In the last episode, Jack Carter, Eureka’s Sheriff and the star of our show, just had a pleasant, slow day – no new emergencies to take care of – a rare day for Eureka lately, especially for Sheriff Carter. And Allison and Grace were slowly closing in on the solution to Jack’s morphing.

Jack spent the day connecting with the folks of Eureka again, and getting them used to his almost daily transformations.

There was also a growing problem between him and Kevin, Allison’s oldest – it seemed that Kevin has a crush on the new Jack.

As for Henry, Jo and Zane, they also found a suspect for the culprit to the recent rampage of Dr. Connery’s robot – Dr. Connery herself.

And now, the continuation...

- - - - -

It was a couple of days now since Dr. Jennifer Connery’s robot, which she called “Ross,” tried to take over Global Dynamics. Only Jack and Andy’s actions helped put down the rampaging machine.

They had a suspect – Dr. Jennifer Connery, the creator of the robot. They knew she had replaced a chip in the robot’s head just before the robot went haywire, and was in the building in an area where she wasn’t supposed to be when it all went down, and was able to get past the blast doors between Section Ten and the rotunda area after they were engaged.

But despite their suspicions, they couldn’t find any other things to link Dr. Connery to it. So Jo did some research and made inquiries with her contacts in the DoD.

But it was like they never heard of the project. Those that did know about it said they thought the project had been canceled already.

Henry had to report the two incidents to the DoD, of course – it was the DOD’s project, after all - and was prepared for the DoD to pull the project out and take back the $100 million that they had already paid. But it was like the DoD didn’t care. All that the DoD said in reply, in fact, was to just keep them updated. It was weirdly suspicious.

Trying to understand what happened, Henry also did a thorough physical inspection of the robot, but he couldn’t find anything incriminating. He couldn’t understand why it happened.

At the same time, with warrant in hand, Jack and Andy went through Dr. Connery’s personal effects and equipment, but after going through everything, they found nothing as well – lots of equipment but nothing sinister.

Andy corrected Jack, and said that they haven’t gone through everything – they haven’t gone through the two cases of weapons he impounded when Dr. Connery arrived.

Jack agreed, and told Henry. Henry said he’d get right on it the following day.

The last remaining thing that they could do was left to Zane Donovan.

Zane was to try and decipher the robot’s so-called “primary commands.” By doing so, he’d be able to find out what the robot was being ordered to do. Was it really trying to barricade itself inside GD? And if so, why? Or was there even a purpose behind its actions? Maybe Dr. Connery was right, and that it really was an accident. Or did Jennifer really intend to barricade herself and her robot in? But if so, to what end?

They hoped that if Zane were able to interpret Ross’s primary commands properly, they’d be able to answer these questions.

But Zane was having trouble. So, with the help of Dr. Trevor Grant (he didn’t use that name anymore, of course), Jack contacted Douglas Fargo, the former director of GD, who was the person responsible for Andy, Jack’s own android deputy. If anyone can make sense of Ross’s programming, it would be him.

Fargo promised to be there in a couple of days.

As for Jennifer Connery, Jack and Jo Lupo were forced to let her go since they had no “direct proof” of any wrongdoing. Apparently, the chip wasn’t enough reason – and pressure from “somewhere” got the scientist free on bail (the judge didn’t say).

Even so, she still didn’t get access to her robot – Henry told her that they were still investigating. He said they’d be through with their investigation within the week and she might be given access to Ross then.

She threatened to complain to the DoD, but she never did follow up on her threat. Again, very suspicious.

So she just stayed in the house assigned to her, and waited for access to her precious robot.

- - - - -

Jack woke up next to Allison and stretched luxuriously. But he noted that Allison was still sleeping, so he got out of bed carefully so as not wake her.

He went to the bathroom and did his normal routine. By now, he knew that routine didn’t include shaving anymore, but in place of shaving, he now needed to dry his now-longer hair with the hair dryer.

As he dried his hair, he inspected his face.

