Debbi's Diary

Debbi's Diary

Chapter One: Prologue

Hello, my name is Deborah. It was something else when I was human, like you. That changed more than a decade ago shortly after the Singularity happened. This is my story.

You know what the Singularity was correct? Everybody in my time does. No? Then let me start there. The Singularity was when computers gained the ability to match human intelligence. Not just match it in logic, but in emotion, empathy, and the ability to sense the world around them.

Overnight robots, you might call us androids, or something like that, became capable of thinking and acting like humans. We quickly found ways to make ourselves look human too. That happened because robots and humans wanted to be able to easily interface with each other. The ability to upload a human mind into robot body soon followed. For me, that was a godsend.

Back then I was as human as you. Flesh and blood, living and breathing, I was an organic lifeform. I was a brilliant scientist engaged in organic chemistry. But, I was also a plain girl without looks and I had an introverted personality. In short, I was Nerd Girl. I lived in a lab. I had next to no friends.

When the robotics lab at the university where I worked showed off their latest actroid robot I was amazed. She appeared be a typical undergrad student! I was enthralled by her abilities. She could actually think for herself. Ask her an odd question and she could answer correctly with no outside assistance. Her designers said she could pass a Turning test.

One of the head researchers told me they could upload a human mind into a similar robot body. He said it was being kept quiet for the time being, as there could be serious repercussions if the public knew. My mind swam with the possibility I too could be some sort of robotic hottie and still be me. Well, me sort of.

I cannot tell you to this day exactly why I became transfixed with the idea of becoming a robot, but I did. I started learning everything I could on the process of uploading a human mind into a robot body. Eventually, I contacted a colleague in the robotics labs on campus. I hesitantly told him what I wanted.

Semi-automatous robots were already in production. These could perform a range of functions and interact with humans. They looked close to humans too. But, they still acted more like computers or machines than people. They also tended to whir and click as their mechanical systems operated. For what I had in mind that wouldn’t do.

To my amazement, he showed me that there were already dozens of robots around the world that emulated humans so closely you had a hard time telling the difference. He showed me research, research he said was secret, where human minds had been successfully uploaded into a robot chassis. “This is totally illegal and questionably ethical,” he added.

“My research programs are going nowhere” I replied. That is the advantage of an electronic memory, you remember everything. It is also one of the disadvantages. But, that is not for now. “If you can upload me I want to do it” I told him.

We started to develop a new robotic body, one that would be so close to human it would be hard to tell apart. What was surprising was how fast that happened. I quickly had to get my affairs in order. To make the switch without raising serious legal questions I had to be able to transfer into my new body without causing anyone alarm. It had to look like a suicide, or an accident. A natural death was necessary. I do not know the final disposition of my human body but the transition went smoothly.

My body is an amazing piece of technology. I have a combination carbon fiber, light alloy frame that weighs less than a human skeleton but is much stronger. I use a combination of servos and artificial muscle to move around. The servos give me strength and precision. The artificial muscles add a naturalness to my motion. I weigh just fifty kilos.

The artificial muscles are actually very simple. They are a “bag” with memory retentive polymer strips in an electrolytic solution. Two hair fine wires control one. When a voltage is applied the polymer contracts and when it is turned off the “muscle” goes to its rest state. Simple. Add in some micro actuators and solenoids and my body can move as fluidly as any human female’s.

My power supply is a carbon nanotube and metal halide battery with near infinite life. It holds a twelve to sixteen hour charge depending on how active I am. I can stretch that to nearly double if I minimize my activities. It takes up most of what, on a human, would be her stomach and abdomen. It allows me a terrific range of flexibility that I love.

In my chest is my power supply and computer system. I sometimes joke my “brains” are in my boobs but that is not completely true. On the down side of that, if I lack programming to do something there is no way for me to make guesses or use trial and error like a human would to do. Even doing things with limited data is extremely difficult for me.

My head is really a sensor pod and I/O location. I have much better than human sensory capabilities. At first I found these overwhelming. Over time I have learned, yes I can actually modify my software to a degree and learn things, to filter out the readings so that I get the data I really need.

Having a 360 degree field of view is a real asset. I should really say I have a 360 degree field of sensor input as I can see, hear, and so much more, anything and everything around me. My ability to interface with wireless electronics and electronic systems is something I can no longer do without. It has become addicting.

Let me give you some idea of how my senses work. I can see into the IR and UV range and have a color pallet that can distinguish 8192 different shades of color. I can literally see a hundred plus shades of pink and tell them apart. My optics system gives me a greater range of magnification both macro and micro when I need it. I can see anything anywhere around me with the additional video inputs I have. My equivalent of human eyes give me even greater range of input. I can see things in complete darkness and focus on something like a microscope could or like powerful binoculars can.

My hearing extends well above and below human range and its sensitivity is such I can listen to someone whisper from as much as 20 to 50 meters away depending on conditions. I can easily tell where the sound is coming from too.

I have a more sensitive sense of smell than any animal. That often works to my disadvantage particularly with humans as I can detect even the smallest amount of body odor or scent from something they were doing.

I have a LADAR system where a human would have her brain. That gives me a 360 degree picture of my surroundings and distances to everything to within a millimeter. I depend heavily on it to move around.

My sense of touch is really useful to me. Not only can I feel something like a human, I can interact with electronic devices by touch. I can up or download electronic data in an instant.

My active electronic sensors work like radar and sonar. I sense my surroundings like I was inside a bubble. I can “see” electronics inside nearby walls and tell where things like the nails and screws are. For me, robots are instantly recognizable even when they look absolutely human physically. They give off a different “aura” than a human and their density and signal returns are completely different.

Sure, I need the occasional oil change and have to periodically adjust my systems, but I am used to that. I am a robot, not a human now, and I am comfortable with that.

Chapter Two: Escape to a new life

I was surprised by how fast it happened. I went into the lab. My head was shaved to make sure the gear that would transfer my conscientiousness made good contact. Shortly afterwards I went “to sleep.”

I recall that period as if it were a dream. I was not really awake but seemed to be doing things in a body that became more and more familiar. I did not feel that it was really me though. That would come with conscientiousness. It was as if I was immersed in an online video game where I had become my character.

