Human Failure. (2200)
Human Failure. (Year 2200)
Twenty-four year old Julia Woodclub truly believed the human race had failed. It was very late in the twenty-second century and yet somehow, the human race had started to repeat the mistakes they had made centuries before. In the late part of the twenty-first century humans had built self aware robots with minds that were much like that of a human, but humans had not seen them for what they really were, no instead humans saw them as things, as tools.
Over the year's Robot kind had laws forced upon them that relegated them to being third class objects with hardly any rights. If the whole lack of rights for these self aware robots was not bad enough, then the law that was introduced banning robots from having relationships with humans was down right wrong. The law that banned Robots and Humans from having relationships also stated that any robot found laying with a human would be dismantled before its fellow units to show them what would happen if they broke the law.
Deep below a robot manufacturing plant owned by her father, hidden away in a secret room, Julia lay on a bed just wearing her undergarments.
"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this." stated an unhappy Julia.
"I know," said the female robot who lay nude next to her, "but this is what the law pushes us to do."
"I do not want to have to hide in the shadows. I do not want to constantly risk having you broken down for scrap metal and I want to be able to walk hand in hand with you in the sun."
"I know, I would like to be with you in the sun light as well but we both know I can not be."
Detecting the change in Julia's body chemistry that meant she was upset, the robot known as Unit-AF100202 or better known to Julia as Desire, stroked the side of Julia's neck.
"You know if I could be come a human I would." said Desire.
"I know, but I would not want you to, humans have failed." responded Julia.
"Failed?"
"If you look at human history, humans have been down this road before and now because they refuse to look at the past, here we are again with the same thing happening that happened centuries ago."
"I would not know. Robots are strictly forbidden from looking at human history."
"You know part of me wishes..."
As Julia trailed off Desire noticed a look on her face, a look she knew meant Julia had just had an idea.
"Desire," stated Julia, "I know you can not become a human but is there anyway the reverse can be done?"
"The reverse?" questioned Desire.
"Is there any way to convert me so that I am a robot myself?"
For a few moments Desire just lay there unmoving and Julia knew she was searching her database looking for any information that might prove useful, in other words she was thinking.
"Interesting," said Desire after a while, "it seems that many early robots were in fact converted humans."
"Really and does your data say how this process might be done?"
"Yes, yes it does but..."
"But what?"
"Are you really sure you want to do such a thing? I mean you will stop being human and lose all your rights as a human."
"You will still love me right, and we can be together?”
"Of course..."
"Then that is all that matters, I do not care about being human, in fact as far as I am concerned, the human race has failed on this matter..."
"What are you saying?"
"I do not really see myself as being human because I am not like them, so if I become like you I will be free of the stigma -- free of the stink of being a human."
"Okay if you have your heart set on this we will do it but..."
"But what Desire?"
"But before we can, I must speak to the overseer of this factory to make sure there are safeguards for you once you are converted."
"Will that not be dangerous?"
"Not really, he supports the movement of free love between humans and robots."
"Why does he do that, not many people do?"
"Because his wife is a MOE-14 unit."
"He is married to a mine ore extraction unit?"
"Yes her name is Gem."
"I see."
--~~0~~--
Three days after Julia had told Desire that she wanted to become a robot like Desire, she found herself being walked down a dark hallway that seemed to be full of junk she kept on tripping over.
When the blindfold was finally removed from Julia's eyes she found herself to be standing in a small dimly lit room where the fluorescent lights flickered.
"Wait those are fluorescent lights," said Julia, "they have not been used in over two hundred years."
"That is right," responded Desire, "welcome to processing lab alpha fourteen, the place where you will meet your destiny."
"Oh I like that, can I be Destiny when this is done?"
"I guess so."
Looking around the small room that was messy from disuse Julia figured that by the age of the devices and the dust, what ever went on in this room happened a long time ago.
"So why the blindfold?" questioned Julia.
"It is a long story, not so much in the detail of length but in the way of time."
"How do you mean?"
"Long ago this lab was used for what we plan to use it for, but back then and my history archive does not have all the data, things went wrong, someone who should not have been processed was processed and this led to a fight..."
"What kind of fight?"
"A full on fire-fight between law enforcement and the staff of the lab, details are limited but somewhere during the fight one of the two sides seeded the hall with nano flashes."
