The Repair Shop - Part 2
The Small Business Chronicles: The Repair Shop - Part 2
Chapter One: Working birthday
Jack walked into his lab, feeling like it was like no other day. Despite it being his birthday, he still had to work to generate income, but unlike most other people, he didn’t mind. He was one of the few people whose primary hobby was their primary job, so he actually enjoyed it. Even more so, it helped him pass the time for the evening, when Gabby treated him to her best cooking, and later sex, of the year.
Also, unlike most other weeks when Jack might be working on several androids at once, this time he was working on just one. A partier model that had broken down during a night of rather intense partying.
Jack sighed as he read the report on the android…this partier model had apparently been dragged along to several clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some people thought just because they were androids, they could handle more than a real person, but even the androids had limits.
Still, this particular one was kind of cute. She had a tomboyish appearance with dark colored hair pixie cut, with purple highlights in the back, and a plump face. Her face was only a little made up, with coloring around her eyes. She had shutdown with a friendly smile on her face.
She was still wearing her outfit, a simple pair of jeans and a black shirt; they smelled strongly of booze and drugs.
“Well Jenny, let’s see what’s wrong with you,” Jack said conversationally to her….old habits die hard. He then planted a few remote access devices on her to remotely access her systems, choosing to wait a bit before opening her up.
Jack was nearly an hour delving into her systems when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the lift. He looked up to see who it was, hearing the sound of footsteps and a hand truck. Finally, Kat rounded the corner from the lift hallway, delivering a large case.
“Oh, hey Kat,” Jack said, saving his work, “What do you have for me?”
“A delivery just arrived…for you,” she said, looking at the packing slip, “Did you order something without telling me?” she asked.
“No, not that I can think of,” he said with a confused look, “Does it say who it’s from?”
“Yes,” she smiled, “Someone named Ellie Wren”
“Ah, that’s my cousin,” Jack smiled, taking the packing slip, “Hmmm, a few months ago she called Gabby and was plotting something for my birthday, I guess this is it,” he muttered.
“Well, did you want me to leave it here, or take it back up?” Kat asked.
Jack thought about it for a while. “Leave it, as a matter of fact, let’s get it set up on my new arrival table,” he told her, gesturing towards a table that was designed to fit a standard Spaztec delivery box.
It was clear from the box that his cousin had sent him some sort of android, but he couldn’t imagine what type she would send. Once Kat had helped him secure the box, he thanked her and asked her to leave. He always liked opening up these boxes in private. And, he figured, regardless of whatever android Ellie sent him, he’d still have fun starting fresh with a brand new model.
After a few moments decided if he should wait, he finally placed his palm on the security pad and watched as the box unsealed itself. Once he saw what lay nestled inside, he let out a gasp.
Chapter Two: A most unexpected gift
Nestled comfortably in the packing mold was an exact replica of Ellie…at least, Jack assumed it was. Ellie was one to play practical jokes, and having herself mailed to Jack wouldn’t be too difficult for her.
Jack gently probed her skin, and quickly determined the form of Ellie laying before him was indeed an android. Now Jack was awestruck, seeing that his cousin liked him so much she had an android made in her image and sent it to him, of all people.
“Well, I see this is the surprise you were planning with Gabby,” Jack whispered. It all made sense now, and, the best part was, because Ellie was a family member, Gabby’s jealousy protocols wouldn’t interfere with any fun he might have with her.
Seeing he had nothing to do but wait for Jenny’s preliminary diagnostics to complete, Jack reached in and carefully pulled the Ellie android free from the foam. It was no small feat, since Ellie was a slightly overweight girl in her mid-twenties. Fortunately Jack was wearing a power amplification brace, which allowed him to carry much more than normal.
She looked fairly normal now, but when she was a kid she had a stunted growth due to a medical condition. She was currently wearing a simple set of girls clothes…the same clothes she wore when they last met, actually. A sleeveless t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and sneakers.
It took Jack a while, but he finally carried the body over to one of his examination tables and prepared to activate her. He was getting excited, because he didn’t usually get to see his cousin, and she was a very fun person to be with…at least he thought so. She was the oddball of her family, having almost no social boundaries and being a friend to everyone. Her parents and brother, on the other hand, were pretty mean people. Ellie got out of her parents’ house as soon as she could, helped along by Jack, who financed her entire time at college.
Once he had her secure on the table, he walked back over to the box to retrieve the control tab from the compartment below where Ellie was packed in. When he pulled out and activated the tab, a personal message from Ellie was the first thing that popped up.
“Dear Cousin…” it began. “I hope my birthday present for you does not come as a total surprise. I really wanted to give you something to thank you for helping me through college. I know most people would have wanted to be paid back with money, but I know you better. This is a perfect friend model android, built in my image and with all relevant memories from my experiences of school and of you. I also programmed in some basic android repair programs, though I know full well you’ll probably enhance them so she can help you around your repair shop. I also wanted you to have this android because I will be moving to Alaska to assume my duties as manager of a new touring company in the Aleutian Islands. As such, we will probably not see each other in person as frequently as before. I will be sending periodic memory updates to her so she’ll always be up to date. I hope you enjoy her! Love, Ellie”
Jack smiled as he finished reading it. She was the only relative who reached out to him after his parents were killed, and she occasionally came over to visit him and his Uncle Morty. He paid for her college stay from the surplus leftover from the shop, and he wasn’t even thinking of asking her to pay him back. Still, looking at her, he figured he could use her for something.
