Slow day - The Cafe

The Small Business Chronicles: Slow Day - The Café

Chapter One: Wrong Side of the Bed

Jack woke with a start…after the past several months, he had finally trained himself to wake mere seconds before his alarm sounded. He quickly silenced it before it’s activation, and then waited another few seconds for Gabby’s pre-programmed timer to deactivate her sleep mode…something that before seemed random.

Gabby started stirring immediately and focused her eyes on him with a smile…a smile which then turned into a concerned frown.

“Jack dear, why are you in such a bad mood?” she asked, gently caressing his face.

To an unobservant person, she would appear to have been very intuitive, but Jack knew better…she had merely used the infrared scanners in her new eyes to scan his body heat, and determined his mood that way.

Still, she was correct: he was in a bad mood, which was what caused his mind to focus so much more on Gabby’s artificiality that ever before. It had been a few weeks since he had finally opened the café, and so far, nothing had gone as planned.

For starters, the android he had ordered to tend the bar was delayed; the person he bought it off was lazy and took too long to ship it out. Because it hadn’t arrived, he had to pull Serriah away from the gift shop to cover the bar. The one thing that softened Jack’s mood was that it was finally scheduled to arrive today.

For another thing, the android he’d acquired to waitress and clean the booths and tables, had what could best be described as an attitude problem. She had a strange custom personality module that Jack had never encountered before, and it was taking him a while to modify it. In the meantime, she was giving the patrons attitude, resulting in dozens of complaints each day.

Finally, the main source of Jack’s headache…the chef. Jack thought he had gotten a great deal when he bought her…a highly customized Housewife model. She was fairly young looking for a housewife, in her late twenties, but she was already programmed with a wide array of cooking and cleaning programs. The problem…she was an illegal sleeper model. Apparently she had belonged to a wealthy person who paid someone to install illegal sleeper software in her so she’d be as real as possible.

Technically, owning such a model was illegal, and naturally, Jack had to report it to the Spaztech team. Fortunately, they allowed him to keep her so they could get some unofficial reports on a sleeper android. The problem was that he was having difficulty modifying her memories of her previous owner, which led to confusion and constant malfunctions.

All in all, the convergence of bad luck he’d had was reducing his profit margin, and he hoped that today, he could fix it once and for all. He’d even made sure he had no repair appointments today, and he was going to have Gabby help out in café with the cooking while he repaired the chef.

“Yeah,” Jack finally said, coming out of his reverie, “It’s just the bad luck we’ve had with the café these past few weeks,” he admitted.

“Well, don’t worry dear,” she smiled, leaning in and giving him a kiss, “I’m sure you and Ellie will fix things up today.”

“I hope so,” Jack smiled back, giving her another kiss.

That morning Gabby decided to delay her usual morning shower, not that she really needed a shower, but she still liked to be clean for him. Either way, she gave up her shower time so Jack could take a longer one and so that she could cook him something extra special to start off his day with.

After stuffing himself with the delicious meal Gabby had cooked, he packed up the lunch she had prepared for him and Ellie and then prepared to head down into the lab to begin his day.

“Good luck dear,” Gabby said, giving him a loving kiss.

“Thanks, I’m gonna need it,” Jack smiled, “Oh, and you can go ahead and take a shower now,” he added, “I’m gonna work on Luiza last.”

“Oh, okay,” Gabby smiled, “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jack shrugged, “Besides, if you’re going to be cooking for people, android or not, you need to be clean.”

“Of course,” Gabby nodded, “Now go get to work,” she ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” Jack mockingly saluted, heading to the elevator and scanning his palm on the security pad.

Chapter Two: Calm Before the Storm

As soon as Jack stepped off the lift into his lab, he took a deep breath and exhaled the negative energy that had been building up in him. Despite his bad mood, the one thing he truly enjoyed was fixing androids, and, he knew as rough as it might be this time around, he’d feel like a god when he was done…like always.

Continuing to exhale his negative energy in an almost meditative state, Jack walked almost on autopilot to his work area, efficiently depositing his and Ellie’s lunch in the fridge before activating the equipment and downloading the latest software patches for the three androids he’d be working on today.

It was during the download process that Jack finally snapped out of his autopilot mode and realized that Ellie was nowhere in sight. It wasn’t too surprising though, since she’d only been with him for a few months and he was still adapting to her presence in his life. Still, he’d asked her to be waiting for him in the lab at this time, and as an android, she definitely shouldn’t be late.

Feeling a bit worried, he got up and walked into the residential area of the bunker and knocked on Ellie’s door. Despite being assigned to that room, Jack and Gabby still offered her a room in the house, but Ellie declined, preferring to remain in the lab to more effectively monitor Jack’s equipment overnight.

