The Replacement - Part 7

Part 7

Part 7.1: Final tests pt.1

Following their six month visit, they had to return to John’s lab for their daughter’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th birthdays to receive older bodies. Each time, John would plug her brain in to collect the valuable data collected within; he explained that if humans could do that with the human brain, they probably would have solved a great many neurological issues a long time ago.

In between each visit though, they watched not only Julie, but also James, slowly grow up. They each learned and taught each other how to walk, how to talk, and how to trick their parents into giving them sweets. By all measurable senses, they were as normal as can be.

Despite James being organic, he too was tested upon each visit, since he was the first human to be born in this fashion. They not only found him to be perfectly healthy, but they also were able to estimate he was going to be an extremely intelligent individual, just like his twin sister; much more intelligent than their parents even.

John also kept them in the loop, without going over any specific personal details, several other families that had opted for the same option as them and had organic and artificial twins, as well as several other families that had opted for either just an organic, or just an artificial child.

Unfortunately, John wouldn’t let them correspond with each other, for fears it might unintentionally alter their data points, but he assured them they would one day meet. He also assured them that the collected pool of data was already helping them formulate new software, hardware, and programming for future maintenance cycles.

Greg and Sabrina continued living their lives normally for five years with their two kids, and Ipek, who had recently received a body upgrade aging her to a physical appearance of 30.

Sabrina was currently working as an administrator in the school district, and had helped the twins get into the best school. Greg had continued his work as ASAC of logistics and operations, and has performed his job so well and efficiently, that when the SAC finally got promoted out east, they selected Greg to replace him. Things were going so well that Greg and Sabrina were planning on having another child, though they were debating whether or not it would be organic or artificial.

They noticed shortly after the twin’s fifth birthday numerous news reports across the planet of people contracting radiation like symptoms; apparently the world government was no longer able to contain the news.

It was on a cool spring day that John suddenly sent them a message requesting they each take a week off work in exactly one month so they could perform the final tests for the artificial human project. Since it would be during the summer, Sabrina had no problem with the timeframe, but Greg’s new role made it more problematic…that is until he made is concerns with John and John, as usual, pulled strings to make it happen.

When the day finally came, they all drove down to the lab, only to see hundreds of people waiting outside the building.

“Wow, I wonder what they’re going to be doing,” Greg said, parking in their usual spot and helping his son out of the car.

“I don’t know, but if Dad called all these people here, then they must be almost ready to go public,” Sabrina said, helping their daughter out of the car.

Before they could say anything else, John and his team of technicians emerged from the building and beckoned them to join the crowd. Once they did, John began speaking.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you’ve all seen the news reports on the TV,” John began, “The day I have warned you all about, to justify what we are doing, is now upon us,” he said, “For the next week, we will be testing all of your systems in a variety of ways to determine if humanity is finally ready to join all of us in the future of our evolution!” he finished.

The crowd applauded and cheered for a while, all the while John smiled and waited for them to finish before continuing.

“Now, the first thing we are going to ask is something that would usually sound crazy, if you were still human,” John smiled, waiting for the laughter to die down a bit, “I need you all to stop eating and drinking, and also go without sleep, so we can determine if your power systems last as long as we designed them to,” he said, and after seeing the shocked, yet understanding looks on everyone’s faces, he continued, “Don’t worry, you’ll be doing other tests in the meanwhile, however due to the number of you that are here, we are going to separate you into groups of 20,” he said, “Think of this as a sort of camping trip, except inside a state of the art facility,”

Everyone laughed and smiled as they were slowly grouped together. Because there was close to a thousand people, it took a while, however fortunately Greg, Sabrina, and Julie were allowed to be grouped together; James, although a little sad at being separated from his sister, would be staying in the facility under Ipek’s care. Greg’s group had roughly 40 people.