He swiped out of the personal message and checked out the basic stats of his new Ellie android. Jack whistled as he saw the specs…top of the line. Clearly Ellie spared no expense treating her favorite cousin. After he finished reading the specs, he concluded she was now his most advanced android…aside from Gabby, of course.
“Well Ellie, let’s get you turned on,” Jack said, toggling through the tablet until he reached the activation menu. He entered in his own personal identification code and allowed the camera to scan his face to confirm his identity, then, he waited as Ellie activated.
The anticipation built in Jack as he patiently waited for her systems to finish their first time startup sequences. Finally, they finished and her eyes quickly came open, immediately focusing on his. She did nothing but smile before saying, in her usual cheerful voice, “Hello cousin!”
Chapter Three: Family reunion
“Hey…Ellie,” Jack finally said, a little surprised at her realism.
Even as a professional android technician, he still found himself awestruck at the realism of this perfect replica of his cousin. Perhaps it was because he had never worked with an android made in the image of someone he knew personally, only ones made after other real people.
“Are you surprised to see me?” she asked playfully, slowly sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the table.
“To be honest, yes,” Jack said, “I had no idea Ellie would send me a robot in her image,”
“Well, she did, and I’m it,” the Ellie robot said cheerfully, “I’ve been programmed with all her memories of you, as well as a few others,” she explained, “She’s also programmed in rudimentary android repair software so I can assist you here in the lab,” she said, looking around. “Ooh, who’s that?” she asked suddenly, dropping to her feet and walking over to where Jenny was still passively standing.
“That is a broken down partier model named Jenny,” Jack said, walking over.
“She’s kinda cute,” Ellie said, leaning in and looking at Jenny’s frozen face. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know yet, I just started working on her,” Jack admitted, “Most likely excessive partying though,”
“Ah, I see,” Ellie said, moving away and looking around the lab. “Things have changed around here since Ellie last visited,” she then said, “Oh, I wonder what this is,” she said, walking over to Jack’s secret project.
“No!” Jack said, quickly stopping her.
“Sorry,” Ellie said, looking apologetic, “I didn’t think we had any secrets,”
“We don’t,” Jack said, “It’s just…well, I’m not ready to show it to you yet,” he admitted, “I promise I will later though,”
“Alright,” Ellie smiled, looking a bit relieved. Jack knew though it was her personality subroutines not having to correct for a potential change in his expected behavior.
“Well, anyway, I have Jenny here running a fairly extensive external diagnostic before I risk opening her up for examination, so perhaps I can open you up and evaluate your systems while that’s running,” Jack suggested, “Maybe even give you a few upgrades,” he added.
“Ooh, really!” Ellie said excitedly.
“Yeah, I think I might even bump you up to a Mark III prototype like Gabby, since you’re technically family,” he said.
“Hmm, I’m not sure what that entails,” Ellie said with a worried expression. Her programming had safeguards to prevent potentially dangerous tampering.
“Don’t worry,” Jack assured her, “I’d just install the latest developer release of the Mark III A.I. software, just like Gabby has,” he explained, “And I’d also give you some of Gabby’s old hardware, to improve your performance even further,”
Ellie merely nodded, then seemed to freeze up as her systems processed a potential logic fault. Part of her software wanted to protect her from a beta update, and the other part wanted her to be as friendly as possible to her cousin.
Jack sighed, pulling out Ellie’s tablet and using it to initiate a quick diagnostic of Ellie’s systems. He also plugged in his technician’s code and enabled developer options on her systems, which is something he should have done before, but didn’t because she was so like his cousin he simply forgot.
As soon as Ellie’s systems reported the developer options enabled, they quickly resolved the logic error and she slowly came out of her reverie.
“Oh, I’m so sorry about that Jack,” Ellie said with an embarrassed look, “The one thing Ellie was hoping was that I wouldn’t malfunction on my first day,”
“Don’t worry, it was my fault,” Jack told her, “I forgot to enable developer mode in your systems,”
“Well, I feel much better now,” she said, “So, what exactly would the updates do to me?” she asked.
“In a nutshell: major improvements in overall efficiency, more accurate human and personality emulation, bug fixes, better hardware support, etc,” he explained.
“Sounds cool,” Ellie smiled, “Will it take long?” she asked.
“A little,” Jack admitted, looking over at Jenny, “But she’ll probably take longer,”
“Okay, let’s do it then,” she said excitedly.
“Very well,” Jack smiled, “I think you know the drill,” he told her, eyeing her clothes.
“I know, I know,” she smiled, sitting on the edge of the table and unlacing her shoes. “You know, Ellie always thought you made your ‘patients’ get undressed because you were a sex deviant or something,” she smiled naughtily.
