Chapter 18: 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.