Green Thumb - The Greenhouse

The Small Business Chronicles: Green Thumb - The Greenhouse

Chapter One: Opening day

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

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

Jack responded with only a grunt.

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

Another grunt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That she is,” Jack laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thanks, dear.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You bet I do!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Two - Gabby's Retrofit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m back!” She announced playfully.

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

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

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

“I won’t,” she promised.

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

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

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

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

“Ok,” she replied patiently.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So, am I done now?” She asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Why?”

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Three: Missy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thanks Jack, these new filters feel great.”

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay Missy, go run a motor recalibration.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes,” Jack nodded.

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

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

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

“Good,” she smiled, “then am I done?”

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Four: Camren

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No problem Jack,” she nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Understood,” she nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Five: Enja

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s okay,” she shrugged.

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

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

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

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

“Aww, thanks Jack,” Enja gushed.

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

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

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

“Yes.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So, am I done?”

“Yes Enja, you can get dressed now.”

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

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

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

“No,” he admitted.

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

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

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

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

Chapter Six: The Arboretum

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

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

“Oh?” Jack said with piqued interest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Except Henry, of course,” Enja added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So, how’s everything going so far?”

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

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

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

“I believe it,” Jack laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah,” she smiled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I love you too!” she called back.

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

Chapter Seven: Ellen

In development...

Chapter Eight: Tour

In development...

Chapter Nine: The Procedure

In development...

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The Small Business Chronicles

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

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