Chapter 1 - A hero take to the streets

The evening was young; the sun was just peeking out from over the horizon, as it readied itself for its nocturnal rest. The sky was filled with interesting hues of blues, oranges, reds, and purples, as the cloudless day turned into a perfect night. Walking down the street, you’d think this was a day just as normal as any ordinary day, but I had a chance to make that night an extraordinary one.

For the past few months, my efforts have been put into a new project, something I am not normally inclined to work on, something usually only fanboys and geeks would dream of. Not that I would be isolated from that crowd, you see, I am a nerd; a geek; a fanboy of sorts. I have a certain affinity for technology, a love-affair so-to-speak. I have always prided myself on being the first to own a new product, or the first to figure out a new use for an existing product. The technology I work on the most, that my internet community friends associate me with, is robots.

Not just any robots mind you, these are androids, gynoids, cyborgs, and the like. These are virtual people, virtually living their lives in a real environment. It is like taking the internet back into the real world. Some people love to have these robots for tools, to interact with the world far separated from them. Doctors, teachers, CEOs, and other professionals often use these robots in their daily lives in order to interact with others who are worlds away. It is fairly common for people to augment their own bodies with cybernetic parts as well. Usually this is to repair or replace part of their body to gain back some amount of normality to their lives, but occasionally you find the chic and fashionable “cyborg-ettes”, who use these parts for aesthetic purposes, or the full blown muscle-head cyborgs, who want to make themselves tougher, stronger, and more intimidating. I have even heard of one professor trying to use cybernetics to prolong his life. As for me, I don’t really touch cybernetics too much. Sure I dabble in the occasional custom prosthetic limb, but my real bread and butter comes from the full robots.

There are really 3 types of robots out there. The first are the dolls. These are simply puppets, which people can log into and interact with the environment, other robots, people, and computers, much like they would in their own body. However, the stress on the body limits the usage of these dolls to a few hours a day, usually about 4 tops. It isn’t easy to live in 2 bodies at once.

The second type of robot is really not a robot in the terms most people think. These are genetically engineered robots that are actual living organisms. Usually these are small, often microscopic, and perform maintenance tasks. There are nano-bots, which use organic parts to perform one or 2 tasks within the body, and almost everyone has some of these floating around to combat some sort of disease or ailment. There are also the more unusual and uncommon helper bots which are often the size of a small animal, like a cat. I haven’t seen one myself, but I have seen pictures of military helper bots. They have their uses, but one has to wonder why use these and not regular robots? Recently, there have been a series of rumors surfacing on the net about humanoid bionoids. Oh, yes, that is what they are normally known as; Bionoids. While nano-bots and helper bots are technically the same as bionoids, being that they use organic and biological parts to construct them, they are not called bionoids. Nano-bots are called, well, nano-bots. Helper bots are usually referred to as Bio-bots. The term bionoid is reserved for humanoid bio-bots, which is illegal at the moment, but the internet is a blaze with reports about them. Sometimes I think bionoid reports rival Bigfoot. Anyway, the rumors, if true, could mean a series of massive revolts, and a whole new series of laws. As it lies, most countries ban the practice of developing humanoid bionoids, although the rumors persist none-the-less.

That brings me to the last type of robot, the type I work with the most. These are your regular everyday robots. Mechanical to the core, system programming and AI running computer with wheels, arms, legs, cameras, or whatever else you feel like putting on them. These robots take a variety of forms, everything from spiders to vehicles. Some even look human. Androids are the traditional humanoid machines, programmed to mimic human activity and interact with people when needed. As technology advanced, gynoids made the scene. These are the same things as androids, except female in appearance and manner. While there is really no difference between androids and gynoids, there is a distinct different in their use. While androids are used for all hard labor jobs, gynoids are only used in the more delicate, and often sensual, professions. Most androids can take a licking and keep on ticking, so to say, while gynoids are far more delicate, and require more maintenance and less stressful activities. Gynoids are highly regulated, considering their obvious uses, but can most often be seen in restaurants and customer service desks. It is true that some gynoids work as sex workers, but most men still prefer flesh-and-blood humans, which keeps that niche market small.

Robots are the new wheels that drive our economy, and our technology. Without these daily workers, people would not be free to work on developing more advanced technology as quickly or as cheaply. It is said that America was built on the backs of slaves, and while slavery of humans is long extinct (at least in most of the world), slavery of machines has just begun. Without computers running our cities, everything would fall apart. Without cleaning bots sweeping up our garbage, or cleaning our windows, or doing the dirty work, things would be more expensive, and less efficient. I’m surprised anyone was able to do anything without robots to run their daily lives.

Of course, that is what I usually work with; robots, and dolls, and occasionally cybernetics. I never touch bio-bots; they kind of freak me out. And who’s to say there isn’t a bionoid living right next door? Scary thought. However, this night I wasn’t sporting a new robot, or doll, or even a cybernetic arm. That night, I was carrying something you only see in super hero comics. Sure you read of similar thing in the blogs of military men fighting on the front lines, but what I had was much cooler than that, and custom made by yours truly; designed, engineered, and built all by me. As the sun shot its last rays of light over the edge of the world, I prepared for what I thought was going to be the most fun I would ever have in my short life. What I didn’t know is that my definition of fun was very different from what the evening had in mind.

The sky started to turn into that odd mix of evening colors, the kind you get in the early autumn just off the shore. As I looked out over the water, I could feel the excitement of a cool, crisp evening setting in, and feel the rush of energy I always get when night comes on. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am a night owl. Not like in the super-hero, but just that the night gets me excited, and wakes me up. I can’t stand getting up in the morning, but I love staying up all night. Sleep is part of that love-hate relationship in my life. I hate getting up from bed, and I hate having to go to bed, but when I am asleep, there is nothing better in the entire world. Making the transition from awake to asleep and back is the biggest pain.

Thoughts meander in my mind as I walk down the sidewalk, toward the darker streets of the city. Usually these are the streets filled with crime and grime. Usually, you could hear a gun shooting off in the distance, or a mugging just around the corner. But tonight, I was going to put a stop to all of that. Not even those hoodlum cyborg bullies would know what hit them, literally. With any luck, I would be the hero of the night, which everyone reads about in the morning paper; or at least the late morning new feed in my case.

It didn’t take long. A few turns down some shady streets, following the back allies of the commercial zones, right next door to the industrial plants that mark the border of the city limits, and I found myself coming to a sudden stop. I heard voices, agitated voices, voices of men yelling, jeering, intimidating. These were voices of a small gang of thugs. I could hear them not far off, just a little muffled. Carefully, I made my way around, quickly but with light feet. I may be tall, I may look like a lanky blundering fool, but underneath that timid exterior was well toned muscle, and years of study at Tae-Kwon-Do. Granted, those years of study ended years ago. I was more out of practice at that than politicians were at telling the truth, but I managed to remember my basics. Working out at the gym every day, even for only an hour, managed to tone my muscles and give me quite the edge at being silent. There is nothing quite like sneaking up behind someone who has no idea you are there, only to have them turn around and see a 6 and a half foot tall man standing right behind them. I swear I don’t do it on purpose all the time, but it is still fun to get that reaction.

With my lightest steps, I walked around a little until I could see the source of the voices. 4 young men were surrounding what looked like the silhouette of a girl. A flickering yellow light shone from the back of the old hardware store behind them, illuminating the scene, but leaving them as only dark shadows contrasting against the bulb. They were not looking toward me, and I couldn’t see their faces, but they were right in the way of the girl. I could barely see her at all, but they were clearly getting aggressive, and dangerous. I made sure I was out-of-sight, peering out from behind a building as I watched the scene unfold.

“Such a stupid girl, walking round our street like that! Bitch, you are begging for it!” the first voice said, clearly the main instigator of the group. This guy was of average height, but was thin and lean.

“Maybe she wuz jus hot and needed ta cool off” said one of the others, who wore baggy clothing that hide the shape of his body, but if I had a guess, he was a third the size of his silhouette.

“She’s hawt” said a deep voice. This one was the biggest of the group, not tall, but round.

Another voice just laughed, but said nothing. He was a stick of a boy, with no muscle tone at all.

“I don’t think she needs to cool off though” said the first boy again, “I think I’m just about ready to knock her up”. He grabbed the girl by the wrist trying to force her down. She pulled away from him with surprising force, but this only angered the punk more.

The ruffian hit the girl upside the head with a fist. The light was dim behind the closed store, but my eyes were adjusting. The moon was just coming out over the tops of the buildings; and the girl fell to a sitting position, letting the light shine down on her, allowing me to see the situation better. She was a young girl, perhaps in her early twenties, with a slim build, a little on the small side, but with a perfect body. I could tell because she had no clothes on to cover it. Wow. She was dirty on her hands and feet, but the rest of her was almost pristine. Her breasts were not too small or too large, but managed to fit on her frame perfectly. So sue me; I’m a man and I notice these things. Her hips were round and shapely, giving her that sensual look of a young healthy woman. I had to blink my eyes once or twice to make sure I was seeing this right. She was sitting in a dazed confusion, as though she didn’t understand what was happening, or even where she was. Poor girl, she must have been drugged.

Quickly, I grabbed my attention, and pulled it back toward the bag I had been carrying. Inside this bag was the invention I was sure would make me the hero of the day. And what better way to start out than to save a damsel in distress; a naked damsel, sure, but a damsel none-the-less. “Looks like a job for super-nerd” I mumbled to myself as I quietly but quickly grabbed the first piece, and started to gear up.

The first piece was a complex padded vest that fit over my clothes, but fit snug. It was tailored to me, and provided me with extra padding, and also improved my core strength and balance. It looked like it was covered in a dark patterned cloth, with that fake-abs look that super-heroes seem to all use, except these fake abs were actually bullet resistant Kevlar pads. It was actually segmented to allow for better movement, but who am I to complain about the added intimidation bonus? From here, I pulled out the second piece, which attached to my arm and hand, the end fitting on like a glove, except with 4 thick hard round metal knuckles over my breakable ones. From here stretched out a fairly flat but curved and molded aluminum rod, painted matte black, which ran up my arm and attached to my elbow at a joint, and from there it followed my arm up to my shoulder. Reaching around behind my neck and up to my other shoulder was another dark-patterned cloth-covered extension, which was attached to the arm rig at the shoulder. I snapped this part into place on the vest, one connection in front of each shoulder, and another behind my neck. The small mechanical motors spun the bolts into place and formed a tight connection. From the shoulder, another matte black aluminum rod protruded to my opposite elbow, where it repeated the same process. With a few tests, this would increase my upper-body strength ten-fold! There was only one large piece left in the bag, which was also the hardest to get on. However, before I could grab the last part of the apparatus, the situation behind me changed as the girl screamed.

Peering back out around the corner of the building, I could see the boys surrounding the young lady, hitting her to the ground. One started to kick at her, while the last boy continued to laugh. She tried to cover her head, but was clearly still dazed and confused. She was panicking too. The boys continued to hit and kick at her, while the big one started to undo his pants. It was almost a pointless exercise, since his pants were so low already he could probably step out of them. Quickly pulling on my gray overcoat and grabbing my hat, I prepared to put a stop to this. With a flick of a switch, all systems were go, well, all systems I had time to put on at least; the leg extensions would have to wait for another time. The boys continued their assault while the girl lay stunned on the ground, repeatedly kicked and hit. Suddenly, they stopped.

“What the FUCK?!” the first boy exclaimed. “She ain’t bleeding!”

“Course she is” responded the big one. “What’s all that red stuff, Rez?”

“It isn’t blood!" Rez replied. "And that girl isn’t bleeding, Big Joe. That girl... that... that...”.

“That THING is a fucking robot yo!” said the second boy. Apparently the last boy thought this was even more hilarious, and laughed louder than before, except more mockingly.

This caught my attention. I looked closer at the girl while putting on my hat and inching forward, ready to jump or run. I still couldn’t see her clearly; the yellow light did odd things to the shadows, and distorted the colors. However, I could see something sticking out of one of her arms. I swear it looked like she had a plastic string hanging out of her. It was no string, it was a wire! She had some kind of cable protruding from her arm where they were kicking at her. She really was a robot!

Chapter 2 - Fist of justice

“That ain’t rait” the big guy, apparently Big Joe, said. By now, the girl was sitting upright again; face and body covered it what appeared to be blood.

“Fuck this shit” the second boy said in response. “This bitch ain’t got no pulse, she’s a freaking android! We shoul jus put her out of her fuckin misery, yo!” At this, the boy pulled out one of those switch-blade knives, ready to flip it open. It seems these thugs hadn’t graduated to big boy gang school yet, and guns were not on the menu. Thank God.

Rez interjected. “Hang on Jack! No need to be cutting anyone. If this little bitch is a robot, she’d do whatever we tell her, whatever we want! And there isn’t anything she can do about it”. Rez picked up a small wooden plank, some debris from the ground. “Hold still, bitch” he exclaimed and knocked the plank against her head as hard as he could, laughing as he did so. Shit! I wasn’t fast enough to get to her. I knew I should have put that exoskeleton on before I left my car. She fell to the ground instantly with that blow, but, to my relief, she was still breathing. Not all gynoids need to breathe, but the best ones do. It helps with cooling off their processes, and the modern voice boxes use air to make sound, for a natural sounding voice. It was also dead sexy to hear a good gynoid breathing seductively. However, more importantly, it meant she was still operational, and I needed to act fast. Even if she wasn’t a living human, she was still in need of my help. I always played the hero in my head, saving the damsel in distress. And although this damsel wasn’t human, she needed help, and I was the only one around that could offer her any.

I continued to walk quietly over to them, trying to stay in Big Joe’s Shadow. Big Joe apparently still had his pants down to his knees, but was unsure what to do next. Rez reached down, and picked up the girl by the hair. Being this much closer helped me see her better now. She had taken a serious beating, and that last blow landed on her jaw, possibly breaking it. She had bruises, cuts, and dirt all over where these punks had hit and kicked her. Her skin was covered in what looked like blood, but was a little too orange. This fake blood was more like a coolant, and also helped with a variety of other functions, but only the best gynoids would even have such a feature. She was a work of art, but these boys treated her like a load of crap. Inside the cuts on her skin, I could clearly see something that wasn’t muscle. In the place of the meaty tissue was some grey sinew-like material, clearly artificial, but not completely unlike muscle. In places, bits of plastic started showing. Her neck had taken a serious cut from that last blow, and a few severed optical wires were visible from within. She had been beaten to a point where bruises had started to form in places on her face and abdomen and legs. Since when did gynoids have bruises? Clearly, this artificial blood was more complex than I thought, and had already started basic repair of the damage. In humans, bruising was what happened when blood pooled together under the skin. In gynoids, well… there were not many gynoids with blood, and even fewer with bruises, but according to the articles I read, bruises allowed the nano-machines in her ‘blood’ to work together in a massive effort to repair damage. Her eyes started wandering around in a dazed expression, as Rez propped her up. I was close enough now I could act, and I had to act before they went any further.

“Hey Joe” started the 4th boy, whom I almost forget was there. “If she a robot,” he giggled, “why don’t we give her a order? Make her do somethin’. Some’n nasty.” His laughter died down to giggles while he talked. I could get a better look at the one now. His eyes were bloodshot, bulging, with that bug-eyed look. He was on drugs, I was sure of it. That’s probably why he had the giggles.

“Like what?” Big Joe seemed a little dumbstruck, or perhaps he was just a little dumb. I was still hiding behind Joe’s enormous shadow as he said this; I was very aware that I might be seen, even crouched down like I was.

They were silent for a second, my heart skipped a beat. Did they see me? Suddenly, the second boy, Jack, interjected. “Let’s fuck her” he exclaimed with glee, as though he was the only one to think of this. “You gots yur pants off, let her play with ya a bit.”

“Yeah” said Rez with a gleam in his eye. I could see his face more clearly now. He was a young lad, maybe 16 or 17, toned, with dark-tanned skin. He wore a button shirt opened and loose over a wife beater, and had black jeans on with chains. His face was handsome, but twisted and sharp. The look in his eyes was sadistic, the scary look you see when someone is contemplating murder. He got his kicks from being in control of others, and making them do what he wanted. “Big Joe, pull out your dick. Go on girly, suck on his dick.”

“Suck On This!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, while I took 2 big steps toward Rez, stepping into the light. A look of horror and confusion struck his face, just before my fist did. A strong upper cut to the jaw was all it took, and Rez was lifted into the air, and hit the ground hard. With one punch, he was out cold; a tooth spinning on the ground a yard away. I turned around to face the other 3. Big Joe was still confused and still had is pants down. Luckily for me, he decided to pull them back up, giving me time to face Jack. With a flick of his wrist, Jack’s switch-blade unfolded, ready to strike. Taking a defensive stance, with my hands up and my legs spread in a carefully placed balance, I prepared for his attack. He lunged at me, with almost no skill, but with the deadly blade in his hand.

My Tae-Kwon-Do training was coming in useful. Even though it had been years since I last took classes, I had taken it long enough to know how to defend against a knife. With a side-step, an incredibly swift movement of my hand, and a slight push, I had disarmed Jack, and pushed him into the wall. Sometimes this type of training can be engraved in your mind when you think you forgot all about it. Some call it muscle memory; I call it a life-saver. He turned around to face me again, reaching in his pocket. This guy was fast, but I was faster. Before he had the chance to pull out whatever was in his pocket, I swept his feet out from under him. Just as he hit the ground, my fist pounded into his chest. The look of shock on his face faded as he lost consciousness.

I stood up again in time to face Big Joe, who had just managed to get his pants back up, or at least fastened and higher up than they were. This face was small, which gave him an odd look considering how big his bald head was. It made him look like a Buddha, with a small face but with no enlightenment or education. He stood there a second, and then started to run toward me, swinging his arms wildly. I dodged the first swing, moving to his side. For such a big guy, I didn’t expect him to turn as fast as he did. I caught his second blow with my right fist, hearing a crack of bone from his hand. Grabbing his third blow with my hand, I was able to twist it enough that he pulled back his arm, leaving himself wide open. I pummeled at his stomach. This guy was big, and each blow seemed to get lost in his folds, but as I punched harder and faster, the look of pain on Big Joe’s face grew.

I stopped punching him and stepped to the side. Big Joe lurched forward, and threw up the last 3 or 4 meals he just ate, before keeling over completely. The thud from his impact was only lessened by the squish of his vomit as he fell in it. Face down in his own vomit, gross. And the smell was worse. I figured I’d do him a favor, and pushed him over with my foot, so we wouldn’t drown in the stuff. I noticed that a faint smell of smoke filled my nostrils. My suite was over heating from my fast punches at Big Joe. I messed up something again. Shit! I turned off the exoskeleton with the flick of a small switch on the side of the neck, disguising the gesture as a muscle stretching-neck cracking gesture instead.

That left laughing bug-eyed boy. I never caught his name, but I didn’t care. He just stood there, stunned, his laughs turned from giggles, into whimpers. He was scared. Perhaps it was my long gray trench coat, or the wide-brimmed hat to cover my face. Maybe it was the fact that I just knocked out all his friends in less than a minute. Either way, he was not having a good trip anymore, and started running in the opposite direction. I ran as fast as I could to catch up, which wasn’t too hard. The boy tripped on his foot not 15 feet away, and I grabbed him by the collar. Shoving him against the wall of the hardware store, I made sure he saw only the shadow on my face as I spoke in my toughest sounding voice.

“Out to have some fun, huh?” I pushed him against the wall harder. “Thought you could just rape this girl?”

“H- Hey- Hey man! We wuz just fooling around.” He didn’t sound very convincing to me.

“I don’t have time for you punks” I retorted, putting emphasis on the word punk.

“D- Don’t- Don’t hurt me man” he pleaded. “I wasn’t gonna do nothing.”

“No, you were just going to watch and let them have their way with her. Perhaps they can watch as your new cell mate has his way with you.” That last part seemed a little forced to me, but I think he got the picture.

“I- I- I- I ain’t gonna te- tell no one. H- Honest” he said, his stutter more severe than before.

“Sure you aren’t” I said. “So why is there a cell phone in your hand?” He looked down, not realizing that he was in fact holding a cell phone. Apparently, he took it out earlier to take pictures of the girl, one image still captured on the screen, and forgot he had it. I swatted the phone away, hearing it shatter on the ground, and punched the kid in the stomach. My punch was not nearly as strong as it was anymore, but I still managed to get him to keel over in pain. I hit his head once to knock him out while he was holding his stomach. He hit the ground with a thud, and was out cold, like all his friends. I quickly pulled out my own phone, and sent a short text. It was to my computer at home, which I had programmed to receive messages and forward them for me, under an anonymous number. The message I sent was the location of the attack, and a request for help. This short message was forwarded to the police, so they could come and clean up the mess. Last thing I wanted was the police to know my phone number.

Turning back toward the girl, I pocketed my phone, took off my hat, and laid it down beside her. She was still stunned, but had started to realize what was happening around her. “Shh. Calm down” I send in a gentle voice. “Are you ok? Can you get up?”

She looked straight at me, with a look of horror and fear in her eyes. She was still scared and wasn’t sure what was going on. She had to think about everything that just happened to her, and it could take a while, especially with all the damage she took. I held out my hand to her to let her grab it. Recoiling instantly, she stared at my hand as though it was ready to hit her. I slowly pulled back my hand. She was already scared enough, I didn’t want to frighten her more. “My name is Daniel, but my friends call me Exo. I want to help you.”

She stared at me a little while longer, before looking around at the other boys lying on the ground around her. She was slowly but assuredly coming out of the shock, and started to realize what was happening. She was remembering the attack, and putting the pieces together in her mind. I held out my hand again, putting a genuine smile on my face. I was glad she was not too hurt to start to understand her situation. Her eyes stared back at me, the horror replaced with concern and confusion, but fear was still there too. There was little time to spare if I wanted to get her out of there before they woke up, or the police arrived, but as I kneeled there beside her with my hand stretched out to her, I stared into her eyes. Vibrant blue eyes stared back at me, absolutely beautiful, but also a little too intense to be natural. Of course they weren’t natural, she was a robot. I take it she was not a doll, or the operator would not still be operating it after, or even during, such a brutal attack. I had never seen a gynoid that looked as real as she did though. Her body was free from all seams and joints, and her expressions were perfect. Usually a gynoid has seams around her body that give access to technicians for maintenance and repair. I could see none of these on her, but I wasn’t exactly looking for them either.

I watched as her tensed eyes relaxed, her eyebrows lowering as her expression changed to one of hope. Slowly, she put her hand in mine. It was soft, and warm. I didn’t expect that at all. She felt like a human, with soft flesh instead of artificial silicon and plastic. I could even feel a faint beat, as the coolant blood ran through her skin. This was amazing! I had worked on customization and repair jobs for several dozen gynoids, but never have I seen one as advanced at this. I tried to pull her to her feet, but she faltered. She looked light-headed and I caught her as she sat back down on the ground. Her body was very warm, and her blood was still oozing out of her wounds; she could overheat. I couldn’t help but feel her soft skin under my hands as I helped her sit up. Taking off my coat, I wrapped it around her, to give her something to cover her up.

“What’s your name? Where did you come from?” I picked up my hat as I asked her, putting it back on my head. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead of a voice, all that came out was a distorted digital noise. She was shocked at her own voice. Her scream before was normal, so this must have happened when they hit her with the plank of wood. Placing her hand on her neck, she tried again, mouthing a word I didn’t understand, but with only digital noise coming out. She started to panic again. Her eyes went wide, and she started to breathe quickly.

“Shh shh... It’s ok” I said, trying to calm her down. “You don’t have to say anything. They hurt you pretty bad. You’re lucky I found you, I think I can fix you.”

Unfortunately, my efforts to calm her failed. Her eyes filled with tears, and she started to hyperventilate. Maybe it means something different when a gynoid hyperventilates, but in a human, it usually means she is not calming down. Her digitally distorted voice started to fill the air as she tried again and again to talk. She had no voice, no words, no way of telling me anything, and she started to cry in that digital mess. Her voice rang out in digitized sobs as tears ran down her cheeks.

I held her close to me trying to calm her down. “Shh... shh... It’ll be ok. I’ll take care of you. Do you know where you master lives?” She looked confused and shook her head. “You do have a master, right?” All robots have a master. Sometimes that master is a private person, sometimes it is an organization. The title of master can change as well as the robot is moved around. Sometimes they can even have more than one master. However, no robot is without a master. They would have no purpose, no aim, and no goal. Robots are tools, and a hammer cannot build a house by itself. However, this gynoid shook her head again. Apparently she had no master, however that was impossible. Perhaps she lost her master, or he died, or she was not given one yet. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to push the issue.

“Do you know anyone? Have anywhere to go?” Both questions got a no. I didn’t want to interrogate her, so I decided it was time to leave. “Is it ok with you if I take you to my place? It’s small but you can rest, and I can help you out.” She thought for a moment on this one, and slowly she nodded.

“Great” I smiled. “I mean… good. I’ll take care of you, trust me.” She was still too weak to stand, so I picked her up and carried her. By the time I got to my bag in the alley, I realized she was a lot lighter than I would have expected. A normal human girl would have weighed about the same as she did, maybe even a little more. Most gynoids and robots are very heavy. A lot of things are packed into that small frame, and they can often weigh 200 lbs. or more.

Grabbing my bag while I carried her, I made my way to my car. It wasn’t too far, luckily, but it was in a well-lit area, and I wanted to avoid being seen carrying a half-naked beaten girl. I stuck to the back alley ways while I carried her closer, and came out from behind the buildings only when I got closer to my car. I was lucky, the lot was empty, and no one was around. My car is old. Not that it is incredibly old, not even old enough to count as an antique. People often just stare at my car, with that look on their face that says “Why is this thing on the road? Is it legal”? Strictly speaking, it was legal to drive my car, but that doesn’t mean it was a good idea. I had to modify her to allow me to use alternate fuel, especially since the gas companies nearly collapsed several years ago. Normally, my car is non-hybrid, non-electric, non-diesel, non-fuel cell, non-hydrogen, non-anything special gas guzzler. It was built more than 20 years ago, and was in a constant state of disrepair. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a piece of junk, she still worked. Enough modifications were made to her that allowed me to use more modern bio-fuels, but they were still harder to find than I would have liked. The faded green paint job was the kind of color that made the public question the taste of its owner. What can I say? I got what I paid for. She was reliable enough, and got me around town, but her days were numbered.

The keys were still in the pocket of my trench coat, and my hands were a little full, and tired. No matter how light she felt at first, without the exoskeleton working, carrying a girl several blocks will tire anyone out. My arms were starting to feel like play dough, and the last thing I wanted to do was to drop her.

“Could you get the keys out of my coat please?” My voice was a little strained as I asked her as sweetly as I could. “They’re in the right side pocket. Yeah that’s it”. She reached into the pocket, and pulled out the keys. At first, she just stared at the keys, as though she was trying to figure out how they worked, but she did manage to unlock the car with the key fob.

Carefully, I opened the door with my foot, and placed the girl inside my compact car. She was hard to carry that far, and putting her down was a relief. I moved her feet over to the front, so she was in the car all the way, and carefully shut the door. Putting my bag in the back seat, I hopped in my car- my exoskeleton still attached- and started her up. The seatbelt alarm reminded me that my passenger did not have her seatbelt on. She didn’t seem to notice, or understand, so I reached across her to put it on for her. Even though she had my coat wrapped around her, I could still see a lot of her, especially this close to her. The little light in my car wasn’t great, but it was better than the acid-yellow glow that pierced the scene in the alley, and it gave me a better view of her. I could see she had beautiful straight hair, light brown with a hint of red. Dirt and dried red-orange blood was smeared on her face, getting caught in her hair. The coat was not wrapped too tightly around her, giving me a clear view of her cleavage. Without a bra, her cleavage was lacking, but it was still impressive. Her breasts weren’t large, but they weren’t small either. From what I could see, she had maybe a B or C cup, and her breasts were well shaped. Her legs were long and shapely, and had a classic sensual look to them. Her skin was pale and nearly flawless. I noticed that she had small imperfections here and there, a mole, some freckles; this was a feature that made her appear more natural. I had to force myself to stop staring at her as I buckled her in.

Just as I was clicking her belt into place, I noticed her staring back at me. Her eyes met mine, and we ended up locked in each other’s gazes. I stared into her big and vibrant blue eyes, perhaps more vibrant than any natural eye color dared to be. This gave her a certain appeal, an allure that trapped me in her eyes. Gazing at her made me realize she had more emotion on her face, in her eyes, than any gynoid was allowed to have. On a physical level, I noticed that her eyes were higher quality than most gynoid eyes I have seen. There was only the smallest sign that her eyes were artificial. Dark blue text, the size of a pin-head, contrasted against the outer rim of her iris. There was no way to tell what it said without a magnifying glass, but it was most likely something relating to the lens and power of the optical sensors. Pain filled her eyes; pain and uncertainty. She was, in a way, staring into my soul, trying to gauge what kind of person I was, trying to get a feel for my intentions. The tension grew in that tiny space as she stared me down. Fascination and concern struck me as I gazed back at her, and it must have shown. Her eyes relaxed, calming the features of her face, and she let out a deep breath; a digital sigh escaping her lips. A strained smile appeared on her face, as though she was glad to have made a friend, but nervous about what is going to happen next. If I hadn’t noticed the red-orange blood, or the optical wires and artificial muscles, I never would have known she was a gynoid. She broke the gaze first, looking down at her hands as she sat back into the chair.

