The Repair Shop - Part 1

The Small Business Chronicles: The Repair Shop - Part 1

Chapter 1: Clientele

“Jack, your clients have arrived,” Rachel’s voice sounded over the intercom in Jack’s lab.

“Alright, I’ll be right up!” Jack responded. He quickly tidied the place up, putting various computer and cybernetic equipment away and putting his computer station in standby mode. After placing a blanket over a human-sized android skeletal structure he had been working on in the corner of his work room, he brushed the residual dust off his clothes and then headed towards the lift.

The lift made its usual efficient climb up to ground level, and emptied into the office of the shop Jack owned. Unlike the last time, the office was in a state of semi-construction, with the wall where Rachel’s desk used to be knocked out and being readied for the addition that would connect it to the motel next door, the motel Jack had finally acquired (legally) a few weeks earlier.

The gift shop that Serriah would be working on had been mostly finished, and they were already starting to sell some of their new products. Still, as much as the shop made, Jack’s true passion still lay in the android repair business, and as the only five-star rated technician, not to mention the only technician, in an area where over 100,000 people lived, roughly a third of which owned some sort of android, he made quite a bit of money from his own business.

With the changes to the office, Rachel’s desk was now on the opposite side, to the left of the lift doors and next to the door leading into the new gift shop. There were two people sitting across her desk, an older man and a young man. There was a third person standing passively next to the young man, a young woman who was most likely the android they were paying Jack to fix.

“Sorry to make you wait, I had a few projects I had to secure,” Jack apologized, approaching the desk and taking a seat next to Rachel. He usually had Rachel sit in because she could remember all of his legal information in case a client was picky. “It’s Mr. Jacobs, right?” Jack would normally use a first name basis, but since the client was both rich and sitting next to his son, he chose to be more formal.

“Yes, and it’s no trouble at all, I hear you’re the best,” Mr. Jacobs said, leaning over the desk and shaking Jack’s hand.

“I take it you’ve already acquainted yourselves with Rachel, my secretary unit,” Jack said.

“Yes,” Mr. Jacobs said, “She seems very well maintained and adequately programmed,”

“Thanks,” Jack said, meanwhile Rachel gave a very well programmed blush as they spoke kindly of her. “Anyway, I take it this young woman is the android you’d like me to work on?” he asked, shifting his attention to the young woman.

Now that he was looking directly at her, he could see she was designed to be roughly the same age as the young man, approximately 18 years of age. She had a nice hourglass figure, pale skin, and long light brown hair cascading past her shoulders.

“Yes, her name is Annina, a perfect friend model,” Mr. Jacobs explained, “I got her for my son Eric’s 16th birthday, two years ago,” he continued, “He’s a shut in, but a genius, so I got her to keep him company and to inspire his creative process,”

“Oh, and what do you do Eric?” Jack asked.

“I’m a writer,” Eric replied, a little shyly.

“Very nice,” Jack complimented him, “So, what is it you need me to do with Annina?” he asked, focusing back on Mr. Jacobs.

“I’ll let my son explain to you,” Mr. Jacobs said, getting to his feet, “He gets a little embarrassed speaking about Annina in my presence, so I’ll just wait out in the shop,”

“Okay,” Jack said, “You did hand over your consent to Rachel, right?” he asked.

“Yes, and I am also authorizing you to officially transfer ownership of Annina to Eric,” Mr. Jacobs said, “It’s his 18th birthday present,”

“Very well,” Jack said, and as soon as Mr. Jacobs left, he turned back to Eric. “Well Eric, what would you like me to do for Annina here?”

Eric did not answer at first, but he soon reached into his jacket pocket and produced a list of the changes he wanted made. “As my father said, I’m turning 18 in a few days, five to be exact, but he forgot to mention that my 18th birthday is also the same day as Senior Prom at the high school,” Eric said in a much less shy voice, “I’d like for the maintenance, upgrades, and repairs to be completed by the end of the week so she can go with me and then give me a happy ending, if you know what I mean,”

“I sure do,” Jack winked, perusing the list. “Hmmm, I see you did your homework before coming to me,” he said with an impressed look, looking at the detailed list of upgrades, as well as the list of repairs that needed to be made. “I’m curious, what happened to her fluidic transfer systems?”

