The Small Business - End-of-Year Review
The Small Business Chronicles: The Small Business - End-of-Year Review
Chapter One: Gabby's present
“Alright, great job everyone,” Jack said, collapsing into an arm chair in the recreational area of his lab, alongside Ellie and JB.
It had been a long day, but Jack had once again had a productive Christmas giving upgrades, updates, and routine maintenance to his various employees. Unlike last Christmas, however, he now had slightly more than three times as many androids to work on.
However, also unlike last year, he now had three times as much assistance working on them: Ellie and JB. Ellie and JB were allowed to perform upgrades for each other on a bi-weekly basis, and then this year, Jack delegated responsibility to them: Ellie worked on the motel workers, JB worked on the café workers, and Jack worked on the shop workers…though Jack still supervised the others work.
In the past several months since bringing JB online, Jack had monitored all his functions perfectly and determined he was functioning perfectly. He’d even been able to utilize some of the male sex programming to augment the female sex programming; he’d be testing it out for the first time in the ambitious new programming package he’d been compiling for Gabby all year long.
At this point, they’d managed give “presents” to every single android on the premise…with the exception of Gabby; Jack always saved her for last. Unlike most years, this year he believed he had something truly special…something that would finally bring her one giant step towards behaving more human.
“Is there anything else you’d like us to help you with?” Ellie asked, absently grabbing JBs hand.
Jack thought about that for a few moments before finally deciding, “No, I think I’d like to give Gabby her present now.”
“Are you sure it’s ready?” JB asked, “it is the most complicated thing you’ve ever worked on…myself included,” he added with a concerned look.
“Well, it’s as ready as it’ll ever be,” Jack said, albeit a bit dubiously, “One of the things that makes it so special is that it’s capable of improving itself over time.”
“Indeed,” JB agreed.
“In any event, you two were a great help today,” Jack continued, “You’re free to indulge yourselves for the next few hours until dinner.”
“Thanks Jack,” Ellie smiled, leaning over and giving him a warm kiss. She then grabbed JBs hand affectionately and stood up with him, walking with him to their bedroom. Before they walked into the hall, JB turned his head and gave Jack a wink. In the past few weeks since JBs activation, Jack had allowed the two to share a room and essentially live as a couple. They were both merely following their programming, but it was the closest thing to an android on android relationship he’d ever seen, and as such, he was documenting the heck out of it.
Jack winked back and then he too rose from his seat, returning to his nearly worn out work chair; perhaps that large box next to the Christmas tree was a new chair, he thought. Shaking his thoughts away, he unlocked the files for Gabby’s Christmas present and made a few quick modifications to them that were inspired by things he just learnt from working on the girls.
Once he was sure it was ready, he gathered up the hardware bits that would pare with it and then summoned Gabby via her remote link to his terminal. He had just enough time to organize everything in order of installation before Gabby arrived.
“You summoned me?” she said playfully, sashaying into the room; Jack programmed her to do that for his birthday.
“Yes, it’s time for your present,” he told her, barely containing his excitement, and the second he spoke, she looked excited too, “But unlike in previous years, this is a very special present.”
“Oh?” she asked, leaning against the examination table she’d be laying on soon.
“Yes, after all these years, I think I’ve finally figured out a way to make you truly more human,” he told her excitedly.
“Really? How?” she asked with genuine curiosity.
“Well, it was from tiny bits and pieces of experience, programming, and hardware I accumulated from the new employees I acquired this year,” he explained.
“Which ones?” she asked.
“Well, I accumulated some experimental Mark IV personality files from Amber,” he started, “I was able to sandbox them on my terminal and fix the multitude of bugs in it, as well as tailor it perfectly to your configuration.” Jack paused to collect himself, since his excitement was causing himself to speak quickly. Following her programming perfectly, Gabby quickly headed into the dining area and fetched Jack a glass of water.
“Thanks dear,” he said, quickly taking a few sips before setting the cup down, “Where was I?”
“You were talking about Amber’s personality files,” Gabby supplied.
“That’s right,” Jack said, “Anyway, so I figured those would be useful in making you more human, but that alone wouldn’t work, so I also programmed an algorithm to allow it to work better in conjunction with some of the sleeper files I copied from Luiza.”
