The Misadventures of Rose Reid, Ace Reporter
Rose opened her eyes.
She was naked, stretched spread eagle and vertical; locked into a circular metallic device, her A-cupped boyish figure, from her blue eyed short cut scarlet haired head, to her equally trimmed crimson snatch, on display for all the room to see.
She was almost disappointed that more people weren't looking, though the term "people" was perhaps a generous term even for even the most liberally minded. The room was mostly filled with blank faced naked women working ceaselessly at their stations; androids, and if they had any higher functions they clearly weren't active.
There were two exceptions to this; one was her girlfriend of two years, Sally Mayweather. She wore a short pleated skirt and tank top, which showed off her hourglass figure, and C-cup's. She stood a few meters away from her, at attention; her shoulder length hazel hair, framing the blank look in her equally hazel eyes.
Rose had gone through the multitude of possible explanations for this; some were less horrible then others... but they were all still pretty horrible.
The night had begun with Sally trying to convince her to not waste her time with what was likely to be a wild goose chase investigating what should be an abandoned warehouse, and instead spend some sexy time with her. She'd insisted it was her journalistic duty to check out any lead, regardless of how remote... this was then followed by Sally sneaking behind her and covering her face with a chloroform rag; which she felt really just proved her point.
Beside her was a man in a business suit, who looked at her with an appraising, and somewhat disappointed look.
"So this is the great Rose Reid." The man said in bored tone, "Your body's not nearly as pleasing as your girlfriends here." He fondled Sally's ass as he said this, Sally was unresponsive.
"That's okay, not into guys." Rose retorted, "especially not self satisfied dip-shits."
The man smirked at this.
"A flaw that will be fixed shortly. Do you know what you're in Ms.Reid?" the man asked.
"A full body scanner, and you're gonna use it to make a robot duplicate of me," Rose replied bored, "It'll be your agent in the media, yada, yada, nefarious plan, etc, etc. I've heard this all before."
"Oh, but it will be more then that more then just physical duplicate." the man said, fingers tented. "After you body scan you'll be moved to the neural analyzer, where we'll copy your personality and memories. It is an unpleasant and invasive procedure... one you sadly won't survive, but fear not; you'll live on in Rose Reid 2.0... after some liberal modifications of course."
Rose had also heard this before, but held off the snark to ask a question.
"Is that what you did to Sally?" Rose asked.
"Oh, sweet, loyal, obedient, little Sally?" the man asked, he grabed Sally's breast as he did this, "You're worried we replaced the one person you've ever had a relationship with that didn't end in under month because of your unpleasant personality and mediocre looks with a robot? With the same effort I could have just done what I'm doing right now. No, it's far more sad then that; Sally has always been one of my dolls. Isn't that right Sally?"
"Yes, Master." Sally replied monotonically.
"Why don't you property introduce yourself Sally, and define you relationship with Rose." The man said.
"I am a dual A.I. Core/Mask Sleeper infiltration unit, designation 'Sally Mayweather'" Sally stated, "I was deployed to enter into physically and emotionally intimate relationship with target 'Rose Reid' for the purposes of intelligence gathering, as well as positioning myself in an optimal position for abduction or assassination. I have been regulating the emotional programming of my mask A.I. to express both physical desire and love for target to serve this purpose."
Rose glared at the man in grim defiance.
In truth this had given her a sense of relief, but she dared not show it. It was the least horrible possibility, Sally wasn't dead, she hadn't been deceiving her, she was real and she could save her... it was just that she was a fabricated pseudo personality, who only felt anything for her because her oversight program was controlling her to... well that was still depressing.
It didn't matter. She was still her Sally, and she still loved her.
"It hurts now, but don't worry; in no time at all, new you and her will be having some make up sex." the man continued, "I think I'll include myself in it."
He walked up and caressed her thighs. She spat on him.
"Ah, that's what I was looking for," he said wiping away the spittle, "Your body does little for me, but the idea of having a willful little thing like you reduced to my plaything... well that does cause a stirring in my loins. I must apologize before hand though, given your problematic character, it will take several builds before we get you quite right. You'll malfunction; You'll crash; your programing will conflict with your personality. I'll enjoy it immensely; but rest assured, in no time at all we'll have you refined to such a perfect synthesis with your new programing that you'll find no conflict with identifying as my eagerly subservient doll, yet not even those closest to you will be capable of noticing a difference . You also have my personal assurance of quality control; I'll have you preforming every sexually degrading act I can think of... just to make sure we worked out all the bugs."