“What?!” Jack spluttered, “Well, I will admit I enjoy seeing the girls naked, but…come on, you have no idea how hard it is to remove the clothes off one of you androids when you’re offline,” he said, trying to save his dignity, “You’re like corpses,”
“Uh-huh,” Ellie winked, removing her socks and then standing up to remove her shirt.
“Just keep undressing,” he smiled, shaking his head, “I’ll be getting my terminal ready for you…and I need to gather up some of Gabby’s old hardware,” he said, turning away from her and heading to his computer.
“Ok,” she said, continuing to disrobe.
It didn’t take Jack long to ready his terminal, quickly switching it into the same mode he used for Gabby. He also quickly located some of Gabby’s old hardware, conveniently located in a box just in case her current ones failed.
“Alright Ellie, I’m….holy shit!” he yelled, seeing her standing near the examination table naked.
“What?” she asked, looking confused, “I thought you told me to undress,”
“I did, but…you’re…anatomically correct,” he said, looking at her nipples and vagina.
“Of course,” she smiled, “What did you expect?”
“Well, Ellie’s my cousin,” Jack said defensively, “What kind of cousin gives away an anatomically correct android of themselves to a fellow cousin?”
“Ellie would,” Ellie replied cheerfully. “Oh come on Jack,” she chided him, “You know full well how much of a free spirit Ellie is,”
Jack started to make a retort, but he quickly retracted it; Ellie was a free spirit. It was one of the main reasons she was the oddball of her family, and why they didn’t get along with her. Truthfully, this was not the first time Jack had seen her naked. That was part of the reason he was able to recognize just how anatomically correct the Ellie android was. Also, since they were only second cousins, she had even shockingly suggested one time they were camping together that they should throw all inhibitions aside and have sex. Although he found her attractive, and he understood how removed they were, he still turned down her offer.
“See, I thought you might remember,” Ellie smiled, “I have all of her memories…including the one of the camping trip,” she said.
Jack said nothing, but blushed a bit uncomfortably.
“That’s right,” she laughed, “You know, even though I may look like Ellie, I’m not really her. So, you and I could do it,” she offered.
“Thanks, but maybe I’ll take you up on that sometime if I’m feeling adventurous,” Jack said, just telling her that to change the subject, “But it would be a threesome with Gabby,”
“Fair enough,” Ellie shrugged.
“Alright, just lie down on the table and open your primary access panel,” he told her.
“Ok,” she said, hopping onto the table and unsealing her panel. Unlike Jack’s other androids, Ellie took the initiative and removed it herself, setting it down on the nearby table.
“Huh, thanks Ellie,” he said, walking over with a high speed data transfer cable.
“Don’t mention it,” she smiled, “Hmm, why are you connecting me with a cable?” she asked with a confused look, “My wireless connection to your terminal is pretty strong,”
“I’m sure it is,” Jack told her, plugging the other end of the cable into her pristine A.I. circuit box, “But whenever I perform a major software update, especially an A.I. update, I always use a physical connection,”
“Huh, I guess that makes sense,” she smiled, “I am detecting the physical connection, by the way,” she added.
“Good,” he said, “Now, I’m going to start adding files to your queue,” he told her, “Most of them are the experimental betas, so your systems may protest,” he explained, “Do your best to override them for me,”
“Alright Jack, I’d be happy to,” she smiled.
Jack quickly logged onto the Spaztec site and pulled the latest developer release for the Perfect Friend model android. While he could still install some of the same programs that Gabby used, the Perfect Friend and Housewife A.I. files were still different. It didn’t take long for Jack to get approval…they had actually been requesting that he install the betas on another type of android for some time, but Gabby was the only one he felt comfortable doing it to…until now.
“Alright Ellie, I’ve got the Mark III files ready for you,” he told her.
“I see them,” she said, pausing briefly as her systems initiated the download, “Wow, that’s a lot of files!” she said, “This might take a while,”
“I know it will,” he assured her, “In the meanwhile, I think I’ll examine your body and your hardware,” he told her, getting up and walking over to her.
“Alright, I don’t mind,” she smiled.
“Of course you don’t, you’re programmed not to,” he smiled back.
“Well, of course I am, but even Ellie wouldn’t have minded,” she defended.
“Yeah, I suppose not,” Jack admitted, “Anyway, just lay still and focus on those download,”
“Alright,” she said, laying back and getting comfortable.
While the files continued to download, Jack amused himself by examining every inch of Ellie’s body. Although she had a stunted growth period as a child, she had still developed fairly nicely into adulthood…the only thing imperfect about her was she was slightly overweight.
“Ellie, did you lose some weight recently?” he asked, scrutinizing her torso.
“Yes, Ellie decided to lose some weight before commissioning me,” Ellie responded, “After all, if you were having an android look exactly like you, and it were going to look like that forever, wouldn’t you want to look your best?”
“I suppose so,” Jack said, coughing uncomfortably as he eyed his secret project. He then grabbed hold of one of her feet and gave it a quick whiff. “And I see she gave you a sample of her perspiration to replicate,” he pointed out.
