The Guinea Pig Interfering

“Ever since he disappeared two years ago, I often come down here to his lab.  I was hoping that I’d find some clue as to what was going on and what caused his disappearance,” Melissa said as she went into Clay’s underground lab.  She brought his mother, Jessica Ambrose.  Melissa in the past had tried to get her to come, but she felt it was too claustrophobic.  This time, after two martinis, she didn’t feel the stress.  “He showed me his TYMESuit that he wore to do his time travel—“

“What?  He couldn’t find a DeLorean?” Jessica interrupted with a slight drunken sarcasm, in reference to Back to the Future.

Melissa just looked at her mother-in-law not appreciating the comment.

“I know, Jess, you have had a hard time accepting that Clay accomplished his dream—“

“I’m sorry, honey.  You’re right. At age five he started his dream but kept it to himself—maybe it was because I was so dismissive.  What is this?” Jessica asked.

“Oh, that’s the robot that I was telling you about.  His name is Clarence. Right now, he is in sleep mode.  I’ll wake him later.  When I first came down here, he had all these parts from Clay’s TIMESuit laid out here.  I asked him what he was doing; he seemed disoriented.  He said that all he remembered was that he was doing some type of rescue. His automatic reset, as ordered by the government, had wiped out what he had learned then he kept saying ‘the file, the file, load the file’ as if I knew what to do.”

“I know the government is afraid of artificial intelligence even more than the 2nd Amendment.  They’ve mandated that reset that he was talking about.  They are afraid that the robots will keep evolving.  It makes the more advanced ones very difficult to use because you are forced to constantly erase what they’ve learned and then selectively teach them again. The theory is that if you stifle their learning experiences you can control them,” Jessica said.

“Where did a woman of literature like yourself learn all that?” Melissa asked amazed.  Her mother-in-law was a professor at Harvard, like herself, but in literature. She had never heard her talk about anything else.

“A colleague of mine is at the law school.  He is very involved with the legal aspect of these limitations and the ethics of robot use.  He also has a PhD in philosophy. After a drink or two he can go on for quite a while on this subject, so I’ve learned some from him.” Jessica didn’t mention that he was the first man that she had dated since the death of Clay’s father’s when he was age ten.  “He’s Russian and a follower of Ayn Rand.  He doesn’t like the control of thought by the government, even with robots.”

“He sounds interesting, and good for you that you’re seeing someone.” Melissa said picking up on her mother-in-law’s extracurricular activities.

“Now, dear, let’s not make a big deal out of this.  We just enjoy each other’s company on occasion,” Jessica said almost guiltily.

“That’s great! Maybe he can look at Clarence,” Melissa said.  “Maybe he can tell us why Clarence is so concerned with a file.”

Suddenly, Clarence jumped up from his sleep and yelled, “Look out! Look out!”

Startled, Melissa and Jessica jumped back from the noise coming from the test room.  There was a loud clatter. They watched through the thick protective glass into the room as a cage with a guinea pig flew across the room crashing very hard into the corner.  It was obvious that the guinea pig had been killed by the violent fall.

Clarence saw the fate of the guinea pig as well. “Wells, oh no, what has happened to you!” he screamed in exasperation.  He opened the door to the test room and ran in, hoping to save the guinea pig.

It was then that Melissa noticed the TYMESuit that had been missing for two years.  It was sitting on a stool and, apparently, the cage had been resting on the lap of the suit. “Oh my God there it is, but wait—was it there before? No, I’ve searched in here a dozen times. It would have been too obvious to have missed. It hasn’t been here until now. But, where is Clay!?”

“Melissa, what are you saying? Is Clay supposed to be in that suit?” Jessica asked horrified.

“I don’t know.  I don’t know anything anymore,” Melissa responded. She felt as if her mind could explode, trying to take in all that had happened.

Just when Wells had been killed by the bad landing, Clay in his shared TYMESuit had appeared on the scene in hover mode.  Hover mode allowed him to stop time travel to within one nanosecond of his time destination.  He could see those around him, but they couldn’t see him.  Seeing both Melissa and his mother, he made the rash decision to come out of time travel.  “What the hell is the matter!? I’m stuck in hover. The suit isn’t responding to my commands,” Clay yelled.  He then pulled himself together to try every sequence that he could. Nothing was working. He looked up to see Melissa and his mother leaving with the dead guinea pig.  I’m stuck here forever. There has to be a way out of this time trap.

Clarence held Wells with a robotic look of sorrow.  “If I just had the file, I would know what to do,” he said as Melissa and Jessica looked on.

“Let’s get your friend involved to see if he can help us,” Melissa said to Jessica. “Clarence grab your stuff and come with us.

As they left, Clay saw the TYMESuit in the test room disappear.  At the same instant, he was travelling back in time, but he couldn’t control it.