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Subject: {ASSM} RP: the Michael Collins Anthology (ASFR, ScFi, act, rom, adv) [19/26]
Date: Wed,  4 Jul 2001 07:10:04 -0400
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19. The Rebuild

     If you're going to catch a virus as an android, at least have some
     fun with it, I say.

     But alas, Michael's secret is out. Danny and Matthew know for
     certain now that he's not really human. This could prove to be
     problematic for the three androids, and Michael's initial fears
     could come to fruition.

     ------------------------------------------------------------------

``Not quite,'' said Julie. ``Here, get dressed, let's all go into Chip's
room.''

Becky followed Chip upstairs to her room, which was down the hall from
Michael and Julie's, got dressed, and joined everyone downstairs in the
basement.

``Michael is an android,'' she told the boys. ``And so are Chip and Becky,''
she continued, seeing the two walk back into the room.

``No way!'' Matthew cried out. ``Did you build them?''

``I can't go into details on that,'' she said, putting on the robe that Chip
brought her. ``And none of you can tell this to anyone! There's only three
other people alive that know about Michael, and you're two of them.''

``What about Becky?'' Danny said, putting on his clothes.

``You're the only other two that know about both of them.''

Chip finished getting dressed, and joined Becky and Julie at their side.

``So, Chip; is it true? Are you really an android?'' asked Matthew.

``Yes,'' he said; putting his hands up to his scalp and depressing his
temples, releasing his skull cap. Chip turned around so the two boys could
see the display, buttons, and switches inside Chip's head.

``Put that back on, Chip,'' Julie instructed.

``So what's wrong with him?'' Matthew asked.

``And what happened to us this afternoon?''

``I don't know, and I don't know, but I'm going to find out.'' said Julie.

``Can I use your phone?'' asked Danny.

``Why?''

``To tell my mom where I'm at, she's probably worried about me.''

``Sure, of course; but you can't tell her anything. It's in the kitchen.''

``I won't, I promise. Hell, I had too good of a time, at least I think I
did.''

``I'd like to stay and help if I can,'' asked Matthew.

``I don't think that would be right,'' Julie said, beginning to pace around
the room.

``My mom's at work anyway, and won't be home until after midnight.''

Hesitating, she reluctantly agreed.

The three walked to the other side of the basement where Michael lay
lifeless. ``Chip, Becky, in Michael's home directory on the fileserver are
all of his schematics. Take a look at them, and become familiar with them.''

They complied, and began accessing the fileserver through their wireless
ethernet transceivers.

``What happened?'' she whispered, running her fingers on his face.

Matthew peered into Michael's chest and was amazed at the mass of wires and
tubes.

Chip and Becky, having finished reviewing the schematics, got the tools
which were sitting on the workbench, and began disassembling him.

``What are you doing?'' Julie asked.

``We need to disassemble him to find where the problem is,'' said Becky.

Like machines on an assembly line, they maneuvered quickly on both sides of
him as the removed limb after limb.

Forty-five minutes later, all of Michael's components were arranged neatly,
and in order on both the table where Michael originally lay, and the
worktables behind them.

Matthew couldn't help but pick up some of the components and examine them.
``Look how small these hard drives are, wow!'' he said, picking up Michael's
array. ``How much storage is this?''

``1.9 Tb'' Chip stated factually.

``How much storage do you have, Chip?''

``Becky and I both have approximately 8 Tb of storage.''

``How come he has so little compared to you?''

``His technology is 4 years older than ours.'' Becky responded.

Chip and Becky had decided to work systematically with their repairs,
starting with his limbs and motor control circuitry, working their way up to
his logic and reasoning circuits.

Several hours had passed, as the two droids continued their work. Matthew
and Danny had to leave to go home and get some sleep. Julie had picked up
Michael's head and cradled it in her arms. She ran her fingers through his
hair, and looked into the lifeless eyes, which were still opened.

``What happened, baby?'' she asked rhetorically.

``He can't hear you,'' Chip replied, noticing her talking to the decapitated
head from Michael's, now disassembled, body.

``I know that!'' she cried out.

She picked up his left arm, which had the skin removed, revealing a shiny,
metallic, substructure underneath. She gently pulled on some cables and
actuators which caused his hand and fingers to flex. ``I've never seen him
completely disassembled before,'' she told the two droids.

Even Michael's genitals were disassembled. The synthetic sheath, removed
from the ribbed carriage which housed the wires and tubes.

