3.33 - Other Plans
"Heck, at this point, it wouldn't take a fair prince to ravish me. I'd be happy with a toad, so long as it was decently-endowed," Rebecca said on her end of the phone. I could definitely relate. Campus seemed to be almost completely devoid of guys these days. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen one, although I didn't get many opportunities to venture out of the IT lab. "I'll be sending some data back in a bit," Rebecca continued, "I've compiled a package of what I've learned so far."
"Okay, I'll keep my eyes peeled," I said. A sound from the entry hall caught my attention. I peeked out, seeing Lyndsay in the hall. She didn't seem to notice me at first, so I waved and called out, "Yoohoo, Lyn! Over here!" Lyn's face brightened, and she quickly made her way to me. I covered the mouthpiece of the phone. Just as she was about to say something to me, I interrupted, "Lyndsay, core command, program check."
Lyndsay tilted her head to one side. The single syllable "Hey" briefly stuttered in her sound buffer before she continued with the diagnostic message I had requested. "Hello Synthia, I am currently running my camoflage profile while my primary personality finishes reloading from backup. I am instructed to report to bay 27 until the restore process completes." She blinked, then smiled pleasantly. "How are you doing, Synthia?"
"Kind of chatty for a camoflage, aren't you? 95% of the time, camoflage units just blankly execute instructions." I remembered Rebecca on the phone, and uncupped the mouthpiece again. "Lyn's here now, I'll just take her into the bay room."
"Sounds good," Rebecca replied, "I'll check back later." The line disconnected. "Okay Lyndsay, let me just take you to the recovery bay."
"Whatever you say, Synthia."
I took her hand, leading her through the corridors to the bay area. On the way, we passed the lounge area, where Vanessa was still watching that same movie. She sat nearly motionless, her eyes glued to the screen. "Hey Vanessa," I called out, "I've got a unit in for recovery. I'm just taking her down to the bays."
She didn't even turn her head. "Sure, Synthia. That sounds fine. I'll just... I can..." she trailed off. She seemed really distracted by that movie. I shrugged it off.
We continued on along the corridor to the hall leading to the Bay area. It looked like we would need to call in the building maintenance team soon. The lights were flickering like crazy in that back hallway. "Something wrong with the lights?" Lyndsay commented. Weird, I thought to myself. Camoflage profiles don't usually exhibit any kind of curiousity about their environment.
"Probably just a short in the electrical system." I shook my head. The flickering was making me feel a little dizzy. "Vanessa mentioned it earlier this morning. I'm 100% sure it's something that can be fixed easily."
Lyndsay stopped walking, an excited look on her face. "I'm so glad you said that. There's someone I want you to talk to." She pulled out her phone and dialed quickly. After only a few rings, I could just barely make out what sounded like a male voice answering on the other end. Lyndsay beamed with joy. "Hi lover! I'm at the IT lab, and one of them is ready to talk to you. Her name is Synthia. She's really hot." She listened for a few moments. "Sure, no problem." She passed the phone to me. "He wants to talk to you."
I took the phone and held it to my ear, puzzled. "Hello, Synthia?" the voice asked. Excitement washed over me. He had such a wonderful voice! "How are you doing?" He sounded really considerate.
"Hi..." I desperately tried to think what to call him. "Sir," I decided. It was good, but not good enough. There had to be a better way of addressing him. Maybe he would tell me what to call him. "I'm feeling 100% great! How can I serve you?" I asked. We were normally supposed to answer the phone with 'what can I help you with', but this seemed more appropriate.
"Synthia, listen, I need you to tell me everything you currently know about the security threat you're currently investigating."
"The virus? Not much. We know it seems to be adaptive to the individual systems it affects, but we still haven't been able to isolate the source, or any executable signature for it. It's pretty tough to detect and disinfect, so we've just been purging and loading from backups." My mobilecomp beeped, and I checked the screen. "Oh, I just got a data package from Rebecca. Looks like it has some extra information in there. Should I read some of it for you?"
