Ficathon entry: A Medical Dilemma
Title: A Medical Dilemma
Author: chobit001
Written for: babycharmander
Rating: PG-13 (Think medical drama and you'll see why)
Characters: D-FIB, BR-LA, EVE, sly nod to WALL-E
Word count: 1,925
Warnings: Takes place in the movie towards the end of the fic, but mostly pre-movie so nothing too spoilerish...I think ^_^
Summary: D-FIB gets shipped to the repair ward. The experience is more than...shocking...
Notes: A VERY special thank you goes to aliaras for her beta and words of wisdom! I swear you think grammar would be easy for me, but it's not. Huge thank you!!!
“CLEAR!”
ZAP! A jolt of electricity shot through the patient’s chest, jump-starting his heart. Although the patient wasn’t conscious, his heart palpitations beeped rhythmically on the electrocardiogram.
It was a good sign…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The D-FIB robot units were created for medical emergencies aboard the BnL starliner fleets. D-FIBs were assisted by other medical robots that would perform surgeries, examinations, and administer medicine to the thousands of humans living in space. They replaced the need for “living” doctors and nurses.
While some feared and abhorred the change from human to robot doctors, it quickly caught on out of necessity. People were walking and exercising less since the introduction of the hover chairs, the microgravity contributed to bone density loss, and the dependency on eating "food-in-a-cup" led to poor eating habits and bad health.
These changes meant that the medical robots would be busier than ever.
If a human was injured or suffering from a heart attack or stroke, an alert would be sent out from the hover chair to a medical robot unit close by. The injured party would be discreetly shuttled off to the medical ward for treatment.
Why the secrecy? No human knew the answer, but as the robots slowly gained control over the BnL starships, it was assumed perfection was meant to be the standard, not the ideal.
From the perspective of most robots, death and suffering were clear imperfections and had to be dealt with right away. If it could not be fixed, it would be disposed of.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“CLEAR!”
The D-FIB zapped the same human again, sending the man’s vitals spiraling off the charts.
“WRONG!” a doctor-bot similar in style to the GEL-A’s yelled. This particular D-FIB never did this before and the doctor-bot was both alarmed and taken aback. Her first shock was good enough…she SHOULD have known better. The Doctor-bot watched in fear as the D-FIB geared up to jolt the patient again. He thrust out his arm towards the D-FIB.
“CLEAR!” D-FIB yelled just before darkness suddenly overtook her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hours later D-FIB was rebooted. During her reboot sequence she would analyze her surroundings before doing anything else. However when her analysis retrieved no data she became confused. Somehow she was no longer in the medical ward. But how did that happen?
The last thing she remembered was working on a human going into cardiac arrest. She had completed her directive on him as she had done successfully on so many other humans before.
At least, that’s what she thought…
Maybe she was second guessing her programming, but, she felt the need to help him. Even though his heart was started, something didn’t seem right to her.
But that wasn’t normal for her, why would she second guess anything? She must have done something wrong, or she would still be in the medical ward.
D-FIB analyzed her environment again, realizing she was in a holding cell surrounded by other imprisoned robots. She also noticed a red power cord on her and the other robots’ heads.
It couldn’t be true…it had to be some sort of joke! She struggled to find a way out of her cell. But she, like all the other “defective” robots was still there, confined to a solitary cell.
There was no denying the proof of the red cord: D-FIB was in the repair ward. She never would’ve imagined that she would end up here. She had witnessed other D-FIB models getting shipped off, but that was due to fatal errors they had occurred. The minute it happened they were whisked away to the repair ward.
And she never saw them again.
Not knowing what became of those D-FIBs, she had made it her personal vow to succeed on every patient. She wouldn’t end up in the repair ward like her sisters. She would be the crème de crème of D-FIBS, and she would prove it to her medical-bot superiors.
Obviously something had gone terribly wrong.
