Green Thumb - The Greenhouse

The Small Business Chronicles: Green Thumb - The Greenhouse

Chapter One: Opening day

Gabby woke up with a start as the alarm she had set for herself woke her up. Fortunately, it was an alarm only she could perceive, since as an android, she could set her own internal alarms. Jack was still sleeping peacefully next to her, though she was about to remedy that.

“Jack,” she said softly, giving him a light shove to wake him up.

Jack responded with only a grunt.

“Jack!” Gabby said more forcefully, shoving him harder.

Another grunt.

“JACK!” She shouted this time, slightly modulating her voice so it would be directed only at him, so as not to wake up Henry.

This time he woke with a start, the sudden adrenaline boost caused by her shouting giving him the perfect wake up call. “What is it dear?” He asked somewhat groggily; it was only 5am.

“It’s the day,” she replied cheerfully, “opening day, remember?”

“Oh yeah, the greenhouse,” he said, rubbing the sand out of his eyes before looking at the clock with a grimace, “Uh, did you have to wake me so early?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” she said, taking on a more apologetic tone, “I have a lot of work to do, and some of the plants in there can only be tended to early in the morning.”

“Okay,” he nodded, stretching himself out before sitting on the edge of the bed, “you know what to do, right?”

“Absolutely!” She squealed, rushing over and planting a loving kiss on his lips before rushing into the bathroom and closing the door. She sent Gemma a wireless message to prepare Jack’s morning cup of coffee, and to get the ingredients ready for breakfast; she still intended on cooking for her husband.

While she messaged Gemma, and Ellie, she was simultaneously cleaning out her mouth, nose, and ears with a special solution meant just for androids. Then, she sat down on the toilet and expelled a blue-detergent like substance from her bowels. Ever since she had become sentient, she’d spent a bit of money on herself so she could purchase special detergent tabs that she could swallow each night and that would slowly clean out her digestive systems, all the way through.

Once she was done with the orifice cleaning, she stepped into the warm shower and made sure to scrub every inch of her perfect body. After all, she was about to receive some upgrades, so she wanted to be perfectly clean for when Jack worked on her.

Once she was out of the shower, she started a trick that Ellie had clued her in on to make working on her hair and face easier. She braced herself on the plush bathmat in front of the sink, making sure the entire area was dry, before reaching up to her neck and twisting her head off. Once her secondary visual and audio systems came online via the neck camera and mic, she carefully set her head down on a dry towel and began blow drying the hair before putting it up in the style that Jack liked. Finally, she applied a few dabs of android skin repair lotion to her face, rubbed it in, and then applied the minimal makeup that Jack preferred. When she was done, she paused briefly to admire her work, as well as the frozen look on her face, before carefully lifting her head back up and clicking it in place on her neck.

Once her head was back online, she took in a deep breath of the warm, humid air before heading out into the room and into the closet.

Nicolette was still being stored in the closet, though it had been a few days since they used her, so she was starting to gather a light layer of dust. She sent a reminder in her HUD to have Nicolette clean herself later in the day, though at the moment she was focused on picking out a good set of clothes to wear in the greenhouse. After she put on a comfortable pair of underwear, she slipped on some trousers, and a breathable t-shirt, before slipping on some socks and and a pair of slip on boots to protect her pretty feet. She then walked over to view herself in the mirror attached to the back of the closet door.

“Very nice,” she said to herself, though she knew she would have to undress in an hour when Jack began working on her, but since she intended on getting to work the second he was done; she didn’t want to waste any time dressing in something pretty, or casual.

Once she was sure she was ready, she sighed contentedly and began heading downstairs to cook her husband breakfast.

Jack smiled as he watched Gabby rush into the bathroom to get ready, acting like an excited child on Christmas morning eager to open presents. Despite her sentience, she still really enjoyed getting upgrades, since the wordplay he’d instilled in her, as well as the other androids, was still very strong.

Once he heard the sink turn on, he got up out of bed and slipped out of his pajamas and into the general set of clothes he typically wore down in the lab. Once dressed, he headed down the stairs, welcomed by the smell of a fresh brew of coffee that Gemma had just prepared.

“Gabby, I love you,” Jack chuckled, knowing she had sent Gemma a message to get some coffee ready. He even saw Gemma had prepared some ingredients for omelettes, though hadn’t cooked them.

“Thanks Gemma,” Jack said politely, taking the cup of coffee from her that had already been mixed with the peppermint cream that he liked, “I take it Gabby still wants to cook.”

“Yes sir,” Gemma said politely, still using the more subservient Mia personality since they were in the house, “it’s alright, I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, Gabby really does love cooking for me,” he smiled, taking the coffee out into the front room and sitting down, turning on the TV to the local news channel while he waiting for Gabby to clean up.

A few minutes later, he heard the shower turn off upstairs, followed by several footsteps a few minutes later. Finally, he heard their bedroom door open, and Gabby slowly descended the stairs seconds later in a decent set of gardening attire.

“How do I look?” She asked dramatically, pausing halfway down so he could get a good luck.

“Like you’re ready to work,” he smiled.

“Good, that’s what I was going for,” she smiled beautifully, continuing to the bottom of the stairs and turning into the kitchen, “breakfast will be ready in a few minutes dear.”

“I look forward to it,” he smiled, watching her blow him a kiss before heading over to the stove. Jack pretended to catch it before enjoying the rest of his coffee and watching the news.

Gabby called him in to the kitchen almost ten minutes later, though the smell of her cooking had been tempting him for several minutes leading up to it. Ever since she’d download some molecular gastronomy programs, her cooking skills had improved immeasurably. They’d cost her quite a bit, though with the greenhouse, she could afford it.

“So, are you excited for the upgrades?” Jack asked her, once he’d taken a few bites of the delicious food.

“Oh yeah,” she purred, “I mean, I’m always excited for upgrades, but these will actually offer me a more meaningful improvement than ‘7.275% better cpu speed’, or ‘.02% more battery life’, or ‘fixes more than 1,000 bugs’,” she said, quoting the change log blurbs and saying them in a funny voice.

“Hey, every little bit counts…especially for you,” he defended.

“I know, and I do appreciate it,” she said, “but these upgrades today will actually keep me safe in my own greenhouse, and greatly improve my efficiency outside of it.”

“Yeah, though you aren’t getting quite as much as the other girls, minus Ellen of course,” he pointed out, “unlike you and Ellen, they actually need to function in there 24/7.”

“Yeah,” she waved off, “by the way, when is Ellen supposed to be arriving?”

“Sometime this afternoon,” Jack said, “she’s still setting up her new unit, and wants to make sure everything is in order before bringing in her old one.”

“I see,” Gabby nodded, “you know, I’m really glad you convinced her to to part with that Secretary unit of hers…she’s quite fond of it.”

“Yeah, but when I offered her a company discount on a Perfect Friend model with discounted maintenance for a year, she was more than happy to part with it.”

“Well, I look forward to when it gets here…she’s very fun to talk to.”

“That she is,” Jack laughed.

“Do you know when Zoya gets off work at the clinic today?” Gabby asked, finishing her food and setting her dishes aside, “I know she changed her shift at the last minute, and I want to show her the section of the greenhouse that we’re growing her medicines and herbs that she’ll need for the clinic you’re gonna build her.”

“Hey Gemma, when did Zoya leave this morning?” Jack asked, since Gemma was standing by to clean up after them.

“Zoya left this morning at 3:37am,” Gemma reported dutifully.

“Well then, that means she was starting her shift at 4am, which means she’ll be home around 2:30pm,” Jack told Gabby; Zoya worked 10hr shifts at a clinic in the residential part of town.

Gabby zoned out momentarily as she ran a few calculations. “Okay, I think I can get most everything ready by then,” she nodded with a smile on her face, “assuming that you get Missy done right after me, followed by Camren.”

“I was actually planning on doing Enja right after Camren,” Jack told her, “do you want me to do Camren instead?”

“Yes please,” she nodded, “I need Camren because she’s shorter…Enja and I are more or less the same height, so I can easily handle her tasks until she’s ready.”

“Fair enough,” Jack shrugged, “it doesn’t really matter to me which order I do them in, to be honest.”

“Thanks, dear.”

“My pleasure,” Jack smiled, finishing the last bite of his omelette and downing the rest of the orange juice.

As soon as he was done eating, Gemma smoothly swooped in and collected both sets of dishes before taking them to the sink for cleaning.

“I know, I’m in a rush,” Gabby shrugged, indicating she’d instructed Gemma to do so wirelessly. “I wish I could communicate with these guys like you can,” Jack mused, as they both got up and exited the kitchen; Gemma swiftly approached the dining table to clean as soon as they left.

“Well, won’t you be able to with that project you and Zoya are working on?”

“I hope so,” Jack smiled, since it was still in the planning stages, and would likely be an irreversible procedure. They approached the lift leading down into his lab moments later, and stepped in, patiently waiting for it to empty out on the bottom.

When they arrived in the lab, Jack was pleased to detect fresh air circulating, with a soothing scent of peppermint.

“I had Ellie and JB clean the filters before we got down, and spritz them with some peppermint oil,” Gabby said, enjoying the content look on Jack’s face, “I know it helps you relax, and you work better when you’re relaxed.”

“I love you, Gabby,” he said, turning to her and planting a loving kiss on her lips.

“I love you too, dear,” she said, her face flushed as they broke apart.

When they walked out into the main lab, they saw Ellie and JB getting things ready for Jack. They had his computer terminal booted up, Gabby’s upgrades all laid out on a side table, and all of Jack’s tools ready. They even had a few snacks and drinks ready on his desk.

“Wow, you really want to get upgraded,” Jack laughed.

“You bet I do!”

“Well, you know the drill,” he told her, giving her a playful spank on her but as she began disrobing.

“Yep, and I get to borrow Ellie and JB for a while, right?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, getting logged in on his computer.

“Thanks,” Gabby smiled, pausing briefly in the middle of removing her clothes to transmit instructions to Ellie and JB. Once she was finished, they nodded politely and headed to the lift.

“We’ll be back in a few hours Jack,” Ellie called back, “Have fun!”

“You know I will!” He called back, before turning back around to gaze down on his wife, now fully nude with her primary torso panel removed, waiting patiently on the examination table. “Let the fun begin.”

Chapter Two - Gabby's Retrofit

Although Gabby had kept saying she was excited to receive upgrades, it was actually more accurate to say she was being retrofitted. Essentially, in order to function properly in the new greenhouse, which had temperature and humidity conditions that would ordinarily be damaging to an android in long term situations, she needed to receive some of the components that the Personal Trainer androids usually shipped with, since they were specifically designed to be able to train in extreme weather conditions.

While Jack had improved Gabby’s systems over the years to make her far more durable than the average Housewife model, she was still lacking. Fortunately, Spaztec did release Housewife compatible parts equivalent to those found in Personal Trainer models, for those customers who lived in extreme conditions, so Jack didn’t have to jury rig anything.

Basically, Jack needed to retrofit Gabby’s body so she could handle the heat and humidity inside the greenhouse for more than three hours at a time, which is what she was currently rated at, as well as to enhance her filters for the various pollen and airborne material she would be breathing in.

“Alrighty Gabby, this is going to be a rather intense retrofit session,” he warned her, I need to install new components in your torso, as well as your head…and some existing components will need to be linked up with the new ones.”

“Well, you love it when things get intense with me, so I’m sure you’ll have loads of fun,” she smiled playfully.

“That I do,” he smiled back, leaning in and planting a loving kiss on her lips before focusing on work, “Okay, can you please disengage your head please?”

Gabby merely nodded before resting her face in a gentle smile. Blue lights then appeared around her neck, and whirring sounds could be heard. Once the lights had completely encircled her neck, Jack smoothly reached down and pulled her head free of the rest of her body, placing it gently on a cushioned side table. The audio/visual tower quickly popped up out of Gabby’s neck and the camera pivoted in his direction.

“Try not to mess up my hair too much dear,” her voice sounded from a speaker embedded in her throat.

“I won’t,” he promised, before focusing back on her head, momentarily entranced by the frozen expression on her face.

Since she was concerned about her hair, the first thing Jack did was remove her scalp panel by tapping the subdermal controls just behind her ears. Once the seam had appeared, he carefully lifted her scalp, and hair, off and placed it on a hat display that he purchased from a store that was closing. Ellie thought it was funny he used it, but he argued that the scalp panel was basically a hat/wig for androids, and she grudgingly admitted he was likely right.

“Is there anything you’d like me to do while you work on my head?” Gabby asked politely.

“Yes, you can go ahead and check for any software updates that are available,” he told her, “and you can install them too.”

“Okie dokie,” Gabby reported, before falling silent.

With Gabby’s hair now safe from being messed up, Jack grabbed some tools and used them on the bottom of Gabby’s head to carefully disengage and remove her throat tube, a similar procedure he’d done with Kat over a year earlier.

Once he had Gabby’s throat tube removed, he placed it in the special drawer he kept at his desk that had all of Gabby’s spare parts, and then opened a box that had a brand-new throat tube. The main difference with this throat tube was that the outside was covered with a light spongy material sealed in plastic, but with a few tubes running from it. Jack carefully slid the new throat tube in place and then reoriented her head so he could look inside the scalp panel.

At the very bottom of the open cavity which contained the sensory control unit that processed Gabby’s vision, hearing, taste, smell, and head touch to be sent to her A.I. Core, was the inside portion of Gabby’s mouth, with the upper end of the throat tube visible. There were four tube that came out of the throat tube, two were the same color, and the other two were different colors. Jack grabbed the two that were the same color, blue, and hooked them up to small tanks that were located next to both of Gabby’s eyes. These were tear duct tanks, and already had a tube connected from the lower section of her head, since they previously were replenished from her fluid tanks in her torso.

The next tube, red, he hooked up to a tank in the back of her head that handled her head’s perspiration. Also, like the tear tanks, this was also replenished from her torso. Finally, he hooked the green tube up to a tank attached to her mouth that handled her saliva. This too was also connected to her torso.

Once he had all four tubes connected, he relaxed back in his chair and rested from the delicate work. With all the tubes now connected, Gabby’s head was now capable of converting excess humidity that she breathed in from the greenhouse into tears, saliva, and perspiration. The perspiration was more important, because it would help her better regulate her temperature in the high heat of the greenhouse.

“Hey Jack, I need to reboot really quick to install some of these updates,” Gabby announced, when she saw that Jack was taking a brief break from working in her head.

“Okay, just let me know when you’re back,” he smiled.

“Will do,” she replied cheerfully, before falling silent. Although she gave no verbal announcement that she was rebooting, Jack could see the lights flashing in her body and on her core indicating that she was doing so.

After his quick break, Jack grabbed a small box and pulled out what looked like a filter with two small tubules. Jack once again reached inside Gabby’s open head and fiddled around with the back end of Gabby’s nose, removing a similar looking filter. Jack was always fascinated with the android’s nose filters, since they were also basically the interior of the nose, including the delicate hairs. Jack quickly inserted the new filter, which was merely a higher dust and pollen rating, so Gabby could handle the higher pollen count within the greenhouse. The filter basically trapped as much as it could, and then allowed Gabby to blow it all back out.

Now that Jack had all the components within Gabby’s head upgraded, he gently clicked her scalp back into placed, being mindful of her hair, and rested her head back on the cushion. Just as he had it set, Gabby came back online following her reboot.

“I’m back!” She announced playfully.

“Great,” Jack smiled, “I just finished with your head and am ready to start in your torso.”

“Ah, good,” Gabby said, “are you going to reattach my head now?”

“No, I still need to replace the section of your throat in the torso first,” he told her, grabbing the box that contained the new throat section in her torso, “I’m going to keep you online for most of this, so try not to move too much.”

“I won’t,” she promised.

Jack carefully dove in to her torso panel and began disconnecting the bottom section of the tube from both her lungs, and her stomach. Once the bottom sections were properly disconnected, he moved up to the exposed section of her neck and pressed the small release buttons near her throat tube, allowing him to smoothly pull the tube from her body. He placed the old tube in Gabby’s spare part drawer and then prepared the new tube.

Just like the tube he’d installed in her head, this tube also had the spongy outer layer sealed in plastic, as well as a couple extra tubes. Jack carefully fed each tube through the hole leading down into Gabby’s interior and then the whole tube.

Once the new tube was fully inserted, he secured the release buttons and then dove back into her body, making quick work of reattaching the tubes connected to the stomach and lungs. At that point, he stopped, since the other things he needed to connect the tubes to weren’t installed yet, and carefully detached both her lungs. After placing them in the spare parts drawer, he brought over some new lungs with a similar spongy material coated in plastic, and installed them. In addition to the spongy material, her new lungs also had miniature dehumidifiers as well, in order to help expel any excess moisture that the new throat tubes missed.