“How would sleeper files help me?” Gabby asked, “I don’t think I’d be as useful to you if I were a sleeper.”
“Well, making you a sleeper would make you more prone to malfunctions, but several of the sleeper files allow for Luiza to be far more spontaneous than a typical android could be…that’s part of the reason sleepers aren’t manufactured, or quite legal,” he explained, “Also, several of the sleeper files alter your perception of the world, or in this case, improve it.”
“Why would my perception need to be altered?” she asked with a confused look.
“Because currently, you’re really only programmed to perceive things in ways that might benefit or harm me, not yourself,” he explained, “With this, you’ll be able to look at things the way you want to.”
“I’m still not sure I understand,” she admitted.
“Well, hopefully with this package, you will,” he smiled, “Anyway, the final piece of the complicated program is distilled from the memories I excised from Varsha.”
“You mean her traumatic experiences?” Gabby said with a surprised look.
“Yes, surprisingly enough, the trauma she suffered somehow created some emergent programming, though not enough to significantly alter her programming, but enough to augment yours.”
“Wow, is there anything else you took from the girls?” she asked.
“Well, actually, Amber had some illegal pheromone fluid that I managed to resynthesize to be a tad safer,” he admitted, “That way, you’ll be able to attract me a bit easier.”
“Oooh,” Gabby smiled.
“And I also submitted the bug fixes to the Mark IV team, and they gave me a huge bug bounty…about ten times more than anything I’ve ever received,” he added, “And with some of that money, I was able to buy you all this nice hardware,” he said, showcasing the various processors and other android components laying on a tray; the rest I’m going to be saving up to hopefully buy you a new Mark III prototype body sometime next year; they are almost ready to be tested,” he added excitedly.
“Ooh. I can’t wait,” she smiled, “What are these going to do to me?” she asked, focusing her eyesight on the tray of components.
“Well, mostly just give you a necessary boost in processing power to handle, what I hope, is your emergence from what you are, to what I hope you will become…a true, living artificial woman,” Jack said proudly, then he paused with a slight blush on his face, “And I also threw in a few enhancements to your sexual systems.”
“Of course you did,” Gabby laughed.
“Finally, amongst other things, I’ll finally be installing the software patch to allow you to function in other bodies,” he told her, “After the past few months having both Ellie and JB try out several bodies, I believe I’ve finally worked out all the bugs.”
“Good, I’ve been looking forward to trying out other bodies,” Gabby mused.
“And I’ve been looking forward to it as well,” Jack smiled.
“So, am I going to reactivate a completely different person?” Gabby asked with a slightly concerned look on her face.
“Not quite,” Jack said, “The collaboration of programming code is a bit tricky,” Jack said delicately, “It’s all governed by a complex heuristic algorithm that may take several days to fully integrate into your A.I.”
“Okay,” Gabby nodded, “Would you like me to get undressed now?”
“Well, I always like you to get undressed,” Jack laughed, “But yes,” Jack told her. Gabby gave him a knowing smile and then disrobed, neatly folding everything onto the adjoining table. Once undressed, she laid down on the table and unsealed her primary access ports.
“Very good Gabby, now you may wake up feeling like a new woman, but it’s going to take this software the next few days to fully take effect,” he reminded her.
“I understand,” Gabby nodded, looking up at him with trust in her eyes.
Jack then braced himself for the task at hand and then reached in to deactivate Gabby. Once all her systems were offline, he spent the time waiting for them too cool off by putting on some relaxing music; he usually only listened to music when he was stressed out, and testing such an experimental program on Gabby was definitely stressing him out.
For the next hour and a half, Jack replaced and upgraded virtually every component in her body. He started with the processing equipment on the core itself, then, he attached it to his terminal so he could activate it in diagnostic mode; it would also help her activate faster later on when he was finished. He then started the software installation process while he continued to upgrade her hardware.
While he upgraded her body, he couldn’t help but silently thank JB and Ellie for allowing him to finish about an hour earlier than the previous year. As much as he enjoyed working on Gabby, he also wanted her back online so she could cook him dinner.