“Ellie, are you in there?” Jack called out, knocking again.

He waited a few more seconds without an answer before finally opening the door; Ellie kept it unlocked. In the few short months Ellie-bot had been with him, she had been acquiring a few things that the real Ellie would have liked to give her room a more personal touch. Still, she didn’t do it for her…she did it because her programming indicated it would make Jack more comfortable with her presence there.

At first glance, he didn’t see her in the main room, but he did hear noises coming from the adjoining bathroom, so he cautiously entered it and then shook his head in disbelief at what he saw.

Ellie was in the bathroom grooming her face and hair…but, she had done so by removing her head and placing it on the vanity shelf. Her face was currently frozen on a very robotic, blank expression that was slightly creepy, and slightly arousing at the same time. The fact she’d removed her head explained why she hadn’t heard him knock: the microphone attached to her neck camera wasn’t capable of picking up noise from another room…not like the human ear is.

She was already mostly dressed for work, wearing her work flats and jeans, but no shirt; she was wearing a bra though.

“Ellie,” Jack called out in a slightly amused/exasperated voice.

“Ah, Jack,” Ellie said, carefully turning around to aim her neck camera at him, “What brings you here so early?” she asked, turning back around and continuing to apply the makeup to her face.

“Early?” Jack asked with a confused look, “It’s almost 9:15,” he told her.

“Hmmm, are you sure?” she asked, making her voice sound confused, “My internal clock is telling me it’s 8:37,” she told him.

“No, it’s definitely 9:15,” he said, a frown forming on his face, “Did you perform any software updates recently?” he asked.

“Yes, last night,” she replied.

“Well, one of them must have had a bug that messed with your internal clock,” he surmised.

“Apparently,” she agreed.

“How come you removed your head?” he asked.

“Ah, because it makes it easier to apply my makeup and to do my hair,” she explained, “it’s much better than just looking into a mirror.”

“I can imagine,” he said, “Are you almost done?” he asked, “I’d really like to get us prepped for the headache inducing work we’ll be tackling today,” he added with a wry smile.

“Yes,” she said, adding a finishing touch to her face and then putting her makeup away. She then picked up her head, careful not to mess up the hair, but, instead of reattaching it to her neck, she instead turned around and held it out to him.

“What?” Jack asked, staring from her neck camera to the oddly mesmerizing look in her blank eyes.

“Kiss it,” she said simply.

Jack merely stood there for a few seconds giving her a flat look before finally giving in and planting a kiss on her head’s frozen lips; he knew if he didn’t, she’d merely make him waste even more time arguing with him. Still, he did find it mildly enjoyable and spent several seconds doing it before pulling away.

“Thanks,” Ellie said, “you helped spread the lip gloss for me,” she said, carefully bringing her head to her neck and clicking it into place. Soon after, her blank face slowly came to life, forming into her usual friendly smile.

“Don’t mention it,” Jack laughed. He knew Ellie could also detect his mood with the infrared sensors in her eyes and neck camera, so she knew her silliness would disarm him. Combined, she and Gabby were a dynamic team, keeping him happy.

“Anyway, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t ready on time,” she apologized again.

“It’s not our fault,” Jack waved it off, “But, I will need to take a look at your systems to recalibrate your internal clock.”

“Okay,” Ellie smiled, grabbing her scrub top and draping it over her shoulder, leaving it off so he could easily access her stomach panel, “Let’s do it so we can get back on schedule,” she said with a look of focus.

Jack merely nodded, walking with her out to the work area. As soon as they got there, Ellie efficiently removed her access panel and allowed Jack to plug her into the terminal.

“Alright, I’m connected to you now,” Jack said, “Can you help me out by bringing up the list of files you recently installed?”

“Sure,” Ellie said, the lights flashing on her A.I. core as she brought up the list on the terminal, saving him several minutes of searching for them.

“Ah, there it is, thanks,” he smiled, quickly opening the developer window for each update to see the code. It didn’t take him long to find the problem. “Ah, here it is,” he said, “there was a slight bug in the new clock app that accidentally reset your internal clock to the actual time in the GPS coordinates rather than the official time zone map,” he said, “That’s something some extreme scientists use to more accurately track time in research studies,” he frowned.

“Interesting,” Ellie said, “It does make sense though,” she nodded.

“Well, we aren’t conducting research studies, so I’m going to fix the bug,” Jack said, rapidly typing on the keys for several minutes before finalizing the code. “There, I want you to install this hotfix,” he told her, “You shouldn’t need to reboot, but once it installs, I want you to run a full diagnostic to make sure nothing else got messed up,” he told her, knowing she likely ran a quick diagnostic after initially installing them…a diagnostic which obviously missed it.