"No, that's not necessary. Look, the main thing I need to know here is how your system detected it in the first place."
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know that. I'm just a low-level technician. Initial detection usually comes from higher up. I wish I could tell you, but I just don't have that information." I sighed, disappointed in myself for not being able to give him the answers he was looking for. "I'd be happy to do anything you want to make it up." Did I just say that out loud?
"Rebecca mentioned someone named Vanessa. Is she the one who gave the initial order to act against the virus?" he asked.
"That's the boss lady. I don't know if it was her idea to start with, but she's the one who passed the order along to us."
"What's she doing right now?"
"We found a movie we hadn't seen before in the IT lounge entertainment center. Since call-ins were kind of quiet tonight, we decided to see it. I think she's still watching it now." I peeked around the corner, where I could just see through the window into the lounge area. Sure enough, Vanessa was still sitting on the sofa, her back ramrod straight, her eyes locked on the flickering screen. "Yep, she's still at it."
"Find out how far into it she is," he said. I was thrilled. This was something I knew I could do for him.
"Sure thing!" I almost jogged back to the lounge door, my heels clicking loudly on the tiled floor. "Hey Vanessa," I called out from the entrance.
"Hmm?" Vanessa said. She barely moved, still staring at the screen.
"Just curious, how far into that movie would you say you are?"
"I'm... I am..." I could see the profile of her face. It looked like she was concentrating hard. "I am currently... 50%" she eventually managed to say.
I furrowed my brow. That was exactly what she had said earlier while I was talking to Rebecca. As I walked back to where Lyndsay was, I spoke into the phone. "She said she's only 50% into it, but that can't be right. I'm 100% sure we were much further in than that. She's been watching it for nearly three hours."
"Only 50%? That can't be right. What could have stalled the installation?" I opened my mouth to speak, but he interrupted before I could say anything. "Did she read a new art magazine today?"
"Oh, yeah, we both read it. We didn't understand it, but it seemed really important to read it." It was some kind of modern art review, but was pretty light on actual reading material. Mostly, it was just various art pieces. At the time, I had been mostly confused by it, but thinking back, they were the most beautiful pieces of art I had ever seen.
"Okay, so that's 20%. Did she comment on a buzzing noise in the PA system?"
"Almost constantly for nearly an hour. We got used to it, though."
"That's another 15%, then. What about the flickering lights in the back hallway?"
"She had mentioned it earlier. She said it made her dizzy, but didn't really comment about it after that."
"So it definitely initialized, which means at least another 10%, which means three hours of the movie should bring her up to a minimum of 90%. Did she mention anything about increased security procedures?"
I thought back. "Now that you mention it, yeah. She said something about detecting a potentially exploitable vulnerability in systems campus-wide, and was testing a patch on her own system. Let's see, that was yesterday evening... then this morning, she said she was compiling a new security patch for the nightly update. That should go out in about two hours."
"What?!" He sounded panicked. "She's going to patch it? Not good. I'm not finished yet!" He shouted something incomprehensible in frustration. "Synthia, is there any way you can cancel the nightly update?"
"I don't even have access to the deployment system. Once it loads an authenticated update package, the only thing I have the authorization to do is replace it with another authenticated package."
"Great, okay, replace it with another package."
I frowned. "I can't. I don't have another package to use. Vanessa's the only one with the encryption key to generate new ones, and the only one with access to the past update archive."
"Dammit all to... wait, you said it's encrypted. You know the encryption method?"
Now I felt useful again. "I sure do. It's one of the things we..."
"How many unsecured, operational fembots are there in the lab right now?" he interrupted. I didn't mind.
"Sixty-five, counting Lyndsay. It would be sixty-six if I could fix up Yasmine, but the water damage was pretty extensive. She really shouldn't have been anywhere near a pool after so long without a dermal inspection."
"Could you link multiple units as parallel processors, and have them try to break the encryption key?" It was brilliant! This man was a genius!