Once they were all grouped, each group was led into the building and taken to the lowest level of the building, which was essentially a huge cavern similar to the one at the Lake Hideaway resort. It looked like an underground city, with artificial lawns, artificial lighting, and numerous buildings.

The building Greg’s group was taken to resembled a sort of barracks, though each group of bunks was separated by crude walls; it looked as though this entire underground city had only recently been constructed.

“Where are we daddy?” Julie asked Greg, as they took in their surroundings. Now that she was five, she had taken on many of Sabrina’s features, most notably the long, thick, curly, dark brown hair; she did have Greg’s shrewd looking eyes.

“It looks like we’re at our temporary home,” Greg told her, “Think of this as a vacation sweetie,” he told her, “We’re going to get to meet a lot of people just like us over the next few days,”

“You mean, not like James?” Julie asked.

“Yeah, but unlike you, most of us started off like James,” Greg said, “Remember that,” he said.

“Okay,” Julie said, and she followed her mother into one of the crude rooms so they could settle in.

Once they were all settled in, everyone in their group slowly started getting acquainted with their bunkmates. From what Greg could determine, while many of the converts and HRMS in his group were associated with Neovations, most of them lived their own lives much like Greg and Sabrina did. Some were teachers, others were laborers, and there was one other law enforcement officer, though he was just a beat cop from Oakland that had been shot. Julie appeared to be the only artificial human in their group.

After they all introduced themselves to each other, John’s image came on a screen in the common area of the bunk.

“Alright everyone, I’m assuming that now you have all gotten to know one another in your groups, though you’ll have the opportunity to get to know everyone else a bit later,” John said, “Anyway, the first thing I’d like all of you to do is spend at least one hour on each of the treadmills we have provided for you,” he said, “And remember, don’t eat, drink, or sleep,” he added.

One of the other rooms in the barracks was equipped with just enough treadmills for all of them. Because Julie was the youngest, Greg set her treadmill to a lower speed and had her manually adjust her systems so she could ignore her body’s signals telling her she was tired.

They had to continue going on the treadmills for one hour at a time every four hours after, pausing in between to chat, and to have their brains and bodies connected to the lab computers so data could be collected from each stage.

After several rounds on the treadmills, they all started running low on energy since their bodies had long since burned off what food and drinks they had consumed before they arrived. While they rested up after the fifth round on the treadmill, some people came over to them and chatted them up, since Julie was obviously the youngest one there.

“She must be one of the artificial humans, right?” A young woman asked; she was a mother, but her kids were still organic.

“Yeah,” Greg said, “Though her twin is organic,” he added.

“Wow,” the group gathered around them said.

“It’s amazing,” the woman said, “She even looks just like you two,”

Julie could do nothing but stare at them all, since they were wondering at something she took for granted, and that her brother didn’t care too much about.

“I’m running low on energy Mommy,” Julie said, trying to ignore everyone’s stares.

“I know sweetie, Grandpa wants you to run out so he can see if you are working alright,” Sabrina reminded her.

“Oh, okay,” Julie smiled.

“Wait, John is your father?” one of them asked.

“Stepfather,” Sabrina corrected, “I was actually one of the first HRMs he commissioned, since my host was killed in a car accident,” she explained, “He did it as a favor for his wife, and for Greg here,” she smiled.

“Wow man, you sure are lucky…except for the whole losing your wife in a tragic accident thing,” one of the guys, who had admitted he too was an HRM, said.

“Yeah, I don’t really think about the fact she’s just a copy anymore,” Greg smiled, “After all, she acts exactly like the original Sabrina, and she’s given me two wonderful children,” he added, “And apparently we get free upgrades and maintenance for the rest of our lives, and for all our offspring and their offspring, and so on,”

“Wow, we just get it for ourselves, our immediate family, and our immediate offspring,” the HRM guy said.

“Are any of you considering having children?” Sabrina asked.

“Yeah,” a few of them admitted, “Which option do you think we should take, organic, or artificial human?” they asked.

