The Secret Incident

Drip… drip… drip…

In a mechanics garage with harsh white lights bearing down, Benedict and Lewis are busy working on a car that has been propped up. From under the front of the car, Benedict lays on a rolling platform with a flashlight in his mouth as he fiddles around. Taking the flashlight out of his mouth he extends his hand holding a torque wrench out from under the car.

“Pass me a bigger wrench, Lewis. I think two sizes bigger will do.” Benedict says, from under the car.

Shuffling around a wrench cabinet, Lewis pulls out a bigger wrench.

“Here you go sir, is that the right size?”

“Yes this is the right one, thank you.”

Without much to do, Lewis looks outside the shop through the open garage door at the passing traffic.

“So, how well were the sketches Mr. Greene?”

“Hmmm, of course they need some more work on the quality but that will come with time.”

Rolling himself out from under the car, Benedict cleans his oiled hands with a rag from his back pocket.

“At least this time you managed to get all the parts down, that's what matters the most.” he says, as he takes a breather.

“Well luckily Jonathan helped me out with what I needed.” looking slightly dejected.

“It's all good, we all need the help of others at some point in our lives. Look.”

Standing up from the rolling platform, Benedict opens the wrench cabinet, he waves his hand over the multitude of unique wrenches placed in almost perfect order.

“Even if you know what you’re doing, you’ll still need help from time to time.”

Benedict then picks out a wrench,

“Without this friend we would be useless trying to help out our car friend. So remember you can’t do everything by yourself.”

“You do have a point sir.” Lewis says furrowing his brows.

Benedict then places the wrench in Lewis’s hand.

“Now take our little friend here and let him help you tighten the driver side suspension brace.”

“Yes sir!”

Before Lewis could get down on the rolling platform however, Jonathan walks in from a storage room for spare parts.

“So is this the box you asked for Mr. Greene?”

Walking closer to Benedict and Lewis, it is clear to see that written on the box in black marker is Secret Surprise. Next to the markings is a poorly drawn smiley face.

“Did you draw that face Mr. Greene?” Lewis said flatly.

Clearing his throat, Benedict approaches Jonathan.

“Yes, that's the box Jonathan. Now let's go and open it up.”

Walking to a more spacious section of the garage, Jonathan carefully sets down the box on the floor.

“So this is the surprise I’ve heard so much about, right Mr. Greene?” Lewis says approaching the box.

“It sure is.” Benedict says.

Cutting open the box, Jonathan, Lewis and Benedict all huddle together looking inside the so-called secret surprise box. Shifting the packaging peanuts aside, Jonathan begins to see another smaller, metallic box being uncovered. The smaller, metallic box is noticeably more sleek and futuristic with any brandings on it marked out with what Jonathan guesses to be Benedict’s signature black marker pen. Curiously, Jonathan looks to Benedict who notions him to open the next box with a smile. Pulling out and opening the next box, Jonathan looks at the contents in confusion.

“What is this purple powder stuff? Colored sand?” he guesses as it shimmers.

Benedict, looks at Jonathan for a moment.

“Dream.”

Surprised, both boys turn their heads to Benedict.

“Dream? But hasn’t this just been released today? How could you get your hands on this so soon?” says Jonathan.

“That’s true, but Kono was kind enough to send me some of the early samples.”

“What do you mean Kono gave you these samples? You know Kono Takamura?” Lewis exclaimed, expressing Jonathan’s sentiments as well.

“Really? I guess I never mentioned that those two were one of my first aides when they were little. It was a long time ago anyways.”

He chuckles lightly to himself.

“I don’t believe that you are the mechanic they always were talking about.”

“Ah, apprentices these days. Here look.”

From his back pocket, he pulls out a crumpled piece of paper that is slightly smeared in oil and gives it to Jonathan. Jonathan opens the letter and reads its contents.

“Hi Benedict, hope you are doing well. Here is a box of some early samples of Dream. Enjoy. From Kono”

“That's it?” Lewis says.

