23. Chapter 23
Ms. Wakeman was examining the blueprints Sheldon gave her. She was surprised when she found a few notes scribbled at the bottom left hand corner of the last page.
"I see. You were trying to design what I could never quite figure out how to design myself," Ms. Wakeman said.
"Design what?" Sheldon asked.
"You discovered that it was theoretically possible to design it to scan for dark matter, but I see you failed just as miserably as I did," Ms. Wakeman explained as she started working on the device.
"Oh yeah, I actually forgot about that. I gave up on that a while ago. I didn't know you tried the same thing," Sheldon said.
"Yes I did. I spent three months trying and I kept running into the same wall. I'm sure you know which one I mean," Ms. Wakeman said.
"How could I not know? That was one of the most frustrating projects I ever worked on," Sheldon said.
"Same here. To be honest, I'm surprised that you're this smart at your age. You could probably design your own robot girl if you wanted instead of going after XJ9," Ms. Wakeman said.
"Even so, I'll probably never do that. I could make one that looks exactly like Jenny in every way, and give her the same personality, but I could never make a good enough replacement for the original," Sheldon said.
"Look, I'm flattered that you took interest in my daughter, but she isn't interested in you. She probably never will be. I'm convinced that you are wasting your time. In any case, why are you so interested in a robot anyway?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"She made me feel that life was worth living again," Sheldon said.
"What? Hold on, you did say you were ready to kill yourself a few years ago, didn't you? Why?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"I was just as fixated on popularity and fitting in as Jenny was, but I never stood a chance of succeeding. So basically, I was in Jenny's shoes at the time, ready to kill myself for the same reason. When I saw her for the first time, she was trying just as hard as I was to fit in. She seemed like she had a much better chance of succeeding than I ever had. For a while, she was actually making progress. I thought that she would accomplish what I could not, and for some strange reason, I was attracted to her because of that. I decided to stay at least long enough to see if she could pull it off. Also, I felt like I had a better chance of getting her to like me since we were both so similar. That didn't really work out though," Sheldon explained.
"Well, that explains it. Now I finally know why. Would I be right in saying that you also thought that if you couldn't get a human girl, you would try to get just about any girl you could?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"You guessed right," Sheldon replied.
"I personally never cared much about associating with anyone when I was growing up. I was too busy solving mathematical equations college professors couldn't even solve, designing robots, and anything else besides trying to socialize with my peers. There were a few times I tried, but it never worked for me either. It hurt my feelings quite badly, but I never let it get to me to the point where I would consider committing suicide. I figured if I couldn't find happiness through other people, I'd find it through using my mind. But, to tell you the truth, I never really did find happiness. I never experienced any real joy until I created XJ9. For once, I finally felt what it was like to have a daughter. If it wasn't for her stubbornness, I would've never allowed her to come in contact with other humans if I didn't need to. When she started having regular contact, she would come home everyday telling me about her adventures. Through her experiences, I also made contact with the outside world, even if it wasn't literal. I isolated myself for so long, that I'd completely forgotten the value of learning how to develop one's own humanity through others. I tried to make her as human as possible with artificial intelligence technology, but she became more human than I could ever make her from her experiences with other people. When I finally realized that that was the secret the whole time, I was quite embarrassed to know how foolish I was the whole time. Despite that, I was also relieved that she finally reached that level of humanity. That's when she finally seemed more like a daughter instead of another tool for global defense. I had finally experienced real joy for the first time. Even the other XJs are becoming more human the more contact they have with other humans. I considered the first eight to be failed experiments, but I realize now that I was the failure," Ms. Wakeman explained.
XJs one through eight were speechless. They never thought they would hear that from their mother.
"Thank you mom, I needed that," XJ6 said.
One by one, the other XJs thanked her as they were able to.
"You are all welcome. I may have failed you before, but I will do everything I can to make it up to you. For now though, we have to try to bring XJ9 home. I can make it up to you then," Ms. Wakeman said as she handed Sheldon the finished device.
"Wow, that fast? I'm impressed. I might be able to build most of the things you can, but you are so much faster," Sheldon said as he re-installed the device into Silver Shell's chest cavity.
He climbed into Silver Shell's cockpit and closed the outer chassis.
A few moments later, Sheldon finally said "Yes, it works great. I found her signal already. Thank you Ms. Wakeman, now we can find her. Do you want the XJs to come with me ma'am?"
"That's the first time I actually heard Silver Shell's voice. It sounds like one of those corny Boy Scout super heroes. But yes, it would be best if they went with you," Ms. Wakeman said.