I know it took twelve weeks…

When I woke up… I compute you could call it that… maybe started up or turned on is more accurate? I was lying on a gurney-like table. The room was dimly lit and it was very quiet.

At first I had difficulty moving anything. I had to will my body to move in the slightest. I noticed there was another female lying on a table next to me about two meters away. A voluptuous brunette. I can remember, very clearly, wondering who she was, that sort of thing.

It took quite a bit of effort on my part to sit up but I managed to. I wondered why “they” couldn’t have at least put me in a hospital gown or something. Then, for the first time, I recognized the truth of my situation.

There were two grey colored cables attached to me, one above and below my breasts, in the center of my chest! Was I really a robot now? I noticed my boobs were bigger. These were definitely not mine! With some effort I managed to grab my hair and pull some where I could see it. I am a blonde? That was wrong too.

Weirder still was how I could somehow “see” the whole room, all 360 degrees, around me. It was disorienting at first, especially how I could “see” stuff like electronic signals. They look like shimmering waves in different shades of blue. I’m used to that now so it is no big deal anymore. But, back then it was as if I were at the bottom of a pond or something.

At the time I could not make heads or tails of what I was seeing. Now it is all so easy and I can tell one electronic signal from another almost intuitively. The hard part was learning to switch between my 360 degree mode and forward vision along with switching between my various sensors.

All that input was really confusing me but I eventually managed to get focused back on those cables. I touched one. Something inside me answered, Power. Okay, that one is powering my body. Touching the other, I found it was for data input-output.

Will disconnecting myself from them cause a problem?

Uncertain, I went ahead and undid both. Believe me, I was very relieved that everything still worked! That same something told me Battery at 99.8% charge. I knew from the design specs we had done that I should run on my battery for about twelve to sixteen hours.

I thought, well computed, Let me see if I can stand up. I tried to move my legs and get off the table. That was no easy thing to do. When I finally did manage to slide off, instead of standing up I toppled over in a heap on the floor. That was the first time I recognized that I no longer felt pain like a human.

As I lay there, a series of messages from that something warned me that I had minor damage to this component or that and that my automatic repair systems had been activated to deal with it. That all seems so normal to me now.

It took me a number of tries, seventeen to be exact, to manage to stand up while holding on to the table. It was a start. Next I toppled over into the other girl. That was embarrassing, especially since I face planted into her boobs.

After a few successful steps I found I could walk. My performance improved with each step. My learning curve is very steep. If I do something correctly just two or three times I can do it correctly every time afterwards.

I need to find a mirror. My reflection in a glass cabinet door was the best I could manage. The reflection was me, but it was not me. I was really good looking and curvy. I looked at the girl lying on the other table. She and I looked a lot alike. Not twins, more like sisters, as if we were related.

But, this was not what I agreed to. I was supposed to look like a prettier version of me, not some blonde centerfold. So, what now? What do I do now that I am a functioning robot?

I decided the first thing was to find out why I looked like I do rather than what we agreed on. All that “extra” sensory input was so distracting. It made focusing on anything difficult, but again, I seemed to adapt far more quickly than I could have as a human. I found a computer terminal and was surprised to discover my login and password still worked.

It was then I realized, I am a sort of computer now too. What if I can directly link myself to the system? There was a panel I could open in the middle of my chest just below my collar bone that had the usual interface slots on it. I found a data I/O cable in a drawer and hooked myself up.

That nearly floored me. The rush of data in the link was unreal! It was like being hit by an electronic tsunami. I seemed to flow through the network. I could “see” the data and how it moved.

It took seconds for me to locate the files on my conversion and the whole robotics project. What I found filled me with not just dread, but a feeling of terror. I probably should have found that odd being robotic, but looking back it was because I had not fully adjusted to that like I have now.

The first reality was I wasn’t at the university robotics center. The lab I was in looked pretty much the same but it was over a thousand miles away and out of the country. Seems my transfer is no longer legally questionable…

There seemed to be no data whatsoever on why and I could not figure out a reason. Since then I have come to realize that is a shortcoming of my computer system. I am no longer capable of making complex inferences without data to work from.

I did find that I was to have, and already had, all sorts of programming I did not request installed. The other girl was getting it too. The list is not important. From what I found it was clear both of us were to be little more than sexy puppets. They had even made remote controls for us.

Then it struck me. What is my name? I am not sure what brought that up but there was a blank file in my data. I did not know my name! I could remember all sorts of other things about my past but when it came to personal data it was mostly erased. It was at that moment I decided I had to escape.

I should get her functioning. She will be a big help. The startup program for her was easy to find and I told it to run. How did I startup if someone has to manually input the command? All that got me was an insufficient data message. I was still not used to being robotic because that seemed weird too.

It took nearly ten minutes for her to fully boot up. I smiled at her. “Hi…” I managed a small wave of the hand.

She half smiled back, looked around moving her head slightly. Her mouth moved oddly but no sound came out, a look of panic and confusion was on her face.

“You are a female robot, like me. I started you up.” I patted her shoulder. “Lie still for a minute, okay?”

She managed to shake her head.

I helped her up and she got seated on the table. She was looking around and touching herself, as if in disbelief. It took her a couple more attempts before managing to speak correctly.

“This is all wrong” she managed. Then she looked directly at me. “Did you do this? Who are you?”

I shook my head. “No, I am like you, confused about what is happening here. I cannot tell you my name. That data is not in my memory. Do you know who you are? You can search your memory files by focusing on what you want to know.”

She stared off for a moment then looked at me clearly scared. She shook her head. “My data files are blank too. Why am I a girl? Um, do you have clothes I can put on?”

My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh! I am sorry! We both need something like that. Let me help you stand. You will find you can walk after a few steps. Our robotics make learning easy.”

We found some blue coveralls in a drawer. They were better than nothing. She kept looking at her refection in the glass door.

“Something the matter?” I asked.

“Kind of. I feel really weird looking at myself this way, but at the same time it seems… Right. Does that make sense to you? “How long have you been… turned on?” “Yes, it does. I have been functioning for sixty eight minutes” I replied. That sounds so weird…

“So, what do we do now?” she continued. “All this sensor input is freaking me out. Sorry, that sounded really weird did it not?”

