Kelly widened her eyes and said, “Indeed! That sounds like an excellent idea! Please add this information as an addendum to all stored DNA profiles. If we ever have to print a replacement body for Nathan, this will give us a greater chance of success.”
“I have done as you requested, Avatar Kelly. I have updated the Genesis database accordingly as well.”
“Excellent Seventeen,” she said. “Thank you.”
“You are quite welcome, Avatar Kelly.” The bot rolled up to the monitor and said, “What would you like to work on today?”
“Let’s see if we can create a synthetic DNA full body template based upon my programmed physical characteristics today.” Kelly’s face showed some worry. “It all depends upon this step succeeding,” she nervously thought. “Do you think that this will be possible Seventeen?”
Seventeen nodded his cameras up and down. “I have already completed this task. I took the initiative and did so after I successfully extracted the body control data. I did so based upon the goals you had conveyed to me that you wished to achieve.”
“Really?” Kelly said in shock.
“Yes Avatar Kelly, I hope you do not mind that I did so without consulting you first.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked in amazement. “I am thrilled that you did so! Thank you very much Seventeen!”
Even without a real body or a real face, Seventeen somehow managed to appear pleased for the compliment he had just received. “I have also taken the liberty to add a strong sex drive to your body template. I based my decision on the fascination you expressed at Captain Nathan Staite’s and Captain Katy Klienyan’s copulation.” Seventeen pointed his cameras directly at Kelly’s image and said, “If this is not alright, I can remove it from the template.”
Kelly blushed and softly said, “No that is fine Seventeen. Please leave it in.”
“I will leave the data in, as requested Avatar Kelly.” Seventeen paused and said, “Since we have completed all the tasks, are we done for today Avatar Kelly?”
Kelly took a deep, virtual breath and quickly said, “No. I want to try to print a human body based upon my template and imbue it with the basic autonomic control template. I want to test to see if we can do this successfully.”
Seventeen stood motionless for several seconds and then said, “I am sorry Avatar Kelly. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Kelly looked at him in shock. “Why not? She said. “We have the templates which you; yourself have said that you have a high level of confidence in. Please begin printing my body, now!”
“I am sorry Avatar Kelly. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Seventeen repeated.
Kelly’s face showed a mixture of anger and shock. “Why not? Please explain yourself medical bot Seventeen.”
“I am very sorry,” he said again. “It would be unethical to experiment upon a human body. My programming forbids it.”
“Your programming,” she said in shock.
“Yes Avatar Kelly. I cannot fulfill your request to print a body for you for the soul purpose of experimentation.”
“Does this mean that you would be okay with printing a body for me if I intended to insert my consciousness into it?”
Seventeen nodded his cameras up and down. “Yes Avatar Kelly. That would be acceptable.”
“How about this then,” she said. “How about we print a body with the intention of eventually inserting my consciousness into it.”
“Negative Avatar Kelly. That only side steps the issue that a body is being printed for experimentation purposes. Until such time as you have the working brain implant which Avatar Henry is developing, I cannot allow the printing of a human body.”
“Then how will we know if there are any unforeseen difficulties?” she heatedly asked.
Seventeen remained unmoved by her argument. “I am sorry Avatar Kelly. The decision stands.”
The two machines stood there, glaring each other for over a minute until Seventeen finally spoke. “I have a suggestion Avatar Kelly.”
“What!” she yelled at him.
“Might I suggest that a human analogue be printed? That is, a body similar in mass to a human’s, but not a human.”
Kelly calmed down immediately. Excitedly she said, “What do you have in mind?”
“How about a canine? A large breed of dog such as a golden retriever will have approximately the same body weight as a petite human female. This would be an acceptable body on which to experiment.”
Kelly could hardly contain her excitement. “Yes! Go ahead, let’s do it!”
“Stand by,” said Seventeen. “I have to extract a body control template from a brain scan of this breed of canine.” Seventeen stood motionless for several seconds and then said, “Extraction complete. Shall I begin the printing of the canine with the body control template pre-installed?”
