can learn a lot, but he is pretty eccentric. He'll be all over us if there's a small mistake in our works. He only knows perfection. Not an easy man to work with, ya know." The engineer commented.

"Hmm. Well, thanks for the advice! I'll be on my toes then." Theodore thanked the man and made his way to the supposed office of Mr Boulton.

Before he could even knock on the door, the door slid open and revealed Mr.Boulton's office. It was clean and tidy and organized. There, behind a thick sturdy mahogany desk, sat middle-aged man behind a screen of projected charts and figures. Even though the hazy blue projections, the intelligent twinkle behind the small spectacles could be seen.

Theodore, for a second, stood dazed in the door opening. He was surprised by the door sliding out of his way before he even had a chance to announce his visit. It was custom to knock or at least let someone know you're entering their office.

"Yes, Theodore, take a seat. My personal AI monitors the floor, I've been notified of your presence ever since you set a step in the workshop."

"Now, now, come, come, we don't have all day. We can't be dilly-dallying with what you're supposed to learn in the upcoming period. Good, now, I've been so free as to peruse your track record so far."

"You were average in math, physics and chemistry. You have very little talent in the arts if I can believe Mr Jones statements. And formerly you failed to meet the bar during your neural aptitude test. This lead to a depression wherein your results got affected. You have not been given tutoring on applied sciences and you've never interfaced with any machine."

"Now, somehow, your grandfather expects me to help you enter KMU. Truthfully, when he told me about your case I thought you didn't stand a chance. At that point, even with my tutoring, I wouldn't give a single credit for your success."

"However, possibly noticing my diminishing interest and negative outlook on your academic career, your grandfather filled me in on certain key information! Your bio-AI-implant is simply fascinating. Your optimized gene treatment is also far outside of the norm. However, even then, your chances of success are completely dependent on your own performance and your ability to learn."

"In the end, your grandfather and my father convinced me to take up the role of teacher. The reason is quite simple. My father owes your grandfather a big favour and coincidentally I will be taking up a teaching position at KMU. You will be my first student and test subject. We quickly hashed out an agreement wherein this workshop will belong to me for the duration of my stay. I will conduct my experiments here and continue to do my research while I teach you on the side."

"As for the rest of the agreement, the old folks came to their own agreement."

"Right, it's about time." Mr Boulton pressed a button on his projected screen and spoke, his voice resounding through the workshop.

"Please vacate this workshop, all personnel can report to Audrey Baker on location Delta 86. You will resume your duties here."

At that moment, a large number of people entered the workshop wearing insignia of the Watts and Boulton company, accompanied by supporting staff of the Thompson family. The personnel on the floor was quickly informed and orderly left the workshop, somewhat dazed and confused by what was happening.

"Please inspect all the facilities and resume your tasks." Boulton then instructed his personnel and cut the comm.

"Great, now that's settled, let's get back to you, Theodore."

"If you're wondering why I'm taking up a position at KMU. This is also easy to explain. Funding and advanced equipment. They can give me these things whereas my father cannot. They made an agreement wherein I will teach and the profits of my research will be split."

"Also, don't believe the rumours about my heritage. I'm not related to my father, he truly adopted me."

"Now that's out of the way, we'll start your first lesson."

Theodore was thoroughly spooked by now. This man could either read his mind or was terribly good at predicting his thoughts and behaviour. Did he monitor him? How did he even know that he had researched him?

He could definitely see why the engineer he spoke to was so unnerved by his question of where he could find this man. Just listening to this man was already nervewracking! Being so accurately read made Theodore very uncomfortable. He did recognise this mans brilliance though. Just the incredible amount of flickering information on the projections dazed Theodore.

"I'll start by assessing your current knowledge level. Here is a test, I expect you to finish this in fourty-five minutes. You're allowed to use Summit. Just know that I know. We'll be talking about hiding you're online presence afterwards. Really bold of you to connect your AI to the internet without concealing it, Mr Thompson. But you surely didn't read the accompanying files Dr Morgan send you after installing the Bio-AI. Well then, I'll be back in forty-five minutes." Mr Boulton cooly commented as he made his way out of the door.

Theodore then looked at the new projection that popped up in front of him. As he read the first lines, an audible sigh could be heard. There wasn't going to be an easy 'starter' question to give him some confidence.