``What's this?'' she asked, to no one in particular, as she picked up the
plastic container marked, ``Seminal Reservoir.''

``My God, this is his cum,'' she said, dipping her finger into the container
and tasting it. ``God, it's only half-full, this must be why he doesn't come
for me much anymore.''

``He has 4 liters remaining,'' Chip said, while continuing to work on the
components.

``How do you know?''

``It's in his files. SynChem - Synthetic Semen - Part No. 9002-3927.''

``SynChem? That must explain why he spent a lot of time with Tracy. Does she
know?''

``I don't think so,'' he said.

Julie collapsed from pure exhaustion and rested her head on the table.

The next morning, she called everyone in sick; from both school and work,
and made up an excuse that her mother had died so everyone had to leave to
go out of town for the preparations and funeral.

Chip and Becky didn't stop throughout the night, and made concerted efforts
to clean and test each and every component.

``How's it going? Anything I can do to help?'' Julie asked. Having the two
droids here definitely made things easier on her. The last time Michael
malfunctioned, on New Years Day that year, it was just she and Arnie. They
both had to figure out Michael's systems on their own. But, by contacting
Dr. Carson, he was gracious enough to give Michael every file he had on him,
including the full source code and part numbers to his programming and
systems.

Aside from some few specialized circuits, and the custom memory, CPUs, drive
arrays, bus planes, and others; most of Michael's components were available
off the shelf or could be easily fabricated.

That afternoon, Chip and Becky were just about finished with Michael's left
leg and foot. Matthew and Danny both stopped by after school to see how
everyone was doing.

``Hey there,'' the two boys said as the entered the basement. ``How's it
going?'' asked Danny.

``They've been working non-stop,'' said Julie.

``Cool, check it out,'' he said, picking up Michael's leg. ``It's heavy!''

``It's so real,'' commented Matthew. ``Down to the hairs.''

``Don't they need a break?'' asked Danny, noticing they were still wearing
the same clothes from yesterday.

``We do not require rest or relaxation,'' said Becky, as she and Chip
continued to work on Michael's other leg.

Work went much quicker on the other leg since the androids knew what to
expect by reassembling it.

``What's this?'' asked Danny, picking up a long array of thick tubes,
containers, and a motor.

``That's his waste processor,'' said Julie.

``Gross!''

``Not really,'' she said, pointing out the different parts. ``See, this tube
connects up his throat to the back of his mouth to accept food and water.''

She went on to explain how Michael (and Chip and Becky for that matter)
essentially chew the food they intake, mashing it up so it doesn't get stuck
going down their esophagus, where it sits in this metal container just under
Michael's chest, and behind his control panel. When it comes time to expel
the food, a device, not unlike a garbage disposal in one's sink; activates
pulling the food down and forcing it out the other tube which goes down to
his anus.

``How does he piss?'' asked Danny.

``He doesn't, at least he doesn't have to.'' she said. ``That other small
tube coming out the bottom leads to a fluid reservoir, which is that other
container next to the cylinder. Another pump is attached to that which feeds
the fluid to a Y-Connector leading to the tube which is inside his penis.''

``That explains why they didn't eat a lot the other night,'' said Matthew.
``But they were drinking! Why did they need water?''

``Just like with you and I, the water helped the food go down. What you
didn't realize was that Michael dissolved some enzyme tablets in the water
to help break down the food even more once it was sitting in containers.''

``So what happened to all that food?'' Danny asked.

``It all got flushed down the toilet right after you left.''

``That's still gross,'' said Matthew.

Matthew and Danny left, leaving Julie just sitting and watching Chip and
Becky work.

Late that evening, she fell asleep again beside Michael's partially
assembled body.

When she awoke, she found both his arms, and legs reassembled. Chip was
finishing attaching Michael's legs to his lower torso.

``We found a problem in his left hand,'' he told her.

``Yeah, he was complaining about that the other night.''

``A dead spider was found lodged near the proximity sensor in his wrist.''

She shuddered at hearing this revelation. ``Oooh, gross!''

``We removed the spider, and electrically the sensor is working again.''

To think that Michael actually had a bug living inside him made her almost
freak out. ``He didn't know?'' she asked.

``We don't have any sensors, other than for environment, inside us. The only
thing we know is when we're overheating, or a component is malfunctioning.''
said Chip.

``So you could have a mouse crawling inside you right now and you wouldn't
know it?''

