The Replacement - Part 1

Coming soon...

Prologue

His name was Greg Phillips, and the year was 2114. He was a somewhat handsome, yet ordinary man of slightly above average height, with hazel eyes, and light brown hair. Up until a few days ago, he was the happiest man in the world. He was a college graduate with a well-paying, entry level job as an analyst at the local field FBI office in San Francisco, CA. He had a nice and affordable place to live. And he also had a beautiful girlfriend with whom he had been dating for over three years since meeting her while he still worked at the local department store.

“I can’t wait until you get home,” Greg said, kissing Sabrina as she got ready to head out to work for her 12pm to 8pm shift.

“Me too,” she smiled, “Then we can finally go see that movie,”

“Yeah,” he said, “Hurry back,”

“I promise,” she said, and she headed out the door.

Unfortunately, she never made it home. She got hit by a drunk driver as she was leaving the parking lot after her long shift. The doctors informed him she was brain dead.

Greg was devastated.

Still, the one thing that kept him from going completely crazy was the fact that her stepdad, John, was there for him. One day, while Greg was sitting at her bedside, John walked in and calmly pulled up a chair next to him; he did not seem too distraught.

“Son, I know you must feel like shit right now, but I think I might be able to help,” he said.

“How could you help?” he asked, “Do you mean you could fix her brain?” Greg asked.

“Unfortunately not,” he said, “but the company I work for is heavily involved in cybernetics, and one of the products we are currently working on is an artificial humanoid replacement,” he said.

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at” Greg admitted.

“Well, we can’t actually transfer a person’s soul to a machine…yet,” he said, “But we have managed to come up with a way of essentially downloading their memories, personality, and experiences as raw data and installing it into an artificial brain with a sophisticated A.I. to emulate them and then into an exact robotic copy of that person’s body.”

“So, a robotic clone?” Greg asked.

“Yes, it would look, sound, smell, and act exactly like Sabrina here, but it would only be a copy,” he said.

“Are you saying you can make me a new Sabrina?” Greg asked, still not quite believing what he was hearing.

“Yes, we’ve been successful in over 90% of our test trials, even in cases where the person was brain dead,” he said.

“How are you able to make them look realistic?” he asked, a little skeptical, since the only humanoid robots he was aware of had plastic-like skin and very basic features.

“I’m afraid I can’t go into any details just yet, since we are just entering the beta phase” he said, “Suffice to say my company has been developing the concurrent technologies used to build these human robots for a little over a century now,”

“So, I would just continue my life with a copy that looks like her?” Greg asked, “As much as would like to have that, especially with my robot fetish, we were hoping to have a family together and I don’t see that happening with a robot,”

“I know you two were hoping to have kids in a few years after she got out of college,” he nodded, “But you have no need to worry, we can salvage Sabrina’s eggs from her body and put them on ice for whenever the two of you are ready,”

“Good,” Greg said, “and how much would this cost me?” Greg asked, starting to feel hopeful and excited for the first time since the accident.

“Absolutely nothing,” he stated simply, “Aside from the fact that she was my stepdaughter and I am personally for this plan, you would essentially be beta testing this android in the field,” he explained, “As such, for helping us through the beta phase, she would be completely free, as would all of her future repairs, upgrades, and new bodies,”

“New bodies?” Greg asked.

“Yes, we can only age a body so much before it needs to be replaced,” he explained, “And you don’t expect her to look 23 forever, right?” he asked.

“No, I suppose not,” Greg said, “Though that would be nice,” he mused.

“I’m sure it would,” John smiled, “So, are you in?” he asked, standing up.

“Yes,” Greg said, “Thank you,” Greg said, getting up and shaking John’s hand.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a big smile, “It’ll take me a little while to get approval from my superiors, and a few more days after that to construct her,” he said, “So expect her in a few weeks,” he finished.

“I will,” Greg said, finally having something good to look forward to.

---

Part 1.1: Reunion

Over the next few weeks, John and Greg made several arrangements with her place of employment, since her status had to be secretly changed. Fortunately, Greg still had some pull with the management since he had worked there for over five years.

When word finally arrived that her body was finished, he arranged to have a whole week off work and waited eagerly for her replacement to arrive. John planned on bringing her over in the evening after he got home from work, so he left work a little early, took a shower, and then waited…though he was not good at waiting, so he nervously paced around his apartment instead.

Finally, at about 5pm, the doorbell rang.

-DING DONG-

“Alright, just stay calm Greg,” thought to himself as he approached the door. It had been more than three weeks since Sabrina died and the thought of having a new one, a robotic one, was exciting.

Greg opened the door to John carrying a medium sized box and another man hauling a metal box large enough for a human body on a dolly.

“Where do you want it?” John asked.

“Right here,” Greg said, showing them where to place it, “In the living room,”

Once they had the box situated in the living room, the other man left while John stayed.

“Alright, now before I let you turn her on, I need to go over a few things,” he said, sitting down on the couch with Greg.

“Okay,” Greg said.

“Now, she is the most advanced android we have ever created,” he started, “she can get wet, she can eat and drink” he said, “She therefore excretes as well,” he said.

“Sounds simple enough,” Greg said.

“Now, even though she will acquire much of her energy from the food and drink she consumes, as well as from various micro solar panels installed throughout her body and kinetic energy from moving around, she will still need to be plugged in occasionally,” he explained.