“CLLLLLEEEAR!!!” D-FIB yelled in frustration as she pressed her arms outward on the cell walls. The electrical spark disabled her cell walls, allowing her to roam free.
Sadly she wasn’t free for long: two pairs of robotic arms grabbed her in a headlock. She was bound roughly and placed in a subset room called “Diagnostics”.
Three white, slender docking stations, attached to each other in a circular frame stood in the middle of the room. Hanging from above the structure was a revolving storage device that held several different robot arms. These arms ranged from simple claw-like hands to polishers and window wipers. They would emerge from their slots and travel freely about the three frames, switching in order to perform different tests and functions. The assortment of devices was intimidating and somewhat terrifying for D-FIB. She hoped they would not all be used for her inspection!
Suddenly a squealing sound brought D-FIB’s attention away from the devices. She looked in the direction where the sound came from. Apparently another robot was being tested on in one of the docking stations. This robot was called a BR-LA and literally was a working umbrella-bot. This particular BR-LA was being inspected for opening inside out.
She shook her head in disbelief. She tried hard not to think of the poor BR-LA, much less her current situation. Maybe it was best to think positively: perhaps her fatal error would be diagnosed, treated, and then she could be released to continue with her directive.
Once she was settled in her docking station, a robotic hand placed a cushion in front of her. Then a massive voice from a hidden speaker relayed instructions on what to do with the cushion. It told her how she was to shock the cushion five times in a row successfully before the repair ward staff would make a decision about her release.
She relaxed, grateful that the test would be easy.
She would prove to these repair bots that what happened in the morning was only a miscalculation. After all, she prided herself on being THE most accurate D-FIB on the Axiom.
“CLEAR!”
She gave the cushion a jolt but was shocked to see it light up in flames. Quickly a robotic arm carrying a fire extinguisher zoomed down her station to put out the flame. Then another free arm replaced the charred cushion with a fresh one, relaying the same instructions to D-FIB.
“CLEAR!!!” she yelled again, sparking the cushion. It too caught on fire.
What was going on? Had something she did to the man earlier caused this error? She counted herself lucky that she didn’t set the poor man on fire!
Not knowing what became of her patient, she almost wished she could travel back in time just to identify the source of her glitch. Perhaps then she would find a way to resolve her problem.
Nevertheless, she found some small comfort in the fact that the BR-LA was also having trouble with its diagnostic test. Every time he tried opening up he failed, leaving an aggravated robotic arm to pry him back down. She almost wanted to commiserate with him over their mutually unsatisfactory situation, but neither of them were particularly talkative robots.
“CLEAR!” she yelled again, setting another cushion on fire. D-FIB watched as another robot-arm put out the fire. She was starting to get impatient. She attempted the test two more times, but the results were the same.
She’d had it. Exasperated beyond her limits she gave up and just pounded her hands together, beginning to charge them.
“CLEEEEEEEEEAR!”
D-FIB blacked out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moments later D-FIB was powered back up. She sighed robotically upon realizing that she was still in the repair ward. She had become so angry that she lost focus with the diagnostic test. She hoped that by shocking herself they would stop the testing.
But the testing was far from over and D-FIB felt discouraged as she saw another cushion placed before her. They weren’t going to give up on her, so why should she?
She eyed the cushion, not sure whether to try again, then looked towards the chamber door, hoping there was a way to bust out. Instead she let out a “robotic beep” that sounded like a sigh. She jolted the cushion, just like she had done all the other times
This time nothing happened.
FINALLY… SUCCESS! She thought. Even the service arms were shocked. Now that she had passed once they placed a different item in front of her to try. It was the next item in the sequence of five that was required for her to pass the test. She tried shocking the new item but this time it burst into flame. A rather loud siren resounded in the diagnostic chamber, further highlighting her error.
Back to square one. Though this time D-FIB was more convinced she could get out. She had passed one out of the five tests, even if it took her five times to do it.
Perhaps it would be the same with this new item. Surely the repair machines would notice the correlation.
