Dragonfly Vs Monarch. Charley Brindley
stepped inside to find Pug and Autumn sitting close together on the couch. A box of Krispy Kreme donuts was on the coffee table.
“Rig!” Pug jumped to his feet. “We were worried about you.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
“Where have you guys been?” Autumn asked.
“Um…” Katrina said, “around.” She glanced at Rigger and grinned.
“Ah,” Autumn said with a smile, “is that the ‘around’ I think it is?”
“Never mind,” Rigger said. “I hope you two have enjoyed my apartment.”
He took a cream-filled donut and handed it to Katrina, then took another for himself. The two of them then sat together on the loveseat.
“Actually,” Autumn said, “we have been having a little fun.” She glanced at Pug.
“Is that the same ‘fun’ I think it is?” Katrina reached for a napkin to wipe her lips.
“Ha,” Pug laughed, “even better.”
Autumn elbowed Pug in the ribs as she spoke to Rigger. “Rig, do you Twitter?”
Rigger chewed and swallowed. “I Twitter and tweet.”
“Good.” Autumn picked up her phone from the table. “Check this out.” She touched a button on her new Galaxy phone, then keyed in a number with her thumbs.
Rigger wiped his hands on a napkin and took his phone from a hip pocket. He glanced at the display. “Should we be Twittering now?”
Pug leaned close to Autumn, watching the display on her phone.
She glanced at Pug and lifted a shoulder.
“Now put in two-d-two,” Pug said.
She did, then they both smiled as something appeared on her screen.
“I still got no Twitter?” Rigger said.
Autumn pointed her chin toward the stairway, and all four of them looked that way.
After a moment, a tiny creature came into view at the top of the stairs, fluttering near the ceiling.
“Donovan!” Rigger cried.
“Donovan?” Katrina asked.
Autumn returned her attention to her phone, watching the screen as she tilted her phone to control the tiny Dragonfly. The silent creature tilted forward and flew downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Donovan turned and fluttered sideways until it was only inches away from the grinning Rigger.
“Beautiful,” Rigger whispered. “But how— ”
Suddenly, Donovan’s wings faltered, and he dropped a few inches.
Pug reached in front of Autumn and held out his hand, palm up. “Set him down.”
Autumn clicked one key, then another.
Donovan settled down into Pug’s hand.
Autumn cut the power, and the wings went still.
“What is that thing?” Katrina asked.
“Shhh,” Autumn said, then lowered her voice. “It’s Rigger’s top secret project.”
“That little bug?”
Rigger reached to take the Dragonfly from Pug. “That little seven-million-dollar bug,” he said. “But not much of a secret anymore.” He glanced at Autumn. “How much flying time did you get on the battery?”
“Almost two hours.”
“Not bad, but how did you control it with your phone?”
“Donovan now has his own cell phone,” Pug said.
“We got the phone last night,” Autumn said. “Then Pug hacked the phone and wired it to your control box upstairs. Then we wrote an app for my Galaxy, using its accelerometer and gyroscope to control Donovan’s movements. So now all we have to do is call Donovan’s number, key in a few top-secret codes, and we get his audio and video on the phone we’re calling from. All you have to do is tilt your phone the way you want him to go.”
“No kidding?” Rigger asked. “Can I get it on mine?”
“Well, Donavan does have an unlisted number.”
“Great. The boys at the CIA will go nuts over this.”
“We might give them his number.” Autumn grinned at Rigger. “You ready to key it into your address book?”
Rigger nodded, and she read the number to him. He added it to his address book.
“You need to download the app,” Pug said.
“Okay.”
Pug gave him the instructions.
Rigger called Donovan’s number. “Password?” he asked.
“Clicker,” Autumn said.
Rigger keyed in the password. “Hey, take a look, Kat.” He turned his phone toward her so she could see the screen.
“Yep, there’s Autumn and Pug, sitting side-by-side,” Katrina said. “Where’s the camera?”
Pug turned Donavan to face Rigger and Katrina. “Two tiny video cameras for eyes.”
“They work pretty good for being so small,” Katrina said.
“Yes, they do,” Autumn said, “but transmitting the video back to the control box upstairs uses up the battery.”
“Type in one-h-one,” Pug said.
Rigger keyed in the command, and the video shut down.
Pug turned Donavan to his back and held him steady for Autumn.
She removed the old battery from a bracket on his belly and inserted a fresh one. “We soldered a battery holder to his stomach to make it easy to change batteries.”
“Good idea,” Rigger said.
“Okay,” Autumn said. “Now call his number again.”
Rigger dialed his number as Pug set the Dragonfly on the table.
After the call connected, Rigger got Donovan’s video signal on his phone’s screen. “Now what?”
“Wait a minute,” Autumn said, “it’s not going to work with his phone. You’ve got to have at least a Galaxy S-five model, because it has the tilt sensors.”
“Right,” Pug said. “Rig, you’ll have to get a new phone. But for now, use Autumn’s.”
“All right. I’ll get a new phone later today.”
Autumn handed her phone to him.
“Key in two-d-two,” Pug said. “Then you control him by tilting left, right, forward, and backward.”
Soon, Donavan’s wings began to flutter, and he lifted off the table. He turned in a slow circle as he flew up near the ceiling.
“This is a lot better than those two joysticks we were using,” Rigger said. “What’s the range?”
“We flew him all the way to the kitchen this morning,” Autumn said.
“Go open the front door,” Rigger said.
Pug went to open the door, and Rigger maneuvered Donovan out into the hallway. He turned the Dragonfly to the left as he watched the video on his phone.
“Follow him, Pug,” Rigger said. “Let’s see how far he can go.”
“Okay,” Pug said. “Hey, someone’s getting off the elevator.”
Rigger watched the video and