Closing up shop
Lily scowled when the second attempt at fabricating Matilda the Murder Maid's short sword ended in failure as the blade snapped in three places while she attempted to test it roughly. One fragment flew by Lily's face quite close, making her a little embarrassed that she did not use eye protection while testing the blade.
Lily was not a materials or mechanical engineer. So, she thought to herself grimly, 'You'd think that just making a knife out of diamond would be enough!' But, it turned out that while diamond was incredibly hard, it was actually somewhat brittle. It was like steel that had no flexibility at all.
She carefully picked up the blade fragments and dumped them into the recycler to break down into feedstock once more and then sat at her desk and booted up her CAD program again.
Lily had an epiphany while staring at the simple shape of a knife and wondering how to create a blade that was strong in both compression and tension out of a single material like diamond. The epiphany was... why was she dead-set on a single material?!
There was one thing a person that wasn't really qualified could do to solve engineering problems -- simply over-engineer the hell out of it! Lily's fingers started flying through the keys as she sliced the three-dimensional design into many, many layers.
Instead of a blade made of a single diamond shape, she created a layered composite laminate material of alternating diamond and graphene layers, repeating over and over. In the last layer, the cutting edge, she changed from diamond to lonsdaleite, which had a Mohs hardness rating of fifteen, five higher than even diamond itself. Lily's fabrication technology did not have the resolution to create a so-called monomolecular edge, and even if she could, it would be incredibly fragile.
Most monomolecular blades Lily remembered from the past were wires with significant technology attached to stabilize the wire in space-time somehow, leading it to be artificially a lot tougher than such a wire should typically be.
She had no idea how that technology worked at all. Still, she could make the edge of a traditional blade on the nanometer scale while also being harder than a diamond. Plus, being a layered composite will solve the brittleness issue, giving the material enough flexibility not to shatter when mistreated.
'That should cut through most things, steel included, like a hot knife through butter... provided you could swing it hard enough,' Lily thought.
Composite materials were often more than the sum of their parts. For example, pure diamond had somewhat poor tensile strength but incredible hardness and strength in compression, while graphene had incredible tensile strength but poor hardness. Combined into a laminate material, Lily was pretty sure she could create the ultimate sword! She grinned, 'Masamune, eat your heart out!'
The trade-off to these types of materials was one of cost and repairability, which weren't concerns of hers. So, although it was true that it would increase the print time, which was perhaps the only way to measure the cost to her at this point, it wasn't to the point where she would decline the advantages of this type of construction methodology.
In fact, after verifying that the Short Sword Mk3 design appeared sound and sending it to the fabricator, she opened up the CAD files for Sophie's chassis, which she had planned to start printing today as well.
'Ugh,' there were so many pieces. There were over a hundred and fifty parts that she painstakingly modelled. And that wasn't including things like the internal mounts for the laser installation, the flexible waveguides or diamond lenses to be installed in each manipulator-claw. Would she have to make changes by hand on all of them?
Lily squinted at her screen, shut down the CAD software and opened the integrated development environment. It shouldn't be too hard to create a simple function to convert a solid shape into a laminate composite of many layers.
Plus, this would have the advantage of having a user interface to specify the layer thickness and, eventually, perhaps, a simple expert system to simulate the strength of the modelled shape in compression, tension and even complex stresses like torsion.
Such a function built into her CAD software would make it much less likely that Lily would put her eye out in the future by just eyeballing the properties of a printed object and then receiving shattered fragments to her face when they did not line up with reality.
---
Lily glanced at Matilda, who was standing patiently in the robot repair bay. In the end, she fabricated an entire replacement upper arm and hand assembly as well. It was the only way to integrate the hidden compartment for the short sword into the arm.
Then, since she had to make a few design changes to the hand anyway to make room for the hidden blade, she decided to adjust it from a simple claw to something more resembling a hand. It had four digits, one of which was opposable like a thumb.
To allow her to actually have the dexterity and fine motor control to use those fingers to pick things up required Lily to redesign parts of the upper arm, also. The Assaultrons used very simple, and very heavy-duty control mechanisms. For example, the claws and arm movement of an Assaultron were controlled by chains inside the body of the arm.
Lily simply replaced this low-tech but strong option with graphene cables, which were hundreds of times stronger and would allow the Assaultron finer motor control in her arms and hands.
