Chapter 16
Doctor's diary.
Entry Date: Wednesday, 31st October 2018.
'Another one of Jackie's awesome parties tonight. We've got our costumes ready and even the baby gets to wear one, sort of.'
'Now Rose is on maternity leave, I've had chance to finish the big project I've been working on and get it out in time for Christmas….'
Rose's diary.
Entry Date: Wednesday, 31st October 2018.
'First week of maternity leave and it's been lovely to take EJ to nursery and chat with the other mums and dads. EJ is a very popular boy and has made lots of friends. They've been doing Halloween crafts at nursery, and we have proudly displayed his work on the fridge.'
'John's been working hard on a funding project and he says it will be the must have toy for Christmas, some kind of robotic dog. I hope it's not like K9, all sentient and lasers, that could cause all sorts of problems.'
'We're all looking forward to Mum's Halloween party tonight; they're always a good laugh….'
TylerMansion.
Halloween.
As John, Rose, and EJ approached the front door of the Mansion, it opened with a theatrical, elongated creak of hinges. The hinges were fine; it was a little gadget that John had rigged to the door to emit the sound every time it opened.
"Good eev-en-ing," Count Dracula said as he opened the door.
Rose was dressed as a zombie bride, wearing a wedding dress, dusted with grey powder to make it look old. She wore white face paint, black lipstick, and white contact lenses. "Hi Alistair," she said in greeting. "Nice outfit. You were born to wear that." She kissed him on the cheek.
"Thank you," he said, showing his fangs as he smiled. "Those contact lenses make you look 'other worldly'."
Zombie groom John was thinking the same thing. He had seen that look before on a certain Space Station, only they'd had more of a golden hue to them on that occasion. He bumped fists with Alistair, "Dracula, my man."
"Doctor Smith, I'm sure I've seen that look before," he said with a grin, recalling a mission earlier in the year. "And young master Eyulf; you really are a little devil tonight."
EJ was dressed in a red tracksuit, red cape and red, plastic horns, and carrying a plastic trident. He chuckled at Alistair, moved into the hallway, and set off to find Tony.
John and Rose made their way to the Living Room and found Pete and Jackie in a throng of mummies, Frankenstein's, zombies, devils, and the like. Pete was wearing a black wig with a painted on moustache. The pinstripe suit finished off the Gomez Addams look. Jackie was Mortitia Addams, in a long black wig, and low cut black dress.
Rose squealed with delight when she saw her parents. "Oh that is brilliant, you look fantastic."
"Your outfits are great as well," Jackie said, "those contacts really make you look spooky."
"This is only half the costume," Rose told her, "John's been creative with the body paint." The front of her dress was held together with a strip of Velcro. She ripped the middle section apart to reveal her pregnant belly, painted with orange and black paint as a Jack-o-Lantern."
Everyone laughed at the inventive use of the body paint; it was if the baby was also wearing a Halloween costume.
Rose felt the tickle of six, tiny jets of water on her belly. "Trick or treat?" Tony and EJ called out, before turning tail and running into the crowd, capes flapping behind them. They weren't interested in the treats; they were all in the dining room. The two devils just wanted to squirt people with their water pistol tridents.
Rose felt a napkin being dabbed on her abdominal artwork and looked down to see a green hand doing it. She followed the arm along to see the grinning green face of Jack, 'Frankenstein's Monster', Harkness.
"Hiya Gorgeous," he said, giving her his usual greeting.
"Oh, hi Jack, I hardly recognised you with that green face paint…. And the square head."
"I bet he's glad you added that last bit," Rex said as he ambled up to them. "Hello Rose." He was dressed as a lumber jack, with an axe in his head.
"Rex, you managed to get to one of Mum's parties," Rose said as she fastened up the front of her dress.
"Yes, when I've been looking after ambassadors and dignitaries, the stories they tell of Mrs. Tyler's parties are legendary," he told her.
"Rose, tell 'im what he'll get from me if he doesn't stop callin' me Mrs. Tyler," Jackie said as she came up behind them.
John instinctively rubbed his cheek. "Trust me Rex, just call her Jackie."
"Very well, thank you for inviting me Jackie," Rex said with a smile.
"You're welcome me lad, I was only bein' nosey anyway. Wanted to see who was good enough for our Jack, and I can see he's done alright for 'imself."
"Mum!" Rose said, playfully slapping her arm.
"Wha?" she asked with a grin, "I'm only tellin' it like it is, an' I'm the hostess, so I can say what I like."
