Skyler

Skyler

Like most kids, I had a fairly ordinary childhood. I had a stable family structure, a good education, and a safe environment to grow up in. The only thing that was missing from my life was a friend.

I was categorized in the nerd side of the social spectrum, and I had a few more personality quirks that essentially isolated myself from my peers.

After I graduated from high school with honors, I took a brief online apprenticeship to become a certified IT specialist, the benefit of which meant that I could essentially work from home and remotely assist people living in my relatively small town of less than 150,000 people.

Shortly after landing my dream job, I was already making tons of money just from my childhood bedroom, but I quickly found that all that money didn’t really equate to happiness. I soon had enough money to move out of my parents’ house, but I didn’t see the point.

One day, after having a stressful conversation with them about moving out, I took a walk in the wooded mountains just outside of town to clear my head.

As I walked around enjoying the clear air and the gorgeous scenery, I noticed a path that hadn’t been there before. I briefly remembered there had been a storm in the mountains the previous evening, and it appeared as though a boulder that had previously blocked this area had been washed away due to erosion.

Since I was trying to clear my head, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to take this new path that had opened up before me. As I started on the new path, I absently noticed a shimmer in the bushes, but it vanished before I could investigate.

It wasn’t very long walking on the new path that I realized I wasn’t alone. I stopped moving and listened for a bit before realizing it was footsteps, trudging towards me from around bend. Although I wasn’t really hoping to run into anyone up there, I somehow felt a calming presence and stood still until the person approached.

A short time late, a boy approximately my age walked around the bend. He was somewhat short for a guy, around 5’8, but he also had a stocky build that made him appear a bit muscly. He had a kind face that was buried beneath a constellation of freckles with two bright blue eyes barely peeking out from his long, wild brown hair.

Though he had a somewhat attractive appearance, he looked as though he’d seen better days. His clothes were a little ragged, his skin was dirty, and he had a hard look on his face. It took him a short time to notice I was standing there, but he eagerly approached me as soon as he did. As he got closer, I noticed he was also hauling a fairly large bag that appeared to have the whole of his possessions in it.

“Hey, you there!” he called out, speeding up and stopping a safe distance in front of me.

“Hey,” I replied with trepidation, “Are you alright?”

“I am now…I think,” the boy answered vaguely, “Are we near a town or city?”

“Yes, we’re in the hills just above the city of Moracia.”

“Wow, I’m in Oregon?” the boy said incredulously.

“Yeah, where are you from?”

At that question, the boy appeared uncomfortable. “I don’t really feel comfortable saying, but let’s just say it’s somewhere on the East coast.”

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me your life story if you don’t want to,” I assured him, “based on what you’ve likely been through, mine would probably upset you with how good it is.”

“If you’re life’s so good, how come you’re out here then?”

“Because money can’t buy friendship,” I answered wryly.

“That is true,” the boy answered, “You know what, you’re the first decent person I’ve come across since I left my home, so if it means anything to you, I consider you a friend.”

I had to pause when I heard the boy respond to me. I had a brief epiphany and realized maybe he was somehow the reason I came up here this day. Skyler seemed to understand the moment I was having, and he broke the silence and said, “My name’s Skyler.” He calmly stretched out his hand in friendship.

“My name’s Greg,” I answered, taking his hand and shaking it. As I shook his hand, I noticed a minor electrical tingle that passed almost as soon as it began.

From that moment on, we suddenly opened up to each other. We sat down on some rocks and recounted nearly our entire life stories. Apparently, Skyler grew up in an orphanage somewhere in New England and fled when people there became abusive. He’d made his way across the country by hitching rides, riding the rails, and just walking.

He was also fairly smart and was able to do some odd jobs along the way to accumulate a considerable amount of money. He’d finally decided to try and settle down in a town to begin his new life.

Before we knew it, it was starting to get dark and we felt like we’d known each other our entire lives.

“Hey Skyler, I was thinking…perhaps you and I could team up,” I suggested to him, hoping I wouldn’t scare him off.

“How so?” he asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Well, I make enough money to move out of my parents’ house,” I began, “I just didn’t want to live alone, which is part of the reason my parents and I had a fight this morning which led me to you,” I continued, trying to push past the emotion and nail my point, “Anyway, perhaps I can convince them to let you stay with me tonight, and perhaps a bit longer, if we can get you a job and then we pool our resources to rent a nice apartment. What do you say?”

Skyler had been following me the whole time, and he only took a few moments to truly consider my offer before saying, “Yes, I’d love to!”

“Great!” I shouted, doing a quick celebratory dance before getting serious again, “Now, I don’t think my parents will take to kindly to me shacking up with someone I just met, so I think, just for the first year or so while they get to know you a bit better, I’m going to lie and say that I’ve known you online for a few months already.”

Skyler looked a bit uncomfortable at that, but he nodded. “I don’t feel comfortable lying to people, but as long as we eventually tell the truth, I can go along with it.”

“Good, now let’s head down before it gets too dark.” I said, getting up from the log I’d been sitting on for half the day and helping him to his feet.

After that fateful day, Skyler and I were virtually inseparable. Within two weeks of meeting, Skyler landed a well-paying clerical job in the local courthouse, and with his $70K salary added to my $80K salary, we quickly moved out of my parents’ house and into newly built, fully modern 2-bed, 2.5-bath apartment.

Our time together was made even better by the fact that we shared similar interests, watched the same shows and movies, and truly understood one another. I felt as though I had not been complete in my life until Skyler walked into my life, and I could tell he had similar feelings.

That being said, we never attempted a sexual relationship, though I did feel some urges towards him. I was overall confused in that regard, since I also had attractions towards women that I encountered, but Skyler was the only male I was sexually interested in and I never got any vibes from him that he was interested in me in that way.

Despite my internal confusion, we were the best of friends, and before we knew it, three years had gone by and we were celebrating Skyler’s 21st birthday…just the two of us, by driving up to the area we first met at the crack of dawn.

“Wow, it’s been so long!” Skyler shouted in glee, eagerly running towards the small grove where we first met.

“It has indeed,” I agreed, taking in all the surroundings. Everything was just about as I remembered, though now that I’d had time to know Skyler, a question that had popped up in my mind before now resurfaced. “So, where did you come from before you came around that corner and saw me?

Skyler seemed a bit confused when I asked him, almost like an internal struggle was going on inside, but he finally said, “Well, I had a sort of campsite a bit down the way,” he shrugged.

“You think it might still be there?” I pressed, eager to see where Skyler was before I met.

“Well, let’s see,” Skyler suggested, leading me around the corner.

We walked a few minutes down the trail past the corner before we reached what could be described as a rudimentary campsite. The only thing that was odd was that it seemed almost staged, and was in a protected area that even wildlife would likely have ignored.

“Well, here it is,” Skyler announced, taking a quick look around before turning to me.

“Wow, I’m surprised it’s still intact after all these years,” I mused, looking around, “I mean, it’s a very good campsite.”

“I suppose that’s why I picked it,” Skyler shrugged, “You know, now that I’m back here, I feel a bit strange.”

“How so?”

“I dunno…like I don’t really remember how I got here,” he said, a strange look on his face. He started wandering over to an opening in some rocks that formed a small cave. Before he could enter though, some sort of electrical field activated and stopped him in his tracks.

“Skyler!” I shouted, rushing over to assist him. I saw some sort of device disguised as part of the rock, so I grabbed a large rock and smashed it until the field shut off. Skyler remained standing for several seconds after the field deactivated, still shaking from the effects of the electricity.

“Skyler, here, I got you,” I told him, as I saw him start to fall. I caught him gently in my arms and rested him down to the ground, looking into his eyes with a look filled with concern. I was shocked, however, to see no look of recognition in his eyes. “Sky, are you okay?”

Skyler briefly appeared to attempt to speak with me, before jerking around uncontrollably. “Error, critical damage detected in power systems,” he blurted out in a stilted voice.

“What?”

“Error, power systems compromised…error, power systems compromised…shutting down.” He continued, flopping around several more times before becoming lifeless in my arms.

After several seconds of silence, staring at Skyler with a look of shock, I finally let out an explosive breath. “Holy shit Sky, you’re an android!” I breathed. Skyler merely stared back at me with the blank, dead look on his face. “Man, I can’t stand you looking like this,” I shuddered, gently closing his eyes with my hands and settling his face into a resting expression, “Ah, that’s better,” I smiled.

Several seconds later, I gently laid Skyler down on the ground and then stared into the small cave. I could see a few boxes or crates packed away inside, though I wasn’t sure if the defense system would come back on. I grabbed a nearby rock and tossed it in to test if I had successfully damaged the field. When the rock sailed through unharmed, I tossed in a few sticks just to be sure before gingerly reaching my arm through.

“Alright Sky, lets see what was so important,” I said to myself, in order to mediate my stress. I walked over to the boxes, which happened to be on a wheeled cart, and opened the nearest one up. I recoiled slightly, seeing what looked like several duplicates of Skyler’s head, hands, and feet nestled inside. The other boxes appeared to contain spare parts, such as circuits, wires, and even what looked like musculature and skin.

I stared back and forth from the contents of the boxes, to Skyler, before closing them all up and taking stock of the situation. It was nearly noon now, and the car was quite a distance away. Skyler weighed nearly 160lbs, which was far more than I could comfortably carry, but the wheeled cart looked like it could handle the rough terrain.

Sighing, I managed to lift Skyler’s body up onto the cart, after repositioning the boxes, and then slowly dragged it out of the cave and towards the trail. As I walked down the trail with Skyler in tow, I desperately hoped that no one else chose to hike the trail and ask any questions.

After I carried Skyler’s body, and the supplies I found in the hidden cave, to my car, I calmed myself down and attempted to drive back to our apartment as though nothing were wrong…the last thing I needed was a cop pulling me over with an apparently dead person in the backseat.

As I pulled into the apartment complex, I was suddenly grateful that Skyler and I had splurged for one of the units with a private, attached garage unit. I quietly parked the car in the garage and then began the process of moving both Skyler and the boxes into my work area.

My work area was not much more than a corner of the apartments common area, since both our bedrooms were not large enough to fit both a work area, and a bed and furnishings. Skyler often complained that we needed a bigger place, but I said we needed to earn a bit more.

I shook all those thoughts out of my mind, for the moment, since the most pressing thing at the moment was fixing my best friend, who apparently was not only a highly-advanced android, but a sleeper android completely unaware of his true nature.

Though I was mostly an IT guy, I was also skilled in fixing hardware related issues too, so I quickly sent out a search spider to bring up any and all information on how to open up an android of Skyler’s apparent complexity, and then on how to repair them.

While the spider did its work, I dragged the couch over and gently sat Skyler down and then began to undress him. As I took off Skyler’s clothing, the sexual urges surged to the surface, but my professionalism and respect for Skyler’s body quickly took charge. I decided to leave just his boxers on, in order to respect what little privacy he’d likely have left once I managed to fix him.