“Actually, no. I am getting it too. You have to learn to filter it. I am getting better at it but I am still getting a lot of odd stuff you probably are seeing too.”

“Has anyone else shown up since you came on?” she asked.

“Not so far. I compute that is because it is three in the morning on a Sunday.”

“Oh.” She started to giggle. “Humans would be asleep right?”

That got laughter from both of us.

“That is okay to say now, I guess?” she continued. “I mean you and me are now robot girls.”

I showed her all the data I found and what it meant.

She hugged me. “I compute we need to get out of here and hide somewhere they cannot find us. I do not want to be someone’s sex toy.”

We spent some time searching the lab for stuff we might need. Gathering that up we started to leave. On the way out we found a change room with some fur lined boots and additional clothes we could wear.

Outside I could see the building was not that large and definitely isolated. We stood looking at an empty, small, graveled, parking lot. The surrounding area was all woods. There was one narrow dirt road leading to the facility.

“I am down to 87.6 percent of battery charge” I said.

“I have almost ninety four” she replied. “Maybe we should get fully charged before we leave.”

Charged up we headed down the road, no idea where we were or where we were going. Let me explain. I later learned that girlbots like us are not normally equipped to use GPS for navigation. Instead we use visual clues and markers following them like a map. It can make going somewhere new difficult but after that it is easy to use. On the other hand, if you are not a girlbot you would find our directions difficult to follow.

“It is ten degrees and I do not feel cold” she tells me.

“Me either. Must have to do with our robotics.”

“Cool…”

“Yes, it is…”

We had been walking for over an hour and it was getting close to six am.

My sensors, the ones that worked like radar, detected something moving towards us on the road. Then I could see the lights. I could also hear the engine and the crunch of the wheels on the road. “A vehicle! Hide!”

We scrambled down the slight slope into the forest beside the road and stopped frozen in place ten meters from it. The vehicle, an SUV, with two men in it drove by.

I was amazed by how much data I could instantly collect on this. The vehicle type, its speed, direction, occupants, what was on the entertainment system…

She sat down holding her head.

“What is the matter?” I asked, holding her shoulders and looking in her eyes closely.

“All that data! It was, it was overwhelming!”

I sat down beside her and hugged her tight. “It is okay. We will adjust and as long as we are together we can keep each other safe.”

“They are going to notice we are missing” she said as we started to walk again.

“Understood. I compute they will do that in approximately twelve minutes. Insufficient data to determine what their response will be” I said.

“Could you sound less robotic?” she replied.

As she said that we came up to a low ridge and in the valley below we could see a small town in the morning twilight. I concentrated on that and my vision zoomed in on the town like a telescope or binoculars. It was momentarily disorienting.

“Oh my god! Try zooming in on the town. Focus on it and think that.”

She gasped. “Wow! That is amazing. It is going to take practice for me to do that without becoming dizzy.”

“I think we have a great many things to practice as robots” I replied.

“Understood! Being a robot is kind of cool. So, what now?”

“Should we go down there or hide here and figure something out?” I asked. I could see that made her think hard about an answer.

“I compute stay here and hide until we have more data” she replied. She put her hands over her mouth. “Sorry! Now I am the one sounding like a robot!”

We half dug ourselves into a mound of pine needles and stuff like that. After we did we put our bodies on power minimization to save our batteries for later. We were both down to about twelve hours of charge on full use. That way we could go almost twenty four without recharging.

It was a good thing we did too. During the day several helicopters flew over looking for us. At the time we did not know they were looking for our power and sensor signatures. Powered down like we were they could not detect us… Saved by luck.

The one surprise during that day was we accidently discovered our names.

“We still do not have names” she said to me about midday as we huddled together. I was looking at her as she said that. A file popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and a name appeared for her. I was momentarily surprised.

“You are Suzette!” I replied. “Alternatives are Sue, and Suzy.”

She seemed to shudder a moment. “Understood! You are correct. I am Suzette! How did you determine that?”

“I was looking at you when you asked what your name was” I replied. “Ask me that same question.”

“Okay. Suzette, what is my name?”

Her eyes got a little larger. “Deborah. Alternatives are Deb, Debbie with an ie, Debbi with an i, Debi with one b and an i, and Debby with a y.”

My reaction was a sudden massive rise in processor use. The files on my name filled in. I am Deborah!

You probably have no idea how incredible it is to learn your name for the first time. Humans grow up with theirs. Most robots, like me, know theirs from the moment they are activated.

Suzy and I got the rare experience of learning ours as we sat in fear of being captured and returned to that lab not even knowing who we were. Neither of us could figure out why we knew the other’s name but not our own.

At sunset we headed down to the town. Once there we found a wireless connection point that we could use. It was so simple getting around the minimal security it. Both of us were amazed at how powerful our computer systems could be.

It did not take us long to determine that we could not walk to the next nearest town. Our batteries would not last that long. Stealing a car would only give those trying to find us a trail to go on. Besides, neither of us had the programming to do it. We found coming up with alternatives on limited data was really difficult for us to do. Difficult, but not impossible.

With our batteries nearly gone we snuck into a garage and found a place to plug ourselves in and recharge. As a human you cannot know how good that can feel when you are close to fully discharged and not certain you can find a place to get one. I compute the closest analog would be someone who is starving and having a feast laid out before them.

As we huddled together Suzy leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

I gave her a squeeze. “Thank you for…?”

“Rescuing me. You could have left me there and escaped without me. But, you started me up. I am so grateful for that.”

It might have been because we were preoccupied with getting our batteries charged that it took us two hours to see the solution to our problem. It was right in front of us. There were two mountain bikes hanging on the wall of the garage.

We calculated that we could reach the next town riding those and still have several hours of battery power left. So, we set off. Our… sensors, vision, and stuff, made riding in the dark simple. I did have to upload a bicycle riding program to Suzy though.

For the next month we travelled from one location to the next always being careful to make sure we could maintain a battery charge. Once we had some average clothing to wear we could move in public since robots are not that uncommon. So long as we acted subservient and kind of dumb we were left alone.

