Going Home, Part 03, Greak Oaks

The address was a narrow blue brick building that had seen better days. The large display window had television sets in it, old, new, and some he only guessed were televisions because they were surrounded by them. Those had no switches, no dials and were extremely thin.

The prickling brought the diagram to the fore, and Eric was curious enough to let it happen. It was a complex set of circuits with extremely small light generating components. Those enlarge and he was amazed at how beautiful they were, at the simplicity of them, at the things he could do with this kind of technology.

He forced the diagrams away. Pushed the prickling to the back of his mind as far as he could. This might be a mistake. Could he keep his sanity around so much technology?

The window had a large crack in it that someone had taped over from the inside. And the sign above the window read, in faded gold letters, ‘Repairs by Findley.’

He needed the money, unless he wanted to risk having to sleep on the street by the end of the week. A bell rang in the distance as he entered.

“Just gave me a moment!” someone called.

The inside was made much narrower by the shelves against the walls filled with televisions, radios, telephones, and other devices he couldn’t identify and kept himself from identifying. There even was an old electric piano tucked on a shelve, it’s legs removed.

“Hello young man,” A dark-skinned man with short gray hair greeted him. He was human, but Eric had expected that, his daughter was a Tecker, and only humans were that. “Everything off the shelves is for sale, if you’re interested in something.”

“I thought you did repairs?” Eric crossed the space to join the man at the back counter.

“I do, but sometimes people decide they don’t want them back, so I put them on the shelves. Now, what can I fix for you?”

Eric shook his head. “Are you Milton?”

“I am.”

“Charlie, at the hardware store, said you might be able to give me a job.”

“Charlie Koreria said that?” he studied Eric. “You’ve known him long?”

“No, I just stopped by the store for a few screwdrivers.”

“And just like that, he said I needed help?” the man chuckled, sounding more amused than angry or suspicious.

“He said you might. He said your daughter helped you, but that she left for school. I just got back to Tiranis after seven years in the army, and I’m getting low on funds.”

“I thought the army provided for returning soldiers.”

Eric shrugged.

“So, they don’t know you left?”

Eric shook his head. Considering that lake, where the base had stood, they had to think he’d died there.

The man was silent for a time, then shrugged. “Nothing to lose by giving you a try.” He lifted the end of the countertop. “Come on. Charlie’s right. Natalie did a lot of the work; she has a knack for fixing things, but now that she's studying to be an engineer, she doesn’t have as much time. How good are you?”

“I’m okay. I did a lot of fixing stuff in the army.” Eric didn’t mention that most of the fixing had involved engines, and not electronics, at least not until that one repair that got him transferred to the Builder Division.

The back of the shop had so many electronic devices in it they barely fit around the work table.

“Careful of that one,” Milton indicated a large television set in a wooden cabinet. “It’s an antique.”

Eric glanced at it, and time hit him in the gut. He recognized the model. His dad had bought it as soon as it was available to replace the old twelve-inch model that had been the centerpiece of the living room.

He was older than it was.

The prickling surged, and diagrams crowded his vision. There was so much here to take apart, to use to make something greater. He fought the desire; he fought the diagrams. He felt the approaching madness, and he didn’t want to go there again.

The army hadn’t given him a choice. They’d forced the Builder Madness on him, but he’d been lucky. He’d gotten out. He’d woken with it silent, and he’d been able to keep it at bay.

He latched on the one memory he knew could help him. Of looking at that lake for the first time, realizing it was where the base should have been. Understanding that he had killed everyone there.

The diagrams crumbled, the prickling dissolved into static, then his mind was silent.

Never again would he go there. If it meant being completely normal, putting his Builder ability to rest, then that’s what he would do.

“Are you okay?” Milton was watching him.

How long had this lasted? “Just taking it in.”

He looked doubtful, but nodded. He indicated a basket overflowing with papers, on top of a cabinet. “Those are the detail sheets for the repairs. The oldest ones are on the bottom, those should be done first, but if it’s too advanced for you, don’t worry about it. I bring in a specialist for that once a month. He’ll deal with what you can’t fix.

Eric nodded and pulled the bottom-most sheet. An amplifier system that ‘emitted a screeching sound anytime the volume was adjusted.’ There was a number at the top right corner, and he found the matching number on a tag attached to a black box, which he took to the table.

The man was watching him again

“Sorry, I guess I should check with you. What you want me to use for my test?”

He smiled. “You think you can fix that? It’s pretty new. My expert couldn’t do it. He said he had to read up on it.”