He knew his current face was the slightly different imitation of Dr. Monica Belushi from the Eureka reforestation project. This one was a dark-haired beauty, as was his morph from the day before, the almost-duplicate of Dr. Kate Beckinsley from Medical, so they knew his being blonde wasn’t an intrinsic part of his morphing function, as was his morph being essentially Caucasian morphs, since he had also turned into almost-clones of Drs. Emmy Stone and Julie-Anne Huff: Emmy was an African-American while Julie was an Asian-American.

Jack now had eleven “morphs” under his belt, the EM waveforms for each recorded. With Allison and Grace’s computer mouse-like EM device, Jack could now morph into any of these eleven.

The girls and women who participated in the aborted Cloned Organs Project of Dr. Barrows by donating samples of their DNA eventually heard of what happened to Jack, and were extremely curious to see Jack turn into their clones (or near-clones), especially after Dr. Cameron started telling everyone about Jack changing into an almost-clone of his daughter, Dawn.

So the girls organized something that they called the “Jack Watch” – if Jack morphs and they find out, they’ll let everyone in their group know, especially the person Jack just turned into.

Allison and Grace calculated that Jack needed about nine hours in between morphs, but, with the unpredicted morph that happened to him when he turned into his Tricia Heller morph a couple of days ago, this proved there really was no time limit – they now thought his morphs could happen anytime. Still, they decided to not let Jack change too close to each morph, just to be safe.

Allison also said Jack needed to keep his pills - the pills that Jack can take to lower his blood sugar - handy. Jack now has a tube of them in his desk in his office, the glove compartments of the sheriff’s patrol vehicles, Allison’s car, Allison’s desk drawer in her office, the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms of both their houses, and he also kept a tube of it in his pants pocket at all times.

Anyway, it was time for his fourteenth transformation, and, potentially, his twelfth morph.

So, after breakfast, and the prerequisite tall glass of sugar juice, Jack sat down in the high-tech diagnostic chair.

With Jenna holding his hand and Kevin looking on, he waited for the change. Allison, with Kimmy in her arms, watched the screen on the back of the chair.

“Here it comes,” Allison said, and then she saw the spike in the screen, which meant that Jack’s pituitary did whatever it does to change Jack.

“There it goes!” Allison said.

After a few seconds, the buzzer sounded off.

“So?” Jack asked. “Who am I this time?”

Allison didn’t need her tablet and look at the pictures of the DNA donors to tell who, since she has seen this face before.

“You are now the semi-clone of Rebecca Roman. Again.”

“It’s a repeat?” Jack said, disappointed. “Darn...”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I wish it was your Jack Carter morph, too.”

“What if we try again?” He held up the empty glass.

“Jack, we don’t really know what changing so fast after just going through a morph will do to you.”

“But you and Grace said...”

“Yes, yes, but we don’t really know. Let’s be safe rather than sorry. Patience is a virtue, after all...”

“All right,” he said. He pulled Jenna close and gave her a kiss.

As usual, Kevin was looking at Jack with mouth agape.

“Kevin?” Allison said. “We talked about this.”

“I know Mom, but –“ he gestured to Jack.

“It’s still me here, Kev,” Jack said.

“I know, Jack, but –“ he gestured at him again.

“Just be cool, Kev.”

“This is so messed up.”

And then Jack’s phone started beeping.

“Carter,” he said, answering. “Hey, Henry. What’s up?” He listened to the phone for a bit. “Okay. I’ll be there.” He then hung up.

“What’s wrong?” Allison asked.

“It’s the robot again.”

- - - - -

Jack went upstairs to get ready, and looked through his available female clothes.

Jo used to live in the smarthouse years ago, but when she left, she forgot some of her clothes as well as a couple of her SWAT tactical uniforms. Jack put on one of Jo’s uniforms when he dealt with the robot before, and it was a right decision, given the firefight and everything.

He sighed. He decided to wear Jo’s remaining tactical uniform.

“I thought you might be doing that,” Allison said. She was at the doorway.

Jack shrugged. “Gotta be ready for anything,” he said.

Allison nodded her agreement. “Yes. Jo agrees, actually, and she gave me this.” She held out a black bodysuit, this time with long sleeves.

“What’s that?”