“Will she need to be plugged in right now?” Greg asked.

“No, we already charged her up for you, but she will still need to eat regularly starting today in order to maintain the charge; and she will also be able to tell you when she needs to be plugged in,” he said.

“So, she will be aware of the fact that she’s a copy…an android?” Greg asked.

“Yes,” he said, “we aren’t planning on making sleepers since they would require tremendous processing power to maintain the illusion, and besides, I thought you both had robo-fetishes anyway,” he winked.

“Well, I suppose I do,” Greg said, blushing a little, “I think she may have as well,” he added.

“Well, she will be able to tickle that fetish as well as both your foot fetishes,” he said.

“Good, and can she be programmed or reprogrammed?” Greg asked.

“No,” he said, “You can’t permanently modify her personality or memories…otherwise it wouldn’t be Sabrina now would it?” he asked.

“I suppose not, I was more worried about someone else reprogramming her,” Greg said.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “No technology exists, or will ever exist, that can reprogram her,”

“That’s a relief,” Greg said.

“Now, one more thing before I leave you two alone,” he said, pulling out a 10.5in tablet, “This tablet is your link to her diagnostic and remote systems,”

“What can I do with it?” Greg asked.

“It connects to all her systems wirelessly so you can check to see if anything is wrong,” he said, “and you can also use it to see what she sees and hear what she hears wherever she is, since she transmits to a proprietary satellite network,” he said, “As well as numerous control screens so you can modify her movement, actions, you name it,” he added.

“Very nice, now how do I turn her on?” Greg asked, as he started to get up.

“Just turn on the tablet and finish the prompts to turn her on this first time,” he said, “she’ll tell you more once she is activated,” he added.

“Thanks John,” Greg said, walking with him to the door.

“Just enjoy your reunion and bring her to our place for dinner in a few nights,” he said, “and one more thing, since she’s basically an advanced prototype we’ve given to you for field testing, she may have a few glitches and malfunctions, but she should self-correct and automatically install fixes while she is sleeping,”

“Okay,” Greg said, “Wait, what’s in that other box you gave me?” he asked, looking over at the medium sized plastic box John had left near the larger one.

“Oh, those are her backup parts,” he said, “A few extra hands, feet, and other parts,” he explained, “Even an extra head,” he added, “That way you can simply replace the part instead of taking her in for a major fix,” he finished.

“Cool,” Greg said.

“Well, I’d better be going now,” John said, and once he left, Greg closed the door and locked it, making sure he wouldn’t be disturbed.

With her stepfather gone, Greg finally had the place to himself…that is, until he turned on his new girlfriend. He quickly locked the doors and closed the windows, and even disconnected the phone so he would not be disturbed. With that all done, he slowly walked back into the living room and approached the large box.

“Alright, now why don’t we take a look at you before turning you on,” Greg said, and he typed in his security key in the key pad and then stood back as the box opened to reveal the dormant form of Sabrina.

R. Sabrina was a girl in her early twenties, 23 to be exact. She stood at about 5”9 with long, curly, dark brown hair, and had a medium figure with a pair of C-cup breasts and was of mixed Mexican/American heritage.

She was currently wearing the same work outfit that the original Sabrina wore on the night of her accident, even down to the pink nail polish on her fingers and the earrings and nose piercing.

Her outfit was a short sleeved black polo with a pair of black pants and black ballets. When he got closer to her, he was astonished to discover that she even smelled like she had just worked Sabrina’s full shift; the body odor mixed with her usual coconut perfume.

With this remarkably realistic and accurate copy of Sabrina before him, he couldn’t help but choke up a little, since he knew this was not the Sabrina that he knew. Still, as long as she had all of Sabrina’s memories and personality, that had to make her a suitable replacement.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I feel you to see how real you are,” he said, staring at her sleeping face for a brief moment before smiling and grabbing one of her arms.

“Wow, I don’t know how they did it, but you feel exactly like the real Sabrina did…except a bit cold,” he said, feeling her left forearm and admiring the hairs and imperfections in the skin. He also looked at her hand and admired all of the fingerprints.

“Well, let’s see if we can turn you on,” he said letting go of her arm after looking at her sleeping face and wanting to see her look more lively. After returning to the table where he left the tablet, he picked it up and activated it.

“Wow, this thing is cool!” he said, looking at the detailed status screens that popped up.

Since R. Sabrina wasn’t yet active, many of them were showing no activity, but there were a few screens displaying her current energy levels, and her wireless status.

After looking at all the options available to him, he found the activation sequence was at the top. Taking one more look at her dormant stance, he keyed in his activation code and tapped the activate button. Once he did so, all of the other status indicators came alive: CPU, memory, motor systems, A.I.

When he looked up from the tablet, he saw that her body was becoming more alive too. The skin was turning pink where before it was pale, almost as though a blush-fire were spreading across her body; she also started to breathe.

When he looked back down at the tablet, he saw a generic startup text appear:

Prototype unit RXX1 activated…running preliminary diagnostics…diagnostics complete, no errors found…loading all systems…systems loaded… now starting A.I…A.I. loaded…starting human emulation…host human R. Sabrina loaded.

When he saw that everything was loaded, he looked back up and saw that, while she looked more alive, she still looked as though she were asleep.

“That’s odd, I wonder if there’s something wrong,” he said, putting the tablet down and slowly approaching her.

