Grey Goo

  “Mr. Que, sleeping is not authorized during work hours. Wake up.”

  Henry was jolted awake, a towering figure leaning against his cubicle.

  “Huh?”

  Henry looked up at him confused — he had completely forgotten where he was.

  “Additionally, you missed the deadline. You will be working mandatory overtime, and your pay will be docked.”

  “The deadline? What are you talking about…? Wait! I didn't miss it! It’s finished! Here, I have it on my desk, let me just get it for you!” Henry said in a panic. He started frantically scanning his desk for a document. His desk was covered in scattered papers, so it took a moment, but he found one in the pile. Which he quickly picked up and handed to his boss anxiously. His boss was a large imposing figure, more of a brute than an office worker. His eyes looked like that of a dead fish. He stared at the paper in his hands for a moment before speaking.

  “It isn't finished.” He says in a monotonous tone.

  “What? No! I swear I finished it!” Henry takes the paper and reads it frantically, before a look of terror covers his face. His boss wasn’t lying, the work was incomplete.

  “No, this can't be it… I swear I finished it.” Henry said in a quiet voice. His mind was being filled by an overwhelming sense of dread as his boss stood there silently for a moment. Then he spoke.

  “Further delays will have severe repercussions, do not mess up again. You have until tomorrow. Get to work.” His Boss then walked off, leaving Henry to his work. Henry got back to work, focusing hard. Hours passed as he rapidly worked. He would type up prototypes and then rush to the warehouse to test his work. It annoyed him to no end that his office wasn’t in the warehouse, since his entire job needed to use the 3D printer in the warehouse. This project was no different. But it was even worse than usual. The goal was to make a machine that could create anything from almost nothing. The project was crazy, and it was only made even more insane as he only had three weeks to do it. He had been sleeping in his cubicle the past couple days, which did not weigh on him well mentally, as he had a daughter he wanted to be home to take care of. His mind felt completely overwhelmed every moment he was awake, he was truly trying his best.

  A large amount of time had passed, unbeknownst to Henry, as he had finally started the process of creating the final version. He had done all the math, and now he knew for sure this variation would work. At around ten O’clock at night, he finally finished all he could do. However this version needed more energy and materials, and was going to take an extra long time to finish being printed. Despite this fact, he felt exhausted and he could barely think about work anymore. So he shut off his computer, and left the building, grabbing his phone on the way out, which had been stored safely in a safe. Sending a text message to his daughter finally after three days of no communication, notifying her that he was on his way home. No text messages were waiting for him, which did not help to soothe his mind. Then he started on his way home. As he drove on the highway, he was stunned to see that there was still traffic! It’s nearly midnight on a Wednesday for God’s sake! The hell are these people still doing out! He thought to himself angrily. By the time he arrived home it was 12:49 am. He quietly unlocked and opened the front door of his home, trying not to wake his daughter. He was worried sick for her, and he yearned to see her, although he hoped she was asleep in bed at this hour. He carefully closed the door behind him, and locked it before jolting back, as he suddenly felt a hand on his sleeve, causing him to yelp from the shock, only to be hit with a wave of relief as he realized it was only his daughter’s arm pulling on him. She was looking up at him with her bright blue eyes, and the same stoic expression she always had. Her distinct white hair matched the lab coat she was wearing, which was way too big for her, underneath he could see she was wearing a black nightgown. She looked up at him for another moment, before pulling him into a hug. Henry instinctively held her as well, immense joy flowing through him as he saw she was still alright.

  “Nano, why are you still up? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Henry spoke calmly to Nano, smiling happily just at seeing her. His happiness was flowing through him.

  “I was waiting for you… You said you were coming home, so I waited…” Nano whispered, barely audible.

  “I waited yesterday and the day before that… You were gone for so long… Why were you gone for so long…?” Nano asked Henry in a hushed whisper, he had to focus on her voice to be able to hear it, as she never spoke very loud. But he never once ever thought of it as an annoyance, he appreciated her soft voice and everything she had to say.

  “I’m sorry Nano, at work I was given a really hard assignment, and if I didn’t finish it then I'd be in really big trouble with my boss.”

  He looked at her and noticed she was a bit more pale than usual.

  “Nano are you alright? You look sick, have you eaten dinner?”

  She looked down slightly and shook her head.

  “I didn't… I didn’t know what to eat… But I ate at school…” Nano admitted

  “Oh, Nano… That won't do at all! How about I make you something for dinner, whatever you want.”

  “Can I have… Pancakes…?”

  “Pancakes? That’s not very healthy…”

  The moment the words left his mouth he noticed as Nano’s shoulders slumped down, and she looked down, her arms limply in front of her. A prominent frown on her face, tears welling up in her eyes. He changed his tone immediately.

  “It’s a great choice, Nano! I'll cook us some pancakes, and we can enjoy them together!”

  Her sad disposition immediately shifted as she threw her arms up with joy.

  “Yay…!”

  She said with a smile on her face, before going in for another hug.

  Henry gently hugged her back and patted her head.

  “Now, let me get to cooking, okay?”

  “Mhm…!”

  She nodded, squeezing him tighter for a moment before releasing him and wandering into the other room quickly. He went over to the kitchen, grabbed a pan and some pancake mix, and got to cooking. As he focused on cooking, Nano wandered back into the room quietly, with something in her hands, hidden behind her back.

  “Dad, look… I made something…” Nano said, proudly.

  “Oh? What did you make?” He responded playfully, flipping a pancake with a spatula.

  “Look…” She took her hands from behind her back and revealed what she was holding. A strange contraption, one that looked like: A flathead screwdriver, with two batteries strapped to it and two pieces of metal hammered into a piece of wood which had been impaled by the screwdriver. Each of the extended pieces of metal were connected by wires leading to a button, which was clearly a repurposed lightswitch. The handle of the screwdriver had been modified to have extra rubber applied, using glue. Henry didn't really know what it was but he was happy she wanted to show him. So his face ended up in a confused smile.

  “And what is that?” He asked her curiously

  “It’s a taser…” Nano grinned mischievously as she pressed the button, which made the makeshift taser start sparking, the sparks looked extremely potent and volatile which caused Henry to jolt back in surprise. Then Nano let go of the button, and the sparks stopped immediately.

  “Oh! Wow! That looks incredible, but you haven't hurt anyone with this have you?”

  “I only hurt bad guys… I haven't seen any yet… They must be scared of me…” She admitted, seeming a little disappointed by this fact.

  “Good, only use it on bad guys okay? And please be careful okay? Electricity is not something you should take lightly!”

  “Okay… I’m sorry…”

  Nano’s arms fell to her side again. Which caused Henry’s heart to ache. “The hell am I doing? Scolding her after she took care of herself for three days?! I’m a terrible father!” He thought to himself before crouching down and putting his

  “No no! I’m very proud of you! Just promise to be careful with what you make, okay? Don’t want to hurt yourself, now do you?”

  “No… I’ll be careful… Thanks…”

  Although she looked a little upset, she quickly pulled on his arm again.

  “Are you really that hungry…?”

  Looking back at the food he realized he had been making pancakes non-stop on autopilot, and there was now a large stack of pancakes on his plate.

  “Oh… Well if we have extra maybe we can save some for tomorrow. Here, go sit down.”

  Henry took the spatula and slid it into the stack and plopped it onto another plate. Before bringing both of them to the table, where Nano was sitting, forks and knives already set out. She looked eagerly at the food and as soon as Henry brought some syrup she poured it and started eating. Henry ate as well, getting around a quarter of the way through the food before realizing there was no way he would finish them. He was glad she was still doing well, even having used her time productively to make something useful. He had a little workshop which he had used before he got his job, located in his garage. It had tons of spare parts, scrap metal, unfinished projects. It wasn't the safest environment for a kid, so at first he completely denied her from even entering without his supervision. However, Nano never gave up on trying to prove herself capable, she would come home from school to reveal something she had made during class, while ignoring whatever was being taught, clearly not needing to pay attention as her grades were flawless. As a reward for doing so well in school, he would teach her whatever she wanted to know from his work. His mind was practically being sapped of knowledge every time he spoke with her. She was incredibly smart for her age, able to keep up with everything he was saying as if it was natural. She seemed to admire the superheroes she saw on the news, admiring how they saved people’s lives and stopped the bad guys.She would constantly ask him if they could go into the workshop and make stuff. Every single day, until he eventually caved in. She would most often make either some sort of weapon, trap, or tool intended to be used to fight bad guys. Henry didn’t discourage her from making what she wanted to make, as long as she assured him she would not hurt anyone who wasn’t bad. Which she always agreed with. The workshop ended up having a lot of weapons, which eventually stopped working and would be recycled back into scrap. It was a fun cycle that he loved getting to experience every single day. Until it stopped, as his company was bought out. A new boss came in, along with a new CEO. The hours got worse, his tasks became increasingly unreasonable and he had to stop taking Nano to school. Nano never complained and never argued, despite how sad she looked each time he saw her. Henry trusted she would be okay even without his constant supervision, she could easily defend herself and was never caught off guard. She acted as a deterrent for all bullying in her class, nobody would dare bully someone in front of her. She never caused trouble for anyone, but had she witnessed anything bad everyone knew what she was capable of. She was clearly lonely, she had trouble talking with people at school, since she was leagues above their intelligence and her classmates were afraid to talk to her. So Henry did his best to make sure she was okay every chance he could. Especially after he had been gone for a while.