The engine grunted to life as I turned the ignition on. The green car when into gear easily, and we drove off, toward my apartment on the outskirts of the city. The drive was not long, maybe 15 minutes, but before we were half way there, she fell dead asleep. Her heavy slow breathing was relaxing to me, and her presence was something unusual for me. I was used to living as a bachelor, with no women around. I had friends, but I rarely drove them anywhere, and they never fell asleep in my car. It wasn’t that I was bad with women, I was just unlucky. I struck out a few too many times, and decided it was best for both me and the world to stay off women for a while. Sure, I had made love a few times, but it was never fully satisfying for either of us. I didn’t really know how to please a woman in the bed room, and that may have been part of my problem. It had been a few years since I last had a female in my apartment, aside from the occasional broken gynoid that is. I suppose this would really be no different than another broken gynoid, expect this gynoid was my guest, not a client. I felt happy she was with me, and nervous too. I didn’t know what to do about her, or with her, and I had no idea if I could even fix her.

Chapter 3 - Perchance to dream

It wasn’t until we got to the apartment that I realized she was not going to wake up. Perhaps she lost too much of her coolant-blood. Perhaps she was exhausted and her body needed to do repairs. Luckily for me, my apartment was on the first floor of the building, so I didn’t have to go up or down any stairs carrying an unconscious half-naked girl in front of everyone’s doors. I wasn’t sure what would be harder to explain, the girl, or the exoskeleton suit I still wore. First, I decided to grab my bag and the few things in the back seat, and take them inside. This let me prop open the door, and prepare to carry her in. I went back to the passenger side, and lifted her up. She seemed to lean right into me as I lifted her out of the car, and closed the door with my foot. I locked the car with the key fob, which was still in my hand, and brought her inside.

My place isn’t that big. I was lucky enough to be able to afford a 2 bedroom apartment, but the second bedroom is dedicated to my work. I mostly repair and customize robots, and right now I had a very large project in that room, so it was taken up by several broken android and gynoid parts. I decided to place the broken girl on the couch. My couch is long and soft, black leather with reclining seats at the ends. She took up just over half the couch as I laid her on it. Her breathing was still heavy and slow, I was glad she was not overheating yet, but I didn’t know what was going on inside her until I got the chance to take a look. But for now, she was dead tired, dirty, and probably repairing herself. While nano-bots can repair small damage to a gynoid, it is not possible to fix everything. Skin can be mended, muscles can be repaired, but connecting optical wires and repairing a voice box were not possible. Those would need to be done by a technician. However, I decided it would be best to let her rest, and let her self-maintenance run while she was sleeping before I poked around. Besides, from looking at her body, I could not see any joints or access ports, so I had no idea how to get into her mechanics without a verbal command. However, I could clean her up a bit.

Taking off my exoskeleton, and placing in on a chair, I went into my kitchen, grabbed a cleaning cloth from under the sink, and filled a bowl with warm soapy water. While most androids and gynoids cannot swim, sponge baths are usually fine. I started with her face. Dried tears and some blood stained her pretty face, and she looked badly bruised and beaten. Carefully, I used the warm moist cloth to wipe away the filth. She cleaned up pretty well; her blood made her look worse than she was, although there were a few minor cuts and one big bruise on the left side of her jaw. I couldn’t tell if her jaw was broken, but it was the same impact that broke her voice box, so I would be able to take a closer look when I could dive in for more repairs later. Her face was very pretty despite her injuries. She had a round face, with big gorgeous eyes, and a small, slightly up-turned nose. She had some faint freckles across her checks, which could be easily overlooked or covered with makeup, but it made her look young and extremely cute. I carefully washed some of the blood out of her hair, but decided she’d need to do the rest herself later.

Peculiarly, I noticed one other thing about her face. Her face was slightly asymmetrical. Most androids and gynoids I have run into either have very mechanical faces, template faces, or perfectly symmetrical faces. I guess it’s just cheaper to build the same thing on both sides, mirrored. Completely symmetrical faces often throw people off, looking a little out of place. Sometimes a collector or enthusiast will customize a face, giving their gynoid a unique look, but this is a time consuming and expensive process. Most people just use a template face, with a few select customized changes. However, this face was a completely unique face. I noticed several minute differences here and there; one nostril was slight bigger than the other, her ears were just slightly off center from each other. These subtle little touches, which the untrained eye would easily overlook, were easy to make out for someone who has seen so many of these faces day in and day out. Her face was perfect to a point where it was imperfect, in just the right way, giving her a beautiful and natural appearance.

I was careful not to get her cuts too wet, especially the large gash on the side of her neck. Carefully, I pulled the wound apart a little to get a better look at the damage. It didn’t look too severe, but some cables and muscles had been pulled and torn, and would need repair. I slide the few cables sticking out of her neck back inside, and washed around the wound. The bleeding had stopped; good old nano-bots. However, it left her body covered in her red-orange blood. My coat still clung loosely around her body, covering any damage she may have taken in the attack.

I took a deep breath. I am only doing this to clean her up, she needs my help. I am not going to look at her body; I am not going to get aroused. I tried to convince myself that what I was doing was the noble thing to do, and needed to be done. Getting an erection over this was pointless. Surely my body would listen to reason, right? I slowly pulled open the coat wrapped around her, to reveal her full body to me.

She was a mess. I didn’t expect her to look so bad, but I couldn’t see her well in that dim yellow light in the alley, and she was covered up in my car. She had several large cuts and bruises; dirt, and blood covered her body. I decided to get started, working my way up her arms, and then down from her neck. I needed to pull her arms out of the sleeves of my coat, so I could clean her off properly. That coat was going to need to be cleaned after all this. Pulling her body up and close to me, I managed to get her arms out of the coat, and let her rest on top of it. Her hands were dirty, but delicate. She had tiny hands, with dainty fingers and soft skin. I cleaned off all the grime and blood, and worked my way up her arms. She had several cuts along her arms where they had kicked her when she was trying to cover her head. One large gash exposed a small bunch of optical wire, which had been kicked loose and dangled out of the wound. I carefully tucked the wire back inside. I would have to get my tools out and take a closer look before I could repair such damage, but that would have to wait. Luckily, she was not bleeding there anymore either, but I found that her arms and torso were covered in so much blood, that I needed to go back for fresh water several times.

My favorite part of the female anatomy is actually the neck and shoulders. There is something about a dainty and petite girl with her shoulders and neck bare that just drives me crazy. Despite the large gash on her neck, the rest of her shoulder and chest was mainly unharmed. She had taken some bad cuts to her breasts though, and one of them was still bleeding a bit. I carefully cleaned off her shoulders, revealing her white and pale skin hiding underneath the filth that covered her. She was very petite, with a small frame, and well built. She had idealistic proportions, and her body was shaped perfectly. She had an almost athletic look to her, but she was soft and curvy. Having uncovered more of the blood off of her, I noticed she had more freckles on her shoulders, which I thought was very endearing, and aroused me despite my best efforts to resist.

I cleaned off her breasts with great care and dedication. Perhaps I am a pig, but seeing her bare breasts rise and fall with her every breath drove me wild. I controlled myself as best as I could; at least I didn’t start groping her. I did greatly enjoy cleaning her breasts thoroughly though, and I had to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Her skin was incredibly soft; it was as though I had never touched a woman before. Her breasts were shapely, perfectly rounded, and ended in perky pink nipples. Not all gynoids have nipples, although nipples are a popular feature, usually in a permanently aroused state. But even among those that have nipples, hers were above and beyond the rest. There was no seam or interruption to her flawless breasts, and her nipples were in a relaxed, natural state, neither fully aroused nor soft. I watched as her breasts jiggled and shook when I washed them, much to my enjoyment.

“I’m such a Pig” I thought to myself. The cuts left behind on her breasts were wide, probably from when they kicked her. I was glad to see that most the wounds were starting to close; there seemed to be no serious damage. I carefully washed the bleeding cut and placed a towel over it to help stop the bleeding. I would need to get my med kit out for the gauze to make sure it got enough pressure. I wasn’t even sure it would work. Does a wound on synthetic skin need pressure to heal? Well it couldn’t hurt, and would at least keep the blood in place as her systems fixed themselves.

I was fascinated by her chest, but I needed to move on and clean the rest of her as well. I started cleaning her stomach. She had a nice flat stomach, with a cute “inny” bellybutton. I don’t know if the bellybutton on a gynoid did anything, besides serve as an actual button sometimes, but I am pretty sure it is mostly for show. Several large bruises were forming on the left side of her abdomen, but there were no cuts. I would need to open her up at some point to make sure there was no internal damage. Access panels are very common in gynoids and androids, and they allow a technician to do exactly that, gain easy access to the robot’s internal components for repair or modification. These panels can be anything from doors with hinges to discreet panels that slide out of the way. However, one thing you find on all androids and gynoids, are the tell-tale signs of these access panels, the outlines of each panel, formed by the edge where the door meets the rest of the body. For many robots, these are easy to spot, obvious. Some gynoids have more discreet panels, allowing the skin to conceal the edges, making the markings of the panels more subtle. However, they’re always still there; pull the skin in the right places enough and the seam is easy to see. There were no signs of any panels on this gynoid, nothing to indicate there were any access panels at all. Surely there must be something somewhere, but I could not see even the faintest line.

Working my way down, I got to her hips and (*ahem*) crotch. Several cuts and scrapes riddled her hips and legs, but besides that she was not hurt there much. Her pubic hair was well trimmed, with only a cute triangle of hair on the mons pubis. I suppose she was built to have only a small patch of hair there, the rest of her was virtually hairless. Looking back up at her face, I confirmed she was still fast asleep and not about to wake up. I had to restrain myself, but I couldn’t resist taking a closer look. The last thing I wanted to do was get on the bad side of this robot, or its master. Sure, she indicated she had no master, but robots can make errors, especially after such a beating.

Carefully, I spread her legs apart slightly, bent at the knees, so I could get a better look. As I took a closer look at her womanhood, I was startled to see something I was not expecting. Instead of seeing her labia and vaginal port, I saw what I through to be a shield. A small metal band, reaching from her clitoris to her anus, concealed her entire sexual zone. It was yellow and black, thin, and seemed to be somehow imbedded into her. It was shaped to perfectly conceal her private area without showing when she stood normally. It was smooth and hard, and blocked almost any stimulation anyone would try to give her. Small slanted slits allowed air and possibly liquid waste to flow freely through it on one end of the strip, but they were too thin to see through. It covered her anus as well, which must mean that either she cannot eat, or she was designed to eat only after the strip was removed. Words stretched across the middle of metal strip, right over the area where her vaginal port was. They were rather hard to read, but I managed to move in closer for a better look. It read:

FBI Warning: tag to be removed ONLY by unit Master. Customer must be 18 years old to register.

It was like one of those furniture labels and a movie rating in one. She was still factory sealed down there, untouched, and untainted. I tried to see if I could move the tag at all, but it seemed to be embedded into her skin, and most likely attached to her skeletal frame; it wasn’t moving anywhere. Most gynoids have something akin to a fleshlight (one of those fake vaginas for masturbating), often with a vibrating function, installed in place of their vagina, if they had a vaginal port at all. This, however, seemed to be a custom made, unique vaginal port. I had no way of seeing what she really looked like there, but I could tell it was more advanced than any gynoid vaginal port I had ever seen. She really is a work of art!

I decided to leave off here; I didn’t want to go any farther than that; I seriously didn’t want to upset her. However, I can only assume that with this tag still in place, she has never had a master. For some reason, this metallic strip actually turned me on. My dick was already erect, but I had to calm him down. She was sleeping, and injured, and needed my help, not my perverted side. She just had to be a gynoid, didn’t she? Did I mention I am one of those people who get aroused at technology? I’m a Technophile, so-to-speak. Maybe I don’t go humping cell phones or computers, but they do peak my interest. Gynoids excite me the most. I always dreamed of having my own gynoid, customizing her, and maintaining her. She would be my maid, my lover, my companion. Now that there was a gynoid in my house, however, my dreams didn’t seem as realized as I thought they would. She was in real need of my help, and I had to give it. My hard on would just have to wait for the shower.

I put her legs back together, and started cleaning them too. Her feet were filthy, but I did get most of her cleaned up. I couldn’t help but notice how soft and curvy her legs were. Her feet were dainty, just like her hands, and looked very natural. I decided that I wouldn’t be able to easily wash her back, but I would try to get some of it. After getting another clean bowl of soapy water, I gently pulled her body into a sitting position. I struggled to keep her sitting upright, since her body had a tendency to lie back down again. With a lot of effort, I managed to wipe off most of the blood and dirt off her back. But the coat she was lying in was still coated in the dry stuff, and would probably just get her dirty again. I did notice some more small cuts on her back, exposing her inner mechanics a bit. Plastic and metallic alloys shone through parts of her body where she had been cut up. Dried orange-red blood smeared the wounds. I did my best to clean her up, and let her lay back down in peace again.

Going into my bathroom, I pulled out a roll of gauze from the medicine cabinet. I’m sure she didn’t need anything sterile, but it was all I had. I sat down beside her on the edge of the couch, and lifted her right arm. She didn’t react at all, but stayed perfectly asleep. I carefully wrapped her biggest cuts in the gauze, and then did the same to her other arm. Carefully, I lifted up her torso, and wrapped some gauze around her neck wound, and under her right arm, across her body. I had just enough gauze left to wrap it around her still bleeding breast, but first, I put a gauze pad over the wound. I carefully wrapped the remainder of the gauze around her breasts, tight enough to hold the dressing in place, but not too tight to obstruct her breathing. Boy Scouts paid off, sort of.

Gently, I laid her back down on the couch, putting a small pillow under her head. I put a blanket over her, and let her sleep while I threw a small dinner in the microwave. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. She was a stranger in my house, but I liked her being there. I wanted to help her, and was sure I could, but I wanted more than just that. I wanted to be with her. Strange, I know, I only just met the girl, and I know nothing about her. And on top of that, she is a gynoid, a toy, a tool. I am a technician, and a human. It is only natural I would want to fix her up, but I couldn’t be with her. Could I? I shudder to think about what the law would say. Gay marriage look long enough to be accepted in this country, I doubt robot marriage would be as welcome. Sometimes my mind jumps to conclusions like that… marriage to a gynoid. I didn’t even know if she was going to keep breathing through the night, let alone wake up. And love was a completely different matter altogether. I suppose I was infatuated with her, intrigued. I pushed these irrational thoughts aside, and summed the entire episode in my head up to loneliness. It was simple, I was lonely, and I hadn’t been with a woman in years.

I pondered these things and many more as I ate my dinner. It was a short dinner, and I ate it while I worked on my exoskeleton some more. Something had overheated, causing it to smoke in the alley. I was lucky that it happened after I was already finished with the big guy, but next time it could be me laying in the that alley. I found a few possible culprits to the problem, but the solution would require a reworked cooling system. I would need to hit the store and pick up some parts before I could go any farther, so it would have to wait till tomorrow. I placed my suit in my office, which is covered wall-to-wall with robot parts and computers. I had a big job come in last week, and it was going to take a while to fix up all these broken parts. Build a better robot, and they’ll build a better idiot to break it.

I headed out of the office and closed the door behind me. The office is actually right next to the living room, at the start of a short hallway. At one end of the hall was a door to the guest bathroom, while at the other was the door to the tiny laundry room. I was lucky to even have my own washing machine; most people used a public Laundromat. At the end of that hallway is my bedroom, complete with its own bathroom. It was a pretty nice bathroom, a big tub, a large mirror, a toilet; all the luxuries of life. The living room was separated from the front door by a short foyer, which had its own wall, just enough to make moving my couch in here a real hassle. The living room itself was small. A large screen hung on one wall, the couch on the opposite with stacks of movies and games in book shelves around it. I had a computer sitting on a table against another wall as well; I used this one for playing games and blogging. Always keep work and play separate, that’s the only way to get things done. A small table in a tiny dining “room” sat next to the computer, and the kitchen extended from it. One thing I can’t stand is a small kitchen; too bad for me cause I got stuck with one.

I decided to log online and take my mind off of things for a bit in an MMO. I didn’t want to talk in the regular forums and chat rooms about the events of this evening, not yet at least; it was too big, too significant, and too dangerous. My mind continued to race through thoughts about what happened, despite my efforts to distract it with digital violence. She had to have gotten to that alley somehow. And without any clothes, she couldn’t have gone far without someone else noticing. She must have been lost, ran off, or been put there by someone. I didn’t know who, or why, or anything, but perhaps a little time killing orcs and ogres would take my mind off of it. I kept her in my sight as I smashed hordes of evil monsters. Maybe the game wasn’t enough of a distraction. I kept getting gorged by nasty digital minions. After my third resurrection, I decided I was not in the right mind set to really get into the game. I logged off, and put the computer to sleep.

I decided not to go to bed that night. She was too important to leave alone, and if she woke up in a strange place, who knows what she’d do. Instead, I took a quick shower (no need for a cold shower, my mind was racing too much), put on some pajamas (for a change), and grabbed a pillow and blanket from the bed. I slept at the other end of the couch in the reclining seat, just at her head. I considered laying her head on my lap, but I thought better of that, and let her rest in peace. It was a difficult night, plagued with odd dreams. I awoke a few times, once to find she changed position in her sleep, turning to her side. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 4 - Dancing robot monkey

I awoke to find the girl was not on my couch anymore. In her place lay my jacket and blanket, but no sign of the girl. From that perspective on the couch, I could see that my front door was wide open! Quickly I struggled to my feet, and ran out the front door. Surely no one would notice a naked girl with wires sticking out of her. There was no sign of her anywhere. I looked around, wandering toward my car, to see if I could see any sign of her. I almost gave up hope of finding her, when I spotted her shadowy figure in the distance. She was walking toward the train tracks on the other side of the road. Thanks to my daily gym visits, I could run fast, and I ran as fast as I could toward her. The distance seemed to grow longer and longer, taking me much longer than I anticipated to get to her. As I finally got closer, I could see 4 figures surrounding her, taller than her, dressed all in black, and carrying sticks and knives.

I screamed; my voice was a mile away. One of them looked back at me and giggled with an echo of a voice. Off to the side, I could hear the train coming. It was coming in fast, blowing its horn to warn them, but they couldn’t hear. She couldn’t hear. I kept running toward her, getting closer and closer, trying to yell out her name, but no sound came out. A man walked up beside me, wearing dark glasses and a business suit. “You can’t have her. You can’t protect her”. That was all he said. The train blew its horn again, bells ringing at the crossway. I looked back toward the man, but he was gone. I never stopped running.

There was nothing I could do except keep running. The 4 figures parted to either side of the tracks, keeping her stuck there in the way of the train. It wasn’t slowing down, and it didn’t apply any breaks; it just kept rolling on through at full speed. I yelled her name again, this time the sound of the train horn obscured anything I said. It all came down to this moment! No matter how fast I ran, I could never reach her, I could never save her. I just stood there with tears filling my eyes, and watched as the train came thundering into the intersection. One second she was there, the next, she was gone, smashed by the train, as though she were an ant in the way of a car. I screamed at the top of my voice, yelling out her name, and all I could hear was her digital scream coming from my mouth.

I awoke, again, except this time in the real world. My forehead was covered in sweat, and I came to the realization that not only was it just a dream, but her actual startled voice woke me up. I sat there, looking around for a second, remembering the previous night bit by bit. It all came back to me. She sat there, next to me, her back to me, still smeared with dirt and blood from my coat. She held her throat in one hand, as though she forgot she had no voice. Clearly, she was still piecing together the events that unfolded last night as well. I was faster at it, but then again, she wasn’t conscious when I took her into my home and cleaned her up. I watched as she looked around, curious but with a calculating look on her face. No longer was she scared, dazed, and as confused as she had been the night before. She was finally thinking straight, and putting two and two together. She looked around some more, until her eyes darted over to me.

Another short startled digital yelp escaped her mouth as she grabbed the blanket to cover herself up. I jumped in my seat, startled by her just as much as she was startled by me. It must have taken her a few second to remember me, because at first she just stared at me with wide open eyes, fear and uncertainty filling her features. To my relief, her expression changed from one of fear, to one of curiosity, as her eyebrows lowered and her expression became stern. Finally, her mouth settled into a small friendly smile. It was a cute smile. She breathed a sigh of relief, and her body relaxed.

“Uh… Good morning?” I said. It was all I could think to say, without being a smartass. She responded by opening her mouth to speak, and then catching herself, and instead giving me a big nod and a smile. God she was cute. She still held the blanket up to her for modesty, but her grip had loosened, and the slack revealed a copious amount of skin. Her bandages were still on, covering her breasts, but I would still need to take a closer look at her after breakfast.

“Do you uh- want anything to eat?” I asked. She just looked at me as though she were considering the question, and shook her head. Of course she’s not going to eat anything stupid! That warning tag prevented her from excreting any waste. I also didn’t know if she was a model that could eat at all. Most androids and gynoids could not eat, but in recent years, the high society and gynoid collectors started to develop gynoids and a few androids that could eat. Sure, most gynoids and a lot of androids could eat small amounts, but it wasn’t for nutrition or energy, it was mainly for social events, and sexual favors. If a gynoid couldn’t give a decent blow job and store the semen somewhere, it wasn’t going to sell very well. However, these collectors actually had robots that could eat, and generate small amounts of energy from it. If they ate enough, they only had to charge half as long as they normally would. Some saw this as frivolous spending, wasting food, and contributing to the starving nations of the world. I couldn’t help but think, ”Cool!”

“I’ll be right back,” I said to her. “Feel free to look around.” I gave her a smile, and walked over to bathroom to take care of business. After washing my face, spraying some deodorant on, and combing my hair, I threw on a t-shirt that had robot ants on it, put on some jeans, and walked back into my living room. She was standing there, looking at the pictures hanging on the wall with an interested face, as though she were actually enjoying the image she was looking at. She was also standing there naked, except for the bandages, which just covered her breasts; one hand covering her womanhood, despite the tag. Her body was dainty, petite. She had a small build, but it was a very well built body, all the parts fitting into place just as on a human. She looked amazing.

I coughed, “Do you want me to get you some clothes? I can probably find you a shirt or something, and… maybe a… pair… of…” my thoughts died out. Even though she was still a little dirty, had bandages covering cuts on her arms and torso, and needed a shower, I couldn’t help but stare at her naked form as she drew her eyes from the photograph toward me. Our eyes met, and her smile got bigger, and maybe a little coy. She gave me a big nod, without her eyes leaving mine. She was simply beautiful. “Umm... okay then- just wait right… here… and I’ll go… get you…” I stuttered, “I’ll be right back”. I could feel the blood rushing to my head; my face must have been bright red as I turned around and headed back to my room. I could hear what I thought was a giggle, although the digital distortion of her voice made it hard to make out. I didn’t know what size she would wear, but I was sure all my normal clothes would be huge on her. She must have been maybe 5’4” or so, with a very petite build, and probably could use my shirt like a tent. Luckily, I remembered a shirt I got at a convention. People where throwing shirts out at the audience members, and I was lucky enough to grab one. It was to advertise a product, but the saying was cute, and the shirt was 2 sizes too small for me. I wore it once, but could barely breathe, and I never had the heart to throw it out.

I came back into the room with the deep blue shirt and a pair of tan shorts with a draw string over my arm. She was no longer looking at the pictures, but was leaning over my coffee table to look at a remote control laying there. She didn’t seem to understand what it was for, but was also unaware that she was giving me a great view of her ass. At this angle, I could clearly see the little yellow and black tag covering her vagina and anus, and it almost looked like some kind of modern underwear, like a thong without the straps.

I coughed again. She stood up, startled, and turned around to look at me, her face quickly turning red. I held up the shirt and shorts, but she arched an eyebrow, looking at me puzzled. Maybe it was the dancing robot monkey on the front of the shirt; maybe she didn’t know what to do with the clothes at all. I didn’t know, but I was about to find out. Handing the shirt and shorts to her, I head into the kitchen and got a bowl out of the cupboard. I poured a half bowl of cereal, and was just about to pour the milk on top when I looked up and saw her struggling to put on the shirt. She was trying to pull her head through one of the sleeves, with one of her arms sticking out of the top of the shirt. I watched a while as she managed to take the shirt back off, her hair a mess, and tried the shorts instead. There isn’t much you can get wrong with putting on shorts. She managed to put them on backwards and inside out, and then went to tackle the shirt again. I could help but laugh at her as she attempted to put it on upside down.

“Here, let me help you with that” I said, putting the milk down and walking over to help her. I pulled the shirt off of her head, and leaned over to remove the short. She blushed, but put one hand on my back, and the other over her womanhood, as she leaned into me and stepped out of the shorts. Catching several discreet glances of her on the way back up, I turned the shorts right-side-in and stepped over to the couch. She sat down in front of me with a smile on her face, full of energy. “Let’s do the shirt first. Lift your hands over your head.” She lifted her right hand straight up, but her left arm only came up half way. A look of pain shot across her face as she lowered her hand to hold her arm. I noticed as she did that her right hand seemed a little limp, as though she did not have full control of it. Of course, her injuries were hurting her and she lost some mobility.

“Whoa, are you ok?” I sat down next to her, looking at her arm. It seemed she was in real pain, not just a preprogrammed response. Many androids and gynoids have AI that allows them to simulate pain and pleasure. It comes in handy not only for sex play, but also to diagnose a problem on the fly. However, she was either the best actress gynoid I’d seen, or she was in real pain. A robot with pain? Impossible! Or was it? I took a closer look at her arm, and noticed many of her cuts had started to heal and close. The largest ones were too big, and I could still see the damaged muscle sinew and disjoined cables. I needed to take a closer look at her before she put any clothes on.

“Let me take a closer look at you. I’m a certified technician, I think I can help.” She stared at me, almost in shock, and pulled away. I’m not sure what it was I said, but I was afraid I just insulted her. Maybe I shouldn’t be looking at her, or maybe touching her arm was too much. “Um... what did I say?” Tact has never been my strong point. She continued to stare at me, the pain still visible in her eyes, but she was thinking, calculating something. “I’m sorry, did I do something?” I asked. She sat there thinking, a bit more, and then closed her eyes and nodded to herself.

She turned toward me, and placed her injured arm in my hands, a look of uncertainty in her eyes. She wasn’t sure she could trust me to work on her, but I think she decided she was going to let me try. I couldn’t fail her now, not if I wanted to build her trust. Plus, this was the best way to get her injuries fixed up quick. I smiled at her briefly before I went to work looking closer at her arm.

I twisted it gently in one direction, lifted it, and bent the arm at the elbow, each time gauging her reaction. She seemed to have taken more damage on her upper arm than I thought. Her muscle sinew was damaged, probably pulled or cut, and she was in need of a muscle repair as well as some optical cable work. I moved my attention over to her other arm. Her right arm seemed to be fine, but some of the optical cables in her arm that led to her hand had been severed, limiting her ability to use that hand. I was just glad she was able to use my key fob that last night with that hand; it must have been the limit of her mobility. She didn’t seem to feel any pain when she moved her hand, but the cut did hurt her.

Something was weird here, her skin actually had pain receptors in them, and she was experiencing pain in a way I had never seen a robot experience it. Maybe I’d get the chance to do a little digging later, but for now, my attention went to her chest, where the bandage across her chest still clung on. I gently placed my hand on the bandage, now darker with blood. She winced at it, as though I just hit a sore spot. Slowly and carefully, I removed the gauze wrapping I gave her the night before. She resisted for a second, pushing me away. “I’m sorry. I just want to make sure your cut getting better. It was still bleeding when I bandaged you.” I tried to calm her a bit. Again, he eyes gave me that calculating consideration look. She again nodded, her face flushing red, and lowered her hands from her chest. She turned her face away, as if to avoid looking at me examining her.

The sterile pad stuck to the gauze with the dried coolant blood, which had turned a darker red color in the air. The gauze lifted away from her body, revealing her wound, as well as her breasts. She gasped, perhaps in pain, perhaps in embarrassment. Her face turned crimson red, but she was still in pain and continued to let me look at her wounds. The wound on the side of her breast was wide, but not deep, and it was not severe. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was shallow and wide, making it hard for her body to repair on its own. I would have to do something to help with that, I just wasn’t sure what yet. Her breathing got heavier and faster as I looked at her injuries on her chest. Most of the smaller scratches and cuts had started to close up, healed, and virtually vanished. No wonder she was so tired, those nano-machines were using her energy to initiate a massive repair job, and they sure did the best they could in such a short time. I looked up at her face. He eyes were closed, clenched shut, and still facing away from me as she stuck her chest out for me to look at it. She was simply adorable. I started to undo the final bandage that wrapped around her chest and neck. This wound was a little more severe, and would probably be the cause of much of her damage and pain. Carefully, I removed the gauze, as she groaned a digital groan of pain every so often. Finally, she sighed in relief as the bandage on her injured neck came off, and I carefully took a look at her. The nano-machines in her blood could take care of minor pulled muscle sinew, or a cut in the skin. However, this damage was too severe and needed “surgery” to repair. That would be where I came in.