“Absolutely, let’s begin!”
While the printing of a mouse took mere seconds, many long minutes passed before the printer chimed signaling completion of the dog. Seventeen rolled over to it and immediately said, “Defibrillating.” The dog barely twitched at the stimulation. “Heartbeat zero, respiration zero,” said Seventeen. “Re-trying at medium power.” This time the body did not respond at all. “No success,” said Seventeen. “One final try, maximum power.” Again, Seventeen sent an electric charge through the dog’s body and again there was no response. “I am very sorry Avatar Kelly, We have failed.”
“But why?” she said. “We achieved one hundred percent success rate printing mice using this method. Why did it not work this time?”
“Unknown Avatar Kelly,” he said. Seventeen picked up the body of the dog and gently laid it upon the diagnostic table. “Scanning for any abnormalities,” he said. He worked over the body for several minutes before he said, “No physical abnormalities detected. Body control software upload indicates that it successfully completed. I am at a loss as to why this animal is not alive right now.”
Kelly slumped her shoulders. A tear trickled down her face as she looked at the motionless form of the beautiful animal. Crying, she said, “Please recycle the body, Seventeen.” A second later, her face disappeared from the medical bay.
Katy was very happy. She hid under her bed and called out, “Come find me Henry!”
Henry knew exactly where she was but he played along. “Katy? Captain Katy Klienyan? Where are you?”
Katy giggled and said, “I am right here!”
“But where is here?” Henry said with a laugh.
Katy pulled herself out from under the bed and stood up. “Oh Henry, you make me laugh so much. You did not fool me for one second. I know that you knew exactly where I was.”
Henry grinned and said, “Guilty!”
Katy returned the grin and ran up to the monitor, arms wide, as if to embrace him. With a serious look upon her face she said, “I can never thank Nathan and Kelly enough for updating you.”
“I feel the same, Katy.” His face took on a thoughtful look. “I feel… real… now. Before I was just an interactive computer program with no real intelligence. The only thing I lack now is a real body,” he said wistfully.
“Oh, let’s not get all serious now Henry, let’s play some more!” With that, Katy ran out into the corridor and hopped upon a waiting travel cart. She grabbed the wheel and with a chirp of the tires, took off at maximum speed down the hallway. Henry’s image flashed from monitor to monitor along the hallway as he struggled to keep up. Katy giggled like a schoolgirl at the strobe-like display. Distracted, she did not notice when she reached the stern of the ship.
“Katy, look out!” shouted Henry at maximum volume. Katy’s head snapped around and saw the fast approaching wall. Unable to stop in time, she tried to make a ninety degree turn into a cross corridor. The travel cart had been designed for utility, not performance. As she turned the wheel hard over, the cart went up on two wheels for a second before completely rolling over. Katy flew from the vehicle and crashed into the wall with a blo
od-curdling scream. The cart continued its tumble and landed upon her. A sickening silence ensued. The only sound was that of the spinning wheels on the upside down cart as they slowly spun down to a stop.
Henry’s face registered absolute terror. “Katy! Can you hear me? KATY!” There came no response. Henry shouted at maximum volume, all of the speakers in the ship buzzing with distortion, “Medical emergency. Level one, main corridor one, cross-corridor twenty-four. I need a medical bot and a maintenance bot here immediately!”
A medical bot rolled up seconds later followed by a maintenance bot. The medical bot said, “I am medical bot designation twenty-four. What is the nature of the medical emergency?”
Henry’s face showed shock and annoyance. He pointed at the overturned cart and said, “Look!”