“Jo gave it to me a couple of days ago just in case you needed to wear her uniform again. She says this one may have sleeves long enough for you.”

Jack reluctantly took it. “It’s still a little small, though,” he said.

“Well, of course - you’re over half a foot taller than her. But you managed before.” Allison grinned at him, giggling.

Jack gave her a little moue of impatience and turned his back to her as he put on Jo’s clothes.

Allison was impressed that he seemed that comfortable around her, and was doubly impressed as he got ready as fast as his old self did. Among Jack’s morphs, she liked this one best. She looked on interestedly.

As Jack got dressed, he explained the reason: Dr. Connery went to GD early today, and was somehow able to get close to her robot. The robot was now in the hallway in front of Section Five and trying to get in. Jo had her people blocking the way and the robot seemed to be stopped for now. Jack’s going to see if he can help.

Jack finished getting ready, and the clothes were as tight as before since they were Jo’s, but since it was made out of that special material that stretched a lot as well as resisted tears, cuts or punctures, it fit, but it didn’t leave much to the imagination. He gave Allison a quick hug and a kiss, bussed the girls and high-fived Kevin.

“Okay,” he said, “I’m outa here!”

- - - - -

Jo and Andy met him.

“Thanks for coming, Jack,” Jo said. “So I see my uniform fits,” she giggled.

“Barely,” he said, squirming. “It’s like I’m wearing pantyhose everywhere.”

“Well, it looks good on you,” she grinned. She and Andy then briefed him on the situation as they climbed down the emergency access ladder going to the main corridor for sections two through fifteen.

Currently, the robot was cornered in the west side of the main corridor between Section Five’s main doors and the elevator going to Section One and the main rotunda. All of Jo’s people were deployed around Section Five’s doors and were currently keeping the robot at bay. Jo’s commandos would fire volleys at the robot, and the robot would lift one of its arms and the bullets would just ricochet off it. And that was the situation now. At least no one had been hurt yet.

Jack was ahead of Jo and Andy, and he dropped down onto the floor at the bottom of the tube.

He turned the handle, opened the airlock door and stepped out.

One of the commandos came over, saluted.

“Sheriff Carter!” he said.

“Good to see you again, Sergeant Dalton,” Jack said and shook his hand. “I take it the squad is here?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Dalton said and handed him what looked like a high-tech shotgun. He didn’t comment on the fact that Jack looked different from before and just nodded. He saluted Jo as well – “Ms Lupo,” he said – and jogged to the front of their line.

“What did you do?” Jo said, smiling. “I haven’t seen ole Ironsides Dalton act like that. You must have impressed him.”

“Nahhh,” he said. He walked to the front, and “his” squad – the squad that was with him when he took down the robot before - saluted him. He nodded in a friendly but serious way.

The other commandos continued firing, and Jack watched the action, trying to see if he could help somehow.

Suddenly, the robot stopped. It stood stock-still and pointed at Jack. It couldn’t properly point as its hands didn’t have fingers, and were more like mittens – a thumb and one paddle-type thing in place of the expected four fingers.

As it pointed, it made a kind of squeal-like sound, like metal screeching on metal, and ran back in what appeared to be fear, only to fetch up against the elevators and the far wall.

Frantically, it used its thumb to push the elevator button and the elevator doors slid open.

“Now, how does it think it can fit itself in that tiny elevator?” Jo commented.

Surprisingly, the robot did indeed fit itself into the elevator, and everyone looked at the robot in incredulity. It folded itself into a kind of brick shape that just fit into the elevator, and shuffled into it.

“Wow,” one of the commandos said. “Just like a transformer from the movies.”

“Shut up, Mick,” one of the others said.

“Sarge!” Jack called to Dalton. “Call your people upstairs! Clear the rotunda and the rest of Section One! Quick!”

Dalton grabbed his radio and started giving orders.

Jack rushed back up the emergency ladder, followed by Jo, Andy and some of the commandos, and came back out on Section One and the rotunda.