I avoided touching that wound too much, I didn’t want to give her more pain, and I already got a sense of the damage the night before. Instead, I felt her neck, checking for signs of damage under the skin. I had never done anything like this before, but it seemed appropriate in this case. She turned her face to look toward me, and locked her eyes onto mine, and I studied her neck for damage. Her jaw seemed to give her pain, and I thought I felt something in her neck that may have been out of place or damaged. She would need a lot of work. “I think I can help, but we will need to get started with some tests.” She nodded; her face grim. I stood up, and helped her to her feet. Covering herself with her arms again, she followed me into my office.

My “office” was a mess. I should have cleaned it up more, but there were parts all over. One of the computers was still running a diagnostics on a broken old gynoid that was on its last legs. There were android limbs and robot parts all over the floor, and 3 more gynoids without arms or legs sat against the wall. “Sorry about the mess, I’ve been busy” I explained to her. She looked about the office in wonderment, staring at all the parts and computer screens. She kneeled beside the gynoid under diagnostics and waved to her. Of course she got no response, but she seemed thrilled just to see another gynoid there. I cleared off a stool, and asked her to sit down. She promptly stood up, giving the other gynoid a smile, and sat down facing me, her right arm still covering her exposed breasts, pushing them flat a bit and showing off her cleavage.

“Now I want you to understand that I will do my best to help you, but things might not be exactly like they were before.” She nodded to me, with a stern look on her face that somehow made her look cute and playful. “I will also need to gain access to all your access panels and AI systems” I warned her. She seemed to think for a moment, her face blushing, and nodded in agreement. “You should also know that I will have to shut you down for a little while” I said. Her head fell a bit, and a wrinkle formed between her eyebrows. “But I promise to power you back up as soon and as often as I can, until you are fixed” I assured her. She looked up at me, with a more serious look on her face, and nodded again. A tear formed in her eye, but she smiled at me none-the-less. She was scared, but was placing all her trust in me. I smiled back at her, and wiped the tear off her check as it fell. She sighed a little digital sigh, and took a deep breath. “Are you ready to begin?” I asked. She closed her eyes and nodded. “Very well. Shut down all higher command functions and open all torso and neck access panels, please.”

Chapter 5 - Body work

The pupils in her eyes shrunk to almost nothing, making her irises look huge. Her expression went blank, and her eyes went out of focus, as she started to shut down her higher thinking processes. This meant all her logic, reasoning, personality, and so on would be suspended, leaving her with only the most basic functions, to help with the maintenance process and to run some diagnostics. A faint light emanated from her eyes, slowing fading in and out, as her higher functions went into standby mode. As she sat on her stool, her arm lowered from her breasts, and she pushed her chest out a bit, sitting up straight on the stool. I saw dozens of blue pin-points of light appear from under her skin and start tracing various geometric shapes on her skin. It almost looked like someone was shining a blue laser pointer at her, but the light came from within, and left a line of glowing blue behind as they moved. Rounded squares and rectangles of blue light formed and lit up all over her torso, and then the shapes started to move. A panel on each of her forearms and upper arms, running the length of her arms, rose up and slid to the side, out of the way, revealing all the muscles and optical wiring that ran up and down her arms. The back of her hands slid open as well, unveiling stiff plastic and alloy rods and circuitry. One panel on the front of her neck split in two, and slid to the side, and another on the back opened as well, allowing me to see all the damage she took. 2 panels on her back, a long one on either side of her spine, raised and slid out of the way, as well as several smaller panels along the spin which opened at angles. At the base of her spine, a larger panel opened, which appeared to have some sort of port or connection in it. Perhaps, like most gynoids, this was her recharge port. Another long panel on either side of her torso glided open as well. Finally, an intricate 5 part panel on her front proceeded from her body and split open in several locations. Her upper torso hinged opened, one side around each breast, to granting me access to her core systems; muscles lining the back of the panels. Extended down beyond this panel, 2 more opened to unveil complex systems for balance and food processing; again, large muscles were attached to the back-side of the panels as they opened.. The last panel to open was the last part of the panel structure on her front. A small triangle around her mons pubis opened up, revealing her sex and waste management systems. It was a very impressive sight. Her entire front had opened up to reveal the cavity of her abdomen that housed the majority of her vital functions, everything short of logical and processing. Those were housed neatly in the head, as her brain, and managed all her higher thinking processes.

I gazed in amazement for a moment, taking in everything I was seeing. It took me almost an hour to orient myself inside her body, trying to understand what all the functions were, and how she handled them. Some of them were simple and ordinary, others were complex and extraordinary. There were even a few systems I did not understand at all. I decided that I would learn all I could from her design, so I could best help her and repair her if she ever comes into more disrepair.

Her lungs, a pair of white “bags”, more like bladders, breathed slowly and shallowly in her chest. A beating mechanical heart, which appeared to use some kind of mini-piston system, beat restlessly in her chest, with a slow and deliberate beat. It seemed to slow down more now that she was in maintenance mode, and I could see the coolant blood flowing in and out of it. The tubes, or veins and arteries, of her system were very intricate. It appeared that not only did they run through various tubes to reach the appropriate places, but they also flowed into her artificial muscles, skin, and select organs. Some of these veins must have been microscopic, or close to it! Attached to this circulatory system was a complex mass of tubes, bladders, and other parts I didn’t fully understand yet. At least I figured out that it was her complex digestive tract.

A series of intricate circuits lines the walls of her abdomen; several large bundles of wire and optical cables were running in asymmetrical patterns up and down her body, branching out to various parts. The main mass of these wires met just above her vaginal panel, which I recognized as her power source. A large array of batteries surrounded what I could only guess was some type of mini-generator. She would need to charge her batteries, through sleep, but she could also recharge them without using an external port. It was a good placement for the system, allowing for balance and symmetry. Humans are said to have a point above their groin that focuses their natural energies, their chi. This was much the same for her, although it was a little more physical than chi. It is also a point martial artist use to focus on balance and weight distribution. Placing the heavy power structure there was an excellent way of aiding in balance.

The next thing I took notice of was a small gauge which indicated that her fluid levels were low. She needed more of those nano-machines, and more of the coolant-blood that they swam in. This was vital, since, from what I could tell, her blood acted as a coolant for her many systems, but also warmed her body, regulating her temperature and giving her normal human temperatures to the touch. It was also possible that this acted as a sort of message system for certain parts of her body as well. While her brain relied on optical cables to relay the majority of its commands, some changes in her body might have been triggered by the nano-bots, which would serve the same purpose as hormones do in humans, to trigger changes such as appetite and sexual drive. The nano-bots also lived in her blood stream, which were vital to her maintenance. These little machines not only could repair damage to her body, but they kept out foreign bodies, sent messages to the brain, and could stop bleeding by rerouting her blood flow. Luckily, nano-bots are programmed to reproduce at a given rate, and can increase that rate in the event of blood loss.

With her fluids low, she lost a lot of nano-bots, and they needed to be triggered to initiate an emergency production rate. This was no problem as they often could be programmed by the systems in the body itself. Her lower abdomen actually contained the very command center I needed, and I promptly went to work. Now all I had to do was get more of the fluid, and I didn’t even know what type to get. It would be too dangerous to power her all the way back up without topping off her fluids. After much digging, I found the data I needed. The fluid number was an expensive one, but the best on the market.

From what I could tell, she was programmed not only to drink, but also to eat. This was actually essential to her system. The water and liquids she drank would be filtered and distributed to the various parts of body for lubrication, moisture, etc. Water wasn’t the only liquid she’d need. She also needed to drink low amount of oil, regular oil, not motor oil. She used this oil mainly for lubrication and to aid in digestion. As for food, I was thoroughly impressed. Most of the robots I have worked on had no ability to eat, and those that did would simply store it and dispose of it. The newer and more expensive models, which I had never worked on personally, are said to be able to burn sugars to fuel their bodies, and reduce their recharge rate. However, the system I was looking at was far more complicated than what I read about. From what I could tell, not only could this burn food for fuel, but it could break down the food, process it, and whatever it could use was put into the system for repair and maintenance, while the rest was disposed of as waste.

This was a problem. That meant she needed to eat for her basic maintenance, especially for her nano-bots to multiply, but with that tag covering her “exit”, there was no way she could release the waste. She must have been intended to have that tag removed as soon as she was activated, or possibly before. She was never meant to go around with it on her, and I still could not figure out how to remove it. She must have been preprogrammed not to accept food when she was active with it still on, but this would have been intended for a short time. Unless I could figure out how to remove that tag, she would be stuck that way and would need massive repairs again. Unfortunately, I would have to wait on that, there were too many other, more pressing issues to work at.

I decided it was time to look at the damaged muscle, tissue, and connections in her neck and arms. I started with her arms. It didn’t take too long, but I figured out what the problems were and how to fix them. She uses a very advanced type of mechanical muscle, a sinew that expands and contracts, much like real muscle. It has limited movement and strength, but when combined in a bundle, not only does it resemble muscle, but it could also be as strong as muscle, if not stronger. With the right programming and set up, this muscle could even be pushed beyond its normal operating limits, unlike mechanical pistons and motors. This was an elegant solution, and was luckily not terribly hard to repair. I would have to rely on the non-bots to repair the minor damage inside the sinew itself, but once I had fixed the connections and locked the bundles together and back into place, there should be no further problems.

The optical cables were even easier. This is a very common and fairly cheap wire that some systems used to communicate with other components. It has been around since the 20th century, and is still used today. The advantage is that this is usually stronger than the metal wires of computers, with faster data rates, higher bandwidth, and metal free. This would keep her light weight and free from magnetic and electromagnetic disturbances. In fact, there was so little metal in her, she might even be able to walk through a metal detector without setting it off. After cutting the length I needed, I replaced the broken cables, and restored the connections. There were an awful lot of them though. Luckily only a few had been broken, but it still took hours to get everything in place and connected to the right place as well.

By the afternoon, I had repaired the worst of the damage, except the voice box and the damage to her skin. I wasn’t sure what to do with that, since I had never worked on a gynoid with such complicated skin before. I had decided that since I was almost finished with those repairs, I would take a closer look at her higher functions, at her brain. I didn’t want to change anything, but I was concerned she took some damage to the head. I ordered the blankly staring girl to open the head panels, and her body complied.

Several blue dots appeared around her face, taking shape into a few complex panels, which lifted away, and drew back and up. Her ears extracted all the way from her head, allowing access to her listening centers, and then the top of her head opened up. The entire hair line marked a large panel, giving me access to her most advanced feature, her complex brain. Looking at her face, I was amazed at the amount of detail put into her. Her eyes remained fixed in a blank stare, as I studied her face more closely. Her skull was white, some sort of tough plastic or alloy. It resembled a human skull, but with ornate circuitry throughout it. Her eyes still resided in fleshy sockets, but her eyelids had retracted. I could clearly see the tear ducts and the optical cables running in the back, as well as the tiny muscles that controlled the eye movement. The panels that retracted were still connected in places to her head, which allowed me to view her ornate musculature of her face. Some large sinew resided on the skull, which controlled her jaw, eyes, mouth, and head movement. The rest of the muscles were embedded within the skin itself, which controlled all her facial expressions. I could clearly see her throat and tongue, which closely resembled a human’s, as it was contained within a fleshy throat that connected to various tubes in the neck and chest.

Her jaw had taken some damage from that blow, but luckily only the muscle had torn, and there was no damage to the frame. I did the best I could to repair this, but the size of these muscles and their location made it very difficult. Eventually, I managed to get the jaw repaired, realigned, and operational.

It was already getting late by this time, and I decided to get to the computer store before they closed, to buy more of the coolant I needed. I didn’t have the time to look at her brain for any damage there, other than a quick glance. Everything looked fine, although it was far more complex than any AI mind I had run into. Usually, an android has a simple computer brain, while many gynoids have more advanced minds capable of understand more complex social behavior and the like. The cybernetic mind I was looking at was light-years beyond the most complex gynoid mind I had ever seen. Without taking a closer look, I couldn’t understand how complex it was, but for starters, I noticed that her cybernetic brain was actually 5 different systems all working together as one. It was like having 5 brains in one. I did not see any major damage to this system, and the time was ticking, so I left her brain alone, and prepared to leave.

I hooked up some connections from her various systems in her chest and back to my computer, and turned on some diagnostics to run while I was gone. I promised I would activate her again when I could, and I didn’t want her to wait all day without being reactivated. I had to set up whatever diagnostics I could that wouldn’t take all night, and head to the store. As I prepared to leave with money in hand, I looked back at her. Her small frame silhouetted in the glow of the monitor, her delicate body unmoving, unaware. I felt sad for her. I was doing all I could to help her, but it didn’t feel like enough. She fascinated me, and awed me, and yet, she was fascinated by the simplest things, a photograph, or a controller. She was the most unique person I had ever met, and I only just met her.

When I came back, the diagnostics were almost finished. It was getting late, and I barely made it to the store before it closed. It was already 10, and I wanted to activate her again tonight. While the tests were finishing up, I carefully poured the over-priced coolant into her system, using a tub provided in the bag. I saw a red led light on the gauge go from red to green, and then fade out. I suppose that means I did something right. Quickly, I checked over all my work. All the repairs I made were complete, and I triple checked them to make sure I didn’t screw something up. Everything checked out ok, but there was still another 20 minutes on the final test. It was an important one, so I had to let it finish. I decided to try out the other piece of “hardware” I bought while I waited.

I pulled the tube out of the bag, and read the directions over. It resembled a tube of calk, but was a little smaller and didn’t need a giant metal “gun” to work. The instructions sounded simple enough. This compound was designed to repair a robot or cyborg with artificial skin and nano-bots. It would literally bind together the joints of the skin, and allow the nano-bots to pull material from it to assist in the repair. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, and it cost me twice as much as the damned coolant, but I figured it was an investment, and a gift. Carefully, I applied the contents of the tube to the wound on her neck, closing the parts back together, and taping the wound closed. I proceeded with the same process on each arm. I would have to wait to do this on her chest, while the diagnostics finished.

It didn’t take long. The tests were run, the results came in, repairs were made, and all I needed to do was to review them. First, I decided to disconnect the computers from her chest and back. Pulling all the cables from her, I made sure everything was back in place, and closed her chest cavity. I blushed as I placed my hand right on her breast to close the panel. It was still soft, still warm. Her chest closed with a click, followed by a whirring sound. Next I closed her stomach and vaginal panels. They all closed in a similar fashion. As soon as they were all closed, blue lights appeared at the seams again, and her skin was whole again. I did the same to her back, and her arms. I stopped at her head, because I wasn’t sure how to close it. It took me a moment, but I decided to try something. “Close all head and neck panels”. Sure enough, all the access panels on her face and head and neck closed up, blue lights appears, and again she was whole. Quickly, I looked over her body. Her back was still dirty, and she still needed to be cleaned, and with this new skin-repair tube, she should be able to take a shower. I was convinced, after looking at her body so closely, and working on her for so long, that she was one of those rare swimming gynoids, that kind that would be able to take showers, swim in the pool, and probably even handle salt water. I applied a healthy amount of the gel to her torn breast, and covered the repair with white tape. Searching her body for any more cuts, I made she was finally water tight and ready to wake up.

“Reactivate higher functions” I commanded. I got no response. Maybe I used the wrong command. “Activate higher processing”. Same thing. Maybe I messed up somewhere. I turned to my computer to check the diagnostics to see if there was something wrong, when I heard a single beep from behind me. I turned around to see the lighter in her eyes dim, and her pupils grow large again. Her eyes started to focus, and her breathing started to pick up. That was a relief. I gave her a moment to adjust to the light, and reorient herself. She looked around, and then looked right at me. A smile ran across her face, and she opened her mouth to talk. Her digital voice rang out, and she put her hand to her mouth, her face red with embarrassment.

“I’m sorry; I haven’t had the chance to fix your voice yet. But I did get a lot of work done on you. I repaired your arms, your shoulder, even your jaw. I topped off your fluids, and I rotated your tires.” She laughed at my bad joke. She actually laughed at my joke. It wasn’t even a good one.

She smiled at me with a genuine thank you smile. I practically melted. Once again, she covered her chest, and I helped her stand up. Her legs had no serious damage to them, but her muscles were probably sore from sitting that whole time in the same position. As she stood up, she inspected her newly repaired body. She stretched out her arms, and looked at her hands as she opened and closed them. A smile ran across her face when she realized she had her grip back. She used one hand to feel around her body as she covered herself again with her other arm. She felt her neck, her arm, her side. Each time, she tested to see if hurt, and each time, her smile grew bigger, and her eyes for wider. Noting the large tape bandages on her arms, neck, and chest, she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Ah. Yes” I said. “I found a compound that should aid in healing your large cuts. They use it in cybernetics and advanced robotics, so I think it will help you out as well.”

She gave me that I’m impressed look while she looked up and down her body, twisting her form to look at her back, still covering her chest with one arm, and her womanhood with the other hand. It was good to see her moving again. I decided she would need to exercise those muscles and joints, and make sure there was no more pain anywhere. “Let’s see if I did everything right. Stand up straight, please”. I added that please at the last second, not wanting to be rude to my guest. She paused for a moment to think, and then complied to my request and stood up straight; her chest sticking out, arms down to her sides, chin up, and her face slowly turning red. My libido was kicking in again. I coughed a bit. “Alright. Bring your arms up. Good.” She brought her arms to her sides in a T shape, and she didn’t wince once. “Bring them forward. Great. And back.” I continued like this for a little bit. I watched carefully when I asked her to raise her arms straight up. Her expression changed only slightly, but not with a look of pain as she had before, but rather with embarrassment. Perhaps looking at her so close was getting to her, or maybe it was the fast that her breasts were completely exposed and vulnerable in this position. I was very tempted to just reach out and touch them, but I didn’t. Staring, on the other hand, was a little harder to resist. After I had her test her arms, bending and lifting and twisting, I had her test her hands. She had quite a bit of strength, at least as tight as my own grip, if not tighter. She didn’t show an ounce of pain once, and I was much relieved. She did show some cheerfulness, along with her embarrassment. Finally, I let her relax. She covered her hands over her chest and groin again, with a timid expression, and my face went red a well.

She gave me a wide smile, with big teary eyes, and suddenly lunged toward me, embracing me in a large hug. I stood there, stunned for a moment, and hugged her back. I could not help but enjoy the soft touch of her naked body against me, and I took in her aroma. Strange though it may seem, gynoids smell great, especially her. I suppose it is part of the “attraction to females” thing, but her skin seemed to emanate a scent that was just delightful. Mr. Happy decided he liked her too, and wanted to join in with the hug. I felt my hips push into her, my rapidly hardening member leading the way. I tried to react and hope she didn’t notice, but it was too late. She let out a small digital “oh!” when she felt him push against her, and loosened her hug around me, her face turning bright red, but a smile still on her lips. She took my arm, her breasts pushing against me and her face still red. I led her into the other room as best as I could, and let her explore a bit. It was probably a good idea to let her use my coat, which was still lying on the couch. I helped her slip my coat on one arm at a time. She tied it closed around her, the hem reaching almost to her feet. It was way too big on her, but made her look ridiculously cute. I figured the shirt and shorts I got out for her earlier would be better suited after she took a shower. “Feel free to look around, I’ll be right back” I told her as I walked into my bedroom with the blue robot monkey shirt and tan shorts in hand.

My bedroom was a mess. I quickly started to pick up the clothes on the floor, change the sheets on the bed with clean ones, tidy up the dresser, and try to make it look half way presentable. I then took a look at my bathroom. Scary barely described it. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then I was a godless heathen. Quickly, I cleaned up what I could; the clutter on the floor, the mirror, the toilet. The bathtub would take too long to clean, so I had to just make do with rinsing anything out and rubbing it, chemical-free, with a wet cloth. I made sure the shampoo and soap were neat (and hair-free), and took a look at my quick and dirty cleaning job (heh, dirty cleaning). It took a few minutes to finish up, but I think it was a vast improvement. I got out a towel, a cloth, and laid out the clothes I picked out for her earlier. I figured she would want to take a shower after all this time, and maybe she’d want to sleep in a bed. It wasn’t a large bed, it was only a double, but it would hold two people, if it came to that. They’d have to be very cozy though.

My face went red with the thought, but I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind. Walking back into the living room, I found her in the kitchen sniffing the air. “What’s wrong?” She kept sniffing, wrinkling her nose. It looked like something smelled bad to her, and she was right. Something did smell bad. I sniffed around myself, moving closer to objects, until I saw the culprit sitting on the counter next to a bowl half full of cereal. The milk! I forgot to put away the milk and it had been sitting out all day. *Smack*. I hit my forehead as I cursed my stupidity. She started to laugh as I poured the milk down the sink. It was strange to hear her digital laugh, but I joined in as well.

“First thing I am going to do tomorrow,” I told her, throwing the empty carton out, “besides buying more milk, will be to fix that voice of yours.” I longed to talk to her, and for her to talk back to me. A one-sided conversation can get old fast. She touched her fingers to her throat, and smiled. She wanted to talk, but that digital voice was too broken to understand. My only hope was that I could fix it, or replace it with a new one. I yawned.

“I am going to make a quick dinner. I just realized I haven’t eaten anything today, I was so busy working on you” I told her. She looked surprised and shy, and maybe a little concerned. “I have set up the bathroom for you, so you can take a shower, if you want. Clean yourself off a bit. The tape on the gel should keep them dry. You should be fine.” She nodded and looked around a bit, unsure where the bathroom was. “Oh, uh… Follow me”.

I walked into the bathroom with her following close behind. There isn’t a lot to say about my bathroom. It had a nice large tub (one of the complex’s selling points), and it had a large mirror. Besides that, it was a typical bathroom. I did my best to clean it up some, but it was still well-used. She looked around coquettishly, and took a few steps in. “I got some towels ready for you” I said, pointing them out to her. She looked at them, picked one up, and looked back at me; a puzzled look spreading across her face. Tell me she knows what a shower is. “Um… you do know what a shower is, don’t you?” I asked. She shook her head sadly. Oh boy. I could always look for a bathing protocol for gynoids online, download it, and install it into her memory, but that would take all night. I hoped she was a fast learner. My face turned red, again. “Um… It’s what you do to wash your body. You know…” I mimed taking off the coat and scrubbing my chest and arms. Her face flushed bright red as well. She stood there, holding the towel in one hand, looking at it like she was expecting it to show her how to use it.

“Do- uh… Do you want me to… help you?” I asked bashfully. She looked up at me, her face as red as an apple. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she carefully thought this over. Through the embarrassment, a look somewhat like determination snuck onto her face, and she nodded to me. I really didn’t expect that. I was sure she would be able to take a shower on her own, it wasn’t exactly the hardest thing to figure out, but she probably never took one before, and perhaps her programming was incomplete, corrupt, or she did take some damage to her head. I would have to investigate that tomorrow. Tonight, on the other hand, I had to teach a cute young girl how to take a shower.

Chapter 6 - Squeaky clean

I closed the door to the bathroom, and grabbed another towel and cloth. She just watched me, taking notes in her head, as I brought them over to the tub and turned on the water, checking the temperature. I hesitated.

“Um… Well. Now we have to get undressed” I said, trying to sound professional. I stood next to her and tried to build up the courage to get naked. It was only right since I had already seen her body… very closely. Pausing briefly, I grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it off over my head. Her red face focused on my chest as I threw my shirt to the hamper; her eyes giving me a lusty stare-down. I just turned on a gynoid, literally and figuratively. Then again, it made me excited too, which was a problem. She continued to watch me with great interest as I pulled my pants down to my feet and stepped out of them, and my socks. My manhood was now erect, and poking my boxer-briefs toward her. “I’m sorry, it isn’t usually this big.” I coughed. “I’m just a bit excited.”

Her eyes got big and her mouth fell open as she looked at the bulge in my underwear. This was very embarrassing, but I kind of liked it. She smiled and giggled a little, her digital voice cutting through the sound of the running water. I took a deep breath, and pulled off my shorts and tossed them into the hamper. She continued to stare at me, and sifted her weight side to side while biting down on one finger. She was going to make this hard (pun not intended), wasn’t she?

I stood there and waited a moment, but she just looked me up and down. I figured she was too distracted to realize she needed to follow suit. So, I did the honors. Kneeling down, I untied the belt of my coat she kept wrapped around her. Her arms shot up to her mouth, and she just watched as I undid the knot, and opened wide the coat. Red flooded her face as I pulled the coat open to reveal her naked front to me. Her cuts were healing nicely, and several of them vanished completely. There was only one large cut left along the side of her breast, and the one on her neck, and they were covered in tape. The rest of her chest looked nearly flawless. Her nipples stood out on her body, more erect now than before, and she breathed deeply, a flirtatious smile stretching across her lips. Her womanhood was still covered by the metal strip, but I couldn’t even see it when we were both standing. She lowered her hands as I slipped the coat off her shoulders, revealing her full body to me. Her shoulders were small, delicate, and gave her a dainty and petite look. Her neck was long and sensual, and made me want to kiss it. Instead, I took my cloth, and stepped into the shower. I helped her step in as well, over the tall brim of the tub. She let out a small digital squeal as she stepped into the running water. The water ran down her face and over her chest and breasts in interesting ways. She used the cloth in her hand to block the water, closing her eyes and squirming a bit as she got wet. Damn.

I stood in the way of the water stream, letting her relax a bit, so she could get used to the water. She was definitely water proof, I could see that. Swimming should be no problem for her, but she had probably never been in the water before. So I slowly let more water fall onto her as she stood there. Within a minute, she was letting the water run down her face and body, smiling and giggling a little. She still sounded digitized, but I was getting used to it a bit. Following my lead, she turned around in the shower, and let the water run off her curvy back, and down her butt to her legs. Did I ever mention she has a great butt? Turning around again, she watched as I showed her how to put shampoo in her hair. Being a guy, I have a rather short haircut, and require very little shampoo. But her hair ran down to her shoulder blades, and would need far more shampoo. So, I squirted a whole bunch on her head, and helped her lather it up. She closed her eyes as I worked on her hair, rubbing and scratching to clean out all the dried coolant and dirt. She must have been enjoying this, because a small digital moan escaped her lips. It turned me on even more, and as she turned to let me wash the hair in back better, my erect penis bumped up against her hips.

She looked down, and we both blushed. “Sorry about that” I said, taking half a step back, while I scrubbed at the longer part of her hair in back. I couldn’t help it, she was driving me crazy. I ran the water over her head, rinsing away the shampoo, and watched it glide down her back. She looked back at me coquettishly, and turned back around, holding her rag to her chest. Next, I demonstrated how to lather the soap on the cloth and scrub it on her body. She followed suit as best as she could, lathering the soap into the cloth, and scrubbing it onto her face. Soap must have gotten in her eyes, but she didn’t even react. I guess it didn’t annoy her mechanical eyes like it did mine. She next scrubbed her neck, shoulders, arms, and hands. I did the same, never taking my eyes off her. She was incredibly sexy, and I must have stopped washing myself when she got to her chest. Obviously, we are different there, and I never really knew if there was any way to clean breasts differently than just scrubbing them. After staring for a bit, I scrubbed my chest and abs, and watched as she tried to copy me. I suppose men do wash their chest differently than women, as this did not look right, and she wasn’t really able to do it. Although it was fun to watch her breasts played with so much.

“Hold on. I guess you have to wash there differently. Um… maybe more like this?” I said, trying to mimic having breasts on myself, but she didn’t quite get it. “Here, let me try” I said. She looked down, blushing, but moved her hands out of the way. Carefully, I took my soapy cloth, and gently rubbed it against her breast. I followed a circular pattern, for each one, making sure to scrub hard enough to clean, but not to hurt. I suppose I was doing something right when she moaned again. I stopped, and looked at her. She had her eyes closed, and was breathing deeply. “Um… here, why don’t you try now?” I asked. At first she went to copy my movement, by scrubbing my chest in a circular pattern. “No, no, I mean I on you” I explained. God she's cute!

She understood, and started to make the circular scrubbing motions on her chest. She was enjoying this a bit too much. She closed her eyes again, and started to moan a little, as she faced up and rubbed her breasts. She really seemed to enjoy rubbing her nipples as her left hand pinched left nipple while her right hand scrubbed. Suddenly, she stopped, looked up at me, and blushed again, except this time more in shame. She didn’t realize what she was doing, only that it felt good. However, something in there told her to stop, and that it was bad. I thought it was good, maybe too good, and my erection agreed, but I wasn’t going to push her any more.