As he approached her, he could see her chest rising in rhythm with her breaths, and that her skin now looked fully alive. He slowly got closer to take a look at her face, when…

“BOO!!!” she yelled, suddenly coming to life.

To say Greg was startled was an understatement. He gave off what could best be described as a shriek, goose bumps formed on his skin, and the hairs stood up on his arms and neck. His heart raced so much he thought he was going into cardiac arrest, and he could hardly breathe.

Fortunately, the aforementioned symptoms lasted only a few seconds, and when he recovered he saw her laughing hysterically.

“I knew I’d get you one of these days,” she laughed.

One of the things Greg used to do to the original Sabrina at the department store they both worked at to get her attention was to scare her whenever he happened to be walking by. He swore he was impossible to scare…apparently he was wrong.

“Hey! That’s not fair,” he said, catching his breath and smiling at her; he almost forgot she wasn’t the original Sabrina.

“Well, after I activated, I just couldn’t resist,” she said, still laughing.

“So, how do you feel?” he asked, “Do you have all of Sabrina’s memories?”

“I feel fine Greg,” she said, regaining her composure, “And I do have access to all of her memories, why else would I have scared you?” she smiled.

“I’m sorry, this is just too weird,” he said, “It was only a few weeks ago I watched over you, I mean her, brain dead on a hospital bed,” he said.

“Yeah, fortunately the memories of the crash aren’t in me,” she said, “I only have everything leading up to before she got in the car,”

“So, do you feel like Sabrina, or do you feel like a copy?” he asked carefully.

“A little of both,” she said, trying to come up with a better answer, “It’s like I’m a blank person who was given someone else’s memories and personality and now gets to live that person’s life,” she said.

“I think I understand,” Greg said.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll both get used to this strange situation as time goes on,” she smiled.

“Yeah, I’m sure we will,” he agreed.

“So, what do you think of me?” she asked, turning around to give him a full look at her body.

“You look exactly like Sabrina, and you even talk, and act, like her,” he said.

“Thanks,” she smiled, “I think it took my stepdad’s company years to come up with the way my A.I. works,” she said.

“I’ll bet,” he smiled.

“So,” she said delicately, “How have you been holding up these past few weeks?”

“I’ve been fine,” he said, “Obviously I’d be in a much worse state if I hadn’t known you were being built,”

“I see,” she said a little awkwardly, “Do you think we can sit down now, my legs are getting a little tired,” she said, trying to change the subject.

“Oh, of course,” he said, and they walked over to the common room and sat down in opposing chairs, pulling a table over to place the tablet on.

“This is much better,” she said, settling in.

“Yeah, I guess this is the first time you’ve ever sat down,” he said.

“Well, robot me,” she laughed.

“Yeah, I wasn’t even sure you could get tired,” he said.

“Well, I do have synthetic muscles, and they are susceptible to just as much stress as real muscles,” she said, “In essence, I can get tired,”

“Oh, sounds smart,” he said.

“Yeah, but I can ignore it if I want,” she said.

“I would hope so,” he said, “So, how much can you remember about the last day of Sabrina’s life?” he asked.

“Let’s see,” she said, putting on a thinking expression, “umm…umm…umm,” she said, starting to repeat herself.

“Sabrina, are you alright?” he asked, watching her continue to repeat herself.

“Umm…umm…umm,” was all she said.

“Hmmm, looks like your first malfunction,” he said, picking up the tablet to see what was wrong.

It didn’t take long to see what the problem was. Apparently she was having a small problem accessing her memories, but her self-correction program was currently attempting to resolve the issue. The progress bar was at 25%, with a few minutes to go.

“Well, as long as I’m waiting, I may as well get a closer look at you,” he said, and he put the tablet down, got up, and leaned in towards her face, which was repeating the word ‘umm’ with the same inflection and expression each time.

As much as he wanted this android to be exactly like Sabrina, he was glad to see this small breaking of the façade. He was sure that if he were the one to become an android and she were still alive, she would be just as interested, since they both had a robo-fetish. The blank look in her hazel colored eyes was turning him on.

After he was finished looking at her blank expression, he sat back down and looked at the tablet, which now showed 90% and only a few seconds left.

A few seconds later, it showed the issue was resolved and that the A.I. would be resuming.

“umm…umm…well, I just remember working a full 8-hours and then heading to my car,” she finally finished, “Wow, that felt weird,” she said.

“You mean your malfunction?” he asked.

“Yeah, it seems there was a minor issue with accessing Sabrina’s memories,” she said, “my self-correction program created a temporary fix, but try not to ask me to access any specific memories until after I sleep tonight so it can create a permanent fix,” she requested.

“Alright, but are you okay now?” he asked.

“Yes, I am a prototype after all, so I’m bound to have a few bugs in the first few days,” she said.

“I suppose so,” he said.

“So, is there anything that you want to do with me tonight?” she asked with a suggestive look.

“Yes, it looks like I can use this tablet to control you,” he said, “Would you mind?”

“Not at all,” she smiled, “Though I’ll have to go over some aspects of that with you tomorrow,” she added.

“Fair enough,” he smiled back.

Part 1.2: Playtime

Once he had the tablet activated again and the main screen unlocked, he asked, “So, what should I try out first?”

“Yes, why don’t you activate my visual readout,” she suggested, “I think you might find it interesting,” she smiled.