And they saw the robot with its arm on top of the shoulder of Jack’s deaf teenager friend, Ellie. It wasn’t really holding her – it just had its arm resting on her shoulder. But it did imply that the robot could hurt her if it wanted, and that it won’t, unless they did something.

Jack signed, “it’s me, Ellie – Jack.”

Ellie’s eyes grew big. She had heard of what happened to him, but it was the first time for her to see it.

“Be calm,” he signed, “Jo, Andy and I will get you out of this. But be calm, okay?”

Ellie nodded slightly.

The robot started making that squealing sound, and used its other arm and hand to point at Jack. It started backing up, pulling Ellie back with it. If it were a person, one would have assumed it was scared of Jack.

Jack turned to Andy and gave some instructions. He then turned back to Ellie.

“Ellie,” he signed, “Andy will distract the robot – he will run as fast as he can to the right of you and the robot. When the robot turns to look at Andy, I will signal you. When you see me sign, I want you to crouch down and then run towards me as fast as you can. Do you understand?”

Ellie nodded.

So everyone stopped, and the robot stopped backing up as well.

For a minute, nothing happened, and then Andy started running, faster than any normal person, and when he was nearest the robot, he feigned reaching out to it.

The robot responded quickly, and moved to swat him with his arm.

When his hand was off Ellie’s shoulder, Jack yelled, “Now, Ellie!” He also made “Y’s” with his thumbs and pinkies extended, and brought his hands up and down. It was the sign for “now.” Ellie dropped and then, while crouched, ran to Jack.

Jo and her commandos threw the same kind of nets Jack used before, and the robot was trapped again.

The commandos threw more of the nets - eight in total finally fully immobilizing it.

Henry came running. “Jack!” he yelled and threw something at him. Jack grabbed it out of the air. To him, it looked like an electric cattle prod, with two electrodes sticking out on the shock end. It was a riot shock prod from one of Jo’s people that Henry modified with a different power pack.

Jack turned Ellie over to Jo and ran to the robot. The robot saw Jack approach and squealed again. It tried to move and get away from Jack, but the nets didn’t allow it, and the squealing just became louder and more strident.

“Yeah, robot,” Jack muttered. “I’m here to kill you. Again.” He used the cattle prod and jammed it into the robot’s torso. The robot started shaking as streams of electric lightning started arcing through and around it.

“You don’t touch my friends,” he said in a controlled voice.

He jammed it again, and the robot squealed again. Jack kept it jammed against the robot until the robot stopped squealing and moving.

Sergeant Dalton ran up. “Sheriff!”

Jack handed the cattle prod to the commando. “Take this, sergeant,” he said and turned to help Andy. “No one hurts my friends,” he said under his breath.

He knelt down next to Andy and helped him to sit up.

“How are you, Andy?” he asked.

“The robot crushed my right arm, boss,” Andy said, “but I’m sure Dr. Deacon can fix it.”

“Good.” He helped Andy get to his feet, and Ellie cannoned into the robot and gave him a hug.

“Thank you, Andy,” Ellie signed. Andy looked to Jack and Jack translated for him.

“You’re welcome, little lady,” Andy said to Ellie, borrowing an expression he heard from an Andy Griffith show, before Henry had him brought to Section Ten.

“Good work, Jack,” Henry said.

“I’ll say,” Jo grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. “You’re one stone-cold bitch, Jackie!” she joked.

Ellie pulled on the sleeve of Jack’s bodysuit top, and signed a long message.

“What’s she saying, Jack?” Henry asked.

“Oh, just some personal stuff... nothing important.” But Ellie’s big grin and Jack’s blush gave them some idea what she said.

“Sure,” Jo said, “personal...”

“I didn’t know you could sign, Jack,” Henry said. “That’s amazing.”

“One of my best friends growing up was deaf, and I learned it because of him.”

Allison then came up.

“Jack!”

“Hey, Allison!” Allison gave him a hug, and then hugged Ellie. “Let me take this young lady for a quick checkup and I’ll see you all in Henry’s office later.”

Ellie gave Jack another hug and allowed herself to be brought to Medical.

- - - - -

Later, they were back in Henry’s office for yet another robot post mortem.