“Okay then” I said, as if to change the topic. Unfortunately, the next location to wash included her vagina, another area I had no idea how to clean. Luckily, I remember from high school that the vagina is the only part of the body, besides the eyes, that is self-cleaning. I have no idea if this is the same with a gynoid, but since we couldn’t exactly get to hers, we’d just have to trust that my teacher was right. When we finished with the stomach, I got to my penis, and turned around. “Um… For you, this part is different, ‘cause you’re a girl. Just rub there like the rest of your stomach.” She did, and I took care of business myself. Turning back around- my penis still erect, but clean- I directed her on how to clean her legs. That was something I could watch all day. She leaned over in the running water, put her foot on the rim of the tub, and started slowly running the cloth down either side of her leg to her foot. Her legs were long, well-shaped, and sexy as hell. I could barely believe that I was actually in the shower with this girl, watching her do this. She almost fell over once, and had to hold onto me to keep her balance.

She seemed to really start to open up to me. At first, she was confused and scared, which was understandable given the situation she was in. But she soon opened up to be rather friendly, but also modest and shy. However, after all the work I did on her, she became very close. I suppose she was glad I was there to save her, and took the time and effort to fix her up. Maybe she was trying to say “thank you”, or maybe she just wanted to be friends with me. Maybe she was turned on and just wanted to get laid.

What I needed at this point was a cold shower. I didn’t want to make things uncomfortable for her, at least no more uncomfortable than taking a shower with me in a not-so-clean bathtub. I thought I caught her looking up at my still erect member while she washed her legs; her face was rather close to it. She finished up her legs, and we moved on to her ass. The problem with the female anatomy is there are virtually no visible parts that aren’t sexy. I couldn’t help but touch myself a little while she wasn’t looking. This was torture and I needed some relief. However, I had to cut that short when we got to her back. I tried my best to show her how to wash her back, but she was having difficulty reaching. Perhaps with practice she’ll get the hang of it, but I would have to scrub it for her now, since it still had some grime on it.

The gynoid leaned against the far wall, pushing herself up with her hands, and let me scrub her back. I tried not to scrub too hard, but she felt so good, it was hard not to push a little harder. Her back was so small that I could practically hold her entire upper body in my hands; dainty and petite. The scrubbing turned into a massage before too long, and she started to moan again. It wasn’t the sexiest moan, being all digital sounding, but it still did the job. She pushed out her butt, arching her back, until her cheeks were rubbing against my penis.

I pushed my body closer against hers, and ran my hands up to her front to cup her breasts. At first, she was startled, but soon she was giving into her pleasure, and grinded her body against mine. Her hand reached up to hold my head, head leaned back, her eyes closed, and her lips parted; I couldn’t resist the open invitation to kiss her. I complied, and placed my lips on hers. She responded in kind, and we drank from each other. At first, it was just a small kiss, followed by another, and another, but they grew into longer kisses, with more tongue play than I had had in years. She felt good, she tasted good. Somehow in the middle of it all, her hand found its way to my erection, and started to stroke it.

I melted into her. She was in complete control at this point, and was sending a stream of unending pleasure to my brain. My hands worked her breasts vigorously, but I slid one down her arm, and across to her stomach. I pushed her body into mine as she undulated her hips against me, still stroking my manhood with her left hand and pinching her nipple with her right. I reached down her front to give her the same treatment she was giving me, when we both suddenly stopped.

I forgot about that damn tag. I touched it with my hand, and realized I couldn’t pleasure her the same way. It was hell. I stared at her, my hands retracting from her body a bit as I backed away a step. She stared back at me, realizing the same thing, and a look of pain and sorrow struck her face. I knew she was just a gynoid, but there was something different about her, and I wanted to be a part of her life. She drove me wild, but there was no way for me to give her the same feeling she gave me, at least not physically. I watched as a tear formed in her eye, or perhaps it was just water, but the effect was the same.

“It’s ok. We don’t have to…” I said, but she interrupted me with a sudden kiss. It lasted a long time, while she wrapped her arms around my neck, and slid her tongue inside my mouth. I held her close in turn, kissing her in response, brushing my tongue against hers. The kiss broke off, with her eyes still closed, her lips still parted, and her tongue sticking out slightly. Before I had the chance to say anything, her eyes opened, and gave me the sexiest I want you look I had ever seen. Her body slid down mine, her hands rubbing against me, teasing my neck, my nipples, my stomach, before resting on my erect cock. I gasped in surprise and pleasure as she started to kiss my member, stroking it with one hand.

Her eyes gazed up at me, her face still blushing brightly, as her tongue ran down the length of my shaft, and back up again. She pulled back my foreskin, and teased the head of my cock with her tongue. It was like heaven. She seemed more curious, like she knew what to do, but not why, and wanted to see what would happen. I couldn’t help but close my eyes and let her pleasure me. Her other hand cupped my balls, and gently played with them, as she continued to stroke and lick me. I had never had a blow job before, but now I see why they are so popular. She continued to work my shaft, staring up at me, and finally slid the head of my cock inside her mouth, sucking on it as she did. It felt amazing. Her tongue teased me inside her mouth.

She pulled it out, stopping for a moment as if to think. It appeared that her programming was telling her to stop. Her head jerked slightly from side to side and she blinked rapidly as she sorted through these thoughts, until she finally relaxed, gave me a big smile, and continued her stroking. Her gaze went to my rock-hard member, as she smiled and stroked it. I gazed back down at her, as she started to wrap her lips around the head of my cock again, bobbing in and out slowly, and occasionally licking the shaft from tip to base and back. I watched as her butt stuck out, undulating softly with her movements, taking on that beautiful heart shape girls take on with their hips and ass. My eyes glanced down to her front. As she bobbed in and out- a little faster and deeper each time- her breasts would bounce in and out of view, jiggling with her movement.

I almost lost my balance while she became more vigorous. She stopped and went to grab me, a look of concern filling her face. Once I had my balance again, I decided it was best to sit down on the edge of the tub. Once I was seated, she gave me that same blushing look of desire, and moved in between my legs, taking my cock in her hand, and settling in nicely. Her entire body, against my legs, was warm and comfortable, soft and enticing. She looked like she was enjoying this almost as much as I was; a few digital noises escaping her throat every so often as she stroked my erect member and stared up at me.

She continued with the licking and sucking, and graduated from there into bobbing. It felt good. Occasionally she would stop, with my cock in her mouth, and tease it with her tongue while applying suction. My hips started to move on their own in response to her movement, and she responded in kind. One thing I never liked about how blow jobs are depicted on the internet is the gagging the girls make. It disturbed me, and I had not finished working on her own throat, so I did not push into her mouth too deeply, but I didn’t really have to either. She felt amazing just playing with the tip. I couldn’t help but notice the way she held her hair back, out of the way, behind her ear, with her right hand. She was really getting into this. It looked as though she was enjoying licking my cock as though it was a delicious treat she could not get enough of.

I couldn’t hold it much longer. “I’m going to cum!” I blurted out, trying to pull out of her mouth. Instead, she just went faster, and made sure I wasn’t going anywhere. She ran her right hand up my side as she brought me to a climax. There was nothing I could do to stop it, so I came in her mouth. With a few bursts of intense pleasure running up my spine, and tingling across my body, I was done. It had been a while since I last ejaculated, so it was a pretty big load. Yet, she had taken it all in. Pulling off my penis, she swallowed my load, and licked the tip of my cock clean. She was amazing. When she stopped, she just looked up at me, and smiled with a little digital giggle. I took a few deep breaths, and smiled back at her, satisfied and ecstatic. This time, she helped me to my feet. I was a little lightheaded after that, especially with no food all day. She gave me one last deep kiss and stood there, with the water running down her body, her face gleeful and flushed, and waited for me to tell her what was next. With all this excitement, I barely noticed the white waterproof tape on her neck, arms, and chest. Luckily, they were all still holding tight. If water got into the wrong part of her, there would be a serious problem to fix.

I quickly cleaned off my penis, and turned back to her, clearing my throat. “That last part was not part of the normal bathing procedure” I joked. “It’s optional”. She laughed again. I turned off the water, and stepped out of the tub. She joined me on the other side, and we toweled off. I let her use my comb and brush for her hair, but I refrained from letting her use my masculine smelling deodorant. She already used my soap, and I didn’t want her smelling any more like a man.

She followed close behind me as I walked into the bedroom, a towel around my waste, one around her chest. Her hair was still wet, but it would have to air dry, I had no blow drier. I grabbed the blue shirt, and was about to tell her to raise her hands, when she did on her own. She remembered from the first time we tried this morning. I took the towel off her as she continued to blush, and slid the shirt over her head, one arm in each sleeve. She blushed a lot for a gynoid that just gave me a blow job. She seemed to be very innocent, and yet she knew how to do that very well. Either way, she was very sweet, and seemed to really take a liking to me.

I pulled the shorts on her, one leg at a time, showing here the front and back, and how to tie it closed. The blue shirt was only slightly too big for her, a little baggy, but acceptable. On the front of it, it said “Ask me about me monkey” with a picture of a robotic monkey dancing. It was an ad for, well, a computer program called Dancing Monkey. It was used for programing androids and gynoids to move more naturally, and yes, even to dance. It was a cute monkey, and even though I couldn’t wear the shirt, since it was so small, I just liked to have it around. The shorts she had on were way too big for her. On me, they end just past my knee, but on her they stopped almost midway down her shin. She looked a little silly, but it was better than going around naked, or in my dirty, stinky coat.

I looked through my shirts, and pulled a yellow one on that said “No, I will not fix your gynoid”. It was funny because it was true, except that I would fix it if someone asked nice enough. I pulled on some underwear, and a pair of black sweatpants. Before I could finish tying the cord in the front of my sweatpants, 2 gentle arms wrapped around me in a big hug from behind. I glanced under my arm to look at her smiling face, as she held me close. I finished tying the cord, and wrapped my arm behind me to hug her back. She felt gentle and delicate, but I wanted to hug her very tightly.

When she finally released me, she followed me closely for the rest of the night. It was already late, but I was hungry, which probably explained why I almost fell over in the shower. I made a simple spaghetti dinner while she watched intently. She was very interested in everything I was doing. While I wanted to strike up a conversation, I knew she could not really talk back, so I decided to eat with the TV on. I don’t pay for cable, and I don’t steal it either. But I do watch TV shows over the internet (legally), so I put on a comedy from the beginning, and watched her reaction.

At first, she seemed interested by the size of the screen (who said size doesn’t matter), but it took her a while to understand what was going on once the show started. She was probably used to computer screens and diagnostic tests, but a television show was foreign to her. About half way through the episode, she started to smile at the jokes in the show. I tried not to laugh too loudly since I had already seen this episode, and I wanted to see if she would laugh on her own, and not just because I was laughing.

By the end of the episode, she was starting to laugh at more of the jokes. It ended with a really lame pun that had been building up through the entire episode. A pun that could kill an elf at 30 paces (yes, I game as well). It took her a little while to get it, but in the end, she laughed at that joke all on her own, even though she tried to keep her digitally distorted voice down.

Robots do not understand jokes. Most of them can recognize the formula of a joke, and will laugh at the appropriate places when it recognizes them. However, they never laugh because it is funny. They almost never laugh at puns, they are just too subtle. I assumed that she was laughing at my bad subtle jokes because she was programmed to. It would be hard to recognize them as jokes, but it could be done. However, that last few jokes of this show were real groaners, and did not follow the regular joke formula. The fact that she had to think about it before she laughed meant that either she was analyzing it for a formula, or she was trying to understand the joke. This would take some testing at a later date. I knew just the way to do it too. Something subtle but deliberate would be much harder to understand. If the robot thought it was serious, it would not laugh, even if to a human it was obvious. Irony, puns, tongue-in-cheek humor, they would all be difficult for a robot to understand or recognize as a joke. But testing this would have to wait for another day, it was late, and I was tired.

After cleaning up and turning everything off, I headed to the bedroom. She followed me like a little puppy, eager and excited. “Do you sleep?” I asked. Most gynoids could enter a sleeping mode, just like a computer. Some could even toss and turn lightly to mimic human behavior. However, sometimes they needed to charge, either by a docking bay, or a wire. A docking bay for a gynoid usually meant they would stand in a closet or in the corner, attached to a large machine that would quietly analyze the robot for any malfunctions or damage, perform basic maintenance, and recharge the unit through a specialized, proprietary port. If the owner had a more advanced model that didn’t need servicing as often, they could simply plug the unit into a wall or computer, again through a proprietary port. This usually meant they were left sitting in a chair or standing all night while they charged. It would take at least 6 hours to fully charge a gynoid, so they often charged during the day instead of at night.

She answered my question with a quick nod and a smile. “Do you need to recharge at all?” I asked, realizing she probably would need some sort of recharge. She nodded again, this time with a yawn. “You can use the docking bay in the office if you need it, it has a universal port so you can change…” she shook her head before I finished my sentence. “Oh. So you can recharge with a cable?” She nodded. At this, she turned around and pulled her pants down slightly, showing off her back and a little of her butt. A small thin rectangular door popped open with a click right at her tailbone. I leaned in to take a closer look.

Inside the port was the head of a USB cable. I reached inside and pulled at it. It pulled out with a small amount of tension and several quiet clicks. She shivered as I pulled it out to its full length. It was about 8 feet long, and flat. Cool. When I reached the full length of the cord, she reached back and lowered the panel. With the cord out, a smaller rectangle at the edge of the panel slid to the side, allowing the door to close fully with the cord extended. It was ingenious.

“Hey, let me grab my USB extenders and my USB charging port. I’ll be right back” I told her, excited at my newfound discovery. I wondered what other secrets she was hiding from me. She giggled, holding her USB cord in hand, spinning it in a circle, while I looked for the parts I’d need to plug her in. It took me maybe 10 minutes to find everything, and I came rushing back.

When I came back, I was surprised to see she had changed out of her clothes, and had turned off the lights. She was sitting on the bed wearing a very loose white t-shirt, one that would fit me normally, and was several sizes too large for her. She was simply adorable like that, with one shoulder sticking out of the top. I noticed she was sitting on the bed, her legs bent to either side of her, while she twirled the USB cable in her hand, looking at me. It was sexy and cute all at the same time, and I’m sure I would have been the only guy to think of the line “I want to plug you in” in a sexy way when I saw her. Then again, I read a lot of bizarre things online, and frequented various “fembot” sites.

I found the empty outlet on the wall on the far side of the bed, and plugged in the USB charger, hooking one of the extenders up to it. Watching me closely, she handed me her USB cable. I plugged her into the extender, and gazed at her as she arched her back and let out a digital moan in response. Her breathing got a little heavier, and she ran her hand over her hair, giving her that wild look. Hot! Looks like getting plugged in did turn her on, in every sense of the word.

It took me a little bit, but I soon realized she could actually sleep in the bed while she was charging. Thanks to the shape of her port, and the extra length of cable, should could lie on her back, and even toss and turn, without worrying about breaking her cable or her port. She sat there, her eyes telling me she wanted me, and tapped on the bed next to her. Naturally, I sat down, taking note of the fact that her shorts were not on her, and were sitting on the floor. She was probably not wearing anything other than that large, oversized shirt. She instantly threw her arms around me and kissed me. She was still in the mood it seemed, but I was too tired, and couldn’t respond in kind. She stopped kissing me and looked up at my eyes with her big blue ones, and I looked back into hers. I could see that under the desire and playfulness, she was still in pain. Maybe it wasn’t physical, but after that attack, she was doing anything she could to get her mind off of it.

Her frisky look slowly faded as she sat there, holding me, thinking. I tried to make sure my expression conveyed concern and friendship to her, to make her feel comfortable with me. I watched as her expression changed again. A wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows, and her mouth turned into a frown. Tears filled her eyes, and she started to breathe faster. She gave me another hug, but this time it was a consoling, tear-filled hug. She buried her face in my chest, and started to sob. Her digital voice rang out, which only upset her even more. She tried to mute her voice with my shirt and chest, as she clung onto me. There was nothing I could do, except hold her, and let her get it all out. She was in pain, and she was still scared, and couldn’t tell me anything. I didn’t even know her name. This strong emotional response was far more than any normal gynoid would ever do, and now I started to question who and what she was. Where did she come from? Why was she wandering the streets naked? Why doesn’t she have a master? And why is she so much more advanced than anything I ever heard of?

Half an hour went by as I pondered these questions, holding her in my arms as she sobbed. She fell asleep that way. She cried herself to sleep in my arms, and I was glad I could be there for her. I decided to let her get the sleep she needed, and tucked her in. As I turned to go and sleep on the couch, I felt a tug at my shirt. Even though she was fast asleep, her hand was still holding on to me. I suppose I could just take my shirt off, or try to loosen her grip, but something compelled me to get in the bed with her. I carefully took off my sweatpants (I just can’t sleep with those things on, they get too hot), and climbed into bed next to her. For a long time, I let her rest her head on my chest as she slept, before I too fell asleep.

Chapter 7 - Early riser

That night was a restless one. I had a few short dreams, none of which I could remember clearly, but all of which kept me up. It didn’t help that there was a strange girl- a gynoid rather, sleeping in the bed next to me, unable to tell me anything about her. I kept having flashbacks of her opened chest; her revealed circuitry and wires filling my mind. The only thing I really remembered from my dreams was that all of them had the same short man with dark glasses and a business suit. He was telling me that I could not keep her, and that I was not her master. Who the hell was he and why did he invade my dreams?

Finally, at about 4 in the morning, I fell asleep for the rest of the night. I awoke the next day to an arm in my face. The last 2 days seemed like such a blur, I wasn’t even sure that they had happened, but this was a good reminder that they had. While she had a soft arm, it was still crushing my nose. I gently moved the limb off my face, and rolled over to take a look at the owner of said limb. Sunlight beamed through the window next to my bed, filtered through the constant movement of leaves on the trees outside, and rested softly onto the girl sleeping form. Her features were well lit in the dancing light, and it made her look like an angel sleeping next to me. I refocused my eyes onto her face, observing the finely-crafted details of her features; her cute nose, relaxed closed eyes, her soft red lips, her faint freckles. She looked purely innocent and delicate, like someone in need of protection. Perhaps the mystery man in my nightmares was right. Perhaps I couldn’t protect her, perhaps I couldn’t have her. Then again, I was never one to back down from a challenge, and there was no one else to claim her!

My eyes darted down a little lower. The loose shirt she wore was all askew, and the wide neck gave me a perfect view of her cleavage. In fact, it was more than just her cleavage. I could see a nipple peeking out, as she breathed in deeply and slowly. Mr. Happy was wide awake all of a sudden; I needed to practice a little more self-control. Taken off guard by the sight of her luscious chest, I rolled over, away from her, and directly onto the floor, hitting it with a loud BAM! My head hit the side of my nightstand on the way down, and I landed in a very uncomfortable position. I’m not sure which was louder, my cursing or the impact. Needless to say, I woke her up, and my day started with a literal bang. And here I was hoping for a different kind.

I was surprised at how fast she reacted to my fall. Before I could get to my feet, she was already kneeling next to me, seeing to my head. I must have hit it harder than I thought, because she ran into the bathroom, trailing her black USB cord behind her, and came back out half a minute later with a wet rag and a large bandage. She bade me to stay sitting. Her concerned look made me all the more careful not to fall over again, and I let her see to my head. She dabbed at my head with the rag, which stung sharply! I noticed a small smudge of red on the rag as she pulled it back. Great! Now I’m bleeding as well! I watched her face as she nursed my wound, studying her features closely. She was absolutely lovely! I felt bad, realizing that I didn’t even know her name yet, if she even had one! And yet, as she was seeing to my injury, I worried more for her own sake. She looked down at my eyes and smiled. I was glad to see she was not too concerned anymore. At least the local news wasn’t going to report about a man killing himself while falling out of bed. She placed the bandage on the side of my head, and gave it a small kiss.

My heart skipped a beat for some reason. All I could do was stare at her as she went back to the bathroom to rinse out the rag and put it in the laundry basket. She must not have noticed yet that she was still dragging around about 4 feet of her long USB “tail” behind her. After I fell out of bed, she must have been so concerned she forgot to unplug herself. I stood up, a little woozy, but not too bad. I stabilized my balance just as she walked back in, smiling at me. I grabbed at her tail as she walked by me toward the other side of the bed. She let out a little digital yelp, startled at my action, and then turned to look at her still extended cord, her face flush with embarrassment. Before she could retract it herself, I turned her hips so she faced away from me, and lifted up her shirt enough to reveal her charging port.

“Allow me” I said, as I clicked open the small panel on her back, just above her naked rear. I pushed a small button inside the port, which retracted the cord quickly, all the way inside her, the end flicking her on the butt as it escaped my hand. She jumped a little, and then giggled to herself. I swear her digital voice was actually starting to sound a little better. Either that or I was just getting used to it. I closed her panel, and turned her toward me. She held her arms against her chest, as she looked up at me with a smile.

“Thank you for the bandage. I don’t normally fall out of bed, but I thought you’d enjoy fixing me up for a change” I joked. She laughed, her digitally distorted voice sounded more bearable. Wrapping her arms over my shoulder, she pushed her lips against mine, and gave me a short but satisfying kiss. Now this I could get used to!

She stepped away from me and continued back to the other side of the bed, where she had been sleeping. I felt the bandage on my head. It still stung, and throbbed, but it wasn’t too bad. It would go away in a day or so, but would probably leave a nasty bruise. I watched as she faced away from me and pulled off her shirt. Her petite back came into full view, and I could see the side of her breast as she tossed the shirt to the bed and reached down to pick up the blue one I gave her yesterday. Before she could put it on, I noticed the large white strips of tape from the skin repair work last night. It should have been done by now. “Hold on a second. It’s my turn to take a look at your injuries” I told her as I walked up to her. She held the shirt up to her front as she turned toward me, one eyebrow arched. Lightly grabbing her shoulders, I led her to the bed, where she sat down, looking up at me with a curious look.

I peeled back the largest of the tape bandages, the one covering her neck. She winced at the action. I suppose it was like pulling off a Band-Aid. To my astonishment, the wound was closed, and there was almost no visible sign of any injury at all. I could see a slightly pale look to part of her skin, where a very faint scar ran across it, but it would take a very close look to even notice it. I whistled in amazement, which I think she misunderstood and started to look panicked.

“No, no, no. Everything is fine. In fact, it worked better than I thought! You look as good as new. Beautiful!” Her face, once again, flushed crimson as she blushed at my remark. She looked away, a smile on her face, which made her look coy. I lifted one of her hands, and she looked intently as I pulled off the tape covering her cuts there. With only a slightly pale scar, her arm was completely healed! The look on her face was priceless as she stared in amazement at her own arm. She pulled the tape off her other arm, and stared at them in joy.

I pulled down the shirt had been holding in front of her, revealing her full beauty to me. She quickly covered herself with a small digital squeal, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She was just too cute, and after her performance in the shower, she really had nothing to hide from me anymore. Well, almost. I gently lifted her arms off her chest, and carefully removed the last of the bandages. All her cuts were healed, leaving only faint pale scars behind. Even the wound on her breast was healed, with hardly even a pale patch noticeable. It was remarkable how well the skin repair process worked. The nano-bots did an excellent job when combined with that special compound I bought, and I was going to give them my best reviews yet! If those nano-bots did such an amazing job on her skin, I wonder if they were actually helping out her voice after all.

“Can I take a look at your voice box again, please?” I asked her. She thought for a second and gave me a nod, her smile fading. She lifted up her chin, and a blue pin-point of light appeared on her neck. A second or two later, the newly-formed panel slid away, to reveal her fully exposed mechanics inside. Unlike last time, her eyes did not start glowing, and she did not freeze. Instead, she remained perfectly normal, still breathing and blinking, aware of everything I was doing. I gently reached inside, unhooked a few small latches, and slid the dark box out of her throat. She held her breath as I did this, clenching her eyes closed, but began to breathe easy again once it was free. Gently, she closed her throat panel with her hands and watched me as I studied the device more carefully.

It was clear that the voice box had taken severe damage. The blow to her head and neck crushed in one side of it, which dislodged part of the mechanics inside, and warped the shape. All it could do was provide a digital mess instead of a human-sounding voice. This particular unit actually allows air, liquid, and food to pass through, and still allow her voice to come through clear, when it was working properly. At the state it was in, she could breathe and drink, but food would not have been an option even if she didn’t have that plug. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She needed to eat to help with maintenance and repairs, but the only thing she had to eat lately was my… well, it was part of me. I suppose she needed that for herself as much as I wanted it. Maybe I was reading into it too much, although it was true that part of me was inside her, making repairs to her body. I shoved that thought aside, trying to calm myself down, and focused on the device at hand.

“Well, it looks like your nano-bots have been hard at work here,” I told her, “but I’m afraid they can’t do too much more to fix this. I’m going to have to order you a new one” if I can find it I thought to myself. She looked a little sad, but perked herself up, and took a deep breath. “No worries, I’m sure I can get the information I need from this. I’ll just go into the other room and order one online.”

I pulled on my pants and walked into the living room, while she continued to dress herself. The device in my hand was very complex, and had a variety of settings on it, that would change the quality of the voice. First, I looked for the model number, to see if I could find anything online. I was in luck, well… sort of. I found the device online, new, but it was expensive. Not only was it expensive, but it would also take about a month to be custom made and shipped. A whole month! Not to mention it was well out of my budget. I kept it in mind; maybe I could find a suitable replacement, or at least a refurbished or used unit somewhere. Taking careful notes, I wrote down all the information on the voice settings, so I could give her back her original voice when I was able to get one.

I took a very close look at the damaged parts again. The only thing I could really do was to try to glue some of the delicate parts back in place. As it happened, I had a tube of super glue in the office. You never know when you need to glue part of a robotic arm back together again. I grabbed the glue, and carefully worked at the delicate and damaged piece. It didn’t take long, only about 2 minutes, and the repair would have only been a minor improvement. What is taking her so long to get dressed? I wondered. I bet she is putting it on backwards again I joked to myself. With the voice box freshly glued and quickly drying, I came back into the living room and set it down on the counter.

My stomach growled at me. Since I was up, I decided I should make some food. Alas, the milk had gone bad yesterday, my bad, so cereal was out of the question. I decided to quickly fry up an egg, and put on a half a pot of coffee. Breakfast was never really my thing. I was used to running out of the house to get to work and/or school without breakfast, just so I could get there on time. A big lunch and a big dinner were usually all I would ever eat. However, my doctor told me to stop skipping meals, so I started making more of an effort to eat something before I left in the morning. Being a Sunday, I figured eggs were a little nicer than my usual cereal or breakfast bar.

She walked into the room just as I was getting the pan heated, with 2 eggs in hand. She had apparently been spending her time making sure she got her clothes on right. I didn’t even notice her standing behind me in the kitchen until I heard her sniffing the eggs I had started to cook. She closed her eyes to breathe in the scent of the cooking eggs, as though it was the best thing she smelled in her whole life. For all I knew, it was the best thing she ever smelled. My dinner last night was a quick simple meal, with little scent, and I had not cooked anything else around her. It made me sad to know that she couldn’t eat any of it. I wanted to see if she would enjoy eating my cooking as much as she enjoyed smelling it. I couldn’t help but look at the freckles on her nose as she sniffed the air. Cute doesn’t begin to describe how I saw her.

“I’ll make you some eggs if you want,” I said, “but I’m afraid you aren’t able to eat them, are you?” She smiled politely and shook her head. I just had to find a way to fix that problem. I had to get that insidious device removed from her. In short, I had to become her master. But how to do it? She noticed the dark voice box sitting on the counter next to me, and picked it up. She looked intently at it, gauging the damage for herself, before letting out a voiceless sigh. I covered the eggs to let them cook for a few minutes as I turned to face her. Before I could say anything, she handed the box to me, and motioned with her hands that she wanted me to put the faulty device back in her throat.

“You really want me to put it back, even though it is damaged so badly?” I asked. She nodded and repeated her gesture. “Well I can order you a new one, but I’m afraid it will take about a month to get here, maybe longer. And I have to save up for it first.” She listened, and gave a slight, understanding nod. “But you still want this one in while you wait?” She nodded again, this time more deliberately. “Okay. I’ll put it back, but try not to yodel for a while” I joked. She smiled, as I took the box from her hand.

“Please open up for me” I said. I was glad to see she understood the command. Usually, a robot would not understand such a complex command. Sure it sounded simple to a human, but we natural understand implications and the like. I’d need to reference what was to be opened, and whatnot, for a regular robot to understand such an open phrased command. She didn’t even blink an eye, and her neck opened right up for me. I got a thrill again when I saw part of her body opened. It fascinated me to see this, and I really enjoyed looking at the ingenious design that went into building her. I could see her entire body, both outside and in, as a masterful work of art. With a few clicks, I placed the voice box back inside her neck, and gently closed her up.