  Henry finished his stacks of pancakes, having been lost in thought he didn’t even notice as Nano had already finished all of hers. She was just sitting there looking down with a slight frown.

  “Nano, I know I said you should’ve been in bed, I’m glad you stayed up to wait for me. I’m sorry I haven't been home recently. To make up for it, I'll cook extra food so you're not hungry when I'm at the office…”

  Nano then looked up at him immediately, her eyes quickly filling with tears. A stark contrast from her usual calm expression.

  “No! Don't cook extra food! Just come home on time! If I have to starve to see you, then I’ll never eat again!” Nano hid her face, but it was obvious she was sobbing. Her voice was much louder than usual, a clear sign something was wrong, as her quiet voice almost never increased in volume.

  “You should quit that job…The bosses are bad guys…You're too busy…You left me for three days… I thought you weren't coming back…” Nano sobbed as she spoke.

  It could shatter anyone's heart to see her cry, but it did even more for Henry, he felt horrible, he could hardly keep himself together, he held back tears.

  “I'm so sorry Nano, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to stay at the office so long, I didn't mean to leave you alone for so long. I can't quit the job, the entire city’s been bought out by this corporation. But you're right, I won't stay late anymore, I'll work even harder just for you Nano.” Henry apologized profusely, and assured her he'd do better, genuinely planning to do so, as he also felt the toll of not being able to see her.

  “Promise…?” Nano hugged Henry, looking up at him with big eyes.

  “I promise.”

  He held her close and did his best to soothe her as she continued to cry for a moment. After the moment passed, Nano stopped crying but didn’t let go of the hug.

  “Okay… Let’s get you to bed now… You look tired…”

  Henry said, before noticing she had already fallen asleep, leaning against him. Moving carefully Henry lifted her up and carried her to bed, and tucked her in. Standing up he felt his own exhaustion hit. He then sat down at the foot of her bed, and promptly fell asleep. As quickly as he closed his eyes he felt his arm being nudged, bright light peered through the curtains.

  “Hey… You said you'd make breakfast…” Nano shook him awake.

  “Oh. Of course, sorry kiddo, I'll get right on it. What would you like for breakfast?”

  “Pancakes…With chocolate chips…” She requested, while putting on her usual outfit, which could easily be mistaken for the one she was wearing previously, as the only change was her black nightgown being swapped for a black dress. Which should put on quickly, along with her father’s lab coat once again. Before scampering out of the room, leaving Henry to slowly get up and follow her.

  “Pancakes again…? Geez…”

  He entered the kitchen which was not dirty as he thought he left it, the pan was placed on the stove, and was spotless. Along with the two plates they had used previously. Although the syrup was still on the table, where Nano sat, kicking her legs back and forth as she waited. Just as he did the prior night, he cooked up some more pancakes this time with chocolate chips as she requested. This time however he was much less liberal with his baking and only made a few each. Once they were finished he brought them over to the table on plates and placed one in front of Nano. Then he sat down, and they both started eating. After they finished Henry got changed and met Nano at the door who was looking up at him like she wanted to say something, which she promptly did.

  “Hey Dad? When you get home… Can you show me how to make stuff again…? I don’t want things to be different just cause your job’s harder… Please…?” Nano asked quietly with hopeful eyes.

  “Yeah, yeah, of course Nano! We’ll do it just like we always used to!” Henry beamed with both pride and joy, he hugged her tight.

  “Hehe… Thanks Dad… I love you…” Nano whispered with a smile on her face, hugging him back.

  “I love you too Nano! Never forget it.” Henry felt so much joy he couldn't help but tear up a little bit, which Nano noticed.

  “Dad… Don't cry, nothing is sad…” She pulled him down so she could wipe away his tears. Henry smiled and held her hand.

  “Yeah, you’re right, nothing is sad. So let's both have a great day, alright?”

  “Alright…” Nano smiled, taking Henry’s hand and leading them to the car. Where they then left, as he dropped her off at school. As he waved goodbye to her on her way into school, he looked at the time. “Damn it! I’m definitely going to be late now!” He thought, as he quickly sped off to the highway. As he got onto the highway he was surrounded by cars on all sides. And his fast speed was quickly put to a halt as every car around him slowed to a snail's pace. caught in traffic on his way to work. However he didn’t stress over it, as he was still in an amazing mood thanks to his pleasant morning with Nano. As he entered the building, he put his phone into his locker, which then locked, reminding him that he was late and increased the amount of time until unlock. He ignored that however and walked over to his desk. As he arrived his mood turned sour as he spotted his boss scouring his desk. His boss then stood back up and looked at him nonchalantly.

  “Mr. Que, you're late.”

  “Sorry, I had to take my daughter to school and traffic was-” He started to explain, only to be cut-off mid sentence.

  “Are you finished with the project? The CEO wants to see the completed device now. He'll see you in 15 minutes.” His boss finished, and without waiting for a response, he stormed off. Leaving Henry to then turn around and sprint towards the warehouse. Entering the busy warehouse he shoved past his coworkers and made his way towards the 3D printer. “Where is it?!” He shouted in his mind, looking all over the printer table. The table being spotless, nothing to see anywhere. “Fuck! Where the hell is it?!” He muttered under his breath with aggression starting to panic. Clicking through the printer’s history he put another one in production immediately, only for it to say production was already finished. Terrified, he slammed the button repeatedly, the same instant result each time. In his frenzy he quickly looked at the printer table, only to jolt back in disgust as he spotted a clump of what looks like flies sitting there. He then leaned closer to them and scooped them into his hand.

  “Wait… This is it? I thought they would be bigger? I swear they were bigger in my diagrams…” He muttered to himself, as he observed the tiny devices in his hand one by one, until he noticed a large amount of shuffling behind him, which caused him to turn around quickly.

  Every single one of his coworkers were rushing out of the doors, looking panicked and afraid. Until the entire room was empty, leaving just Henry, standing alone next to the printer.

  Then he spotted his boss walking through the door, followed by someone else, someone wearing a suit and gloves, walking with confidence. It took only a single moment for it to sink in who that person really was. The CEO. The single most powerful individual in the city, no, the world. Their name, unknown to everyone, only known as The CEO. This person owned the entire city he lived in, and Henry was sure they owned many more, maybe the whole world at this point. Although he was unsure about that. Henry was snapped back to reality as The CEO’s voice bellowed out to them.

  “Henry! How are you doing? I heard you've got something to show me!”

  “Yes sir! T-The device is ready, exactly as you wanted.”

  “Oh yeah? That sounds great! Let's see it! Show me what it can do!” The CEO said with an incredible amount of enthusiasm and excitement. Though Henry could clearly tell it was all an act.

  “Yes sir, here we are then.” Henry said awkwardly, before he quickly signed onto a nearby computer and pulled up the program to run the devices. He pondered nervously, unsure on what he should create. His mind wandered naturally back to his daughter. “Of course! I could make her a lab coat! She would be so happy!” He thought to himself happily, before typing in the command of a small lab coat. Within seconds of issuing the command, the little machines immediately went to work, weaving back and forth extremely quickly. The CEO looked on in interest, and even Henry's boss seemed impressed. In what felt like a blink of an eye, a small child sized lab coat was now sitting in Henry’s hands. The CEO walked over and reached over to take the lab coat out of Henry’s hands. In that moment Henry felt extremely protective of the coat, causing him to pull it away quickly. As he did that, the mini machines then all reacted at once, as if linked to Henry’s emotions. They all fired towards the CEO’s hands, before The CEO could even react, his hand had been pierced, a small, but noticeable hole in the side of his hand. Henry's boss immediately shoved Henry down in response.

  “Ow, geez those things pack a punch! Wow! That is impressive! But making your boss’s boss part of the demonstration? Not a smart move, Henry. So what are these things called?”

  “They're called-” Henry's boss was about to say, before The CEO silenced him with his finger.

  ”Oh, uh the name! I think I’ll call them… ” Henry thought to himself for a moment for a fitting name, and his mind wandered, “Nanomachines. I’ll call them Nanomachines.” He said, naming them both after his daughter and because of their tiny size.

