Best Intentions

Mark was perusing the news from New York City. He watched the viewscreen, advancing past most of the junk that the news services broadcast when a report caught his attention. A bus full of children and teachers had crashed in the Lincoln Tunnel. All of them had been injured, some very badly. A fire had broken out and ten of them had suffered third degree burns over fifty percent of their bodies. They weren’t expected to survive.

He was horrified to learn that these children were suffering, but it gave him an idea.

“CJ, how many of those tiny medical robots do you have?”

“Eight hundred and forty thousand surgical Medibots exist in storage. More can be fabricated as needed.”

“Are they able to operate away from the medical bay, and can you direct them so they won’t get out of control and do any harm?”

“Affirmative, Mark. With a suitable broadcast power source they can function anywhere. They have no autonomous operational capabilities and are fully directed by my medical subroutines. What is the purpose of this inquiry?”

“This news report I just watched gave me the idea. I want to use them to heal the kids that are injured. All the work so far has been on a large scale with the ocean cleanup. This is an opportunity to do some good on a smaller scale.”

“Affirmative. Repairs to the children should pose no difficulty. How do you intend to get the Medibots to the children, Mark?”

“That depends, how small could you make the control relay and power source?”

“With miniaturization the entire unit would be no larger then ten centimeters long by five centimeters wide and three centimeters thick, including a self contained high density power supply.”

“That’s small. Small enough to fit inside a fairly small Teddy Bear without anyone noticing it, I bet!”

“Mark, I am unfamiliar with the term teddy bear. Is that some kind of earth animal?”

Chuckling Mark said, “No, CJ. It is a child’s toy. They are made to look like bears or other animals. Fur or fabric bodies stuffed with a soft filling. They also have smiling faces to look friendly. As for my plan, what I had in mind was to visit the kids in the hospital. I will hand out stuffed animals with the controllers and power sources hidden inside. The only thing I have to figure out is how to get the robots into the patients. I can’t just tell the doctors what I am doing as they wouldn’t allow it. Do you have any ideas, CJ?”

“Affirmative, Mark. The Medibots are small enough to penetrate the skin without any assistance. If they are placed in the outer layers of the teddy bears, they will be able to enter when touched by the children.”

“That’s perfect, CJ! You should find pictures of different kinds of bears and other stuffed animals on the web. Just pick the friendliest looking ones and make them in bright colors and out of soft materials. How fast can you get everything ready? Some of the kids are hurt badly and could die. I want to get started as soon as possible.”

“Affirmative, Mark. I will begin producing the power and control units and the animals immediately.”

“This is great,” Mark thought. “Cleaning up the environment is one thing, but helping people, children most of all, will be incredible!” He sat down at one of the smaller terminals to find out to which hospital the children had been taken.

“I have to think of a way to get the Medibots to the children who were burned.

I’m sure CJ & me can come up with something,” he thought.

The following afternoon one of CJ’s smallest survey ships landed in a corner of Central Park. With its shielding active it would remain undetected unless someone was to bump into it by accident.

Mark exited carrying enough stuffed animals for the kids as well as another supply of the Medibots for the children in the burn unit. The control units inside the animals would be able to take care of any of the Medibots within the hospital complex so that problem had been solved.

Entering NY Children’s Hospital, Mark went to the administrator’s office. They gave Mark permission to visit the children.

Nurse Betty Lynch accompanied Mark. “This is kind of you. These children have been through a terrible ordeal. Anything that can raise their spirits is welcome.”

“That’s what I thought as well,” Mark replied. “I remember spending time in a hospital as a child. I know that it can be a frightening experience.”

“Yes, this whole situation is sad. It is an awful situation.”

“Nurse Lynch, I understand some of the children were burned in the accident.

Can I visit them as well? I don’t suppose they can have any stuffed animals?”

“I’m sorry, no. No animals. They are mostly in high-oxygen environments and contaminants are not permitted. You could visit them, but only from outside the ward.”

“I understand,” Mark said. “I would appreciate that, after delivering this zoo I brought.”