“Bzzzt Thank you” she said. Her voice was very digital-sounding still, almost like someone was using an old text-to-speak program, except she had more inflection in her voice. At least it was a feminine sounding voice, and not the old male voices which would really throw me off. There was still a lot of noise and disturbance, but at least she could talk a little. She held her hand to her throat again, and sighed. Even though I could understand her now, this was as good as that voice box was going to get, and she knew it. She probably had a beautiful voice before, but now it was all gone.

I kissed on her on the forehead. “No problem” I smiled. Turning back to my eggs, with her watching my every movement intensely, I finished frying them up, and slid them onto a plate. I poured a cup of coffee, and realized that she might also want to at least drink something. “Would you like something to drink at least?” I asked, as she watched me pour my cup. She didn’t seem all that interested in the coffee. “I have juice and milk- no… no milk. I have juice and water. Coffee is sort of an acquired taste anyways.”

She looked up toward the ceiling as she thought about it. “bzzzrrrmmm juice zzz please”. She said quietly. I tried my best not to laugh at her voice; I really didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable than she must already have been. I did smile a bit at her voice though. I went to the cupboard and pulled out a tall glass, filled it with orange juice from the fridge, and set it on the small table I used for meals. I had one chair there, so I pulled up another from my computer as I set my own plate of egg down. Chivalry was always something I strived for, even if that means women think I’m a pig, or just that I’m old fashion. But I always feel a woman deserves to have the door held open for them, or a chair pulled out for them. I did exactly this for my gynoid guest. She giggled as she graciously took a seat. I grabbed my coffee and a fork, and set down next to her.

My meal was a short one, but not uneventful. She sat silently, drinking from the tall glass clasped in both hands, while I scarfed down my eggs and coffee. I’m sure she must have been hungry by the manner in which she looked at the food, but she knew she couldn’t eat anything. I hoped the orange juice would be better for her than plain water, or coffee. Coffee was known to cause problems for some androids, those that could drink it. It stained and smelled, and was usually frowned upon since caffeine does little for machines. However, for humans, it was a god-send. I gladly drank down my coffee in 2 or 3 gulps, waiting for the caffeine rush to hit me in a few minutes.

“You umm… you told me the other night that you didn’t have a master, is uh… is that true?” I asked shyly between bites. She put down her mostly empty glass, raised her eyebrow at me, and nodded. “Well… I was just wondering…” I cleared my throat, blood rushing to my face again as I looked down at my last few bites of egg. “Would you like… me to be your… master?” My voice was quiet and broken a bit; I coughed a bit to clear my throat. Her vibrant blue eyes opened wide, staring right at me unblinking, and a huge smile appeared on her face. She seemed to shake with excitement as tears filled her eyes. She squealed out a little digital squeal and shot up to her feet. “zztt Yes!” she said as she gave me a big nod and hugged me as best as she could while I sat there and took her excitement in. Her body was slightly cool and soft to the touch, and she held on as tight as she could for a bit.

After a minute, she sat back down at the table, wiping the tears from her eyes, with the biggest smile ever. She looked up at me with big eyes, and took another deep breath. I felt like I just asked her to marry me. But then again, for a gynoid, this was the closest thing to one. I realized that I was probably the first person to ask a gynoid if she wanted me to be her master, usually the human would just take them and register them, no questions asked. This was starting out to be a very unusual relationship, but one I was excited to be a part of.

With breakfast done, I put the few dishes in the dishwasher, and started to clean up a bit. She stopped me, and gestured that she wanted to clean up for me. I smiled, and let her do as she pleased. I watched as she did a little dance with her movements, wiping down the counter, and cleaning up. I went back to my computer to research more about her voicebox, until she finished.

She was a very smart gynoid, able to understand gestures, implied speech, and could even dance. Sure there have been dancing gynoids since the early 21st century, but even today their dancing moves were never part of an everyday chore. I certainly didn’t program her to dance, or ask her to. She did this of her own free will. Free will? Did she have such a thing? It could be argued that even humans don’t, but at least we have a concept of free will, while every robot, android, and gynoid with an AI has been programed to follows a strict set of rules which defy the very idea of “free will”.

Isaac Asimov, the famous 20th century author, once wrote about the 3 Laws of Robotics. Surely everyone knows what they are:

1. A robot must not harm a human or allow a human to come to harm through action or inaction. 2. A robot must obey all orders given to it by a human unless it contradicts the first law. 3. A robot must preserve itself, unless that preservation violates the first 2 laws.

In reality, such concepts are not as simple as this. Robots are bound by a series of instructions that follow these laws as a guideline. Some minor changes have been put in place, such as the hierarchy of commands given to a robot by humans, the priority of said commands, and even how robots are to deal with other robots. It was impossible to go up to a robot and tell it to dismantle itself, or tell it to only follow your commands, unless you had some ownership over the robot. It all comes down to the same golden rule. All robots are tools used to help humans and society, and should not be used to hurt anyone. This is nice and all, but the laws have been violated before. With a simple hack, any robot, no matter how complex or how hard-wired its programming, can be made to harm a human.

One such violation is imbedded into every robot. People are too involved in the here and now to care about what happens too far into the future. We saw side effects of this from the 20th century pollution that still effects our environment. One logical conclusion the best AI systems often make is to protect humanity over all other laws. This means it can violate the first law if it feels that mankind on a whole is in danger. Since we don’t want robots running our lives in such a way, this logical phenomenon is directly counteracted, so that robots are not able to see mankind as part of their logical programing is such a way. While robots are programmed to save the majority of lives, or to concentrate on those that need saving the most, there are no robots concerned with saving the planet, stopping a war, or changing the direction mankind is headed in, unless they are directly programmed to do so. This means they will be able to kill a human if it will save lives, although certain criteria have to be met, but they will never be able to take control of our governments or rule our lives.

Long story short, the robots of today use the 3 law system as a guide for their AI, but that’s just the start. Most AIs are programmed to repress any creative or spontaneous activities, as a precaution that robots might “gain the ability to think on their own”. Sure, some androids paint, one gynoid is a world-famous actress, but these exceptions are rare and unique, and deliberate. It is a direct violation of the law to manufacture a robot without the 3 laws guideline, or to alter the guideline in any way. Any robot caught with such a violation is destroyed on sight. And there were plenty of individuals out there who wanted to hurt robots. To see a gynoid dancing to herself in my kitchen intrigued me even more. Was she capable of creative thought? Was she capable of more? I had to know more about her.

As soon as she was done with the short cleanup work, I asked her to come closer. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to take a closer look at your head. I want to make sure there was no damage. I didn’t really get a good look last time.” She looked apprehensive. Perhaps the idea of messing around in her head while she was unaware was too much, but she had allowed me to before. Maybe she was tired of me messing around inside her. “I promise not to shut you down unless I absolutely have to” I told her. After a few seconds of careful deliberation, she nodded in agreement. It was probably best that she make sure there was nothing else wrong, and fix it before it became an issue.

We walked into my office, she sat down, and I asked her to give me access to her head panel. The pin-point blue lights followed her hair-line, behind her ears, and lifted off her head. I watched as her hair separated from her head, and hinged open at the base of her skull. Her cybernetic brain was a sight to behold. It looked futuristic, almost sci-fi. Glowing pathways of intricate blue and green lights danced a complex pattern throughout parts of her brain. Circuitry as finite as a microscopic pathway and as intricate as a fractal lined her cavity. Her brain actually used Photonic Computing, combining traditional cybernetic circuitry with high-tech laser light to read, store, and process data at extremely fast speeds with little power consumption and much less heat. More accurately, it was 5 different photonic computing centers, each integrated into each other, and each assigned to process a different task. Each one of these would have rivaled the processing power of any android or gynoid I had ever seen.

I hooked up various cables inside her head, as she sat there, blinking but motionless. I was not going to run any long diagnostics on her while she was conscious, but I did want to run some simple tests, as well as figure out what each part of her brain was for. I took in her most complex of systems for a while, just gazing at the beauty of it. I did look her over for any visible damage, and luckily there was none. Returning to my computers, I started up a series of short tests and information gathering programs. It appeared that she actually seemed to enjoy letting me work on her, and smiled every time I was inside her body. She most likely wanted to remain conscious so she could enjoy the thrill of letting me work inside her as much as I did.

She looked around the room, gazing at all the various robotic parts. I had almost everything there, including limbs, torsos, eyes, heads, and a huge assortment of circuitry and computer equipment. It must have been very interesting to her. She could barely resist walking around the room to stare at all the different components. One particular robot seemed to fascinate her. It was of the upper torso and head of a gynoid, sitting on a bench, still hooked up to a computer, although nothing was running. It was the same gynoid she looked at closely the day I fixed her up. There was nothing particularly special about this gynoid. It had no skin, no hair, no limbs, and was damaged, but it did have a very young, innocent looking face. I picked up that particular unit at a recycling center about 3 months ago.

I often visited recycling centers, garbage dumps, thrift shops, and the like, always on the look-out for replacement parts. I was shocked to see so much of a gynoid in a recycling center, sitting in a large pile of broken computers and robot parts. I took home the broken gynoid, and had been working on fixing her up on my time off for more than a month. I managed to replace most of her internal circuitry, updating and repairing her as I went. I was still a long way off from getting her running, since she needed serious reconstruction in her joints, not to mention new limbs, but everyone needs to have a hobby or two. Besides, I was lonely, and wanted a companion. Striking out so many times with the ladies led me into a slump, and I found myself wishing I could make the perfect companion, rather than just find one. I hadn’t worked on her in about 3 weeks though, focusing more on my other hobby, my exoskeleton suit, or exo-suit for short.

The tests were pouring into the computer screens. While there were some minor anomalies, there was nothing seriously wrong with her processing and nothing physically wrong either. She had no viruses, no signs of hacks, and she had all the proper security features in place, although few of them were active since she was not registered. I would have to figure that out soon. I told her I wanted her to be mine, but now I had to figure out how. I had to find her identification marks, her company and model and serial numbers. I dove farther into her mind.

She paused a moment while I did this, blinking rapidly, but she allowed me access. The cables I had attached to her were fairly long, so she carefully stood up, and took a closer look at the gynoid across the way from her. There was something very sweet about seeing this, but I was more concerned about getting the data I needed.

I found her model number, XKQT-114; an experimental model. This was indicated by the X at the beginning of the number. Her company name was encoded, I could not see what it was, but perhaps there was a reason they encoded this data. Her serial number was also encoded. Well at least I had one of the important bits of data I needed; that should at least come in handy. However, I was still no closer to registering her, let alone becoming her master. Most gynoids only need to be registered by the user for this to happen, but this gynoid was either a runaway unit, a malfunctioning unit, or a stolen unit. And, as an experimental model, there is no way they’d let me register such a unit. I was still stuck in a dead end, but I was determined to find out more.

After a few minutes, I got nowhere with the encoded data. Luckily, my data-searching programs had come back with a synopsis of her systems. What a system she had! She did indeed have 5 different sections of her brain. Each section was very powerful, and specifically dedicated to one task. While I only got a small gist of what these systems each did at the time, what I eventually learned was astonishing.

The first is what I call the Data Retrieving section. This part of her mind is dedicated to processing and receiving sensory data, and delegating where that data is to be sent and how. Anything from a tickle to a burn, a word to a note, a picture to a face, is processed by this section of her mind and sent to the appropriate channels. This is an involuntary system that gives her a lot of information without her having to think about it consciously. It controls her 5 senses, as well as simulated input.

The second is a Data Conversion section. Here, all physical data is, from what I can tell, converted into digital electrochemical signals. This means that her sensory data is treated as chemical data on the fly, to simulate the human electrochemical signals in our bodies. It makes all the data sent into her brain act as electrochemical data. This means that some things, like pain, can overtake the system, and she would not only look and act like she is in pain, but she could actually be in pain, with all the side effects and debilitating qualities. The same would be true with any strong sensory data, including pleasure. I suppose that this was designed to limit the amount of information her conscious and subconscious minds can take, once again copying humans.

The third section is dedicated to Reaction and Involuntary Movement. Here, all the data that is sent through the data conversion process is given a subconscious reaction. This means that if she is feeling pain from a burn on her hand, the reaction would involuntarily retract her arm from that heat source. She would have little control over such a reaction, but with enough will, she could overcome it. It also means that the tiny movements in our bodies that we don’t think about, such as the way we stand or walk, or the muscles that keep up upright, or even the beating of our hearts, are all controlled by this same reaction center in her. The reaction systems were able to be overcome with enough will, but her involuntary movement was autonomous.

The 4th section is her Consciousness. This is the main processing unit of her mind, the part that is dedicated to higher thinking and self-awareness. This was the largest and most complex part of her mind, and the most impressive. It contains most of the complex AI she has, but also the learned information and stored data as well. Words, locations, people, things; all of these and more are contained in her consciousness ready for access at a moment’s thought. All her memories are stored there. She is able to exert her will, or her submission, through her consciousness, allowing her to follow commands and make reactionary movements, or to resist such reactions. She could also brainstorm and dream, something else I had never seen in a robot before. I would have to look more into her dreams later.

The final, and most important part, is her subconscious. This is actually the glue of her brain. This section holds together all the other sections, and decides what information is sent where, and how it is sent. It is the part that controls the synchronicity of her entire system. The AI here is concerned with the welfare of her bodily functions, and she has no control over this part of her mind.

Altogether, her mind was a miracle of modern science, something far more complex and human than some humans I have met. I could barely comprehend the power she had been given. But why was such a simple girl given such a complex and amazing mind? She intrigued me more and more. At the time, all I could do was store the data for review later. Her physical mind was an amazing achievement, but her software was incomplete.

I noticed that, while her AI was apparently complete, and she was capable of running on her basic systems, she was missing large parts of her programming. Most of her protocols were not there, and she was lacking some basic functions, like bathing. I suppose she was capable of learning these with such an advanced AI, but to not have them pre-programmed is very unusual. Luckily, her AI is advanced enough to allow her to learn things, and fairly quickly as well. She was going to need that, in order to make up for the missing data.

While I was working, a thought came into my head. I still had no name for her. “Um… Do you have a name?” I asked shyly, trying to look more like I was concentrating on my work. She turned toward me, and sadly shook her head. She was a girl with no name. I’d have to fix that , but again, only her master can change or assign a name.

After another short test, I asked her to sit next to me again. She gladly complied, and I went around to the back of her head, and unplugged the connections. Gently, I closed the panel, and got the sense that I should refrain from opening this too often. She is very delicate there, and the slightest thing could damage her brain. I was very careful with her, but just to be safe, I would avoid accessing her head in the future.

As I closed up her skull, I heard a rumble in her stomach. She was hungry after all. Her cheeks blushed at the noise, but I understood that she was not designed to go long without being registered to an owner. There was little I could do to help her right now. I had to figure out how to register as her Master, but without knowing her company, or even if she was stolen property or not, there was no way I could do this.

I decided to let her wander the apartment for a while, to get used to things around here, while I worked on fixing up my exo-suit. It wasn’t in as bad shape as I thought. Apparently part of it overheated and I didn’t have enough cooling systems inside to cool it off fast enough. One of the circuit boards had a few fried components, which wasn’t a major issue. I started replacing these parts while considering what to do about the overheating problem. Perhaps I could use a heat sink or a quiet fan. Simple is best they say.

As I worked on my suit, I heard the gynoid going about the apartment. I could hear her rummaging about in the kitchen, looking through cabinets and drawers, clanging against pots and pans. Suddenly, there was a THUD, followed by a loud CLANG, and a digital “oof!”. I quickly ran into the kitchen to see what happened. I found her sprawled out on the floor, with potato chips all over her, and my large roasting pot next to her. She had apparently tried to get it down from the top of the fridge to look at it, and lost her balance, spilling the bag of chips resting inside it. She was alright, and the pot made more noise than damage. She rubbed at her rear as she sat up. I couldn’t help to bolt out a hearty laugh at the situation. At first she just groaned a bit, but soon she joined me in laughter as well. I helped her up to her feet, and helped her clean up the mess. I decided it would be a good idea to show her the step ladder I kept around for reaching the lights (even at might height, those lights are just out of my reach). I also decided to warn her about the knives and the stove. I didn’t want her cutting or burning herself.

For a little while longer, we went about our tasks. I was busy replacing circuitry, while she was busy going through things. It took her a while to move on from the kitchen, and at one point I heard her flush the toilet, and start turning on an off all the sinks and faucets in the apartment. I could only giggle to myself thinking about her trying everything out. It must have been about an hour before I was pleased with the work I did, and hooked up the suit to its charger. I’d have to test it after it got a full charge on it. I stretched my legs as I walked back into the living room, looking around for the curious gynoid. There was no sign of her. The noises had all stopped a few minutes before, and I thought nothing of it, but now I had to find where she was hiding. The door was still closed and locked, so she was inside the apartment, but there couldn’t be many places to hide in such a small place.

I found her going through my clothes in the closet, making a huge mess on the floor as she looked at every single shirt and pant that I owned. It was around lunch time, and I decided I would head out to pick up something to eat while I ran a few errands. The final part of my exo-suit was not yet finished; my jacket needed to be cleaned.

“Stay here and I will be back in a few minutes. I just need to send my jacket out to be cleaned” I told her, scooping up my jacket from the clothes basket in the bathroom. “Just stay here, and be careful not to hurt yourself. Say, you don’t happen to know what sizes you wear, do you?”

She arched an eyebrow and shrugged her shoulders. Of course she didn’t know her own dimensions, not consciously at least. I looked at her body, trying to gauge what sizes she might wear. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they might be, so I figured I’d at least get her some generic panties and some shirts and pants to wear while I was out. That way I could take her out later to get her measured properly.

“Mmm… never mind, I’ll be back shortly” I told her. As I walked to the front door, she followed behind me, leaving the mess of clothes on the floor in my bedroom closet. It was kind of cute to have her following me around like a puppy, but I didn’t want her to go out just yet. Who knows what would happen if we ran into any trouble. I figured my apartment was about the safest place right now. No one knew who I was, or where I lived, at least no one that would also know about the girl, or the thugs in the alley that night. She should be safe here.

“I’ll be back in a short while. Just stay here” I repeated. She nodded at me, as gave me a quick hug goodbye. I couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to live with a girl who watched me leave every day. It was a nice feeling to know someone was there waiting for me to return. I gave her a smile, and turned toward the door.

Just as I opened the door to leave, a large man stood in my way, one hand ready to knock, the other holding a picture. He was a big guy. At least 6 foot 40. He had on a black business suit, and black sunglasses. His arms looked like the sleeves would burst if he flexed his muscles at all. I was pretty sure he could bench press my car. I just stared up at him, a feat in itself considering my own height. I was used to looking down at people, but looking at someone my own height was a bit of an oddity for me, and someone taller than me was intimidating to say the least. As I took in his bulking form, he took in mine. I’m not sure how I looked to him, holding a blood-stained coat in one arm. His one hand hung there in the air, ever ready to knock on my now open door, while his head looked down at the picture in his hand, and back up at me, several times. He spotted the coat in my hand, and his expression when from startled to serious.

“It’s you!” he snarled. His voice was deep and sounded dangerous. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was a model for Thugs-R-Us. I watched in horror as he reached inside his jacket to pull something out.

Chapter 8 - Mommy dearest

Quickly, I slammed the door in the giant’s face. With lightning speed, I flicked the locks and attached the chain. Pushing my back to against the wall next to the door, I readied myself, just in case he started shooting through the door.

“Quickly, hide!” I said in a raised whisper to the girl, who only looked back at me in confusion. Gesturing for her to hide inside my office, she finally took the hint, and disappeared inside the door, closing it behind her. I knew this was a feeble attempt at hiding her, but my exo-suit was still charging in the office, and I was out of options. I guess my apartment was not as safe as I thought.

Hurriedly, I rummaged through my small coat closet until I found the last thing I had that might help, a Taser. Stepping back from the door, I prepared for a bullet, or perhaps an arm, to rip through it. Instead, there was nothing. Silence. I could hear some muffled words from the other side of the door after about a minute. To my surprise, there was a polite knock. I was tempted to yell at them to screw themselves, but I thought better of it. I wearily approached the peephole in my door to see what was going on.

On the other side of my door stood a woman. She was dressed in a dark business suit with a pencil skirt, and wore thin, rectangular sexy-librarian glasses with her hair tied up in a bun. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, but she stood there just the same, holding a purse and a yellow envelope.

“What do you want?” I yelled through the door.

“I am here to help. I know about the girl.” replied the woman through the door.

Warily, I opened the door, leaving the chain attached, so it would only open a crack, and peaked through. She peered at me through the crack, her face stern and serious. She was very lovely; wearing expertly applied makeup, and appeared to be in her early-to-mid-30s. I was surprised to see her stand there alone. There was no sign of the man from before, but I had a very limited range of view. He could have been hiding nearby, ready to strike.

“Who are you?” I asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

“I should ask you the same question Mr.… Exo” she retorted. Exo was the alias I was using for various internet accounts, but also the name I was signed my text to the police under, that night when I saved the girl. I didn’t expect anyone to make a connection this fast.

“How did you… what do you want with me?” I responded, trying to hide the look of shock as she said my alias.

“I only want what is best for the girl you saved the other night. I’m sure you remember who I’m talking about.” She held up a picture from the envelope. It appeared to be a photo of me, wearing my hat, and carrying a girl in my coat, the coat I was just holding, running through the alleyways. Security camera footage! I was a fool. They caught pictures of me making my daring escape, and I had to wonder what else they knew about me. “She’s no ordinary girl, as I’m sure you must know by now.”

“How do you know about her?” I barked back, getting a little nervous.

The woman replied with a low voice, to avoid anyone else from hearing. “I built her.”

I looked this woman up and down. While she wasn’t old, she was old enough to have been one of the engineers who designed her. But she looked too young, and had a great body too; there was no way she was a nerdy roboticist. Then again, my upstairs neighbor was the best hacker I ever met, and he was a playboy. Perhaps she was telling the truth, I had no reason to believe otherwise. She was probably there to take her back. However, with no proof that she was who she said she was, I had to push her for more. Maybe she knew the thugs, or maybe she was part of a rival company. I thought for a minute.

“Do you have any proof?” I kept my questions short and precise.

“Alas, I have little I can offer you for proof.” She reached into her purse, and pulled out a badge, the kind of ID badge you see at a secure company or government facility. “But I hope this will do.” She showed me the badge, holding it for me to look at. I read it to myself. Cynthia Pygmalion, Lead Robotics Engineer, Men and Machines Robotics, Inc. The picture on the left side looked just like her, with practically the same expression. You never know when something might be faked, but I’m not one to be that paranoid; perhaps I am just too trusting. Her ID looked authentic enough, and that at least proved she was a robotics engineer, and a good one at that.

Man and Machine Robotics, Inc. was one of the largest manufacturers and designers of industrial and commercial androids. They had recently started to emerge into the home market with a series of maid and butler robots. They were perhaps the best manufacturers of robotics and androids around. Their first gynoid, a cute model designed for cleaning and cooking, was used in retirement homes and hotels, and quickly became the face of modern gynoids. While they have not had that many models since, they have always put quality ahead of everything else, and it showed. With a company like that backing this woman, I had to give her some credit.

I was just starting to realize that they were going to take the best thing that happened to me away. But what right did I have to keep her? And could I even do anything to stop them? I blinked at her a minute more, as she put her ID back in her bag.

“So who was the big guy then? And why did he try to shoot me?!” I asked.

“Who, Tom? That big guy is my husband. Don’t worry about him, his bark is worse than his bite” she replied, looking toward the parking lot in front of the apartments. I tried to glance over, and I just caught a glimpse of his form standing next to my car. Dear lord, I hope he doesn’t break it, or eat it. “He wasn’t going to shoot you, but he does get a little passionate sometimes. I doubt he was reaching for a gun, if that’s what you were thinking. He keeps his ID badge in his vest pocket.” She paused for a moment, looking at me. “So, Exo, are you going to let me in so we can talk?”

I thought for a moment longer. What’s the worse than could happen that couldn’t already happen if they wanted to? “Um… sure. Sorry, Mrs. Pagmalion.”

I closed the door briefly to undo the chain, and opened it again to let her in. The Taser was still in my hand, and I decided it would be best to leave it in plain sight, just in case she got any weird ideas. She walked in, and noticed the device just as I was closing the door.

“This is just in case. Sorry, but things have been a little weird lately, and I rather be safe than sorry” I told her. I kept the Taser pointed down, but it wouldn’t take much to activate it, just in case. “Please have a seat on the couch.”

I motioned for her to sit on the couch close to the door with my free hand. I rather not get caught between her and the door, just in case the big guy decided to break in. I kept her in full view, sitting in my computer chair across from her. I got started with questioning her before she could say anything.

“So where did you get the picture?”

“The same place everyone else did. Although ours are clearer than what the police were issued” she replied.

“POLICE!?” I retorted. “What do the police want with me?”

“Simple” she responded. “They want answers. The thugs you beat up that night didn’t just go quietly. When they learned that you ran off, carrying our girl, they claimed you attacked them that night, and kidnapped one of their ‘friends’. Of course they can’t back up this claim, and the police are not ready to blindly believe repeat offenders. But without answers, they have nothing else to go on.”

“M.. Maybe I should just turn myself in?” I wondered aloud. “I mean, you said it yourself, they only want me to answer some questions. If I just tell them the truth…”

“Then we’d all end up in jail” she responded, sharply. “The fact is, you beat up a bunch of thugs over a ‘stolen’ piece of property. If you manage to convince them you were trying to save her life, you still have to argue against the fact you were out that night to fight crime; to be a vigilante. Maybe you read too many comic books, but vigilantism is a crime. You’d spend years sorting it out.”

“What about you then? ” I retorted.

“That’s… complicated.” A look of pain struck her face, as she replied. She didn’t need to say anything more at the time, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with why the girl was in that alleyway in the first place. I thought for a moment longer about the picture she showed me.

“Who else has seen these pictures?”

“Hmm. Just about everyone by now. You made the news yesterday, or don’t you watch your huge TV?” she replied, eyeing the large screen mounted to my wall.

‘Holy crap! I’m on the news?!’ I thought to myself. However, all I said aloud was “I don’t watch television. I just use it for movies and gaming, stuff like that. I was too busy to think about checking the news online.” That was true. I never watched television; there are just too many other things to do. I was also busy keeping the gynoid ‘alive’ all day yesterday.

“Well you should. Your blurry face is all over it, or at least your blurry hat. Luckily, no one got a good shot of your face with your hat on” she replied.

“Then how did you two find me?” I asked.

“Your car is very distinct” she said, plainly. “Not many people drive around a puke-green gas-guzzler these days. We simply asked around town, until we saw it parked here. Yours was the first door we tried.”

“My car?” I was shocked. If they could find my car that easily, surely the police would have no trouble at all. Nor would the gang those thugs probably belonged to. “How do you beat the police here?”

“The police never got the footage from the convenience store near the parking lot. We made sure no one else got their hands on it either. We are the only ones with a reliable account of the car you were driving; at least, we think so.” She slowly pulled out of the yellow envelope a series of pictures from various angles, all in black and white, and all from security cameras. She placed them on the small coffee table between us, and I reached over to grab them. “These are the pictures the police have on you” she said.

None of the pictures were particularly sharp. Only once was my face in view, but it was too obscured to use for identification. I didn’t feel any more relaxed knowing that the cops had bad images to go on; I mean they were still looking for me after all. But at least they thought I looked like a mosaic pervert. I had never really seen my entire outfit from afar before. I looked like the classic spy ideal you see on neighborhood watch signs. It was kind of eerie.

Cynthia pulled out a few more pictures and put them on the table as well. “These are the images they never got ahold of.” These pictures were much clearer. Some of them were the same images, but in focus, and others were completely new. There were a few images of me sneaking up on the gang, and a few more of the fight. They even had a series of shots that followed me carrying the girl all the way back to my car, without my coat on. One image in particular, had a very good shot of my face. Just after I took my hat off, a hidden security camera from the hardware store caught my visage. She continued as I looked at these images, grateful they weren’t the ones the police were looking at. “After the accident, an acquaintance of mine made sure these images were kept away from the police, and the press.”

“Accident?” I asked.

She looked around the room a bit, getting an idea of the place. She didn’t look too impressed. “It’s a long story.”

“Well then you better explain it fast” I said, impatiently.

She sighed, looking back to me. “The short of it is that a colleague, my husband, and I ‘rescued’ the girl you found. The situation was bad. She was to be taken away from us, and given to a sleazebag of a man, to turn her into his personal slave. I mean the guy is a real maniac. He owns some expensive ‘dance’ club downtown, but I think he’s part of some mob! All he wanted to do is turn her into his own personal sex doll! I mean, sure she is capable of having sex. Heck, she is probably great at it! We designed her to be able to give pleasure, but also to be pleased herself. But she is so much more than just a sex doll! We didn’t design her to be a slave, but to be a companion! I mean, she is like a daughter to me, but I know she will be given a master someday. I just want to make sure she goes to the right person. But there was no way I am going to just give her up like that, not to a man like him, not after all we put in-.”