Though Skyler had suffered a massive electric shock from some sort of automated defense system, he appeared to have suffered no external damage. There was a small burn mark on the areas the electricity hit him, but aside from that he looked fine…as a matter of fact, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he malfunctioned and then shut down in front of me, I would even be able to tell he was a machine; he looked so real.

Before I could be tempted to feel his body, however, the spider finished its work and gave me an audible alert. I regretfully turned from Skyler’s body and perused the dozens of pertinent documents that had downloaded onto my computers regarding repairing androids of Skyler’s complexity.

After reviewing several different android models, I determined that most had the same way of opening the primary access panel, in order to maintain an industry standard. Now that I was fairly certain how to open Skyler up, I turned back to his body and paused to admire the realism. His chest had small patches of hair surrounding both nipples, and he had a well-toned abdomen with a hint of a six pack.

I quickly shook my head to bring back my focus and dug my index finger into Skyler’s navel. Though this was a fairly clichéd trope with opening android’s access panels in old works of fiction, Skyler’s model was more involved. I pressed and twisted my finger in his otherwise realistic abdomen, and once I’d twisted it 90 degrees, I removed my finger and then twisted both of his nipples in the opposite direction.

The effect was instantaneous. I heard an audible click and then an oval shaped seam running from just above his chest to just above his waist appeared. Then, the section of his body rose a few centimeters to allow for easier removal.

“Whoa!” was all I could say. I slowly and carefully grabbed the ovular panel and removed it, marveling at how real the skin on the outside still felt and looked, and also at the dazzling array of technology that lay beneath.

It appeared that there was a thin layer of synthetic muscle attached to the underside of the skin panel, so what lay beneath was a very robotic looking skeletal structure with false ribs to give the outward appearance that he had a rib cage. There appeared to be another panel underneath the skin panel, so I gently placed the panel with the skin facing down on the floor and placed a sheet over it to protect the muscles from dust, and then I pressed what looked like an open/close button on Skyler’s robotic innards.

This caused another panel to lower, then split in two and open up. Inside this one was what appeared to be literally everything that allowed Skyler’s body to work, though at the moment all the systems were dark and offline.

Near the top was what appeared to be a pump that acted as a heart, with what looked like a red colored fluid through clear tubes. There also appeared to be twin balloons that acted as his lungs, though instead of sending air to his body and heart, they appeared to be attached to an intricate looking computer device I assumed was his primary CPU and control center. Below all that was his stomach, digestive systems, and power systems. Finally, on the bottom appeared to be the systems that controlled his penis.

“Wow Skyler, you’re amazing.” I said to myself, staring longingly into his sleeping face and then back into his open body. It didn’t take me too long to discover several of the circuits inside his torso appeared to be burnt out…likely from the electric shock.

After closely examining the affected circuits, I suddenly remembered that the boxes I’d discovered in the cave appeared to have similar circuits…most likely meant to be replacements in the event something exactly like this occurred.

Smiling at the fortune of not having to go out and find compatible circuits, I quickly dug through the boxes and found exact copies of the damaged circuits, finding several replacement hands and feet in the process.

Before I initiated repairs, I put on my pair of non-static gloves and then one by one began the process of removing each of the damaged circuits, mapping where each one went, and then pairing the damaged ones with the replacements so I could make sure the correct circuits were installed in the correct slots.

Before long, I had replaced all the damaged circuits and noticed no other apparent signs of damage, so I leaned in and got a closer look at the computer in his chest. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it had several open data ports designed for universal cables, so I took one of my wireless USB connectors and plugged it in so I could have remote access to all his systems anywhere and anytime.

Unfortunately, due to his body being offline, my computers had nothing to interface with, so I swapped my non-static gloves with rubber insulated ones and then carefully pressed a button with the universal power symbol located on his power systems.

Instantly, all the components in Skyler’s body sprung to life with a series of mechanical whirs, beeps, and hums. Skyler’s eyes also quickly popped open, but although they were open and he was breathing, there appeared to be no signs of Skyler in his blank gaze; he didn’t even move or say anything.

“Skyler?” I said in a weak voice, not sure if he was awake. He didn’t respond. “Huh, I guess you aren’t quite fixed yet,” I shrugged, shaking my head, “Oh well, I suppose I was kidding myself if I thought it would be that easy.”

One of the things that usually irritated Skylar was my habit of speaking to the computers or systems that I was working on…usually when he was trying to watch TV or read a book. I laughed at that thought this time, because this time HE was the computer I was working on, and he was also my best friend.

Despite Skyler not quite being himself, with his body powered on my computers were now able to connect to his systems. Upon Skyler’s body detecting the wireless connection, it quickly began installing the interface software on my computer terminal and before long, a new program popped up on my computer that appeared to give me complete access and control to his body.

“Okay, let’s start with a diagnostic,” I said aloud, quickly spotting the diagnostic submenu. Due to the amount of damage, and the fact that the new circuits were untested, I decided to run a full diagnostic with self-repair protocols activated. Once I started it, the components in his body began humming a bit louder and a timer counting down from 15-minutes.

“Well, I suppose I’ll get a closer look at your body while you fix yourself,” I said, uncaring about his oblivious state.

I started with his feet, which were smaller than average for men; size eight. The first thing I noticed that clearly gave evidence to his artificial nature was that, despite exerting himself by hiking for nearly an hour, and his feet still being a bit moist from the perspiration, there was no odor. I took a brave lick of the balls of his feet and discovered that his sweat was basically a saline mix. In addition to the lack of odor, his toenails were perfectly colored and well kempt. Moving up his body, I gently felt the long hairs on his legs and the muscle structure beneath. One of the things I’d always wanted Skyler to do was to go hairless, but it would be embarrassing to ask him unless we were more intimate; I myself kept my body hairs trimmed.

I skipped his waist and private area for the same reasons I left his boxers on, and instead allowed my fingers to trace the edges of his panel, feeling the metal of his skeleton and the fleshy skin layer.

I moved to his arms, gently feeling the thinner hairs that I also wished he’d remove, as well as the hairs in his armpits I also didn’t care for. Just as with his feet, his armpits betrayed his nature with their complete lack of human body odor, instead smelling somewhat musty. His hands felt soft, and the fingerprints on each finger looked just as real as the rest of him. His fingernails were also similarly perfect looking to his toenails, except they showed a few signs of wear and tear since he used his hands a lot.

Finally, I moved up to his head and stared deeply into his blank eyes. Both blue orbs were staring blankly upwards, completely oblivious to my presence. That being said, everything I saw in his face brought warm feelings to my heart because despite the fact he was a machine and dead to the world, he was my friend and I was beginning to feel that I actually loved him.

“Don’t worry Sky,” I told him with tears forming in my eyes, “I’ll fix you and then we can resume our party.” I then planted a friendly kiss on his cheek and turned back to my computer to monitor the results of the diagnostic, knowing full well things would never be back to normal after today.

Upon completion of the diagnostic, it reported it had repaired numerous errors and that it had successfully integrated the replacement components with the rest of his systems.

“Okay then, let’s see if I can get you back online,” I said with a smile, seeing that I’d apparently fixed his body. I quickly perused through the interface program for his A.I. systems, though it did not take long to realize that his A.I. was not contained in the chest computer.

I was a little disappointed that I still couldn’t get Skyler’s mind back online, but I still had all the manuals and schematics the search spider had found, though this time I had the benefit of knowing Skyler’s exact model so I could refine my search.

“Alright Sky, let’s see how you Spaztec models work,” I said, ignoring the other documents and bringing up all files about his model. “Huh, that’s interesting,” I said to myself. It appeared Skyler’s model android used a revolutionary process that split the major functions, A.I. and body functions, into two separate processing centers: the A.I. was contained in the head, while the torso contained a separate unit that just processes motor controls and autonomic functions.

The schematics showed me how to open Skyler’s head, but it also showed a way to access a port behind his ears. I grabbed another wireless link, as well as a small screwdriver, and brought them up to Skyler’s right ear. I moved his long hair and ear out of the way and pressed the screwdriver into a small freckle. This caused a small section of skin to open up, revealing a USB port.

I quickly inserted the wireless link and then watched as Skyler’s head computer began installing a separate interface program on my computer. Once it installed, I placed it on the monitor adjacent to the body interface program and then got the lay of the land.

The first thing that caught my attention was the status bar, which was currently telling me that Skyler’s A.I. was offline. Though this was obvious, it did go into detail saying a system error occurred and a diagnostic needed to be manually initiated before he could come back online. Before I did anything else, I quickly began the manual diagnostic. This instantly caused the other areas of the A.I. monitor to light up with activity as the diagnostic tested the complex systems contained within Skyler’s head computer. Another small window opened up displaying the current progress, as well as a growing list of faults and errors it detected.

“Wow, you’re a complex machine Sky,” I muttered, looking back and forth from his blank face to the diagnostic screen.

After what seemed like forever, but was actually about 15 minutes, the diagnostic finally finished and gave a summary of the errors it had detected, as well as options for fixing them. Most of the errors seemed likely to be caused by the electric surge to his systems, based on the diagnostic reads, but there was a large number of errors which appeared to go deeper…and were tied to his sleeper programming.

“Well Sky, I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in fixing you, but I’m going to have your systems fix as many of these errors as it can so I can talk to you again,” I told him, then I clicked the fix icon and watched as his internal diagnostic program began attempting to fix the thousands of errors.

Fortunately, Skyler’s A.I. was very proficient at fixing the errors, since many of them were minor. Unfortunately, once the repair process concluded, there were still around a hundred or two errors it wasn’t able to fix…apparently because there might be a hardware fault, and because he needed a system update. That being said, with the conclusion of the diagnostic, I now had more access to his head computer, and I was able to quickly pull some basic system info.

“Wow, no wonder you have a number of issues…you’ve never had a diagnostic run before,” I said surprisingly, since despite Skyler having been running continuously for three years, he behaved flawlessly human that entire time. Given the fact that I was now able to control his various systems, I decided to take a risk and reactivate his A.I. so I could talk to him. It did not take long to find the menu to do so, and, after a moment’s hesitation, I clicked the icon to resume his A.I.

As soon as I clicked the icon, his activity window immediately sprung to life with bits of computer code and then displayed more readable startup stats as his software initialized. Finally, his face closed its eyes and then blinked them open a few times.

“Sky, are you awake?” I asked him, absently noting the activity window registering a familiar voice.

Skyler’s eyes slowly focused on mine and then he smiled before suddenly shouting, “Whoa, how’d I get back here? What’s going on? Why can’t I move?”

“Hey, calm down!” I told him, grabbing his cheeks and staring into his eyes, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

The activity window on my computer lit up with activity at this question as Skyler attempted to recall the events leading to his shutdown. “The last thing I remember is a flash of light and then everything went sort of fuzzy…” Skyler recalled, “then I seemed to act sort of funny before everything went black.”

“Well, you were hit by some sort of electric surge, and it would seem you’re an android,” I told him quickly, hoping it might soften the blow, “and based on your reaction, you were programmed to not be aware of it.”

