Bots Scene 8

 

Mary started weeping and Laura went over to her and put her arm around her shoulder. Ben got up and went to the office, returning a minute later with a bottle of Brandy. He poured about four fingers into a coffee cup and handed it to Mary.

“Drink it, Mary. I can’t have you falling apart on me now. Think of how Jamie must feel. He’s the one this is happening to. We’re only bystanders.”

Mary drank the Brandy in one long swallow and stopped crying. She appeared slightly green from chugging a coffee cup full of Brandy, but looked okay otherwise. Ben sat down at his console again while Laura stood behind Mary. No one moved for an hour as they watched Jamie shrink on the table.

Finally Laura broke the silence, “How old do you think he is now, Ben?”

“He’s about three and half, perhaps four years old,” Ben said softly.

Jamie looked up at Mary with a nervous expression on his face and said, “Would you hold me?”

As Mary got up from the lab chair next to the exam table and bent over him, Ben’s assistant quickly rolled over a desk chair she been sitting in.

“Here, Mrs. Farr, you can sit in this. There’ll be more room for the two of you. I’ll get another from the office.”

Mary picked Jamie up and sat down in the chair with her husband in her lap. She looked at the lab assistant thankfully and said, “Poor dear, he wants to be close to me. If it’s okay with the two of you, I’ll hold him until it’s over.”

The two scientists nodded and watched as she tenderly cuddled the diminutive form of her husband. Ben completed his calculations on his computer terminal and motioned for his assistant to come over to him. He whispered into her ear for a moment, then took out his wallet and gave her two twenty dollar bills.

“My assistant will be back in a few minutes. I’ m sending her out for some special supplies.”

Mary nodded absently, she didn’t care what they did, as long as she could be close to her beloved husband Jamie. Ben rolled his chair next to hers and said, “Mary, the nanobots will complete their program in approximately sixty minutes. Jamie will survive. I think I can shut down the nanobots once they’ve finished executing their program. I’ve configured the job list to loop until recognized. I’ve given them the order to flush from his system and terminate. They’ll exit his body through his large intestine and pass out of his body with his stools. Don’t worry, once they’ve terminated, they’re harmless. The code causes the control structure of the nanobot to break down into a meaningless silicon structure.”

They waited and watched Jamie as the minutes and years of his life dribbled away. Ben’s assistant returned with a bag from Wal-Mart which she put under the table. Ben looked at his watch and said, “…..three minutes until completion.” He turned back to the monitor and watched, then counted down the remaining seconds, “Four, three, two, one. Job completed. Flushing commencing……… Termination mode activated…… All units shut down. Mary, it’s over. Jamie will live.”

Mary wasn’t listening, she was looking down at Jamie and repeating, “My poor, poor baby! What have you done to yourself?”

Jamie mewled and started to pee. “Oh Jamie,” she said, “what are you doing? Stop that!”

Ben’s lab assistant reached under the table and opened the bag. She took out a small, folded, white object and presented it to Mary, saying, “Mrs. Farr, I think you should put Jamie in this.”

Mary looked at her distractedly and said, “Put Jamie in what?”

“A diaper, Mrs. Farr. I think you should put Jamie in diapers,” said Laura, unfolding the object to reveal what it was; a disposable baby diaper.

“A what?,” asked Mary in confusion.