119

This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters.

Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.

Important Characters introduced in previous stories:

Atom: You know, Tetsuwan Atomu, Astro Boy, or just Astro.

Ken'ichi Yamamoto: Atom's foster father.

Sachiko Yamamoto: Atom's foster mother and wife of Ken'ichi Yamamoto.

Dr. Albert Tenamann: Atom's father and creator.

Adam Tenamann: Son of Dr. Tenamann.

Simon Green: The director of the museum complex research facility.

Robert Levinson: Head of the computer lab in the research facility.

Isaac or I.S.A.A.C.: A computer program daemon that serves as an intelligent AI interface for all of the computers in the museum complex. Isaac was created by Robert Levinson, though he's modified his own programming and spread himself world wide across the Internet.

Cora Smith: Atom's girl friend at school.

Poindexter Drake: Scoundrel nerd who used to work with Dr. Tenamann at Area 51.

This story starts immediately following the end of "Dragon Rider". This is not really a Sequel to Dragon Rider, as it will stand on its own. However if the reader would like to know the events leading up to the opening scene, having read the earlier story first would be a good idea.

Japanese Science and Technology Ministry, Takodanobaba

Atom lay on the operating table. He was already partly disassembled, his head was sitting on a separate worktable in a sealed plastic bag. Dr. Tenamann was preparing the rest of him for the modifications and upgrades that he was about to receive. Sachiko Yamamoto took one look at him lying there, and walked out in horror.

"I'd better go calm my wife down, she's not going to understand what's going on," Ken'ichi Yamamoto said.

Sachiko had known about Atom's true nature for about a week and a half now. She was mad at Ken'ichi for not telling her at sooner, but that had passed. However, until just now when she had seen him in pieces in the laboratory, the reality hadn't really sunk in.

"He's not in any pain, dear. Just think of him having an operation in a hospital. He'll be alright in a few hours," Ken'ichi told his wife.

"I guess I shouldn't have walked into the operating room, cause I'm a bit queasy about the sight of blood," she said.

Ken'ichi didn't correct her about Atom's "surgery", he knew what she meant.

Atom's arms and legs, were placed one by one into a machine that Dr. Tenamann had designed to mold and shape the special alloy that he was made from. A high power laser combined with a high powered microwave beam, softened the metal while another laser and a narrow pencil of sonic waves shaped it. Additional material was added by an injector containing more of the special metal alloy heated to liquid consistency. Atom's new parts were being 3D printed in place. His arms and legs were made a bit longer and bulkier, his torso was similarly enlarged with broader shoulders.

Dr. Tenamann then installed some new components inside his body cavity, and started to reattach Atom's limbs. The last part of Atom to be reconnected was his head, which had not required any upgrades. Finally Albert opened Atom's chest panel. He removed the He3 fusion reactor that had already been shut down, and replaced it by the smaller, but more powerful, zero point vacuum module. Atom was then connected to the laboratory computer system and a full diagnostic program was started. It was Isaac that oversaw this part of the operation.

"Atom will be resting for a few hours while Isaac double checks all of his systems," Albert said.

Ken'ichi stood by Atom's side. He looked so peaceful lying there. He breathed slowly and softly, just enough to give the idea that he was alive.

Cora Smith and her family were sitting just outside the laboratory with Sachiko Yamamoto. Cora's curiosity had got the better of her and she quietly opened the door to the lab and crept in on cat's feet. Ken'ichi and Albert had walked away from the operating table where Atom lay completely naked, without even his signature metallic black briefs, or red boots. His chest panel was open a crack, and a network cable was connected from his insides, to the computer where Isaac was running the diagnostic tests on his systems. Cora's eyes scanned his newly modified body from his neck to his feet. Atom no longer looked like a fragile, lightweight 12 year old. He now had more than a hint of musculature on his beautifully sculptured framework. His shoulders were broader, like a football player wearing pads. His arms now looked as powerful, as they in fact were. She quickly scanned down to his legs to notice the same transformation as had been done to his arms. She was embarrassed by what else she had seen that was new on him, but was also excited by it at the same time. While the two adults were talking, she quietly made her exit, hoping she hadn't been noticed.

Ken'ichi took Albert aside and said, "We need to talk about something else."

"Sure, old friend. What's up?"

"It's Sachiko. Ever since we took Atom in as our foster child, she has wanted a daughter. I've been wondering..."

"Let me show you something," Albert said. "Follow me."

They left the laboratory they were in via a rear exit, and walked into the other side of the building. Here there was another laboratory that was run by a different group.

"With Japan's aging population, the country is soon going to face a problem of not enough people to care for the elderly." Albert began. "One idea was to build an army of robotic helpers. They would, of course, have to be as humanoid as possible to interact with people not used to machines taking care of them. I was asked for some design help in this area. I thought that having a child sized robot helping the most elderly might work out best. I started with Atom's design, though without Atom's super high powered, super strength servos. I've limited this prototype to maybe a tenth of Atom's power. It also occurred to me that a female child would be more acceptable, girls are generally more mature than boys at a young age, and more willing to render care for their elders. Here, take a look."