``Unless it damaged something.''

``I'm going to be sick,'' she said, and walked out of the room.

She went upstairs to fix something to drink when she realized they had no
groceries in the house, and left to go to Kroger.

When she returned about an hour later, she was surprised to find Michael's
spine, and various other inner components reattached.

``You're almost done,'' she said.

``Yes, but we've discovered the source of his other malfunctions.'' said
Becky. ``His entire voltage regulators, as well as DC to AC converter are
inoperable.''

``Apparently, they were failing, but the strenuous activity at the end
caused the components to overheat and subsequently fail.''

``Can it be repaired?''

``We don't have the necessary tools, equipment, or knowledge to do so.''

``How's the circuit boards, are any of the traces damaged?'' she asked.

``No, just the components.''

Julie was relieved in a way. She felt that finally she'd be able to do
something to help him. Her knowledge of electronics and electrical systems
would prove invaluable in this instance.

She sat down between the two droids with the circuit boards in front of her,
and with her multimeter and logic probe, began examining each component.

Measuring the capacitance and resistance values of the various pieces, she
made note of the ones which were burnt out, and carefully unsoldered them
from place. Several hours later, she amassed a list of hundreds of diodes
and resistors were burnt were otherwise not functioning.

Matthew had stopped by after eating dinner and remarked how well and quickly
Michael was being put back together.

``He looks almost done,'' he said.

Julie, noticing Matthew standing at the foot of the table looking up at
Michael's groin, placed a towel over his privates to cover them up. He
didn't say anything, but caught the message she was silently giving and
stepped away.

``Why don't we all go upstairs and take a break, there's not much more we
can do tonight.''

``So what's wrong?'' asked Matthew.

``His entire power control center is malfunctioning.'' she said, walking
behind him up the stairs. ``I'll go to Radio Shack tomorrow morning and get
the parts.''

Sitting down on the couch, Matthew couldn't help but wonder just what powers
the three androids. ``So, what powers them?'' he asked Julie.

``They have a miniature nuclear reactor which drives a DC generator.''

``Isn't that dangerous?''

``Probably, but the person who designed them knew what he was doing.''

``We all have a self-contained nuclear power plant located in our lower
back,'' said Becky.

They spent the evening watching television. Matthew left several hours later
to go home, which left Julie alone with the two droids.

``Have you figured out what happened the other day? Why everyone was so...
sexual?'' she asked the two of them.

``No, we haven't had a chance to do any research into that.'' said Becky.

``Well, Becky; the events started when you asked me to execute
extreme.bin.'' said Chip.

Confused, since Becky didn't remember this, she questioned Chip's remark.
``I did?''

``Yes, you did.''

``What's extreme.bin?'' Julie asked.

``I don't know,'' said Becky. ``Do you Chip?''

``Doing a find for it now, one moment. It's located in /usr/local/libido on
my filesystem. Becky, what about you?''

``I have a copy in /usr/local/libido, too.''

``Don't execute it! Chip, would you copy yours to your home directory on
fileserve1? I want to take a look at it, and I'm sure so will Mike.''

Julie went downstairs and brought Michael's detached head upstairs with her
to bed.

``You're going to be good as new tomorrow,'' she said, sitting on the bed,
holding his head like it was a basketball.

She knew he couldn't hear him, and she was probably going a little crazy for
anthropomorphizing his lifeless head, but machine or not; he was her lover,
confident, and friend.

She was a curious little wench. When she was a child, she always took apart
televisions, toasters, microwaves, and record players, to see how they
worked. Her curiosity was getting the best of her with regards to her lover,
too, and she couldn't quite contain herself knowing that she would probably
not have an opportunity to examine him ... his head ... for a very long
time.

She noticed that the skin around the base of his head, was pliable. Gently
she pulled on it, amazed at how much it began to stretch, and gently pulled
it off his scalp.

It was one piece, with openings for Michael's eyes, and mouth. She briefly
turned it inside out and could see where each hair on his head was sewn into
place, protected by a thick fabric to keep the hairs from falling out. His
ears were solid, with a thin insert which protruded into two holes in his
head. His nose as solid, too, and had a ridge in the back which it was
inserted into a small vertical opening in his face.

She could see the redness of the artificial gum lines at the top and bottom
of his jaw. Inserted within this were thirty-two perfect white teeth.