“Yep, she opted for just about everything,” Ellie smiled.
“Well, normally I’d disable that in you to save money, but since you’re family, I suppose I’ll keep that feature in,” he told her.
“Thanks,”
“Don’t mention it,” he told her, “How’s the download progressing?”
“About 50%,” she reported.
“Looks like it’s progressing rather well,” Jack said, sitting back down; he’d feel her up some more when she was offline installing the updates. “So, to what extent would you be able to assist me with my repair business?” he asked her.
“Well, I got all the packages that a normal person could purchase, so basically just rudimentary troubleshooting and diagnostic work,” she responded.
“Well, looks like Ellie’s presented me with a unique opportunity to improve the efficiency of my repair shop business,” Jack said, “I think I’m going to install the more advanced programs only I would have access to, and I am also going to write an algorithm for you so you can learn from me, sort of as an apprentice,” he decided.
“I’d like that,” Ellie replied, “I want to be helpful to you…that’s what Ellie wanted me to be too,”
“Good, then I’ll start adding those files to your queue as well,” he told her, wheeling back to his terminal and adding the advanced android repair files for her to integrate, as well as a new algorithm which he wrote on the spot, “There, you should see them now,” he told her.
“I do,” she said, “They’ll add about another five minutes to the download time,” she reported.
“Well, I can wait,” he told her, “Why don’t you tell me some stories of the last few weeks,” he said, “Ellie doesn’t contact me very often and I’d like to catch up,”
“I’d love to,” Ellie smiled.
In the time it took for Ellie to download the remaining files, she caught Jack up on everything that had happened in the real Ellie’s life over the past year or so. Ellie had finished college and was moving up to the Aleutian Islands to run a tour/cruise business.
“Alright Jack, the files have finished downloading,” Ellie finally reported some time later.
“Ok, you can go ahead and install them…I’ll watch over you in case something goes wrong,” he said.
Ellie merely nodded. Then, her friendly smile vanished to be replaced with a blank expression as her systems shut down to perform the massive update. It took Ellie nearly half an hour to install all the updates, then she briefly came back online to report they had installed successfully before Jack instructed her to shut back down.
With her systems offline, Jack calmly reached inside her open panel and began removing various components, replacing them with Gabby’s old ones as he did. Processors, cooling fans, power cells. Just about everything got swapped out with more advanced components.
When he finally finished, he washed his hands of the electronic residue that coated some of the systems, then he reached in and pressed her manual power switch.
Jack stood back a ways in case some of the new hardware failed catastrophically, but to his relief, everything worked as predicted…the new hardware seemed to purr as all her systems came online and ran preliminary diagnostics. After what seemed like forever, her A.I. finally came online.
Ellie’s eyes quickly opened and focused on his. She looked at him curiously for several moments before speaking. “Jack, I feel different,”
“How so?” he asked.
“I feel…better,” she said, giving him an energetic smile, “Wow, that update was amazing! It’s much easier for me to emulate Ellie’s personality now,”
“That was the idea,” Jack smiled, simply glad she didn’t suffer any major faults as a result of the beta update. “And do you have access to the new technician files?”
“Yes, my knowledge has been greatly improved in that regard,” she reported.
“Good, then perhaps you’d like to assist me in fixing Jenny,” he said, looking over at Jenny’s immobile body, “I believe her diagnostic should be finished by now,”
“I’d love to,” Ellie said, unplugging herself and getting to her feet.
Chapter Four: The Apprentice
As they walked over to Jenny, Jack noted that Ellie was still naked; her panel was still exposed as well.
“Aren’t you going to put your clothes and panel back on?” he asked her.
“Maybe later,” she shrugged, “My algorithms are telling me that walking around like this for a few hours might get you more used to seeing Ellie as a robot,” she explained.
“Interesting,” Jack mused, thinking it was the more enhanced friendship algorithms from the Mark III developer program. She was much more adaptive now.
“So, what are the preliminary diagnostics showing?” Ellie asked clinically, her new programming taking over.
“Let’s see…” Jack said, opening up Jenny’s diagnostic results, “Huh, it looks like a rupture in her fluid storage tanks…most likely from excessive alcohol consumption,” he said.
“Aren’t these partier models supposed to have programming to prevent them from excessive consumption?” Ellie asked, getting a closer look at Jenny’s face.
“Yes, but mostly it’s just in the basic models,” he answered, “The custom models, such as Jenny here, are often requested without those safeties, so they can party longer,”
“That’s stupid,” Ellie said.
“It is, but hey, it gives me more business,” Jack smiled.
“I guess so,” Ellie laughed, “So, how do you want to go about fixing her?”
“Well, first things first. We need to undress her, though, since you’re my new assistant, I think I’ll let you do it,” Jack said.
“I’d love to!” Ellie said excitedly, jumping around, causing her breasts to jiggle. Jack could also see the lights in her open panel flashing wildly, much in the same way Gabby’s did when he was working on her.
“Alright, calm down,” Jack smiled, getting his tool kit ready while Ellie dutifully undressed Jenny and laid her down on the table. She then tried to remove the primary access panel, and failed.
