The Repair Shop - Part 4

The Small Business Chronicles: The Repair Shop - Part 4

Chapter One: No rest for the weary

It was a busy last few days for Jack, Ellie, and JB, but they finally finished working on their latest repair job: an entire staff of Partier models that a corporation had rented for a celebration they were holding. Fortunately for Jack and his staff, the corporate employees had gone relatively easy on them, so Jack just had to clean out their plumbing and perform a few minor repairs before getting them back to the rental agency. Still, the rental company he was assisting had requested a fairly quick turnaround, so he ended up pulling an all-nighter with his staff to get them done in time.

“Thanks for the help guys,” Jack said, plopping down in his desk chair, “you deserve a good rest.”

“Thanks Jack,” Ellie said, looking somewhat weak. She’d gone without recharging for almost a day, along with JB, and they were quite drained.

“You guys go get some rest,” Jack told them, “The rental agency should be coming around in a few hours to pick these ladies up.”

“Will do,” Ellie smiled, saluting playfully before heading to her room with JB.

Jack smiled knowingly in return, knowing Ellie and JB would be having a bit of fun before turning in. Once he heard the door to her room shut, he leaned back in his chair and quickly dozed off.

He was awoken nearly 20 minutes later by his intercom. Rachel’s voice sounded clearly, waking him up.

“Jack, are you there?” She asked, the tone of her voice indicating she had been trying to contact him for a few minutes.

Jack rubbed his temples and leaned in to the intercom. “Yes Rachel, I was taking a nap…. go ahead.”

“Sorry to disturb you Jack,” she said apologetically, “but there are a few official looking people waiting here for you….it seems urgent.”

“Tell them I’ll be right up,” he responded, a confused look on his face. He quickly activated the camera on his terminal, using it as a mirror, and fixed his hair. They’d have to do with his unshaven look, given they showed up without making an appointment. He took a quick gulp of water before rising from his chair and heading to the lift.

When he arrived in Rachel’s office a few moments later, he saw three important looking people sitting in her waiting area, one of whom looked very stressed.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” Jack said politely, joining Rachel at her desk, “I just pulled an all-nighter for another client and was taking a rest.”

The stressed-out man quickly cleared his throat and gave Jack a weak smile. “I’m so sorry to inconvenience you, Mr. Brown, but I’m here to present you a job of utmost importance…and delicacy.”

Jack was quite intrigued. “Oh?”

“I’m a representative of the U.S. State Department, and these two are representatives from the Scottish government.”

That instantly woke Jack up. “Oh, I’m honored to have representatives of the Scottish government here.”

After the events of World War 3, the Scottish government achieved a great status boost following the decimation of much of Europe and the British empire. They now controlled the entire British Isles, including Ireland, and much of Western Europe. While the U.S. was still dominant, the Scottish government commanded a great deal of respect, so dealings with them were always held with great seriousness.

One of the Scottish officials, a woman, cleared her throat and began speaking. “Mr. Brown, I’m truly sorry to disturb your rest…we are aware of your reputation, and a few other things, and are convinced that you are the best person to assist us with our quandary.”

“I’m honored,” Jack said, “how can I be of assistance?”

“Recently the son of one of our top ministers was killed in an unfortunate road incident,” she began, “based on the evidence found at the scene, it was most likely caused by another vehicle, but we’re unable to access the information to prove it.”

“I take it there was an android in the vehicle with him.” Jack surmised.

“That’s correct,” she confirmed, “he had a recent model Perfect Friend android in the passenger seat that was heavily damaged by both the fire in the vehicle, and the water from when the car was partially submerged.”

Jack winced. “I’m beginning to see why you came to me.”

“Indeed,” she nodded, “in any event, the Scottish government would be eternally grateful if you could do anything you can to recover the data from the crash so we can prosecute the driver of the other vehicle.”

“Is the family at all interested in having the android refurbished and returned?”

“No,” she answered bluntly, “I already spoke with them on that matter and they are interested only in recovering the data.”

“Is the Scottish government interested in the android then?”

“Again, no,” she replied, “we have come to the decision that, in addition to your usual fee, we will add the android as part of your payment. You may keep it for refurbishment, spare parts, or junk it…the decision will be yours.”

“I think I might be able to find a use for it,” Jack mused, “anything else?”

“Actually yes. The Scottish government would appreciate it if you could have the data recovered by the end of the week,” she replied; it was Tuesday. “We are aware that, due to the extensive damage, that this timetable might not be possible,” she continued, anticipating Jack’s response, “but, if you could manage it, the Scottish government will also include a free passage waiver as part of your payment.”

Jack’s breath caught in his throat as she announced the additional payment. After World War 3, most countries locked up their borders and it was much more difficult to travel around freely than it once was. Free passage waivers were essentially passports, diplomatic immunity, and a few other things all wrapped up into one neat package. To receive a free passage waiver was a huge deal, and a tremendous honor, but they almost always had conditions.

“Well, that certainly is worth the trouble then,” Jack nodded fervently; he’d always wanted to visit Scotland. “Umm, what sort of conditions will this waiver have?”

“The waiver will be offered in perpetuity, though you will have to make arrangements at least three months in advance.”

That sort of condition was second only to having no conditions whatsoever, so Jack was quite excited. “Well, you’ve provided me an offer I can’t possibly refuse,” he grinned, holding his hand out.

“We’re glad to hear you’ve accepted our offer,” she smiled, shaking his hand. The U.S. State Department official sighed with relief. “My assistant will assist you with unpacking the damaged android from our truck, parked near your loading dock.” She turned back to the U.S. State Department official and they left the room.

“Thank you,” Jack nodded, turning to the other Scottish official, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” he replied, rising from his seat and walking with Jack out into the loading dock.

“Ah Jack, this man had me watching his truck outside,” Kat announced, approaching him from near the door, “he provided an official code.”

“Sorry about that, but our visit is quite important,” the man said, “My name’s Clyde, by the way.”

“No problem at all Clyde,” Jack smiled, “Let’s help Clyde get some stuff out of his truck Kat.”

“Yes Jack,” she nodded, walking over to the truck and opening the back. Kat pulled out a container that most likely contained the damaged android, as well as a few smaller boxes.

“What’s in the smaller boxes?” Jack asked curiously, as Kat strapped everything together on a rolling cart and rolled them to the lift; Jack and Clyde followed.

“Spare parts, all the stuff that came in the box, and all backup and update logs we could pull from her local server back in Scotland,” Clyde replied, “Even her clothes…I was primarily responsible for Helen’s maintenance and upkeep back in Scotland, since her owner wasn’t skilled in that area,” Clyde explained.

“I understand,” Jack nodded.

“I only wish I was half as skilled as you are,” Clyde smiled weakly, “I’m a close family friend and it kills me that I couldn’t fix Helen up enough to recover her data.”

“Was Helen based on anybody in particular?” Jack asked curiously.

“Not really,” Clyde shrugged, “I think Owen partially inspired her appearance on a handful of crushes he had, but overall, she’s an original design.”

“Good to know,” Jack nodded, “if I do get her fully functional again and have her work in my businesses, it helps if she’s not based on a real person who might be offended at an anatomically correct version of themselves being used without their permission.”

“I see,” Clyde chuckled, “well, you have nothing to worry about in that department.”

The lift arrived in Jack’s lab a moment later and they paused their conversation to follow Kat and her cart into Jack’s work area. Once she arrived in the work area, she neatly spread out the boxes of Helen’s spare parts and then paused over the container storing Helen’s damaged body.

“Would you like me to open it, Jack?” She asked politely.

“Yes, but place her body on the mobile cart.”

Kat nodded and opened the container, lifting the damaged android from inside and up onto the rolling table. Once she made sure that everything was out of the container, she resealed it and then wheeled the cart back to the lift.

Jack winced as he gazed down upon the damaged female android, Helen, laying on his table. The entire life half of her body was scorched, the skin completely burnt off and the underlying metal skeleton showing. The right half still had skin, but there was extensive water damage to the underlying musculature and the components. Her body was still somewhat damp, having been stored in an airtight container.

“Well, now you see what I was trying to deal with,” Clyde grimaced, “You think you can recover the data?”

Jack leaned in and examined the partially exposed A.I. Core, shaking his head. “I’m not certain,” he admitted, “there’s an awful lot of damage, but I have far more sophisticated equipment down here than most techs do.”

“Yeah, this place is quite impressive,” Clyde nodded approvingly, looking around, “you’ve certainly made a name for yourself, and now I understand why.”

“Thanks,” Jack smiled modestly, “so, how come you guys didn’t simply bring Helen directly to Spaztec? I’m sure they could’ve recovered the data for you.”

“Because we needed someone we could trust to be discreet,” Clyde replied, “given the modifications you’ve made to your wife, and a few other things I don’t need to mention, we feel you can be trusted.”

Jack’s face flushed. “Oh, you know about that?”

Clyde laughed. “It’s sort of an open secret in the intelligence communities,” he shrugged, “but rest assured, you and Gabby are quite safe…for obvious reasons, no one is going to want to mass produce sentient androids.”

“Yeah,” Jack laughed.

“Well, I won’t keep you any longer,” Clyde said, turning to the lift, “as I said before, all of Helen’s original hardware and pertinent items are in the storage boxes, as well as her recent backup files…. I just hope they come in handy.”

“Me too,” Jack nodded, “if not, I can always use the spare parts.”

“Good luck, Jack,” Clyde smiled, before heading to the lift.

Jack merely nodded and then turned back to Helen to begin an initial checkup.

Chapter Two: Picking up the pieces

The first thing Jack did was to peel away the damaged musculature and skin from the burnt half of Helen’s body; the water damaged side had already been stripped of clothing. With the burnt portions removed, he was able to peer inside Helen’s body and evaluate the damage and ascertain what parts were salvageable, which needed repairs, and which needed to be replaced/upgraded entirely.

He closely examined her body for nearly 15-minutes, vigorously taking notes. Once he finished cataloguing the damage to her body, he walked over to the boxes that contained her spare parts and did a quick inventory. As he inventoried the spare parts, he nodded approvingly as he cross-referenced the list of damage to her body with the available parts he had in his own stores, as well as the one’s Clyde had provided. By the time he finished the inventory, he was able to cross off nearly half the items from his list.

With the remaining 60% or so needing repairs or replacement, he quickly sat down at his computer and shopped on the Spaztec website. Fortunately, the parts he needed to order wouldn’t break the bank and would be covered by the fee the Scottish government was paying him. Jack knew just by eyeballing Helen’s core that it was not salvageable, though he hoped he could at least recover the recent data. As for her body, he had a few ideas with what he could do with it…at least, once he was able to fix it up.

After Jack placed the part orders, most of which would be arriving the next day, with a few more the following day, he got up from his desk and walked back over to Helen’s body. He stared sadly at it for a few moments, since she looked quite lovely on the half of her body that wasn’t incinerated. Finally, with a sigh, he began peeling off the skin and musculature from the water damaged side, placing it in a bin for recycling, until Helen’s body was just the metallic skeleton.

“Hmm, not too bad,” he muttered to himself, inspecting the whole skeleton for damage. There was still a small amount of moisture present, so he wheeled the cart over to the other side of his lab and opened up a small door in the wall. He then slid the top portion of the cart with Helen resting on it into the door and closed it, pressing a few buttons on a nearby panel that then illuminated with the words: ‘Dehumidifying in progress…full cycle selected…estimated time: 2 hours.’

“Well, that’ll give me a nice break at least,” Jack said to himself, once the device started. As quickly as they needed this job done, he didn’t dare get any work done until her body was dehumidified.

Confidant that the dehumidifier Jack had spent a considerable amount of money on would do its job, he decided to use this opportunity to check in on JB and Ellie, and then head up to the house to check in with Gabby. He knew he’d most likely be living down in the lab for the next several days, so he wanted to enjoy this chance at a break before sequestering himself.

Heading into the residential portion of the lab, Jack quietly opened the door to the room JB and Ellie shared and peeked inside. Just as he had suggested to them, they were both in standby mode with their chargers plugged in; they had also showered and redressed. Knowing they wouldn’t exit standby mode unless verbally commanded to, Jack confidently walked up to each of them and examined their charge ports.

“Good, two hours should be enough time,” he smiled, since they were both just over 50% charge at the moment. As he stared into their blank faces, and idea suddenly popped into his head that would likely make refurbishing Helen and recovering her data go much quicker. He ran a quick diagnostic on the brain implant, which was now safe to fully use, and smiled.

“Enjoy your rest,” he told them whimsically “We’re gonna need it,”, exiting their room and heading to the nearby lift.

When he arrived up in his house moments later, he was welcomed by the smell of Gabby’s cooking. Using his implant earlier, he had notified her that he was going to be heading up soon, though that was before the meeting with the Scottish officials. Hopefully she wasn’t too upset.

“Jack dear, you’re late,” she accosted him, once he entered the kitchen. She was sitting down at the table with a full spread of breakfast goodies. “I was beginning to worry about you.”

“Sorry dear,” he apologized, walking over and kissing her cheek before liberally scooping food onto as plate, “I was interrupted by some important visitors.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, representatives from the Scottish government,” he elaborated, scarfing down a bunch of food, “they need me to fix up a badly damaged android that was inside of a vehicle that was driven off the road by a reckless driver.”

“Oh dear,” Gabby said, clutching her chest, “Was the Human occupant alright?”

“No,” Jack shook his head, “that’s why their visit was so urgent. They want me to recover enough data from the android’s core, which I already confirmed is damaged beyond repair, in order to use as evidence in that person’s trial.”

“I see,” Gabby nodded, “and I take it that it’s going to take a few days.”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded, “I have to be finished by the end of the week to receive full payment, so I’m going to live down there until I’m done.”

“Full payment?”