They went through to the dining room, where there was an assortment of Halloween treats on the tables. Sausage rolls with the pastry wrapped around the sausage like a mummies bandages. Discs of Red Leicester cheese as Jack-o-Lanterns on crackers, and many more themed nibbles and desserts.
Jackie grabbed John's arm and led him to a plate of 'ghosts'. They were bananas that had been cut in two, stood on end and had chocolate icing eyes and mouths added. "I did these for ya, knowin' how fond y'are of bananas."
The day he figured this woman out, would be the day he threw it all in and quit. She could be all acerbic and sarcastic one minute, and nice as pie the next. Jackie, on the other hand, was never going to let him know how fond she was of him. She was having too much fun winding him up and keeping him guessing what she was going to do next.
Dr. John Smith's Laboratory Workshop.
Torchwood One, London.
Tuesday 6th November 2018.
John was in his lab, working on a funding project for Cybus Industries, which would also fund the Torchwood Institute. Now his field partner was on maternity leave, he was working his day shifts at the Canary Wharf Tower, only going out on a 'shout' if they needed the benefit of his considerable experience.
The funding project was actually a robotic dog that would behave as a normal dog. It was similar in appearance to the Sony Aibo, but that was as far as the similarity went. It was the size and shape of a Staffordshire bull terrier, with a carbon fibre body. It behaved like an ordinary dog, all be it a very well trained one that could win Crufts if there was ever a category for artificial life forms.
The initial product would have a basic learning programme installed, it was, then up to the owner to teach it to sit, lie, beg, shake a paw, and all the other things owners liked their dogs to do. It was also pre-programmed with a love of running after thrown objects and returning them to its owner. The dog would develop its own personality, dependant on the interactions with the owners.
It would accept treats of penlight batteries, which it would swallow, absorb the electrical energy, and then 'poo' the spent battery. When it got tired it would curl up in its basket, where it would recharge its batteries from the built in charger.
The prototype he was completing was intended for his son. He would observe Eyulf playing with the dog and debug any changes that needed to be made in the production model. Also, Eyulf's dog would have an advanced power supply that would give it three times the duty cycle of the standard Lithium battery.
"Come on then Ricky," he said with a lopsided grin, "time to show you off." There was no other choice of a name for the dog, after Mickey Smith had called himself the 'tin dog' and John used to tease him by calling him Ricky.
They set off down the corridor to the lifts, Ricky trotting easily to heel. At the lift doors, he sat without being asked, his spring tail wagging on the floor. When the lift arrived, John stepped in and Ricky followed, walking around to sit by his side again. When the lift reached the top floor they exited, and headed for Pete's office.
"Hi Pete," John said as they entered the glass fronted office. "Here he is, meet Ricky."
Pete stood and walked around the desk to look at the robotic dog. Ricky was doing a good simulation of being excited to meet someone new.
"Well hello there," Pete said, stooping down to pat its head. Ricky lifted his paw in greeting, and Pete shook it. Within seconds, he had forgotten that this was a robot and was reacting to it as though it were real.
"Have you got any batteries in your desk?" John asked him. Pete went and checked the draws, rummaging amongst forgotten staplers, diaries and other office flotsam until he found a pack of batteries.
"Here we are." He took one out of the pack and went back to Ricky, who sat up and begged when he saw the offered cylinder. "What do I do?" Pete asked.
"Present it end on to his mouth and watch."
Pete stooped down and did just that. Ricky gently took the battery in his mouth and swallowed it. "That's remarkable," Pete said with a laugh.
"You wait 'til he's finished with it, he'll absorb the energy into his power pack and eject the battery out the back."
"Hah, a toy dog that shits batteries, that is brilliant. The kids are gonna love that," Pete laughed. "Will it be ready for Christmas?"
"Well, as you know, the body shell is already in production, I'm going to take this one home and see how it interacts with us. When I'm happy with the base programme, we can upload it to the dogs and ship them out."
"Great, oh, and we need to do a news item on it, y'know, must have toy for Christmas and all that."
"Mmmm, okay. Get the Media Lab to set up the cameras, we can get one of the PR people to put Ricky through his paces and produce a video for distribution."
"Make your way down there, I'll call them now. Oh, and John, don't forget to show the battery shitting, I tell you, that's gonna sell it to the kids."
As John approached his front door, Donna greeted him. "Afternoon John, and who's this little fella then?"
"This is Ricky, he's a Cyber Dog and this is his knew home."