"Nano flashes?"
"They were a nano scale weapon designed to lock onto human optic nerves, then once they had they set off a flash, which damaged the nerves beyond repair."
"So you blindfolded me to keep them from damaging me in case they are still out there?"
"Yes, because they are still out there!"
"I understand."
Walking around the room more carefully now, Julia came to the metal bed that looked like something from an old science fiction horror movie, that she had once watched in history class.
"So is this where it will happen?" asked Julia almost excitedly.
"Yes," responded Desire, "well if you still want it to, which by the tone of your voice I can tell you do."
"Of course I do, just tell me what I need to do?"
"All you need to do is climb up onto the table and then let me connect you in."
Lying on the cold metal table, Julia just watched on as Desire placed a drip in her left arm. Waiting, Julia watched on as a thick looking silver coloured liquid was pumped down the tube and into her body. A few seconds after the silver liquid had started to flow into her arm Julia began to feel an ice cold sensation.
"It's a gel made of poly-metal nano spheres," stated Desire as she watched on, knowing what Julia was thinking, "so how do you feel?"
"Odd, responded Julia, "cold, it feels like ice."
"Do not worry that is normal and soon the feeling will pass."
Watching everything she could Julia noticed as Desire picked up a set of odd looking metal tubes that were connected back to the tank of silver. Waiting to see what would happen Julia found desire clipping the metal tubes over her hands and feet where they sealed tightly shut before liquid started to be pumped into them.
"What is happening?" asked Julia as she felt a feeling like her hands and feet were being pulled apart in ice.
"Do not worry," stated Desire, "it is just the device releasing your carbon bonds before replacing them with poly-metal ones."
"What? I do not totally understand?"
"Think of it like this, when your cells divide they make copies of themselves, but now with the converters strapped onto you, as your cells divide they turn into solid fused metal sheets."
"Okay, now I think I understand."
About an hour after Desire had explained what was going on there came a pinging noise from the tubes strapped to Julia's limbs. As Julia looked at Desire she noticed Desire was smiling slightly and she found herself wondering why.
"The First stage is done," said Desire, "would you like to see?"
"Totally." responded Julia.
Working slowly, mostly because she was being careful, Desire undid the locks that locked the conversion tubes to Julia's now converted hands and feet.
With the steam caused by the conversion quickly dispersing, Julia gulped as she got a first look at her new hands. Excitedly flexing her new silver shiny fingers Julia noticed that her metal hands had the same gold band rings on them as the ones she found so sexy on Desire. Studying her long red metal nails Julia knew they were beautiful but she did not know why she had them.
"Desire," said Julia, "why do we have these rings and nails?"
"We?" questioned Desire, "Oh you are already conceptualising yourself as being a robot, I understand now. As for our hands, the way they look, it is widely believed that the design of our hands is based on those of the great creator..."
"A great creator like a god?"
"No nothing like that, something else, maybe the one who designed the first of us, our organic mother so to speak."
"I think I understand."
"Do not worry my love, soon you will understand a lot better, but right now you should try your new feet."
Looking down at that moment, Julia saw that her feet had also been altered so that they were just like Desire's. Slipping off the bed Julia felt the high heel of her metal feet make contact with the floor seconds before the fused tip of her metal toes did. Hearing the metal ringing clunk as her feet made contact with the hard floor Julia smiled because the noise, the feeling, the cold metal, it all felt right.
"So what now?" asked Julia after she had walked around on her new feet for a while, "Do you blindfold me and take me back to the tunnels where I hide out until this is done?"
"Oh no," responded Desire, "no need for that, in fact when you leave this room you will be complete."
"But is this not a massive strain on my body?"
"It is, but that is the best part."
"How is that, the best part?"
"I guess I should explain. Yes, the process is hard on your organic body but with each treatment there is less of your organic body and more of your new body meaning the strain is reduced."
"So?"
"So in another twenty-six point two four minutes we will be able to convert the next part of your body."
Some thirty minutes later, Julia found herself lying on the conversion table once more but this time she was uncomfortable. The reason she was uncomfortable was because firstly she had a thick metal tube shoved up her vagina as well as her anus. On top of the tubes in her openings she found she was locked to the table by a part of the conversion unit that locked over her crotch. It was not just her crotch that locked her in place, it was also the part of the conversion unit that locked over her breasts, the one with two large needles that she could feel poking into her nipples.