But five tests passed and as she did her 6th, it too ended in failure. Now she was just failing test after test with nothing even close to a victory. The BR-LA next to her wasn't showing any signs of improvement either. The repair ward was truly a dead end.
D-FIB was about to give in again to her impatience when something peculiar caught her eye: an EVE probe.
That was startling…an EVE in the repair ward? That was almost…unheard of! Those robots NEVER broke down!
But D-FIB couldn’t be distracted by the testing going on with the EVE; she still had a task to accomplish, no matter how frustrating and helpless it seemed.
And now she could take even more consolation that the most advanced robot on the ship; next to AUTO had its share of problems. It put things into perspective for D-FIB: a robot was a robot, prone to the same mechanical errors and damage. One wasn’t necessarily stronger than the other.
Suddenly, glass shattered everywhere; the devices operating on her ceased working, and the doors of the repair ward were opened.
D-FIB didn’t know what happened but she definitely knew that this was the break she needed. She was ready to fly away from the repair ward for good and back into freedom.
But an overwhelming sense of gratitude prevented her from taking two steps further. She wanted to thank the robot who had released her.
“WALL E!!!!” a voice scolded. D-FIB looked in the direction of the EVE probe. EVE was glaring menacingly at a trash-bot holding one of her arms.
Was it this robot that had saved her and the other reject bots? It seemed impossible. He didn’t look particularly special, and he certainly didn’t look powerful; but there he was, quivering as he held the EVE probe’s gun-arm. Clearly he had stopped the service-bots by using EVE’s arm.
The room suddenly busted with activity as a horde of robots came rushing in. D-FIB also found herself getting swept up in the commotion. It was hard not to get swept away. This robot was a hero! He had accomplished the impossible, to which she and everyone else in the repair ward were grateful.
D-FIB didn’t even care anymore that she still had a glitch. In time she would figure out a way to diagnose the problem. But for now she wanted to bask in the freedom she shared with the reject bots and the rescuer garbage-bot.
She only hoped it wouldn’t be short lived…
Fin.
Author: chobit001
Written for: babycharmander
Rating: PG-13 (Think medical drama and you'll see why)
Characters: D-FIB, BR-LA, EVE, sly nod to WALL-E
Word count: 1,925
Warnings: Takes place in the movie towards the end of the fic, but mostly pre-movie so nothing too spoilerish...I think ^_^
Summary: D-FIB gets shipped to the repair ward. The experience is more than...shocking...
Notes: A VERY special thank you goes to aliaras for her beta and words of wisdom! I swear you think grammar would be easy for me, but it's not. Huge thank you!!!
“CLEAR!”
ZAP! A jolt of electricity shot through the patient’s chest, jump-starting his heart. Although the patient wasn’t conscious, his heart palpitations beeped rhythmically on the electrocardiogram.
It was a good sign…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The D-FIB robot units were created for medical emergencies aboard the BnL starliner fleets. D-FIBs were assisted by other medical robots that would perform surgeries, examinations, and administer medicine to the thousands of humans living in space. They replaced the need for “living” doctors and nurses.
While some feared and abhorred the change from human to robot doctors, it quickly caught on out of necessity. People were walking and exercising less since the introduction of the hover chairs, the microgravity contributed to bone density loss, and the dependency on eating "food-in-a-cup" led to poor eating habits and bad health.
These changes meant that the medical robots would be busier than ever.
If a human was injured or suffering from a heart attack or stroke, an alert would be sent out from the hover chair to a medical robot unit close by. The injured party would be discreetly shuttled off to the medical ward for treatment.
Why the secrecy? No human knew the answer, but as the robots slowly gained control over the BnL starships, it was assumed perfection was meant to be the standard, not the ideal.
From the perspective of most robots, death and suffering were clear imperfections and had to be dealt with right away. If it could not be fixed, it would be disposed of.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“CLEAR!”
The D-FIB zapped the same human again, sending the man’s vitals spiraling off the charts.
