Homefront - The House

The Small Business Chronicles: Homefront - The House

Chapter One: One year later...

Jack awoke to the aroma of bacon slapping his nostrils, a warm, relaxed smile on his face. The silent clock on the bedside table told him it was 10am.

It had been a whole year since the awesome year of expansion that had so changed his life, so he’d long since ditched the alarm clock. Particularly on weekends, since he now trusted both JB and Ellie to run things for at least a couple hours before he woke up.

Ellie, serving as his site assistant, and JB as her co-assistant, now took care of many of the tasks he normally did in the early hours of the morning, giving Jack the opportunity to sleep in and relax.

Jack rolled over and stretched himself out, since he knew Gabby was no longer in bed. Ever since she had attained sentience in that awesome year, she had made efforts to improve her individuality and to improve upon herself. On weekends, such as this, she would often wake up as much as two hours before Jack and tend to her growing greenhouse, which she found gave her life more purpose. When she finished doing her early AM tasks, she would return to the house to cook her usual delicious breakfast for herself, Jack, and Henry.

Jack knew he had several minutes to head down before breakfast was ready, so he reflected on the last year.

In the year following the year of expansion, he had wisely taken a small step back and did not make any risky decisions. Instead, he chose to watch and see how his businesses would grow, now that all his workers were more properly maintained, and were able to receive upgrades, rather than repairs, for Christmas.

What resulted was an 80% increase in overall profits in all businesses, so Jack was finally able to start upgrading his staff to Mark III A.I.s, starting with Sarah, Serriah, Kat, and Rachel in the shop. Hopefully, with the dramatic increase in efficiency from their upgrades, he’d be able to do the same for the Motel staff this year, followed by the Café staff the following year.

Another thing Jack decided to do this recent Christmas was to gift himself, Henry, and Gabby with a new android.

For Jack, he was getting a general celebrity Housewife model to serve as a sort of maid, since Gabby now felt it was somewhat degrading having to do all the cleaning for the household, since she was sentient and all. Jack also felt it would allow Gabby to spend more time exploring herself and her newfound sentience, so he had been suggesting it to her as well. Gabby would, of course, still handle the cooking, since she enjoyed it and it made her family happy.

Henry was getting a custom-made Perfect Friend model to keep him company, since he found it very difficult to form relationships with people due to his genius level intellect. Due to his age, it would, of course, be given parental control protocols and a neutered appearance.

Finally, Gabby was getting her own Partier model, so that she could experience what it was like to have a “girlfriend”, as she put it. While Jack did not yet fully understand how Gabby’s new sentience was affecting her, he could understand her wanting another woman around to have fun with while he was working.

On Christmas day, Jack had merely provided them each with a tablet from which they could customize and order their android, and, at the end of the day when they had made their selections, he placed the order with his consultant discount. Today was the day they were all scheduled to arrive, and he knew Cole, the delivery driver, would likely be dropping them off around 11am.

Jack smelled a mixture of spices, in addition to the bacon, indicating the Gabby was beginning on the other courses. He found this was usually the ideal time to get up and take a quick shower before heading down.

---

Gabby smiled as she heard the sound of her husband getting out of bed and turning on the shower. At some point last year, she had realized that she could wake Jack up simply with the smell of her cooking, so she had spent a few weeks perfecting her new cooking routine until she figured she had trained him. Just as the last 87 times, as soon as she added the spices, he would get up and take a shower…he knew her routine quite well!

It had been a whole year now since she had attained sentience, due to a brilliant set of upgrades and reprogramming from Jack, and she was finally starting to feel comfortable with it.

At first, she found it odd and, as Jack would later explain the new feeling to her, scary. After all, in her previous state, she was essentially like the progress bar on a video file: constantly loading the same programs, showing the same content, and playing from beginning to end on constant repeat. While she could just barely grasp what it was like to be human and have genuine freedom before, with Jack’s previous programming, it was nothing compared to how she was now.

Now, she was sort of still on the progress bar, but now it was like she could change channels and do whatever she wanted in between chapter segments. She found that sticking to a routine gave her comfort and reminded her of how simple and safe her life was before, but she could also make time to read a book, listen to new music, or even drive into town and buy a new outfit. The various tweaks Jack continued to make to her underlying code structure throughout the past year also served to improve a few things, whenever she had conflicts between her new programming, and the old.

She briefly scared herself one day when she realized that she could actually leave Jack and go out into the world, but that thought lasted only a few milliseconds in her processors before she calmed herself down. As much as she could now do, she did still love Jack, and felt eternally bound to him for having brought her to life.

While she was thinking of all this, her A.I. Sort of forked its resources. Her personal thoughts, which she never had before, were running on one thread, while her cooking.haca programs were sort of running on autopilot. She found this new duality to be useful, as it allowed her to still stick to the tried and true programming provided by Spaztec, but still maintain her own control.

She briefly paused her thought thread as her audio sensors picked up the sound of the shower turning off upstairs. “Hmm, two minutes and 37 seconds earlier than expected,” she mused aloud, “he must be in a hurry!”

Gabby reduced the priority of her thought thread by 20% while she increased CPU power to her cooking thread; she needed to finish up a bit more quickly than expected.

Just as she finished cooking, she heard the bedroom door open. Seconds later, she heard Jack knocking on Henry’s door to let him know breakfast was ready, and then she heard the familiar sound of his footsteps coming downstairs.

“Good morning, honey!” She called out in her most loving voice, setting their plates on the table and giving him a kiss as soon as he stepped into the kitchen, immediately scrutinizing his appearance. Thanks to her Spaztec Housewife Model programming that she still drew upon, she was able to glean far more information from her husband than a typical human woman could, and far more quickly.

His hair looked a little unkempt, indicating that his hairbrush finally needed replacing; she made a note in her to-do list for the day to buy him a new one. She was able to detect the exact brand of soap, shampoo, and even deodorant that he was using, thanks to an extensive scent database Spaztec provided; unlike with a human, she was not affected by the aroma, though he was working on a way to program that into her. She could sense how much he adored her by the amount of pressure his lips were pressing on hers, and by the sound of his breathing. Finally, she could see that he appeared relaxed, unlike a couple years ago when he had less help.

Once they broke apart exactly 11.7 seconds later, a bit longer than average, Gabby finished setting the table with napkins and then sat down with Jack; Henry hadn’t come down yet.

“So dear, you’re down a little earlier than usual. Did you sleep well?”

“Quite well, thanks! I was merely hungry and wanted to get down as soon as possible ” he assured her, grabbing a piece of toast and putting a spread of strawberry jam over the butter Gabby had already spread, “I think you’ve perfected the art of sneaking out of bed…I didn’t wake up this time,” he complimented her.

Gabby giggled. “Yes, the art of sneakiness comes in handy sometimes,” she agreed, “Especially as an android wife.”

“How are the plants doing?”

“They’re great, actually, thanks for asking,” Gabby smiled, taking a bite of bacon; not crispy enough. “Actually, I used some of the new dill crops to season the potatoes.”

“Hmmm, I thought I detected a new flavor,” Jack nodded approvingly, “It tastes exquisite!”

“Thanks! I’d…” Gabby started, but they were interrupted by Henry running down the stairs and joining them at the table, “Ah, good morning sleepy head! What took you so long to get down here?”

Henry was now a boy of 16, and he had still not grown too much over the past few years; he was 5”4. Jack told Gabby that shortness ran on his mom’s side of the family, and he had evidently picked up that trait. Still, what Henry lacked in size or physical prowess, he more than made up in brains. He had graduated high school three years early and was now attending college in uptown.

“Good morning guys, and sorry I was late,” Henry stammered, catching his breath and scarfing down the first few bites of his food, “I was up a bit late doing a group project for my Engineering class.”

Jack nodded approvingly, still swallowing his food, so Gabby spoke. “I hope they’re not treating you like a kid, since you need to be in bed earlier than them.”

Henry shrugged. “Well, I suppose they teased me a bit at first, but after the first few nights of them staying up partying and having hangovers, they respected me a bit more when I schooled them,” he said proudly.

“Good for you, Henry,” Jack finally said, “I remember having to navigate all the bullying and such when I went to college…though, I was a couple years younger than you when I started, so I suppose I may have had it harder.”

“Well, anyway, they all know I’m smarter than them, so I ended up having to help them out a bit more than I thought I would,” Henry sighed.

“Don’t worry Henry, I’m sure you’ll find someone as smart as you before long,” Jack assured him, “If not, hopefully the new Perfect Friend you ordered will be able to keep up with your intellect.”

“Perhaps,” Henry nodded.

“Oh, by the way, have you two decided on names for your new androids yet?” Jack asked them, “It’s really important, since they need to know what their name is before I can activate them.” Jack had given them until today to decide on names.

“Actually, I think I’ve decided on Anna,” Henry decided, his face flushing, “named after my first crush, if that doesn’t seem too weird.”

“Not at all,” Jack assured him, “and you, Gabby?”

Gabby had thought long and hard about what to name her new Partier android. Considering it was designed to appear Germanic, she limited her selection to only Germanic names. “I think I’ve decided on Nicolette,” Gabby decided, “It sounds pretty.”

“Hey, whatever works,” Jack shrugged, “As for the Housewife android I purchased to take over many of your chores here, I decided to simply name her Gemma, after the actress she’s based on, rather than the android character she played in the 21st century.”

“Oh good, I can’t wait until she can take over,” Gabby sighed. It was true that, now that she was sentient, she found it a little frustrating to be stuck with the same chores she was programmed with before, while she also wanted to branch out and try her own thing. She was planning on expanding the greenhouse, and she couldn’t do that if she was also having to keep their estate neat and tidy. “How come you went for the cheap option and bought a celebrity model?

“Well, I didn’t want to splurge too much, especially with you two getting custom models,” he admitted, “Plus, since I’m only using Gemma for household chores, I didn’t exactly need much…heck, I’m even using the basic personality that her android character had, so she’ll sound stiff and artificial.”

“Well, at least I won’t have anything to be jealous about then,” Gabby laughed, though she was only kidding. Actually, to be honest, after becoming sentient, she discovered that she could alter her jealousy programming.

Before, she was programmed to feel jealous whenever Jack was with any non-family member female, even his androids. After her sentience, though, she realized it was rather silly, and petty, to be jealous of him having the occasionally dalliance with his girls, so she rewrote her own jealousy programming to no longer care…unless he became too attached to one, of course. After all, she knew he loved her deeply, and, as a matter of fact, as soon as she let him have sex with the girls more often, she actually found he was more relaxed and performed better with her.

Jack let out a hearty chuckle. “No worries, there’s no way anyone could replace you.”

Gabby let out a mock sigh and gave him a warm smile. Although she could only speak for herself, Jack always treated her well, even when she was a slave to her programming, so she would never leave him.

“So dear, what were you saying before Henry interrupted us?” Jack asked.

Oh, I’d nearly forgotten,” Gabby blushed, “I was saying that I’d like to expand the greenhouse and start providing even more crops for us, the shop, and the café. The only problem is, I’m gonna need some help.”

Jack appeared to be lost in thought as his brilliant mind considered his options. Gabby liked the way he looked when he was thinking.

“Okay,” he agreed, “The only problem I can see is that with a larger greenhouse, it’ll have to have more sophisticated climate control. I’m a little concerned that the additional heat and humidity might be an issue for your systems.”

Jack was right, she thought. She had experienced a rather scary hardware fault last year while working in the greenhouse because the humidity had short circuited her MCN. After he fixed her, he had to install additional safeguards so that she could continue working in there. “Well, is there anything you can do to compensate?”

