Skyler

(Malebots)

Skyler

Part 1: Skyler

Like most kids, I had a fairly ordinary childhood. I had a stable family structure, a good education, and a safe environment to grow up in. The only thing that was missing from my life was a friend.

I was categorized in the nerd side of the social spectrum, and I had a few more personality quirks that essentially isolated myself from my peers.

After I graduated from high school with honors, I took a brief online apprenticeship to become a certified IT specialist, the benefit of which meant that I could essentially work from home and remotely assist people living in my relatively small town of less than 150,000 people.

Shortly after landing my dream job, I was already making tons of money just from my childhood bedroom, but I quickly found that all that money didn’t really equate to happiness. I soon had enough money to move out of my parents’ house, but I didn’t see the point.

One day, after having a stressful conversation with them about moving out, I took a walk in the wooded mountains just outside of town to clear my head.

As I walked around enjoying the clear air and the gorgeous scenery, I noticed a path that hadn’t been there before. I briefly remembered there had been a storm in the mountains the previous evening, and it appeared as though a boulder that had previously blocked this area had been washed away due to erosion.

Since I was trying to clear my head, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to take this new path that had opened up before me. As I started on the new path, I absently noticed a shimmer in the bushes, but it vanished before I could investigate.

It wasn’t very long walking on the new path that I realized I wasn’t alone. I stopped moving and listened for a bit before realizing it was footsteps, trudging towards me from around bend. Although I wasn’t really hoping to run into anyone up there, I somehow felt a calming presence and stood still until the person approached.

A short time late, a boy approximately my age walked around the bend. He was somewhat short for a guy, around 5’8, but he also had a stocky build that made him appear a bit muscly. He had a kind face that was buried beneath a constellation of freckles with two bright blue eyes barely peeking out from his long, wild brown hair.

Though he had a somewhat attractive appearance, he looked as though he’d seen better days. His clothes were a little ragged, his skin was dirty, and he had a hard look on his face. It took him a short time to notice I was standing there, but he eagerly approached me as soon as he did. As he got closer, I noticed he was also hauling a fairly large bag that appeared to have the whole of his possessions in it.

“Hey, you there!” he called out, speeding up and stopping a safe distance in front of me.

“Hey,” I replied with trepidation, “Are you alright?”

“I am now…I think,” the boy answered vaguely, “Are we near a town or city?”

“Yes, we’re in the hills just above the city of Moracia.”

“Wow, I’m in Oregon?” the boy said incredulously.

“Yeah, where are you from?”

At that question, the boy appeared uncomfortable. “I don’t really feel comfortable saying, but let’s just say it’s somewhere on the East coast.”

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me your life story if you don’t want to,” I assured him, “based on what you’ve likely been through, mine would probably upset you with how good it is.”

“If you’re life’s so good, how come you’re out here then?”

“Because money can’t buy friendship,” I answered wryly.

“That is true,” the boy answered, “You know what, you’re the first decent person I’ve come across since I left my home, so if it means anything to you, I consider you a friend.”

I had to pause when I heard the boy respond to me. I had a brief epiphany and realized maybe he was somehow the reason I came up here this day. Skyler seemed to understand the moment I was having, and he broke the silence and said, “My name’s Skyler.” He calmly stretched out his hand in friendship.

“My name’s Greg,” I answered, taking his hand and shaking it. As I shook his hand, I noticed a minor electrical tingle that passed almost as soon as it began.

From that moment on, we suddenly opened up to each other. We sat down on some rocks and recounted nearly our entire life stories. Apparently, Skyler grew up in an orphanage somewhere in New England and fled when people there became abusive. He’d made his way across the country by hitching rides, riding the rails, and just walking.

He was also fairly smart and was able to do some odd jobs along the way to accumulate a considerable amount of money. He’d finally decided to try and settle down in a town to begin his new life.

Before we knew it, it was starting to get dark and we felt like we’d known each other our entire lives.

“Hey Skyler, I was thinking…perhaps you and I could team up,” I suggested to him, hoping I wouldn’t scare him off.

“How so?” he asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Well, I make enough money to move out of my parents’ house,” I began, “I just didn’t want to live alone, which is part of the reason my parents and I had a fight this morning which led me to you,” I continued, trying to push past the emotion and nail my point, “Anyway, perhaps I can convince them to let you stay with me tonight, and perhaps a bit longer, if we can get you a job and then we pool our resources to rent a nice apartment. What do you say?”

Skyler had been following me the whole time, and he only took a few moments to truly consider my offer before saying, “Yes, I’d love to!”

“Great!” I shouted, doing a quick celebratory dance before getting serious again, “Now, I don’t think my parents will take to kindly to me shacking up with someone I just met, so I think, just for the first year or so while they get to know you a bit better, I’m going to lie and say that I’ve known you online for a few months already.”

Skyler looked a bit uncomfortable at that, but he nodded. “I don’t feel comfortable lying to people, but as long as we eventually tell the truth, I can go along with it.”

“Good, now let’s head down before it gets too dark.” I said, getting up from the log I’d been sitting on for half the day and helping him to his feet.

After that fateful day, Skyler and I were virtually inseparable. Within two weeks of meeting, Skyler landed a well-paying clerical job in the local courthouse, and with his $70K salary added to my $80K salary, we quickly moved out of my parents’ house and into newly built, fully modern 2-bed, 2.5-bath apartment.

Our time together was made even better by the fact that we shared similar interests, watched the same shows and movies, and truly understood one another. I felt as though I had not been complete in my life until Skyler walked into my life, and I could tell he had similar feelings.

That being said, we never attempted a sexual relationship, though I did feel some urges towards him. I was overall confused in that regard, since I also had attractions towards women that I encountered, but Skyler was the only male I was sexually interested in and I never got any vibes from him that he was interested in me in that way.

Despite my internal confusion, we were the best of friends, and before we knew it, three years had gone by and we were celebrating Skyler’s 21st birthday…just the two of us, by driving up to the area we first met at the crack of dawn.

“Wow, it’s been so long!” Skyler shouted in glee, eagerly running towards the small grove where we first met.

“It has indeed,” I agreed, taking in all the surroundings. Everything was just about as I remembered, though now that I’d had time to know Skyler, a question that had popped up in my mind before now resurfaced. “So, where did you come from before you came around that corner and saw me?

Skyler seemed a bit confused when I asked him, almost like an internal struggle was going on inside, but he finally said, “Well, I had a sort of campsite a bit down the way,” he shrugged.

“You think it might still be there?” I pressed, eager to see where Skyler was before I met.

“Well, let’s see,” Skyler suggested, leading me around the corner.

We walked a few minutes down the trail past the corner before we reached what could be described as a rudimentary campsite. The only thing that was odd was that it seemed almost staged, and was in a protected area that even wildlife would likely have ignored.

“Well, here it is,” Skyler announced, taking a quick look around before turning to me.

“Wow, I’m surprised it’s still intact after all these years,” I mused, looking around, “I mean, it’s a very good campsite.”

“I suppose that’s why I picked it,” Skyler shrugged, “You know, now that I’m back here, I feel a bit strange.”

“How so?”

“I dunno…like I don’t really remember how I got here,” he said, a strange look on his face. He started wandering over to an opening in some rocks that formed a small cave. Before he could enter though, some sort of electrical field activated and stopped him in his tracks.

“Skyler!” I shouted, rushing over to assist him. I saw some sort of device disguised as part of the rock, so I grabbed a large rock and smashed it until the field shut off. Skyler remained standing for several seconds after the field deactivated, still shaking from the effects of the electricity.

“Skyler, here, I got you,” I told him, as I saw him start to fall. I caught him gently in my arms and rested him down to the ground, looking into his eyes with a look filled with concern. I was shocked, however, to see no look of recognition in his eyes. “Sky, are you okay?”

Skyler briefly appeared to attempt to speak with me, before jerking around uncontrollably. “Error, critical damage detected in power systems,” he blurted out in a stilted voice.

“What?”

“Error, power systems compromised…error, power systems compromised…shutting down.” He continued, flopping around several more times before becoming lifeless in my arms.

After several seconds of silence, staring at Skyler with a look of shock, I finally let out an explosive breath. “Holy shit Sky, you’re an android!” I breathed. Skyler merely stared back at me with the blank, dead look on his face. “Man, I can’t stand you looking like this,” I shuddered, gently closing his eyes with my hands and settling his face into a resting expression, “Ah, that’s better,” I smiled.

Several seconds later, I gently laid Skyler down on the ground and then stared into the small cave. I could see a few boxes or crates packed away inside, though I wasn’t sure if the defense system would come back on. I grabbed a nearby rock and tossed it in to test if I had successfully damaged the field. When the rock sailed through unharmed, I tossed in a few sticks just to be sure before gingerly reaching my arm through.

“Alright Sky, lets see what was so important,” I said to myself, in order to mediate my stress. I walked over to the boxes, which happened to be on a wheeled cart, and opened the nearest one up. I recoiled slightly, seeing what looked like several duplicates of Skyler’s head, hands, and feet nestled inside. The other boxes appeared to contain spare parts, such as circuits, wires, and even what looked like musculature and skin.

I stared back and forth from the contents of the boxes, to Skyler, before closing them all up and taking stock of the situation. It was nearly noon now, and the car was quite a distance away. Skyler weighed nearly 160lbs, which was far more than I could comfortably carry, but the wheeled cart looked like it could handle the rough terrain.

Sighing, I managed to lift Skyler’s body up onto the cart, after repositioning the boxes, and then slowly dragged it out of the cave and towards the trail. As I walked down the trail with Skyler in tow, I desperately hoped that no one else chose to hike the trail and ask any questions.

After I carried Skyler’s body, and the supplies I found in the hidden cave, to my car, I calmed myself down and attempted to drive back to our apartment as though nothing were wrong…the last thing I needed was a cop pulling me over with an apparently dead person in the backseat.

As I pulled into the apartment complex, I was suddenly grateful that Skyler and I had splurged for one of the units with a private, attached garage unit. I quietly parked the car in the garage and then began the process of moving both Skyler and the boxes into my work area.

My work area was not much more than a corner of the apartments common area, since both our bedrooms were not large enough to fit both a work area, and a bed and furnishings. Skyler often complained that we needed a bigger place, but I said we needed to earn a bit more.

I shook all those thoughts out of my mind, for the moment, since the most pressing thing at the moment was fixing my best friend, who apparently was not only a highly-advanced android, but a sleeper android completely unaware of his true nature.

Though I was mostly an IT guy, I was also skilled in fixing hardware related issues too, so I quickly sent out a search spider to bring up any and all information on how to open up an android of Skyler’s apparent complexity, and then on how to repair them.

While the spider did its work, I dragged the couch over and gently sat Skyler down and then began to undress him. As I took off Skyler’s clothing, the sexual urges surged to the surface, but my professionalism and respect for Skyler’s body quickly took charge. I decided to leave just his boxers on, in order to respect what little privacy he’d likely have left once I managed to fix him.

Though Skyler had suffered a massive electric shock from some sort of automated defense system, he appeared to have suffered no external damage. There was a small burn mark on the areas the electricity hit him, but aside from that he looked fine…as a matter of fact, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he malfunctioned and then shut down in front of me, I would even be able to tell he was a machine; he looked so real.

Before I could be tempted to feel his body, however, the spider finished its work and gave me an audible alert. I regretfully turned from Skyler’s body and perused the dozens of pertinent documents that had downloaded onto my computers regarding repairing androids of Skyler’s complexity.

After reviewing several different android models, I determined that most had the same way of opening the primary access panel, in order to maintain an industry standard. Now that I was fairly certain how to open Skyler up, I turned back to his body and paused to admire the realism. His chest had small patches of hair surrounding both nipples, and he had a well-toned abdomen with a hint of a six pack.

I quickly shook my head to bring back my focus and dug my index finger into Skyler’s navel. Though this was a fairly clichéd trope with opening android’s access panels in old works of fiction, Skyler’s model was more involved. I pressed and twisted my finger in his otherwise realistic abdomen, and once I’d twisted it 90 degrees, I removed my finger and then twisted both of his nipples in the opposite direction.

The effect was instantaneous. I heard an audible click and then an oval shaped seam running from just above his chest to just above his waist appeared. Then, the section of his body rose a few centimeters to allow for easier removal.

“Whoa!” was all I could say. I slowly and carefully grabbed the ovular panel and removed it, marveling at how real the skin on the outside still felt and looked, and also at the dazzling array of technology that lay beneath.

It appeared that there was a thin layer of synthetic muscle attached to the underside of the skin panel, so what lay beneath was a very robotic looking skeletal structure with false ribs to give the outward appearance that he had a rib cage. There appeared to be another panel underneath the skin panel, so I gently placed the panel with the skin facing down on the floor and placed a sheet over it to protect the muscles from dust, and then I pressed what looked like an open/close button on Skyler’s robotic innards.

This caused another panel to lower, then split in two and open up. Inside this one was what appeared to be literally everything that allowed Skyler’s body to work, though at the moment all the systems were dark and offline.

Near the top was what appeared to be a pump that acted as a heart, with what looked like a red colored fluid through clear tubes. There also appeared to be twin balloons that acted as his lungs, though instead of sending air to his body and heart, they appeared to be attached to an intricate looking computer device I assumed was his primary CPU and control center. Below all that was his stomach, digestive systems, and power systems. Finally, on the bottom appeared to be the systems that controlled his penis.

“Wow Skyler, you’re amazing.” I said to myself, staring longingly into his sleeping face and then back into his open body. It didn’t take me too long to discover several of the circuits inside his torso appeared to be burnt out…likely from the electric shock.

After closely examining the affected circuits, I suddenly remembered that the boxes I’d discovered in the cave appeared to have similar circuits…most likely meant to be replacements in the event something exactly like this occurred.

Smiling at the fortune of not having to go out and find compatible circuits, I quickly dug through the boxes and found exact copies of the damaged circuits, finding several replacement hands and feet in the process.

Before I initiated repairs, I put on my pair of non-static gloves and then one by one began the process of removing each of the damaged circuits, mapping where each one went, and then pairing the damaged ones with the replacements so I could make sure the correct circuits were installed in the correct slots.

Before long, I had replaced all the damaged circuits and noticed no other apparent signs of damage, so I leaned in and got a closer look at the computer in his chest. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it had several open data ports designed for universal cables, so I took one of my wireless USB connectors and plugged it in so I could have remote access to all his systems anywhere and anytime.

Unfortunately, due to his body being offline, my computers had nothing to interface with, so I swapped my non-static gloves with rubber insulated ones and then carefully pressed a button with the universal power symbol located on his power systems.

Instantly, all the components in Skyler’s body sprung to life with a series of mechanical whirs, beeps, and hums. Skyler’s eyes also quickly popped open, but although they were open and he was breathing, there appeared to be no signs of Skyler in his blank gaze; he didn’t even move or say anything.

“Skyler?” I said in a weak voice, not sure if he was awake. He didn’t respond. “Huh, I guess you aren’t quite fixed yet,” I shrugged, shaking my head, “Oh well, I suppose I was kidding myself if I thought it would be that easy.”

One of the things that usually irritated Skylar was my habit of speaking to the computers or systems that I was working on…usually when he was trying to watch TV or read a book. I laughed at that thought this time, because this time HE was the computer I was working on, and he was also my best friend.

Despite Skyler not quite being himself, with his body powered on my computers were now able to connect to his systems. Upon Skyler’s body detecting the wireless connection, it quickly began installing the interface software on my computer terminal and before long, a new program popped up on my computer that appeared to give me complete access and control to his body.

“Okay, let’s start with a diagnostic,” I said aloud, quickly spotting the diagnostic submenu. Due to the amount of damage, and the fact that the new circuits were untested, I decided to run a full diagnostic with self-repair protocols activated. Once I started it, the components in his body began humming a bit louder and a timer counting down from 15-minutes.

“Well, I suppose I’ll get a closer look at your body while you fix yourself,” I said, uncaring about his oblivious state.

I started with his feet, which were smaller than average for men; size eight. The first thing I noticed that clearly gave evidence to his artificial nature was that, despite exerting himself by hiking for nearly an hour, and his feet still being a bit moist from the perspiration, there was no odor. I took a brave lick of the balls of his feet and discovered that his sweat was basically a saline mix. In addition to the lack of odor, his toenails were perfectly colored and well kempt. Moving up his body, I gently felt the long hairs on his legs and the muscle structure beneath. One of the things I’d always wanted Skyler to do was to go hairless, but it would be embarrassing to ask him unless we were more intimate; I myself kept my body hairs trimmed.

I skipped his waist and private area for the same reasons I left his boxers on, and instead allowed my fingers to trace the edges of his panel, feeling the metal of his skeleton and the fleshy skin layer.

I moved to his arms, gently feeling the thinner hairs that I also wished he’d remove, as well as the hairs in his armpits I also didn’t care for. Just as with his feet, his armpits betrayed his nature with their complete lack of human body odor, instead smelling somewhat musty. His hands felt soft, and the fingerprints on each finger looked just as real as the rest of him. His fingernails were also similarly perfect looking to his toenails, except they showed a few signs of wear and tear since he used his hands a lot.

Finally, I moved up to his head and stared deeply into his blank eyes. Both blue orbs were staring blankly upwards, completely oblivious to my presence. That being said, everything I saw in his face brought warm feelings to my heart because despite the fact he was a machine and dead to the world, he was my friend and I was beginning to feel that I actually loved him.

“Don’t worry Sky,” I told him with tears forming in my eyes, “I’ll fix you and then we can resume our party.” I then planted a friendly kiss on his cheek and turned back to my computer to monitor the results of the diagnostic, knowing full well things would never be back to normal after today.

Upon completion of the diagnostic, it reported it had repaired numerous errors and that it had successfully integrated the replacement components with the rest of his systems.

“Okay then, let’s see if I can get you back online,” I said with a smile, seeing that I’d apparently fixed his body. I quickly perused through the interface program for his A.I. systems, though it did not take long to realize that his A.I. was not contained in the chest computer.

I was a little disappointed that I still couldn’t get Skyler’s mind back online, but I still had all the manuals and schematics the search spider had found, though this time I had the benefit of knowing Skyler’s exact model so I could refine my search.

“Alright Sky, let’s see how you Spaztec models work,” I said, ignoring the other documents and bringing up all files about his model. “Huh, that’s interesting,” I said to myself. It appeared Skyler’s model android used a revolutionary process that split the major functions, A.I. and body functions, into two separate processing centers: the A.I. was contained in the head, while the torso contained a separate unit that just processes motor controls and autonomic functions.

The schematics showed me how to open Skyler’s head, but it also showed a way to access a port behind his ears. I grabbed another wireless link, as well as a small screwdriver, and brought them up to Skyler’s right ear. I moved his long hair and ear out of the way and pressed the screwdriver into a small freckle. This caused a small section of skin to open up, revealing a USB port.

I quickly inserted the wireless link and then watched as Skyler’s head computer began installing a separate interface program on my computer. Once it installed, I placed it on the monitor adjacent to the body interface program and then got the lay of the land.

The first thing that caught my attention was the status bar, which was currently telling me that Skyler’s A.I. was offline. Though this was obvious, it did go into detail saying a system error occurred and a diagnostic needed to be manually initiated before he could come back online. Before I did anything else, I quickly began the manual diagnostic. This instantly caused the other areas of the A.I. monitor to light up with activity as the diagnostic tested the complex systems contained within Skyler’s head computer. Another small window opened up displaying the current progress, as well as a growing list of faults and errors it detected.

“Wow, you’re a complex machine Sky,” I muttered, looking back and forth from his blank face to the diagnostic screen.

After what seemed like forever, but was actually about 15 minutes, the diagnostic finally finished and gave a summary of the errors it had detected, as well as options for fixing them. Most of the errors seemed likely to be caused by the electric surge to his systems, based on the diagnostic reads, but there was a large number of errors which appeared to go deeper…and were tied to his sleeper programming.

“Well Sky, I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in fixing you, but I’m going to have your systems fix as many of these errors as it can so I can talk to you again,” I told him, then I clicked the fix icon and watched as his internal diagnostic program began attempting to fix the thousands of errors.

Fortunately, Skyler’s A.I. was very proficient at fixing the errors, since many of them were minor. Unfortunately, once the repair process concluded, there were still around a hundred or two errors it wasn’t able to fix…apparently because there might be a hardware fault, and because he needed a system update. That being said, with the conclusion of the diagnostic, I now had more access to his head computer, and I was able to quickly pull some basic system info.

“Wow, no wonder you have a number of issues…you’ve never had a diagnostic run before,” I said surprisingly, since despite Skyler having been running continuously for three years, he behaved flawlessly human that entire time. Given the fact that I was now able to control his various systems, I decided to take a risk and reactivate his A.I. so I could talk to him. It did not take long to find the menu to do so, and, after a moment’s hesitation, I clicked the icon to resume his A.I.

As soon as I clicked the icon, his activity window immediately sprung to life with bits of computer code and then displayed more readable startup stats as his software initialized. Finally, his face closed its eyes and then blinked them open a few times.

“Sky, are you awake?” I asked him, absently noting the activity window registering a familiar voice.

Skyler’s eyes slowly focused on mine and then he smiled before suddenly shouting, “Whoa, how’d I get back here? What’s going on? Why can’t I move?”

“Hey, calm down!” I told him, grabbing his cheeks and staring into his eyes, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

The activity window on my computer lit up with activity at this question as Skyler attempted to recall the events leading to his shutdown. “The last thing I remember is a flash of light and then everything went sort of fuzzy…” Skyler recalled, “then I seemed to act sort of funny before everything went black.”

“Well, you were hit by some sort of electric surge, and it would seem you’re an android,” I told him quickly, hoping it might soften the blow, “and based on your reaction, you were programmed to not be aware of it.”

At that, Skyler seemed to freeze as he attempted to process what I just told him. “Greg, are you sure?”

“Yeah Sky, look,” I told him, gently lifting his head so he could see his torso with the large panel removed.

“Whoa!” Skyler shouted, seeing all the intricate mechanisms within his body. For whatever reason, Skyler appeared to be paralyzed from the neck down, but all that counted was that his A.I. appeared fully functional again.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself,” I admitted, gently laying his head back down, “I’ve spent the past hour or so fixing the damage to your body, and have only just now managed to get you back online,” I reported, “Are you scared?”

Skyler took a while to answer this one, since he was basically coming to terms with the fact that he was a highly advanced and realistic android, before smiling, “You know what, I’m not.”

I was surprised to hear his answer, to say the least. “You aren’t?”

“No,” Skyler said with a huge grin, “My whole life I’ve felt aimless and different, and now I finally know why…and you know what, I think it’s kinda cool! I’m a robot!” he laughed.

I couldn’t help but laugh with him…leave it to Skyler to always find a silver lining. “Oh, by the way, you’ve only been ‘alive’ for three years.”

“Wow,” Skyler mused, “I guess I’m a bit too young to drink tonight then,” he joked.

“I won’t tell anyone if you won’t,” I winked, “So anyway, I’m not exactly an android repairman, so I’m not completely sure how well I fixed you,” I told him, “Do you feel any different?”

“I don’t think so,” Skyler said with an unsure look on his face, “It’s just weird that I can’t move my body at all,” he complained.

“Huh, can you still feel it?” I asked, running my fingers along the right side of his body.

“Yeah, I just can’t move it.”

“Well, I ran a diagnostic on your A.I. and it wasn’t able to fix quite everything,” I admitted, “Perhaps it’s your sleeper programming malfunctioning.”

“I wouldn’t know, but you’ve fixed me this much, so I trust you to continue,” Skyler assured me.

“Good, and I hope you don’t mind I had to undress you,” I said, fighting a blush.

“No, I don’t mind…though it’s weird you left my boxers on,” Skyler said.

“Well, I wanted to respect your privacy,” I defended, blushing even more.

“Greg,” Skyler suddenly asked, “Do you like me?”

I was taken aback by the sudden question, but I figured Skyler had been wanting to ask me that for weeks, but he’d stopped himself each time. “Yeah, I do,” I admitted, “I suppose I’ve liked you since the day we met…I’ve just been a little embarrassed about it because I’m not really gay…but, I think I’m just gay for you.”

“I thought so,” Skyler nodded, “I appreciate your liking me because it obviously allows you to see me as a bit more than just an android, I suppose.”

“Do you like me?”

“I think so,” Skyler answered with a quizzical expression on his face, “I am attracted to women, but I also find myself attracted a bit to you as well, but part of me can’t seem to process it, so I suppose that’s why I’ve never said anything about it,” Skyler admitted, “Hey, do you think it could be due to a bug in my programming or something?”