Benedict laughs hard seeing both of the boys' expectations for the Takamura brothers shatter.

“Much different from his speech, right? He’s a great speaker but a terrible writer, but I’ll leave that for another time. Right now we have some new toys to play with thanks to him and his brother.”

Huddled together in Benedict’s office around the only computer in the shop, Benedict sets up the application for Dream. After creating an account as well as some other basic information and calibrations; the screen, a sleek black interface, displays the word Dream in neon blue with the Mira corporation’s watermark.

“Looks like Kono still has an eye for style.” Benedict says looking at the program’s interface, noting the simplicity and sleekness of its design.

Benedict is then prompted with just a simple question.

What shall I do for you today?

“Nice. Hmm let me think. Let's try a little something.” Benedict says to himself as he inputs a command on the computer.

Suddenly, the opened box full of Dream, which was placed on the desk, starts to quake around. Jonathan and Lewis look on with amazement as the machines come to life. As if wind was blowing through the office, the nanobots flew out by layers, swarming into a cloud above the box.

“Impossible…” is all Jonathan can manage to say in his awe of the machines and their mesmerizing flow. Appearing as though gravity had no impact on the shimmering, translucent purple mass in front of them.

“Well, I told it to get me a cup of water.” Benedict says without much excitement.

“A cup of water, but we don’t even have a sink or a cup here. Even if we did have those things, how would it look without even knowing the layout of-” Jonathan was just about to say when suddenly the swarm moved, beginning its search.

They watched as the Dream struggled to find any cups or water in the office, following the sparkling cloud in disbelief as it flowed out the door to widen its search to the workshop. The boys observed the mass as it spread about the garage in its scour. Finding its search unfruitful, the nanobots then regather to go outside the open garage door. In child-like curiosity, Jonathan and Lewis follow it outside the garage to encounter it listless above a lone faucet on the side of the shop.

“Is this even real?” Jonathan says unknowingly.

To their surprise, Jonathan and Lewis stared as the Dream cloud slowly flattened in the air, compressing itself into a thin sheet.

“It's like a piece of silk.” Lewis says.

The sheet, fluttering along with the wind and shining its characteristic Dream glitter, proceeds to fold itself midair, blinding Jonathan and Lewis occasionally from the sunlight being sharply reflected with each crease.

Taking their hands away from their eyes after covering them from the assault, they look to find that the Dream has formed into the shape of a cup, no longer flowing in the wind; hardened. The cup then directed itself below the tap of the outside faucet and with the aid from the remaining nanobots still floating about in the air begin, it turned the faucet slowly, letting a trickle of crystal clear water. The cup, deforming from the pressure, filled with water.

With tremendous care to not spill its contents, the cup floated back inside the shop, lightly leaking from the seams of its imperfect folds.

“It's magic.” Jonathan says as he and Lewis follow the cup.

Finding its way back to Benedict’s office, the cup settles itself down gently on the desk next to him. He reaches out and takes a sip.

“Ahh.” He says as he cleans the ring of moisture on the disk with his hands. He leans back in his chair and props his legs back up with a smile on his face, taking one more sip before placing the cup back on the table.

“Looks like that worked quite well.”

Jonathan and Lewis just stood there at the door frame, dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed.

“You weren’t kidding when you said it should be impossible to invent something like this.” Jonathan says, finally snapping out of his stupor. “What the Takamuras have made is so amazing that it's scary.”

“Of course, you should always trust my word!” Benedict exclaims, chuckling a little after.

“Well let's see just how far we can take…” Benedict looks at the screen. “Dream.”

For the majority of that afternoon, the three of them mess about with Dream, making it do a variety of other tasks testing its limits.

“Well, we’ve made it give us high-fives, clean the place and even work on the car’s engine for a bit.” Lewis says, sitting down at a spare stool in the office.

“All of this chasing around in the heat really has made me work up a sweat though.” he says as he dries his face with his sleeve.