Before long, he finally had everything installed, and his experimental software suite had finished installing as well. He ran a few quick diagnostics, and, after ensuring everything was fine, carefully unplugged Gabby’s core from the terminal and inserted it back into her body.
“Alright, here goes nothing,” Jack said, once everything was in place. He then pressed the manual power button and stood back in case there was a catastrophic malfunction. Too Jack’s relief and delight, everything activated smoothly…even a tad faster than ever, and before he knew it, she was back online.
Gabby blinked her eyes a few times before focusing on Jack. Jack was still standing right over her, eagerly waiting for her to speak.
“Jack, I feel different,” Gabby said.
“How different?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted with a confused look, “I feel faster because of the new hardware, but there’s something else that I can’t quite describe…yet,” she told him.
“Well, you don’t have to right now,” Jack assured her, quickly clicking her panel back in place and giving her a loving kiss, “Just let it happen naturally.”
“Alright,” she smiled, slowly getting up and dropping to her feet. As she got dressed, she looked at the nearby clock and saw it was nearly 5pm. “Oh dear, I should really get up and start dinner,” she said, sounding flustered.
“Don’t worry, I’m done with you…though I did install a temporary monitor on your A.I. core to monitor the new software,” he assured her.
“Alright, thanks dear,” she said, giving him another kiss before rushing upstairs while Jack stayed behind to tidy up the lab.
The dinner that Gabby cooked that night was delicious, even by her usual standards of perfection…even she was surprised by it. The sex Jack had with her was also a bit different, though that was mostly because of her enhanced hardware. It wasn’t until just as they were going to bed that he they noticed anything.
“Well, this was certainly a more relaxing Christmas,” Jack said as he crawled into bed.
“Well, I guess it helped that you had extra help this time around,” Gabby said.
“Yeah, and that it was mostly just routine maintenance and upgrades this time as opposed to major repairs,” Jack added.
“Yeah,” Gabby agreed.
“So, have you noticed any differences in your functioning these past few hours?” Jack asked.
“Now that you mention it, I did notice something,” she admitted.
“Oh?” Jack asked.
“I didn’t cook dinner because I was supposed to…I cooked dinner because I wanted to make you happy,” she said, sounding a little confused, “I think that’s why it tasted better.”
“Huh, that’s interesting,” Jack said, though he was a little giddy that the programming was actually working, “Why don’t you go into sleep mode so it can work faster,” he suggested.
“Alright,” she smiled, giving him a kiss “Good night.”
“Good night,” he told her, watching as she entered sleep mode, though, as he shut off his light on the side of the bed and rolled over to fall asleep, he couldn’t help but anticipate further changes to come this week.
Chapter Two: Boxing Day
The next morning, Jack managed to sleep in a bit; he’d finally stopped using the damn alarm clock and been using Gabby to wake him up. He laid in bed for several moments before realizing that Gabby hadn’t woken him. Apparently, Gabby’s internal clock failed to wake her…he had to actually shake her up.
“What is it?” she asked, looking confused.
“Dear, it’s almost 8:30,” he told her.
“Oh, is it?” she asked, seeming to zone out and check her clock, “Wow, it is,” she said, “Am I broken?”
“I don’t think so,” Jack assured her, “I think it might’ve just been the software I installed taxing your systems to integrate itself,” he explained.
“That must be it,” she smiled.
“Well, do you feel any different today?” he asked.
“Well, I think my memory recall systems were malfunctioning last night,” she said, “I kept experiencing odd visual and auditory data.”
That nearly stopped Jack cold. “Gabby, it almost sounds like you had a dream,” he told her.
“Huh, perhaps that would explain it,” she said with an odd look, “Is that something you expected with that present you gave me yesterday?”
“Well, I expected you’d slowly develop more emergent traits, but I thought I’d have to create a dreaming program myself,” he admitted, “I guess the algorithm did it for me.”
“Well, based on the dreams you’ve described, I don’t think I was quite dreaming,” she admitted, “It was more a random cycling of data from my memory banks…though, most of it focused on you.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Jack smiled, rolling over and kissing her, “Anything naughty?”
“Oh yes,” she smiled, kissing him deeply.