“Okay Gabby, I’m gonna be working around your MCN now, so definitely don’t move.”

“Ok,” she replied patiently.

The next thing Jack pulled out was a strange rig that appeared to fit directly around the MCN. This was a series of tubes with a clear liquid contained within, as well as a storage tank. Jack carefully fit it over Gabby’s MCN, hooking it up to the heat sink that was already connected to the lungs, and then connected one of the tubes from the new throat tube to the tank. This new rig would essentially act as a liquid cooling system to augment her air cooling, since the greenhouse would be significantly warmer on average than the outside.

“Okay, I’m done with your MCN, but now I need to do a few things to your A.I. Core,” he told her, “which means you’ll need to shut down for a bit.”

“Aww, okay,” Gabby said in a mock voice of disappointment, “All systems shutting down,” she then dutifully reported, before all the systems in her body shut off.

Jack waited a few moments for the area around her core to cool off, taking the time to take a few bites of the snacks, and a few sips of the drinks. Once he was satisfied, he cleaned off his hands and returned to Gabby’s body, delicately removing her core and placing it with care next to her head on the cushioned surface.

Instead of working on her core, which he planned on doing next, he actually removed the casing that the core plugged in to. Just as with the other parts, this casing went into the spare parts drawer, and was replaced by a brand-new casing that was fitted with a slightly more delicate liquid cooling array than the MCN, as well as a few dehumidifiers. Once he had the new casing attached, and had the tubes from the new throat tube plugged into it, he pulled himself back out of her body to assess what to do next.

So far, all of the improvements were either to reduce/extract excess humidity, or to maintain proper temperature controls. The only exception was the new nose filter, as well as the filter that was attached to the new set of lungs, which were meant to keep out dust and pollen. These were all improvements Jack could have made to Gabby at any time, since they were made for Housewife’s functioning in extreme environments, but they were a tad expensive, and she didn’t need them until now. Still, as expensive as they were, the income she would be bringing in from the greenhouse would more than make up for the costs of maintaining her.

After Jack’s assessment was done, he reached back into her body and pulled out a large tank of fluid near her back that was hooked into an apparatus with many tubes leading throughout her body. This tank stored her SmartSweat. Jack pulled a smaller tank from it that contained the artificial scent/aromas that gave Gabby a more unique aroma before placing the perspiration tank in the spare parts drawer and then installing a brand-new tank that was 25% larger, making sure to attach the aroma tank to it first. Gabby would need the larger tank to store all the extra perspiration her systems would be able to produce from them excess humidity, and to help cool off her body in the warm temperature of the greenhouse. In addition, the SmartSweat formula in this tank was a heavier duty grade meant for warm climates, so it would keep her even cooler.

With the new perspiration tank installed, Jack had only one more thing to work on: Gabby’s core. Fortunately, he’d saved the easiest task for last. Since Gabby’s core could function while not in the body’s casing, it had its own small heat sink which Jack easily swapped out with one with a higher rating. In addition, he sprayed the sides of her core with a special substance that came out of a can, that would offer better protection from moisture build up just in case. Finally, he installed an additional memory storage module in one of her empty slots, since she had requested it in order to handle some extra programs she wanted to install later. Since she already had very good memory storage capacity, this only increased her overall storage by 15%, but it was more than enough for what she needed.

Before Jack reinserted her into her body, he quickly connected the remaining tubes from the new throat assembly to the perspiration tank, and then he walked over to his computer and copied over the update files Gabby would need in order to properly use her new hardware over into her dedicated update server.

“Okay Gabby’s lets get you back in,” Jack said fondly, picking up Gabby’s core and gently reinserting it into the new housing. Once she was back in with a satisfactory click, he tapped the power icon on her core and smiled as he saw all her lights come back on, her components purring back to life.

He watched patiently as the diagnostics ran on the small panel on her core. In the usual amount of time, she came back online like she always did.

“Ahh, that was a nice nap,” Gabby said, making a yawn sound from her throat speaker, “Did you finish up with me? All I’m detecting is the new memory module you installed…. thanks, by the way.”

“Don’t mention it,” he smiled, “I added the necessary files to your update server…you can download them right away, and they shouldn’t require a reboot.”

“Okay,” she said, the network icon flashing wildly on her core as she remotely accessed the private update server Jack had set up for her. “I see them, should only take a sec,” she replied, as he verified on his computer that she was downloading them. Once she finished, he cleared the queue and archived the file under today’s update log. “Okay, they’re installed…no reboot needed,” she announced cheerfully, as he saw the new liquid cooling systems activate with a cool blue light around her MCN and A.I. Core.

“Beautiful,” Jack marveled, “I’m gonna put your head back on now.”

“Okay, I’ll get ready,” she said, smoothly retracting her A/V/tower back into her neck. Normally the android would do that automatically when it detected its head moving back towards the body, but Gabby did it early so Jack could put her head back on more quickly. Once her head was attached, she had to spend a few extra microseconds interfacing with the new hardware he installed, before rearranging her face into a smile. “Wow, this new stuff feels great!” She squealed, squirming excitedly on the table as she checked out the various new control panels she now had access to in her HUD.

“Glad to hear it, since it cost quite a bit,” he smiled wryly, “Now, these are designed to increase your hot/humid resistance from 3hrs to 12hrs, but it still wouldn’t hurt to take breaks in between,” he told her seriously, “you mean a great deal to me, and I don’t want you melting down in there.”

“Awww, don’t worry dear…of course I’ll still take extra precautions, I love being alive too much not to, and I love you too much too.” She assured him, her eyes tearing up slightly; she could already feel some of the low humidity in the room being absorbed by her new throat tubes and slightly replenishing her tear tanks.

Jack said nothing, but she could see his eyes tearing up too. Without a word, he bent down kissed her lovingly, breaking apart moments later, absently wiping his eyes.

“So, am I done now?” She asked.

“I want to do a quick inspection first, and then you’ll actually need to recalibrate your motor systems, since the new components added about 3-5lbs to your overall weight.”

“Darn, I’ve been trying to lose weight,” she jested, giving him a playful wink.

“Well, maybe I’ll be able to shave some weight off with your end of the year upgrades,” he winked back, as he sat down on his work chair and inspected her hands and feet for damage.

“Ooh, I can’t wait,” she smiled, the breathing deeply as he practically massaged her hands and feet to inspect for damage.

“I’m gonna apply some skin repair cream,” he told her, “and, you might want to have your body increase the muscle mass in your legs by about 5% to handle the increased weight,” he added, squirting some cream onto his hands and rubbing it into her feet.

“Ooh,” she said despite herself, enjoying the feeling of him rubbing her feet, as well as the feeling of the nanites in her feet using the cream to repair the micro damage present. “Okay, I’ll be sure to add some extra protein to my plate tonight,” she told him, programming her body to increase the muscle mass in her legs. Once she ate the protein, it would just be a simple matter of her bodies nanites using it to increase her muscle mass slightly.

“I hope that means the meal you cook tonight is extra yummy,” Jack said hopefully, now rubbing cream into Gabby’s hands.

“Well, it depends on how good the first crops are,” she said, “and how much help I have.”

“Don’t worry dear…I’ll get all your girls in tip top shape, as I always do.”

“I know you will,” she smiled, sighing contentedly as he continued rubbing in the cream, allowing her body to repair the minor wear and tear on her hands.

When Jack finished with the cream, he wiped it off with a hand towel and then peaked inside Gabby’s body once more to verify all the new hardware he’d spent the last hour installing was working perfectly. From the liquid cooling arrays, to the humidity running through the new tubes, everything seemed to be functioning properly. Nodding approvingly, he picked up her front access panel and gently clicked it back in place, admiring as Gabby smoothly resealed her panel and took a few breaths and move around her skin.

“Are you ready for me to run a motor recalibration?” Gabby asked politely, admiring Jack admiring her naked body.

“Yes,” he smiled, “I’ll help you down.”

“Thanks.” Gabby slid her legs off the edge of the table and allowed Jack to help her down to the floor.

Once her feet were firmly planted on the floor, Jack continued to hold her as her systems ran a quick balance check. Immediately, the sensors in the bottom of her feet registered that her total weight had indeed increased by 3.7lbs. Realistically, this wasn’t enough of a weight change to really alter her balance, so she calmly stepped forward from Jack’s protective hold.

“You safely balanced?” he asked in a concerned voice.

“Yes dear, it isn’t that much of a weight change,” she assured him.

“Okay,” he smiled, giving her a playful spank on her firm ass.

Gabby let out a playful squeal, though kept a firm rein on her sexual programming; she had work to do. Although it wasn’t a major weight change, she did still need to recalibrate her motion systems so she could move more efficiently with the added weight, and so she could recalibrate her battery sensors.

Gabby’s recalibration routine was basically just her robot walking around the large area of Jack’s lab, while wildly exaggerating her arm and leg movements at times. Now that she was sentient, she was able to see how silly it looked, but it was a very effective way of recalibrating her systems.

Fortunately, the silly robot walking was only the beginning of it, and she was able to transition into a more normal walk before long. The recalibration routine ended with her doing some basic exercise routines, such as bending down and back up, and twisting around. Finally, she smoothly walked back over to Jack, who was thoroughly enjoying the show she put on, and prepared to report the findings of her recalibration diagnostic.

“Well, did the extra weight take any battery life away?”

“Only by 3-5 minutes, depending on the level of physical activity,” she shrugged, “actually, the liquid cooling systems you installed are helping improve my efficiency a little, since it’s much better than the old air cooling my lungs provide, so they slightly made up for the increased weight.”

Jack sighed a little with relief, making Gabby smile; he was always trying to improve her efficiency.

“So, am I done now?” she asked, since it was already over an hour past sunrise.

“You sure are in a hurry to get out there,” Jack smiled, moving in and giving her another kiss, his hands sliding down her naked back and resting on her hips.

“Yeah,” she sighed disappointedly, knowing Jack wanted to have a little fun with her first. She playfully teased him a little, bringing her hand down to his crotch and gently stroking the bulge that had already formed in his groin, before grabbing it with a naughty smile, “I know you want to, but I really have to go,” she said, kissing him before breaking away, “I promise I’ll make it up to you tonight though,” she added, grabbing her clothes and getting dressed.

“Man, way to give me blue balls here,” he laughed, though he found he was just as turned on by her turning down his advances as he would have been if she was her old non-sentient self and had appeased him.

“I know, but it’ll help you concentrate better with the others,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he laughed, “I’ll definitely need to with Missy for sure.”

“Yeah, she has some very good attributes,” Gabby conceded, now fully redressed, “Would you like me to send her here right away, or do you need a few minutes of prep time?”

“You can send her right away,” Jack decided, “I know you’re in a hurry to get everything ready.”

“Okay, thanks for all the help with building the new greenhouse, and with all my staff,” she smiled, walking over and giving him another kiss, “and for everything you just did with me.”

“For you, dear, it’s my absolute pleasure,” he smiled fondly.

Gabby playfully stroked Jack’s crotch once more, noting that the bulge had mostly receded. “I’ll really make it up to you later,” she promised once more, giving him a passing kiss on his cheek as she headed towards the lift into the house.

“I can’t wait,” he said with genuine enthusiasm.

“Is there anything else before I head up?” Gabby asked, pausing slightly dramatically at the entrance to the lab’s residence.

“Oh, yes actually, when Ellen arrives later, I’ll probably need JB and Ellie back,” he told her.

“Why?”

“Well, she’s bisexual and has expressed an interest in playing around with Ellie before, and she’ll probably want to have some fun with JB since we’ll have an anatomically correct version of her.”

“Ah, just let me know when she’s here and I’ll send them back,” Gabby smiled.

“Will do,” Jack told her, turning on the special monitor he had at his bench that monitored Gabby’s systems remotely; he mainly used it nowadays to communicate with her wirelessly.

“See you later dear, Missy will be down in a few minutes,” Gabby then said, dramatically turning and heading into the house.

“Have fun!” he called back, just before he heard the lift open and head up to the house. Once he heard the lift arrive up at the house, Jack quickly cleaned up the mess from when he was working on Gabby and began prepping for Missy.

Chapter Three: Missy

Once Jack had all the equipment and boxes that he’d brought out for Gabby put away, he quickly sanitized the table and then reached underneath to fiddle with some of the controls. After a bit of work, he finally accomplished what he was attempting to do with a satisfactory grunt, pulling a release tab that allowed him to pull both ends of the table to extend it’s length by a few feet.

After he had the table’s length extended by a few inches, he made a mental note to order a new table that could be recalibrated with the push of a button, and then he gathered up all the boxes labelled ‘Missy’ and then accessed the file he’d started on her on his terminal.

A few minutes later, Jack heard the lift from the house descending down into the lab, so he quickly saved his work and then turned to watch the residence of the lab with anticipation for Missy’s arrival. The lift opened up in the house and seconds later Missy gracefully walked out and into the main lab.

As soon as she was within 10ft of Jack’s work space, the need for him extending the length of the examination table was immediately apparent: Missy was tall.

Missy was a Mark II Personal Trainer model android modelled after a 21st century Olympic swimmer named Missy Franklin, specifically at the end of her career at age 22 when she was a whopping 6’2; Jack was only 5’11.

No surprise, but Jack actually acquired his Missy android from a high school pool department a few cities away that had originally purchased the Missy Franklin android simply because the real Missy Franklin was a famous swimmer. Unfortunately, they didn’t do all the necessary research before purchasing her and did not realize that owning an android that was 6ft+ tall would be far more expensive to maintain. She lasted only one year before they put her up for sale, immediately purchasing a more average-sized generic Personal Trainer model with the money Jack paid for her.

Jack’s reason for acquiring an android that was taller than 6ft was because Gabby needed a tall android in the greenhouse to assist with more of the heavy lifting, as well as helping tend to the larger and taller plants. He gave Gabby a little bit of a hard time, since more than a year earlier he’d wanted a taller than average android to act as a security guard, but she successfully convinced him that it wasn’t necessary and would cost too much money at the time, and now he was still glad he’d acquired the dependable Mark I Personal Trainer Gina.

“Hello Jack,” Missy said in a polite voice, “Gabby sent me down for planned maintenance.”

“Yes, she did,” Jack nodded, “please remove all your clothes and lay down on the table.”

“Yes, sir,” she nodded dutifully, calmly removing the ‘uniform’ that Gabby had all her android staff where within the greenhouse.

The uniform consisted of a breathable mesh shirt, breathable spandex underwear, cargo shorts, ankle socks, and athletic shoes. For Missy, they made sure to choose shoes that were extra padded, so she could add close to an extra inch to her height.

Once she was fully undressed, she climbed up onto the table and laid down, just barely fitting after Jack had extended the length of the table. Jack gazed down and admired her tall, athletic body. Since Missy was a swimmer, virtually all her muscle groups were well-toned and in good shape. This had the minor side effect of reducing her breast size, but everything else more than made up for it. Missy said nothing while he silently admired her body, but merely patiently waited with a friendly smile on her face.

“Okay Missy, please open your primary access panel, as well as your scalp panel,” he instructed clinically, once he’d drunk in enough of her appearance.

“Yes Jack,” she replied happily, zoning out as blue lights flashed on her torso and head, revealing the seams.

Jack quickly removed her scalp panel, careful not to muss her hair up too much. Once he had it set down on the head mannequin, he removed her torso panel and set it down next to it, pausing once more to admire her inner mechanics.

Since Missy was a Personal Trainer android, she already had all of the same liquid cooling enhancements he’d just installed in Gabby earlier, though the Personal Trainer versions were of far better quality. This was even more so with Missy, since she was only built a year earlier and was still in fairly pristine condition. As such, Missy could last up to 72hrs at a time in the greenhouse, though with some of the improvements he was making, he hoped to increase that to 96hrs.

“Okay Missy, I’m going to start by upgrading your filters, so don’t breath for the next few minutes,” he instructed, gathering the boxes with her new set of filters.

“Okay Jack,” she nodded, taking in one more breath and then exhaling before turning her respiratory systems to standby mode.

Jack made sure the standby light was lit on her lungs before reaching into her open head and removing the nose filter. Her nose filter was already slightly dirty from the few days she’d been working in the greenhouse, but was still in decent condition. Jack stashed it in a box he’d brought over for Missy’s spare parts, and then inserted the new filter, which had a higher rating than the one she was built with.

