Amir was lost in a sandstorm. He fell and

panted on sand, lost in the reddish yellow.

The wind wailing in his ears. He watched

the wind erased his fresh footprints. He

managed to sit up. Out of swaying curtains 

of sand, he caught a glimpse of movement,

a flurry of color.

A familiar shape materialized. A hand reached

out for him. He took the hand and suddenly

the sand was gone. He was standing in a

field of grass with soft wisps of clouds drifting

above.

He looked up and saw the clear sky was

filled with a blue sheet. Green grass

shimmered in the bright light.

It was a dream.

Amir hurried back to his house and found

the guests all standing in the yard.

They cheered and burst into applause.

He almost forgot that it was his birthday.

A havoc caused by an unknown virus

damaged  normal life. Amir was a young

doctor. The virus infected many many

human beings. The doctors were unsure,

excited, scared. They were unable to

find out any ultimate solution to cure

the disease. Even many doctors were

were getting infection through the close

contacts with patients.

In one of those guests, he found someone:

Mr. Paul.He was a great scientist. Every

few seconds, the backyard lit up in sudden

flashes of red, green and yellow. Mr. Paul

handed Amir something.

It was a leather- bound humanoid robot.

"I almost forgot," Paul held up a finger,

asking Amir to wait and walked to his car.

 A moment later, he emerged with a remote

and a notebook in his hands. He forwarded

these to him. "For your instructions," Paul

said, "It's a modest humanoid robot, Amir.

Our research institute has made it to assist

you in treatment of patients. I hope you will

like it. Happy birthday!"

....

The next few months are on lots of tests

on infected patients. Doctors and medical

institutes are unable to find out any proper

treatment to prevent the viral infection.

They already tried with various medicines.

sometimes these medicines worked on 

patients and sometimes not. Even doctors

are in the danger zone. Many of them are

infected through direct contacts with patients.

Robotic humanoid assistance was better

option for the medical staff to get rid of 

direct contacts. Paul had provided lots

of robots. Many hospitals are getting 

details of patients through these robots.

Sitting in home or any control room of 

hospitals, doctors are instructing the robots

how to deal with injections, thermal checking,

with injections, thermal checking, specimen 

collections and ultimate screening of medical 

data. some instructions are already fed with

their memory to observe the patients.

Amir observed one of these metallic twinkle 

eyed robots examining the patients with a

vast cavernous screen.

Screen reports whether a patient tests positive

with infection. But the doctors had begun to

worry. They could see that the robots had

begun to take steps of their own, without

any further charging the the batteries, any

reminder of further actions they began to

take care of patients. They were making

some dry scratchy sound.

Apparently they were looking beneficent

but soon doctors and medical staff woke

up from this fantasy and learnt how difficult

it would be to trace the symptoms of patients

as the curves on the screens slowly became

unreadable.

Mr. Paul heard the fact. Some robots were

defused, some were not as they were totally

out of control.

"Not much to ask for the robots, is it an

 interaction with virus on their metallic 

 body?" Amir asked .

"I will let you know further what I am thinking

about them." Paul said.

The defused robots were taken back to

the research center. Some patients were

taken out from hospital where the metallic

bodies were out of control.

...

Doctors and medical staff even did not

try on some robots. From the beginning,

they were not activated.

But doctors were bothered since the active

robots suffered a disorder.

They were piled aside in the corner of hospitals.

Amir sat on an edge of his bed, Thought what

Paul had said when they met last.

All the doctors and medical staff were waiting

for Paul since the last few days.

All are eager to take back the modified robots

into the hospitals. They looked out but an

emptiness moved over the passage.

It was later when Amir discovered Paul

hiding with some robots in one of his

research laboratory. It was shocking enough

seeing Paul did not rectify them. Amir

felt watched by eyes blinking in dim light.

He saw shapes huddled around the room,

their silhouettes thrown on the walls by the

dim light.

Amir thought it would be a matter of robotic

revolt. Amir heard a scratching sound from

Paul's body and observed his  right shoulder

hunched. Amir caught the snippet of it, Paul

was transformed into a half metallic robot.

"What will save us is this metallic robotic

 body from the virus, so I moved on to safety."

 Paul said.

Paul stretched his hands and legs. Amir was

scared. Already drenched as slithering beads

of rain sluiced, he decided to walk back. And

then something glowed in the sky. Light! It was

thunderbolt. Paul too came out from his lab

and thunderbolt electrocuted his metallic body 

part. He fell down. All the robots within his

lab fell down too as Paul's metallic body part

was itself a remote to control the robots.

Paul lost his consciousness but was still alive.

He was taken to hospital and robotic part was

removed from his body. The fellow scientists

became aware of the incident. What happened 

next was too fast. Paul recovered, a few times

later, he had come close to launch a new model

named "alienotic" for further assistance in hospital

activities. It was basically an implementation of fossils

collected from soil of mars which was craftily stowed

into the metallic body. Amir did not know what to think

or what to say. Was that a perfect modification of previous

robotic model?