Before Sheldon had a chance to retort, the power in the house went out. It was pitch black. No one could see anything.
"What the hell, why did all the power just go out?" Jenny asked surprised as she watched the entire town she was flying over become completely dark.
After a moment, Jenny said "I can't see anything."
She then transformed one of her eyes into a really bright flash light and continued flying in the direction that she was a few moments ago.
"_What do I care anyway? They can fix this problem on their own. They'll need to start learning how to do things without me_," She thought to herself.
As soon as Ms. Wakeman activated her house's private generator, her cell phone rang.
She accepted the call and said "I'm sorry, but this is a really bad time."
"I know it is. It's a bad time for everyone Noreen," a man's voice sounded from the phone's speaker.
"Wait, I remember you, you're the manager from the power plant. Mr. Frank Filman, am I correct? What the hell did you manage to screw up this time?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"Yes, it's been a long time. I know we've had our differences in the past, but we can't worry about that right now. Tremorton isn't the only city that lost its power. Every city and town on Earth has lost its power," Mr. Filman explained.
"What?" Everyone in the room asked in unison.
"How is that possible?" Ms. Wakeman asked nervously.
"I am the one to blame for this. I should've called you sooner. A powerful computer virus was inputted into every power plant and almost every public communication service's computer systems around the world. We didn't know that it was a virus at first, and we thought it was only our computer system at first as well. I thought we could handle it ourselves without contacting you," Mr. Filman explained.
"Yes, I see your bitterness towards me is what lead to this problem. You must be using a private signal to contact me. I bet it took you a while to set it up," Ms. Wakeman said.
"Yes, but do you realize how bad this situation actually is?" Mr. Filman asked.
"What do you mean?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"Without light, power, or communication, people will start rioting in the streets. It'll be complete chaos. Powerful forces are at work right now, and who knows what else they're probably planning. Oh, wow, isn't that just great. The turbines just blew up. That means they planted bombs as well. Now we can't restore the power at all. I bet you these explosions are going off all over the world right now," Mr. Filman said.
"The results will be catastrophic, but there's not much I can do to help. XJ9 just ran away from home and she cut off all connections between us so I have no way of telling her. I doubt she even realizes what's going on right now," Ms. Wakeman explained.
"In that case, we might not live through the night. I thought that we might at least be able to save this city and possibly a few of the surrounding ones, but without her, all we can do is hope for the best," Mr. Filman said.
"Hey, don't forget about us. Did you forget that Jenny has eight sisters?" XJ6 yelled.
"No I didn't. I also didn't forget how poorly you handled trying to defeat Smytus's robot either," Mr. Filman said.
"Now you listen to me. They may not be as efficient as XJ9, but they are perfectly capable of handling riots. You know just as well as I do that we are going to need all the help we can get. Before you start insulting my daughters, remember that you were the one who didn't take appropriate action when it was necessary," Ms. Wakeman yelled.
"Daughters? Hmm…I see. Now I understand why you created them. For once, I will give you an apology. I'm sorry that I insulted your daughters. I guess that's about all the time these batteries will las…"Mr. Filman said as the transmission ceased and became static.
"Listen everyone. This may be the most difficult threat we have ever faced, and we had no preparation for it whatsoever, but that doesn't mean we should just roll over. We must do everything we can to save as many people as possible. The plan is as follows. XJs two through eight, you go and try to put a stop to the riots. Bradley, XJ1 and Tucker, you stay here. I'm going to need your help with a few things," Ms. Wakeman said.
"And what about me?" Sheldon asked.
"You should be the one to find XJ9. It's hard for me to explain to you why, but I believe that you have a better chance of convincing her to come home than any of us," Ms. Wakeman explained.
"Why me? What would make me have a better chance? Right, you said it would be hard for you to explain it. Okay then, I'll give it my best shot," Sheldon said as he left the house through the front door.
"So, does that mean you support Sheldon's love for Jenny too," Brad asked.
"Yes, I do," Ms. Wakeman replied.
"Who knows, maybe it really is more than just an obsession. That's enough of that for now. Come on sisters, we have work to do," XJ6 said.
XJs two through eight left through the front door as well.
As soon as the door closed, Tuck asked, "So, what do you need us to help you with?"
"I'm glad you asked. I haven't officially decided to try it yet, but I have something for you to use just in case the situation gets even worse. So, as long as it's only riots to worry about, we won't even have to resort to it. For the time being, I have nothing for you to do. So just sit back and wait for while," Ms. Wakeman explained.