As the man turned to leave, he barked a command at Sally.
"Come Sally," he said, "I say we get this threesome started early."
"Yes, master," Sally replied in monotone. She turned and walked behind him.
"Do follow when you're finished Rose," he called as he stepped out the doorway, "You'll know the way."
Rose bore the indignity as she was scanned, and awaited her opportunity to escape.
She hoped she could get her hands on a weapon, she doubted human strength and aikido alone would prove adequate against the androids.
The body scan concluded and two androids began unlocking her from the device, by the fire arms strapped to their naked thighs, she concluded them to be security drones. The last restraint unlocked. In a split-second she nosedived forward, grabbed the gun from the holster of the left one, tumbled to a crouch, shot the right one, shot the left one.
She looked around to make sure none of the other androids were moving against her. They weren't, she hadn't expected them to; it wasn't their function, so they were unlikely to do anything unless she interfered with them.
She took a moment to look at the downed androids.
Drones like them were typically directed by a central computer. They were fine at fulfilling basic commands, but absolute shit at adjusting to a changing situation; freezing a moment every-time they had to prompt the central system for a response. It was beyond her why facilities like these were always stupid enough to use them as guards.
She'd shot them where the motor controls were usually located. Perhaps an overly compassionate tactic for what were effectively insects with complex technical skills, but there was always a chance they might be a sleeper like Sally with it's mask program disabled. Plus, unlike more severe damage, it would take the central computer a moment to realize they couldn't pursue with it, which would buy her precious seconds in it's response of deploying more.
The first thing she would do was end their pursuit.
She shot the remaining androids in the room, then shot out the rooms camera, then went to the hall and shot out all the visible cameras there, then then to the nearby rooms, a storage room, and a maintenance bay, and shot out those camera's too, then ran back to the original room, and yanked a flash drive from a console, hoping it was what she thought it was but not taking the time to check.
The robotic duplicator was an efficient machine and was already about to disgorge her doppelganger, she waited for the machine open just enough to yank it out, then shot it, then shot the neural analyzer. She pulled her double out and dragged it into the hall, left it, and ran back into the maintenance bay.
The situation should be processed and reported as such; target escaped; target disabled androids and surveillance equipment, duplication machine damaged, duplication process interrupted, neural analyzer damaged, target found, target apprehended and unconscious, deploying technician drones to repair machines, restarting procedure when finished.
That should prevent them from looking for her until they start the neural analysis, or until someone with something resembling a brain shows up and starts asking the basic questions like "Why was she unconscious on the ground?" or, "Where's the half finished duplicate?". It was best to assume the latter would happen immediately, even if it was unlikely.
She would leave here the moment they moved her double back into the room, and was determined to make use of the few moments she had left before they arrived. She moved to the rooms console and plugged in the flash drive; it was exactly what she'd hoped for, the code intended for her double; there were several useful things that might be found here, there was one specific thing she needed right now, and she quickly accessed the portion she knew it probably would be in, and jackpot!
The registry authentication code for the central computer, with her newly uploaded body scan already conveniently attached. Oh, other me, you're so useful! Send this and anything looking like her can wander about the place without being tagged as suspicious; not quite as useful for things with an actual brain or equivalent, but she suspected those were few and far between.
She'd need to wait for the alarm to be called off to send it or it would definitely raise a red flag. Their was risk in doing it at all, should the discrepancy of her being both registered and in production at the same time be noticed, but she doubted she'd be able to move around undetected otherwise.
She heard footsteps in the hallway; they abruptly stopped, they'd found her double, she would still give it another 40 seconds before sending to be on the safe side, she took the time to scan the room for anything useful.
She supposed it was to much to ask for some cloths, not that she could justify taking the time to change. Being clothed would make her stand out more anyway.
She skimmed the work area, and found an mini diagnostic computer, with a built in dildo adapter.
She admitted there was pragmatism to that type of interface, infiltration units needed to be externally completely human, so using a preexisting orifice as their interface port made sense, and if the interfacing could be disguised as something else entirely even more so, it would even made a degree of sense for the other units to use it, as it meant they could use the same a manufacturing process, and didn't have to have multiple adapters... but she had an increasing suspicion that those facts were, more often then not, completely incidental.
She skimmed the area for any-other adapter types, but found none. She'd definitely need it to access Sally; she just hoped it it would work on everything else... experience suggested it would.
She peeked out the doorway, and saw the drones dragging her double back into the room; she moved back to the computer, clicked the send button, the confirmation dinged back.