“It’s possible,” I admitted, “as a matter of fact, it would make sense if you were programmed to be heterosexual, but to also have your own free will…I could take a look and alter your programming, if it’s alright with you.”

“I’m glad that you like me enough to ask for my permission, but these past few minutes I’ve been thinking and I’m not sure if I’m malfunctioning or not,” Skyler said, meanwhile his activity window was spiking with activity and his CPU was nearly maxing out, “But the way I see it, you’re human and I’m machine…I can be reprogrammed and you cannot…in my whole life, you’ve been the only one whose been kind to me, and I suppose my previous memories were all fabricated, but I suppose that first day I imprinted on you or something, and I’ve come to the realization that you’re the only person in this world I can truly trust, so I trust you with any decision you might want to make about me,” Skyler said, seeming to zone out as he gave his speech.

As soon as he finished speaking, the activity window suddenly showed that Skyler’s A.I. was registering myself as his owner and master. “Whoa Skyler, what did you do?” I asked, quickly searching through the displays and seeing he’d somehow made me a master user.

“I don’t know,” Skyler admitted, seeming to return to normal, “But whatever I did, it feels right.”

“Well, it looks like you registered me as your owner and master,” I told him, returning to the main display page.

“I did?” Skyler asked, “I don’t recall doing so…but it seems right,” he said, repeating his earlier comment, “I just wish I knew why…”

“I think I do,” I told him, remembering something I’d read on some message boards, “It’s said that the sentient androids such as yourselves know that living on your own isn’t a viable option, since you could break down and be reprogrammed by a malicious individual at any time,” I explained, “So, since you already know you can trust me, the deep logic programming in your A.I. must have registered me as your master because you know I like you and that I wouldn’t misuse you in any way.”

Skyler paused to think on that a while before nodding, “Huh, that makes sense.”

“Well, I’m honored you made me your master, but I don’t think I’m likely to alter your programming much at all…I like you just the way you are,” I assured him, affectionately patting his shoulder.

“Thank you, Greg, I appreciate it,” Skyler smiled, “Anyway, are you going to try and fix me so I can move now?”

“Well, I’ll try,” I said dubiously, “I think I’m going to start by running a software update on you,” I explained, going to the proper menu and starting a search for new software.

“Sounds like a plan,” Skyler said, knowing how much I enjoyed working on computers, “You don’t think a system update will change me too much, right?”

“I’m not sure, but a computer as complex as you should receive regular updates, and unless you’ve somehow been updating yourself in your sleep in the last three years, you’re likely to be very out of date,” I laughed, and just then, the search finished and displayed a massive list of updates. “Ah, looks like you have never received an update before, as I thought.”

“Well, I trust you implicitly,” Skyler repeated, “You may install them.”

“Will do,” I said, beginning the update procedure. “It looks like they need a few moments to download first, so we have some time to talk before they shut you down.”

“Goodie,” Skyler said, “So, when those are done, what are you going to do to me next?”

“Well, I’m going to try and alter your sexuality programming so you’re capable of loving me, and then I’m going to try and deactivate the remaining sleeper programming still bogging your systems down.”

“I’m already aware of my true nature, what could the sleeper programming possibly still be doing?” Skyler asked with a confused look on his face.

“I’m not completely sure yet, because I’m no expert, but for one thing you should have access to a HUD and your systems.”

“Ah, that would be helpful.”

“Indeed,” I agreed, “Aside from that, it’s creating bugs that can adversely affect the rest of your systems, so it’s best that it just be deactivated permanently.”

“Well then, I can’t wait until it’s offline,” Skyler said, and just as he did, my computer beeped to signal the completion of the downloads.

“Alright Sky, I’m going to start the installation process now,” I warned him, getting ready to press the icon, “Is there anything you’d like to say before you go under?”

“Yeah, I really do like you Greg, and I’m looking forward to liking you more once I’m back,” Skyler said, “Oh, and you can feel free to remove my boxers while you’re waiting…I don’t mind,” he winked.

“Will do,” I winked back, “Alrighty, here goes,” and I clicked the icon and watched as Skyler’s face went blank once again and the display window showed his A.I. was installing the multitude of updates. A countdown timer indicated it would take approximately 15 minutes, so decided to take this opportunity to remove Skyler’s boxers.

Once I was sure the computer did not require my immediate attention, I got up from my chair and stood over Skyler’s waist. I carefully grabbed hold of both sides of his boxers and slid them down until I was able to pull them free from his bare feet. I quickly gave his boxers a whiff and detected even more artificiality in that there was no BO smell, nor the smell of ammonia or waste.

Once I set his boxers down with the rest of his clothes, I calmly composed myself as I leaned in to exam Skyler’s penis. Normally seeing a penis would turn me off, but I suppose I was gay just for Skyler, and I suppose I found his appealing due to it being artificial. Despite his lengthy pubic hair, his penis seemed to be in a perpetual state where instead of being shriveled up, it was elongated, but not hard. Even though I knew he had one these past three years, the knowledge he was an android made me admire it even more, because whoever built him obviously made it look as real as possible. I found myself fondling his penis and balls with my right hand, gently squeezing and feeling the movement of them in my fingers.

I again noticed that there was no odor, and I finally realized I appreciated this because I was a bit of a germaphobe. I also realized that this was perhaps why I was attracted to Skyler…because over the past three years, I’d unconsciously noticed he had no body odor and was always clean. Before I knew it, my computer beeped again to notify me that Skyler had completed installing the updates and was currently rebooting to finalize them. I quickly let go of his penis and waited over his head. A few moments later, his eyes finally fluttered open and his face once again appeared lively.

“Hey Sky, do you feel any different?” I asked, eagerly hoping he hadn’t been altered too much.

“Well, aside from the fact I still can’t move my body, I feel great…as a matter of fact, my head seems a bit clearer.”

“That’s good, many of the updates mostly improved efficiency, added new features, and fixed bugs, so I’m not surprised you can think a bit more clearly,” I told him, “As for not being able to move, I think I may know why.”

I then turned back to my computer and delved into Skyler’s sleeper programming. Though there was an option to turn all of it off at once, I felt it would be safer to slowly deactivate each individual section one at a time. I finally found what I was looking for in the safety submenu and toggled off one of the settings before turning to look at Skyler.

As soon as I toggled off the setting, Skyler’s whole body shuddered and then he began gingerly wiggling his toes and fingers. “Wow, you fixed me, thanks!” Skyler smiled, carefully sitting up and swinging his legs over to sit down facing me, “What was wrong with me?”

“One of your sleeper settings prevented you from moving when your primary access panel is opened…I disabled it,” I explained.

“Wow, a simple solution…gee! My body sure is noisy,” he suddenly said, hearing whirring sounds coming from his chest every time he moved a little.

“Yeah, but you’re also amazing.”

“Thanks!” Skyler beamed, “Hey, why can’t I touch myself?” he asked, making several failed attempts to reach his hands inside his open torso panel; it appeared as though he were hitting an invisible barrier.

“That’s most likely a safeguard setting to prevent you from accidentally damaging yourself,” I assured him, “Though I could disable it for you, if you like.”

“No,” Skyler said after thinking on it, “best to play it safe…I’ll trust you with my delicate innards,” he laughed.

“Sounds good,” I laughed with him.

Skyler then attempted to ruffle his hair, but he immediately stopped when he felt the remote link behind his right ear. “Whoa, what’s this?” he asked, gingerly feeling it.

“Oh, be careful with that,” I warned him, “That’s a remote link I attached to you so I could run diagnostics and stuff. There’s another one plugged in inside your chest.”

“Oh, then I’ll definitely leave it alone,” Skyler said solemnly, taking his hands away, “Though, I hope you can find another place to put it…it’s not very fashionable,” Skyler joked.

“I’m sure I can plug it in somewhere else, but for now it’s fine where it’s at.”

“Fair enough,” Skyler conceded, “So, just how much control do you have over me with those things plugged in?”

“To be honest, I haven’t really tested it yet,” I admitted, “My primary goal was to get you back up and running, but now that you are, I could play around with you a bit if you like.”

“Sure, as I said, I really don’t mind,” Skyler reassured me.

“Good,” I smiled, “Well I think I’m going to get started first on fixing the glitch preventing you from liking me,” I told him, quickly perusing his A.I. settings program for the sexuality preferences.

Skyler perked up when he heard that. “Ooh, I hope you’re successful.”

“Me too,” I absently said, “Ah, I think I found the right menu…hold on,” I told him, looking at all the settings. Skyler merely nodded and then patiently waited as I worked on the problem.

It didn’t take too long to find the problem. Apparently, Skyler was sent into the world with heterosexual programming, but fortunately there was a drop-down menu to toggle his sexuality to either homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, or custom.

I decided to switch him to custom, and doing so immediately caused a new page with a surprising number of settings and configurations to appear. The first thing I did was to keep him heterosexual, but also make him homosexual just for me. After that, it gave me the option of adjusting my status in his programming as either: boyfriend, husband, friends with benefits, or merely friend.

“Hey Sky, want to be my boyfriend?” I asked aloud, interested in his opinion.

“Of course!”

“Thanks! Just needed to know for your programming,” I told him, clicking on the boyfriend setting.

Changing this setting immediately auto filled several dozen other settings below with pre-configured settings, but also gave me the option of further customizing them. After perusing them, I decided the default settings for boyfriend were sufficient for our needs, so I moved on.

“Greg,” Skyler suddenly said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I don’t feel any different yet…”

“That’s because I haven’t actually saved the new settings yet,” I assured him, “There are hundreds of settings that can be changed, so once I’m done and save them, you’re going to have to do a soft reboot before they take effect.”

“Oh, that makes sense I suppose,” he nodded, “Sorry for interrupting.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled, “I’ll be done soon.”

I was actually nearly finished reconfiguring his sexuality concerning just me, since he had his own preferences for women. All I needed to do was to add my own personal preferences so he could better anticipate my needs. This area included fetishes, personal quirks, and interests. I quickly added my foot fetish into the fetish category, and my preference that he have minimal body hair. Finally, I added my interest of computers, idly wondering how he’d interpret that since he himself was one.

After I plugged in all the other minor preferences of mine, such as favorite shows, color, and foods, I saved the settings and prepared to reboot him, though before I did, I went back to the sleeper menu and deactivated a few dozen minor settings.

“Alright Sky, I’ve reconfigured your sexuality preferences, and deactivated a few more sleeper settings, so I’m ready to reboot you now.”

“Okay, see you soon,” he said, giving me a quick thumbs up before I started the reboot.

Since it was a soft reboot, Skyler’s A.I. shut down, but his body remained online. The resulting effect was his eyes glazed over and his face went slack, but otherwise everything was still powered on. I monitored the flurry of activity on his activity monitor before he suddenly blinked his eyes and reactivated his A.I.

Even though his A.I. was back on, it took him a moment to compose himself as he suddenly parsed his new settings into his programming. Then, he came out of his reverie and smiled. “Wow, I feel amazing!” he said, a blush slowly coming to his face as he stared into my eyes.

“How so?” I asked, slowly feeling butterflies in my stomach.

“I’ve been with you for three years now, but all of a sudden I have feelings for you,” he said, trying to put his experience into words, “I’ve only been able to imagine how liking you would feel, but now I don’t have to…you fixed me!” Skyler then suddenly leaned forward and planted a loving kiss on my lips, one I immediately returned.

When we broke apart a few moments later, we stared into each other’s eyes with blushes coming to our faces. We’d waited a long time to be able to have such an intimate relationship, and now we could. After we recovered from the after effects of the kiss, Skyler suddenly got a confused look on his face.

“What is it Sky?” I asked, affectionately petting his nearby legs.

“I seem to suddenly have more knowledge about you,” he said, trying to come up with the right words, “Do you like feet?”

Skyler questions immediately caused my face to go red. “Oh yes, in addition to altering your sexual orientation, I was also able to add my own personal fetishes and likes as well,” I confessed.

“Ah, I see,” Skyler nodded, “Did you want to see my feet?”

“Well, to be honest, I already felt them up when you were still offline,” I admitted, my face growing red again, “They’re pretty nice.”

“Thanks,” Skyler said bashfully, “I just hope they weren’t too stinky.”

“Actually, you don’t have BO.”

“What are you talking about!? I’ve smelled myself before and it’s smelled bad.”

“Well, it would seem that was your sleeper programming fooling you,” I told him, “Trust me, I actually licked your foot, and your sweat is nothing more than a saline solution designed to keep your skin moisturized and to maintain a stable body temperature.”

“Huh, I suppose that’s kinda cool,” Skyler said aloud, “Hey, do you suppose I don’t even need to take showers anymore?”

“Well, just because your skin doesn’t stink doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get dirty,” I responded, “And you could still carry germs that could infect me or others.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Skyler agreed, “I suppose this whole me being an android and all artificial and stuff is going to take a bit of getting used to.” Skyler then sniffed his own armpits. “Now that you mention it, I don’t smell my own BO anymore…”

“Yeah, that’s likely one of the sleeper settings I deactivated before your soft reboot.”

“Huh,” Skyler shrugged, then he stopped and put on a thinking expression as he looked down at his legs. “I’m also getting the impression you’d prefer me to have less body hair,” he then said with a confused look, “Am I processing that correctly?”

“Yes,” I said with a hint of my blush returning, “I think the only hair people should have is on their heads.”

“Ah, well considering I’m an android, I suppose I don’t really need any body hair,” Skyler mused, “And if it would make you happier, then I’d be happy to go and shave it all off.”

“Wow! It really would!” I said, nearly bursting with joy, though just as Skyler was getting up, my eyes looked at my computer at body options and I stopped him.

“What? I thought you wanted me to shave?” Skyler asked, looking suddenly worried, “Am I malfunctioning?”

“No Sky,” I assured him, “It’s just I realized I might be able to alter your hair growth and stuff from my computer’s link to your bodies systems,” I explained, quickly perusing his body settings before finding the correct submenu labeled “hair”. A few seconds of looking at the various sub settings quickly confirmed my suspicions. “Aha, I was right!”

Skyler looked visibly relieved when I told him this. “That’s good, shaving all this might have taken a while,” he laughed, gesturing at his hairy arms and legs, “Not to mention given me some cuts.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “Just hang on a sec while I check the options.

Skyler merely nodded in agreement and sat back down patiently. I looked back at the computer monitor at the various settings I could manipulate just for Skyler’s hair, and I was pretty impressed to say the least, but considering the multitude of sexual options, I wasn’t too surprised; Skyler was a very complex machine!

According to the tab, I could change Skyler’s hair color, length, rate of growth, and even stop the growth altogether. It showed an overlay of his entire body and where there was currently hair and its associated rate of growth and thickness. I found that by clicking on each area, I could even toggle an option to remove and stop hair growth entirely. As a test, I decided to try just his hands.

“Alright Sky, I think I can program your body to shed all the hair, but I’m going to try it just on your hands to see if it will work like I think it does.”

Skyler gave me a quick nod and then I tapped the ‘apply’ button on the hair tab. “Ouch,” Skyler said, quickly wincing as all the hair on his hands suddenly fell off.

“Sorry,” I apologized, genuinely concerned for his wellbeing, “I didn’t think it would hurt.”

“It’s okay, it didn’t really hurt all that much, I just wasn’t expecting to feel anything is all,” he assured me.

“Ah, well let’s see your hands.”

Skyler nodded and obediently held out both his hands for me to inspect. It did not take me long to confirm that there was no longer a single hair on his entire hand. “Did it work?” Skyler asked nervously.

“Yes!” I told him, gently feeling both hands, “As a matter of fact, your hands feel smoother now than if you had actually shaved them…I guess your body literally pushed the entire hair follicles out completely, leaving nothing but smooth skin.”

“Cool,” Skyler said, “and if you do that to my entire body, I guess I won’t need to shave anymore,” he laughed.

“Not at all!” I agreed, “I’m going to do the rest of you…just below your ears, alright?”

Skyler nodded and then braced himself for the pain as I selected his entire body below his ears. As soon as I clicked apply, Skyler winced silently as a cascade of hair suddenly fell from every inch of his body, leaving nothing but smooth skin behind. I found myself holding my breath as I looked upon his now perfect, hairless, muscular body.

“Hey, breathe Greg,” Skyler laughed, smacking my chest playfully as he gingerly felt his now smooth skin and brushed off hairs that hadn’t quite fallen off yet.

“Sorry Sky, it’s just underneath all that hair, your body is perfect,” I said with a blush.

“Did you want to feel me up now?” Skyler asked, doing a quick 360 on his toes and flaunting his body.

For several moments, I was tempted, but I stopped myself when I looked into Skyler’s still open torso, sighing regretfully. “No, I want to wait until I’ve done some more work on your body, particularly with all those sleeper settings.”

“Good point,” Skyler nodded, sitting back down, “So, just what do all these sleeper settings even do?”

“Well, most of them alter your perception of the world around you, so that you won’t be aware of any of your artificial traits,” I explained, “There are even some preventing you from accessing your own systems.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most androids have access to their internal systems via a HUD that is constantly displayed over their visual screen,” I explained, then stopped. “Perhaps it would be easier to just show you…I’m going to go ahead and deactivate all remaining sleeper settings.”

“Go for it!” Skyler said, not even waiting for me to ask his permission.

“Very well,” I said, opening up the sleeper menu once more. This time, instead of manually shutting off each sub-setting, I turned off the entire tab, shutting off all the sleeper protocols at once.

Doing so caused Skyler to perform another soft reboot, but he came back online in relatively short order. I noticed as he came back online this time, his CPU activity wasn’t as high as the previous times, since it wasn’t working as hard to fool his perceptions; It was also reducing his overall power consumption.

“Wow, this is…interesting,” Skyler said, once all his systems were booted. He was staring at his hands and surroundings as though it was his first-time seeing things.

“How so?” I asked, curious as to his experience.

“I’ve got a HUD now,” Skyler responded, “and it’s like showing me details on everything I’m looking at, such as what temperature they are, how far away they are, and even what they are.”

“Cool,” I said, “Hang on, I think I may be able to see what you see.”

I quickly scrolled through his head settings and brought up the window for his visual systems. Amongst several other settings, the main feature was a window displaying what Skyler was currently seeing with his eyes. In addition to the image of myself and my computer, which he was currently looking at, I could also see the HUD he had described, outlining his visual display. I noticed that anytime I was in his display, a small circle appeared around my face, giving him detailed information about me.

“Cool, right?” Skyler asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “have you tried accessing your settings?”

“No, not yet,” Skyler admitted, though as soon as I mentioned it, he activated the settings icon and quickly perused all the settings he had access to. “Wow! Looks like I can control various aspects of my body, and even modify some of my settings,” he reported, quickly reviewing each submenu, “And it looks like I can even shut myself off,” he added, and then, before I could stop him, he activated the shutoff sequence. “Nap tiiiiiimmmmmmeeeee,” Skyler said with a smile, the last bit coming out as a low pitch whine as the systems in his body all powered off. After several seconds, Skyler was completely offline, his body once again silent.

Despite my initial shock, I couldn’t help but smile at Skyler. I couldn’t be sure I would act this chill if I discovered I was an android, and here was Skyler shutting himself off just for laughs. I admired Skyler’s sleeping body for a few more seconds before once more reaching inside his open chest and powering him back up.

Because Skyler was shut off this time rather than rebooting, it took a few extra seconds for him to turn back on, but once his systems were all back online, he smiled at me and said, “Wow, you really know how to turn me on.”

“Ha Ha,” I said mockingly, “How was your nap?”

“Well, despite only being offline for a minute or so, I feel pretty refreshed,” he smiled, “I think I could get used to this whole HUD thingy I have now,” he continued, seeming to zone out as he perused the HUD menus; I could still see everything he saw on my computer.

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting acquainted with your own systems,” I told him, “Since I won’t be with you to fix every little issue that pops up.”

“Yeah, I just wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t gotten broken today,” he mused, “I wonder if my systems would have degraded or something until I had a catastrophic malfunction or something.”

“Most likely,” I agreed, “Which reminds me…I still need to try and access the stuff in your head, but just to be safe, I want to remove your head.”

“Why do you need to remove my head?” Skyler asked, looking a little concerned.

“Well, for one thing it’ll be easier for me to access your head if I have it on my desk as opposed to your neck,” I told him, “And, I’d rather not tinker around in there while there is power running through it.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Skyler nodded, “Kinda like when I have to remove the battery on my laptop before opening it up.”

“Exactly,” I nodded, “I figure your head should have enough of a charge to stay online for a few minutes or so after being removed, and that way it can deplete enough power to not electrocute me and to not damage your systems.”

“Well, you’re the expert on computers, not me,” Skyler shrugged.

“Now, I just need to figure out how to remove your head,” I said, looking back at my computer for his removal settings.

“No need Greg, when I was checking my HUD menus earlier, I found a submenu that I can use to detach the parts of my body that are detachable: arms, hands, legs, feet, and head,” Skyler supplied, “I can do it myself, if it’s okay.”

“Well, I will need to know how to do it manually at some point, but for now I have no problem,” I told him, “Just make sure you are sitting in a stable position,” I warned him, “because I’m not certain you’ll be able to control the rest of your body once you detach your head…what with your brain computer not connected to the torso computer.”

“I see,” Skyler said, positioning himself on the couch in a more stable position, “alright, here goes,” he then said, then his face went blank as he initiated the head separation program. I could immediately hear rapid whirring sounds from within his neck and then a seam quickly appeared around the entire neck just below his Adam’s Apple.

As quickly as it had begun, it was suddenly over and Skyler’s body just sat motionless with its head still resting upon its shoulders.

“Well Sky, do you still have control of your body?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“No,” he responded, his face looking confused, “It’s weird, my head can still detect my body’s systems, since I haven’t been removed all the way, but the only things I can do right now are either move my head or start the reattachment program.”

“I thought so,” I nodded, “then there’s nothing left to do but pick you up,” I told him, calmly leaning forward and grabbing hold of his head from below his chin and lifting it up off his neck. I was briefly startled when a loud hiss of air emerged from his now open neck, but I managed to not drop Skyler’s head. Once I had him safely over my lap, I carefully sat down with him resting up in my lap. “Alright, now that you’re safely off your body, how are you holding up?” I asked him, “How much time do you have before your head runs out of power?”

“I’m doing surprisingly well, considering,” Skyler smiled, “and according to my HUD, my head has about 5-minutes before it runs out of power.”

“That should be plenty of time,” I nodded, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have my head removed,” I admitted, “What’s it like?”

“Relaxing,” Skyler admitted, “I don’t have to breathe, and I’m not distracted by the various sensations from the rest of my body…not that I don’t enjoy them, but they can be a tad distracting at times.”

“Yeah, they certainly can be,” I agreed, blushing slightly as I felt myself becoming a bit erect with Skyler’s head resting on my lap.

“So, aside from my head, are you going to be doing anything else with my body?” Skyler asked.

“Well, I’m going to run a diagnostic and try and replace any degraded components with the stuff I found in those boxes in the cave.”

“What boxes?” Skyler asked with a confused look.

“Oh, I forgot,” I said, smacking my forehead, “I found several boxes in that cave that appeared to contain spare supplies for your body, including a few extra limbs.”

“Wow, that’s kinda creepy,” Skyler said, looking as though he wanted to shudder, if he was still connected to his body. “Can you show me?”

“Sure,” I said, carefully grabbing hold of him and lifting him up into my arms, “Sorry if I’m grunting, but your head isn’t light,” I laughed.

“No problem, I trust you.”

“Well, here they are,” I told him, showing him the plastic storage bins that I found in the cave. There were three in total. One mostly just had spare circuits, including the ones I had already replaced inside of his torso; it appeared these ones were meant to be replaced frequently, given the quantity of them. The second one appeared to have replacement internal components, such as a stomach bag and filters. And the third one had spare limbs, such as hands, feet, and even a few heads.

“Wow, that’s kinda cool…and creepy,” Skyler said as I held his head close to each box, “Hey, can you pull out one of those heads?”

“Sure, just let me put down your current one first,” I told him. I managed to set his head down on a nearby table while I grabbed one of the heads from the box. I paused briefly to examine both of them and noticed something odd. After analyzing both, I grabbed one of them and showed it to Skyler. “Hey, doesn’t it kinda look like this head is older?”

Skyler closely scrutinized the duplicate of his head that I was holding just in front of his field of vision before finally saying, “Yeah, but just a little.”

“I thought so,” I said triumphantly, “I think you were supposed to have a handler or someone who would maintain you while you lived here in secret,” I told him, “That explains why there are two heads in this box that look gradually older; the other one looks a tad younger,”

“Wow, I wonder what happened to them?”

“Whatever the case, it looks like I’m your handler now.”

“And my lover,” Skyler added.