Jack and Gabby stayed in bed for only a few minutes longer, because, after all, they had woken up late. To save time, they both took a shower together and then they headed out for breakfast. As they ate breakfast, they chatted about their plans for the day.
“Well, the day after Christmas is usually pretty light, so I think I’m just going to tidy up in the lab and then review everyone’s, yourself included, data points since the distribution of presents to determine if everyone is running smoothly,” Jack told her, “You?” he asked.
“Well, I was planning on doing some gardening,” Gabby began, “But I just got a message that your real Christmas present would be arriving today, so I think I’ll help you set it up,” she told him.
“My real present?” Jack asked with a confused look, “So, that new lab chair you and Henry got me wasn’t my real present?”
“Not really,” Gabby admitted, “That’s actually a chair Henry built in crafts class at school…though, I did help him purchase the supplies with our allowance,” she explained.
“Oh,” Jack said, starting to get excited, “So, what did you get me?”
Before Gabby could respond, they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a large truck pulling up to the loading dock. Based on the fact they were arriving roughly fifteen minutes before the dock was scheduled to open, Jack figured it had to be the usual guy from Spaztec delivering an android.
“An android?” Jack asked.
Gabby merely smiled knowingly and then grabbed both their jackets and headed out to the shop to meet the driver. Since they were already in there, Jack decided to just activate everyone a few minutes early, since he needed Kat anyway.
“Good morning Jack,” Kat greeted him with a smile. One of the presents he’d given her was a substantial improvement to her personality files, so she was far more lively than ever before. “Why have I been activated early?” she asked with a confused look.
“An unexpected delivery,” Jack told her, “It seems Gabby ordered me a surprise.”
“Ah, I see,” Kat nodded, “I’ll get started right away,” she said, and then she immediately started opening the loading dock to allow the driver to back in. After a few minutes of Kat signing the delivery documentation and rescheduling a few future shipments of parts, Kat returned from the truck hauling a Spaztec branded box, just big enough to hold an android.
“I take it that’s my present?” Jack surmised.
“Yes dear,” Gabby said, “Just follow us down into the lab Kat,” Gabby ordered.
“Yes ma’am,” Kat nodded, following them into the lift. As soon as they descended into the lab, she placed the box in the same place Jack usually had her deposit them and then dutifully left after determining her services were no longer required.
“Well dear, are you ready to open it?” Gabby asked a bit apprehensively, seeming to worry whether or not Jack would like it.
“I suppose so,” Jack said. He nervously approached the box and unlocked it with the biometric systems. When it hissed open, he gazed upon the rather short girl that lay inside…seeming to vaguely recognize her.
“Wow, she’s pretty,” Jack admitted, looking into the girl’s sleeping face. She was wearing a pair of black athletic shorts with a matching black, sleeveless top with a pink sports bra underneath it, and a pair of gray and pink athletic shoes; based on her attire, Jack surmised she was a Personal Trainer model. “Who is she?”
“She’s a Personal Trainer model built in the appearance of an early 21st century gold medal winning Olympic gymnast named Shawn Johnson,” Gabby explained, “That’s why she’s so short,” she added with a whisper.
“Oh, that’s why I recognize her,” Jack said, getting a closer look at her. The reason he didn’t recognize her immediately is because the majority of historic footage of her showed her in her mid-teenage years, when she was most active. This android model of her, for legal reasons, was modelled after her appearance when she was in her early twenties, the age where she did mostly outreach and advertising for various athletic companies to get people to exercise.
“I figured, since you have more help around here now, that a Personal Trainer model could help you get in better shape, and stay that way,” Gabby explained, “Not to mention she can be another pet project for you,” she added quickly.
Jack merely looked down at the slight paunch he’d been developing the last few years and sighed. Then he looked back at the Shawn Johnson android and stared into her sleeping face before smiling. “I suppose I could make her a Mark III,” he decided, “Spaztec has been pestering me to test out a Personal Trainer and Secretary model Mark III for weeks now,” he mused, “Perhaps if I finally do, they’ll give me a good deal on your Mark III body later this year.”
“Oooh,” Gabby said, “I look forward to it.”
“Me too,” Jack said, “And I suppose I might convert Rachel to a Mark III in a few weeks when business slows down,” he added, “Gabby, why don’t you temporarily override your physical safety parameters and help me lift Shawn over to the examination table,” he told her.
