Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes

by Leif Sterling

  Skylar joined him. “This big one for fifty million is marked for this morning. Whoa, look at who it’s for, and on the same day your dad was sentenced!” She tapped the wall to highlight a cell on the spreadsheet.

  Roland looked at the highlighted cell. “To Hennessy.”

  Skylar nodded and pointed to the cell next to Hennessy’s name. “The memo cell says it’s for ‘scholarships for law students.’ Both of these could very well be shell organizations to funnel funds into private, offshore accounts.”

  Roland went back to looking at the other spreadsheet entries. “Ok, those two money transfers match the arrest of my father and his sentencing today. Whatever they are covering up must be big. That’s why they needed my dad to take all the blame and any suspicion away from Pinnacle. I bet, if whatever they are covering up came to light, they would lose a lot of business.”

  Skylar went back to the spreadsheet too. “Yep. But they would stand to lose a lot more than just their consumer business. They are pretty much the sole supplier of robotics and tech for the North American Union government. They would lose trillions of dollars in government and defense contracts if it came back on them.”

  Roland turned towards Skylar. “Sky, I think Pinnacle bought themselves a judge.”

  Skylar went back to typing on her holographic keyboard. “Roland, I bet this isn’t the first time either. Just a sec.” Several new emails and reports came up.

  Roland went over to look at them. “What are these?”

  Skylar swiped her hand and the terminal disappeared. “I widened the search time frame from just Mr.Davenport’s trial to similar trials in the last ten years back to 2104. Looks like I was right too.” She pulled up the city newspaper article from two years ago in 2112. “Look at the headlines - Man sentenced to life in prison. He was a Pinnacle employee who was caught selling android blueprints to the Arabs.” She pulled up another undisclosed financial statement and pointed at the cell.

  Roland nodded. “Look at that one, it’s also for twenty-five million.”

  Skylar pulled up three more. “Over the last ten years, here are four different cases of Pinnacle employees either going to jail for life or getting the death sentence.” She pulled up Pinnacle’s internal emails and spreadsheets that corresponded with each verdict’s timeframe. “And each one has a large deposit being made in a judge’s account.”

  Roland looked between the headlines, the spreadsheets and the undisclosed emails from Pinnacle’s Special Projects Division. “Looks like each time some employee is being sentenced, a judge is getting a truckload of money. But all four of these are for less than fifty million.”

  Skylar nodded. “You’re right, but none of those trials were as fast as your dad’s, and none of them got a one year sentence ending in incineration.”

  Roland went back to the headlines. “And all those older ones were labeled as corporate espionage or embezzlement. Looks like Pinnacle escalated this time and got my dad on treason.”

  Skylar stepped back to look at all the documents together. “So, they paid the higher fee and got a faster and more extreme sentence.” Skylar swiped her hand through the air next to a section of recent stories about Mr.Davenport’s trial. She read off the headlines as she scrolled through them. “Pinnacle says employee acted alone, Pinnacle found blameless in terrorism trial and Pinnacle's business is always above board.”

  Roland crossed his arms. “Yeah, right.” Roland began pacing. “If they are buying verdicts, then could it be that Pinnacle is also actually the one selling android tech to the terrorists?”

  Skylar sat down on top of the desk. “Then they made your dad the fall guy, just like those other guys?”

  Roland stopped pacing for a moment and threw his hands up in the air. “It makes sense. When you have the kind of money and power that Pinnacle has, you can buy whatever you want. Judge, jury and verdict are all just line items on their expense report.”

  Skylar crossed her arms. “If it is Pinnacle, what can we possibly do about it?”

  “I’d have to get close enough to them to find the evidence and then expose them.”

  Skylar hopped off the desk and walked over to Roland. “If they caught you looking into it, then they would come after you, like they came after your father. Any ideas how to do it?”

  “In order for me to even get close, they would have to not suspect me in any way. They definitely cannot connect me to my dad, but, hopefully, with different last names and no records connecting us, maybe I can find a way.” Roland looked at the video feeds. One had an advertisement for Pinnacle. “Wait, look at that advertisement.” Roland pointed. “Hobbes, full screen that feed with the Pinnacle ad and unmute.”

  The whole wall came alive with Pinnacle's advertisement for their bi-annual Tech Games. The announcer’s voice boomed into the data room. “This year’s Tech Games will be even bigger than ever before! Watch as digital humans are pitted against hybrid humans battling it out in speed races, hand to hand combat and mind games! The grand prize has been doubled for this season’s Tech Games to one hundred million dollars! During the event, all contestants will stay at our luxury Tech Games mansion on Pinnacle’s private property and tour Pinnacle's headquarters to see the latest tech.”

  Roland watched the advertisement for another few seconds. He pointed at the ad. “What about this? Could this be it? Maybe that’s how I could get close to Pinnacle. I wonder if I could be a contestant in the Tech Games? While I’m at their headquarters, maybe I could snoop around in between the games to find the evidence I would need.”

  Skylar shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. You don’t qualify to be in the games. “You’ve either got to be a digital, you know, a human with digital DNA, or a hybrid, which is a human with an android implant, like a robotic arm, or you would need a nanotech enhancement. ”

  “Well, could you make me into one of those, Sky?”