“Anyway, I suppose once your current head runs out of power, I’ll just move your brain stuff over to the older-looking head,”

“And then you’ll put me back on my body?”

“No, I still need to swap out some stuff in your body first, and I don’t want to put the new head on your body until I run some diagnostics on the new components first.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Skyler agreed, then he got a brief look of concern on his face before saying, “I only have about 90 seconds of power remaining…I’m already feeling a bit weak while my systems divert resources to keep me online.”

“Okay,” I told him, giving him a look of minor concern, since we were trying to run his power out, but to me it felt a bit like killing him…if only temporarily.

“Don’t worry, I trust you’ll take good care of me while I’m out,” Skyler said, giving me a smile that warmed my heart. I instantly felt much better and returned the smile.

“Thanks Sky, and I promise you…when you’re back online, you’ll feel as good as new.”

“I’m sure I’ll feel just like I came off the assembly line,” Skyler laughed, though now with less than a minute left, his voice started to slow down and deepen in pitch, causing him to laugh even more.

“Well, maybe not that great, but close,” I said, once I stopped laughing, “If all goes well, it should only take about half an hour before I reactivate your A.I.”

Now, with less than 30 seconds left, Skyler seemed to be having trouble concentrating as his systems slowly shut down. With nearly ten seconds left, he finally said, “Greg, I’m so glad you were the one who found me…I love youuuuuuuu,” With Skyler’s power now used up, his face froze with the previous expression, though his eyes darkened up.

I waited a few seconds while the last of Skyler’s systems powered down before finally lifting Skyler’s head up to his and saying, “I love you too,” and planting a passionate kiss on Skyler’s still partially opened mouth before gently placing the head down on his workbench. I then rummaged in one of his drawers before pulling out a small handheld device and pointing it at Skyler’s head. The device showed the thermal readings from Skyler’s head, indicating that his internal components needed to cool down a bit before being removed.

“Alrighty Sky, time to get work on your body,” I then said, quickly getting up and sizing up the situation. Despite Skyler’s A.I. no longer being online, his body was still sitting passively on the nearby couch, still online and making subtle, random movements to keep the liquids coursing through his body moving.

I brought my chair over and carefully reached into Skyler’s open body, carefully examining each component. I quickly found that each component had a small LED screen on the mechanism keeping it in place that gave the name of the component, its function, its current status, and an option to toggle it on/off, or remove it. Based on what I read, it seemed virtually every component was giving him either a red or orange status color, indicating they either needed to be replaced immediately, or soon.

Some of the red status components seemed to be the android equivalent of his stomach, and waste management systems. “Hmm, no wonder you’ve been having difficulty going lately,” I mused, carefully writing down the part numbers so he could find the replacements.

After I finished the audit of Skyler’s internals, I decided to just replace everything, even the yellow and green status parts. Ultimately, Skyler would most likely have to purchase an entire replacement body at some point in the near future anyway, since there were multiple body processes that are irreplaceable.

I decided to first start with replacing Skyler’s hands and feet. Skyler had been complaining of rough skin on his hands, and slight foot pain in recent months, and now it all made sense. I quickly located a pair of hands and feet and placed them next to Skyler’s body while I searched on my computer for limb removal systems.

It did not take me long to locate the limb removal system, and as soon as I triggered the release of both hands and feet, I was instantly rewarded with the sound of mechanical whirring and the appearance of visible seams around each separation point; both limbs were still attached.

Just as I had with Skyler’s head, I gently pulled each limb away from the body and it released fairly easily with just a small hiss and whir. I took time to slowly marvel at the level of detail in each limb, including the connection points on both ends. I noticed that both hands and feet were completely dry now, and they appeared slightly paler. It seemed that during the removal process, the liquids are all retracted back into the main body.

I carefully placed both the old set of hands and feet on my workbench, next to Skyler’s head, and then began carefully clicking on the replacement sets. Each set naturally looked exactly identical, except they were in more pristine condition with no rough skin, perfect nails, and they still had hair. As soon as they were attached, however, the hair fell off due to the pre-programmed settings, and the same moisture level the previous set had suddenly appeared.

“Damn, they thought of everything,” I muttered, gently brushing the loose hairs away from Skyler’s body.

Before I did anything else, my fastidiousness suddenly took over, suddenly seeing all the loose hairs that had fallen from Skyler’s body earlier. I grabbed my nearby handvac and quickly sucked up all the hairs, emptying them in a special container to analyze later; I wanted to see if there was anything special about android hairs.

Once I had the hairs properly stored, I took my shopping list of replacement components for Skyler over to the boxes and began collecting the various parts. Once I had them all together and in a smaller box, I brought them over to the body and began the process of installing them. Most of the components were fairly standard analogues of actual Human organs. There were small balloons that functioned as lungs, but that mostly provided a realistic appearance and cooling for the internal components. While I was replacing the “lungs”, I noticed they each had what appeared to be air filters; they were pitch black.

“Wow Sky, it looks like you might have ended up melting down before long if that shock hadn’t uncovered you,” I muttered, tossing the old lungs off to the side of the box and moving to the equivalent of his liver.

Everything continued rather smoothly until I came to the waste systems. Each time I attempted to remove the equivalent of the bladder and bowel I received an error message. It wasn’t until I consulted the built in FAQs in the interface program that I learned that I had to first empty the two devices, and that meant I had to make Skyler’s body go to the bathroom from both ends. Thinking quickly, I grabbed an empty plastic bottle from the nearby waste bin for the urine and then a small plastic container that I was planning on throwing out for the feces. Once I had both containers next to Sky’s body, I went back to the interface program and made Sky’s body stand up. Once it was standing, I activated the waste systems. Selecting the urination sub-setting, I activated a ten-second timer and then quickly returned to Sky’s body, grabbed his penis, and placed the mouth of the empty bottle over the tip.

Once the timer finished, I immediately heard the sound of several systems in his body kick into gear. I also saw and felt the muscles near his penis activate and then a steady stream of liquid began streaming from the tip of his penis. Despite Sky being an android, the liquid certainly appeared to be urine, having a slight yellowish appearance. Once Sky’s body drained the last drop of urine from its reservoirs, the muscles surrounding his penis relaxed and all the systems shut off.

“Interesting, I’ll have to analyze this later,” I said, placing the now half full bottle on my desk next to Sky’s old hands and feet. Unfortunately, I also needed to empty his bowels, so I quickly grabbed a nearby plastic storage container, set the timer, and then waited behind him.

With the waste successfully removed from his body, I was finally able to replace the appropriate components; fortunately, his poop was encased in a sort of plastic, so I did not need to wash up. After I replaced both of them, I plugged in his charging cable so he could recharge, and then I returned to my computer and had his body run a full body diagnostic for a more comprehensive check of the state of his body. Since the interface program informed me the scan would take upwards of half an hour, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to move his brain into the new head.

Just to be safe, I used the thermal scanner once more. This time, it confirmed that all the systems in his old head were at a safe enough temperature, so I pressed a small discolored area at the base of his neck, just below the hairline, and removed his entire scalp panel from the back of his neck to just above his forehead.

Once I had his entire upper head removed, I placed his scalp down on the desk and then marveled at what was inside. I could make out all the inner mechanics that allowed his face to work, from the outer casing of his mouth, to the backside of his eyes. In the center of it all, housed in a casing that connected to all the components, was an apple-sized device that I assumed was his brain. After a quick moment of searching, I located a toggle switch that released the brain from the housing unit, and into my hand.

I stared at the device with awe, staring from it, to the face on Skyler’s current head, wondering if Skyler was in some way aware of his current status…a disembodied computer brain. As I marveled at Skyler’s brain, I noticed that it had a set of USB ports, so I quickly unplugged the remote connection device from his current head and attached it to his brain. “There, you won’t have to worry about that anymore,” I said to him.

I gently placed Sky’s brain down next to his old head and then retrieved the older looking head, along with a device that was packed with them labeled A.N.A. (Artificial Neck Apparatus). Figuring it was some sort of diagnostic tool, I plugged it into a wall outlet, and into my computer, and clicked the new head onto it. Instantly, the device lit up, and a window popped up on the interface program requesting if I’d like the new head to be set as default. I selected yes and then watched as the programs began to auto-configure the head and then activate its controls. Once everything had configured, I quickly activated the scalp release for the new head and plugged Sky’s brain into the housing unit. I then clicked his scalp back into place and activated his A.I.

Because it was the first time Skyler’s A.I. was activating in this head, it took a bit longer than usual. While monitoring his activity monitor, I noticed that the head itself was installing files into his A.I. to allow him to act more like his new age, which apparently was listed as 21-22. Finally, it finished, and Skyler’s new head sprung to life, testing out several facial expressions before lighting up with life.

“Hey Sky, how do you feel?” I asked casually, as though he hadn’t been offline for the last half hour or so.

“A little different,” he admitted with a curious expression, seeming to collect himself for a moment, “I feel a bit more mature now, I think.”

“Yeah, I guess the head installed some files into your A.I so you could act a bit older,” I informed him, “you even sound older now.”

“Huh, interesting,” Skyler mused, “well, now I should definitely be able to purchase booze at the store,” he laughed.

“Yeah, you don’t look like a teenager anymore, that’s for sure!”

“So, are you able to reconnect me to my body?” Skyler asked, looking over my shoulder at his body, still sitting down on the couch.

“Oh, no, not yet,” I apologized, “I finished swapping out all your parts, but I started a hardware diagnostic that’ll take about another,” I paused to look at the progress bar on my computer, “looks like another 20 minutes.”

“Oh, ok,” Skyler said, slightly disappointed, then he got a curious look on his face, “But what am I attached to? It feels almost like a neck.”

“It’s something I found in that box of stuff, with all your heads,” I told him, “I guess it’s some sort of device that allows me to perform maintenance on your head,” I shrugged.

“Oh, well it’s kinda cool,” Skyler smiled, finding a way to manipulate it and swivel his head around, “Is there anything fun we can do in the meanwhile?”

“Hold on a sec,” I told him, quickly perusing the diagnostic program until I found something. “Aha, it looks like we can play around with your voice, since you speak with a vocal synthesizer instead of a voice box.”

“That sounds like it might be fun, let’s do it!”

“Okay,” I smiled, opening the vocal synthesizer tab and perusing the options, “okay, it looks like I can have your A.I. Scan your memory files for every single voice that you’ve heard, and analyze whether you’ve heard enough of their voices to duplicate them.”

“Well, I’ve heard dozens of peoples voices…is there any way to limit it to just people I interact with regularly?”

I paused as I double checked, “Yes, and I can limit it further so it’ll only do the top five people.”

“Why only five?”

“Because you don’t have unlimited storage,” I pointed out, “if I were to do it unlimited, you might run out.”

“Good point,” he nodded, “well, let’s get started.”

“Okay,” I nodded in return, tapping the scan icon. As soon as I tapped it, Skyler suddenly zoned out a bit. “You still with me, Sky?”

“Yeah…just feel a bit lightheaded,” he admitted, “this scan is using a lot of processing power.”

“Okay, I’ll try not to talk to you then…just focus on the scan.”

Skyler merely nodded as he let the scan happen.

When the scan finally finished five minutes later, five new vocal patterns suddenly populated in the options box. Aside from his own, I wasn’t surprised to see my own voice at the top, since we lived with each other. The other four names were Skyler’s boss at work, as well as two of his coworkers, and the last name was that of a pretty nurse at the hospital that they both had a crush on; two of the voices were male, and the other three were female.

“Wow, nice choices,” Skyler said, accessing the list in his HUD.

“Are you going to try them now?” I asked.

“Of course,” Skyler laughed, though he spoke flawlessly in my voice.

“Wow, that’s a little creepy,” I shuddered.

“Wow, that’s a little creepy,” Skyler perfectly mimicked, before laughing in my voice, “I suppose it is a little,” he admitted, reverting to his voice.

“Try one of the female voices,” I pressed.

“Hmmm, should I try my boss,” Skyler pondered aloud for dramatic effect, before making his selection with a sly look, “Greg, you’re looking good today,” Skyler said, though in the voice of the nurse they both had a crush on.

I instantly became flush, goosebumps forming on my skin. How I’d longed to hear her say something like that, though for some reason, hearing it out of Skyler’s mouth seemed more erotic.

“Wow, I’m having quite the effect on you,” Skyler grinned, still speaking in her voice.

“You have no idea,” I admitted, fanning my face, “perhaps you can use that a bit later,” I suggested.

“Oooh,” Skyler said, still using her voice, before reverting back to his, “maybe,” he grinned.

“I think it goes without saying that you shouldn’t use my voice for mischief,” I pointed out.

“Agreed,” Skyler nodded, the words ‘command accepted’ appearing in his activity monitor, “did you want me to play around with the other three voices?”

I shook my head, “Nah, it looks like the hardware diagnostic has finished on your body anyway,” I said, focusing on the results, squinting more and more as I read them.

Skyler watched patiently as I read the results of the diagnostic, but after a few minutes of silence, he spoke up with a concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong Greg? Is there something wrong with me?”

I snapped out of the results at the sound of concern in his voice and shook my head. “No, not really.”

“Oh?”

“Well, I was able to fix the components that were damaged earlier today,” I reported clinically, “as well as the components that have degraded over the last three years, but the one thing I can’t replace is your entire body.”

“There’s something wrong with my body?”

“Don’t worry, you should be safe for now,” I assured him with a loving grin, “but, just like your organs had been degrading, so has your skeletal structure, along with your joints and servo mechanisms,” I explained, “ordinarily, an android like you could be expected to last a minimum of five years, with proper maintenance and upkeep…but, since you have received none after three years, the diagnostic is starting to show some stress forming throughout your body.”

“So, my body is failing?”

“Not immediately,” I reassured him, “but, you might want to start saving up for a replacement body right away,” I told him with a serious look, doing a quick search on the Spaztec website for his model #, sighing with relief as the page showed up, “fortunately, it looks like if you trade your current body in, they offer a discounted rate that’s less than the cost of a new car.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Skyler nodded, “though it depends on the car,” he added with a laugh.

“An affordable car,” I clarified with a grin, “by estimates, you could save up this much in less than six months…and I could chip in a little myself to help you out”

“Wooh, that is a relief,” he sighed, “thanks again for fixing me up and letting me know what I am,” he said again, “it means a lot to me.”

“Don’t mention it Sky,” I told him, leaning in and kissing his new lips. When we broke apart, we stared at each other awkwardly before I said, “so, did you want to be put back on your body now?”

Skyler put on a thinking expression before shaking his head. “Actually, I’m a bit comfy on this thing, and I’d kinda like to watch you remote control my body around.”

“Really?” I asked with an incredulous look.

“Yeah,” he admitted with a bashful look.

“Alright,” I said, rubbing my hands together excitedly, “I need to unplug it first.” I quickly walked over to his body, still standing motionless in front of the couch, and pulled the charging cable free; he was at more than 80% charge. Once I was ready, I rushed back to my desk and transferred Skyler’s remote interface to my tablet so I could remote control him better. “Ok, let’s try something simple,” I said aloud for Skyler’s sake, tapping the controls to have Skyler’s body walk forward.

The last time I remote controlled Skyler’s body, it was only to make it stand up. This time, I had to make sure it didn’t bump into anything, or topple over. Fortunately, to my delight, his body appeared to have stabilizers in it, as well as its own memory, so it was able to walk almost exactly as Skyler would have, minus the little pep his personality added. I smoothly had it stop a few feet in front of me.

“Wow, that looked easy,” Skyler commented with an approving look, “try having it do something more complicated, like grabbing yourself a drink from the fridge…you look parched.”

“Thanks,” I laughed, tapping away on the tablet and making his body turn around and navigate itself around the room, out of my little corner office area, past the entertainment area, and into the kitchen, stopping in front of the refrigerator. “Wow, that’s cool,” I said, staring at some new options that appeared on his body’s visual feed.

“What is it?”

“It looks like that computer in your chest includes some pretty advanced context-based programming for the remote-control option,” I told him, quickly showing him what I could see in the tablet. The visual feed from the camera popping out of his neck was currently displaying the fridge, with the words ‘Remote Control Activated’ flashing in big bold letters on the top. What really interested me, however, was several options on the screen that included being able to grab various fridge magnets, activating the buttons for the ice and water dispenser, or opening the fridge.

“Wow, I see what you mean,” Skyler said in an impressed voice.

I nodded approvingly and tapped the ‘Open refrigerator’ option. Skyler’s body smoothly opened the fridge, and then several new options appeared as it scanned the contents. “Hmmm, what do I want,” I mused aloud for dramatic effect, seeing the various beverages in his vision; Skyler watched on with an amused look. I finally tapped the ‘grab iced tea/peach flavor (1)’ option and watched as his hand appeared on the screen grabbing for it.

“This is a very nifty feature I have installed,” Skyler said.

“It is,” I agreed, having his body close the fridge back up. A new option then appeared that saved me a ton of time, ‘return to starting point.’ I eagerly tapped it and watched as his body smoothly walked back the way it came and stopped exactly where it had started, a few feet from me, still holding the bottle of iced tea in its hand. I then tapped the ‘hand beverage to Greg’ option and took the drink from his outstretched hand, opening it up and taking a sip.

“You’re welcome,” Skyler grinned.

“Thanks,” I grinned back, “would you like me to have it do something else?”

“I dunno,” he shrugged, “maybe have it dance around a little.”

“Okay,” I nodded, typing dance into the command section. This brought up a new window with various dance options, such as the type of dance, the speed, and the duration. Since Skyler didn’t have too many dances installed, I simply selected ‘Happy Dance/Normal speed/one minute.’

As soon as the command was entered, Skyler’s body backed up a few steps for safety and then started performing a typical happy dance, in almost the same goofy way Skyler actually did it. After laughing a little with Skyler, I became transfixed on his penis, which was flopping around and making me slightly aroused.

Skyler noticed what I was looking at, so when his body stopped dancing, he said, “Hey, why don’t you have it come closer and jerk off or something?”

“Whoa, okay,” I smiled, making his body come forward. I then typed ‘jerk off’ into the command section, giggling a bit when it autocorrected to ‘masturbate’ and watched as Skyler’s left hand came down and started playing with his penis.

I was transfixed as his hand smoothly played with his penis for nearly a minute before I noticed that he wasn’t becoming erect. I typed ‘stop’ in the command section and searched his sexual options to see what was wrong.

“Is something wrong?” Skyler asked with a confused look, “I thought you were enjoying that…I know I was.”

“I was,” I nodded, “but, you may have noticed that your penis didn’t become erect.”

“Ah, that’s right…how strange.”

“I know…I’m just making sure your sexual systems actually work,” I said, before stopping, “Skyler, do you actually have any memory of masturbating during the entire time you’ve been with me…or at all?”

“Hmmm, let me think,” he said, before putting on a robotic blank stare that lasted about ten seconds, “No, come to think of it…I haven’t,” he admitted with a blush, “I obviously know how, and I seem to have some implanted memories of doing so, but not of actually doing it.”

“Huh, interesting,” I said, delving into his settings and locating the sexual tab. After a quick check, I was able to determine that his A.I. maintained a log of all sexual activities and was able to confirm that Skyler had indeed never masturbated, or engaged in any sexual activities, during the entire time he’d been online. “Yeah, you’re right…damn, I can’t believe you’ve been living like a monk all these years,” I laughed.

“I guess I just have good discipline” he grinned, “hey, am I even…you know, functional down there?”

“Says someone who obviously doesn’t know what they’re missing,” I quipped, “Well, clearly you can pee with it, so it makes sense it would be able to do the rest,” I assured him, running a quick check. Everything looked good, and it seemed Skyler had a full tank of whatever artificial semen his body seemed capable of synthesizing from the foods he ate or drank. Finally, I spotted the problem, letting out a triumphant “Aha!”

“What is it?”

“Well, first off, you are fully functional,” I reported to him happily, “it just seems the problem is that you can only be…aroused if your head is attached, since the arousal is linked to your A.I.”

“Ohhhh, that makes sense,” Skyler nodded.

“But I can still play around with it a bit,” I added, tweaking some of the controls on the tablet and watching as Skyler’s penis perked up a bit, slowly extending until it was fully erect.

“Whoa, cool!” Skyler said, watching as I played around with his penis remotely, making it go erect and flaccid and back to erect.

“Yeah,” I blushed, feeling myself grow hard at the sight, and the fact I had so much control over his body. I left his penis erect and set the tablet down, before reaching out my hand and gently grabbing his now stiff cock. His penis felt far better now that the hairs were gone.

“Man, I wish I could feel that,” Skyler said longingly, watching as I gently stroked it and felt the tip.

“Would you like me to reattach you know?” I asked again.

“No, not yet,” Skyler said regretfully, “you finish having fun first.”

“Ok,” I smiled, resuming my admiration of his erect penis, before returning it to its neutral state. I then turned to Skyler, giving him a strange look, before typing away on my computer and searching his interface.

“Is something wrong?” He asked with a concerned look.

“No,” I told him, “it’s just…” I struggled to find the right words, “you’re amazing…almost too amazing.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Not really,” I smiled, “but, I want to see if there’s something buried in your A.I. That can tell me where you came from and why you were built. I’m just concerned that you could be too good to be true.”

“I see,” he nodded solemnly, “Well, if I do have that information in me, I don’t have any conscious access to it,” he admitted, his activity monitor showing he had just attempted to search his own memories, “I hope I’m not too good to be true.”

“Me too,” I nodded, resuming my search. Fortunately, I found what I was looking for fairly quickly: a large document that appeared to be addressed to ‘whomever discover’s my secret.’

It was several pages long, giving an entire history, but I was glued to the screen and absorbed all the contents while Skyler patiently waited, before turning to him with a serious look.

“You found something?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “umm…it had a disclaimer that by telling you about it, it might unlock some hidden memories,” I informed him, “is that something you want?”

“Sure,” he shrugged, “I prefer not to live in mystery.”

“Alright,” I sighed, “so, it turns out you are the result of a scientific study that occurred over 100 years ago,” I began, “some research group was traveling to colleges all across North America, and several in Europe, and were attempting to see if it was possible to upload a human consciousness into a computer.”

“Whoa!”

“Yeah, but they weren’t exactly successful,” I continued, “they were able to copy a human mind, but not actually completely upload it from a human brain. They scanned the brains of over 100,000 college students, professors, and employees, and basically saved their work in a massive database.”

“And, I’m from one of the brains they scanned?” Skyler guessed.

“Yes, but they weren’t able to build androids back then, and they couldn’t really go any further, so they simply kept the scans in a database and protected it in a secure building for later….but then, the war happened and it was lost.”

“Well, they obviously found it.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, “they found it about ten years ago but, after a century, the computer had begun to degrade and many scans were either lost or corrupted.”

“Oh.”

“It would seem yours was one that was merely corrupted, and they decided to create android bodies for all of you, using the 3D scans the researchers had also taken, so you could be interspersed throughout society to help fill in some of the missing gaps in our economy and society left by the aftermath of the war,” I explained, “but, due to the corruption, they had to fill in a bunch of missing pieces in your scans, so they created the false memories and made you sleepers so that you would essentially be new people.”

“That explains it,” Skyler nodded, “but why make us sleepers?”

“They wanted to study how you interacted with people so they can make their own sentient A.I.s,” I told him, “they’d been trying for years, but your brain scans are the only things capable of operating in an android body and be sentient.”

“Wow…but you can still reprogram me,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” I shrugged, “they had to put a lot of their code in, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re self-aware and conscious of your existence.”

“True.”

“Anyway, it looks like you were supposed to have a handler of sorts who was supposed to monitor you from the moment you were activated, but they had budget cuts, so your handler was reassigned,” I continued, reading more from the document, “they figured as long as you ended up befriending someone, that person would most likely take good care of you.”

“Well, they were right…you have,” Skyler smiled.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “It looks like you were indeed programmed to imprint yourself on whoever discovered your secret first, assuming that person was trustworthy, so I guess I really am your owner now…though I don’t really like thinking of myself as your owner,” I said uncomfortably.

“Master?” Skyler supplied with a grin.

“Nah,” I frowned, “I think boyfriend works just fine for me right now.”

“Me too,” Skyler agreed, “and maybe someday husband,” he added hopefully.

“Hopefully,” winked, “though I’m not sure which one of us has to propose to the other,” I admitted, shaking my head as I set a mental reminder to ask the gay cashier next time I saw him.

“Well, considering you ‘own’ me, I think the ball is in your court,” Skyler told me, “I mean, maybe you’ll decide you don’t want to marry me, but just want to have me as a sex buddy or something.”

“Perhaps,” I chuckled, “but, I really do like you…I’m not sure adding sex will change that too much.”