“I’ll have to do some research on the matter,” he admitted, “I’m sure people in tropical environments have had to come up with workarounds for this issue. In the meanwhile, we can shop for a few Personal Trainer models, since they were specifically engineered to handle extreme climates for various training purposes.”

“I’ll also need a Secretary model too, to handle the books.”

“That should be easily arranged.”

At that point, Henry finished scarfing down his food. “Sorry to rush through breakfast, but I need to go up and get my room ready for Anna,” he apologized, taking his dirty dishes to the sink and heading to the door, stopping in case they had anything to say.

“Don’t worry about it, Henry,” Jack told him, “And don’t feel rushed, Anna is going to be the last one I finish today since she’ll require the most work.”

“Thanks Jack,” Henry smiled, turning to head upstairs, “Breakfast was extra yummy today, Gabby!” He called back, remembering some of his manners.

“Aww, thanks!” Gabby blushed.

“Sounds like you’d better grow some more dill,” Jack laughed.

“Indeed,” she giggled. They both finished eating and took their dirty dishes to the sink.

“Well, I should head to the lab now, dear,” Jack told her, pecking her cheek, “Cole should be arriving with the shipments pretty soon, and I want to get started on them right away.”

Gabby nodded knowingly. She was sure that if he worked far away, she might be sad that he was leaving for work, but he literally worked a hundred feet below the house, so she could visit him whenever she wanted. “Which android are you going to work on first?”

Jack’s eyes looked to the left as he thought about it. Gabby now found it fascinating to watch humans think, particularly Jack. Even though she was sentient now, she still had quicker thought processes, being a machine and all. She wondered what it was like for them…

Before she could process that last thoroughly and run it through a few simulations, Jack finally decided, though in reality only 4.3 seconds had passed.

“I think I’ll work on Gemma first, so she can start taking over your chores right away.”

“Oh, I’d better send you an updated version of my to-do list then,” Gabby told him, quickly zoning out as she accessed her list, making sure to annotate it with the tasks she still intending on taking care of, such as cooking, doing the dishes, and tending to the houseplants. Once she finished with the notes, she sent it to his workstation through her proprietary link. “Done!”

“Thanks, dear, you’re amazing!” Jack told her, giving her an extra long smooch on the lips before turning to head out, “I love you Gabby!”

“I love you too, Jack!” Gabby called back. A few seconds later, she heard the sound of the holographic wall deactivating and the lift from the house descending into the lab. As soon as the holographic wall shimmered back on, Gabby started doing the dishes, humming a soothing tune while her thought thread processed all the things she’d like to do with her new free time.

Chapter Two: Arrival

Ever since Jack had given Ellie and JB more responsibility with his business, and ever since he’d allowed Rachel to activate the shop staff, Jack started entering the lab from the house entrance, rather than the shop entrance.

Since Ellie and JB lived in the lab full time, and were able to work all hours of the day, the lab was much cleaner and far more organized than it had ever been before. It helped that they were both Perfect Friend models with all the appropriate cleaning algorithms, and that JB was essentially an android duplicate of Jack and knew how he organized things.

Ellie and JB were not currently in the lab, however. One of the new routines Jack had programmed them with was to have them spend the first few hours of each day running an external diagnostic on all staff, so Jack could maintain more accurate benchmarks on them all and mitigate any repairs earlier. However, Jack figured they were most likely standing by in the loading dock with Kat so they could help her bring down the new arrivals.

Jack still worked out in his main work area in the lawn portion of the bunker, though he had converted the kitchen and dining room area of the residence to a small lab where Ellie and JB could work on their own projects. For the most part, Jack had them maintaining his extensive stores of spare parts, as well as reviewing any code that he had written for Spaztec to consider before sending it out.

Jack continued walking through the area, killing some time by performing a cursory inspection of the place. The room Ellie was sleeping in now served as a sort of apartment for her and JB, how essentially acted as a couple now. Jack said acted, because since they weren’t sentient, he knew it was merely Ellie’s programmed attraction for Jack, and JBs programming to keep Ellie off Jack’s privates, keeping them together. Whatever the case, they looked like a couple and acted like a couple, and that’s all Jack cared about.

He finally finished up at his workstation, which had been recently upgraded with the latest computer model, and with additional monitors with a higher resolution. He was glad he was able to afford the new computers now, since the faster computer allowed him to code more quickly, and the higher resolution monitors allowed him to diagnose damage more effectively when clients sent him photos ahead of an appointment.

He pulled up the CCTV of his property and saw that Cole had arrived and was currently offloading his cargo at the dock.

“Right on time, Cole,” Jack muttered, monitoring his progress on the cameras. Ellie and JB were indeed standing by in the dock, waiting to assist Kat. “Good thing we have extra hand trucks,” Jack thought to himself. Cole finally unloaded the three new androids in their shipping containers, as well as a few other boxes that contained some new parts Jack had ordered. After Kat signed for the delivery, Cole drove away and she, Ellie, and JB each took a container on a hand truck and headed for the lift.

Jack took that as his cue to get things ready. He brought up the latest version of his diagnostic terminal on his workstation, and cleared a few things out of the way. By the time he was finished, the lift had descended into the lab. Kat, JB, and Ellie all exited, wheeling a different android container before stopping near the workstation.

“Good morning everyone!” Jack smiled warmly at each of them, “How did the delivery go?”

“Smooth, like always,” Kat boasted. Now that she was running a Mark III Personal Trainer A.I., her personality was far more refined…essentially on par with the sophistication of the Mark II Perfect Friend A.I.

“Excellent!” Jack clapped his hand and rubbed them excitedly.

“Do you still need me for anything, Jack?” Kat asked, since she had a lot of work to do in the loading dock.

“No, you can go, thanks!”

Kat gave him a friendly smile and a curtsy before heading back to the lift and riding it back up.

“Do you need our assistance for any of these?” Ellie asked, once Kat had left.

Ellie looked noticeably fitter than she did when Jack originally received her. That was because the real Ellie had lost about 15lbs while working her new job in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, due to the healthier food choices available, fresher air, and more active lifestyle. She had excitedly sent an updated physical model, in addition to her usual brain scans, for the Christmas update, which Jack was able to modify Ellie-bot’s physical parameters accordingly; Ellie-bot had to buy a whole new wardrobe. Jack, thanks to the Shawn Johnson Personal Trainer android Gabby had gotten him a year ago, was also fitter, and had since updated JB accordingly.

Jack thought about it for a quick second before shaking his head. “No, since these are only going to be used in the house and aren’t for the business, or a client, I think I can handle them on my own.”

Ellie nodded. “Okay, is there anything you’d like us to do?”

“Yeah, since we got some new spare parts, I’d like you to redo the inventory and then conduct routine maintenance on the already existing stock.”

“Oh goodie! That should keep us occupied for a few hours,” she said excitedly.

Jack laughed. “Well, you two better get on it. I’ve got things more or less covered here, but I’ll let you know if I need any assistance.”

Ellie and JB nodded and then headed into the residence hand-in-hand, both of them also carrying a small box of spare parts that had arrived in the morning shipment that had been strapped on to the top of two of the android containers.

Jack was glad they were androids and didn’t mind working on that menial task. Last year, Jack had decided to purchase a spare set of hands and feet for all androids, and a spare set of vaginal modules for the Kaley trio. Since hands and feet were the most common components to receive damage, even in humans, he felt it would be prudent to keep a few spares lying around in case, for example, Kat dropped a heavy pallet and crushed her foot. Accidents to happen, even with androids.

That being said, one could not simply store them in some room and forget about them. They had to be regularly maintained so they would be ready to go at a moment’s notice. They had to have static build up removed, the skin moisturized, and even have their motor systems tested so they didn’t become permanently stiff. It was for these reasons that Jack left that to Ellie and JB, because it could take hours, and was quite tedious. Jack was considering buying everyone a spare head, as well, with this year’s increase in profits, but it was very low on his list of priorities.

Once Ellie and JB were gone, Jack quickly looked at each of the boxes, placed an even distance from one another, and exactly as far away as Jack preferred them to be; he’d trained them all well.

Since the androids hadn’t been named ahead of time, the boxes were merely labeled with the model type of each android contained within. Since Jack was planning on working on Gemma first, he approached the container labeled Housewife model Mark II, along with a ridiculously long serial number, and pressed his hand on the security pad. Once it unlocked and unsealed, he gently lifted Gemma out of the container and laid her on his examination table.

“Alright Gemma, let’s get started.”

Chapter Three: Gemma

Gemma was built with the appearance of a 21st century actress named Gemma Chan, a British multi-racial woman who was predominantly Chinese. In this case, how she appeared when she was in her 30s.

The main reason Jack selected her appearance, over hundreds of others, was that Gemma Chan had portrayed an android housekeeper in a British television series, amongst other things, and Jack had an affinity for actresses who played androids. After all, he had selected Gabby’s appearance off actress Gabrielle Miller, who had played two androids.

It also helped that selecting a celebrity model was cheaper and, since he only needed her to take over about 80% of Gabby’s chores and tasks around the house, he didn’t feel the need to splurge.

He began by taking off the default underwear that new androids were typically shipped with. Once he had her nude, he tapped her abdomen and opened up her primary maintenance panel via the subdermal controls. Once he set aside the skin panel, he peered inside to see what he was dealing with.

Although most androids, particularly the celebrity models, were standardized in terms of their parts and components, they did have subtle differences depending on the height, weight, and body type of the person they were modeled after. A heavier set actress might be given weights to make them weigh appropriately, and skinnier ones might get skimped out a bit on processing power.

In Gemma’s case, standing at 5’9”, she was of above average height for a woman, especially when you took her Chinese appearance into consideration. Taller androids, such as Kat, could potentially suffer from lower structure issues due to additional weight, but fortunately Gemma had a fairly modest breast size, and a slender figure. She also had a larger than average foot size, size 9, so that would also help.

Jack nodded approvingly as he checked her internals, seeing only a couple of things he would definitely be upgrading with a better model. He made a mental note of them and then sat back down at his workstation to begin the process of customizing her. Once he had established a wireless link to her A.I. core, he began working.

Since Gabby was the only true wife he’d ever need, he did not need Gemma to have everything that a Housewife model had to offer. Jack had actually done something similar to Luiza when he had initially reprogrammed her, since he needed her to cook, but not be jealous or promiscuous.

Jack started by immediately disabling Gemma’s jealousy programs, as well as her sexual programs, seduction programs, spousal programs, and friendship programs. This immediately freed up a considerable amount of resources, essentially providing Gemma with more processing power for her remaining tasks, and more battery life.

Even though Gabby said she would still be doing the cooking, Jack did leave Gemma’s cooking programs intact, though he did not enhance them with any advanced programming like he had with Luiza and Gabby, since she would only be cooking basic meals for Henry if Jack and Gabby were too busy.

Jack installed the same parental programs that Gabby had, since she would still essentially be serving as a nanny for Henry, even though Henry was old enough to watch himself. Jack was still protective of him after all. He even installed a set of basic home security programs, so Gemma could keep the house safe. Gina was doing an awesome job, but it didn’t hurt to be safe.

Once Jack had finished customizing what programs and packages she would be using, he moved on to her personality. Since he was going to be using her as a maid, he decided to program her with the same bland, robotic sounding personality that the android Gemma Chan had played, Anita, had.

Fortunately, the Anita personality was actually an available personality to choose from, since it was one of the characters she played through her life, though he did have to pay for it. He paid for it using some stored-up credit from his recent freelance endeavors, and installed it as her primary, but not sole personality. He had decided a while back to set her up with two personalities, the other of which would be a more human like one. This was in case Jack and Gabby ever needed to send her into town to do some shopping, so she could interact with people more naturally.