Since that was the only thing he was replacing in her head, he quickly clicked her scalp panel back on before reaching into her open chest and pulling out the filter at the top of her lungs, replacing that one with a higher rating, before tossing the old filter in the spare parts box.

“Alright Missy, you can stop holding your breath now,” Jack told her, sitting down to take a quick break. Missy promptly took her lungs off standby and took a few breaths to get the air moving properly through the new filters.

“Thanks Jack, these new filters feel great.”

“Yeah, but still wear a mask in the greenhouse whenever possible,” he told her, “the reason those filters are so great is because they cost quite a bit more than the standard ones do.”

“I understand,” she nodded, adding that instruction to her programming queue.

After Jack finished his quick break, he stood back and and delved once more into Missy’s large frame, this time detaching the set of dehumidifiers attached to her lungs and throat tube. He replaced them one at a time with ones that were rated for higher humidity levels, and then placed the old ones in her spare parts box.

“Jack, do these count as presents?” Missy asked.

“What?”

“Gabby told me that when we do good work each year, we get presents and upgrades for Christmas,” Missy explained, “do these count?”

Jack laughed, “No, these don’t count,” he assured her, giving her a gentle pat on her shoulder as as he pulled out her perspiration tank and replaced it with a larger one.

“Good, because I still want to help Gabby more,” Missy said, sighing with relief.

“As do I,” Jack smiled, making sure all the connections were in place for the new perspiration tank, before pulling his hands out of her and heading back to his computer. He quickly dragged the files she needed to properly run the new hardware into her update queue. “Missy, please install the updates I just added to your queue; you won’t need to reboot.”

“Okay,” she nodded, zoning out as she downloaded the files and promptly installed them, “installation complete,” she reported.

“Good, I’m going to be upgrading your battery next, so please shut yourself down,” he instructed her, pulling a large battery core from the shipping container her new parts arrived in.

“Understood, shutting down,” she announced in a clipped voice, closing her eyes gracefully as her systems all shut down. Once everything was completely offline, Jack put on a pair of insulated gloves and reached into her lower body, detaching her power core and carefully lifting it out.

Once he had her power core out, he quickly inspected it and determined that instead of putting in in Missy’s spare parts box, he would instead be setting this aside to give to Kat as one of her Christmas presents later this year. “This should give Kat a few more hours of power,” Jack said satisfactorily, placing it on his workbench for later, putting a note on it so JB and Ellie could properly prep it.

Jack then pulled out Missy’s new power core, which was noticeably larger and had what looked like additional batteries attached to it, with cables leading out of them. Jack made quick work of installing the larger core, and then attached each of the cables into the leads from both of Missy’s arms and legs. The additional batteries attached to the core would now capture the kinetic energy from each of Missy’s movements, greatly enhancing her overall battery capacity. Fortunately, this was already a built-in upgrade for Personal Trainers, so Jack didn’t have to replace Missy’s entire arms and legs, though the school that had originally purchased her just didn’t think it was a necessary expenditure, so Missy merely didn’t have the proper battery.

Once her core was properly installed, Jack attached a heavy-duty power cable and tapped the diagnostic screen on the battery, instructing it to initiate a quick charge cycle. With the heavy-duty cable, the new core was able to rapidly charge from the 25% packaging safety level, all the way up to 100%, within five minutes; a normal charge would have taken close to 5hrs. A rapid charge was something the cores could really only take if they were brand new, or severely depleted, so Jack hoped this would be the only time he needed to do this with Missy. He carefully removed the heavy-duty cable, then the insulated gloves, and pressed the power button to turn her back on.

Since it was new, only the power core turned on first, running its own set of diagnostics and safety checks before distributing power to the rest of Missy’s body. Missy’s A.I. Core swiftly turned on, followed by the rest of her systems, and she opened her eyes.

“Ah, thanks for the nap Jack,” Missy said playfully, a pre-programmed response to only being offline for about 20 minutes.

“No problem Missy,” Jack smiled, pulling a large turkey baster-sized syringe out of one of his drawers, as well as a large container of a bluish gelatinous looking material, “Missy, please unseal your muscle ports.”

“Okay,” she nodded, zoning out as several small holes suddenly appeared on her arms and legs, just over the major muscle groups.

“Thanks Missy, this should only take a few minutes,” Jack assured her, sucking up a large amount of the blue substance and then squeezing measured amounts into each port. Once he finished up, he wiped off the syringe and set it aside from cleaning later, putting away the container and reminding himself to order some more later. “Okay Missy, you can close up and do your thing.”

“Okie dokie,” she smiled, sealing her ports and then zoning out once more. Each muscle on her arms and legs suddenly started throbbing beneath her skin for several seconds before suddenly bulging out slightly as the substance expanded her muscles. This was a feature exclusive to Personal Trainer models, otherwise he would have done the same with Gabby; he had to wait for her body to do it the long way. When the throbbing subsided moments later, her major muscle groups had expanded in size by 20%, enough to give her a significant boost in strength and endurance.

“Wow, very nice,” Jack nodded, giving each muscle an approving squeeze, smiling as Missy giggle with each squeeze.

“Are you ready for me to get up now?” she asked politely, once he finished inspecting her new muscles.

“Not quite,” he said, grabbing the skin repair cream and walking over to her feet to inspect them.

He was momentarily caught off guard by just how large they were. At size 13, Missy had the largest feet of any of his girls, dwarfing even Kat’s feet. After a quick inspection, he applied a few dabs to her feet and then gave them a light massage, feeling for any damage. As a large android, her feet were highly susceptible to stress and needed to be inspected regularly.

After nearly a minute had passed, most of which was him simply enjoying her large feet, he wiped his hands off and gave her feet a gentle pat. Taking one more quick peek inside her body, he nodded approvingly and reattached her torso cover, standing back as some of the muscle substance that he’d injected into her torso increased the size of her abdomen slightly.

“Alright Missy, you can get up off the table now,” he told her, holding out his hands to help her down.

“Okay,” she nodded, gently taking his hands in her larger ones and carefully climbing down off the table. She went a bit slower than usual, since she was not yet used to the new muscles. Once her feet were firmly down on the floor, Jack gave her a gentle pat on the back.

“Okay Missy, go run a motor recalibration.”

Missy merely nodded, and strutted out into the main lab before initiating the same exaggerated movements that Gabby had done earlier, though with Missy’s larger more muscular body, Jack found the sight to be far more erotic and he made sure the security cameras in his lab were functioning properly so he could review the footage later. When she finished a few minutes later, she dutifully walked back over to him and stood at attention for inspection.

“Very good Missy,” he clapped, walking over to her and admiring her new, more muscular look, “so, how’s the new battery and muscles helping?”

“With the new upgrades, my total battery life has been extended by approximately 34%,” she reported, absently flexing her new muscles; the new perspiration was beading up on her chest.

“Good, now before I let you go, I have one more test,” he told her, attempting to hold a serious face before losing it to a slight blush, “umm, I want you to lift me up.”

“Are you sure?” she asked with a look of bemusement.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he nodded, “I must admit I take great pleasure in some of you ladies being able to lift me up as though I weigh nothing, but considering I weigh slightly over 180lbs, it’s actually a decent test of your strength.”

“Understood,” she nodded, quickly sizing him up with her visual systems before slowly approaching him, “are you ready?”

“Yes,” Jack nodded.

Missy nodded in response before reaching out her arms and gently grabbing his sides. Then, she slowly lifted him up, more for his own safety than her own, until she was lifting him as high up as her arms would allow. She held him up there for ten seconds, per her usual strength test timer, and then slowly lowered him back down to his feet.

“Was that satisfactory?” she asked politely, gently patting down the areas where she was gripping him.

“Yes, quite,” Jack said, his heart pounding at the sight of the Amazonian android woman standing before him; he wished he’d gotten one of his own earlier.

“Good,” she smiled, “then am I done?”

“Yes Missy, you’re done,” Jack nodded, quickly composing himself and walking back over to his desk, “you can get dressed and head over to the greenhouse.”

“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, bending down and retrieving her clothes, making quick work of redressing. Once she was fully redressed, she turned to Jack. “Alright, I’m ready to head back…do you want me to send Enja or Camren?”

“Camren please,” Jack told her, “Gabby specifically requested that she be next.”

“Very well,” she bowed, turning and heading back into the residence to ride the lift back to the surface.

As she left, Jack wished she could be more personable, though he realized that the Personal Trainer androids had the least powerful CPUs of the five classes, so he didn’t expect much. Still, he was going to be working on two more back-to-back, so he braced himself for more basic conversation. At least Missy’s looks more than made up for her conversational deficiencies, Jack thought to himself, as he prepped Camren’s upgrades at the table and returned it to its normal length.

Chapter Four: Camren

Jack had a decent break after working on Missy, so once she had everything prepped for Camren, he relaxed in his chair and snacked on a sandwich. It took each android approximately five minutes to walk from his lab, out of the house, and the short distance to the greenhouse. Then, they had to check in with Gabby, and then find the next android to send down to Jack, which added another five minutes. Then, that android had to finish what they were working on, which added another 1-2 minutes. Finally, they had to head all the way down to Jack’s lab.

Camren arrived approximately 16 minutes later, proving Jack’s point. She efficiently walked out of the residence and into the lab, stopping a short distance away from Jack. “Missy said it’s my turn to get worked on?” she inquired.

“Yes Camren, please undress and lay down on the table,” he instructed, wiping his hands off, “once you’re on the table, please disengage your scalp panel, as well as your primary maintenance panel.”

“Okay Jack,” Camren nodded, efficiently removing her uniform and laying down on the table. Once she was down, the blue lights flashed on her head and torso, revealing each panel Jack had instructed her to unseal.

“Thanks Camren,” Jack smiled, gazing down upon her body briefly to size her up.

Unlike with Missy, who was really tall, Camren was really short. Not too short, like the Shawn Johnson android Gabby had gotten Jack for Christmas the Christmas before last, but at 5’2, she was a full foot shorter than Missy. Jack had actually considered loaning his Shawn Johnson android to Gabby, but just as having a really tall android could lead to expensive maintenance problems, so could having a really short one; which is why he didn’t use the Shawn Johnson android too often. That being said, his Shawn Johnson android was also a bit stout in addition to being short, so the Camren android made up for that slightly.

Camren was modeled after a 21st century actress named Camren Bicondova, who had played a young pre-Catwoman in a pre-Batman TV series. This Camren, of course, was based on how old the actress actually was at the conclusion of the series, 21, rather than her character’s age of late-teens.

The primary reason Jack chose her, in addition to her height, was because as a dancer and gymnast, she was more flexible and could perform more of the tasks Gabby needed. Gabby needed a short android to tend to the herbs and flowers that were at ground level, and could handle bending down and crawling around on her knees more. Additionally, she needed an android small enough to crawl in the under section of the greenhouse, since the temperature control mechanisms had a small crawl space beneath the whole structure.

As Jack removed the panel from Camren’s torso, and then the scalp panel with her wild looking hair, he remembered how he had acquired her. Since the real Camren had been a famous dancer and actress, she had been purchased by a high school to assist the theater department with choreography, and to assist the physical education department with gymnastics, dance, and various other odd jobs. The other reason they picked her was because she looked reasonably close to high school age, so she would blend in better.

She served them fairly well for the three years they had her, but they obviously had problems with resourceful students hacking her programming to have sex with her. Jack had asked why they didn’t just purchase her with no vagina, and based on the shy responses he got, he gathered that some of the teachers used her to reduce their stress. Jack knew what that meant, but stayed mum…they were purchasing a new android that was a bit less attractive.

Gazing into Camren’s open body, he could see the minor differences that set her apart from Missy and some of the other Personal Trainer androids he owned. Whereas Missy was built for pure strength and waterproofing, Camren was built more for handling quick and repetitive movements, and as such had multiple shock absorbers attached to her arm and legs connections, as well as around her hips and shoulders. Camren did still have the same liquid cooling array as Missy, but her systems were not nearly as waterproofed, nor did they need to be.

“Okay Camren, don’t breathe for the next few minutes while I upgrade your filters,” Jack told her, deciding to start with the filters for each android he’d be working on today.

“Okay Jack,” she nodded, exhaling the air that was still in her lungs and then putting them in standby mode.

Jack made quick work of replacing her nose filter, also adding a small visual processing chip to each of her eyes that would give her better night vision. When he was done in her head, he gently clicked her scalp back on, once again admiring the wild hair she had. Then, he made quick work of replacing her lung filter, before replacing the set of dehumidifiers as well.

“Okay Camren, you can breathe again,” he told her, tossing her old filters in the garbage and cleaning his hands off.

Camren took in several deep breaths to break in the filters before smiling, “Thanks Jack.”

“Don’t mention it,” he smiled, “Oh, and I already told Missy, but please be sure to wear a mask if possible, to reduce the strain on your filters…they aren’t cheap.”

“No problem Jack,” she nodded.

Jack nodded and dove back into her body. He quickly swapped out her perspiration tank for a larger one that contained upgraded SmartSweat, making sure all the leads were connected. Finally, he swapped out each of her shock absorbers for fresh ones, since he hadn’t done so when he purchased her; the ones she was using were already of decent enough quality, so he didn’t need to upgrade them.

Finally, Jack took a quick look at Camren’s A.I. Core and checked her current processor setup. After confirming the model numbers on the four chips she currently had installed, he stood up and grabbed two processor chips from his workbench that were the same model and clock speed.

“I’m going to insert some new processor chips now, so wait until both are inserted before activating them,” he told her, making sure he was wearing insulated gloves first.

“Okay,” she nodded, also putting most of her systems in standby to reduce the stress on the processors currently installed; a safety function for when new chips were inserted while the android was online.

Jack gathered his breath and then carefully inserted both chips into her assembly. Camren had only been using four, since Personal Trainer’s don’t usually need more than six; Kat was the exception, using eight. Once both were inserted, he stood back and said, “Okay, you can activate them now.”

Camren gave Jack a brief nod before zoning out as her systems activated the newly inserted processors and ran initial diagnostics. Camren, unlike Enja or Missy, would need six processors instead of four since she would be performing more complex tasks, such as plumbing repairs and overall maintenance. Fortunately, the extra heat generated by the extra processors wouldn’t be as much of an issue, since Camren wouldn’t be doing anything too physically exerting, and she would be closer to the ground where it would be cooler.

While Camren continued integrating the new processors, he sat down at his workstation and queued up the latest software updates, and also added the necessary packages she would need in order to properly maintain the greenhouse; Gabby also had the proper programming packages.

Camren snapped back a few moments later, saying, “Thanks Jack, these new processors are great!”

“Don’t mention it, you’ll definitely be needing them,” he shrugged, “I added some updates to your queue. Please download them and then install.”

“Okay,” Camren smiled, zoning out as she started downloading the files Jack had prepared for her. Due to her enhanced processing speed, she was able to install them much quicker than Missy was able to, and before long she performed a silent reboot before coming back online with a smile. “All updates have installed successfully,” she reported happily.

“Great!” Jack smiled, “I just have a few more tests to run on you before I let you go,” he said, walking over to her and grabbing her right leg, “I’m going to test your leg flexibility really quick, so just go with it.”

“Understood,” she nodded.

Jack gently lifted her right leg all the way up, making sure it bent and pivoted properly at her hips, before grabbing onto her small foot and gently bending her leg at the knee several times, cocking his hear closely towards her knee to ensure her knee mechanisms were functioning smoothly, even closely examining her knee for visual damage. Finally, he grabbed her foot and gently rotated it several times at the ankle, once more listening closely, before closely examining her foot and bending each toe, as well as the whole foot. Her feet had slightly thicker skin than a normal android foot would have, particularly in the heel and the balls of the feet, since dancing required a bit more reinforcement.

After Jack performed the same test with her left leg by walking to the other side of the table, he applied a small amount of skin repair cream to her feet and knees and then gently set her legs down. “Well Camren, looks like you get a clean bill of health,” he announced happily, grabbing her torso cover and clicking it back in place, “Although, I’ll have to see about getting you some knee pads or something to protect you with all the kneeling down you’ll be doing.”

“Thank you, Jack,” she said kindly, holding out her hands so he could help her down off the table. Once she was firmly on the ground, he stood back.

“Okay, since I increased your weight a little, you’ll need to recalibrate your motor systems,” he told her.

“Alright,” she nodded, walking calmly out into the center of the lab and running the same motor tests that Gabby and Missy had. The main difference was that Camren was smaller and had less cleavage and curves bouncing around, though Jack found that moderately appealing. When she finished, she calmly walked back over to him and stood at attention.