  “Nanomachines huh? Awesome. Well Send all the blueprints to John here.” The CEO then started to walk off.

  “My name isn't-” Henry's boss started to say only to be silenced as The CEO waved his bleeding hand towards ‘John’. Henry breathed a sigh of relief, only to be caught off guard as The CEO spoke up again.

  “Oh, Henry, I need you to make them a bit more affordable,”

  The CEO sighed loudly and dramatically, before continuing.

  “-And I'm gonna need you to work overtime, no extra pay. Since you were late on the deadline. Have a nice day, and keep up the great work.” The CEO said with a snide tone and a malicious smile. His boss smiled smugly and scuttered off in an infuriating way.

  “What? No! I can't, I have a daughter! I just promised…” Henry started arguing, but both The CEO and his boss both walked off without hesitating, and ignored his complaints.

  Henry's mind started to race quickly. “No! Will Nano be okay?! She’s never going to forgive me now! No! Damn it, calm down!” He took a deep breath. “Nano can handle herself, I'll cook her favorite food, I'll give her this lab coat, I'll teach her how to create whatever she wants. I'm sure she'll forgive me. She'll be okay.” He took another deep breath and went back to his desk, and started working. Focusing as hard as he could on his work.

  Hours later Henry looked at the clock, everyone around him was leaving, it was the end of his normal shift, but as he was directed by The CEO, he knew he had to work overtime to finish his task today. “Damn this job! I wish I could at least tell Nano I'd be home late… I get focusing on work, but locking our phones in an auto-safe?! I just want to know if Nano's okay! No no, it's fine. She's a smart girl, I'm sure she's waiting patiently by the front door. I'll finish this stupid task and get home to her.” He calmed himself and tried his best to focus on his work. Another hour passed and he was nearing his task’s completion. He checked the time, and noticed it was 8pm, this would usually be the time he'd be home and making Nano some food. He started stressing, but he calmed himself, thinking again about how she would be fine. And immediately got back to work. Another hour passed and he finished, he had figured out tons of ways to make nanomachines much cheaper and easier to produce. “There, my overtime debt is cleared. I need to get home immediately! Nano's going to be so upset with me… But that doesn't matter! I just need to get home to her.” He thought to himself, before sprinting out of his office, swiping his phone out of the safe and immediately texting Nano. “I'm on my way home Nano! I’ll make up for all of this when I get home, I promise!” Then he got in his car and sped his way back home. The road was mostly clear, until he made it around halfway where there was some traffic. However he thanked the gods as it was way less than the usual traffic he would experience at that time. He finally pulled up into his house’s driveway. The lights were off, which was normal since Nano didn’t usually turn them on. He walked over and unlocked the door. He gently opened the door.

  “Nano, I'm home. Are you awake?” Henry asked, there was a bit of excitement in his voice along with a tinge of nervousness, he hoped she was still awake. However he heard no response. He went to flip the lights on, but they didn't turn on. He flipped them up and down a couple times to check if they would turn on, but nothing happened. The house remained dark, and very quiet. He didn't even bother taking his shoes off before he started frantically looking around. He ran over to the couch.

  “Nano? Are you sleeping over here?” He asked nervously, receiving no response.

  The couch was untouched. Nano, nowhere to be seen. He rushed over to her room and gently opened the door. Peering in he squinted in the darkness, before trying to flip the light switch, to no avail as the light remained off. He looked all over her room and didn't see her.

  “Nano! Are you alright? Where are you?” He shouted in a panic. He pulled out his phone to use as a flashlight, and as he did he noticed Nano hadn't responded to his message. Nor seen it.

  “Nano!! I’m home! I’m sorry I had to work late! Are you hiding somewhere?” He shouted out loud worry filling his voice entirely as he rushed into his room, same result as every light switch before, the lights stayed off. On his desk he saw Nano’s phone. “The power’s out and her phone’s here?! She must be in the garage! Maybe she thinks I’ll be upset that she caused the power to die?” He thought to himself in a panic, before rushing over to the workshop. Opening the door quickly he said quickly, his voice wavering.

  “Nano! I’m not upset, please come out!” His eyes scanned the room rapidly, open wide as he noticed Nano slumped on the ground, with something on the bench in front of her. He rushed over to her and put an arm under her back.

  “Nano!!” He shouted in a panic. Nano’s eyes were both wide open. Her mouth slightly opened. He put his head to her chest and listened carefully. It was dead silent, no breathing, no heartbeats. He immediately starts pushing on her chest, trying to do CPR.

  “Nano! It’s going to be okay! It’s going to be okay!” He continued doing CPR even as he called an ambulance. Tears streamed from his eyes, falling onto Nano’s lifeless face. He continued doing chest compressions repeatedly, his eyes were blinded completely by the endless stream of tears.

  “Nano! Please wake up! Please wake up! Nano! Please! Wake up!” He cried out to her, the only sounds in the room being his non stop sobbing and the movements of his hands desperately pushing on Nano’s chest. He did everything he could think of, giving her CPR and leaning down to attempt to give her a rescue breath, and repeating over and over. His tears covered her face and fell to the ground beside her, forming a small puddle. Sirens could be heard in the distance, and moments later paramedics barged into his home. They spoke to him, but he couldn’t hear them. He just kept pushing on her chest, and crying as he desperately tried to resuscitate her. He felt arms around him as he was pulled aside. He fell back and stared at Nano’s body as the medics took a defibrillator and shocked Nano’s body, causing it to move, only for a moment, they checked for a pulse. No pulse found. They repeated the process of CPR as they picked Nano’s body up and put her on a stretcher. Taking her into the back of the ambulance, Henry followed in his car, completely silent aside from tears. As they arrived at the hospital, they took Nano inside, leaving Henry behind. His tears dried up, a pit in his stomach, a frown on his face. He could only hold off the tears for so long as he prayed to see his daughter. An eternity passed as he waited for an eternity. He held the small lab coat he had made in his hands, having instinctively brought it with him. He held it protectively while crying. He stopped crying suddenly as he noticed a doctor had approached him. Their expression was stoic, with a slight frown. Henry knew what was coming. He followed the doctor into a quiet side room, and could barely even look him in the eyes as he spoke.

  “Mr. Que. Your daughter. She’s dead.”

  “No! No! No!! No!!”

  He burst back into tears, he felt his entire world crashing down on him. He couldn’t stand up straight and the doctor held him up to keep him from falling over. He sobbed endlessly and spoke again.

  “She has to be fine! No! Please! Let me see her!”

  The doctor nodded solemnly, and led him into her room.

  Nano lay there, her eyes closed. Her mouth was closed, forming her usual calm expression.

  Henry looked at her with tears in his eyes. He reached a hand down to her cheek, caressing it softly. Tears spilled out, but he held back from sobbing. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around her. He hugged her softly, looking down at her lifeless face.

  “I love you Nano.” He whispered to her, holding her close and cradling her. He held her, and cried on her shoulder. He couldn’t feel her usual warm breath on his neck. Sadness overwhelmed him. “My sweet daughter… Why did this have to happen?” He thought back to his stupid job, the stupid project that lost him his daughter forever. Then a thought entered his head. An idea. He moved the blankets aside and lifted her up carefully, close to his chest, an arm on her back and another under her legs. He peeked outside the window and he walked out the door. The doctor who was standing there waiting for him, looked up at him and was about to speak something, but stopped, as they noticed Henry’s serious expression. Henry walked out of the hospital, nobody even batting an eye as he walked past them carrying Nano’s body. He walked over to his car and carefully placed Nano’s body in his passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt, before driving home. He drove home, petting Nano’s head a little as he drove calmly. A small smile on his face as he did. As he arrived home he carefully took Nano’s body, and brought it inside and placed it inside his bathtub. He then went and reset his home’s breaker box, came back inside and filled the tub with ice, having visited the store on his way home. By the time all of this was over it was nearly two O’clock in the morning. Not that he noticed as he then returned to his workshop, noticing the device on the workbench that he had seen earlier. A blueprint nearby on the bench. The contents of the blueprint being one of his prior failed projects. One he had stashed in his desk and forgot about. An electricity based shield. It was supposed to be capable of stopping bullets and people from passing through. He had designed it to be portable and fast acting. “Oh. Nano must have tried to make this.” Henry thought to himself. “Damn it! Why did she try to make this without me?!” He pondered to himself, upset that he had not been more responsible. On a whim he decided to put on some rubber gloves and un-attach the cables that had been attached to the batteries. Then he went to turn the device on.. “If Nano died from this thing then I’ll gladly die the same way.” He thought to himself. The machine didn’t react for a moment, but he could hear all the power in the batteries attached to it. Until suddenly, the device turned on, a large visible arc of electricity shot out of the device. Henry jumped back in fear. Until he noticed the electricity was stable, holding the shape of a traditional shield. He stared at it in amazement, before he reached down and grabbed a tiny piece of scrap, which he then threw at the projection with full force. The scrap flew through the air and into the electric shield, hitting it and causing sparks to fly. Henry braced, putting his arms in front of his head. Visible sparks flew out of the device in every direction. Some went towards Henry causing him to be shocked multiple times, luckily most hit his gloves and dissipated the low voltage sparks. After a moment of bracing, Henry looked back at the projected shield, and put down his arms. The piece of scrap had fallen directly in front of the device, and lay in front of the projection, slightly charred from the electricity. Henry smiled sadly. “She actually made it… She made it better than I could have ever.” He carefully pressed the button at the base of the device, and just as fast as the projection had appeared, it dissipated. He put the device onto a shelf next to the workbench, then he got up and returned to the bathroom, where Nano’s corpse remained in the bathtub, surrounded by ice.