“Yeah, in addition to my usual fee, they’re also letting me keep the android,” Jack explained, “But, if I can finish by the end of the week, they’ve offered me a free passage waiver…with the only condition being a three-month warning ahead of a potential visit.”

“Wow, that’s a big deal!” Gabby shouted, “who was killed in the crash?”

“The son of one of their ministers,” Jack replied, “I’m going to restore the android, Helen’s, body at the same time I attempt to recover the data they need.”

“Well, you can spend as much time down there as you need,” she said fervently.

“Thanks, dear,” Jack smiled, leaning in and giving her another kiss, “and, if I get that waiver, we can maybe plan a trip to Scotland next year.”

“Oooh, I’ve been hoping for a nice vacation,” Gabby squealed.

“Yeah, now that you’re more comfortable with your sentience, it’s the perfect time.” Jack agreed.

“Do you need anything from me before you disappear for the next three days?”

Jack put on a thinking expression. “Well, now that you mention it, there is one thing,” he said with a naughty smile, gesturing up to the bedroom.

“Ah, I think I can help you with that,” she winked, getting up from the table and taking his hand.

After a few rounds of passionate lovemaking in the bedroom, they both took a shower, continuing some more lovemaking in there, before returning to the bedroom to dress in a fresh set of clothes.

“So, how are you going to manage with minimal sleep?” Gabby said in a concerned voice as she watched him get dressed in the closet.

“Actually, I think I’m ready to test out the full capabilities of this implant,” Jack told her, pointing at his head, “At night, I’m going to rest my body while I control JB and Ellie’s bodies…and, if I can refurbish Helen’s body, I’ll control hers on the last night.”

“Wow, sounds like you’ll get to have some of the same fun I get to have,” she grinned, since she’d gotten to try the bodies of many of his staff already.

“I know,” he grinned back, “I’m going to start off easy with JB tonight, so it won’t be as much of a shock to my system, and then I’ll try Ellie’s body tomorrow.”

“I look forward to hearing all about it,” she smiled.

“Well, I’m thinking of using Helen’s body as a sort of anonymous avatar when it’ s finished, since it doesn’t have a functional core,” he continued, “Perhaps we could have a little woman on woman action when I’m done.”

“That might be interesting,” Gabby nodded, “I’ll let you know how I’m feeling about that at the end of the week though.”

“Good to know,” he nodded, “Anyway, I should get back down now,” he said, looking at the time on the bedside clock, “Could you or Gemma whip up some provisions and have them brought down?”

“Sure, I’ll have Gemma do it, since I’m already late at the greenhouse.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Hey, for my loving husband, it’s worth it,” she smiled warmly, walking over and giving him a loving embrace, “Now go get to work so we can go to Scotland!”

“Yes ma’am,” Jack play saluted, putting on the rest of his clothes and heading back down to his lab.

Chapter Three: Tuesday

As soon as Jack returned to the lab, he headed straight for Ellie and JB’s room. Once in, he walked over to them and snapped them out of standby mode.

“Hey Jack, did you get some rest?” Ellie asked, unplugging herself and JB.

“Not quite…” Jack started, spending several minutes explaining the situation to them while they patiently listened.

“So, we have to have this all done by Friday?! Less than three days? That’s a tall order, even for you,” Ellie scoffed.

“Thanks,” Jack smiled wryly, “I’ve actually decided to pull multiple all-nighters to get this done, considering the reward.”

“A vacation to Scotland…. I’ll bet Gabby’s excited.” JB smiled.

“Oh yeah,” Jack nodded.

“How are you going to pull it off?” Ellie asked.

“I’m finally going to test out this thing,” he replied, pointing at his head, “I’m going to work about 5-6 hours each night while controlling one of your bodies, and then take a 2–3-hour nap afterwards during portions of work that I have to wait to finish, like diagnostic cycles and such.”

“Ooh, you think you’re ready?”

“We’ll find out,” Jack shrugged, “just to be safe, I’ll start with you tonight, JB.”

“Sounds reasonable…and, that is what I was originally built for,” JB shrugged, not caring he’d be letting Jack highjack his body for a few hours.”

“What about me?” Ellie pouted, “I can’t wait to have you in my head….so to speak,” she giggled.

“If all goes well tonight with JB, I’ll test your body tomorrow night,” Jack smiled, “and then if your body works well, and if I can fix up Helen’s body, I’ll try her on Thursday night.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Ellie said, excitedly rubbing her hands together.

“Is there anything you need us to get started on?” JB asked.

“Yes, I need you two to pack up the Partier androids we worked on last night and then take them up to the dock,” Jack told them, “Kat should be free, so she can help you if needed.”

“Very well,” they nodded professionally, getting properly dressed and heading out.

While JB and Ellie finished their assigned task, packing up the dozen or so Partier androids and taking them to the dock, Jack started the arduous task of both restoring Helen’s body, and performing data recovery. He removed her body from the dehumidifier, since it had recently finished, and was pleased to see that the device had done its job. Jack made quick work of transferring Helen’s body to his work area so he could get started.

Since the most important of those two tasks was the data recovery, the first thing Jack did was to remove Helen’s core. The core was in slightly better condition, now that it was dehumidified, than Jack had initially estimated, but the damage still rendered the core useless in running an android body.

He powered on a special machine he used just for data recovery, one that had its own server and a special suite of algorithms that he’d either compiled or collected, and hooked Helen’s core up to it. Once Helen’s core received power, it connected to his machine and began running an initial scan. While the scan ran, Jack moved over to her body to begin removing the remaining damaged equipment and starting on replacing it.

Jack quickly determined that the entire left arm and leg would need to be replaced, due to the heat damage, so he removed them from the torso and began dismantling them for recycling. He removed a few servos that might be salvageable and then carried the damaged arm and leg to a machine that began melting the metal down. Jack dumped in a measured amount of metal and plastic powder into the machine to replace what was removed and then set the machine to reforge the limbs. Since that process would take up to ten hours, Jack returned to check on her core.

The initial scan had finally finished and informed Jack that the data recovery process would take 55 hours. That would be cutting it close, since that would have it finishing Thursday evening, and there was no guarantee that there would be enough data. Jack quickly started the data recovery process, hoping it would be enough.

With that started, he had little else to do but wait and do what he could with Helen’s body. Fortunately, her overall structure was still sound, so he settled in his work area and began the long, arduous process of restoring her body.

As the hours passed, JB and Ellie finished their previous task of bringing their prior client’s Partier models up to the loading dock for Kat to return to the client. Unfortunately, they were unable to assist Jack too much, since he still had other clients he was helping. JB was able to fill in for him in the client meetings, and the two of them worked on the other androids as much as their programming allowed, periodically requesting Jack’s assistance for the more highly skilled work.

Throughout the day, Jack scoured off the portions of Helen’s metallic skeleton, polishing it until it shined. Just as he finished removing the last of the burn damage, and as well as the little water damage that had permeated the skeletal structure, the left arm and leg finished reforging. He eagerly retrieved the newly forged limbs and clicked them in place with a satisfactory look.

After pausing to admire Helen’s now complete, and cleaned, skeleton, he got to work on replacing the servo mechanisms throughout her body so he could run a test on the body’s motor systems before working on the skin and musculature. Fortunately, he had plenty of spares, both in his own stores, and the supplies Clyde had provided, since servos were one of the most commonly replaced parts of these androids.

Within an hour, the servos were in place, so Jack quickly swapped out a few circuits in the torso, made sure the power core had a sufficient charge, and then powered on Helen’s body.

Her body came alive with a series of whirs and clicks, since there was no musculature, skin, or insulation to hide the noise. Since the A.I. core was still missing, the body made no verbal announcements, but numerous LEDs blinked on and off within her to indicate systems were online and functioning.

“So far, so good,” Jack said to himself, meticulously inspecting each servo and connection point to verify things were running smoothly. “Alright, time to see if you can move.” Jack connected a remote-control link to an open port on Helen’s MCN and then pulled out a tablet. After adjusting the controls, he stood back and watched as Helen’s metal skeletal body sat up on the bench, then swung its legs over the side and hopped down, making loud whirring sounds with each movement.

“Wow, kinda creepy, but cool,” Jack smiled, making Helen’s body walked around the table, even pick a few things up. Fortunately, the toes and fingers of the skeleton had padding, which allowed them to grip even without the skin or musculature attached.

“Uhhh, creepy!” Ellie shuddered, slowly walking up to Jack to watch the display.

“I could have you walk around like that too,” Jack reminded her, giving her a playful wink.

“Nah,” she shuddered, “I wouldn’t want to damage my delicate internals.”

“Me neither,” Jack agreed.

“If you’re done playing around with Helen’s skeleton here, JB and I could use your help on a project.”

“Sure,” Jack nodded, making Helen’s body climb back up onto the bench and lay down. He then quickly powered her body back down and plugged it back in. The project that Ellie and JB needed assistance with occupied a couple hours of Jack’s time, since he had little left to do while he waited for parts to arrive in the mail, and for the data recovery to complete.

This project involved reassembling an android woman who had been hit by a car walking across the street, and needed her legs reattached and a few other things repaired.

He took a quick break for dinner and then they powered through until early evening. Jack was starting to feel a little tired, so he knew it was nearly time to attempt to control JB’s body for the evening.

Before he could say anything, however, Kat came down into the lab with a small cart of packages. “Hey Jack, some of the parts you ordered this morning arrived in a rush transport,” she announced cheerfully, stopping over at his desk for him to inspect.

He quickly checked the numbers on the packages and nodded approvingly. “Ah good, I was hoping some of these would arrive tonight…. these will help a ton!”

“Glad to hear it,” Kat smiled, “I’ll keep myself in standby mode while I’m charging tonight, in case any late night or early AM deliveries arrive.”

“Sounds like you’re bucking for a better share of upgrades this year,” Jack smiled slyly.

“Maybe,” she winked, giving him a quick kiss before returning to the loading dock. Ever since he’d upgraded the entire shop staff to the latest Mark III A.I. files, they’d been far more productive.

“Ooh, packages so soon?” Ellie asked, joining him at his desk with JB.

“Yeah, for Helen,” he confirmed, turning to look at JB. “JB, I’m about ready to test my chip on your body,” he told him.

“Okay,” JB nodded dutifully.

“I need you to go and shower up, switch into a fresh set of clothes, and then join me out here.” Jack continued, looking at a nearby clock; it was just after 9pm, “Oh, and I won’t be ready right away, so plug yourself in until 10 and then come back out.”

“Yes Jack,” he nodded, turning to the residence and heading out.

“Ooh, I can’t wait until you try my body out tomorrow!” Ellie squealed, following JB to freshen up as well.

Jack smiled as he watched them head in to freshen up, then sat down at his desk to prepare to control JB’s body. He had a lot of work to do.

Chapter Four: Tuesday Night

Jack worked diligently on the device that he would have to plug into to any android he would want to take control of with his neural chip. Unfortunately, their built-in systems couldn’t handle it on their own, so he would need to plug in a device to handle the signal.

Currently, Jack had only one device, but if this one worked as well as he wanted it to, he planned on quickly manufacturing many more to plug into various members of his staff so he could take control of them at his leisure. For now, he would have to swap it in and out of JB, Ellie, and eventually Helen. He hoped to one day have one installed in all his androids.

He ran a few test signals from his neural chip to the device and was able to detect the signal each time. Confident that the device would work, he plugged it into his terminal to run a final diagnostic before heading into the residence to shower up. He still had 15 minutes before JB and Ellie returned from recharging, so he had plenty of time.

When Jack emerged from the shower and dried himself off, he dressed himself only in a pair of Spandex shorts, though still brought a set of regular clothes, and headed out into the lab to get ready. He pulled out a bed from the area of his lab where he had originally been building JB more than a year earlier. This bed had been modified, however, with numerous equipment designed to closely monitor Jack’s body while he was controlling an android.

“Wow, got enough equipment there?” Ellie teased, walking out a short time later with JB, who had dressed into a fresh set of clothes.

“Hey, I need something to monitor my body so I don’t spend so much time in one of you that it gets permanently damaged,” Jack defended, warming up the equipment before staring critically at JB.

“Is something wrong Jack?” JB asked.

“Not really,” Jack frowned, “I was just thinking…perhaps it might be a better idea if you were nude when I start the transfer,” Jack decided, “I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to control your body right away, and it might be easier if you’re naked.”

“Fair enough,” JB shrugged, quickly stripping off his clothing and leaving it neatly folded nearby, “You would have needed my shirt off, at least, to install the link device.”

“True,” Jack smiled. He paused to admire JB’s body, since he had chosen for once not to modify his body to look exactly like his own for once. This decision mostly had to do with the fact that Jack had put on a few points recently, and JB still looked more fit. Jack made a mental note to dig the Shawn Johnson Perfect Trainer model Gabby had gotten for him a few Christmases ago out of storage.

“Alright,” Jack smiled, clapping his hands together excitedly, “let’s get started.” Jack quickly retrieved the transceiver device he would be connecting to JB’s core and made quick work of plugging it into an open port. After JB ran the appropriate hardware and software diagnostics, confirming the device was compatible with his setup, he reattached and resealed his panel and laid down on a bed next to where Jack would be laying.

Once Jack had his equipment around the bed set up, he stripped down to just his underwear, which for the purposes of this was a pair of form fitting spandex boxers to allow his body to stay a comfortable temperature. He then laid down and, with JB and Ellie’s assistance, attached a series of electrodes to various locations on his chest and head to monitor his body.

“Are you ready, Jack?” Ellie asked, a minor hint of concern in her face.

“I think so,” he nodded solemnly, turning to JB. “When I take over, your A.I. will go into partial suspension,” he explained, “you should be running in the background, and even be able to communicate with me, if need be, so you won’t be completely offline.”

“I understand,” JB nodded understandingly. He had Jack’s latest brain scans, so he already knew this, but he also knew Jack was merely being polite.