She paused for a moment, realizing she had started ranting a-mile-a-minute. “Sorry. I just get so worked up sometimes. You see… two nights ago, we had planned to hide her. We had her in the van, and were driving to a discreet location. We thought it was going well until his goons showed up in cars with guns. It was terrifying. I was constantly afraid of someone getting shot. They chased us through the streets, shooting at us. Luckily, we lost them, but Rob got shot and lost control of the van and…” She looked down, her voice starting to crack. She reached into her purse, pulled out a tissue, and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes.

“When I came to, Rob was already gone, and our girl had vanished. Tom and I had no idea where she went, but she must have come out of the accident only to end up being attacked by those ruffians!” She sniffed as she cleared her throat, putting her glasses back on, her eyes still red. I might have believed that she was faking this, just to get on my emotional side, to catch me off guard. However, I was pretty sure that either she was a darn good actress, or there was more drama going on here than I realized. She took a deep breath and continued. “My husband and I have been looking for any sign of her. We contacted an associate who got access to various security cameras, and saw her being attacked. We also saw you, and your car. We were lucky to find you so fast.”

“And this is the same guy that stopped the images from leaking to the police and the press?” I asked. She nodded, looking down at her lap. I owed them big time if this was true. I looked down too, noticing the Taser still in my hand. I hoped I wouldn’t regret doing this, but I stood up, and put the Taser in a drawer near the kitchen. I wasn’t going to use it, and I had no reason to keep threatening her with it. “I’m sorry about the whole Taser thing, Mrs Pagma-“

“Please, call me Cynthia” she interrupted.

“Right. Cynthia. Sorry I pulled that Taser on you, I’m just a bit scared. I was just trying to do what I thought was right.”

She looked up, as I put away the black Taser, and closed her purse with a snap. “Is… Is she here? Where is she?” she asked, a hint of hope in her voice.

“What, so you can just take her away?” I mumbled quietly. Apparently, she didn’t hear it. “Tell me this first, Cynthia, does she have a name?”

“Officially? No. She is given a name by whoever becomes her master. But she is part of a line of androids with a special moniker. You see, the AI we used is unlike any other A.I. we have ever developed; it is beyond anything you’ve ever seen. That A.I. is called ‘EVE’.” She looked straight at me through all of this, her eyes growing more intense on me, watching my every gesture. It was nerve-racking, but I stared back at her with the same intensity. “We had to build a special brain, and a special body, to work with EVE. That line is known as the ‘Evelyn’ series gynoids. The unit you saved is our latest, and our last. We refer to her as Unit 263.”

“Evelyn series, huh? Unit 263… What’s so special about her A.I.?” I asked.

She hesitated. She didn’t want to answer that question, and I got a sinking suspicion that I was not going to like what she said. “Well…”

Just then, the door to the office slowly opened up. Evelyn, or rather, Unit 263’s face appeared through the crack, wide-eyed, and curious. She looked straight at Cynthia, as if she recognized her. The creak of the door must have startled Cynthia; she almost jumped when she looked over at the door. As soon as she saw who was looking out at her, she dropped her purse and stood up, her hands to her mouth in surprise. The Evelyn series gynoid stepped out of the room, her feet bare, her hair down, and wearing the blue dancing robot monkey shirt and shorts. Cynthia’s eyes teared up as she gazed at her. Surprise and joy spread across the young gynoid’s face as she started to cry as well. I had never seen such an emotional gynoid before; there really was something special about her.

The two women embraced, hugging each other like 2 long lost friends, or perhaps a mother and daughter. I felt like a voyeur watching them as they wept, and walked into my kitchen to grab a soda. I could have used a beer, but I think I needed a clear head right now; I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. I died a little inside, realizing that they were probably going to take her away now, and I would never see her again. I didn’t cry, but I came close.

“Oh Honey, what happened to you? You look terrible! I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.” Cynthia must have been referring to the repair work I did on her. Was it really that terrible? I thought I did a pretty good job of fixing her up. “Did he hurt you anywhere? What happened after the crash? What are you wearing? Are you cold?” Cynthia bombarded her with questions, too fast for anyone to answer.

Unit 263 turned toward the coffee table, and spying a pad of post-it notes and a pen, started to write down her replies. Apparently, she was too embarrassed about her voice to talk to Cynthia. It took her a while to write each response. “Honey, what’s wrong? Did something happen to your voice? Why won’t you talk to me?” Cynthia continued.

Unit 263 handed her first note to Cynthia. As she read it, unit 263 turned back to write another. “I’m fine. Exo fixed me” read Cynthia aloud. By this time, I had come back into the room, and sat down on the couch, soda in hand. Cynthia looked up from her note, and glared at me. I was pretty shocked to see her expression, it was fierce. Before the gynoid could even finish writing her next note, Cynthia grabbed one of the gynoid’s shoulders, standing her up, and making her face her.

“Right. Open up your throat 263” Cynthia referred to her by her unit number, and the Evelyn series gynoid obeyed. I watched as her throat opened, revealing to Cynthia her damaged voice box, and my best attempts at a repair. Cynthia was about to reach inside when 263 recoiled, backing away from her slightly. In response, Cynthia held the back of 263’s neck, and reached inside her throat, disconnecting the faulty component, and pulling it out. She closely examined the damage and the repair, shifting her eyes from the box, to me, and then to the girl. 263’s face was shocked, and embarrassed, almost like she was caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing. With a few clicks, Cynthia placed the part back inside the young gynoid’s neck, and closed her up. “Unit 263, say something to me.”

The Evelyn series robot hesitated, her face flushed red. Cynthia just stared her down, until she finally gave in. “bzzzt Hello, mm hrrrmmmm mother…” Cynthia didn’t flinch. I expected her to either break down in tears or to slap the girl (or me), but instead, she just stood there, taking it in, evaluating the situation.

“Right. Exo, turn around” she barked. “Please” she added, putting emphasis on the word.

“Y...Yes ma’am” I replied, almost instinctively. She might not have been that old, but she was a sort of mother, and had an air of authority about her; I did not want to upset her any more than she already was. Besides, if they wanted to take her, they had plenty of opportunity. 263 turned to look at me, blushing, while Cynthia waited for me to respond. I stood up and turned away, listening to the next orders she gave out.

“Unit 263, take off your clothes.” Somehow I knew she was going to say that, and yet it was unnerving to hear it out loud. I listened as the gynoid started to undress. I heard the rustle of fabric as her shirt was pulled off her body, sliding off her skin and landing on the small table beside them. Cynthia gasped as she looked at all the damage and repairs. Surely they weren’t that bad, but for someone who spent years working on her, it would have been shocking. Next would be her shorts, which she had to first untie, assuming she did that right in the first place. “Here, let me help you with that” Cynthia said after about a minute. Apparently, 263 never learned how to tie knots either, and probably tied a mess of a knot in those shorts. Before long, I heard the cotton cloth slide off her legs, and land on the table as well. Cynthia was silent for a minute or two, while she assessed the external damage and repairs. I could feel the heat of her gaze on my back as I was sure she was glaring at me for my shoddy repair job.

“Open up, Honey” Cynthia said, in a calm voice. With that, I heard 263 open her main chest cavity, something I couldn’t get enough of, and wanted to see. I turned my head to the side to catch a glimpse of the action. “Don’t even think about it mister” Cynthia barked at me. I straightened by head again, having only caught a flash of her open body from the side.

For the next few minutes, I heard a lot of hmms and uh-huhs as Cynthia looked over the girl. Every now and then, she’d open up a panel on her arm or something. While Cynthia was engaged in her work, I looked behind me, at the pair of them. 263 stood there, her face flushed, and her fists clenched, while Cynthia looked through her chest cavity. It was really something to see this dainty girl opened up like that, even though I had seen it before. It looked like something out of a sci-fi, but then again, I am living in an age of androids and planetary travel. This pretty much is sci-fi already.

After Cynthia got a good look inside Unit 263, she turned the girl around, and leaned her over, looking at the tag, which was still attached and intact, located on her crotch. Cynthia looked up at me briefly, with a scowl on her face. I quickly turned around again, expecting her to scold me, but she didn’t say a word. Instead, she continued to hmm to herself, and I waited for her to finish.

About 2 seconds later, Cynthia was finished with her evaluation. “How could she possibly have made these repairs herself, without any food?” she asked, as she started to close up the access panels on the gynoid. “You didn’t force her to eat anything did you?”

“N- No” I replied, turning around to face her again. “I could tell she wasn’t able to eat anything solid as long as she-“

“Solid? So you fed her a high-protein liquid?”

I thought for a moment. I guess she did eat something with high protein content, but it wasn’t exactly food. “Um… sort of” I said shyly, blushing as I did.

Cynthia eyed me suspiciously, thinking about what I said, and then her eyes went wide with enlightenment. She understood what I was implying, and probably didn’t approve. She looked over at 263, whose face was even redder than mine, and then back at me. The young gynoid bent to pick up her shirt and held it in front of her. “You mean you made her swallow your-“

“Hey! It wasn’t my idea. She came onto me” I interjected. I actually came on her, but that was just semantics.

Cynthia turned to look at her cherished creation, her expression unreadable. “Is this true, 263?” The gynoid just stood there, staring down at the floor, like she had been caught doing something bad. Cynthia looked back and forth between us, and focused her gaze on the girl. “I’m talking to you. Evelyn XKQT-114 263, answer my question!”

She sounded like a mother spouting off her child’s full name before issuing punishment. The girl didn’t say anything. “263!” she barked, frustrated. I had never seen something like this before. I stood there a little puzzled. All robots, gynoids included, have to obey any command given to them by a human, well… not any command, but answering a question like this was one she would have to obey. And yet, here stood this scientist and her creation, resembling a mother scolding her teenage daughter and getting about the same response. It was a direct violation of the laws of robotics, unless I missed some fine text in there.

“Just answer her” I said softly. 263 looked up at me, a little surprised, but Cynthia stared me down, giving me the distinct impression that I was butting-in and should not put my nose where it doesn’t belong. Her stare lasted long enough, that 263 tried to tip-toe behind Cynthia toward the bedroom, like she thought she could get away. She wasn’t fast enough, and Cynthia turned around to catch her sneaking off.

“Where do you think you’re going 263? Don’t make me override your A.I. young lady!” I almost laughed at this, but 263 paused in her tracks, turned toward Cynthia, her head hanging low, and nodded to the affirmative, still clutching the shirt to her front.

I didn’t know what to expect from Cynthia after this, but what she did was the last thing I would have expected. She stood there with her eyes closed, adjusted her glasses, and sighed to herself. “I didn’t expect this day to come so fast!” she said softly to herself. “I was sure I’d have at least another year with her” she mumbled. “Go get dressed Honey” she said to 263, without looking at her.

She walked up to me, mumbling the whole way. “I suppose it was a good thing she did do that, I mean she would have subconsciously known she needed the protein to make her repairs, and where to get it. She needed to have something to help her with the repairs. There is no way she could have done that on her own without it. And I suppose it could have been with someone worse…” Behind her, Unit 263 kneeled down next to the short coffee table, and started to write a new note.

“I’m really sorry about everything…” I started, trying to apologize before she either got violent or lost her mind, I wasn’t sure which.

“There is nothing to apologize for, Exo. She is capable of making these choices for herself, although she is a little under-developed… mentally. No, you did everything you could to help her. I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at me. I’m the one that got her lost in the first place. I put her in danger, and could do nothing to help her. It’s my fault Rob is dead. It was my plan, and we screwed it up. If you weren’t there just at the right time, and in the right place, I would have lost her forever also.” She looked up at me, and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Without you, she’d still be lying there in that alley, or worse.” She paused for a moment, looking intensely at me, tears in her eyes. “Thank you for saving her.”

I was taken back. I didn’t know what to say, but somehow my mouth mumbled “Uh… sure. No problem.” How heroic.

She thought to herself for a bit. “Could I trouble you for a glass of water, while she and I talk?”

“Uh… sure. No problem.” A poet am I. I walked into the kitchen and got out some glasses to pour some filtered water for the three of us. I needed something besides soda in my system. I grabbed a slice or two of cold cut meat, and rolled it up, eating it raw. I didn’t want to bother making a sandwich right now, but the meat was tasty.

Cynthia walked over to the gynoid and talked in a quiet tone. The slow scribbling stopped, and a moment later, Cynthia answered. “I’m sorry, Honey. I wasn’t mad at you, or at Exo. I’m only mad at myself. I promise I won’t yell at you anymore.” A short while later, there was more slow scribbling on paper.

As I walked back in the room, I noticed 263 had put her shirt back on, although her shorts were still sitting on the table in front of her, while she finished scribbling away and handed the note to Cynthia. “No, I can’t just take you back. I have nowhere to take you to. The hideaway was torn apart by Marconi’s men. And we are living on the low ourselves” She answered. So she isn’t going to take her back?! Did that mean she is going to stay here? 263 stood up while Cynthia answered, and slid the shorts back on, not bothering to tie them. Before Cynthia even finished answering, the now dressed gynoid sat back down on the floor and started writing another note. “I just want what’s best for you, Honey. We need to find you a good master” Cynthia continued, while 263 wrote slowly. It seemed like it was going to take her a while to get used to writing; perhaps she would be better if she tried typing it in instead.

I placed the drinks on the small table in front of them, and took a seat on the couch. Cynthia took a sip, but 263 just ignored it and finished writing. She tore off the note, and handed it to Cynthia. “I don’t know, Honey. I have to think about it. I’m not convinced he can protect you like Tom and I can.” Before I could even react to that statement, the Evelyn model gynoid stood up, rushed into my office, and emerged again carrying my barely charged exo-suit. “What is that?” Cynthia asked.

263 tried to gesture, but looked to me for help. “It’s, uh… an experiment.”

“An experiment?” Cynthia replied, looking back toward me. 263 sat back down, and started writing another note.

“Well, it is my prototype for a new exo-skeleton suit. Err… a movement enhancing power suit. Kind of like what you see in the military, except smaller.”

“And what do you do with it?” Cynthia asked.

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out already.” I picked up the picture she put on the crowded table of me carrying 263 with my coat off. You could clearly see the suit, even though at that time it was not working. “It’s enhances my strength and speed. I was wearing it when I saved… uh… 263. Without it, I would not have been able to stop 4 armed thugs, who were probably on drugs.”

She gazed at the picture, finally understanding the odd device I was wearing, and looked back at the suite in comparison. “So you really are a vigilante. And here I thought I was just making it up.” Cynthia regarded the suit with interest. “So what else do you do, you know, besides fighting crime?”

I chuckled at the idea; me as a crime-fighter. “I am a robot repair technician. I specialize in android and gynoid repair and modification.” I stood up and walked to my office behind them. Cynthia stood up as well, and followed me.

I opened my office door to the warm glow of computer monitors, and flipped on the lights. Cynthia stepped inside, and looked around with interest at my cluttered collection of mechanical parts. A series of limbs hung from one wall, with wires and circuit boards cluttering the worktable beneath. Several broken androids and gynoids sat in one corner, while recently repaired and neatly bound models sat in the other, with one laying on a table on the opposite wall, in the middle of a repair. One damaged gynoid torso and head sat in the middle of the room on a stool, and computers lined the rest of the available table space. A variety of tools and gizmos were cluttered about the place, and an assortment of all kinds of robotic parts, from joints to eyes, filled the cabinets and tables. It was a tight fit for that much clutter, and usually it was less crowded, but it was comfortable. I knew where everything was, mostly, and didn’t need some complicated filing system to keep track of them.

Cynthia looked around, admiring the collection. I’m sure she worked with better tools than I could afford, and clearly she worked on better models, but it was my passion, and probably hers as well. She looked impressed, as she went from robot to robot, looking at all the repairs I made, and the tools I used. “Not bad. A little messy, but you seem to do good work here. What’s with the old gynoid on the chair there?”

“Oh that? It’s just a hobby. I found her while I was looking for old spare parts at the recycling center. You won’t believe some of the stuff people throw away. I had never seen a face on a gynoid quite like that before, and I have been working on fixing her up, but I’ve been so busy with my exo-suit, I haven’t really gotten that far yet.” I had planned to make that unit my personal assistant gynoid, but she was in such disrepair, I wasn’t sure she’d ever work again. She had no limbs, and part of her chassis was rusted, but it was repairable. I was determined to make it work, even if it took me a few years to finish.

“So that’s what I do. I customize robots, repair them, and even build them practically from scratch. I’m a freelance roboticist technician.”

“When you aren’t out fighting crime” she joked.

“Heh, Yeah, that and crime-fighting.”

We walked back out of the office, but Cynthia was greeted by another note from 263. I didn’t have a chance to read the note, as Cynthia quickly held it up to her chest after reading it. Her eyebrows arched as she replied. “Are you sure?”

“bbzzzt Yes!” 263 answered with a nod.

“What does it say?” I asked. 263 just blushed as she looked at me, but Cynthia discreetly pocketed the note in her jacket pocket and held my arm, leading me to a more open space. Cynthia turned to look at me, her eyes penetrating my skin. She looked me all over, and hummed to herself. I couldn’t help but feel like she was eye-raping me. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she came to a decision about me. I looked over at 263, who had taken a seat on the couch, watching us, and drinking her water with both hands.

“Do you like her?” she asked bluntly.

“Do I… uh…?” I responded, as poetically as possible.

“DO you LIKE her?” she asked again. I thought for a moment, and figured I had no clue what was going on anymore, and just answered.

“Yes. I do like her.”

“Do you want her to stay with you a while longer?” she asked, almost before I finished my answer.

“Um… I would like that, but…”

“But?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“But I’m not sure I am good enough to take care of her. I mean, what if something happened that I couldn’t fix?” I replied.

“tsk tsk tsk. I merely asked do you WANT her to stay with you a while longer?”

I thought about this. I did want her to stay. I wasn’t sure if I could fix her, or even afford to, if something else happened. I wasn’t sure I could dedicate the time she’d need. But I did want her to stay with me.

“Yes. I would like that” I replied, straight-faced. She thought for a moment more, and then gave me an approving nod.

“You seem to be a good man, with the drive to want to make a difference. You also have talent and did an excellent job fixing her injuries. I couldn’t have done much better myself. Plus, you can hold your own in a fight. You’ve already saved her life twice.

“If my daughter says she likes you, then I will trust her judgment and let her stay with you a little longer.” I got a little nervous when she said daughter. Even though Cynthia was only about 10 years older in appearance to 263, she was still, in all practical sense, her mother. Granted, they looked almost like sisters, but that was no problem for me.

“BUT” she interjected, staring into my eyes, “only on the condition that you swear to treat her with the respect and care of a regular human and that you do not treat her like a slave.” I nodded and muttered “I swear” as her gaze penetrated my eyes. With that, she smiled, and gave me a small hug. What a weird lady I thought to myself, but just smiled back. “We will be close by, and will check up on you every now and then.” Something was a little peculiar.

“But what about the…uh… on her… doesn’t she need to eat?” he asked.

“Yes… I suppose we’ll have to do something about that soon. And her voice box will need to be replaced too. We’ll be back later tonight to go over the details, but I don’t think there will be any problems.”

“What about the police?” I asked, still worried.

“I wouldn’t worry about it” she said. “They think you look like a character from Spy vs. Spy, and no one has seen the footage of your car. Besides, our associate has been pumping the police and media with false information. We weren’t sure if you were a threat, but finding her and keeping her away from the government and the mob were our highest priorities.”

“But… are you going already?” I said nervously. I felt like she just ran me through a rollercoaster of nerves, and was then going to dump her daughter on me in the end. While nothing had actually changed since this morning, my mind was working overtime trying to put this all together. I felt on the verge of shock. I glanced over at 263, who was still sitting, but she had a huge smile on her face, and looked like she was turning into a ball of energy, ready to explode with excitement.

“Relax. You can do this” she said, one hand on my shoulder. “I am going to trust you to take care of her. She is more special than you realize.” Her face became dead-serious, and her eyes penetrated me, again. In a hushed tone, she whispered, “Our goal, when we were designing her, was to build a gynoid that was as human as possible. Her A.I., EVE, doesn’t use the 3 laws. Well, it does, but they are more like guidelines. She can choose to ignore or violate any of them. This was essential to make her seem human, but it also means she is illegal. You are not in any danger with her, she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but it is against the law all the same. Whatever you do, you must protect her, and her secret.”

That put me over the edge. They had built a robot that could kill? The 3 law system prevented robots from allowing “humans to come to any harm through action or inaction”. Even though it is a guideline itself for the actual programming used to direct their moral choices as our robotic tools, this was the basis for how robots fit into our society. It was a federal offense to alter, remove, or tamper with the 3 laws code. But to blatantly exclude it? Then again, she said it was only a guideline now. However, this did explain how she was able to disobey commands given to her. I knew she was a sweet and gentle girl, but now I became even more nervous than before.

As soon as she had finished her serious nerve-breaking talk with me, she went over to 263, who stood up, and gave her a hug. “Now don’t you worry about your voice, Honey. We are going get that fixed up as soon as we can. I long to hear you sing again with your beautiful voice, and I’m sure Exo would like it too. It will take a few weeks to get it in, but be patient, Honey.”

“I’m sorry for everything that happened” Cynthia said a moment later. “I promise to make it up to you, but you have to be a strong girl now. Besides, now that you have a man in your life, I can give you some pointers.” She winked to her and started to whisper in the gynoid’s ear. I couldn’t make out much of what she was saying, but the expression on 263’s face was priceless. She went from all smiles and laughs to flushed red and quiet, and then to a phase of giggles. At one point, I heard the word “balls”, and Cynthia cupped her hand with a squeezing motion, and my face went bright red as well. This is the weirdest lady I have ever met.

After a few minutes of giggling, and the like, the two hugged closely. “I suggest you stay in for the rest of the day, until things blow over a bit more” she suggested. Noticing the dirty coat on the couch, which I never got to the wash, she picked it up and looked at the coolant-blood stains. “You really were a in a mess weren’t you?” she said quietly. “Don’t worry, I’ll have this cleaned and drop it off later tonight. Until then, think of a name for her, Exo. You can’t call her Unit 263 forever. And make it a good one.”

And with that, she left. 263 gave me a big smile, but my brain was operating on a different level at that moment, a stressful one. It took me a moment to realize something. My wallet was still in that jacket! I rushed to the door to call out to them, but before I could get their attention, I saw a silver car driving away with a big guy behind the wheel.

I glanced over at my car. “Geez… it really is puke-green”.

Chapter 9 - A day in the life...

My mind was a nervous wreck. I’m surprised I am able to think straight at all I thought to myself as I walked back into my apartment and closed the door behind me. In the last half hour or so, I had learned that not only was I dealing with a broken gynoid still in need of some repair, but I also had my picture all over the news, the police wanted me for ‘questioning’, the thugs I beat up are claiming I assaulted them unprovoked and kidnapped a girl, a strange couple who built said girl are on my case and have my wallet, the largest android manufacturer in the world (MMR, Man and Machine Robotics) was probably also looking for me, and somehow a mobster was involved, not to mention some anonymous third party has been throwing the police off my trail, and misleading the press, and I was still out of milk!

This day was turning out to be quite the stressful one, something I usually tried to avoid. There was a reason I worked at home on robots. I couldn’t stand office politics. Even in an environment where technicians fix robots all day, there are too many brown-nosing, butt-kissing, stab-you-in-the-back jerks to let you rest for one minute. I left that life style long ago, and struck out on my own, working for various small companies doing repair jobs and modification. My usual clients were hotels and restaurants, although I was known to work for individual clients and larger companies too. But today, all the stress I tried to avoid came flooding back.

I knew I shouldn’t have left my wallet in that coat. Last night, while I was fixing up 263, I drove to the store without my wallet. It was late, and I was in a hurry. The store was only going to be open for a few more minutes, and I had to rush to get there. It’s a very nice, very large store, by the name of MicroCircuit, which specializes in all things computer and robotics. Well not all things, the adult materials were never available in-store, but that is why they have a website. I even had a MicroCircuit credit card, which I used for most of my robot and computer purchases. I brought my MicoCircuit card along with me last night to purchase what I needed, but without my wallet; I drove there and back with no license on me. I just left my wallet in the coat ever since I got home.

Or did I? Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I had left it in my coat. Maybe I still had it on the counter. I remember putting the keys there, but did I have my wallet with it? I don’t know anymore, I can’t remember. I looked around my apartment for a bit to see if it was still there. It wasn’t. I couldn’t find my wallet at all. I must have either left it in the coat, or Cynthia may have spotted it, and pocketed it herself when I wasn’t looking. She sure had plenty of opportunity to do that. There was no way she was trying to scam me though. A good scam wouldn’t have taken an entire wallet without just asking for it up front in some kind of trick. Plus, it was all way too complicated for a scam. Blackmail I could believe, but she never tried to get anything from me, so that didn’t work either. It was either an honest mistake, or she grabbed it and left. But why?

My head was starting to hurt. I sat down on my couch, holding my head. I could feel my veins throbbing with pain as I tried to calm down and relax. Nothing I was doing was any help at all. I didn’t even notice it when 263 stood in front of me, apprehension on her pouty face. I did notice when she reached out and started to rub my temples. That felt pretty good. Her delicate fingers were cool to the touch on my skin, and she sat down next to me, giving me a massage on my temples. The more she got into it, the better I felt. I could almost feel the tension melting away as she focused on my forehead next. Slowly, she moved down to my neck, massaging my neck and shoulders with her delicate but firm fingers. She was good! I would pay for something this good.

Her massage really eased my stress, and I could feel my worries melt away. As long as she kept rubbing my muscles, I was going to feel good. It didn’t stop there either. I turned slightly away from her, as she started to massage my back and arms, eventually moving to my lower back. I moaned as she hit the tensioned areas of my back, releasing the stress and relaxing my body. She pulled me back and pushed me into the seat, sitting down on my lap, straddling me. She started to massage my chest and arms, and leaned in to give me a big kiss. It was a very sensual kiss, with lots of tongue. I melted into her as she massaged my mouth with hers, our tongues dancing together. Before I could open my eyes, I felt the brush of fabric against my face, and she sat before me, topless and exposed. Her face was in a girlish smile, flushed red, but with playful eyes. She knew what she was doing, and wanted me to take it easy as she pleased me.

I went to touch her soft milky-white breasts, but she grabbed my hand, and kissed it instead, placing it back on the couch as she slid off my lap. Sitting on her knees, she ran her hands down my chest to my stomach, and then lower to my pants. With a mischievous smile on her lips, she felt the growing bulge in my pants, running her fingers along it to feel out the size and shape of my penis. It felt good, but I wanted more. Her eyes gazed up at mine as her fingers started to pull at my belt, unbuckling it, and then undoing the button on my pants. She slowly unzipped my jeans with her mouth and pulled my pants open as wide as she could, gazing in at my underwear and my throbbing manhood within. Her delicate soft fingers pulled at my underwear, until my erect phallus popped out in front of her.

I didn’t know if I should be doing this with her. Her mother was just there, almost scolding me for the shower last night. I knew I would have no excuse this time, since the majority of her self-repairs were already finished. I tried to stop her, but she just put my hands back on the couch and leaned into me. She placed my erect penis between her soft, luscious breasts, rubbing her chest up and down against me. She placed her hands against her tits, pushing them together tighter against me, surrounding my manhood in soft, warm, fleshy goodness. I almost melted as she massaged me with her chest. I closed my eyes, and felt her rub her breasts up and down my shaft. My cock was throbbing with joy as I had my first titty-fuck ever. I felt her rub her boobs back and forth, alternating their motion, burying my dick inside her cleavage. I was in heaven, and it wasn’t even over yet.

Her tongue slid out of her mouth and licked the end of the penis as she stroked up and down, touching it briefly each time it emerged from her bosoms. She felt amazing, and my tension was rising again, but this time with pleasure and lust. She was driving me crazy, and I was ready to explode all over her. I heard her moan out a digital moan of pleasure as she worked my shaft, vibrating her chest and further enhancing my pleasure. Her nipples were fully erect by this time, and I could feel one of them rubbing against me as she squeezed her breasts together. She was amazingly soft and warm, and I loved every second of it.

At one point, she stopped, held still for a moment, her eyes racing side to side as though she were reading something in midair, and her head twitched slightly to the side. She did this a few times, but only for about 5 seconds, before she shook herself out of it, and gave me a smile again as she continued to pleasure me. I wasn’t sure what that was, but I saw her so something similar to that when she was giving me that blowjob last night. I hoped this wasn’t another bug I had to work out, so I reminded myself to look into it next chance I had.

To my disappointment, I didn’t last as long as I would have hoped. She felt too good, and before I could stop myself, I came all over her. She flinched as my ejaculation squirted out, getting on her face and all over her chest. With a sigh and a giggle, she licked up what she could from her body, and licked clean the head of my penis as well. She was still covered though.