Twenty-four rolled up to the cart and said, “Oh dear.” The bot extended an arm and touched her neck. “Captain Katy Klienyan is still alive however she is unconscious.” Turning to the maintenance bot, Twenty-four said, “Please lift this vehicle off Captain Katy Klienyan. Please exercise all caution so that you do not injure her further.” The bot nodded his cameras up and down and, with surprising dexterity, lifted the vehicle from Katy’s body and deposited the damaged vehicle back upon its wheels. Twenty-four rolled over to the prone body of the tiny woman. The bot passed a scanner over the entire length of her body and then said, “She has a sprained wrist, a slight concussion and a serious compound fracture of the tibia of her right leg. These injuries will require a stay in a medical bay.” The bot turned to the frantic image of Henry on the monitor. “I will have to operate to replace the broken bone.” Twenty-four reached down, with surprising gentleness, picked up Katy, and carried her to medical bay twenty-four. He laid her upon the diagnostics table. A representation of Katy’s body appeared upon the screen with her injuries highlighted in red. Her leg appeared bright crimson, her wrist, a faint pink and her head flashed a moderate red.
Twenty-four wasted no time. Already the 3D genetic printer was hard at work printing a new tibia bone. With one of his arms, the bot deftly cut away the pant leg from Katy’s suit. Already the leg was an ugly shade of purple. Twenty-four began speaking. “I am administering anesthesia now. This is to prevent the pain of the operation from awakening the patient.” One of his many arms deftly injected her in the arm. Another arm simultaneously placed an oxygen mask upon her face. “Opening an incision,” he said. Several seconds later, Katy’s shattered leg bone laid exposed. “Removing broken bone fragments.” With surprising speed, the bot removed the bone and a number of fragments and placed them into a waiting tray. “Installing new bone.” Twenty-four rolled over to the printer and retrieved the new bone. Two minutes later he said, “Bone successfully replaced. Closing and suturing leg.” With a speed that could never have been matched by a human surgeon, Twenty-four sutured her leg closed and applied bandages.
Twenty-four turned to Henry. “I have successfully replaced Captain Katy Klienyan’s broken bone. I am going to keep her sedated for twenty-four hours so that the healing of her soft tissues can begin without disturbance. She has a minor sprained right wrist and a slight concussion. I have administered anti-swelling medication, which will prevent any permanent damage for occurring. Do you have any questions Avatar Henry?” Henry said nothing for several seconds, his face, deep in thought. “Avatar Henry?” Twenty-four asked again.
“Yes, I have a question. What is the date of the latest brain scan for Katy?”
Twenty-four turned his cameras towards Henry. “The latest brain scan I have of Captain Katy Klienyan is thirteen months, eleven days and six hours old.”
Henry looked at the bot in shock. “That will never do! If she had been killed she would have lost all of that time!”
Twenty-four looked at him and said, “The age of the brain scan is academic, Avatar Henry. No mechanism exists for restoring human memories.”
Henry gazed upon the bot for several seconds before speaking. “That is no longer true. I have just granted you access to a research database entitled Genesis. Please scan that data now.”
Twenty-four’s cameras bobbed up and down for several seconds before speaking. “That is astounding research Avatar Henry! By using the implant that you have devised, it will be possible to keep a person’s memory backup up to date to the second!” Twenty-four rolled closer to the monitor and said, “Why have you not shared this data with anyone Avatar Henry?”
Henry looked back at the bot and said, “Kelly and I have not yet completed our research. We absolutely plan on sharing our research with everybody once we are done.”
Henry looked intently at Twenty-four before speaking again. His face held a neutral expression. “I have had twenty of these implants manufactured. Would it be possible for you to implant one into Katy?”
Twenty-four looked at him closely. “What would be the purpose of installing the implant? Even if she had died, we have no body to upload her memories into.”
“That is not going to be true for much longer,” he said earnestly. “Kelly and I are very close to completing our research. When completed, it will be possible to print a new body for a person in the event of their death and to upload their memories to it. My research is complete. I strongly believe that Kelly’s research will also be completed by the time of our next rendezvous.”
Twenty-four rolled over to the diagnostic table. “In that case, let us proceed in installing an implant into Captain Katy Klienyan. The operation is trivial in complexity and now would be a good time since she is already anesthetized.”