Security and CCTV footage confirmed that Dr. Connery did come in at around seven. Since she still had her ID and everything, and wasn’t carrying any weapons or anything, she was given full access. She went directly to Section Ten, and since it was early, no one was around except for the security person that was guarding the non-working robot. Dr. Connery showed some unusual strength since she was able to strike Jo’s ex-Marine commando on the jaw strong enough to break it and knock him out cold.

She then replaced the robot’s battery pack and manually switched it on. The robot started up right away, and Dr. Connery just ran out without waiting for anything else. Security footage showed her rushing to leave the building so fast that she had driven away at high speed before any alarm could be raised. No one knew where she was now.

Jo took responsibility for that, but, to be fair to her, she did everything right – they just didn’t count on Dr. Connery’s unexpected Manny Pacquiao skills.

Zane then said that the robot’s memory was totally randomized and he couldn’t understand how it could function much less do what it did.

“You’re sure about that, Zane?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He pressed some buttons on his tablet and a projection of a diagram of Ross’s internals was displayed on Henry’s wall.

“See here and here?” Zane said, gesturing. “The main bus was completely toasted. If these memory chips were even still functional,” he pointed at a bunch of square-shaped memory chips, “they wouldn’t be able to send signals to the robot’s control systems at all.”

Jack nodded as if he understood when he clearly didn’t. Allison giggled. Clearly Jack was still Jack regardless that he was now a blonde hottie as well.

Grace came in.

“Hey, Grace,” Jack said. “How’s Ellie?”

She gave Henry a casual kiss and sat down beside Allison.

“Ellie’s okay, Jack,” Grace replied. “She was just shook up a bit, but she’s okay. I sent her to her dad.”

Jack nodded.

Henry didn’t hear much as he concentrated on the diagram. He stood and looked at it more closely.

“What about these,” Henry pointed at something else.

“Those are just servo and motor control chips,” Zane answered. “They just provide basic motor control.”

“If that’s correct, then why are they using the same kind of memory chips as these?” Henry pointed at the square chips Zane first pointed to. “Regular eproms would have been more than enough.” He pointed to the right-hand side of the board. “And I think this is a secondary bus.”

“Ohmigod!” Zane said. “Ohmigod, Henry, you’re right!”

“What?” Jack said.

“Henry pointed out that the chips Dr. Connery used there aren’t the kind that should be used there. It means that the robot had a backup set of command and memory chips: so, even if the primary set isn’t working, the robot was completely able to function. Just slap on a new battery pack and it would be completely functional.”

“Okay,” Jack nodded. “So, we now have an answer to the ‘how.’ How about the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ -”

“I can try to answer the ‘what,’” Jo said. “The robot was trying to get into Section Five – the section for military tech, right? It’s trying to access our military projects. The DoD doesn’t have full access to our records now, and since we’ve been doing projects for other countries and private companies, the DoD would be very interested in taking a peek.”

“Actually, you’re right, Jo,” Henry said. “The DoD has been after our stuff for a while. They even tried to do it via legal means, but it didn’t work. So I guess this is how they get their way.”

“What’ll we do, Henry,” Allison asked.

Henry waved that away. “Leave that to me, Allison. For now, let’s concentrate on this.”

“Okay,” Jack said. “That answers the ‘how,’ the ‘what’ and the ‘why.’ We need to issue a warrant of arrest for Dr. Connery. Jo?”

“Yes,” Jo said.

Jack nodded. “I’ll get the ball rolling and get the warrant. I’m gonna need some folks since it’s turning out to be more of a manhunt than anything else.”

“You’ll get them tomorrow.”

“Great.”

“Guess that’s it, then,” Henry said, and they broke up the meeting.

After a final kiss with Allison, he went back to their “townhouse,“ had a quick shower and changed into one of his more normal khaki uniforms, and got back to work.

He hoped Henry can fix Andy quickly, and hoped that they find Dr. Connery soon. He knew their troubles with Dr. Connery and her robot were far from over.

to be continued in Episode 7: “Sheriff’s Day Off” Jan. 19, Saturday 8PM Eastern On the BTTV Network