“Jack, I can’t seem to open her up,” Ellie said with a confused look.
“Hmm, the damage is more severe than I thought,” Jack said. He carefully scrutinized Jenny for a few moments before pulling a small tool from his kit.
“What’s that?” Ellie asked.
“A laser cutter,” Jack responded, walking over to Jenny and running it over the area where the seam should have appeared. “Ellie, I know I’m going to be teaching you a lot over the next few years, but the one thing I want you to remember is to never perform this procedure unless I’m supervising…no exceptions,” he told her, continuing to cut through Jenny’s skin until he had the rough outline of the panel.
“Okay,” Ellie said, intently watching him.
He then dug his fingers into the seam and pulled the section free. “Ha, looks like I haven’t lost my touch,” he said happily, seeing that he cut almost precisely where the skin would have unsealed.
“Very nice Jack,” Ellie smiled, taking the piece of skin from him and placing it on a tray, quickly admiring the realism of it.
“Wow, I can smell all the booze from here,” Jack said, leaning in and sniffing around.
“Me too,” Ellie said, also sniffing inside the panel, “My android sensors are detecting rum, vodka, tequila, beer, and whiskey,” she reported.
“Wow, you’re surprisingly handy to have around,” Jack complimented her.
“Thanks,” Ellie said with a modest blush.
“I should have gotten an android to help me a long time ago, I’m just glad I have you,” he continued.
“I’m happy to be of service,” she said.
“Well, is alcohol all you smell?” he asked, “No food?”
“Let me take a closer look,” she said, putting her whole face in the panel and smelling inside. A few moments later, she pulled out. “Nope, no food,” she reported.
“Good,” Jack smiled, reaching in and removing Jenny’s stomach. He then took it over to his desk and poured it into a beaker.
“What are you going to do with that?” Ellie asked curiously.
“I’m going to reuse it,” he told her, pouring it all in and then gauging how much was there, “Looks like a good haul too,” he smiled.
“You’re really going to drink that?!” Ellie asked incredulously.
“Yeah,” Jack said, “I don’t drink it as is,” he defended, “I pour it into this special machine I bought a few years back,” he explained, dragging this machine that looked like an ancient coffee maker, “And it separates the various drinks into separate containers that I can drink later,” he continued, pouring the mixed alcohol into it and starting it. “I mean, it’s not like it has human saliva in it…Jenny’s an android, after all,”
“I guess you’re right,” Ellie said, “So, how much alcohol have you recovered with that thing?” she asked.
“Quite a bit, actually,” Jack smiled, opening up a cabinet above his work station. It was filled with individually labelled bottles of various alcoholic beverages. “I get lots of partier models like this one,” he said.
“I see,” Ellie said, “And how accurate is it?”
“It’s not the most accurate one on the market,” he shrugged, “Those could separate individual vintages and such,” he explained, “Mine’s good enough to separate most drinks,”
“That’s good, maybe you could share some of the profits with me,” Ellie said hopefully.
“Yes, then I could recover them from your stomach too,” he laughed.
“I guess,” Ellie smiled, “Do you recover the alcohol Gabby drinks?”
“Not always,” Jack admitted, “Only if it’s expensive,”
“I see,” Ellie nodded, “Otherwise you probably just let her fusion reactor convert it into energy, right?”
“Exactly,” Jack told her, “Anyway, let’s get back to work on Jenny,” he said.
“Ok,”
Jack and Ellie spent the next couple hours repairing all the damaged systems in Jenny’s body. Although many components were able to be repaired, quite a few were damaged to the point of needing replacement. Jack always kept a good supply of those parts on hand, so fortunately he didn’t need to wait for a delivery. It wasn’t too long before Jack felt ready to attempt to activate Jenny.
“Alright Ellie, stand back while I power her up,” Jack said.
Ellie said nothing, but stepped back a few feet; even though they had been working for hours, she was still naked with her panel removed. She had begun to work up a sweat, but she wiped herself off before any could fall into the panel.
Jack carefully reached in and pressed Jenny’s power switch. To his delight, nothing sparked or exploded, but to his dismay, Jenny’s A.I. circuits seemed inactive. He waited a few moments as Jenny’s body came online, running basic default programs so it could blink and breathe.
“Hmmm, I wonder what’s wrong,” Ellie said.
“It must be a problem with the A.I. circuits, or with the body itself” Jack surmised, “If it’s the A.I. circuits, then it’ll take several days to fix,” he said.
“Is there any way to be sure what the problem is?” Ellie asked.
“Hmmm, there might be a way,” Jack mused, staring into Ellie’s open panel at the flashing lights on her A.I. complex, “Ellie, I think I might be able to connect your A.I. complex into Jenny’s body,”
“Really?” Ellie said, “I thought it was extremely difficult to make A.I.’s compatible for different bodies,” she said, “I mean, I was programmed to function adequately in this body, not hers,” she said, looking from her naked body to Jenny’s.