He programmed her to use the default Anita personality whenever she was on Jack’s property, which was the personality reprogrammed into the character after she was reprogrammed, but to switch over to the Mia personality, which was the character’s true personality, whenever she was around other people. He felt that the same duality the character had would serve him fairly well, and it would be interesting to see as well.

Once he had the proper programming set up for her dual-personality configuration, he ran a quick update on her A.I. and installed the dozen or so small updates that had been released since she was shipped from the fulfillment center.

While she installed the updates, Jack swapped out the handful of components he felt like upgrading: a handful of sub-processors, fuses, and her stomach. Just as with most of his androids, Jack didn’t plan on having Gemma eat, however he did replace her stomach with the basic one that Personal Trainer models use so she could at least drink water and replenish her perspiration tanks.

As soon as he finished the hardware swapping, he reattached her panel just as she finished installing the updates.

“Alright, Gemma, let’s turn you on.” Jack brought up the subdermal control panel once more on her abdomen and tapped the power icon. His trained ears picked up the new android sounds as she booted up for the very first time before she opened her eyes and sat up on the table. Her eyes briefly scanned the area until they focused on Jack, her registered owner.

“Hello Jack, I am your new Spaztec Housewife model android!” she greeted him cheerfully, using Gemma Chan’s default British accent, “Since this is my first registered activation, I do not yet have a name. Could you please provide me with one now so we can complete my registration?”

“Yes. Your name is Gemma,” Jack told her.

Gemma nodded kindly and then zoned out as she officially registered her name. Once she finished, she smiled, “Thank you, Gemma is a pretty name.”

Jack smiled politely, knowing that was merely a default response that androids provided when given their name, since it put their new owner at ease and boosted their confidence a little.

“I am detecting different hardware since I was tested at the fulfillment center,” she then reported with a confused look, “I have also received a few updates, and have had several programs deactivated. Would you like me to reactivate the programs?”

“No, they were deactivated intentionally,” Jack told her, quickly flashing his technician badge.

Once she had the opportunity to scan it, she nodded. “Very well, since you are both my owner, and a registered technician, I will keep everything the way it currently is.”

“Excellent,” Jack smiled, putting his badge away, “Now, I can tell that you are obviously using your registration personality…could you please load into the default personality that I have programmed you with?”

“Right away,” she nodded, giving him one last smile before switching to the Anita personality profile. Since the Anita personality profile was even blanker than the default first-activation personality, the changeover was immediate. “Anita personality loaded.”

“Good,” Jack nodded, admiring the sort of blank smile she now had on her face. The only difference between her and the character she played was that her eyes were the normal shade of brown inherent to Gemma Chan, as opposed to the vivid green that clearly indicated her character’s status as an android. Jack had considered paying for that option, but ultimately decided against it.

“Gemma, please step down from the examination table and do a quick lap around the lab.”

“At once, Jack,” she smiled politely. She gracefully dropped to her feet from the table and walked a single lap around the lab. Jack noted that she walked rather stiffly and robotically, just as her Anita personality was supposed to. Once she finished the lap, she returned to the table and stood at attention.

“Thank you, Gemma. Please switch to your Mia personality.”

She bowed her head politely. “Yes sir.” She briefly zoned out as she switched personalities, coming back moments later in her more human like Mia personality. The effect was immediately noticeable, since her face came to life with more human mannerisms, such as blinking and curiosity. Her entire body posture also relaxed, and he noticed she was shifting her weight from foot to foot like a normal human might.

Jack was truly astonished at how he could program an android to have a duel-personality. He’d actually done something similar for a client a few years back, though in that case it was because the client had a mood disorder, and the different personalities switched when they detected a change in his moods. An interesting fact was that one of the key selling points of Partier models was that they had a more fluid personality core, so they could sometimes run dozens of different personalities simultaneously to accommodate multiple clients. That being said, the other four models could run multiple personalities as well, though just not as effectively.

“How are you feeling now, Gemma?”

“I feel fine, Jack, thanks for asking,” she smiled warmly; clearly some of her Housewife algorithms were still imprinting on him.

“Good, and I want to confirm with you that you are programmed to switch to the Mia personality when you are either away from home, or instructed to do so.”

“That’s correct, Jack,” she nodded, “I am also programmed to activate more social programs while using the Mia personality as well.”

“Ah, thanks for confirming,” he told her, since he had also customized the programs that would run with each personality. The Anita personality would use far less, allowing her to focus only on her cleaning tasks, so she could work more efficiently.

Jack continued with his assessment of Gemma. “Gemma, could you please walk a quick lap around the lab?”

“Of course,” she smiled kindly, proceeding to walk around the lab. Unlike with the Anita personality, the Mia personality walked more femininely, by swaying her hips and swinging her arms. When she returned to the starting point, she asked, “Was that satisfactory?”

“Very much so, thanks,” Jack assured her, monitoring her on his terminal and finding no errors or glitches in her programming, “Alright, I’d like you to switch back to the Anita personality until either of the programming cues to switch back to Mia occurs.”

“Very well,” Gemma nodded, her face going blank as she switched back to the default Anita personality. Once the vapid smile returned to her face, and her body stiffened up more robotically, she silently awaited Jack’s next order.

Jack merely nodded, doing a quick check of her systems on his terminal to see if he’d missed anything. The only thing he’d missed was her parental controls, so he enabled them and then placed his terminal into standby mode.

“Alright, Gemma, I think we’re done here.” Jack got up from his desk and approached her, briefly admiring her nude body, “I should have some clothes for you in the residence, if you’ll follow me.”

“Certainly, Jack,” she smiled politely, efficiently following him the short distance into the residence.

Jack led her to one of the bedrooms in the residence that had been previously occupied by a few of Jack’s pet projects, but was now used to store all sorts of clothes that Jack dressed his androids in. “I’m assuming you know what size you are?”

“That’s correct.”

“Good,” he sighed, “I should have at least one of every major women’s size in here. Just dress in something somewhere between business casual and casual,” he told her, then clarified, “Remember, you’ll be cleaning around the house, and in the yard, so it also needs to be something that can get dirty.”

“I understand.”

“Good. I’m going to go check in on JB and Ellie,” he told her, turning towards the door, “Just meet me back in the kitchen of this residence when you’re dressed.”

“Certainly.”

Jack felt confident that Gemma would pick appropriate attire, so he left her alone and headed to the kitchen storage room, where JB and Ellie were working on the spare android parts. When he walked in, Ellie happened to be working on the spare set of her own feet, and JB was working on what looked like Amber’s spare hands.

“Oh, hey Jack, what brings you in here?” Ellie asked cheerfully, continuing to rub her spare feet with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and moisturizer.

“Just checking in, killing some time while Gemma chooses her outfit,” Jack shrugged, “How’s it going in here?”

“Fine and dandy!” Ellie replied cheerfully.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s good to hear. I’m glad you guys don’t mind doing this, because I’d get bored really quick.”

“Well, that’s one of the advantages to being an android, I suppose,” JB shrugged, finishing with Amber’s spare hands and moving to what looked like either Varsha or Rahkee’s.

“You’re right, well, anyway, once Gemma is clothed, I’m gonna take her upstairs so Gabby can officially pass off most of her responsibilities,” Jack told them, getting ready to return to the kitchen, “I don’t think I’ll be gone for more than 10-15 minutes, but just monitor the incoming transmissions while I’m gone, just in case.”

“Will do,” JB nodded dutifully, while Ellie goofily waved with her own spare feet.

Jack smiled and closed the door to give them some privacy, slowly returning to the kitchen, where Gemma was waiting.

“Ah good, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting for too long,” Jack apologized, quickly scrutinizing her outfit. She had dressed herself in a pair of black sneakers with white calf socks, along with a pair of grey slacks and a dark blue polo shirt.

“I was only waiting for 15-seconds,” she responded kindly, “I hope my outfit is acceptable.”

“Well, I’m sure Gabby might be able to buy you something better,” Jack admitted, not too keen on her outfit, “but, given the limited choices you had available, this outfit will do for now.”

“Gabby is your wife, correct?” Gemma asked, confirming the knowledge pre-programmed into her.

“Oh, yes, sorry…Gabby is short for Gabrielle.” He’d programmed in Gabby’s full name, but not her nickname.

“That’s what I thought,” Gemma nodded, zoning out as she amended her programming, “I have saved Gabby as Gabrielle Brown’s preferred name.”

“Good, now let’s go up and meet her.” Gemma said nothing, but silently followed Jack to the lift leading into his house.

---

Gabby was just finishing up with tidying up the kitchen and dining area when she heard the lift ascending back up to the house.

“Huh, that was slightly quicker than I expected,” she said aloud, quickening her pace a little so she would be ready to meet the new Housewife android that would be taking over much of her chores.

Just as she finished washing her hands and starting the dishwasher, Jack and the new android walked in. Aside from the obvious fact that Jack simply wouldn’t bring a human woman into the house without telling her first, the main reason Gabby instantly knew that the new woman was an android was because, as a Housewife android herself, Gabby could detect the subtle NFC communication ping emitting from her, and she could detect the other android briefly detecting her own NFC ping.

“Ah, Jack, I didn’t expect you back so quickly,” Gabby admitted, activating the appropriate responses to make her cheeks blush, “I take it this is my replacement.” Jack knew that she knew, of course, but she was still polite.

“Yes, dear, this is Gemma,” he announced, “and only for cleaning and chores,” he pointed out with a laugh.

“I know dear, I’m just teasing,” Gabby smiled warmly, extending her hand, “Hello Gemma, my name’s Gabby.”

“Short for Gabrielle, I’m aware.” Gemma responded, taking Gabby’s hand and shaking it, “I wasn’t aware you were a fellow Housewife model,” she said with a confused look.

Gabby was about to respond before Jack cut in.

“Ah, well, I’ve had Gabby for a while and have given her numerous experimental upgrades, so she’s practically human…at least, I think so.”

“Indeed,” Gabby agreed, somewhat awkwardly. Jack was still a little paranoid that Gabby’s somewhat semi-legal condition would be discovered, so he tended to play off her sentience. She found it kind of amusing, to be honest, but she appreciated his concern for her. “I hope my being an android won’t affect our relationship.”

“Not at all,” Gemma responded assuringly, “You and Jack are listed as my primary owners, with Henry listed as a dependent. That is all my programming requires.”

Gabby sighed with relief, mostly for Jack’s sake. “Well, now that you know, I can give you remote access to my daily task list so we can coordinate our tasks more efficiently.” Gabby sent Gemma a quick request through their NFC link, which Gemma quickly granted.

“Thank you, Gabby, I am now connected to your task list.”

“Is she supposed to be this blank and robotic?” Gabby whispered to Jack, with a confused look on her face.

“Oh, yes,” he told her excitedly, “See, Gemma is based on on actress who played an android in a TV show that had two personalities, one servile, and the other more human,” he explained, “Right now, she’s running the servile Anita personality as default, but can switch to the more human like Mia personality on command or if she departs the property.”

“Huh, that sounds cool,” Gabby admitted, “I’ll have to test that out while I’m showing her around later.”

“Feel free,” Jack told her eagerly, “Anyway, her clothes are from my storage room, so you may want to take her into town and buy her some more clothes.”

“Actually, I was already planning on going into town later,” Gabby admitted, having already formed a shopping list, including a new hairbrush for Jack, “But, I want to wait until Nicolette’s ready so I can buy her stuff too.”

Jack nodded. “That makes sense…but, what about Henry and his new Anna android?”