At that, Skyler seemed to freeze as he attempted to process what I just told him. “Greg, are you sure?”

“Yeah Sky, look,” I told him, gently lifting his head so he could see his torso with the large panel removed.

“Whoa!” Skyler shouted, seeing all the intricate mechanisms within his body. For whatever reason, Skyler appeared to be paralyzed from the neck down, but all that counted was that his A.I. appeared fully functional again.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself,” I admitted, gently laying his head back down, “I’ve spent the past hour or so fixing the damage to your body, and have only just now managed to get you back online,” I reported, “Are you scared?”

Skyler took a while to answer this one, since he was basically coming to terms with the fact that he was a highly advanced and realistic android, before smiling, “You know what, I’m not.”

I was surprised to hear his answer, to say the least. “You aren’t?”

“No,” Skyler said with a huge grin, “My whole life I’ve felt aimless and different, and now I finally know why…and you know what, I think it’s kinda cool! I’m a robot!” he laughed.

I couldn’t help but laugh with him…leave it to Skyler to always find a silver lining. “Oh, by the way, you’ve only been ‘alive’ for three years.”

“Wow,” Skyler mused, “I guess I’m a bit too young to drink tonight then,” he joked.

“I won’t tell anyone if you won’t,” I winked, “So anyway, I’m not exactly an android repairman, so I’m not completely sure how well I fixed you,” I told him, “Do you feel any different?”

“I don’t think so,” Skyler said with an unsure look on his face, “It’s just weird that I can’t move my body at all,” he complained.

“Huh, can you still feel it?” I asked, running my fingers along the right side of his body.

“Yeah, I just can’t move it.”

“Well, I ran a diagnostic on your A.I. and it wasn’t able to fix quite everything,” I admitted, “Perhaps it’s your sleeper programming malfunctioning.”

“I wouldn’t know, but you’ve fixed me this much, so I trust you to continue,” Skyler assured me.

“Good, and I hope you don’t mind I had to undress you,” I said, fighting a blush.

“No, I don’t mind…though it’s weird you left my boxers on,” Skyler said.

“Well, I wanted to respect your privacy,” I defended, blushing even more.

“Greg,” Skyler suddenly asked, “Do you like me?”

I was taken aback by the sudden question, but I figured Skyler had been wanting to ask me that for weeks, but he’d stopped himself each time. “Yeah, I do,” I admitted, “I suppose I’ve liked you since the day we met…I’ve just been a little embarrassed about it because I’m not really gay…but, I think I’m just gay for you.”

“I thought so,” Skyler nodded, “I appreciate your liking me because it obviously allows you to see me as a bit more than just an android, I suppose.”

“Do you like me?”

“I think so,” Skyler answered with a quizzical expression on his face, “I am attracted to women, but I also find myself attracted a bit to you as well, but part of me can’t seem to process it, so I suppose that’s why I’ve never said anything about it,” Skyler admitted, “Hey, do you think it could be due to a bug in my programming or something?”

“It’s possible,” I admitted, “as a matter of fact, it would make sense if you were programmed to be heterosexual, but to also have your own free will…I could take a look and alter your programming, if it’s alright with you.”

“I’m glad that you like me enough to ask for my permission, but these past few minutes I’ve been thinking and I’m not sure if I’m malfunctioning or not,” Skyler said, meanwhile his activity window was spiking with activity and his CPU was nearly maxing out, “But the way I see it, you’re human and I’m machine…I can be reprogrammed and you cannot…in my whole life, you’ve been the only one whose been kind to me, and I suppose my previous memories were all fabricated, but I suppose that first day I imprinted on you or something, and I’ve come to the realization that you’re the only person in this world I can truly trust, so I trust you with any decision you might want to make about me,” Skyler said, seeming to zone out as he gave his speech.

As soon as he finished speaking, the activity window suddenly showed that Skyler’s A.I. was registering myself as his owner and master. “Whoa Skyler, what did you do?” I asked, quickly searching through the displays and seeing he’d somehow made me a master user.

“I don’t know,” Skyler admitted, seeming to return to normal, “But whatever I did, it feels right.”

“Well, it looks like you registered me as your owner and master,” I told him, returning to the main display page.

“I did?” Skyler asked, “I don’t recall doing so…but it seems right,” he said, repeating his earlier comment, “I just wish I knew why…”

“I think I do,” I told him, remembering something I’d read on some message boards, “It’s said that the sentient androids such as yourselves know that living on your own isn’t a viable option, since you could break down and be reprogrammed by a malicious individual at any time,” I explained, “So, since you already know you can trust me, the deep logic programming in your A.I. must have registered me as your master because you know I like you and that I wouldn’t misuse you in any way.”

Skyler paused to think on that a while before nodding, “Huh, that makes sense.”

“Well, I’m honored you made me your master, but I don’t think I’m likely to alter your programming much at all…I like you just the way you are,” I assured him, affectionately patting his shoulder.

“Thank you, Greg, I appreciate it,” Skyler smiled, “Anyway, are you going to try and fix me so I can move now?”

“Well, I’ll try,” I said dubiously, “I think I’m going to start by running a software update on you,” I explained, going to the proper menu and starting a search for new software.

“Sounds like a plan,” Skyler said, knowing how much I enjoyed working on computers, “You don’t think a system update will change me too much, right?”

“I’m not sure, but a computer as complex as you should receive regular updates, and unless you’ve somehow been updating yourself in your sleep in the last three years, you’re likely to be very out of date,” I laughed, and just then, the search finished and displayed a massive list of updates. “Ah, looks like you have never received an update before, as I thought.”

“Well, I trust you implicitly,” Skyler repeated, “You may install them.”

“Will do,” I said, beginning the update procedure. “It looks like they need a few moments to download first, so we have some time to talk before they shut you down.”

“Goodie,” Skyler said, “So, when those are done, what are you going to do to me next?”

“Well, I’m going to try and alter your sexuality programming so you’re capable of loving me, and then I’m going to try and deactivate the remaining sleeper programming still bogging your systems down.”

“I’m already aware of my true nature, what could the sleeper programming possibly still be doing?” Skyler asked with a confused look on his face.

“I’m not completely sure yet, because I’m no expert, but for one thing you should have access to a HUD and your systems.”

“Ah, that would be helpful.”

“Indeed,” I agreed, “Aside from that, it’s creating bugs that can adversely affect the rest of your systems, so it’s best that it just be deactivated permanently.”

“Well then, I can’t wait until it’s offline,” Skyler said, and just as he did, my computer beeped to signal the completion of the downloads.

“Alright Sky, I’m going to start the installation process now,” I warned him, getting ready to press the icon, “Is there anything you’d like to say before you go under?”

“Yeah, I really do like you Greg, and I’m looking forward to liking you more once I’m back,” Skyler said, “Oh, and you can feel free to remove my boxers while you’re waiting…I don’t mind,” he winked.

“Will do,” I winked back, “Alrighty, here goes,” and I clicked the icon and watched as Skyler’s face went blank once again and the display window showed his A.I. was installing the multitude of updates. A countdown timer indicated it would take approximately 15 minutes, so decided to take this opportunity to remove Skyler’s boxers.

Once I was sure the computer did not require my immediate attention, I got up from my chair and stood over Skyler’s waist. I carefully grabbed hold of both sides of his boxers and slid them down until I was able to pull them free from his bare feet. I quickly gave his boxers a whiff and detected even more artificiality in that there was no BO smell, nor the smell of ammonia or waste.

Once I set his boxers down with the rest of his clothes, I calmly composed myself as I leaned in to exam Skyler’s penis. Normally seeing a penis would turn me off, but I suppose I was gay just for Skyler, and I suppose I found his appealing due to it being artificial. Despite his lengthy pubic hair, his penis seemed to be in a perpetual state where instead of being shriveled up, it was elongated, but not hard. Even though I knew he had one these past three years, the knowledge he was an android made me admire it even more, because whoever built him obviously made it look as real as possible. I found myself fondling his penis and balls with my right hand, gently squeezing and feeling the movement of them in my fingers.

I again noticed that there was no odor, and I finally realized I appreciated this because I was a bit of a germaphobe. I also realized that this was perhaps why I was attracted to Skyler…because over the past three years, I’d unconsciously noticed he had no body odor and was always clean. Before I knew it, my computer beeped again to notify me that Skyler had completed installing the updates and was currently rebooting to finalize them. I quickly let go of his penis and waited over his head. A few moments later, his eyes finally fluttered open and his face once again appeared lively.

“Hey Sky, do you feel any different?” I asked, eagerly hoping he hadn’t been altered too much.

“Well, aside from the fact I still can’t move my body, I feel great…as a matter of fact, my head seems a bit clearer.”

“That’s good, many of the updates mostly improved efficiency, added new features, and fixed bugs, so I’m not surprised you can think a bit more clearly,” I told him, “As for not being able to move, I think I may know why.”

I then turned back to my computer and delved into Skyler’s sleeper programming. Though there was an option to turn all of it off at once, I felt it would be safer to slowly deactivate each individual section one at a time. I finally found what I was looking for in the safety submenu and toggled off one of the settings before turning to look at Skyler.

As soon as I toggled off the setting, Skyler’s whole body shuddered and then he began gingerly wiggling his toes and fingers. “Wow, you fixed me, thanks!” Skyler smiled, carefully sitting up and swinging his legs over to sit down facing me, “What was wrong with me?”

“One of your sleeper settings prevented you from moving when your primary access panel is opened…I disabled it,” I explained.

“Wow, a simple solution…gee! My body sure is noisy,” he suddenly said, hearing whirring sounds coming from his chest every time he moved a little.

“Yeah, but you’re also amazing.”

“Thanks!” Skyler beamed, “Hey, why can’t I touch myself?” he asked, making several failed attempts to reach his hands inside his open torso panel; it appeared as though he were hitting an invisible barrier.

“That’s most likely a safeguard setting to prevent you from accidentally damaging yourself,” I assured him, “Though I could disable it for you, if you like.”

“No,” Skyler said after thinking on it, “best to play it safe…I’ll trust you with my delicate innards,” he laughed.

“Sounds good,” I laughed with him.

Skyler then attempted to ruffle his hair, but he immediately stopped when he felt the remote link behind his right ear. “Whoa, what’s this?” he asked, gingerly feeling it.

“Oh, be careful with that,” I warned him, “That’s a remote link I attached to you so I could run diagnostics and stuff. There’s another one plugged in inside your chest.”

“Oh, then I’ll definitely leave it alone,” Skyler said solemnly, taking his hands away, “Though, I hope you can find another place to put it…it’s not very fashionable,” Skyler joked.

“I’m sure I can plug it in somewhere else, but for now it’s fine where it’s at.”

“Fair enough,” Skyler conceded, “So, just how much control do you have over me with those things plugged in?”

“To be honest, I haven’t really tested it yet,” I admitted, “My primary goal was to get you back up and running, but now that you are, I could play around with you a bit if you like.”

“Sure, as I said, I really don’t mind,” Skyler reassured me.

