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Ryan returned to center stage. Q&A.
A male reporter got the first microphone. He had one question.
"You haven't mentioned the price. What does Triton-1 cost?"
"Prosthetic pricing is never a single number. The final cost depends on the patient's specific needs, the fitting process, the additional services required. That's why we have fitting centers. The full installed price varies. But I can tell you the maximum: under twenty-three thousand dollars."
The room went quiet.
The reporter looked stunned.
"Did you say twenty-three thousand?"
"I said maximum. The actual price for most patients will be lower."
He'd done his research before coming. At the upper end of the market, twenty-three thousand dollars bought a mid-tier myoelectric arm. The same money would not get you anywhere near a top-of-the-line model. And here was a neural prosthetic that surpassed everything else on the market in functionality, priced at the level of a mid-tier alternative.
The R&D cost alone, in any normal company, would never be recouped at this price point.
"To clarify: that figure includes installation. The actual hardware is significantly less. Our company isn't trying to maximize revenue from this product. We're trying to maximize how many people we can help. That's consistent with what Prism Sciences was founded to do. Use technology to build a better future."
For most companies, that sentence would have been corporate boilerplate. Ryan meant it. The system rewarded him in Summon Points, not dollars. The technology was, in a real sense, free for him to deploy.
The audience couldn't tell the difference between sincere mission alignment and aligned-but-different-incentives. From the outside, it looked like a company so committed to the cause that it was leaving billions of dollars on the table.
That was the brand impression Tom had been hoping for, and he'd just received it for free.
"Beyond direct sales," Ryan continued, "we're working with banks on financing programs. Loans, installment plans, third-party medical financing. The goal is to remove every economic barrier between someone who needs a prosthetic and someone who has one. We're also pursuing partnerships with health insurers to integrate Triton-1 into standard coverage."
The applause was loud and sustained.
Ryan continued through the Q&A. Reporters asked about weight (the arm was heavier than competitors due to the larger battery), battery life (forty-five minutes continuous, two hours typical, swap packs available), and post-launch support (comprehensive warranty, on-site maintenance through the fitting centers, replacement parts guaranteed for ten years). Ryan answered each question directly. The honesty was disarming. Most product launches glossed over weaknesses. Ryan stated them and moved on.
The first international reporter to receive a microphone was a woman from a major European business publication. She stood up, gave her organization's credentials, and switched to careful English with an accent that suggested she'd recently been working in mainland China.
"Will Triton-1 be available internationally? At similar prices?"
Ryan recognized her organization. Their coverage of his work had been balanced and substantive. He answered cordially.
"Yes. Triton-1 will launch internationally on a rolling basis through our partner networks. Pricing in international markets will reflect import costs, regulatory requirements, and local market conditions. We're targeting parity-equivalent pricing wherever possible."
"And do you consider Helios Group's Angel product a competitive threat to Triton-1?"
Ryan smiled.
"That answer will become clear in the next few hours. I think the comparison will speak for itself."
The reporter laughed and sat down. The room laughed too.
Erik got the next question. He'd been waiting for the right moment.
"On our way in, the corridor displays were showing what appeared to be true volumetric holographic projections. Stable images in mid-air, ambient-light tolerant. Is that also Prism Sciences technology?"
Ryan had known this question was coming.
"Yes. Those are Prism Sciences holographic projector units. We've been developing the technology in parallel with the prosthetic work. Today's installation is the first public demonstration. We'll be releasing more details about that product line over the coming months."
The hall buzzed with side conversations. The reporters who hadn't yet realized that Prism Sciences was launching a second technology category alongside the prosthetic finally absorbed it.
Two industry-shifting technologies. One launch event. The same company. Whose technical lead was a fifteen-year-old.
Ryan turned the floor over to Tom, who delivered a closing address that thanked the audience, the team, and the patients who had volunteered to test the prosthetic during development. The launch event ended at exactly two o'clock.
The applause carried Ryan offstage.
-----
The exhibition hall converted to a hands-on demonstration zone within minutes.
A dozen Triton-1 demonstration units were arranged on tables for media and guest experience. Sensor caps were available, each one set up with reset protocols so that data from one user could be cleared before the next user took a turn. Reporters lined up to try the prosthetic firsthand. The journalists who had been watching the launch as professional skeptics walked away as believers.