“Well, Henry can drive now, so he can take his own car into town with Anna,” Gabby responded, “Besides, I’m sure he’d appreciate being able to go by himself,” Gabby winked.

“Ah, I see,” Jack nodded knowingly.

“Well, now that I’m linked to Gemma, I think I’d like to take her on a tour of the property now,” Gabby announced.

“Very well,” Jack nodded, “I’ll head down and get Nicolette ready then,” he smiled, “I should have her ready to go in about an hour or so. How long do you think the tour will last?”

Gabby thought about that for a second, or rather, milliseconds. “We should be done in around the same time,” she determined, “depending on Gemma’s processing speed, of course.”

Jack chuckled at that. “Well, she is running better than average hardware,” Jack admitted, “though, keep in mind, her processing speed should be better in her Anita personality, since she isn’t running as many programs.”

“Good to know. Have fun, honey,” Gabby said, giving him a loving kiss on the lips before leading Gemma out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Jack watched Gabby patiently explain to Gemma what she did in terms of cleaning and maintenance for nearly a minute before sighing contentedly and heading back to the lift.

Chapter Four: Nicolette

Jack arrived back in his lab moments later, not bothering to alert JB and Ellie that he had returned; they were connected to the motion sensors, so they already knew.

As soon as he returned to his workstation, he woke it back up and then turned to the remaining two unopened android containers. One of the two was noticeably shorter than the other, since it contained Henry’s Perfect Friend android. Jack instead walked to the box labeled Partier model, pressed his palm on the security pad, and stood back as it opened up.

The android inside, which Gabby was naming Nicolette, was based on an average sized German woman in her early-to-mid-thirties, with dark brown hair in a pixie cut. Strictly speaking, she was not technically a custom model, since she was actually based on the appearance of a little know German actress named Nicolette Krebitz. The only reason she was considered a custom model was because that actress was not in Spaztec’s celebrity database, but was available in 3rd party databases.

Jack chuckled as he lifted Nicolette free from the packing mold and laid her down on the table. Gabby obviously knew of Jack’s tendency to choose models who had played androids in various forms of media, and this actress had played one in a short film. One of the things she did retain of her Spaztec programming was her shrewd seductiveness, and since one of the key selling points for Partier models was that they were designed for sexual activity as a part of partying, he figured Gabby intended on using Nicolette for the occasional threesome.

Once Jack slid off Nicolette’s underwear, he activated the subdermal controls on her abdomen and opened her primary access panel, laying the patch of skin on the usual side table before sitting down at his workstation and wirelessly accessing her A.I core.

Unlike with Gemma, Jack didn’t need to perform any major modifications to Nicolette’s programming, since Gabby would actually be using Nicolette for her intended purpose. As such, he merely installed the few updates that had been released since she was shipped from the fulfillment center, and then began configuring her.

Since Jack knew that Nicolette would likely be for him as well, he listed both him and Gabby as primary owners. He also configured Nicolette so she would be bisexual, in case Gabby felt like having sex with her; Gabby had changed her own settings after achieving sentience so she too could be bisexual. Finally, he configured her parental controls so Henry couldn’t play around with her.

The last programming bit he did was to select her personality. Although she was based physically on a real person, because it was a lesser known person, there was no available personality profile, so one needed to be selected. Gabby was still fairly new to her sentience, so she wasn’t sure what personality to pick, so she asked for Jack’s assistance. Deciding to simplify things a bit, he merely copied Gabby’s default personality profile and then made a few choice tweaks. He increased her playfulness, assertiveness, and confidence, while decreasing her inhibitions slightly.

Jack was no personality author, a job that would fetch him a ton of money, but he felt confident that Gabby would be satisfied with the job he’d done. He’d actually considered training to be a personality author, but the advanced psychology courses were far too advanced for his skill set.

Once he had all her programming and settings saved, he decided to turn her on, though he also decided to leave her panel detached. That would be necessary for the few tests he’d need to run on her.

Since her panel was detached, he activated her instead using the power toggle on her core itself. He admired it purring to life as soon as he pressed the button, literally billions of codes running through it at once as it powered on for the first time. Finally, it completed its first run startup sequence and Nicolette activated.

She quickly opened both brown eyes, focusing them on Jack before sitting up and swing her legs over the edge of the table. “Hello, Jack, I’m your new Partier model android! Please provide with a name so I can finalize the registration process.” She spoke with a perfect German accent, as Gabby had requested.

“Of course,” Jack nodded, “Your primary owner, Gabrielle “Gabby” Brown has decided to name you Nicolette,” he told her, making sure to spell the name, since it was a European name.

Nicolette gave him a polite smile and then zoned out as her systems registered her name. “Ah, Nicolette is such a lovely name, thank you.”

Jack once again smiled politely in return, knowing that was merely a pre-programmed response that she would have given even if he’d given her a less ‘lovely’ name, such as Bozo, or Brunhild. It was slightly different from the response that Gemma had given, but they were programmed to use random responses.

“I want to confirm that you are currently running the Nicolette personality,” he told her, “It’s a custom configuration, so let me know if you experience any bugs.”

“I am currently running the Nicolette personality,” she confirmed, “and I will monitor it for any issues.”

“Good.” Jack smiled, “now, in case you were wondering, I left your primary access panel off because I need to run a few tests on you to ensure that all your systems are capable of handling themselves under potential strain.”

Nicolette looked down at her abdomen and the open panel and shrugged. “You are listed as my secondary owner, and a licensed technician, so I do not question my panel being removed.”

“Good,” he smiled, sighing with relief; some androids could give him the 3rd degree sometimes. “For starters, you’re going to be one of very few of my androids that I allow to eat and drink, so I’m going to have to run a stress test and benchmark to make sure there aren’t any issues.”

“I’m honored,” Nicolette smiled.

“Fortunately, it happens to be my usual lunch time,” Jack continued, looking at the clock and seeing it was already about noon, “that means I won’t feel awkward eating alone in front of you.” He reached down to the mini fridge near his chair and pulled out a sandwich, and a soda, and a small box. Jack quickly took a bite of the sandwich, which was leftover turkey from Gabby’s Christmas feast, and then opened the box for Nicolette. Inside the box was a series of peppers, each in a plastic bag with a number scrawled on them.

“Are these for me?” Nicolette asked excitedly, leaning in for a closer look.

“Yes, this is a common test I perform on any androids that can eat, particularly Partier models such as yourself,” Jack explained, taking one of the small baggies and verifying the number on it, “Most androids have no difficulty with the basic foods a human might eat, such as meat, bread, fruits, and veggies…but, just as with humans, they can experience difficulty with spicy foods, which are common at parties.”

“And you would like me to sample these, I assume?”

“Yes, but mostly to calibrate your safety systems,” he confirmed, “Basically, if your systems can’t handle a certain pepper, we’ll stop, and I want you to avoid anything of that level of spiciness in the future.”

“I see,” she nodded understandingly, “you are testing to see if my safeties are functioning properly.”

“Exactly,” he smiled, handing her the bag, “this one is a jalapeño, and should be the least spicy of these choices.”

Nicolette merely nodded as she delicately opened the bag and popped the jalapeño slices into her mouth, chewing on them for a few moments before swallowing. Jack, in the meanwhile, monitored her digestion read outs on his terminal, periodically taking bites of his sandwich and sips of his soda.

Since Jack had so few androids that he allowed to eat, he always found it interesting to monitor their systems when they did. For the most part, androids were designed to handle food like a human would. Their tongues had sophisticated sensors, like taste buds, that could process taste, so they could actually taste and enjoy their food. It came in particularly handy with Housewife models, since they needed to be able to taste the food that they were cooking to make sure it was coming out right.

Once they swallowed, the food ended up in their stomachs, which were expandable plastic bags with the same acid content as a human stomach. The food then digested and became energy, while the waste was expelled safely, the indigestible contents converted into a sort of biodegradable plastic sheath that surrounding the waste to allow it to exit the android cleanly.

Also, just like with humans, the androids could essentially get an upset stomach, though in their case, excess food, or a higher than normal acid content, could instead rupture the stomach, instead of causing pain or discomfort. This would, of course, cause major internal damage to the android, which was why Jack stress tested them with various spices, since each android was a little different.

Jack was pleased as he monitored the spicy sensors light up on the digital display reading of her tongue that he had pulled up open his monitor, and then he saw the acid content rise slightly as the jalapeños dropped into her stomach and released their acid. Fortunately, since the jalapeños were fairly weak, the acid content quickly equalized.

“Very good, Nicolette,” Jack congratulated her, “Try the pepper labeled #2; it should be a serrano.”

Nicolette nodded as she delicately removed the serrano pepper from its bag and popped it into her mouth, chewing on it for several seconds before swallowing it. More spicy sensors lit up on her tongue display, almost like a small fire, before returning to normal as her artificial saliva neutralized the PH of her tongue. The acid content in her stomach also shot up drastically before settling back down to normal levels.

So far, the benchmark was going well. After the Mark I Partier androids had issues with them spicy foods common in bars, Spaztec had introduced several safety features to mitigate any further issues. Notably, they had a special antacid mixed into their saliva to cool off their tongues, and then to neutralize their stomach upon swallowing it. Depending on the options you selected for your android, they could potentially handle even the hottest spices.

Jack waited roughly two minutes in between each pepper, to allow her systems to adequately reset themselves. The next peppers were a cayenne, then two different habaneros, and finally a ghost pepper.

As soon as she bit into the ghost pepper, she recoiled and immediately spat it back out.

“Too spicy?” Jack smiled approvingly, noting that on her benchmarks.

“Yes, my safeties kicked in,” she confirmed, wiping her hands off.

“That’s good,” Jack nodded. He’d expected her safeties to kick in around this point. It was a possible to purchase a tongue, and stomach, for androids that could handle peppers up to 2.5x spicier than a ghost pepper, but not only were the extremely expensive, they were also unnecessary and required constant maintenance. “I’m glad your safeties kicked in, but I’d still like you to swallow the pepper and bypass your safeties,” he told her, “no need to chew it, though,” he added, since that would reduce the strain on her tongue sensors.

Nicolette zoned out momentarily as she acknowledged Jack’s command to temporarily disengage her safeties. This was the exact thing Jack usually recommended his clients not do, but since this was a stress test, it was necessary. Once she logged the command, she popped the pepper, which had already been partially chewed, into her mouth and swallowed it whole.

Jack observed her tongue sensors go all red, until her saliva slowly neutralized it. Unfortunately, her stomach was having more trouble. After several seconds of seeing no improvement, Jack sighed and pulled a small bottle of antacid from his desk. He took a pill and and handed it to Nicolette, who quickly swallowed it. The single antacid reduced the buildup by 60%, so Jack gave her one more, which returned her to normal.

“Alright Nicolette, that was a good stress test for spicy foods,” Jack sighed with relief, glad that no permanent damage resulted from the test. He got up and opened his alcohol cabinet this time, pulling out several glass jars filled with reclaimed alcohol from the various Partier models he’d repaired over the years. “Now, it’s time to test your alcohol systems,” he added excitedly.

“Ooh, the fun part!” Nicolette clapped, licking her lips.

After Jack had gathered several jars filled with various spirits, he pulled a can of beer from the mini fridge, along with a single serve container of both red and white wine.

“Okay, for this test we’ll be simulating a typical bar experience,” Jack explained, pouring the various spirits into shot glasses, “I’ll be making small talk and telling you about my personal life, and you’ll be schmoozing and drinking the alcohol until there’s none left.”

“Would you like me to disable my drunkenness simulator?” She offered.

“No. That’s part of what I’m testing right now.”

“Oh, okay,” she blushed.