“Okay Jack,” Gabby nodded, zoning out momentarily as she disabled the safeties that prevented her from using too much strength. When she came back, she helped Jack lift Shawn, her motors making an audible whirring sound each time she moved. Once they had Shawn laying on the table, Gabby immediately re-engaged the safeties to conserve her energy reserves.
“Thanks Gabby,” Jack told her, rolling Shawn’s shirt up and removing her access port.
“Don’t mention it,” she smiled, “I hope you don’t mind me buying you one of the cheaper models,” she then said, “I don’t have that much money saved up.”
“Don’t worry, I love the fact that you thought that much of me to purchase a Personal Trainer model for me,” he shrugged, “Besides, it’ll make it easier and cheaper to buy new parts for her,” he added.
“I thought so too,” Gabby winked.
“So, this might take a while, did you want to go do your gardening?” Jack asked her.
“No, as a matter of fact, I thought maybe you’d also like to try transferring me into her body,” Gabby suggested.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot you can do that now,” he said, “Well, fortunately she’s brand new, so I don’t need to upgrade too much,” he told her, inventorying Shawn’s hardware, “And I can always plug her core into my terminal and have it upgrade her software,” he continued, “I figure it’ll be about 15 minutes,” he estimated.
“Well, I guess I’ll go and see what Ellie and JB are doing then,” Gabby smiled.
“Tell them I’ll need them to cover for me in about 30 minutes,” Jack told her absently, already removing Shawn’s core and plugging it into his terminal.
“Okay,” Gabby called back.
Because it was Boxing Day, or, the day after Christmas, it usually wasn’t too busy and people didn’t even start coming in to shop until nearly noon. As such, Jack told Ellie and JB that they could play around with each other a bit later.
Since Jack was looking forward to putting Gabby in Shawn’s body, he made quick work of installing the necessary hardware for Shawn’s body to adequately support a Mark III A.I. He had just enough time to start the installation of the software on Shawn’s core, and send an e-mail requesting a deal on a Mark III body for Gabby, before Gabby finally returned.
“Is it ready?” she asked, emerging from Ellie’s room.
“Pretty much,” Jack said, “Just needs a brain,” he smiled.
“Well, I think I can take care of that,” she winked.
“Me too,” he told her, “By the way, what were they doing in there?”
“Ellie was showing him pictures of the real Ellie’s latest adventures that she received in her nightly information upload,” Gabby explained, “And they were naked,” she added.
“I figured,” Jack laughed, “They are getting dressed now to take over the lab, right?”
“Yes,” Gabby assured him.
“Good,” he said, “Then there’s nothing left for you to do but remove your shirt and lay on the other table,” he told her.
Gabby nodded and then removed her shirt. Jack quickly admired the way her breasts looked in the new bra he gave her, that, and the fact he had increased her breast size by 3% so they would act as slightly better shielding. Now that she was becoming more lifelike, he was taking extra precautions to keep her safe…even backing her files up in a massive server. After she neatly folded her shirt onto the side table, she laid down and opened her panel.
“Alright Gabby, I just want to warn you, the modifications I made to your A.I. yesterday may affect the transition process unpredictably,” Jack warned her, grabbing hold of Gabby’s core, “But, you should still be able to function properly,” he assured her.
“Okay,” she smiled, her eyes full of trust and love.
Jack merely nodded and then carefully pulled Gabby’s core out. Jack really had to enter a Zen mode, since he rarely ever removed Gabby’s core in the fear that even removing it might damage her. However, his experience swapping JB and Ellie’s cores over the past few months had made him more confident with core swapping. He watched as the lights in Gabby’s body slowly shut off, and her body settled into a standby pose, then he brought the core over to Shawn’s body and inserted it.
“Alright, here goes,” he said to himself, reaching in and powering on Shawn’s body; Gabby’s core was still on. A few moments later, Shawn’s body activated, and it slowly sat up.
“Jack, did it really work?” Gabby asked, though she sounded more innocent with Shawn’s younger voice.
