I looked to Tiger’s team, faces shocked with sadness.
“You know what you should do,” I said to Ada.
“Thank you.” Ada picked up the near-lifeless shell of Tiger and said, “Thank you for saving me, Tiger.”
“What’s your condition?” 10 asked into the comms mic.
“I am 44 percent operational, with 23 percent battery life,” Ada replied.
By this time, Ukko had dived out of the last challenge and rolled clear. Ukko then stood up, looked back at Ada carrying Tiger, then turned to the finish line. I knew that Ada couldn’t catch up now. Ukko raised both arms in triumph and started to jog, looking to the crowd for acknowledgment, which only came from Dalk’s team and Jax.
Suddenly, a two-meter bar sprung up and swung toward Ukko. The competition designers had created a final test of dexterity. The bar caught Ukko on the left shoulder, forcing the robot onto the ground. Ukko was pinned and Dalk’s team panicked.
The whole room seemed alive with tension, anticipation, and energy.
Ukko struggled on the ground. Ozone and Sharks With Lasers had finally made it to the fourth obstacle and perhaps saw their chance for a high-place finish. They both started through the metal meat grinder.
Ada, still carrying Tiger, jumped and rolled through the final section of the grinder. Cradling Tiger, Ada stood up and checked the ground for more surprises. Edging forward, Ada saw and heard Ukko struggling to push the bar off. Seeing Ada approaching, Ukko tried another big effort but failed.
“Get this off me. Now,” Ukko said. “Please.”
“It’s up to you, Ada,” I said through the comms piece.
The whole hall was quiet, but for the whirl of the contraptions and the occasional clunk of Ozone and Sharks With Lasers. Ada walked up to Ukko, stopped, and looked down at the struggling machine. “You don’t deserve it. But I will help you,” Ada said.
“Thank you, thank you, Ada,” Ukko said.
“After I take Tiger across the line. Tiger definitely deserves it,” Ada said, looking up and walking on.
“No. Now. Help me now,” Ukko yelled.
The tension wrenched me in all directions. 10 and Li stood next to me, clearly struggling with the enormity of the situation. Slowly sinking in was the fact that Ada was about to win.
“If Ada carries Tiger across the line it might technically be a tie. It doesn’t matter, though. First or second, we will win,” 10 said.
I wanted to talk. Wanted just to know what to say. Nothing came out. I couldn’t feel the pain in my leg and hands, but I could feel the hearts and engines of every person and robot in the hall. It filled me and it emptied me. I needed to cry but not yet.
“Let’s finish this, Ada,” I said.
Ada kept stepping forward. Slowly. Damaged. Hurt. The finish line just five meters away.
I looked at Dalk. His eyes burned like fury, his lips in a twisted grin, he held a tablet in one hand and jabbed down on it with his finger.
“Oh no,” I said, my body instantly responding and launching into a run. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.
Ada took another step toward the finish. Three meters away. A new voice filled the room. It was robotic, dark, and echoed off the walls like madness.
“Enemy located. Multiple units,” said the voice. It came from Ukko, but it sounded completely different. “Engage.”
From each of Ukko’s shoulders emerged two devices. On the left, a silver cube with a red dot on one side. On the right, a black cylinder. Both devices pivoted and pointed at the bar holding the robot down. The air crackled with energy as a blast emerged from the left device. The bar buckled and Ukko stood and faced Ada. The two devices spun and aimed directly at Ada and Tiger.
My eyes saw but couldn’t comprehend. I ran as fast as I could, even though I knew I wouldn’t make it in time. The air crackled again, and I felt like I’d just blown out my last match on a pitch-black night.
T-Minus Zero
At the sound of the first crackling and hiss, Ada had turned around and saw the bar melted and buckled.
Ada’s systems and my brain tried to process the situation at the speed of light. The noises. The actions. The scenarios. What had happened. What could happen.
I was running, fear driving me, but no hope in my heart. It was happening too fast. I saw people running from the gym, I heard their screams.