“Alright,” Ellie said, quickly installing the hotfix and then locking her body into position as she said, “Beginning full diagnostic,” in an inhuman tone.

Jack sighed as she did. Slightly so because it reminded him of her artificial nature…that she was a mere copy, but mostly because it meant he was going to lose even more time that would have been better spent preparing for the work on Amber and Luiza; Karina would be a simpler reprogramming job compared to the other two.

Still, he had to make sure Ellie was operating properly, because as his assistant, he frequently relied on her to interface with his projects to better translate any issues they were having. He found doing it that way saved him sometimes hours’ worth of time that would have previously been spent perusing through lines of code. Any issue caused by bugs could alter the reliability of her work.

Going through his usual five stages of frustration, he finally accepted that her bug at least served as a sort of warm up for what was to come…to prepare him for anything unexpected that might come up. So, he waited patiently for her diagnostic to complete, getting us much prep work done as he could in the meantime.

“Full diagnostic complete: no anomalies found,” Ellie finally said, nearly fifteen minutes later, quickly coming back to life and reverting to her usual, cheerful self.

“Well, thank goodness for small favors,” Jack smiled, “I guess that’s our first bit of good news of the day.”

“Indeed,” Ellie agreed. Jack then pulled the service cable free from her core and allowed her to reattach her access panel. “Ah, I’ve got more good news for you today,” Ellie added.

“Oh?”

“Yes,” she smiled gleefully, “Serriah sent me a message saying it’s been a pretty slow day. That means you shouldn’t have any difficulty with having Amber come down here for an hour or two,” she reported.

“Excellent!” Jack said with a triumphant fist pump, silently praising himself for essentially making Ellie an assistant site manager and giving her a private link to the others. “Well, we should get started with her prep work then.” He then pulled up Amber’s specs on the computer and pulled up a chair. “You’d better sit down, this might take a while,” he said, gesturing to it.

Ellie merely nodded and took her seat next to him, leaning in and perusing the specs with Jack, occasionally rebounding his ideas and giving him some of her own.

Chapter Three: Amber

A short while after 10am, Jack and Ellie finally felt they had prepared for the two tough repair jobs they had coming for the day, starting with Amber. They’d done all they could by downloading all the files for each of the three android’s model type and were sure they could handle anything.

“Alright Jack, I’ll go up and wrestle Amber down here,” Ellie said, giving him an almost evil smile as she headed towards the lift.

“Hey, don’t rough her up too much,” Jack laughed, calling back to her just before she disappeared into it…especially since he’d reconfigured Ellie’s safeties so she could exert considerably more strength than the average human could.

All joking aside, Jack and Ellie were being fairly serious. Amber’s strangely configured personality software made her extremely unpredictable and borderline dangerous. It was only a hastily written piece of code on Jack’s part that kept her from manhandling the patrons.

Jack waited patiently, listening to a couple relaxation songs before he heard the sound of the lift and the commotion contained within.

“...’s the big deal dragging me all the way down here while I’m supposed to be working? You white bitch!” Amber’s voice emerged from the lift almost immediately. It was immediately evident that she’d been arguing with Ellie the entire way…and the look on Ellie’s face confirmed it.

Jack let out a sigh…he really wished he knew what he was getting into when he bought her. Amber was a custom model, not based on any living person. She had been constructed in the appearance of an odd African/Dominican mix, and she was programmed accordingly with the snappy attitudes of both Latina and African-American cultures. That being said, she was extremely attractive, so that alone tended to make up for her otherwise thorny nature.

The primary reason Jack purchased her was because, as a partier model, she’d be able to better mingle with café patrons as the floor waitress, much in the same way Serriah was able to in her capacity as the gift shop girl. The one thing he hadn’t counted on was her previous owner installing some extremely sophisticated and unstable personality subroutines…stuff that was still being developed for the Mark IV androids, due for release in another ten years. In retrospect, it was probably the reason he sold her.

“What’s the problem Amber?” Jack asked in a mollifying tone.

“Your robo-cousin here manhandled me into the lift!” Amber practically shouted.

“I did not,” Ellie snorted, “I merely activated your wireless override controls to keep you from meandering…which is what you were doing most of the way here,” Ellie explained.

“Well, that’s practically the same thing,” Amber defended, crossing her arms defiantly.

“Amber, I asked Ellie to bring you down here,” Jack explained, “And, I told you last night, and for the past several days that I’d be working on you today,” he continued, “This is precisely the reason I’ve brought you down here…your attitude.”