  “Digital DNA is out, because you have to be genetically modified at conception. And I don’t think you’d like becoming a hybrid, because you would have to cut off one of your arms or legs. Maybe, and I mean a big maybe, there’s a small chance with the nanotech.”

  “How small?”

  “Look, nanotech is a very unpredictable science. In the twenty-five year history of the games, there have only ever been five contestants that have tried it. All five of them died. Nobody’s tried it in the last twenty years. The games are dangerous enough even without untested tech.”

  “I’ve got to try it. This would be the perfect cover.”

  “But…”

  “Sky, I’ve got to at least try it. Let’s find out what it would take to submit me as a contestant.”

  CHAPTER SIX:

  NANO

  “SKY, I KNOW you said the chance of me getting the nanotech to work was very slim, but I think I might have an idea that might give us a leg up.”

  “Good. Let’s hear it, because right now we got nothing.”

  “Ok, so about a month ago, my dad and I were talking about a new project he was working on, a nanotech project.”

  “You mean, at Pinnacle, he was working on a nanotechnology project?”

  “No, no, this was his own personal project.” Roland pointed his fingers towards the floor. “He was working on it here, at home.”

  “Are you sure? Because if it was for Pinnacle, they’d have all the rights to it, and we’d never be able to use it.”

  “Yeah, that’s one of the things he was making a big deal about. He was saying that he had done all the research during his off time, and he had never even brought it up at work, because he didn’t want them to be able to take any of it away from him.”

  Skylar jumped up and walked over next to Roland. “Well, let’s see it!”

  “Ok, let’s look through Hobbes’ files.” Roland swiped his hand through the air to clear the screen on the wall. “Hobbes, show all the projects that my dad has been working on over the last year.”

  The wall changed to show a lis
t of projects. Then they blurred out and a password warning came up. “I have the list, sir, but you’ll need to put in a password to open them.”

  Skylar squinted at the blurred wall, trying to see some of the file names. “Well, what’s the password, Roland? Let’s start going through these.”

  “Dad encrypted it with a DNA lock. It was coded through his blood.”

  There was a whirring noise coming from the desk. Then a panel on the top of the desk raised up and slid to the side. “I’m ready to accept your password now, sir.”

  Roland walked over to the desk. “He coded my DNA into the system too.” He put his right thumb on the top of the glass.

  Skylar bent down to look at the panel. “Mr.Davenport was never one for sparing expenses. I’ve only ever read about DNA level encryption.”

  There was an audible click sound. Roland winced and held up his thumb. A single bead of blood had formed. “Not when it comes to security anyway.”

  “Thank you, sir. I am running your DNA against the encryption.”

  A hologram of a DNA helix appeared in the middle of the room. It began to spin faster and faster. Small sections of the helix were breaking off and flying towards the main wall. On the main wall, they were fitting together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It only took about ten seconds to work through the entire helix. The jigsaw puzzle was in a rectangular shape. It flashed green, and then the encryption lock was removed.

  “Mr.Davenport’s files have been successfully unlocked, sir.”

  All of Matthew’s files and folders came into focus.

  Skylar was excited. She began moving through the folders. “This stuff is amazing!” She scanned through each one briefly and then would swipe her hand through the air to go to the next one.

  Roland plopped down onto the small leather sofa that was near the wall. “C’mon dad, get me into the games!”

  Skylar stopped flipping through the folders and just began reading one of them. “Roland, this is it!” She filled the wall with the project summary document. “This is exactly what we need. Tiny nanobots that are made from hydrogen and oxygen molecules.”

  “What? So, it’s nanotech made from water?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess you could think of it like that. Think of it more like super-charged water with great capabilities and limitless potential.”

  “Well, will it help us with the Tech Games?”

  Skylar ignored him for a moment while she scrolled through the document. “Yes, I think it will. Basically, the molecules are charged up in a lab, and their electrons are synchronized. That’s the key here. The electron orbits must be exactly the same in order for us to be able to control them.”

  “And how does that help us?”

  “Still reading, hold on.” Skylar scrolled down a few more paragraphs. “Yeah, this is good. It looks like once the sync has happened, then the nanobots should be able to strengthen muscles, increase energy, maximize oxygen levels, reduce recovery times, control temperature levels and who knows what else? So, yeah, in theory, you could be faster and stronger.”

  “But Sky, is it enough to be competitive?”

  “Not sure yet. Still reading. Go find out the times of other Tech Games contestants, so we have an idea what we are looking at.”

  Roland stepped over to the side screen and began checking out past contestants.

  Skylar continued reading and looking at holographic lab experiments.

  “Ok, so the race is a double marathon, making it 52.4 miles. The fastest time is about three hours. The slowest time that still qualified was seven hours.”

  Skylar looked over at him. “Seven hours? Regular humans have been running double marathons in five hours since 2014. Why would it take a human with speed tech two hours longer?”