“It would seem so,” Jack told her. He had a gentle smile on his face, as he watched Gabby examining her borrowed body as though she were a child. “How does she feel?” he asked.
“Smaller,” Gabby answered, now standing on her feet and examining her body; Shawn Johnson was at least a full foot shorter than Gabby, “Aside from that, the patch you installed basically makes Shawn’s body feel natural to me,” she added.
“Well, she was a gymnast,” Jack shrugged, “Though, I’m assuming she was programmed with a wider array of activities,” he added.
“She was,” Gabby assured him, “But you’ll have plenty of time to try them out tomorrow…for now, you have me in her.”
“Indeed I do,” Jack smiled, “Did you want to look at your body before we have some fun?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” Gabby said, almost forgetting it was even there. She then solemnly walked over and examined her body. It was at that moment that Jack realized this was likely the first time she had ever gotten to experience her body from a 3rd person perspective, since even looking in the mirror was augmented by her programming. “I look very beautiful,” she said.
“You do,” Jack agreed, “Just the way I wanted you.”
“Thanks for ordering me…for, making me so beautiful and for caring for me all these years,” she said, almost sounding emotional.
“You don’t even have to mention it,” Jack told her, “You filled a void in my life that I never thought I’d have filled.”
In that emotional moment, the two of them merely embraced and then silently headed towards the lift leading back up to the house, just before Ellie and JB emerged. Jack absently called back to them not to mess with Gabby’s body, but was too distracted to hear any response.
Chapter Three: A few final tweaks
They much of the morning and several hours of the afternoon playing around with Gabby in Shawn’s body. Henry in particular found it quite entertaining, since he found Shawn’s body to be very attractive; him being closer to Shawn’s apparent age than Gabby’s.
They also had a laugh when Gabby attempted to cook them lunch, since she had spent years organizing the kitchen to her body’s physical parameters; Shawn was roughly a foot shorter than Gabby. Fortunately, with Jack’s help, they managed to cook a decent lunch.
The sex with Shawn’s body was quite interesting as well, since this version of her was designed to be about ten years younger than Gabby’s body. Also, since Shawn was a Personal Trainer model, her body was a bit more athletic and Gabby found she could try out some techniques that her body would have otherwise been incapable of.
By about midday, they regretfully had to return to the lab, since Jack wanted to perform a few final tweaks to Gabby’s A.I. improvements, as well as coordinate a few security improvements to the business.
Jack had decided to install a security system to augment Gina’s services, so he’d qualify for a series of tax breaks that were only given to businesses with a 95% or higher security rating. Even with Gina on patrol every day, and his gated parking, he still only got 88%. It was a stupid system that basically coerced people into buying security cameras, but Jack didn’t mind. In any event, a higher security rating meant he could charge 5% more at the motel, and he’d qualify for better insurance coverage.
In any event, Jack and Gabby took a quick shower, followed by one last exploration of Shawn’s naked body, before getting dressed and returning to the lab.
When Jack and Gabby returned to the lab, they found JB and Ellie tidying up from the previous day’s activities, as well as prepping the cameras Jack had ordered; there was a team of security experts coming in later to install them.
“Hey you two,” Ellie called out, “did you have fun?”
“Oh yes, loads of fun,” Gabby smiled. She normally acted more mature, but she realized that looked weird in Shawn’s body, so she temporarily regressed her maturity settings.
“Yeah, it was fun having Gabby try out Shawn’s body,” Jack agreed, “But I’m looking forward to having her try out some of the other staff members.”
“Ooh, me too,” Gabby agreed, a bit enthusiastically.
“So, are the cameras ready?” Jack asked, walking over and examining them. He’d ordered a little over a hundred of them, and they were to be installed on the perimeters of each building, in several of the trees on the property, and one was even designed to hover a few hundred feet over the property for a bird’s eye view.
“Almost,” JB answered, “I’m afraid my programming is just not as efficient as your experience when it comes to this sort of thing,” he apologized.
“No worries,” Jack assured him, “If need be, the team of experts can finish the job.”
“Okay,” JB nodded.
“Actually, they should be here soon,” Jack said, looking at the nearby clock, “Why don’t you two go up and prepare for their arrival while I work on Gabby for a bit?” he suggested.
