---A few weeks later---
The lab was quiet. Overhead lights set to low, ventilation fans humming behind ceiling panels. On the table between them, a holographic projection glowed - a rotating wireframe of a new kind of grapple rig, annotated with measurements, stress tolerances, and tiny directional arrows marking force vectors at each joint.
Raizen leaned over the table, forearms flat. He still didn't believe that Alteea granted him 24/7 in a full laboratory, and he had everything to himself – And Saffi, of course. He had been studying robotics and engineering like crazy the past week or two.
Frowning, he looked at the hologram on the table.
"If we shave two grams here" he said, tapping near the wrist joint, "the rotational lag should drop, right? I should be able to change direction without the harness throwing me around."