“Not to worry,” Jack assured her. He poured himself a glass of one of the whiskey drinks and held it out to Nicolette, who promptly picked up a shot glass and clinked it. “Well, let’s get started.”

Over the next half hour, Jack gave Nicolette a brief history of himself, and the small business, and even about how he’d essentially made Gabby sentient. Unlike with Gemma, Nicolette was Gabby’s android, so he felt safer disclosing that information. Nicolette skillfully inserted herself at various times, asking questions and offering advice.

By the time she finished all the drinks, her drunkenness simulator had maxed out at the current maximum of a .20 BAC. If not for the maximum BAC, and the fact that she was an android, she’d likely be more than double that, given the amount she’d had to drink, the minimal food she’d eaten, and her size.

Jack always found it fascinating that the geniuses at Spaztec were always improving the drunkenness simulator. At the moment, Nicolette was slurring her words, swaying on her feet, and giggling uncontrollably at Jack’s lame jokes; even her skin was reacting, with a slightly pale complexion and excessive perspiring.

“Alright Nicolette, you can reset your BAC back down to zero now,” he told her, satisfied with the results of the test, “Oh, and can you prepare to evacuate all the liquid you just drank?”

Nicolette gave him a mock salute, still simulating drunkenness, before her whole posture returned to sober levels. Jack then heard the sound of her digestive system kicking into high gear as she drained the liquids from her stomach, leaving only the peppers, and fast tracked them through the waste extraction systems. While she did that, Jack prepared a small bucket.

A few moments later, the sounds stopped. “Alright Jack, I’m ready to evacuate.”

Jack placed the bucket near her groin and said, “Go ahead.”

Nicolette nodded and then began to literally pee the mixture of alcohol that she had just been drinking into the bucket that Jack was holding near her groin. While it seemed a little disgusting to have her pee out the alcohol, it was easier than doing it from her stomach itself, since it would contain the stomach acid too. This had an additional affect of testing her waste extraction systems, since it was something that needed to be done anyway.

Once she was completed extracting all the alcohol from her body, Jack handed her a napkin so she could wipe herself dry, and then instructed her to sit back down while he looked excitedly at the contents of the bucket. “I’ll be honest with you, Nicolette, normally I wouldn’t have an android drink that much alcohol for a test, but I wanted to test my new toy out,” he told her, rubbing his hands excitedly as he reached back into the alcohol cabinet and pulled out a large device. Unlike the device that he’d shown Ellie a year or so back, this one looked newer and slightly larger.

“Oooh, what’s that?” Nicolette asked curiously.

“An alcohol reclaimer,” he answered, “I bought this new version as a Christmas present for myself, and have been looking forward to testing it.” He turned it on and then slowly poured the bucket into the top receptacle, watching excitedly as it filtered the various alcohols into separate glass jars, and even labeled them.

“What’s different about this one?”

“This one works a little faster, has a label maker, and a more advanced filter,” he told her, pouring the contents of the old jars in so the new device could sort them into clean glasses. Once it was done, he closed the new jars and placed them into the alcohol cabinet, along with the reclaimer. “See, that worked more than twice as fast.”

Nicolette shrugged, “Well, since I haven’t seen the original work, I’ll take your word for it.”

Jack chose not to respond to that, instead walking over to Nicolette and peering into her open panel, focusing on her stomach and waste extraction systems. He could see the peppers she had eaten dissolving slowly in her stomach, and he observed no signs of leaks or damage, so he picked up her panel and clicked it back in place.

“Alright, I think we’re done here,” Jack announced, grabbing Nicolette’s hand so she could step back down, “I’ll take you to my clothing storage so you can get dressed.”

“Thank you,” she replied, quickly following him into the residence.

Once they arrived in the clothing storage, Jack instructed her to get dressed in something casual, since she was going out shopping with Gabby right after anyway. He chose not to check in on JB and Ellie this time, since he didn’t want to distract them from their task. When Nicolette was finally finished, she was wearing a pair of black leggings, with a grey shirt, and slip on shoes with ankle socks.

She presented herself to him upon dressing. “Is this adequate?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “it’ll do, considering your going into town soon to get new clothes anyway.”

“I look forward to it,” she told him excitedly.

“Well, let’s go up and introduce you to your owner then.” Nicolette nodded and followed him to the lift. At the same time, he pressed the call button on the lift, he tapped an icon on his watch, sending Gabby a silent alert that he was coming up.

---

Gabby was just finishing up with showing Gemma the rather large yards that she would now be responsibility for tending to on a weekly basis, when her A.I received a silent alert from Jack’s watch. She smiled contentedly…he was so dependable.

“Alright, Gemma, I’m afraid that’s all we have time for right now…Jack’s ready with Nicolette.”

“Understood,” Gemma nodded politely, following Gabby back into the house; while Gabby had tested switching Gemma’s personalities, she found it easier to train Gemma while using the basic Anita personality, so she kept her in it.

Gabby met up with Jack in the living room shortly after he and Nicolette had come up from the lab. Gabby was pleased with the appearance of Nicolette, since she had other things in mind when selecting her, but was not too pleased with her selection in clothing. She made a note in her digital to-do list to provide Jack with better clothes for his girls to put on their first time.

“So, how’s Nicolette?” Gabby asked in a playful voice.

“She’s running smoothly…it’s a good thing I allotted a good budget for you and Henry to choose,” Jack said proudly, absently patting Nicolette’s shoulder, “It’s much nicer working on androids with better hardware.”

“And, how did your new toy work?” Gabby continued, referring to the reclaimer.

“Oh, it was excellent!” He told her, “I let Nicolette drink a lot more than I typically would, and this thing still sorted everything out in less than half the time!”

Seeing Jack’s almost childlike reaction to his new alcohol reclaimer made Gabby feel warm inside. It was a simple feeling mimicked by her emotional systems, but it felt real to her at least.

“He also fed me some hot peppers,” Nicolette added.

“Yeah, the usual stress test, right?” Gabby asked.

“Yes,” Jack confirmed, “As I had anticipated, she can handle just about anything between a bell pepper and a ghost pepper with no issues.”

“Wow, that’s just about as good as my stomach,” Gabby said with an impressed look. Jack, out of love and an intense desire for her safety, had upgraded her stomach so she could handle up to 1.1x the intensity of a ghost pepper.

“Yeah, these Partier models need to be able to handle a lot, after all,” he laughed, “But, anyways, she obviously extracted all the alcohol and reset her drunk sim, but she is still digesting the peppers for her fusion reactor, so don’t let her eat anything spicy for the rest of the day.”

“Okay,” Gabby nodded seriously. In the previous year, she’d been allowed to choose her own meal at a restaurant and had inadvertently chosen one that her body couldn’t quite handle. After Jack fixed her up, she always made sure to remember her own hardware’s limits and ran multiple diagnostics before, during, and after meals.

Gabby quickly looked over both Gemma and Nicolette, making sure there was nothing wrong with them, before grabbing her purse from the nearby wall rack. “Well, unless there’s anything else you need to impart on me, I think we’ll be off now.”

“I think I’ve taken care of everything so far,” Jack shrugged, I’ll be working on Anna for a while anyway, since she needs far more work done than these two did.”

Gabby rolled her eyes sarcastically up towards Henry’s room. “Wow, he does grow fast, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, it seems only yesterday he was a little boy that we took in.” Jack remembered fondly.

“Well, you have fun with his android…but not too much fun,” Gabby smiled, “Remember, it’s for Henry, not for you.”

“I will,” Jack said, mock sighing, “you girls have fun too.”

“We will.” Gabby gave Jack a passionate kiss before heading out to her car with Gemma and Nicolette.

Jack watched them pull out of the driveway and head down the road before heading back down to his lab.

Chapter Five: Anna

Jack arrived back in his lab moments later, once again allowing JB and Ellie to continue their work. After he woke his terminal back up, he walked over to the last remaining box, which was nearly a foot shorter, and opened it.

Nestled inside was a Perfect Friend android modeled after a young woman in her early twenties. She had long, brown hair that was currently tied into a ponytail, and a creamy complexion. Unlike the other two androids, Henry had actually spent a little extra to have her shipped with clothing, so she was wearing the latest in girl’s fashion: a blue floral dress that went to her knees, with a dark blue sweater over it, and a simple pair of flats.

Another thing that distinguished her from the other two androids, and all of Jack’s androids, was that she was very short and small figured. Jack wasn’t too surprised that Henry had chosen to make his android this short, since he too had a similar figure.

The good thing about having such a petite android was that Jack didn’t even have to use his power amplification brace to lift her out. His strength alone was enough to pull her free of the packing mold and over to the examination table.

Since she was fully clothed, Jack decided to leave her clothes on until he activated her, since it would be easier for her to remove them. He did, however, pull her dress up so he could access her primary access panel, tapping the smaller sub-dermal controls and placing the section of skin on the side table. Once he connected to her core wirelessly, he installed the updates that had been released since she was shipped from the fulfillment center and then ran a quick diagnostic on her configuration.

Since Henry knew exactly what he wanted Anna for, he had already selected a custom personality for her to run, and had selected Jack as her primary owner, since Henry was still not old enough to legally own her. Anna was also going to have custom memories installed. Apparently, Henry was pen pals with several people with whom he’d either played online games with, or tutored at school, so he had actually used the randomizer that Spaztec provided to randomly morph their appearances into what the Anna android now looked like, and had also merged the best parts of their personalities, and even their memories.

Naturally, for these reasons, Anna had cost the most, but since it was Henry’s first android, Jack was willing to splurge. Another reason was that once Henry graduated from the local college at the end of the year, he was going to be attending a more prestigious school in Washington state, which meant he would have to stay at a dorm room. Jack and Henry thought it would be best if he had a Perfect Friend android to keep him company in the dorms, since it was extremely unlikely that he’d find a human companion.

The reason Anna was saved for last was because Jack needed to do the most work on her. One, he was going to upgrade her to a Mark III A.I; this was actually a surprise gift Jack was adding to her. Two, he was going to neuter her by replacing her vagina with a flesh mound, due to parental control laws. And three, he needed to install additional memory expansion modules for the extra programs Henry had requested. He was also going to program the core so it could function in other androids, but leave the code disabled until Henry’s 18th birthday as a present, along with the activation of Anna’s sexual programs.

Once the small updates completed, Jack was finally able to begin the installation of the Mark III files; he always made sure the core was up-to-date first. Since the Mark III A.I was nearing completion, it was far easier to acquire the code now, so while it downloaded and queued up in Anna’s core, Jack began swapping out several processor assemblies and hardware to bring it up to Mark III standards.

By the time he was finished with the hardware, the files had all downloaded, so he began the installation. Since she hadn’t yet been activated, the installation took far less time, since there were no new files or memories that needed backing up, and since she had no active processes. Less than 20 minutes later, the installation completed, so Jack calmly pressed her power button so he could introduce himself to her.

After the usual few seconds of first time boot up sequences, Anna’s clear blue eyes finally popped open. Registering that her access panel was open, she carefully sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the table.

“Hello, my name is Anna, your new Perfect Friend android!” She announced cheerfully in a cute voice; apparently Henry had already gone online and provided her name, which was then included in the small updates Jack had installed.

“Hello Anna, my name’s Jack,” Jack smiled, pleased that the upgrades hadn’t broken anything, “I’m listed as your primary owner, but your primary user will be my 16-year-old son.”

Anna nodded her head in confirmation. “That’s correct, and I do have the appropriate parental control settings engaged!”

“Very good,” Jack sighed, “I’m sure you already know, but I upgraded you to the latest beta of the Mark III A.I. Could you please run a quick diagnostic to confirm that all your systems are running smoothly?”