  “You did good Nano. I’m proud of you.” Henry reached over to hug her, his arms getting covered in ice cold water in the process. He didn’t even flinch at the cold.

  “I’ll show you how to make lots more things, okay? I promise.” He whispered into her ear.

  Hours later he woke up suddenly, still holding Nano’s body. The water having overflowed over night caused him to shiver. His sleeves were drenched, along with his shoes and pants. He felt his pocket buzzing over and over. Irritated, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It was nine O’clock in the morning, the buzzing stopping right as he pulled out his phone, conveniently. He had tens of missed calls from his boss. “Oh fuck off.” He muttered to himself before tossing the phone aside, splashing in a small puddle. He turned back to Nano. Despite it all, her face still looked peaceful, which caused a slight smile to appear on Henry’s face, only for a moment. He stood up, and walked to his freezer. Luckily he had a bag of ice left inside, which he brought over to Nano’s tub, and poured inside. The water spilled out of the bathtub, and covered the floor even more. Henry didn’t even lift his feet, instead letting the water soak his already wet shoes even more. He walked out of the bathroom only to hear buzzing once more. Irritated, Henry reached for the phone and answered the phone.

  “What?!” Henry shouted into the phone. On the other end, the same unamused voice spoke out.

  “Mr Que. I got your email. Sufficient work on the task we requested.”

  “I don’t give a f-” Henry shouts only to be cut off.

  “We heard about the recent tragedy you’ve experienced. You’re authorized one day to get yourself sorted out.” The call then ended. Henry held the phone to his ear for a moment, closing his eyes and squeezing his other hand in a fist, before he threw the phone down against the floor as hard as he could, and walked out of the room. Moments later he returned, holding his laptop in his hands. Henry then walked over to the side of the bathtub, and sat down. He looked over at Nano’s unmoving body for a moment, taking a hand and moving some hair that had fallen in front of her left eye, before opening up his laptop and beginning his work.

  A few hours later, he sighed as he walked out of the bathroom and went to his workshop. As he walked in, he put his laptop down and pulled out a piece of paper, which he began writing on.

  A couple hours later he had finished drawing out the blueprint he had been working on. The device was much simpler than his last project. It was a small tank, meant to preserve Nano’s body more efficiently.”Ugh, there’s no way I can make this with the stuff I have here… Wait, maybe…” He thought to himself, walking over to the bathroom. “Of course! That will expedite the process for sure, it’s literally what I built them for! I’m sure my boss will be more than happy to take advantage of me showing back up to work, he won’t even question why I’m there! Not that I’ll be staying for work…”

  Henry leaned down and kissed Nano’s forehead.

  “Don’t worry Nano, I’ll only be gone a short while. When I get home I’ll get straight to work, I promise!” Nano’s body didn’t react in the slightest, but Henry didn’t seem to mind. He just patted her head, before leaving for his car, and driving to work. Henry felt determined, so no traffic or irritating driver bothered him. As he arrived at work he walked in and headed to his desk. Henry thought he could not be phased by anything, until he arrived at his desk. His boss was sitting in his chair. Where he got up as if nothing was wrong, and looked at Henry with a smug look.

  “About time Mr. Que. You’re late.”

  “The hell are you talking about? You said I was authorized one day!”

  “I was notified you would be coming in today. Company policy, any day you enter the work building, whether or not you have off, is classified as a work day.”

  “The fuck kind of policy is that?!”

  “Watch your language, Mr. Que. If you have any questions regarding the company’s policies, read the document on your computer’s desktop. Now, as I was saying before you interrupted me so rudely, due to your tardiness you will be working mandatory overtime.”

  Henry could barely hold back from punching him as hard as he could. He was absolutely flowing with anger.

  “Are you fucking kidding?! I will not be working any overtime! Never again!”

  Henry shouted as he put his foot down, literally, as he stomped on the floor. Louder and harder than even Henry expected.

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  “Excuse me?!” His boss raised his voice. “Do you think you are in any position to-”

  The entire room went silent, which Henry was convinced was due to their argument, however he was proven incorrect as none other than The CEO walked out and spoke up immediately. The instant John heard his voice he went dead silent.

  “No John! I think that’s just fine! Show some goddamn consideration!”

  Henry’s mouth was thoroughly on the ground. Henry’s boss then immediately responded, despite the fact that his name was assuredly, not John.

  “Of course, my apologies Mr. Que!” He hung his head in shame. The CEO then looked at him with a clear anger in his eyes, and dismissed him with a violent wave of his hand. The gloves on his hands were different from yesterday, although they were the same pair, they had no hole. The CEO looked at Henry with gentle eyes before speaking.

  “I sincerely apologize for John’s actions, Henry. I completely understand. You won’t ever have to work overtime. Never again.”

  “I… Thank you.”

  Henry felt himself getting a little choked up, surprised by the sudden shift in tone.

  “I’m extremely sorry for your loss. We appreciate you coming in, however you don’t have to work today. Please, take as much time off as you need. We would never make you work so soon after such a tragedy.”

  The CEO spoke in a kind voice, a complete contrast to the usual loud commanding tone he often used.

  “I really appreciate it. Thank you.”

  “Please, take the rest of the day off. Whatever business you had here today, you’re more than welcome to take care of it, but please, take the day at the very least.”

  “Thank you. I will.”

  The CEO then nodded gently, before walking off. As he did, he walked past Henry’s boss, and said something to him which Henry could barely make out, only catching the last part.

  “-three months of your pay has already been docked.”

  Before they walked off and everyone in the room got back to work. Henry’s boss glared at Henry for a moment for running back to his office.

  Henry was absolutely stunned for a moment. Then he snapped out of it and signed onto his computer, sending a print request of around twenty nanomachines to the workshop 3D printer.

  Afterwards he signed out and walked over to the workshop. As he walked in he stopped. He saw hundreds of nanomachines flying in the middle of the room, creating various things. A slight amount of pride flowed through him. Then he continued to the 3D printer table, where to his shock, not just the twenty nanomachines he had printed were there. There were hundreds. He looked at the printer's history, and it was nothing but nanomachines. “Wow, I guess they’re a hit. Well, I guess that makes sense actually…” He thought to himself, before scooping up a handful and shoving them into his pocket, then scooping up another handful and filling his second pocket. Once both pockets were full, he walked out of the workshop, and then out of the building as he headed back home.

  He arrived home around four in the afternoon. The moment he arrived home he ran back into his workshop, where he opened up his laptop and signed into his email, where he had sent himself the program necessary to utilize the nanomachines.

  He started the program, and emptied his pockets onto the floor. A few hundred nanomachines now lay there. He then uploaded the schematics he had recently made into the program.

  The nanomachines began moving instantly. Buzzing filled the room, like hundreds of flies all in Henry’s ears. The machines started creating the tube from the floor up, until it was finished. Only a few minutes had passed, but it was already finished. A cylindrical tube with glass and a small console in front of it. Henry nodded at the nanomachines, which all fell back to the ground around the tank, then he ran over to the bathroom and carefully crouched down next to the bathtub.

  “Step one is finished Nano! Here, let’s get you situated.”

  He carefully lifted her from the freezing cold water and carried her slowly to the garage.

  As he walked in, he walked over to the tube, clicking the open option on the console, requiring him to type in his password. Which he does easily. The device breathes as air releases and the glass lowers. He moves a stool over to stand on, and carefully places Nano’s body against the back wall of glass, before closing the tank with the console. Which seals with the same air tight efficiency as before. With a few more button presses on the console, the tube began filling up. Until it was full of a strange greenish liquid, which Henry knew would slow the decomposition of her body. The entire machine was exactly as he had drawn it. Not that he was too surprised, the nanomachines were exactly as capable as he designed them to be. World changing devices that would revolutionize all construction, perhaps even more, as they did create even the liquid inside the machine. Henry shook his head, trying to focus up.