Amber immediately snapped back. “My original owner had no problem with my attitude, why should you?”

Jack sighed and counted to three following that response. “Well, your original owner took you to some rather racy parties…I’m using you for customer service, and you have to behave differently.”

Amber suddenly changed tact, switching to some of her inherent partier model programming to perform her primary function: pleasing her owner. “Well, I can’t help it…I’m programmed this way,”she pouted, puffing up her lips. She then adopted a more coquettish manner at this point, surreptitiously loosening her clothing as she attempted to seduce him. “Why don’t we have some fun instead?”

Jack suddenly felt himself succumbing to Amber’s advances…He felt himself rising from his chair, almost as though Amber was drawing him towards her with some magnetism. Before he knew it, he was suddenly locked into an embrace with her, unable to break apart. Both their lips were locked and both their hands were exploring the more private areas of both their bodies.

Suddenly, Amber seemed to seize up before standing at attention with a blank expression. “Emergency override enabled, shutting down,” she said in an empty tone before serenely closing her eyes and appearing as though she fell asleep standing up.

It took Jack a few moments to shake the daze that soon followed, but he soon found himself being helped into his chair by Ellie. She then walked away and returned a short while later with a glass of water.

“Here, this should help,” Ellie said, placing the glass in his hands and helping him drink it.

Jack quickly drank the water until the glass was empty and then placed it down a nearby table. “Wow, that was pretty intense,” he said, trying to slow down his heart rate. Even now, he still found himself being pulled towards her, but the attraction was not as strong now.

“What was it?” Ellie asked with a curious expression, “I had to wirelessly override her into diagnostic mode.”

“Apparently her previous owner was into more illicit activities than I previously thought,” Jack said, “Obviously Amber has an illegal pheromone installed in her…probably in her perspiration tanks, otherwise I would have spotted it during my initial assessment of her,” he surmised.

“Well, I guess that’s one more thing to take care of while we have her here,” Ellie smiled.

“Yep,” Jack agreed, “Let’s just get her undressed and connected to my terminal.” Ellie merely nodded and assisted Jack with undressed Amber and laying her down on the table. As they undressed her, Jack absently thought to himself that, while he didn’t usually find black people attractive, Amber here was visually appealing.

Once they had Amber undressed, they opened up her access panel and connected her to Jack’s terminal.

“Alright Ellie, while I run scans of her personality core, why don’t you get started extracting that pheromone,” Jack suggested, “But, don’t toss it,” he decided, “I want to examine it more closely to see if it can be used in Gabby…though in a slightly more diluted state.”

“Alright,” Ellie laughed, then she put on protective gloves and delved into Amber’s open panel, attempting to access the perspiration tanks.

They both worked silently for several minutes, though Ellie appeared to be having more luck…extracting nearly half a gallon of the illegal pheromone. Once Jack’s initial scans finished, he banged his hand hard on the desk in frustration.

“What’s wrong Jack?” Ellie asked, briefly mimicking a shocked appearance before looking more calm.

“Well, I knew Amber’s personality core was from the latest alpha releases of the Mark IV androids, but what I didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to downgrade them to a Mark II version,” he vented.

“Well, how hard is it?” Ellie asked.

“Impossible,” he answered simply, “For some reason the Mark IV software was designed so that it could only downgrade back to a Mark III version,” he explained, “But, I can only do that if I also upgrade all her systems to Mark III standards.” He then pulled his hair in frustration.

“Well, you were able to do it for me, why not her?” Ellie asked.

“Because I also have to upgrade her hardware too, and I usually save that hardware for Christmas upgrades,” he complained, “It looks like I’ll have no choice but to do it, but this girl’s costing me a lot more than I bargained for.”

Ellie merely nodded in agreement and then started assisting Jack by gathering the necessary components. “One piece of good news: I did manage to extract all the pheromones.”

Jack let out a sigh, expelling more negative energy. “Well, that’s good at least.” He then logged onto the Spaztec website and requested a beta for the Partier model Mark III files. The system immediately granted him access, and he began the download right away. He then got an e-mail from them thanking him for testing yet another Mark III model type; he would now have a Mark III Housewife, Perfect Friend, and Partier model.

“Alright, let’s start upgrading all her hardware while this download finishes,” Jack said, putting on protective gloves.

They spent the better part of an hour carefully pulling out all of Amber’s current hardware and upgrading it with some of Gabby’s old ones. Unfortunately, he would still need some Partier model specific components, but he had the majority of what she needed to function properly as a Mark III prototype.