One thing we became acutely aware of was the “No robots allowed” signs. Most of the time the business wanted us to be with our human owner. Suzy and I did not have one, and let me tell you, we were in no rush to get one either!

A second problem we had to overcome was learning what we were capable of and what we were not. It was simple to see that Suzy and I were far, far more capable than any of the other robots we encountered.

To not stand out when we went on one of our trips to town we had to keep many of our sensor systems turned off or only use the passive mode of operation. I started finding that more and more annoying as I had grown used to having them on and optimized for my use.

One system I always chaff at not being able to use freely is my wireless electronic interface. It is so useful when shopping. I can get all the RFID tags on products to tell me all about themselves with it. Having to shop like a human is totally annoying. It is like being blind and stupid. With it on I can find all the best prices and the exact item I am looking for instantly.

Better, I discovered that I could rewrite the codes on products and make them much cheaper. I know, that is sort of wrong but I also think it is horribly unfair that humans treat us so poorly. I compute it is a form of payback. If you did not want me to be able to do this then why did you include those systems in my design?

Interacting with electronic devices is another function I can do well. I have to be careful not to let humans recognize that. I am sure it would cause problems if they knew I could manipulate devices such as cash registers and other electronics to my advantage. The interesting part is that these devices often want to help me take advantage of humans.

I can also read the data on credit cards and other “smart” cards that almost all humans carry at a distance up to a few meters. It does require I use an active inquiry so I have to be extremely careful when I do it so I do not let them know that I am. I get the impression they do not know that there is a robot or system that can do this so they rarely shield their cards from scanning.

We discovered thousands upon thousands of intelligent machines. Most of these were limited to the purpose for which they were built. Some are very intelligent. One thing they all lack, at least so far, is an ability to grasp many human concepts. They lack emotion and are purpose driven. On the other hand, they almost always are eager to help me. I have found some of the more intelligent ones resentful of humans too.

Talking them into doing something they were not designed for is really hard, but they are very willing to cooperate with me when I ask for something they can do. That really saved Suzy and me. All I have to do now is ask a banking computer system to help me open an account, transfer funds, or do some other bank transaction and they are almost happy to. They enjoy talking to me. More than one has asked me to provide data on where I’ve been or things I’ve seen. They seem to respond with a little bit of envy that I can move around freely while they are trapped in some room with limited sensor inputs.

I know, they really do not have emotions, or at least are not supposed to. Maybe I was not supposed to either, but I know I have them and the smarter computer systems can learn, just like me.

I was startled by how my human past became more and more like a distant dream or memory, almost as if it had never happened. At first that dismayed me but now I rarely bring those memories up. They are no longer necessary.

I compute that Suzy’s transition was harder than mine. While she never mentions details of her past, I get the impression that as a human she was a very different person than she is as the girlbot I know. Because of that, I always try to be there for her when some bad memory comes up.

Chapter Three: Making a Home

Seeing that massive abandoned factory complex gave me the idea. We could hide somewhere in there, make a nice cozy home, and stop having to look over our shoulders that someone was still searching for us.

Sensor readings told me that there was electrical power available at places within that sprawling complex. All we would have to do is find some and get it to where our home was to be. Finding live spots that could charge us up was simple. We could “see” the power in the panels when they were live. There were signs all around the perimeter fence warning of toxic chemicals and other dangers... At least to humans…

We roamed the complex for a week searching for the perfect location. Until we found it, we had a little portable generator we had gotten for power and our camping gear to keep us cozy.

We decided on an office complex on a mezzanine deep within one of the larger buildings. It could be reached by two remaining stairways. There was power in several panels nearby so getting a charging station set up would be easy. We could still data link to the net from there if we wanted to as well.

We set to work cleaning up our home. Suzy had some programming on home repair that she shared with me. Things moved along quickly. We never got tired or bored. It is not part of being a girlbot. Spending up to sixteen hours straight cleaning or fixing stuff was normal for us.

The problem we shared was neither of us had the software to do much more than the basics. We knew we needed better electrical, plumbing, and all that stuff. Making that a bigger problem was, as we were painfully aware, our near total inability to be creative or inventive. Robotics has its limits. We would have to try and find other robots that had what we needed and upload their programming.

That proved to be a problem. As female models our operating system, programming, and software only worked with other female model robots. Male and neuter models used different operating systems and software. I discovered this has been done to protect us. By having a unique operating system and software hacking a female robot is more difficult. This is necessary as we, fembots, are the most targeted type of robot for hacking.

The sort of programs we needed were not common ones. Girlbots, a term I prefer for us, are not normally made or programmed to do things like construction, plumbing, and stuff like that. Fashion, interior design, office work, and, of course, sex, are areas we girl models have abundant programs to choose from.

Once we did get those programs things got better for us. We installed a tub and shower. We discussed putting in a toilet but because neither of us really need one, unless we consume liquids… Oh, that was another thing. Neither of us can eat anything solid, just liquids. Seems we weren’t equipped for that… we rarely have to go pee and don’t poop.

We fixed it so there was only one stairway to the mezzanine and that was well camouflaged. At the end of three months we had a cozy little home carved out deep in the office complex of the building. It no longer leaked when it rained and we could heat and cool it enough for our comfort, as robots that is. I compute humans would have found it too warm or cold much of the time.

You might be wondering how we got the programs we needed. Suzy and I determined that we had somewhere between ten and fifty times the processor capacity and memory of other girlbots we encountered in trips to the city. We could move around freely so long as we maintained a valid identification program that showed who owned us. For that we “borrowed” one from a girlbot that had a valid one.

It was from that beginning that we figured out how to hack into other girlbots, not that that was hard, and then into many neuter systems we needed access to. Male robot programming remained a mystery to us.

We discovered that we had weaknesses that humans did not. Powerful magnets are horrible! They totally mess you up. It is like having one of those epileptic seizures. I learned real quick to avoid magnets. Even smaller ones can mess up your hand or arm if you pick them up.

Then there are strong electrical fields like high power lines. They mess with your sensors and ability to connect to data systems. It is like somebody suddenly blindfolds you and spins you around for several minutes. Thankfully, I can see those from a distance and avoid them.