“Good,” I smiled, “Well I think I’m going to get started first on fixing the glitch preventing you from liking me,” I told him, quickly perusing his A.I. settings program for the sexuality preferences.

Skyler perked up when he heard that. “Ooh, I hope you’re successful.”

“Me too,” I absently said, “Ah, I think I found the right menu…hold on,” I told him, looking at all the settings. Skyler merely nodded and then patiently waited as I worked on the problem.

It didn’t take too long to find the problem. Apparently, Skyler was sent into the world with heterosexual programming, but fortunately there was a drop-down menu to toggle his sexuality to either homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, or custom.

I decided to switch him to custom, and doing so immediately caused a new page with a surprising number of settings and configurations to appear. The first thing I did was to keep him heterosexual, but also make him homosexual just for me. After that, it gave me the option of adjusting my status in his programming as either: boyfriend, husband, friends with benefits, or merely friend.

“Hey Sky, want to be my boyfriend?” I asked aloud, interested in his opinion.

“Of course!”

“Thanks! Just needed to know for your programming,” I told him, clicking on the boyfriend setting.

Changing this setting immediately auto filled several dozen other settings below with pre-configured settings, but also gave me the option of further customizing them. After perusing them, I decided the default settings for boyfriend were sufficient for our needs, so I moved on.

“Greg,” Skyler suddenly said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I don’t feel any different yet…”

“That’s because I haven’t actually saved the new settings yet,” I assured him, “There are hundreds of settings that can be changed, so once I’m done and save them, you’re going to have to do a soft reboot before they take effect.”

“Oh, that makes sense I suppose,” he nodded, “Sorry for interrupting.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled, “I’ll be done soon.”

I was actually nearly finished reconfiguring his sexuality concerning just me, since he had his own preferences for women. All I needed to do was to add my own personal preferences so he could better anticipate my needs. This area included fetishes, personal quirks, and interests. I quickly added my foot fetish into the fetish category, and my preference that he have minimal body hair. Finally, I added my interest of computers, idly wondering how he’d interpret that since he himself was one.

After I plugged in all the other minor preferences of mine, such as favorite shows, color, and foods, I saved the settings and prepared to reboot him, though before I did, I went back to the sleeper menu and deactivated a few dozen minor settings.

“Alright Sky, I’ve reconfigured your sexuality preferences, and deactivated a few more sleeper settings, so I’m ready to reboot you now.”

“Okay, see you soon,” he said, giving me a quick thumbs up before I started the reboot.

Since it was a soft reboot, Skyler’s A.I. shut down, but his body remained online. The resulting effect was his eyes glazed over and his face went slack, but otherwise everything was still powered on. I monitored the flurry of activity on his activity monitor before he suddenly blinked his eyes and reactivated his A.I.

Even though his A.I. was back on, it took him a moment to compose himself as he suddenly parsed his new settings into his programming. Then, he came out of his reverie and smiled. “Wow, I feel amazing!” he said, a blush slowly coming to his face as he stared into my eyes.

“How so?” I asked, slowly feeling butterflies in my stomach.

“I’ve been with you for three years now, but all of a sudden I have feelings for you,” he said, trying to put his experience into words, “I’ve only been able to imagine how liking you would feel, but now I don’t have to…you fixed me!” Skyler then suddenly leaned forward and planted a loving kiss on my lips, one I immediately returned.

When we broke apart a few moments later, we stared into each other’s eyes with blushes coming to our faces. We’d waited a long time to be able to have such an intimate relationship, and now we could. After we recovered from the after effects of the kiss, Skyler suddenly got a confused look on his face.

“What is it Sky?” I asked, affectionately petting his nearby legs.

“I seem to suddenly have more knowledge about you,” he said, trying to come up with the right words, “Do you like feet?”

Skyler questions immediately caused my face to go red. “Oh yes, in addition to altering your sexual orientation, I was also able to add my own personal fetishes and likes as well,” I confessed.

“Ah, I see,” Skyler nodded, “Did you want to see my feet?”

“Well, to be honest, I already felt them up when you were still offline,” I admitted, my face growing red again, “They’re pretty nice.”

“Thanks,” Skyler said bashfully, “I just hope they weren’t too stinky.”

“Actually, you don’t have BO.”

“What are you talking about!? I’ve smelled myself before and it’s smelled bad.”

“Well, it would seem that was your sleeper programming fooling you,” I told him, “Trust me, I actually licked your foot, and your sweat is nothing more than a saline solution designed to keep your skin moisturized and to maintain a stable body temperature.”

“Huh, I suppose that’s kinda cool,” Skyler said aloud, “Hey, do you suppose I don’t even need to take showers anymore?”

“Well, just because your skin doesn’t stink doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get dirty,” I responded, “And you could still carry germs that could infect me or others.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Skyler agreed, “I suppose this whole me being an android and all artificial and stuff is going to take a bit of getting used to.” Skyler then sniffed his own armpits. “Now that you mention it, I don’t smell my own BO anymore…”

“Yeah, that’s likely one of the sleeper settings I deactivated before your soft reboot.”

“Huh,” Skyler shrugged, then he stopped and put on a thinking expression as he looked down at his legs. “I’m also getting the impression you’d prefer me to have less body hair,” he then said with a confused look, “Am I processing that correctly?”

“Yes,” I said with a hint of my blush returning, “I think the only hair people should have is on their heads.”

“Ah, well considering I’m an android, I suppose I don’t really need any body hair,” Skyler mused, “And if it would make you happier, then I’d be happy to go and shave it all off.”

“Wow! It really would!” I said, nearly bursting with joy, though just as Skyler was getting up, my eyes looked at my computer at body options and I stopped him.

“What? I thought you wanted me to shave?” Skyler asked, looking suddenly worried, “Am I malfunctioning?”

“No Sky,” I assured him, “It’s just I realized I might be able to alter your hair growth and stuff from my computer’s link to your bodies systems,” I explained, quickly perusing his body settings before finding the correct submenu labeled “hair”. A few seconds of looking at the various sub settings quickly confirmed my suspicions. “Aha, I was right!”

Skyler looked visibly relieved when I told him this. “That’s good, shaving all this might have taken a while,” he laughed, gesturing at his hairy arms and legs, “Not to mention given me some cuts.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “Just hang on a sec while I check the options.

Skyler merely nodded in agreement and sat back down patiently. I looked back at the computer monitor at the various settings I could manipulate just for Skyler’s hair, and I was pretty impressed to say the least, but considering the multitude of sexual options, I wasn’t too surprised; Skyler was a very complex machine!

According to the tab, I could change Skyler’s hair color, length, rate of growth, and even stop the growth altogether. It showed an overlay of his entire body and where there was currently hair and its associated rate of growth and thickness. I found that by clicking on each area, I could even toggle an option to remove and stop hair growth entirely. As a test, I decided to try just his hands.

“Alright Sky, I think I can program your body to shed all the hair, but I’m going to try it just on your hands to see if it will work like I think it does.”

Skyler gave me a quick nod and then I tapped the ‘apply’ button on the hair tab. “Ouch,” Skyler said, quickly wincing as all the hair on his hands suddenly fell off.

“Sorry,” I apologized, genuinely concerned for his wellbeing, “I didn’t think it would hurt.”

“It’s okay, it didn’t really hurt all that much, I just wasn’t expecting to feel anything is all,” he assured me.

“Ah, well let’s see your hands.”

Skyler nodded and obediently held out both his hands for me to inspect. It did not take me long to confirm that there was no longer a single hair on his entire hand. “Did it work?” Skyler asked nervously.

“Yes!” I told him, gently feeling both hands, “As a matter of fact, your hands feel smoother now than if you had actually shaved them…I guess your body literally pushed the entire hair follicles out completely, leaving nothing but smooth skin.”

“Cool,” Skyler said, “and if you do that to my entire body, I guess I won’t need to shave anymore,” he laughed.

“Not at all!” I agreed, “I’m going to do the rest of you…just below your ears, alright?”

Skyler nodded and then braced himself for the pain as I selected his entire body below his ears. As soon as I clicked apply, Skyler winced silently as a cascade of hair suddenly fell from every inch of his body, leaving nothing but smooth skin behind. I found myself holding my breath as I looked upon his now perfect, hairless, muscular body.

“Hey, breathe Greg,” Skyler laughed, smacking my chest playfully as he gingerly felt his now smooth skin and brushed off hairs that hadn’t quite fallen off yet.

“Sorry Sky, it’s just underneath all that hair, your body is perfect,” I said with a blush.

“Did you want to feel me up now?” Skyler asked, doing a quick 360 on his toes and flaunting his body.

For several moments, I was tempted, but I stopped myself when I looked into Skyler’s still open torso, sighing regretfully. “No, I want to wait until I’ve done some more work on your body, particularly with all those sleeper settings.”

“Good point,” Skyler nodded, sitting back down, “So, just what do all these sleeper settings even do?”

“Well, most of them alter your perception of the world around you, so that you won’t be aware of any of your artificial traits,” I explained, “There are even some preventing you from accessing your own systems.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most androids have access to their internal systems via a HUD that is constantly displayed over their visual screen,” I explained, then stopped. “Perhaps it would be easier to just show you…I’m going to go ahead and deactivate all remaining sleeper settings.”

“Go for it!” Skyler said, not even waiting for me to ask his permission.

“Very well,” I said, opening up the sleeper menu once more. This time, instead of manually shutting off each sub-setting, I turned off the entire tab, shutting off all the sleeper protocols at once.

Doing so caused Skyler to perform another soft reboot, but he came back online in relatively short order. I noticed as he came back online this time, his CPU activity wasn’t as high as the previous times, since it wasn’t working as hard to fool his perceptions; It was also reducing his overall power consumption.

“Wow, this is…interesting,” Skyler said, once all his systems were booted. He was staring at his hands and surroundings as though it was his first-time seeing things.

“How so?” I asked, curious as to his experience.

“I’ve got a HUD now,” Skyler responded, “and it’s like showing me details on everything I’m looking at, such as what temperature they are, how far away they are, and even what they are.”

“Cool,” I said, “Hang on, I think I may be able to see what you see.”

I quickly scrolled through his head settings and brought up the window for his visual systems. Amongst several other settings, the main feature was a window displaying what Skyler was currently seeing with his eyes. In addition to the image of myself and my computer, which he was currently looking at, I could also see the HUD he had described, outlining his visual display. I noticed that anytime I was in his display, a small circle appeared around my face, giving him detailed information about me.

“Cool, right?” Skyler asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “have you tried accessing your settings?”

“No, not yet,” Skyler admitted, though as soon as I mentioned it, he activated the settings icon and quickly perused all the settings he had access to. “Wow! Looks like I can control various aspects of my body, and even modify some of my settings,” he reported, quickly reviewing each submenu, “And it looks like I can even shut myself off,” he added, and then, before I could stop him, he activated the shutoff sequence. “Nap tiiiiiimmmmmmeeeee,” Skyler said with a smile, the last bit coming out as a low pitch whine as the systems in his body all powered off. After several seconds, Skyler was completely offline, his body once again silent.