“Good,” Jack smiled, knowing what JB was thinking, “Here goes.” Jack slowly closed his eyes and activated the control sequence through his brain implant. For a moment, he lost consciousness and experienced total sensory deprivation. However, as soon as it began, he suddenly regained consciousness and slowly reopened his eyes.

His view of the lab ceiling had suddenly shifted. He could see he was a few feet to the left of where he just was, and his vision seemed noticeably sharper and more detailed. He could also feel he was naked, where before he was wearing shorts. He slowly tested out JB’s body, wiggling his toes and fingers, before carefully using his arms to sit himself up on the bed, swinging his legs over the edge.

Ellie was still standing near his organic body, now looking as though it were sleeping peacefully on the bed. “Jack, is it really you?”

“Yes, it’s me,” Jack said, his voice sounding the same as though he were in his own body. Although he now had access to JB’s HUD, it was similar enough to his own brain implants HUD that he barely noticed. He used the HUD to run a quick diagnostic on JB’s body, momentarily freezing himself up, before smiling, “The procedure seems to have worked….I have full control of JB’s body!”

Jack jumped down from the table and gleefully bounced around on JB’s artificial, and significantly not sore feet. Having been in a Human body all his life, Jack was now reveling in having control of a body that looked exactly like him, but was suffering from no pain or tiredness.

“JB, are you there?” Jack said, though not aloud, to the process he could detect running that was JB’s A.I.

“Yes Jack, I am still here,” he replied in Jack’s mind, “I’m glad you’re enjoying my body, and I hope you have a fun experience.”

“Thanks, JB, and I’ll have it back to you first thing in the morning.” Jack replied.

“I know you will.”

Jack then reduced JB’s threads to minimize the processing power and focused back on Ellie, who was looking at him patiently.

“Is everything all right?” She asked.

“Oh yes,” Jack laughed, “I was talking to JB, making sure he was still there.”

“Okay,” she smiled, looking relieved, “Your bodies bio-signs look stable, so you should be able to safely control JB for about 5-7 hours before getting a couple hours of actual sleep.”

“Good, then I have some time to play then,” Jack grinned, reaching down and grabbing his penis. Pleasure signals entered his brain and processed across the wireless transfer into his human brain, allowing him to feel every sensation as though it were really happening. He continued to be glad that he had invested in ensuring that JB have a completely identical penis to his own, though the custom module cost a considerable amount.

He played around, shaking his hips and watching it jiggle realistically, and even started to get a slight erection, before stopping himself. “Wow, I never imagined the sensory data would be this accurate…it’s like I’m actually JB.”

“And tomorrow you’ll get to be me,” Ellie winked.

“Yeah, I can’t wait for that,” Jack nodded, “but, for now, I must get to work, and I can’t work in the nude,” he said regrettably. He stared at both his set of clothes, and the ones JB had been wearing before deciding to just wear the clothes JB was. Since JB didn’t have a realistic body odor, Jack didn’t feel like getting his skin dirty with his own.

Once Jack was dressed in JB’s body, he returned to his work area with Ellie and resume his work on Helen’s body. He made quick wort of installing the few parts that had just arrived, delivered to the lab by Kat, though since there weren’t too many, it did not take Jack long.

Since he was still awaiting more parts, he spent some time fine tuning the settings on her body so she could operate more efficiently once the parts came in. Additionally, he started prepping the stuff he already had, but couldn’t install yet.

In between, he assisted Ellie with some of the other assignments that he had agreed to before Helen was dropped on his lab. A few androids that were getting some upgrades, and others getting repairs.

After he finished repairing the foot of a particularly attractive Personal Trainer model, that had been damaged kick boxing, he looked at the time and saw that it had been just over four hours. He ran a quick scan of his bodies biological functions and saw that he should return in less than six to rest up more properly.

“Are you feeling okay, Jack?” Ellie asked, seeing Jack zone out.

“Oh, yes,” he smiled, “It’s just getting close to time to return to my body.”

“I see,” she nodded, “So, since we don’t seem to have anything to do right now, would you like to test out some more of JB’s capabilities?”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, slightly lost in thought.

“You know what I mean,” Ellie pressed, a hungry look in her eyes.

“Oh….that,” Jack blushed.

“Yeah, that,” she giggled, “You had sex with me on the first day I was activated, but that was while I was in Jenny’s body,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, that was nice,” Jack smiled, reminiscing.

“And then you built JB for me….”

“Hey, I didn’t build JB for you,” Jack corrected her with a grin, “I built him so I could possibly one day inhabit him, and to help me out around the lab….also, just to see if I could do it.”

“Anyway, JB may look exactly like you, and even act mostly like you, but having sex with him just isn’t the same as having it with a real person,” she continued, “With us androids, its all just sexual programming, activating programs to interact with the other partners programs, and it gets a little boring after a while.”

“You still seem to have fun,” Jack pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s because we’re programmed to,” she shrugged, “I want to have sex with you…right now. It still won’t completely count, since you’re merely controlling JB’s body, but your mind will still make the experience unpredictable.”

“You mean fun?” Jack smiled.

“Yes,” she nodded.

“You okay with this, JB?” Jack asked him inside his head. JB had been mostly silent through the whole ordeal, but had occasionally chimed in with insights into Ellie’s current projects.

“Yeah, no problem at all,” JB replied simply, “have fun.”

Jack spent a few more moments a thinking about it, while Ellie patiently waited. He had been meaning to test out his ability to have sex while in JB’s body, but he had just figured he try it on Gabby first. Still, Gabby didn’t care if he had sex with Ellie, since she was part of the family, and ever since becoming sentient, she didn’t really care anymore if he had sex with any of his androids, so there was no downside.

“Alright, you win,” Jack sighed dramatically.

“Yay!” Ellie squealed, jumping for joy before rushing over and grabbing him fiercely, “you won’t be disappointed in your decision,” she whispered into his ear, before guiding him to her room in the residence, absently stroking his real body as they passed it. Jack ignored the small warning that popped up on his HUD and went with it.

When they got into Ellie and JB’s room, Ellie immediately began seducing Jack, though because Jack did find her attractive, she didn’t have to work too hard. Eventually, they both stripped off all their clothes and climbed onto the bed, with Ellie underneath, and Jack on top. They grinned into each other for several minutes, merely enjoying the feeling of one another’s skin.

Finally, Jack inserted himself in her and began working up and down, using his HUD to better time himself with her throes, before finally climaxing and collapsing on her in a wave of ecstasy. When they finally recovered, they rolled over and stared into each other’s eyes.

“Well, was having sex with me really so bad?” Ellie teased.

“Not really,” Jack admitted, “although, I suppose you’ll still be wanting to have it with me in my body.”

“Yep,” she nodded, “you controlling JB was different, but it’s still an android body…I want to try your organic body.”

Jack laughed. “Maybe that’ll be your Christmas present this year.”

“Hey! Don’t cheap out on me!” she pouted.

“I kid,” Jack smiled, leaning in and kissing her, “but, I still might offer it anyway.”

“I can’t wait,” she smiled, “how are you holding up?”

Jack ran a quick scan of his body. “I should probably terminate the link and return to my body now so I can get some rest before the morning delivery arrives.” Jack started to get up out of the bed, but Ellie grabbed him and held him down. “What is it?”

“You can terminate the link from here, right?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” Jack nodded.

“Well,” she smiled, gently stroking his chest, “I think I want to go a few more rounds with JB after you return to your body, before we clean up and recharge for the evening.”

“Alright,” Jack laughed, preparing to terminate the link, “Just remove the neural link device from his core before you recharge for the evening,” he told her, “And return it to my desk.”

“Will do,” she saluted.

Jack smiled once more before terminating the link. He once again experienced momentary sensory deprivation as he lost control of JB’s body, but moments later he woke in his organic body. He could feel that his body felt slightly well rested, since it was lying down for nearly six hours, but his mind was still slightly foggy, since it was quite active controlling JB’s body.

It took him a few moments to get used to moving his real body, but he finally sat up, removing the electrodes and sensors, and hopped down from the bed. He could once again feel the slight soreness that had developed in his feet from standing most of the day, as well as his lower back from bending down to work on the androids throughout the day. Sighing, he put his clothes back on and headed to the room reserved for himself in the residence to rest up for a few hours, before the morning.

Chapter Five: Wednesday

Jack woke up a few hours later, an alarm going off indicating that Kat was receiving a delivery at the loading dock. He quickly freshened up in the bathroom, got his clothes back on, and headed out into the lab.

JB and Ellie were already out and about, having cleaned up after their sex and fully recharged; the neural link had been removed from JB’s body, as instructed, and placed back on Jack’s desk. They were continuing to work on some of Jack’s side projects, and prepping his work area for the pending deliveries.

“Did you sleep well?” JB asked, handing Jack a mug of coffee.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jack smiled, taking the mug and a huge sip, “Your body is really nice to be in…. though, I suppose compared to my slowly aging human body, all of your bodies are.”

“Yeah,” JB laughed.

“I hope you enjoy my body tonight,” Ellie grinned, “I’m gonna make sure its nice and clean, and fully charged before you connect to me.”

“Thanks,” Jack smiled. He was looking forward to her body, though more for the experience of being in a female body than specifically to be her for a night.

They bantered in the lab for the next few minutes while Jack drank his coffee and ate a light breakfast. Just as he was finishing up, Kat emerged from the lift with a cart full of packages.

“This morning’s shipment from Spaztec is in,” she announced cheerfully, wheeling the cart over to Jack’s work area and neatly organizing them onto the side table near Helen’s body, “The driver assures me that the afternoon shipment will be here between 4 and 5pm.”

Jack nodded along as Kat spoke, quickly opening each package to interview what had arrived. So far, he had just about everything he’d need to get Helen fully operational, but the things arriving late in the afternoon would seem to be her A.I. Core, which Jack would be installing with her backups, and a fresh shipment of the base ingredients his 3D printer required to print her skin and musculature on.

“Is the driver still up there?” Jack finally asked, after he finished inventorying the supplies.

“Yes, he’s still waiting for the items you were planning on shipping out,” Kat reported.

“Good, JB and Ellie should have them ready.”

Kat merely nodded and followed the two of them into the store room. Jack routinely shipped some parts back to Spaztec for quality assurance when he replaced defective parts.

Once Kat had the outgoing packages ready, she headed into the lift and back up to the dock. JB and Ellie then joined Jack in assisting with the new parts for Helen’s body.

Over the course of the next several hours, they carefully installed the rigging in Helen’s torso that most of the internal components would be secured in, along with the shock absorbers and interior packing to give her body the appropriate feel when poked or squeezed.

Finally, Helen’s interior torso was prepped, so Jack took a quick break for lunch and then began the arduous task of both installing and configuring each component. He installed the stomach, the tubes connecting to the fusion power core, to the digestive systems, and even to the perspiration tanks.

Next, he installed the dehumidifiers that the Perfect Friend models came installed with. Not enough to withstand being in the greenhouse for extended periods, but certainly enough for being outside on a humid day.

After that, he installed the lungs and the heat sink surrounding the MCN, which he also replaced. Fortunately, her old MCN was not too badly damaged, so he was able to quickly transfer over more than 80% of the saved muscle memory data to the new unit and quickly install it.

Once that was completed, he installed a brand-new power core, fully charged, that would give her body more than 36 hours of charge, assuming she didn’t eat to replenish. He also added kinetic absorbers on her key joints to convert her kinetic energy into more energy, adding up to an extra 8 hours of charge. Although Jack didn’t intend on making her a new employee, he still wanted to pimp her out as much as possible, since he did plan on using her as a female avatar from time to time.

Getting very late into the evening, close to the evening delivery time, Jack was installing the final, lower priority components. At this point, JB and Ellie had already broken away to attend to a project just brought down by Rachel, but since it was a simple repair job, they would be done in less than four hours and be ready to return the unit before the shop closed for the night.

After Jack finished installing the reinforcement muscles on Helen’s elbows and knees, he grabbed the final components, which turned out to be her sexual systems. Unlike previous cases, where the vagina was fully intact, since he was planning on printing the external portion anyway, he saved a bit of money by just purchasing the interior part.

Wiping some sweat from his brow, he delicately installed it within the pelvis of Helen’s skeleton body, connecting the dozens of fiber optic cables to the MCN and the power systems. Once the actual unit was in place, he spent another hour connecting the perspiration systems to it, as well as installing the lubrication systems.

Once the whole unit was completed, he pressed a button on the side to pre-lubricate it for the first time, standing back and watching in satisfaction as a small amount of lubricant primed the unit for use. The device always had to have a small amount of lubricant in it, so there wouldn’t be any damage while the body moved around throughout the day.

Just as he was finishing up, he got an alert on his computer that the evening delivery had finally arrived. Kat was currently speaking with the delivery driver and packing the boxes onto her cart. Jack had just enough time to freshen up and down a glass of water before she came down with the cart.

“The evening delivery,” she announced cheerfully, stopping at his work area.

“Thanks Kat!” Jack told her, grabbing the half dozen or so boxes. One of them had the Perfect Friend core that he would be modifying for her body, a few of the other boxes just had a few minor components he could install later, but two of the heavier boxes contained the ingredients his 3D printer required to print the skin and musculature on Helen’s body.

Jack usually had those ingredients stocked already, but he usually only had enough to reprint skin on a hand, foot, arm, leg, or even head. This was one of the few occasions he needed to print for the whole body.

“Will there be anything else?” Kat inquired.

“No Kat, just resume your normal duties,” he told her, already focused on prepping the 3D printer. Kat nodded curtly, not offended at all, and returned to the dock with her cart.

In order to prep the printer, Jack required the assistance of both Ellie and JB, since loading the ingredients was very delicate, not to mention loading an android skeleton into the printing chamber. Once the ingredients were loaded into their cartridges, JB and Ellie carefully lifted Helen’s body up and placed it in the printer, which Jack had already configured for Helen’s body type.