I was twenty-five meters away.
The weapons on Ukko’s shoulders spun back toward the grinder. The one on the left crackled and spat a red beam of laser. Ozone dove left and rolled behind the grinder’s wall. The laser beam hit Sharks With Lasers full on the chest and the robot was flung backward into the grinder. A spinning disc and column severed the robot in two and crushed its head. Sparks flew high into the air.
The weapon on Ukko’s right shoulder glowed blue, made a sound like a huge bass drum, and shot a white circle of light. An instant later, it thumped into Ozone’s leg, which immediately went still. The paralysis spread up through the robot and it slumped down, face-first, quiet.
I was twenty meters away.
In the few seconds it took Ukko to take out the robots, I saw Ada do three things. Ada put Tiger on the floor. Ada sent a distress signal via all communication channels. Ada dove behind the pool.
Ukko strode forward toward the finish line, aimed at the pool, and fired a red laser beam. The pool wall shattered, spraying glass in all directions. The water held the pool’s form for a nanosecond, collapsed and gushed out in waves across the floor.
I was ten meters away.
Ada was moving before the first drop of water hit the ground, running for the big ball from obstacle three. Ukko marched toward the finish line, weapons spinning toward Ada, and fired a white ball of light. Ada ran, knowing if the white light connected it would all be over. The ball of light caught the very edge of the silver ball and bounced harmlessly away.
“You must stop Ada,” Dalk yelled into his comms piece.
Unbelievable. He’s still thinking about winning the competition. Coming second will still mean Ada won on points.
Ukko stopped, turned, and walked toward Ada. Ada charged straight into the first section of the grinder. Ukko got to the end of the grinder, which was still partly blocked by the pieces of Sharks With Lasers.
Ada took cover behind a column, but it slid back away, forcing a quick move to a wide bar coming down from the roof. Ukko shot a laser beam and it hit the bar, sending a spray of sparks dancing off in all directions. The bar sagged and the whole grinder stopped. No other columns or discs appeared. Ada was completely open.
The air crackled with energy again as Ukko prepared to shoot. At the last second, I made it to Ukko and put my hand over the laser. It fired and I screamed. I fell forward onto Ukko, and we lost balance and fell toward the mouth of the grinder. I pushed with my legs and scrambled free.
Ukko sat up and I saw the laser point directly at me, less than a meter away. The air crackled with energy.
Ada landed on Ukko with desperate force. The two robots intertwined as the laser beam shot, bounced, smoldered. A shrill sound of metal shearing and echoing off the walls of the now mostly empty gym.
10 and Li had arrived, pulling me back away from the battle.
“No, leave me, I have to help,” I pleaded.
“AZ, your hand, your hand,” Li said.
I looked down and saw my hand was a mangled mess.
“AZ, we have to get you out of here,” 10 said, dragging me further away as I tried to scramble forward. The audience had already frantically begun to run for the exits.
I watched as Ada and Ukko wrestled at the end of the grinder, just two meters away. Ukko’s legs kicked up and down to try and get Ada off. Instead, they connected with Sharks With Lasers’s body, knocking it free of the column and disc it had wedged
still. Released, the disc shot to life, spinning and cutting a swath of metal and sparks across the two robots, burning the air and slowing the melee. The column then came out from the wall, collecting Ukko’s head and slamming it into the opposite wall, missing Ada by inches.
Someone had finally turned off the grinder and the hall grew horribly quiet, sirens wailing in the distance. Ada’s full team had been blocked by the crowd from getting to the hall floor, but now made it through and ran toward them.
Most of Dalk’s team had run out the door, but Dalk stood watching with a pained expression of disbelief on his face. Jax stood in the grandstands, shuffled down the stairs, and started walking to the door when Mrs. D’Silva blocked his way.
“Ada. Ada. Ada!” I yelled, as 10 and Li tried to get me to safety. “It’s over, let me go, let me go.”