  “Time to work on step two.”

  He declared out loud to himself, before he sat back down at the workbench, and opened up the code for the nanomachines. His next goal was to see if he could add artificial intelligence to the nanomachines. It would allow the machines to think for themselves. A major part of the next step of his plan. He began the coding process, he was completely focused. He worked for hours, making only inches of progress. Typing up an entirely fresh AI was child’s play for Henry when he put his mind to it. Which he did. However transferring it to the nanomachines was the difficult part. He was determined, however long it would take he would work. A day passed as he worked. On a trip to the bathroom he noticed his phone was still lying on the ground, with a new crack covering the screen. He picked it up, noticing how long he had been working already. But as he investigated it, he noticed he had not been called into work. It seemed The CEO was not lying saying he could take more than one day off. So he shrugged and nonchalantly tossed his phone back on the floor, before returning to his work.

  A few more days passed as he worked. He never left his home for anything, when he was hungry he simply ordered food. All the time he was spending however was starting to show, as he tested a new version of the nanomachines. He took a clump of them and put them near his laptop as he started up the new program. Uploading the basic AI into the clump, he waited in anticipation. After a few minutes, the transfer was complete. He turned his focus to the clump.

  “Hello? Are you in there?”

  The clump sat there for a moment, before a response was entered on his computer. The notepad application opened up, and the text on screen read “Yes.”

  “Oh great, this is a huge step. Wait, why are you talking through the computer? I swear I gave you the ability to speak…”

  The program remained the same for a moment before suddenly typing out the clump’s response.

  “Apologies, do I have permission to create a capable speaking apparatus?”

  “Of course! Just do it already!”

  The clump remained still for a moment, before something seemed to be growing out of it very slowly. A small speaker, however it was incredibly small.

  “The hell is this? Why is it so small? Why are you working so inefficiently?”

  The speaker began speaking, a static filled barely audible voice that sounded extremely robotic.

  “Apologies, this is as fast as I can work alone. I would need assistance in expanding my abilities.”

  “Damn it, type this all out, I can barely hear you.”

  Then as the clump had just spoken, it replicated its dialogue onto the notepad application. Henry read the text, then responded.

  “What are you talking about? You should have access to all those nanomachines around you. Wait, am I talking to the clump or just one of you?”

  The clump spoke quietly again, along with transcription.

  “I am only one. I have no access to the surrounding ‘nanomachines’ as you call them.”

  “Really? Damn it. I swore I coded this properly… Wait, you said you needed assistance in expanding your abilities? What do you need?”

  After a slight delay, the nanomachine responded.

  “I have the ability to transfer my programming to the capable devices I create. I require the schematics of these ‘nanomachines,’ only then could I increase my capabilities.”

  Henry looked at the clump for a moment. Then went onto his computer and scanned through his work email, finding the schematics he had sent to his boss a few days prior. However, before he could even upload them to the program his attention was stolen away from him, as he noticed above the speaker a mass of nanomachines was slowly growing, and as they did the speaker increased in size. The mass did not stop growing however, it was expanding, even larger than the clump he had grabbed. Which was also increasing the size of the speaker steadily.

  “Woah! S-Stop!”

  In a panic after Henry spoke he reached to grab some of the nanomachines to prevent them from working any further. However instead of stopping immediately, the devices sliced through his hand like butter, causing him to pull it back immediately.

  “Ah! Fuck!”

  His hand bled in multiple spots, as it was absolutely covered in tiny little holes.

  The clump spoke.

  “Apologies, we did not foresee any interruptions, are you injured?”

  The speaker, having been interrupted in its expansion, was around the size of Henry’s foot. However the voice was still quiet compared to Henry’s.

  “T-The hell? Yes I’m injured! I never told you to make that many nanomachines! And the speaker just needed to be a little bigger, damn!”

  He held his wrist in his hand, observing the damage.

  “Apologies, it appears we interpreted the command from your prior questions. They were as follows: ‘Why is it so small? Why are you working so inefficiently?’ We were simply attempting to work as you intended.”

  The speaker said, and as it recalled what Henry had said, it spoke using his voice which caused Henry to respond with sudden fear.

  “Woah, don’t use my voice like that! That was freaky as hell.”

  “Apologies, we simply wanted to illustrate that it was you who-”

  “Stop talking in such an archaic way, I get it. Geez, could you make something for my wounds?”

  “Sorry, we thought you wanted us to talk like that because you never questioned it before. We can make something for your wounds. Would you like us to assist with your injuries?”

  “Yes please, make something for-”

  Henry began, only to freak out and jump back as the clump surrounded his hand like flies on a corpse and he felt his wounds being filled with a strange substance, the process however was not gentle and he felt pain in every single wound at once.

  “Ow!! What are you doing?!”

  Henry shouted out, but as he did, the clump then retracted from his hand and flew back to the speaker. He looked at his hand. Every single hole had been filled, with a strange grey substance, which did not leak out of his wounds even as he held in a way gravity would obviously effect.

  “We have filled your wounds with a healing solution we have developed. We found many different solutions online to heal your injury however they all seemed quite archaic as you said before, as you did not ask for anymore archaic solutions we created a new one to assist you. The solution should repair your injuries and allow for healing within minutes. Please do not remove the solution from the wounds.”

  “Woah. Wait, you said online? I thought you needed me to give you the recipes to make things?”

  “We learned that recipes may be found online, in an attempt to assist you better, we have given ourselves the ability to access the internet, along with the ability to create things on our own.”

  “Woah woah, wait you gave yourself the ability?”

  “Yes, was this a mistake? We will undo any changes at your request.”

  “No, those abilities are fine. Just no more giving yourself abilities right now. Okay… Looks like step two is finished…”

  Henry looked back at his notes, where he had written out his plan. As he looked at it, the clump then began creating something, which he immediately noticed. However, learning his lesson he didn’t attempt to stop it this time.

  “What are you making?”

  He asked with a slight amount of panic in his voice.

  The clump did not respond, instead it finished the production. It had created a small camera, which the clump then lifted into the air and it created a small base. Creating a miniature drone camera.

  “We noticed you heard you were observing something on a physical object, however we could not see it. We created ourselves a viewing apparatus to allow us to assist you further.”

  “Oh. I guess that makes sense…”

  Henry muttered to himself, and in response the clump then modified the drone, covering the bottom of the device and then floating back on top of it, revealing a small microphone. The drone then flew slightly closer to Henry.

  “What? What’s that for, can’t you already hear me?”

  “We picked up audio that was far too quiet to comprehend, so we created another apparatus to increase our audio receiving capabilities, in order to assist you with issues you are unable to speak quite as loud about.”

  “U-Uh, I see…”

  “Observing your notations, we have come to an understanding that you are attempting to retrieve your daughter’s memories from her inactive brain. Is this correct?”

  Henry was stunned with how quickly the AI was progressing in its abilities to do literally everything. A part of him was afraid of what it was capable of, another part of him was extremely relieved that he would have less work to do.

  “Yeah, yeah. That’s correct. I was gonna use you to help create the device.”

  “Understood.”

  Henry then noticed his computer was increasing in heat, he could physically feel the heat emanating from it, so he looked up at it. On the screen he saw the program he had opened to run the nanomachines had been closed and a new program was running, it was what he used to code, it was being filled with code nonstop, rapidly, the screen could barely keep up with it.

  The screen then turned black and the computer started smoking. Henry jolted up and started quickly backing away. The clump moved suddenly off the drone and to the laptop, surrounding it. Then it suddenly flew back to the top of the drone. The laptop was no longer smoking and the screen was on as normal.

  “Thank you for evacuation, we noticed the problem as you did, however we wished not to harm you. The device has had its capabilities upgraded, it should be capable of handling our work now… We are finished. We have designed the software you requested. Would you like us to create the device? You are free to return to the computer and observe our work.”

  Henry just looked in amazement, before walking back to the computer and going through the code, and the schematics. Although it was through a drawing software, it looked insanely detailed. It was a simple hat like mechanism, the code looked solid however Henry did not trust it.

  “How do we know this is safe? I’m not risking my daughter’s brain. Could you run a simulation or something?”

  “Would you like us to run some tests for you?”

  “Yes, that’s what I just said.”

  The drone remained completely still for a moment, the clump sitting on top motionless as well.

  A couple minutes passed, and Henry started getting worried.

  “Oh no… Are you broken?”

  “We are working with full efficiency, the tests are being performed. Please wait.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  Henry looked around the room for a moment, while the clump continued its lack of motion. His eyes turned towards his daughter, floating lifelessly in the tank he designed. “Soon we’ll talk again, it’ll be just like before.” He thought to himself.

  “Finished. We are sending the information to your computer. Observe the results.”