She had intended, originally, to only replace the broken arm, but that idea offended her sense of symmetry now, so she just ran the end fabrication twice and mirrored. Matilda would get two sword arms, as well as fingers.
Plus, Lily intended to incorporate this improvement into her own Assaultron, which would be useful if she could ever find an Assaultron or Miss Nanny core to incorporate into it. Or even a non-homicidal Mister Handy. She had already boxed the mostly finished Assaultron body to take to Megaton.
"Okay, Matilda. Installation looks good. I'm sending you the patches to your drivers that include the new actuators for the blade extension and retraction mechanism, as well as the additional fingers. You'll probably 'ave to get used to the latter, yourself, though," Lily cautioned. Then she paused and considered, "I recommend not trying to pick up fragile things or shake the 'ands of squishy humans until you reach the stage of mastery over your new capabilities. Crushing someone's 'and would only be slightly worse than stabbing them through their 'and and arm with a super-sharp knife blade by accident."
"Confirmed. I will only crush the hands or stab the humans on purpose, not on accident," Matilda said. Then, when control of her chassis was returned, she stepped out of the robot repair bay and tested the functionality of each arm. The material did not look much like crystal or diamond; considering the material was layered with dark-hued graphene, it had both the look and visual texture of carbon fibre.
With a soft *shlick* sound, two thirty-five centimetre blades slid out of the centre of each of the Assaultron's hands. Lily stood there as the Assaultron operated the extension and retraction mechanism multiple times, testingly.
Lily motioned towards the side of the room, where she had set multiple test materials for the killbot to slice through in a set of different vices.
She sliced through both the wood and, surprisingly, the non-reinforced concrete, almost as though it wasn't there. The last material was a fairly thick hardened steel rod, which she did cut through, although it took her several attempts.
"These blades are exceptional, human baby," Matilda said with surprising respect. Lily clucked her tongue, "Let me inspect the edge of your right one, there. You were pretty rough on it getting through that steel. If it chipped, I might as well fabricate you another... perhaps I will fab you a couple of extras anyway, knowing what you're likely to put them through if anyone attacks Scott or Sophie."
Matilda held out her right arm, blade extended, while Lily examined it with a magnifying glass. There were no appreciable nicks or dings in it, which somewhat surprised her. This really was the ultimate in blades! Lily decided to make herself a new knife for herself, a lovely stiletto perhaps.
"Huh, looks fine. Alright, Matilda, you're done here and cleared for return to service; I'll tell Scott when I see him next," Lily said.
"Exxxcelllent," purred the robot.
---
"You didn't have to put these presents for us in a box and wrap them in paper, you know," said Scott, a little amused, as he watched his Miss Nanny tear at the improvised wrapping paper surrounding the rather large box.
"Ooh, what ez it, what ez it?" cooed the robot as she finally tore the box open to reveal its contents, which were turned out to be multiple layers of carefully stacked parts on trays. Sophie quietly inspected them for a moment before asking excitedly, "Are these... Miss Nanny parts?"
This surprised Scott, who got up and walked over to look at them also, leaving his much smaller unopened box. Scott hummed, "They certainly appear to be... I haven't mentioned it, but I know Lily has some kind of advanced fabrication technology after looking at the repairs and upgrades she did to the Assaultron." He paused, then glanced at Lily before asking, "Is this the same thing?"
Lily smiled and nodded, "Oui... I appreciate you respecting my privacy, but this is a complete replacement for all the exterior chassis parts for a Miss Nanny. The material these are made of is not only less than 'alf the weight but over ten times the strength of the steel used in the standard Miss Nanny, to say nothing of the exterior composite and plastics. Plus one additional upgrade."
Lily walked over and uncovered a cleaned Protectron laser assembly, "This is a laser assembly that I took from a disassembled Protectron arm... I replaced all the lenses and fabricated a custom mount and cooling system that would allow it to be mounted inside the interior of Sophie's chassis."
Sophie blinked. She sometimes wished she had some sort of weapons, like the other robots. Especially when they travelled, and invariably, she had to be defended by Scott and the others. Still, she narrowed the irises on her optical sensors at it suspiciously, "Uhh.. it would shoot out of my chest, then?" She wasn't sure she liked that. Her turning rate wasn't actually all that great; it might be difficult to keep a beam on target.
