[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 55

alexbeyman (74)in #writing • 6 years ago

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They darted around as if tracking moving objects. Evidently the suppression of her motor control center wasn’t as complete as advertised. But she didn’t speak, nor did her limbs move. On the laptop screen a window came up depicting a view of the simulation in progress.

Relatively low polygon with ugly, low resolution textures. I didn’t expect anything more from open source software, and it does the job. Then Helper came into view. The virtual avatar of Helper, that is.

With no predefined mesh prepared, as her body is one of a kind, a skeletal wireframe was generated from inferences the software made about her body layout, based on the inputs it received from her motor control center.

A somewhat fleshed out neon green stick figure. But still, the virus couldn’t tell the difference. It dutifully identified the nearest virtual human target, located a brick, and bludgeoned it to death. Then it move on to the next.

The trick would now be to accelerate the simulation. The built in slider for doing this would only get me so far; Based on what I knew of the rate at which the virus progressed from one stage of its battle plan to the next, even at the maximum speed the simulation allows, it could take weeks before it’s finished.

So I opened up an overclocking utility. Risky business as if I overdid it, there was no telling how it might affect Helper. It also wasn’t clear to me how erratic or glitched the sim could become before it tripped possible countermeasures included in the virus.

So, hands shaking, I tentatively bumped up the clock speed to 1.2x the normal rate. Events unfolding in the window quicked proportionally. No signs of trouble just yet. I bumped it again to 1.5x.

I cannot fail. I can’t. Failure means death, both Helper’s and mine. Beads of sweat formed on my brow as I bumped the speed up to 1.7x. No signs of trouble just yet. It was a warm day out, bad news for the already rapidly warming CPU, but at my request Lars turned up the air conditioning.

What I wouldn’t give for a nice big heat sink. I bumped the speed up to 2x. I noticed the frame rate stutter and some minor visual artifacts, so I dialed it back to 1.9 which, after a few minutes of running stably, proved to be the upper limit of my laptop would tolerate.

I cursed myself for not buying something with a faster CPU and better cooling. All of my money went into robots and parts to repair them with. I couldn’t really say I regretted that, but right then I sorely needed more processing muscle that the laptop just didn’t have.

She was already past the first stage. No longer simply wandering about and killing opportunistically, she now sought out probable sources of firearms. All of it played out nearly twice as fast as normally, something like the view you see while fast forwarding with a DVR.

I felt her forehead. Burning up, as was the laptop. But I kept a close eye on both, and could see no signs of instability. Just to be safe I turned it down to 1.8, reasoning that a few more hours wouldn’t make that big a difference.

“Please” I whispered. “Please work. Please.” Madeline looked over her shoulder and asked if I was talking to her. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed the cable running from my laptop to Helper, but left it alone.

“You got real quiet” Lars remarked from up front. “Everything okay back there?” I described what I was up to. He whistled. “I wouldn’t have thought of that. I guess I’m not surprised there’s no countermeasures against it. It’s not like that would’ve been a practical way to fight infected robots. You need any help?”

I assured him I’d already done everything that could be done at this juncture. He offered me a beer to calm my nerves, but I declined. “You sure?” he double checked. “They’re ice cold. Red gave me a little cooler full of ‘em before we left. Don’t you worry, I know my limits, this is my first one. I just thought-”

I cut in to him ask where he put the cooler. “Oh it’s up front under Madeline’s legs, why?” At my request, he passed it back to me. I opened it and sure enough, when I stuck my hand in there I discovered it was painfully cold inside.

“Have you still got the gas siphoning kit?” I queried. In fact he did, but it was in the trunk. Would’ve required us to stop except that, by sliding helper to the far side and myself to the opposite end, I was able to access the trunk by folding down the middle seat.

It was too much to ask that there should be an electric pump stashed away there as well. But I did find the hand operated variety, for topping up tire pressure. It didn’t take much fiddling to adapt it for use pumping coolant instead.

For lack of water, I used beer as the coolant, and one of the cans as the heat sink that I mated to the CPU die. Within five minutes I had the top portion of the laptop case off, ribbon cable to the keyboard long enough that it remained usable despite its discombobulated state.

I might’ve just held a can of beer against the CPU. But while it would chill it effectively in the short term, eventually it would heat up to the point where it became useless. By circulating beer through a loop of rubber hose coiled up inside the cooler, nestled under a bag of ice and about a dozen cans of chilled beer, I could continue chilling the CPU for several hours. Days, maybe.

The downside being that I had to sit there manually pumping beer through the coolant loop to keep the whole mess working. Lars kept pestering me for details until I filled him in. He sounded equal parts fascinated and amused. “Is there anything beer can’t do?”

When one arm grew tired, I switched to the other. Crude but serviceable. I bumped the CPU speed up to 2x, this time with no signs of instability whatsoever. Emboldened, I jumped straight to 3x. Still no judder, still no artifacts.

So I continued ratcheting it higher and higher until the first signs of overheating manifested, this time around 8x. I noticed it was really sucking down the battery, so I plugged the laptop’s charger in, then connected the other end to the 12 volt adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. The little fellows at my feet were only half charged, but that could wait.

With the power issue sorted, all that remained was to watch events unfold in almost incomprehensibly accelerated motion on the laptop screen. Virtual Helper had somehow hijacked a tank and was speeding around in search of more substantial targets. Like police stations...or hospitals.

^{Stay Tuned for Part 56!}

#books #horror #scifi #stories

6 years ago in #writing by alexbeyman (74)

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kwadjobonsu (66) 6 years ago (edited)

It's good to know someone gets how stressful it is to overclock. It's like you always have to find the right multiplier, else you could end up frying the CPU or GPU. It was very wise of her to use a beer as a coolant. That was great thinking.

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rothberg (58) 6 years ago

Virtual Helper had somehow hijacked a tank and was speeding around in search of more substantial targets. Like police stations...or hospitals.

Wow! I was hoping he gets to safe Helper in this part. Instead we have to wait for the next one. Obviously, he knows what he is doing. It is very well written this entire action the way with CPU speed, cooling with the beer... At that moment I also believe both Madeline and Lars hope he safes Helper.

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junelinarez (43) 6 years ago

That virus must have a weak point, how hard is to get it and the time you have is not enough, plus your laptop that does not generate the strength or the necessary potential to control helper, more than as you say you did not care about have a good CPU since your mind was in making robot and also get revenge for those who caused you harm.

I hope that what you are doing is for helper to come back to itself.

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joshuaetim (61) 6 years ago

It would take only a genius to think that beer could replace water as a coolant. And so, when in doubt, improvise....

"For lack of water, I used beer as the coolant, and one of the cans as the heat sink that I mated to the CPU die."

Compelling....

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edgarcastillo87 (46) 6 years ago

I've always said things get in the way of something or they're just for something this time, big red gives Lars a few beers plus a cooler that makes you think that what it does is occupy space in the truck and without any benefit of step that Lars can get drunk, but look this time was given a good use to beer that is not a good drunk, I hope everything goes well and the laptop does not explode.
Please invest in laptop upgrades, since you can mine and make profits for more hehehe robot parts.