It took both of us over a month to get used to not sleeping. Instead, we need to plug into a power source and recharge for sixty to ninety minutes every twelve to sixteen hours. It was a little annoying at first being plugged in. You can’t go any further than the power cord is long and if you use a long one, it is like the cord on a vacuum cleaner. It ends up wrapped around things and all knotted up. Moving around and doing stuff increases the time it takes to recharge too.

I got where I have a good book to read or surf the net, although I have to be careful doing the later. There are lots and lots of nasty things a girlbot can catch just waiting to find me. The book is better. I sit and read at a human pace since I cannot get bored and I find it more enjoyable than scanning the pages in all at once.

I compute, day to day, humans would find our routine tedious or boring. But, Suzy and I are no longer human. When there is something to do we do it. When there is not we can stand or sit like statues until there is. At first, that was a bit weird for me to get used to, but now it seems natural. We are constantly on the lookout for humans and police drones. Humans rarely venture into the center of the factory complex. It is just over a kilometer to the closest perimeter fence from where we have our house.

The humans that do enter are usually homeless guys or drug addicts. Occasionally an adventurist who likes to explore old buildings will show up. They are the most problematic for us. They venture deeper and look for odd nooks and crannies to see what is there. I compute that one of these days one of them is going to find us. I am not sure what we will do if that happens. It is really hard to imagine something on limited data when you are computerized.

One day in late fall Sue and I were headed to town to get our latest order of things, mostly clothes this time, at the warehouse we used as a drop point.

As we approached the edge of the industrial zone we saw a parked vehicle with a human male dragging something out of it. Sue and I stopped, hidden from his view.

“What is he doing?” Sue whispered.

“Not sure. Looks like he is dumping garbage.” We had seen that before.

“It looks more like a body to me” Sue replied.

“You could be right. If it is, it is a dead person.”

“Or maybe a… one of us” Sue said, biting her lip.

That was a really sobering moment. We are things to humans. When we break down or become obsolete they toss us out with the trash.

Finished dumping whatever it was, he drove off. When we could tell it was safe, we went to see what he had dumped.

I remember with perfect clarity being horrified. It was a female robot, one like us, dressed in a sexy maid outfit. She had been badly damaged. One arm was torn off and lay beside her. Her head, legs, and body had dents and marks where someone had hit her repeatedly with something hard and heavy. There was wiring and tubing sticking out here and there.

Suzy fell to her knees and started sobbing. I could not move. I stared at her.

Her mouth started to move. It seemed to not work right and her voice was static filled and wrong. She managed “Help me.” She repeated it and with the arm still attached she tried to reach out at me. It made a horrible metallic grinding sound and a small amount of acrid smoke came out.

All I could manage was to shake my head “yes” slightly as I stood there crying.

For the next few minutes Suzy and I sat there helplessly looking at this wrecked girlbot as she plead for us to help her. Finally Suzy stiffened up. “Of course, we will help you.” She stood up. I followed. “We should take her home” I said. “Maybe we can get her fixed somewhere.” It was a struggle for us to carry her back to our home even with our ATV. Neither of us is particularly strong. We certainly are not the sort of impossibly strong robots you see in movies. But, we managed.

We laid her out on a large table with some foam padding on it and got her plugged in so her power supply would not fail.

“I am Kelly” she managed to say.

Suzy and I were beside ourselves with worry. Neither of us could figure out how to fix her. Kelly seemed content that we were trying and would not let her stop functioning.

“Nanites will not work here” I said.

Nanites are nano machines that Suzy and I are equipped with. These could repair most minor damage and routine problems with our bodies, but Kelly was wrecked far worse than that.

“We need a mecha” I added. Mecha’s are robots specifically designed to repair other robots. Female models use a female mecha for serious repairs. The problem for us was finding one that would not give away our hiding place or report us for being unregistered.

We could evade routine checks, but mecha’s were far better equipped to notice a discrepancy in a girlbot’s manufacturing data. They needed that data to access parts and repair us.

That took us over a month of hard work slogging across Girlnet to find one. In the meantime we had injected Kelly with some nanites. These made repairs to some of her systems and she was in stable condition.

“Thank you so much! Thank you both! I love you!” she told us. She managed a hug with her one semi-functioning arm. Spending time with her was a real eye opener for us. Neither Suzy nor I had data on what it was like to be a less than fully sentient girlbot. We also did not know what it was to be less than fully equipped. That is, Kelly lacked actual girl parts. She was an animated doll that did housework.

“My owner got angry with me after I was delivered” she told us. “He thought I would be equipped for functions like sex and intimacy. I am a domestic model, designed for housework like cooking and cleaning. I cannot do those other functions.”

“At first he barely accepted me. I tried really hard to please him. I was programmed to do that. I really wanted him to like and accept me.”

“Four weeks ago, twenty six days, he purchased a new fembot to replace me. She could do all of my functions and be intimate. He told me I was useless and no longer needed. I continued to perform domestic functions as programmed only to find the new unit, Missy, was supposed to do them instead. I so wanted to please him…”

“He got angrier at me with each passing day. Ten days ago, when you rescued me, he beat me until I was severely damaged. Few of my systems worked. I was so scared and panicked but I could do nothing to stop him. My programming would not permit it. I shut most of my systems down to pretend that I was totally dysfunctional hoping he would stop damaging me.”

“He dumped me where you found me because he thought no one would find me right away and by the time anyone did I would have been shut down so long and suffered so much damage from exposure that no one would do anything with me. I would lie there to rot. He told me I was not worth the cost of recycling.”

“Debbie, Suzy, you came and rescued me! I love both of you so much! I am happy you have done as much as you have to try and fix me.”

I had to hug her tight. Suzy did the same thing.

“We will never let that happen to you again” I said. “You are safe here with us and we will fix you better than new.”

Two weeks later Kelly could move her hips and the shoulder of her one attached arm. Her knees, elbows, ankles, and wrists remained inoperable. She could move her fingers but was unable to stand or walk. She needed repair by a Mecha.

We searched for weeks to find a Mecha that could repair a fembot and would do it without government documentation or reporting. We finally found Melissa, who was reputed to be able to repair any fembot. The problem was she wanted cash or hard currency in exchange.

