Week 5 Prompt I

We name the guilty man!

I was attending the awards ceremony at the University of Maine at Orono, again. I had partaken in the math competition, and obviously had placed as I had done the couple previous years. My sister was there as well, and we were all shown around the college, shown different programs and things going on. There were all sorts of experiments and things. Then we got to a room with robotics. The teacher had a Ph D., and showed us all of the robots, like a robot that played chess, that was finicky and generally did not work. Then he showed us the large towering robot in the corner.

"Who wants to try it?" he asked.

All of the other students were apparently all from one high school, of the "I'll just hang at the back with my head down and hope nobody notices me" variety. Since no one else was willing, my sister and I volunteered, and went up to the robot. Other graduate students who had worked on these projects were looking on.

"It took us a long time to get this one to work," the teacher informed us.

It was a large arm anchored in a larger base, reaching up towards the ceiling.

"Here is the remote control. You press this button to turn it left, this for right."

I looked up at the monstrosity I was about to operate. I pressed the button to turn right for a moment, then let go, and pressed the stop button. Sure enough, the machine registered it, and turned exceedingly slowly to its left. Unfortunately, it did not register that I had released the button and pressed stop. The arm turned, and being in the corner of the wall, it reached it and attempted to continue through the wall.

"Turn it off!" the teacher shouted.

"It won't!" I exclaimed.

I thrust the controller into his hands, happily ridding myself of it, and he frantically pressed the stop button repeatedly, and nothing happened.

"Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!" Felicia screamed, jumping up and down.

The arm was pressing into the wall. We could hear the parts straining, as it inevitably used its incomparable strength against the brick wall.

The teacher, seeing that all efforts at the controls were futile, dove down to the floor, and unplugged the robot. It halted. There was pitch silence.

"I did not mean to do that," I commented.

The robot would be fine, nothing was broken, and it was obviously a glitch on the controller, that the button got stuck. One that apparently was in need of repair. I ended up finding out that I was first place for my grade later in the day, but I think the incident with the robot was the most memorable experience of the day for me.