ANA Reborn by Carl Facciponte - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Chapter 4
hett lay motionless with closed eyes on his R animation table. The tight-fitting fabric composite helmet was reminiscent of the old leather football helmets worn during the sport’s early days, minus the chin strap—bundles of fine wires connecting it to the Cray XC40
supercomputer. The Artificial Intelligence, Inc.
department heads stood quietly to one side of the table in the cleanroom. General Lance Coopers maintained his customary scowl from a corner. A small radio on an engineer’s desk in the adjacent lab played ‘One Moment in Time’ at a barely audible level.
“Okay,” Francine said in her rich, low voice.
“Let’s do this!”
The programmer typed the commands into the Cray to initialize the Base Programming, downloaded earlier into Rhett’s nano-jell brain.
The spectators, except for Lance, held their breath. The corners of Ana’s mouth turned up in a bit of grin as she noticed her breathing 25
ANA Reborn
simulator had halted too, giving the impression she was also holding her breath.
Small, multicolored LEDs blinked in random patterns on the helmet before turning a steady-state green. Silver-coated carbon nano-rods within Rhett’s brain configured themselves to create synapses, allowing for real thinking. Many encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge activated, and Base Programming established internet and communication links deep within the gel brain.
The Animation Engineers removed Rhett’s helmet. “That should be the last step,” the lead engineer announced with confidence as he stepped back from the table and waited. “With any luck, he’ll wake up ready to rock-n-roll, so to speak.”
After a few moments, Rhett’s eyes fluttered and opened. His fingers flexed. He moved his head slowly from side to side and stretched. The muscles under his skin rippled, showing themselves through his t-shirt. There was an appreciative exhalation of air from some of the women. “It’s a shame they had to dress him for this part,” a younger female scientist said to her coworker. “I was quite happy with only a sheet 26
Carl Facciponte
covering him.” She was hushed by an elbow to the ribs and chastised by her friend. “Get your mind out of the gutter. And forget about that delightful hydraulic appendage test they ran last week.” Her eyes sparkled, and her chest heaved as she lectured her friend.
Mmm, Ana thought as she tossed her dark red hair behind her. They sure did a good job with him.
Yes, indeed!
Francine approached. “Rhett, do you know who I am?”
Ana tensed.
“No, I don’t,” he answered. Ana relaxed and exhaled. Two of the Base Programming engineers smiled at each other and whispered, “Hey, the contraction subroutine works already. That’ll save a lot of learning time. He sounds like a human right off the bat. Let’s make it Ana’s next patch, too.” They bumped fists.
Francine leaned in. “You’re Rhett, and I’m Francine Dracus, your Lab Director. Can you sit up?” Francine offered her hand, but Rhett swung his legs over the edge of the table and sat upright.
“Very good, Rhett! Can you stand?”
27
ANA Reborn
Rhett put his feet on the floor and stood with no help. “Excellent, Rhett. How about walking across the room and back?” After three steps to calibrate his body, he walked normally. The electronics and hydraulics staff slapped high-fives as they congratulated each other.
“Francine, if it’s not too early, I’d like to meet the staff who constructed me, now.” His dimples announced their presence on his tanned skin as he smiled.
“Absolutely,” Francine said enthusiastically.
“Department Heads, same drill. Line up and introduce yourselves and briefly state what you do.” Everyone fell in line for the now-familiar introductory right.
Ana held back at the end of the line. After everyone had introduced themselves to their new creation, she stretched her hand out to Rhett in a warm welcome. “Ana, I’m so glad to meet you.
I’m sure we will work well together,” he said.
They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. No one noticed the burst of soft static on the radio. Ana responded with, “Yes, I’m sure we will.”
28
Carl Facciponte
At that point, General Lance Coopers approached
the
male
android.
Without
introductions, Lance spoke in his usual condescending manner. “So, you’re my new battle-bot. Tan skin, hazel eyes, dark wavy hair.
Yeah, you can look like almost any nationality, except Nordic, but we don’t have much of a problem with them. What are you about 5’10” or so?”
“I’m 5’11” sir,” Rhett responded. “But about that battle-bot thing. Can you explain?”
“Sure,” Lance said with a small smile. “Let me show you.” He removed a pen from his pocket and clicked it open. Instead of the normal writing position, he closed his fist around it. Then, with a quick movement, he jabbed the pen into Rhett’s bare arm. Rhett cried out and pulled away from the pen, grabbing his arm. Everyone, including Ana and the staff, jumped with a gasp.
“See,” said Lance in a low voice, “no penetration. That would be halfway through a normal man’s arm. Yessir, Gabriella did a good job with her skin formulations, and your substrate guys did well with the underlying muscle, or whatever it is. Tough stuff,” and then 29
ANA Reborn
in a more formidable, louder voice to confirm his dominance, “Understand now ...boy? You are Mine!”
“I’m getting the picture, sir,” Rhett said with more than a little irritation. The radio crackled briefly again. Rhett took a breath and calmed himself. “I am, indeed, getting the picture.”
30
Carl Facciponte