“Okay,” he said, and after looking through the tools tab, he tapped the one labelled ‘visual’. “Cool!” he said, once the visual system loaded on his screen.

The visual system showed everything that R. Sabrina’s eyes were seeing, which at the moment was him staring down at the screen in awe. Her visual feed looked as normal as his vision with no obvious enhancements in quality or clarity, though he could also see that she had a HUD that she could use to control her own systems and see her own basic status readouts; her current energy levels were at 99.8%. The only thing letting Greg know he was seeing from Sabrina’s point of view instead of some camera was her eyelashes barely visible at the top and bottom of the feed.

In addition to her diagnostic readouts, he also noticed a small box around his face with a line pointing to his name, with a basic readout of his stats; it appeared she was equipped with some sophisticated facial recognition.

“So, this HUD, and all the information in your line of vision, doesn’t bother you?” he asked.

“No, I think it’s actually kinda cool,” she said.

“I’ll say,” he smiled, “Hey, it looks like I can control what you look at,” he said, seeing a control for her eyes.

“Try it,” she said.

“Okay,” he said, and he tapped the eye icon and then saw the vision window split in two, each section showing the visual readout for one of her eyes. There was also a control in the middle to control the direction of both eyes simultaneously, which he chose to try out first.

“Wow, this is weird,” Sabrina said, since her eyes started moving without her control.

“I’ll bet,” Greg said, seeing her point of view change as he moved his finger across the directional circle on the tablet screen. He also found he could adjust the focus, and he saw the irises in each eye adjust accordingly. It appeared she could focus slightly better than a human could; her visual acuity was approximately 20/8.

“I’m going to move each eye separately now,” he said, and he moved his finger to her left eye control and watched as her right eye stayed where it was, but her left eye started moving.

“Wow, this is really weird,” she said, when he started moving the other eye too, it looked like her eyes were bouncing around.

“Yeah, the way your eyes are bouncing around make you look a little crazy,” he said.

“Greg, can you stop now?” she asked suddenly, “The constant movement is causing severe strain on my CPU,” she said.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, quickly returning control of her eyes to her.

“Thanks, and it’s okay,” she said, blinking her eyes a few times and smiling again.

“You’re not dizzy, are you?” he asked.

“I’m not sure I can get dizzy,” she admitted, “my CPU was just having trouble processing the different visual feeds from both eyes at the speed you were moving them,” she explained.

“Oh,” he said, “Sorry about that,”

“Don’t worry, my CPU is back to normal now…you would have needed to keep it up for several more minutes to have caused any serious problems,” she said.

“Oh, good,” he said, sounding relieved.

“Well, what do you want to do with me next?” she asked.

“Well, let’s see,” he said, and he perused through the tablet until he got to her full body screen. From there, he saw he could control any of her limbs, and he could also see where her panels were, as well as how to remove parts of her body.

“Interesting, it looks like I can remove your head,” he said.

“Yeah, each of my limbs can be removed as well,” she said.

“Well, would you mind if I removed your head?” he asked, “I’ve always fantasized about removing your head if you were an android,” he admitted with a blush.

“Aww, that’s sweet,” she blushed back, “Go ahead, I’m as eager to experience the features of this body as you are,” she smiled.

“Thanks,” he said, blushing a little as he got up, “You will be alright, right?” he asked.

“Yes, my A.I. and memory storage is in my head, and my head has its own power source which can last a few hours without being connected to the rest of my body,” she assured him.

“Okay, will you still be able to control your body wirelessly?” he asked.

“Unfortunately not,” she said, “It is possible, but it would require a tremendous amount of processing power to handle the coordination, which they cannot currently fit in my body,” she said.

“I see, well here goes then,” he smiled, and with a nod from her, he walked up behind her and parted the hair at the back of her neck, revealing a small freckle which he pressed.

“Cranial unit disengaging,” Sabrina said in a clipped tone, clearly reciting a computerized message.

Once she said the message, a seam appeared around her neck below the freckle, and there was a slight hiss of air as a whirring noise came from within her neck.

When the noises stopped, he carefully lifted her head above her neck and looked down at the mechanical opening where her head used to be connected. He could clearly make out the tubes that air, and food and liquids made their way from her throat down to the rest of her body.

He could also see the data ports where her head connected, as well as a few support frames that shaped her neck. He was also able to see down to her lap where her hands were resting calmly on her lap; He also noted how heavy her head was.

“You still with me?” he asked, once he processed everything there was to see of her open neck.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said in a digitized version of her voice, “This is cool!” she said.

“Good,” he said, turning her head around to face him as he carefully walked back to his chair. Once he was seated, he gently rested her head on his lap.

“Wow, this is a fascinating experience,” she said, smiling up at him.

“How does it feel?” he asked.

“Oddly relaxing,” she admitted, “I’m not expending any processing power controlling the rest of my body, or breathing, or regulating my power systems,” she explained.

“And it sounds like your voice is coming from a speaker,” he said.

“Yes, it is, because I don’t have access to my lungs,” she explained.

“But your lips are still moving,” he said.

“That’s because I’m programmed to lip synch to maintain the façade,” she explained, “though I can suspend that function if you like,” she offered with a wink.

“Can you?” he asked, “Just for a while at least,”

“Sure,” she said, though she said it without moving her mouth at all.

“Wow, this is turning me on and creeping me out at the same time,” he said, feeling an odd feeling in his guts, and his member growing harder.