By the time they had everything in place, the download had finished and Jack wasted no time in starting the installation process. He couldn’t help but think that this was a rather extreme repair job, at least that he could recall. Normally he’d have the android online and talking to him, but in her current state, Amber was just too dangerous.

Fortunately, the software upgrade went by fairly smoothly, even allowing him to downgrade the Mark IV personality files with the more stable Mark III ones he’d been helping to develop. Before long, the upgrade was completed and Jack was running a full diagnostic to ensure everything went alright.

“Alright Ellie, looks like everything went alright,” Jack said with a note of relief in his voice, “But, I’m still going to need to tweak her personality a bit, and I need her online in order to do that,” he warned.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to tap into her wireless overrides right away just in case,” Ellie nodded.

Jack merely nodded and proceeded to reactivate Amber’s systems. Instantly, all the lights on her A.I. core lit up and then her body started coming to life. Her eyes slowly started to flutter as her systems booted up, then they quickly snapped open.

“Jack, what the fuck am I doing right here?!” Amber immediately demanded, giving him as much attitude in her face as she could since she was unable to move with the maintenance cable still attached.

“I’m tweaking your personality a little bit so you’re a bit safer to be around,” Jack answered, looking back at his screen and accessing the new personality menu. He could see right away that her aggressive tendencies were near maximum, as well as her argumentative settings. He slowly started toggling them down a bit, but not too much; her attitude made her unique, after all.

He could slowly see the effect it was having on her. Her face relaxed and the pores on her skin closed up a bit.

“How do you feel Amber?” Jack asked, once he’d lowered several of the settings a bit, and raised a few others.

“I feel different,” she said with a confused look on her face, “You tweaking my settings baby?” she asked.

“Yeah, just a bit,” Jack said with a relieved voice, “You were a little too aggressive for people to handle, I’m afraid.”

“I’m sorry,” Amber apologized, “My previous owner installed an unstable personality matrix in me before…I see you’ve replaced it,” she smiled.

“Indeed, and I’ve also upgraded the rest of your systems and made you a Mark III,” he told her.

“Ooh, thanks!” she said, suddenly able to move as Ellie unlocked her motor controls. Amber slowly sat up and let her hands run up and down her body, likely feeling the new tactile input offered by the new hardware. “I hope I haven’t scared too many customers away for good,” she said, “Some of them were pretty cute,” she winked.

“Well, perhaps I’ll let you moonlight as a sexbot some time to appease you,” Jack suggested to her, “If you behave,” he added with a stern look.

“Oh, for that proposition I most certainly will,” Amber promised.

“Good,” Jack smiled. “Works every time” Jack thought to himself. These androids were so sophisticated, that he sometimes found it easier to use good’ole human psychiatry on them to bolster their programming instead of creating lines of code to do the same thing. In any event, letting her be a sexbot from time to time would allow him to test her new programming in different scenarios, and it would bring him in more income. Plus, she already had a number of sexual databases from her previous owner, so she may as well use them.

“I see my perspiration tanks are empty as well,” Amber reported.

“That’s right,” Jack told her, “The stuff you had in them was illegal pheromone spray.”

“Ah, no wonder I had so much effect on you earlier,” Amber said as though it were a revelation, “And I thought it was because I was so attractive,” she pouted.

“Well, you are, but it was ultimately the liquid love potion you secreted that did me in,” Jack assured her.

“Too bad,” Amber frowned, “Anyway, am I done? Can I get back to work now?”

Jack thought about it for a few minutes, wondering if there was anything else he needed to do to her at this time. He finally made his decision. “Yes, you’re done.” He then carefully unplugged her from the terminal and reattached her skin panel.

As soon as her panel was attached, Amber hopped off the table and flexed her toes. “Wow, my body feels so great now,” she said, stretching it out and walking around the immediate area.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard,” Jack smiled, reminiscing back to his upgrade of both Ellie and Gabby. He couldn’t wait until the Mark III bodies were completed too, but that was a completely different program he didn’t have access to.

“Well, I guess I should get dressed now,” Amber said with a hint of disappointment in her voice. Just as she started gathering her clothes, she suddenly stopped and turned to Jack. “Do you think you and I could kiss again really quick?” she said whilst batting her eyes.

Jack gave her a quizzical look before saying, “Alright,” with a shrug.

“Yay!” Amber squealed, running over and giving Jack a full kiss on her luscious lips. Jack returned the favor by reaching around and squeezing her butt, giving her a playful spank as she turned to head back to her clothes, eliciting another squeal.

“Now, make sure you behave up there,” Jack called after Amber as she headed back to the lift.

“I will,” Amber called back. Then, she disappeared into the lift and returned to work.