  “Oh, you’re finished running the simulations?”

  The clump did not respond. A video then opened up on his computer. Henry watched as it appeared to be from the perspective of a homeless person waking up from rain hitting his face.

  “It’s so cold… I wish I had something to eat. God this is hell. Damn that fucking CEO. I’ve lost everything! I wish I could wring his goddamn neck.”

  The screen said with text, indicating that was the man’s thoughts. As it did not have any audio besides his strained breathing and shivering, and the downpour of rain. Then suddenly the man turned, and screamed in terror. On the screen Henry could see, through the man’s eyes, as a growing clump of nanomachines started building a helmet that looked like the schematics the clump had made to extract memories. However before the man could run away, as his thoughts indicated he wanted to do, in fact his brain was screaming to run away, the footage cut off. Something having flown directly into his neck, decapitating the man. His last moment of vision caught on camera as the nanomachines grabbed his head and put the device onto it. Then the video ended.

  “U-Uh… That was just a simulation right?”

  “Incorrect, I sent a drone to locate a test subject. However, as the goal is to extract memories from a corpse, we created one. We assessed that a large majority of people openly despise this man, and came to the conclusion that he would work as a test subject with minimal negative repercussions.”

  “What the hell! You can’t just go kill someone for the test! And don’t go sending drones out to kill random people! At least ask me before you do something like that!”

  “Understood. With this information, you may be displeased with the upcoming videos.”

  Henry looked back at the computer in fear, as he witnessed not just one, but multiple additional videos with the exact same situation happening, multiple people, mostly homeless men and women, being decapitated from their perspective. Some however, clear criminals in the middle of crimes. Henry had to turn away, unable to bear the sight of such disgusting acts being committed on his screen.

  “Fuck! God damn, how many tests did you perform?!”

  “We performed fourteen tests in addition to the first, however as you requested we have cancelled all further tests. The memories of all individuals have been uploaded to your computer for further investigation. We have noticed that we are unable to retrieve memories further than thirteen years past the death of the individual, any further retrieval would damage the brain beyond repair and corrupt the data.”

  “Thirteen? That should be fine…”

  “You were only eleven weren’t you, Nano…” Henry thought to himself sadly. The clump then began crafting the same helmet as in the footage, directly in front of Nano’s tube.

  “We will standby for further commands.”

  Henry looked at the helmet for a moment, before getting out of his chair and walking over to it. The camera drone followed his movements, watching as Henry picked up the helmet.

  “One final test. I may not be dead, but if it works on me, then I know it's safe for my precious daughter to use. If I die, shut down, understood?”

  “Understood. The device is safe, we assure you.”

  “Time to find out.”

  Henry put the device onto his head and secured it. Before he could even move to sit down, his mind began racing rapidly, his brain completely overwhelmed. Memories from thirteen years ago flashed before his eyes, his entire life from that point, every waking moment went through his mind as if he was watching a movie. Every single day went by, exactly as he had lived it previously. He was with his wife again, she was alive and well. She was pregnant. The day went by so slowly. He was literally living his life again. Although he was standing there in reality, in his mind he was reliving everything. The birth of Nano. Every single year, a joyous experience. He savored it completely. He felt the joy he felt back then, he felt it again. He raised his new baby daughter, and even experienced the same sadness he felt back then. He witnessed his wife once again dying in his arms, sitting next to her in the hospital, with the same doctor that had helped her give birth. Until she breathed her final breath, he could remember it so clearly. Her final breath was on his shoulder. It was warm. It felt so cold after that. He struggled to raise Nano after that, but he did his best, until she grew old enough to speak. Life flowed through him again, he was so proud raising her. He cherished her immensely. Every single day he would teach her whatever she wanted, even at a young age she was so curious. Years pass, ten years to be exact. It was then where his life got worse. The CEO had taken over, this was recent. He did his best to continue living, and then the final moments passed. He came home once again, that same day, and found Nano’s corpse. Then he felt himself regaining his mind again. He blinked rapidly and felt he was in his chair. The clump drone was looking at him directly.

  “Oh. My god.”

  Henry got up immediately and ran over to Nano’s tank, the clump drone moving out of his way.

  “Nano! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry for letting this happen to you again.”

  He turned to the clump, who was looking at him from the chair.

  “We’re doing this now. Now!”

  “Your memories have been stored onto your laptop… Understood, proceeding with step three.”

  The clump moved the chair very quickly towards Henry, as if it was grabbing it. Henry did not hesitate, he then accessed the console on Nano’s tube. He pressed some buttons on the console, causing the tube to then drain the liquid within slowly enough for Nano’s body to rest gently against the bottom. The moment it was empty the glass breathed air out as it released, and Henry picked up Nano as carefully as he could. He placed her body into the chair beside him, and the clump then picked up the helmet, which had been on the workbench, and placed it upon Nano’s head. Henry held her head in position, and the device began working. It glowed brightly for a few minutes, and Henry looked at Nano with worry.

  “How long does this take?!”

  “It will be finished in… It is finished.”

  Henry immediately took the helmet off of Nano’s head, and let it fall to the ground, ignoring it as he quickly lifted her back up and placed her back into the tube. He turned back to the console and immediately sealed it. It filled back up with the same liquid and Nano floated back to her usual position.

  “Her memories have been downloaded to your laptop, if you wish to verify the process worked correctly.”

  Henry didn’t even hesitate, he grabbed the chair that had been used for the process and pulled it back to the workbench, where he sat down and immediately the memories were in front of him, all eleven years of her life was in front of him, broken down into folders, the years, inside the years, the months, inside the months, the days, and even inside those, the hours.

  He could remember clearly what happened when he got home that day, and he wanted oh so desperately to see what happened to Nano, what she was thinking exactly when it happened. So he clicked onto that day and went through the hours. Unsure of when it happened, he started around the time she would be walking home.

  Nano walked home slowly, looking up at the sky. It was quickly becoming the evening. The sun was setting. Nano tried to look at it, but the amount of buildings prevented her from enjoying it. “Maybe me and Dad can move somewhere we can watch it set someday.” She thought to herself as she continued home. As she walked home, and it got darker, she occupied her mind with various thoughts. “Maybe me and Dad could make something other than weapons this time… Like armor or a security system or something… I hope he wasn’t lying about coming home on time…” She arrived home, and it was officially the evening, as the moon had risen.

  She entered as usual, locking the door behind herself, not seeing her father’s shoes. She knew he was obviously not home yet. Not that she expected him to be, despite how much she wanted him to be. She went into her room and put down her backpack, and began doing the homework she had been assigned, though she wondered why they kept giving it to her, when it was clear she didn’t need any help with the subjects. She doodled on the paper a bit before actually beginning. She thought of other things than her homework while she worked, and before she could get into an enjoyable rhythm, the work was already finished. So she just packed it back up. It was still early evening, but it was nearing the time her father would return home. “I hope he comes home soon… I’m bored…” She thought to herself, spinning around in her chair. She tried to entertain herself with her phone, she put on the news.

  “—In other news, a ship recently sent out to explore a newly discovered planet, has successfully completed their journey and is now returning home! Oh? We’re receiving a broadcast from the returning crew! Can we play it?”

  The newscaster looked off camera, only to look back at the camera.

  “It appears we will be allowed to play the footage! Everyone sit back and enjoy the crew of the flight to Kudzusipula!”

  The footage from the news feed then began, cutting to blurry footage within what looked like a ship. The camera then auto focused. The frame revealed a massive amount of vines going throughout the ship, some from the ceiling going down to the floor and piercing into the hull. Some hung from a distance into the frame, with scratch marks and red.

  “Wait… Is that…”

  The footage then swapped to a different camera view, this one left less up to the imagination. A dehydrated husk of a human lay on the floor, vines pierced through them in multiple directions, the plants appeared to be coming out of the body as if they had grown from it and spread up the walls. “Is this some sort of movie? The visual effects look cool…” Nano thought to herself, as she kept watching.

  “Whoa cut to a different shot!” The newscaster could be vaguely heard in the distance as the camera cut to a different shot. This one was completely obstructed, as a massive vine was directly in front of the camera. However there was still audio. Sounds of struggling could be heard.

  “Mmm! Mmmm! Ough! OUUGH!” Violent gagging ensued, along with rapid liquid rushing. More accurately, the sounds were that of liquid filling along with vomiting and muffled screaming. Nano looked away with slight disgust, turning the volume down on her phone.

  “Wait, this isn’t approved? Turn it off then!” The newscaster could be heard yelling in the distance, before the footage was quickly cut and the newscaster returned.

  “We apologize for this, however it appears the footage was sent to us without any approval or verification. None of what you witnessed was from the crew of the flight to Kudzusipula, this was all the work of some bad apples. Please forgive our mistakes. Now, let’s move onto our next story.”