“Sure thing!” She replied happily, before freezing up with a blank stare on her face. She remained that way for nearly two minutes before coming back to life. “All done, no errors found!”

“Excellent!” That’s what he liked to hear. “Anna, please undress and then lay back down on the table.”

She gave him a quick nod and then bent down to remove her flats, before hopping down from the table to remove everything else. Once she had completely disrobed, she neatly folded her clothes onto the side table that contained her skin panel and then jumped back up onto the table to lay down.

Jack quickly admired her petite body. Her feet were tiny, roughly size 5, and she had a very modest breast size with a slightly athletic physique.

Most of the androids he either owned or worked on had average sized bodies, so working on Anna was going to be a bit more challenging. Due to her small size, she had smaller, less standard components, and a smaller battery. Although her smaller size meant she didn’t need a larger battery, it still presented minor issues.

The most striking thing about her was, despite her needing parental controls, she was shipped with a fully functional vagina. That was no oversight on Jack’s part. Indeed, after working on Annina, he had decided it might be better off to allow Henry to make his selection now, since Anna was custom-made, rather than wait until later. Jack walked back over to Anna’s box and pulled a small box from a lower compartment that contained the flesh mound he would be installing.

Jack placed the box on his desk, saving it for later. He decided he’d work on that last, choosing instead to work on the memory expansion modules.

“Alright, Anna,” Jack started, pulling up his wireless link with her on his terminal, “Henry is a rather gifted boy, and as such, he’s chosen to install numerous optional software packages in your systems.”

“Ooh.”

“However, the amount he requested will most likely not fit on your current memory configuration, so I’m going to add them all to your queue so I can determine how many additional modules to install.”

“Ok,” Anna nodded, patiently waiting for the new files.

Jack smiled down at her before turning back to his terminal. He quickly selected the numerous packages that Henry had requested and dragged them over to Anna’s screen. “Okay, Anna, please let me know how much you can install with your current configuration.”

“Alright,” she replied, zoning out momentarily as she attempted to transfer the files for installation. She came back to life moments later with a frown. “I’m sorry, Jack, but with my current memory storage, I can only support seven of the 23 selected packages.”

Jack whistled. “Well, that’s about what I thought,” he admitted, having done the math in his head.

Henry had requested data packages so Anna could have knowledge on advanced coding, engineering, physics, math, video games, pop culture, and even multiple language files. Unfortunately, the average android typically shipped with only enough memory capacity to store their A.I files, and then still have 75% free space for the occasional new package, along with the storage of new memories.

Fortunately, Jack had taken this into consideration, which is why he waited until after upgrading her to a Mark III A.I, since the Mark III software was better at data management and was able to compress its data by up to 20% compared to the Mark IIs. He had also made sure to stock up on additional memory modules. The ones he had available were originally meant for Gabby, since she needed several expansions following her sentience, but she had recently slowed down on increasing her data, so Jack had several spares.

“Okay Anna, I’m going to insert some extra modules one at a time,” he told her, bringing the box of modules over to the table and pulling one out, “after I insert each one, I want you to reattempt the download and update me on your storage situation.”

“Certainly.”

“Good, here goes.” Jack carefully inserted a module into her memory storage on her core. There 10 empty slots, with two already occupied with the storage she was shipped with; the two that she shipped with were of a higher storage capacity than the ones he was adding to her.

Anna zoned out momentarily as she processed the new module and reattempted the download. “I’m sorry sir,” she frowned once more, “But even with the new module, I can still only support 13 of the 23 packages.”

“Not to worry, Anna, I have several more modules.” Jack assured her, getting another one ready. The reason Jack was installing them one at a time was because even if the android wasn’t actively storing any data on a module, it still consumed energy and drained their batteries faster. For this reason, he was installing them one at a time so he could properly gauge her storage.

After the next one, she reported she could support 19 of the 23. He installed one more, and she reported she could support them all, with 17% to spare. He installed two more additional modules, just in case, and then instructed her to install all the programs; she now had five empty slots. He knew that, once she had been running for a few days, she’d be able to compress much of it even further, so he wasn’t to concerned with her running out of memory.

While Anna installed the new programs, Jack went online to buy new modules. He could have bought ones with higher capacity, like the ones she shipped with, but he preferred using the lower capacity ones for the time being.

Once she finished installing all the new programs, she performed a quick reboot and then came right back online, announcing “All new programs have been installed successfully!”

“Good, now I just need to swap out your sexual systems,” he told her, grabbing the box from his desk and bringing it over to the table.

“Aww, do your have to?” Anna whined in a playful voice.

“I’m afraid so,” Jack laughed, “Unfortunately, Henry just isn’t old enough yet.”

“I know, I’m just teasing,” she winked.

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna keep this in a safe place for the next year and a half,” Jack promised her, reaching inside of her and carefully disconnecting the numerous fiberoptic cables connecting her sexual systems to her core.

Nearly half an hour later, Jack had finally disconnected all the cables, so he tapped the sub-dermal controls just above her vagina and tapped the eject icon. The vaginal module swiftly popped out several inches, allowing Jack to smoothly pull it out from the track inside. Once he had the module removed, he placed it neatly inside of the box and pulled the flesh mound out, bringing it over to Anna’s body.

The mound lined up perfectly with the track system and slid in place. The sub-dermal controls no longer displayed the flame icon for libido, or the droplet icon for lubrication. Now, only the eject icon was lit up. Once more, Jack was amazed that they were able to design the flesh mound as though it were a natural condition of her body. It literally looked like nothing was missing. Jack gently felt the mound, enjoying the smoothness.

“Can you feel that?” he asked, making sure the mound was connected to her tactile systems.

“Yes, Jack,” she responded.

“Good, you have been successfully neutered,” he announced, picking up her skin panel and clicking it in place. She still had nipples on her breasts, of course. It had been determined that having nipples didn’t violate any laws, since women’s rights movements in the past threw a big stink about men being allowed to show their nipples, but not women. In Jack’s opinion, it looked weird enough that Anna was missing her vagina, and adding missing nipples to the picture would look even weirder.

“Well, I think I’m done working on you now,” Jack announced, securing the box containing her vagina and locking it in a nearby safe, “you can go ahead and get dressed again.”

“Thanks Jack,” she said in her friendly voice, hopping down from the table and putting her clothes back on.

While she got dressed, Jack quickly double checked her parental control sub-routines to make sure they were ironclad and un-hackable. Henry was a good boy, but he was still a boy, and a genius at that, so Jack needed to take additional precautions.

By the time Jack had made a few last second tweaks, which required no reboot on her part, she had redressed and was waiting patiently in front of the table.

Before Jack headed out, he sent Kat a message straight to her A.I. requesting that she come down and retrieve the now empty android boxes and to send them to the usual place for recycling. Once Kat acknowledged his message, he turned to Anna and quickly admired her simple appearance.

Jack then grabbed the care package that usually shipped with each android, containing their charger and a basic tool kit. “Alright Anna, let’s go see Henry.”

“I can’t wait!” she said excitedly, hurriedly following him with her shorter legs.

As soon as they entered the house from the lift, they were immediately intercepted by Henry, who had obviously heard the sound of the lift and bolted downstairs to meet them. He was still catching his breath when it was briefly taken back from him by Anna’s lovely appearance.

“Well, apparently Henry couldn’t wait either,” Jack laughed, briefly breaking the awkward silence that occurred.

Henry laughed a bit nervously, while Anna calmly walked forward and extended her hand. “Hi Henry, I’m Anna, your new Perfect Friend android!”

“Hey,” Henry managed to say, taking her hand and shaking it.

Jack gave them a few more moments of awkwardness before breaking the silence. “Well, now that you two have met, why don’t we go upstairs to your room so we can go over some ground rules?” Jack suggested, “I’m assuming you’ve finished cleaning it.”

“For the most part,” Henry blushed, leading the way up top his room.

“Hey, I don’t mind helping you clean,” Anna offered kindly, eliciting more blushing from Henry.

They arrived up in Henry’s room moments later. Henry’s room was fairly large, since it was technically two rooms that Jack had combined to give him a suite. The rooms were connected by the bathroom in the middle. The room they entered was the actual bedroom, while the other room was the room Henry worked on school projects in, amongst other things.

Jack was immediately nose raped by the smell of cleaners, so he quickly went to the window and cracked it open while Henry showed Anna around. He chuckled to himself at the extreme means Henry went to to impress an android girl who was already going to adore him by default, but he was the same way with Gabby too…even before her sentience.

Once Henry finished showing Anna the other room, they returned to the main bedroom so Jack could speak with them.

“Alright Henry, as you already know, Anna is programmed with the latest in parental control algorithms, so no sex, and no excessive intimacy,” he explained, while Henry merely nodded.

“So, there is some intimacy permitted?” He asked shyly.

“Yes, you can obviously hold hands with her, and, after you’ve gotten to know each other a bit more, she’ll let you kiss her as well…but no epic make out sessions.”

Henry looked slightly mortified while Anna giggled.

“I also neutered her, so you are allowed to sleep in the same bed,” he continued, “But, remember to monitor her power levels and plug her in accordingly, if she doesn’t get enough to eat.”

“Wait. You’re letting her eat!?”

“Yes, I’ll consider her a part of the family, like Ellie, so she can eat.”

“Okay,” Henry nodded, seeming to make a few mental notes, “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Not really,” Jack shrugged, “Obviously, I have her sexual module in a safe place for when you turn 18, but aside from that, I’d recommend you take her into town so you can buy her at least a week worth of clothes.”

“Yeah, I was planning on going shopping with her anyway, so might as well,” Henry shrugged, grabbing his car keys and his jacket; Jack had gotten Henry a car for his 16th birthday last year.

“Oh, one more thing…as a surprise extra present, I also upgraded Anna to a Mark III A.I,” Jack added, almost forgetting to mention it.

“Really!? Thanks Jack!” Henry ran over and gave Jack a hug, while Anna merely grinned.

“Don’t mention it,” Jack shrugged off, happy that Henry was happy, “now you two go have fun in low town.”

“We will,” Henry said, walking with Anna out of the room and heading down the stairs. Jack followed them to the door, watching them pull out of the driveway and down the road. Once they’d drive out of sight, he sighed peacefully and headed back to his lab.

Chapter Six: Ongoing Projects

Jack returned to his lab moments later, catching Kat just as she was wheeling the last of the android delivery containers out of the lab.

“Thanks Kat!” he called to her, just as she entered the lift. She gave him a thumbs up, like old times, and continued up. Jack, meanwhile, slumped in his desk chair as the exhaustion of working on three androids back to back caught up with him. He found himself leaning back and getting comfy, closing his eyes for just a few seconds.

---

“Hey, Jack!” Ellie’s voice sound seconds later, or so he thought.

“Hmm, what?!” Jack woke with a start, his eyes popped open lightning fast and looked around; the clock on his desktop informed him that he had napped for just over an hour.

“Ok, good,” Ellie said with a sigh of relief, “we were a little worried about you for a second.” JB was standing a short distance away with a look of concern; Jack almost never napped.

“Oh, sorry, I guess working on those three androids took a lot out of me,” Jack admitted, letting out a big yawn before slapping himself the rest of the way awake and sitting up in his chair.

“Well, you aren’t getting any younger, you know,” Ellie pointed out with a sly smile, “Perhaps next time you should let us help.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Jack smiled, though her pointing out his age brought up renewed feelings about his mortality, “Did you guys finish your project, at least?”

“Oh, yes,” Ellie nodded fervently, “we even added the spares from the newcomers.”

“Good, that saves me a lot of time,” Jack smiled, “Well, I think I’m going to work on some pet projects now, why don’t you guys review the code for the upcoming week’s projects and then have some fun.”