10 and Li, seeing Ukko unmoving, let go of me and we all rushed to Ada. Our robot friend was lying at the edge of the grinder, among the crushed, fried electrics of both Ukko and Sharks With Lasers. When they were almost there, the lights on Ada’s head lit up again.
“Don’t touch me. Not yet. Please,” Ada said, as we approached. “I want to finish this. I can do it. I am 18 percent operative, with 9 percent battery life. Please.”
If anyone in the team touched the robot, they would be disqualified. My face contorted in confusion and pain as I looked at Ada and stepped back. 10 and Li stepped with me.
“I love you, Ada,” I said, through tears.
“I love you, too,” Ada replied.
Ada, legs severed by the disc, used both arms to pull clear of the tangled mess. Moving very slowly, Ada pulled toward the finish. The rest of the team arrived and formed a line on either side of the path.
“Technically, this is crazy, but you can do it,” 10 said, clapping.
“You’re in space, no friction, no gravity. Just flow,” Li said, arms swinging around as if the extra brush of air pushed Ada.
“I am 16 percent operative, with 3 percent battery life,” Ada said, less than a meter from the end.
Completely focused on Ada, I hadn’t noticed that right next to the finish line lay Tiger’s badly damaged body. Still active but barely.
“Ada, I want you to win this. You’ll get a perfect score. Please,” Tiger said, voice distorted by the frayed electronics.
“No, Tiger, you were going to win. You came back and saved me. You deserve it. I don’t want a perfect score,” Ada said.
Tiger, with a push from Ada and using every last ounce of energy and will, inched over the line and dropped to the floor.
Ada, still dragging with crushed arms, gave a last big pull and crossed the line. “I am 14 percent operative, with 0 percent battery life. Thank you team, we did it,” Ada said, one arm buckling and crashing to the floor.
I rushed to Ada and hugged our broken robot.
“AZ, you need to get to the hospital now. You’re really hurt,” 10 said, hand on my shoulder. “We’ll look after Ada.”
I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.
Li leaned down. “AZ, Ada needs you to look after yourself now.”
I nodded and pulled back from Ada’s still body.
The room was suddenly full of police and paramedics. I saw Mrs. D’Silva half-blocking, half-wrestling Jax. When he saw the police, Jax stood still and surrendered.
Two paramedics arrived with a stretcher for me. They lifted me up and started pushing me quickly to the door.
“Ada!” I yelled. “Ada!”
I watched the scene slide away as I was rolled backward. The chaos. My team. Our robot.
T-Plus One
Three months later
Back in our lab, I held the screwdriver in my hand, tried to turn it clockwise, and dropped it. That was my fourth time.
“This is going to take a while to get used to,” 10 said, hovering annoyingly over my shoulder. “Technically, you have to learn the basics again.”
Sighing with frustration, I held my new mechanical hand up to my eyes for about the thousandth time since it was attached a month ago. Ukko’s laser had destroyed much of my muscles, tendons, and ligaments but left enough of my nerves. Lucia had called on a friend who was a world leader in robotic prosthesis and she was excited to work on me.
Definition: Prosthesis—An artificial device to replace or augment a missing or impaired part of the body.
I bent and straightened my new fingers. In many ways they were better than my old ones, but right now I felt like a one-year-old; clumsy and awkward.
I picked up the screwdriver and tightened the screw.
“I like it,” Li said, sitting on a table nearby. “Now you can really have empathy for robots. You basically are one. A bit.”
I walked, with my permanent limp, over to Li and we shared a big hug. “Thanks. I didn’t really have a choice, but yeah, I kinda like it, too.”
“Is everyone ready?” I yelled.
The whole team was here, including Lucia, Dasan, Mrs. D’Silva, Mr. Jabari, and Matias, who was out of the hospital and fitting in wonderfully.
There was a tone-clashed chorus of “Yes!”
After three weeks in the hospital, I had gone home and then straight to the lab to be with my friends. The crazy events on the last day of the competition had shocked everyone. We had started working through it together, knowing it would take time. Our bond had grown to a whole new level.