“Oh, a few weeks ago Annina and I went camping in the mountains, and it was a cold night,” Eric began, “I didn’t realize she needed to be bundled up like a human, being an android and all, so her sweat glands froze and ruptured,” he continued, “Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad, but she obviously can’t sweat now, and that slightly detracts from her realism,”

“I see, you’ve made a pretty common mistake,” Jack said, “Most people assume that just because they are androids that they don’t need to protect their bodies as much, but their epidermis and internal systems are still susceptible to external factors,”

“I guess I figured that out the hard way,” Eric laughed, looking sidelong at Annina, who gave him a smile in response.

“Anyway, most of these repairs should be pretty easy to fix, but these upgrades might take a while,” Jack said, continuing to look down the list, “Especially the addition of a vagina,” he added with a delicate note, “I’m curious, did you pick out what kind of vagina you’d like her to have?”

Eric’s face grew red when he heard the question. “No, I figured you’d just install whatever one her model was supposed to receive had I been 18 when I got her,”

“No, you get to pick what it looks like,” Jack smiled, pulling a small tablet out from his jacket pocket. He quickly loaded the Spaztec Android configuration site and opened the page for vaginas, “Here, take a look at these and select your favorite,”

Eric slowly took the tablet and then blushed when he saw the images before him. “Wow,” was all he said.

“Take your time,” Jack smiled. As he watched the young man before him look through the dozens of different vagina variants, he couldn’t help but remember his experience selecting Gabby’s configuration. Even though she was mainly based on a celebrity, he still got to make subtle alterations to her appearance.

After a short time, Eric finally made his selection; an average looking vagina. “Very well,” Jack said, having Rachel get started placing the order, “Now, that part alone will take about two days to get here, in the meanwhile I can easily work on the software updates as well as many of the repairs and upgrades,” Jack explained, “And keep in mind, once I install the vagina, I will need to test it out to ensure it works properly,” he added.

“Do you have to?” Eric asked defensively, giving Annina a concerned look.

“Yes,” Jack said, “I know it seems like I just want to fuck your android, but there is some fine tuning that needs to be done to make sure she doesn’t accidentally squeeze your dick off,”

“Oh,” Eric winced.

“Yeah, but I can assure you I will give her a thorough cleaning and even wipe her memories of the experience so she will only remember you as her first,” Jack assured him.

Eric looked slightly relieved when he heard that. “Well, I will trust your judgement,”

Jack merely nodded, “So, you just come here on the morning of your birthday and she’ll be waiting for you,”

“Thank you Jack,” Eric said, “Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Just her control tab,” Jack said.

“Oh,” Eric said. He quickly reached into his jacket again and produced a small control tab. “Here you go,”

“Thanks Eric, I can assure you I’ll do everything I can to fix Annina up for you,” he assured him, “My wife is a housewife model herself,”

“Once I’ve graduated college and released a few bestsellers, I’ll be converting Annina here into a housewife model,” Eric said proudly, getting up and patting Annina’s shoulder.

“Well, I hope you let me do the honors when the time comes,” Jack said, also getting to his feet.

Eric did not respond to that, instead he gave Annina a loving kiss and then started heading out. “Take good care of her!” he called back as he left.

“I will!” Jack called back. Once Eric was gone, he turned to Rachel. “Well Rachel, were you able to place the orders for me while we talked?”

“Yes sir,” she smiled pleasantly, “several of the components should be here as early as tomorrow, but that vagina won’t be here until the day after,”

“Just as I thought,” Jack said, “I suppose even in the 22nd century there are still limits to how fast shipping can happen.” Jack then turned to Annina. “Well Annina, why don’t you follow me down to my lab now?” he suggested.

“Okay Mr. Jack,” she said innocently, passively following him into the lift and down to his lab.

Chapter 2: Annina - Session 1

Once the lift opened up into the lab, Jack led Annina the short distance into the main room. Jack immediately sat down in his work chair upon arrival, while Annina merely remained standing a short distance from him. After getting the computer station booted back up, he turned to look at her.

“Wow, you’re not too bad looking,” he muttered to himself. Annina was built in the form of a young woman, approximately 18-20 years old. Now that he was able to focus directly on her, he could tell she was most likely built from a compilation of at least a couple of European women, and her voice even had a slight accent to it. She was currently wearing the latest in teenage girl’s fashions:

“Alright Annina, why don’t we start by having you remove your clothes?” Jack suggested, sitting down in his chair and booting his computer up.