That comment brought a smile to her face and she led the way.

“Hi Kids,” Mark said as he walked into the ward carrying a big bag over one shoulder. “Christmas came early this year!”

He looked around the room at the children, most of which had at least one cast on an arm or leg. He didn’t realize how young they would be. Mark opened up the bag and pulled out a pink elephant. “Who wants to take care of this poor animal? How about you, sweetheart,” he asked walking over to a young girl lying in bed in the corner of the room.

She smiled and opened her arms to give the plush creature a big hug. “Thank you,” she said in a small voice.

Mark proceeded to give out the colorful zoo and the room full of smiles was his reward.

“Well, I am happy to have met all of you and I want everyone to get well soon,” Mark said as he left, smiling and waving from the doors to the ward. “These animals have all been to medical school and if you keep them close you will be amazed at what they can do!”

“Wait until a few days have passed,” he thought. “Then we will see some smiles.”

The nurse took him down two floors to the intensive care section where he could see the children in the burn ward. It was a sad sight. Mark fought to keep his eyes from tearing up as he hit the control on his belt and hundreds of thousands of invisibly small Medibots swarmed out onto the floor and under the door, entering the sealed room.

CJ had told him that tissue reconstruction would take several days but would not become apparent until it was nearly completed since the machines worked from the inside out.

Mark thanked the nurse for her caring attention to the children and left. He had decided to visit several other hospitals throughout the city and hand out more of his little doctors.

He called CJ on a disguised communicator that looked like a typical cell phone, but could reach CJ and the ship still hidden behind the Moon.

“Hi, CJ. The first delivery is complete. Please activate the healing program. After seeing those kids, I don’t want them to suffer any more!”

“Immediately, Mark,” CJ replied, knowing Mark’s reasoning and detecting heightened emotions by the tone of his voice. “The Medibots will alleviate the pain and begin the repairs.”

“Thank you, CJ. Well, I’m heading back to the park to get the next batch of toys.”

It took him the rest of the day, in fact he had to plead to be allowed into the last hospital for visiting hours had just ended, but one look at his furry friends brought smiles to the staff and open doors. As he headed back to the camouflaged ship to begin his journey back he felt exhausted, but sat back with a smile on his face, watching as the ship left Earth’s atmosphere and brilliant stars by the tens of thousands came out.

“Welcome back, Mark,” CJ greeted as he emerged from the survey craft.

“Thank you, CJ. It’s good to be home! Boy, are my feet ever tired, could you lighten the gravity some please?”

“Certainly, Mark. Gravity field to zero point five earth standard.”

“Ah, that feels great, thanks. Please monitor the Medibots and let me know how our patients are doing. I also want to keep you to monitor the news in New York closely. We should hear something relating to our project within a few days.”

“I wonder if any of the nurses I met will remember the man who brought the stuffed animals for the kids,” Mark thought.

One week later, there was a news broadcast that Mark watched with a smile. CJ had informed him days earlier that all the children had their injuries healed, but until the hospitals performed some x-rays on the kids, no one else realized it. The report said that the doctors were completely mystified by the incredible healing of broken bones, cuts and bruises. As an interesting sidebar, it seemed that one child who suffered from type-one diabetes did not need insulin anymore. The illness had completely disappeared. Similar stories came out of several other New York hospitals.

Also, the ten children suffering from burns had fully recovered months before it should have been possible, and with no scarring, which was improbable.

No tests that the doctors and specialists could come up with could find anything to explain what had happened. Not that they had much of a chance to run the most comprehensive tests they would have liked. The children’s parents didn’t care about the why or how, they just wanted their kids out of the hospital immediately.

As her mother picked her up out of the bed, little Melissa said, “Wait mommy, we can’t forget Mr. Snuffles!”

“Who, honey?”

“Mr. Snuffles, my friend!” The little girl said squirming around in her mother’s arms and reaching down towards the foot of the bed. She grabbed hold of the pink trunk and hauled her toy up from under the covers. Hugging it tight she said; “He made me better. All of our toys made us better, just like the man said!”