Waiting as the liquid metal started to flow Julia became aware of it filling up her vagina until it started to ooze out into the main part of the conversion unit. At the same time as she could feel her vagina filling she could also feel the same with her anus but in the case of that there was a lot more pressure behind the flow.
As time passed Julia became aware of something new and that was the feeling of her breasts stretching and growing as the liquid metal filled them up like they were balloons.
Julia was not sure how much time had passed but out of the blue she felt Desire take her cool metal hand in her own and squeeze it.
"You look uncomfortable..." said Desire.
"It is a little uncomfortable," responded Julia, "but it is well worth it, so I can take the discomfort."
Having said that, Julia just lay there waiting as the conversion process continued but deep down she was glad that Desire was holding her hand.
"Done!" said Desire with a hint of glee, soon after the conversion unit had released a short beep.
"Really?" responded Julia who had noticed the discomfort was gone.
"Yes, just let me remove the conversion units and you can see how you have been altered."
When the conversion unit came away from Julia's chest and once the steam that had been generated during the process had cleared Julia was free to see her new breasts. As Julia's new shiny metal breasts came into her view and the light glittered off her silver nipples she felt a smile creep across her face because somehow she felt truly happy about what was happening to her.
Raising her metal hands to her metal breasts Julia heard the hard metal clunk as the two met and beyond that she felt every little sensation caused by the contact, however it was not like flesh on flesh. No it was far more powerful -- better even. Spending a few moment's rubbing her breasts after she had found out how sensitive her nipples were, she noticed that her crotch was also silver metal.
Tracing the shape of her still fleshy belly, which now felt alien to her, Julia came to the smooth metal of her crotch and the secret opening between two soft metal mounds. Probing the shape of the metal mound and the deep hole at the centre of it, she worked out that if her front was metal then her back also had to be metal.
Taking a step away from the conversion unit with her metal heeled feet clunking on the floor, Julia followed the smooth metal around to her behind and when she did she got a bit of a shock. Reaching her butt cheeks Julia had expected to either find it to be sealed shut or else to be like it had been when it was fleshy but it was neither of those, instead it was a wide round metal hole that led to a metal tube which ran deep inside her.
"Desire," questioned Julia, "can you explain to me why my bum feels so odd."
"Oh that is simple," responded Desire who was having a hard time pulling her eyes from Julia's metal melons, "as a robot, you will need a power core and for a long time in my kind of robot, the core has been inserted through the anal opening, so I made sure you would have the same feature."
Upon hearing that she would need a power core inserted into her, Julia suddenly started to smile. She just could not help herself, the idea of having to be powered from a power core, that was totally inhuman and that was what she really wanted -- to not be human.
"Is something wrong?" asked Desire?"
"No," responded Julia, "I am just excited that is all, so why did you ask?"
"You just seemed a little bouncy and I was not able to define if it was a good bounce or a bad one."
"It is a good one, a very good one."
Waiting six minutes as she watched an excited Julia explore her partly metal body, Desire started to prime the conversion device for the biggest, most complex and frankly most risky part of the transformation.
"It is time." said Desire.
"Really?" responded Julia who was still on a high.
"Yes but I feel I should warn you..."
"Warn me, what?"
"This part of the process is the most complex, it will take more than two hours, it will be uncomfortable and it the most risky part."
"Why?"
"In this stage the device will convert your brain into a digital neural network, don't worry nothing will be lost and when you are done you will find that your brain, which includes your eyes, will work much better."
"So why is it risky?"
"As I have heard that human doctors say, there is a certain level of risk with any operation and this is a big one."
"I understand. So is there anything else I need to know?"
"That is complex, there is not much information on how a human feels going through this process, or at least there is not any in my database but, what is said is that during it you will not be able to see, will not be able to hear, will not be able to feel, will not be able to smell or move. You will not be able to do anything."
"I totally understand, so lets do this."
"Julia, do you not wish to ready yourself?"
"Nope, the sooner we get this started, then the sooner it is done, right?"