Despite my initial shock, I couldn’t help but smile at Skyler. I couldn’t be sure I would act this chill if I discovered I was an android, and here was Skyler shutting himself off just for laughs. I admired Skyler’s sleeping body for a few more seconds before once more reaching inside his open chest and powering him back up.

Because Skyler was shut off this time rather than rebooting, it took a few extra seconds for him to turn back on, but once his systems were all back online, he smiled at me and said, “Wow, you really know how to turn me on.”

“Ha Ha,” I said mockingly, “How was your nap?”

“Well, despite only being offline for a minute or so, I feel pretty refreshed,” he smiled, “I think I could get used to this whole HUD thingy I have now,” he continued, seeming to zone out as he perused the HUD menus; I could still see everything he saw on my computer.

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting acquainted with your own systems,” I told him, “Since I won’t be with you to fix every little issue that pops up.”

“Yeah, I just wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t gotten broken today,” he mused, “I wonder if my systems would have degraded or something until I had a catastrophic malfunction or something.”

“Most likely,” I agreed, “Which reminds me…I still need to try and access the stuff in your head, but just to be safe, I want to remove your head.”

“Why do you need to remove my head?” Skyler asked, looking a little concerned.

“Well, for one thing it’ll be easier for me to access your head if I have it on my desk as opposed to your neck,” I told him, “And, I’d rather not tinker around in there while there is power running through it.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Skyler nodded, “Kinda like when I have to remove the battery on my laptop before opening it up.”

“Exactly,” I nodded, “I figure your head should have enough of a charge to stay online for a few minutes or so after being removed, and that way it can deplete enough power to not electrocute me and to not damage your systems.”

“Well, you’re the expert on computers, not me,” Skyler shrugged.

“Now, I just need to figure out how to remove your head,” I said, looking back at my computer for his removal settings.

“No need Greg, when I was checking my HUD menus earlier, I found a submenu that I can use to detach the parts of my body that are detachable: arms, hands, legs, feet, and head,” Skyler supplied, “I can do it myself, if it’s okay.”

“Well, I will need to know how to do it manually at some point, but for now I have no problem,” I told him, “Just make sure you are sitting in a stable position,” I warned him, “because I’m not certain you’ll be able to control the rest of your body once you detach your head…what with your brain computer not connected to the torso computer.”

“I see,” Skyler said, positioning himself on the couch in a more stable position, “alright, here goes,” he then said, then his face went blank as he initiated the head separation program. I could immediately hear rapid whirring sounds from within his neck and then a seam quickly appeared around the entire neck just below his Adam’s Apple.

As quickly as it had begun, it was suddenly over and Skyler’s body just sat motionless with its head still resting upon its shoulders.

“Well Sky, do you still have control of your body?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“No,” he responded, his face looking confused, “It’s weird, my head can still detect my body’s systems, since I haven’t been removed all the way, but the only things I can do right now are either move my head or start the reattachment program.”

“I thought so,” I nodded, “then there’s nothing left to do but pick you up,” I told him, calmly leaning forward and grabbing hold of his head from below his chin and lifting it up off his neck. I was briefly startled when a loud hiss of air emerged from his now open neck, but I managed to not drop Skyler’s head. Once I had him safely over my lap, I carefully sat down with him resting up in my lap. “Alright, now that you’re safely off your body, how are you holding up?” I asked him, “How much time do you have before your head runs out of power?”

“I’m doing surprisingly well, considering,” Skyler smiled, “and according to my HUD, my head has about 5-minutes before it runs out of power.”

“That should be plenty of time,” I nodded, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have my head removed,” I admitted, “What’s it like?”

“Relaxing,” Skyler admitted, “I don’t have to breathe, and I’m not distracted by the various sensations from the rest of my body…not that I don’t enjoy them, but they can be a tad distracting at times.”

“Yeah, they certainly can be,” I agreed, blushing slightly as I felt myself becoming a bit erect with Skyler’s head resting on my lap.

“So, aside from my head, are you going to be doing anything else with my body?” Skyler asked.

“Well, I’m going to run a diagnostic and try and replace any degraded components with the stuff I found in those boxes in the cave.”

“What boxes?” Skyler asked with a confused look.

“Oh, I forgot,” I said, smacking my forehead, “I found several boxes in that cave that appeared to contain spare supplies for your body, including a few extra limbs.”

“Wow, that’s kinda creepy,” Skyler said, looking as though he wanted to shudder, if he was still connected to his body. “Can you show me?”

“Sure,” I said, carefully grabbing hold of him and lifting him up into my arms, “Sorry if I’m grunting, but your head isn’t light,” I laughed.

“No problem, I trust you.”

“Well, here they are,” I told him, showing him the plastic storage bins that I found in the cave. There were three in total. One mostly just had spare circuits, including the ones I had already replaced inside of his torso; it appeared these ones were meant to be replaced frequently, given the quantity of them. The second one appeared to have replacement internal components, such as a stomach bag and filters. And the third one had spare limbs, such as hands, feet, and even a few heads.

“Wow, that’s kinda cool…and creepy,” Skyler said as I held his head close to each box, “Hey, can you pull out one of those heads?”

“Sure, just let me put down your current one first,” I told him. I managed to set his head down on a nearby table while I grabbed one of the heads from the box. I paused briefly to examine both of them and noticed something odd. After analyzing both, I grabbed one of them and showed it to Skyler. “Hey, doesn’t it kinda look like this head is older?”

Skyler closely scrutinized the duplicate of his head that I was holding just in front of his field of vision before finally saying, “Yeah, but just a little.”

“I thought so,” I said triumphantly, “I think you were supposed to have a handler or someone who would maintain you while you lived here in secret,” I told him, “That explains why there are two heads in this box that look gradually older; the other one looks a tad younger,”

“Wow, I wonder what happened to them?”

“Whatever the case, it looks like I’m your handler now.”

“And my lover,” Skyler added.

“Anyway, I suppose once your current head runs out of power, I’ll just move your brain stuff over to the older-looking head,”

“And then you’ll put me back on my body?”

“No, I still need to swap out some stuff in your body first, and I don’t want to put the new head on your body until I run some diagnostics on the new components first.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Skyler agreed, then he got a brief look of concern on his face before saying, “I only have about 90 seconds of power remaining…I’m already feeling a bit weak while my systems divert resources to keep me online.”

“Okay,” I told him, giving him a look of minor concern, since we were trying to run his power out, but to me it felt a bit like killing him…if only temporarily.

“Don’t worry, I trust you’ll take good care of me while I’m out,” Skyler said, giving me a smile that warmed my heart. I instantly felt much better and returned the smile.

“Thanks Sky, and I promise you…when you’re back online, you’ll feel as good as new.”

“I’m sure I’ll feel just like I came off the assembly line,” Skyler laughed, though now with less than a minute left, his voice started to slow down and deepen in pitch, causing him to laugh even more.

“Well, maybe not that great, but close,” I said, once I stopped laughing, “If all goes well, it should only take about half an hour before I reactivate your A.I.”

Now, with less than 30 seconds left, Skyler seemed to be having trouble concentrating as his systems slowly shut down. With nearly ten seconds left, he finally said, “Greg, I’m so glad you were the one who found me…I love youuuuuuuu,” With Skyler’s power now used up, his face froze with the previous expression, though his eyes darkened up.

I waited a few seconds while the last of Skyler’s systems powered down before finally lifting Skyler’s head up to his and saying, “I love you too,” and planting a passionate kiss on Skyler’s still partially opened mouth before gently placing the head down on his workbench. I then rummaged in one of his drawers before pulling out a small handheld device and pointing it at Skyler’s head. The device showed the thermal readings from Skyler’s head, indicating that his internal components needed to cool down a bit before being removed.

“Alrighty Sky, time to get work on your body,” I then said, quickly getting up and sizing up the situation. Despite Skyler’s A.I. no longer being online, his body was still sitting passively on the nearby couch, still online and making subtle, random movements to keep the liquids coursing through his body moving.

I brought my chair over and carefully reached into Skyler’s open body, carefully examining each component. I quickly found that each component had a small LED screen on the mechanism keeping it in place that gave the name of the component, its function, its current status, and an option to toggle it on/off, or remove it. Based on what I read, it seemed virtually every component was giving him either a red or orange status color, indicating they either needed to be replaced immediately, or soon.

Some of the red status components seemed to be the android equivalent of his stomach, and waste management systems. “Hmm, no wonder you’ve been having difficulty going lately,” I mused, carefully writing down the part numbers so he could find the replacements.

After I finished the audit of Skyler’s internals, I decided to just replace everything, even the yellow and green status parts. Ultimately, Skyler would most likely have to purchase an entire replacement body at some point in the near future anyway, since there were multiple body processes that are irreplaceable.

I decided to first start with replacing Skyler’s hands and feet. Skyler had been complaining of rough skin on his hands, and slight foot pain in recent months, and now it all made sense. I quickly located a pair of hands and feet and placed them next to Skyler’s body while I searched on my computer for limb removal systems.

It did not take me long to locate the limb removal system, and as soon as I triggered the release of both hands and feet, I was instantly rewarded with the sound of mechanical whirring and the appearance of visible seams around each separation point; both limbs were still attached.

Just as I had with Skyler’s head, I gently pulled each limb away from the body and it released fairly easily with just a small hiss and whir. I took time to slowly marvel at the level of detail in each limb, including the connection points on both ends. I noticed that both hands and feet were completely dry now, and they appeared slightly paler. It seemed that during the removal process, the liquids are all retracted back into the main body.

I carefully placed both the old set of hands and feet on my workbench, next to Skyler’s head, and then began carefully clicking on the replacement sets. Each set naturally looked exactly identical, except they were in more pristine condition with no rough skin, perfect nails, and they still had hair. As soon as they were attached, however, the hair fell off due to the pre-programmed settings, and the same moisture level the previous set had suddenly appeared.

“Damn, they thought of everything,” I muttered, gently brushing the loose hairs away from Skyler’s body.

Before I did anything else, my fastidiousness suddenly took over, suddenly seeing all the loose hairs that had fallen from Skyler’s body earlier. I grabbed my nearby handvac and quickly sucked up all the hairs, emptying them in a special container to analyze later; I wanted to see if there was anything special about android hairs.

Once I had the hairs properly stored, I took my shopping list of replacement components for Skyler over to the boxes and began collecting the various parts. Once I had them all together and in a smaller box, I brought them over to the body and began the process of installing them. Most of the components were fairly standard analogues of actual Human organs. There were small balloons that functioned as lungs, but that mostly provided a realistic appearance and cooling for the internal components. While I was replacing the “lungs”, I noticed they each had what appeared to be air filters; they were pitch black.

“Wow Sky, it looks like you might have ended up melting down before long if that shock hadn’t uncovered you,” I muttered, tossing the old lungs off to the side of the box and moving to the equivalent of his liver.