“I’m sorry Jack, but you’ll have to give me an authorization code before I can disrobe,” Annina responded.

“Huh,” Jack said. It was a fairly new security precaution being installed in the newer androids, but one he already had installed in all of his own units. He just wasn’t accustomed to seeing it in one of his clients units…apparently they really wanted to protect her. In response, Jack pulled a small badge out of his pocket with a 3D barcode.

Annina’s eyes went slightly out of focus as they scanned the barcode, then she returned to normal. “I have just scanned an administrator badge,” she reported, “Please give voice verification,”

“Wow, her owner really doesn’t want people messing with her,” Jack muttered again. He then looked directly into her eyes and spoke. “Technician grade five, code: three-seven-pi-zero-alpha,” he recited.

After a few seconds went by, in which Annina processed his voice verification, she finally smiled and said, “Code accepted,”

“Very good,” Jack said, “Now could you remove your clothes please?” he requested.

“Certainly,” Annina replied with a smile. She then began efficiently disrobing, revealing a rather petite figure. The one striking thing about her appearance was that instead of a vagina, there was instead a smooth area of skin. This feature was typical of androids given to individuals under the age of 18, though it was not a requirement; obviously Mr. Jacobs wanted to save his son’s innocence a while longer. The odd thing was, she still had nipples, and that was also something which could be omitted due to parental controls.

Despite knowing of this type of parental control, this was the first android Jack had encountered that was equipped with it. He couldn’t help but reach out and feel the smooth area of skin; it felt real. The oddest thing, aside from the absence of female genitalia, was the fact that her designers had been able to make the absence itself look natural. If an alien were to land on earth and examine her, they would have no idea that something were missing.

“Alright Annina,” Jack started, withdrawing his hands from her lovely body, “Why don’t you lay down and open your primary access panel?” he suggested.

“Okay,” Annina replied. She then efficiently laid down on the examination table and unsealed her primary torso access panel.

Jack quickly dug into the seams and pulled the skin away. Annina’s hardware was humming away, processing the many millions of commands from the complex A.I. hub in the center. Jack could never get over seeing what made these lovely androids tick.

“Annina, can you access my diagnostic terminal?” Jack asked, as he perused her hardware to see if he could detect any failing components.

“Yes, would you like me to access it?” she responded.

“Please,” Jack said. He then watched as her eyes zoned out, then, moments later, they came back into focus; the wireless indicator on her hub was now lit up. “Alright, I want you to interface with the diagnostic logger and run a full diagnostic,” he told her.

“Alright, the diagnostic will take approximately 20-minutes to complete,” she reported, “please remember not to remove any hardware while the diagnostic is running,”

“Don’t worry,” Jack told her, but she had already begun the diagnostic. “Hmmm, I guess maybe I’ll have to make her a bit friendlier while I’m at it,” he thought to himself.

During the entire diagnostic, Jack poured over all of her hardware to see if he could detect any defects or damage; he found little of importance, mostly just general wear and tear. Just as he finished his visual survey of her systems, she finally finished the diagnostic.

“Diagnostic complete. Results are available on terminal,” she reported, coming back to life.

“Thanks Annina, just take a breather while I analyze the results,” Jack said, not caring that her A.I. was too unsophisticated to parse that response. He quickly looked over the results and then sighed as he read them. “Wow, no wonder you seem so basic,” he said, “Looks like they spent so much money on custom making you that there was almost nothing left for enhanced hardware or A.I.,”

Annina merely remained motionless, not able to respond to that comment.

“Well dear, looks like I’ll have my work cut out for me tomorrow,” Jack said, closing the diagnostic results. “In the meanwhile, it looks like the damage to your perspiration glands was not as bad as the kid let on,” he added, seeing the damage was restricted to her arms and upper torso, “Nothing a few nanites can’t fix,” he then said, rising to his feet and heading to the opposite section of the lab.