“Same here,” she said, once again not moving her mouth.

“I’m curious, since you’re talking with a speaker, are you able to speak with anyone else’s voice?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted.

“Why don’t you try talking with my voice,” he suggested, “You’ve certainly heard it enough to have it memorized,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll try,” she said, and a few seconds later, she said, “How does this sound?” Unfortunately, it was still in her own voice.

“Like you,” he said.

“Oh well,” she said, sounding disappointed, “I’m sure it’s possible for me to speak with someone else’s voice, I’ll have to ask my dad about that,” she said, “So, how long do you want me to talk like this?” she asked.

“For a little while longer,” he said, “I want to play around with your face, and look around in your mouth, and it would be difficult if your face is moving,” he told her.

“Oh, good idea then,” she said, winking at him instead of smiling.

“I thought so,” he winked back.

“Well, my face is yours to play with for the moment,” she said, “It’ll help reduce my CPU load a little bit too,” she said.

“Win-win,” he smiled, and then he put his hands on her face and started manipulating it. Making her smile, frown, and put on a stoic expression.

“Your hands feel nice,” she said, as he was moving her face around. Despite her not moving her face, he could see her cheeks blushing.

“Thanks, your skin feels so real,” he said, blushing as well.

“Yeah, they synthesize it from skin samples from the original Sabrina’s body,” she said, “I think it took them several decades to develop the technology to make my skin,”

“Well, they did an excellent job,” he said, opening her eyes more and then picking her head up and bringing it to his face so he could get a closer look at her eyes.

“Wow, extreme close-up,” she said, since his eyes were mere inches from hers.

“Yeah, I want to see how real your eyes are,” he said, looking closely at both hazel eyes. He was amazed at how real they looked. He could see the irises change to the lighting, and he could also see the veins in her eyes.

“They are pretty real, the most advanced biomechanics ever developed,” she said, “Your eyes look pretty nice too,” she said, her eyes focusing on his.

“Thanks,” he said, “Is it safe to touch your eyes?” he asked.

“Not while they’re still attached,” she said, “It might damage them while they’re still active,”

“Oh well, thought I’d ask,” he said, “does your face come off?” he asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she laughed, though the laughter sounded weird without her mouth moving.

“Just making sure, I was hoping you would say no,” he said.

“Yeah, my face is too intricately attached to be removable,” she said.

“Thought so,” he said, “I’m going to look around in your mouth now,”

“Go ahead,” she said, “I evacuated all the moisture from my tongue so your fingers don’t get wet,” she added.

“Very thoughtful,” he said, and he grabbed her chin and carefully pried open her mouth.

“Yeah, my mouth is also capable of cleaning itself while I sleep, so no more brushing,” she said, as he looked inside her open mouth.

“Cool, that’ll save you a few minutes a day,” he said, looking closely at her small teeth and then feeling her realistic, yet dry, tongue; her mouth was very clean.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Well, I’m done with your face, so you can lip-synch again,” he said, closing her mouth and pulling his hands away.

“Thanks,” she said, once again moving her mouth and the rest of her face and smiling up at him.

“So, is there anything else I can do with your head?” he asked, looking over at her headless body which was still just sitting there.

“Yes, you can open my head to see my brain,” she said.

“Is it safe?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, “In the next few weeks, Dad will probably be sending you some processor upgrades for me as he analyzes the data I send him,” she said, “So you will definitely need to know how to access my brain,”

“If he has upgrades available, why didn’t he just install the more powerful ones already?” he asked.

“Because he needs to calibrate them with my systems as they continue to develop, otherwise I might experience an overload or some other malfunction,” she explained.

“Oh, that makes sense,” he said, “If I’m reading this correctly, I have to remove your scalp to access your brain, right?” he asked, looking up the schematics for her head on the tablet.

“Yep,” she smiled.

“Alright, here goes then,” he said, and he picked her head up, turned it around and pressed a small discolored area at the base of her hairline. Once he did, he felt a click and heard a hiss as a seam appeared above the spot he pressed.

“Scalp panel manual release” she said in a clipped tone.

“Wow, this is cool,” Greg said as he lifted the panel containing her long, thick hair above her head and looked at the awesome technology inside her head cavity.

“Please don’t mess up my hair,” she said.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” he said, and he carefully placed her scalp down next to him, being careful to keep the hair from tangling. Once he had it set, he looked back into her open head.

The panel removed her entire scalp from the back of her head to the tops of her ears and the top of her forehead. In the front portion he could see the backend of what made her face work, including the mechanisms controlling her eyes, which from the back end looked like cameras with organic material at the end. He could also see a bunch of tiny fiber optics connecting to what looked like synthetic muscles, and the area where her mouth was.

Near the back, with fiber optics going in and out of it, was a complex array of processors and circuits. Each of the processors, which were the size of a penny, were connected to a strange looking device in the middle. It was semi-transparent, made out of some kind of metallic-plastic alloy and had what appeared to be a bluish, organic compound in it.

“Sabrina, what’s this device attached to all the processors?” he asked, getting a closer look.

“That’s me,” she said, “My brain, which houses my A.I., memories, and personality,” she said.

“Wow!” he said, “But what’s with the blue liquid stuff inside?” he asked.

“That is the latest in organic computing,” she replied, “Organic computing shatters all the limits that circuit boards have,” she explained, “Otherwise my consciousness would have to be contained in a computer the size of the couch,” she said.