“That’s true,” Jack nodded, “But I am a master programmer and should be able to come up with some workaround,”
“Well, it might be interesting to try out a new body,” Ellie mused, “It’s not something you get to do every day,”
“Then you’re okay with it?” he asked.
“Of course I am Jack,” she smiled, “You know that,”
“Very well then, let’s get started,” he said.
Chapter Five: Experimental procedure
Before Jack and Ellie got started on the highly experimental procedure, he looked up as many instances of similar procedures as he could find on the Spaztec developer forums. There were several accounts of people successfully getting one of their custom A.I.s to function in different bodies, but even they reported that it ultimately depended on the body in question.
“Alright Ellie,” Jack said, getting his tools ready as she laid down on one of the other tables he had in the area, “I’m fairly confident that, whether this succeeds or not, your systems won’t be damaged,” he began, “But, as much as I’m confident I can pull this off, there is the possibility Jenny’s body simply won’t be compatible with you,”
“I understand,” Ellie nodded, laying comfortably on the table opposite Jenny.
“Alright then,” Jack smiled. He then grabbed the cable that Ellie had unplugged from herself earlier, “Now, I’m going to plug you back in and sort of mirror some of your systems on my terminal,” he explained, plugging her back in, “That way, I can still communicate with you even with your assembly removed and even if you can’t operate Jenny’s body,”
“That makes sense,” Ellie said, “Wow, that feels weird,” she suddenly said, as Jack started the mirroring process, “It’s like I’m in two places at once,”
“Sort of,” Jack said, “once I remove you, though, you’ll mostly be interacting with me from my terminal,”
“Okay,” Ellie said.
Jack then walked over to her and reached his hands inside her open panel. “Alright, I’m going to remove you now,” he told her, looking into her eyes.
Ellie merely nodded, then her eyes went blank as Jack pressed the releases on her A.I. core and carefully pulled it free from its housing. The core itself was fairly large, with memory banks and processor assemblies, as well as a small diagnostic screen listing Ellie’s current stats. Under normal circumstances, the removal of her core would have shut her down, but since her processes were being mirrored on the terminal, her A.I. was still active.
“You still with me Ellie?” Jack asked, turning to look at the screen.
“Yes Jack,” she replied from the terminal.
“Good,” Jack smiled, carefully setting her core down and moving over to Jenny. He carefully removed Jenny’s A.I. core, nothing happened, and placed it next to his terminal to work on later.
“You doing okay so far Ellie?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” she reported, “It’s weird not being connected to my body though,” she added.
“Well, with any luck you’ll have a new body to try out soon,” Jack said, accessing Ellie’s core systems and checking the code. “Alright, I’m going to try and plug you in right now,” he told her, “Just to see if your new Mark III beta code will make things easier,” he added.
“Okay,” Ellie said, with the same tone of voice she’d use if she were shrugging.
Jack carefully lifted Ellie’s core and brought it into Jenny’s body. Oddly enough, even though A.I. cores were not designed to function in other bodies, they were nevertheless designed the same, so Ellie’s core clicked into place just as easily as Jenny’s would have. A few lights blinked on Ellie’s core, then went dark as her A.I. attempted to integrate with Jenny’s body.
Jack had actually attempted something similar before, though this procedure was usually for when a Perfect Friend A.I. core was implanted into a new Housewife unit body. Even if it was the same physical body parameters, it still took some time for the A.I. to integrate into it. After the usual amount of time passed, the lights on Ellie’s core blinked a brief error sequence and fell dark.
“Ellie, you still with me?” Jack asked, pulling his gaze away from the blank look in Jenny’s eyes and turning to the terminal.
“Yes Jack,” she answered, “I’m sorry, but I was unable to gain any integration with Jenny’s body,” she reported, sounding apologetic.
“It’s okay Ellie,” Jack smiled, “I didn’t really expect it to work that time. This was sort of a benchmark test,” he explained.
“Oh, okay,” she replied.
“No for the real work,” he said, sitting down and typing away on his programming terminal.
After nearly 30 minutes of coding, Jack finally leaned back and exhaled explosively. For something that sounded so simple, it took a tremendous amount of coding to even make it remotely possible. He quickly uploaded the new bit of programming to Ellie’s download queue.
“Ooh, is that it?” Ellie asked, having been dutifully silent the entire time.
“Yes, you may go ahead and install it,” he said, relaxing a bit in his chair, “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t have an adverse effect on any of your other systems,” he added.
“Alright,” she said, then she fell silent as she installed the code; the lights on her core blinked a bit faster as she did so. A few minutes later the lights shut off as she did a silent reboot, then they came right back on. “The new programming has installed successfully,” she reported.
“Good, I want you to attempt the reintegration process again,” he told her, since she was still installed in Jenny’s body.
“Ok,” she said, before falling silent.
This time, the sequence of lights on her core blinked in a more promising pattern. It had taken Jack years, but he finally knew the many hundreds of patterns like the back of his hand. This one indicated her A.I. was having considerably more success, but he might still have some more tweaking to do later.
After several minutes, some of the systems in Jenny’s body came online, giving Jack his first indication Ellie was successfully gaining control over it. Jenny’s eyes starting blinking, her fingers and toes twitched, and her whole body moved a bit.