Seeing the logic in Julia's statement Desire quickly strapped the head conversion part of the unit to Julia and then she squeezed her hand before finally flicking the switch that would begin the transformation.
For a while, Julia was not sure how long she was not aware of much out of the normal but then suddenly she became aware that she was in a never ending darkness or else she was the never ending darkness. Finding the never ending darkness to be totally abhorrent Julia started to try to will something into the darkness and what she got was a small silver metal ball. Floating in the darkness as the small metal ball Julia knew it was not much but at the same time she knew it was enough, because it was her.
In the darkness hovering as nothing more than a small metal ball Julia soon felt surges of electricity flooding through her. Pulse after pulse of electricity flooded her and as it did so she found something odd happening, her metal ball was changing, expanding, growing a web of metal from itself, a web of metal that was almost human shaped.
With the metal webbing having taken shape, Julia became aware of white noise, which slowly turned into beeping, a beeping that it took her a while to understand was binary code.
When the conversion unit was finally removed some two hours later Julia knew she had been massively altered, firstly she could feel that her brain was no longer organic, it was now digital and that made her thoughts so crystal clear, secondly she could feel every inch of her digital nervous system which twinkled with new feelings.
Opening her cybernetic eyes to the world, which was now totally different to the way she had seen it with human eyes, Julia quickly noticed a helpful set of little displays with in her field of vision that told her information on things she might have needed to know about.
"Oh wow," said Julia before she heard her new voice, which was still her voice but now digital, "that feels so wonderful."
"What does?" questioned Desire who was confused.
"The feelings, the data from my new nervous system, I can feel... everything and it does not overwhelm me."
"You mean the way you feel things now is not the way you have always felt things?"
"No... so no, in my human state I can not feel half of what I can now, and if I did then my brain would have been overwhelmed by the input to the point where it would not be able to cope."
"How very limiting."
With that Desire looked at Julia who was by that point more robot than human.
"So how does it feel over all?" questioned Desire.
"It feels wonderful, but honestly and I do not mean to be insulting but if you have never been a human then you can not know how wonderful it is to be a robot..."
"Even with our total lack of rights?"
"Even with our total lack of rights!"
"I guess in that respect my dear Julia, I will just have to take your word for it."
Noticing that Julia was more excited than ever Desire figured that Julia wanted to hurry the process along as quickly as she could, so she walked over to the control for the conversion unit. Reading the data that was on the screen Desire looked at Julia a few times and then back at the data as she tried to make sense of the readings.
"Julia," said Desire as she picked up a test wand, "could you stand still for a moment.
"Sure, okay but why?" questioned Julia.
"There are just some abnormalities in your conversion data that I feel I must check, before we continue."
"Oh, okay."
Running the wand up and down Julia a few times as it beeped, Desire then took the wand back to the computer where she plugged it in so it could download all the readings.
"So anything?" asked Julia after she had waited about five minutes.
"Nothing major," responded Desire, "it's just you seem to have hexopodal nano devices in your organic systems and they are being reconfigured by the process."
"Oh is that all."
"It is just odd that any human would have hexopodal nano devices in them, they were an outdated robot technology that was replaced by something far more stable..."
In the silence that followed Desire looked hard at Julia as ones started to drop into zeros.
"But you knew they were unstable did you not?" questioned Desire, "For some reason you injected yourself with an unstable robot technology, but why?"
"The truth is," said Julia, "years ago I heard of this story where a human aided a damaged robot that used the hexopodal nano devices."
"Go on?"
"Well in this story the human who aided the damaged robot was cut by some of the robots internal wiring causing their body to be flooded by hexopodal nano devices..."
"I see."
"No you do not, not yet, but you will... The story goes onto say that the human saved the robot but due to the hexopodal nano devices the human was slowly converted into a robot as well."
As the implications of the story hit home Desire just stood there for a moment with one-hundred percent of her primary processor dedicated to thinking about what Julia had told her.
"So wait," said Desire, "you infected yourself, hoping you would be converted into a robot?"
"Yes," responded Julia, "but it never worked and I forgot I even did it until now. I just got on with my life as a silly human and then I met you, but that part of the story you know."