  Roland pulled up a holographic map of the course from one of the past games. He let out a low whistle while he watched as the track was highlighted through the map. “It looks like the course is extremely rough: mountains, rivers, sand and ice.”

  “I see.” Skylar went back to her reading. “Roland, your dad’s tech would actually put you in a completely new category.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, there’s the digitals, the hybrids and the nanotechs, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, all other nanotech was made with some kind of silicon or carbon material. What your dad has created here would be completely organic, just oxygen and hydrogen.”

  “I remember him saying something about it being organic nanotech.”

  “Roland, this is a big deal. This has never been done before. No wonder your dad wanted to keep this a secret from Pinnacle. This could be worth billions of dollars, if it were sold.”

  “He didn’t want to sell it. He wanted to make it freely available to everyone, like an open source license or something.”

  “Open source nanotech? That is definitely revolutionary. Something like this could make Pinnacle's business nearly obsolete.”

  “Good. All the more reason to do this.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN:

  PROCEDURE

  SKYLAR WAS QUIET as she read through Matthew’s notes. Suddenly, she clamped her hand over mouth and let out a groan.

  “What is it, Sky?”

  “Roland, I don’t think this is going to work.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just read over the installation procedure, and I don’t think it’s something we could do.”

  “Sky, you know I don’t care what it takes.”

  “Well, you haven’t seen this!” She swiped her hand through a few pages. Then she launched a hologram recording. “This is a simulation to show how the nanotech must be installed. Hobbes, walk us through it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The hologram showed a human head. “Organic Nanobot installation. Prerequisites. The subject must not undergo any kind of anesthesia for this procedure. The anesthesia will interfere with the nanobots being properly placed and will have an adverse effect on both the nanobots and the subject’s body.”

  “Roland…”

  Roland crossed his arms as he watched the hologram. “Shh, let me watch.”

  The hologram zoomed into a closeup of the human eyeball. “Step one, the eyeball must be secured so that it does not move during the procedure.” The hologram showed a robotic arm as two small flat mechanized pieces slid underneath the upper and lower eyelids. Then they pulled the eyeball slightly towards the arm.

  Roland grimaced.

  “Step two, after the eyeball has been secured, a delivery needle must be readied for insertion to the retina.” The hologram displayed a second robotic arm with a syringe attached at the end of it. It slowly moved towards the center of the eyeball. “With the eyeball pulled taut, the delivery needle must be inserted all the way through the eyeball to the optic nerve.”

  Skylar bit her bottom lip and squinted at the grisly hologram.

  “Step three, during the delivery, the patient must remain absolutely still or risk permanent damage to his sight. Once the needle is touching the optic nerve, the delivery process may begin. The syringe must deliver at a slow pace in order to not overwhelm the optic nerve. Delivery rate should not exceed one hundred milligrams per minute.” In the hologram, the plunger on the syringe slowly pushed out the nanotech delivery solution.

  “Sky, how many milligrams would I need?”

  Skylar looked through the notes. “Says the dose is done by subject weight at one hundred milligrams per fifty pounds of body weight. So, if you are about two hundred pounds, you would need four hundred milligrams.”

  “So, I would have to sit perfectly still for four minutes while this thing squeezed nanobots into my optic nerve?”

  Skylar nodded.

  “Step four, the delivery needle must be retracted.” The needle pulled out of the hologram’s eyeball. Step five, the nanobots will need to be jumpstarted and the subject’s heart must be sync’d with the electronic signature of the nanobots.” The hologram
showed the subject laying on his back and being shocked with a device.

  Roland pointed at the defibrillator. “What’s that?”

  “That’s a defibrillator, sir. They were commonly used until around 2030 when they were replaced by medical robotic surge devices that allowed for a greater regulation of voltage.”

  “Roland, you have to get jumpstarted after you have had a needle in your eye! Those defibrillators are old tech. They haven’t been used in eighty years. I’m not going to let you do this. We will find another way. ”

  “Sky, we both know there’s not another way. All the other nanotech options are way worse.”

  Skylar sighed and looked down at the floor. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I’m not going to. I trust my dad’s tech. If he chose to power it with eighty year old tech, I’m sure he had a good reason. Find an optics lab that can do the procedure.”

  “Ok, I’ll see if I can find one that won’t ask too many questions.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT:

  UNDOCUMENTED

  SKYLAR PUT DOWN her headset and shook her head at Roland. “They won’t do it either.”

  “Well, that’s ten Optics labs or surgical centers that you’ve called.”

  “They won’t let us in for an undocumented procedure.” Skylar leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms.

  “Maybe we are looking in the wrong place, Sky.”

  “What do you mean? These are all places that do optics work.”

  “Yeah, but they do documented optics work. Maybe we need to be looking for a place that doesn’t care about whether or not it is a documented procedure.” Roland swiped his hand in front of him. A hologram of a keyboard appeared beneath his fingers. He began typing in the air. “Ok, here’s a place: Ivan’s Optics: Repairs and Implants.”

  “Ivan’s? Roland, be serious. We are talking about your sight here.” Skylar came over and stood next to Roland to get a better look at the results on the wall. “Their site doesn’t even say they do surgeries or procedures.”