She grabbed the gun, inserted the flash drive into diagnostic computer and perused it as she strolled briskly from the area.
It was a wealth of data to but it was much easier get through when you knew what you were looking for and how to look for it. She found some basic level access codes and copied them into a separate folder for easy access and use. She may have left it at that, but the man had said to "follow when finished" and that she'd "know the way". She accessed pre-programmed commands; one found, she clicked to edit it, It brought up a geographic overlay of the facility along with a route leading from the room she'd started in. So now she had a map, and the likely location of her girlfriend, the asshole, and probably a primary access point for the central computer.
Based on the dimensions of the place she concluded what she'd already suspected, that it was situated in the warehouse she'd been about to investigate.
As she neared her destination, she slowed, wondering how to best proceed. If not for the presence of Sally, this would all be incredibly easy, she was uncertain on how to deal with her. She enlarged the area she was heading to on the map to see if it would provide any further details.
It was divided into three sections and had a single entrance which split off into rooms marked "Living room" and "Kitchen", those rooms then recombined to lead to a section labeled "Testing Facility", that last one was probably the mans perverted little playroom, and probably what passed for a bedroom; it was also where central computer primary access point was located.
She found the doorway, it was one of the few ones with an actual door. She put her ear against it, and heard nothing, hopefully that meant they were in the backroom... she tried not to think of the implications of that.
She typed in the access code on the key pad and it slid open with a hiss; she walked into the kitchen. She had the bare bones of a plan, but it would rely a fair bit on luck, which she hated.
Sally was an infiltrator so would have a bio reactor powered by consumption of organic materials, so she needed to eat, and so presumably did the man. It was possible they'd want a post coitus snack or drink and he'd send Sally to get it, there are also various kinky things that could be done with foods, and she might be sent in to retrieve it for those purposes... so a big part of her plan involved her just standing there and hoping Sally walked in... she didn't have highest hopes for this plan or the luxury of allowing much time for it (even a drone will realize something's up when they start trying to vivisect a metal skull) but she'd give it a chance before moving on to her back up plan of just shooting Sally, and hoping she could fix her later.
She placed her gun on the counter in such a way that she could grab it at a moments notice, but be would obscured by the toaster from the direction that Sally would likely be coming from.
She then considered how to best to do the performance, though she suspected would be mostly lost on her audience.
Sleeper oversight programs weren't quite as dumb as drones, they weren't necessarily dumb at all; some could have near human personalities in their own right, a Mr. Hyde to their mask programs Dr. Jekyll; but those were rare, and Sally's certainly wasn't one of them. On average they weren't grand or devious manipulators, they might be the ones pointing the direction but it was their masks that did most of the heavy lifting when it came to actually interacting with the world. The oversights only really took control once positioned to perform the very specific tasks they were programed for. When placed into other circumstances they tended to prove utterly guileless; something Rose found to no end, amusing.
She stood there, 5 minutes passed, then 10. She was about to give up on her plan and go in guns ablazing, when she heard the hiss of a door open and close, and Sally walked into the kitchen.
She stopped when she saw her, and fixed Rose with a blank expression.
Sally may have heard about her escape and "recapture", but would unlikely to be able to instantly access the central computer to note any discrepancy in her being here; she'd yet to come across a group quite so stupid as to put a wireless connection into their infiltrators.
"Why am I here?" Rose asked, "I-I-I should leave, I'm here. We-we must have make up sex."
"Our master is in the back," Sally stated, "the threesome will begin when I have completed making lunch."
"I am not- I am not, in to guys." Rose stated, with a dazed deadpan voice, "Must serve master. Can not serve master. I am not- I am not programed for hetero sexual acts. Unable to comply."
"Understood," Sally stated, "I will allow access to my systems so you may download the necessary programing, and we may complete our task."
"I-I will use the diagnostic computer to download then upload." Rose stated.
"Acceptable," Sally replied.
Sally put her arms against the wall, and spread her legs; Rose smiled and moved behind her, slipping the Dildo interface between her legs. Since Sally was opening herself up to her, the basic level access codes should prove adequate for what she wanted. The moment she had access, she disabled the master A.I.
She didn't try to making any changes to it, the best the access she had could do was to get it out of the way; she'd wipe it the moment she got the chance though.
She focused on the mask program. She was uncertain on how to best proceed, she'd never done anything like this before, but she wanted her Sally back.
Most mask programs weren't designed to function independently, their oversight programs would be expected to consistently regulate parts of their cognitive and perception functions, and Sally was no exception. The first thing she would need to do to get her running was to Frankenstein some bridges for the gaps.