“That’s good to hear,” Skyler said affectionately, before getting a strange look on his face, “Whoa, I think I have access to all those memories now,” he said with a look of wonder on his face, “wow, its all the memories of the real Skyler from over 100 years ago…they really roughed it back then.”

“Well, we have better technology now, so it’s no wonder,” I shrugged, smiling at the look on his face as he accessed his new memories, “did he have any significant others?”

“No,” Skyler replied, “he crushed on a few people, but didn’t have anyone special in his life.”

“Too bad,” I said sadly, “though, maybe he found someone after the brain scan was taken.”

“Perhaps,” Skyler nodded, “Greg, these memories are going to have to integrate into me overnight, so I’m going to leave them alone for now,” he suddenly said, “I think I’m ready to be reattached to my body now.”

“Alright,” I said in an excited voice, moving over to Skyler’s head to prepare to remove it, “did you want any closeups of your body before I reattach you?”

“Sure, perhaps just my penis and my panel,” he said with a hint of a blush.

“Good choices,” I grinned. I then detached his head from the device and carefully held it in my hands facing out as I turned to his body. “You alright?”

“Yeah, this is kinda fun,” he admitted.

“Good, I’m going to hold you out to your body then,” I told him, bending down slightly so I could hold him close to his penis. Skyler spent several seconds closely scrutinizing and admiring his penis, even reaching out his tongue and licking the tip. “Do you want to suck your dick?” I laughed, playfully shoving him into his own penis before pulling him back.

“No,” Skyler laughed back, “at least, not right now.”

“Alright,” I nodded, standing back up and letting him examine the inside of his panel.

“Wow, I really am a complex machine,” he said in a wondrous voice, watching all the blinking lights and listening to the gentle humming of his body’s machinery.

“You most certainly are,” I agreed, “would you like to see anything else?”

“Maybe just walk behind me so I can see my backside,” he replied, “people don’t usually get to see their backs.”

“Good point.” I smoothly walked around behind his body a few feet, allowing him to drink in the appearance of his backside and fine ass, before moving in closer.

“Thanks Greg, you can reattach me now,” Skyler said, “I only have about two minutes of power remaining in my head anyway.”

“Oh yeah, almost forgot about that,” I said with a slightly embarrassed look, before lifting Skyler’s head up to his neck and gently clicking it back in place.

There was a series of whirs and clicks beneath the skin of his neck and head as his body reattached his head, but seconds later the seam vanished and Skyler regained control of his body, twitching slightly as he regained sensation. I merely walked back in front of him and watched, making sure he did’t fall.

“How does it feel?” I asked him curiously.

“Much better,” he breathed, wiggling his new fingers and toes on his new hands and feet, “the components you replaced in my body must have been really bad, because these new ones feel nice,” he explained in a relaxed voice, “and the new hands and feet don’t have any of the muscle fatigue the old ones did.”

“Good,” I sighed with relief, “I’m no android expert, but you probably wouldn’t have lasted more than six months before something failed, so I guess it’s a good thing we discovered your condition today.”

“Yeah,” Skyler nodded, “hey, I could have sworn I had to go to the bathroom earlier…did you drain my waste?”

I blushed. “Yeah, I had to in order to replace your waste systems.”

“Oh, okay,” Skyler nodded, a little embarrassed, “I don’t think we’ll need to explain any further.”

“Good,” I agreed.

“But, since you seem to have replaced everything, I suddenly feel hungry,” he said, making a motion to rub his belly, though keeping his hand a few inches away, since his panel was still removed. A speaker in his body emitted a stomach growl sound, as if to emphasize his need for food.

“Oh, hold on a sec,” I told him, rifling around in my desk drawer before producing an energy bar, “here, if this works well for humans, I figure it should be enough to satiate an android too.”

“Thanks,” Skyler nodded, eagerly taking the energy bar and ripping open the wrapper. As he took a few bites and swallowed, I could see the food making its way from the tube leading from his throat and dropping into his stomach. I watched with an amused look as eventually the entire energy bar, all chewed up, was now inside his stomach and fizzing away as his stomach acid dissolved it.

“Would you like some of my iced tea to wash it down?” I offered, holding out the bottle; I’d only taken a few sips.

“Sure,” Skyler smiled, though he stopped when he looked down at his chest, “Ah, perhaps you should reattach my chest first,” he pointed out, “I don’t want to risk spilling any liquids in my body.”

“Good idea,” I nodded, walking over to where I had placed his chest cover. Once I had it removed from the blanket that I was using to protect it, I stopped to admire it, pausing as I saw the hairs. “Oh Sky, you might want to brace yourself when I put this on,” I warned him, walking over to him with it.

“Why?”

I held it out to him. “The chest hair is still there, but your body is programmed to make it fall out.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Skyler said, “well, it won’t hurt too much if its just my chest,” he assured me, “last time it was my whole body.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged, lining up his chest cover and clicking it in place. As soon as the seams sealed up, Skyler winced slightly as the small number of hairs present on his chest were dislodged by his body, mostly falling to the floor. I gently brushed the few errant hairs from his chest, eliciting a soothing sigh from Skyler, before grabbing the handvac and quickly vacuuming up the hairs.

“Wow, you look much better,” I nodded approvingly, handing him my iced tea.

“Thanks,” he blushed, taking the iced tea and chugging the rest of it, neatly tossing the empty bottle into the waste bin near my desk. There was a brief awkward pause before he looked into my eyes. “So, um…I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind playing around with my penis some more,” he managed to say bashfully, “I mean, since I couldn’t feel it the other times you did.”

I felt my face flush as a gentle smile formed, “Sure,” I nodded.

“Thanks,” he blushed back, “I guess we’re both going through a sexual awakening of sorts,” he said, stepping closer to me so I could reach him better.

“Yeah,” I nodded, grinning as I once more reached out and fondled his penis. Skyler recoiled slightly, this likely being the first time he’d actually felt anyone other than him touch his genitals, but he quickly relaxed and breathed calmly as he felt my fingers gently playing with him.

Unlike the previous times, when his body was either offline or disconnected from his head, I could actually feel his penis responding to my touching. The muscles twitched initially, since he wasn’t accustomed to my touch there, and then I could feel it throb as it slowly became aroused. Before long, it was fully erect, so I slowed down my progress and stared into his eyes. “Do you want me to make you cum?”

Skyler merely nodded, caught up in the pleasure. I smiled back and continued working his penis, stroking the full length of the shaft, and gently fondling the tight balls, before prepping a few tissues over the tip of his penis and tweaking the erogenous zone below the tip. This had the immediate desired effect on Skyler, triggering his orgasm. His penis throbbed violently several times, shooting a few streams of semen into the tissues, slightly leaking through, before coming to a rest.

As Skyler caught his breath, I gently wiped the residual moisture from his penis, and my hands, and then curiously investigated the load he’d delivered into the tissue. It certainly looked like semen, and had a similar consistency. I even felt brave and licked a small amount that I dabbed onto my finger, remarking that it even tasted like real semen. I tossed the tissues into the waste bin and then focuses back on Skyler.

“Well, how was your first orgasm?” I grinned.

“It was great!” Skyler said excitedly, absently shaking his hips, making his still slightly erect penis flop around a little, “I can’t believe I haven’t done that at all since I came online.”

“Probably some sort of programming prevented you,” I guessed, “it’s likely been shut off along with all the sleeper programming.”

“Good,” he nodded.

“So, do you maybe want to head into my room and have some sex?” Skyler suggested, “I mean, I’m obviously fully functional, so might as well take me out for a spin to celebrate our new relationship.”

I was slightly taken aback, but not offended. “Sure, though I’m not sure I know how…” I said worriedly.

“No problem,” Skyler shrugged, “we’ll learn together.” He held out his hand and gave me a trusting smile.

Reassured by Skyler’s carefree attitude, I took his hand and followed him into his room. Skyler’s room was filled with several posters off TV shows and movies he liked, as well as a few nic nacs he’d picked up over the years. A small desk with his computer station was situated near the window, and his bed was in the corner next to it.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to dirty your own sheets,” Skyler grinned, since he had my preferences for cleanliness programmed into him now.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

He nodded. “So, would you like me to undress you, or would you like to do it yourself?”

I actually had to stop and think about that one. “Hmmm, I suppose it might be sexier if you undress me,” I finally decided.

Skyler responded with a smile as he moved forward and gently began removing my clothes, starting with my shirt, gently lifting my arms so he could remove it. The paused to briefly feel up my chest, though it wasn’t as muscular as his.

After feeling up my entire torso, he bent down to slide my pants down, before sliding my underwear down as well; I had already removed my shoes and socks when I got home, so I merely stepped out of the pants and kicked them to the side, thrusting my hips out to flaunt my slightly erect manhood.

“Wow, not bad,” Skyler said with an impressed look, as my penis settled down somewhat.

“Thanks,” I blushed modestly, as I shook it a few times to air it out, since I had worked up a bit of a sweat working on Skyler for the past several hours. “You can play with it a little, if you like,” I offered.

“Thanks,” Skyler nodded, bending down and examining it. He briefly admired it with his eyes, taking a few snapshots to save in his private image folder, before reaching out and feeling it with his hands.

I recoiled slightly, only because I wasn’t accustomed to anyone touching me there, but quickly relaxed as I felt Skylers smooth, artificial hands gently massing it with his fingers, admiring my smooth, shaved skin down there. I felt the blood rushing to my member as he stimulated it properly, and before long I was fully erect. Skyler stopped short, however, of actually making me orgasm, instead smoothly admiring my shaft before withdrawing his hands. “I’m saving you for what’s next,” he explained via whispering into my ear, before gently guiding me to his bed.

What happened next was the most pleasurable experience in my entire life. We crawled under his covers and rubbed our bodies against one another, feeling each other up and grinding our genitals together. We kept that up for what felt like an eternity before instinctually switching to the 69 position and orally stimulating each other, Skyler using is android skills to perfectly synchronize our orgasms, so we came in each other’s mouths at the same time.

Were Skyler not artificial, I would have never considered doing this with another man, but swallowing his artificial cum gave me no pause whatsoever. Once we recovered from our ecstasy, we switched back to normal position and embraced each other once more, before passing out from sheer bliss.

I woke up a short time later feeling perfectly rested, and immensely happy. The nearby clock on Skyler’s drawer revealed we had been napping for just over an hour, and it was nearly dinner time. Skyler was still napping, so I lightly shook him awake.

“Ah, that was great, wasn’t it?” He breathed, leaning in and kissing me.

“Yes, it was,” I agreed, kissing him back.

Skyler then lifted up the sheets and looked underneath, “Well, looks like we didn’t dirty up the sheets too much,” he nodded approvingly.

“Yeah,” I smiled, “I’m still gonna wash them though.”

“I know you will,” Skyler laughed, ‘but hey, since we’re a couple now, do you think we should sleep together now?”

“I don’t mind…it might take a bit of getting used to, but I’m all for it if you are,” I decided.

“Great, I’ll move a few of my things in later then,” Skyler smiled, “and, since I’ll be sleeping with you, you could probably just take this whole room if you want so you can have a private office to work.”

I shook my head. “Nah, that might be moving a bit too fast…besides, your room doesn’t have the same high-speed connection in it, so I wouldn’t be able to work in here anyway.”

“Ah, true,” Skyler nodded.

“We can keep your room up in case you feel like sleeping alone,” I continued, “at the very least, we could maintain it as a guest room or something.”

“Good idea.”

“Actually, now that we are a couple, we can probably combine our resources better and look into maybe finding a slightly bigger place, so I can have a private office.”

“Yeah, that would be good…. this place is a bit small,” Skyler chuckled.

“Yeah, though you also have to save up for your body replacement too,” I reminded him.

“Yeah,” he frowned, “Sounds a bit weird…I just hope it would still be me.”

“Of course it would, silly!” I playfully punched his chest, “your brain could be moved into the new body as easily as I moved it into this head,” is explained, poking his new forehead.

“Ah, I forgot about that,” he blushed.

“Well, maybe a new body will fix your forgetfulness,” I joked.

“Maybe I could get a female body,” Skyler responded in a joking voice.

“Hah, that would be interesting,” I mused, “though I prefer you in your body.”

“Ah, thanks,” Skyler gushed, leaning in and smooching me on the lips, “Umm, do you want the first shower?”

I stopped to think, since although we had two bedrooms, we had only one bathroom with a shower. “Nah, you go first,” I decided, “that way I can tidy up and then you can get dinner started while I shower.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Skyler smiled, kissing me once more before climbing out of bed, heading to his dresser to grab a fresh set of clothes.

I climbed out of bed too, grabbing the sheets and blankets off his bed to drag over to the washing machine. I slapped Skyler’s ass playfully as he was heading into the bathroom. “Hey, try not to waste all the hot water.”

“I won’t,” he said, giving me a reassuring thumbs up before closing the door. I smiled to myself as I shoved the contents of his bed into the washing machine, glad that Skyler and I were finally able to be intimate, and that he was an android on top of it all. I knew from this point on that life would only get better.

Part 2: Rachel

I didn't feel like writing this part, so I skipped it....for now.

Part 3: Sabrina

Part 3: Sabrina

It had been just over a year since we found out Skyler was an android and he had quickly taken his new status in stride. 6-months after discovering what he was, he saved up enough money to not only purchase himself a replacement body with all the latest improvements, but also a female body named Rachel for him to occasionally inhabit for fun, since I still wished to have sex with a woman on occasion.

I had finally studied up enough on both Skyler and Rachel’s designs, augmented with online courses, and now felt quite comfortable as an android technician. I was even putting out feelers to start my own gig as a technician, in addition to my current IT tasks.

Now that I had a degree of competency under my belt, I was starting the first of what I planned to be an annual major maintenance session on both Skyler and Rachel. Unfortunately, it had started pouring rain outside several hours in and I was quite nervous that the power might go out. I had a few emergency generators just in case, but any sudden power loss could damage Skyler’s delicate systems, so I worried nevertheless.

I had long since revamped my workspace in the back of the apartment. I had expanded it so it encompassed what used to be the corner of the common area that was the dining room, since we just ate on the couch now. A partition separated my main workspace from the rest of the room, so I wouldn’t be distracted if Skyler was watching TV or playing a video game. I had also installed a large shelving unit to store various spare parts for both Skyler and Rachel, as well as for my daytime IT gigs.

I had two old hospital gurneys that I reclaimed from the nearby hospital so I could work on both Skyler and Rachel at the same time. Rachel’s body was currently laying in a partially dismantled state on one of them, with several cables running to my workspace.

A sudden bolt of lightning crashed fairly close outside, briefly illuminating the apartment we shared with a blinding white light and breaking the silence with a deafening noise. After my heart rate slowed back down and I regained some calm, I took in a few deep breaths as I made sure all my equipment was still up and running and then resumed my work.

A few minutes later I was interrupted by an almost frantic sounding knock at the front door. Shocked, I looked at a nearby clock and saw it was almost 12:30am.

“Wow, who would be knocking on my door this late at night?” I said aloud, thinking it had to be some sort of emergency. Nevertheless, I covered Rachel’s body with a clothe and then grabbed the stun gun I kept for protection before slowly approaching the door.

There was more frantic knocking outside as I approached, though it sounded more relaxed this time. I slowly approached the peephole and looked out, surprised to see it was Sabrina, the attractive nurse at the neighboring hospital that both Skyler and I had a crush on. He’d even downloaded her voice on the first day he knew he was an android and imitated it.

She had a very worried look on her face, and a somewhat disheveled look; her hair was slightly wet, despite holding an umbrella, and her clothes looked scratched up. Concerned, I pocketed my stun gun and opened the door.

A look of relief instantly washed over her face as she saw the door open and my head pop out. “Oh good, you’re awake,” she said, sighing with relief.

“What’s wrong Sabrina?” I asked in a concerned voice.

She glanced around furtively, making sure no one was around listening, “Umm, is it okay if I come inside…. please?”

“Sure,” I nodded, standing aside and letting her in. I lingered at the door for a few seconds, making sure there was no one following her since it looked like she may have been attacked. I finally latched the door and then turned around. Sabrina was pacing nervously in the den; she had a slight limp.

“Alright, are you okay Sabrina,” I asked, concerned, “did someone attack you out there?”

“Oh no,” she smiled nervously, “I’m just a little rattled…that lightening bolt just a short time ago….”

“Yeah, it was close,” I nodded, “did you get struck by it?”

“Not exactly,” she shook her head, “Look, um, I came to you because something just happened to me out there and I’m sort of freaking out right now, and you’re the only person I feel I can trust.”

“Okay,” I nodded, following along.

“I just got off my 12hr shift and was walking to my car when the bolt of lightning struck a street sign,” she explained, “the sudden bright light blinded me, and someone driving past me, and the driver sideswiped a dumpster that was queued up near the street for pickup tomorrow,” she continued, “the dumpster rolled into me, knocking me to the ground and…Greg, I think…I’m pretty sure I’m an android.”

I let out a small gasp, but quickly controlled myself…Sabrina looked flawlessly human, but then so did Skyler. If she was this confused, she may well be the same type as Skyler.

“Okay, what makes you think you may be an android?” I inquired carefully, since if she was an android then she likely still had her sleeper programming activated, “did you suffer some damage from the dumpster hitting you that you noticed?”

“I think so,” she nodded, blushing as she unzipped her jacket and then slowly lifted up her scrub shirt.

I slowly blushed too as I leaned in closer and saw what she was referring to. There were several deep cuts in the otherwise flawless pale skin of her toned abdomen, each of them had metal showing.

“Yeah Sabrina, it looks like you are indeed an android,” I confirmed with a solemn look, examining the scratches more closely. They looked mostly superficial and could be repaired within a few hours, but I was more concerned that some water had seeped in, that she may have suffered internal damage from the impact, and she may have had some small shock from the lightning strike.

Sabrina let out a resigned sigh as she continued holding her shirt up for me to examine her damage. “I was afraid of that…I sort of saw the damage myself initially, but I think something was also trying to prevent me from seeing it too,” she explained, “and then, I just sort of had an instinctual response to come and see you.”

“I see,” I nodded, gingerly touching the edges of the damage, “does this hurt?”

Sabrina winced a little when I touched the scratches, “Yeah, a little.”

“Good, that means your nerves are still working…so the external damage isn’t as bad as it looks,” I told her in a comforting voice, pulling away and standing back up.

“Good,” she smiled, slowly pulling her scrub top back down and relaxing a bit, “do you think you can fix me tonight?”

“I’m not sure,” I said candidly, “your external damage won’t take more than an hour, but you most likely suffered plenty of internal damage, both from the impact of the dumpster and the fall, and I suspect you may have been slightly shocked from the electricity of the lightning as well.”

“I see,” she nodded, “are you sure I have internal damage?”

“Well, I noticed you limping,” I pointed out, “as an android, you shouldn’t be limping unless something is wrong inside your body.”

Sabrina got a slightly worried look on her face again, but remained calm. “Okay, can you fix all that too?”

“I think so,” I smiled, “I’ve gotten quite good at fixing Skyler since we found out what he was, and I’ve gotten certified online as well.”

“Ah, well then it looks like I came to the right person,” she smiled, relaxing once more.

“Before I start any work on you, I need to ask you a few questions first,” I told her, motioning to the couch and surrounding chairs, “please have a seat.”

“Ok,” she said nervously, deciding momentarily between the couch and an armchair before sitting down carefully on the couch, moving a few of the couch pillows behind her.

I walked over to my desk and grabbed a small notepad and pen from my desk, quickly checking the progress of running tasks on my computer, before walking back over and sitting in the armchair right next to Sabrina.

“Okay, some of these questions might be weird, some might be personal, but I need you to try and answer them anyway, okay,” I told her with a serious look.

“Ok,” she said, “I’m a little nervous, I feel like my life got upended.”

“Well, in a sense it did, but I hope I can fix your perception of that,” I smiled, before moving on to my questions, “Do you currently live alone?”

“Yes,” she replied, “though I had a roommate at one point.”

“Ah, and what happened to your roommate?”

“She died,” Sabrina said, with a bit of emotion, “about a year and a half ago…her family showed up at our apartment and told me she was in a terrible car accident, and they collected all her things.”

“I’m sorry,” I paused, “Why didn’t you try and find a new roommate?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a confused look, “I guess I’m just very particular, and I make more than enough money to pay for the place anyway, since I’m a nurse.”

“Good point,” I smiled, “Alright, new questions…Do you have any family?”

“No, I was an orphan and I was told I have no siblings.”

“Okay, when did you move here?”

“About five years ago…after I graduated from nursing school.”

“Do you have a crush on me?”

Sabrina’s face instantly turned scarlet, her eyes shifting around before answering. “Yes, a little.”

I briefly flushed too, since I had hoped she might have some interest in me, but I tried to remain professional. Sabrina blushed even more at my response. “Umm, I also have a crush on Skyler too, though I feel a little guilty, since you two are a couple,” she supplied.

“Ah, he’d be happy to hear that,” I laughed, “truth be told, we both have a crush on you too,” I confessed.

“Really!? I thought you two were gay!”

“No, not really,” I smiled, “we’re both straight, but we love each other…though, I had to tweak his programming a little when I first found out what he was, since he was programmed by default to be straight and his programming couldn’t handle the complexities of human sexual relationships,” I explained, “but I got his permission first,” I added, after seeing a look of slight shock on her face.

“Ah, well this is a bit awkward then,” she flushed, though she appeared far more comfortable with me now that she knew I was as interested in her as she was in us.

“No worries,” I smiled, “okay, final questions…how long have you had a crush on me in particular?”

“Umm, I think a little when I first met you at the hospital for your annual checkup,” she said, trying to remember, “but definitely after my roommate died…I felt a little guilty about that, since I figured I was dealing with the grief by latching onto you, and because you were full on with Skyler at that point, but you guys are so nice to me.”

“Thanks,” I smiled, “final question: What do you think made you come to me tonight, after learning what you are?”

“I didn’t know right away, but it occurs to me now that I figured you could help me since you helped Skyler when he was damaged.”

“Good, I think you’ve confirmed several of my suspicions…both about yourself, and Skyler,” I said, reviewing my notes and placing the pen and pad back down on the table.

“What suspicions?” she asked in a worried voice.

“Well, it seems you are the same type of android that Skyler is…a sleeper class artificial human,” I explained, “based on what you told me, you’ve most likely been online for five years, and your roommate was most likely your handler assigned by the company that built you.”

Sabrina looked shocked to hear that, “But, I have tons of memories…they feel real.”

“Well, many of them likely are,” I assured her, “When I datamined Skyler’s code that day I had to fix him, I discovered that androids like you were based on real people who lived over a century ago who participated in a research project to see if it was possible to upload a human consciousness into a computer.”

“Whoa,” she breathed, “so, am I that human then?”

“Not quite,” I told her, “they couldn’t actually upload a consciousness, but they were able to create an almost exact digital copy of the people they scanned, including memories, experiences, and personality,” I explained to her, “they kept these digital copies saved in a server that was only recently discovered by the company that manufactured you, and they worked with the government to create you guys as fully functioning members of society, though initially with no knowledge of what you were, for experimental purposes.”

“Why would they do something like that?” she asked with a confused look.

“Well, a few years ago society was suffering from a labor shortage, since a large number of older people all died at once, and having over 100,000 new members of society all at once immediately made an impact on those labor shortages.”

“But why would they implant false memories then?”

“Because the server you all were stored on was starting to degrade, so there was moderate file fragmentation, and they had to make you believe you’d grown up in this century instead of the last, so they filled in the missing pieces and sent you into the world.”

“Huh, that makes sense,” she nodded, “so, am I a real person then…do I actually have free will, or am I just a machine that follows orders?”

“Those are deep questions Sabrina, and even Skyler is still wrestling with them,” I admitted, “But, I can tell you that Skyler could have left me at anytime before discovering he was an android, and he didn’t…in my opinion, he made a free choice to become my friend, and another free choice to stay with me and to then fall in love with me.”

“Wow, it sounds like we may be close to being human after all…” she mused, then looked around, “Where is Skyler, by the way? Is he asleep? I hope I didn’t wake him.”

“Oh, don’t worry about Skyler,” I smiled, “there’s no way you could wake him I…would you like to see him?”

“Sure, if it doesn’t inconvenience him,” she shrugged.

“It won’t,” I assured her, rising from my chair and beckoning her to follow me. She pushed herself up off the couch and followed me as I walked behind the seating area and into my expanded work area, moving a curtain out of the way.

“Wow, this is cool,” Sabrina commented, admiring the makeshift lab I’d built for myself.

“Thanks, I just expanded it a few months ago,” I told her, leading her all the way to the back where my massive computer array was still humming away. I pointed at a small device on the desk and said, “Well, there he is.”

Sabrina blinked a few times with a confused look on her face. “I’m sorry, where is he?” She asked, looking around.