Dalk and Jax were arrested, but were released the same day thanks to a dozen lawyers. They blamed the house explosion on a gas leak and Ukko’s actions on hackers. Dalk had my phone hacked so the security beacon had never been sent, and Jax had initiated a military mode in Ukko. Jax’s media team spread hundreds of alternative stories about the day and a few weeks later the incident was largely forgotten.
I would not forget it.
Some deep, covert research uncovered that Jax Enterprises had been building robotic weapons for a number of armies around the world. I wrestled with the conflict that one robot could be made to kill, and another, like Ada, made to love.
What would Jax do next?
Despite Dalk’s protests and Jax’s threats to sue, Ukko was disqualified from the competition for violent behavior, not that it mattered. Tiger won the last challenge, Ada came second, and won the competition overall. Our team was happy when we were given the trophy but, with Ada in pieces, it didn’t feel complete. Now it would.
“Go for it, 10,” I said, kneeling down gently, watching, my robotic hand on my human heart.
I looked at the new Ada. Toes, legs, body, hands, arms, and head. Fear and excitement churned through me. They’d used as much of the old Ada as they could, plus a few new ideas. It felt like I was about to meet an old friend for the first time.
“Ok, here we go,” 10 said, hitting a few keys on her keyboard.
Silence. Nothing happened.
A single LED blinked on Ada’s head and our robot friend hummed to life.
“AZ,” Ada said.
“Ada,” I said, my vision blurring. “Welcome back. How do you feel?”
“I am 100 percent operative, with 100 percent battery life. How are you? You have a new hand. You are like me,” Ada said.
“Yes, more than you know,” I replied.
I wiped my eyes and felt my muscles get tense. I knew I was older now. Even more than just the days I had counted. All of me. My body, my mind, and my heart.
I thought back to how scared I was before all of this started. Scared just to try—in case I failed. Now, part of me is petrified about what I am capable of, and what I need to do next.
When I finished explaining my plan, I looked around the room to see faces of excitement and determination.
“Now let’s get to work.”
The Motherboard Puzzle Components
Acknowledgements
Thanks so much for r
eading this book. I hope you enjoyed it. If it inspired you even a little to dive into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, then you’ve made me very happy.
If you have any questions, ideas for the sequel, stories to share, or if you solved the motherboard puzzle on page 50 (yes, it is solvable), please contact me at [email protected]. If you are looking for more inspiration, I have interviewed more than fifty women who work in STEM from around the world. Real-life inspirations: www.medium.com/shes-building-a-robot.
A big thanks to my kids for being my supporters and inspiration. Sam was the first to read it and Lucy and Grace were pivotal in my promotion. Also a huge thanks to my wife Karen for supporting me all the way through this crazy adventure. She backed me writing it in the first place, helped on the promotion campaign, and read it multiple times with wonderful feedback.
So why did I do all this? Well, one of my favorite things to do is read with my kids—I have two daughters and a son. I quickly felt that most of the main characters were male, especially the tough, strong, adventurous, brave and curious ones. I wasn’t happy.
Then one day at a robotics panel at the SxSW (South by Southwest) conference, I ended up speaking to five women roboticists. I told them about my daughters and asked them how I could give them a good opportunity to get excited about technology when so many books seemed aimed at boys. They told me that the teenage years were really hard for them, as they had to fight against social pressure from friends, family and school systems to keep pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (known as STEM).
I was struck by these inspiring role models and thought there should be more. I’ve always loved writing but had never written much more than blog posts, marketing material, and a workbook with my colleagues called Startup Focus. I wrote down some notes, which became an idea.
What if there was a strong female character who was into technology? Kind of like Hermione but, instead of magic, she uses tech, and instead of being in a supporting role, she’s the champion. I was thinking a Hermione, combined with MacGuyver, combined with Grace Hopper. At the time, my kids and I were loving Robot Wars. So I took the inspiration from the roboticists and decided to build the story around a robot building competition.
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