“Cool,” he said, “I didn’t know it would be that small,” he said, gently touching it and feeling the warmth it was giving off.

“Yeah, in older models there was a lot of wasted space with maintenance monitors, so they had to put the brain in the torso,” she explained, “With me, they outsourced everything to the tablet and installed a wireless link to it, which is considerably smaller and freed up a lot of space,”

“Still, if this organic computer is supposed to mimic a human brain, I would have thought it would have been closer to the size of an actual brain,” he said.

“Well, they also outsourced several functions to other parts of my body,” she explained, “Basically, I have a decentralized brain,”

“I’m not quite sure what that means,” he said.

“Well, the brain you are seeing now houses my memories, and the dark object you might be able to see at the bottom is the mechanical portion with my A.I. and primary CPU,” she said, “And some of those sub processors surrounding my brain handle my head’s sensory information, such as visual, smell, taste, and sounds,” she said.

“Okay, but then what about the parts of your brain that are supposed to control movement and other stuff?” he asked.

“There’s a large array in my torso which processes all my primary motor functions, and my overall sense of touch,” she said, “It also handles all involuntary functions, such as digestion, power systems, and temperature controls, and it links up to smaller sub-processors in my arms, legs, hands, and feet which help with sensory and motor data,” she finished.

“Wow, strangely that all makes sense,” he said, “So, can your organic brain here be removed?”

“Yes, but let’s not do that now…I’m afraid it might cause an error since I haven’t been online for very long,” she said.

“Alright,” he said, “Is there anything else I can do in here?” he asked.

“If you are very careful, you can probably remove one of my eyes,” she suggested.

“Really?” he asked, “Let me see,” he said, and he looked closer into the cavity near the front section and saw the backend of both her eyes.

Upon closer inspection, he saw what looked like small release tabs at the end of each one. He decided on her left eye and pressed each release tab.

“Whoa, that was weird,” Sabrina said suddenly.

“How so?” he asked, carefully pulling on the component until it started sliding out. He was surprised how long it was, and the level of intricacy in the components. Finally, the entire optical array came out. He was somewhat shocked to see a realistic looking eyeball attached to the end, with all the coloring still in place.

“Well, I’ve only got one eye now,” she said in an obvious tone, “Please do be careful with it,” she said.

“Don’t worry, I will,” he assured her, getting a closer look at the awesome biomechanical eye in his hands, “I wonder why your dad’s company hasn’t made eyes like these for humans,”

“Probably because the human would need parts of their brains removed and replaced with mechanical components and they don’t feel comfortable doing that just yet,” she said.

“Oh, that makes sense,” he said, “Did you want to see what your optical array looks like?” he asked.

“Sure, though remember to hold it in front of my right eye,” she laughed.

“I know,” he laughed, and he carefully spun her head back around and showed her the optical array in his hands.

If he thought the eye in his hands was weird, seeing Sabrina missing an eye and being able to see all the way through the opening to where her brain was.

“Cool,” she said, “Now could I have it back now?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said, and he turned her head back around and carefully reinserted her eye, eliciting an audible sigh of relief from when her eye was back in place.

“Thanks,” she said, “There’s not much else you can do in there, so you should probably reattach my scalp now,”

“Alright,” he said, and he carefully reattached her scalp and placed her back in his lap with her head facing up at him.

“Here we are again,” she smiled.

“Yep,” he smiled back, “So, is there anything else you’d like me to do with you?” he asked.

“Let me think a moment,” she said, and after a few moments, she smiled and said, “Hey, why don’t you toss me onto the couch?”

“Are you crazy?” he asked, since from where he was standing, the couch was roughly six feet away, “Won’t that damage you if I happen to miss and you hit the floor?”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she said, using her eyebrows to mimic a shrug since she had no shoulders, “My skull is made of a titanium alloy and my brain is reinforced from shock damage,” she told him.

“Oh,” he said, “And what about your skin and musculature?” he asked.

“It’s only a few feet,” she assured him, “Go on, I’ll even record my visual feed for you to watch later,” she smiled.

“Alright,” he gave in, “I apologize in advance if I miss,” he told her, “You know how much I suck at throwing,” he warned.

“I know, but I have faith in you sweetie,” she smiled, knowing he hated that ‘f’ word.

“Oh, now you’ve done it!” he yelled in mock anger, and he faced her forwards in his hands, holding her below her chin and then he tossed her over the table and onto the couch.

As soon as she left his hands, he heard her go “Wheeeeee!” as her head arced through the air, and the moment she landed face first on the plush couch with a loud thump, he heard her laughing.

“Wow, I actually made it,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief as he walked over to the couch; he could still hear her laughing. “Sabrina, you okay?” he asked, carefully picking her head up so she was facing him.

Sabrina was still laughing, with a gleeful smile on her face. It was a few seconds before he realized something was wrong, because her laugh almost sounded looped and her face was frozen in the gleeful smile.

“Sabrina,” he said again, looking worried.

Sabrina just continued laughing the looped laugh, until suddenly her face went stoic and she said, “Error…shock to primary A.I. systems…catastrophic damage detected…shutting doooowwwwn,” she said, the last bit ending in a slow drone.

