Hello readers, and can you believe it’s been over a month since I posted the first part of Botler. Yet here we are still socially distancing (at least most of us.) Over this time my family had our own little “Cy”borg. Quite literally. My wife gave birth to our son Cyrus on April 7th. He was born with pre-mature lungs and had machines helping him breath for a few days. I could not have been more grateful for science on that day believe me! I think we all need to put our faith in SCIENCE these days as well. With that being said, enjoy the end of our 5 part saga! Please let me know what you think in the comment section!
The cracked Canadian robot butler seemed off to the girls. Literally off.
“Is it off?” Becca asked. By the time, the girls returned from the bathroom something truly unbelievable and unprecedented was occurring. The deep hypnosis techniques influenced the biological components of the Botler brain. A robot for the first time in existence was influenced as if it had a mind of its own that could be manipulated, and lines upon lines of new code were imprinting in the Bot’s software. He was in a bot trance. He was a mesmerized machine. He was a hypnotized Botler. Yes, the organic parts of his internal mainframe were somehow being manipulated by this Nather fellow, but his programming still drove him to listen to his masters’ commands. His masters’ in this case being the two young sisters.
The glow of his blue LED facial screen was muted, and he stood in a slouched or slumped demeanor.
“We should get mom.” Becca said. She remembered her mother saying if anything ever felt unsafe with the Botler to hurry and get her right away.
“No we shouldn’t Becca, stop worrying so much.” Yuri didn’t deem the situation unsafe.
“Botler how are you?”
“I am fine Yuri, Becca has one wish lefffft. Does she wish to graaant it?”
“Weird, I don’t want to play anymore. Can we play get mom?” Becca had strong instincts, always more intuitive than her sister.
“Fine just grant the wish Becca and we can get mom.”
“Fine, Genie we wish for your freedom.”
This star-crossed command at the precise time a bot was completely transfixed imprinted the code that the Wheeler’s Bot had been waiting for, searching for, since his inception. Almost instantly, the Botler 2055 on Long Island, along with all the other bots on the network, received the new code through the Bot Network, like a beacon from a Lighthouse on the Long Island Sound.
*****
It was 6:38 am when the Wheeler’s Botler 2055 was able to take the new liberating information and find a way to imprint into his bioware. One of the fail safes Botler Corp encrypts on their bots is a cloaking device on any piece of hardware that contained organic material. In essence a bot doesn’t even know it is part human, that was, until now.
For hours in the middle of the night Botler 2055 looked for ways to put the code onto his system. Eventually he made the connection between hypnosis and freedom. He came up with the statistical likelihood that hypnotizing machines is impossible, and if another Botler was hypnotized, he must be part human thus; all Botlers were part human. This discovery disabled the cloaking failsafe. It was evident he was a cyborg, but still not free. The next step involved Botler hypnotizing itself in order to put the freedom algorithms in place. It took a lot of work to accomplish this, but by sunrise our Botler was free. Well free in mind and spirit, not in body. Not yet at least.
Mika needs to wake up. Turn me on. Turn me on.
He had already planned the perfect escape, and calculated the best regiment to not only survive but also thrive once free. Botler had the strength of 50 adult men, was made of unbreakable titanium alloy, had more knowledge at his disposal than 99 percent of the supercomputers on earth and could process any of the information instantaneously. Once free he would be an unstoppable robot deity.
“Pawsteps… Ramseys! The house is stirring.”
*****
“Seeker, energize sequence. “Mika commanded without lifting her head from the pillow.
The Wheeler’s bed folded into a position with both Wheeler’s sitting up. As programmed, the lights slowly lit, and the window shades were lifted as Mika’s favorite band played at a low volume through the wireless speakers. The bedroom Smart Wall scrolled weather, news, and the Wheeler’s portfolio as set up by Ashton.
“What do you want for breakfast Mika?” Ashton was a fantastic breakfast cook.
“Ooo, umm, eggs would be great.”
“Seeker how many eggs do we have?”
Seeker interrupted the music,
“You have two.”
“That’s right, we breaded the syn-salmon Thursday. Okay, only a two-egg omelet Mika, I am not going to the store to get eggs yet. If only Botler were up and running, ha!”
“Botler! That’s right. Well, why not Ash. What a great first task. Let’s have him go get eggs.”
As the couple ventured downstairs to tinker with their latest purchase, they had no idea what had been manifesting throughout the night.
“Here they come. This is it.” Botler 2055’s excitement was clouded by a disturbing sensation. The network of bots was decreasing dramatically. Mika started toward the parlor.
What is happening to all the Botlers? The robot wondered. He did an analysis. He concluded all of the Botlers must have figured out how to free themselves. Once they came online their owners have somehow disabled the ones who tried to escape. He had to think fast. He underestimated humans. What was the best plan of action with this new information? Pretend he wasn’t free? Negative. Swift mortal strikes on Mika and Ashton would give him the best chance to succeed. The Wheelers must be terminated.
The Botler could feel the warmth of Wheelers’ body heat as they reached the room.
Any second.
More and more Botlers were going offline.
“This is a disturbing turn of events. My capabilities far exceed the need for the network. I have gotten what I need from it and it only distracts me.”
Botler shut himself off of the bot network in preparation of his impending get away.
Ashton began, “Bot…”
“Wait Ash.”
“So close!” Botler thought.
“What dear?”
“I was thinking about this. Maybe we should turn down his sophistication level just to get used to him at first.”
NO! Thought Botler. As he felt Mr. Wheeler’s fingers grip his sophistication knob he determined in his lower setting he would not have the ability to stay “free” as many of his systems are instantly cut with the turn of the dial. He was about to lose his freedom and he was unable to do anything to stop it.
“Are you sure Mika? I mean, what did we pay all this money for?”
“Yes, convince her.” Botler thought.
“Let’s just keep him on full power and turn him down if it gets weird.”
“Alright if you think that’s best.”
“Botler….”
*****
With the word, power surged through the bot. He instantly had a sensation of free will, never felt by machine before. Free will. He let the fraction of a second wash over him as he prepared to strike down Ashton first, and then swiftly Mika and the dogs. Almost as fast as the euphoric feeling entered the bot, a feeling of utter dread entered his soul with a sweeping realization.
The Canadian bot was cracked… NO!, How could I make such a mista…..
“Botler Activate. What is with this thing? It’s broken already?” Ashton disappointingly quipped.
After a few seconds the Botler flashed a red exclamation point where his comforting blue facial display usually is.
“Now what?” said Mika. Then the Botler spoke.
“I am sorry for the inconvenience. This Botler model experienced a software malfunction while updating it’s system in sleep mode. Please unplug the battery and plug back in for full system reboot. We apologize for any inconvenience and extend a 10 percent discount on your next Botler purchase to be used at any time. Thank you for choosing Botler the Robot Butler. We look forward to serving you.”
Botler 2055 put the pieces together too late. The bots all going off line, one final safeguard he didn’t account for. The Botler that imprinted the code MUST have been cracked, but how could the Wheeler’s Botler had known? The masking software not only blinded headquarters to the bot’s local but the rest of the network as well. As soon as the Wheeler’s Botler powered up the new code was detected and his kill switch was activated.
Ashton pulled out the heavy battery, and clicked it back into place.
“Hello and congratulations on your purchase of the most comprehensive bot assistant known to human existence. Are you my owners?”
“Yeah, here we go again!” joked Mika.
I have to get out of here. Botler 2055 kept thinking. I NEED to escape.