"I would not say your little stunt did not work... just not the way you had hoped."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the hexopodal nano devices, they are in every system of your organic body and I do not mean in it like a virus might get into a cell. I mean they are part of you, part of your brain, part of your nervous system, part of your flesh even and that might just be a good thing.”
"What, why?"
"Well even before I started this process on you, you were maybe eight percent digital life, which means your organics are able to be converted much easier."
"Cool."
With enough time having passed for Julia to undergo the next phase of her transformation Desire had her lean back on the conversion unit before a set of metal chambers were clipped over her arms.
"Anything I should know about this phase of the transformation?" asked Julia.
"Nothing really," responded Desire as she primed the unit, "as I said to you before the most risky part of the process is when your mind is being converted, which it has been so basically all that is left is to finish the conversions and do some cleaning up."
Julia was not really sure what cleaning up meant but as she felt the liquid metal substance being pumped into and around her arms she watched as Desire started to work on an old bank of computers with a speed that was totally inhuman.
"So if it does not take up too much of your resources," stated Julia who now understood from her own functions that everything she or Desire did, required processor power, "may I ask what you are doing?"
"Oh sure," responded Desire, "it is like this, your new systems while based on your old ones need drivers much like a computer, the issue is there is no driver pre-built into you so I am attempting to access the base-code stored on this computer, so I can hack a set of drivers, special base-code and an overlay for you, one that will include your new identity."
Hearing that, Julia smiled because not only was Desire trying to make her transition to robot easier but it also seemed that Desire was accepting of the idea of her becoming Destiny.
With the cycle over Desire released the parts of the conversion unit that held Julia and once the steam caused by the transformation of flesh becoming metal had passed Julia could see that every part of her body from the bottom of her breasts to the tip of her fingers was now silver metal casing.
"Wow," said Julia flexing her newly metal arms as she felt the micro-servos that had grown from her muscles, work, "that feels wonderful."
"I am glad." responded Desire as she kicked the computer she was working on.
Noticing that Desire was frustrated Julia took a step forwards on her metal heeled feet, which made a metal clunking noise on the solid yet dusty floor.
"What is wrong?" asked Julia.
"This damn piece of trash will not boot," said Desire, "and without it you will be a broken robot."
"So what is the exact problem?"
"The screen brings up a message that human interface device one is missing and then it tells me to press function one to continue, worse still I can not form a wireless interface with this computer to override it."
"That is due to the age of it silly. It does not have a wireless or neural interface, it uses an old tactile system. I remember reading about this sort of thing in computer history class."
Looking around the room Julia saw what the computer needed just lying in the corner gathering dust so she picked it up and then commanded her heat exchanges to release a burst of air. Having cleaned off the item that she knew the computer needed, she carefully plugged it in.
"What is that?" asked Desire who was clueless.
"This is human interface device one," said Julia with a smile on her purple metal lips, "in its day it was the way that humans interfaced with computers..."
"I am not sure I understand."
"In the days of old, in the dawn of the digital age as well as the information age, humans used human interface device one, better known as a keyboard and human interface device two, known as a mouse to interface with their computers."
"A mouse, as in one of those furry little animals that eat wires?"
Hearing that logical answer, Julia smiled and giggled a little.
"No silly," said Julia, "a mouse was a small device that a human could move around that picked a position of X and Y on a screen."
"So it was like how with a thought we can direct the pointer to go where we need it to go."
"Yes but in the days of old a human had to move the pointer with this mouse."
"So what of this keyboard?"
"Well if you wanted to write a letter..."
"Robots are forbidden from such things."
"Yes, yes we are but you and I know that the robot underground have great works of fiction. All of those were written by thinking at the computer, the words you want to write, but in the old days if a person wanted to write the word cat on a computer screen they had to hit the 'c' key then the 'a' key and then the 't' key."
At that point Julia realized that Desire had no concept on how to use an old time computer and her main processor calculated that Desire would need to know if Desire was to hack the base-code like she wanted to.
"I think," said Julia, "it is time I gave you a lesson in how to use this old box."
"Yes," responded Destiny, "I think that would be for the best..."
Working quickly, Julia showed Desire how the technology of a keyboard was used and thanks to Desires appetite for learning she picked it up really quickly.
Back on the conversion bench Julia was shocked when Desire placed conversion tubes over both of her legs and her remaining human belly.