Jack opened a sealed storage compartment and took out a container of an odd substance. It appeared to be semi-liquid, as the contents were moving. On closer inspection, it was actually billions of nanoscopic robots designed to repair delicate android components at the microscopic level. Jack was one of few technicians in the country even allowed to handle them, as they had to be very carefully programmed to only complete their assigned task and nothing more. A few non-qualified individuals tried in the past, but the nanites ended up escaping and wreaking havoc on every computer system within a mile.

Jack took a small needle from the container and poked it into the container, extracting enough to fill the syringe, but not nearly enough to drain the container; they were able to self-replicate. He placed the container back in the storage compartment and then walked back over to his computer, where he spent some time programming them for their assigned task: Repair Annina’s sweat glands.

“Alright Annina, this won’t hurt a bit,” Jack said, knowing she could care less about pain. He carefully injected both her arms and her upper chest. Once all the nanites were injected into her, he sanitized the needle and threw it into a special e-waste bin. He then shut down the terminal and walked back over to Annina.

“I’m going to shut you down until tomorrow Annina,” he told her, “the nanites should be done repairing you by then,” he added and before she could respond, he pressed her manual shutdown button. Annina quickly shut down, and as soon as all her systems were offline, Jack draped a white cloth over her inert body and headed towards the lift to the house.

“Until tomorrow Annina,” he called back, then he called for the lift to the house so he could relax for a while with Gabby.

Chapter 3: Annina - Session 2

Jack entered the lab first thing the next morning with a small cart of deliveries from Spaztec that had arrived earlier that morning. He tossed the remnants of the breakfast Gabby had cooked for him into the nearby waste bin and then casually walked over to his station, booted everything up, and then pulled the cloth off Annina’s body.

“Well Annina, let’s see how you’re doing,” he said clinically, grabbing hold of one of her arms. There was a small layer of what looked like dust coated on both her arms and her upper chest. Upon closer inspection, it was actually the remains of all the nanites that had completed their task overnight; they crawled out of her dermal layer and self-destructed, essentially turning to dust.

“Very nice,” Jack said, brushing the nanites into a special bin for recycling. Once he had the spent nanites recycled, he picked up Annina’s control tablet and punched in his access code for the administrator toolbox.

Despite being shutdown, Jack could still use the tablet to modify her settings before reactivating her. In this case, he modified her memory settings so that during his diagnostic sessions, her memories of them would be backed up on his server instead of in her own memory center. With that setting changed, he moved onto altering her hot swap settings so he could swap her hardware out with her still online.

“Alrighty, let’s get you turned back on,” Jack said. He tapped the activation icon on the tablet and watched as Annina came back to life. Once all her systems were back online, she opened her eyes and then focused them onto Jack’s.

“Hello Jack, how are you this morning?” Annina asked pleasantly, not even surprised that she was naked or in a strange place.

“I’m fine Annina, thank you for asking,” Jack smiled, glad that Annina had been programmed well enough to be polite. “Several of your hardware upgrades have arrived today, so I will be installing them in you,” he told her, “But first, I need to perform several software updates,”

“Okay,” she smiled, then she put on a frowny face, “I seem to be having difficulty saving my memories to my memory center,”

“That’s because your owner,” Jack started, trying to remember the young man’s name, “Eric, doesn’t want you to have any memory of what I will be doing to you tomorrow,” Jack explained, “Which reminds me, could you please transfer all your memory regarding the brief session last night to my server?”

“Certainly,” she replied, then she zoned out a bit as she transferred over nearly an hour’s worth of memories. “Alright, I’m done,” she finally said moments later.

“Good, now before I start, I’m going to run a few benchmarks to make sure the new hardware work as intended,” Jack told her. He then tapped back into the administrator tool box and opened the benchmarking tab. “Now, this is going to severely tax all of your systems for about fifteen minutes,” he warned her, “So, try not to engage any programs while it’s running,”

“Ok,” she smiled.

Jack merely smiled back as he tapped the start icon for the benchmark. Immediately, Annina’s body seemed to seize up a little as the strain on her systems became apparent. Her eyes seemed to zone out and she fell silent and Jack’s trained ears could hear her processors working away inside her torso.

While Jack sat down at the computer to analyze the results as they came in, he thought about what exactly the benchmark was putting her systems through. It basically simulated a multitude of pre-programmed tasks running simultaneously in order to stress every system in her body. Jack was pleased to see some perspiration forming on her arms and chest as a result of the benchmark, showing him the nanites had indeed done their job.