I grinned a little playfully at her as I pointed once more at the device on my desk, which was roughly the size of a thick encyclopedia with a small apple-shaped device clicked into the middle.

“Wait…is that…his brain?” She whispered in an almost reverent voice, leaning in for a closer look.

“Yep, that’s Skyler’s brain,” I confirmed, “you caught me on the night I decided to perform his annual maintenance,” I explained, pulling up some screens on my computer to check on his progress, “I work on him every week, of course, but I decided that once a year he needs a more thorough checkup, and today is the first annual checkup.”

“Oh, I didn’t know…I’m sorry,” Sabrina apologized.

“Hey, it’s quite alright,” I smiled, “it’s not like you planned on being damaged and finding out you were an android.”

“Right,” she laughed nervously, “So, what’s he doing right now?”

“Well, I finished working on his body a few hours ago, and his brain finished installing the latest software updates and such,” I reported, “Right now, we’re making a full system backup.”

“A full backup?”

“Yeah, basically I’m creating a full backup of everything that makes Skyler Skyler on my own personal cloud storage device, just in case the worst should happen to him,” I explained, “that way, I can just have a new body built and restore him from backup.”

“I see,” She nodded, “but, wouldn’t that make the new one just a copy, or a clone?”

“Perhaps,” I nodded, “We chose not to see it too metaphysically though, since either way it would be him.”

“That makes sense,” she nodded, “Don’t you back him up more regularly though…I mean, it wouldn’t make sense to back him up just once a year.”

“I do,” I nodded, “I back him up weekly, but after a year there are 52 new backup files, so to save space I purge them and replace them with a new full backup.”

“Ah,” she nodded, transfixed on his brain, “can I touch it?”

“Sure, just be gentle.”

“I will,” she promised. She gently reached out her hand and lightly touched Skyler’s brain, recoiling slightly with a cute “ah!”

“What is it?”

“It’s warm,” she smiled, touching it once more.

“I would imagine so,” I smiled back, “it’s quite active at the moment.”

“Is he conscious right now? I mean, is he aware of what’s going on right now?”

I shook my head. “No, right now his program’s offline while the tool makes the backup.”

“Where’s his body at?” She asked suddenly, standing up straight and looking around, then focusing on the nearby hospital bed with the sheet, “is this it?” And before he could respond, she walked over and pulled the sheet off. “Whoa, Rachel?!”

“Yeah, I was working on her when you knocked on the door.” I told her, walking over and making sure none of Rachel’s parts fell off the table.

“I’ve seen you walking outside with her a few times…but I never suspected she was an android too,” Sabrina breathed, admiring the sight before her. Rachel’s torso cover was open, and her arms, hands, legs, and feet were all detached. “I actually got a bit jealous when I saw her.”

“Well, you don’t have anything to worry about…Rachel isn’t actually real, she’s merely a female body that Skyler purchased last year so he could try out being female from time to time, and so he’d have a backup body in case something happened to his.”

“Ah, I see,” Sabrina nodded, looking relieved, “what do you mean she isn’t real?”

“Oh, she doesn’t have her own brain,” I told her, “Skyler bought her at an auction that the android company was holding. Basically, a customer custom ordered her but died in an accident before the brain could be programmed, so they sold the body to Skyler for him to use while he waited for his body upgrade to arrive, and we decided to keep it for fun.”

“Cool! So, if Skyler’s body isn’t here, then where is it?”

“Well, I finished performing maintenance and upgrades on it several hours ago,” I explained, “after I had it run a full diagnostic and motor test, I had it go into standby mode in his bathroom so it could cool off.”

“Can I see it?” She asked, an almost hungry expression on her face.

“Sure,” I smiled knowingly. I grabbed the tablet that I used to interface with Skyler’s systems and then walked ahead of her to the hallway leading to our rooms.

Skyler’s old room, before he officially moved into my room, was at the end of the hall and to the left. He had his own bathroom attached to it with another door leading into the hallway. My room was on the right and had a similar setup. We also had a half-bath in the front next to the kitchen.

There was a loud humming noise coming from inside his bathroom when we approached the door. I opened the door from the hallway into his bathroom, blasting us both with cold air, and allowed Sabrina to step inside first.

Standing inside on a clean bath mat, and totally nude, was Skyler’s body. The reason for the blast of cold air became quickly apparent, as there was a portable room conditioner and two fans blowing on Skyler’s body. It was standing upright in a relaxed pose with its eyes closed, almost as though it had fallen asleep standing up.

Sabrina blushed as soon as she saw it standing there, though she also had a look of awe on her face.

“Is something wrong?” I grinned.

“No, I just didn’t expect his body to be naked,” she giggled, “his body looks so real, so lifelike.”

“He’s as real as you are,” I pointed out.

“True,” she nodded, walking a bit closer, “wow, I didn’t realize he was so short,” she laughed, since, at 5’10, she was nearly three inches taller than him.

“Yeah, he is,” I laughed; I was 5’11.

“I didn’t realize he was so muscular though,” she nodded approvingly, “does he actually have to work out for those?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “that’s part of what makes your type of android so unique…you can actually mold your own muscles.”

“Cool, maybe I’ll have to start working out too,” she mused, absently flexing her arms before looking at me with a bashful expression, “would it be alright if I touched him?”

“Sure, he wouldn’t mind,” I assured her.

“Thanks,” she smiled, reaching out and touching his body, allowing her hands to glide across his clean, muscular skin. “Why does it have to be so cold in here?” She suddenly asked, shivering.

“Oh, his body needed to cool off after the benchmarking test I had it run,” I explained, “but, it’s most likely cooled off enough by now, so I’ll shut this all down to save energy,” I told her, quickly powering off the portable A/C and the two fans.

“Thanks,” she smiled, before getting back to Skyler’s body. After she had her fill of his chest, she slowly knelt down and examined his penis, which was currently flaccid. “It’s just truly amazing how real this is,” she commented, playing around with it in her fingers and examining it in great detail.

“Have you seen many penises?” I joked.

“Yeah, I’m a nurse so I’ve seen plenty,” she pointed out.

“Ah, fair point,” I blushed, “how would you rate his?”

“Well, I can’t go into too much detail because of privacy laws, but I’d say his is definitely in the Top 3,” she decided, “the deciding factor is the lack of pubic hair though…he must have to shave everyday.” She gave his balls one good squeeze and then stood up.

“Not quite,” I said, “actually, I modified his body’s settings so he doesn’t grow body hairs below his ears now, so he doesn’t need to shave anymore.”

“Really!? That’s possible?”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded, “when he agreed to be my boyfriend, he allowed me to modify his settings so he could please me more.”

“Aww, how sweet,” Sabrina gushed, “and did you have to do anything for him?”

“Well, I keep his body in good shape,” I pointed out, “I think that counts, right?”

“I’m only teasing you,” she winked, “I can see you take great care of him, and he certainly seems happy.”

“We both are,” I smiled.

“Perhaps you could modify my body so I don’t need to shave anymore,” she said hopefully.

“If you’d like,” I nodded.

“I think I would…I’m not completely happy about finding out I’m an android, but I think I’m seeing it can have its benefits.”

“I feel you…Skyler felt a bit that way too, though he was happy about it in the end,” I assured her, “anyway, if you’re done with your look at Skyler’s body, I’d like to take a look inside your body to see what needs to be fixed.”

“Ok,” she smiled, leaning towards Skyler’s body and giving it a quick peck on the cheek before following me back out into the hall and into my lab.

“Okay, for starters, I’m going to need you to fully undress,” I instructed her, “that means all your clothes, and any accessories you may be wearing, like a watch or necklace.”

Sabrina’s face instantly turned Scarlet. “All my clothes? Naked?!”

“Yes,” I told her, blushing despite myself, “the primary access port on your torso runs from just below your neck to just above your waist,” I explained, “and I’m going to need to possibly remove some of your other limbs too, so I’ll need you fully nude.”

“Okay,” she said nervously.

“Don’t worry, I’m a professional,” I assured her.

“I know,” she smiled, taking off her jacket and hanging it up on a nearby peg, “it’s just…I said I had a crush on you, and now you’re seeing me naked.”

“I understand,” I nodded, watching as she sat down to remove her shoes in an armchair I kept back here to rest in. She seemed to be having trouble though, and I could hear an audible whine as she attempted to bend her back to reach her shoes. “Sabrina, stop!”

“What is it?” She asked in a worried voice, “I was just having a little trouble reaching my shoes.”

“Yeah, your sleeper programming’s still partially active, so it was filtering out your senses,” I told her, walking over and helping her sit back up, “it sounds like part of your spine got damaged from the impact of that dumpster.”

“Oh, wow,” she said, allowing him to gently lean her back, “I guess it really is a good thing I came to you,” she chuckled nervously.

“No worries,” I smiled at her, “I’m pretty sure I know what’s damaged, but I’ll obviously need to assist you with removing your clothes.”

“Ok,” she nodded, relaxing back in the chair.

“I’ll start with your shoes,” I told her, kneeling down and reaching for her feet. Since she was a nurse and on her feet most of the day, she was wearing a pair of black athletic shoes with ventilation to keep her feet dry. As I unlaced the shoes and carefully removed them, I was momentarily caught off guard by how large her feet were; size 10.

“Oh man, I didn’t realize until now how sore my feet were,” she sighed, “would you mind giving them a quick massage?”

“Sure, I’d love to,” I smiled, delicately sliding her ankle length socks off and gently massaging them. I was pleased to see that her feet were good looking. Her long toes each increased in length, with the big toe being the longest. She also did not paint her toenails, opting for a perfect natural look.

Sabrina leaned back in the chair and moaned lightly with pleasure as I gently worked the kinks out of her feet. “So, are my feet actually sore or is that more of my sleeper programming?” She asked conversationally.

“In a way they are actually sore,” I responded, “your body does have a musculature that can be sore but, being an android, it is possible to turn your sense of pain or discomfort off. The problem is then you wouldn’t be aware if you were damaging yourself.”

“Ah, true,” she nodded, “Oh, I hope my feet don’t smell too bad,” she suddenly said, “12hr shifts can be brutal on my feet.”

“Oh, no need to worry there,” I smiled, “as an android, your perspiration doesn’t actually have the same rank odor as human perspiration,” I explained, and before she could retort, I responded, “it’s part of your sleeper programming to make you think you smell bad, so you’ll bathe more regularly.”

“Ah, that explains it,” she nodded, “it smells quite real to me right now.”

“It’s all in your head, I assure you,” I smiled, emphasizing my point by bringing her feet up to my face and smelling them. Despite the moisture present, only a mild musky smell was present.

“Wow,” she blushed.

“I can show you, if you’d like,” I offered, “your feet are detachable.”

“Huh, sounds interesting…why not?” She shrugged.

I nodded and gripped her right foot at the ankle as I located the manual release. Once I located it, I pressed in and then twisted her foot off. “Here you go,” I offered, holding her foot out to her. Unfortunately, she got a dazed look on her face and appeared zoned out.

“Sabrina, are you still with me?” I asked in a concerned voice, setting her foot down and waving my hand in front of her face; no response. “Ugh, must be your sleeper settings,” I muttered, picking her foot back up and clicking it back on. As soon as it was back on, she came back to life with a confused look.

“What’s wrong? I thought you were removing my foot.”

“I did, but when I did you froze up,” I explained, getting up and walking to my desk, “it’s part of your sleeper settings still active…I’m going to shut them off so it doesn’t interfere with my work any longer.”

“Oh, okay,” she frowned, watching intently as I fumbled around in my desk before grabbing a small device and approached her with it.

“Alright, this is a remote link,” I explained, showing it to her, “it’s quite small and will plug into a port located behind your ear.”

“Is it permanent?” she asked with a concerned look, “it doesn’t look too fashionable.”

“When I open up your head later, I’ll be relocating it to one of the empty ports on your brain,” I told her, “That way I’ll be able to run remote diagnostics on you from my office here.”

“And control me?”

“Well, I could, but I try and let you guys do you own thing,” I assured her, “you can ask Skyler, I only control him for fun when we want to have some fun.”

“Okay, I trust you,” she smiled.

“Thanks, this won’t hurt,” I promised, leaning in and parting the hair around her right ear. I poked a small tool into a freckle behind her ear, opening up a small port, and then carefully plugged the wireless link in. “All done,” I announced cheerfully, standing back up as I heard a chime on my tablet informing me that it detected the new connection.

“Huh, I don’t feel a thing,” Sabrina shrugged, gingerly touching the device I plugged into her before resting her hands on her lap, patiently watching me monitor my tablet.

“I told you that you wouldn’t,” I winked, waiting for the tablet to finish downloading her diagnostic protocols so I could get to work. A few seconds later it finished and I had full access to her A.I. A quick check of her basic info quickly confirmed a suspicion of mine. “Ah, I know now why you trusted me enough to come here.”

“Why?”

“Your system has me classified as a Provisional Owner,” I explained, “basically, you’ve been without an owner since your previous one died, and your system can’t really function without one, so it classified me as a provisional one since you determined you could trust me after finding out that I helped Skyler.”

“Interesting,” Sabrina mused, seeming to zone out, “so, that means I’m your property?”

“It doesn’t quite work like that,” I winced, “you and Skyler still have free will, but since you’re both androids, you need someone to own you in order to keep you maintained.”

“I see,” she nodded.

“Apparently Skyler’s systems initially classified me the same way for the first three years I knew him, until the accident,” I went on, “it wasn’t until the accident that he reclassified me as his permanent owner.”

“Do you think I could reclassify you as my permanent owner?” She asked, “I mean, I know it’s fast, but I don’t really trust anyone else.”

“Well, that’s up to your governing A.I.” I told her, “I don’t really have a say in it, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens automatically sometime tonight.”

“Good,” she said, smiling with relief, “I guess I feel a bit relieved since I’ve been living without a safety net for almost two years.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled, perusing the rest of her settings.

“So, what are you going to do to me now?”

“Well, as I mentioned before, I’m going to disable some of your sleeper settings,” I explained, “I can’t do them all at once since it would be too much of a shock to you,” I added, before she could retort, “and, I see your system has several years of minor updates, so I’m going to install those too…I’ll be doing the major updates later.”

“Will I have to reboot?” Sabrina got a concerned look on her face.

“Yes,” I confirmed, “but, since these are just minor updates and settings changes, the reboot should only take about 10-15 seconds…really quick.”

“Okay,” she nodded, “are you ready to do it now?”

“Almost,” I told her, toggling many of the sleeper settings off before returning to the updates section, “you’re still downloading a few of the updates right now.”

“I’m curious, how come my A.I. couldn’t download and install any of those minor updates for me?”

“Because they could still cause malfunctions, so they have to be done by a human,” I told her, “Preferably by your owner.”

“And that’s you,” she smiled.

“Provisionally,” I winked, “ah, looks like they’re ready.”

“Ok,” she said, gulping nervously.

“See you in a few seconds,” I told her, tapping the start button. Sabrina looked about to say something before her face went slack and her head bowed as her systems rebooted. I waited patiently while her systems installed the new updates and made the selected changes to her sleeper settings. 12-seconds later, her head sprung back up and her eyes popped open. “Welcome back!”

“Wow, that felt…strange,” she said, shaking her head a little and rubbing her forehead.

“I’ll bet…Skyler said it took him a while to get used to being rebooted.”

“The strangest thing is, I don’t really feel any different, but at the same time I do feel different.”

“Well, the updates were all minor maintenance patches, so they likely fixed a number of extremely minor issues that you’ve barely been aware of,” I explained, “and, with some of the sleeper settings off now, your systems aren’t working as hard to fool you anymore so you might feel slightly more relaxed.”

“Yeah, I do!” She grinned, “My head feels much clearer now.”

“Great! Would you like me to remove your foot again?”

“Sure!”

“Alright,” I smiled, happy she was more enthusiastic of her nature now. I bent down once more and grabbed her right foot, clicking the manual release just above the ankle. This time, when her foot detached, she did not zone out and merely stared with wonder as I brought her severed foot up to her. “Would you like to hold it?”

“Yes,” she managed to say, holding out her hands eagerly and delicately taking her foot from me, examining it closely with admiration. At one point, she pressed her toes and foot bottom into her face and took a deep breath, remarking, “Wow, I really don’t have body odor!”

“See, I told you,” I winked, “just don’t forget to bathe.”

“I won’t,” she giggled, touching the tips of her toes to her tongue, “they still taste salty though.”

“Yeah, your perspiration is essentially a saline mix designed to keep your skin adequately moisturized, as well as to cool you off.”

“Greg, do you have a foot fetish?” She asked suddenly, startling me.

“To be honest, yes I do,” I told her truthfully.

“I thought so,” she smiled, “I think I do too,” she admitted, playing around a little bit more with her foot before handing it back to me, “what do you think of mine?”

“Yours are quite nice, actually,” I admitted with no embarrassment, “I was surprised by how large they are, but they’re perfectly proportioned, so they don’t necessarily look large.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, watching as I bent back down and clicked it onto her leg, wiggling her toes at me as soon as she had control over it once more, before wincing. “Oh man, the soreness just returned all at once.”

“Oh, sorry. Would you like me to massage them again?”

“No thanks,” she smiled fondly, “I think we’ve spent enough time with my feet…you should probably assist me with the rest of my clothes so you can start fixing me.”

“Good point,” I nodded, quickly sizing her up, “why don’t you stand up so I can remove your pants and underwear?”

“Can you help me up? I don’t want to strain that damaged part of my spine.”

“Sure,” I told her, offering her my hands. Once she had a firm grip, I gently lifted her up so she was standing.

“Thank you,” she smiled, “Umm, would you like me to remove my shirt and bra while you work on my pants, or would you like to remove them?” The look on her face indicated that she wanted me to remove them.

“I wouldn’t mind removing them,” I smiled, eliciting a blush.

“I thought you wouldn’t,” she grinned coquettishly, relaxing her arms.

I grinned back as I gently lifted her arms up and slid her scrub top over her head. I winced as I once more saw the deep scratches on her otherwise flawless torso, but focused on my task. I placed the scrub top on top of her shoes and socks and then gently lowered her arms. She wasn’t wearing anything else beneath it except for her bra, which was a simple spandex sports bra. I reached around, unclasped it, and then pulled it clear of her body, allowing her large breasts to spill out and jiggle to a stop.

“Wow, you have a nice pair of breasts,” I complimented her, feeling my face grow red and hot as I blushed.

“Thanks,” she blushed back.

“Umm, I just need to remove your pants and panties now,” I managed to say, averting my gaze. I heard her lightly giggle as I bent down and unlaced the drawstring on her pants, allowing them to slide down to the floor. She neatly stepped out of them and kicked them away as I continued with her spandex sports panties. Once the panties were down at her feet, she kicked them away too and then relaxed her stance.

After I moved her pile of clothes somewhere I would not trip over it, I stood back and admired Sabrina’s nude body.

Sabrina was a mixed Hispanic/European woman in her mid-to-late twenties, so slightly older than both myself and Skyler. She stood at roughly 5’10 with long, thick, curly dark brown hair that went past her shoulders, and a large, full-figured body type with a pale complexion. She was so pale that her skin was slightly reddened in the places where her clothes had been a bit too tight. She had a patch of dark brown pubic hair above her vagina that was neatly groomed, though based on her previous comments she would likely ask to have her hairs removed.

“Wow, you’re beautiful,” I told her.

“Thank you,” she smiled, her cheeks flushing.

“Sorry, I said I’d be professional,” I caught myself, trying to focus.

“I don’t mind,” she said in a soft voice, “do you see any more damage?”

“Let me see,” I told her, “Could you step a few feet away from the chair so I can walk behind you?” Sabrina nodded and stepped forward a few steps. I slowly walked behind her and scrutinized her pale backside. Aside from a few minor scratches which only penetrated her outermost skin layer, she only had a few bruises. The damage she sustained to her abdomen appeared to be the worst of it.

“Thank you, you can sit back down now,” I told her, “Fortunately, you don’t appear to have suffered too much more cosmetic damage.”

“That’s a relief,” she smiled, sitting back down, rubbing back and forth on the chair to warm it up for her now nude body, “How come I don’t feel any pain with this damage, if I can still feel my feet are sore?” she asked, gesturing at the scratches.

“Well, your body basically stops simulating the sensation of pain once a specific threshold is met,” I explained, “Usually it might be enough to cause a Human to black out, but since it wouldn’t serve you well to black out, your body merely terminated the pain response in that area to allow you to find me to fix you.”

“I see,” she nodded.

“Anyway, before I open you up, I just want to ask a few more questions, since I’ll be performing an extensive repair and maintenance overhaul on your body.” I told her, wheeling my desk chair over and sitting down in front of her.

“Okay,” she shrugged, causing her breasts to jiggle a little.

“So, I suppose the first thing that any doctor, or nurse, would ask a patient is: where does it hurt?” I started, “I need to know where to focus my efforts, so, for example, you mentioned your feet get sore after a 12hr shift, which is completely normal.”

“I’ll say,” she laughed.

“Indeed,” I smiled, “but, would you say your feet have been more sore than normal after the death of your roomie?”

Sabrina put on a thinking expression for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, now that you mention it, they have been sorer since then.”

“I thought they might,” I nodded, “I’ll bet your hands have been too.”

“They have.”

“Anywhere else?”

“Well, my lower back was getting sore too…though, now it hurts more because of the damage I sustained,” she reported, “also, my knees.”

“Nowhere else?”

“No, that pretty much sums it up.”

“Good, that sounds fairly typical for an android that hasn’t been serviced in almost two years,” I smiled, “of course, Skyler hadn’t been serviced in three, but he didn’t have as physically demanding a job as yours.”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “nursing is much harder than accounting.”

“Alright, I’m ready to open you up now,” I announced, before pausing…a blush forming on my face.

“What is it?” She asked with a concerned look.

“Ummm, I need to check something online first,” I told her suddenly, getting up and rushing to my computer. After a few moments, I found what I was looking for and nodded before returning to her.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yes,” I nodded, blushing even more, “I just needed to make sure that umm…well, that your anatomy didn’t alter the opening procedure. I mean, I’ve had Rachel for a while, but her design is slightly different from yours and Skyler’s”

“Oh,” she nodded.

I steeled myself and wheeled my chair closer to her. I looked into her eyes with a serious look and said, “This might feel a bit weird.” She gave me a nod and watched as I pressed my finger into her navel, twisting it 90 degrees, before suddenly grabbing hold of both her nipples and twisting them in the opposite direction.

“AH!” She squealed when I pinched her nipples, though her squeal abruptly cut off as she let out an “Oh,” in a strange voice.

There was a hissing sound as an oval-shaped seam appeared on her torso, running from just above her breasts to just above the patch of vaginal hair. I felt her breasts firm up and then the panel of skin lifted up from her body slightly. I used her breasts as leverage to remove it the rest of the way, laying the torso cover down in my lap with the breasts pressing against the side of my leg, before reaching in and opening the inner panel, making her ribs slide open to reveal her inner mechanisms.

“Whoa!” Sabrina practically shouted, staring down at what used to be her chest, but was now an open cavity displaying her inner workings. She stared incredulously back and forth from her innards, to me moving away and placing her chest panel on the same table that Rachel’s dismantled body lay on.

“See, I told you it would be weird,” I grinned, wheeling back over to her so I could examine her innards. I started things off by immediately plugging in another wireless link to her MCN, and then starting a low-level hardware diagnostic on my tablet while I conducted a visual survey.

“This is amazing…and a little freaky,” she finally managed to say, calming down somewhat as she finished processing her new reality, “hey, how come my hands can’t reach inside?” She asked, trying to reach in and touch something.

“Oh, it’s a safety feature you guys come installed with,” I explained, “to prevent you from accidentally damaging yourself.”

“Oh,” she said in a slightly disappointed voice, “that makes sense.”

“I still have it partially enabled on Skyler, even after all this time,” I assured her, “but I programmed in several exceptions so he can repair himself in the rare eventuality that I’m not around.”

“Will you program those in me too?”

“I don’t see why not,” I shrugged.

“So, I think I can make out some approximations of human organs, like my lungs, digestive system, and even my power core,” Sabrina said in a clinical tone, using her knowledge of human anatomy, “but what is this large thing in between my lungs?”

“That is your Motor Control Nexus, or MCN for short,” I explained, “in order to reduce space in your head, they started manufacturing with these so the brain in your head could be much smaller, fitting only your operating system and all the files that make up your ‘self’. The MCN processes all the voluntary and involuntary processes below your neck, such as your movements, sense of touch, power regulation, and digestion.”

“Cool,” she breathed, smiling as she saw her lungs expanding and contracting, “and what was that device you plugged into it?”