“I’m so sorry! I just couldn’t hold it in” I said apologetically. She just snickered some more, and sat there on the floor, wiping some of my essence off her nose, and licking off her fingers. I fixed up my pants, putting my expended member away, and got up to grab a moist paper towel. I returned to see her now sitting on the couch, her back straight, and her chest sticking out, still covered in my warm goo.

“Here, let me get that for you” I told her as I sat next to her, using the moist towel to clean off her skin, and then tearing a square from the roll to dry her. I started to wipe up the residue on her face first. She closed her eyes tight, and wrinkled her nose as I wiped her clean. She was simple adorable, even though she was doing such naughty things to me. “Why did you do that?”

She looked puzzled at my question, and with a force of determination, replied “zzrrmm To help rrmm.” To help? To help with what?

“To help with what?” I asked, bluntly.

“bbzztt Relieve brrmm stress” she replied. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed this before, but every time she said something, she had to strain a little to do it. It looked like not only was her voice damaged from the blow to her neck, but it also hurt each time she tried to talk. Then again, she didn’t talk much, and perhaps the sound of her voice was only part of that reason. I felt even more sorry for her, knowing that she was in pain, perhaps real pain, and was trying to cope with it herself.

“You really didn’t have to do that for me” I replied, as I started to wipe off her neck and chest. It was true though, she did help relieve my stress. My headache was gone, and the rush of endorphins from her titty-fuck cleared away all the stress. I felt much better, but I wasn’t the only one feeling good.

As I wiped the spunk off her chest with the moist towel, I noticed she started to breathe heavier again, and her eyes closed a little, looking slightly out of focus. She was enjoying it as I touched her chest, and I hadn’t even cleaned off her breasts yet. Moving lower, I slowly and gently cleaned off her breasts as I watched her expressions. Her cheeks quickly blushed again and she stuck out her chest in response to my movements.

Having finished cleaning and drying her torso, I found I couldn’t stop there. I tossed the towels aside, and manually stimulated her body with my hands. She moaned as I started to massage her breasts. I was guessing that they had to be about a C cup, but I am not well versed in the ways of bra sizes. I was just glad they were not too small or too large. Her breasts were perfect on her petite body, and I couldn’t resist giving her a taste. I held her delicate back with one hand as I licked her breast. She arched her back as I did this, giving me the opportunity to lean into her more, licking her erect nipples.

Her body squirmed in place as I massaged her tits. She had completely closed her eyes, and her mouth was open as I sucked harder on her nipples. Her reactions were just amazing! She must have been horny for some time to be this receptive to me, or else she was well programmed in acting that way, but until I could register as 263’s master, there was little I could do to bring her all the way. However, this seemed to be doing the trick without all the work downstairs.

I continued to massage her breasts and to play with her nipples with my tongue as her digital moans and sighs grew louder. I held her body close to me, caressing her back as I ravaged her front. She arched her back, sticking out her chest even more, and squirming in pleasure. She was getting more intense now, but just as I thought I was going to get her to her limit, her eyes opened, and her head started twitching to the side. Oh crap! Did I just break her? I instantly stopped my advances on her as her motions became more mechanical, and her broken digital voice rang out “zzzt ERROR. Bzzzzt ERROR.” This looked like the same thing I ran into earlier, except much more severe. I didn’t know what to do, so set her down gently on the couch as she twitched.

“Hey! Are you ok? What’s happening?” I wasn’t sure what to do, except run a system check. Just as I got up to run into my office to grab my computer, she clenched her eyes closed, took a deep breath, and relaxed. She opened her eyes again, looked around, and sat up, taking more deep breaths. She appeared to still be turned on, but realized something went wrong. “Are you alright?” I repeated.

She sat thinking there a bit, and reached for the pad of post-its. I sat down next to her, as she started to write. She was frustrated, and tried to write quickly, but it came out messier than I would have expected, but still legible. She wrote “I got too excited.”

“Too excited? What do you mean? What happens if you get too excited?” I asked after reading the note.

She wrote down another reply, and I didn’t wait for her to finish before I started to read it. “I need a Master first. :(” She wrote this complete with the frowning emoticon. She was so cute! She was trying to tell me that something inside her was preventing her from getting too excited before she was registered. Damn! They really don’t want her getting off before she is owned by a master, do they?

We sat there for a little while, silent and a little depressed. I picked up her shirt and handed it to her, telling her to go ahead and get dressed again. She disappeared into the bedroom, as I washed up a bit and grabbed a light snack. I still had chores to do around the apartment, which I meant to do this weekend. Of course that was before I brought home an injured gynoid and all the trouble that came with her. I thought about that for a second. Was she nothing but trouble for me? So far she has used up my credit at MicroCircuit; used up 2 nights and a day and a half of my time; gotten me involved with the police, a gang of thugs, the mob, the MMR, and her crazy designers; plastered my image all over the news; she could snap and kill me at any moment; and used up my milk, sort of. Then again, she was also very sweet, sexy as hell, and gave a great blowjob. Not to mention it was nice just to have company, especially of the female variety.

As I pondered whether or not she was worth all the trouble she had caused, 263 walked back into the room. I was stunned to see she was still walked around topless. She came right up to me, and stood there, coquettishly. I was sure I told her to put her clothes back on.

“Um. Didn’t I tell you to get dressed?”

She nodded, with a feline smile on her face.

“So… Go put your shirt on” I told her.

She shook her head, with that same smile. She outright refused to put her shirt back on. She was defying an order, something I really ought to at least scold her about. Instead, I just watched her sensual curvy body, as she stood there with only shorts on, and finally gave in. “Oki Doki. I have some chores to do. Aren’t you cold?”

She shook her head again, and held onto my arm. Okay… a topless girl wants to do chores with me? She is totally worth the trouble.

For the next hour or so, we went from chore to chore. I started the laundry, she helped me finished it. I washed the dishes, while she dried them. I tidied up the place, as she vacuumed. I ogled her while she teased me. It was the most fun I had doing chores in my entire life! And it appeared that she enjoyed showing herself off to me too. I had more chores I had to do, but without my wallet and driver’s license, they would have to wait. As we folded laundry together, I started to wonder what would look good on her. I imagined dressing her up in a cute French maid costume, or perhaps a waitress outfit. Of course, the nurse theme is very popular too, but I think the school girl look would look great on her. It took me a second to realize these were all sexual fantasies, not actual things girls wear around the house or going out, but I could dream, couldn’t I? Besides, I’d have to get her out of the house sooner or later, she needed underwear and some proper fitting clothes, and I was still out of milk.

I made sure I got my exo-suit back in the charger again. I was hoping to try this out again in the near future, especially with so many obstacles popping up. You never know when you might need something like that for self-defense. I also decided to run a few tests on the broken gynoid torso in my office. I had been meaning to run some more diagnostics checks on that unit. Even though this unit had no skin or hair, it had a very cute face, and its chassis was soft to the touch, mimicking a skin-like surface. It was the best I could find at the time. Not exactly state-of-the-art, but still very pretty with a cute up-turned nose and a round custom-built face.

I had just connected this unit to the internet to download some protocols as well, when I got an idea. I called 263 over, which didn’t take long considering she had been following me around all afternoon. I couldn’t help but watch her boobs jiggle as she energetically approached me.

“Hey, uh… 263, can you access wireless internet?” I asked. I was hoping for a specific answer, like speed and whatnot. All I got was a shrug. Apparently she wasn’t even aware of her own capabilities yet. “Hmm, can you please show me all your connection ports for external devices?”

She nodded, and turned her head to the side. Behind her ear, a blue light appeared, forming a panel. Behind the panel was a series of standard connections. Mini-USB, Mini-HDMI, and optical connections were among them. She showed me her other ear, and she had even more connections here, such as a mini-eSATA port. I noticed another blue night on the back of her neck, and yet more connections, standard ones for gynoids and robots, were hidden here.

“Excellent!” I exclaimed, and motioned for her to follow me.

Sitting her down in front of my large screen, I rummaged through a box of computer peripherals I keep in the corner. I found what I was looking for, a miniHDMI cable. I grabbed a spare USB keyboard I kept around in case I needed it for just such a situation, and brought them over to 263. She sat on the ground, on both her knees, facing away from the TV. Handing her the USB keyboard, she plugged it into the miniUSB port behind her ear. The miniHDMI cable easily plugged into her head, and over to the TV behind her. As soon as I tuned the TV source to her, she had already recognized it and displayed on screen a basic OS startup screen.

Welcome to MMR GynOS 10.8b

GynOS is a specific operating system for the computer parts of a Gynoid. These OS systems allow the user to make customized changes of their gynoid model, such as adjusting the A.I. and personalities, and also to use any onboard computer equipment they may provide. Some androids and gynoids have fully capable computers in them as well as their own internal systems, so they can double as your personal computer and/or gaming machine. I always put a fully capable computer in the gynoid units I made, but not everyone likes that.

I recognized this specific OS as one still under development. Small text at the bottom confirmed it was part of a developer’s kit, which would allow 1st and 3rd party developers to work with the latest software before it is released so they can make sure everything is ready for a launch date. This version seemed very similar to others I had seen, but I wasn’t in the mood to go exploring throughout her head just to see the differences right now.

She was quite cute kneeling there in the floor next to the table, holding up the keyboard as though she were a makeshift desk. As soon as the welcome screen faded and the actual interface came up, and reached for a mouse that wasn’t there. Oops. I forgot to attach one. Before I could get up and grab one, she motioned for me to stay sitting, and a message appeared on the screen.

The message read: “You don’t need a mouse, you can just use your hand on the table or on my leg and I can track your movement and clicks.” At first I wasn’t sure if this was an automated message, or if she was talking to me through the screen. All I could do was say “Umm… Ok” and started mimicking moving a mouse on the table beside her. I would have used her leg, except it was not in a comfortable position for that sort of thing. As I placed my hand on the table next to her, I noticed the cursor start moving on the screen with surprising accuracy. Wow. She has a built-in mouse tracking system. Sweet!

The first thing I did was look through her system to see what her available features were. Unfortunately, I could not access the majority of her OS. Almost all the programs were disabled, and most of the control settings and preferences were locked as well. It appears I only had access to a bare minimum of features.

“Why is everything locked down on you?” I asked aloud, a little frustrated. It’s a bad habit, but I tend to talk to my computers as I work on them. Weird, I know.

Instead of a vocal or written reply, another message appeared on the screen. “I need to be registered to a Master first, before these features are unlocked”. She was talking to me through the screen. This is so cool!

“So what can your GynOS do until then?” I asked.

Another message popped up. “I can be set up to go online and access websites in safe mode, to better aid in registration, but I cannot download anything. :(” Again, she used a frowning emoticon face.

“Ok then, let me get you set up. Let me just bring up your network data.” I clicked over to the network control panel, and accessed her data. She was sporting a full wireless high speed data card, as well as cell network card that would give her access to the latest cell networks. Unfortunately, that still required at least a sign up charge, if not a subscription fee as well. The Wi-Fi would have to do for now.

I usually run a pretty secure system at my apartment. 2 wireless routers, which talk to each other and provide support and backup in case one is compromised, not only give me strong signals everywhere, but also work to triangulate where the data is being sent within the premises, and can determine if an intruder from outside my place is attempting to access my network. I also use physical address filtering, an old school technique but one that still works. This, of course, required I pull some data off my latest addition to my wireless family, so I can register that information as acceptable to the routers.

It didn’t take long, and with a quick reboot of the twin routers, I managed to gain access to the net through 263. When she first gained access to the internet, she gave a little surprised “Oh!”, as though she just realize she could access more data online now.

As cute as she was, it is just too hard to sit at that awkward position with a topless girl in front of you holding up your keyboard. I took the board out of her hands, and set it down on my lap, sitting back in the couch, comfortably. She gave me a surprised look, and I patted the seat next to me, indicating I wanted to her sit with me. She gladly complied and snuggled up against me as I typed away. The miniHDMI cable was fairly long, but this was the limit of that length. She could not stretch that thing any further, so I figured I’d either have to get her a wireless hookup to the TV, or a longer cable. But for now, she sat next to me with a cable running stretched from behind her ear up to the TV. I had to use her thigh as a mouse pad now, since the table didn’t work. So THAT is what she meant.

It was rather distracting having a topless girl snuggling against you, but then again, the internet is a bigger distraction. There were so many things I could do online, but I decided to play it safe for now. I knew she couldn’t download anything, but I didn’t want to be filling her head with too much crap anyways. So, I stuck to the news sites for now.

Cynthia told me I had been all over the news, front page material from what I understood. By the time I got around to checking out the articles on me, there were far more interesting and yet less important news to cover, so of course that news got pushed to the top of the page. However, I did find an article on the “mysterious man”, complete with a thumbnail of one of the shots I saw, blurry and obscure.

The report was full of inaccuracies, and while I was tempted to get mad at how wrong it all was, I realized, half way through reading it, this was the work of Cynthia’s associate who had been feeding bad information to the press. After reading over the article, it became apparent to me that there was no way anyone would link this eccentric weirdo to me. Most of the article painted me in a good light, but there were lots of opinions spread throughout that article that countered the positive and cast a gray shadow over the whole thing. The most interesting part of the article was the poll they placed at the bottom of the page, titled “You Decide! Hero or Menace?”. I was shocked to see that more people thought I was a menace than a hero. However, the vast majority of people were not sure. Doing some quick math in my head, I realized that even the poll was filled with false information, as the percentages added up to 105%. You’d think people would notice these things.

As I read the news and tried to keep up with current events, 263 snuggled closer to me. She gave out a little 'squee' of excitement when she saw herself in one of the pictures. I tried to concentrate on what I was reading, but as the afternoon drew on, her naked feminine form, combined with her close cuddling, left me on edge. She had given me a great experience only about 2 hours ago, but after an afternoon filled with heavy petting that ended unsatisfied and an energetic girl following me topless, I was too easily distracted by her, and she knew it.

Apparently, she was also distracted by me. Rubbing my hand across her thigh as a mouse pad was turning us both on, and she mewed as I dragged the cursor across the screen. I found myself moving the mouse a lot more than I normally did, just to get a reaction out of her. I was afraid, however, that she would get over-excited and have another freeze up like before. I did not want that, it freaked me out a bit. I didn’t want to break her! However, I soon found her hand rubbing against my thigh as I rubbed hers. She had no reason to do this other than the fact that she was horny, but we both knew what would happen if we tried to appease that need in her. On the other hand, she seemed to enjoy pleasing me and that did not freeze her up like last time, at least not yet.

I closed the window to the news article just as she opened my zipper. A second time in so many hours? She's really in the mood. I felt her thighs with my whole hand now, no longer mimicking the shape or function of a mouse. She felt good. Her hand reached inside my pants, and pulled out my hard member, again. She gently gripped my shaft in her dainty hand and started moving it up and down like a piston. I never had this much sexual contact by another in one day before. Or maybe I was just unable to satisfy her and she was still craving more. Maybe that is what has been wrong with me; I was never really able to please a woman in bed, but perhaps I could with her someday, or at least get better at it. Part of me wanted to push her away, but another part of my loved the fact that she was pleasing me so much, in so many ways. Besides, I couldn’t say no to that sweet innocent face of hers. I let her continue.

I unplugged the two cables from 263’s head, giving her better range of motion, stopped her from closing the panels. There was something exciting about seeing her electronics while she was pleasing me; something taboo. As she started to stroke me with her small gentle hand, I asked her to open up some more panels, so I could see inside her as she pleased me. At first she looked a little intrigued, but I think she felt that same taboo feeling, and another blue light appeared on her chest between her breasts. This panel was smaller than the others I had seen on her chest, and was not as deep. It revealed only a small panel with a few connections and a series of gauges and levels to read her various functions. I got excited as I looked inside her panels, and saw the various electronic parts she was made of. I wanted to try some more.

I placed my hand on her arm, and asked her to open those panels too. She smiled as she did, and kept stroking as more blue light appeared along her arm. I saw her skin separate, and reveal her inner mechanics. Plastic tubes and wires lined her artificial sinew muscles, alloy bones connected at the joint, circuits lined various components; she was a work of art inside and out. Her shoulders both separated from the rest of her skin, and raised bit, as though she was wearing shoulder guards. I couldn’t help but get even more excited as she ran her hand up and down my shaft. I could see how intricate her connections were, and how everything worked together as she stroked up and down my shaft. She got on her knees again, and brought her head closer to my penis, licking the tip of it. Her other hand started playing with my balls; something I was surprised to find turned me on.

It was not a very long time before her movements were too much for me to handle. The LAST thing I wanted to do was to get my cum inside her electronics, so I gave her plenty of warning this time. “You better close up ‘cause I won’t be able to hold back much longer!” She got the message, and closed up her arms, chest, neck, and head connections, and then leaned in to start sucking me more. Her tongue really did it for me. I exploded into her mouth as she sucked me dry. Since I had already cum earlier that day, it wasn’t that big of a load, and she managed to drink it all up this time, not spilling any on herself. She even licked me clean again afterwards.

For a while we just sat there, holding each other. I could tell she was frustrated, sexually, but she was trying not to let it get to her. She stayed in a good mood, and enjoyed the things we could do together. I couldn’t think of a better afternoon in my entire life. If only I knew then what was going to happen later that day.

It was starting to get dark, and I needed to eat. I knew she wanted to eat too, and with any luck, Cynthia and Tom would be back and we could get her set up and able to eat. I didn’t want to rely on that, but I hoped it would happen. I got up to go into the kitchen to start cooking when she got up and stopped me.

“I’m just going to make some dinner, what’s wrong?” I pleaded, wondering why she didn’t want me in the kitchen.

“brrmm Allow mrrzz me” she said, indicting she wanted to make dinner for me.

“Do you know how to cook?” I asked, a little surprised, since I didn’t see any cooking protocols in her programing before.

She shook her head. “zzzzt Internet”. I almost laughed out loud when she said that, but she was too cute to say no to. I decided to let her go ahead and try, although I was a little concerned with her using knives and stoves. I thought about keeping an eye on her, but since she was offering to cook, I really should do something else I had been trying to find the time to work on. Still, those knives looked awfully sharp.

“Maybe I should just…” I started to say, taking a step closer to the kitchen. She held up her hands and pushed against me to keep me out. I feigned struggling against her, and gave in. “Alright, alright. You win. But at least put something on, I don’t want you getting burned. And try to make it simple, nothing complicated.” She looked around a bit, and saw an old apron hanging in the pantry door. It was a simple BBQ apron that said “SCIENCE! It’s what’s for dinner”, and was covered in food stains. I should really wash my clothes more often.

She threw the loop over her head and tried to tie it in back. She still didn’t know how to tie a knot, so I helped her out. Her sexy naked back was still arousing, and I just wanted to hold her and caress her. As I finished tying the back, she stepped away and twirled in a circle for me to get a look at her. It was way too big for her, but at the same time, it was sexy! The top of the apron was so low, it just barely covered her nipples. She had plenty of side-boob poking out, which was dead-sexy. I was tempted to complete the sexy apron look by pulling off her shorts, but that would be rude of me. Instead, I gave her a playful slap on her butt. She giggled and started washing her hands before gathering ingredients.

“I’ll be in the office, be sure to let me know if you need anything.” I let her alone to make the dinner, as I continued working on the broken Gynoid still sitting on the stool. I left the door open so I could hear or smell if anything went wrong. Perhaps I was putting too much trust in this girl, but what’s the worst that can happen, right?

I spent the better part of 30 minutes hooking up my desktop computer to the various ports on the gynoid torso. By the time I started to run the tests I needed to make sure her complex gynoid brain was in good physical condition and was sending and receiving signals to the various body-parts, the robotic torso had probably 30 or so wires and cables connected to almost every part of it. They all ran to a central hub that handled all the connections, and relayed the signals to and from the computer. Actually, it would work with many computers, all linked together, but I didn’t want to spend the time setting up the connection. I could just get the test started, and let it run overnight, there was no need to speed up the process right now.

As I watched the amber eyes of the busted robot’s face slowly fade in and out with a soft glow, I could smell something good cooking in the kitchen; smelled like soup. So far so good. As part of the analysis, the computer would occasionally have a gynoid or android move part of its body, or perform some other physical function, to assure there was nothing wrong with the motion and interaction. On many gynoids, like this one, it would also test the lip-syncing of the digitally projected voice and the mouth. There is nothing more disturbing than trying to have a conversation with a robot when the mouth is not speaking at the same time as the words. The computer was just about to start the vocalization tests, where the robot would pronounce a series of simple and complex sounds, when I heard a groan and a thud in the kitchen.

Praying that this was just her being klutzy again, I rushed into the kitchen. Unit 263 lay on the floor, face down. She was breathing deeply, but was not making any other sound or movement. I quickly glanced around to see if she might have hurt herself on something, but everything looked fine. She was putting together a soup and a salad, both simple dishes, when she just collapsed to the floor. I turned off the stove, and knelt down next to 263, rolling her onto her back. She was hot to the touch, and her face was frozen in pain. What did I do this time? I lifted her up, and carried her to the couch, as she gained enough consciousness to hold on as I carried her. She was burning up! Unlike a human, a gynoid isn’t trying to fight an infection when its temperature goes up, although it’s hard to say what is causing it. Either she was suffering from some kind of virus, or I messed up something inside her. Without knowing what was causing her to overheat so drastically and so suddenly, I had little choice but to cool her down and shut off her processes.

I ran back into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of gallon-sized plastic bags, and filled them with ice. Pulling off the apron, I set the bags of ice against her body to cool her off. Her breathing became labored and her eyes remained clenched shut. Whatever this was, it hit her hard and fast, leaving me little time to think. I quickly ran back into my office to grab my computer to initiate an emergency shutdown of her system. Of course, it was still connected to the robot practicing its vowels. There were just too many connections attached to bother disconnecting them all, so instead I ran a full-stop to the tests, and carried the robotic torso, the cables, and the computer into the other room. I thought about just carrying 263 in there and running the tests in my office, but there was no place for her to lay down. The floor was a cluttered mess, and the only table large enough already had a gynoid laying down on it, in the middle of a delicate procedure I started on Friday and never finished. It would probably just be easier to bring the computer out to her.

The problem with having so many computers in a small apartment is that there are never enough outlets when you need one. The closest one I could find was in the kitchen, and that left the cables I needed to plug into 263 a few feet shy of reaching her. Of course, the shortest cables were the ones I needed, the rest of them hung loosely around the gynoid’s torso leaning up against the wall under my TV. Hurriedly, I cleared off the long but low and sturdy coffee table in front of my TV and laid her out on it. It might not be the most confortable, but it would work.

I yanked out the necessary cables from the lifeless torso, placed it on the couch, and got to work. The rest of the cords connected to the torso were longer than the short cables I needed, and remained connected to it as it lay lifeless on the black leather couch. I ordered her to open her chest cavity and her various connective ports. Her body complied, although I’m not sure her mind registered anything through the pain. I could practically see the heat waves emanating from her open chest. The ice wasn’t doing enough, but I had an idea that might work. I had seen this sort of thing done to computers on websites like Kludge and There, I fixed it, and while it seemed ghetto, it should work.

I rummaged through my closet briefly, and emerged a moment later carrying a fan. This was not just one of those room fans that give you a slight breeze every now and then as it oscillated back and forth; rather it was a highly efficient fan that could knock a man’s toupee off his head at 20 yards. Not that I had any experience with that, mind you. However, this was just what I needed to blow cool air into her body to cool her off even more. I plugged in the fan (which luckily had an extra-long cord), and set it on maximum, aiming straight at her heart. I noticed her heart was pumping faster than normal, this couldn’t be helped, but I worried about it nonetheless. I didn’t want to place any of the ice bags directly inside her, in case the condensation would not agree with her electronics.

It was helping, but it wasn’t enough. Her head was still not venting enough heat out, and I needed to get her entire body to cool down more. I lined her body with more ice bags, and started connecting the cabled to various ports in her chest and neck and head, leaving the unused ones connected to the female torso. She was still hot to the touch, especially on her head, and I was running out of ideas, and time. I finished hooking her up and started the computer, but I wasn’t sure it would help if she overheated too much and broke.

“I need to cool you off more! Aren’t there any vents or something you can-.” Just as I said this, her body reacted as if to a command, and several more lights appeared around her body, from her temples to her legs. With a slight whirring sound, a series of parallel slits opened along the side of her head, arms, and legs. Her shoulders also lifted at an angle slightly, separated from the rest of her arms, allowing for more heat to escape. I pulled off the untied shorts she still had on to let the vents in her hips and legs get more air, tossing them aside. Usually, when a robot has to open vents, it is automatic and does not need to be commanded or requested. It was odd that she only opened her vents when I suggested it to her. However, this was going to help a lot, and the effect was almost instantaneous. She started to relax more, and her labored breathing slowed. She was still in pain, but opened her eyes again looking around.

“vvzzz What zzrr happened?” she asked in a daze.

“You collapsed in the kitchen and are starting to overheat. I’m running a test to find the problem and fix it. Just relax now, and try not to talk.” She nodded slightly, looking straight up at the ceiling. I started the system analysis on the computer, and hoped I would find some sort of virus I could remove or a malfunction I could fix. But how in the world could a virus get on her in the first place? She told me herself she couldn’t download anything until I registered her. There were plenty of malicious viruses out there aimed at androids and gynoids. Some were made by religious fanatics that felt the entire humanoid robot thing, especially gynoids, were a travesty against god, but their heads were so far up their asses, they didn’t notice the multiple crimes against humanity they were made just to try to get their point across. But still, I doubt they’d be so tech savvy as to have hacked into an unregistered gynoid using a secure internet network.

It took a while to go through her systems, most of an hour, but the test results for a virus were inconclusive, and no physical malfunctions were detected. Inconclusive? What the fuck does that mean? I kept at it, trying different programs, looking for different problems, and analyzing different parts of her system. Everything either turned up negative or inconclusive. I stopped the tests for now, and brushed her hair, looking at her pained face. There must be something I can do. I couldn’t call Cynthia, she’d probably tear my head off, and Tom would most likely rip my arms out of their sockets.

263 looked up at me with her bright blue eyes. I heard a small digitized groan escape her lips, but she said nothing. She looked around the room, but her gaze stopped at the torso sitting on the couch near her. To my surprise, the broken gynoid’s eyes opened, and started glowing amber, fading in and out slowly. I looked back, and 263’s eyes were glowing blue and fading in and out in time with the other gynoid’s. It looked like they were communicating to each other through the cables that were still attached. Suddenly, the limbless gynoid opened her mouth and began to speak.

“I’m sorry for everything” the gynoid said, in a pretty voice, although the inflections were a little off.

The gynoid was not looking at me or anything, but it was talking just the same. I looked down at 263, and she was looking right back at me. I realized she had taken over the vocal systems of this lesser robot, and was using it to talk to me.

“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong” I told 263.

“If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have gotten mixed up in all this. It’s my fault the police are looking for you. It’s my fault your suit is broken” the surrogate gynoid said.

“Don’t you think like that” I argued. “What happened to you wasn’t your fault! I was out there that night to see if I could play the hero, and the police would have caught me already if it wasn’t for your friends helping me out. Besides, I’m glad I got to save you. You have made me very happy these last 2 days.”

She smiled at me, but it soon faded. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just didn’t want to be given away to that mad man, like all my sisters.” Sisters? She has sisters? “I’m glad you found me.” A tear fell from her eye, and I wiped it off for her. “Everything is so confusing. I’m scared, Exo. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right here for you. I promise I’ll keep you safe” I told her. I had no idea what kind of trouble she might be, if she managed to get through this, but I was determined to do the best I could to help her.

“I’m glad you’re here with me, Exo. It makes me happy to see your face.”

“Please, call me Danny. Exo is more of an alias anyway.”

“Ok, Danny. Strange, you have two names, and I still don’t have one.” She laughed, but it came out of the other gynoid a little mechanically. There was no pain in this voice, which was a little off-putting, and didn’t match the look of pain on 263’s face.

“I wish there was more I could do for you” I told her. She blinked away another tear, and smiled at me.

“You’ve already do so much for me, I can never repay you” her robotic interpreter said. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me already. I mean, you saved my life, twice! And now you’re doing it again. I’m not worth all this attention. It seems that as soon as I left the lab, the world started trying to kill me. You are the one ray of light that has kept me alive.”

I blushed at this. She was right though. If what Cynthia told me was true, they were taking her from their lab to hide her, when they started getting shot at, only to end up in a crash. Shortly after, she was assaulted by thugs, and almost died from her injuries. And now she ventures out to the internet world, and it tried to kill her as well. This was insane; she was only ever safe when she was with me, so far at least.

She continued talking in that pretty mechanical voice. “Thank you, Danny. All I want to do now is make you happy, although I guess I’m not in any condition to do that now. I’ve decided I want you to be my Master.”

“But we’ve only known each other for 2 days” I interjected. “I barely know you at all!”