“Well, that was interesting,” Ellie smiled, suddenly reappearing from wherever she had gone while Jack and Amber played around.

“Indeed,” Jack agreed, “where they heck did you go?” he then asked.

“Oh, Kat called down and said Karina just arrived,” Ellie explained, “She’s on the way down as we speak.

“Excellent timing!” Jack said with a clap of his hands, “Oh, by the way Ellie, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention what just happened to Gabby,” he requested with an embarrassed look on his face, “She might misunderstand.”

“I see,” Ellie nodded, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” she said, pretending to zip her lips shut. Jack gave her a thankful bow and then planted a surprise kiss on her lips. “That wasn’t to spread your lip gloss,” he said quickly, “Now, let’s prepare for Karina’s arrival.”

Aside from developing a slight blush, Ellie did as she was told, preparing for Karina’s impending arrival.

Chapter Four: Karina

No sooner did Ellie and Jack begin preparations then Kat arrived on the lift. She must have gotten on the lift immediately after Amber got off, and she came hauling a rather large box. As soon as she got close, however, Jack got a suspicious look on his face.

“Kat, are you sure that’s Karina?” he asked her.

“Yes Jack,” Kat answered, “I confirmed the manifest number and peeked inside…she’s definitely in there,” she assured him.

The reason Jack was so suspicious was partly because the box Karina was supposedly in was not the original box she had been shipped in. Normally, this would not have bothered Jack, since not many people bothered to keep the original box anyway. What did activate Jack’s suspicion was the size of the box. He knew Karina was of roughly average height for a woman, but this box was 4ft by 4ft square, not the usual 3x6 which was standard. Either her previous owner had curled her into a ball, or he had disassembled her. Either way, it was likely damage could have occurred due to the shoddy method of shipping.

After several moments of sizing up the potential situation before him, he finally put his hands on his hips and said, “Alright, set the box down beside the examination table.”

“Yes sir,” Kat complied, carefully depositing the box beside the examination table. She then made sure to unlock the latches on the box before taking her hand truck and returning to the lift.

“Well, what do you think?” Ellie asked, walking over to where Jack stood and staring down at the box with him.

“I think Karina here might be more work than I had originally planned,” he said.

“Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky,” Ellie assured him.

“Well, I guess we’ll see shortly,” Jack said, setting a forced smile as he and Ellie released both latches and removed the top of the box. He was slightly surprised to see the box filled with packing peanuts. They weren’t packing peanuts of course, but they were the 22nd equivalent of them…more like plastic pellets designed to be more recyclable…people just called them that out of tradition.

“Packing peanuts?” Ellie asked with an incredulous look.

“How much you wanna bet that Karina here is in a disassembled state?” Jack asked as he dug his hands in it.

“I don’t like my odds, so I won’t take it,” Ellie said with a wry expression.

“Good call,” Jack said, pulling his hands out of the pellets, though they emerged holding a severed foot.

“Well, I guess the guy figured he’d save money on shipping if it was a smaller container,” Ellie surmised.

“Perhaps,” Jack nodded. He then gave the foot a probing sniff and shook his head, “Doesn’t smell clean,” he said. Ellie merely shook her head and then joined him digging through the box.

The end result of their expedition in the packing pellets was two feet, two legs, a torso, two arms, two hands, and a head…everything that should have been there, even a few sets of clothes. It was apparent that she hadn’t been cleaned, but aside from that, and her disassembled state, everything seemed to be in order...at least, physically.

“Well, everything’s here,” Ellie said, making sure to counts each piece and inspect the connection points.

“Indeed,” Jack agreed, “I just hope her hardware and software are in at least decent working order,” he then said, “Because based on the state she’s in now, it is rather telling of who may have owned her before.

“I guess you’re right,” Ellie nodded, “Well, shall we assemble her now?”

“I suppose we might as well,” Jack said. He and Ellie then both grabbed pieces from either side of her body and began connecting them to each other and then to the torso; because her body was offline, the seams were still visible. Jack finished the job by attaching the head and then stood back to examine his new employee.

Karina was designed with the appearance of a young, Caucasian college girl. Her previous owner was heavily involved in gaming, and he had apparently custom designed Karina to look like a stereotypical gaming girl. She had a nerdy face accentuated with glasses. She had a rather petite figure, and her dark brown hair had been died a near copper girl at the tips and done up in a strange way. Aside from that, she had a rather tame physical appearance: no tattoos, no painted toe or finger nails, and no extreme vaginal enhancements.

From the review he sent Jack, Karina had served him well playing video games with him, but he had to part with her due to finding a real life gamer girl who didn’t like having her around. Unfortunately, this was a common occurrence, but one that allowed people like Jack to give these bots another chance.

