The Replacement - Part 1

Coming soon...

Prologue

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

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

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

“Yeah,” he said, “Hurry back,”

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

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

Greg was devastated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So, a robotic clone?” Greg asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“New bodies?” Greg asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Part 1.1: Reunion

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

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

Finally, at about 5pm, the doorbell rang.

-DING DONG-

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

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

“Where do you want it?” John asked.

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

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

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

“Okay,” Greg said.

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

“Sounds simple enough,” Greg said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s a relief,” Greg said.

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

“What can I do with it?” Greg asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Cool,” Greg said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I think I understand,” Greg said.

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

“Yeah, I’m sure we will,” he agreed.

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

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

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

“I’ll bet,” he smiled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Well, robot me,” she laughed.

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

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

“Oh, sounds smart,” he said.

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

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

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

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

“Umm…umm…umm,” was all she said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You mean your malfunction?” he asked.

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

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

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

“I suppose so,” he said.

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

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

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

“Fair enough,” he smiled back.

Part 1.5: Relaxation

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Continued in The Replacement - Part 2

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