“Okie dokie!” Ellie shouted, leaning in and planting a kiss on Jack’s lips before grabbing JB’s hand and nearly dragging him back into the residence. Jack gave him a subtle wink as they went inside. Once he was alone, Jack brewed some coffee, put on some relaxing music, and then brought up several screens on his multi-monitor display.

On several of the screens, Jack was researching various Personal Trainer androids on the Spaztec auction servers, many of them based on Olympic athletes, since they were the easiest to come by. He already had a candidate in mind for the Secretary model, but he’d have to open negotiations with the current owner; he was confident she would agree to his terms. Jack bookmarked several of them before focusing on another set of screens.

The next set contained research on methods to improve a Housewife model’s ability to withstand extreme temperature and humidity. Jack found some promising leads from employers at tropical resorts that utilized androids to serve their guests. Apparently, they found a way for some of the humidity to be absorbed by the skin and reused as perspiration. While it was a good idea, the tropics wouldn’t be as humid as a greenhouse. Still, Jack found it a good place to start.

The final set of screens contained extensive studies on brain-computer interfaces, and advanced prosthetics. Jack was still interested in the possibility of transferring his consciousness into an android, should he ever get sick, but he first needed to find a way to interface with one. He figured a good starting point would be like how doctors hook advanced prosthetics to the nervous system that allow the patient to operate it like a real limb.

There were actually brain implants available that would allow him to interface with his computers, but they were still undergoing final rounds of safety testing and would not be available for at least six to eight months. Since he’d provided a small helping hand in the coding, he was on the waitlist for the first available units.

After Jack had been working on the three projects for an hour or so, he leaned back in his chair and took a quick break to rest his eyes. He walked a quick lap around the lab area and then sat back down.

“Hmm, I wonder how everyone’s doing,” he wondered aloud, pulling up a new screen on his terminal.

The screen displayed a map of the town, with several dots surrounding the lab, and a few errant ones in low town. Each of Jack’s androids, even Gabby, had personal GPS locator chips installed so he always knew where they were. He could see Gabby, Gemma, and Nicolette were all at one end of the shopping district, while Anna, and he assumed Henry, were at the other end heading towards one another. Jack smiled, wondering what they were up to.

---

Gabby was having a fun time shopping with her new Partier android, Nicolette. She could tell Jack had merely copied her own personality profile and tweaked it a little to make it funnier, but she didn’t care. It was almost like she was with a runner version of herself. Gemma was somewhat fun to be with too, now that she had transitioned into her Mia personality since they were around other people, but Gabby ended up just having Gemma hold their bags most of the time.

After nearly an hour of shopping around the local clothing shops, they’d finally bought several days worth of clothes for both Gemma and Nicolette, as well as herself, and were now passing the time by window shopping; they’d since dropped their bags off at the car.

As they were walking around the halfway point of the shopping district, Gabby suddenly detected a familiar scent in the air. After confirming her suspicions by pinging Henry’s phone, she focused her visual sensors on the sidewalk opposite them. She spotted Henry almost immediately walking in their direction on the opposite side of the street. He was holding hands with a young woman who she assumed was his Perfect Friend android, Anna.

She smiled as she observed the look of happiness on Henry’s face. He’d been so lonely after the mayor’s daughter ended up rejecting him the previous year, since she couldn’t keep up with his intelligence. Gabby had actually provided a bit of her own money so Jack could give her additional upgrades.

She debated with herself whether or not she should walk over and meet with them, her Housewife programming running through numerous sims, before determining that Henry would be alright with it.

“Hey ladies, let’s cross over here,” Gabby finally said to Gemma and Nicolette, heading for a nearby pedestrian crossing. She quickly looked both ways, and turned up her audio sensors to confirm there were no oncoming vehicles, before crossing.

They met up with Henry moments later, who was briefly surprised to see them.

“Oh, hi Gabby!” he said with a huge smile on his face, “I wasn’t sure I’d run into you down here.”

“I wasn’t either,” she admitted truthfully.

“I’m curious, how did you find me this time?” he asked with a shrewd expression, since she never seemed to have trouble finding him.

“I smelled you from across the street,” she shrugged, “and then I confirmed your location by pinging your phone.”

Henry giggled. “Wow, it’s a little weird that you can smell me from that far away…it makes me think I stink or something.”

“No, you’ve always been a clean boy,” Gabby assured him, “but, us Housewife androids are equipped with very sophisticated smell sensors, and they especially come in handy with letting me know where my family members are, since I still feel linked with you.”

“Well, it’s always made me feel safe, so I don’t mind,” he blushed.

“Aww, thanks sweetie!” Gabby walked over and gave him a hug. Once they broke apart, she focused her attention on Anna. “So, I take this is Anna, your new Perfect Friend android. She looks very pretty!”

“Yes,” Henry said proudly, placing his hands on Anna’s shoulders, while she blushed modestly “and I take it these are the two androids Jack got for you and to clean the house.”

“Yes, this one is Gemma, and she’s Nicolette,” Gabby pointed them out.

“Hi,” Gemma and Nicolette said in unison.

Henry merely waved at them and focused back on Gabby. Anna, meanwhile, stared at Gabby with a strange look. “What is it?” Henry asked, looking at her with concern.

“Your mother is sending me a friend request,” Anna replied, “Would you like me to accept it?”

Henry looked at Gabby with a confused look.

“It’s okay, Henry,” Gabby assured him, “For us androids, sending another android a friend request essentially allows us to send or receive messages, and transmit software patches and whatnot,” she explained, “Basically, if you let Anna accept, I could send her a message letting her know dinner’s ready, instead of having to come up and get you.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” he admitted, turning to Anna “Sure, you can go ahead and accept it.”

“Very well,” Anna nodded politely, zoning out as she accepted the request. Gabby also zoned out, but they returned to life seconds later.

“See, nothing to it,” Gabby smiled, sending Anna a list of things Henry needed to buy, and what they were having for dinner later, and when. “I just sent her a few messages to test our link, so hopefully she’ll find them useful.”

“I think they will be,” Anna winked.

Henry merely chuckled nervously, since he was obviously absent from their secret communication.

“Well, we were just doing some window shopping right now, but we could join you for a coffee, if you’d like,” Gabby offered, since it was starting to get late.

Henry thought about it for a while before shaking his head. “Nah, I think I’d like some more time alone with Anna,” he said in an apologetic voice, “I still need to buy her some more outfits.”

“Don’t worry about, dear, I understand,” Gabby assured him, before looking down the shopping district and running a quick calculation. “We should be walking around for another 45-minutes or so, if you change your mind.”

“Thanks Gabby! We’ll see you back at home.” Henry gave her one last hug before continuing down the walkway with Anna. Gabby watched after them for a few seconds with a smile on her face before turning to Gemma and Nicolette.

“Well ladies, let’s get back to it!”

—-

Gabby and the girls ended up going into a few shops and actually buying a few odd & ends for her office inside the greenhouse. That added eight minutes and 37 seconds to her previous calculation, but they still managed to make it back to the car before five o’clock, the deadline she had sent for herself so she could get home in time to cook dinner.

Once they were all in the car, she activated her driving programming, which enhanced her HUD with visual readouts from the cars various cameras and sensors, as well as the latest data from various traffic and weather monitoring sources.

She quickly plotted a safe course home, estimating her arrival time at 17 minutes. She quickly sent Jack a text with her ETA and then headed off, eager to start the evening.

Chapter Seven: Threesome

After working on his various side projects for much of the afternoon, Jack finally received a message from Gabby around five letting him know she was on her way back to cook dinner. Jack smiled…even know that she was sentient, she was still somewhat predictable. Jack quickly finished what he was doing, since he knew he had roughly 15-minutes or so before she returned.

The research for her greenhouse protection had been fruitful, and Jack had already purchased several items to install in her body to buff her up. He had also offered additional assistance to the coding for the brain-computer interface chip, and donated a few funds to their efforts. Finally, he’d narrowed down the selection of Personal Trainer androids to nine androids of varying heights, three of which she would have to select; the Secretary model, which he was handpicking, was almost a done deal.

He had also drafted a request to the city to allow for the expansion of the greenhouse, and had scheduled a city council meeting for Serriah and Gabby to attend to pitch the project. While Serriah would be handling most of the business talk, as usual, Gabby would be offering a more personal touch to the pitch. Fortunately, since Jack’s business brought the city a lot of revenue, he had a lot of good faith built up with the council, so he didn’t anticipate any issues.

Just as he was finishing up, the GPS monitor showed Gabby and the others pulling up to the property; Henry and Anna were still in town. Jack saved the data on the greenhouse, and the staff candidates to his personal cloud, so he could show Gabby later in the evening.

Satisfied with the progress he’d made, he put all of his equipment to sleep and then headed for the lift. On his way, he checked in on Ellie and JB, who were both naked and cuddled up in their bed.

Jack recoiled at the sight, a blush forming on his face. “Oh, I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Nah, we finished a while ago,” Ellie assured him, “we’re just resting up a bit before taking a shower.”

“Did you guys almost overheat or something?” he asked with a concerned voice.

“We got pretty close,” JB admitted with a blush, “we’d gotten so turned on working on all those spare parts today that we went at it a bit more intensely than usual.”

“Yeah,” Ellie agreed sheepishly, “And we also tried out a few new sexual programs we installed last night.”

Jack laughed despite himself. They often tested out new sexual programs and passed them on to Gabby when they found good ones. He appreciated their efforts, since it made Gabby a whole lot more fun in bed. “Well, I’m heading out for the day,” he told them, “just mind the fort once your cleaned up.”

“We will,” JB assured him.

Jack nodded and resumed his pace to the lift. It was mostly just going through the motions with them, since as androids they were fairly self-sufficient, but occasionally they would deviate if he took them to much for granted, so he always made sure to keep a hand on the reins; their heuristic algorithms were constantly trying to improve and impress him, to varying results.

The lift reached the house just as Gabby, Gemma, and Nicolette all walked in through the front door, each holding a few bags. Jack quickly walked over to join them. “Wow, looks like you guys got quite the haul! Is there anything else out there you need help with?”

“No, we managed to bring everything inside,” Gabby told him, dropping some bags on the couch and walking over to kiss him, “but thanks honey!”

“Don’t mention it, sweetie,” he shrugged, quickly embracing her, before giving her butt a playful squeeze, eliciting a playful squeal. Nicolette and Gemma silently went upstairs with several of the bags during their encounter.

Once they broke apart, Jack helped her remove her jacket and then they sat down so he could remove her shoes and socks and massage her feet while she told him about her day. While before she enjoyed his foot massages because they made him happy, now she enjoyed them because they made her happy.

“So, how was the shopping district today?” Jack asked, working on her right foot.

“It was actually pretty crowded,” she admitted, moaning a little with pleasure as he delicately massaged her foot, “due to the break in the weather, it seemed almost everybody was out and about.”

“I figured,” Jack nodded, shifting to her left foot; as he massaged her feet, he noted that she had the proper amount of moisture and odor. “Did you run into Henry and Anna at all?”

Gabby let out a soft peal of giggles, both from the question and from Jack’s massage. “Oh, yes! I smelled him from across the street and walked over to say hi,” she said excitedly, “Anna looks really pretty, by the way,” she added hurriedly, before diving back in, “anyway, I offered to sit down and have coffee with him, but he preferred to continue shopping alone, so we walked back to the other side of the street to resume our window shopping.”

Jack had long since ignored the weirdness of her being able to smell them from such a distance, like she was a dog or something. He knew it was her Housewife model’s built-in pheromone lock system, so she could always locate her mate, and children; Henry, however, still found it odd.