Everything continued rather smoothly until I came to the waste systems. Each time I attempted to remove the equivalent of the bladder and bowel I received an error message. It wasn’t until I consulted the built in FAQs in the interface program that I learned that I had to first empty the two devices, and that meant I had to make Skyler’s body go to the bathroom from both ends. Thinking quickly, I grabbed an empty plastic bottle from the nearby waste bin for the urine and then a small plastic container that I was planning on throwing out for the feces. Once I had both containers next to Sky’s body, I went back to the interface program and made Sky’s body stand up. Once it was standing, I activated the waste systems. Selecting the urination sub-setting, I activated a ten-second timer and then quickly returned to Sky’s body, grabbed his penis, and placed the mouth of the empty bottle over the tip.

Once the timer finished, I immediately heard the sound of several systems in his body kick into gear. I also saw and felt the muscles near his penis activate and then a steady stream of liquid began streaming from the tip of his penis. Despite Sky being an android, the liquid certainly appeared to be urine, having a slight yellowish appearance. Once Sky’s body drained the last drop of urine from its reservoirs, the muscles surrounding his penis relaxed and all the systems shut off.

“Interesting, I’ll have to analyze this later,” I said, placing the now half full bottle on my desk next to Sky’s old hands and feet. Unfortunately, I also needed to empty his bowels, so I quickly grabbed a nearby plastic storage container, set the timer, and then waited behind him.

With the waste successfully removed from his body, I was finally able to replace the appropriate components; fortunately, his poop was encased in a sort of plastic, so I did not need to wash up. After I replaced both of them, I plugged in his charging cable so he could recharge, and then I returned to my computer and had his body run a full body diagnostic for a more comprehensive check of the state of his body. Since the interface program informed me the scan would take upwards of half an hour, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to move his brain into the new head.

Just to be safe, I used the thermal scanner once more. This time, it confirmed that all the systems in his old head were at a safe enough temperature, so I pressed a small discolored area at the base of his neck, just below the hairline, and removed his entire scalp panel from the back of his neck to just above his forehead.

Once I had his entire upper head removed, I placed his scalp down on the desk and then marveled at what was inside. I could make out all the inner mechanics that allowed his face to work, from the outer casing of his mouth, to the backside of his eyes. In the center of it all, housed in a casing that connected to all the components, was an apple-sized device that I assumed was his brain. After a quick moment of searching, I located a toggle switch that released the brain from the housing unit, and into my hand.

I stared at the device with awe, staring from it, to the face on Skyler’s current head, wondering if Skyler was in some way aware of his current status…a disembodied computer brain. As I marveled at Skyler’s brain, I noticed that it had a set of USB ports, so I quickly unplugged the remote connection device from his current head and attached it to his brain. “There, you won’t have to worry about that anymore,” I said to him.

I gently placed Sky’s brain down next to his old head and then retrieved the older looking head, along with a device that was packed with them labeled A.N.A. (Artificial Neck Apparatus). Figuring it was some sort of diagnostic tool, I plugged it into a wall outlet, and into my computer, and clicked the new head onto it. Instantly, the device lit up, and a window popped up on the interface program requesting if I’d like the new head to be set as default. I selected yes and then watched as the programs began to auto-configure the head and then activate its controls. Once everything had configured, I quickly activated the scalp release for the new head and plugged Sky’s brain into the housing unit. I then clicked his scalp back into place and activated his A.I.

Because it was the first time Skyler’s A.I. was activating in this head, it took a bit longer than usual. While monitoring his activity monitor, I noticed that the head itself was installing files into his A.I. to allow him to act more like his new age, which apparently was listed as 21-22. Finally, it finished, and Skyler’s new head sprung to life, testing out several facial expressions before lighting up with life.

“Hey Sky, how do you feel?” I asked casually, as though he hadn’t been offline for the last half hour or so.

“A little different,” he admitted with a curious expression, seeming to collect himself for a moment, “I feel a bit more mature now, I think.”

“Yeah, I guess the head installed some files into your A.I so you could act a bit older,” I informed him, “you even sound older now.”

“Huh, interesting,” Skyler mused, “well, now I should definitely be able to purchase booze at the store,” he laughed.

“Yeah, you don’t look like a teenager anymore, that’s for sure!”

“So, are you able to reconnect me to my body?” Skyler asked, looking over my shoulder at his body, still sitting down on the couch.

“Oh, no, not yet,” I apologized, “I finished swapping out all your parts, but I started a hardware diagnostic that’ll take about another,” I paused to look at the progress bar on my computer, “looks like another 20 minutes.”

“Oh, ok,” Skyler said, slightly disappointed, then he got a curious look on his face, “But what am I attached to? It feels almost like a neck.”

“It’s something I found in that box of stuff, with all your heads,” I told him, “I guess it’s some sort of device that allows me to perform maintenance on your head,” I shrugged.

“Oh, well it’s kinda cool,” Skyler smiled, finding a way to manipulate it and swivel his head around, “Is there anything fun we can do in the meanwhile?”

“Hold on a sec,” I told him, quickly perusing the diagnostic program until I found something. “Aha, it looks like we can play around with your voice, since you speak with a vocal synthesizer instead of a voice box.”

“That sounds like it might be fun, let’s do it!”

“Okay,” I smiled, opening the vocal synthesizer tab and perusing the options, “okay, it looks like I can have your A.I. Scan your memory files for every single voice that you’ve heard, and analyze whether you’ve heard enough of their voices to duplicate them.”

“Well, I’ve heard dozens of peoples voices…is there any way to limit it to just people I interact with regularly?”

I paused as I double checked, “Yes, and I can limit it further so it’ll only do the top five people.”

“Why only five?”

“Because you don’t have unlimited storage,” I pointed out, “if I were to do it unlimited, you might run out.”

“Good point,” he nodded, “well, let’s get started.”

“Okay,” I nodded in return, tapping the scan icon. As soon as I tapped it, Skyler suddenly zoned out a bit. “You still with me, Sky?”

“Yeah…just feel a bit lightheaded,” he admitted, “this scan is using a lot of processing power.”

“Okay, I’ll try not to talk to you then…just focus on the scan.”

Skyler merely nodded as he let the scan happen.

When the scan finally finished five minutes later, five new vocal patterns suddenly populated in the options box. Aside from his own, I wasn’t surprised to see my own voice at the top, since we lived with each other. The other four names were Skyler’s boss at work, as well as two of his coworkers, and the last name was that of a pretty nurse at the hospital that they both had a crush on; two of the voices were male, and the other three were female.

“Wow, nice choices,” Skyler said, accessing the list in his HUD.

“Are you going to try them now?” I asked.

“Of course,” Skyler laughed, though he spoke flawlessly in my voice.

“Wow, that’s a little creepy,” I shuddered.

“Wow, that’s a little creepy,” Skyler perfectly mimicked, before laughing in my voice, “I suppose it is a little,” he admitted, reverting to his voice.

“Try one of the female voices,” I pressed.

“Hmmm, should I try my boss,” Skyler pondered aloud for dramatic effect, before making his selection with a sly look, “Greg, you’re looking good today,” Skyler said, though in the voice of the nurse they both had a crush on.

I instantly became flush, goosebumps forming on my skin. How I’d longed to hear her say something like that, though for some reason, hearing it out of Skyler’s mouth seemed more erotic.

“Wow, I’m having quite the effect on you,” Skyler grinned, still speaking in her voice.

“You have no idea,” I admitted, fanning my face, “perhaps you can use that a bit later,” I suggested.

“Oooh,” Skyler said, still using her voice, before reverting back to his, “maybe,” he grinned.

“I think it goes without saying that you shouldn’t use my voice for mischief,” I pointed out.

“Agreed,” Skyler nodded, the words ‘command accepted’ appearing in his activity monitor, “did you want me to play around with the other three voices?”

I shook my head, “Nah, it looks like the hardware diagnostic has finished on your body anyway,” I said, focusing on the results, squinting more and more as I read them.

Skyler watched patiently as I read the results of the diagnostic, but after a few minutes of silence, he spoke up with a concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong Greg? Is there something wrong with me?”

I snapped out of the results at the sound of concern in his voice and shook my head. “No, not really.”

“Oh?”

“Well, I was able to fix the components that were damaged earlier today,” I reported clinically, “as well as the components that have degraded over the last three years, but the one thing I can’t replace is your entire body.”

“There’s something wrong with my body?”

“Don’t worry, you should be safe for now,” I assured him with a loving grin, “but, just like your organs had been degrading, so has your skeletal structure, along with your joints and servo mechanisms,” I explained, “ordinarily, an android like you could be expected to last a minimum of five years, with proper maintenance and upkeep…but, since you have received none after three years, the diagnostic is starting to show some stress forming throughout your body.”

“So, my body is failing?”

“Not immediately,” I reassured him, “but, you might want to start saving up for a replacement body right away,” I told him with a serious look, doing a quick search on the Spaztec website for his model #, sighing with relief as the page showed up, “fortunately, it looks like if you trade your current body in, they offer a discounted rate that’s less than the cost of a new car.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Skyler nodded, “though it depends on the car,” he added with a laugh.

“An affordable car,” I clarified with a grin, “by estimates, you could save up this much in less than six months…and I could chip in a little myself to help you out”

“Wooh, that is a relief,” he sighed, “thanks again for fixing me up and letting me know what I am,” he said again, “it means a lot to me.”

“Don’t mention it Sky,” I told him, leaning in and kissing his new lips. When we broke apart, we stared at each other awkwardly before I said, “so, did you want to be put back on your body now?”

Skyler put on a thinking expression before shaking his head. “Actually, I’m a bit comfy on this thing, and I’d kinda like to watch you remote control my body around.”

“Really?” I asked with an incredulous look.

“Yeah,” he admitted with a bashful look.

“Alright,” I said, rubbing my hands together excitedly, “I need to unplug it first.” I quickly walked over to his body, still standing motionless in front of the couch, and pulled the charging cable free; he was at more than 80% charge. Once I was ready, I rushed back to my desk and transferred Skyler’s remote interface to my tablet so I could remote control him better. “Ok, let’s try something simple,” I said aloud for Skyler’s sake, tapping the controls to have Skyler’s body walk forward.

The last time I remote controlled Skyler’s body, it was only to make it stand up. This time, I had to make sure it didn’t bump into anything, or topple over. Fortunately, to my delight, his body appeared to have stabilizers in it, as well as its own memory, so it was able to walk almost exactly as Skyler would have, minus the little pep his personality added. I smoothly had it stop a few feet in front of me.

“Wow, that looked easy,” Skyler commented with an approving look, “try having it do something more complicated, like grabbing yourself a drink from the fridge…you look parched.”

“Thanks,” I laughed, tapping away on the tablet and making his body turn around and navigate itself around the room, out of my little corner office area, past the entertainment area, and into the kitchen, stopping in front of the refrigerator. “Wow, that’s cool,” I said, staring at some new options that appeared on his body’s visual feed.

“What is it?”