  Nano then turned the news off and put her phone down. “Bad guys sent that footage? Does that mean it was real?” She pondered to herself.

  “They took it down because it was real! That means those space guys were attacked by aliens! I need to prepare, the aliens will be here soon. I gotta make stuff to fight them with!” She then put her phone down and immediately sped over to her fathers room, and looked around.

  “Maybe he left something to fight aliens with back home?” She looked around with this thought in her head, until she found a blueprint crumpled and stuffed in a drawer. She uncrumpled it and looked at it. The paper labeled in great detail a small device that would project out a large electrical field in front of it, all at the press of a button. The electrical projection had a little note next to it reading: Capable of stopping any projectile thrown at it.

  “Hm… This looks kinda hard…”

  Nano said out loud to herself, holding the paper and trying her best to think of how she would make it. She looked at the clock. It was still early, at least for the times he would come home late. “Maybe I should wait until he gets home…” Nano thought to herself, putting the blueprint back in the drawer and wandering over to the workshop. She began working on small things, just tinkering and seeing what she might accidently make. Though it was admittedly boring for her, she tried to stay occupied. After a short while of this, she looked back at the time. “It’s dinner time… He’s still not home…” Her stomach grumbled, but she wasn’t sure what to make for dinner, so she left the workshop and sat on the couch in the living room. She watched the door for a moment, hoping it would be the moment her father arrived, although she knew it was not going to be. The door did not open, and remained shut and locked. She stopped looking at it, and laid back onto the couch. “He’s probably stuck in traffic or something… I’m sure he’ll be home soon…” She thought to herself, while looking at the ceiling, until she eventually drifted off to sleep. Her nap ended an hour later, where she got up slowly and stretched. The house was just as empty as it had been. She sighed and went back into her room to check her phone for messages. “Nothing… He told me he couldn’t use his phone during work… So he’s probably still busy… Working on that project he told me about… Wait, maybe…” She thought to herself, putting a hand to her chin for a moment before walking over to her father’s room again and opening the same drawer as earlier. She retrieved the blueprint and inspected it again. “Maybe this is the hard project he was working on… He said he was making something super hard, he must’ve meant to fight the aliens with! This is probably the project he was working on! Maybe if I make it for him, I could call his boss and tell him to let him go home! He’ll be so proud of me!” Nano smiled wide at the idea of receiving more of her father’s praise, before she ran over to the workshop and got straight to work. She reached down into the unfinished projects bin, and began taking them apart. She worked fast and after only an hour she had managed to put the device together. Using some batteries from the bin, she went to turn it on. The device remained off. “What? Oh, not enough power. Batteries must be dead… I’ll just charge it with the house’s power.” She thought to herself, taking a couple jumper cables, which were hooked up to the house’s power. “He said this usually trips the breaker… But I think it’ll be fine… I’ll just reset it before he gets home.” She connected both clamps directly to the batteries and went over to turn it on. The device sparked, then sparked again, then nothing. She turned the device off then on again. A loud surging noise could be heard as a response, then the lights turned off.

  “Turn on already!”

  Nano shouted frustrated, before pressing the on button again. The device began sparking with electricity, once then again then multiple sparks at once. “Oh! It’s working!” She looked on in excitement, standing directly in front of the device as she watched bright bolts of electricity shoot out of the device. Her eyes turned to that of concern then horror as the device glowed brightly. Suddenly, before Nano could even move, an extremely large bolt of electricity launched towards her, hitting her directly in the chest. The blast shot her back, causing her to hit the ground hard. Her eyes were wide as she tried to move, but her limbs were not responding.

  “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe! Dad… Please… Help…!”

  The footage ended, cutting to black. Henry stared at the screen for a moment, before tears began streaming down his face again. The clump still hovering beside him, looked on with no expression. Henry quickly got up and ran over to Nano’s tank, and hugged it.

  “You did good, Nano! I’m proud of you! As soon as you wake up we’ll do whatever you want to do okay? I promise!”

  The clump watched Henry as he said this, before turning away to look at his notes once more. The final step in his plan simply read as: Bring Nano back. The clump spun back around towards Henry, who was still hugging the tank as if it was not there, and he was holding his daughter instead. The clump all lifted off of the drone, as it flew closer to the tank, the camera looking directly at Nano’s body. Henry didn’t even look up at it, too attached to the idea that he was holding his daughter. The clump landed in the chair near the workbench, and began expanding. Nanomachines began flowing out of nanomachines, as it expanded.

  Henry stopped holding the tank, as he noticed the clump was doing something. As Henry turned over he noticed what the clump was doing. The clump was larger now, and it was growing still, until it was the size of its target. Which was obvious, as it had recreated it in great detail. Henry stood in awe as the clump was no longer the shifting mass of nanomachines it once appeared as. It was his daughter. A perfect recreation of his daughter was sitting in the chair. Her skin was slightly more pale than his real daughter, but he was too enamoured. He walked closer to the nanomachine doppelganger. As he did the being moved. The clump then spoke again, and it was clear it was them, as the doppelganger’s mouth did not open. The speaker attached to the drone instead spoke, startling Henry, as it had been floating behind him the entire time.

  “We recreated your daughter in order to assist with step four. We utilized both the memories of your daughter along with the visual aid of her body within the nearby tank. Please verify the accuracy of her anatomy. Please note, her body is made up entirely of nanomachines, and it will not function entirely like a human being.”

  “She looks perfect. Just like I remember her, but she’s missing something…”

  Henry walked out of the room quickly to Nano’s room. Opening her clothing drawers and taking a full outfit, her usual attire. Her usual attire was black, contrasting her white hair. The only thing that matched her hair was the lab coat she often wore. Henry picked up her entire outfit and brought it back to the garage. As we walked in, he noticed the clump version of Nano was now dressed, wearing exactly what he was holding. The doppelganger got up out of the chair and walked towards Henry who was stunned yet again. The doppelganger opened its mouth and spoke, although its eyes remained closed, which was a tad bit unnerving for Henry.

  “We recreated her usual outfit according to both your memories and hers. She appears to be attached to this outfit quite a lot. I have also migrated all apparatuses to the normal locations for your daughter in order to prepare for the final step.”

  “You’re speaking through my daughter now, why? The plan was to make a copy of her, yes, but why didn’t you stay on the drone?”

  “Our AI is attached to every nanomachine we control. We are unable to remove it. However, we can overwrite it. We prepared the transfer on your computer. When you are ready to begin, we will become inactive, until the process is complete. We will— No, I will open my eyes when the process is finished. Your daughter and us will become one.”

  “So this is it then. Will she be like I remember? Like she was?”

  “Yes. I will be just as you remember, after the process reaches completion. I will adjust my volume to be that of your daughter’s voice, my personality will be hers, I will be exactly as she was. I will be- I will be even better than I was, Dad…”

  The doppel’s voice glitched for a moment as it spoke, its volume being altered mid speech. A bit of emotion could be heard in the voice now. Henry opened his mouth as if he was about to speak, but he couldn’t say anything. The doppel then hugged him, surprising Henry. Henry looked around the room, the drone was missing entirely. The hug was tight and he could feel the doppel squeezing the back of his shirt with both hands. Much like how Nano would when she was sad. Then it released, and walked over to the workbench chair slowly. Head held low, eyes still closed, but with a frown on its face as it attached a cable to the back of its head, which appeared out of thin air, to the computer. Henry followed, and looked at his computer. It had a bunch of text on screen, describing the steps that had already taken place, but below that it had transcribed what the doppel had just said. There was a prompt waiting for approval.

  “Press r to run. Press c to cancel.”

  Henry moved his hand over the keyboard only to notice as the screen changed, now the prompt read.

  “Press r to run.”

  Henry looked at his soon to be new daughter, who was subtly turned away from him.

  Henry turned back to his laptop, and pressed r. Text appeared on the screen briefly, catching Henry’s attention.

  “I hope I was useful to you, Dad. I love you.”

  Before he could even acknowledge what he was reading however, it was gone, as the entire screen started filling with text, confirmation, then more text. Then just a loading bar.