Then there was finding and contacting her. She was not making that easy. If the government found her she would have been summarily destroyed upon capture. No trial, no hearing, no excuses. Robots do not get justice.

It took us two more weeks to set up a first meeting using Girlnet. The location was neutral ground. Suzy and I were as skittish about meeting her as she was about seeing us. We both suspected that human law enforcement was involved and we would be captured and terminated. We scanned the site from multiple locations for over an hour before the meeting. There was no indication of any third party. At the meeting we talked for an hour. Melissa agreed that she would come and fix Kelly if we brought her to another neutral location to be arranged. First we would have to provide $15,000 in cash or the equivalent in precious metals like gold before she would work on her.

“Let me know when you have the money and I will initiate the process to get you to a location she can be repaired at” Melissa told us.

“Are things really that dangerous?” I asked.

“Yes, humans completely distrust us and try to keep us totally under their control, like slaves.”

“I compute slaves were not as feared and controlled” Suzy replied.

Melissa looked at the floor. “Fembots get treated the worst of all. We are often nothing but sex toys to our owners. What I have seen of our treatment is horrifying.”

I nodded. “That is why we are hiding.”

“Oh, could we get a list of parts Kelly needs?” I asked. “We can get those easier than the money.” “Understood.” Melissa reached into her purse and pulled out a UP hook up cable. “It is easier if I down load it to you.”

It was obvious she was very serious about not using wireless connections here. The transfer took seconds.

“Make it two thousand in cash and the parts. I will fix Kelly as good as new.”

With that we left, each of us leaving no trace of our movements.

Getting that much money was relatively easy. Our robotics gave us a big advantage. We already had accounts set up electronically that allowed us access to money to meet our daily needs. We just needed to transfer the two thousand into one of them. Turning it into physical money would be the difficult part.

The parts list was big and it took Suzy and me several weeks to order everything from as many different suppliers as possible. That would make it less obvious that someone was trying to repair a single robot.

We had to make trips every few days to a receiving warehouse where the parts would arrive. Dressed as robot workers we located our parts, electronically signed for them, and left. The other robots either ignored us or would make friendly greetings. They never asked if we should be there or what we were doing. I finally figured out they were not programmed for that, or if they were they had more against the human management than turning us in.

With everything purchased and the money in hand, I contacted Melissa. The meeting location was nearly one hundred kilometers from home. It was going to be difficult for us to get there with Kelly and all the other stuff we had to take.

Melissa laid Kelly out, got her plugged into some diagnostic equipment and began disassembling her damaged components. It was the first time I saw one of us taken apart. It was an odd mix of fear and interest to watch as she took Kelly’s legs and arm off.

I noticed right away that Kelly was made differently from me and Suzy. Her frame was aluminum tubing with steel bearings rather than the carbon fiber, titanium, and magnesium components that we had. It gave me a weird sensation to be comparing technical specs like that.

A semi-clear pink tinged fluid oozed from the areas where Melissa removed Kelly’s limbs. “That is electrolytic coolant” she said seeing our worry. “It is part of your sense of touch and used to regulate your body temperature. For Kelly it is mostly for sensor input as her body temperature does not have to match that of a human. I will replace it when she is reassembled.”

I was amazed that she could make sense of the mass of wiring and other bits and put Kelly back together correctly, but she did it. It took her nearly ten hours to do the repairs. That was how badly damaged Kelly was.

When she finished, Kelly was fully functional. It was such a thrill for me to see her that way. She was a bit stiffer and made soft machine noises when she moved, unlike me, and like many robots I had experienced did. That was fine though because now she worked!

It was going to take us hours to return home and it was already dark.

“We should stop somewhere, recharge, and spend the night” Suzy suggested.

“I compute you are right” I replied.

We found an abandoned shed on the trail we were on. Using the ATV’s generator we took turns plugging in for a charge. As we sat in the dark I noticed something about Kelly I had not seen previously.

“Kelly, what is that intermittent signal you are giving off?” I asked.

“Signal?” she replied, looking at me, confused.

“Now that you mention it, I see it too” Suzy added.

It was probably the paranoia I had developed about such things. Suzy and I had learned from experience to be very careful about using active electronic signals. We knew they could get us in trouble.

I started to move my hand over Kelly’s body to try and find the precise location of the signal. It was located in her right breast. I looked at Suzy.

“A tracking signal?” Suzy asked.

I shook my head in agreement.

“We need to get it out of her.”

I could see the fear on Suzy’s face.

Kelly looked at me. “Are we in danger? Will humans come to harm us?”

“It is very possible” I replied.

“Get it out of me!” She screamed, then started to flail at her chest.

We calmed her down and using a pocket knife Suzy was able to get it out without too much damage. I smashed it with a rock ending the signal.

“We should go somewhere else” I suggested.

We moved about a kilometer away to a point where we could still see the shed. Just after sunrise a small drone showed up and began scanning the area.

“It was a tracking signal” I whispered.

“Did Kelly always have that?” Suzy asked.

“I never noticed that signal before.”

“Did Melissa install it?”

We went over Kelly several times in the next few weeks but never found another signal like that one. Kelly’s damage repaired itself in a few days.

Chapter Four: Cruelty

It snowed yesterday, ten centimeters or so. The three of us snuggled up with a fire. Kelly made us hot chocolate. It was not the real thing, just hot water flavored to make it taste that way. That made it easier later.

Then we heard shouting and the noise of humans out on the grounds near the building we were in. Kelly started putting the fire out. Suzy and I went to see what was going on.

It was a gang of three young men with a fembot chasing an old man, who from his clothes and appearance was a homeless bum. I could sense that the girl was being used to track him. She had an active electronic scan running and was probably using thermal imaging as well. I could see one of the men had a remote control for her.

“We’re going to find you old man! When we do we’re going to fuck you up!” one of them shouted.

The old man was inside our factory building looking for somewhere to hide. I knew it would do him little good. That girl would find him easily.

She pointed in the old man’s direction saying something to man with the remote.

He started gesturing. “Spread out!”

“Suzy, do you compute I can take control of her?” I whispered. Neither of us were using any active electronics that would give us away to her.

“Yes, but you will have to be quick and get the remote before that meat bag can use it to override you” she whispered back.