“Well, she looks kinda cute,” Ellie said, once she had taken in Karina’s appearance.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, “That’s part of the reason I have her at the counter, so people will want to talk to her instead of bang her.”

“Interesting,” Ellie said a bit quizzically.

“Well, I suppose now we’d better see if she’s as good inside as she is on the outside,” Jack said. He then reached down to Karina’s abdomen and tapped just above her navel. Instantly, the subdermal control panel lit up with blue lights beneath her skin. Jack tapped a control near the top that instantly sealed all the seams on her body, and then he tapped the icon that unsealed the primary access port. Once he had it removed, he handed the skin panel to Ellie and then peered inside for several moments to catalogue her hardware.

Jack finally stood back up after several moments and looked over at Ellie, who was waiting with anticipation. “Well, looks like we got a bit lucky,” he said with a big smile.

“Oh, how so?” Ellie asked in excitement.

“Looks like her previous owner did a fairly good job of keeping her systems up-to-date,” Jack explained, “There’s only a few systems that can do with an upgrade, and I already have the necessary parts.”

“Excellent!” Ellie clapped, “Now we just need to check her software.”

“Well, based on her hardware, her software also has to be fairly updated,” Jack said, grabbing the cable from his terminal and plugging it into Karina’s A.I. core. He spent a few moments allowing the terminal to interface and then he ran a few cursory diagnostics. “Her software’s in decent shape too,” he confirmed, “Looks like we just need to update a few programs and install the new ones I’ve written for her.”

“Good.” Ellie said.

While Jack performed the software end of the work, Ellie helped out by placing the clothes provided for Karina into the rapid wash unit. She also had Kat return to the lab to retrieve the empty box and recycle the contents for further use; there was actually someone in town who turned plastic pellets into toys that then got sold at the gift shop. Jack tried not to waste anything. Finally, Ellie assisted by performing the necessary hardware upgrades, since they were basic enough for Ellie to handle.

By the time Ellie finished tidying up, Jack had already finished updating Karina’s software.

“Alright, time to turn our new employee on and introduce ourselves,” Jack said, rubbing his hands together with excitement. He got a real thrill out of turning his employees on for the first time. He quickly reached in and pressed the power button on the core. Lights quickly started blinking in sequence in her body and she promptly came online with a quick opening of her eyes.

She carefully and efficiently sat up and turned to face Jack. “Hello, my name is Karina, a Mark II Perfect Friend model,” Karina said in a cheerful, yet surprisingly deep and rich voice. “I’ve been placed into new registration mode…are you my new owner?” she inquired.

“Yes Karina,” Jack answered, “My name’s Jack Brown.”

“Very well, new registration is confirmed,” she reported. She then seemed to zone out as her new programming was integrated, “I see you’re going to have me tending the counter for a café,” she said.

“That’s correct,” Jack nodded, “By the way, Karina, is that your real voice, or are your vocal systems malfunction?”

“This is the voice I was programmed with,” Karina confirmed, “Why, does it bother you?” she asked.

“No, not at all,” Jack said, “It’s just I wouldn’t have expected it from someone with such a petite figure as yours,” he explained.

“Ah yes, I got that a lot with my original owner,” she nodded, “I believe he wanted my voice to sound similar to that of one in one of his favorite video games…some A.I. character who assisted the player,” she explained.

“I see,” Jack smiled, “Well, it’s a pleasant surprise to say the least,” he told her.

“I’m pleased that you find it so,” she responded.

“Karina, do you have more personality?” he then asked, since she was behaving like an android fresh out of the assembly line being tested for glitches.

“My previous owner preferred for me to act a bit robotic,” she answered, “Again, likely because of the aforementioned A.I. assistant he was fond of.”

“Well, unfortunately that just won’t do for the job I have you doing,” he said.

“I do have several base personality programs pre-installed, if you’d like to select from one of them,” she offered.

“Thanks, but I’d like to try and get one that more befits your gamer girl appearance,” Jack said, already looking up potential options online. As Jack selected between various personalities, he was grateful he’d decided to take basic psychology courses during his college time. He finally selected one with a quirkier and playful tendency, as opposed to the withdrawn and eccentric ones that predominated the spectrum.

Karina was still waiting patiently when Jack began the download. “Well Karina, I’ve picked out a new personality for you,” he said, “It’ll be ready for you in a few moments.”

“I look forward to it,” she said with a tone matching her patience.

A short time later, the download completed and Jack promptly installed it into Karina’s A.I. core. “There, do you have it?” he asked.