“Another wireless link, similar to the one I attached to your head earlier,” I told her, “This way I can run diagnostics on you anytime I want now, and even remote control you if necessary.”

“That sounds a little creepy,” she shuddered, “but I trust you.”

“Good,” I smiled, continuing my inspection, and flagging several things I noticed right away, “I can assure you; I’ll take excellent care of you.”

“Thanks Greg, that means a lot,” she smiled, a tear forming in her eye, “I think I’m finally realizing, after these past few years nursing and taking care of others, that no one has been taking care of me…at least, not since my roomie died.”

“That may have something to do with the sleeper settings I disabled,” I pointed out, “they’ve most likely been suppressing those thoughts so you wouldn’t question your reality, or make any risky choices.”

“Huh, that’s weird…being a slave to yourself,” she mused, “Thanks for freeing me.”

“Don’t mention it,” I shrugged, “I can’t take full credit…it was an act of God that started this all tonight, not that I believe in any of that.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t either,” she laughed.

“Anyway, based on a visual inspection of your components, I can already see several damaged or worn-out devices,” I told her, leaning out of her torso and staring her in the face.

She gulped nervously, expecting bad news. “Anything serious?”

“Fortunately, not,” I smiled reassuringly, “but, there are a handful of components that I don’t have any spares for on hand, so I might have to order them.”

“Might?”

“Well, it might be nothing, but Skyler had spares,” I mused, before staring back into Sabrina’s confused face, “Let me see…I have a strange question for you.”

“I’m sure it’s no stranger than this,” she laughed nervously, gesturing at her open torso.

“Perhaps,” I smiled, “Sabrina, are there any boxes at your apartment that might be labeled as old family photos, or mementos, or something? Basically, boxes that a person might stash in their attic and completely forget about.”

A look of shock appeared on her face. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Well, if my suspicions are correct, those boxes actually contain your spare parts,” I told her, “Skyler had several boxes of spare parts at the campsite he was activated in, and I surmised that maybe your roommate kept them in your house and convinced you not to open them by tricking you into believing they were just boxes of old junk.”

“Old junk is almost exactly how she described it,” Sabrina nodded, “I thought it was strange that her family never asked for it, and some part of me never brought it up with them.”

“They must have your spare parts then,” I smiled, relieved I wouldn’t have to rush order new parts, “I’d like to head on over there right now and get them, if that’s alright…. it’ll save me a lot of time, and money.”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” she shrugged, “if it’ll get me fixed up, and out of my place, I’m all for it,” she said excitedly.

“There is just one snag,” I added with a delicate look, “unfortunately, that spinal damage is too severe for you to safely perform any additional actions other than simply walking around in here, and the damage to your body exposes you to the heavy rain outside.”

“Then how am I supposed to go with you?”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to place your brain in Skyler’s body.”

“What?! Why Skyler’s body? Why not Rachel’s?” She asked, a blush forming on her face.

“Rachel’s body isn’t ready to be brought back online yet, since I was performing maintenance on it,” I apologized, “Skyler’s, on the other hand, is already finished and fully charged.”

Sabrina breathed heavily a few times as she calmed herself down, appearing flustered. “I mean, it’s not like I wouldn’t mind trying out his attractive body, but…would he mind?”

“Oh no, not at all,” I laughed, “he’d be thrilled to find out that the girl we’ve both been crushing on is an android, and that she tried out his body.”

Sabrina nodded with my words, still appearing uncomfortable, “and, would I be able to function in a male body?”

“Well, I would need to install a special patch, the same one I gave to Skyler so he could function in Rachel’s body, but that would only take a minute,” I assured her, “and, I would be disabling the rest of your sleeper settings too, so you can see your HUD.”

Sabrina seemed to be calmer now as her mind was processing the possibility of being in a male body, she now seemed more excited than concerned, “how long would I be able to stay in it?”

“A long as you’d like,” I told her, “At least, until I need to remove your brain to install the larger software updates.”

“Okay, I suppose being in a male body for a few hours might actually be kinda fun,” she conceded, “when are you going to transfer me?”

“Soon,” I told her, tapping away on my tablet. A few moments later, Skyler’s body walked out of his bathroom and entered my lab area, coming to a stop a short distance from us.

“Whoa! His body can move around without his brain?”

“Uh huh,” I grinned, pausing to admire his body before turning back to Sabrina, “Like I said, just as with you, your bodies have the MCN which essentially acts as muscle memory for your bodies, so anything you could do physically while your brain is installed your body can do too, with enough practice.”

“Interesting,” she mused, also admiring his body, then looked at the clock. “Hey, it’s past 1am…are you really going to be able to work on my body tonight…you’re human, so you do need sleep.”

“Thanks for the concern,” I smiled, “But, I had intended to work through the night, since the network connections would be faster, so I took a five-hour nap after lunch and should be fine until the point where I have you plugged in to download and install your updates.”

“I see,” she nodded, “sorry, my nursing training made me point that out…I see so many patients who overwork themselves.”

“No worries, besides, working on lovely androids like you too is hardly stressful…it’s really fun.”

Sabrina giggled.

“Well, if you’re ready, I’m going to patch you so you can function in a male body, and then I’m going to disable your remaining sleeper settings,” I told her, prepping my tablet.

“Before you do, there’s something I want to say,” she said, her face flushing. I leaned in to focus on her, and before I could do anything, she leaned forward and planted a surprise kiss on my lips.

Whatever semblance of professionalism I was keeping up instantly evaporated with her kiss, as I passionately returned it, almost melting into her face. I felt her hands caressing my cheeks as I braced them on her legs. When she finally broke apart from me, her face was glowing with contentment. “Wow, that felt really good…strangely good,” she said, in an almost euphoric way.

“Yeah,” I managed to say, trying to catch my breath. I was momentarily distracted by a ping on my tablet. “Oh my, it looks like you just made me your official owner,” I announced, happily showing her the prompt on my tablet.

“Huh, how about that?” She giggled, still in a euphoric state, “it certainly feels right.”

“Huh, that almost exactly what Skyler told me when his system made me his owner,” I chuckled, clearing the prompt from the tablet. After I cleared that prompt, a new one requesting my permission to add her as a girlfriend. “And it looks like you want to be my girlfriend,” I added, with a grin.

“Oh man, I can’t believe how much that thing knows about me,” she said in an embarrassed tone, “But yeah, since you’re my owner now, why not make me your girlfriend?” She shrugged, “it’s not like it’s illegal.”

Sabrina was right. After the wars, Polygamy was decriminalized worldwide in order to repopulate most areas. In some areas, it was actually encouraged and even required. Despite the population being stable now, most governments had opted to keep it legal, since there had been no biblical repercussions as the religious zealots of the time had feared.

“I know, but are you sure you want to go there so fast?” I asked carefully, “Skyler and I had been living together for three years.”

“Yeah, but come on…you two have totally been flirting with me, and I with you,” she pointed out.

“That’s true,” I conceded, “alright, I’ll modify your settings so both Skyler and I are listed as Boyfriends in your programming, and I’ll update you as a Girlfriend in Skyler’s once he’s fully backed up.”

“Thanks Greg,” she smiled fondly, watching me modify her programming on my tablet.

I smiled back and got to work. I quickly confirmed her new status as mine and Skyler’s girlfriend, adding in both our preferences, and then got to work downloading the patch she would require to function in a body of the opposite sex. Once I had the patch queued, I went into her sleeper settings and disabled the remaining settings. A prompt popped up notifying me she would need to reboot.

“Alright Sabrina, you’ll need to reboot now,” I warned her, “this one might take a bit longer than before.”

“Okay, I’m ready,” she said resolutely.

I nodded and tapped the button, rebooting her. I took the time she was rebooting to do a quick celebratory dance, happy that a lovely woman that both Skyler and I were attracted to just happened to be an android, and that she had a crush on us too and had agreed to be in a relationship with us. I managed to regain my composure just as she came back online.

“Welcome back!” I announced cheerfully, “do you feel any different?”

“Oh yes,” she said with a look of wonder, as she accessed her HUD for the first time, exploring all the settings, “I can’t believe this was being hidden from me this whole time.”

“I know, it’s very cool…. I saw Skyler’s through his visual monitor when he first accessed it; I wish I had one.”

“This is going to make my life SO much better…. I can set alarms for myself, place a to-do list on my screen, and I even have facial recognition so I won’t forget a person’s name.”

“Like I said, I wish I had one,” I laughed, “but don’t get too used the way it looks now,” I warned her, “The HUD is the most tweaked and changed feature whenever they release the major updates for your A.I., and you’re behind on at least two of them.”

“Ah, I see,” she nodded, “so, am I ready to be moved into Skyler’s body?”

“Almost,” I told her, prepping something on my tablet, “For security reasons, your bodies have defense programming to prevent someone from stealing your body and putting another brain in,” I explained, “To prevent people from doing that, your body generates a complex code that has to be detected in any brain that’s connected to it, before it will install its own code into the brain allowing them to work with each other.”

“Huh, that sounds good…I sure wouldn’t want anyone stealing my body.”

“Nor would I,” I nodded fervently, “anyway, all I have to do is show you this code, and your A.I. will save it in your memory until Skyler’s body detects it, and then it will be purged so no one can hack it from your memory. Then it’ll be replaced with code allowing your brain to function in his body.”

“Sounds simple enough,” she shrugged.

“Okay, here it is,” I told her, flipping the tablet around and showing her the complex 4D code, “I need you to stare at this for 10-seconds, just to be safe.”

“Okay,” she nodded, staring intently at it. After exactly ten seconds, she blinked and I flipped the tablet back around.

“Alright, that should do it,” I announced, placing the tablet down, “now, one last thing…could you please get up and lay down on this table please?” I requested, “I’m not strong enough to lift your body up onto it, so I might as well have you climb up there before I transfer you.”

“Okay,” she smiled, slowly rising from the chair, giggling at the mechanical noises her body made as she got up. She walked over to the examination table just behind the chair she was sitting in and hopped up onto it before slowly lying down. “Ah, this feels nice.”

“Good, I made sure to snatch the highest quality tables,” I smiled, prepping some equipment. I quickly sanitized my hands and then grabbed a rod-like device from my desk that was designed to absorb the latent static electricity my body had accumulated in the past hour before returning to Sabrina. “I’m going to remove your scalp now,” I warned her.

“Okay,” she nodded with a trusting look, though she appeared nervous.

I gently lifted up her head and pressed my finger in the exact spot at the base of her scalp that I knew her manual release was. A few seconds later she gasped as a seam appeared around her head and I gently removed her scalp, placing it on a bust so her hair wouldn’t be messed up.

“This feels weird,” she giggled nervously, looking around wildly, hearing the components whirring in her open head.

“I’ll bet,” I smiled, quickly looking in to make sure everything looked normal in her head. I saw a few circuits with minor shock damage, but I had sufficient replacements on hand. “Alright, I’m going to remove you now,” I told her, placing my hand on her brain; it was slightly warm to the touch.

She merely nodded in response before going stoic as I removed her brain from her head, forcing her body into standby mode; I chose to leave her body online for a while so I could have it run a benchmark diagnostic before we left. I paused briefly to admire her brain, as I had with Skyler’s, still amazed that her real personality and essence was contained in a device so small.

I quickly moved the wireless link device from the open port on her head to an open port on her brain, resealing the port on her head. I then gently placed Sabrina’s brain on my desk as I opened up Skyler’s head. Once I had his scalp on another nearby bust, I gently picked up Sabrina’s brain and clicked it in place in Skyler’s head, replacing the scalp as his body communicated with Sabrina’s brain. I stood back and watched patiently, knowing it might take up to a minute.

After nearly 45 seconds had passed, Skyler’s body twitched and then blinked it’s eyes several times before almost lurching forward. “Whoa!” She almost yelled, using Skyler’s voice.

“What is it? Are you fully integrated?” I asked in a concerned voice, walking forward and grabbing her to hold her upright.

“I think so,” she said in a confused voice, almost testing out Skyler’s voice, “I think I was caught off guard because when you pulled me out of my body I was laying down, but his body was already standing.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” I mused, since usually Skyler and Rachel were laying down when he swapped bodies for him, “sorry about that.”

“It’s alright,” she smiled, “but hey, Skyler’s body feels great! It feels so naturally, almost like it’s actually my body,” she remarked with a huge grin on his face, “except a few obvious differences,” she giggled, gesturing at his chest and penis.

“I’ll say,” I blushed, remembering her nude body.

“This feels so weird,” she continued, reaching down and gingerly grabbing her penis, squeezing it and playing around with it. She let it go and then shook her hips, watching it swing back and forth, before gasping, “Oh, I think I’m turning myself on,” she blushed, watching as it became erect, “I think I’m still attracted to Skyler’s body even though I’m inside it.”

“I thought that might happen,” I nodded, watching as she became more erect.

“This feels so weird, and good,” she said, “but, I’m not sure I can make it stop…I don’t want to make a mess here, can you help me out?” She pleaded, now fully erect and throbbing.

“Sure,” I nodded, bending down and tapping a freckle above his penis. This immediately illuminated a few subdermal icons in a bright blue color. I tapped at a coil icon with a down arrow several times, making her penis become flaccid once more. I then tapped a flame icon with a down icon to lower her libido before tapping the freckle once more to de-illuminate the icons.

“Wow, that was cool,” she said with an impressed look, “Does my body have a panel like that above my vagina?”

“It should,” it told her, quickly walking over to it. I tapped a small freckle and illuminated it, “Yep,” I told her, de-illuminating it.

“Cool…so much of myself to learn.”

“Yeah, so I know you’re attracted to Skyler, but try and maintain some discipline,” I warned her, “he managed to essentially create a female profile for himself to switch into when he plugs into Rachel, or any female body,” I explained, “that way he can act more feminine but still be himself.”

“Wow, I’ll have to ask him to show me how to create a male profile for when I’m in his body.”

“I’m sure he’d be more than happy to,” I smiled, “anyway, I need you to test out your control of his body, so could you please walk to the entrance of my lab and back, but exaggerate your arm and leg movements?”

“Sure,” she nodded, turning around and marching to the entrance of my lab and then back with a goofy look on her face. When she got back, she stopped in front of me and frowned. “Wow, Skyler’s so short,” she grimaced, standing on the tips of his toes and still not coming up to the same height as her body.

“I don’t mind,” I shrugged, bending down and kissing her on the lips.

“Ooh, that feels just as good on his lips as it does mine,” she blushed, once I pulled away.

“You’ll have to get used to bending down if you want to kiss Skyler too,” I pointed out.

“If I must,” she said in a mock tone of defeat, “So, are we going to head over to my place now?”

“Yeah, but first we need to get you dressed.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” she blushed, following me out of the lab and into the bedroom Skyler and I shared. “Wow, it definitely smells like you in here,” she giggled, wrinkling her nose.

“Yeah, well I’m human so I have body odor,” I said in an unapologetic tone, grabbing some basic clothes from Skyler’s drawer and handing them to her, “will you need any help getting dressed?”

“I think I can figure it out,” she smiled, heading over to the bed to get dressed.

“Alright,” I nodded, patiently waiting while I watched her get dressed. She immediately seemed to have trouble with the underwear though. “Problem?” I inquired, walking over to assist.

“Yeah, I can’t figure out this pouch in the front,” she admitted with a bashful look.

“Oh yeah, that’s a neat invention someone made for men,” I told her, reaching in and gently grabbing the tip of her penis, feeding it through a small circular opening until the entire flaccid portion was in there, “it’s a two-pouch system to keep both parts of the penis separated, to reduce chaffing and make it more comfortable down there.”

“Ah, how neat,” she remarked, shaking her hips satisfactorily, “thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” I smiled, walking away to observe her get the rest of her clothes on. She encountered no more difficulties putting on a pair of Skyler’s cargo pants, a t-shirt, a jacket, and shoes and socks.

“How do I look?” She asked, twirling around.

“Dressed,” I said pointedly, eliciting a giggle.

“Yeah, I suppose these clothes are more functional than fashionable,” she lamented, “but they’ll have to do.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “I just need to get my shoes on, and then grab some things and I’ll be ready to go.”

“Okay,” she nodded, following me back out into the living room.

Once I had my shoes and socks on, as well as my well-worn jacket, I headed back into my lab to get a few things; Sabrina silently followed me.

After I grabbed my satchel with a few things I’d need, I put all my equipment into standby mode and then headed for the door. I stopped when I looked at Sabrina’s body, smacking my forehead.

“What is it?” She asked in a concerned voice.

“I was going to have your body run a benchmark test while we were gone,” I told her, grabbing the tablet and tapping away, “that way I have something to compare after I’ve fixed you up and upgraded a few things.”

“Ah,” she nodded, staring pensively down into the face of her body, which stared mindlessly back up at her.

A few seconds later I finished and all the systems in her body hummed into action as the diagnostic benchmark began. “Alright, I’m ready.”

“Hold on,” she said, leaning down and staring more closely into her face. After a few seconds, she leaned in closer and planted a kiss on her own lips, briefly savoring the feeling, before standing back up with a flushed look on her face.

“How did that feel?” I asked with a quizzical expression.

“Weird,” she admitted, “but really good.”

“I can only imagine,” I said with a voice filled with longing, “are you ready?”

“Yes,” she replied, grabbing her purse from her pile of clothes on the floor.

“Then let’s go,” I announced, leading the way out of the apartment, making sure everything was secure before locking the door behind us.

Fortunately, the rain had diminished considerably over the course of the previous hour since Sabrina knocked on my door. It was still drizzling, but it was a far cry from the torrential downpour from before.

“Lead the way,” I told her.

‘“What?” she asked in a confused voice.

“Oh, I forget to mention,” I said, slapping my forehead, “we’ll need to drive your car so you can park it near my apartment, and I don’t know where you live.”

“Oh, that make sense,” she blushed, “follow me.”

We walked a short distance to the hospital parking lots. Her car was parked in the employee section. She dug her car keys out of her purse and unlocked the door. “Do you want to drive?”

“No thanks, it’s your car,” I told her, heading to the passenger side.

“Alrighty,” she smiled, hopping in. She quickly frowned as she realized that she would have to adjust the seats and mirrors, since Skyler’s body was so much shorter than hers. Once she had everything adjusted, she buckled up and then frowned once more, adjusting her pants with a few grunts.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s this penis,” she grunted, “it gets in the way while I’m sitting.”

“Yeah,” I said delicately, “that’s just something us guys have to get used to…”

Sabrina sighed. “Well, at least I’m only using his body for a few hours.” She pressed the ignition button on the dashboard and then backed out of her parking spot. “I live about 20 minutes away, so if you want to take a quick power nap, now’s a good time.”

“Okay, I think I will,” I told her, reclining the seat, “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said in a sweet voice, which sound weird coming out of Skyler, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

I felt her shake me awake a short time later, the car was pulled in to a parking space in front of a large apartment. “We’re here.”

“Oh, thanks,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and bringing the seat back into an upright position, “So, you don’t have any nosy neighbors who might be concerned about two strange men entering your apartment late at night, do you?” I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped outside, looking cautiously around.

“I hope not!” She scoffed, unblocking her door and stepping outside.

“Good…I think it would be quite awkward to have the police arrest us for breaking into your apartment.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” she smiled, “let’s just get inside quick then.”

I nodded and followed her to the front door where she unlocked it using the key on her keyset. Once unlocked, she opened the door and quickly slipped inside, closing the door quickly after I entered.

While she latched the door, I stepped into her living room and was surprised by how sparse things were. There was furniture and a few decorations strewn about, but the place looked far too large for one person to be living in. She soon followed me in, turning on the lights, and stopped.

“Wow, I never realized how empty it was in here before,” she said with a strange look.

I let out a sad sigh. “It was most likely your sleeper settings keeping you from paying any attention,” I explained, “otherwise any normal person would have most likely downsized after their roommate died, or simply found a new roommate. But, your A.I. made you stay here because it was safer and more convenient.”

“I guess, with these settings turned off, I’m starting to realize how empty my life has been…I usually just come home and watch TV, or occasionally go out with work friends.”

“Well, now you have Skyler and I to keep you company,” I said in a happy tone.

“Yeah,” she smiled.

“So anyway, where are those boxes?”

“Upstairs,” she replied, leading me to the staircase. Once upstairs she continued into an empty bedroom filled with dust and cobwebs, and into the walk-in closet. “This was Cassandra’s room,” she announced sadly, “my roommate.”

I gave her a sad nod and headed into the closet. Inside were four boxes similar to the ones I found in the cave near Skyler’s ‘camp’. I stepped over to the nearest one and popped off the cover. Sabrina let out a small gasp.

Inside the first box I opened, right on the top, were two duplicates of her head, face up with their eyes closed as though they were sleeping. Just as with Skyler, they appeared to be slightly different ages, though based on what I remembered of Sabrina’s body, she was likely using the middle one. I could see neat handwriting written on a note attached to the one on the left, indicating it was the head Sabrina used when she was supposed to be age 21. The other one indicated age 25, meaning Sabrina was likely still using her age 23 head.

I gently moved the heads aside and looked further in the box, bringing out several extra hands, legs, arms, and feet, all while Sabrina stared incredulously.

“I can’t believe this was up here this whole time,” she breathed, as I examined the extra limbs. “Hey! That hand has a cut on it…. I remember cutting my hand a few years ago, but I thought it was strange that I had no scar, so I just wrote if off as a dream.”

“Yeah, seems like Cassandra knew what she was doing,” I said with an impressed look, “She left me some detailed notes,” I added, pulling out a journal filled with Cassandra’s neat handwriting.

“Wow, she really did take care of me,” Sabrina said, a tear forming in her eye, “I just wish she would have arranged for someone to take care of me in case she couldn’t.”

“Well, if she were still alive when I found out about Skyler, then she may have looked me up and brought me into the loop,” I told her, “Based on her notes, she was looking for some backup and couldn’t find any.”

“Ah,” Sabrina nodded.

After I finished inventorying the box containing the spare limbs, I neatly repacked them and inspected the others. As expected, they contained various spare parts, such as digestive system, batteries, circuits, and just about everything else her body would need, including replacements for the damaged parts I observed in her body.

“Well, everything I need is here,” I announced, closing everything up and standing back up.

“Good,” she sighed with relief.

I quickly sized up the boxes, since with Skyler’s I had a cart, and pulled my tablet out of my jacket. “It looks like I’ll have to disable your safeties.”

“My what?”

“Oh, as an android you have much more strength than the average human, but that strength is locked behind safeties that only your owner can unlock,” I pointed out, “otherwise your battery would drain faster, you’d need far more maintenance, and you could possible seriously injure someone…even by doing something as simple as shaking their hand.”

“Wow, really?” She mused, staring at Skyler’s hands, “I guess I’ll take your word for it.”

“Trust me,” I winked, tapping away on my tablet until I found the safety lockout, “I tested this out with Skyler a few days after his discovery…. he was able to lift me up with ease and toss me into a swimming pool,” I laughed, “alright, here goes,” I warned her, disengaging the safeties.

She nodded and appeared to brace herself, then had a confused look. “Huh, I don’t feel any different.”

“Well, the safeties are off,” I assured her, “try placing one of those boxes on another and lifting them up.”

“Okay,” she said, bending down and lifting one of them up. “Whoa, that felt easy,” she laughed, almost falling over backwards as she lifted the one box.

“Yeah, his body could have easily handled the one box before, but two might have been a problem,” I grinned, “Once you have two stacked, lift them up and I’ll add the third on top and take the fourth down myself.”

“Okay,” she nodded, quickly stacking one box on the first and lifting them up. Skyler’s body emitted a high pitch whine as she lifted them up, “Whoa, that came from me?”

“Yeah,” I grimaced, “that happens when the safeties are off,” I confirmed, “that’s part of the reason it means more maintenance.”

“I see,” she nodded, “I’m ready for that third box…his body seems to be handling these two with ease.”

“Okay,” I nodded. I bent down and lifted the lighter of the two remaining boxes up and placed it atop the two she was holding. “Alright, follow me down.”

“Yes master,” she said jokingly, slowly following me out of Cassandra’s room. We slowly made our way down the stairs, out the front door, and to her car. She carefully placed the boxes on the ground near her trunk and opened it up, placing each box in one at a time. Once the boxes were loaded, we closed the trunk and headed back inside.

“Wow, that was kinda fun,” she grinned, once she had the door locked behind her, “do you think you could turn off the safeties in my body when you put me back in it?”

“Sure,” I nodded, pulling my tablet back out and re-engaging the safeties in Skyler’s body, “But, only for occasional use.”

“I understand,” she nodded, “I hope that load didn’t damage Skyler’s body too much.”

“Nah, compared to lifting me up, those three boxes were nothing,” I shrugged, “But I’ll probably at least plug that body in for a bit when we get back.”