After the fifteen minutes were up, the benchmark ended and Annina’s systems finally settled down. She came out of her reverie and started breathing heavily as though she had just finished a workout; in actuality, she was drawing in more air to cool off her systems.

“So Annina, was that you’re first benchmark?” Jack asked, waiting as the results tabulated.

“Yes,” Annina said, “How did I do?” she asked.

“Well, I guess you performed it adequately enough,” Jack smiled, “Let’s just say Eric got you for your looks, not your brains,”

“Good,” Annina said, seeming to have not heard the last bit, “So are you going to start my upgrades now?”

“Sure,” Jack responded. He sighed as he looked at her benchmark results. The benchmark nearly fried several of her processors, and it had created several subtle errors in her A.I. architecture...nothing that wouldn’t be fixed by the software updates. “I’m assuming you’re still connected to my server, right?”

“I am,” she replied.

“Good, then I’m going to add a list of software updates I want you to install,” he told her. He then queued up the massive list of software updates that would probably take her a few hours to complete. “Alright, you see them?” he asked her.

“Yes,”

“Good, then get started,” he told her, “Oh and before I forget, you have my permission to skip through all the warnings,” he added, referring to the annoying “Are you sure you wish to overwrite this program?” questions he was sure she would ask for each updated program.

“Alright.” Annina then zoned out and relaxed as she started downloading the multitude of updates.

As Annina downloaded and installed the updates, he spent more time analyzing her diagnostic and benchmark results. It appeared he was a little too hard on her. It was true that she was a little too basic to act realistic towards him, but that was because the majority of her programming had adapted itself to Eric’s personality, and a little for Eric’s father. As such, there was almost no room left in her software to adapt to anyone else. Fortunately, the combination of software and hardware updates would make her almost completely passable as a human…or at least, infinitely more passable than she currently was.

At this point, Annina had finished downloading them all and was now going through the long process of installing all of them. Jack had been doing this for years, but he still found it amusing to read through the file names. There were updates for literally everything you could possibly imagine: small talk, dreaming, jokes, sexy walks...etc.

During this point, Annina was essentially in a catatonic state while everything installed, so Jack amused himself like he always did; he browsed the Spaztec android exchange site for good deals.

“Hmmm, this one looks interesting,” he said. There was a single entry posted by Spaztec itself for three identical personal trainer units each modeled on the 21st century actress Kaley Cuoco (23 years old). Those types of posts didn’t show up very often, but when they did, you could always get a great deal since they saved money selling them in bulk rather than individually.

“I think I can use them,” Jack mused, seriously considering the purchase, “I’ll talk it over with Gabby when I’m done with Annina,” he smiled, reserving the purchase and essentially freezing anyone out of buying it for 72 hours; one of the many perks of being a consultant.

Closing the exchange site, he peeked at the percentage bar for Annina’s installation: it was at 13%. “Wow, maybe I should have installed the new hardware first,” he joked, giving her thigh a light pat.

As the installation continued at its slow pace, Jack busied himself by working on code requests from Spaztec, thus giving him more consultant credits towards the purchase he was hoping to make later that night.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, but…actually was hours, Annina finally finished installing everything and automatically rebooted. As her systems came back online, her A.I. automatically ran preliminary benchmarks and diagnostics, and the results were very promising.

“Well Annina, looks like the software updates gave you a 50% boost in overall efficiency,” Jack said aloud, once the results had tabulated, “How do you feel?” he asked her.

“I feel fine Jack,” Annina replied politely, “However my adaptive algorithms seem to be having an easier time adapting to your personality,” she added.

“Good, that’s the general idea,” Jack said, pleased to see she was acting a bit more…real. “Eric wants to take you to the school dance, and you’re going to have to be able to interact with hundreds of people,”

“Ooh, Eric never takes me out to meet people,” Annina smiled, “The last time he took me out was that camping trip,”

“I figured,” Jack said, “By the looks of Eric, it doesn’t look like he gets out much either,”

“He doesn’t,” Annina confirmed, “But that’s what he got me for,” she smiled.

“And that’s why I have all my employees,” Jack smiled back, “And Gabby.” Jack mused a bit before focusing back on Annina, “Anyway, it’s going to take a bit more than just the software updates to make you ready.” Jack then started opening the delivery boxes and prepping the hardware that he was about to install in Annina.

