Chapter 9: The Creator

A little backstory on how the nanobots came to be. Meet "the creator".

Days earlier…

“Doctor…I realize that this has been your project now for twelve years…and I appreciate that it is your life’s work, but in the current economic situation, we could no longer afford to fund research and development that has come to a dead end.”  The dark suited man had a serious look on his face, realizing that he was basically killing his proverbial child and reason for his existence.  “Look, you have done spectacular work here, and your country appreciates it….but, despite your advances in quantum computing chips and matter/anti-matter power supplies, this project has not yielded the kind of success that we have been looking for.  You have to understand, we cannot continue to spend this kind of money indefinitely, or expose our country to this kind of risk.  We’ve been patient for more than a decade now.”

 

The Doctor, Satyendra Bose Jr, reacted calmly.  “I’m sure we are right on the edge of a major breakthrough, we just need a little more time.”  The man in the dark suit leaned forward, “the decision has been made, we are to liquidate this program and in accordance with the provisions and agreements that were a part of the funding contract, we are sealing all files, materials, data and patents pertaining to this project.”  “I’m sure my company would be interested in taking over this project and research…you have no right to…”  The dark suited man cut off the doctor…”This is not your project, it’s not your company’s project, its the property of the government of the United States….specifically DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  We have compensated you and your company for this project very generously…but make no mistake, it will be shut down and research will stop.” 

 

“You have no right…”  Dr. Bose, a tall thin Indian immigrant to the United States with advanced degrees in Quantum Mechanics, Bio-medical Structures and nanotechnology, looked intently at the dark suited man, “this is the type of government intervention that I thought I had escaped by moving here…”  He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs and leaned his head on his hand…dejectedly.  “This is wrong.”

 

“Doctor, I have been watching your design process over the years with great hope….but, in test after test in the last five years, your nanobots are not performing correctly.  Test after test, within a few hours, they first destroy each other and then destroy the host which they should be repairing.  We have two great concerns here…and I know I don’t need to tell you this…but we are talking about how much energy stored up in each speck of powder?  16 to 20 MEGATONS worth of energy?!  Each speck?! 

 

In other words, each speck of this dust…each nanobot, if its energy was released would have the same power as a standard Chinese nuclear warhead.  18 Megatons…which is enough to flatten a city the size of Los Angeles.  Matter-Anti Matter energy release was very well controlled with the creator’s special processes and fail safe designs however, there is a reason this project was kept under tight security and secrecy.  Great innovations can do great good, but also, are capable of great evil in the wrong hands.

 

The dark suited man spoke, “Do you know to just initially fund this program 14 years ago, I had to basically lie about that?  No way would the people of Oregon…or the Pacific Northwest for that matter would have been comfortable with this kind of potential energy.” 

 

“We have not had a single problem with my anti-matter containment process…and I showed you how stable it was.”  “Yes, that’s not my point…how long would it be before one of these malfunctioning nanobots figured out how to breach a containment cell?”  “They should never do that…they are not programmed for that.” 

 

“Therein lies the problem, what exactly are they programmed for?  It certainly isn’t what was intended.”  “See….I just need more time to work on the programming side…we just need more time.” 

 

“The last five years have been spent on just that….with no results…and we are not just concerned about the release of energy on par with a small sun or who knows, create a black hole, we are also concerned about the containment…” 

 

“Containment was an issue only once, and we fixed that.  In the last years, we have taken great steps to seal all our testing including building this whole research wing here.”  “Yes, and who paid for that?....Doctor, I have the utmost respect for you and your work, but this project is over.  Can I trust you to liquidate it as we have already agreed upon in the contract?” 

 

The doctor’s face hardened, and he stared into the dark suited man’s face…”I will take care of it.” 

 

“OK, I will expect everything from the lab to be packed and shipped to our storage facilities in New Mexico in the next three days?  Will there be any problems?”  “No.”  “OK, just to be safe, I am going to leave a team here to assist you with the process and turnover of information.”  With that, the dark suited man stood up and held out his hand, “thanks for your service to our country doctor.”  The doctor kept his hands at his side as he stood up…it was an awkward moment…

 

”I will comply, thank you and good day sir.” The creator knew he was not telling the truth.

 

The dark suited man left the facility and a group of ten, dressed in clean lab coats…with all the proper protective equipment for working on hazardous materials, entered the building as if there was an exposed bio-hazard.