“Yes, I am detecting personality module: gamer_girl47,” she reported.

“Good, I want you to access that module and run it as your default personality from this moment forward,” he instructed her.

“Understood,” she nodded, then the lights on her core blinked rapidly as she integrated the personality into her programming, all the while her face took on a blank expression. A few moments later, her eyes blinked and suddenly her face took on a more playful expression. “Personality integration complete,” she reported in a livelier voice.

“I can see,” Jack nodded approvingly, “Tell me, what did your previous owner typically use you for?” he asked her.

“Oh, he had me play multiplayer games with him,” she recounted cheerfully, “We had a blast.”

“Glad to hear,” Jack nodded, “Did he ever use you for more extra-curricular activities?”

“If you mean sex, then yes…though only occasionally. He mainly used me for gaming and to show off to his friends when he took me to gaming conventions.”

“Good, that means you’re in pretty decent shape for a year-old bot,” he said.

“That I most certainly am,” she smiled proudly.

“Well Karina, I think the only thing I need you to do for me is to take a shower,” Jack told her, carefully unplugging her and replacing her skin panel. “I guess your owner took you out for one last spin and forgot to clean you up,” he added with a disapproving sniff.

Karina’s face flushed up a bit when Jack mentioned that. “Yeah, but it was fun,” she said.

“I’ll bet,” Jack smiled, then motioning Ellie over. “Ellie here will show you to the shower.”

“Alright,” Karina smiled, dropping to the floor and following Ellie into the residential section of the lab. Just as soon as Ellie and Karina disappeared into the section, Gabby suddenly emerged.

“Gabby dear, what a pleasant surprise,” Jack smiled, getting up and giving her a loving embrace.

“Well, Ellie relayed your medical emergency from earlier and I thought I’d come down to see if you were alright,” Gabby said with concern showing on her face.

“I thought I told her not to tell you,” Jack complained.

“Well, I have my ways of persuasion too, just like you do,” Gabby winked.

“I guess so,” Jack conceded, walking with Gabby to the beaker filled with the pheromone fluid, “Amber had this stuff in her body…stuff that’s like love potion for men,” he explained, showing it to her.

“Interesting,” Gabby said, “If I had this stuff in me, my job would be much easier,” she said with a sly smile.

“Well, I’m actually planning on modifying it for your body,” he admitted, placing the fluid in a refrigeration tank for safe keeping.

“Oooh, I can’t wait,” Gabby smiled, giving him a deep kiss. Once she broke apart, she looked at his terminal and asked, “So, how are things going so far?”

“Well, aside from having to upgrade Amber to a Mark III prototype, everything’s been going fine,” Jack reported, “I’m just having Karina wash up so I can send her up to work.”

“Good to hear,” Gabby nodded, “So, I was thinking maybe we could eat up in the café before bringing Luiza down here,” Gabby suggested, “That way you won’t have to call me in and you can get started more quickly, and I can take a look at the new employees.”

“Good idea,” Jack agreed, “And that way I can save that lunch you packed for a snack or something,” he added.

“Good,” she smiled, “Oh, and Ellie can join us too, of course.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

After a few minutes, Ellie returned with a now squeaky clean Karina. Karina was also wearing a set of the clothes sent with her…apparently Ellie had picked out what she thought would best fit Karina’s new personality. What she had picked was a set of black leggings that disappeared into a sort of black and grey dress with a belt woven into the mid area to give the appearance that it was two pieces. She wore a simple set of black flats on her feet, and now had her hair in its original coloring sans dye. Overall, the outfit gave Karina a sort of tame gothic appearance.

“Wow Ellie, you really outdid yourself this time,” Jack said with an approving nod.

“Thanks, I thought you’d like it,” Ellie smiled with a modest blush forming on her cheeks.

“This is the outfit my original owner used to dress me up in when he took me to friends’ houses,” Karina said.

“Then I take it those yoga pants and the tank tops were your normal home attire?” Jack surmised.

“Yep,” Karina replied.

“Well, I suppose not everyone gets a fembot to have sex with,” Jack said, then changing the subject, he said, “Well, I suppose Karina here is cleared to work. I think we’ll follow you up,” he decided.

“We’re going up too?” Ellie asked.

“Yeah, Gabby wants to eat in the café to see how the new employees are doing,” Jack explained.

“Oh, alright,” Ellie shrugged, “I’ve been meaning to try Luiza’s cooking anyway…hopefully our modifications won’t mess up her cooking.”

“They shouldn’t,” Jack assured her.

“Goodie,” Ellie said. They all then headed to the lift and rode it up to the office.

Chapter Eight: Looking ahead

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