“Is that going to make me faster?” she asked innocently.

“Yes Annina, a lot faster,” Jack smiled, “You know what to do,” he nodded, eyeing her torso.

“Understood,” Annina nodded. She zoned out and once again unsealed her primary access panel, which Jack had resealed before leaving her the previous session. Jack once again pulled it off, setting it aside on a nearby tray.

“Alright Annina, I’m going to need you to verify that all your safeties are offline,” Jack told her, “I need to hot swap your hardware to ensure it installs properly,”

“My systems are reporting all safeties are offline,” Annina dutifully reported.

“Good, now I’m going to be replacing your processors one by one,” he explained, opening up one of the smaller boxes. The box was filled with five sub-processors, each roughly the same model as the ones Jack upgraded Gabby with on Christmas. Clearly Eric’s dad was sparing no expense on Annina’s upgrade.

Annina nodded as she began preparing her systems. Jack then reached in and opened the maintenance bay on her main processing assembly and carefully removed one of the processors. To his delight, Annina did not malfunction but was able to successfully reroute her functions to the four remaining chips.

“Looks like the software update really helped,” Jack muttered, quickly installing one of the newer chips and moving on to another one. He did this one by one over the next several minutes, pausing briefly in between to allow Annina to properly install each processor. When he finally had all five processors upgraded, he closed the maintenance bay and looked into Annina’s eyes; they seemed fine. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Great,” she replied, “The new processors are a lot better than the old ones,”

“Aside from that being completely obvious, I’m just glad that they installed properly,” Jack laughed, “Anyway, I’ve got a few more upgrades for you, so get ready,”

“Okay,” Annina said, relaxing a bit as Jack delved back into her.

Over the course of roughly an hour, Jack removed and upgraded nearly every component in her open torso, from her digestive systems to her cooling systems. Due to the removal of safeguards, he was able to perform each upgrade while Annina was still online, giving him advance notice if anything went wrong. It finally came down to the last upgrade, the one for her motor systems.

“Alright Annina, this last upgrade will require some interaction on your part,” Jack told her, pulling out one last component, “This is for your primary motor systems,” he explained, “Once I upgrade it, you’ll need to walk around for a few minutes to allow it to adapt to the unique way your body moves,”

“Ok,” Annina said.

“Alrighty, here goes.” Jack then reached in and removed the old component. There was no visible reaction from Annina, since she was currently lying motionless on the table. Jack set the old component down and installed the new one. “Ok Annina, I’ll need you to get up off the table and walk around until it adapts,” Jack told her, withdrawing from her and moving away to give her room.

Annina didn’t reply, she instead sat up. Instead of sitting up gracefully like a normal person, however, she sat up rather stiffly and robotically, her body making a loud mechanical whirring sound as she moved. She continued by dropping down from the table and robotically walking around the room.

As he watched her move, he couldn’t help but admire the way these androids worked. When it came to basic motor functions, they utilized basic servo mechanisms to move their limbs, but they utilized a more organic-like muscular system for the minute, humanlike movements.

She whirred around the lab for nearly five minutes before she finally started moving about more realistically.

“Very good,” Jack complimented her, watching her do a few more laps around the table, each time strutting more sexily, “Very good,”

“Am I done now?” she asked.

“For today’s session,” Jack told her, picking her skin panel up and clicking it back in place over her open panel.

“Good,” she smiled.

“I’m going to need you to lay down again,” he told her, and once she did, he leaned over her. “Tomorrow you get your vagina, I’m sure Eric will enjoy it,”

“Ooh, I hope he does,” Annina said joyfully.

“Anyway, I’m going to need to shut you down again,” he told her, though this time he did it a bit more respectfully, giving her CPU time to parse that statement before pressing the manual shutoff switch. This time, she deactivated with a smile on her face.

“Wow, I think this has been the best improvement I’ve ever seen in an android,” Jack congratulated himself, “Though she was probably the worst off android I’ve ever worked with,” he added, recovering her with a blanket and heading for the lift into the house. “It’s going to be a big day tomorrow,” he called back, whistling a tune as he stepped into the lift and headed up to the house.

Chapter 6: Business Discussions

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The Small Business Chronicles continue in Off-season - The Motel

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