His lower jaw fell freely opened, and she could see the redness of his
artificial tongue and palate. Inside, his mouth was completely dry. She
gently pinched his tongue with two fingers and noticed that is squished.

She found eight small screws which held the top of his skull in place, and
quickly got her smallest screwdriver out from her briefcase by her door.

A plate on the back of his head read, ``DARPA MODEL 1 PROTOTYPE COMBAT
ANDROID / SERIAL NO. 00-000-01 / DEFENSE RESEARCH LABORATORY / BERKELEY
CALIFORNIA''.

She carefully removed the eight screws; two on his forehead, four above each
temple, and another two in the back, and set the screws down inside his
skull. There was a Grateful Dead sticker stuck to the inside of his skull,
which Julie assumed was left there as a joke from one of his technicians.

There were two circuit boards which came up laterally inside his skull,
flanking three gyroscopes arranged in a triangle in the dead center. Wires
came out of both circuit boards which fed into the back of his eyes. A
microphone was attached to both circuit board which a plastic cylinder led
to the openings in the sides of his head.

Another circuit board was in the back of Michael's head with several hundred
very thin wires coming out of. These wires led to servos and motors located
near the sides of his head which obviously controlled his mouth.

She looked at his face, with the top of his skull now removed, and could see
no holes for nostrils. Apparently Michael couldn't smell, or if he did, not
through his nose.

Two long, and flexible, actuator arms were above each of his eyes which
apparently moved his eyebrows. Two thin ribs covered both of his eyes, and
were movable, which apparently moved his eyebrows.

Starting to freak out at the morbidness of what she was doing, she quickly
put his skull back on, but not before peeling the sticker off from inside
him. She also couldn't resist getting a Sharpie out of her briefcase and
signing, ``I'll always love you - Julie'' on the top of his skull, before
putting the eight screws back in.

She turned his scalp inside-out and reattached his nose, and gently spread
the latex back over his head. Careful not to stretch or rip the latex too
much, she gently guided his eyebrow and eyelid actuators back into their
respective positions in the skin, and guided the material over his jaw. The
took the rest of his scalp and spread it back over his skull.

It took some maneuvering on her part to get his ears lined up and actually
inserted into their respective holes but after a few moments his head looked
just as he did before she disassembled it.

The next morning, she was at Radio Shack, parts list in hand. Diodes,
capacitors, resistors, thermocouples, varistors, and rectifiers; she just
about bought out the store before coming home with five large bags full of
components.

It took her about four hours to finish soldering the components in place
when it came time for testing them.

``Chip,'' she interrupted, who was busy reattaching Michael's head to his
body. ``Power up the transformer and set it for 48vdc for me, please.''

He complied, setting the transformer to match the voltage and current which
came from their internal generators.

Julie attached the alligator clips to the terminals and began measuring
voltages.

``Good, I'm seeing clean voltages on all the buses.'' she said. ``Except the
117 line, what's that used for, anyway?''

``It's a 250w circuit for emergency power,'' said Chip.

``So it's not used by you guys?''

``No, Michael doesn't have it, but Becky and I have an R-15 outlet located
at the front of our voltage regulators which we could conceivably use to
power a light bulb in the event of a power outage.''

``Good!'' she said. ``I'm disconnecting it. It's wasting energy, anyway.''

Removing the clips, she cut the trace on the circuit board which fed
positive DC current into his DC to AC converter.

``We may want to do the same thing with you and Becky,'' she said.

Julie handed Chip the power regulator which he inserted into Michael's chest
and reattached all the wires.

Chip next took a small philips screwdriver and slowly turned the screw which
raised the miniature lead rods and started the nuclear chain reaction. A
minute later, the water contained within Michael's self-contained nuclear
reactor reached boiling, and the turbine started to spin. A red light came
on signaling that the power was still to low, followed by amber, and then
green.

Chip flipped Michael's power switch, and servos, pumps, and other motors
began to spin up. Julie and he could both hear his hard drives spinning up,
reaching their maximum of 20,000 RP/Ms.

About 20 minutes later, Michael's eyes blinked twice and he sat straight up
on the table.

``What happened?'' he asked nonchalantly.

``You don't know?'' asked Julie.

``No, my short term memory's been wiped out.''

Julie and Michael spent the evening going over the past week, and the
immediately preceding four days of his disconnection. She had a new respect
and understanding of her male lover. She realized that while he may be a
machine, and initially created for combat, he was just as frail as she was.

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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