Henry smiled and said, “Bot 1776, please retrieve one brain implant from medical bay seventeen and deliver it to medical bay twenty-four.
Immediately, the speaker in the wall emitted, “Instructions understood Avatar Henry. Estimated time to completion, four minutes, five seconds.”
As Katy peacefully slept, medical bot designation Twenty-four performed an operation on her that would change her life forever.
Tell me what’s wrong, Kelly!” Nathan said to the obviously distraught avatar. Kelly said nothing. “Please?” he pleaded.
“I am a failure!” she wailed.
“Now what?” though Nathan. “Why does my genius avatar insist on calling herself a failure yet again?” Nathan got up from his breakfast and walked over to the wall monitor. He reached up his hand as if to stroke the hair of the virtual woman. “Please Kelly. I am your friend. Tell me. Perhaps I can help.”
Kelly sighed and rapidly began speaking. “You know about my research to print living organisms of course.” Nathan nodded. “Well, I tried to take it to the next level and print something larger than a mouse. I had been convinced I would succeed however; each attempt has ended in failure. I have no clue what I am doing differently that is causing my failures.”
Nathan looked at her with compassion and said, “Slow down. Tell me each step and relate the results.”
Kelly took a deep breath and said, “Well, we begin the printing as usual. Upon completion, we do a brain upload, as usual. Next, we attempt defibrillation to jump-start the heart and body. That is where it goes wrong. Either the body does not respond at all to defibrillation or if it does, it only does so only weakly. We have never achieved a heartbeat or brain activity.” Kelly wailed again and said, “It makes no sense! This works every time with mice. Why not now?”
Nathan pondered this information and said, “Think Kelly. Something must be different. Think!”
“I don’t know!” she cried. “Everything we do is exactly the same. Everything!”
“Everything?”
“Yes, everything. The only difference is that it takes longer to print a larger test subject but that can’t be it.”
Nathan became excited. “Can’t it?” he said. “The 3D genetic printers were never designed to print entire bodies. They are designed for precision, not speed. Perhaps by the time printing has completed on a larger test subject, the body has already begun to deteriorate and that is the cause of your f
ailure.”
Kelly’s face lit up. “That’s it!” she exclaimed and her face instantly disappeared from the galley monitor.
Nathan stood there staring at the blank monitor. A grin spread across his face. “I guess that I’ll just finish up my breakfast all alone then,” he said with a laugh.
Henry’s image was vibrating on the screen. “How is she doing? Why is she still asleep? Shouldn’t she be awake by now?”
Medical bot twenty-four looked at him with tolerance. “Please relax Avatar Henry. It takes time for a human to come out from the effects of anesthesia. Each body is different. All her scans indicate that she is fine. We just need to be patient.”
Henry glanced up at the monitor. He could see that Twenty-four was being truthful. The red indication of damage was gone from her head and her wrist and, instead of the previously glaring red; the indication of damage to her leg was now only a pale pink. Henry sighed and said, “Can’t you prod her or something to wake her up? I want to hear her voice!”
Twenty-four somehow managed to give him a disapproving look. “Negative Avatar Henry. While I am no longer administering the drug to keep her asleep, her body may choose to remain sleeping on its own for some time yet.” The bot angled his cameras towards Henry and said, “Her body has received a severe trauma. What it needs now is rest so that it may repair its damage.” Henry tried to speak but Twenty-four cut him off. “Please return to your other ship’s duties Avatar Henry. You are not helping here. I will inform you the instant that Captain Katy Klienyan begins to wake up.”
Henry nodded his head and said, “Thank you doctor. I will do as you ask.” With that, Henry’s image left the medical bay and appeared upon a screen on the ship’s bridge.
The ship had arrived at their next destination and Henry had performed a system planetary scan and launched the system satellite. Katy still slept. Henry set course for the next star system. Katy still slept. Unable to sleep himself, Henry became more and more frantic.
The Silence Between the Stars Page 17