“Ellie, is it working?” he asked, staring into Jenny’s eyes.
After a bit of time passed, Jenny’s previously blank eyes blinked and then focused on Jacks, now with a lively look of recognition. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She paused and tried again. “Y….eeee..ssss” Ellie’s, not Jenny’s, voice emitted in a digital warble from the throat speaker.
“It doesn’t quite sound like it,” Jack said, turning to the terminal, “Run a quick diagnostic while I try and install a quick patch,” he told her. Ellie merely smiled and did as instructed. Jack typed away on his computer after deducing what exactly the problem was. Just as she finished her diagnostic, he installed the hot fix. “There, try talking now,” he told her.
This time, Ellie took in a breath, then exhaled, then took in several more breaths, before finally speaking. “Ah, I think it’s finally working,” she said in Jenny’s voice. This was the first time Jack had heard Jenny’s voice, and he found it to be just as playful as Ellie’s was…though it probably had something to do with Ellie controlling her now, and with the fact Jenny was a partier model.
“Well, at least we fixed that,” Jack said with a sigh of relief, “do you have any control over the rest of Jenny’s body?”
“I think so,” Ellie said, wiggling her toes and fingers. “I can move a little, but the compatibility issues are causing my processors extra strain,” she reported, “I’m afraid if I move too much, they might overheat,”
“Hmm,” Jack pondered the problem for a while. “Alright Ellie, I know this is risky, but I’m going to need you to move around a bit more so I can track exactly what the issue is,”
“Okay,” Ellie nodded, slowly sitting up and swinging down to the floor. She made a few exaggerated movements in her arms and legs as she paced the area between the table and terminal; she was still plugged in.
As she did, Jack carefully monitored her CPU heat levels, trying to fix the issue behind it. The longer she moved, the more trouble she had. Her movements became jerky, and she sometimes froze up as her processors cooled down.
“Alright, you can stop moving now,” Jack told her, highlighting a few trouble areas of her programming code that he needed to fix.
“Thanks,” Ellie managed to say, literally freezing in place and speaking instead with Jenny’s throat speaker. Jack merely shook his head, finding it disconcerting seeing her frozen in place like that…and, oddly arousing. Still, freezing the body’s motor functions immediately reduced the strain on her processors.
Jack typed away some more, adding more adaptive algorithms to Ellie’s code. He finally installed them several minutes later, then turned and admired her frozen body.
“Okay, try and move around now,” he told her.
It was as though a statue came to life as she suddenly moved around. She made a few exaggerated movements before stopping with a smile. “That appears to have fixed it,”
“Good!” Jack said, pumping his fist triumphantly, “Now why don’t you sit down so I can work out the rest of the bugs,” he suggested.
“Okay,” she smiled, hopping up onto the bed and sitting down on the edge, playfully swinging her feet.
Chapter Six: Back to Business
Jack spent the better part of another hour working out a few smaller issues Ellie’s A.I. was having with Jenny’s body; it was nothing he couldn’t handle. A few other issues popped up as well, but they were mostly caused by the damage Jenny had arrived with.
“Alright Jenny, I think I’ve finally worked out all the bugs,” Jack said, getting up from his terminal and walking over to her; she was still sitting on the edge of the table swinging her feet.
“Huh, I didn’t feel a thing,” she shrugged, continuing her swinging.
“Well, I fixed a whole host of minor issues,” he told her, “You know how thorough I am,” he added.
“Oh yeah, I do,” she smiled, lifting her legs up and examining her feet for the first time, “You know, Jenny has pretty unremarkable feet,” she said, gently feeling them,
“Here, you take a look,” she said, extending them out towards him.
Jack politely agreed, grabbing hold of both feet and examining them. While he had a passing appreciation for feet, especially female feet, it was not a full blown fetish. “Yeah, I suppose she does,” he finally said, letting go of them. “Still, Jenny’s feet look much better than your stubby ones,” he added, looking over at the table that still had Ellie’s body lying on it.
“I suppose you’re right,” she sighed dramatically, “Hey, can I go look at my body now?” she asked.
“Of course, there was nothing stopping you before,” he shrugged.
“Actually there was, or rather, is,” she pointed out, directing his attention back to the cable still plugged in to her A.I. complex. “My programming prevents me from removing a maintenance cable without permission,”
“Ah, I forgot,” Jack said, “It’s just, you’re so much like the real Ellie, I keep forgetting you’re not,” he smiled.
“Good,” Ellie smiled, carefully removing the cable and absently clicking the skin panel back in place, “That’s what Ellie had in mind,” she then walked over to her body, which was still powered on, and looked down upon it.
Jack quietly walked up to join her as she silently stared down at her own body. After a few seconds, he broke the silence. “Not something you get to see every day, is it?”
“No,” Ellie replied simply, “Though, the real Ellie would have had the opportunity to look at me before I was shipped out,” she said, “But, that would have been too late for the memories of it to be integrated into my A.I.,” she added.
“Well, then it’s time to start making your own memories,” Jack smiled, “Come on, go ahead and feel your body,” he urged her.
