3| Breakdown Page 3

  7. Bright red and stubborn

  At the bottom of the snowy abyss, something moved. It was Laika who had woken up. Luckily she was not buried underneath the snow. The dog began sniffing around as soon as she got to her feet. She started scratching the surface of the pile of snow with her paws and soon she had dug a considerable deep hole in the snow.

  Mickey could hear the dog digging and he was extremely delighted when he felt Laika's wet nose touch his cheek. When the dog had uncovered Mickey's head and shoulders he could free himself from the strong icy clasp of the snow.

  After that he turned his attention to the dog immediately. He petted and cuddled her as he was grateful the creature had just saved his life. But then a fright came over him as he realised Lynne was not there.

  "Lynne." he said distraught. She must have been buried underneath the snow as he was. "Come on, Laika. Sniff her out. Where is Lynne? Find Lynne, Laika. Where is Lynne?" Mickey urged the dog to help him find the Daughter he had become so fond of. He sank to his knees and started shifting the snow with his hand as fast as he could.

  Lynne had indeed suffered a similar fate to Mickey. She was also buried underneath the pile of snow somewhere, but she wasn't aware of this because she was still unconscious.

  It didn't take Mickey and Laika long to find Lynne and they quickly uncovered her from the densely packed snow. Mickey was quite distressed when he noticed she was not conscious, but Laika had a remedy for that.

  The dog licked Lynne's face and barked softly every once in a while. It made Lynne wake up with a start because she got quite a fright, seeing the dog up close to her face like that.

  Luckily Mickey was there to comfort her and he helped her to sit up straight and recover from this ordeal they had so suddenly plunged into.

  ---

  Annika, Rose and the Doctor were heading to the generator room in the defected elevator in order to prevent it from losing its grip on the cable and going into a free fall. On their approach they heard a clanging noise coming from the generator room. It was the same sound the Doctor and Rose heard when they had discovered the loose wiring.

  When they rushed into the generator room they stumbled upon a robot. The two women stopped in their tracks, causing the Doctor to bump into Rose, almost toppling her over.

  The robot was human shaped and just over four feet tall. Its amazingly fluently moving body was made entirely of metal and it was painted bright red.

  "A robot." Rose stated.

  "Oh, it's harmless." Annika said as she went past it to the indicators on the generator.

  "A repair droid." the Doctor said, obviously intrigued, "flashing colour, for this period." he added.

  "Yes it's the latest model in artificial intelligence, a government regulation, but I can't say I am very pleased with it." Annika replied as she started to work the controls of the docking clamps.

  "I can see why." Rose said worried, looking at the repair droid with suspicion, "It doesn't seem to be doing much repairing."

  Rose was right. Sparks came flying from the wiring which the robot was working on. At the same time the generator began to falter. The robot was ripping up the circuits, not repairing them! The circuits it had exposed now were those of the generator and the main power supply.

  "It must have been ripping up systems all over this elevator. How do we stop it?" Rose said concerned.

  "By using the magic word." the Doctor replied wittingly, but Rose was none the wiser.

  "Repair droid R1." the designation of the robot was written in white on its back, "Please stop." the Doctor said.

  The robot ceased whatever it was doing and turned to face the one speaking to it.

  The Doctor could have ordered to deactivate itself but he couldn't resist being curious. He asked the AI-robot for its motive.

  "Why did you do all this?" he asked gravely.

  "I must." the robot replied briefly, which did not satisfy the Doctor.

  "To what purpose?"

  "To repair." the robot stated. It was a confusing contradiction.

  "But you are not repairing those circuits you are cutting them loose, you are destroying them." the Doctor said. He did not understand why the robot contradicted itself.

  "They no longer serve their purpose. They must be removed because they are beyond repair." the robot clarified, but there was a flaw in its reasoning and the Doctor had to pursue that.

  "If those no longer serve their purpose and are beyond repair then you no longer serve yours. Why are you still here trying to repair this thing? You are destroying this elevator. We'll crash if you keep doing this. Why don't you just remove yourself from here?!" the Doctor said angrily. He was agitated by the robot's stubbornness.

  "I cannot. I am assigned to repair." the robot said blandly.

  "Can't you see, your own reasoning is faulty. Why can't people programme their machines properly?" the Doctor stopped his futile attempt to correct the robot's flaw and sighed.

  "I am sorry." the robot said suddenly after a short period of silence.

  "What?-" the Doctor exclaimed. He looked genuinely surprised and concerned.

  "I am sorry." the robot repeated.

  "What?" Annika asked the Doctor what had surprised him so much.

  "I must repair." the robot stated its primary goal and turned back to the wiring.

  "No-" the Doctor yelled, but it was too late.

  The robot cut the wires and the generator fell silent.

  Annika rushed to deploy the clamps, but she didn't have enough time to complete the sequence.

  Slowly the elevator began to move. It slid downwards, hesitantly at first but soon it was rushing to the Earth's surface with incredible speed.