Breakdown
Chapter three of Repairs, a story of Josh & Argos
A few weeks later, the first Wednesday of December, Josh stepped out his cabin door first thing in the morning. He took a deep breath of the chill morning air, then whistled and waited for Argos to come meet him. He needed to get water in to the cabin, and Argos usually helped him carry the buckets from the stream.
So he waited…and waited. Argos was always back at the cabin by this time. What was going on? As he waited, he surveyed the forest. It was a much bleaker picture in the winter, mostly shades of brown varied by the occasional pine tree. Neither the vitality of green leaves nor the clean brightness of snow cover.
Josh whistled again. He wanted to go out looking for his robot, but he had no idea which way to go, and he didn’t know if Argos might get back while he was out.
He sat down on the edge of the cabin porch, uncharacteristically paralyzed. About fifteen minutes after his initial whistle, he heard a sound from the direction of the main road. Josh jumped up and ran around the corner of the cabin. There was Argos coming down the gravel road, finally! But…he was moving very slowly, and…something was wrong.
Josh ran the twenty yards to meet his robot. Upon getting closer, he saw that Argos’s right rear leg was frozen halfway up.
“Ok, boy, we’ve got some kind of malfunction. Come on back to the cabin and we’ll figure this out.”
He walked the rest of the way back to the cabin beside Argos. Josh smelled a hint of ozone, like from burnt-out electronics. It felt very strange to him watching the limping gait his friend had adopted with a nonfunctional leg. But he was sure he could figure this out. As they walked, he rubbed his hand along Argos’s dark green torso. The metal shell was cold and smooth, although there were just a few scratches and dings he could feel.
A few minutes later, Josh was sitting at his kitchen table with his laptop open in front of him. Argos stood next to him, and a USB cable linked the robot to Josh’s laptop.
“Okay, so let’s get some diagnostics here,” Josh said to himself as he typed. Shortly, he had a report open from Argos’s internal diagnostics program. “And the problem is…” after scanning a few dozen lines of routine system information, “oh no.”
Component: Right Rear Leg Actuator
Part Number: LA-470B
Status: FAILED - No response
Position: Locked at 47% extension
Issue: Internal mechanism failure - likely hydraulic seal or motor burnout
Repair: COMPONENT REPLACEMENT REQUIRED
There was also a simple line drawing of the part
.
Josh nodded. “Ok, maybe not that bad. We’ll try a little surgery, see what can be done.” From the tool bag in his bedroom, he pulled out a screwdriver and and a set of allen wrenches. He opened up a panel on the upper part of the damaged leg.
As he pulled it off, he said, “What do we have here?…The drive shaft is fine, and…” There was a metal disk about an inch in diameter and half an inch thick up at the top of the screw shaft. It was completely blackened, as if if had been pulled out of a fire. He let out a big sigh. “The actuator is just shot.”
Silently, Josh reattached the outer panel then stood up and started pacing the cabin. “I…I can’t jury-rig this. With a little time and some raw materials, I can figure out a lot of repairs, but, but not this. I need to get that part.”
The skinny teen looked over at his companion, his friend, and clenched his jaw in pain and frustration. Argos had done so much for him, and now he needed help, and Josh had no idea what to do.
“Argos, what are we going to do? I don’t know where to get that part. We’ve got to fix you, but how?”
Josh unplugged the cable from Argos’s side, then sat down at the table again and stared at the diagnostic report on his laptop. He rubbed his hand over his face and pulled at his shaggy blond hair.
He stood up and walked back out to the porch, looked out through the bare trees. Argos followed after him, the clatter of his feet on the wood floor making an unfamiliar rhythm.
After a minute standing and staring, he said, “I guess I could ask the mayor. I don’t know why he’d have any idea, but he pulled off a miracle last time.”
Having chosen a path, Josh immediately got to work.
“Argos, I’m going into town. You stay here at the cabin and keep watch. We’ll see what I can find.”
Argos nodded and went back inside the cabin. Josh got his winter coat and keys and hopped in the pickup truck.
A half an hour later, Josh sat in the waiting room of Camersville city hall. Ryan, the receptionist, just a few years older than Josh, sat behind his desk reviewing paperwork. The mayor was in a meeting with the owner of a food processing plant in the area and a representative of his employees. Josh, in his haste to find help, had neglected to bring a book this time.
After ten minutes of sitting and fidgeting and impotently worrying about Argos, he told Ryan, “Hey, I’ll be right back, okay?” The receptionist just looked up and raised an eyebrow, then returned to his paperwork.
Josh walked north a block from the fountain to one of the used bookstores in town. Browsing the science fiction shelves in the back of the shop, he found an anthology of military s.f. stories published in the ‘80s. He bought that from the nice middle-aged lady who ran the shop, then walked back to city hall, reading the introduction as he walked.
With something to keep himself occupied, Josh sat in the waiting room another half hour. Then the door to Mason’s office opened and two men in suits came out, followed by the mayor. The mayor’s height and bulk made the other two look like children. He was smiling beneath his thick mustache. The other two wore guarded looks. Mason walked them to the front door of City Hall, and waved good-bye with “Glad we could work that out.”
Then he turned back and spotted Josh waiting. “Hey, Josh, good to see you. Looking for some work around here? I might have something.”
Josh smiled weakly. “Ah, no sir. It’s something else. Can we talk in your office?”
Mason took in Josh’s worried expression and gestured towards his door. Josh crossed the thick red carpet and sat down in one of the chairs across from the mayor’s desk. The mayor followed.
After he sat down, Mason asked, “So what’s the problem?”
Josh sighed. “It’s Argos. One of his legs seized up. I think I could repair him, but I need the part. I hoped you might have some idea where I could find that.”
The mayor blinked and looked off to his left. “Huh. You need a part for your robot? What is it?”
“It’s, uh, it’s an actuator, sir. The little motor that powers one of his legs.”
Mason drummed his fingers on the desk. “I can’t say I’d know where to find such a thing. I could make some calls though, see if any of my contacts knows. I want to help you here, Josh. I know that robot is important to you, and—”
“He’s my best friend, sir.”
The mayor tilted his head as he regarded the young man sitting across from him. Josh couldn’t read his expression. After a few seconds, he said, “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll make some calls, Josh. Anything else right now?”
Josh paused before answering, feeling a bit lost. “Um, no sir.”
“Can you stay in town a couple of days? I’m not sure how long this will take.”
“Yeah, I’ll be at Marcus’s.”