With the physical work done, Jack now began a long process of actually configuring what Helen would look like. Clyde had provided him with Helen’s physical parameters, which he of course had programmed into the machine, but since he was going to be the one primarily using her body, Jack naturally wanted to make a few alterations.

Before he got started, since he knew it would take a while, he turned to Ellie. “When I’m done altering Helen and have the printer started, I should be ready to try out your body,” he told her.

“Yay!” She clapped.

“I want you to go and clean up, and make yourself up…. nothing too extreme, mind you,” he told her, prompting a giggle from her, “and then I want both of you to charge up and wait in standby mode until I’m ready.”

“Ok,” Ellie nodded seriously, along with JB. The two of them made their way into the residence to follow Jack’s instructions, while he turned to the printer to make the alterations to Helen.

Helen already looked breathtakingly beautiful, so most of the alterations Jack made were subtle. He added a small spattering of freckles on her face and neck, mostly around her cheeks. He made her breasts slightly firmer, altered the length and thickness of her hair, and slightly lightened the color of her brown eyes. He considered making her eyes green, but the preview avatar just didn’t look right, so he kept them brown.

The biggest alteration he made, which ended up requiring him adding a few more ingredients to the mix, was enhancing her musculature. While he did want to retain most of her feminine attributes, he still needed her to be capable of as much physical activity as his real body, so he enhanced her arm and leg muscles, and even toned her abs, to give her a slightly athletic look. It would only mostly be noticeable if she were naked, though, so she’d still look mostly the same.

The final modifications were all optional features that these androids could be equipped with, but Helen originally wasn’t. Such features like enhanced skin to protect from the sun, enhanced durability, and better perspiration usually would cost someone a lot extra, but since Jack already spent a fortune on the printer, he could give his androids upgrades for a considerable discount…. even though he still had to purchase all the ingredients.

Once the final alterations were set, the machine ran a diagnostic to confirm it had sufficient ingredients, then it quickly updated its software online, before running an intense laser scan of Helen’s skeleton. A minute later, the scan completed and offered an estimate of 12 hours for the printing process to complete.

Jack winced, since it was at least two hours longer than he had anticipated, but he was not too surprised given the enhancements he had programmed in. He quickly started the process and watched as the window on the device took on a tint to protect his human eyes from the laser radiation, but still allowed him to view the process partially. After he watched in satisfaction and it began its work on Helen’s toes, he pulled his view away from the printer and over to the A.I. core he would be customizing for her body.

While he was planning on doing most of the work while in Helen’s body, he still at least needed to do some quick prep work, so he pulled it free of the packaging and plugged it into his computer terminal so it could download and install some of the necessary updates it would need before he could even get started later.

With all the automated work underway, Jack headed into the residence to take a quick shower, and to prepare himself for controlling Ellie’s body.

Chapter Six: Wednesday Night

Jack emerged from the relaxing shower a short time later, quickly peeking into JB and Ellie’s room to make sure they were charging. Both were, and Ellie was still nude and slightly made up from her shower, since she knew from the previous night that Jack would need her to be naked. Smiling, Jack kept them in standby mode, since he wasn’t yet ready, and returned to the lab.

After grabbing the neural link device from his desk, he carried it over to the bed he would be laying on and plugged it into the device. He should’ve done this last night after returning to his body, but since the device was still in JB’s body, and because he was tired, he let it wait.

Once the device was plugged into the bio-monitor attached to the bed, he conducted a full diagnostic on both devices to gather telemetry from his experience controlling JB the night before. The diagnostic finished fairly quickly, within ten minutes, and Jack perused the telemetry and health reports with great interest.

According to the telemetry, Jack’s experience controlling JB was mostly flawless, however it recommended a few minor changes to improve his experience going forward. The first, which Jack instantly made using his brain implant’s link to his lab, was to lower the ambient temperature by 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Evidently his body warmed up while controlling an android body remotely, and lowering the surrounding temperature would help mitigate that.

Second, his brain required more nutrients to maintain control more efficiently, so it recommended he take a nutrient solution. He quickly programmed the recommended solution into his beverage dispenser in the lab kitchen and downed it in a gulp.

Finally, after returning to the bed, it recommended a few alterations to the programming code, which Jack knocked out in less than five minutes. With the changes all made, the device estimated he could control the androids now for up to an extra 90 minutes.

Satisfied with the results, and knowing it would offer him more recommendations after his time in Ellie’s body tonight, he summoned JB and Ellie via the brain implant and waited patiently. Seconds later, they both walked out of the residence. Ellie was still fully nude, and walking in such a way as to flaunt her body. JB walked beside her, fully clothed, and dutifully carrying the bundle of clothes that she had selected for Jack to wear while controlling her body.

“That took you longer than I expected,” Ellie said accusingly, wagging her finger at him jokingly and then pretending to yawn, “JB and I got a good nap there.”

“Sorry,” Jack smiled, “I had to analyze the telemetry from last night, and it offered up a few solutions to improve my experience with your body.”

“Oooh,” she said interestedly, “is that why its colder in here?” She added with a slight shiver.

“Yes,” Jack nodded, “I had to take a nutrient solution, lower the ambient temperature by 2 degrees, and fix a few coding errors that popped up…. but it estimates I should be able to control you for up to 90 more minutes.”

“Nice!” She fist-pumped, “Are you excited?”

“Yeah…my first go at feeling what its like to be a female.”

“Hey, I may look female, but controlling my body won’t quite be the same,” she said with a firm look, “Think of it more like female-lite, without the annoying hormone issues and whatnot.”

“Okay, female-lite it is,” Jack laughed.

“Are we ready to do this then?”

“Yeah, go ahead and lay down on the table while I get ready here,” I told her, then turned to JB, handing him the neural link device, “Plug this into her core and reseal her while I get ready.”

“Yes Jack,” JB nodded, taking the device and walking over to Ellie with it.

By the time JB had the device plugged into Ellie’s core, and had her resealed, Jack had himself connected to the bio-monitor. JB returned over to Jack to help him with some fine tuning before Jack turned to Ellie.

“Alright, here goes,” he told her, activating the connection through his implant. The last thing he saw was her giving him a wink before the sensory deprivation returned once more.

Moments later, he regained sensation and slowly opened his eyes. Since controlling the android bodies made him essentially feel as though he were them, it took his mind a few moments to fully comprehend the differences.

For one thing, her eyelashes were fuller and looked quite different in his field of vision, and he could quickly perceive the lack of a penis, which he’d obviously grown accustomed to having for more than 30 years of life, and could perceive instead the existence of a vagina. Just getting used to those changes gave Jack a period of lightheadedness, but he finally shook it off and slowly sat up on the table, swinging his legs over the edge.

The next clear change he could see was that he was higher up off the ground than he was used to, and his feet looked different. Two large mounds of flesh also jutted out from his chest, slightly impairing his view, and throwing off his balance. Steadying himself, he tentatively wiggled Ellie’s stubby toes and then carefully lowered himself down to the floor.

His next challenge was staying properly balanced with Ellie’s sizable breasts acting as ballast on his front half. Next, he had to get over the slight vertigo caused when he looked around the lab and saw that he was nearly a foot shorter than he was used to.

“Are you okay?” JB finally said, after having watched Jack patiently stumbling around in Ellie’s body for over a minute. JB knew he would have some issues, since he had been placed in Ellie’s body numerous times since they’re both been online, and he knew what Jack was thinking.

“Yeah, I’m just getting the hang of her body,” Jack smiled, slightly shocked to hear Ellie’s voice emerge from his mouth instead of his. He knew that would be the case, of course, but knowing and experiencing were two entirely different things. Still, he absently ran a quick check of Ellie’s HUD and confirmed that he could still speak with his own voice, if needed…. well, technically JB’s voice, but still.

“Her body does take a bit of getting used to,” JB grinned knowingly, continuing to watch Jack with an amused look.

“Yeah, her hips are a bit wider than ours, making me alter the way I walk,” Jack said clinically, “and her shorter height is still kinda freaking me out.”

“Hey, its not my fault my body is built the way it is,” Ellie pouted inside his head, her A.I. having patiently waited to reply to him, giving him time to play around a bit.

“I know,” Jack replied to her internally, “I’m sure you had just as much trouble getting used to JB’s body too.”

“True,” she conceded, “this arrangement we currently have is quite interesting…. almost like I’m watching what you do through a screen while I’m seated comfortably in a chair.”

“That’s the way I tried to keep it,” Jack confirmed.

“I’ll feel free to chime in whenever you appear to be having any difficulties.” She offered.

“Thanks, but keep in mind I can mute you if you get too annoying,” he replied.

She responded merely with the sound of her blowing a raspberry, and then fell silent. Jack smiled to himself and continued with getting used to her body.

He amused himself by briefing feeling himself up, admiring the sensations of Ellie’s sizeable breasts, especially the nipples, and was very interested by the sensations of her vagina. Finally, he felt comfortable enough moving around in her body to get dressed, so he turned to the selection of clothes and began putting them on.

The panties were easy enough to to get on, but the cotton bra that she had selected caused him to pause. “Need some help,” Ellie chimed in, after watching him scrutinize the bra for more seconds than was necessary.

“Yes,” he admitted sheepishly, feeling a blush on her cheeks.

“Don’t worry, it’s easy,” she assured him, quickly walking him through, and even briefly taking back control of her body to allow him to feel acquire the appropriate muscle memory. After a few minutes of practicing, he finally had her bra on and continued dressing in the simple t-shirt and shorts she had selected.

She had also provided a pair of socks and simple tennis shoes, but after staring down at her feet, he decided to continue in her barefoot.

“Hey! You’d better not damage my feet working in your lab barefoot!” she said accusingly, as he neatly placed the shoes and socks in her corner of the lab before walking over to his desk.

“Don’t worry,” he told her, quickly orienting himself at his desk to get used to his shorter height, “I’m just gonna be working on Helen’s core, plus, even if I did damage your feet, I have several spares in storage….and, I’d enjoy fixing them anyway.”

“Ha! Yeah, you would,” she laughed, “well, have fun.”

“I will,” he assured her, before sizing the current situation up.

Helen’s core had long since finished installing the required pre-requisite updates, so he unplugged it from his laptop and examined it. The core was the latest model of the Mark II cores, though he was of course going to be upgrading the software to Mark III. In addition, he was going to be installing better memory modules so he could install additional programs, and he was going to be upgrading its internal power supply with a far better one so it could handle the main addition he would be making to it, which was installing a dedicated transceiver array so he could operate her body from up to 10 miles away, and have an overall better experience doing so.

Since this was going to take between 4-6 hours, Jack got started with the physical hardware upgrades first, though he gave himself a head start on the software side by prepping the downloads and updates.

The first thing Jack did to get started on the hardware upgrade to the core was to completely power it down. Even though he was using Ellie’s body, he still didn’t want to get electrocuted. He found he had to spend a little bit of time getting used to using her hands, since they were smaller than his. Fortunately, unlike her feet which had short stubby toes, her hands were more proportional, so it didn’t take him too long to get the hang of them. One advantage he quickly discovered with tinkering using her hands was that, since she was an android, he was able to hold her hands more steadily than his own. Additionally, she didn’t perspire as easily, so he didn’t constantly have to dry his hands.

For the next hour, Jack meticulously disassembled Helen’s core and carefully swapped out the power supply with one that had 60% more capacity. He also upgraded the onboard memory buffers so the core could store more data.

Finally, he swapped out the default transceiver array, which the androids usually used to transmit short range data packets to one another, and to connect wirelessly to a local machine, with the special one he constructed just for Helen. This array was capable of transmitting the usual data packets from almost 50 miles away, and his neural transmitter data from up to 10 miles. It was a little overkill, since the downtown was less than 5 miles away, but Jack didn’t want to take any chances of signal degradation.

While he worked, he could hear JB working on one of the side projects from the other side of the lab, using Ellie’s enhanced android hearing. He also found himself playfully swinging Ellie’s bare feet while he worked, since he couldn’t reach the bottom of the chair to brace himself like he could in his body.

Once he had the hardware upgrades complete, he quickly reassembled the core casing and powered it on to make sure everything worked. When the core finished its initial hardware diagnostic and reported no errors, Jack breathed a sigh of relief and moved on to the next task.

Plugging her core back into his workstation, he prepped the Mark III files that he’d already downloaded and began the upgrade procedure. While he waited for the upgrade to complete, he amused himself by perusing Ellie’s HUD, which was noticeably different from JB’s, and even playing back some of her memories that she hadn’t marked ‘private’, including those of the first day he activated her.

“Those ones are my favorite,” Ellie chimed in, after he’d watched a few.

“You were a very pleasant surprise,” Jack conceded, watching a few more memories and then running a quick diagnostic on her body, since he’d been using it for several hours now.

Helen’s core finished upgrading after almost an hour, and at this time Jack already had Helen’s backup memories and personality files queued up and ready to integrate into the new core. Fortunately, this process would only take about 10-15 minutes, and Jack was also able to make subtle modifications to her personality while the transfer was progressing.

Finally, with the A.I. files now installed, Jack began the final procedure, which was installing all of the extra programs he would want her to have: Extra language files, the same repair programs Ellie and JB had, cooking, cleaning, and a few custom programs Jack specially designed just for when he was interfacing with her, so he would be able to more seamlessly act like Helen while he was controlling her body.

With everything now complete on the software side of Helen’s core, he ran a quick test of her A.I. systems, bringing a static window up on his terminal so he could converse with it. Conversing wasn’t a proper term, of course, more like he asked it basic diagnostic questions to verify that it had access to its memories, and could emulate various emotional states, so that it could function adequately if he were to use Helen as a new staff member.