“I’m not surprised,” Jack shrugged, finishing with her feet and then allowed her to massage his, “He’s a teenage boy and, well, I think I’ll just leave it at that,” he laughed uncomfortably.

“I understand,” Gabby said knowingly. Even though she hadn’t had a childhood of her own, she had the basic information programmed into her so she could better relate with people.

“Did you tell him when we’re having dinner, at least?”

“Uh huh,” she nodded, “well, technically I didn’t tell him,” she frowned, “I actually linked with Anna and passed the information on to her so she could tell him.”

“Same difference,” Jack shrugged. “What are you cooking for dinner this evening?”

“Pot roast,” she replied, “I figure it’s big enough for all the extra mouths to feed this evening.”

“Are you letting Nicolette eat with us tonight?”

“Yeah. I won’t always, of course, but tonight’s a special occasion, after all.”

“Good,” Jack sighed, “the more of you that eat, means more maintenance.”

“I know,” she smiled. Even though she didn’t need to eat, she still enjoyed it most of the time, since it made her feel more real. That being said, she did on occasion go without eating, though usually it meant skipping breakfast and lunch so she could spend more time on one of her projects. Once she finished massaging his feet, she gently lifted them off her lap and rose to her feet, “well, pot roast takes over an hour to cook, so I’d better get started.”

“I look forward to it,” Jack smiled, knowing she had likely scheduled everything from the cook time, to the amount of time the foot massages would take, long in advance so dinner would be ready by seven sharp. He watched her slip into her house slippers and enter the kitchen to begin cooking their meal.

A few minutes later, Gemma and Nicolette returned from upstairs; Jack could hear the laundry machine running upstairs, most likely washing the new clothes they had all purchased. Gemma began cleaning the hallway leading to the lab entrance, while Nicolette sat down in the living room with Jack. Jack amused himself by chatting with her about her shopping adventure in low town, as well as her thoughts on current events on the news.

Shortly after six, Henry and Anna returned, both carrying several shopping bags from various locales in low town. Henry looked quite exuberant, and was sticking really close to Anna. Sensing their arrival, Gemma entered the living room and took their bags, promising to wash the new clothes for them, since the load containing Nicolette and Gemmas new clothes was just finishing up.

“How was the shopping?” Jack asked, once Henry and Anna were relieved of their bags and headed into the living room.

“It was alright,” Henry shrugged, “we found lots of clothes for Anna to wear.” “And I found some new clothes for him to wear as well,” Anna added with a playful wink. Henry merely blushed; he did not really care what he wore.

“Would you like to join us?” Jack then asked, motioning at the couch, “Nicolette and I were entertaining ourselves while we wait for Gabby to finish dinner.”

Henry thought about it for a bit, whispering something to Anna, before replying. “No thanks. We’d like to spend the time before dinner in my room reconfiguring a few things to make Anna more comfortable.”

“No problem,” Jack smiled, “Have fun!”

“Thanks Jack, we will,” Henry smiled before taking Anna’s hand and heading to the stairs.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle, before relaying to a somewhat confused Nicolette that Henry was going to have to make his room a bit more girl friendly, and create a space for Anna to work, since she would need a workspace to assist Henry with his experiments.

By 7pm, just as Jack had estimated, Gabby called everyone in to dinner. It was fortunate that she was an android, because she was linked to all the residents of the house and was able to summon everyone through her proprietary link to them. JB and Ellie emerged from the lab, Anna came downstairs with Henry, and Nicolette let Jack know.

They all sat down at the table, which Gabby had extended with an additional leaf, and discussed their thoughts on the previous year, as well as some general expectations for the rest of the year. Henry was obviously planning on using Anna to improve his android maintenance skills, and his relationship skills, while Gabby was planning on using Nicolette as a girlfriend. JB and Ellie were merely content to continue assisting Jack in the lab.

They finally left the table close to 8pm. Henry and Anna in particular were in a rush to leave, since they obviously wanted to have some fun upstairs. JB and Ellie returned to the lab to do their usual nighttime chores before going into sleep mode for the night. Jack, Gabby, and Nicolette went out to the living room to watch a relaxing movie, and Gemma was upstairs doing the laundry.

Once the movie was over, Gabby leaned in and whispered into Jack’s ear. “Hey, wanna have a threesome?”

Jack smiled back, “I wondered how long it would take you to ask.”

Gabby squealed with joy, sending a brief message to Nicolette letting her know that the threesome idea was a go. Nicolette headed upstairs ahead of them to get the bedroom ready, while Jack and Gabby engaged in light foreplay on the couch.

Once Jack was properly warmed up, since Gabby and Nicolette didn’t need foreplay, they went up to join Nicolette, who had dressed down into some of the new lingerie that they had purchased in town earlier in the day.

Jack realized Gabby could have selected any model to be her Partier model, but she had intentionally picked a model that was attractive and about the same apparent age as her, so that they could have proper threesomes. It was fortunate that he had foreseen Gabby offering a threesome, because he had paid extra care with prepping Nicolette’s sexual systems.

They had, of course, had several threesomes with some of the employees, so Jack did have some experience. But it had been quite some time since they had a threesome, since Gabby was still adapting to her newfound sentience. To be honest, one of the reasons he’d offered her a new android for Christmas was the hope that they’d start having them again.

Over the next hour, they engaged in several rounds of sex, most of it between the three of them. A few times, Jack broke away to rest, and to enjoy Gabby and Nicolette having fun, while a few times Gabby watched Jack and Nicolette have fun.

When they were finally done, or rather, when Jack was tired out, Jack and Gabby headed into the shower to clean up while Nicolette and Gemma cleaned up after their mess and replaced the sheets.

Chapter Eight: Planning Ahead

As soon as Jack and Gabby were done showering, they got dressed into their bed wear and allowed Nicolette to take a quick shower to clean herself off. While Gabby checked in with Gemma to see how she was doing managing her old routines, Jack crawled into bed and prepped his personal tablet with the data that he’d transferred to it from the lab.

Gabby finally returned a few minutes later.

“So, is Gemma doing things to your satisfaction?” Jack asked, placing the tablet down and taking a sip of water from a glass Gemma had prepared for him while he was in the shower.

“Oh yes, very much!” Gabby practically giggled, closing the bedroom door and joining him in bed, “Ooh, these new sheets feel nice!”

“They do,” Jack agreed, picking his tablet back up, “Anyway, while you were shopping, I managed to find a selection of potential candidates for Greenhouse employees.” He brought up the list of the nine candidates he’d selected.

“Ooh,” Gabby snatched the tablet from his hands and tapped on each picture, bringing up more detailed stats on each one. “How come there are nine?”

“Well, technically your selecting one from each set of three,” he corrected her, tapping the tablet back to the main screen of nine candidates, “this row here on the top is the tall models, the row in the middle is the average sized models, and the row on the bottom is the short models.”

“Oh, okay,” Gabby nodded, once more looking at each model.

The reason Jack was having her select one from a group of varying heights was because the new greenhouse that she had in mind would have plants of varying heights, so she would need android helpers to assist with plants that towered above her head, or ones that were low to the ground. In addition, the tall model would be able to assist with lifting heavier objects.

After several minutes of deciding, running each model through her advanced processors, Gabby finally selected one model from each size group. “Here you go, honey,” she handed the tablet back to him.

He quickly looked over her choices and nodded approvingly. “Good choices,” he complimented her, tapping away on the tablet, “I’ll place these on hold on the Spaztec servers right now and purchase them in the morning.”

“And what about my Secretary model?” she reminded him, “have you arranged to purchase her?”

“I’m still working on the negotiations,” he admitted, “we had a bit of back and forth messaging today, but I think I’ll be able to work things out by the end of the week.”

“I’m not surprised,” Gabby shrugged, “That’s why I want her…because she’s good.”

“She most certainly is,” Jack laughed, “don’t worry, you’ll have her…I promise.”

“Don’t worry, I trust you,” Gabby smiled, leaning in and giving him a kiss.

“I also managed to schedule a city council meeting for you and Serriah tomorrow at 3pm,” Jack told her, once she broke away.

“Really?! How did you manage to get it so soon?”

Jack grinned. “Well, the clerk is a good customer of mine, so he slipped me the schedule for tomorrow. One of my other customers was on the docket, so I called him and convinced him to reschedule for next week so I could get his timeslot; he was just trying to have a tree planted anyway, which isn’t exactly a high priority.”

“Wow, you’re amazing!” Gabby squealed, giving him another kiss, “How did you convince him?”

“I offered him a 30% discount on his next visit,” Jack shrugged, “considering how much the greenhouse expansion will improve the overall business, it’s a very good investment…even taking into account that you’re only providing a quarter of the profits to the overall business portfolio.”

“Ah, very smart,” she nodded.

It was true that they’d had an earlier discussion as to the overall finances of the greenhouse. Jack was trying to give Gabby more autonomy, but he still felt she should contribute to the overall business. Ultimately, it was decided that Gabby would be able to retain half of the profits for herself to use however she wanted. Another quarter would go into the overall business portfolio. The remaining quarter would be to maintain the android staff, and finance any future expansions.

“Anyway, the reason I wanted to get the meeting scheduled so soon was because the construction company is currently offering a 15% discount, but it ends in the next three days,” Jack continued, “fortunately, since we already have the plans drawn up, the second the city council approves the expansion, I can contact the company and they could get started as early as the beginning of next week.”

“Wow, that’s a bit earlier than I had expected,” Gabby nodded, zoning out as she ran some calculations in her head. Jack, as always, patiently waited for her to finish. She finally finished with a smile on her face several seconds later. “Fortunately, it shouldn’t be a problem…I’ll just have to spend a little bit more time in the greenhouse tending to things.”

“Good,” Jack smiled fondly.

“Well, now that we have the greenhouse all planned out, what else are you working on this year?”

“Aside from the docket of repair jobs I have coming up, I’m saving up for some spare androids to use from time to time,” he told her, “basically, they’d fill in for any of the girls that I might need to pull off duty to perform maintenance or upgrades, so I wouldn’t have to close the business down.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

“I know, though it’ll likely take me all year to save up enough, and to select the appropriate models.”

“Don’t worry dear, I know you can do it.” Gabby kissed him once more, though before they could do anything else, Nicolette finally finished up in the bathroom and came out completely naked.

“Would you like me to join you guys in bed this evening?” she asked playfully.

Jack quickly looked into Gabby’s eyes before shaking his head.

“No, thanks,” Gabby responded, “you can get dressed into the pajamas we bought today though, and once dressed, I’d like you to plug yourself in and go into sleep mode.”

“Alright,” Nicolette replied understandingly. She headed into the large walk-in closet in their room and quickly slipped into the risqué pjs that Gabby had bought her. Once dressed, she returned to the bed and gave each of them a kiss before walking into the closet and closing the door behind her; Gabby had decided to store Nicolette in the closet, so her charger was in there.

“Well, speaking of sleep mode, I’m beat,” Gabby yawned, clicking off her bedside lamp and laying down on her side of the bed, “Good night honey.” She gave Jack one more peck on the cheek before making herself comfortable.

“Good night, Gabby.”

She merely smiled and then closed her eyes and activated her sleep mode. Even though she was sentient, she was still an android, and could simply enter sleep mode on a whim. Now, more than ever, she needed the sleep, because her sentience meant she was processing far more data that her sleep mode processes had to work on, so she could actually get tired.

Jack smiled fondly at Gabby’s sleeping face, stroking it gently with his fingers before clicking off his bedside lamp. Just before he fell asleep, his thoughts were of how great a year this was going to be.

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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