“Damn it,” Greg said, staring into Sabrina’s lifeless eyes, “You’re still a prototype, why’d you make me throw you?” he asked, starting to wonder what to do. He brought her face a little closer so he could tenderly kiss her lips, when suddenly…

“BOOO!!” she screamed, her face suddenly coming to life.

“AHH!” he yelled out, the sudden adrenaline rush causing him to drop Sabrina’s head straight down onto the floor.

“Ouch!” she said, once hit the floor.

“Damn Sabrina, you scared the shit out of me…again,” he said, catching his breath as he looked down at her head, which had landed on its cheek just in front of his bare left foot, “Don’t think I feel sorry for you about the pain of hitting the floor,” he added.

“Totally worth it,” she laughed.

“Ugh,” he said in mock frustration, as it seemed Sabrina was getting revenge for all the times he scared her from the grave. He slowly bent down to his knees and looked at her, “So, you comfy there?” he asked.

“Yeah, I have a perfect view of your foot,” she said, and since her mouth was mere centimeters from his big toe, she reached out her tongue and tasted the tip of it.

“Hey!” he said, recoiling a little.

“Your toe tasted clean,” she said, “Did you shower before I arrived?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’d just worked a full shift,” he said, “Do you want me to pick you back up now?” he asked.

“Yes please,” she said.

Once he picked her back up, he walked back over to the chair and sat down with her again.

“So, what did you think of my awesome acting job?” she asked, giggling a little as she said it.

“Very good,” he said, “Despite the fact you could have been damaged by me dropping you,” he said.

“I told you I would be fine,” she said, “It only hurt a little bit,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, “so, do you want to be reunited with your body now?” he asked.

“Not quite,” she said, after thinking on that, “why don’t you test out the remote for my body instead?” she asked.

“Will it still work without your head attached?” he asked.

“Of course,” she assured him, “My body has two primary wireless links, one in my head and the other in the primary motor control system in my torso,” she said.

“Okay, so your body is still on?” he asked, looking over at her body again, which was still sitting passively with its hands resting on its lap.

“Yes, but without me, or a remote command, it can’t move,” she said.

“Oh, well let’s see if I can prop you up somewhere so you can watch,” he said, and after looking around, he placed her head on the nearby couch and supported it with a few pillows, “Comfy?” he asked.

“Yes, thanks,” she smiled, looking as though her head was coming out of the couch.

“Don’t mention it,” he smiled back, and he picked up the tablet and opened the remote function, which brought up an image of her body, minus the head.

After familiarizing himself with the way the remote function worked, he tapped on one of the highlighted areas of the right arm and slowly lifted it up with his finger. As he did so, he saw her actual arm slowly rise from her lap, though more mechanically than organically.

“Cool,” he said, making it move some more as he got the hang of manipulating it. “How come it’s moving like that” he asked.

“Because the motor control processors aren’t fine-tuned enough to move my limbs in a perfectly human manner, but my A.I. processor assembly is,” she explained.

“Oh, okay,” he said, and he tapped on the other arm and began making both arms wave around.

Once he got more comfortable with the controls, he had her body lower its arms and then he manipulated the controls for her legs to have her body slowly rise from the chair to its feet. He got a little scared when he saw it wobble a little, but with no help from him, her body stabilized itself.

“What happened?” he asked, looking down at the tablet.

“My body does have some basic programming in it,” she said, “Enough so that it can keep itself from falling, even when my head is removed,” she explained.

“Well, that’s good,” he said, “Wouldn’t want it to fall,”

“Don’t worry, I doubt you could ever master the remote controls enough to make my body stand up perfectly,” she said, “Only my brain is smart enough to move it properly,”

“I’ll try not to take that as an insult,” he said, mockingly sounding hurt.

“It’s not,” she said, “Just an unfortunate truth,” she said smugly, “Don’t worry, you did an okay job,” she smiled.

“Thanks, now I’ll try walking it over to me,” he said, and he found there was a separate control for forward movement, so he merely toggled it up a little and watched as her body slowly took a step forward. After making it successfully walk one step forward, he increased the speed to a normal walk and then had it stop a few feet in front of him.

“Good job,” Sabrina said, giving him a toothy smile, “If I had hands, I’d be clapping,”

“Thanks,” he said wryly, and then he paused a moment to look at her headless body, which was standing passively a few feet in front of him, “Would you mind if I undressed your body?” he asked.

“Yes I would,” she said, “I want to do it myself later,” she said, “You can grope it if you like,” she conceded.

“Fair enough,” he said, and he put the tablet down on the table and stood up in front of her body.

He stared at it for a few seconds, getting over the weirdness of her head not being there and it not breathing, before reaching out to its chest and putting both hands on her sizeable breasts. Even through the shirt, he could still tell how real they felt and he couldn’t help but smile as he gave them a gentle squeeze.

“Well, how do they feel?” she asked.

“Perfect,” he said, giving her a boyish smile.

By the look on her face, he knew if she was still attached to her body, she would be shaking her head the way all women do when a man is acting like a man. She finally gave a digital sigh before saying, “I suppose that’s good, is there anything else you want to do with my head? I’ve only got about an hour and a half of power left,”

“Alright,” he said, and he sat down next to her on the couch and picked up her head, “Let me take a look at something real quick,” he told her, and he flipped her head upside down so he could look at the mechanical part.

“Why didn’t you look at that before?” she asked, not concerned that she was upside down.