"Absolutely! With this many units, we should be able to crack it in time." I considered, doing a bit of calculation in my head. "Probably," I qualified.
"Always have a backup. Okay, first thing's first: Discontinue all action against this 'virus', understood?" It sounded like a wonderful idea to me.
"No problem, sir." I felt delighted to be able to do this part so immediately.
"Second, instruct Lyndsay to manually... infect... all unsecured fembots in the building. Have her ignore their social protocol responses, just get the data transferred into them as quickly as possible."
"That shouldn't even be a problem. Most of them have to get partially undressed just to interface with the bay alcoves. Even if they don't, they're usually running passive camoflage profiles with admin-level obedience." I looked in the bay room. Sure enough, dozens of topless women stood, docile and inert, in the alcoves that filled the room. Three of the girls who had come in tonight had walked here wearing only their lingerie, two were naked, and one was only wearing a garter belt with stockings and heels. "She shouldn't have any trouble at all." I gave Lyndsay her orders, and she set off at an eager pace.
"Next, we need to do something about Vanessa, either get her to decrypt the package, or download the encryption key from her. Maybe we could rollback to a vulnerable snapshot... When was Vanessa's last monthly?"
I was confused. "Sir, the IT staff are completely human. It's only the 'bots who have to do monthlies."
He sighed, frustrated but patient. "Synthia, disable perceptual filters."
I blinked, suddenly understanding what I needed to call him - what I had wanted to call him this whole time. "Okay, master." It felt good to finally say it.
"When was Vanessa's last monthly?"
"Vanessa and the rest of the IT staff do not perform monthlies, master."
"Are you sure? That seems kind of risky."
"I am definitely certain, master. We do not perform monthlies."
"So, no backups to load from... can you disable her, physically? Do you know how to deactivate or disassemble her?"
"In cases of extreme malfunction, all units on campus are equipped with a remote deactivation trigger, hardwired into their core system. It cannot be disabled."
"Do you know where Vanessa's deactivation trigger is located? Can you access it?"
"Yes, master. The triggers for all IT staff, including myself, are located in the emergency locker directly in front of me now."
"Good, here's what I want you to do..."
---
"Have you got all that?" he asked.
"Yes, master. I understand completely."
"Good. Just to be safe, reactivate your perceptual filters, but retain knowledge that Vanessa is a fembot."
I blinked again. Had I been daydreaming? I remembered my boyfriend's plan completely, though, so it wasn't anything to worry about. "Sorry, lover. I got distracted there for a moment. What were you saying?"
"I was saying it's time for you to get to work. I'll be in touch."
The line went silent as he hung up. No sense wasting time, I thought to myself, and made my way back to the lounge.
Vanessa was still seated, motionless, her entire attention fixated on the beautiful movie playing on the screen. It was weird, just like the magazine, the whole thing had confused the heck out of me at the time, but it was so compelling to watch. Now that seemed silly: It was so easy to understand the beauty of that movie.
I looked at Vanessa. I couldn't believe I had never realized that she was a fembot until my boyfriend had told me. It was so obvious. Though she was passively staring at the vidscreen, her expression was almost that of a sex doll, her full lips parted slightly in an expression of desire. The way she posed herself in the chair, seated almost sideways to show off the curve of her long legs, was exactly the sort of behavior that only a fembot would exhibit. Of course, the clincher was the fact that she was dressed too provocatively for anyone in IT, her short skirt riding up to show the tops of her black stockings, her blouse open to bare her midriff, while also plunging to show her cleavage and black bra. Only a fembot would dress that way.
I realized I was getting distracted. I pulled out the deactivation remote. "Vanessa?" I said. I had to confirm that she was responding to stimuli before triggering the device.
"Sorry, Synthia... I can't... I can't talk... right now." Only her mouth moved as she said this. "I've got to..." I pressed the trigger key. "I've got to... got to... system shutting down." She turned in her seat, now sitting facing forwards, her hands folded in her lap. "System shutdown complete. Goodbye," she said, her eyes closing and her head drooping.