Albert walked up to a workbench covered with a sheet. He pulled the sheet off to reveal the robotic body of a child somewhat smaller than Atom had been at 'birth'. The android was clothed in a pink dress with white lace.

"It's a prototype, and once the AI programming is complete and she's activated, I wanted to let her loose in a controlled environment. I think I can get permission to allow you to take her with you to New York under controlled circumstances. Having Atom nearby should clinch it. I wonder how he will react to suddenly being a big brother?"

Ken'ichi picked up a clipboard that had been lying on top of the android. It was a full specification sheet with project details and various cross references to other projects. At the very top was the designation 'prototype, project #92'.

Ken'ichi laughed. "It seems the good Doctor's spirit is still haunting you Albert. In a good way however."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean?" Albert asked. "Whom are you referring to?"

"Why Tezuka, of course. Have you forgotten your chemistry, old friend?"

It actually took Albert a few minutes to figure it out. "Element number 92. Yes that is ironic."

He looked down at the quiet face of the android child. "Well, I guess it's official young lady. Your name will be Uran, short for Uranium.

Cheyenne Mountain Bunker

Area-51 isn't the only area where top secret military laboratories are hidden away. The Cheyenne Mountain bunker once housed NORAD's doomsday facilities during the years of the cold war. It is still in use, but its purpose has been expanded. The Air Force won't comment on certain speculations, calling them science fiction, but they won't deny the existence of a laboratory deep under the mountain, and claim it's for 'shielding from cosmic neutrinos'.

After Atom had been constructed, and Dr. Tenamann had retired to Japan, the plans and blueprints that led up to his design were transferred to General Hayes's department, and were stored in the Cheyenne complex. A duplicate of Tenamann's laboratory, complete with the equipment necessary to cast, mold, and machine the exotic metal that Atom was build from, had been constructed deep under the mountain. The General was certain that he had all of the technical data from Tenamann's work, and all he needed would be to find a genius to pick up the pieces where Albert had left off.

Poindexter Drake had been in the right spot at the right time. His dossier had been discovered in the files at Area 51, with certain black marks missing from his personal data. On the surface Drake looked like the correct nerd for the job, and Hayes offered him the position. Poindexter's ego needed feeding, and being given the chance to one up Tenamann by stealing his greatest work wasn't something to be passed up.

Building a copy of Atom wasn't much of a problem. Drake scaled up the plans somewhat to produce the desired soldier prototype. He had to compromise though, and at five feet two inches tall, his android would still be easy to assemble, yet being larger than a youth would fit into the role of the android serviceman. The robot wouldn't have all of Atom's systems, in fact Albert hadn't included any of Atom's secret weapons into the blueprints. But the prototype, now given the designation of #27 (for the laboratory section where it was being built), would have servos with many times the strength of human muscles, as well as super vision and hearing.

The real problem was the AI programming. Drake hacked into the computer systems at the museum complex, and found the source files containing Albert and Robert's Neural network operating system for the quantum processors used in Atom's brain. Unfortunately for Drake, what he had actually hacked into was a honeypot system that Isaac and Bob had set up, and not the actual mainframe. What he had downloaded was real working code, but it was very early, and very buggy software. Drake also thought he had managed to download the data files for Atom's mind image. This was what Albert and Dr. Burakku had downloaded from Adam's brain while he lay in a near coma state. What Drake actually got a hold of was the highly modified image of Albert's mind, that had been part of the 'Max Headroom' demo program. It wasn't fully sentient, but could function in a decision making mode, fooling many AI experts into thinking that it was a self aware AI.

Drake prepared to bring #27 on line. He still had a bit more work to do getting the AI processor running, and had to debug and test the IO processors before the android body could be tested. However, General Hayes was quite happy with the progress Drake had been making. Loosing Atom might have been a blessing in disguise. The exploits of the boy robot would divert attention from the military version he was now building.

#27 was laying down on the operating table, on its back. The robot looked similar to Atom's original appearance, but was about a foot taller. His hair line was similar, but with two spikes sticking almost straight up, rather than diagonally at the 11 and 4 o'clock positions like Atom's. His eyes were a deep blue in color, rather than brown like on the original model. Like Atom, he was dressed in a pair of metallic black briefs and calf high boots, however his boots were a sky blue in color, not red. The robots chest panel was open, and Poindexter carefully inserted a canister of He3 fuel into its fusion reactor power plant. He connected a pair of heavy electrical cables to two terminals inside the robot's body and prepared to power it up for the very first time.

Author's note: The title "119" is the sum of 27+92. So it refers to the two robots being build at opposite ends of the globe at the same time. These numbers also refer to the atomic number of two elements, whose names have specific meaning in the context of this story.