“Well, I’d already seen the part on your body, so I didn’t think it would be any different,” he told her, “But now…,” he left off, seeing matching connections to the ones on her body, “Sabrina, I can see the tubes that air and food stuffs are sealed on both your body and your head,”

“Yeah, it’s to prevent contaminants from entering the tube,” she explained.

“I figured as much,” he said, “Is it possible for you to unseal it?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “Though I can only manually unseal the one on my head, there should be a manual release near the tube connection on my body,” she said, “Why?” she asked.

“It’s about the only thing I haven’t seen yet,” he said.

“Oh, alright,” she said, and a few moments later he saw the tube unseal itself with a whirring sound.

“Thanks,” he said, taking a closer look.

“Don’t mention it,” she said, “Just be gentle in there,”

“I will,” he promised.

He noticed that the inside of the throat tube looked just as he might expect the inside of a human throat to look like. After looking inside it for a few seconds, he suddenly got an idea, “Sabrina, are your vocal chords in your head, or in the body?”

“They are a few inches above that opening on my head,” she answered, “What do you have in mind?”

“I’m wondering if I were to blow into this tube here, could you vocalize?” he asked.

“I can try,” she said, smiling at his idea.

“Alright,” he said, and he brought her head up to his face so the tube was at his mouth, then he covered his mouth over it and blew in.

The first time he blew in, the air merely passed all the way through her open mouth. She apologized and said she wasn’t quite ready, so he tried again. This time, he heard her make a moaning sound.

“Sorry, I’m afraid that’s the best sound I can make with you blowing into my throat,” she said, resealing her tube.

“At least you could make a sound,” he said, “I wonder what would happen if I blew into your body’s throat,” he said then, placing Sabrina’s head back down where it was before and standing back up next to her body.

“Try it,” she said.

“Hmm, let’s see,” he said, looking over the mechanical portion of her neck at the sealed tube. It only took him a moment to locate the manual release, which he immediately pressed, unsealing the tube.

“Remember to reseal it before you reattach me,” she said.

“Okay,” he said, and he carefully placed his mouth over the open tube and blew in. As soon as he did, he saw her chest rise up as her lungs were suddenly filled with the air he blew in. Once his mouth left the tube though, the air he blew in was forced back out.

“Cool,” Sabrina said, as she watched him blow air into her body several more times before resealing the tube and walking back over to her.

“Yeah,” he said, “I think I’ve finished having fun with you being headless…or I should say bodiless” he said.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “Well, we’ll have the rest of our lives to play around with my features,” she smiled, “Why don’t you reattach me now,” she said.

“Okay,” he said, and he gently picked her up, before carrying her over to her body, “So, is there anything special I need to do to reattach you?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said, “Just put my head back on my neck and my body will take it from there,” she said, looking into his eyes.

“Easy enough,” he said, and he stood in front of her body and slowly brought her head over her neck.

When it made contact, he both heard and felt a click and then her face sort of zoned out while he heard the whirring sound, most likely the head components linking up with the body components. Once the whirring stopped, the seam quickly sealed back up, and then her body gave a slight start.

“Wow, that felt good,” she said, taking a deep breath and rubbing her neck with her hands and then stretching her arms and legs out.

“How’d it feel?” he asked, stepping back and watching her.

“Kind of like a sugar rush,” she tried to explain, “Every part of my body was suddenly rushed with energy when my head was reattached.

“I see,” he said, and before he could say anything else, he heard what sounded like a growl, “What was that?” he asked.

“I think that was my tummy,” she said, looking down at her body and smiling back up at him.

“Hmmm, I didn’t know your stomach could growl,” he said.

“Well, my stomach didn’t actually growl,” she explained, “It was actually a speaker in my torso,” she admitted, “They wanted me to sound realistic too,” she said.

“That makes sense I suppose,” he said, “Can I see if I can hear anything from your torso?”

“Sure,” she said, “But I am pretty well insulated, and they did think of just about everything,” she warned.

“Still, I want to see for myself,” he said, and he leaned down at held his left ear against her bosom and her abdomen to see if he could hear anything mechanical coming from her; he couldn’t. All he heard was what he would have expected from a breathing human woman, he even heard the stomach growl again and could not tell it was coming from a speaker.

“Do you feel hungry right now?” he asked, standing back up.

“Yes, actually,” she said, “after all, I haven’t eaten anything yet,” she said.

“I see,” he said, “I completely forgot about planning for dinner,” he said, sounding worried.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I thought you might have, so I called and ordered pizza,” she smiled.

“What?..How?...When?” he asked.

“While I was on the couch,” she said, “I have a phone in my brain that I can use to call out,” she explained.

“But I didn’t hear you talk or anything,” he said.

“I’m a computer now sweetie,” she smiled, “I can multitask,” she added.

“Oh,” he said, “That makes sense,”

“So, the pizza should be here any minute,” she said, “But there’s one thing I want to do before we eat,” she said with a smile.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“This,” she said, and she walked forwards, put her hands on both sides of his face and gave him a nice kiss that instantly erased any feelings he had against this robot that was now living Sabrina’s life.

Right on time, just as they broke apart, the doorbell rang.

“Well, time to eat,” she smiled, and she quickly ran to the door and took the pizza from the delivery man, while Greg, in a dazed state, walked into the kitchen to set the table.

Part 1.5: Relaxation

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Continued in The Replacement - Part 2

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