It was quite late now; Jack had been operating Ellie’s body for around five hours now. He rubbed her temples with his hands, feeling some slight brain fog, but felt he could still go a couple hours more. Jack hopped down from his desk, plopping onto Ellie’s bare feet, and walked over to the 3D printer to check on Helen’s body.

Despite having been printing for over five hours now, the printer had only finished just barely above Helen’s knees. If Jack had opted for the more standard skin and musculature that Helen’s body had originally been built with, the printer might already be working on her waist, but he wanted the best. By his estimate, she’d be finished sometime early to mid-afternoon the following day, and that would still give him several hours to perform some finishing touches and tests before attempting to control her body that evening.

Next, Jack checked up on the progress of Helen’s original core and the data recovery program. the program was at 85%, and would most likely be completed sometime just before noon. That would still give him nearly 24 hours until the Scottish officials returned on Friday to make sense of the data and hopefully provide them with the information that they would need to make an arrest in this case.

Jack then looked around the lab for something to do. JB had long since finished working on whatever project he had been assigned, and was now in standby mode over near where Jack’s body was laying, almost as though he were standing sentry. Jack slowly walked over and gazed upon his body, scrutinizing it through Ellie’s eyes.

Although Jack was in in mid-30s, he was still quite handsome, and he found that seeing it through Ellie’s eyes almost turned him on.

“Are you thinking of having sex with JB?” Ellie asked, after having been silent for over an hour.

Startled, Jack blushed, staring absently at JB, who was still peacefully in standby mode. “No,” Jack admitted, though it was a hard choice, “It’s somewhat tempting, but it wouldn’t quite feel right fucking myself, you know…even if it were from the opposite perspective.”

“I feel you,” Ellie said understandingly, “Though, I know the real Ellie would totally do it with me, but we’re somewhat narcissistic, so that’s understandable,” she laughed.

“Yeah,” Jack laughed back, then put on a frown before accessing his brain implant and sending a message to Zoya.”

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked, since she couldn’t see everything that Jack was doing, since the brain implant was in the head of his real body, instead of Ellie’s A.I.

“I’m asking Zoya if she can send Andy over here,” Jack replied, closing the chat with Zoya, who fortunately was still awake at this hour and quickly responded.

“Wow, I’m surprised she was still awake!” Ellie said in a surprised voice, “It’s nearly 4am!”

“I know,” Jack agreed, “she said she was staying up late these few nights in case I had a medical emergency during the transfers,”

“Oh, that was thoughtful of her,” Ellie applauded.

“Yeah,” Jack replied, “Anyway, she’s sending Andy down soon.”

“I can’t wait for you to experience sex in my body…. I promise I’ll be quiet.”

“Thanks.”

A few moments later, Jack heard the lift from the house descend, followed shortly thereafter by footsteps. Andy emerged from the residence moments after that, dressed in his usual casual attire, and stopped a short distance from Jack.

“Thanks, Andy, for coming so quickly,” Jack smiled, and blushing despite himself; Andy was quite attractive. “I’m sure Zoya told you, but I’m actually Jack controlling Ellie’s body, and I’d like some assistance having sex, and having it with my body is a little weird, and since you’re the only other male android around…”

Andy blushed as Jack spoke, before interrupting him. “Actually, I’m Zoya right now,” he admitted somewhat bashfully, “Andy’s great, but even with the upgrades you gave him, I don’t think you’d get as great an experience, so I thought it’d be best if I took over.”

“Oh, okay then,” Jack said awkwardly, before blushing some more, “I think it makes me more comfortable knowing you’re controlling him…since you technically are neither and both genders.”

“Yeah, I thought so too,” he nodded, before walking around the table and inspecting his real body, “Wow, it looks like this system we both cooked up is really doing its job,” he said happily, absently poking Jack’s real penis.

An alert instantly popped up in Jack’s vision, alerting him that his body had been touched in a forbidden area.

“Sorry, just checking,” Andy apologized, seeing the look on Jack’s face.

“It’s okay,” Jack blushed, “I suppose I’ll have to tweak the monitor settings so it won’t send me those alerts if I’m in visual contact with my real body.”

“Yeah,” Andy agreed, “So, are you ready?”

“Yes, I think I am,” Jack nodded.

“Don’t worry,” Andy smiled reassuringly, holding out his hand, “I’ll walk you through this.”

Jack took Andy’s hand and they both walked into the residence and into Ellie’s room to get started. Once they got everything in the room ready to set the mood, the both sat down and stared awkwardly into each other’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Jack finally said, “I’m used to being a man and mostly taking lead, but I’m not quite sure what to do in a female body.”

“That’s why it’s a good thing you’re practicing now,” Andy grinned, “that way you’ll be ready to use Helen’s body more often, not to mention the other lovely female androids you own.”

“Yeah,” Jack chuckled.

“Anyway, why don’t I just start with a striptease, to get you in the mood, and then I’ll undress you and get in position on top?” Andy suggested.

“Works for me,” Jack shrugged.

“Great!” Andy smiled, quickly removing his shoes and socks before getting up and beginning the striptease.

Although Jack was mostly straight, he did have some bi-sexual tendencies, especially when it came to androids, and Andy was quite physically attractive. He could also feel his interface with Ellie’s body subtly influencing him, since her body was designed to be attracted to males, and females. He slowly felt himself breathing harder as Zoya, in Andy’s body, made a good show of removing the simple casual attire she’d dressed Andy in.

After a short time that felt like forever, Andy was now fully nude, flaunting his body before Jack, who was now breathing very heavily as Ellie’s sexual systems started activating. He could absently feel a wetness between his legs, and Ellie’s vaginal lubrication systems started working.

Andy noticed this of course and gave Jack a knowing wink before gently lifting Jack to his feet and removing his clothes. The tender way in which he did so put Jack at ease, and before he knew it, he stood naked in Ellie’s body, though not for long, since Andy carefully lowered him down onto the bed.

“Alright, here we go,” Andy whispered, crawling onto the bed and slowly mounting him.

Jack was slightly thrown off his rhythm, since he was used to being on top, but Andy quickly positioned himself more comfortably and then lowered himself down to start kissing Jack, while gently grinding against Jack’s slowly moistening crotch.

The next few minutes were among the most memorable in Jack’s life as he and Andy passionately made out, and then Andy smiled, leaning in close and whispering into his ear, “You’re ready.”

“Ready for wha... Oh!” Jack started as he felt Andy’s stiff rod slowly enter his vagina. He thought it felt good when Andy was just grinding on the outside, but this was much better.

Andy let out a pleasant giggle and a knowing look as he continued to insert himself, before taking a deep breath and slowly starting his thrusts.

While Jack was momentarily caught off guard by Andy’s thrusts, he quickly got the hang of having sex from this side and started thrusting his hips in time with Andy. In time, they both slowly started speeding up until they were both panting loudly, and then the climaxed.

Jack felt Andy’s warm ejaculate flood into his vagina, while at the same time Ellie’s body released a torrent of juices in response. Once the pleasure stopped, Jack collapsed back on the bed, with Andy doing the same on his chest.

After several minutes of both cooling down, and simply enjoying each other’s warm bodies pressed against one another, Andy finally opened his eyes and stared into Jack’s.

“Well, how was your first time?”

Jack quickly caught his breath and found himself smiling like an excited schoolboy, almost giddy. “It was amazing!” He finally managed to say, trying to articulate it into better words, but failing, “I see why women enjoy it so much.”

“Yeah, though I certainly find it fun to try it in Andy’s body from time to time, since Vanda’s body is lovely….and I’m usually using her body most of the time anyway, so its good for a change.”

“Yeah…. I only wish I had come up with this transfer device sooner…. though I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Aww, thanks!” Andy blushed, leaning in and giving Jack another kiss, “You want to go again?”

Jack seriously paused to think about it for a while before regretfully shaking his head. “Nah, as much as I’d like to, I should probably get back to my own body…I’ve already been using Ellie’s body for more than six hours, and I think we both need a rest.”

“Oh yeah,” Ellie replied in his head, though Jack chose not to respond.

“Fair enough,” Andy winked, giving Jack one more kiss before slowly lifting himself up, removing his penis from Jack. That caused Jack to gasp, but Andy was quick, so the brief pleasure didn’t last long.

“Would you like to use one of the showers down here?” Ellie offered, once Andy was off the bed and standing nude in the center of the room, examining his penis covered in sex juices.

“Nah, I’ll just dry this off with a towel and shower in my room,” Andy shrugged, grabbing a dirty towel from Ellie’s hamper and quickly drying his groin off, “I’m not human, and these juices are all artificial, so I don’t care as much about cleanliness as you.”

“Alright,” Jack laughed, slowly sitting up and sitting on the foot of the bed; he could Andy’s sperm inside of him, so he absently held his hand to his vagina to keep it from leaking.

“You might want to get that cleaned up right away though,” Andy said delicately, “The artificial stuff can start to congeal if left too long.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Jack blushed, “Thanks again for attending to this matter personally…I really appreciated this lesson and I hope you can help me again tomorrow with Helen.”

“It was my absolute pleasure, and I’d love to,” Andy smiled, leaning down and giving Jack one more kiss before putting his clothes back on and departing.

Once Andy was gone, Jack sat on the bed for a few more moments before communing with Ellie. “Hey Ellie, did you want to clean your body yourself, or do you want me to do it?”

“I think you should do it,” she responded, “You do need the practice, especially with the post-sex cleaning.”

“Yeah,” Jack grimaced, still holding his hand over his vagina.

“Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it…. it’s not hard,” she assured him.

Jack nodded and got up to head into her bathroom.

As awkward as Jack felt bathing himself in Ellie’s body, especially her vagina to clean out the post-sex mess, he still found the experience to be extremely useful. He had a fairly good idea of what it might feel like, since he’d had to clean a few damaged androids during his career, but it was much different doing it as the android.

After the initial rinse, Ellie patiently walked Jack through all of the various feminine hygiene products that she used, each of them approved by Jack, of course, since they had to be android-safe. Jack found himself taking a bit longer in the shower than he knew she would normally take, since he was enjoying the sensation of cleaning her body, but he finally finished after nearly 30 minutes and got out to dry her body off.

Once he finished drying off most of her body, he paused to admire the reflection in the mirror of her still damp body.

“I think I should probably take it from here,” Ellie said, after he gazed at his reflection for several seconds, “I can help you with Helen’s hair and makeup tomorrow, but I’m a little particular about how I do mine, so I’d prefer to do it myself.”

“Alright,” Jack nodded, prepping the sequence in his HUD to terminate the transfer, “Ellie, this was a truly wonderful experience, one I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” he told her, “I hope you won’t mind if I do it again.”

“Of course not,” she replied, “It’s only fair, since I’ve gotten to try out JB more than a few times,” she giggled.

“And because I’m your owner,” Jack pointed out.

“That too,” she laughed.

“Anyway, when I return to my body, I’ll send JB in here and then I’m gonna nap until about 10am…. I’ll let you know if that time changes.”

“Thanks Jack, have a good rest.”

“I will,” he told her, before terminating the link.

After the sensory deprivation ended, he woke up in his body and slowly stood up. After having been in Ellie shorter, female body for the past six to seven hours, he once again had to get over the slight vertigo of the height change, as well as the slight shock of once again having a penis, and a male anatomy.

Jack could still remember the feelings of sex in her body though, the memory bringing a pleasant smile to his face. He couldn’t wait to try it in Helen’s body the following night.

After his reverie, Jack removed all the monitoring equipment from his body and hopped down onto the floor, bracing himself on the bed for a few moments as he got used to being him again. This time, he remembered to have the monitoring machine run a diagnostic before walking over to JB, who was still in standby mode.

“JB, I’m done for the day,” he said, watching as JB snapped out of it and stared into Jack’s eyes, “You can go clean up in your room and settle down for the day with Ellie.”

“Thanks Jack!” JB smiled, “How was the sex in her body?”

“Extraordinary,” Jack replied, a distant look in his eyes.

JB chuckled, “Yeah, the gender swap thing takes a bit of getting used to, but it is fun and memorable each time.”

“I hope so,” Jack mused, staring over at the printer that was still printing on Helen’s skin, “I’m really looking forward to trying her out tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, that should be fun,” JB agreed.

“Well, I’m exhausted,” Jack said, letting out a big yawn, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Have a good rest Jack,” JB smiled, walking into the residence and into his and Ellie’s room.

Jack slowly walked over to his desk to check on the status of Helen’s core and the printer. The core data reconstruction looked to still be on track to be finished sometime in the late morning. The printer was currently up to Helen’s belly button, and was on track to be completed sometimes in the mid-afternoon.

Sighing satisfactorily that everything was going according to schedule, Jack put his terminal to sleep and headed into the residence for a well-deserved rest.

Chapter Seven: Thursday

Jack woke up from his extended nap feeling surprisingly refreshed…at least, compared to the previous two nights. It was probably because he was able to get an extra two hours, but he felt it was also because of his experience in Ellie’s body, particularly the sex.

His thoughts lingered on the experience for sometime after waking, until his persistent alarm reminders finally urged him out of bed. He quickly freshened up in the bathroom and then walked out into his lab, where JB and Ellie were already working on their day’s projects; Ellie had already removed the device from her core, as previously instructed, and put it back.

“Good morning, guys,” Jack said cheerfully, walking over to his desk to check on the progress of Helen’s body and core. The printer was now working on Helen’s neck, and Jack knew the head would take at least three hours, so it was on track to finish in early afternoon. The core recovery progress was at 98%, so it would be done in less than 10 minutes.

“You look better,” Ellie said, scrutinizing his appearance.

“Yeah, that’s what a few hours extra sleep will do for Humans,” he chuckled, “and I think my experience in your body really relaxed me.”

“Oh?” Ellie said, her head cocked.

“Yeah, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in a female body, and now I’ve finally experienced it.”

“I see,” she grinned, “I’m glad your time in my body was a positive experience.”