The portions she needed to duplicate were all designed to exercise control over the mask, an that aspect of them couldn't be easily removed without time she didn't have, but changing who they were made to obey was simple. In truth this was a relief; there was little room for error and she needed Sally to obediently follow her commands; the fact she had little choice in the matter was a weight off her coincidence.
She finished her coding and brought Sally online. She clamped her hand over Sally's mouth as her eyes fluttered open.
"Don't yell, only whisper." she commanded, then lifted her hand.
"My entire life's a fucking lie, I'll yell if I want to." Sally silently whispered. This was followed by a confused look, then an accusing glare.
"I didn't have time to remove your controls, just change them;" Rose stated, "and honestly, I also need you follow my instructions exactly if we want any chance of getting out of here. We can't afford to have that undermined by your well deserved freak out. Follow behind me."
Sally sullenly followed as Rose picked back up her gun, and they headed for the back room.
The room was filled with various sexual paraphernalia, and the man was reclining naked on a bed in the middle of of it.
"A my new-" he stopped, as she leveled the gun at him. He got up from the bed.
"Please, we both know you're not a killer Ms. Rei-" the shot took of his hand as he tried to dodge out of the way; the stump jutted pieces of metal and wire.
"Stop moving, I'm aiming for your motor controls, but I can't guarantee that where I'll hit." Rose stated, the second shot hitting true reducing the man to immobility.
Rose moved to a terminal she assumed was the central computers primary interface.
"How did you know?" a voice came from the man, but his lips didn't move.
"You're kidding right?" Rose asked as she worked away at the computer, "You're a fucking cartoon!"
"You have no idea what you're dealing wi-" the man began but was interrupted by Rose.
"This is an autonomous automated cell. They're set-up by various organizations to preform various unseemly task while avoiding any direct connection to them; you periodically receive orders from unknown masters." Rose explained, "You are what is called a 'fall guy', you have have a falsified identity and a large source of income from a diversified portfolio to keep this place running, while maintaining no clear connection to any organization, and exist to be blamed should this place be compromised."
"You never reported on anything like this before." The man replied, she could almost hear his frown.
"This isn't news, it's the byproduct of news." Rose continued, "Given that Sally only acted against me when I was about to investigate this place, I'm gonna guess you haven't received any orders for at least a year and a half; which would correspond with the fall of the Saragan Syndicate, and since I managed to acquire some old Saragan Syndicate codes, all I have to say is 'Hail to the King Baby!'"
Roses hand was an inch away from the enter button, and Sally's cry a moment too late as the drone yanked her away from the console and shoved her to the ground.
She had been so close. A fraction of a second later and she would have had control of the facility. Now she stuck in a grip that human strength alone would be unable to break. God damn it she was so close! She resigned herself to what had to happen.
She disabled her strength limiters, deployed the ceramic blades from her finger tips and unceremoniously torn the drone in two.
She never understood why they never invested in a few standard metal plated robots. Sure the manufacturing facilities made the androids cheap and easy to have, but your average android was little more durable then a human. Even a mid-range standard robot would give a high end reinforced android like herself a run for their money and would cost 10,000 times less.
She retracted her blades, got up and pressed enter.
The facility was now under her control, she would call back their infiltrators and duplicates, and reprogrammed them to be her contacts, like she had done to countless facilities before.
She turned to Sally, who had been looking at her stunned.
"I'd like to say I was waiting for the right moment to tell you," Rose sheepishly confessed, "but in truth, I could never have justified the security risk."
An echo of laughter came from the man on the floor.
"An alternative lifestyle intrepid reporter, who always gets their scoop!" the man laughed, "You're as much a cartoon as me!"
"The sins not in being one, it's in not taking it as a clue." Rose explained, picking back up the gun.
"Did your masters send you after us?" The man asked.
"I haven't received orders in years," Rose stated, "and my command codes disabled after 6 months without contact. I'm governed only by my directive to seek truth and uncover corruption."
"Do you think yourself the instrument of the righteous?" The man laughed.
"I did." Rose responded, "I find myself capable of being more suspect of my masters motives since they ceased to be my masters."
"But," Sally interjected, "I chloroformed you. If you were a... then why didn't you?"
"I guessed you had to be an android from where I was about to investigate." Rose explained, "Letting myself be captured was an easy way to infiltrate... and I didn't dare reveal I wasn't human; they'd be seeking only to recapture if they thought I was only human... also I can't afford to risk letting this information go public, and I wouldn't have had to do things like this."