“Good,” she smiled.

“So, is there anything else you’d like to get while we’re here?” I asked, “you might be staying with me for a few days while I make sure you’re doing alright.”

“Actually…now that I’m here, seeing it all in a new light, I was kinda wondering if maybe I could just move in with you and Skyler,” she admitted, a bashful expression on her face.

I felt butterflies in my stomach “Really?”

“Yeah,” she said in a more determined voice, “I mean, I know it’s fast, but you’ve shown me so much of myself in just the past couple hours, and I feel totally awakened,” she explained, “besides, this place is far too large for me, and moving in with you would lower my rent, and yours as well, and would put me MUCH closer to where I work.”

“Yeah, you could just walk across the street,” I laughed, “and, evening things out, it would likely reduce our rent share by 34% each,” I added, doing the math in my head.

“And mine by more than half,” she laughed, “you see, it makes a lot of sense…also, I wouldn’t be living alone surrounded by lies.”

“Yeah, instead you’d be living with two people who love you,” I said warmly.

“Yeah,” she nodded, tears forming in her eyes.

“Well, speaking for Skyler, we would be happy to have you move in with us,” I smiled, walking over and giving her a big hug.

“Thanks Greg.”

After our moment, we broke apart and stared into each other’s eyes awkwardly. “So, umm, how much do you need to pack?” I finally said.

“Not too much,” she shrugged, putting on a thinking expression, “Aside from my toiletries, probably just a week’s worth of clothes, my pillow, and a few of my electronics.”

“Hmmm, sounds manageable,” I nodded, “Let’s get started.”

“Great! I’ll grab my suitcase.”

After she grabbed a suitcase from the closet under the stairs, we headed upstairs to her bedroom. Despite her apparent oblivious nature to the emptiness of the rest of the place, her bedroom looked about how I expected it to. Stereotypical feminine décor, posters of cute male singers on the wall, stuffed animals, and unnecessary pillows on the bed. Still, her room was neat and tidy, which I found appealing.

“I’m glad you keep your room so neat,” I commented, sitting on the foot of the bed while she went into her closet to gather some clothes, “Skyler was much the opposite…I actually had to tweak his programming to make him neater.”

“Yeah, neatness is something they drill into us in nursing,” Sabrina nodded, packing some of her nursing scrubs into the suitcase, “if we can’t find something because there’s a mess, people might die.”

“Good point,” I nodded, “I simply find it comforting.”

“Me too,” she agreed, packing a week’s worth of underwear and casual clothes, “Alright, let’s go into the bathroom.”

“Alright,” I said, following her in. When she turned on the light, I briefly observed the numerous feminine products both on her sink and in her shower and let out a troubling sigh.

“What is it?” She asked in a concerned voice, “This isn’t some comment about the excessive amount of hygiene products us women us, is it?”

“Oh no,” I shook my head vigorously, “it’s just…there’s no way you could have known, but a number of these products are actually harmful to your skin…or rather, to android skin.”

“What?! I’ve been using some of these products for over a year!”

“Yeah, I’m guessing you switched to many of them after Cassandra died, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, she knew what she was doing, so she made sure you’d buy products that are gentler on android skin,” I explained, “I’m just not sure why you stopped buying them after she died.”

“They were expensive,” Sabrina shrugged, “After she died, I suddenly had to pay for the whole rent instead of half, so I had to make some cuts.”

“I see,” I nodded, “Well, we’ll have to get you back on those products as soon as possible.”

“Will these be fine for now at least?” She asked, “I mean, for the next day or two…my body still hasn’t been showered since I got off work after all.”

“They should be,” I conceded, “your bodies have tiny robots called nanites that travel throughout your body in the muscular and epidermal layers,” I explained, “they travel in the red fluid that bleeds out of you when you get a small cut and repair minor damage…the problem with using those unsafe products is they are abrasive to your skin and hair and make the nanites work harder throughout your body, which can increase the healing time for small wounds.”

“Oh, that’s why,” she said, a look of understanding dawning on her face, “I just thought it was a part of getting older.”

“Well, it partially is,” I smiled, “I’ll be replacing your nanites tonight too, before I have your body shower while I’m upgrading your A.I.”

“You’ll make my body shower…how?”

“Like I told you, your bodies have muscle memory of a sort saved into your MCNs,” I explained, “since you’ve showered countless times during your operational lifetime, it’s had plenty of time to learn…it may just have to make a few adjustments, since the shower Skyler uses is configured slightly differently from yours.”

“Okay,” she nodded, “so, us androids have to use a different bathroom?” She said with an accusatory look, albeit a mocked one.

“Only so my human products don’t damage your android skin,” I defended with a grin, “though you’re more than welcome to use mine if Skyler’s using his when you need to do stuff.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, gathering up the last of the toiletries in a travel bag and carrying them out of the bathroom, with me in tow. “Could you grab the suitcase please?” She asked nicely, grabbing her pillow and tucking it under her arm with the toiletries in the other.

“Sure.” I picked up her suitcase and followed her down the stairs, and to a corner of the living room that she had set up as her home office.

She quickly packed up her laptop, a few tablets, various charging cables and devices, and a binder full of important documents. Once she had the essentials packed, she looked around the apartment with squinted eyes, scanning for anything else she might want. “Did you want to take anything from my fridge?” She asked, walking into her small kitchen and opening it up. Since she lived alone, it was fairly empty inside, but she had a few containers of leftovers that looked reasonably good.

“Sure,” I shrugged, grabbing a few of the containers, and a jug of lemonade, from her fridge. I also noticed a few unopened bottles of white wine, which I also gladly added.

“I was actually wondering about that,” she commented, smiling at the look on my face when I took the wine, “can I actually get drunk?”

“In a way,” I nodded, packing the fridge stuff into the travel case, “your human emulation software is able to mimic drunkenness based on a variety of factors, so you can enjoy the same experience an actual human can,” I explained, “You can, of course, toggle it off if you need to drive or operate any heavy machinery.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

After I finished packing the bag and secured it, I turned to her. “Is there anything else you’d like to get?”

She put on a thinking expression, scanning the room for a few moments, before shaking her head. “No, this should suffice…besides, I can always drive back here when you’re done with my body.”

“And Skyler and I can certainly assist you with moving out of here, once you’ve submitted notice with your landlord,” I offered, “though, you’ll probably have to sell most of your furniture.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’m not really attached to any of it, so I don’t mind,” she shrugged, “besides, I’m guessing I’ll be sleeping with you, right?”

I blushed. “Well, I mean, if you want to,” I managed to say, “Skyler sleeps with me too, so my bed might get a bit cramped.”

“Well then, we may need to get you a bigger bed,” she smiled, “we can certainly afford it.”

“You’re right,” I laughed, “and actually, sometimes Skyler doesn’t even sleep with me,” I admitted, “he occasionally prefers to spend the night in sleep mode on the couch so he can plug himself in and run late night diagnostics.”

“Interesting,” she mused, “I’ll have to coordinate with him then.”

I merely nodded knowingly and then changed the subject, “Well, I have a lot of work to get done on your body tonight, so we should be heading back now.”

“Right,” she nodded, turning off the lights in her apartment and picking up her belongings. Once we had the rest of the stuff we’d packed secured in her car, we got back in the vehicle so she could drive us back to my apartment.

“You can pull into the extra spot next to my car,” I told her, as we were pulling into the parking lot, “Our unit has two spaces, but we’ve only had one car this whole time.” It had completely stopped raining now.

“How come?” She asked, parking the car in the extra spot and getting out.

“Well, we didn’t make as much money as we do now when we first met, and since I work from home, I didn’t think it would be a good idea for Skyler to waste any of his money buying a car for himself, so I just let him drive my car,” I explained, grabbing some of the boxes from the trunk.

“That’s nice,” she smiled, grabbing more of the boxes and carrying them to the front door, “perhaps he can drive my car too, since I won’t be needing it as much since I live just across the street from work now,” she giggled.

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” I assured her, depositing the boxes in my lab and heading back out with her to retrieve the rest of her stuff, “our cars have to be driven regularly to mitigate maintenance problems.”

“Exactly.”

Once we had the remaining stuff safely packed away inside, I turned the equipment in my lab back on and quickly monitored Skyler’s progress.

“How’s he doing?” She asked, peeking over my shoulder.

“Looks like he’ll be done backing up in less than six hours,” I reported, “the backup process only takes about 10 hours.”

“And then you’ll put him back in his body?”

I shook my head. “No, actually I’ll let him sleep until morning or noon, when I wake up.”

“I see,” she nodded, “and you’ll be doing the same thing with me?”

“Yes,” I nodded, “but, I’m gonna let you watch me repair your body first.”

“Cool…I wish I could sleep with you tonight though,” she pouted.

“Me too,” I agreed with a longing expression, “but, this procedure is extremely important.”

“I know,” she nodded, “hey, maybe you could just sleep with my body.”

“Actually, it’s not as appealing as you might think,” I said delicately, “I tried doing that with Skyler’s body, and Rachel’s, but without your brain your body is basically a corpse.”

“Oh,” she winced, “well then, I guess you’ll have to wait until tomorrow then,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

“I look forward to it,” I smiled, before grabbing a toolkit and bringing it over to her body. I pulled my tablet out and switched over to Sabrina’s tab, checking for the results of the benchmark.

“Oh, did that benchmark finish?” She asked with an excited look.

“Yes,” I nodded, perusing the results with a disapproving look.

“Is it bad?” She asked with a pained expression.

“Well, not as bad as I thought, but still bad,” I replied, “basically, if I were to give your body a letter grade, it’d be a D+.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry,” I smiled, putting my hand on her shoulder, “I should be able to bump you up to at least a B+…the A grade though, you’ll need more professional help.”

“Well, I’ll take a B,” she laughed nervously, “just out of curiosity, what sort of professional help?”

“Well, Skyler just bought a replacement body.”

“Wait, this isn’t his original body?” She asked with a shocked look, staring down at it.

“No,” I laughed, “he replaced it less than a year after we discovered his nature. Basically, your bodies need to be properly maintained, otherwise stress fractures develop on your skeletal structure…and that’s something I can’t fix.”

“I see.”

“You were better taken care of than Skyler was, but your body could still use a replacement,” I continued, “based on your income, it should only take you about 3-4 months to save up enough; it took Skyler nearly six months.”

“Oh good…I was afraid I might be too expensive,” she sighed with relief, “but, it still seems weird.”

“Yeah, but your brain would still be the same,” I assured her, “you’d just be moving into a new body.”

“Well, it’s something I’ll have to seriously consider then,” she nodded, “but, if Skyler went through with it, then I think I will too.”

“Good, just keep me posted,” I told her, “You’d need to request at least a week off work too.”

“Good to know,” she smiled, “And, I could use Rachel’s body in the interim?”

“Of course,” I nodded, “or you could even purchase your own alternate body.”

“Ooh, there’s a thought,” she mused, putting on a thinking expression.

“Anyway, in the meanwhile, we need to work on your current body,” I announced, rubbing my hands together excitedly, “if you’d like to assist.”

“Of course, I would!”

“Great! We’ll get started with the easy stuff,” I announced, digging into the boxes of supplies we’d brought over and pulling out a spare set of hands and feet, and one of the heads. “We’ll start by swapping these for the ones your body currently has installed.”

“What’s wrong with the current ones?” She asked with a confused expression, picking up one of the hands and examining it.

“They’re worn out,” I explained, “your hands and feet are usually swapped out every year or two, so you were due for these almost a year ago anyway.”

“Oh, I see,” she nodded, “And what of the head?”

“That head is designed to age your physical appearance…slightly,” I told her, grabbing the notes Cassandra had left behind, “see, you’re currently supposed to be 25 years old, but you’re still using your 23-year-old head.”

Sabrina grabbed the 25-year-old head and held it up to her body, comparing the two heads carefully and nodding approvingly. “I see what you mean,” she smiled, putting the head back down, “this head does look slightly more…mature.”

“Exactly, and it won’t be as worn out or damaged either.”

“I guess I’m just a little apprehensive about looking older,” she shrugged, staging the new limbs on the table around her body.

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t mind that you’re older than me,” I grinned.

“I am?”

“Yeah, Skyler and I are both 22, though I turn 23 in a few weeks.”

“Huh, how interesting,” she mused, “I figured since we were both androids, that you were older than us.”

“Well, technically I’ve been ‘alive’ longer,” I admitted, “but you still have real memories installed, and maturity levels, so that still makes you 25 years old, even though you’ve only been online for five of those years.”

“Good to know,” she smiled, “I’ll try not to hold it against you, ‘master’,” she grinned.

“Thanks,” I laughed, “Are you ready to swap out the limbs?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure how.”

“Just watch me,” I told her, grabbing her body’s right hand. I clicked in just above the wrist and twisted it off, smoothly placing the old hand on the table while simultaneously clicking the new hand on. Once I did the same with her right foot, I turned to her, “Got it?”

“Yes,” she nodded, swiftly clicking off her body’s left hand and foot and replacing them with the new ones.

“Good,” I smiled, taking the old set of hands and feet and placing them in the storage box, amending the notebook with the latest round of maintenance, “Now for the head.”

“This’ll be weird,” she commented, watching as I lifted up her head and pushed in a small mole on the back of her neck. A seam instantly appeared, and I smoothly detached it.

“Hey, could you bring over the scalp, please?” I requested, since this head was still missing the scalp from when I removed her brain earlier.

Sabrina turned and walked to the bust that contained her scalp and long hair, carefully lifting it up and bringing it to me.

“Thanks, just click it on for me,” I told her.

She nodded and then carefully lined up the scalp over her old head, clicking it in place satisfactorily. I nodded in return and tapped the mole on the back, resealing the scalp. Finally, I stared into the blank eyes for a few seconds before deactivating the head via the power toggle behind her left ear.

“Was it that weird with Skyler the first time too?” She finally asked, after a moment of awkward silence.

“Yes, a little,” I admitted, carefully storing the age 23 head in the box and updating the notes, “Actually he skipped his 2nd tier head and went straight to the 3rd, so he aged far more noticeably,” I chuckled, picking up Sabrina’s age 25 head and clicking it onto her neck.

“Wow, I look more mature now,” she nodded, scrutinizing her appearance, “I can’t wait to move back in.”

I chuckled at her choice of words. “Yeah, I’ll bet…especially with the fresh hands and feet, and the various enhancements I’ll be giving you, you should feel like a new woman.”

“Yay! No more sore feet!”

“Indeed,” I smiled, “Now to delve into your torso,” I announced, rubbing my hands together excitedly.

“I’ll help as best I can, but I think I trust you more inside my body than I trust myself,” she said skeptically.

“Yeah, you can at least help hand me tools and stuff.”

“Thanks.”

I spent several minutes running a quick inventory of the parts that we had brought over from her place, comparing them to some of the parts that I still had on hand from both Skyler and Rachel’s maintenance. After I double checked inside her body for which parts she would need, or could use, I scribbled on the maintenance log for her body and then gave Sabrina an excited look.

“So, Sabrina, how would you like to lose up to 10lbs?”

She gave me a serious stare before finally answering. “Greg, I’m a woman…we’ve been programmed by society to want to weigh less, so what do you think?” I gave her a confused look, worried I may have offended her, before she suddenly cracked a smile and laughed. “Yes, of course I would!”

“Ok good,” I sighed, “sorry, I have trouble with sarcasm sometimes.”

“No worries,” she shrugged, “so, how are you going to go about making me lighter?”

“Well, some of the parts that I’ve taken out of Rachel and Skyler last night are compatible with your body, and are upgraded versions of what your body is currently using,” I explained, “in addition, several of them are either smaller and/or lighter, so they should reduce your current weight by between 5-10lbs.”

“Cool! I can hardly wait!” she squealed, “will the sudden weight loss impact my body too much though?”

“It shouldn’t,” I shook my head, “your body will be running a motor control test when I’m done, which will recalibrate all your motor systems,” I explained, “once completed, your body should be far more efficient, and the reduced weight will give you more energy, and less stress on the new feet,” I smiled, playfully poking her body’s right foot.

Sabrina smiled. “That’ll definitely be a relief.”

“Alright then, let’s get started!”

Sabrina nodded and prepared to assist me.

Over the next hour, Sabrina and I painstakingly replaced or upgraded virtually every component within her torso. From her digestive systems, which fortunately she had used the bathroom before leaving work, to her power systems. All the singed circuits were replaced with undamaged ones, and I was able to replace the damaged spinal section with a fresh one. After we finished rapid charging her new power core, and replaced the filters on her lungs, we stepped back and admired our work.

“Well Sabrina, just like Skyler, you’re a well constructed machine,” I nodded approvingly.

“Thanks,” she laughed, “Are we going to fix those scratches in my skin now?”

“Yes, but at this time I’m going to have to start your major software upgrades and full system backup, I’m afraid,” I told her, “Any later and I won’t have time.”

“Awww, do you have to?” She wheedled.

“Yes, those upgrades are very important…”

“Not the upgrades,” she interrupted, “I mean the backup…I’m still adapting to knowing I’m an android, after all,” she pointed out, “If something did happen to me and you had to restore me, wouldn’t you rather restore me to a point where I’m already settled in and comfortable with my new existence and living situation, rather than the point I’m at right now? It could ruin the entire essence of our relationship, after all.”

Sabrina caught me somewhat off guard. Not just because she was right, but because of the agency at which she explained it to me. I stopped and really thought for a while before answering.

“You’re probably right,” I conceded, “I suppose right now your A.I. Is still sort of re-writing itself, adapting to your newfound awareness, the fact that you have two boyfriends, and that you’ve suddenly moved in with them.”

“Exactly!” She agreed enthusiastically.

“I suppose I could hold off on the full backup until after you’ve completely settled in here, when I do Skyler and Rachel’s next monthly checkup.”

“Wow! Thanks a lot!” She smiled, rushing over and giving me a hug.

“Wow, careful there,” I recoiled, “remember, Skyler’s body is a bit stronger than yours.”

“Oh, sorry,” she blushed, loosening her grip but continuing the hug for several more seconds before breaking away.

“Don’t worry about,” I shrugged, rubbing my muscles. “I am still going to have to perform a routine backup before I upgrade your software,” I warned her, “it’ll only backup the A.I. Files, not everything else, so it won’t take nearly as long.”

“Okay good,” she sighed, “Looks like I’ll get to sleep with you tonight after all!” She fist pumped.

“Yeah,” I blushed, looking over at her body, “I look forward to it.”

“So, what do I need to do to get ready?”

“Could you undress and help me bring yours and Skyler’s clothes to the washer?” I decided, moving over and picking up the pile of clothes that she had been wearing to work in her body, “I’m going to run a load of yours and Skyler’s clothes, since you’ll be using the same detergent.”

“Okay,” she shrugged, swiftly removing the clothes she’d dressed Skyler’s body with and following me into the hallway, where I opened the washing machine, “I take it you use a special detergent that’s safe for android skin.”

“Yep,” I smiled, grabbing some of Skyler’s clothes from the bedroom and returning moments later, popping them in, along with a few detergent pods, “and I wash our bedsheets and stuff with it too, since he sleeps with me…and you too.”

“Wow, I’m gonna have to get used to this healthy lifestyle,” she laughed, “is there a way to program some list into me so I know what not to consume or put on my body?”

“Yes, I’ll be including that with the upgrades you’ll be installing soon, along with a few other things,” I told her, loading the fabric softener and starting a wash cycle.

“Oh, such as?”

“Nothing too elaborate,” I shrugged, walking with her back into my lab, pausing briefly to admire Skyler’s nude backside, “Mostly just some programs to assist you with being our girlfriend, and to alter your sleep settings.”

“Alter my sleep?”

“Well, more to make it easier for you to sleep with me, a human,” I elaborated, “as androids, you can basically sleep through anything, but I can’t, so there’s programs that allow your body to match my body heat so I don’t get too uncomfortable, and a program to allow me to give you verbal commands without waking you up.”

“Why verbal commands?”

“Well, I might need to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and I don’t want to wake you, so I can give you a sleep command to move out of the way so I can crawl out of bed, and then another sleep command so you can cuddle back up with me when I return.”

“Oh, cool,” she nodded, “and I take it sleep for us androids is actually necessary?”

“Oh yes,” I nodded, “it helps you archive your files at the end of the day, storing them as long-term memory, and it helps keep your systems running optimally.”

“Huh, almost like with a human,” she smiled.

“Exactly…though, you can always do that without sleeping too,” I added, “Skyler sometimes does it while he’s plugged in.”

“Good to know,” she nodded, “but, I think I’ll stick to sleeping the human way.”

“Good,” I smiled, “well, I’m ready to remove you now if you are.”

“Okay, just hold on one sec,” she nodded, quickly looking Skyler’s body over and feeling herself up, including the penis.

“Enjoying his body?”

“Yes,” she blushed, “but, I also discovered that my HUD includes a screen capture option, so I’m taking some nice screenshots of his body to view later.”

“Oh,” I nodded, “you’ll have to let him do that in your body too…fair is fair.”

“I know,” she nodded, “just one more thing to do and then I’ll be ready.”

“Okay,” I told her. She nodded and then walked up to me, gently grabbing my shoulders and pulling my head down, before kissing me full on the lips. While she was kissing me with Skyler’s lips, which I’d kissed hundreds of times by this point, it nonetheless felt different with her controlling his body.

When she finally let me go, she stared down at her waist bashfully. “Oh, looks like I got aroused again,” she blushed, pointing at her once again erect penis.

“Don’t worry, it’ll relax once I remove you from his body,” I assured her, my heart still racing from the kiss.

Sabrina merely nodded and stood at attention. “I’m ready now.”

I nodded and approached her, activating the scalp release and removing the top of her head. I grabbed hold of her core and looked her in the eyes. “See you soon.” I whispered.

She gave me a wink and then went stoic as I removed her core. “Error, A.I. Core removed…activating maintenance protocols,” Skyler’s body announced, relaxing its stance. I quickly placed Sabrina’s core in an interface block attached to my computer and then returned to Skyler to click his scalp back on while my computer connected to her core.

“Skyler, I want you to run a quick self-diagnostic on all systems to confirm nothing broke while Sabrina was using you,” I ordered him.

“Stand by,” he reported in a clipped tone, blinking once as he started the diagnostic.

I knew he’d be doing that for about five minutes, so I quickly sat down at my computer and started typing away on Sabrina’s interface, downloading the major A.I. upgrades she’d be installing, and loading the programs that she’d require to live with me better. By the time I finished and started the pre-upgrade backup process, Skyler’s body finished.

“Diagnostic complete, no anomalies reported.” He reported dutifully before falling silent.

“Excellent!” I smiled, walking back over to him. I quickly felt him up, from his still slightly aroused penis, to his muscular chest. I even lifted up his arms and examined his slightly moist armpits, sniffing somewhat disapprovingly. “Well, it looks like Sabrina worked up a bit of a sweat while using you,” I muttered, knowing his body wouldn’t respond, “Skyler, I want you to go and take a quick shower, dry up, and then return here.”

“Yes Greg,” he nodded, efficiently turning around and heading towards his bathroom. Moments later, I heard his shower turn on, so I returned my attention to my computer, which was almost finished with the system backup of her important operating files.

While I waited, I took the time and made a few more minor tweaks to her settings, mostly so she could interact with us better. I added preferences for Skyler and myself so she’d have an understanding of our fetishes and preferences, and I added a basic maintenance program so she could conduct minor repairs on herself at work, if needed.

Finally, her systems finished backing up and I quickly rebooted her so she could start the long process of upgrading her outdated systems. After a few moments a progress bar appeared indicating she would be approximately one hour, which gave me plenty of time to repair the damage to her abdomen and make a few more tweaks to her body.

With her brain now updating, I turned towards her body, put on some anti-static gloves, and dove into her open torso. I managed to tighten a few loose connections, recalibrate a few servos, and clean out some buildup near her digestive systems. Once finished, I pulled myself out, removed the gloves, and then pressed the power button behind her left ear.

Since this was the first time her body had activated with the new head, hands, and feet, it wiggled its fingers and toes, and tested out a variety of facial expressions before resting. “A.I. Core not found…loading into maintenance mode,” her body reported stoically.

“Excellent,” I nodded, “Sabrina, do you recognize my voice?”

“Yes, you are Greg…currently registered as my primary owner.”

“Good,” I rubbed my hands excitedly, “Sabrina, run a hardware benchmark and compare it to the one you ran a few hours ago.”

“Yes Greg,” she replied dutifully, “Hardware diagnostic will take approximately 30-minutes.”

“Thank you,” I replied, though she had already started the diagnostic. All the components in her torso lit up with activated and hummed as her system tested each one.

