Chapter Three

   Jaden dropped her keys into an empty bowl on her desk. She sighed and just stared at the wall. She didn’t know how long she stood there, but she was startled when she heard Eli clear his throat.

   He was sitting at his desk adjacent to hers. Eli was balancing a pencil between his fingers and staring at her. She sat in her chair and leaned back to stare at the ceiling.

    “Rough day at the meeting?” he asked.

    “We are about to lose our funding,” she said.

    Eli dropped his pencil, “What? What do you mean?”

    “People have been hacking into the AI robots and using them to terrorize humans,” she explained. “Of course, this is based on an isolated incident in South Korea.”

    “Awesome,” Eli grumbled.

    “We have to convince the government that it’s virtually impossible for someone to manipulate our robots,” she said.

    “It doesn’t sound like an answer they are looking for,” said Eli. “Someone could potentially hack in and turn our robots against us.”

    “How do we prevent it?” she asked.

    Eli shrugged, “An antivirus program?”

    “Seriously?” she sneered at him.

    “We could program it to know what actions are wrong,” he said.

    “What if hackers were to change that?” she asked

    Eli turned his computer began typing. Jaden felt like the project has come to an end. Eli was looking at her from the corner of his eye.

    “Uno is coming along well in our latest project,” he said.

    “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but the president put all AI projects on hiatus,” she said.

    He sighed with frustration, “Well, the program in Uno could shed some light on any solution. He may even prevent us from closing.”

    They locked their computers and headed downstairs. They walked through a hall that was underneath the busy city street.  They walked through doors that swung open automatically for them. They entered the lobby of a laboratory.

    The secretary glanced at them, “Dr. Zephyr is in the back.”

    “Thank you,” they said in unison.

    They pass the clients waiting in the lobby. They entered the office were Dr. Zephyr was looking at vials. She placed them into a rack full of vials and placed them into the freezer.

    “You guys are here to check on Uno?” she asked. They nodded. “He’s in the nursery; I’ll take you there.”

    They walked through a hall to a nursery full of babies. Uno was holding a baby and feeding it. Jaden never realized that the robots could look at anything so affectionately.

    “I almost don’t want to disturb them,” said Jaden.

    “We are programming parenting skills into Uno,” said Eli. “That way when he makes it to whatever destination, he will have the appropriate skills to care for a young human being. Once we have the go-ahead, we will train more robots.”

   “What does this have to do with anything with our problem?” asked Jaden. “We can’t be working on projects until further notice.”

    Dr. Zephyr looked shocked, “Is it safe for Uno to be in here?”

    “Yes,” Jaden nodded feeling annoyed. “The president does not want any AI on any new projects until we find a method to prevent hackers from breaching the database.”

    “This project started two months ago and NASA was already approved on this project several months ago,” said Eli.

    “Well, we should consider improving the safety and security of the advanced technology before shooting it into outer space,” said Jaden.

   “Awesome that something advanced needs to needs improvement,” he muttered.

   “Uno is going to have to wrap it up because we need him,” said Jaden.

    “What about the clients in the lobby?” asked Dr. Zephyr. “They are waiting to donate to the project.”

    Jaden sighed, “Oh, that’s right. Go ahead and accept donations. Our project with the robots will resume once we know what can once we know that we can avoid a security breach.”

Reviews

[wtp]

Nice. You clarified that Uno is different from the other rescue robots, and alluded to a special NASA project. Something to keep the reader engaged!
I am a little mystified by Dr. Zephyr's freezer full of vials, so I will be looking for more on that in future chapters.

Two nitpicks:
(1) I think you can strike "needs to" in the following sentence: “Awesome that something advanced needs to needs improvement,”.
(2) I couldn't quite parse the last sentence: "Our project with the robots will resume once we know what can once we know that we can avoid a security breach"
I rewrote this in my head as "Our project with the robots will resume once we know that we can avoid a security breach."

Thanks for sharing!

P.S. If the nitpicks are not useful, please let me know. I can omit them from reviews of future chapters.

[Jennifer]

Yeah, I think I have been trying to type with a loud mouth in the background. I have some typo issues using Dragon to lol. Typically, I notice repetition while editing.

[Franky]

this is an exciting story Jennifer. I have no idea of where you are going with this but I hope you keep me interested. You have definitely skill as a story teller. I also like that your chapters aren't overly long. That helps.

[Jennifer]

Thank-you! I get my inspiration from James Patterson. I have reached the last three chapters, but they look like I tried to speed it along. I have been writing some additional chapters and debating about adding them.