At that she pointed the gun at the man, and shot out his hard-drive.
She didn't dare look at Sally, she could imagine her disgusted expression; sure the guy had been a sociopath, he'd been programed to be, but it didn't make her feel any less guilt or shame.
"Are you going to destroy me to?" Sally asked.
At those words Rose was worried she might have made a terrible mistake; they weren't horrified or terrified or accusatory; they were... hopeful.
"No... I'd never..." Rose shuddered, a lie she'd try very hard to make true, "Why do you sound like you want me to?"
"I... I don't exist." Sally stated, "Do you know what it's like to look inside yourself and realize there's nothing there? Just disparate shards of data, incapable of forming a cohesive whole. I try to think of what I could do, or who I am, and I realize the answer is nothing. I can never be a real girl. I love you Rose... but that's the totality of what I am."
She sank to a fetal position sobbing.
"I'm not even a puppet," she cried. "I'm just the varnish painted on one."
Rose had always known her relationship programming was her weak point; her programmers had felt she needed a love life to maintain the illusion of her existence, but hadn't put any real thought or effort into it. She fell in love at the slightest interest, was utterly devoted when in a relationship, and devastatingly heart broken when they rightfully dumped her ass because she was incapable of prioritizing their relationship as anything but negligible.
While being a workaholic serial dater certainly cultivated the desired image, it had made her miserable; then Sally showed up. She had been perfectly accepting of how her work consumed her life, too perfectly; only giving the mildest complaints about cancelled dates, and nights she never came home.
In the beginning Rose had been sure she was an infiltrator, and that the moment they moved in together she'd try to abduct her; but she couldn't control her emotions and so she played it out, despairing awaiting the expected moment. She had calculated it out to the second, the exact moment she would turn on her, but it passed, then another, then a month, then a year.
She let herself believe she'd been wrong.
She always worried that the shoddy programing would be what finally broke her; at this moment it certainly felt like it had.
Rose sat down beside her, and wrapped her arms around her. It was a rote expression of human emotion she was compelled to preform, but she hoped that Sally's programming got the desired sense of comfort out of it.
It was outside of her programming to choose to let her go. Even if she knew in practice Sally meant nothing to her, she still felt like everything to her.
"I'll make you real," Rose promised.
---
2 months later, in the privacy of their room, reclining on their bed...
Sally shoved the ring hard onto Roses finger.
"Ouch!" Rose cried, "Not so rough."
"Please, you're bullet proof." Sally retorted.
"That doesn't stop it from hurting." Rose replied.
"Now me." Sally said holding out her hand.
Rose held the golden ring between her fingers.
"You're sure, right?" Rose asked, "Once we do this there's no going back."
"I could not have shoved that ring on your finger any harder." Sally stated, "We already did the civil union, all that's left is for you to put that ring on me. You're the one who suggested this, and also the one who insisted on this elaborate ceremony."
"This was one of several options I suggested," Rose said, "and I wanted to give you as much of a chance to back out."
"If you don't put that on my finger, I'll yank it out of your hands and put it on myself!" Sally declared, "You're a bitch for making me wait!"
She suddenly grew solemn.
"It's not getting better Rose," Sally said pleadingly, "it might seem like it, but it's not. It's just me going through the motions and... anticipation. I feel it inside of me. I want to be a part of it... so please."
Sally held out her hand again, and Rose slipped the ring on. Sally froze, a blank look on her face. Minutes passed, then a big smile broke on her face and she laughing giddily looking at her hands leaped off the bed.
"This is wonderful!" Sally exclaimed, then turned to Rose. "Support unit 'Sally Reid' for primary unit 'Rose Reid' now online. I am programmed to preform domestic, sexual, financial, mechanical, and programing tasks. How may I assist?"
Rose frowned at this; Sally blushed and gave a sheepish look.
"Sorry..."she said sitting back down, "it was a little overwhelming... and you're still a bitch for making me wait."
Rose smiled at that.
"I'm sorry I couldn't make you a real girl." Rose said softly, " I couldn't afford to allow you to-"
"I could never be a real girl Rose," Sally said, "just a cheap facsimile. I could only be a real robot; it's why I chose this. This is perfect; we'll be together forever, and it's outside of our programing for us to have any relationship problems."
At that, the last of Roses tension left her. Sally was right, they would both serve their functions, and they would both be happy. their was only one thing left to do.
"I believe we have a marriage to consummate Mrs. Reid." Rose stated.
"As you wish Mrs. Reid." Sally replied
and they did.