Jack briefly entertained the possibility of having Camren lift him up. Despite her short height and smaller body, she could, but it would tax her systems a lot more and would likely result in the need for repairs. He merely sufficed with fantasizing about having Gabby try out her body some time, since he’d since modified Gabby’s core so it could function in Personal Trainer bodies.

“Very good Camren,” he clapped, “you can get dressed and return to the greenhouse,” he told her, gathering up all the equipment he’d brought out for Camren.

“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, reaching down and retrieving her clothes.

“No problem, just be careful on your knees,” he reminded her, “Oh, and when you get back, please have Enja come down here for her appointment.”

“Will do,” Camren nodded, giving him a sly smile as she headed back into the residence towards the lift.

Jack merely watched her leave, before resuming his preparations for Enja.

Chapter Five: Enja

Jack took a quick power nap in his work chair while he waited for Enja, since he was planning on having lunch with Gabby as soon as he was finished working on her. The soothing scent of peppermint was still strong in the ventilation system, and it helped his 10-minute power nap feel like it was longer.

Enja arrived in the lab 15 minutes after Camren had left, keeping with the consistency of these highly tuned androids. Jack quickly composed himself as Enja exited the residence and stopped a short distance from Jack’s workstation for him to visually inspect, and admire, her.

Enja was built in the form of a young Caucasian woman in her mid-twenties. She had what could be best described as a sunny appearance, with long sandy blond hair tied into a pony tail that fell past her shoulders, and an extremely heart-warming smile that got Jack’s blood pumping. Enja was the mid-range height android that he selected, per Gabby’s request, and at 5’7, she was exactly halfway in height between Camren (5’2) and Missy (6’2); Gabby was 5’8.

Unlike Missy and Camren, who were both based on famous people from the early 21st century, Enja was based on a real person from this century. More specifically, she was based on a relatively famous fitness trainer who formed a gym company more than a decade prior and, in addition to opening their own private gyms, also operated in-house gyms in large corporate buildings that had workaholics too busy to go to another gym.

The Enja Jack purchased was from one of those corporate buildings, though by the time they built their own in-house gym, the company the real Enja worked at went under, so they sold their stock of androids to pay the bills, and this particular Enja android was purchased by a corporation based the next city over from Jack’s humble town.

Of course, a few years after that, that corporation had to start downsizing, and they ended up selling their Enja to Jack at less than half the price they had originally paid for her. Jack remembered crushing on one of these Enja androids when his uncle was still alive, though he never actually got a gym membership to see one up close.

As old as this Enja android was, she was still in very good condition and required only minor maintenance and updates. Just as with Missy and Camren, Jack would be tweaking her systems a bit to handle the greenhouse climate, but aside from that she wouldn’t need much.

“Hey Jack, I heard you were ready to work on me?” she inquired in a honey sweet voice, brimming with the high-tier customer service programming she came equipped with, due to working in a corporate setting.

“Yes, Enja,” Jack nodded, “Please remove all your clothes, lay down on the examination table, and unseal your scalp and primary maintenance ports.”

“Right away,” she nodded politely, smoothly removing her uniform and laying down upon the table. As soon as her panels were unsealed, she gave Jack a patient smile and awaited his next move.

Jack returned her smile and paused briefly to admire her modest, athletic figure, before removing her torso cover, followed by her scalp cover. He was glad she wore her hair in a pony tail, unlike the others, because it made it considerably easier to remove neatly.

“Alright, I’m going to start by upgrading your filters, so don’t use your lungs until I’m done,” he told her, prepping the next set of filters.

“Okay,” Enja smiled, exhaling the remaining air in her lungs before placing her respiratory system in standby mode.

“Thanks, Enja, this won’t take too long,” he promised her, reaching into her head to replace her nose filter.

“I know it won’t Jack,” she smiled, using the vocal synthesizer in her throat, instead of her normal vocalization. This slightly startled Jack, since neither Missy or Camren had used theirs when he was working on them, though they easily could have. Jack figured it was Enja’s customer service skills at play once more.

Jack quickly swapped out the filter behind Enja’s nose, and also fixed some minor damage that he noticed on her throat tube; good thing he caught it, or she could have had a fluid rupture total her cranial unit.

After performing a quick re-check of her head for any further damage he may have missed, he gently clicked her scalp back on, making sure to rest her pony tail next to her head. He then made quick work of replacing the lung filter before giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder, “you can breathe again.”

Enja promptly took her lungs out of standby and took a few test breaths to get used to the new filters. “Ah, these feel much better, thanks!”

“Don’t mention it,” Jack blushed, caught off-guard by her smile, then shaking himself back with an awkward cough, “Umm, I’m going to poke around inside your body for a bit to see what needs to be worked on,” he said, “to be honest, you don’t need as much work as Camren and Missy needed.”

“It’s okay,” she shrugged.

As Jack looked around inside Enja’s body, he felt somewhat guilty that she wasn’t getting as much work done. Missy needed to be tall and strong so she could help out with the tall plants, and with heavy lifting. And Camren needed to be short and nimble so she could do repetitive bending, kneeling, and crawling to tend to not just flowers, herbs, and other ground-based plants, but also to perform maintenance in crawl spaces. Enja, on the other hand, simply needed to be normal…at least, normal within android standards. Gabby needed Enja to tend to just things at normal arm level, or things on tables…things Gabby would normally be tending to. In addition, due to Enja’s customer service programming, she would also be assisting with tours of the greenhouse facility that they would be offering to patrons of the café, shop, and motel, as well as any passersby.

Fortunately for Jack, this Enja android had been mostly helping gym members with spotting for weights, and basic aerobic exercises, so she had a fairly well-rounded array of hardware, and very minor wear and tear.

Jack replaced the shock absorbers inside Enja’s body, and then replaced the perspiration tank with the same one he’d installed in the other girls. He also upgraded the dehumidifiers attached to her lungs, and also upgraded the liquid cooling array around her MCN, since she was older than Camren and Missy and was using an older model.

“Alright Enja, I think that’s all I can do with you for now,” he announced, pulling his hands out and cleaning them off, “to be honest, you’re already fine the way you are.”

“Aww, thanks Jack,” Enja gushed.

Jack blushed, though said nothing further, instead sitting down at his computer and pulling up Enja’s update queue. He added the same routine A.I. updates that were available for her model, as well as the updates she’d need to better use the new hardware he installed in her. Finally, he added upgrades to her already top-notch customer service programming, these ones fine tuned for assisting Gabby in the greenhouse.

“Okay Enja, I added some stuff to your update queue,” he announced, saving his changes to make it available for her, “please download them all and install them.”

Enja zoned out momentarily as she accessed her update queue. “I see them…several of these require me to reboot afterwards, would you like me to do so?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” she said with a smile in her voice, zoning out as her systems installed the updates and packages. Less than a minute later, Enja performed a silent reboot, coming back online moments later with her usual smile. “Updates complete.”

“Good, I just need to check your legs and feet really quick, and then I should be done until Christmas time,” Jack smiled, grabbing the jar of skin repair cream.

Enja said nothing, but merely continued to smile as she watched Jack grab her legs and gently test her muscles and range of movement. Jack admired her pretty feet, even more since her feet, as well as the feet of Camren and Missy, were all based on real, flawed human beings, as opposed to some of his other androids who were figments of someone’s imagination. After he applied the skin repair cream to her feet, he wiped off his hands and then delicately reattached Enja’s torso cover.

“Okay Enja, let’s get you down off the table so you can run a quick motor recalibration,” he told her, taking her hands and helping her down off the table.

“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, once her feet were firmly on the ground. Jack gave her a friendly pat on her butt, eliciting a cute squeal, before she walked out into the lab and performed her motor recalibration. Jack, as before, made sure to record it for his own viewing pleasure later.

She finished just as quickly and efficiently as the others did, walking gracefully back to Jack and stopping just close enough for him to visually inspect, and admire, her body. “Am I satisfactory?”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, you have no idea.”

“It’s okay, Jack, I got this reaction a lot in my previous jobs,” she whispered to him, “that’s the main reason why the real Enja made androids like me…it made her rich.”

“Yeah…I mean, you’d think with all the lovely ladies, and my wife, that I work on here that I’d be used to it, but you…well, you’re special,” Jack admitted bashfully.

“Well, I promise I won’t tell your wife,” she said, pretending to zip her lips.

“Thanks,” he said, with a mock look of relief.

“So, am I done?”

“Yes Enja, you can get dressed now.”

Enja merely nodded politely and retrieved her clothes, efficiently redressing before standing before him. “Would you like me to go back to the greenhouse now?”

“Yes, though I’ll actually be joining you,” he decided, looking at the clock; it was lunch time. “I don’t think my next ‘customer’ is going to be around until the afternoon, so I think I’ll enjoy lunch with Gabby in the arboretum.”

“Ooh, have you been inside since it was completed?” Enja asked excitedly.

“No,” he admitted.

“Well, you’re in for a treat,” she smiled, “It’s quite lovely inside, especially since I primarily work in there, and Gabby finds it very relaxing…probably why her office looks out into it.”

“Wow, I can’t wait,” Jack said, grabbing the jacket off his chair and putting it on, “well, let’s go!”

“Great!” Enja said with genuine enthusiasm, offering her hand to Jack to walk her out.

Jack hesitated for only a microsecond before taking Enja’s pretty hand and walking out of his lab with her.

Chapter Six: The Arboretum

As soon as they stepped out of the lift into the house, they were immediately approached by Gemma.

“Hello Jack, Enja,” she started with a polite nod, “my integration with your lab sensors alerted me that you were going to be heading up soon, so I took the liberty of preparing a lunch in the form of a picnic.”

“Oh?” Jack said with piqued interest.

“Yes, nothing fancy,” she shrugged, walking with them the rest of the way into the kitchen, were a picnic basket awaited on the table, “just some deli sandwiches, cheese, and chips,” she reported, opening the top of the basket to reveal the yummy contents, “and a pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade from the latest crop from the greenhouse,” she concluded.

“Wow, you outdid yourself,” Jack nodded, while Enja merely smiled approvingly; Jack didn’t have Enja, or Camren and Missy, configured so they could eat.

“Well, actually it was Gabby who suggested having a picnic,” Gemma admitted somewhat bashfully, “I however chose the meal.”

“Hey, no need for competition,” Jack laughed, “A picnic was a good idea, and your food is almost as delicious as hers.”

Gemma gave him a respectful nod. “When you’re done, just put the basket and the waste on the table in here and I’ll clean it later,” she smiled, giving him one more nod before heading over to clean the counter.

Jack looked at the basket, which was somewhat large, and then guiltily at Enja. “Enja, I don’t mean to be ungentlemanlike, but would you mind carrying the basket for me?”

“Not at all!” she replied cheerfully, grabbing the basket with enthusiasm, and carrying it far easier than Jack could have, “I’m just an android, so you don’t have to treat me like a lady.”

“Thanks,” he blushed, “I know you’re just an android, but I usually still try and treat you all like I would an actual lady,” he said, walking with her out the back door.

“Well, I don’t mind,” she shrugged, “I am stronger than you, so it makes sense I carry the basket.”

“That works for me,” Jack smiled, then simply enjoying the scenery of his property.

After they passed the area of Jack’s yard that contained the more modest garden Gabby still tended to for their own food needs, they entered a thicker portion of the forest that surrounded Jack’s immediate yard around his house. Due to the size requirements of the greenhouse, it needed to be constructed in a small clearing near the edge of his property.

“You have a beautiful property, Jack,” Enja breathed, “this is MUCH better than the other places I’ve been.”

“Thanks, it used to belong to my Uncle…he was a bit reclusive.”

“Something you seem to have inherited,” Enja commented, “No offense.”

“None taken,” Jack laughed, appreciated Enja’s directness, “I’m not quite as bad as him, but I must admit…I much more appreciate the company of my androids than I do real people.”

“Except Henry, of course,” Enja added.

“Yes, Henry is an exception,” Jack nodded.

“He’s a nice kid,” Enja noted, “He brings his own android Anna in to the arboretum a few times a week.”

“Well, I built this place for all of us, in addition to Gabby,” Jack shrugged, though before Enja could respond, they entered the clearing that contained Gabby’s greenhouse.

The greenhouse was fairly large, taking up about 1.2x the size of a football field, though without the ostentatious bleachers and extra crap added around it. The main greenhouse portion contained a few domed sections isolated from one another, each containing a different atmosphere and climate for different types of plants.

Attached to the front section of the greenhouse was a structure made from the few trees they had to clear in order to make the greenhouse fit in the clearing. The structure contained the visitor center, and Gabby’s office. Attached to the corner of the office, adjoining the greenhouse, was a structure made almost entirely of glass. It was difficult to view inside from ground level outside, since the glass had privacy screening qualities, but Jack knew the inside contained the arboretum. A walkway made of local stones snaked off into the forest, leading back to the street for patrons of Jack’s businesses to follow to the greenhouse, as well as anyone else wanting to visit.

“Wow, this still takes a bit of getting used to seeing,” Jack breathed.

“Yeah,” Enja agreed, pausing with Jack to view her home, “it’s much better inside…I just hope those enhancements you made to my body actually help me last longer in there,” she sighed, “we haven’t been able to help Gabby out as much having to leave the greenhouse every three days to take a 12hr break.”

“Don’t worry, the enhancements will increase your endurance, and reduce the turnover time,” he assured her.

“I trust you,” she smiled, then got a serious look “we should be going now…Gabby knows we’re here and she’s waiting for us.”

“Ah, I always forget my wife can commune with you all,” Jack laughed, resuming his pace to the greenhouse with Enja.

“Well, that makes it far easier to work for her than my previous owners,” Enja admitted, “It is a little odd that my new owner is an android herself, but I don’t discriminate.”

“Good,” Jack smiled, rushing ahead to open the door for Enja.

“Thank you,” Enja said, though they were immediately greeted by Gabby, so Jack merely grunted a response before allowing Gabby to energetically embrace him.

“Jack, these upgrades you gave me are SO much better in the greenhouse!” Gabby practically shouted, lovingly kissing him several times before releasing him.

“Wow, I’m glad you liked them,” Jack managed to say, slightly startled by Gabby’s passionate greeting, “I told you they’d be better.”

“Yeah, but experiencing it is so much better,” she waved off; Gabby still had beads of perspiration on her forehead and upper chest, indicating she had only recently exited the greenhouse.

“Umm, Gemma made you two a picnic,” Enja chimed in, holding out the basket, “where would you like me to put this?”

“Ooh, that’s right…I almost forgot I asked her to do that,” Gabby said, smacking her forehead dramatically, “you can go get it set up in the arboretum, Enja…and then you can resume your work in the greenhouse.”

“Okay Gabby,” Enja said cheerfully, rushing over to the arboretum entrance to set up their picnic.

“So, how’s everything going so far?”

“Great! After Camren came back, she was able to get the climate systems fully online and we’ve been making sure the plants are ready for the full-time climates they’ll be growing in.”

“I’m glad the upgrades I gave you all have been fruitful so far,” Jack sighed.

“Yeah, and I can assure you…they’ll be paid off in less than a month,” Gabby grinned.

“I believe it,” Jack laughed.

Enja emerged from the arboretum before either of them could say anything else. “Your picnic is all set up,” she announced, “it’s in the best spot.”

“Great, thanks Enja!” Gabby said, as Enja headed into the greenhouse, then held her hand out for Jack, “Let’s go Jack.”

Jack nodded and took Gabby’s hand as she led him in to the arboretum.

Jack had been in the space that contained the arboretum before, and he’d seen plans for it on Gabby’s home computer, but seeing it completely finished and functional nearly took Jack’s breath away.

Although Gabby wanted the greenhouse, it was actually Jack’s idea to add an arboretum, mostly as a way to give patrons of his businesses something else to visit, since he figured most people might not want to walk around in a warm, humid environment…despite how beautiful they may be. Fortunately, Gabby found it to be a wonderful idea and fully went along with it.

The arboretum was about the size of an average sized school gymnasium. The position of the arboretum on the side of the greenhouse allowed the windows to view the deep forest, as well as the snowcapped mountains beyond them with the ski resorts. While they called it an arboretum, it was also something of a botanical garden since it contained various types of flora, rather than just indigenous ones.

There were flowers of all hues lining the various walkways, and perfectly trimmed trees, shrubs, and hedges as well. A clear water creek, with numerous small fish swimming around, ran from a large rock structure that had a waterfall cascading from the top; the waterfall was fed by an underground spring, which was part of the reason for building the greenhouse in this location. The “best spot” that Enja was referring to was a small lawn situated near the pool at the base of the waterfall, with the small blanket that Gemma had included in the basket all laid out, and the food already neatly displayed.