“It looks like that computer in your chest includes some pretty advanced context-based programming for the remote-control option,” I told him, quickly showing him what I could see in the tablet. The visual feed from the camera popping out of his neck was currently displaying the fridge, with the words ‘Remote Control Activated’ flashing in big bold letters on the top. What really interested me, however, was several options on the screen that included being able to grab various fridge magnets, activating the buttons for the ice and water dispenser, or opening the fridge.

“Wow, I see what you mean,” Skyler said in an impressed voice.

I nodded approvingly and tapped the ‘Open refrigerator’ option. Skyler’s body smoothly opened the fridge, and then several new options appeared as it scanned the contents. “Hmmm, what do I want,” I mused aloud for dramatic effect, seeing the various beverages in his vision; Skyler watched on with an amused look. I finally tapped the ‘grab iced tea/peach flavor (1)’ option and watched as his hand appeared on the screen grabbing for it.

“This is a very nifty feature I have installed,” Skyler said.

“It is,” I agreed, having his body close the fridge back up. A new option then appeared that saved me a ton of time, ‘return to starting point.’ I eagerly tapped it and watched as his body smoothly walked back the way it came and stopped exactly where it had started, a few feet from me, still holding the bottle of iced tea in its hand. I then tapped the ‘hand beverage to Greg’ option and took the drink from his outstretched hand, opening it up and taking a sip.

“You’re welcome,” Skyler grinned.

“Thanks,” I grinned back, “would you like me to have it do something else?”

“I dunno,” he shrugged, “maybe have it dance around a little.”

“Okay,” I nodded, typing dance into the command section. This brought up a new window with various dance options, such as the type of dance, the speed, and the duration. Since Skyler didn’t have too many dances installed, I simply selected ‘Happy Dance/Normal speed/one minute.’

As soon as the command was entered, Skyler’s body backed up a few steps for safety and then started performing a typical happy dance, in almost the same goofy way Skyler actually did it. After laughing a little with Skyler, I became transfixed on his penis, which was flopping around and making me slightly aroused.

Skyler noticed what I was looking at, so when his body stopped dancing, he said, “Hey, why don’t you have it come closer and jerk off or something?”

“Whoa, okay,” I smiled, making his body come forward. I then typed ‘jerk off’ into the command section, giggling a bit when it autocorrected to ‘masturbate’ and watched as Skyler’s left hand came down and started playing with his penis.

I was transfixed as his hand smoothly played with his penis for nearly a minute before I noticed that he wasn’t becoming erect. I typed ‘stop’ in the command section and searched his sexual options to see what was wrong.

“Is something wrong?” Skyler asked with a confused look, “I thought you were enjoying that…I know I was.”

“I was,” I nodded, “but, you may have noticed that your penis didn’t become erect.”

“Ah, that’s right…how strange.”

“I know…I’m just making sure your sexual systems actually work,” I said, before stopping, “Skyler, do you actually have any memory of masturbating during the entire time you’ve been with me…or at all?”

“Hmmm, let me think,” he said, before putting on a robotic blank stare that lasted about ten seconds, “No, come to think of it…I haven’t,” he admitted with a blush, “I obviously know how, and I seem to have some implanted memories of doing so, but not of actually doing it.”

“Huh, interesting,” I said, delving into his settings and locating the sexual tab. After a quick check, I was able to determine that his A.I. maintained a log of all sexual activities and was able to confirm that Skyler had indeed never masturbated, or engaged in any sexual activities, during the entire time he’d been online. “Yeah, you’re right…damn, I can’t believe you’ve been living like a monk all these years,” I laughed.

“I guess I just have good discipline” he grinned, “hey, am I even…you know, functional down there?”

“Says someone who obviously doesn’t know what they’re missing,” I quipped, “Well, clearly you can pee with it, so it makes sense it would be able to do the rest,” I assured him, running a quick check. Everything looked good, and it seemed Skyler had a full tank of whatever artificial semen his body seemed capable of synthesizing from the foods he ate or drank. Finally, I spotted the problem, letting out a triumphant “Aha!”

“What is it?”

“Well, first off, you are fully functional,” I reported to him happily, “it just seems the problem is that you can only be…aroused if your head is attached, since the arousal is linked to your A.I.”

“Ohhhh, that makes sense,” Skyler nodded.

“But I can still play around with it a bit,” I added, tweaking some of the controls on the tablet and watching as Skyler’s penis perked up a bit, slowly extending until it was fully erect.

“Whoa, cool!” Skyler said, watching as I played around with his penis remotely, making it go erect and flaccid and back to erect.

“Yeah,” I blushed, feeling myself grow hard at the sight, and the fact I had so much control over his body. I left his penis erect and set the tablet down, before reaching out my hand and gently grabbing his now stiff cock. His penis felt far better now that the hairs were gone.

“Man, I wish I could feel that,” Skyler said longingly, watching as I gently stroked it and felt the tip.

“Would you like me to reattach you know?” I asked again.

“No, not yet,” Skyler said regretfully, “you finish having fun first.”

“Ok,” I smiled, resuming my admiration of his erect penis, before returning it to its neutral state. I then turned to Skyler, giving him a strange look, before typing away on my computer and searching his interface.

“Is something wrong?” He asked with a concerned look.

“No,” I told him, “it’s just…” I struggled to find the right words, “you’re amazing…almost too amazing.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Not really,” I smiled, “but, I want to see if there’s something buried in your A.I. That can tell me where you came from and why you were built. I’m just concerned that you could be too good to be true.”

“I see,” he nodded solemnly, “Well, if I do have that information in me, I don’t have any conscious access to it,” he admitted, his activity monitor showing he had just attempted to search his own memories, “I hope I’m not too good to be true.”

“Me too,” I nodded, resuming my search. Fortunately, I found what I was looking for fairly quickly: a large document that appeared to be addressed to ‘whomever discover’s my secret.’

It was several pages long, giving an entire history, but I was glued to the screen and absorbed all the contents while Skyler patiently waited, before turning to him with a serious look.

“You found something?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “umm…it had a disclaimer that by telling you about it, it might unlock some hidden memories,” I informed him, “is that something you want?”

“Sure,” he shrugged, “I prefer not to live in mystery.”

“Alright,” I sighed, “so, it turns out you are the result of a scientific study that occurred over 100 years ago,” I began, “some research group was traveling to colleges all across North America, and several in Europe, and were attempting to see if it was possible to upload a human consciousness into a computer.”

“Whoa!”

“Yeah, but they weren’t exactly successful,” I continued, “they were able to copy a human mind, but not actually completely upload it from a human brain. They scanned the brains of over 100,000 college students, professors, and employees, and basically saved their work in a massive database.”

“And, I’m from one of the brains they scanned?” Skyler guessed.

“Yes, but they weren’t able to build androids back then, and they couldn’t really go any further, so they simply kept the scans in a database and protected it in a secure building for later….but then, the war happened and it was lost.”

“Well, they obviously found it.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, “they found it about ten years ago but, after a century, the computer had begun to degrade and many scans were either lost or corrupted.”

“Oh.”

“It would seem yours was one that was merely corrupted, and they decided to create android bodies for all of you, using the 3D scans the researchers had also taken, so you could be interspersed throughout society to help fill in some of the missing gaps in our economy and society left by the aftermath of the war,” I explained, “but, due to the corruption, they had to fill in a bunch of missing pieces in your scans, so they created the false memories and made you sleepers so that you would essentially be new people.”

“That explains it,” Skyler nodded, “but why make us sleepers?”

“They wanted to study how you interacted with people so they can make their own sentient A.I.s,” I told him, “they’d been trying for years, but your brain scans are the only things capable of operating in an android body and be sentient.”

“Wow…but you can still reprogram me,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” I shrugged, “they had to put a lot of their code in, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re self-aware and conscious of your existence.”

“True.”

“Anyway, it looks like you were supposed to have a handler of sorts who was supposed to monitor you from the moment you were activated, but they had budget cuts, so your handler was reassigned,” I continued, reading more from the document, “they figured as long as you ended up befriending someone, that person would most likely take good care of you.”

“Well, they were right…you have,” Skyler smiled.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “It looks like you were indeed programmed to imprint yourself on whoever discovered your secret first, assuming that person was trustworthy, so I guess I really am your owner now…though I don’t really like thinking of myself as your owner,” I said uncomfortably.

“Master?” Skyler supplied with a grin.

“Nah,” I frowned, “I think boyfriend works just fine for me right now.”

“Me too,” Skyler agreed, “and maybe someday husband,” he added hopefully.

“Hopefully,” winked, “though I’m not sure which one of us has to propose to the other,” I admitted, shaking my head as I set a mental reminder to ask the gay cashier next time I saw him.

“Well, considering you ‘own’ me, I think the ball is in your court,” Skyler told me, “I mean, maybe you’ll decide you don’t want to marry me, but just want to have me as a sex buddy or something.”

“Perhaps,” I chuckled, “but, I really do like you…I’m not sure adding sex will change that too much.”

“That’s good to hear,” Skyler said affectionately, before getting a strange look on his face, “Whoa, I think I have access to all those memories now,” he said with a look of wonder on his face, “wow, its all the memories of the real Skyler from over 100 years ago…they really roughed it back then.”

“Well, we have better technology now, so it’s no wonder,” I shrugged, smiling at the look on his face as he accessed his new memories, “did he have any significant others?”

“No,” Skyler replied, “he crushed on a few people, but didn’t have anyone special in his life.”

“Too bad,” I said sadly, “though, maybe he found someone after the brain scan was taken.”

“Perhaps,” Skyler nodded, “Greg, these memories are going to have to integrate into me overnight, so I’m going to leave them alone for now,” he suddenly said, “I think I’m ready to be reattached to my body now.”

“Alright,” I said in an excited voice, moving over to Skyler’s head to prepare to remove it, “did you want any closeups of your body before I reattach you?”

“Sure, perhaps just my penis and my panel,” he said with a hint of a blush.

“Good choices,” I grinned. I then detached his head from the device and carefully held it in my hands facing out as I turned to his body. “You alright?”

“Yeah, this is kinda fun,” he admitted.

“Good, I’m going to hold you out to your body then,” I told him, bending down slightly so I could hold him close to his penis. Skyler spent several seconds closely scrutinizing and admiring his penis, even reaching out his tongue and licking the tip. “Do you want to suck your dick?” I laughed, playfully shoving him into his own penis before pulling him back.

“No,” Skyler laughed back, “at least, not right now.”

“Alright,” I nodded, standing back up and letting him examine the inside of his panel.

“Wow, I really am a complex machine,” he said in a wondrous voice, watching all the blinking lights and listening to the gentle humming of his body’s machinery.

“You most certainly are,” I agreed, “would you like to see anything else?”

“Maybe just walk behind me so I can see my backside,” he replied, “people don’t usually get to see their backs.”

“Good point.” I smoothly walked around behind his body a few feet, allowing him to drink in the appearance of his backside and fine ass, before moving in closer.

“Thanks Greg, you can reattach me now,” Skyler said, “I only have about two minutes of power remaining in my head anyway.”