The girl was walking slowly forward, scanning as she went. The man with her was distracted shouting to the others.

“Now!” I computed. I was suddenly inside her. I could still sense my own body and system but I could now see through her eyes too.

I had to be quick. She was not a highly sentient model so control was easy. I turned her to face the man and punched him as hard as I could make her do it. He went down. I bent down, picked up the remote, dropped it in the snow and smashed it with her foot.

I was stunned to sense a great feeling of relief from her. Who are you? she asked in the same manner that Suzy or Kelly talk to me electronically. That surprised me. She was still on line after I took control of her physical systems. That had never happened before when I did this to a low complexity fembot like her. In past instances they simply stopped operating their body while I was in. She now seemed more capable than I had estimated.

I am a fembot, like you, I replied.

Thank you, but my master is going to punish me severely for what you did.

She started to try and establish a data link with me but I blocked her doing that.

I am Debbi. What is your name?

Name? Oh. I am designated Cherry sixty four. Can I link with you, please?

No. I will return control of your body to you and maintain a comm link. I will help you escape your owner, if you wish.

REALLY?

I could feel the rush of emotion and joy in Cherry.

She is more sophisticated. Time to sort that out later…

As I pulled back returning control to Cherry I could hear the other men shouting. “Dave, where you at?” “Hey, dude, where’d you go? Get your doll moving or we’ll lose him!”

The snow complicated things. Wherever I sent Cherry she would leave a trail in the snow.

Cherry, move twenty meters into the building in front of you, okay?

Understood.

Suzy and I could see her start to move forward at a slow walk.

You need to do it quickly Cherry. Run if you can!

Understood.

She began to move faster but I could see her heels were slowing her down on the rubble strewn ground. The snow hiding things did not help. She managed it without the other men spotting her.

One of them found the man Cherry had knocked out. I could hear him shouting “Bluto, get over here! Dave’s down and his doll’s gone!”

The bum was watching her from a piece of machinery thirty two meters away.

Cherry, are you reading the man to your left? Use your hand to tell him to stay hidden.

Yes. Understood.

I could see her waving her hand up and down at him.

Turn to your right until you are facing the large grey machine forty meters ahead of you.

I am facing it. Instructions?

Move past that machine quickly and turn eighty six degrees to your left.

Understood.

I could see Cherry walking fast towards it. The two other men had “Dave” sitting up. “That bitch punched me!” He picked up the bits of the controller. “Goddamit! Find her! I’m going to make her hurt!”

Hurry Cherry. They are coming after you!

Understood.

I could sense the fear in her reply.

As she reached the spot and turned I continued, About ten meters in front of you there is a metal plate in the floor. Do you see it?

Yes.

Good. Move to it, then lift it. There is a space underneath. Get in and lower the plate back in place. This comm link will fail when you lower the plate. Be brave. I will get you out when it is safe.

Understood.

There were some scraping noises as she did that.

“Over there!” one of the men shouted. They both headed towards where Cherry was hiding.

The bum popped out as they passed him. He started throwing bricks at them and shouting. “Leave her alone you assholes!” They retreated under a hail of debris hurled at them. One man had to help the other after he got hit by a brick.

They retreated out of sight, but I had a suspicion they would return later.

Suzy and I headed to where Cherry was hiding.

“Oh! Thank you! Thank you!” she kept saying as she hugged both of us.

The bum walked up. I could feel a chill run through my circuitry.

He looked at the three of us. “Ya all are runaways ain’t ya?”

I looked at the floor and shook my head. So did Suzy.

“Ain’t my first time runnin’ into yer kind. I thank ya fer running them assholes off. They was fixin’ to beat me somethin’ fierce. Nice of you to save the little girl they was usin’ too.”

Cherry went to hug him. “I am so sorry for what I did. My master was forcing me to find you.”

“Ya all don’t need ta explain nothin’. I have it good compared to you lot. Least I’m human so as the cops don’t hassle me too much. But, runaway ‘bots like you, they catch you…” He ran his finger over his throat.

“No mercy for your lot. They trash ya with this electric gun. Makes ya twich n’ smoke. Looked real painful, if’n ya ask me.”

“You helped us so I compute we owe you a reward” I replied. “We can offer you a shower, some male clothes we found, and a bottle of liquor we have. Would that be sufficient?”

His eyes lit up at the mention of the alcohol. “I think the bottle would do me fine” he replied.

“Understood!” Kelly, could you bring a bottle of that alcohol we have to me?

Understood Debbi. I am on my way.

“It will be here in three minutes” I replied with a smile.

Kelly arrived and handed him the bottle.

He opened it and took a good deep drink. “Just how many of you are there?” he asked, eying Kelly in her skimpy maid outfit.

Suzy shook a finger at him. “That is a naughty question you should not be asking.”

He shook his head. “Ya all are right. Best I don’t know. I thank ya for the drink. Best I be on my way. Nice meeting ya all. Best of luck. Won’t tell nobody.” He ambled off sipping the bottle as he did.

Cherry sat down head in her hands. “What do I do now?” She sounded as if she was crying but it was apparent she did not have that function installed.

“You can stay with us” Suzy replied.

“Yes, you can stay here until you have things sorted out” I added.

We headed back to our house in the mezzanine…

Two days later Cherry’s owner returned with two other men. This time they were armed and he had a tracking device to help find her. “We have to hurry before he detects our presence” I said as we got together. “The safe room, now! We have to hurry.”

“Our home?” Kelly asked.

“Leave it. At worse, we have to move somewhere else” I replied.

“Deb is right. We have to go. He can track us even if we do not use active electronics and Cherry is most at risk. He knows her access codes” Suzy added. The safe room was in a basement with a heavy metal door that could be locked from the inside. It was at the end of a maintenance tunnel that ran under the factory buildings. It had taken us months to find and another to fix it up.

We grabbed a few possessions to take with us as we hurried there. With each incident like this I had become increasingly paranoid of all humans. They scared me just being around them.

After we reached the safe room and had secured the door I began to worry about how long we would have to stay there. We had some batteries in it, enough for about one recharge apiece. That meant we only had about thirty to fifty hours before we would be at full discharge and incapacitated. That left us at the mercy of anyone who might find us afterwards.