“Well, it’s really up to you, but in the end, the organic is going to have to convert anyway,” Sabrina said, “But if you feel they should know what it’s like to live as a human first, then go for the old fashioned way,” she smiled, “We just did both because my father sort of insisted,”

“Yeah, but I’m not complaining,” Greg smiled, “And I don’t think James and Julie are either,” he added.

“There must be some advantages to going for the artificial human option though, right?” someone asked.

“Well, Julie didn’t catch any of the bugs or viruses going around, so she rarely had reason to cry,” Greg said, “And you can shut them off if they misbehave,” he said, though when he saw the looks on their faces, he said, “Don’t worry, I’m only kidding, I never shut Julie off,” he smiled.

“He has shut me off though,” Sabrina said, “But only for fun, and he lets me shut him off too,” she added.

“Oh, you two must be robofetishists,” one of the group said, though in a nonjudgmental way.

“Guilty,” Greg smiled, “It was actually very fortunate when I had my accident and had to convert,” he said, “Have any of you couples ever tried switching bodies and spending a day in each other’s shoes?” he asked.

Everyone there shook their heads.

“Well, you should take the time and try it,” Greg said, “Not just because it is fun, or will turn you on, but because you have no idea how much you can learn about your opposite by just living in their body for a day,” he said, “I admit, we both got off on it the first time, but each time we did it after, we learned a lot about each other,” he said.

“Yeah, like I realized that when Greg is slumped over like this,” Sabrina said, moving a bit closer to him, “He’d really like me to do this,” she said, and she gently massaged his back, “Because he works a pretty stressful job, and that stresses out his back muscles,” she explained.

“Wow, I didn’t realize,” one couple said, looking at each other with kinky smiles.

“And I realized just how uncomfortable the shoes she used to wear were,” Greg said, “When I tried her body out the first time, I bought her some more comfortable shoes and she actually ended up liking them,” he smiled, “And not to mention the sex was great too,” Greg added, covering Julie’s ears as he said it, causing everyone to laugh.

“But, isn’t playing around with all of your robotics weird?” the same guy from before asked.

“At first it was,” Greg admitted, “But you have to realize that this is all soon going to be completely natural for everybody,” he said, “I mean, when we’re all robots, it won’t be a fetish anymore, it will simply be sex,” he said, “No different than oral sex,”

“Wow, I never thought of it that way,” the guy admitted.

“Yeah, you guys should all engage in some of the play we have,” Sabrina said, “We often remove each other’s heads, and other limbs, as well as play around in our panels,” she said, “Also, one of the best highs we’ve had is having sex after our batteries have been removed,” she added.

“Yeah, it’s a killer orgasm,” Greg said, “Of course, you should have someone spotting you,” he smiled, “We have a DPM that spots us,”

The looks on all the faces in the group looked impressed, and Greg could tell they were all recording the conversation for when they returned to their homes.

“So, do you miss your organic body?” one of the HRMs asked Greg.

“A little,” Greg admitted, “But honestly, I don’t have to worry about getting shot anymore, or getting sick, eating the wrong thing, or losing sleep over something,” he said, “John calls this process ‘forced evolution’,” he then said, “And I can’t imagine the human body being able to improve itself in the same fashion that John and his company have been able to over the past century,”

“I’m just glad we won’t have to look old or wrinkly anymore,” Sabrina added.

“Yeah,” all the women said, and several of the men as well.

Before they could say anything else, the alarm alerting them to the next round on the treadmills sounded, so they all got up and started working out again.

This time, as they finished up their hour on the treadmill, several people ran out of power before, or just after the hour was up. Fortunately, a recent A.I. update overrode even the converts actions and allowed them to power down the treadmills and get to a safe place just as their power ran out.

Julie was one of the people who powered down early, most likely because of her young age and relative inexperience dealing with her body’s systems. Several of the other people Greg noticed had also mentioned they had recently converted. A few more were HRMs that were slightly heavier set than the rest, and obviously consumed more energy with their movements.