“Alright,” Ellie smiled, looking weird doing it with Jenny’s face. She then gently reached out and touched her motionless body, starting with her stubby feet. “Wow, my feet really are stubby,” she laughed, playing around with her feet. She then continued feeling her body up, spending a bit of time with the breasts and face.
“Well, was that good for you?” he asked with a quizzical look.
“Yes,” she smiled, “And I’ve also taken some nice videos and photos to send to Ellie,” she added.
“Of course,” he smiled, “Did she actually program you to send her stuff?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” she smiled, “You know how nosy she can be,”
“Oh yeah, I certainly do,” Jack shuddered.
“She wants us to have sex too,” Ellie added absently.
“WHAT?!” Jack spluttered.
“She wants us to…”
“I heard you the first time,” Jack said, trying without much success to hide a blush.
Ellie merely giggled, sounding remarkably like herself even with Jenny’s voice. “Come on, you know you want to…you’re just too caught up on societal norms,” she told him, “Ellie respects that, which is a tiny part of the reason she commissioned me,” she continued, “That way, you technically aren’t committing incest…not as though it’s a crime anymore anyway,” she added.
It was true…after the Great War, incest was decriminalized so that family bloodlines wouldn’t die out…there were rules however. Only second degree relatives and on could mate, meaning Jack could legally marry his cousin if he so chose.
Jack sighed and then composed himself, looking down at Ellie’s motionless body. “You know, you are attractive,” he began, “But I’m not sure I feel comfortable yet having relations with you that way,” he said a bit carefully.
“If this is about Gabby interfering, then no worries,” Ellie assured him, “She and Ellie already worked things out and Gabby is okay with it,”
“I’m sure,” Jack said, “But I still don’t feel comfortable doing it…yet,” he smiled.
“Alright,” Ellie said with a look of disappointment on her borrowed face.
“Don’t be discouraged yet,” Jack assured her, patting her shoulder, “I’m sure we’ll get there,” he smiled, “Now I think we should get back to business,” he then said, “Since you’re obviously functioning properly in Jenny’s body, it seems the problems she was having were primarily with her A.I. center,”
“That does make sense,” Ellie agreed, her face losing all signs of disappointment and focusing on the task at hand, “Don you think you can fix her?”
“I think so,” Jack said, walking over to it and plugging the cable that was previously plugged into Ellie into Jenny’s A.I. “I’ve only had a few cases where the A.I. itself was corrupted, and it’s always tricky and the A.I. usually has to be reinitialized and started over from scratch,”
“Huh, that would mean it would lose all its memories,” Ellie said.
“Exactly,” he said, “So make sure you don’t ever damage yourself that severely,” he told her.
“I’ll try,” she smiled slyly, sticking her tongue out at him.
Jack merely smiled back and had his terminal run a comprehensive sweep of Jenny’s A.I. It only took a few minutes for it to generate enough error messages to confirm Jack’s suspicions…Jenny’s A.I. was indeed corrupted.
“Is she damaged?” Ellie asked, seeing the disappointed look on Jack’s face.
“Oh yeah,” he sighed, trying to decide his options, “I don’t know what the hell those women were doing with Jenny, but whatever it was…it was excessive,”
“Poor Jenny,” Ellie said, absently rubbing her own body as though she were comforting Jenny herself.
“Yeah, I can rebuild her A.I., but she’ll never be quite the same as they may have been used to,” he said, beginning the rebuilding process, “Though, considering how they treated her, I doubt they’ll even care or notice,” he added.
“Perhaps,” Ellie shrugged.
Jack typed away furiously on the computer for the next several minutes, finally beginning the massive A.I. rebuilding process for Jenny’s corrupter systems. “There, that should do it,” he said with a look of satisfaction, “I also threw in a few subroutines to allow her to better protect herself from over indulgence in the future,”
“Good, though will the client be upset about that?” Ellie asked.
“Perhaps,” Jack said, “But it was part of an update anyway….one which they neglected to install,”
“Ah, I see,” Ellie said, “You’ll just tell them it was part of her normal maintenance,” she smiled deviously.
“Precisely,” Jack smiled back.
“So, while we wait for that to finish,” Ellie said, “Why don’t you finally tell me more about your secret project?” she suggested, looking over at the table in the back.
Jack was slightly taken aback, hoping she might have forgotten about the project. Still, even without Ellie’s otherwise good memory recall, this was an android version of her and otherwise incapable of truly forgetting anything.
“Ha, you thought I would forget, didn’t you?” she laughed.
“Yeah,” Jack admitted sheepishly.
“I know you too well for that,” she boasted, “Anyway, come on. Let’s see it,” she demanded imperiously.
“Alright,” Jack sighed, getting up from the computer and walking over to the table containing his secret project, “Just try and calm yourself when you see it,” he warned, grabbing hold of the sheet.
“I will,” she promised, anxious to see what lay beneath.
“Very well,” he nodded, slowly lifting the sheet until what lay beneath was uncovered.
Ellie merely gasped, saying only, “It’s you,”