“Oh yeah, almost forgot about that,” I said with a slightly embarrassed look, before lifting Skyler’s head up to his neck and gently clicking it back in place.

There was a series of whirs and clicks beneath the skin of his neck and head as his body reattached his head, but seconds later the seam vanished and Skyler regained control of his body, twitching slightly as he regained sensation. I merely walked back in front of him and watched, making sure he did’t fall.

“How does it feel?” I asked him curiously.

“Much better,” he breathed, wiggling his new fingers and toes on his new hands and feet, “the components you replaced in my body must have been really bad, because these new ones feel nice,” he explained in a relaxed voice, “and the new hands and feet don’t have any of the muscle fatigue the old ones did.”

“Good,” I sighed with relief, “I’m no android expert, but you probably wouldn’t have lasted more than six months before something failed, so I guess it’s a good thing we discovered your condition today.”

“Yeah,” Skyler nodded, “hey, I could have sworn I had to go to the bathroom earlier…did you drain my waste?”

I blushed. “Yeah, I had to in order to replace your waste systems.”

“Oh, okay,” Skyler nodded, a little embarrassed, “I don’t think we’ll need to explain any further.”

“Good,” I agreed.

“But, since you seem to have replaced everything, I suddenly feel hungry,” he said, making a motion to rub his belly, though keeping his hand a few inches away, since his panel was still removed. A speaker in his body emitted a stomach growl sound, as if to emphasize his need for food.

“Oh, hold on a sec,” I told him, rifling around in my desk drawer before producing an energy bar, “here, if this works well for humans, I figure it should be enough to satiate an android too.”

“Thanks,” Skyler nodded, eagerly taking the energy bar and ripping open the wrapper. As he took a few bites and swallowed, I could see the food making its way from the tube leading from his throat and dropping into his stomach. I watched with an amused look as eventually the entire energy bar, all chewed up, was now inside his stomach and fizzing away as his stomach acid dissolved it.

“Would you like some of my iced tea to wash it down?” I offered, holding out the bottle; I’d only taken a few sips.

“Sure,” Skyler smiled, though he stopped when he looked down at his chest, “Ah, perhaps you should reattach my chest first,” he pointed out, “I don’t want to risk spilling any liquids in my body.”

“Good idea,” I nodded, walking over to where I had placed his chest cover. Once I had it removed from the blanket that I was using to protect it, I stopped to admire it, pausing as I saw the hairs. “Oh Sky, you might want to brace yourself when I put this on,” I warned him, walking over to him with it.

“Why?”

I held it out to him. “The chest hair is still there, but your body is programmed to make it fall out.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Skyler said, “well, it won’t hurt too much if its just my chest,” he assured me, “last time it was my whole body.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged, lining up his chest cover and clicking it in place. As soon as the seams sealed up, Skyler winced slightly as the small number of hairs present on his chest were dislodged by his body, mostly falling to the floor. I gently brushed the few errant hairs from his chest, eliciting a soothing sigh from Skyler, before grabbing the handvac and quickly vacuuming up the hairs.

“Wow, you look much better,” I nodded approvingly, handing him my iced tea.

“Thanks,” he blushed, taking the iced tea and chugging the rest of it, neatly tossing the empty bottle into the waste bin near my desk. There was a brief awkward pause before he looked into my eyes. “So, um…I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind playing around with my penis some more,” he managed to say bashfully, “I mean, since I couldn’t feel it the other times you did.”

I felt my face flush as a gentle smile formed, “Sure,” I nodded.

“Thanks,” he blushed back, “I guess we’re both going through a sexual awakening of sorts,” he said, stepping closer to me so I could reach him better.

“Yeah,” I nodded, grinning as I once more reached out and fondled his penis. Skyler recoiled slightly, this likely being the first time he’d actually felt anyone other than him touch his genitals, but he quickly relaxed and breathed calmly as he felt my fingers gently playing with him.

Unlike the previous times, when his body was either offline or disconnected from his head, I could actually feel his penis responding to my touching. The muscles twitched initially, since he wasn’t accustomed to my touch there, and then I could feel it throb as it slowly became aroused. Before long, it was fully erect, so I slowed down my progress and stared into his eyes. “Do you want me to make you cum?”

Skyler merely nodded, caught up in the pleasure. I smiled back and continued working his penis, stroking the full length of the shaft, and gently fondling the tight balls, before prepping a few tissues over the tip of his penis and tweaking the erogenous zone below the tip. This had the immediate desired effect on Skyler, triggering his orgasm. His penis throbbed violently several times, shooting a few streams of semen into the tissues, slightly leaking through, before coming to a rest.

As Skyler caught his breath, I gently wiped the residual moisture from his penis, and my hands, and then curiously investigated the load he’d delivered into the tissue. It certainly looked like semen, and had a similar consistency. I even felt brave and licked a small amount that I dabbed onto my finger, remarking that it even tasted like real semen. I tossed the tissues into the waste bin and then focuses back on Skyler.

“Well, how was your first orgasm?” I grinned.

“It was great!” Skyler said excitedly, absently shaking his hips, making his still slightly erect penis flop around a little, “I can’t believe I haven’t done that at all since I came online.”

“Probably some sort of programming prevented you,” I guessed, “it’s likely been shut off along with all the sleeper programming.”

“Good,” he nodded.

“So, do you maybe want to head into my room and have some sex?” Skyler suggested, “I mean, I’m obviously fully functional, so might as well take me out for a spin to celebrate our new relationship.”

I was slightly taken aback, but not offended. “Sure, though I’m not sure I know how…” I said worriedly.

“No problem,” Skyler shrugged, “we’ll learn together.” He held out his hand and gave me a trusting smile.

Reassured by Skyler’s carefree attitude, I took his hand and followed him into his room. Skyler’s room was filled with several posters off TV shows and movies he liked, as well as a few nic nacs he’d picked up over the years. A small desk with his computer station was situated near the window, and his bed was in the corner next to it.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to dirty your own sheets,” Skyler grinned, since he had my preferences for cleanliness programmed into him now.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

He nodded. “So, would you like me to undress you, or would you like to do it yourself?”

I actually had to stop and think about that one. “Hmmm, I suppose it might be sexier if you undress me,” I finally decided.

Skyler responded with a smile as he moved forward and gently began removing my clothes, starting with my shirt, gently lifting my arms so he could remove it. The paused to briefly feel up my chest, though it wasn’t as muscular as his.

After feeling up my entire torso, he bent down to slide my pants down, before sliding my underwear down as well; I had already removed my shoes and socks when I got home, so I merely stepped out of the pants and kicked them to the side, thrusting my hips out to flaunt my slightly erect manhood.

“Wow, not bad,” Skyler said with an impressed look, as my penis settled down somewhat.

“Thanks,” I blushed modestly, as I shook it a few times to air it out, since I had worked up a bit of a sweat working on Skyler for the past several hours. “You can play with it a little, if you like,” I offered.

“Thanks,” Skyler nodded, bending down and examining it. He briefly admired it with his eyes, taking a few snapshots to save in his private image folder, before reaching out and feeling it with his hands.

I recoiled slightly, only because I wasn’t accustomed to anyone touching me there, but quickly relaxed as I felt Skylers smooth, artificial hands gently massing it with his fingers, admiring my smooth, shaved skin down there. I felt the blood rushing to my member as he stimulated it properly, and before long I was fully erect. Skyler stopped short, however, of actually making me orgasm, instead smoothly admiring my shaft before withdrawing his hands. “I’m saving you for what’s next,” he explained via whispering into my ear, before gently guiding me to his bed.

What happened next was the most pleasurable experience in my entire life. We crawled under his covers and rubbed our bodies against one another, feeling each other up and grinding our genitals together. We kept that up for what felt like an eternity before instinctually switching to the 69 position and orally stimulating each other, Skyler using is android skills to perfectly synchronize our orgasms, so we came in each other’s mouths at the same time.

Were Skyler not artificial, I would have never considered doing this with another man, but swallowing his artificial cum gave me no pause whatsoever. Once we recovered from our ecstasy, we switched back to normal position and embraced each other once more, before passing out from sheer bliss.

I woke up a short time later feeling perfectly rested, and immensely happy. The nearby clock on Skyler’s drawer revealed we had been napping for just over an hour, and it was nearly dinner time. Skyler was still napping, so I lightly shook him awake.

“Ah, that was great, wasn’t it?” He breathed, leaning in and kissing me.

“Yes, it was,” I agreed, kissing him back.

Skyler then lifted up the sheets and looked underneath, “Well, looks like we didn’t dirty up the sheets too much,” he nodded approvingly.

“Yeah,” I smiled, “I’m still gonna wash them though.”

“I know you will,” Skyler laughed, ‘but hey, since we’re a couple now, do you think we should sleep together now?”

“I don’t mind…it might take a bit of getting used to, but I’m all for it if you are,” I decided.

“Great, I’ll move a few of my things in later then,” Skyler smiled, “and, since I’ll be sleeping with you, you could probably just take this whole room if you want so you can have a private office to work.”

I shook my head. “Nah, that might be moving a bit too fast…besides, your room doesn’t have the same high-speed connection in it, so I wouldn’t be able to work in here anyway.”

“Ah, true,” Skyler nodded.

“We can keep your room up in case you feel like sleeping alone,” I continued, “at the very least, we could maintain it as a guest room or something.”

“Good idea.”

“Actually, now that we are a couple, we can probably combine our resources better and look into maybe finding a slightly bigger place, so I can have a private office.”

“Yeah, that would be good…. this place is a bit small,” Skyler chuckled.

“Yeah, though you also have to save up for your body replacement too,” I reminded him.

“Yeah,” he frowned, “Sounds a bit weird…I just hope it would still be me.”

“Of course it would, silly!” I playfully punched his chest, “your brain could be moved into the new body as easily as I moved it into this head,” is explained, poking his new forehead.

“Ah, I forgot about that,” he blushed.

“Well, maybe a new body will fix your forgetfulness,” I joked.

“Maybe I could get a female body,” Skyler responded in a joking voice.

“Hah, that would be interesting,” I mused, “though I prefer you in your body.”

“Ah, thanks,” Skyler gushed, leaning in and smooching me on the lips, “Umm, do you want the first shower?”

I stopped to think, since although we had two bedrooms, we had only one bathroom with a shower. “Nah, you go first,” I decided, “that way I can tidy up and then you can get dinner started while I shower.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Skyler smiled, kissing me once more before climbing out of bed, heading to his dresser to grab a fresh set of clothes.

I climbed out of bed too, grabbing the sheets and blankets off his bed to drag over to the washing machine. I slapped Skyler’s ass playfully as he was heading into the bathroom. “Hey, try not to waste all the hot water.”

“I won’t,” he said, giving me a reassuring thumbs up before closing the door. I smiled to myself as I shoved the contents of his bed into the washing machine, glad that Skyler and I were finally able to be intimate, and that he was an android on top of it all. I knew from this point on that life would only get better.

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