ANA Reborn by Carl Facciponte - HTML preview
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Chapter 35
r. Aki Gua hurried across the research and D development floor of AI Concepts, Inc. She knocked politely but impatiently on Francine’s corner office door. Francine looked up from her desk in amazement and concern.
“Aki, what’s wrong?” Dr. Gua always maintained a friendly but stoic look on her face.
Today Francine could see fear and an emotion just a scream short of panic on the woman’s face.
“It is remote monitoring system for Ana and Rhett. Signals have stopped,” she said with trepidation. “They just stop at same time.
Something bad happen.” she added.
Francine put her pen down. “What do you mean the signals have stopped? That’s almost impossible. Is it our equipment?”
“No. Not equipment. We double-tripple check. They not transmitting anymore. Signals, how you say, have flatline. Something very 269
wrong.” The diminutive doctor’s already high-pitched voice became piercing in her anxiety.
Francine frowned, “Okay, let’s not panic. I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for this.
Aki, can you bring Dr. Fred Jenson from Electronics and Dr. Alex Ortiz from Brain Development to my office?” Then added sharply,
“Right now!”
Aki bowed slightly and hurried off. Five minutes later Francine’s team was assembled in her office.
“Okay, troops,” Francine said in as calm a voice as she could muster, “We seem to have lost the signals from our AIs. Are we sure it isn’t something in our equipment or in the mainframe?
Who has checked out basic electronic problems?
Fred Jensen spoke. “I and my team have thoroughly checked out the communications electronics and have found all components to be in fully functioning order. We ran several tests for component deterioration and connectivity. We can ping every component system, all that is, except for Ana and Rhett. We receive no confirming ping back that their systems have received our signals.”
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“And what does that translate to?” Francine questioned impatiently.
“Director,” Fred responded, “it means they are not there or all links have been broken.”
“How can they not be there, or all communication links be broken?”
“Dr. Dracus, it's just as it sounds. I have no further explanation or conjecture.”
“Dr. Ortiz,” Francine said, turning her head to address Alex Ortiz, “what is your take on things from a brain development aspect?”
“Well, Dr. Dracus,” he said addressing her formally, “the nano-rod brain is extremely flexible and I would expect it to think through a contact solution if all was well. I have a concern all is not well. It could be an issue with the base programming. Could an EMP pulse scramble the base program?” He looked at Aki.
Sure, first sign of trouble and you throw your coworker under the bus, Francine thought.
“No,” Aki said, “we shield the brain to shunt EMP to ground. Can not hurt brain.” Dr. Ortiz nodded his understanding.
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Francine looked across her top staff members.
“Well, if our systems are okay, they are EMP-proof, and the communication lines are working, what else could be a reasonable solution to the loss of communication?”
Aki hung her head, “Could be they dead,” she whispered immediately before a chest-shaking sob erupted.
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