A noticeable change in the C.A.R.O.L.I.N. Project took place with DARPA at the helm. Capabilities Professor Turing placed little need in knowing suddenly became important. Things like how many devices the Project could operate at once, and what its limitations were in regard to dexterity. The military was more interested in what C.AR.O.L.I.N. could do, and less in it what motivated it to do things.

"If I wanted to know how many balls she could juggle, I would have created a clown," Turing mumbled as he inspected the paperwork for a pending order of parts. He knew that, when this shipment arrived, there would be no more delaying the inevitable.

Still, the Behavior Recognition software would be a godsend once it was installed. Turing could talk to the Project directly, rather than relying on text. Soon perhaps, anyone could talk to the Project, once certain protocols were encoded into the matrix. But Turing hadn't the heart to tell his two best students that the C.A.R.O.L.I.N. Project had been taken over by the military. As he wondered how to broach the subject, a van full of technicians from DARPA arrived unannounced.

A panel truck also arrived, full of hardware and parts. "We got new servo arms for C.A.R.O.L.I.N.?" Julius Lucas asked enthusiastically, as the technicians started hauling in crates.

"You have a whole android shell," said one, whose main job was to handle a clipboard.

"Oh boy!" Lucas enthused.

"Where's Professor Turing?" the man with the clipboard asked, reading the name from a page on it.

With Turing out of the lab for the moment, Geoffrey Taylor took charge. "I got this," he said. "I've been writing code for a whole mess of new protocols, and this must be what they're for."

"Huh," Lucas said, unfazed, as he was used to not knowing everything that was going on.

When the crab-like body of the android shell began getting uncrated, Geoffrey found things he didn't know about were going on as well. "What is this?" he asked, as its function dawned on him.

A technician gave Geoffrey a crowbar that he had been using to hold onto, while he and two others removed a pedestal from a different crate. "It's a prototype," the technician said, and nothing more.

He placed the pedestal near C.A.R.O.L.I.N.'s workbench, while Lucas examined the paperwork. "It's a prototype for the military," he announced.

"Get out!" Geoffrey said. "How can you tell?"

Lucas pointed to a spot on the paperwork. "Well, right here it says DARPA."

"No way!"

A suave-looking technician joined the conversation. He seemed to be the team leader of the merry band, as he performed no labor whatsoever.

"DARPA does do other things besides military," he deadpanned.

Geoffrey took the paperwork from Lucas, to examine it himself. "Yeah," he deadpanned back. "Like for the CIA and the NSA."

"And NASA," the suave leader said.

Lucas helped a technician unpack a crate. "This stuff is too heavy to launch into space," he remarked.

The technician he was helping shrugged. "I just do what I'm told," he said.

Geoffrey joined the conversation they were having. "And what are you being told?"

The team leader answered for the man, as he was busy doing labor. "It's an HTC OKU-Tech Android, version four-point-six."

"Well that tells me things," Geoffrey said, sounding sarcastic. He examined a claw that looked best-suited for mulching. "What the heck is this?"

Another technician took it, to install on the chest of the torso being mounted on the pedestal. "That's a debrider," he said.

"Huh," Lucas said again, still clueless and unfazed.

"What does it debride?" Geoffrey asked. "It looks able to chew through concrete."

The sauve leader laughed. "It's not near strong enough to do that!"

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"How about drywall?" Geoffrey asked next.

"Yeah. It could do that."

With the techniciams from DARPA working at a fast clip, Geoffrey took Lucas aside. "I don't like the looks of this," he said.

Lucas disagreed. "I don't know. It looks cool."

"It looks deadly. Look at the size of those servo-motors."

"Hmm. They're more powerful than the ones we've been using."

"Exactly. Do you want to play catch with that thing? It'll knock you out of your socks. I don't want to be responsible for bringing something like that on-line."

"Really? Gosh, why not? It looks so much better than anything we've put together."

Geoffrey remained firm. "I'm not going to teach this beast how to chew through a wall."

Lucas rubbed his chin. "It does look kind of dangerous, doesn't it?"

Geoffreu pointed to some specs on the paperwork. "Look. These things here? They're called turrets. And this section talks about what caliber can be mounted, and how many rounds the magazine holds."

Lucas read what Geoffrey had pointed out. "Are they for guns?"

Geoffrey spoke in a soft tone as his ire grew, to not be overheard. "Machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades… you tell me."

"Huh," Lucas said again, clued in, but still unfazed.

Geoffrey handed Lucas the paperwork. "I'm outa here," he said in disgust. "I'll help the professor if he asks, but as soon as I can, I'm transferring to work with the Behavior Recognition guys."

