I noticed when we entered the cabin of Sir
Terrance’s Cirrus T-80 there were two robots by the bar. They were stowing a variety of food and
alcoholic beverages in the storage compartments. One was setting up a bowl of fruit on
the bar counter. I was surprised
that the com link to the two robots were encrypted. Usually, communication links to service
robots are not encrypted. It’s not
like anyone can order your robot to go rob a bank, but in today’s world robots
need to coordinate actions between themselves, other Internet controlled
machines and their local environment.
I was still able to inform these droids that my master preferred Jack
Daniels as his drink of choice. I
noticed immediately one of the robots putting a quart of Jack Daniels out on the
counter.
The Cirrus T-80 made its ascent within
fifteen minutes of our boarding.
The auto-pilot had given the usual request for taking a seat and buckling
our seatbelts. Frank chose a seat
close to the bar and on seeing the Jack Daniels spoke up for a pre-flight
drink. The closest robot filled a
large glass with what looked like a good half pint size portion and handed it to
Frank. Frank took a good sip and
gave the robot a nice smile. In
looking out of the window I could see the snowy ground leaving us behind as we
climbed at a sharp 22 degree angle.
When I looked at Frank I was surprised to see he had fallen asleep. I was surprised at this, but then human
metabolism can be unpredictable.
I’ve seen Frank stay up for over 54 hours without sleep and at other
times after only a fourteen hour day spend the next fourteen hours in bed. My estimate was that Frank would be able
to enjoy a nice thirty minute nap during the flight.
While we were jetting towards London I did
what any good JAIC would do. I
surveyed the world news stories to see if there were anything Frank might find
interesting. I reviewed the data I
had recorded at Sir Terrance’s laboratory and made an outline of the most
interesting facts in preparation of Frank’s writing an article on Lutts’s new
discovery. This included looking up
as much information I could find about his sister who killed herself due to
depression. I knew Frank would want
to get everything ready so the Wall Street Journal would scoop all the other
news outlets on both timeliness and detail.
Being a robot I naturally
depend on GPS, GLONASS, Beidou-2, and Galileo satellite signals on knowing where
I was on Earth. It was
approximately twenty-four minutes into the flight that I noticed we were not
descending down towards either the Maidstone or London area. Instead the plane was making a very
gradual northerly turn as we approached the English coast. I queried my robotic hosts and received
no answer. Not sensing any threat I
decided to just monitor the situation.
After all, perhaps there was another surprise by Sir Terrance or
rerouting by ground control to account for the change in
course.
When the jet reached a steady course
towards the North Sea I decided to wake up Frank. We were still within United Kingdom
ground control, but once we reached 300 miles north of the tip of Scotland we
were on our own. At the rate the
T-80 was going we would pass the 300 mile mark in about 21
minutes.
“Frank, wake up,” I said while gently
rubbing his shoulder. He did not
respond. I tried again and still no
response. He was dead to the
world. I picked up the drink and
pointed my laser finger and vaporized enough to take a sniff from the same
finger the laser is in. As an
investigative robot for journalism I was outfitted with an array of
sensors. I easily saw that the
drink was tainted with some drug from the opiate family. There were over two hundred
natural and man-made opiates that could be used. If I had the Internet available I would
have been able to identify it, but the onboard wireless network was
encrypted. I had noticed that when
we entered the plane, but that happened in a lot of places Frank and I went
to. Based on the strength and the
estimated dosage Frank had drunk I figured he was out for at least another two
hours. All that was left was for me
to wait. I wasn’t a physicianbot
that carried an array of medicines in their service bay and so could I couldn’t
give Frank a stimulant to speed up his return. Try as we might, we JAICs could not be
all things to all people. Be that
as it may, I realized this was not a good situation. People are normally not drugged without
their knowledge. I could only
assume Sir Terrance did not like Frank anymore. I tried to think of what could have
upset him. Perhaps he had found out
the Princess and Frank were having coitus together? I knew infidelity was a big deal to
humans. They often became jealous
of DNA sharing.
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