“WRONG!” a doctor-bot similar in style to the GEL-A’s yelled. This particular D-FIB never did this before and the doctor-bot was both alarmed and taken aback. Her first shock was good enough…she SHOULD have known better. The Doctor-bot watched in fear as the D-FIB geared up to jolt the patient again. He thrust out his arm towards the D-FIB.
“CLEAR!” D-FIB yelled just before darkness suddenly overtook her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hours later D-FIB was rebooted. During her reboot sequence she would analyze her surroundings before doing anything else. However when her analysis retrieved no data she became confused. Somehow she was no longer in the medical ward. But how did that happen?
The last thing she remembered was working on a human going into cardiac arrest. She had completed her directive on him as she had done successfully on so many other humans before.
At least, that’s what she thought…
Maybe she was second guessing her programming, but, she felt the need to help him. Even though his heart was started, something didn’t seem right to her.
But that wasn’t normal for her, why would she second guess anything? She must have done something wrong, or she would still be in the medical ward.
D-FIB analyzed her environment again, realizing she was in a holding cell surrounded by other imprisoned robots. She also noticed a red power cord on her and the other robots’ heads.
It couldn’t be true…it had to be some sort of joke! She struggled to find a way out of her cell. But she, like all the other “defective” robots was still there, confined to a solitary cell.
There was no denying the proof of the red cord: D-FIB was in the repair ward. She never would’ve imagined that she would end up here. She had witnessed other D-FIB models getting shipped off, but that was due to fatal errors they had occurred. The minute it happened they were whisked away to the repair ward.
And she never saw them again.
Not knowing what became of those D-FIBs, she had made it her personal vow to succeed on every patient. She wouldn’t end up in the repair ward like her sisters. She would be the crème de crème of D-FIBS, and she would prove it to her medical-bot superiors.
Obviously something had gone terribly wrong.
“CLLLLLEEEAR!!!” D-FIB yelled in frustration as she pressed her arms outward on the cell walls. The electrical spark disabled her cell walls, allowing her to roam free.
Sadly she wasn’t free for long: two pairs of robotic arms grabbed her in a headlock. She was bound roughly and placed in a subset room called “Diagnostics”.
Three white, slender docking stations, attached to each other in a circular frame stood in the middle of the room. Hanging from above the structure was a revolving storage device that held several different robot arms. These arms ranged from simple claw-like hands to polishers and window wipers. They would emerge from their slots and travel freely about the three frames, switching in order to perform different tests and functions. The assortment of devices was intimidating and somewhat terrifying for D-FIB. She hoped they would not all be used for her inspection!
Suddenly a squealing sound brought D-FIB’s attention away from the devices. She looked in the direction where the sound came from. Apparently another robot was being tested on in one of the docking stations. This robot was called a BR-LA and literally was a working umbrella-bot. This particular BR-LA was being inspected for opening inside out.
She shook her head in disbelief. She tried hard not to think of the poor BR-LA, much less her current situation. Maybe it was best to think positively: perhaps her fatal error would be diagnosed, treated, and then she could be released to continue with her directive.
Once she was settled in her docking station, a robotic hand placed a cushion in front of her. Then a massive voice from a hidden speaker relayed instructions on what to do with the cushion. It told her how she was to shock the cushion five times in a row successfully before the repair ward staff would make a decision about her release.
She relaxed, grateful that the test would be easy.
She would prove to these repair bots that what happened in the morning was only a miscalculation. After all, she prided herself on being THE most accurate D-FIB on the Axiom.
“CLEAR!”
She gave the cushion a jolt but was shocked to see it light up in flames. Quickly a robotic arm carrying a fire extinguisher zoomed down her station to put out the flame. Then another free arm replaced the charred cushion with a fresh one, relaying the same instructions to D-FIB.
“CLEAR!!!” she yelled again, sparking the cushion. It too caught on fire.
What was going on? Had something she did to the man earlier caused this error? She counted herself lucky that she didn’t set the poor man on fire!