“Me too,” Jack smiled, “And that makes me extra excited to try out Helen, since I’ve customized her body more to my specifications.”

“And because she’s not stunted, like me,” Ellie snorted.

“Well, yes…but your body’s still great,” Jack assured her.

“I know, I’m teasing,” she giggled, walking over and kissing him.

Blushing, Jack turned back to his computer, taking a sip of the coffee JB had prepared for him while he eagerly awaited the final completion of the data recovery from Helen’s old core.

When the recovery finally completed, it ran a quick diagnostic to fix the expected small errors that likely would have cropped up and then it produced results. Despite Jack’s best algorithms and efforts, the program was only able to recover 70% of the data. While the results didn’t look too promising, Jack had to consider that a lesser technician would have been lucky to recover 40%.

Jack accepted the results with only a slight sigh and began the process of searching through her memories to find any of the crash. It didn’t take long for Jack to realize that they weren’t there. Frustrated, Jack slammed his fist into his desk and angrily stepped away from his workstation.

“Is everything alright, Jack?” Ellie asked in a concerned voice.

“No, the data I was looking for was too corrupted to be recovered,” Jack said, viscount rubbing his temples. Despite the good rest, he was still running ragged with this project, and was expected to show positive results in roughly 24 hours. “Some of it’s there, but not enough.”

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely.

“Thanks…. I’m gonna go get some air,” he said, heading towards the lift to the shop, “some real air.” JB and Ellie nodded silently as he stepped in and headed up to ground level for the first time in nearly three days.

Jack curtly responded to Rachel, and the other shop staff, and they quickly understood he was in a bad mood, so they left him in peace. Jack quickly made his way out the front door and out to the edge of the property, sitting on a bench nearby. After closing his eyes and taking several deep calming breaths, he opened his eyes and enjoyed the scenery.

It was near the end of summer, so all the trees were green and blooming. Despite his preference to dark, confined spaces, Jack was still human and he occasionally enjoyed real air, with the smells of trees and flowers.

He watched a few puffy clouds float by before getting distracted by something shiny that the sunlight had just caught on. He squinted at it for a few seconds before shrugging it off; it was a data tower used to send internet signals. They were popping up in more and more places nowadays, and…

Jack paused as he pondered that thought for a while. An idea popped in his head, and he suddenly jumped up off the bench and madly dashed back down into his lab.

“Wow, that was quick,” Ellie remarked, seeing him come back down so soon, rushing to his workstation and looking something up.

“I had an idea!” He said excitedly, quickly turning to them, “Tell me, if I were driving you along out in the country and our car were suddenly damaged, potentially damaging you, what would you do?”

Ellie put on a thinking space as she accessed the proper files in her systems, “I would attempt to initiate a cloud backup,” she shrugged.

“Exactly! It was an optional beta feature until last year, now every android with the latest software updates does it automatically,” he smiled, quickly looking something up, “And Helen had the proper updates.”

“So, you can access the missing data from there?” Ellie guessed.

“Maybe,” Jack said skeptically, “The damage to her was so severe that she may not have had time to finish, and an unfortunate flaw in the current setup is that if the transfer is interrupted, it doesn’t get updated…. something I’ve complained about for some time now.”

“I still don’t understand how that’s going to help you then.” Ellie admitted with a confused look.

“The government’s installing data towers all over the place, and as long as she was within two miles of one, she would have begun a data backup…and, even if it were interrupted, whatever she had managed to backup should still be stored on that tower’s data buffer.”

“Oh, I see,” Ellie smiled, “So, you can just access the buffer then?”

“Well, not me,” Jack laughed, “But I know a local sheriff’s deputy in the area the accident occurred who can collect the data for me.”

“Ah, okay then,” she grinned, returning to her project with JB. 

“I just hope it hasn’t bee too long,” Jack muttered to himself, quickly looking up his contact’s phone number. The data was only kept in the buffers for a month, or until it was replaced with more data and room needed to be cleared up. Considering it was a remote area, Jack was confident the buffer hadn’t filled up yet.

Jack found the number and dialed it, waiting a few moments before the deputy answered, his dependable face appearing on his video monitor.

“Jack Brown! My favorite technician, to what do I own the pleasure?” The deputy greeted cheerfully.

“Jason,” Jack smiled fondly, “I need a favor…a huge favor.”

“Oh?”

“I’m working on a project of utmost secrecy for the Scottish government, and I need you to check out the data buffers closest to the scene of the recent car wreck there and pull some data for me.”

“Wow, that is a big favor,” Jason chuckled, “But, after that work you pulled last year helping us nail that serial killer, you’ve definitely earned one.”

“Great!” Jack smiled, quickly sending over a data packet to Jason’s phone, “I just sent you all the details you’ll need to access the buffers, and what data you should be looking for.”

There was a pause as Jason checked his phone, nodding. “I got it…is this data going to help solve the case?”

“I hope so,” Jack said earnestly, “If it does, I promise I’ll hook you up with one free upgrade of your choice, and a 15% discount on your next service visit.”

“Wow, that’s awesome! I’ve been meaning to bring my wife in for some time, so this is perfect timing.”

“I could see her as early as next week,” Jack promised.

“You’ve got a deal! I just started my shift, so I’ll take a look as I conduct my patrols and get back to you this evening with what I find.”

“That’ll be great, thanks Jason!”

“No problem, Jack,” and with that, Jason signed off.

Jack breathed a deep sigh of relief. Jason was one of his best customers, bringing in not only his Perfect Housewife model, but a Personal Trainer and Secretary model as well. If this idea panned out, then it would be well worth giving Jason’s wife even the most expensive upgrade for free.

Jack slowly got up from his desk and returned to the printer, which was now more than halfway through Helen’s face. It had already printed in her eyes and the dark brown irises, and the musculature was almost completed. Jack felt a surge of excitement knowing that he would be seeing through those eyes in less than 12 hours time.

While Jack waited for the printer to finish, he worked on the little bit of data of Helen’s crash that was recovered, so that it would go quicker when and if Jason were able to locate the missing data in a buffer.

Just as Jack finished eating his light lunch, the printer completed its job and alerted Jack with a tone. Jack eagerly approached and opened the printer with a hiss of air and gases that had been trapped within. JB and Ellie also approached and gazed down upon the now completed body of Helen.

While Jack had seen half of Helen’s body undismayed, and the 3D rendering, seeing the whole body, with the subtle modifications he had programmed in, didn’t do the previous doings justice.

Helen was designed with the appearance of a Caucasian Scottish woman in her mid-20s. She had a fair complexion throughout her whole body, with a few artfully placed freckles on her chest, abdomen, face, and arms. She had dark brown hair that neatly flowed a few inches down past her shoulders. While Jack had modified the size of her breasts, they were still a bit more modest sized than Ellie’s, and she was only about two inches shorter than Jack, so he didn’t expect to experience the same level of vertigo while operating her as he had with Ellie, who was nearly a whole foot shorter than him.

“Wow, she’s pretty,” Ellie finally said, reaching down and gently caressing Helen’s face.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, his heart pounding as he drank in her appearance, “I can’t wait to try her out.”

“Do we get to as well?” Ellie asked with a hopeful look.

“Maybe,” Jack said in a noncommittal voice, “I think for a while I just want her for myself.”

Ellie let out a sigh, then smiled, “Ah well, at least I still get to try your body out,” she grinned to JB, who meekly smiled back.

“In any event, while her skin and musculature are finished, I still need to install some final components which arrived today, and run some benchmarks on her body,” Jack said, rubbing his hands together to prepare to work, “We’ve got less than 24 hours now, so let’s not waste any more time.”

“Understood,” JB and Ellie both nodded, returning to their section of the lab to continue working on their projects.

Jack made quick work of lifting Helen’s body out of the printer and over to his work area. Her body was considerably lighter, since he had not yet installed her A.I. Core, along with several other components, so he barely needed to use his power amplification brace.

Jack quickly ran a few more quick tests on Helen’s new core, mostly just to kill a bit of time, and then he eagerly tapped on Helen’s abdomen to activate the subdermal interface for the first time. Once the blue icons appeared, he tapped the open sequence and stood back as her entire front access panel opened, which was quite a sight to see for the first time with a fresh layer of skin.

After it was all there, he dug his fingers under the seam and delicately removed her entire front torso, placing it neatly on a side table. With her internal mechanisms now fully exposed once more, this time with the appropriate muscles and padding in place, Jack got to work with the final installations.

He made quick work of installing the structural reinforcements for Helen’s rather hefty core, since it was nearly two pounds heavier with the enhanced power supply and transceiver array he had upgraded it with. After installing the upgraded dehumidifiers and cooling systems surrounding it, he finally inserted the core and stood back to marvel at his work.

All the components within her body were either brand new, or fresh replacements from Clyde. Helen was now one of Jack’s most state-of-the-art androids, and he would be controlling her body in a matter of hours.

Getting a grip on his excitement, Jack quickly finished a few minor things, such as giving Helen’s power core a rapid charge, since it had depleted while in the printer, and filling her fluid tanks. With all of the minor maintenance work now taken care of, Jack eagerly reattached Helen’s torso cover and prepared to start some initial benchmarks.

Jack sat down at his workstation and brought up Helen’s remote interface, using it to power her body on. After inning a somewhat lengthy startup sequence, since this was the first time the new core had activated in the body, her body finally came to life.

Helen’s eyes slowly opened, both dark brown orbs focusing on their surroundings and scanning the room, eventually stopping when they spotted Jack. Her neck turned to look at him, and she lowly sat up over the edge of the table and smiled.

“Hello, my name’s Helen, pleased to meet you, Jack!” She said in a lovely Scottish accent.

“Pleased to me you too, Helen,” Jack said, his heart pounding; he had a thing for accents.

“My systems indicate that I am a backup unit for the existing Helen, and that you are my new owner,” she reported, zoning out a few times as she checked her files.

“That’s correct,” Jack told her, “Your previous owner died, and you were critically damaged. I repaired you, recovered as much as I could from backups, and took ownership of you per the Scottish government.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said with well programmed sadness, “I look forward to serving you in any way I can.”

“Glad to hear it,” Jack smiled, “You are aware of the modifications I made to you so that I can control your body?”

“Yes,” she replied cheerfully, “all diagnostics confirm the upgraded transceiver array is fully functional, as well as the custom software you designed to manage the interface.”

“Good,” Jack sighed with relief, “Then I just need you to run the usual battery of first-time benchmarks, motor control tests, and stress tests so I can be sure everything is running properly.”

“Understood,” she nodded dutifully, already aware of the tests she would need to perform, though Jack usually added several more.

For the next few hours, Jack had Helen run a gauntlet of tests designed to test her motor functions, power efficiency, and conversational skills, amongst many other things. Usually this wasn’t necessary, but since he had basically just rebuilt her from the ground up, with new skin layers and a new core, he wanted to be extra certain her body was fully functional.

The battery of tests included her running on a treadmill, walking around the lab, picking up objects of various sizes and weights. He also had her assist with a few basic repairs on some of the androids that JB and Ellie were working on, just to test out her repair programming.

By the time she was finished with all the tests, her body was glistening with small amounts of perspiration, and she was breathing a bit heavily to cool her systems down. While she rested up on the table, Jack delved into the raw data from her tests and quickly discovered a few discrepancies that he could easily manage with a few tweaks to her systems. Cracking his fingers, he grabbed his toolkit and walked back over to Helen so he could open her up for more tinkering.

It was past dinner when he finally finished all of the modifications and tweaks to her systems to remedy the benchmark results, so he had her go and take a quick shower in Ellie’s bathroom and then plug herself in to prepare for Jack controlling her body.

Jack was slightly worried that Jason had still not called him back regarding the data tower results, but Jason had told him that it wouldn’t be until after he got off his shift, which wasn’t until 10pm, and at this point no news was good news.

While Helen was getting ready, and both JB and Ellie were charging up so they could help Jack at night, Jack grabbed the transceiver device that he had used for Ellie, though he wouldn’t need it for Helen, and plugged it into the bio-monitor machine to collect the diagnostic results.

After a few minutes, Jack received the comprehensive diagnostic results from the previous night when he was controlling Ellie’s body, and just as it had when he controlled JB’s body, it provided him with a small list of suggestions to make his next experience even better.

The list was smaller than before, recommending a slight modification to the nutrient formula, and that Jack lower the ambient temperature by an additional .5 degrees. The most surprising suggestion Jack saw was that it recommended that he take a small dose of Estrogen when controlling a female body, so as to improve the experience. It recommended he take the dose at least 30 minutes before starting, and that he take a short power nap.

“Well, I won’t argue with that,” Jack shrugged, stepping into the residence to take the nutrient solution, and the small does of Estrogen, and then into his room to take a quick nap. He set his alarm for 20 minutes and then laid down and relaxed.

Chapter Eight: Thursday Night

Jack awoke from his power nap 20 minutes later. He could slightly detect the Estrogen in his system, mostly affecting his mood a bit. He quickly shook it off and then headed back out into the lab.

Once he was back at the bio-monitor table, he used his brain implant to summon the three androids back into the lab, while he stripped off all but his underwear, sat down on the bed, and started attaching the monitors to his body.

JB and Ellie stepped out of the lab with the still nude Helen moments later, getting Helen laid down on the table next to Jack’s and then helping him with some of the more difficult to reach monitors.

“Are you excited?” JB whispered into his ear as he was settling down to begin the sequence.

“Yeah,” Jack nodded.

JB responded with a simple wink and then stood back to monitor Jack’s vitals as he began the transfer sequence.

After the brief sensory deprivation, Jack once again opened his eyes in a new body. Just as with Ellie’s, he felt a brief confusion over the change in anatomy, but it quickly passed. As he slowly gained control of Helen’s body, he slowly sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, and examining his new body.