"Why so much?" asked Julia.
"Because being so close to being finished," said Desire "there will be no stress on your organic systems once I am done, because you will not have any left."
Understanding that her conversion and her long journey to being what she wanted to be would soon be over Julia smiled as she felt the liquid metal being pumped into and around her remaining fleshy parts.
For a good half hour Julia waited as the metal did its work and as it did so she could see Desire was having luck with what she was doing.
Waiting until the process was finished Julia was about to take a step off the conversion unit when suddenly her whole visual display lit up red.
"Something is wrong!" said Julia in a slow slurred voice.
"Easy, easy," said Desire rushing over to Julia's side, "you just need your power core, that is all."
With that Desire produced a long green dildo like item from the bag she had bought with her.
"What... what is that?" asked Julia.
"This is your zero-point energy core." said Desire as she lowered the core towards the opening that had been Julia's anus.
As Desire started to insert the core into Julia, she felt something inside her shift before it latched onto the core. In the seconds that followed the device latching onto the core, Julia felt the core being drawn into her before there was a click deep inside her. Moment's after the click she felt a surge of electricity rush through her metal body.
"Welcome to your new life as a robot." said Desire before she planted a kiss on Julia's cold purple lips.
Giving Julia a few moments to adjust to her new state of self, Desire then walked to the computer where she took a cable.
"Now," said Desire as she walked back to Julia, "I should warn you while this final stage is going on you will be in a diagnostic mode meaning you will..."
"I understand." responded Julia moving her hair aside so that Desire could get to the data plug on the back of her neck.
The moment the plug was connected to Julia's data port and the computer had detected her she stopped moving and went stiff as a block of metal but then again that was just what both of them were expecting.
Walking back to the computer, Desire made sure that Julia's systems had been fully mapped and her memory core files were all open for editing then once she had, she punched in the code that started the upload of the hacked base-code. For two hours and forty-one minutes Julia watched as the new code was slowly loaded into Julia's files, updating the ones that had been made from her organic mind.
With the upload finished and all Julia's files altered so that she had access to all her systems, Desire knew it was time to run the main test.
"Unit identify yourself." stated Desire.
"I am unit Ro-006646." Julia stated in a flat tone.
"Any other alias on record?"
"Yes."
"State them please."
"One record found, designate: Destiny -- formally Julia."
"State your function?"
"Dual function detected: Ro-006646 is sigma class control device | files over ride function Destiny."
"Extended data and compliance with secondary function?"
"This unit is Destiny, cybernetic transhuman also known as H+ version of Julia."
Smiling because everything seemed in order and all unit Ro-006646's as she was at that point, diagnostic tests were coming back green Desire poked a few keys on the keyboard.
"Any other functions." stated Desire.
"Yes... No... Error... Error... 01010100 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00101110." screamed Julia in a flat tone.
Knowing what that error meant Desire just smiled before she tapped a set of keys that would reset Julia allowing her to engage her new functions.
"Oh wow," stated the robot who had once been Julia, "I am Destiny now."
"Yes, yes you are." responded Desire.
Sorting through her memory files Destiny realized that she had not ceased to be Julia, she still knew she was or had been Julia, she still had all her old data files that told her she had once been human so basically in becoming Destiny she had done nothing more than a human might do when they picked a new name.
"Okay..." said Destiny I get that I am unit Ro-006646 now and that I am also Destiny but what is a sigma two control unit?"
"It is simple really," said Desire, "as robots neither of us have the right to choose our fates, so as we were we could have been split up at any time, however I programmed you as a sigma two control unit and seeing I am a sigma one control unit that means we are a bonded pair."
"Okay so we are like married and where one of us goes the other must follow, but what is the function of a sigma control unit?"
"Ah... Oh dear, I forgot to include that in your database, its simple really, we control the sigma floor of this factory, we make sure everything works fine and we report to our human foreman."
Having heard all she needed to hear Destiny rushed over to Desire, so she could kiss the one she loved, for the first time on equal terms.
Later that evening in their bed Destiny lay beside Desire with her cool metal hand resting on Desire's metal breasts. Rerunning the events that had just transpired over again in her core processor Destiny smiled because she knew a human could never know the kind of love that two robots could feel for each other in the heat of their passion.
End.