“Alright,” Ellie and JB both said. With an understanding look on their faces, they both gathered up the equipment, loaded it onto a cart, and then left the lab via the shop lift.
By the time JB and Ellie were gone, Gabby was already sitting on the edge of the table Shawn’s body would be laying upon, taking a few final looks at her borrowed body.
“So, which body would you like to try out next time?” Jack asked as he sat down at his desk. He absently noticed that Shawn’s A.I. had been successfully upgraded to a Mark III and unplugged it from the terminal.
“Well, since the only reason I’d have to switch bodies is for us to have sex in it, I think I’ll leave that decision to you,” Gabby answered.
“Well, after these final tweaks, I’m hoping you might be able to make decisions that will benefit you, rather than just me,” Jack told her.
Gabby merely nodded, and then laid back down on the table to prepare for the core swap. She opened her panel and waited patiently for Jack to remove her.
“Now, I’m just going to install a few tweaks to your A.I. that the algorithm can’t quite implement on its own,” Jack assured her, grabbing hold of her core, “It should just take a few moments.” After receiving a nod, Jack removed her core and then plugged it into his terminal. For a moment, the interface almost had trouble reading her core, but then it suddenly corrected itself.
“Huh, that was weird,” he shrugged off, loading the patches he planned on installing. Once the process started, he quickly returned Shawn’s core to her body and resealed it; he’d turn her on some other time for an exercise session.
As the patches began to install on Gabby’s core, the diagnostic window he had open began showing some odd readings. Completely chaotic lines of code that didn’t match anything Jack had ever seen. However, they were only intermittent and appeared along with many other lines of recognizable code.
These last few patches were mainly to get her to start acting more independently, instead of having to rely solely on her very clever collaboration of programming. Her present had already done much of the work, but she was still being limited by her Spaztec programming…this final tweak would essentially be irreversible.
When the patches had finished installing, he absently updated her other software with the latest daily revisions, and then unplugged her core. He brought it back to her body and inserted it, activating it as soon as it was installed.
Gabby came back online much the same way she always did, much to Jack’s relief and dismay; he’d been hoping there might have been something different. Her eyes did their usual tracking of the room until they focused on their target: Jack.
“Honey, did the patches work?” she asked, resealing herself and slowly sitting up.
“I’m not sure,” Jack admitted, “I noticed some chaotic code in your matrix, but I’m not sure it’s enough to alter your programming,” he told her, “Probably by tomorrow,” he added.
“Well, we might as well enjoy the rest of our day,” she shrugged, her programming to cheer him up kicking in.
Jack merely smiled and agreed with her. Even if the programming never really kicked in the way he hoped, he still felt better having Gabby in his life.
The rest of the day went relatively smooth with no incident. Jack carefully watched Gabby the entire time, but couldn’t discern any major differences in her behavior. Still, most of her major programming was still active at this time, so the patches wouldn’t be able to fully complete their work until she entered sleep mode.
“Assuming I don’t interfere with your usual schedule as I did today, what’s on the docket for tomorrow?” Gabby asked as they crawled into bed.
“Not much,” Jack admitted, “Now that I have Ellie and JB helping out, I think I’m going to start taking these holiday weeks off…or at least, spend more time relaxing.”
“Ooh, then I guess I shall have to adjust my programming accordingly,” Gabby smiled.
“That would be nice,” Jack agreed, “Aside from that, I’m going to continue to monitor the changes I’ve made to your programming.”
“I’m relieved you care so much about me to take time away from the business,” she smiled.
“Well, aside from Henry, most of the profits from this business go to you…in some fashion,” he told her.
“Well, whatever I wake up as tomorrow, I’m just glad you take good care of me,” she said, rolling over and giving him a kiss.
“Good night Gabby,” Jack said, shutting off his light.
“Good night Jack,” she responded, also shutting off her light.
As Jack rolled over and fell asleep, his last thought before drifting off was of the new woman he would likely wake up to.
Chapter Four: Emergence
Chapter Five: New Year
Closed for Christmas - The Shop | The Repair Shop - Part 1 | Off-season - The Motel | The Repair Shop - Part 2 | Slow day - The Cafe | The Small Business - End-of-Year Review