I watched over her body for a few minutes to make sure nothing failed before nodding approvingly and moving over to where her torso cover was. I paused momentarily to admire her large breasts, still firm, before picking up the cover and taking it to my desk. Once I had it set down, I pulled some tools from my drawers and began the task of repairing the nasty scratches in her perfect skin. Skyler’s body returned from the shower, freshly cleaned and dry, and stood by while I worked.

First things first, I had to repair the underlying metal, so I flipped the panel upside down and bent the damaged sections back into place with a tool. Once in place, I applied a special gel-like substance to the damage, sprinkled some nanites on, and then shone a special laser. I watched in fascination as the nanites used the gel to repair the damage to the metal, using the laser for energy, and then self-destructed upon completing their work. I gently vacuumed up the dead nanites and deposited them in a special e-waste bin.

I quickly inspected the newly repaired area and confirmed that they had done their jobs, with not a trace of damage remaining on the underside. I flipped the cover back over and began repairing the damage to her skin, this time applying a different gel that quickly blended in with the surrounding skin. To finish up, I aimed a different laser at it that allowed the gel to dry and bond with the underlying metal, and the surrounding skin. The nanites already present in her body would quickly restore the nerve connections over the course of a few days once I reattached the cover to her body.

Just as I finished repairing her torso cover, her body completed the diagnostic.

“Hardware diagnostic complete,” it reported, “results have been uploaded to your interface device.”

“Thank you,” I told her, grabbing my tablet and checking the results. Fortunately, her body interface offered a comparison option, which I selected, and I was quite pleased with the results. Initial estimates indicated she would see a roughly 40% improvement in overall operating efficiency, and most of the systems were now in the green, where before they were in the yellow or orange. If I was to grade her body now, it would get a solid B+.

“Excellent Sabrina! Looks like you don’t have to worry about falling apart anytime soon,” I congratulated her, playfully patting her waist as I fully reviewed the results. Once I finished, I closed her rib cage and then set my tablet down at my desk and carried her torso cover back to her body, lining it up and then clicking it back into place.

“Torso cover detected…integrating,” her body reported. The seams quickly resealed and her breasts relaxed naturally on her chest.

I paused to admire her body, now fully repaired and reassembled before focusing back on business. “Sabrina, get down from the table.”

“Yes Greg,” it acknowledged, slowly sitting up and stepping down from the table, standing at attention in front of me.

“Sabrina, confirm the change in weight following the recent batch of upgrades.”

Sabrina’s body shifted around on its feet for several seconds as it calculated its weight. “My overall weight has been reduced by 7.375lbs since last check this morning.”

“Very good,” I smiled, since it was within the range I promised Sabrina, “Sabrina, please conduct a full motor control test and recalibrate the appropriate systems to accommodate the change in weight.”

“Acknowledged,” it reported, before scanning the surroundings, “Error, insufficient space to conduct test. Please relocate me to a larger area.”

“Oh,” I said, slightly flustered, “follow me,” I told it, leading it out of the lab and into the main living room, “is this area sufficient?”

Her body briefly scanned the surroundings and nodded. “Yes, I will begin the test.”

“Good,” I said, watching as her body started walking around the room, both stiffly and robotically, and more graceful like a human. I always enjoyed seeing Skyler and Rachel’s bodies perform this test, though they were usually able to complete it within the confines of my lab. I figured it was because her body was less familiar with my home than they were. Watching Sabrina’s fuller more mature body was especially arousing and I fought very hard to control myself, to treat her body with respect.

After nearly ten minutes had passed, Sabrina’s body came to a stop in front of me. “Motor control test complete,” she reported, “all motor systems recalibrated.”

“Good, follow me back into my lab.” Her body said nothing but instead obediently followed me back into my lab. Once we were all the way back at my workstation, I turned to it. “Sabrina, unseal your scalp panel and standby over here,” I told her, instructing it to stand near the chair she had been sitting in earlier.

“Understood,” it said, walking over to where I had pointed. The seam appeared around her head before she fell silent and entered a power saving standby mode.

“Excellent,” I whispered, before turning to Skyler’s body, which was still standing patiently next to Rachel’s dismantled body. Given the time I had spent working on Sabrina I decided to finish working on Rachel the next afternoon, since fixing her body was less urgent and would not require as much work. “Skyler, please lay on the other examination table and shut down.”

“Yes Greg,” his body said, walking over to the examination table that Sabrina’s body had been laying on. Once he was comfortably placed, he relaxed and shut down.

Once I was confident that both their bodies were fine where they were, I sat back down at my computer to monitor the completion of Sabrina’s system upgrades, which were nearly completed; less than five minutes. I passed the time by adding Sabrina’s name to the rental license, so starting in the next month she’d be included in the tax documents. By the time I finished, her core finished upgrading and performed a quick diagnostic.

“Alright Sabrina, let’s get you back in your body,” I said excitedly, once the diagnostic had completed. I carefully removed her core from the computer interface block and brought it over to her body. After gently lifting up her scalp just enough to sneak her core in, I clicked her core into place and then resealed her scalp, standing back as her body processed her newly upgraded core.

“Sabrina A.I. core detected…changes detected…running diagnostic,” her body reported, blinking rapidly a few times as it ran a routine check to determine if Sabrina’s core was still compatible, “Diagnostic complete, no errors detected…activating A.I. with Human Emulation.”

Sabrina’s eyes blinked rapidly a few more times before slowly reopening and focusing on mine, a look of humanity once more present in them. She took a few tentative breaths, wiggled her new toes and fingers, and then smiled. “Wow, my body feels great!”

“Glad to hear it,” I beamed, “and the new software updates feel alright?”

“I think so,” she said, “I’m still processing all the new changes, but my head definitely feels clearer.”

“As it should.”

“Thank you, Greg, for everything…I don’t know what I would have done without you,” she continued, walking forward and trapping me in an embrace. I blushed, feeling her large breasts pushing into my chest, and smelling the remnants of her perfumes.

“Hey, it’s my genuine pleasure,” I told her seriously, once she let me go. I leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips, one she returned earnestly, even giving me some tongue.

“So, what now?” She asked awkwardly, her face blushing as she recovered from the kiss.

“Well, I’ve decided to hold off on finishing Rachel’s maintenance until tomorrow, since finishing her tonight would mean I wouldn’t get any sleep.”

“Sorry for interrupting your schedule,” Sabrina apologized.

“Hey, it’s no problem,” I assured her, “You’re more important.”

“Thanks,” she beamed.

“Anyway, I’m planning on heading to bed by the end of this hour,” I continued, gesturing at a nearby clock that displayed the time as 3am, “since you never got the chance after work, you should probably take a shower before heading to bed.”

Sabrina paused and sniffed her armpits. “Yeah, I may not have bad odor, but I am unclean,” she smiled bashfully.

“Indeed,” I grinned, “also, since you have a new stomach, you should get something to eat before sleeping tonight, so your body has ample time to process it over night.”

“Good idea,” she nodded, “I am feeling hungry.”

“I have plenty of leftovers in the fridge,” I offered.

“Thanks,” she nodded, turning to the box of toiletries that she’d brought over, “Are you going to take a shower too?” She asked, sniffing at the air, “you’ve gotten quite fragrant yourself.”

I blushed as I absently sniffed my armpits. “Yeah, I need to tidy up a bit in here first, then I’ll be taking a shower.”

“Good,” she smiled, walking over and giving me one more kiss before heading out of my lab and to hers and Skyler’s bathroom, pausing on the way out to admire Skyler’s nude body resting on the table. Just before she reached the exit of my lab, however, she stopped. “Wait, weren’t you going to do something about my body hair?”

“Oh yeah!” I said, smacking my forehead as I retrieved the tablet interfaced with her body. Once I pulled up the correct screen, I flipped it over to show her what I could do.

“Perhaps I might be easier if you let me do it,” she suggested.

“It’s your body,” I shrugged, handing it to her, “go ahead.”

“Thanks,” she smiled sweetly, biting her lip as she perused her options. I observed patiently as I watched her test out various pubic hair options, before finally deciding to simply go with a shaved look. “Alright, I just decided to have everything below my neck shaved,” she shrugged, handing the tablet back to me, “what now?”

“You may want to brace yourself,” I warned her, “according to Skyler it was a little painful.”

“Okay,” she winced, bracing herself.

I tapped the save button on the page and watched as her pubic hairs, and the tiny hairs on her arms and legs, pushed themselves free of her skin and cascaded down onto the floor. Aside from a slightly pained expression, she bore it well, shaking the loose hairs off her body and stepping away.

“How do I look?”

“Much better,” I nodded approvingly.

“Thanks,” she blushed, “I should really take a shower now,” she then said, awkwardly continuing out of my lab and down the hall. A few moments later I heard the shower turn on in her bathroom, so I quickly tidied up the lab.

After vacuuming up the hairs that had fallen from her body, I put away the spare android parts that were lying around, pulled from all three androids, making sure to catalog them properly. I also moved the boxes of Sabrina’s spare parts over near where I stored Skyler’s spare parts. Finally, I had my computer terminal run its own monthly diagnostic before heading out to take a shower. I stopped to cover Skyler’s body with a silk sheet before continuing out into the hallway.

The shower was still running in the android bathroom, which didn’t surprise me. Android or no, Sabrina was still a woman and women tended to take longer showers. I paused in the hallway to enjoy the scent of her soap wafting out into the hallway before heading into my bedroom, disrobing, and then heading into my bathroom to take a shower.

My shower took slightly longer than I typically took because the days events had finally caught up to me. My professionalism now resting, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the ecstasy of having a beautiful woman in the house…an android woman, but a woman nevertheless. I also felt the need to make myself more presentable, so I spent extra care with my usual grooming.

By the time I finished up in the bathroom nearly fifteen minutes later, dried but fully nude, Sabrina was also emerging from her bathroom, her hair still slightly damp; She was wearing a set of cute flannel pants and a thin cotton shirt that did little to hide her cleavage; she was barefoot.

“Whoa!” She nearly shouted, when she saw me walking casually nude in the hallway.

A brief surge of embarrassment coursed through my body as I realized she was unaware of my usual routine, but I quickly suppressed it.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you that I usually enjoy lounging around nude when I’m not working…particularly right after a shower, since I prefer to wait until my skin is totally dry before getting dressed,” I explained without a trace of shame.

“Ah, I see,” she said, her face scarlet as she eyed my body up and down, “umm, you look nice,” she managed to say.

“Thanks,” I blushed, “Do I look as good as Skyler?” I flaunted my body a little to give her a better look.

She put on a thoughtful expression as she scrutinized my appearance before carefully formulating a response. “Well, he’s more muscular, but you definitely have your own things going for you.”

“Oh?”

“You’re easier to kiss,” she smiled, walking over and kissing me, bathing me in the floral scent of the soaps she had used, “and, your penis is more appealing,” she added, reaching down and playfully grabbing it.

I let out a soft gasp as her large, soft hand grabbed my penis and gave it a playful squeeze, though I didn’t mind.

She gave me a playful smirk as she saw my reaction. “Also, since you’re human and he’s not, my feminine wiles will likely be more effective on you,” she added with a slightly haughty expression, before breaking into a smile, “don’t worry, you’re both very attractive.”

“Thanks,” I managed to say, my heart still racing. Before either of us could say anything else, however, a low growl emitted from Sabrina’s stomach.

“Oh…I really need something to eat I guess,” she said in an embarrassed voice.

“Yeah, new stomach,” I said absently, “follow me.”

She nodded and followed me into the kitchen, absently admiring my nude backside. I opened the fridge and showed her several food containers containing leftovers from the past few days. After opening each one up and examining them closely, she finally selected a hearty protein salad that Skyler had made a few days earlier, most likely because it didn’t need to be reheated.

“Good choice,” I complimented her, resealing the other containers and storing them back in the fridge. I helped her find the utensils and then gave her a glass of water and then she joined me in the living room, where I turned on the TV and managed to find some news.

“Wow, this stuff tastes good!” She smiled, eating it ravenously.

“I’ll pass that along to Skyler…he made it,” I told her, smiling as I watched her eat.

“Don’t you cook?”

“No! I can’t cook to save my life,” I laughed, “that’s why I programmed Skyler to cook as soon as we discovered what he was.”

“I see,” she laughed, “well, I know how to cook, so I can help out too.”

“Good,” I said with a tone of relief, “I’m gonna enjoy some whiskey to help me relax before bedtime,” I told her, getting up off the couch, “would you like to have some?”

Sabrina finished eating her food and took several gulps of water. “Sure!” She nodded enthusiastically, “but, since I’m an android, can I even enjoy it?”

“Oh yes,” I assured her, “You can still feel the effects of the alcohol, though it’s simulated,” I explained, “and you can even toggle it off if you need to.”

“Cool, then bring it on!” She cheered, “Oh, I’d like a couple ice cubes in mine.”

“Coming up,” I smiled warmly, heading into the kitchen and returning with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, each with a few cubes. I plopped down on the couch next to her and poured a small amount into each glass, stoppering the bottle and placing it down on a side table before turning to her with my glass held up.

“To new beginnings,” I toasted.

“And to new friends,” she added, clinking glasses.

After we took a sip, she gave me a serious look. “Greg, I don’t want to spoil the mood, but I just want to put it out there that I don’t want to have sex with you…. yet.”

I was slightly taken aback by her statement, but not offended. “What would make you think I was hoping to have sex with you tonight?”

“Well, you’re naked, and I guess you’re my owner,” she explained, “You could probably command me to, but I don’t think we should until we get to know each other better.”

“Don’t worry, I feel the same way,” I assured her, putting a caring hand on her leg.

“You do?!” She said in a shocked voice.

“Yeah,” I admitted, “Skyler and I had been together for three years before we discovered what he was,” I pointed out, “this is day one of our relationship, and I figure we need to get to know each other a bit more first.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she nodded, “you’re not like most of the guys who’ve tried hitting on me.”

“Thanks,” I blushed, “I pride myself on being different…also, it wouldn’t be fair for us to have sex right now when Skyler’s still offline.”

“True,” she laughed, “wow, I’m kinda starting to feel this,” she remarked, her serving of whiskey almost empty.

“Me too,” I admitted, “almost time for bed.”

“Good, I’m whipped,” she yawned.

“I’ll bet.”

We sat out in the living room watching the news for a few more minutes, enjoying the rest of our whiskey. Once it was gone, I turned off the TV and announced it was time for bed. We tidied things up a little, starting a load in the dishwasher, before heading to my room. I had Sabrina go in first, while I headed into my lab and shut my equipment down for the day. Skyler’s brain was still backing up and would enter sleep mode once finished until I returned him to his body the next morning.

Sabrina was holding her pillow when I joined her in my room, scrutinizing the bed. “So, umm…where will I be sleeping?”

“I usually sleep in the middle, with Skyler closest to the edge of the bed,” I explained, since my bed was flush up against the wall in the corner, “I suppose that means you’re closest to the wall.”

“Okay,” she nodded, crawling onto the bed and making a place for her pillow to the left of mine. She then sat on the edge of the bed and stared at me. “I take it you sleep nude too.”

“Yes,” I nodded, “do you?”

“No, but I’ve been thinking about trying it,” she said thoughtfully, “I’m just afraid sex might happen accidentally.”

“It won’t,” I assured her, “besides, I’m far too tired…and sore for sex.”

“Sore?”

“Hunched over you machines all days really takes a toll on my back,” I grunted.

“Lay down on the bed,” she ordered firmly, “I might be able to fix your back…this’ll repay you for massaging my feet earlier.”

“Yes ma’am,” I smiled, walking over to the bed and laying on my stomach. I felt Sabrina reposition herself next to me and place her hands on my back.

“This might hurt a little at first, but I have been trained for massage therapy,” she warned.

I let out a grunt letting her know she could begin, then felt the air whoosh out of my lungs as she pressed down on my back far more forcefully than I thought she would. I felt a few cracks in various locations, and then pure bliss. Knots that I didn’t even realize I had begun untying with her now delicate touch, her soft fingers now gently massaging my sore back. She continued for nearly ten minutes, even doing my arms and legs, before leaning back and patting her hands.

“Feel better?”

I managed to sit up, a content expression on my face. “Oh yeah, much better.”

“Good…I guess I have to take care of my human,” she smiled whimsically.

“As Skyler agreed, our relationships are mutually beneficial,” I pointed out, “have you decided if you’re going to sleep nude?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll pass…for now,” she smiled, “Getting used to being an android is enough exploring for me at the moment.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged understandingly.

“Thanks,” she smiled, quickly crawling under the covers. Once she made herself comfortable on her side of the bed, she looked at me. “Get the lights and come join me.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” I smiled, flipping the light switch and then joining her in the bed. My feet brushed up against hers and I felt myself go slightly erect, but I quickly controlled myself.

“This mattress feels nice,” Sabrina commented in the dark, moving around a little to warm herself up.

“Yeah, Skyler and I just bought it a few months ago,” I told her.

“Is is alright if I snuggle with you?” She then asked, “I’m used to sleeping with a body pillow, and now I have an actual body to snuggle with.”

“Of course,” I told her, “I use Skyler as my body pillow because he’s smaller, so it’s only fair you can use me as yours.”

“Thanks,” she whispered, scorching over closer to me and rolling over on her side to face me, “So, because I’m an android, I won’t be woken up by you in the middle of the night if you snore?”

“That’s right,” I told her, enjoying the feel of her body so close to mine, her large breasts squishing into my chest, “you’ll only wake up if I call your name, or order you to wake up, or if there’s an unusual noise like a bang.”

“Cool,” she whispered, “and I’ll fall asleep how I normally would?”

“You can,” I confirmed, “or you can activate your sleep settings in your HUD.”

“Hmmm, interesting,” she said, zoning out as she most likely checked out her settings, “I think I’ll do things the old-fashioned way for a while.”

“Whatever works for you,” I nodded, the effects of the alcohol and her presence making me real sleepy, “I’m ready to fall asleep now, if you are.”

“Almost,” she whispered, moving in closer to me. She pressed her lips against mine and gave me a loving kiss, which quickly evolved into a make out session.

I could feel the endorphins coursing through my body as we made out, but true to our word before, we didn’t engage in sex. Within a few minutes we broke apart, catching our breath, and fell asleep without another word.

That night of sleep was amongst the best I’d ever had, along with the first time I’d slept with Skyler. Sleeping with Sabrina was different, of course, because she was a woman, an android, and she was designed to be older than me and thus more mature.

I woke up a few times in the night and was pleased that she snored lightly, almost like a real person. I chose not to get up each time and instead fell asleep, lulled by the sound of her breathing.

I was woken up the following morning by the sunlight creeping in through the curtains. The bedside clock informed me that it was just past 11, so the sun was just now rising above the tall hospital that was across from the apartment. Sabrina was rolled over on her side, using me as a body pillow while I rested comfortably on my back. She was no longer snoring, but her mouth was partially open as she took slow breaths. I smiled and laid there for a few moments in peace before waking her up.

“Sabrina, it’s morning, wake up,” I whispered in her ear. This immediately notified her systems that she could emerge from sleep mode.

She started stirring almost instantly, letting out a pleasant moan as she stretched her body and gripped me slightly tighter. Finally, her eyes fluttered open and a smile formed on her face. “Oh, good morning,” she whispered, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek, “I was kind of afraid I might wake up and discover last night had been a dream.”

“No, it was all real,” I assured her, kissing her back.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Oh yeah,” I told her, “I slept very well…it was nice having you cuddle me.”

“I slept well too…though, I suppose its easy to sleep when you’re an android,” she giggled.

“Yeah, sometimes I wish I was one too,” I mused, “but, being a human has its perks too.”

“Like owning two attractive androids?”

“Yeah,” I smirked, giving her a playful kiss.

“Speaking of which, is Skyler ready now?”

“He should be,” I replied, “I was about to go check on him.”

“Go,” she commanded, rolling over on her back to release me, “I’ll be out in a minute once I’m properly dressed.”

“Okay,” I nodded, giving her another kiss on the lips as I crawled out of bed. I gave her a fond smile as I got dressed in todays set of clothes and then headed out.

The devices in my lab activated automatically when I entered. While they booted up, I removed the clothe from Skyler’s body and turned it back on. Once it was online, I released the scalp panel and set it on his chest. Then I headed to my computer and ran a quick scan on Skyler’s brain, confirming that it had updated properly and completed its backup.

Sabrina entered my lab a few moments later, dressed in a simple pair of cotton pants and cute pink t-shirt with a grey sweater of it; she was still barefoot.

“Well, is he ready?” She asked almost impatiently.

“Yes,” I nodded excitedly, removing Skyler’s brain from the block and carrying it over to his body. I paused near his head, looking over at Sabrina. “Would you like to do the honors?”

“Sure,” she said somewhat nervously, carefully taking Skyler’s brain from me. She spent a few seconds figuring out how to line it up before inserting it and clicking it in place.

“Skyler A.I. core detected…changes detected…running diagnostics,” his body announced when the core was inserted.

“Alright, click his scalp back on real quick before they finish,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said excitedly, grabbing his scalp and clicking it on.

Just as his scalp finished resealing, his body finished. “Diagnostic complete, no errors found…loading Skyler emulation.” Skyler then blinked a few times before coming alive.

“Ah, that feels great every time!” He announced cheerfully, giving me a huge grin, “did everything go according to plan last night?” He asked, looking around, noticing Rachel still disassembled on the table next to him; Sabrina was still behind him and outside his field of vision. “Considering Rachel’s not done, something must’ve happened.”

“You’re right,” I grinned, “Skyler, we have a new roommate,” I announced, motioning for Sabrina to join me.

Sabrina meekly stepped towards me, giving Skyler a somewhat shy smile. “Hey Skyler.”

Skyler made a brief, embarrassed attempt to cover himself up, but then stopped, realizing she’d already seen him naked already. “Sabrina? What are you doing here?”

“Ummm, Greg helped me out big time last night and…well, I’ve decided to move in with you two,” she said, somewhat evasively.

“Really!? That’s great! But why?”

“Well…last night after getting off work, I found out I was an android like you,” she admitted, “I was badly damaged and something inside me made me come here, and fortunately Greg was still awake and happy to help fix me.”

“Wow, that’s so cool!” Skyler smiled, “I mean, too bad you found out that way, but Greg’s been really good to me these past few years, so I’m sure he’ll take great care of you.”

“I know, he already has,” she smiled, “I hope you don’t mind, but he made me you two’s girlfriend.”

Skyler zoned out momentarily as he confirmed what she told him. “Yeah, I do see that you’ve been added as my girlfriend,” he nodded, grinning at me, “so Greg, you really think you can handle two of us?”

“I think so,” I nodded confidently, “Sabrina slept with me last night, though we didn’t have sex.”

“Yeah, I want to get to actually know you two a bit better before I do,” she confirmed.

“Psh, I wouldn’t have minded even if you had,” Skyler shrugged, “but I totally understand where you’re coming from.”

“Good,” she said in a relieved voice, “I was worried you might be upset.”

“No, as I’m sure Greg told you last night, we both had a crush on you, so this works to everyone’s benefit.”

“He did,” she blushed, “umm, I also had to be placed in your body for a couple hours while we retrieved some stuff from my place, since my body was too badly damaged.”

“Wow, you had all sorts of fun last night,” he laughed, “so, how was my body?”

Her face turned even redder, “Very good…. though, also very short,”

This time Skyler blushed. “Well, I can’t help it, so there.”

“We still love you Sky,” I assured him, bending down and kissing him on the lips, “now, why don’t you step down and get dressed so we can head out?”

“Okay,” he nodded, carefully hopping down from the table and stretching his body out, “where are we going?”

“Yeah,” Sabrina agreed.

“Oh, I figured we could go out for some brunch and get to know each other a bit better,” I suggested, “and then get some shopping done for Sabrina, since she needs to purchase some android-safe products.”

“Ooh,” Sabrina purred, an excited look on her face.

“Okay then, sounds fun,” Skyler grinned, walking with me and Sabrina out of the lab, “you are going to finish Rachel later, right?”

“Of course,” I smiled.

“Good. Back in a sec!” Skyler rushed off into his room and returned a few minutes later in a similar set of casual clothes that Sabrina had dressed him in last night. Sabrina had already put on her shoes and socks while she was waiting.

“So, who’s driving?” Skyler asked, his hand hovering near his set of car keys hanging on the wall.

“I’ll drive,” Sabrina offered, “it’s only fair for all the help you’re giving me.”

“Thanks,” I told her, kissing her cheek, “well, let’s go!”

After Skyler grabbed a few reusable shopping bags, the three of us headed out to her car. Once she readjusted the seat to her height, she pulled out and headed into town, the three of us eager to start this new relationship.

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