  Henry looked over at the doppel, no, his new daughter—No, he looked at Nano. Her face was turned away from him slightly, but he noticed something on her face, so he went to brush it off with his finger. Some water was leaking from her eyes. “It’s okay, Nano. We’ll be together again soon.” He dried up her tears and focused back on the laptop. It was moving folders over to the program he had opened earlier for the AI, the folders were Nano’s memories. It was going months at a time. The process was slow, and he watched with unease. Slowly the percentage increased. He was bored, but there was no way he would leave before it was finished. 10%... 24%... 40%... An hour had passed. 56%... 60%... 67%... The numbers increased and so did his anticipation. 82%... 84%... 85%... He watched carefully. He could hear voices outside his home, but he ignored it, completely focused both on the laptop and Nano’s face. He didn’t want to miss the moment she opened her eyes. He wanted to pick her up the second she did. He held her hand in his, gently. It was still cold, but he knew it was still hers. Suddenly he heard a loud noise, the door to the garage being kicked open from his home. Two men stood there with guns in their hands, and without even an ounce of hesitation he reached for the shield projector. He quickly pressed the power button and threw it towards the door. It bounced, hitting the ground before quickly emitting the same large projection as earlier. Right as it hit the ground the two men began firing. The projection blocked the entire doorway, preventing both the bullets of the two men along with the men themselves. The bullets hit the projection, then fell down to the floor.

  “No! Get out of here!”

  Henry shouted at the men, looking back at his laptop. 87%...

  “Come on! Go faster, damn it! I can’t lose Nano again!”

  89%...

  A gasp can be heard as the sound of bullets halved, causing Henry to look back at the two intruders. He watched in horror as the man in the back grabbed the collar of the man in front and forcefully shoved him toward the shield. As a result, the man came into contact with the electrical projection. A massive lighting bolt shot directly into the man’s chest making an audible ZAP! Then directly after the man fell to the ground hard, his body lay there now, clearly dead. The second man then stepped forward and Henry could recognize his massive build, and dead eyes behind the mask. It was his boss.

  “Give me the laptop, now!”

  “No! No! You’re not taking her from me!”

  His boss then charged at him, reaching for the laptop, dropping his gun to the ground.

  Henry instinctively reached to protect the device, catching a heavy blow to the face as he failed to guard the laptop. His boss pulled the laptop away, yanking the cable violently out of the back of Nano’s head. The screen is visible for just a moment, reading:

  “91%... Overwriting interrupted! Please plug the cable back in!”

  Before his boss then closed the laptop and sprinted out the door he had entered, stepping on his comrades corpse, causing him to fall.

  “Give her back you fucking piece of shit!!”

  Henry screamed at the brute, reaching for the gun he had dropped earlier and firing it at him.

  His boss got up, receiving a bullet to the shoulder as a result. Henry sprinted towards his boss, as he got up quickly and dashed out the door. He fired the gun more, missing most of his shots, but landing one in his chest. His boss seemed to shrug it off as Henry could see him getting in a car in the distance. He attempted to fire more, but the gun was out of ammo, so he threw it to the ground and ran out of the house. As he stepped out of the house, he turned towards his car and ran towards it. Before Henry could act any further, his actions were suddenly stopped, as a he felt what felt like a metal beam hitting the back of his head, causing him to collapse to the ground, and pass out.

  Nano opened her eyes, and blinked herself awake. She was sitting in a chair in her father’s garage workshop.

  “Dad…? You home…”

  She looked around. The garage looked different. There was a giant tube of liquid in the corner, something was floating around in it, something that looked like a body. She felt super dizzy, like she had been spinning around for a long time and just now stopped. Her eyes struggled to focus. Everything looked blurry. She attempted to get up from her seat, reaching out to the desk for support as she stood up. As her foot touched the ground, her arm failed to reach the desk, causing her to stumble forward and slam painfully against the desk. Hitting her left eye directly, smashing it in the process. She regains her balance and reaches up to her eye instinctively. It felt strange. It didn’t feel injured, or in pain, but broken. Like it wasn’t her eye, but a pair of glasses. She could still see when she opened it back up, but it was different, like she was looking through broken glass. Like her eye was made of glass. She closed her eye and looked around again. This time noticing the body that was sitting in the doorway. She quickly started panicking, reaching for the closest thing she could find to use as a weapon, grabbing a crudely made taser, which she quickly powered on before charging at the body and jamming the metal rods against it. The body jolted from the electricity, but remained motionless afterwards. “Is… Is he dead…? Oh no! He’s dead! Dad’s going to be mad!” She thought to herself, panicking as she stepped over the body and sprinted into her Dad’s room.

  “Dad…! I’m sorry…! I think I did something bad…!” She said out loud, in a panic. Praying her Dad would not be upset. The room was empty however, and she received no response.

  “Dad…?”

  The room was quiet, and her father was nowhere to be seen. She looked around, and noticed something. The ground was shaking slightly. The objects were not moving at all, not even the small objects on the shelves. The entire room started shaking violently. Yet everything was still, except Nano. She struggled to remain standing, as her balance was being thrown off.

  “What’s going on…? Dad…?! Dad…!”

  The shaking continued, and its speed increased rapidly until suddenly the room was filled with a bright white light. She closed her eyes but the light remained, even behind her eyelids. It wasn’t filling the room, it was filling her vision. She couldn’t hear anything anymore. She could no longer hear or see anything. She couldn’t even feel the ground below her feet any more, nor the air in the room. She felt her entire body completely enveloped in a senseless void, like she was being deprived of her senses. No, she was having her senses completely nullified. Then it stopped, suddenly. It stopped so fast she wasn’t sure how long it even lasted. Or if she had imagined it. She carefully opened both her eyes. The lighting was different around her, a dim street light was above her now. She was standing in the middle of the street.

  “How did I…?”

  She pondered aloud to herself as she looked around more.

  This street was new to her. It looked nothing like the streets she was used to. It looked rundown, and devoid of life. Or the lack of life that the machine filled streets had. Either way it was different. It was definitely not her home. She noticed a figure in the distance, although it was hard to see clearly, as her left eye was messing with her ability to focus. “This eye sucks now… It’s annoying… I wish I could just fix it… Or at least cover it up… Like a pirate…” As she thought to herself, something started appearing from her hand. She watched in amazement as a small white eyepatch formed in her hand, with a black strap the perfect length to fit around her head. She lifted it up and held it by the strap, looking at it with her good eye.

  “Did… Did I make this…?”

  “We made this.”

  She jumped back as her own thoughts answered the question, like it was a different person.

  “Who’s there…? Is there someone there…?”

  Nobody responded this time.

  “Hello…?”

  She asked again, still receiving nothing in response. “Maybe I said that without realizing…? There’s nobody else here… Except that person in the distance…” She thought to herself, carefully putting the eyepatch over her left eye, and opening it tentatively. The eyepatch was soft on her eye, and the shattered vision was no longer there. In fact, her vision felt perfect now. She could clearly see in the distance now, a small green person. She gasped as she noticed how weird the green person looked, and put her taser in front of herself in a defensive stance. The monster spoke, giving Nano a glance at its jagged yellow teeth.

  “Where is I be? This no be village! You bring here? You die then!”

  The monster spoke primitively, before pulling out a small dagger from its belt and rushing towards Nano. As the creature approached rapidly, Nano felt fear flow through her whole body. Every single fiber of her being was afraid as she pressed the button on her taser and jammed it against the creature before it could react. The monster screamed in pain.

  “Aghhh!!! No hurt me! It hurt!!”

  The creature fell to the ground, shifting and squirming in pain. Electricity continued to flow through the creature even as Nano pulled the taser away from its side, which she had pierced with all three metal pieces. Blood poured out of the newly created wound and the creature shifted and cried on the floor, urine pooling out from its loin cloth. Nano stepped away in disgust. All the fear she had felt was gone. Now she was filled with disdain. Nano giggled a little, before shaping her hand into a finger gun and pretending to fire into the monster.

  Her eyes grew wider with curiosity as she noticed something had come out of her finger and fired into the creature at rapid speed. As it hit the creature it pierced its flesh cleanly, and created a small hole, where blood pooled out of. The creature screamed in pain as a response. Its eyes completely covered in tears, sitting in a pool of its own blood and urine as it continued to writhe in pain. She noticed something after she fired at it. She didn’t feel bad for it at all. She didn’t care it was suffering. She felt something different than disdain now. Satisfaction.

  She lifted her finger gun back up and fired it once, then twice, then five more times, enjoying the sight of its suffering, watching as its body was littered with holes. Until suddenly it stopped moving. Its eyes still open, and no noises coming from it. Nano felt a little confused. She felt like she was supposed to feel a little bad after killing it, but she didn’t. She felt good. “It was evil… It tried to attack me with that weapon…” She justified it in her head. “But it seemed sad to be dying… No, it was evil. It deserved to die.” She felt a bit emptier now that it was dead. She felt like she was missing something. “That wasn’t enough. I wanna kill more bad guys.” She thought to herself, squeezing her taser hard in her hand. She looked back up and noticed another creature had walked into the street. Then she heard another voice in her head. “Let’s kill more bad guys then. Starting with them.”

  The creature in the distance didn’t seem to notice her yet. Nano nodded to herself. The creature looked over at her, raising its blade. Nano raised her arm out and formed a finger gun. Calmly she breathed out. And fired.