It was hard to tell if Lucas was surprised or dismayed. "You're going to Functional Analysis?"

"It's less dangerous than this."

"I hear that we're teaming up."

Now it was Geoffrey's turn to be clueless. "Get out!"

"How could you not know? They've been talking about it all week."

Geoffrey scoffed, looking ill-amused. "I've been holed up in here every second of the day, writing code for…" he waved in annoyance at the new C.A.R.O.L.I.N. "For this thing."

One of the technicians spoke loud, to break up the hushed conversation the students were having. He held up a random part.

"Hey! You want to show me how to interface with this?" he asked.

"Sure!" Lucas said, sprinting away, while Geoffrey only shook his head.

With Geoffrey not spending near as much time in the lab as before, progress on the C.A.R.O.L.I.N. Project slowed. Professor Turing fired up a few sub-routines on his own from time to time, but when a lock-up came even close to occurring, he quickly shut everything down. And it seemed that there always would be one, as the Project continuously malfunctioned. Without Geoffrey's finnesse at the helm, it stopped responding to A.R.O.'s altogether, seemingly hell-bent on causing destruction.

Professor Turing despaired over these problems during a day when he and his two grad students unpacked crates holding more parts to be attached to C.A.R.O.L.I.N.

"Look at this thing," Geoffrey said with slight disgust, as he held up a piston meant to operate a backhoe. "Where does it go?"

"Right here!" Lucas said, taking it from Geoffrey. "Look." He placed the piston in a central hollow on the front of the android shell. "This is part of a three-piece off-set boom. It'll have a reach of six feet, I'll bet, once we're done."

"Why do they even call it an android?" Geoffrey griped further. "It looks like a monster. Like a giant sea crab. It's going to be huge once we're done."

"Yeah," Lucas remarked as he labored on the boom, unaware of his friend's dismay. "Look at all sockets this thing's got. I bet it can hold six more arms."

"Or guns," Geoffrey said to Turing, who more closely shared his dismay.

"Those guys did kind of go overboard," Turing said to promote agreement, as the shell seemed capable of holding many things.

"How will I control so many servos? It took all I had just to man one arm bolted down to a table."

"We'll keep them off-line until they're stable. Then bring them on one by one."

"Yeah. But C.A.R.O.L.I.N.'s meant to be autonomous. It exhibits control on its own."

"With the Behavior Recognition software, you'll be able to talk to it too."

"But I can't do both. I can't key in text and also speak."

"I can do the talking!" Lucas said, with his head in the hollow of the android.

"I need you to do tech," Turing said. "If you pull the plug on the right PLC, we can halt the function of a device that runs on it."

"Yeah," Geoffrey said as he brought Lucas more parts and tools. "And with all these new gizmos we're adding, there's going to be a hundred PLCs."

Lucas laughted. "Nah! I can program six to handle big stuff. Then another couple dozen to do fine motor skills."

"Really?"

"Yeah! DARPA sent some really cool ones. He motioned wih his eyes to a compartment on the pedestal where the PLCs were mounted. "They have about two thousand ports, and can handle a couple meg each of code."

Geoffrey sounded impressed. "Well. You have your work cut out for you, then, programming in those logic codes."

"Yup," Lucas said, as he tested the reach of the first boom. "Do you think we'll get the legs too?"

"Legs? You mean this thing can walk?"

"Well right now, you know, the pedestal is fitted for taking omni wheels. But yeah. Look here." He pointed to two sockets mostly hidden by the pedestal. "These are for mounting legs. Then a pack goes here, on the back, for the motors and servers that run them. So it could go anywhere a person can go."

Geoffrey scoffed. "An eight foot tall person who weighs half a ton."

"Well. Yeah," Lucas said with his head back inside C.A.R.O.L.I.N. "Probably close to three-quarter ton when all through."

To prevent Geoffrey from getting more upset, Professor Turing guided him away. "Let's go over the commands that operate the fine motor skills. If we disconnect the PLCs that run the big stuff, like Mr. Lucas says, we can better control any tantrums."

"I don't know, Professor. That thing is dangerous. It's built to kill. Thoses asses form DARPA have screwed the Project up."

Turing worked to keep agreement with Geoffrey out of his voice. "The Functional Analysis guys will be here soon. When Lucas is done with that last box of parts, you and I will install the Behavior Recognition software. We'll key it to respond to my voice, so you can focus on running A.R.O.'s."

Geoffrey's face expressed dismay, made moreso when Lucas began whistling happily while installing the backhoe.

"I don't like it," Geoffrey muttered as he brought up some monitors.

I know, Turing thought to himself. I don't either.