Lily shook her head rapidly, "No, no. Look, here...." She then pointed to the aperture of the laser, which was split into three outputs. "The laser can be fired out of any of these three outputs, which are funnelled through these flexible waveguides which will be run and installed down these replacement manipulator arms, see each 'hand' has a lens to fire the laser out of. Only one rapid-firing laser, but you will be able to fire it out of any of your arms. You should be able to repurpose any normal Mister Gutsy targetting software if you don't have modules for that yourself."
"Oooh, that ez genius, Miss Lily!" said Sophie excitedly while Scott simultaneously said, more thoughtfully, "That is impressive."
Lily chuckled, "Ahh, it should be... I stole most of that design from how you hooked up that terrifying cutting beam to your Mister Gutsy." However, Scott's modification sacrificed that entire manipulator as nothing more than a movable and articulating barrel for the Assaultron laser, "However, instead of a slow firing laser of incredible power, this will be an ultra-rapid firing laser of modest penetration. Perfect for self-defence, or defence of others by destroying swarms of attacking animals or keeping attacking humans suppressed with their heads down instead of shooting your favourite person."
Sophies bobbed up and down several times, to which Lily took as nods. "Also, I have included the updates to the Miss Nanny maintenance manual, complete as a new supplement, for all this hardware, including the revising of inspection periods. This will allow Scott to install all of this himself." Lily grinned, "I wouldn't dream of taking a man's girl back to my place to take all of her clothes off."
Sophie made a raspberry noise over her speakers, "Pffft! Oh, you! You are always being the tease of me!" But Scott nodded, "Thank you, I would definitely appreciate doing the installation myself."
As opposed to the blades she fabricated earlier, these Miss Nanny parts were all set so that the last layer would be a layer of graphene, with some texture to it, so as to allow it to be easily painted if desired. Although, Lily thought that keeping the dark grey of the graphene was a nice colour, too.
She handed Scott his forgotten package, and Sophie got enthusiastic, "Oh, open yours too!" Scott nodded and then began carefully finding the seams where Lily had taped the paper on and carefully undoing them without tearing the paper. Sophie complained about this, "No, Scott! You have to tear the paper! Not like that!"
But he wouldn't be moved; he carefully removed the paper in one piece, set it aside and opened a small box to reveal a sheet of paper with a fairly long alphanumeric number on it, "What is ... this?"
"That is the root password for this building's mainframe setup. I got it almost entirely fixed; it is at least working well enough to act as a central processing nexus for all of the Protectrons, which will make them much more effective, efficient and capable," Lily enthused. It was kind of difficult to program advanced orders and contingencies for a Protectron unit without something along these lines.
Scott's eyes widened, "That's amazing! That thing was mostly scrap when I looked at it last!" He then got a little uncomfortable, "Uhh... me and Sophie got you something as well; it isn't quite as nice as all the things you've gotten us, especially that portable generator, but I hope they help you."
With that, he opened a door, and two Protectrons walked in. It looked like Scott had used most of his words up already, so Sophie took over, explaining, "Two completely refurbished Protectron units. We know you plan to open a larger clinic in Megaton and figure that these will help you with security. There are thousands of people there! Especially if you plan on operating a pharmacy as well, you'll need security. Otherwise, criminals will have stolen everything from you within a week! Oh, and plus one recharging station, you can program them to use it in shifts. We'll have them all crated up a couple of days before your caravan leaves."
Lily grinned. She wasn't actually expecting any reciprocating gift; that wasn't why she had given Scott and Sophie things, but she definitely wouldn't turn these down. They would help a lot! She was worried about how she would secure her clinic, which she also planned to live at, in the "big city" of Megaton. Scott handed her a small sheet of paper with an ownership passcode carefully written on it. How amusing, they had both gotten each other sheets of paper with passwords on them.
She wondered if Scott would reboot if she hugged him. She decided to be kind enough not to, even if she was curious. She did hug Sophie's hovering body, though, "Thanks, guys, that is exactly what I will need!"
Scott seemed to sense what she was contemplating and was visibly relieved she had spared him.
---
Lily glanced at what may be one of her last patients from Canterbury Commons, sitting across from her in her office.