Helen’s body had a much more normal pair of feet, which Jack playfully wiggled the toes. Her hands were also closer in size to Jacks, and her breasts were more modest sized and didn’t weigh him down.

Jack carefully hopped down onto the floor, testing Helen’s feet and legs on the lab’s floors, before attempting to walk around, with JB and Ellie standing by in case he needed assistance.

“Wow, Helen’s body is amazing! So easy to use!” Jack remarked, quickly getting the hang of it, and also slightly surprised to hear himself not only speak with Helen’s voice, but also her Scottish accent.

“Yeah, you figured it out much quicker than you did my body,” Ellie nodded approvingly, “Though my body’s a little hard for even me to use sometimes,” she added with a giggle.

“Yeah,” Jack laughed.

“I’m surprised you’re speaking in her Scottish accent,” Ellie remarked.

“Yeah, me too,” Jack admitted, “Though, the way this system works is that my brain sends signals through the implant telling Helen’s body to do what I was going to have my body do, including speak,” Jack explained, “It makes sense it would use her default voice and accent settings.”

“I suppose,” Ellie nodded.

“And how are the improvements working?” JB asked.

Jack looked over at JB and felt a sudden surge that he wasn’t expecting, prompting a blush. “Um…wow, I wasn’t quite expecting that.”

“What?” JB asked with a concerned look.

“The coding improvements, and the Estrogen I took….well, I felt a brief feeling of attraction to you,” Jack admitted, his face flushing even more; Ellie giggled. “It was a bit weird.”

“Oh, I see,” JB blushed, “Well, we are quite attractive.”

“Yeah,” Jack laughed, “Another improvement I made to my interface with Helen was to allow myself to integrate more with her memory and knowledge banks, so I should be able to bathe myself in her body a lot better, and even do the proper makeup.”

“Ah, I’ll still be able to help you, if you need it,” Ellie offered.

“Thanks!” Jack smiled, “I even made it so that I almost feel like I actually am Helen, though obviously I still respond to Jack.”

“Well, don’t go overboard,” JB warned.

“I won’t,” Jack assured him.

“Do you hear Helen’s voice in your head, like you did ours?” Ellie asked.

“No,” Jack shook his head, “Because of the modifications, it wasn’t necessary for her to take a backseat, so she’s completely offline while I’m in control.”

“Ah, interesting,” Ellie nodded. Jack spent several more minutes walking around the lab in Helen’s body, even performing some basic stretches and exercises. He finally came back to a stop over near where his body was resting.

“I should probably get dressed now,” Jack said somewhat regretfully, since he did enjoy walking around nude in Helen’s body. He walked over to the boxes that contained Helen’s belongings, including her spare clothes. “I could use some insight on what to pick,” he said about, as he saw the many clothes packed within.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help,” Ellie offered, walking over and quickly scanning everything with Jack. A short time later, Jack had Helen’s body dressed in a set of rather cute, yet conservative clothes consisting of a pair of dressy slacks, a blouse, and a simple set of cotton underwear. Just as with Ellie’s body, Jack chose to remain barefoot, though he did set aside a pair of short socks and flats just in case he needed them.

“There, that should do for now,” Ellie said satisfactorily, as Jack admired his reflection in a nearby mirror, “I would recommend you go shopping at some point though, since these clothes are a little more geared for going out and partying.”

“Yeah, I might go with Gabby tomorrow after the meeting,” Jack agreed with a slightly dirty look at the remaining clothes. Partying wasn’t really his thing, but he totally understood why Helen’s original owner would have been interested…that and sex would have been the only thing Helen was used for.

Before Jack had time to figure out what he was going to do next, he was suddenly distracted by the sound of a phone call sounding at his desk. Jack quickly rushed to his desk and a shiver of shock ran down his spine. “Shit!”

“What is it?” Ellie said in a concerned voice, running over, “Is it the Scottish people?”

“No, it’s Jason…he’s early, I wasn’t expecting him for another hour or so.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Well, I suppose, but it slipped my mind that I’d be controlling Helen’s body, and I don’t want to be switching back and forth between my body and her body too often,” Jack explained, “It could mess up my senses.”

“I see,” Ellie nodded understandingly.

“Jack, why don’t you just use my voice print that you installed in all our bodies, since it’s actually your voice print, and just answer the call with audio only?” JB suggested calmly.

“Jeez! Why didn’t I think of that?” Jack sighed, smacking his forehead, “Helen’s personality and gender are influencing me a bit more than I anticipated, I guess,” Jack smiled sheepishly, changing the call settings to audio only and answering it.

Jason’s face appeared on the screen, but Jack’s end remained audio only, so a generic icon appeared instead of his face in the bottom corner.

“Ah, Jack, I was starting to worry you wouldn’t answer,” Jason smiled, then a look of confusion on his face, “why aren’t you showing your video?”

Jack paused as he concentrated and adjusting his voice settings momentarily before responding in his own voice. “Sorry Jason, I got tied up in my work and I can’t risk showing video at this time,” he said apologetically, “I also wasn’t expecting you so early.”

“I see, I won’t pry then,” he said understandably, since he knew the kinds of projects Jack sometimes worked on, “Well, I was able to visit the buffer as you requested and it took me less time than I had anticipated to locate and retrieve the data, and since it’s been a slow night anyway, I figured you’d want it as quickly as possible.”

“Thanks!” Jack celebrated, before catching himself, “So, just to confirm, you were able to find the data I requested?”

“Oh, yes!” Jason replied emphatically, “Your instructions were spot on and I had no trouble locating and copying the data over...though, it’s a good thing you called when you did, because apparently that data was due to be purged at midnight tonight.”

“Wow, good timing I guess,” Jack chuckled nervously.

“Yeah, you always have had the best luck,” Jason laughed, “Anyway, I’ve already started transferring the data to your private server and given the speed of my slow ass government computer, it should be another 20-30 minutes before it completes.”

“You’ll keep monitoring it until it finishes?” Jack inquired.

“Of course,” Jason nodded.

“Thank you!” Jack said once again, bowing to the image of Jason despite knowing Jason couldn’t see him, “I promise I’ll give your wife some good upgrades at your next visit.”

“I look forward to it,” Jason grinned, “just send me a list of the latest stuff so I can pick ahead of time.”

“Will do,” Jack nodded, quickly queuing it up on his computer and sending it to Jason’s personal computer, “It’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”

“Thanks man, talk to you later!” Jason said, before terminating the call.

“Phew! That was a relief,” Jack explosively sighed, quickly switching back to Helen’s voice. JB and Ellie had both been watching patiently with a slightly odd look as they heard Jack’s voice coming from a female body, and Jack too felt uncomfortable with the image.

“Sounds like you’ll be able to assist the Scottish government after all,” JB agreed.

“And then you can take Gabby and Henry on a trip to Scotland, and leave us in charge!” Ellie said excitedly.

“Hold on there,” Jack said, “As awesome as you two are, I think I’m gonna need to to some serious tweaking to your programming before I feel completely confident in the prospect of leaving you two in charge.”

“Pshh, with how good you are at programming, that won’t take you much time,” Ellie scoffed.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jack grinned, “But, Zoya would probably be in charge too, since she’s sentient and you two aren’ t.”

“Ah poo!” Ellie pouted, turning to start working on another project with JB. Jack knew she was just fulfilling her programming very well, which unfortunately was part of the reason why Zoya would also be in charge, so there could be a more human element.

“Sorry, it is what it is,” Jack shrugged, before turning back to his workstation to monitor the data transfer from Jason. Sure enough, the progress bar was already halfway complete and only had about 10 minutes remaining.

Once the transmission finished, Jack had to wait another few minutes while the new data merged with his already existing data. Once that completed, Jack nervously searched once more for the data from the date and time in question and eagerly waited.

Jack was immediately rewarded with a treasure trove of exactly the information he was looking for. Damage reports appeared, impact reports, saved sensory information during the event, Helen had even detected network signals emitting from the devices the driver and passengers of the other vehicle had in their possession.

“Yes! I can’t believe its all here!” He shouted, getting up from his computer and doing a celebratory dance, enjoying it even more in Helen’s body. When he finally regained his composure and calmed down, he returned to the data and ran a few scans on it to make sure it was complete and free of any significant damage.

When the scan completed, he determined the data he needed was roughly 98% intact, which was more than enough to work with. He disengaged the safeties on Helen’s hands so he could have her fingers type at speeds faster than his human hands could, though he still limited it somewhat so he wouldn’t damage the keyboard.

For the next couple hours, Jack intently worked on the data, watching Helen’s own video feed of the accident from moments before, right up until her systems went offline during the fire and water damage. She had actually seen the faces of two of the passengers, and a partial glimpse of the driver. The license plate image she took an image of was enough to confirm the identity of the driver, matched with the partial photo she had taken.

After identifying the driver, Jack still had more time on his hands, so he pulled all the data from Helen’s incident log of the event to run a forensic investigation. With that, Jack was able to determine the speed the other driver was traveling, which was more than 20 miles over the limit in that section of road. He was also able to determine that the other driver was most likely impaired, due to the erratic way they were driving.

Additional data allowed him to provide an exact time of death for Helen’s original owner, which, although wasn’t completely necessary, could still be useful information.

Once Jack was sure he had all the information he needed, he ran the audio/visual information through enhancement software to clean up the images, and then he sent the Scottish and State department officials a message confirming their appointment the next morning, and that he would not be leaving them empty-handed.

After receiving a brief reply that they were looking forward to his findings, Jack leaned back in his chair, letting out and explosive sigh of relief as he rested Helen’s pretty feet on the desk and let his arms hand loose.

Jack was content for several minutes resting at his workstation, wiggling Helen’s toes and relaxing. It felt somewhat odd, at this point, since he’d been working almost non-stop for the past several days both fixing up Helen’s body, recovering all the necessary data, testing his new android control interface, and assisting on and off with the various other jobs that Ellie and JB were helping him with. Now, the computer was making the finishing touches to Helen’s data before Jack handed it over to the Scottish officials and State Department, so Jack had nothing but free time until the meeting the following day before noon.

Jack looked at a nearby clock and saw that it was just past eleven. Since the last few nights he was finished with his work a bit later, Jack knew he could still have just as much fun as before, and still have time to get a real nights sleep before the meeting.

With a grin on his face, he sent a message to Zoya requesting she return in Andy’s body, as well as another message to Ellie requesting that she prepare for sex. After receiving acknowledgements from both of them, Jack got up from his desk, walked over to where Helen’s stuff was, and carried the boxes of her makeup and toiletries over to the room he used down in the lab.

Using Helen’s programming and the better interface setup, Jack expertly applied makeup to Helen’s already lovely face, though he didn’t go too over the top; he was still a man in a woman’s body.

After touching up his hair and redressing into a set of Helen’s lingerie, he stepped out of the bathroom just as a knock came from the door. He confidently walked over and answered it, letting in both Ellie and Zoya, who was once again controlling Andy’s body.

“Ah, thank you both for coming,” Jack said warmly, closing the door after them and also sending JB a message to mind the lab and watch over his body.

“It’s my pleasure,” Zoya replied with a grin, while Ellie merely giggled in response.

“It’s been a really trying week, but all in all it’s been a success,” Jack continued, “Not only was I able to repair Helen’s body and recover all the necessary incident data, but I was also able to test out and fine tune the neural link device that’s allowing me to control Helen’s body, as well as Ellie’s and JB’s.”

“And a fun time it’s been at that,” Ellie chimed in, “Having you control my body was a truly interesting experience….one I hope to repeat many times.”

“As do I,” Jack smiled, “Anyway, I’ve gotten to try out having sex in a male body, and a female body…but now, I want to try a threesome with you two while in Helen’s body.”

Zoya and Ellie both turned to one another, a playful look in each other’s eyes as they likely communed with one another via a private chat thread. Moments later, they turned back to Jack and nodded, “Sounds like fun,” Ellie grinned.

“Yeah, something I’ve been meaning to try myself,” Zoya agreed.

“Great, I already prepped Helen’s body, so I’m guessing you’ll take point Zoya, since you’re in a male body.”

“I can do it,” Zoya confirmed, turning to Ellie as she communed one last time. Ellie nodded and grabbed Jack’s hand, gently guiding them both onto the bed.

What followed next was nearly 15 minutes of foreplay initiated by Zoya. Eventually, Zoya gently guided them back up onto their feet so they could all begin stripping one another. Once they were all nude, they all fell back onto the bed and began one of the most pleasurable rounds of sex Jack had ever experienced.

For the next two hours, they each took turns teaming up on one another, with starting with Jack. While Zoya worked his way into Helen’s vagina, Ellie presented hers to Jack’s mouth. They did the same to Ellie next, this time Jack presenting Helen’s vagina to Ellie’s face, and then finally doing two turns on Zoya.

Jack had never been involved in a threesome like this before, though he had experienced several with Gabby and his androids from time to time. Obviously, since he was currently controlling a younger and attractive woman, everything was going to be different.

As they began to wind down their activity after nearly two hours, they settled into the bed merely content with cuddling and kissing until they finally stopped to catch their breaths. Jack was in the middle, with Ellie on his left and Zoya on his right.

“Wow guys, that was amazing!” Jack finally said, feeling the air he was gulping in cool Helen’s internal systems.

“See, I told you that you should have joined me and JB from time to time,” Ellie smirked, leaning in and pecking his cheek.

“This was certainly educational for me too,” Zoya chimed in, since she was not as familiar doing this in Andy’s body.

“Just wait until your new body arrives,” Jack smiled.

“I can’t wait,” Zoya whispered.

“Me too,” Ellie grinned, “good thing Gabby doesn’t care about you having sex with your androids now that she’s sentient, otherwise you’d be in huge trouble.”

“Well, Zoya isn’t exactly my android, but yeah I would have!” Jack laughed.

“Meh, you can consider me your android if you want,” Zoya shrugged, “well, at least, you can consider Andy and Vanda yours.”