“Yet you still risked your life to save mine” she said. She had me there. I blindly ran into a fight with no guarantee I’d win, just because I saw her there. I even knew she was a robot before I saved her. I really am hopeless. “I didn’t know what to do to thank you, so I did the only thing I could think of when we were in the shower. And again today when you were getting so stressed out. I can’t help it; you are all I can think about.”

She reached out and held my hand in hers as I listened. She was very emotional, and I held back my own tears as we talked. This wasn’t the end! I’m sure I could fix her. I had to think of something fast. There was something I could try, but I wasn’t sure it would work.

“Just hold on a little longer, I think I can at least buy us some time…” I started, letting go of her hand and working on the computer again.

“I’m glad mother- Cynthia liked you. It was good to see her again. I wish I could see Tom and Rob too.” Maybe she didn’t hear about Rob during my conversation with Cynthia. I never met the man, but he meant something to 263, and she didn’t know that he died. I didn’t have the heart to tell her now that he didn’t make it. “And I’m glad I can see you one last time.”

“Hey now, don’t say that! Everything will be fine. I’m going to fix this thing, and you’ll be yourself again in no time.” I tried to calm her down, as I prepared a program to run an emergency halt to her systems. With any luck, this would stop virtually all activity in her mind, and that should stop whatever this is from progressing any further. It wouldn’t fix the problem, and she’d be unconscious, but it would buy me some time. I prepared to activate the command as she spoke again.

“Please stay near me. I’m scared.” The voice coming from the gynoid on the couch had no emotion in it, and its face was blank as well. However, 263 had an ample amount of emotion in her face, and I couldn’t help but remain impressed at how realistic her expressions were, even though parts of her body were opened up, exposing her artificial nature. “Danny, I think I’ve fallen in Lo—.”

She stopped moving. My command had gone through while she was talking, and had just taken effect. Her heart continued to beat, and other vital functions remained active, denying her system a complete shutdown. I didn’t know what would happen if I did try to shut her down, she might not start back up in her condition. Plus, she has such sophisticated hardware, I wasn’t even sure if she was meant to be shut down and restarted, or even how to do it. This command would stop all higher functions, and keep any non-essential software from running. I programmed it to leave running only the most basic things, such as keeping her coolant-blood flowing and keeping her air supply going, and whatever else needed to be running to keep her systems cool. She would not be able to process any more commands unless I made them directly from that computer. It essentially put her into a dreamless sleep.

The last words she spoke hung in the air for a while longer. The gynoid on the couch stop receiving commands, thanks to the program, and its eyes faded out into a blank stare again. I wish she had kept talking, it was the first real conversation I had with her, and she was about to confess to me. It seemed a little fast to me, I mean I only just met her. Infatuation and lust often disguises themselves as love, and these things have a way of sneaking up on someone. And yet, thinking about it from her perspective, she had never met anyone outside the lab before. And with all the attacks made against her, I was the only man that has protected her and kept her alive so far. She had become emotionally attached to me. Granted, she was the most interesting girl I had ever met, and she was gorgeous too, but that is just the lust talking.

I wasn’t sure if I could really love her back. First, she isn’t even human. But aside from that, she was only in my life for 2 days, and I never really had the chance to know her. I had spent my time fixing her and keeping her alive. Today was the best day in my entire adult life, up until now. I was pretty sure I was getting emotionally attached to her as well, but it wasn’t love, at least not yet. It’s not like we can have kids anyways. That thought was awkward. Sure she couldn’t reproduce, but a lot of people are unable to have kids, so that was just a bad excuse. Something in the back of my head was telling me she was more than just a sex doll, more than just a robot, she was a living being. Perhaps she is the first mechanical living being; love or not, she was worth protecting.

My options were slim at this point. I had to do something fast, Cynthia said they’d be back later tonight! She didn’t give me any time frame, but just that they would be back. It was already dinner time, and they could walk in the door at any moment. I didn’t want to call them, and have them see their ‘daughter’ sprawled out on a table, broken. I had to do something else fast, something closer; I had to get help from something… or someone upstairs.

I decided I needed to give my neighbor, Jack, a call. I didn’t want to bring someone else in on this, but he was the best hacker I knew, and I needed just that kind of help fast!

Chapter 10 - Jack, be quick!

Jack answered his phone after only the first ring.

“’ello Danny-boy! To what do I owe the pleasure?” Jack answered. His British accent always made him sound superior, but perhaps it was his ego.

“Hey Jack. I’m sorry to call you soo late” I said. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, I mean… I don’t want to disturb you when you have a *ahem* lady-friend over.”

Jack was known to have a different girl over at his place every other day. He had a thing for blonds, but he wasn’t biased by any means. You’d think a hacker would be the kind of guy that would have no social life, no love-life, and no hygiene. Jack was THE exception to this rule. Not only could he hack his way into secure government and private networks, but he also knew how to hack his way into girls’ panties. He lived one story up from me. I felt sorry for the guy that had to live directly under him. The noises he must make at such odd time… Luckily, I lived one apartment over.

“Not at all, Danny-boy! I was just hacking meself a bit ‘o fun. So to what do I owe this occasion?” Sometimes I couldn’t tell if Jack was being an ass, or just friendly. He had always been nice to me at least, so I like to assume he was just egocentric but a nice guy.

“I need to ask you a big favor”, I replied. “A friend of mine is in serious trouble, and I need your help to save her.”

“Her?” Jack sounded almost shocked, almost. He didn’t fake it well enough, and he clearly had the wrong idea. “Well it’s about time you got some action going on down there. I was right down worried you had lost your mojo. Your good ‘ole friend Jack is here for you! What do you need mate? A bit of romantic advice, or perhaps a sensual mov-“

“Jack, I need your help to save her life” I spat. I normally wouldn’t mind letting him babble, it was actually quite fun to hear. However, today was not the day, and 263 was in serious trouble. “I need you to help me hack into her system.”

Jack laughed nervously for a bit. “What are we talking about here, Danny-boy? Did she lose some files in her computer because I told you I ain’t-“

“No”, I interrupted. “She’s sick, I think she caught a virus, and I need you to find it and stop it.”

Jack was silent, finally realizing what I was talking about. “Danny, are you telling me you have a broken fembot in your apartment you want to ‘save’?”

“Yes, so to speak” I replied bluntly.

“Oh, alright. Better fembots and gynoids than R2D2, I suppose” he said. I was a little surprised to see how easily he accepted the idea, but I never really did know what to expect form Jack. I suppose that as long as it was female, he was fine with it.

“So you’ll help?” I asked.

“Sure thing! Just give me a tick and I’ll be right down.”

I thanked Jack, and we hung up. It didn’t take me long to realize the biggest womanizer I ever knew was about to knock on my door any second from now and see a naked girl laying on my couch. I had to do something. I was concerned that if I put a blanket over her, she might overheat again; blankets don’t breathe that well. I ran into the linen closet, and pulled out a bed sheet. I tried my best to make sure she was covered modestly in the sheet, with most of her access panels closed and the wires running along the ground. I couldn’t help but notice her particularly feminine curves outlined in the sheet covering her. I didn’t have time to do anything better; Jack was already knocking at my door.

“Hey there, Danny-boy!” Jack exclaimed as he walked in my door. Jack was 6 foot nothing, thin but athletic, with a stylish ‘can’t be bothered to do my hair’ look. His jet-black hair and green eyes were always a hit with the ladies, but I think his fashionable clothes really got them hot and bothered. He looked like he belonged in a British fashion snob magazine, although I did have to wonder if he read them. His glowing bright smile defied the very image of poor dental hygiene most English citizens were plagued with.

He stopped in his tracks just as soon as he was clear of me, and stared down at the girl on the table breathing shallowly. The tips of her breasts pushed against the thin sheet and I feared he would make a move on her instinctively. I managed to close most of her large panels, even though I was afraid she would overheat, but that only made her look more appealing. The sheet showed off her feminine figure nicely. Jack put on a professional face, and cleared his throat. “Now she’s a dish!” he said in a low voice. “Not normally into the whole robot thing meself, but it’s horses for courses I suppose. What’s the situation then?”

Jack’s British accent was always fun to listen to, but I was never really sure if it was genuine, or where he was from at all. I didn’t even understand everything he was saying; Horses for courses? He refused to tell me anything about his past, or pretty much anything at all. I decided to treat him the same way, but somehow he managed to learn everything about me without my consent. The most information I ever got out of him was his online alias, and that fact that he calls his home “The Island”. Whatever that means.

I gave Jack the basic rundown, leaving out anything too incriminating, or private. He got the idea that this gynoid, whom I helped, has an overheating problem and I can’t stop it, and that I suspect it is related to the internet. That was all I could figure out, which was why I needed to call him. Jack nodded and gave the occasional “hmm” as I got him up to speed.

“So she’s the one you were carrying in that photo. I thought she looked familiar.”

“Wh-What?” I asked, realizing he was talking about the news reports online. “How did you…”

“Don’t blow a gasket now! I’m the only one who would’ve recognized it was you. Your hat gave it away.” I was stunned. What was I supposed to say? Knowing a little bit about Jack’s past was enough to know that he wouldn’t want to get involved with the police, so surely he wasn’t going to turn me in, right? As I tried to question him more on the topic, he shrugged me aside and rolled up his sleeves.

“Just relax Danny, we’ll have this all figured out in no time.” Jack cracked his knuckles, and sat on the chair beside 263, facing the computer I had hooked up to her. “Let’s get to work and see if we can find this mysterious virus that plagues her.” Jack pulled a small drive out of his pocket, and connected it to the computer. I had never seen him actually do his work before, I mean not like this. I had seen him hack into a computer through the net before, but never something this local or this complex.

“What is that for?” I asked him, looking at the small flat drive he connected to the computer.

“What, this? It’s my magic wand” he said in a spooky ethereal voice, as if it had magic power to it. “Nah I’m just toying with ya. It’s just a drive that gives me access to most the tools I need for something like this. It almost always does the trick.”

As soon as he connected his drive, about 2 dozen icons showed up on my computer at once. He opened about half a dozen of them, and started navigating through various menus and windows. Apparently accessing a gynoid was not as hard as I thought it would be for him, but then again, he is the best hacker I know.

I grabbed a smaller laptop I used for servicing androids in the field, and connected it to her as well. I made sure to use one of the connections behind her ear, so as to keep as much of her covered as I could. I might have trusted Jack with hacking, but with women it was a different matter. I hooked in and booted up, and observed the data incoming and outgoing. None of the data was accessing the net anymore, and she was processing very little herself. The computer Jack was using was directly connected to her and was doing the majority of the processing. I could see the data transferring back and forth. I noticed that her eyes were glowing, but only dimly, as he transferred data. I decided it was best to disconnect the gynoid torso she had been talking through before, and put her away. I’d look more at that gynoid later, to investigate the connection 263 made with her, but right now Unit 263 was my main concern.

“Well I’ve got good news and bad news mate” Jack said after half an hour.

“What’s the good news?” I always liked to hear good news first, just in case they are lying about the good news.

“The data corruption has stopped, and nothing is being sent online to anyone from her.” I was glad he wasn’t bluffing about the good news.

“And the bad news?” I clenched my jaw waiting for the word.

“About 20% of her data has been corrupted, and I can’t find the specific program that gave out the corruption command to remove it. As soon as she is back on, it will pick up where it left off.” I was expecting something like that, but I was sure Jack could do better. I exhaled slowly, trying to look calm but instead it came out as a nervous gesture.

“What do we do now then?” I asked gravely.

“We could sell her for scrap parts. I know a guy-“

“WHAT?!” I snapped.

“Kidding, mate. Just a joke. Having a bit of a laugh. I found out what it is, I just can’t find where it is” Jack said defensively.

“And how does that help us?” I barked. I tried to stay calm, but clearly the stress was getting to me again.

“It’s a Trojan Horse program. It’s probably been sitting in her for days, even months. Who knows? But it was activated when she went online. Knowing that, I can find it with a different program than what I have here. I should even be able to stop it. I just have to go upstairs to get my laptop; I can pop back down here in a jiffy!” Jack was always smiling, and this was no exception. I figured he was right. All I had to do was let him get the rest of his equipment, and she’d be fine in no time. I hoped.

I was still worried about the 20% corrupted data on her. I didn’t know what that could have done to her. Would she be able to start up again? I decided to take it one obstacle at a time. Jack was up to his feet and gone in a flash, slamming the door behind him. I could hear his feet pounding up the stairway outside as he sprinted for his door to look for his laptop.

I sat there next to 263, looking at her face. Her eyes were mostly closed, although the little I could see was still faintly glowing blue. I brushed her hair out of her face. I never really noticed how cute her haircut was. It was relatively short for a girl’s cut, just about long enough to touch her shoulders. It was a little longer in front than it was in back, and it had a layered look to it. It made her look rather sweet and the hint of red in her hair really brought out the freckles in her face. I just sat there admiring her beauty, not sure what else to do or think. I just wanted to help her, but I didn’t know how.

There was a polite knock on my door. Strange, why didn’t he just come right in? I thought to myself as I got up to let Jack back in. Maybe it locked behind him? To my surprise, Cynthia and Tom stood at the door. Cynthia was holding my coat, now wrapped in a plastic bag, and Tom had a large metal case. It was now too dark for sunglasses, and I finally got to see the big guy’s eyes. I was surprised to see how friendly and warm they looked.

They greeted me with a smile, but my shocked expression must have tipped them off.

“What’s wrong?” Cynthia asked, worry in her voice. “Did something happen to her already?” I couldn’t answer; my mind was just drawing a blank. They walked in beside me, and instantly spotted 263 laying on the table in the middle of the room. I let the door close behind them, but wasn’t sure what to do or say. “Oh my- goodness. What happened to her? 263 can you hear me?” Cynthia said as she ran to the gynoid’s side, dropping my coat on the couch. She was panicked, but managed to keep herself under control. “Daniel, what happened?”

“I- I-I think…“ I stammered. “I think… it was a virus” I finally sputtered out. I was holding back the tears; I must have gotten too attached to her in the last 2 days.

“But that’s impossible. She couldn’t have downloaded anything until she’s been- you didn’t already register her, or do anything weird to her, did you?” Cynthia raised an eyebrow as she scowled at me. Tom just stood there silent, as though he was still in shock.

“N-No. I didn’t do anything like that” I said. I didn’t want to mention that she already gave me a titty-fuck AND a hand-job since they last saw her that morning, I had to have some taste. I mean, was that what she meant by ‘weird’?

Cynthia sighed apprehensively, the wheels in her head turning. She felt the girl’s cheek, and instantly realized she was overheating. “Could be a physical problem, maybe something shorted out inside her?”

“No, Jack and I already tested for that and couldn’t find anything wrong with her physically” I said, too caught up in the moment to realize I just admitted to showing her off to a stranger.

Cynthia glared at me. “Jack? And who is this Jack, Daniel?” I stuttered, trying to think of an excuse. Tom put down the large metal briefcase, and sat on the couch next to 263, as my mind scrambled to come up with something. Opening up the case, he pulled out a laptop, and some wires. Carefully, he lifted up her head, and slid one hand under the sheet over her belly. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but before I realized it, he had a wire running from the back of her neck to the laptop in his lap, which was just starting up. He looked at my smaller laptop sitting next to him, and unplugged it from behind her ear, placing it on the floor beside the long couch.

I figured I had no choice. They had trusted me so far, and I had done my best to help her. They deserved the truth from me, and I was afraid lying would only make things worse. “Jack is a friend who lives upstairs. He’s the best hacker I know.”

“A Hacker?!” Cynthia exclaimed. Her reaction was a mix of fear and shock, or at least that’s how it looked to me. “Why would you want to get a hacker involved!?” She was about to start ranting, so I interrupted her before she could.

“I didn’t want to, but I needed to. She was overheating, and nothing I did could stop it! I didn’t know what else to do, I had to act fast. And besides, I trust him.” I trusted him as far as I could throw him, but I also trusted that he could do what needed to be done. That and he owed me a favor anyways.

Cynthia stood there in silence, not sure what to say or do. Very soon she would meet Jack, and I wanted to make sure everyone got along. 263 needed the help. Maybe I should have called them instead, but he got there fast, and already made more headway than I did.

“Look, he’s a good guy” I said, trying to defend him. My mind was not thinking clearly, but whose would when the designers and builders of the most advanced robot in the world which you just broke are sitting in your living room? “He has a reputation with the ladies, but he can hack into any system I know. He once downloaded a movie off the internet”.

“So?” Cynthia spat.

“He ripped it from the studio’s computers while it was still in post-production” I elaborated. It was true. The biggest blockbuster of the summer was his evening’s entertainment in the spring, and he invited me to watch. It was rather painful to see, since many of the scenes were incomplete or missing, some parts were out of order, and the final editing wasn’t done. But he did it, and was never caught. I don’t encourage him to do that sort of thing, those movie makers spend a lot of money and time to make these films, so I made sure I saw it when it was released in theaters, twice! It was much better once they finished it.

Cynthia paused; her brow furrowed in thought. She started to speak when I heard loud pounding of feet coming back down the stairs outside. Before I could do anything, Jack flew in the door.

“Got it, Danny-boy. She should- oh!” Jack paused in his tracks, like a deer in headlights. He was surprised to see two more people in my apartment, one of them giving him the evil eye. “I didn’t know you had company over.” He looked over Cynthia. She was older than him, but apparently that didn’t matter. “Hello there gorgeous” he said to Cynthia, laying his accent on thick. Evil eye or no, a female was still a female to Jack. “They call me Jack. Jack-”

“Jack the Ripper. Ripper Jack. Yes. I know who you are.” Cynthia said, matter-of-factly. Tom stopped what he was doing, and turned to face the newcomer with eyes wide open.

Jack stuttered. “H-Hey now. You- you aren’t coppers are ya?” he said, nervous tension rising in his voice. His smiled faded as he put up his hands in defense, and started to back his way toward the door.

“No Jack. We aren’t the police. We aren’t here to arrest you.” Cynthia relaxed her gaze on him, a sly smile parting her lips. “I’m surprised you don’t recognize us.”

Jack stood there a bit, looking back and forth between the two of them, and then back at 263 on the table. “Wait a second… Do you mean to tell me that you’re Lady Synth?” Lady Synth? What the hell? A smile ran across his face again. “Then this bloke must be Mot!”

What the hell are they talking about? Jack was practically bouncing as he gave Cynthia and Tom a big handshake. As Tom stood up to greet Jack, the size difference was more than apparent. “Blimey, he’s a big bloke, isn’t he?” They were smiles all around, as they greeted each other as though they were long lost friends.

“Excuse me. What’s going on here?” I asked impatiently.

Daniel,” Cynthia started, “you remember the ‘associate’ I talked about you helped us find you and spread all that phony data to the press and the police? Well that was Jack! I knew it was him when you described his movie hack. Jack’s infamous for that one. Although we know him as RipperJack, or Jack the Ripper. It’s his-“

“… online alias,” I interrupted. “Yes, I know. We’ve hung out a few times. So you mean to say that the very guy who has been misleading the police and lurking in the shadows giving the public a false impression of me was you!?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slug the guy or hug him. Maybe both.

“Well, yeah. Big surprise! You know, Lady Synth and I have never met before, well not in person” Jack said. “I know these two as Lady Synth and Mot. They’re good folk. We talk online, and I’ve helped them out a few times.” I decided to take this on good faith. It was a bit of a shock, but if Tom and Cynthia were ok with him, I suppose I was out of the hot water.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, assuming those lame names were more aliases. Then again, mine was just as lame…

“We’ve talked online in A.I. forums and the like” said Cynthia. She was suddenly very friendly, and seemed glad to see Jack there, but I felt they were forgetting something. They made their own introductions to him, with their real names this time.

My small apartment was getting very crowded. I usually didn’t have more than 2 people over, and here I had already doubled that number, and that was just in the living room. I hoped no one else would show up tonight.

“Now I know why you go by Lady Synth.” Jack was doing was Jack did best, getting on their good side through flirting. They continued to chat together while I tried to focus my attention back to the matter at hand. Maybe they were just too easily distracted with each other to remember why they were all here. I sat down at the computer terminal trying to get access into 263 to see if there was anything I could do at all. I noted a graph on the screen that showed her data corruption. It was slowly growing!

Their attention was quickly diverted back to Unit 263 when she suddenly gasped in pain. Jack jumped 2 feet in the air; he had never seen her move before. We suddenly became aware that she stopped breathing completely after her gasp. Cynthia and Tom jumped into action, and Jack followed suit. Connecting into her head, Jack powered up his laptop, and started typing away. I gave the terminal to Cynthia, and I monitored the situation (a fancy way of saying “stayed out of their way”). She was still burning up, and with that sheet covering her, less airflow was getting to her.

The melting ice packs left wet spots on my carpet, so I proceeded to line the area with towels to pick up any moisture from the ice bags. I refilled the ones that melted the most, and Tom came over to help me. Tom was a really big guy, but despite his appearance, he was actually very gentle. He had a very concerned look on his face, and wanted to do whatever he could to help. I felt the same way. Tom and I talked briefly while we cleaned up the water and refilled the ice.

“So Tom, what is it that you do exactly?” I asked.

“Lab assistant” he replied in his deep voice. It was a strong voice, and you would have expected more emotion in it based on the look in his eyes. He managed to keep his voice calm at least.

“Really? But you’re Cynthia’s husband right?”

“Yup.” Tom was a man of many words apparently.

“So what do you do as a lab assistant?” I knew where this question was going.

“Assist in the lab.” I couldn’t help but laugh at this. Tom managed to crack a smile too and finally opened his mouth to say more than 5 syllables. “I mostly help with the physical labor. I usually work on building and repairing the robots and managing the heavy equipment.” At last his size made sense. Or at least more sense. His job actually sounded very important, something that should have been given to someone higher than a lab assistant, but I didn’t want to question their advanced lab’s politics.

We decided that, despite Jack, it would be best to take the sheets off her, to give her more air to ‘breathe’. I took it upon myself to make sure that at least her breasts and crotch remained covered, so I got out some towels, and made sure to cover her up as Tom pulled off the sheets. I caught Jack taking a peek at 263, but an error on his screen kept him from being too distracted.

With fresh ice in place, the fan blowing on high, her vents and a few ports open, and the sheet removed, we were finally able to cool her down enough that she started breathing again. Apparently, she only needed to breathe in order to control her heat, expel small amounts of waste, and provide oxygen for her nano-bots to operate. She could hold her breath for a very long time, so she was in no danger of any permanent damage despite how long she had stopped breathing.

Tom resumed his position next to her, but instead of picking up the laptop, he handed it to me, and pulled some tools out of his case and started tinkering inside 263’s torso, through a port on her side. I didn’t see how, but he was managing to open ports on her without giving a verbal command. I looked at the laptop screen, and it was obvious that this was a customized computer designed to work exclusively with 263. It was her support, and I could see it monitoring all her systems, better than anything I had worked out so far. No wonder he tossed my dinky laptop aside, this thing could process circles around it and was getting a much faster and better connections with more data. Tom had made himself as helpful as he could by busying himself inside her chassis.

“So THIS is the infamous EVE is it?” Jack said with a grin.

“Yes, but why are you looking in there? Her A.I. shouldn’t have anything to do with this.” Cynthia seemed concerned that he was snooping, and she had every right to be. He was a master snooper.

“Well, I did a thorough search of her entire system, and I can find no viruses or programs that can be causing this problem. Therefore, it must be in her A.I. It’s the only place left to look!” Jack was on the right track. We had done a thorough scan before, and he did another even more thorough scan just now. Whatever was causing this problem was either going to be in her A.I. or in her operating system. They had to look someplace where they hadn’t already searched.

Cynthia seemed nervous to have Jack looking around inside 263’s head like that, and doubled her efforts to find the offending command. Apparently, she realized the same thing he did, but instead of looking in her custom-made A.I., she looked inside her generic OS. GynOS was an excellent operating system, and I could not think of anything that would cause a problem like this. However, I had to remind myself that this was not just a regular release of the OS, it was an unfinished released, probably an Alpha or a Beta release. It could have bugs lurking inside.

It didn’t take Cynthia long to locate it, once she knew where to look. “I found it! It’s part of the registration system, but it is a separate program. I knew it! I’ve heard of this before!” Jack started navigating his attention to the section of 263’s OS that Cynthia had pointed it. Sure enough, he saw it too. Now that they found it, they had to stop it! But as part of her OS, that would be a challenge.

“What do you mean you’ve heard of this? What is it?” I asked.

“All the newest gynoids under development at MMR (Man and Machine Robotics) are equipped with a special version of the OS, which comes with a kill switch in it.” Cynthia never looked up from her work as she talked. “As soon as a stolen or illegally obtained gynoid running this system gets online, they send out a “ping”, which activates the kill switch, and destroys the gynoid from the inside out. First all the data is corrupted, and then it overheats the body until it is a pile of junk.” No wonder her vents didn’t open on their own, the program was trying to break her.

“STOLEN?! Wait a second! What do you mean stolen?” I asked, loudly.

“She’s not stolen, Daniel. And she hasn’t been illegally obtained either” Cynthia replied. “Not exactly” she mumbled.

“So why is the kill switch going off?”

“It’s a long story, and I need to concentrate. I’ll tell you later ok?” Cynthia typed away at the keyboard some more, ignoring my protests.

“We didn’t steal her, we saved her” Tom said. “It’s all my fault really. It started a long time ago, back when I was caught up in the mob. Don’t worry; I wasn’t a hit man or anything like that, I was just a bodyguard. But I had seen things I didn’t want to see. It was almost 10 years ago when I met my wife, and she convinced me to try to get out of the mob. It isn’t easy to get out of something like that, but with the help of the boss, they let me go on my way. However, not everyone was happy about that, and some of them still hold a grudge against me. I’ve kept low, and made sure we were safe, before we started working at MMR. I could only get a job as a paid intern, as Cynthia’s lab assistant, thanks to my troubled past, but we were happy and making a difference.

“We started working on the Evelyn series with another scientist, Rob. The EVE A.I. was so advanced, that we had to keep parts of it a secret even from our superiors. Unfortunately, once they caught wind of the true potential of EVE, they pulled the plug on the entire project. The Evelyn series was only ever designed to work with the EVE A.I., so we were ordered to destroy all our hard work, all our love and attention. They wanted to destroy all our robots. That was just too much for us, so we faked their destruction, and hid the four of them in our own lab. But without any funding, we couldn’t afford to continue our work on them.

“That was until Rob approached us with an offer from a 3rd party. They said they wanted to help us finish our work, and they would have the distribution rights. With all the money they were paying us, we didn’t ask any questions, we just worked on our little family. When we had finished the first 3 prototypes, we were approached by the son of the mob boss I used to work for, a man named Joey Liberati. Apparently, his father died, and he became the new boss. To my dismay, this was the man who fought against my leaving the company. He said I turned my back on them, so he was going to take everything I had. As it turns out, he was the benefactor who paid for us to finish our work!

“They took our 3 oldest, and turned them into sex slaves, working in his night clubs! It pains me to see what I’ve done to them. It’s my fault they ended up this way. He closed off what they’re capable of, and turned them into mindless dolls. He was getting his revenge on me through them!” Tom’s rage was growing in his voice. I realized he lost so much due to a bad choice he made when he was younger, and he was still suffering from it. “Rob managed to hide 263. She wasn’t finished, and we didn’t want him to have her too, to turn into a mindless slave, prostrating herself for his amusement.

“We spent as much time as we could to finish building her, but we couldn’t risk spending any more time or money. Our funding dried up, and Liberati caught wind of our scheme. He came looking for 263 last week, and so we devised a plan to hide her, and keep her safe. On our way to the hideout, we were ambushed by Liberati’s men. We managed to shake them off, but Rob was killed, and we crashed. You should know the rest of the story, since you are the biggest part of it.”

I listened to his story carefully. He clearly thought of their creations as their own children, and yet, I had heard nothing about them having any human kids. I was moved by the tragedy of his story, and I was only glad to be able to help 263 as much as I did. She was all they had left, and yet I felt guilty knowing that I was taking her away from them too. I thought for a moment.

“So why did the kill-switch activate?” I asked.

“She was the last of a line of gynoids that was ordered to be destroyed. MMR probably put their model numbers on the kill list, just in case something like this happened” Tom explained. I realized that while she was not stolen technically, she was still illegal. I mean, is what Cynthia told me before was true, she was capable of breaking the 3 laws, and that made her illegal by itself. It worried me a little, and yet, something about her made me feel it was worth protecting her, as they had done before me.

“Is there a way around that? I mean, what do we do once we get her fixed again?” I was impatient, perhaps anxious as well.

“I think so, mate” said Jack, still typing away. “And I think we… just… about… got it!” He wore a big smile as he hit the enter button for dramatic effect.

“Got what?” I asked.

“We’ve just killed ourselves a Trojan Horse.”

Continued in Exo Saves the Day - Chapters 11-20

Exo Saves the Day - Chapters 1-10

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