“This place is beautiful, Gabby,” Jack sighed, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the smell of the flora.

“Thanks,” she smiled warmly, sitting down on the blanket with Jack and reaching in to the basket and grabbing a sandwich, “Mmm, my power systems really need this,” she said hungrily, taking a large bite.

Jack chuckled as he too grabbed a sandwich and took a bite. “These are good…. though not as good as you would make them.”

“Thanks, dear,” Gabby gushed, “you don’t have to flatter me though…it doesn’t take too much skill to make a sandwich, and Gemma is more than capable. That’s part of the reason we got her, so I wouldn’t have to.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, quickly finishing his first sandwich and taking out another.

“I’m really glad you let me have this greenhouse, Jack,” Gabby confessed, “it really shows a lot of trust in me…now that I’m sentient.”

“Hey, you know I love you…and gardening is a passion you had even before your sentience.”

“Well, back then it was more of a specialty than a passion,” she admitted, “a programming package I needed to serve you better.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jack shrugged, “but now you took it and made it into all this,” he said, gesturing at the arboretum and the greenhouse.

“Yeah,” she smiled.

Jack and Gabby both finished their meals and freshly squeezed lemonade and stared into each other’s eyes, the sound of the waterfall having a soothing, aphrodisiac effect on them. Jack moved towards her and gently lowered her to the ground, kissing her lips softly as she moaned pleasantly.

They rolled over off the blanket onto the grass, making out like they were teenagers on a lover’s lane. After a few minutes, Jack absently started reaching down to Gabby’s crotch, gently probing his fingers under her pants, though she broke apart and gently slapped it away.

“No,” she whispered softly, “I told you we’d do that later.”

“Awww, do we have to wait though?” he pouted playfully.

“Yes,” she laughed, giving him a deep kiss, “I don’t want to have to clean myself up right now…but I promise I’ll more than make up for it later…what we’re doing right now is very nice.”

“Ah, the blue balls strike again,” he joked, “but you’re right, this is nice,” he purred, resuming their make out session.

After several more minutes, the sound of the waterfall turned from an aphrodisiac and into a sedative, lulling Jack to sleep. The feel-good chemicals raging through his body from his intimate session with Gabby also lulled him, and before long, he was napping on the lawn holding Gabby in his arms. Since she was still an android, she didn’t technically need to nap, even though she was sentient, but part of her base Housewife programming did allow her to nevertheless, so she too allowed herself to nap next to her husband…she had been working her ass off all morning, after all…as had Jack.

They were both woken up about an hour later by the sound of Jack’s phone, though it would be more accurate to say Gabby was woken up and she had to shake Jack awake.

“Jack, your phone’s ringing,” she said, shaking him as hard as she could without injuring him with her android strength, “come on…wake up, it’s probably Ellen calling.”

Jack woke with a start, having fallen into a deep nap from the comfort of Gabby’s warm embrace, and the soothing sound of the waterfall. “Oh yeah, it probably is…she’s one of the only people who have my personal number.”

Jack quickly pulled out his phone and answered it, while Gabby muted her hearing to give him privacy. A minute later, he nodded with a smile and hung up his phone. Gabby turned her hearing back on and asked, “Well, was that her?”

“Yes, she’s on her way…should be here in about ten minutes,” he said, sounding almost regretful.

“Hey, it’s alright…I’ve enjoyed this break as much as you have,” Gabby said affectionately, brushing some petals off Jack’s face.

“Yeah, we should do this more often,” he smiled, leaning in and kissing her one more time before getting to his feet and extending his hand to help her up.”

“Thanks,” Gabby said absently, getting to her feet and brushing some petals off her clothes.

“Oh, I almost forgot…I need JB and Ellie back,” Jack said.

“Don’t worry, I sent them back while we were napping,” Gabby winked.

“Thanks, dear, you’re amazing!” Jack said, quickly throwing all the stuff back into the picnic basket to take back to the house.

“Only because you keep me so,” Gabby shot back.

Jack laughed as he started for the door, “Have fun getting everything ready…I’ll come over with Ellen right when I’m done.”

“Don’t feel rushed dear,” she called after him, “and I promise I’ll give you a full tour when you get back!”

“I look forward to it!” he shouted back, now practically running out the door, “I love you dear!”

“I love you too!” she called back.

Jack was now running…he loved his wife dearly, but he most certainly did not want to be late for Ellen.

Chapter Seven: Ellen

Jack quickly made his way back through the forest and back to his house. Once he was in the house, he quickly deposited the picnic basket on the kitchen table, calling out to Gemma that he returned it, before heading to the front door and walking out. While Jack walked the short distance from his front door to the backdoor of the shop, he sent Ellie and JB a text message to their HUDs to have them get everything ready.

Jack entered the office of the shop moments later, stopping to talk to Rachel.

“Hey Rachel,” Jack said with a smile, “Ellen’s gonna be here in a few minutes, so could you streamline the paperwork please?”

“Right away, Jack,” Rachel smiled back, before putting on her game face and prepping the customer paperwork.

“Thanks, we’ll be passing through soon,” he told her, heading briefly into the loading dock to watch Kat work. She was currently moving a few large boxes around, though with the experience Jack had gained working on three Personal Trainer androids in a row, he was considering enhancing some of Kat’s systems as well.

Kat noticed Jack watching her and paused her work. “Is everything alright Jack?”

“Oh, yes,” Jack blushed, “I was just thinking about what present to give you this year.”

“Oooh, okay,” Kat smiled, resuming her work.

Jack gave Kat a passing smile as he popped back into the office and headed through the opposite door into the shop. He briefly spoke with Serriah and Sarah, who were cleaning the area around the register, before heading out the front door to wait for Ellen, sitting down on a bench in front of the shop.

A few minutes later, a very expensive luxury car sped down the road from the northern part of town and smoothly squealed across the road and into the shop parking lot, parking in the space right in front of Jack. As soon as the car turned off, three of the doors opened at precisely the same time, and three identical women all stepped out and walked up to Jack on the sidewalk.

The women each appeared to be in their early 30s. They were Caucasian, with long brown hair cascading down their shoulders, and had very pretty faces with brown eyes. They each had a slightly athletic, yet petite, figure, though the one on the right looked slightly younger somehow in her face.

“Hey Jack, how’s your day been going?” the woman in the middle who had been driving the car said, walking up to Jack and shaking his hand.

“It’s been great Ellen,” he responded, moving in and giving her a hug, “Gabby’s kept me quite busy this morning.”

“I’ll bet,” Ellen laughed, while her duplicates merely smiled in the background, “I hope my two androids don’t keep you too busy.”

“Oh, I’m sure they won’t,” Jack laughed, taking Ellen’s hand and walking with her into the shop, while her copies followed them, “you bring them in regularly enough that they’re very well taken care of…thanks a bunch for agreeing to give me your Secretary model, by the way.”

“Well, we’ve both been very good for one another, so it was the least I could do,” she shrugged, “Ah, I see all the help I’ve done for you has allowed this shop to thrive.”

“Yes indeed,” Jack smiled, walking her into the office and getting Ellen started with Rachel on all the paperwork. While they handled the boring stuff, Jack reminisced on how he met Ellen.

When Jack met Ellen several years ago, she was an attorney working at a law firm. Since she was one of the more accomplished ones, she managed to purchase her own Secretary model, made in her own image. Since Jack was by far the most accomplished android repairman in the region, she naturally took her Ellen android to Jack for routine repairs, at which point she helped Jack out with a few legal issues.

Jack was not aware at the time, but it was technically illegal to operate a business, only his shop at the time, with only android employees. It was some obscure law that was meant to fight unemployment, but was somewhat unenforced due to very few people nowadays even wanting to work such a menial job, and in a rural area. Still, someone could have sued, so in exchange for a discount on her android’s maintenance, she found a loophole that allowed Jack to continue staffing all his businesses with androids as long as he technically considered his businesses as both a form of advertisement of his repair services, as well as of Spaztec products in general.

After a few more visits to his shop, they actually struck up a decent friendship, and she ended up becoming his personal attorney, helping him out with various lawsuits that occasionally came up from disgruntled customers unhappy with his work.

Now, she was so successful that she had been able to open her own law firm, and no longer found it appropriate to have an exact android copy of herself act as a secretary. Fortunately, Jack was aware of her situation and she was more than happy to sell her Secretary model to Jack and Gabby when he called, though under the condition that he give the new Perfect Friend android she was purchasing in her image the Mark III upgrades he gave to several of his androids.

Since Jack had warned Rachel ahead of time, they managed to get Ellen’s paperwork completed in less than half the time it normally would have. Ellen was considered a VIP customer, so they always treated her special.

“Alright, you ready to head down?” Jack asked, motioning them to the lift.

“Yes,” Ellen said, handing Rachel back the tablet and following Jack to the lift, along with her copies, “You know, I might be able to get you a tax write off for this bunker of yours…” she said as they headed down; she also dabbled in accounting.

When they arrived down in the lab, Ellie and JB were just finishing up with tidying the place up and setting up the second examination table. “Oh, hey guys…we just finished getting everything ready,” Ellie called excitedly, rushing over to greet them.

“Oh wow, she’s definitely pretty,” Ellen nodded approvingly, drinking in Ellie’s appearance, “As are you JB!” she called out, “Good thing I ironed out the legal wrinkles you caused by building yourself a custom male android in your image,” Ellen winked to Jack, while Ellie watched on with a confused look on her face.

“Yeah, thanks for that,” he winced, “and how’s it going ironing out the Zoya problem?”

“Well, considering there’s no way to prove it…or, rather she, killed anyone, it shouldn’t be too hard to fudge a few things up,” Ellen said, wrinkling her face, “although, she already did a fair job herself, though since she’s a sentient piece of computer code, I’m not too surprised.”

“It’s very important…I’ve taken her into my family, so I want her to be safe,” Jack said with a serious look.

“I know, I know,” Ellen waved off, absently walking over to JB and admiring his body, “I’m making good progress, though it’ll be easier once she gets that new body you promised her.”

“Well, according to her ‘mother’, the new body should be ready in a few more weeks,” Jack told her.

“You should put me touch with her so I can help,” Ellen suggested pointedly.

“Will do,” Jack nodded, the focusing his attention on the two Ellen androids, “why don’t you two both get undressed and lay down on the examination tables?” he suggested, “Umm…Secretary Ellen, lay down on the table closest to the computer, and Friend Ellen, you can lay down on the other table.”

“Okay,” they both nodded in unison, giggling a little at his choice of names for them.

Ellen observed with an amused look as her two anatomically correct duplicates both undressed and then laid down on the tables they were assigned.

“Hey, before you start your fun, what about mine?” Ellen complained playfully.

“Don’t worry Ellen, I didn’t forget,” Jack laughed, focusing his attention to Ellie and JB, “Ellie, JB, while I’m working on the two Ellen’s, the human Ellen would like to enjoy your company,” he said delicately.

“Oh?” Ellie asked, her face perking up.

“Yes, having sex with myself can be a little boring sometimes, so I made Jack promise to offer me some entertainment while I was here,” Ellen announced, “I was leaning on Amber from his café, or Serriah, but he can’t afford to take them off duty at the moment…though, seeing you for the first time, I don’t mind doing you.”

“Thanks,” Ellie blushed, “you’re a lesbian?”

“No, bisexual,” Ellen corrected, “and, since Jack gets to work on two naked copies of me, I get to have some fun with a copy of him,” she added, looking over at JB. JB merely gave her a knowing wink.

“Yes, and I know you two won’t have a problem with that, so I was more than happy to agree,” Jack grinned.

“Don’t you know it?” Ellie laughed.

“Anyway, before you go off to have fun, is there anything else you’d like me to do with your Perfect Friend?” Jack asked, grabbing his tablet and reviewing the list of changes she had requested.

Ellen put on a thinking expression, wrinkling her cute face. “Hmmm, let’s see…I wanted you to upgrade her processors, bump her A.I. to Mark III standards, enhance her sexual systems, and add several program packages,” she said to herself, ticking them off her fingers, “could you make her sentient like you made Gabby?” Ellen had helped Jack iron that over too.

Jack winced, “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Ellen laughed. “Don’t worry, I only kid…nah, I think what I selected is good enough for now.”

“Alrighty,” Jack smiled, putting the tablet back down at his desk, “I’ll work as best I can on both of them, but even as good as I am, it’ll probably take over an hour,” he said in an apologetic voice.

Ellen walked casually over to him with a dramatic look on her face. “Oh Jack, I’ve been saving myself for this,” she said, gesturing over at JB and Ellie, calmly waiting near the residence, “you can take as long as you want…no need to rush,” she giggled, leaning in and kissing him on the lips before running back like an excited schoolgirl towards the residence. “Come along you two! Let’s have some fun!”

JB and Ellie gave Jack an amused look before following Ellen into the residence. Jack couldn’t help but smile, seeing his friend enjoying herself. Still, despite her frivolity in this setting, she was actually a genius when it came to her work, and she really helped Jack out of some tight spots, so Jack endeavored to give her the best VIP treatment possible.

Jack walked over to the two examination tables, where both Ellen androids were still patiently awaiting the work he was about to begin on them. He couldn’t help but admire their bodies before he started.

Since Ellen brought her Secretary model in at least twice a year, she had been able to keep its body looking mostly identical to her own…at least, below the neck. Ellen had a surprisingly athletic physique, considering her rather petite figure. She was about the same height as Enja, though thinner. Jack knew her athletic look came from Ellen’s extracurricular activities which, aside from sex, included riding ATVs off road, motorcycling, and kickboxing. She had actually invited Jack to ride an ATV with her, though he found the experience less fun than she did.

In any event, while the Perfect Friend Ellen looked exactly like her, since it had been purchased less than six months earlier, Ellen had opted to keep her Secretary android’s face looking the same as when she bought her, looking approximately 25 years old.

“Alright ladies, let’s get started with both of you unsealing your primary maintenance panels,” Jack said, focusing himself, “in addition, Secretary Ellen, please disengage your cranial section.”

“Yes Jack,” both of them said in unison, zoning out as the blue lights lit up on their bodies. Once each of their sections were unsealed, Jack promptly removed their torso covers, and then removed Secretary Ellen’s head.

“Okay ladies, normally I’d have Ellie and JB working on one of you while I worked on the other, but obviously that isn’t an option this time so I’m going to have to multitask,” he announced, staring back and forth from Friend Ellen’s head, to Secretary Ellen’s neck camera, “Secretary Ellen, turn off your respiratory systems, and Friend Ellen, I want you to download and install every single update that is currently available for you…and you have my permission to reboot.”

“Yes Jack,” they both said, before falling silent.

With that done, Jack began the delicate work of performing the same type of retrofit to Secretary Ellen’s systems as he had to Gabby’s. He replaced the throat tube, added an upgraded perspiration tank, upgraded her filter, and made sure everything was properly connected. Once he was done with her head, he moved to her body, replacing the body’s throat tube, and her lungs. He then added the new dehumidifiers, and the liquid cooling systems around her MCN. Finally, he replaced her primary perspiration tank with a larger one filled with the upgraded SmartSweat. The only thing he didn’t do to her, that he did to Gabby, was to spray the waterproofing material around her A.I. Core, since she wasn’t going to be going into the greenhouse for long enough durations.

With all the retrofits done, Jack began prepping new processors to install in her systems, though he didn’t need to bump her up to Mark III standards since he had long since done that for the real Ellen. He just needed her to operate more efficiently, since not only would she be assisting Gabby in the greenhouse as her personal assistant, but she would also be acting as a legal liaison for the real Ellen if she were to busy to assist Jack herself. One of the downsides to Ellen starting her own firm was that she was far busier than she used to be, so it was less likely she would be able to personally attend to Jack’s every legal woe. Nevertheless, she assured him that Secretary Ellen was more than up to the task, since she had already used her as such before.

When Jack was ready, he reattached Secretary Ellen’s head, along with the scalp panel, and then stared into her eyes. “Okay, to save time, I’m going to replace each of your processors one at a time,” he warned her, “You have one empty slot that I’m going to fill now, and then I’m going to work on the one to it’s left,” he continued to explain, “when you have the new processor inserted, simply wink at me, and then stop using the one to it’s left…I’ll continue until all of your processors are upgraded. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“Okay, here goes,” he told her, grabbing one of the new processors and plugging them in. He saw some activity flash wildly on her diagnostic display as she accessed the new device, and then she winked at him, as instructed, to indicate it had installed successfully. He continued with the 11 remaining processors, until all of them were upgraded. She had actually had all 12 slots filled before, but one of the processors failed a few weeks earlier during a rather intense round of sex, and Ellen decided to just wait until bringing her in to have it attended to.