“I don’t mind giving it a try. Are the tools in the cabinet?”

Milton tapped it. “Yeah, pretty much anything you’ll need is in here.”

Eric nodded and took a breath. He reached back to the prickling and brought it forward enough to see the diagram. It obeyed, staying where he wanted it. Not forcing itself forward. A lot of the circuits looked somewhat like those in the phones people used, like the one on Milton’s inside breast pocket. In the same sense that the diagram of a car, would be similar to that of a tank.

“I’ll man the front and check back with you in an hour or two?”

Eric nodded, not paying attention to the words, too focused on one circuit, studying it and letting his ability tell him everything about what it could do. He ignored his amazement that something so small, so complex had been created by someone normal. This wasn’t the work of a Builder, it followed the laws of physics too closely. This had been made by normal scientists.

He looked at each of them one at a time, letting his ability show him how they worked, until one came up with a defect in it. If Milton’s technician had to test each circuit individually it was no wonder he hadn’t been able to repair this yet. Knowing what was wrong told him how to repair it, but he didn’t know if he’d find the tools for it.

He went through the cabinet and took the tools he’d need as he found them, screwdrivers to remove the casing and detach individual parts to let him access the one needing repair. Pliers to help with that. He’d almost resigned himself to having to build something when he found the scanner on the bottom shelf

He looked at it in amazement as its diagram blossomed and showed him what it did. He could connect a circuit board to it and it would show him the paths running along it. A scientist had managed to recreate how he saw technology. It only worked for electronics, but it still left him in awe. It couldn’t make the kind of repairs he needed, but that was a simple change.

Before he realized what he’d done he had modified it.

He cursed softly. Hadn’t he told himself he wouldn’t do this? Well, it was too late now. At least the changes he’d made were basic and didn’t alter how the scanner looked.

With the new functions on the scanner, doing the repairs was simple. Once it was reassembled he placed the amplifier back on the shelf and wrote ‘repaired’ on the sheet and placed that in the empty ‘done’ basket. He took the next sheet on the ‘to do’ pile, found the related item, a television screen, and set to work on that one.

Diagram popped up at random in his field of vision, but after a few hours he was able to only have the one for the item he was working on be there, and to his surprise, the prickling remained subdued, even with all this technology around him, it seemed content to obey him. Other than the scanner it didn’t even try to modify designs for him.

Eric screwed the cover on a plasma television with a satisfied smile and looked up. He almost fell off the stool in surprise at the person standing in the doorway.

“I was wondering when you’d notice me,” Milton said. He looked at the ‘done’ basket and the sheets in them. He counted them, fifteen, and looked at the clock. “You’re a Tecker, aren’t you?”

Eric considered lying, but Charlie had said Milton’s daughter was one. The man would know what to look for. But fifteen repairs that had stumped him in just under three hours would tell anyone there was something out of the ordinary here.

“If I am, is it a problem?”

“That depends on what you did to these.” He indicated the sheets he was holding.

“I just repaired them. I did catch a thing or two that wasn’t written and repaired that too, but I didn’t make modifications to any of them.” He hesitated. “I did modify your circuit scanner so it could help make repairs.”

Milton frowned. He put the papers back and opened the cabinet, looking through it until he found the scanner and looked it over. “Can anyone use it, or is it a Tecker only thing?”

“Anyone can. I was careful to make sure it kept to the laws of physics.”

He put it back. “I’m going to test it later.” He went to the amplifier, plugged it in and connected it to a radio. He turned both on and the sound came out clear. When Milton adjusted the volume, all that happened was that it changed. No screeching.

“Where was the problem?”

Eric placed a finger to the left, a little higher than the middle of the amplifier. “The second layer from the bottom. I don’t know if it has a name, but the circuit board was damaged. I used the scanner to repair it.”

“And you what? Just knew where the problem was?”

“No, I had to go through each circuit boards, but when I looked at that one, I knew. I could see the problem with it.”

Milton nodded as he turned the amplifier off. “Look, if you can promise me you’re not going to modify anything else, you have yourself a job.”

“I swear.”

“Good. I’m going to let them know they can come pick up their items,” he said, grabbing the sheets in the ‘done’ basket.

“Charlie said your daughter was something of a Tecker.”

The man smiled and shook his head. “A lot of people think that. She’s just good at fixing things.” He left, and Eric got back to work.

*

The next few days were good. After finding another bomb under the same car, he used his breaks and lunch hour to walk the length of the block, trying to find either the owner of the car or the people trying to kill him or her. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any luck with that, but he also didn’t find any more bombs.