Consequences of a Malicious Act

Sam Maxwell was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He periodically glanced at his cleaning robot. Sam was proud of this robot. It was his first prototype and it was selling like mad. He had designed this robot to handle all household chores except preparing and serving meals. His second design was a landscape robot that took care of the lawn and bushes and also shoveled the snow. His third design was the kitchen robot who prepared and served meals. The kitchen robot was malfunctioning.

Sam's laptop was on the coffee table. It was powered up and displayed the design of the coordination unit inside the kitchen robot. The coordination unit coordinated the software unit with the mechanical movements of the robot.

Sam had detected malicious viral activity in the coordination unit. Sam figured that the virus probably infected the computer before the software was transferred from the computer to the robot. The aim was clearly sabotage. Sam suspected that the culprit was a disgruntled employee who had been fired six months ago.

The doorbell rang. The cleaning robot opened the door and invited Sam's good friend, Jack Wilson, in.

Jack had designed the maintenance robot which was capable of repairing all other robots. It was also capable of finding it's way to any home. This was the maintenance robots first repair off the site.

The first thing Jack noted was the cabinet blocking the kitchen door, but he did not say anything.

"Hi Jack", Sam closed his laptop and rose from the couch. He extended his hand across the coffee table. After shaking hands, Sam offered Jack the reclining chair adjacent to the couch.

Jack thanked Sam and sat down. "Hi Sam, How are you?"

"Fine. And you?"

"I'm okay." Jack took out his remote control and activated the maintenance robot which was in Jack's truck. "So what is the problem?"

Sam lifted his leg up and rested it on the coffee table. Then he pulled up his blood stained pants and unwrapped a nasty cut on his leg. The blood had begun to clot. Sam pointed to the cut.

"How did that happen?" asked Jack.

"I requested a cup of coffee. The kitchen robot came out and attacked me." Sam took the remote control out of his pocket, "I deactivated the robot, but it can reactivate itself at will."

"That's what I figured when I saw your kitchen door."

They heard a loud noise. The kitchen robot had slammed it's mechanical arm against the door.

Then they heard the doorbell ring.

The cleaning robot opened the door. The maintenance robot came in and proceeded toward the kitchen door.

"We have to manually remove the power source from the robot."

Immediately after the maintenance robot moved the cabinet over, the kitchen robot pushed the kitchen door open real hard. It tackled the maintenance robot and both fell to the floor.

Sam limped over to the kitchen robot and laid over it. He grabbed the kitchen robot's arms.

The kitchen robot stood up and bent over while yanking it's arms forward slamming Sam on the floor beside the maintenance robot.

The maintenance robot grabbed the kitchen robot by both arms and pushed the robot against the cabinet.

Sam was stunned. It took him a few moments to rise to his feet. The kitchen robot grabbed Sam's legs and slammed Sam body against the floor again. Then the kitchen robot started twisting Sam's leg.

"Jack, Jack, Where are you?" Sam yelled.

The front door opened and Jack came in. He pointed a gun at the kitchen robot.

The kitchen robot released Sam and grabbed the maintenance robot, using it as a shield.

Jack hesitated. The history of the maintenance robot flashed through his mind. He recalled the years of research, the repeated request for government funding, the assembly of the maintenance robot, the programming and testing of the robot. Not knowing about the virus; Jack assumed that after this incident, there is no way he would receive funding to build any robot.

Jack lowered the gun.

The kitchen robot lowered the maintenance robot to see what Jack was up to. Jack quickly raised the gun and fired in an attempt to disable the robot's visual cortex. The bullet went through the kitchen robots head and into the door. The kitchen robot fell to the floor.

The maintenance robot quickly rolled the kitchen robot over and loosened the cover on the kitchen robots upper back. Then the maintenance robot reached in and removed the power source.

Sam sighed in relief. Suddenly the kitchen robot grabbed Sam's leg and squeezed. Sam yelled in pain. Jack fired the gun again and the kitchen robot released Sam's leg.

Sam looked at Jack. "Residual energy."

Jack shook his head in agreement. He took out his cell phone and dialed the police. He told them to send an ambulance.