He was a local, and she had bad news for him, "You have what is called a motor neuron disease. That is why you're getting weaker. It is going to keep getting worse, and eventually, it will get to the point where you become too weak to breathe. It is a terminal illness. At the most, you have nine to twelve months, I'd say."
The man was only in his mid-twenties, although he had a sun-worn face that made him look a bit older than his age. He had the same look like he had been kicked by a mule that most people got when she had to tell them they were dying, "Is... is there any cure? Any treatment?"
Lily winced, "No definitive treatment. I have been working on a genetic therapy for unrelated reasons that I have reason to believe may help or even cure your condition, but it is beyond experimental. I can not in good conscience recommend it without mentioning that it has not been tested in humans at all, and it might kill you."
ALS was a condition both of the nerves and the motor cortex of a person's brain. Lily had been studying Edgar's genome, comparing it to both herself and random patients to isolate the mutation in his motor cortex and the myelin sheathe of his nerves. Her knowledge of the human genome and its possibilities allowed her to isolate the changes rapidly, and in fact, by the second day of studying it, she had already modified a simplified coronavirus to propagate the transformation into a human's genome.
In fact, the therapy she was considering offering the man in front of her was actually the fourth version of that virus and one she was almost certain would not prove dangerous. Plus, she had a counter-virus that would reverse the changes of the first virus should it prove problematic later. Her basic professional ethics wouldn't allow her to even mention a genetic therapy unless she thought it was both safe and reversible.
Usually, she would set the bar at the point where she would not sell or recommend it unless she had tried the modification to her own genome but felt that it might be a net negative compared to her more generally optimized genes. Edgar's gene expressions, in almost every circumstance, traded traits for speed for ones with endurance. Although, it didn't mean that he would huff and puff after walking up the stairs, as he was clearly an adult man in good shape, it did mean he had less stamina than he should of had.
She felt that he would have about a third less endurance than a man of his age in a similar fitness level. That probably explained why he was so athletic and attractive looking, under all the dust and dirt anyway, as he had to work harder for a similar level of endurance as others.
Lily did her best to mitigate some of these extreme trades in the therapy she had made and felt it was likely a person could become almost twice as fast while suffering only a five to ten per cent reduction in their endurance. If Lily had been baseline, that would have been a trade she would have gladly taken. Still, she had complicated novel genes that provided both speed and endurance which were difficult to confer to baseline humans with the equipment and tools she had available to her. She wouldn't be able to transfer her mods piece-meal, and it was just too much information to transfer in a simple coronavirus without it becoming unstable.
Compared with her halting and stilted progress, where it took her days to make design changes in her fabricator or generator when it came to making alterations to the code of life? She was an artist, and DNA was both her canvas and her paint. She could iterate through design alterations to an organism in her head and in hours.
The man seemed to grab hold of some hope, as she had known he would have, "What are the chances I will die? And that is the worst case, right? That I die now instead of ... what? You said nine months at the latest? And I suspect that those nine months won't be the most pleasant for me."
Lily squinched up her face, "Very low, I suppose. I'd say less than five per cent, but honestly, I designed this therapy to be safe, so in my heart and my head, I believe it has close to a zero per cent chance for severe side effects. But it hasn't been tested."
Then she nodded, "And yes, the next nine months won't be enjoyable for you. You probably have maybe three months before you're too weak to stand without help, and within six, you won't be able to get out of bed and will require assistance just to live."
The man shook his head rapidly. "Yeah, fuck that, Doc. Honestly, if this treatment of yours kills me instead of curing me, well, that will be doing me a favour. I'll eat my pistol before I let my family see me like that. So, I'd definitely like that experimental treatment, if you don't mind."
Lily couldn't fault his logic; she would make the same choice herself as well. "Very well. It is transmitted through a viral vector, and while I have made every effort to ensure it is not transmissible, you will still have to quarantine here at the clinic for three to five days. I leave town in five days, so we'll probably cut it short to four. Is that acceptable?"
The man nodded, so Lily continued, "Okay. I'll have a room for you prepared by lunch time. Go talk to your family and meet me back here by then."
Lily was confident that the treatment would be safe and effective on the man's condition, but she was still a little uncomfortable with how wild west things were as far as testing went. It wasn't as though there were any oversight bodies here. She would just have to hold her craft to a high moral standard herself.