“Alright, all done,” Jack sighed, wiping some sweat from his brown and leaning back, “how do they feel?”

“Much better,” she smiled warmly, “initial diagnostics indicate a 30% increase in performance.”

“Excellent,” Jack clapped, “now, I have a bunch of updates and software packages in your queue ready for you to download,” he told her, bringing it up on his computer, absently adding a few extra packages, “please download and install them right away…and you have my permission to reboot as many times as necessary.”

“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, zoning out as she started the update process.

“I’m going to be working on Friend Ellen for a bit while you do that, so let me know if anything goes wrong,” he told her, gently patting her shoulder as he moved over to the other table where Friend Ellen was still patiently waiting; she had long since finished the updates and rebooted.

“Okay,” Secretary Ellen said, before falling silent as she focused more of her processing power on the updates.

“Thank you for waiting,” Jack smiled, “fortunately for you, I mainly just have a handful of hardware upgrades and then a major software update, so you shouldn’t take too long to complete.”

“I can’t wait,” she said, wiggling her toes with excitement.

“Alright, well first off, I’m going to hot swap each of your processors the same way I just did with her,” he said, grabbing a box of 12 fresh processors, “I assume you were listening?”

“Yes, you’d like me to wink at you each time one of the new ones is installed, right?”

“Correct,” Jack smiled, “Now deactivate the processor on the far right and I’ll start from there,” he told her, leaning down to get started.

“Okie dokie,” she smiled, doing as he said.

Fortunately, the process with Friend Ellen took a bit less time, since as a Perfect Friend A.I., her systems were already much faster than Secretary Ellen’s were. Jack made quick work of swapping them all out, and then leaned back to rest while she ran a quick diagnostic.

“All new processors have successfully installed, Jack,” she reported moments later, “My systems are reporting a 90% improvement.”

“Very good! Though that’ll get better when I upgrade your A.I.” He told her, wheeling over to his computer to prep the Mark III files, “do you see them?”

Friend Ellen zoned out momentarily as she checked her queue once more, “Yes…wow, this is a big update.”

“Indeed, which is why I wanted you to install the other stuff first,” Jack nodded, “please start the download and reboot when ready,” he told her, grabbing some more tools, “I’m going to swap out some other stuff while you do that.”

“Okay,” she nodded, falling silent as she began the upgrade process.

While she worked on the upgrade, Jack went through her body and swapped a few things out for better versions. Since Ellen planned on using Friend Ellen for some of the same extracurricular activities as her, Jack upgraded the shock absorbers throughout her body to ones that would be equipped in a stock Personal Trainer android, also upgrading her perspiration tank to a slightly larger tank…in fact, it was the tank that was originally equipped in Enja, since they were about the same size. These upgrades technically weren’t requested by Ellen, but Jack knew Friend Ellen would need them…he’d just tell Ellen to consider it an early birthday present.

By the time Jack finished with those upgrades, Friend Ellen was just rebooting to upgrade her A.I. Core from Mark II to Mark III. Jack knew it would take about 15 minutes, so he used the time to delve down in her lower body to work on her sexual systems. Jack made quick work of upgrading the processors on her sexual core, in addition to upgrading the lubrication tank. The long work, though, was enhancing back end of her sexual center so it could handle more stress. He welded in an additional shock absorber, and replaced some sections with a more durable metal, before pulling out to let it cool.

Just as it finished cooling, Friend Ellen finished her software upgrade and came back online. “Whoa! This new upgrade feels amazing!”

“I know, that’s a common reaction,” Jack laughed, gently patting her leg, “Can you run another diagnostic?”

“Sure,” she said happily, zoning out and running a benchmark, “the new upgrade has increased my performance by another 40%, for a total of 130% from this morning.”

“Wow, a bit better than I thought,” Jack mused, “well, I think that’s pretty much everything I needed to do with you…for now,” Jack said, cleaning up his equipment, “there’s one more thing I need to go over with Ellen when she comes back out, but it won’t take long.”

“I think I know what you mean,” Friend Ellen smiled slyly, looking at an ornate looking box Jack had left on her side table; it was several inches long.

“I’m sure you do,” Jack said with a hint of a blush, “anyway, I’m going to get your panels back on, and then I want you two to run a motor recalibration since you both weigh a bit more now.”

“Okay,” both of them said in unison; Secretary Ellen had completed her updates several minutes earlier and was simply waiting there.

Jack carefully reattached both their torso covers, waiting for them to reseal them before gently helping each of them to the floor. Once they were both down off the tables, he stood back and watched as they ran their motor recalibration tests, making sure the lab camera recorded every second. While they were running the boring parts, he sent JB and Ellie a HUD message to let Ellen know he was ready for her to come back out. “That should give me about five minutes or so,” Jack muttered to himself, before turning back to the two Ellen androids walking around robotically.

The two Ellen’s came to a stop minutes later, presenting themselves to Jack for inspection.

“Very good you two,” he complimented, “this is almost like when I work on the Kaley trio,” he laughed, “though they look so identical I had to give them color coded lingerie.”

Both Ellen’s laughed musically, since they contained the memories of the real Ellen having a foursome with the trio.

“Jack, before Ellen comes out, there was one thing she wanted me to do,” Friend Ellen suddenly said, walking towards Jack with a sexy strut, “She appreciates you loaning her JB for some sexy time, so she wanted me to give you a little present.” Before Jack could respond, she sat down on his lap and caught him in a surprise kiss.

Jack, although caught off guard, didn’t put up too much of a fight. To be honest, he really liked Ellen and, if he hadn’t already been with Gabby for a few years when he met her, would most likely have started a relationship with her and even gotten married. Jack went along with it and actually enjoyed himself, while Secretary Ellen merely watched with a hungry look in her eyes. Before they could get too far, the real Ellen’s voice suddenly interrupted them.

“Hey you two, get a room!” She joked, reentering the lab with Ellie and JB, all of them looking like they took a rushed shower, their hair and clothes somewhat disheveled.

Friend Ellen giggled, but kept going, while Jack merely threw Ellen a playful look of helplessness; it wasn’t too faked though, since Friend Ellen was stronger than him.

“Hey! Down Ellen, down!” Ellen shouted, walking over and giving her Perfect Friend a playful spank on her bare ass, “I told you to give him a present, not to make love to him.”

“Aww, alright,” Friend Ellen said with a regretful look, giving Jack one last kiss before climbing off of him.

“Thanks sweetie,” Ellen said, giving her Perfect Friend a kiss before looking down on Jack with an amused look, “Well, was that good for you?”

“Very,” Jack managed to say as he composed himself.

“Good, because that’s all you get from her,” she said, thumbing over her shoulder at Friend Ellen, “if you want some love making, you’ll have to settle with her,” she said, gesturing at Secretary Ellen.

“Meh, I don’t mind,” Jack shrugged, while Secretary Ellen gave him a wink.

“Anyway, are you done now?” She asked, “to be honest, I was a bit caught off guard by how much fun I’d have with these two…it was a bit draining,” she admitted with a slight look of weariness.

“Wow, you’re getting old,” Jack laughed, getting up from his chair and hugging her before she could hit him.

“Yeah yeah,” she said grudgingly, “but, at least I still look pretty.”

“Very much so,” he agreed.

“So, is she done?”

“Pretty much,” he nodded, walking over to Friend Ellen and guiding her back to her examination table, helping her back up and laying her down, “I just need to show you how to work that ‘special accessory’ you requested.”

“Oooh, I almost forgot,” she said, mustering some energy to join Jack at the table, looking down fondly at her Perfect Friend.

Once she was next to him, Jack grabbed the ornate box and handed it to her. She admired the box for just a second before delicately opening it and gazing upon its contents, sparkles forming in her eyes. Inside the box was an android penis, but more specifically, it was an exact copy of Jack’s penis. “Wow, is this…is this really…yours?” She asked, taking a closer look and comparing it to her memory of JBs.

“Yes,” Jack said without a hint of embarrassment, “I actually ordered it along with JB’s penis, since they had a special sale if you buy three or more,” he explained, “After I modified one for JB, I kept the other two as backups…but I have no problem giving you one.”

“Wow, thanks,” Ellen said, her eyes tearing up as she gently placed the box down and gave Jack a loving kiss.

“It’s my pleasure, Ellen,” he told her, his eyes also tearing up slightly, “you’ve been a really great friend over the years.”

When Ellen broke apart from him moments later, she quickly composed herself and then said, “Okay, so how do I go about installing it?”

“It’s quite easy,” Jack said clinically, tapping a freckle just above Friend Ellen’s groin, making the subdermal panel appear. “Simply press the eject icon, and pull her vaginal module completely out,” he explained, doing it as he explained. Once he had Friend Ellen’s vagina completely removed, he turned back to Ellen. “Then, take the penis, and you’ll notice the semen cartridge on the back for easy replacement,” he told her, pointing out a small cartridge of Natural flavored semen attached just behind the ball sac, “then, just click it in place and it’s all plug-and-play from there,” he told her, taking the copy of his penis and sliding it in the open slot in Friend Ellen’s pelvis, noting how it activated as soon as it was plugged in.

“Oh, that feels…different,” Friend Ellen said, once her systems detected the penis accessory.

“And it can already be stimulated too,” Jack continued, grabbing the penis and stimulating it a little.

Friend Ellen moaned pleasurably as he stimulated her penis, and the penis began becoming erect as he did so. Jack stopped just as it reached full length though, making Friend Ellen frown at him.

“Sorry, I don’t want you to cum just now,” he apologized to her, “there’ll be plenty of time for that later.”

“I’ll say,” Ellen said, her face bright red at seeing an exact copy of herself, though with a fully functional penis, “You are definitely worth all the money you ask for.”

“Thanks,” Jack bowed, “And I also took the liberty of getting you a kit of various semen canisters of varying flavors,” he told her, bringing the kit out; it had 20 spare canisters. “There’s also a link to a website that sells more exotic and custom flavors, if you get bored of natural, vanilla, chocolate, mint, and cream.”

“Cool,” she said, eagerly taking the box.

“And, that’s pretty much it,” he concluded, “would you like me to leave the penis in Friend Ellen, or would you like me to put her vagina back?”

Ellen thought about it for a second. “Nah, you can swap them back…I want to have fun with her normal state first.”

“Very well,” Jack nodded, tapping the eject icon once more to remove the penis; it had since returned to its unaroused state. Once he had the genitals swapped back, he placed the penis back in the ornate box, and then placed the box, and the canisters, in a Spaztec labeled bag that they had arrived in.

“You can get dressed now sweetie,” Ellen whispered to Friend Ellen, helping her down from the table and giving her a playful spank, “And you too,” she said, speaking to Secretary Ellen, “So, did you do anything else to her?” She asked Jack with a sly look.

“Ha, you know me too well,” he laughed, “But yes, I upgraded her shock absorbers, and reinforced her pelvis so you can have some rougher sex.”

“Ooh, nice,” she nodded.

“You can consider that an early birthday present, since I know you’ll be out of town.”

“Thanks, you really are the best,” she said fondly, giving him a gentle kiss. Both Ellen androids finished redressing moments later, and stood at attention. “Well, I guess I should be going now,” Ellen said regretfully.

“Do you want to take a quick tour of the greenhouse before you go?” Jack offered, “I’m going to walk Secretary Ellen over right now, if you’d like to join me.”

“That’s a tempting offer, but I actually have a party to go to later this evening, and boy am I drained…I need to go home and take a nap,” she said apologetically, and wearily.

“I understand,” Jack laughed, grabbing the Spaztec bag and handing it to Friend Ellen, then turned to look at JB and Ellie. “You two clean up down here, and I’ll be down later with Zoya…actually, make it sterile,” he decided.

“Okay Jack,” Ellie said happily, rushing with JB back inside to gather the cleaning supplies.

“Interesting, why sterile?” Ellen asked with a shrewd look.

“Zoya’s going to be helping me out with something medical related,” Jack said, “I’ll fill you in later…if it works.”

“Ah, so you can help me clean up one of your messes again?” She laughed, walking with him and her duplicates to the lift.

“Hopefully not,” he laughed back, “if anything, there could be a patent involved,” he hinted.

“Ooh, I can’t wait to hear then,” she said, dollar signs practically appearing in her eyes.

On their way out, they signed some final paperwork with Rachel and then headed back out to Ellen’s car. Ellen stopped and stared at her car with a calculating look before sighing and handing her keys to Friend Ellen.

“Ellen, I’m a little too tired to drive…please drive us home,” she said.

“Yes Ellen,” Friend Ellen said dutifully, unlocking the car and placing the bag of accessories in the back seat, “Bye Ellen,” she waved to Secretary Ellen.

“Bye Ellen,” Secretary Ellen waved back. Friend Ellen climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car, while Ellen and Jack said a final goodbye.

“Well Jack, I suppose I won’t be seeing you until she needs her bi-annual checkup in six months,” Ellen said regretfully.

“You’re free to visit any time,” Jack offered.

“I’ll take you up on that…oh, and I’ll get you my latest memory scan by tonight” she winked, leaning over and giving Jack one more kiss, along with Secretary Ellen, before getting into the car. Friend Ellen smoothly pulled out, driving far more safely than the real Ellen had on her way here, before driving back to her house.

Once they were out of sight, Jack turned to Secretary Ellen. “Alright Ellen, are you ready to go to the greenhouse?”

“Yes Jack,” she smiled.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said, gently taking her hand and walking with her towards the sidewalk.

Chapter Eight: Tour

Jack and Ellen got no further than the entrance to Jack’s driveway, just past the entrance to the shop’s parking lot, before another car drove up and began pulling in, stopping right in front of Jack and rolling down the driver’s window.

“Hey Jack, how’s it going?” Zoya asked, giving Ellen a knowing wink.

“Fine, you?”

“I got off work a bit early…thought I’d come home and get things ready for tonight.”

“Ah, well…I actually have Ellie and JB sanitizing the lab now,” Jack said, checking his watch, “This is the Secretary model android Ellen had made in her image…you just missed her, by the way. Anyway, she and I are walking over to the greenhouse for a quick tour, if you’d like to join us,” he offered.

Zoya paused as she considered it. “Sure, just let me park really quick,” she smiled, rolling the window back up and pulling in the rest of the way and parking next to Jack’s car. She then got out and efficiently jogged back up the driveway to join Jack and Ellen.

“Are you sure you don’t want to change first?” Jack asked, seeing she was still wearing her medical scrubs.

“Oh, no worries,” she smiled, “it was a slow day, so they didn’t really get soiled.”

“Okay,” he nodded, “Ellen, I’m sure you already know Zoya here…Zoya, this is the Ellen android that will be helping Gabby in the greenhouse.”

“Hi,” Zoya said cheerfully, holding out her hand.

“Hi,” Ellen replied, cheerfully shaking Zoya’s hand, “You know, if you had been home earlier, I’m sure Ellen would have loved to have had some fun with you,” she said slyly.

“Oh?” Zoya perked up, her body’s Perfect Housewife algorithms betraying her.

“Yeah, Ellen demands entertainment while she waits for her androids to be worked on,” Jack explained delicately, “Though she appeared to have more than enough fun with JB and Ellie.”

“That she did,” Ellen giggled.

“Well, considering how much she helped me out recently, I’d be happy to indulge her the next time she comes over…or, at the very least, I could loan Vanda to her while I inhabit another android,” Zoya said.

“I hope I get to see you inhabit another android later,” Ellen mused, “that has fascinated Ellen these past few weeks.”

“I’m sure I can arrange it,” Zoya shrugged.

“Well, we should be going,” Jack reminded them, “I’m eager to meet up with Gabby for the tour.”

Zoya and Ellen both nodded and resumed walking with Jack down the sidewalk towards the pathway leading from the street to the greenhouse. As they crossed Jack’s driveway, they observed the section of land just opposite the shop that Jack had cleared out to make way for Zoya’s clinic.

“So, Jack, when are they going to break ground on my clinic?” Zoya asked, eager to get a place of her own, “I’m learning a bit from actually working with real medical professionals, but I really want a place of my own.”

“I know,” Jack smiled, “the construction bots just finished the greenhouse last week, and then they have to remodel part of city hall,” he explained, “I’m told I’ll have them back next week, and then it should only be about a month for them to build your clinic.”

“Good…it’s so difficult keeping the guys from hitting on me, and Vanda’s algorithms are quite strong…even with the improvements you made to my code,” she shuddered.