Not knowing what became of her patient, she almost wished she could travel back in time just to identify the source of her glitch. Perhaps then she would find a way to resolve her problem.
Nevertheless, she found some small comfort in the fact that the BR-LA was also having trouble with its diagnostic test. Every time he tried opening up he failed, leaving an aggravated robotic arm to pry him back down. She almost wanted to commiserate with him over their mutually unsatisfactory situation, but neither of them were particularly talkative robots.
“CLEAR!” she yelled again, setting another cushion on fire. D-FIB watched as another robot-arm put out the fire. She was starting to get impatient. She attempted the test two more times, but the results were the same.
She’d had it. Exasperated beyond her limits she gave up and just pounded her hands together, beginning to charge them.
“CLEEEEEEEEEAR!”
D-FIB blacked out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moments later D-FIB was powered back up. She sighed robotically upon realizing that she was still in the repair ward. She had become so angry that she lost focus with the diagnostic test. She hoped that by shocking herself they would stop the testing.
But the testing was far from over and D-FIB felt discouraged as she saw another cushion placed before her. They weren’t going to give up on her, so why should she?
She eyed the cushion, not sure whether to try again, then looked towards the chamber door, hoping there was a way to bust out. Instead she let out a “robotic beep” that sounded like a sigh. She jolted the cushion, just like she had done all the other times
This time nothing happened.
FINALLY… SUCCESS! She thought. Even the service arms were shocked. Now that she had passed once they placed a different item in front of her to try. It was the next item in the sequence of five that was required for her to pass the test. She tried shocking the new item but this time it burst into flame. A rather loud siren resounded in the diagnostic chamber, further highlighting her error.
Back to square one. Though this time D-FIB was more convinced she could get out. She had passed one out of the five tests, even if it took her five times to do it.
Perhaps it would be the same with this new item. Surely the repair machines would notice the correlation.
But five tests passed and as she did her 6th, it too ended in failure. Now she was just failing test after test with nothing even close to a victory. The BR-LA next to her wasn't showing any signs of improvement either. The repair ward was truly a dead end.
D-FIB was about to give in again to her impatience when something peculiar caught her eye: an EVE probe.
That was startling…an EVE in the repair ward? That was almost…unheard of! Those robots NEVER broke down!
But D-FIB couldn’t be distracted by the testing going on with the EVE; she still had a task to accomplish, no matter how frustrating and helpless it seemed.
And now she could take even more consolation that the most advanced robot on the ship; next to AUTO had its share of problems. It put things into perspective for D-FIB: a robot was a robot, prone to the same mechanical errors and damage. One wasn’t necessarily stronger than the other.
Suddenly, glass shattered everywhere; the devices operating on her ceased working, and the doors of the repair ward were opened.
D-FIB didn’t know what happened but she definitely knew that this was the break she needed. She was ready to fly away from the repair ward for good and back into freedom.
But an overwhelming sense of gratitude prevented her from taking two steps further. She wanted to thank the robot who had released her.
“WALL E!!!!” a voice scolded. D-FIB looked in the direction of the EVE probe. EVE was glaring menacingly at a trash-bot holding one of her arms.
Was it this robot that had saved her and the other reject bots? It seemed impossible. He didn’t look particularly special, and he certainly didn’t look powerful; but there he was, quivering as he held the EVE probe’s gun-arm. Clearly he had stopped the service-bots by using EVE’s arm.
The room suddenly busted with activity as a horde of robots came rushing in. D-FIB also found herself getting swept up in the commotion. It was hard not to get swept away. This robot was a hero! He had accomplished the impossible, to which she and everyone else in the repair ward were grateful.
D-FIB didn’t even care anymore that she still had a glitch. In time she would figure out a way to diagnose the problem. But for now she wanted to bask in the freedom she shared with the reject bots and the rescuer garbage-bot.
She only hoped it wouldn’t be short lived…
Fin.