35 The Phoenix

35 The Phoenix Josephine and Rockwell followed the two RAZERs as they carried 72 into the lift. Josephine pressed the button marked B and they started to move smoothly down into the basement. Once the doors reopened, she led them along the corridor and into a large room packed with complicated-looking machinery and instrumentation. Right in the centre was a rectangular table, above which were several multi-bulbed light fittings. 'Is this the workshop?' asked Rockwell. ' Yes,' replied Josephine. ' Well, I suppose it's more like a cross between an operating theatre and a mechanic's garage. We call it "the surgery".'

She turned to the RAZERs holding 72. ' 326, 405, please put 72 on the table,' she said, politely. The robots did as they were told, green eyes shining brightly. Once free of their cargo, they moved smoothly back to the edge of the room. And that's when it happened: their green eyes suddenly turned red. This immediately made Rockwell nervous. ' Er, did you see that, Josephine?' he asked, anxiously. 'The RAZERs' eyes have gone red. Why did that happen?' 'Hmmm, I'm not sure. Something could be affecting the signal down here. Maybe they're offline.' The red-eyed robots then turned in unison and swiftly headed out of the surgery and back towards the lift.

'Er, they don't look very offline to me,' said Rockwell. 'Where have they gone?' Maybe 67 has summoned them back to the ceremony, replied Josephine. She leaned over 72, seemingly unbothered by this turn of events. 'Don't worry about it, Rockwell. We have more important things to deal with right now. Right then, 72. Let's have a look at you, my friend,' she said, flicking a switch to turn on the array of lights above them. She leaned further over, pushing and prodding various parts of the robot's inanimate housing. ' Hmmm, I'd guess that the primary effect of the waterlogging was the resultant malfunction of the control algorithm. That would have made it impossible to detect trajectory deviations which would mean

which would mean the torque applications computed for the actuators would be incorrect!' said Rockwell. Josephine stopped what she was doing, looked up at him and grinned. ' Rockwell, I'm impressed!' 'Thanks,' he replied, beaming. 'I'm glad that somebody appreciates me.' Rockwell's face suddenly dimmed as he remembered what had happened earlier. 'Listen,' said Josephine gently. 'I don't mean to pry, but I couldn't help overhearing you and Peanut arguing in the control room last night. Is everything OK?' Oh, er, well— not really, no,' he said, sadly. ' Sometimes it just feels like she doesn't take anything I say seriously. Also, I get the impression that I want to be her friend much more than she wants to be mine. Ah, I see,' said Josephine. 'Well, don't forget that Peanut has had a very difficult time over the last year or two. Trauma affects people in different ways, and I'm sure she will have said some things that she might regret. ' Yeah, maybe.' 'Whatever happens, don't underestimate her desire for your friendship. Yes, her family is finally back together now, but I'm sure she still needs you as much as she ever did.' 'I don't know,' said Rockwell. 'I think I'm only useful to her when she has a problem. And even then, I can't always help her.'

'Rockwell, listen to me.' Josephine looked him directly in the eye, 'True friends can't always make problems disappear, but true friends certainly don't disappear when there are problems. I'm not sure we have a true friendship,' said Rockwell. 'I think ours is... broken.' 'Well, in that case, remember what I said earlier. When something is broken, you should at least try to fix it.' Rockwell nodded. He knew she was right. 'Right,' said Josephine, 'let's get to work. Grab a pair of safety goggles, fire up the soldering iron and pass me that screwdriver. I'll start by cracking open the cyclo drive and giving it a once-over. Maybe you can take a hair dryer to the CPU and the servos while I do that?' 'Er, yes. Happy to,' said Rockwell. Half an hour later, Josephine and Rockwell lifted 72 into an upright position and carefully set them down onto the floor. 'The moment of truth,' said Josephine, quietly. 'If we've done this properly, the inductive sensors should now be working, which means the oscillator circuit should be fully functional. 'I can't see why it wouldn't be,' said Rockwell. 'I've run the calculations and, if I'm using the Jacobian matrix correctly, the algorithms should be perfect.

'Let's see, shall we,' said Josephine. She reached behind the RAZER and pressed a button on their lower right side. A small motor immediately started to rev. A good sign. Then a single harmonic tone played, which reminded Rockwell of the sound a laptop makes when it's starting up. Ten seconds later, 72's entire eye panel blazed bright green, then flashed in a series of random patterns before settling back down to the usual red two-eye set-up. Rockwell and Josephine looked at each other and smiled. Then the robot spoke. ' Greetings. I am RAZER number 72. Second-generation Rigorous Attitude Zero Empathy Robot. Designed and engineered by Josephine Engelberger. Property of White Industries, Chroma. How may I assist you today?'