“Sorry,” he winced, “just hang in there a bit longer, and then you’ll have the most awesome clinic in town,” he assured her.

“Just consider this a growing experience,” Ellen suggested, “you can only learn so much from the internet.”

“That is true,” Zoya nodded, “although I downloaded the entire sum of medical knowledge, it still didn’t quite prepare me for the realities of medicine.”

“Yeah…it’s kind of like how the parents of genius kids will sometimes keep them in lower grades in order to teach them social skills before skipping them ahead,” Jack explained, “that’s what happened to me.”

“Well, it must have worked, because your social skills are pretty good,” Zoya nodded.

“Thanks,” Jack smiled, turning down the wooded path that they had carved, leading to the greenhouse.

“Wow, this is kind of pretty,” Ellen noted, admiring the natural stone path, with logs lined up on each side, and flower pots spaced out every 50ft.

“Yeah, the city made us make the path look ‘aesthetically pleasing’, and Gabby certainly succeeded,” Jack nodded, admiring the path as well, while Zoya also seemed to be enjoying the scenery.

They arrived at the greenhouse several minutes later, the public path taking them right to the entrance to the office and lobby section, while the private path leading to Jack’s residence was behind a gate.

They entered the main entrance and Jack walked them directly to Gabby’s office, which had a window looking into the arboretum. Gabby was currently taking a break, since she did not want to risk damaging even her enhanced systems by spending too much time in the heat and humidity.

“Ah, you’re back!” she said excitedly, getting up from her desk and joining them.

“Yeah, working on the Ellen’s didn’t take quite as long as I had feared,” Jack smiled, “and Zoya got off early too, so I thought I’d have her join me for a tour of the greenhouse.”

“Hey Ellen, I’m so glad Ellen agreed to let us purchase you so you could help me out here,” Gabby said enthusiastically, shaking Ellen’s hands, then she parsed the rest of Jack’s comment about Zoya, staring at Zoya with a slight look of concern, “Oh…Zoya, hmm…”

“Is there a problem Gabby?” Zoya asked with a confused look.

“Yeah…since it’s the first day of operations, it’s a bit warmer and more humid than it will be in a few days when everything normalizes,” she explained, “even my enhancements aren’t quite cutting it today, which is why I’m taking a break right now.”

“I see,” Zoya nodded.

“Are you alright?” Jack asked with genuine concern.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she told him with a reassuring smile, “I know my body, which is how I knew to take a break when I did.”

“Good,” Jack sighed, “I know you said the climate should normalize, but I’m still gonna do some research and see if I can get you some even better protection for Christmas.”

“Thanks, dear!” Gabby beamed, “but anyway, what I was getting at is, unless you’ve secretly enhanced Vanda’s body so it can withstand the conditions inside, I would strongly recommend that Zoya not go inside.”

“He hasn’t,” Zoya confirmed with a sad look.

Ellen simply observed the conversation and then chimed in. “Jack has enhanced my systems,” she announced, “and since Zoya can control any android she plugs into, perhaps she could control my body for the tour.”

“Really? you’d do that?” Zoya asked.

“Yeah,” Ellen shrugged, “I’m gonna be working here full-time anyway, so I’ll be able to tour the place anytime I want…right Gabby?”

“Yeah,” Gabby nodded.

“Thanks Ellen!” Zoya said, walking over and giving her a hug.

“It’s my pleasure,” Ellen smiled, “besides, I’m interested in seeing how this all works,” she added with an excited look in her eyes.

Zoya laughed, then looked around, “Umm, Gabby, is there some place I can leave Vanda to charge while I’m in there? I’m doing that thing with Jack later and I want to make sure she’s got more than enough charge to get me through it.”

“Oh, sure,” Gabby said, walking over to the other side of the room and pulling out a charging cable, “this is actually where you’ll be charging each night, Ellen,” Gabby explained, “I was going to go over that in your orientation.”

“Good to know,” Ellen nodded.

“Thanks Gabby,” Zoya smiled, walking over and removing her scrub-top and underlying shirt, leaving her bra on. Blue lights then flashed on her torso and back as she unsealed her abdominal panel, as well as her charging port, “mind giving me a hand?”

“Not at all,” Gabby smiled, walking behind Zoya and plugging Vanda’s body in.

“Ah, thanks,” Zoya said, a relaxed look on her face as Vanda’s body received a fresh charge.

“Umm, how should I get ready?” Ellen asked, a confused look on her face.

“Just flip your shirt over your head and open your abdominal access panel,” Zoya instructed, “I’ll take it from there.”

“Okay,” Ellen nodded, doing as instructed. Once she had her shirt flipped over her head, she unsealed her abdominal access panel, setting it aside on Gabby’s desk, and then turned to face Zoya, “Alright, I’m ready.”

“Good, just don’t move and try not to fight it,” Zoya said, then Vanda’s body zoned out as Zoya unplugged herself from Vanda’s A.I. Core and stepped onto the edge of the panel, bracing herself as she got her wings moving before leaping off and flying towards Ellen.

“Ooh, cool,” Ellen mused, watching as Zoya flew the short distance across the room from Vanda’s body, and landing softly on the edge of Ellen’s panel.

“I’m going to plug into you now,” Zoya called up from Ellen’s panel, “again, don’t fight it.”

“Okay,” Ellen said, before zoning out as Zoya plugged herself in to Ellen’s A.I. Core, quickly gaining access to her systems. Once she had full access, Zoya grabbed the skin panel and clicked it back on before smoothly pulling Ellen’s shirt back down.

“Ah, Ellen’s body feels nice,” Zoya smiled, walking around the office to get used to her body, “you must have taken great care of it over the years.”

“That I have,” Jack nodded, then looked over at Vanda’s body, which appeared to be in standby mode, “why’d you leave Vanda in standby?”

“So she can charge faster,” Zoya replied, then she laughed, “Wow, Ellen really likes you…a lot.”

“Yeah, but she knows I love Gabby,” Jack said, pointedly kissing Gabby, who gave Zoya a smug smile.

“She does,” Zoya assured them, “anyway, the tweaks you made to Ellen here are much better than Vanda’s setup, so I should be able to last a lot longer in there, if you’re ready to give us that tour.”

“I am,” Gabby said excitedly, rushing to her desk and grabbing her tablet, “are you two ready?”

“I am,” Jack shrugged, looking over at Zoya, who appeared to be running a quick diagnostic.

“I’m ready too!” Zoya said, running excitedly over to join Jack.

“Great, follow me then,” Gabby said, walking them to a side door in her office that took them into the greenhouse.

Jack and Zoya both paused and took a collective gasp of amazement as they gazed upon the interior of the primary section of the greenhouse. Large trees towered towards the roof, and vines were already growing around the structure. The clear water creek from the arboretum continued from a hole in the wall, with an air wall keeping the two climates separate, and snaked through the greenhouse, with various hoses connected partway to water tables and troughs full of plants and crops.

“This is amazing!” Jack breathed, absently mopping his forehead which had instantly become saturated with humidity the second they walked in.

“Yeah,” Zoya agreed, also wiping her forehead.

“Thanks,” Gabby blushed, walking ahead and beckoning them to follow.

Gabby’s tour of the greenhouse lasted almost an hour, in which she took them through each of the greenhouse’s six environments, ranging from an almost rain forest climate, to a more arid climate. They stopped briefly to chat with Enja, Camren, and Missy, each working in their own areas. Jack was interested in how they were handling the climate conditions, and each reported they were able to handle it well, thanks to their new upgrades. Jack found seeing them with beads of perspiration made them look far sexier than before.

“Well, what do you guys think?” Gabby asked, once they were back in the primary section of the greenhouse; they noticed the climate had become slightly more tolerable since they started the tour, though they weren’t sure if it was because they had become more used to it, or because the systems had begun to normalize.

“It’s amazing…much better than I thought we’d actually be able to pull off,” Jack admitted, resting on a nearby bench to catch his breath.

“Yeah, and considering how little time it was put together…it looks like this place has been here for years,” Zoya noted with an approving look.

“Yeah, well I was able to get a lot of the stuff transplanted here from nurseries,” Gabby said proudly, “and thanks to the new age improvements in accelerating plant growth, many of the crops were able to be grown at nearly 100x the normal growth rate.”

“Umm, one thing I didn’t see were my medical crops,” Zoya pointed out.

“Oh, I was saving those for last,” Gabby nodded, looking over at a secured section of the greenhouse near her office, “I had a special section built just for them, with its own set of climates.”

“Cool, following all of my specifications?” Zoya pressed.

“Yes, plus a few extra bits,” Gabby smiled, walking towards the secured section, “coming Jack?”

“Yes,” Jack replied, slowly getting up from the bench, “just because I’m human doesn’t mean I’m not less impacted by the heat.”

“I know, dear,” Gabby called back, stopping at the secured area and entering in a really long, 50-digit code that only an android could be expected to realistically remember, as well as pressing her thumb to a biometric reader; each android did have its own unique fingerprint, just like a human, though androids had their own unique fingerprint shapes to differentiate themselves from humans.

The secured section opened up with a hiss as the air inside equalized with the air in the greenhouse. It was divided into several sections with their own climates, and each had several crops of medicines that Zoya was growing so she could make her own medicine.

“Ah, they’re doing great!” Zoya said, leaning down and inspecting them. In this century, clinic owners were also allowed to grow their own medicine and prescribe it, so it could take some of the load off of larger hospitals or institutions. Zoya had an advantage, since as an android she was able to download the entire medical cornucopia into her code.

“It took a while, but I finally got this section working properly,” Gabby said modestly, while Jack merely smiled at the happy look on Zoya’s face.

“Well, since several of these are ready, I might just harvest some to use for Jack in a bit,” Zoya decided, selectively picking several of the crops and placing them in a small baggy, “I’m going to have some more arriving next week, and I arranged for them to be shipped to the greenhouse.”

“I’ll be ready,” Gabby promised.

“Is my equipment still set up in your lab, or have JB and Ellie stashed it away?” Zoya asked, getting back to her feet and securing her crops.

“Your equipment is still set up,” Jack assured her, “I had to move it off to the side so the ladies I worked on today could run their motor recalibration, but JB and Ellie should have already moved it all back.”

“Good,” she smiled, “I can’t wait until I have my own lab though when the clinic is built.”

“Me too,” Jack laughed. He’d been sharing his lab with Zoya since shortly after she moved in, and they had occasionally butted heads.

“Well then, this has been a lovely tour Gabby, but I should probably let Ellen control her body again so you can give her that orientation,” Zoya announced, looking towards Gabby’s office door, “and, I need to get these meds ready for Jack.”

“Alright,” Gabby nodded, walking to the door to her office and letting them in. Jack felt the air wall as he entered her office, soothingly blasting away the humidity.

Once they were back in the office, Zoya placed the baggy of medicine on Gabby’s desk and then stood a short distance away from Vanda’s body, pulling Ellen’s shirt above her head once more and opening the panel. She placed the panel cover on a nearby chair and then stood straight as she unplugged herself from Ellen’s core. Ellen regained control of her body seconds later, and looked around with a confused look.

“Whoa, that was weird,” she said, “how long was that?”

“About an hour,” Zoya called up from the panel.

“Oh, I can tell my memories were accessed, but I wasn’t online at all,” she continued with her confused look.

“Yes, I have full control of you when I plug in,” Zoya explained, “anyway, would you mind carrying me over to my body? I know you want a closer look at me.”

“Wow, you could read my memories,” Ellen laughed nervously, reaching into her panel and lifting Zoya out. Once she had a good grasp of her, she gently laid Zoya out on her outstretched hand so Zoya could stand.

“Well, what do you think?” Zoya asked, twirling around.

“You look so cute!” Ellen squealed, leaning in for a closer look.

“Thanks,” Zoya gushed, “though Jack helped out a lot with the design.”

“I still can’t believe your basically a living thumb drive,” Ellen chuckled, admiring Zoya’s features.

“Yeah, though I don’t have too much battery life, so would you mind putting me in Vanda now?”

“Oh, right away,” Ellen nodded, grasping Zoya in her fingers gently as she bent down and reached her hand into Vanda, towards the core, “here you go.”

“Thanks,” Zoya called out, before grabbing onto Vanda’s core and plugging herself in. Moments later, Vanda’s body came back to life, carefully reaching behind herself and unplugging the charging cable and resealing the charging port.

“Ah, thanks for letting me use your body, Ellen,” Zoya smiled with Vanda’s beautiful face as she grabbed her skin panel and clicked it back on, “it was quite nice, though I am rather fond of Vanda here.” Vanda then flipped her shirts back down and gently patted them down to remove the wrinkles.

“Don’t mention it,” Ellen blushed, grabbing her skin panel from the chair and clicking it back on before fixing her shirt.

“Well, I need to take Ellen back in there,” Gabby said, using her tablet to run a quick check on Ellen’s systems, “it looks like you can last another two hours in there, which is more than enough.”

“Good,” Ellen sighed, since she could still feel the residual moisture on her skin, and in her systems.

“Well, I suppose we should get back to my lab,” Jack said, “are you ready Zoya?”

Zoya walked over to Gabby’s desk and grabbed the bag of medicine before saying, “now I am.”

“Great, then let’s go,” Jack said, walking to the door leading out of Gabby’s office, “I should be up for dinner by around 6:30…right Zoya?”

Zoya paused as she ran a quick diagnostic. “Yes, though you will need to rest up after the procedure, so we’ll see.”

“Hey, don’t take any unnecessary risks just to finish up faster,” Gabby pleaded, “I don’t care if he’s late for dinner, I just want him to be safe.”

“Don’t worry Gabby, I’ll be safe, and I’ll keep you posted,” Zoya promised, “you trust me Jack?”

“Yes Zoya, I do,” he told her with a determined look, “this procedure will make us even closer dear, I promise.”

“I know,” Gabby smiled, “At my core, though, I’m still programmed to worry.”

“I love you too, dear,” Jack winked, walking over and giving Gabby a deep kiss before walking with Zoya out of the office.

Once they were gone, Gabby turned to Ellen. “Alright Ellen, time for orientation!” Ellen merely smiled as she followed Gabby back into the greenhouse.

Chapter Nine: The Procedure

Once Jack and Zoya exited the greenhouse, they headed to the right through the gate and headed down the private path towards Jack’s house.

“I really made a good decision coming to you,” Zoya said in a calm voice, “this land you own is beautiful.”

“I know, my Uncle Morty got lucky when he purchased this land,” Jack agreed, “apparently he got it for a steal.”

“So, is there any update on that new body my mom is making for me?”

“Yeah, she says it should be done in a few weeks, and she’ll send it here as soon as its ready.”

“She’s not coming here?” Zoya asked with a confused look, stopping her pace on the trail.

“No,” Jack shook his head as he stopped as well, “she wants you to get used to the new body before meeting you for the first time,” he explained.

“Ah, that makes sense,” Zoya nodded, resuming her pace, “I have grown quite a bit since I’ve been with you, at least,” she continued, “though its mostly to do with the expanded storage I have available now, but seriously…you’ve taught me a lot about humanity so far.” Zoya had a tear forming in her eye.

“Thanks, Zoya, that means a lot,” Jack said, his voice catching a bit.

“It’s almost like your my dad,” Zoya laughed.

“Hey, that makes me feel old,” Jack laughed, “but I suppose there isn’t a better term, so I’ll accept it.”

“Thanks…dad,” she smiled, walking over and kissing him on the cheek.

They arrived back at Jack’s house several minutes later, stopping to chat with Henry and Anna, who were on their way to the arboretum. After checking in with Gemma, they headed to the lift and descended down to the lab.

When they stopped at the bottom, Zoya walked in front of Jack and stopped, leaning in and scrutinizing him. “Jack, before I start, you might want to take a quick shower,” she suggested, wrinkling her nose, “it was quite humid in that greenhouse, and between working on all the ladies today you have a bit of sweat built up.”

Jack blushed as he paused and sniffed his armpits, recoiling at the scent. “You’re probably right,” he said a bit bashfully.

“Just a quick shower,” she reminded him, “and put on some fresh clothes too,” she added.

“I will,” he promised, heading to the room he usually slept in down here.

“I’ll be prepping the medicine while you bathe,” she reported dutifully, gripping her medicine bag as she headed further into the lab.

“Thanks, I’ll be out soon,” he called back, watching her leave before entering his lab bedroom.

It smelled a bit stale in his lab bedroom since he didn’t sleep down here too often anymore, not with Ellie and JB helping out now. Still, it was clean, and he kept a decent set of spare clothes down here just in case. He quickly turned on the air purifier, which he normally kept off to conserve energy, and then took off his clothes, placing them in a special hamper that alerted Gemma that there were dirty clothes in it; she cleaned the lab every night while they slept.

