Gin’s Notes #8- Nanobots part 2: The INS

Where do I begin with this one? I think it’s best to tell a story. One from my childhood. It’s a bit different from previous notes, but the way I’ve been doing things so far seemed a bit robotic (do they still exist? I need to find out). So I decided to tell a true story to demonstrate what the INS are.

I think I was eight at the time. My father was working in his workshop as always. He was the leading researcher in the fields of nanobots. It was an important job. The whole village depended on them, from toys to being our source of energy. Without them, our branch of manush, if there are any other manush left, might have been wiped out.

It was actually a weekday. I had just finished school and my mother picked me up. She led me to my dad’s workshop, saying that he had a surprise for me. I was always excited whenever that happened, because he would show me all the cool new ideas and creations he had come up with.

The workshop was located in a the village’s factory. I remember the exact number of his room: B2GG which stood for ‘Basement 2nd floor Gen Gale’ (Gen being my father’s name). It was a large room but, with all the equipment and desks in it, it looked quite small.

I knocked on the door eagerly. My father opened the door. He looked tired, but when he saw me, he put on the brightest smile. He always smiled when he saw me. Mother always said that I was the light that lit up his mood. I enjoyed making my parents happy and felt guilt when I made them angry. It’s one of those things you feel as a child. I’m beginning to digress, so back to the story!

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My mother had gone home after dropping me off, but my father picked me up and carried me to a corner, where he sat me down, on top of one of his desks. He then brought out a series of cuboid shaped objects. Each of them had a set of holes drilled into them. These were the initial prototypes of the INS, the Integrated Nanobot System.

He told me to put my index finger inside the first chamber. There was a tiny button at the bottom. I pressed it and a tiny knife popped out of one end. I pressed it again and the knife disappeared. I kept on pressing, letting the knife disappear and reappear again and again, until it stopped.

I was scared because I thought I broke it. It’s only natural as a child. However, instead of getting angry, my father calmed me down and explained that, when I make the knife disappear, the nanobots dissipate from its solid structure. Basically, they float in the air as individuals instead of combining together to form the structure it was programmed to make.

He told me to wait a few minutes, as the nanobots were slowly making their way to the storage compartment in the INS. They had a homing system (how my father managed to do that, I have no idea). Some nanobots got lost, of course, but most came back for future use. Nothing is a hundred percent efficient, though. So, I was shown how to line strips of, metal inside the INS, for more nanobot to be made.

I was taught how to programme various objects (there’s an expandable screen hidden in the storage). As I grew older, I experimented with various designs and came up with the shield, sword and other contraptions, which I use to this very date.

Thus, I conclude the story. Not that interesting, I know, but I thought it was fitting to explain the INS. I may need to go back to my village to see if anything remained from my father’s work. If he left a notebook of his ideas, I believe I could adapt it to my own. Until that day arrives, I will have to continue with my limited resources.