 

Dr. Bose showed the team where all the files were located, computer terminals, servers, containment units, raw materials….everything, except one three liter glass flask of the final pre-activated material.  To a person not associated with the project, the material looked like a glass full of a brown talcum like powder.  Doctor Bose then took the flask back to his office on the second floor.  This secret research building on the Intel campus did not have windows, but Dr. Bose’s did.  It was late in the day and he sat down at his desk…drained…”this is my life’s work” he said softly as he held the glass beaker up to the light.  “What is wrong with you guys?”  Just then a knock at the door…the doctor put the beaker in his bottom desk drawer and closed it.  “Yes?”  “Doc, it’s me!”  “Come in Sanjay…I guess you have already heard about our project being shut down.” 

 

Sanjay was a lead researcher and renowned expert in mechanical engineering….  “Don’t worry Doc, we’ll figure out something else to work on.” 

 

“No.  I have to figure out what is going wrong with our process.  I am sure that if we are able to fix what is probably just a simple glitch, we’ll have done something amazing for mankind…a leap…probably bigger than anything we have ever experienced.” 

 

Dr. Bose pointed to an electron scanning microscopic image of the surface of a liquid metal cutting blade.  “This is all technology that will reshape the world as we know it…we can’t afford to stop it now.  I won’t allow it…even if I have to move to China and become a communist.  We are sitting on the answer to so many questions that have plagued us for a long time.  Containing and manipulating anti-matter for energy…curing cancer and just about all disease…preventing catastrophic engineering failures….The possibilities are unlimited with this technology we have created.” 

 

“You think govt intervention is bad now?”  Sanjay laughed.  “Come on doc, moving to China…that’s crazy talk…we should call it a day and let these government people do their job.  Can I buy you dinner?” 

 

Dr. Bose just shook his head…”no thanks.”  “OK, well, I’m going to go home a bit early then…I will see you tomorrow ok.  We will go together and speak to the division manager tomorrow about what is next for us ok?”  “Yes Sanjay…I will see you tomorrow…”

 

Sanjay left…Dr. Bose then sat down again in his chair, spun around and looked out the window towards the west.  The sun was now shining into his office and he looked out into the distance at the coast range mountains, all covered with green Douglas Fir Trees.  It was a far cry from Chennai, India, his former home city.  “What now…?” he thought.  “I have to keep working on fixing this.”

 

“I must get this last flask and as much of my data out of here and protected tonight…”  He looked out at the Intel Campus…and again into the distance.  A line of late afternoon thunderstorms was about to roll over the mountains and into the valley and he could see the storm building.  Afternoon thunderstorms are unusual in this part of Oregon so the doctor wrapped up his day as quickly as possible in an effort to beat the storm’s arrival.  He packed up a portable hard drive with his work station data and the glass beaker…and made his way out of the building. 

 

On the way, a number of people stopped the creator either to offer condolences or to get help with the process of turning over the project to the DARPA people.  The delay was just enough to allow the storms approach to Hillsboro.  So, by the time Dr. Bose made it out of the building, a hard rain was falling, and you could feel the tension in the air as the static buildup of electricity took place.  Doc made it to a sidewalk corner and from out of nowhere, the discharge of lightning lit up the whole campus and a large thunder clap simultaneously shook the whole campus.    

 

Dr. Bose was struck….the bolt of lightning entered his head and traveled down the left side of his body out of his foot which was burned off instantly.  The Dr. fell to the ground, and the beaker which had been in his left jacket pocket smashed on the ground.  Campus security immediately saw the injury and called for medical assistance….

 

A short time later, Sanjay placed a call to the man in the dark suit….”containment has been breached.”

 

The rain and wind from the storm scattered the dust and by the time the cleanup crew arrived, there was only a minimal residue left on the ground among the shards of glass.  The dark suited man observed the clean-up effort.   He spoke on the phone, “We have had a containment breach and not all the specimens are accounted for.”  His face changed to a look of deep concern, “OK, we will sanitize the area and liquidate the entire program.  I will be as if it never existed.” 

 

Unfortunately, political winds seemed to blow stronger than those of due diligence or even common sense on this day.   

Author's Note

I'm not sure if it is kosher to use an actual name of a famous breaking edge physicist from the past for the "creator" but I did draw ideas from his work among others in the field for ideas. My intention was to honor the man by mentioning his name as a character. If it is not ok, or there is something wrong with doing that, I can make up another name. I do hope it is ok though, I admire his work immensely.