Across the country, the showcase galleries that Tom had set up in twelve domestic cities opened their doors at the same moment. Foot traffic, anticipated to be moderate, exceeded all projections within the first hour. Lines began forming outside the galleries within ninety minutes of the launch broadcast ending.
The flagship fitting center, scheduled to open at two p.m., found itself servicing customers from the moment the doors unlocked. The crowd inside reached capacity within an hour. New arrivals had to wait outside.
The international showcase galleries opened with similar reception. The single international fitting center, which Tom had positioned in a major European city, was reportedly oversubscribed before the end of the day.
Most of the visitors weren't immediate customers. They were the curious public who had watched the launch livestream and wanted to see the holographic displays in person. They wanted to put their hand on a Triton-1 and feel the materials. They wanted to witness the product, not just observe it through a camera.
The galleries had been designed for exactly this experience. Holographic projectors arranged along the walls displayed rotating views of Triton-1 architecture, the brain anatomy and signal acquisition pipeline, and short loops of the promotional film. Lighting was kept low to enhance the projector's visual quality. The combined effect was that every gallery felt like a science fiction museum.
The crowd inside made the science fiction effect harder to appreciate. The galleries that had been designed as cathedrals to the future were operating like high-end farmer's markets.
-----
Ryan and the team left the convention center after the demonstration period and drove to the flagship fitting center.
The crowding was even worse here.
The fitting center's first three floors, the customer-facing floors, were packed. People were lined up to consult with prosthetists about fittings, to watch the demonstration units in operation, to handle the materials. Frank Bauer and the other senior prosthetists Tom had recruited were running consultations as fast as they could process them. The schedule for the rest of the week was already filling up. The schedule for next week was filling up. The schedule for the month was filling up.
Mason and the rest of the engineering team observed the lobby crowd from the upper-floor mezzanine. Below them, dozens of patients and their families were learning about the technology. Some of them were tearing up while looking at the demonstration units. Some were asking questions about specific medical conditions. Some were just holding the materials and feeling, for the first time, that the future might actually arrive in their lifetime.
Mason had been an engineer his entire adult life. He'd built things that worked. He'd never built something where the people who needed it cried when they saw it.
He went into the corner of the mezzanine and rubbed his eyes for a minute. Then he came back out and got back to work.
-----
Ryan, Tom, Lisa, and Mason adjourned to a small conference room on the fifth floor.
Tom pulled up the financial projections on his laptop.
"Per-unit profit, after manufacturing and amortized R&D, is somewhere between eight hundred and twelve hundred dollars depending on configuration. That's reasonable margin for a mass-market product but very thin compared to Helios's pricing model. If launch demand holds at current levels, we'll be cash-flow positive within ninety days and able to fund expansion into other product lines. I want to grow the prosthetics R&D group, build out lower-limb prosthetics, and expand into orthotic devices."
"Good plan."
"Beyond direct sales, we can license the technology to fitting centers internationally. Supply them the Triton-1 hardware, let them handle local installation and service. We collect the manufacturing margin without operating the retail footprint. I have friends in three different countries already starting initial conversations."
Tom seemed to know somebody everywhere. Ryan had stopped trying to track the social network.
"Run with it."
Triton-1's actual hardware cost was relatively low: standard mass-produced components for the structural elements, mid-cost motor systems, and the proprietary neural processing module which was the most expensive single piece. Total bill of materials hovered around ten thousand dollars for the most complex full-arm version. As production scaled, that number would drop further. Adding labor, distribution, and warranty service brought the all-in cost to somewhere around eleven to thirteen thousand dollars per unit.
The retail price of twenty-three thousand dollars was thus generating a meaningful margin. Not enormous, but real.
Crucially, Ryan's R&D cost was effectively zero. Most companies would have folded several hundred thousand dollars per unit into the price to recoup their development investment. Prism Sciences didn't have that overhead. Their pricing was structurally lower than any competitor could match without operating at a loss.
"What about the holographic projectors?" Tom asked. "Do you want to develop that as a separate product line?"
Ryan thought about it.
"Not yet. Let's get prosthetics established first. The patents are in our portfolio. The technology isn't going anywhere. Once we're stable in this market, we can think about expansion. There's no rush."
"Agreed."
The meeting wrapped. The Mercer family went out for dinner. Mason went back to his team to coordinate next steps.
The first day of Triton-1 was over.
The second day would be Helios's launch day. Twelve hours from now.
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