"Is he house trained? I don't want 'im weein' on my electrics y'know."
John snorted a laugh. "You might find a few batteries scattered about the house until he learns where to leave them."
Rose came out of the kitchen and pulled him into a snog. "Had a good day?" she asked, looking down at Ricky. "Is he all done then?"
"Pretty much, yeah. We've just got to see how he interacts in the home environment."
Rose knelt down and patted her thighs in invitation. Ricky excitedly trotted forward and stood his front paws on her thighs so that he could reach up and lick her with his soft, moist, plastic tongue. She giggled as she scratched him behind his ears.
"His tongue has a slight green glow to it," she observed.
"That shows his battery is fully charged, it goes orange when he gets tired, and red when he needs to sleep and recharge. I've got his charging basket in the car, I'll bring it in later, but first, I want to see how EJ reacts."
Rose stood up. "He's in the playroom, he loves it in there."
"C'mon Ricky, find EJ, where is he?" John said, encouraging the dog to explore. They made their way to the playroom and opened the door.
"EJ, there's someone here to see you," Rose called into the room.
A child's head popped sideways out of a red plastic climbing frame tunnel. "Who is it?"
"His name is Ricky, and he's yours," John told him.
EJ's eyes went wide as he spotted the Cyber Dog that was looking at him and wagging his tail in anticipation. "Cool." His head disappeared, and there were bumping and scuffling noises as he navigated the maze of tunnels to emerge like a torpedo from a submarine.
"Does he do tricks?" he asked, looking up at his parents.
"I've taught him some basic ones, but it's up to you what he learns next," John said with a smile.
"Cool…. Sit," he said, and Ricky sat, his tail swishing on the carpet. "Shake a paw." The Cyber Dog raised his paw.
"He also lies down, begs for his treats, and loves to fetch a ball. See what else you can teach him, eh," John said.
EJ wrapped his arms around his father waist in a hug. "He's brilliant Daddy, thank you."
John patted his back and ruffled his unruly hair. "You're welcome son; just make sure you look after him."
"I will," he said, as he encouraged the Cyber Dog to follow him. He went to the ball pool to find a plastic ball to throw. "Fetch." He threw the ball across the room, and Ricky scampered off after it, dodging in between foam shapes with remarkable dexterity. He trotted back with the ball in his mouth, tail held high with pride.
Rose slid her hand into John's in that familiar, unthinking way that they did, and hugged his arm. "It's just like a real dog, it's incredible. Look at them, they're best pals already."
"Yep, and for busy families, the dog will take care of itself. It feeds itself from the charging basket, and hibernates if you go on holiday without it, although I can't imagine anyone wanting to leave them behind once they've bonded with one."
After the evening meal, they sat down to watch TV in the living room. The evening news was just starting, when Ricky squatted in the middle of the room.
"John, what's he doin'?" Rose asked in horror, expecting a pile of poo that John would find hilarious and other owners would be finding less than amusing.
John just sat there with a smirk on his face, as two rechargeable penlight batteries popped out of Ricky's backside onto the carpet.
EJ burst into a fit of giggles. "He poos batteries," he announced. "That's brilliant Daddy."
Rose snorted a laugh. "Batteries?"
"Yeah, they're his treats, your Dad thinks that'll be a major selling point." They looked at EJ, who was still in fits of giggles, and reckoned he was probably right.
At the end of the news, it was time for the 'and finally' item, and there on the screen was Ricky. The real Ricky, trotted over to the TV and sat down to watch himself.
"It appears Cybus Industries have done it again, with a high tech toy which promises to be the must have toy this Christmas," the presenter said. They showed the video footage that had been filmed earlier in the day, explaining the features of Cyber Dog. They had some children from the day care centre at Torchwood, interacting with the robot, showing how it rolled over to have its belly tickled.
There was an interview with an executive from Cybus Industries, who extolled the features of Cyber Dog and how it was far superior to any other robot toy on the market. He saw it as an ideal pet for people who had busy working lives, as it was low maintenance and would pretty much take care of its own needs. He also assured the public that it would be in the shops for Christmas, and that there would be plenty available.
The presenter did his final bit to camera. "And just in case you didn't think it was real enough, check this out." Cue the footage of Ricky eating a treat and pooping it out.
No sooner had the news item finished, when their phones started ringing with calls from friends, and the parents of EJ's friends, asking if they could pre order a Cyber Dog.
"Blimey," John said as he hung up from the most recent call.