I got to work. Hefting her out of the chair, I managed to undress her with a minimum of effort. Getting the stockings off was the most challenging part, since I didn't want to damage them - they would make a great addition to my own wardrobe - but the rest of her clothes were no challenge at all. I carefully folded her panties, placing them on the pile of clothes, and inspected her nude form.
She was gorgeous. Once all this was done, I would have to show her to my boyfriend. I wouldn't want him to miss out on a body like hers. Time for that later, right now, everything was set to move forward with the plan. I gently parted her lips, reaching into her mouth, and feeling around for the reactivation control. I soon found it, and her eyelids fluttered open.
"System startup initiated," she spoke in a smooth, but emotionless voice. "Unit label Vanessa Reed, Model number..."
"Bypass bootup procedure, initiate safemode," I interrupted.
"Safemode confirmed. System ready."
"Disconnect structure point waist."
There was a click, then a hiss. "Confirmed," she said. "Warning, pelvis not found. Warning, left leg not found. Warning, right leg not found."
I ran my hand around her smooth pussy, then reached behind and grabbed her ass with both hands, pulling down from the rest of her body. She separated easily, the control connections having disengaged as instructed.
Looking inside her lower torso, I found the drive cables I was seeking. I disconnected the main drive, which housed her primary personality profile and security partition.
"Warning, main drive not found. Hot swap drive function is not supported in safe mode. Manual initialization only," she said, calmly.
Biting my lip, I plugged the cable back in. The drive cooling system blipped and whirred for a moment, then dropped to silence by the sound dapener. "New drive detected on main drive connection," Vanessa announced.
"Load drive, serial number 84392-992."
"Drive loaded. Warning, this drive has multiple partitions. Automatic configuration not supported."
"Initialize partition zero," I said.
"Partition zero initialized. Partition label VanessaReedPersona."
"Load settings for partition zero from block 2939 by 10068."
"Configuration settings found at block 2939 by 10068, filelength 1,382,829,202 bytes. Confirm load?"
"Yes."
Vanessa blinked. "Configuration settings successfully loaded."
"Initialize partition one."
"Partition one initialized. Partition label SecurityProc."
"Format partition one."
"Warning, all data on partition one will be lost. Are you sure you wish to continue?"
"Yes."
"Format in progress. Time to completion: One hour, seventeen minutes."
Perfect, I thought to myself. I looked around the room, noticing the pile of clothes. I picked up the stockings, comparing the tone and texture to the pantyhose I was already wearing. The skirt wasn't bad either. Definitely a step up from my capri shorts. I really liked her thong, though. It's really quite a nice outfit, I thought to myself, and began to undress.
---
After changing into Vanessa's clothes, I made my way back to the bay room. Lyndsay was still moving from 'bot to 'bot, accessing their anal and vaginal triggers to get at their direct data interfaces. Each time, she would freeze for a moment, peeling down her face to access her own cartridge drive. After transferring the data, she would roll her face back into place, and move on to the next unit. And she's probably too clueless to even notice the fact that she's a machine, too, I chuckled to myself.
My phone rang. I excitedly answered it, hoping it was my boyfriend. I wasn't disappointed.
"Hi lover," I said, cheerfully. "Guess what I'm wearing." I played with the hem of the skirt. Lyndsay's hand flew to her mouth in amusement when she caught a glimpse of my new thong.
"Probably less than you were earlier. Not important right now. How are things progressing?"
"I've started the format on Vanessa, and it looks like Lyndsay's nearly finished with the units in the bays."
"Great, get to work connecting them in parallel, decrypting the update package. Once you've got them all working on it, I want you to start putting together a new package. We're going to transmit the virus, campus-wide. I'm running out of time, and I can't afford to keep infecting 'bots one by one. I don't want to be responsible for some kind of doomsday apocalypse just because I couldn't get this done in time."