As soon as the people lost energy, technicians filed in and efficiently carted them back to the barracks area to lay them down on their beds. When Greg asked what would happen to them, they simply responded that as soon as everyone lost power, everyone would be plugged in at exactly the same time to test their recharge rates.

When the hour was finally up, Greg, Sabrina, and the other 15 people who hadn’t lost power all filed in to the barracks to chat again before the next round, though based on Greg’s power readings, he figured no one would make to the next round.

Sure enough, over the next couple hours, people he and Sabrina were chatting with slowly dropped off until it was just Greg, Sabrina, and three other people.

“Well fella’s, looks like we’re the last ones standing,” Greg said, “Or should I say, sitting,” he corrected with a smile.

At less than 5% power remaining, his systems configured themselves so he felt woozy. It was certainly a much different experience from having his batteries removed, because at least then the power depleted much more quickly, this way was very slow and not as erotic.

“Yeah,” the male HRM who realized they were rob fetishists said, who gave his name as Jeff, “I wonder why we didn’t drop off already.” Jeff was slightly older than Greg and Sabrina were, most likely in his mid-thirties. He was fairly skinny, average height, and somewhat average looking with plain brown hair.

“It must be because we’ve been androids the longest,” Sabrina said, “As far as I know, I’m one of the very first,” she said, “For HRMs, our A.I.s learn over time and improve upon themselves, so it makes sense that my A.I. might be able to handle my power systems more efficiently,”

“Then why am I still online?” Greg asked, “I haven’t been an android for nearly as long as you have,”

“Huh, let me think,” Sabrina said, “Maybe it’s because of the time you’ve spent with me,” she said, “I think dad mentioned my A.I. can sort of communicate with your control A.I. wirelessly, since we’re married” she then said, “maybe mine has imparted some of its wisdom on yours,” she guessed.

“Oh, that’s right,” Greg said, remembering John installing some sort of update when they were married so they could wirelessly check up on one another when they were apart. It was mostly so he could check up on her, since HRMs are somewhat less reliable than converts, but obviously her A.I. was able to transfer some data to his control A.I. “I’ll have to thank your A.I. the next time I speak with it,” he said.

“Well, I’m sure it will appreciate it,” Sabrina smiled, absently brushing her daughter’s hair.

“Wait, you’ve actually spoken to her A.I.?” Jeff asked incredulously.

“Yeah, she kept going on saying how she is basically just an A.I. that emulates Sabrina’s memories and personality,” Greg said, “So, I asked her to end human emulation so I could chat with it, and I must say, it was a very interesting conversation,”

“Wow, what did it tell you?” Jeff asked.

“A few things, but mostly that it remembered the other bodies it had been installed it,” Greg said.

“Oh, I wonder if my A.I. was installed in other bodies before mine,” Jeff mused.

“Probably,” Sabrina said, “Maybe you could deactivate your human emulation and we could ask it for you,” she offered, but just then both converts in their group got up and laid down in their beds, losing power shortly thereafter.

“Well, now it’s just us,” Jeff said, “You know, I think I might have been brought online right around the time you were,” he said, “Maybe that’s why I still have power,”

“Too bad we couldn’t have met earlier,” Greg said.

“Yeah, I would have like to know someone else like me,” Jeff smiled, “Well, me A.I. is telling me I’m about to run out of power, so I’ve got to go,” he said, getting up and walking over to his bed where he lost power.

“I think I’m almost out too,” Greg said, now at around 1% power.

“Me too,” Sabrina admitted.

“Well, let’s cuddle up until we’re out,” Greg said, and with an approving nod from Sabrina, the two of them crawled into their cot together and cuddled up until they both lost power at exactly the same time.

Part 7.3: Final tests pt.3

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To be concluded in The Replacement - Part 8

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