“Heh, it’s sure useful. Even cleaned out the small pipes in the engine and exhaust. If I’m not careful I could be out of a job by tomorrow.” Benedict says chuckling.

“Even you’re starting to be impressed now too huh.” Jonathan says to Benedict.

“I have to give credit where it’s due. I knew that the Takamura brothers were going to be great when they were little, but I didn’t expect something so great as this.”

Looking back at the monitor displaying the message Invalid request. Benedict picks up some Dream in his hand and looks at it.

“Luckily they’re also smart enough to make sure that Dream couldn’t be used to create weapons or harm. We’ve had too many inventions that have turned the world for the worse.”

He drops the Dream back into its metallic box.

“So we’re safe from another dynamite in our history at least.” he says as he lets out a breath of relief.

“So boys, what are we going to do next?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure, I feel drained from already thinking about stuff to do for so long.” Jonathan says.

“Well, how about we do something really abstract.” Lewis says.

“Sounds interesting, let's work with that.” Benedict says, turning back to the computer to type.

“So, what do you have in mind then?” Benedict says.

Pondering for a moment, Lewis then suddenly looks at Benedict with a serious face.

“Tell the nanobots to remember us.” Lewis says.

“Well, it probably does already since we’re its owners, you know.” Jonathan interjects.

“Well, I want them to remember us as a person would. I think that might give it a challenge.” Lewis clarifies.

“Nice. I like that.” Benedict says, inputting the commands.

The nanobots did nothing. For the three of them, after seeing the Dream complete their tasks without fail for the past half hour raised their curiosity.

“Strange, by now if it didn’t accept the task it would have told us so already.” Jonathan says as he looks at the blank computer screen.

Apart from the occasional sounds of Benedict and Lewis shifting in their chairs and the running air conditioning, the room was silent. Lewis then swallows.

“Well it can’t do everything I guess.” says Lewis, breaking the expectative silence.

“Don’t be silly, we shouldn’t expect it to understand its task so fast. Give it some-” Benedict was about to finish when suddenly the nanobots began to whir to life. The three of them jumped slightly aback in astonishment.

“...Time.” Benedict finished saying.

As nanobots float listlessly, the three of them return to their expectative gazes. Curiously observing its next move.

“What is it doing? Is it thinking? No. Be real Jonathan, machines can’t really think. But still, I wonder what must be going on in its head if I should even call it a head.” Jonathan thought.

“Even so, there is something so mysterious about it…”

Jonathan, who was standing behind Lewis and Benedict, slowly inched forward to the near inaudible hum of the floating nanobots, reaching out his right hand.

“It's kind of pretty. Almost like looking at the night sky.” Jonathan thought, enthralled by the slow swarm of the nanobots. His hand now has reached the cloud before him.

Lewis and Benedict, still focused in their observation of the inactive Dream, failed to notice what Jonathan was doing.

“It tingles.”

Lewis and Benedict turn their attention to Jonathan whose hand is now fully immersed inside the cloud. Abruptly, the nanobots begin moving again with certainty, flurrying around Jonathan's hand.

“Ow.” Jonathan says as Benedict pulls back his hand away from the cloud.

“Are you alright?” Lewis says.

“Yeah, it just stung a little.”

 Looking at his right hand, Jonathan sees that it is lightly scraped up. So lightly that it was almost impossible to perceive the hundreds of small cuts on his hand.

"Let me get a closer look." Benedict says.

While Benedict looked at the near invisible injury, the hum of the Dream abruptly stopped and once again, the three of them turned their attention back to the nanobots.

"It stopped." Lewis says.

Seeing that the Dream had stopped its frenzy and had returned quickly back to its container, Benedict looks back to the monitor to find that it is still processing the previous task.

“What the… it’s not letting me ask it to do anything else.” Benedict says as he tries to cancel the task.

While Benedict tries to understand what is going on, Lewis pulls Jonathan closer to inspect his hand.

“Seems like you are all good,”

Then he looks at Jonathan.

“I guess you can say it knows you now Jonathan.” he says, smiling as he pats his shoulder.