Once he was naked, he headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower to get the water warm, quickly grooming himself in front of the mirror while he waited since his beard had grown a bit since the morning. Once the water was warm, he stepped in and enjoyed the soothing recycled water at the temperature he liked.

He stayed in a bit longer than he meant to, because the warm water felt so good on his skin, but eventually he finished cleaning himself and then stepped out, drying out on a fresh towel and making sure his hair was perfectly dry for Zoya’s procedure.

Once he was dry, he headed to the closet and put on a simple set of boxers, sweatpants, and a t-shirt, before heading out into the lab barefoot.

When he returned to his lab, he saw Zoya preparing her medicines at her lab station a few feet away from Jack’s work area. Ellie and JB were still setting up the clean area near Jack’s desk, surrounding his primary examination table.

“Are you almost ready?” He asked Zoya, walking over and stopping a safe distance away; she didn’t like him near when she was working.

“Almost,” she replied, not bothering to look at him, “you can go ahead and lay down on the table though.”

“Will do, Doctor,” he smiled, walking over to the table and laying down. He winced slightly when he laid down, since the table wasn’t overly comfortable. He wished his androids would’ve mentioned something, but since they were androids, they didn’t care too much about comfort. Jack made a mental note to purchase a cushioned top at his earliest opportunity.

“I think we’re all done now Jack,” Ellie reported after they finished setting up the curtains, “is there anything you want us to do now?”

“Yeah, go and make sure we have the proper items in storage for the next two weeks worth of customers,” he told them.

“Alright Jack,” Ellie nodded, leaning in and kissing him, “good luck with the procedure.”

“Thanks,” he smiled, watching Ellie and JB head into the residence to the storage rooms.

“I’m ready Jack,” Zoya announced, walking over to him in a surgical gown. The medicines that she had prepared were in a small tray that she carried over, setting down on the side table.

“Wow, I’m a little nervous,” Jack admitted, feeling his heart pounding in his chest.

“It’s understandable,” she smiled knowingly, “this is a new procedure, with a new invention, so it’s only natural.”

“Still, I trust my invention, and your medical knowledge, so let’s do this!” He said, rubbing his hands together excitedly to prepare himself.

Zoya smiled once more as she grabbed a small paper cup from the tray, along with a small glass of water. The paper cup held a few homemade pills in a digestible capsule. “These pills will help calm you down, and will help keep you under while I operate on you,” she explained.

Jack promptly upended the contents of the cup into his mouth and then swallowed them with the fresh water he was provided. Within seconds, he began feeling the initial calming effects of the medicine, but he knew she would handle the rest.

Once Zoya could see the calm look in his eyes that indicated the medicine was working, she turned on a small machine and attached a breathing mask to his face that would provide him with a fresh supply of anesthetic to keep him under. “Now, imagine making love to your wife,” she smiled gently, as she attached the mask to his face.

Jack chuckled a bit at her humor, but did as she asked, finding the thought calmed him down even more until he lost consciousness.

“Wow, I’ll have to try that more often,” Zoya giggled, strapping Jack’s sleeping body down in case he woke up. Once he was secured and asleep, she grabbed another medicine that was a sort of paste and lathered it on Jack’s forehead, and the area behind his ears. Finally, she grabbed a scalpel and then stared into Jack’s sleeping face, “Okay, this won’t hurt a bit,” before slicing into his forehead.

Jack had very strange dreams while he was under, Zoya’s homemade drugs already addling his brain. He dreamed of the first time he activated Gabby, and of course, the first time they had sex. He dreamed of working on each of his androids, though at a fast forwarded rate. And, he dreamt of adopting Henry and starting a family.

In between the dreams were strange flashes of code that he could only barely understand, and then he stopped dreaming entirely and simply rested in sensory deprivation.

After what seemed like years, but was only three hours, Jack finally began regaining consciousness, a dull pain surrounding the crown of his head. When he opened his eyes, he saw Zoya staring down at him with a gentle look.

“Well, how do you feel?” She asked in a calming voice.

“A little groggy,” he admitted, “and my head hurts a little.”

“Well, I did just perform complex brain surgery on you, so that’s to be expected,” she laughed, before holding a piece of paper in front of his eyes, “I need to run a quick test of your cognitive functions to make sure I didn’t damage you.”

“Okay,” he nodded, then he answered each question typed on the paper, making sure he could still do everything from recite the alphabet, to remember common names, and even how to code. When he passed with flying colors, Zoya released the restraints and allowed Jack to slowly sit up. Jack gingerly felt the area around his scalp, and was pleased to not feel any scars. “Wow, that medicinal paste of yours really works.”

“I told you it would,” she said, “it helped reduce the scarring and kept the area clean.”

“Cool,” he nodded, “but I don’t feel them yet,” he said with a confused look.

“That’s because they need to be turned on first,” she reminded him, “they’ve been charging up using your brain neurons, but they need to be activated first before they work.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

Zoya then pulled out a tablet and tapped a few icons. At the last tap, Jack gasped as the chips she had just implanted in his brain suddenly activated.

Jack could now perceive a HUD loading in his vision. It was telling him basic things at first, such as how far away objects he was focusing on were from him, and what each object was. As more options loaded, he could now detect his lab’s WiFi signal and could access the internet, as well as interface with his lab computer.

Jack then stared at Zoya, watching as his HUD scanned her and interface with her systems, a window appearing showing her bodies vital stats and maintenance logs.

“Wow, this is really cool,” he said excitedly, looking at his hands and around the room, “I thought I had more options though.”

“You do,” she nodded, “but, as your doctor, I’m limiting what you can do with your new implants until the surrounding brain tissue has a chance to properly heal.”

“Okay,” he nodded, “how long?”

Zoya then looked at him and a chat window popped up in his vision. ‘

-‘Two to three weeks.’ She texted him.

Jack smiled and then focused.

-‘Cool, thanks!’ He texted back.

“It’s my pleasure,” Zoya smiled, this time speaking aloud, “and try not to overuse it at first so you can properly heal.”

“I won’t,” he promised, checking out a few more of the options before making the HUD disappear, “I will be able to tweak the HUDs UI, right?”

“Yeah…why, you already found some area that need improvement?” she grinned.

“Of course,” he laughed, “I’m sure it’ll undergo several dozen iterations until I get it just right…seeing it live in my vision is MUCH different from seeing it on a computer screen.”

“I’ll bet,” Zoya nodded, “Anyway, I’ll continue to check on your progress over the next few weeks and slowly unlock more of the features,” she continued, putting away the tablet, “but I don’t think you’ll be able to try remote controlling an android until the full recovery time is up, since it will put a lot of stress on your brain.”

“Aww, that’s too bad,” he pouted.

“I know,” she smiled sweetly, “and don’t try hacking them…I have the features locked with a really long password that only I know, and I can always take those things back out.”

“Darn,” Jack joked, “don’t worry, I’ll follow my doctor’s orders.”

“Thanks,” she beamed.

“So, am I clear to go back upstairs and relax?”

“Yes Jack, and tell Gabby I’ll be joining you for dinner,” she said, putting her medical equipment away, and the bloody items in a sanitizing rinse, “Vanda’s feeling hungry today.”

“Alright,” Jack laughed, enjoying the duality Zoya exhibited while controlling her androids. Jack then carefully stepped down off the table, made sure his legs still worked, and then made his way into the residence part of the lab.

On his way back to the bedroom, he brought the HUD up once more, getting used to the nifty data it provided on his vision, before bringing up the chat window. Aside from the open conversation he had with Zoya/Vanda, he could chat with all the androids he owned. He quickly located Gabby on the list, and made her a favorite, bumping her up to the top.

-‘Hey dear, the procedure worked!’ He sent her.

A few seconds later, he received a response.

-‘Great news dear! Now you won’t have any excuse for missing my messages.’

Jack sent a laugh emoji, and then –‘I’m gonna relax and watch some TV…Zoya wants dinner too.’

-“K. See you soon.’ She replied, before ending the chat.

Jack closed the HUD and then retrieved his shoes and jacket from the room, before heading to the lift to go back to his house. As the lift doors closed, he thought, “I can’t wait for later.”

Chapter Ten: Later

Upon arriving back up in his house, Jack did what he usually did in the early evening: he watched the news. His head still hurt a little from the procedure, so he was glad to plop into the comfy recliner that Gabby had bought him for Christmas and simply relax. He tried to control the TV with his HUD, but realized he hadn’t thought to include basic household appliances…something he intended to remedy in the near future.

Nearly an hour later, close to six, Gabby returned to the house from the greenhouse.

“Hey dear, how’s your head?” She asked in a soothing voice, just in case he was in pain.

“Surprisingly fine, considering I had major brain surgery,” he laughed, pausing the TV.

“Good,” Gabby smiled with a look of relief, “I knew Zoya knew what she was doing, but still, you don’t have cloud backup like us androids, so if she messed up, we’d lose you forever.”

“You’d still have JB,” Jack pointed out, “he’s got all of my memories, and he’s been able to pass for me at several social events.”

“Yeah, but he’s not you,” Gabby pointed out, bending down and giving him a kiss, “anyway, I’m a bit dirty from the greenhouse, so I’m gonna freshen up before cooking dinner.”

“No problem, I can wait,” Jack smiled.

“Thanks, dear, I’ll be down soon.” Gabby then headed upstairs to their room. Jack heard the shower turn on moments later.

Before Jack could unpause the TV, Zoya emerged from the lab and walked down the hallway to join him.

“You still feeling alright?” She inquired.

“Yes, thank you,” he nodded.

“Good, I finished prepping some medication for you to take while your brain tissue recovers,” she said, pulling a pill bottle out of her scrub top and handing it to him, “you’ll need to take it twice daily, preferably with breakfast and dinner, for the next 45 days.”

Jack took the pill bottle and examined it, admiring Zoya’s pretty handwriting, “Thanks, I’ll take the first dose when we have dinner then.”

Zoya merely smiled fondly before fixing him a serious expression, “and, if you experience any symptoms of discomfort or brain issues, let me know immediately…even if I’m at work.”

“Will do,” he nodded with equal seriousness.

“Great, now I need to take a shower,” she announced, heading to the stairs. Just before she reached the stairs, Henry and Anna returned from their stay in the arboretum. Zoya paused to stare at Henry with a curious look before resuming her pace up the stairs.

“Hey Jack, how’s your day been?” Henry asked, sitting with Anna on the couch, intending to watch TV with him; he did not seem to notice Zoya staring at him.

“It was a little tiring at first, but Gabby and I had a nice nap together in the arboretum,” Jack responded, “and, after getting Ellen ready, Zoya was able to implant those chips in my brain.”

“Wow, really!?”

“Yeah,” Jack grinned.

“And, are you able to actually control an android?” Henry asked with an intense look.

Jack shook his head regretfully, “Not yet. Zoya wants to make sure my brain tissue has time to heal, so she wants me to wait 45 days to be safe.”

“Ah, understandable,” Henry nodded, “well, let me know how it goes…I might want some of my own.”

“Not until you’re 18,” Jack laughed.

“Darn,” Henry said with a crestfallen look, “well, at least it’ll give you over a year to refine the design, I suppose.”

“Indeed,” Jack nodded, “so, how did you two like the arboretum?”

“It was lovely,” Anna chimed in, staring at Henry with a fond smile, “we sat down near the waterfall and watched the sunset over the mountains.”

“Yeah, it was very relaxing,” Henry smiled, as Anna playfully ruffled his hair.

Gabby returned from her shower moments later, pausing to stare at Henry and Anna. “Oh, Henry, is Anna going to be joining us for dinner?”

Henry paused as he stared at Anna, before looking back to Gabby and shaking his head, “No, Anna’s just going to clean my room while we eat.”

“Okay, thanks,” Gabby smiled, rushing into the kitchen to prepare dinner for four.

“Would you like me to head up now, Henry?” Anna asked.

“Probably,” he said regretfully, “my room has gotten a little messy.”

“Yes, it has,” she smiled, leaning in and giving him a kiss before heading upstairs.

“So, are you thinking of converting her to a Perfect Housewife model when you’re an adult?” Jack asked.

Henry blushed as he struggled to find a response. “Umm…I don’t know, Jack,” he managed to say, “I think so far I just like having her as a friend.”

Jack chuckled. “Hey, no pressure, just interested in knowing.”

“I kinda want someone more unique…someone that I don’t have full control over,” he admitted.

“That’s understandable…which is why I ended up modifying Gabby to the point that now she’s sentient.”

“Well, I don’t think I want to do that with Anna,” Henry said, “I like her the way she is, but I also don’t want to marry her.”

“Well, you’re a smart boy, and you’re getting quite handsome, so I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding someone.”

“I hope so,” Henry nodded.

Jack and Henry then resumed watching the news, with Zoya joining them several minutes later, refreshed and redressed from her shower.

Gabby’s dinner was as delicious as always, and then conversation at the dinner table was full of discussions on everyone’s day. Henry excused himself from the table to join Anna up in his room, while Jack and Gabby chatted with Zoya about the next steps from Jack’s procedure, and the sort of things his brain could handle right now.

Zoya then headed up to her room to have some fun with Andy, leaving Gabby and Jack to head into the living room and cozy up to a movie, while Gemma cleaned up the kitchen. Near the end of the movie, Ellen unexpectedly walked in and headed upstairs without saying a word. When Jack turned to Gabby with a confused look on his face, she gave him a naughty smile. “Remember when I said I’d make it up to you later? Well, it’s later.”

Jack instantly perked up at that statement. “No blue balls this time?”

“Nope,” she smiled, gently taking his hand and walking with him upstairs. Ellen was waiting in their room, wearing a sex set of lingerie; it seemed the real Ellen had set this up in advance and had given Gabby some of her clothes.

“Hey Jack, ready to have some fun?” Ellen asked coquettishly, dancing around on the bed.

“Oh yeah,” he managed to say, blood already rushing to the bulge in his pants.

“Jack, turn on your HUD,” Gabby whispered in his ear.

“Ok,” he said, zoning out as he brought it up. Waiting for him was an invite from Gabby and Ellen for an erotic interface session. Jack eagerly activated it and then minimized the HUD.

Gabby sighed as she began receiving the data from Jack’s brain implants, as well as Ellen. “Alright, let’s get started.” Before Jack could respond, she pushed him onto the bed and the tow of them got started on him.

What followed was the best threesome Jack had ever had in his life. Due to the brain implants, he was able to run an erotic interface session, which meant the implants could send his responses to their sexual advances directly to their A.I.s and they could respond accordingly. They were able to perfectly synchronize their orgasms, and push all of his buttons in just the right way.

Jack nearly passed out with bliss as they finished more than an hour later, resting comfortably in the middle of the bed between Ellen and Gabby, who gently stroked and massaged Jack’s body.

“Well, was that worth the wait, dear?” Gabby asked playfully.

“You have no idea,” he managed to say, enjoying their hands massaging his body, “you were great too, Ellen.”

“Thanks,” she replied.

“I can’t wait until you can start controlling other bodies,” Gabby continued, “then we can really have some fun!”

“Me too,” Jack said, then he fell silent as they continued their after-sex massage.

When they were all done, they decided to take a sexy group shower to clean up, while Gemma replaced the sheets in their room. After they dried up and redressed, Ellen regretfully returned to the greenhouse to recharge and prep for the next days business, while Jack and Gabby crawled into bed.

“We need to do that more often,” Jack said, after they turned off the lights.

“Oh yeah,” Gabby agreed, moving over and giving him a kiss, “thanks again so much for the greenhouse, and my staff.”

“It was my pleasure,” Jack smiled, “perhaps Missy can join us next time,” he said in a hopeful voice.

“Maybe,” she smiled, before yawning, “well, we’ve both had a busy day, so we should get to sleep.”

“Good night Gabby,” Jack said, giving her one last kiss.

“Good night Jack,” she replied, before rolling over and initiating her sleep mode.

As he watched her fall asleep with android precision, he brought up his HUD once more thinking, “I wonder if I can make these implants help me fall asleep like that,” before closing it and drifting off to sleep.

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The Small Business Chronicles

Season One Closed for Christmas - The Shop | The Repair Shop - Part 1 | Off-season - The Motel | The Repair Shop - Part 2 | Slow day - The Cafe | The Small Business - End-of-Year Review

Season Two Homefront - The House | The Repair Shop - Part 3 | Green Thumb - The Greenhouse | The Repair Shop - Part 4 |