“Man, this identity thing going on with you two is so confusing,” Ellie said in a mock tone of frustration.

“I know,” Zoya smiled, “but it’s who I am…or at least, who we are.”

“Meh,” Ellie shrugged.

Jack merely smiled contentedly at the playful banter, though his eyes quickly wandered to the wall mounted clock; it was almost 2am. “Well, I hate to be a party pooper, but it’s gotten late and I have a very important meeting in the morning.”

“Awww, but at least we had so much fun,” Ellie pouted, leaning over and kissing him again, followed by Zoya, before crawling out of the bed, “But, this meeting is very important, so I understand.”

“Thanks Ellie, have a good night…oh, and tell JB to get some cleaning supplies so he can tidy this up while I shower in a bit.” Jack looked delicately at the bed, which they had soiled with their lovemaking.

“Wow, we made a mess,” she giggled, quickly gathering up her clothes and bundling them up close to her chest, “I’ll tell him.”

“Thanks Ellie!”

Ellie nodded and left, heading to her room to shower.

“I should go to then,” Zoya said, also crawling out of the bed, “Maybe next time you can have some fun with Vanda.”

“I look forward to it,” Jack smiled.

“Please send me all the telemetry from your time tonight, so I can see if there are any more improvements I can make to the neural link,” Zoya requested, gathering up Andy’s clothes and redressing.

“Will do, thank you Zoya!”

Zoya gave him a polite nod and left his room. Moments later, Jack got up out of the bed just as JB walked in with a fresh set of sheets and the cleaning caddy they used for the residence, complete with a vacuum.

“Well, did you have fun?” JB grinned, prepping some of the cleaning supplies.

“Oh yeah, more than I could imagine,” Jack breathed, slowly crawling out of the bed so JB could start leaning and replacing the sheets for later, “You can leave these clothes alone,” Jack instructed, picking up the default set of clothes he’d been wearing in Helen’s body for most of the night and placing them on a nearby chair, “I didn’t do anything in them.”

“Will do,” JB nodded dutifully, picking up the discarded lingerie, “I should be done in here before you get out of the shower.”

Jack nodded, a slightly embarrassed look on his face “Thanks for cleaning up after me.”

JB shrugged, “Hey, it’s what I’m here for.”

Jack merely nodded once more before stepping into the bathroom and closing the door. Once the water in the shower was sufficiently warmed up, he stepped in with Helen’s toiletries and began cleaning the sex off of him.

Jack spent several extra minutes in the warm shower, enjoying the feeling of it in Helen’s body as he had done in Ellie body the previous night. Once he was out and had his skin dried, he began the arduous process of drying and fixing up Helen’s hair for the next time he planned on using her body, which would most likely be the following afternoon to shops her body off to Gabby, and to demonstrate his neural link.

When he finally emerged from bathroom, Helen’s body looked once more as it did when it emerged from the 3D printer hours earlier. Jack quickly redressed in the clothes he had been wearing all night in it, since he hadn’t done anything to dirty them while sitting at his workstation in the lab.

Since it was getting later by the minute, and Jack wanted a good sleep, he didn’t waste anytime grabbing Helen’s charging cable, which he’d had JB set up in here while he was showering. He lined it up behind his back, opening Helen’s charging port, and inserted it in.

He was slightly caught off guard by the sudden rush of energy that coursed through Helen’s body when he plugged the cable in, but it only lasted about a second before settling to a comfortable influx of energy. Sighing, Jack access the HUD in his neural link and terminated the link. Helen’s body fulfilled its programming following Jack departure from it, slowly closing its eyes and going into sleep mode until the next time he needed it.

Jack opened his eyes in his real body moments later, taking a few moments to reorient himself before carefully removing the various sensors and wires attached to his body and stepping down off the bed to his feet.

He winced as the soreness in his human body returned, and felt a sense of regret at leaving Helen’s body. He’d wished he could spend more time in it, but he really needed some real sleep, and he knew he’d have all the time in the world to continue trying out her body, along with those of his staff and the multitude of androids he would be working on in the future.

Jack grinned at that thought, almost feeling as though he were a shapeshifter now. Shaking that thought from his head, he activated the diagnostic on the biosensor bed and his own neural link device and programmed it to send the results to Zoya for her to analyze the next morning.

Jack then walked over to his workstation, checking on the progress of the data enhancement for tomorrow’s presentation. It was still halfway to completion and would be finished before he woke up. He locked his computer for safety, knowing it would continue working, and then trudged back into the house to his room.

He paused when entering at the sight of Helen’s body standing passively in the corner of the room, a charging cable running into her back. He’d just been seeing through those eyes, and feeling with her skin less than 15 minutes earlier and the memory was still quite strong.

Jack tenderly kissed Helen’s lips, patting her waist before saying, “I’ll be you again soon.” He then turned off the lights and crawled into the bed with fresh sheets and fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter Nine: Friday

Jack’s alarm woke up him nearly six hours later. Although he would have preferred to sleep for eight, his lengthy threesome the previous night shortened the amount of time he had. The Scottish officials had set a meeting time for between 10am and 11am, and Jack needed some time to properly wake up, eat some breakfast, and finalize the results from the data he had collected.

Still, considering the previous nights Jack was only getting between two and four hours of real sleep, this was a considerable improvement and he felt far more refreshed and energized than before.

He paused in bed to admire Helen, still standing motionless in the corner of his room with the power cord plugged in to her back, before finally getting up and heading into the bathroom, emerging several minutes later relieved and tidied up.

Ellie and JB had the foresight to have some breakfast waiting for Jack when he woke up, so Jack quickly grabbed a breakfast burrito and a glass of coffee and took them to his workstation. Ellie and JB were currently working on his Friday morning appointment, but since it was a simple repair job, Jack only gave it a cursory glance and then gave them an approving nod before continuing to his workstation.

As he ate his breakfast, he reviewed every portion of the incident logs from Helen’s systems to confirm everything was ready for the meeting. By the time he finished making some last-minute adjustments, he received a page from Rachel that the officials were back and waiting in her office. Jack signaled he would be up shortly, copying the data over to a series of drives, as well as to Helen’s original, damaged core.

Grabbing both the core and the drives, Jack eagerly headed to the lift and rode it up to the store office.

Arrived up in Rachel’s office, both the State department and Scottish official from the last visit were back, but Clyde was not present. Jack figured Clyde only tagged along the last time to help deliver Helen and her things, so he thought nothing of it.

“Welcome back,” Jack greeted them, taking a seat next to Rachel behind her desk.

“So, I understand it that you have good news,” the Scottish woman said, not wasting any time.

“I do,” Jack grinned, placing both Helen’s original core and the drives on the table, “After several days of painstaking work, losing a considerable amount of sleep and time with my wife in the process, I have been able to recover Helen’s incident logs of the crash.”

“Impressive,” the woman nodded, taking a computer from her bag and plugging the drive in.

“The data on the core is original and unaltered,” Jack supplied, “but the data on that storage drive is enhanced with some forensic information I added.”

“I can see that,” she said in an impressed voice, “I’m honestly surprised you were able to recover this much data, and in such excellent shape.”

“Well, me too, to be honest,” Jack said modestly, “It took almost three days for my algorithms to recover the data on Helen’s core, but even when they finished, there was still too much data missing to be useful.”

“Then how did you do it?” The State department official inquired.

“Well, after going outside to clear my head, I saw a bunch of clouds in the sky and remembered that most androids with the latest software updates now have access to a cloud backup server,” Jack explained, “some can upload pretty much their entire data, but most just upload emergency logs and such for free… Helen falls into the latter category.” 

“We were aware of that,” The Scottish official pointed out, “we checked Helen’s cloud backup and found nothing.”

“I checked too,” Jack confirmed, “but, the system is still fairly new, and as such is a little buggy, so unfortunately right now, if the data transfer is interrupted, as it was during the crash and fire following it, the data won’t upload to the cloud.”

“And yet, you were somehow able to recover it,” The Scottish woman pressed.

“Yes,” Jack nodded, “Even though the data didn’t upload to her cloud, it was still processed by a data tower near the crash site and the data she managed to upload was still in the buffer.”

“Oh, I see,” she nodded knowingly.

“I must point out, I know you guys wanted me to be as discreet as possible, but since I didn’t have time to drive out to the buffer myself, I had a sheriff’s deputy, who happens to be one of my best customers, go out and do it for me; I offered him a free upgrade for his Perfect Housewife model on his next visit as a form of payment for the big favor.”

“I see,” she nodded, jotting some information onto her data pad, “While we would have preferred you not involve this deputy, it is clear you couldn’t have recovered the data without his assistance, so we’ll overlook this.”

“Good,” Jack sighed, “you may want to consider thanking him too, since he reported that the buffer was going to purge its older data at midnight last night.”

“Perhaps we shall,” she nodded, conferring with the State department official in private for a few moments. “We will offer an appropriate amount of compensation added to your payment so you may offer him one additional upgrade for his wife, on top of the one you are already providing him…within a reasonable price range, of course.”

“Of course,” Jack nodded, “I’ll let him know the good news later.”

“I have even better news,” she smiled, “We were not completely certain you would actually be able to recover the data, but we offered you the free passage waiver regardless in the hopes it would spur you into coming up with a creative solution,” she began, “it seemed to have worked, and you even went above and beyond by assisting us with some of the legwork that would have gone into analyzing the data.”

“I was bored,” Jack shrugged.

“Nevertheless, in recognition of your great work, we are pleased to offer you a free passage waiver for the country of Scotland,” she announced, pulling an official document from her bag. It was a leather-bound folder that contained four official waivers. “There is one waiver for you, your android wife Gabby, and your adopted son Henry,” she explained, pulling each one out and showing it to Jack, “and one additional one if you would like to bring a plus one, either android or human.”

Jack solemnly took each waiver and carefully scrutinized them, then gasped as he fully read the details on them.

“I see you’ve noticed the final gift,” she grinned, “we decided to remove all restrictions, except for the plus one waiver, and allow you to visit our great country whenever you want, however long you want, and without providing advanced notice; the plus one will be subject to a background check at least two weeks ahead of any trip.”

Jack was awestruck. These types of waivers, with virtually no restrictions, were usually reserved for the very rich, or very powerful people. The waivers Jack held in his hand were quite possibly the most expensive gifts he had ever received.

“There are no words in my vocabulary to express how honored I am to receive these,” Jack finally managed to say, carefully placing each waiver back in the leather bound envelope, planning on putting it in his private safe as soon as possible.

“The Scottish people are grateful to you, Mr. Brown, for helping find justice for one of our citizens,” she smiled, “Your monetary payment is already being transferred to your account, and we will let everyone Scottish citizen visiting this country that they should come to you with any issues with their androids.”

“I appreciate that very much,” Jack smiled.

“The US State Department won’t forget your assistance either,” The State official chimed in, gathering his things, “We’ll keep you updated if the Scottish government would like to follow up with you in any way, but I think our business with you is concluded.” He looked to the Scottish woman for confirmation.

“Indeed,” she nodded, also gathering her things, “I’ve already taken one of your business cards, so here is one of mine.” She took a fancy card from her purse and handed it to Jack, who promptly handed it to Rachel so she could put it in his records. “I look forward to our next meeting.”

“As do I,” Jack agreed, shaking her hand and then walking them both to the door. Once they were out and driving away, Jack let out an explosive sigh of relief and then danced with glee.

“I’m glad that everything went well, Jack,” Rachel smiled, quickly typing away at her computer to enter in the details of the latest meeting.

“Me too, Rachel,” Jack grinned, “I’ll have to install some international protocols in your systems when I get a chance, since it seems we might be getting more international customers soon.”

“Indeed,” she nodded, barely hiding a smile; she still loved getting upgrades.

“Well, I’m gonna go secure these in my safe in the lab,” Jack then said, carefully retrieving the leather envelope containing the free passage waivers, “I definitely don’t want anything happening to these.”

“Of course not,” Rachel nodded fervently, “and then you’ll go see Gabby? She was asking me how much longer you were going to be, since you were radio silent with her.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Jack grimaced, going into his HUD and turning on all external communications. He had silenced them all so he could focus more, and realistically, if there had been an emergency, Gabby could have overridden it. “I’m most definitely looking forward to seeing her again.”

“I’ll let her know you’ll be up soon,” Rachel offered, knowing Jack could just as easily do it himself, “enjoy the reunion.”

“I will, thanks Rachel!”

Jack quickly headed into the lift and rode it down. Once he arrived back down in the lab, he headed straight for his work area and pulled away a section of the wall nearby, revealing a fairly large safe. After entering in his passcode, palm scan, and voice print, the safe opened to reveal several shelves filled with various documents and items.

After Jack placed the envelope on one of the shelves, he paused to briefly admire some of the contents. The original receipt from his first ever android, Sarah, was still in here, along with the deeds to the shop and house that he had inherited from his Uncle Morty.

Along with the documents for all his other androids, the most treasured possession in here was that of Gabby’s. He took it out and smiled at the mockup rendering of her, along with the list of special and custom features and parts. They were state of the art back then, but now…he whistled, she’d come a long way.

The sentiment building up, he suddenly realized he really missed her these past few days. He carefully closed the safe door, taking great care to secure it, and then began heading to the lift to the house, where he was sure she was waiting patiently for him...possibly cooking a large meal to welcome him back.

On the way, he briefly checked in on what JB and Ellie were working on. Their project wouldn’t take them too long, so he urged them to take a well-deserved break after they finished. After they assured him they would, he resumed his way to the house lift.

As he stepped inside and began ascending, a smile crossed his face. He could already smell Gabby’s cooking.

Chapter Ten: Sweet Success

Coming soon...

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The Small Business Chronicles

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

Season Two Homefront - The House | The Repair Shop - Part 3 | Green Thumb - The Greenhouse | The Repair Shop - Part 4 |