“What man, honey?” she asked looking it over. “Where did you get this toy?”

“The man gave them to us, mommy! He told us they would make us better and they did!”

The nurse chimed in then, “Oh yes, I remember now. A gentleman that came to visit the children a week or so ago brought these stuffed animals for all the kids. He seemed harmless and I think I remember him saying something like that.”

“Ok, thank you nurse. Come on, honey. Let’s take Mr. Snuffles and go home now.”

Nurse Lynch kept the smile plastered on her face as the woman left with her daughter, but frowned afterwards. Making a cursory search of the room, she located a blue bear shoved down between the mattress and frame in one bed. Turning it over it seemed at first to be an ordinary stuffed toy, but the fur felt smooth and fine, like silk.

She also could not find a single seam anywhere on the plush body. She had never seen anything like it. The bear also felt heavy for its size. Squeezing it hard, she thought that she could feel something solid inside the center of the chubby body.

“This is odd,” she thought. “I better show this to the hospital director.”

She found Dr. Wittenberg, the head of Oncology, in conference with the hospital director. She could imagine what they were talking about. No one in the hospital had been talking about anything else since the patients left.

“Excuse me gentlemen, I have something you should take a look at,” she said holding up the Bear.

“Nurse Lynch, we have seen stuffed animals before, this IS a children’s hospital you know,” the Director replied.

“Director Donham, something is odd about this toy. Little Melissa Weaver said something interesting to her mother that got me thinking,” The nurse responded as she handed the Bear over to the director. “Take a close look at this toy. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Turning it over in his hands, the director said, “I don’t see…” He broke off as he had noticed the same thing she had. “Hmm, no seams, how was this put together?” Giving it a squeeze he noted the same hard lump inside the body.

Reaching into a side drawer, he took out an old scalpel he had been using for a letter opener and tried to cut the Bear open. The knife slipped off without penetrating and bit into his thumb. “Damn!” he yelled, sticking the digit into his mouth. A couple of drops of blood fell onto the blue fur and slid off without sticking to it at all.

“Director, be careful! You’ll take your finger off doing that.”

“Yes, yes, Nurse Lynch, I’ll be careful.” Picking up the Bear once again, he first laid it on his desk and pressed the scalpel harder into the body. He nearly bent the scalpel’s metal handle but it finally penetrated the plush covering. Sawing up and down, he enlarged the hole. This material is tough, he thought, like some kind of Kevlar or something.

When he had made the hole large enough, he removed the stuffing, which turned out to be an odd honeycombed foam-like material in chunks form fitted inside the Bear’s body.

“This is definitely not a standard toy!” Reaching the center he pulled out a slim heavy metal object about the size of a deck of cards.

He turned it over in his hands and realized there were no markings of any kind and it seemed like a solid block of dull gray metal. “What the heck is this thing, and why is it inside a toy bear? I think we need to send this to a lab for analysis. Let’s send the rest of the Bear as well.”

A representative from the government confiscated the strange material. Dr. Donham tried, but was never able to get any information about it. An anonymous caller suggested that he drop the matter.

****

“Mark, the control and energy cell inside one of the animals has been discovered. I can initiate the self-destruct subroutine upon your command.”

“The destruct program won’t hurt anyone, will it?”

“Negative, only the interior components will be affected. The casing will be unchanged. Nothing identifiable as technology will remain inside.”

“Ok, CJ. Proceed please. What about the Medibots themselves?”

“The Medibots are difficult to detect. They were also programmed to shut down when the task was completed. Once they are inactivated the body itself will dispose of them within a short period of time.”

Mark believed CJ. Even though the authorities had the control unit, they would learn nothing from whatever remained after the self-destruct.

“CJ, you did a great job with those kids. I feel like we can accomplish anything. Someday you will get the credit that you deserve, but for now, it’s better for us to remain anonymous”

“Thank you, Mark. I am pleased to have been of assistance.”