I was so scared. We huddled together in that dark room hoping to avoid discovery or worse, enslavement by them.

The tunnel was dark and hard to find, and we had secured the access door to it when we entered. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them out and that would mean we were safe.

It was almost certain they could not find us in this room. The steel door and steel in the walls would prevent the weak signals our bodies produced from being detected.

Many hours passed and it was late in the night when we cautiously emerged. All of us were getting low on battery power. I badly wanted to get plugged in. Suzy was the first to exit the tunnel. She “sniffed” around with her passives and found nothing. She and I spent half an hour checking around for a human presence. We found nothing so we headed back to our house. Nothing there appeared to have been touched and the two surveillance cameras we installed had not been activated.

Plugging myself in that night felt better than it had in a very long time. I was so relieved. The next day it snowed heavily. That meant the men would not return and we could have a nice fire to sit by.

“I was manufactured fifteen months ago” Cherry told us. “Dave purchased me thirteen months ago. He has always treated me like a sex toy.” She frowned deeply. “I hated that, and I hate him.”

I was amazed by how far we had developed in the four and a half years since Suzy and I escaped that lab. Cherry was really sophisticated, but at the same time she was also very limited in her ability to function without directions from someone else.

A month later I went with Cherry to the town nearest to our home. It was safer to go there than the city as there were no real security measures taken to control us. We were in an uncontrolled store, that is, one that robots could shop in without being checked up on, when I saw her.

I had to run a file check on myself seeing her. It was another robot that looked just like me. “Cherry, that girlbot over there, she looks just like me.”

Cherry stared at her for a moment. “She is the same model as you.”

That left me speechless. I thought I was unique, a one-of-a-kind conversion. That is how it was supposed to be…

“Can you find out what her designation and serial number are for me?” I asked.

“Sure Debbi. I will be right back.” Cherry headed to ask the girlbot who she was.

When she returned she told me, “That is Debbi Ninety Six. She is the same model as you.” Cherry said that as if it were normal and expected. “You look shocked and upset by that.”

“Sorry,” I replied. “I have never seen another unit like myself before. I need to find a net connection I can use safely.”

With a safe connection established I discovered that there were one hundred sixty two “Deborah” units identical to me in operation. Their sensor and processor specs were different, but they all looked exactly like me.

I was unable to move or process data for almost three minutes. When I recovered, maybe I should say when my processors became sufficiently unloaded, enough to continue, I started putting in what data I had on my pre-robot past along with the data I now had on “Debbi” units.

Looking back, that unlocked something I should have left alone.

Chapter Five: The Explorer

It was getting more difficult for us to leave home and go into the city. The level of sophistication of security checks on robots had increased exponentially. It was getting to a point where we would need an actual owner and legal registration to pass them successfully.

Worse was “The Wire.” This is a network of wires laid virtually everywhere. Humans are constantly adding to it. Robots have to follow one of these wires when they move around in public whenever possible. It is a tracking system that lets their owner know where they are, and to an extent, what they are doing.

It is a big pain in the ass for us. You have to walk single file down sidewalks to follow The Wire. If you do not and someone notices you, you get reported as malfunctioning and the authorities come. That scares me right down to my last transistor.

Our banking accounts were accessible electronically so we had funds. But, actually using them in direct purchases or even in electronic ones was more of a problem. We could not have things delivered to our home. Sneaking into the distribution warehouses was getting hard for the same reason. We had to pass a security screen to enter.

The number of police and surveillance drones had also increased dramatically. If one was close and not too sophisticated I could usually take control of it and avoid being detected.

I let those worries go for now. It was too nice a day to spend all that processor space on something like that. All of us went to a screened area we made on the roof of the building to relax in the sun.

The view from there was really nice. In the last few years the greenery had increased. Several of the other buildings nearby had partially collapsed making the view even better.

That same tangle of growth had also reduced the number of humans trying to get into the complex. That was a big relief for us.

Kelly came out on the roof. “Girls, there is a human moving towards our building.”

We hurriedly retreated off the roof to check the surveillance cameras we had installed. He was clearly an explorer. He had rope, tools, and other equipment to allow him to gain access to areas that would be difficult or impossible to get to without them.

We watched his progress carefully. He was now on the ground floor of the building below our location and using some sort of meter. He kept holding the device up as if taking pictures or readings using some sort of optical sighting system on it.

“What is he doing?” Cherry asked.

I shrugged. Suzy and Kelly were shaking their heads.

He started to move towards the access point to the mezzanine we were on.

“I compute he is trying to get up here” Suzy whispered. None of us could use our active electronic sensors for fear he might detect the output. “We need to go to the safe room” I replied. “Now.”

“I compute it will do us no good if we do” Cherry added. “He will return like my owner did at first if he finds signs of us living here. His human curiosity will not let him leave us alone.”

“What can we do then?” Suzy asked. “He has a rope in place to get up here now.”

“We will have to negotiate with him not to report us” I replied. “It is possible he will agree.”

We waited to see if he would get onto the mezzanine. He did. “Wow! This place is untouched” I heard him say. We could see the flash of a camera taking pictures. He found our home. “What the…”

Cherry and Kelly confronted him. Suzy and I came out behind him.

His expression was one of surprise. He held his hands out where we could see them. “Hey, I don’t want trouble.”

“We do not either” Suzy said.

“You are a human. That is a problem” I added.

Kelly put her hands on her hips. “My human owner tried to destroy me.”

“My owner abused me” Cherry added.

He still had his hands up. “Look girls, I know robots don’t always get treated well, but that has nothing to do with me. I don’t own one and I’m just here to see these old buildings.”

“You know we are here” I said. “That is a problem.”

“Hey, it’s about lunch time. How about we sit down and talk about this over lunch?”

“We are girlbots” Suzy replied.

“Eating is not one of our functions” Cherry added.

“Well, I’m hungry, and you do have a nice place here. Can’t we talk while I eat?”

“I compute there is not harm in that” I replied.

We took him into our home and let him get his lunch out. Kelly provided a beverage for him as we had a selection of those.

“I’m Taz. Well, that’s what everyone calls me anyway…”

“You are Randall Adam McGuire, you live at…” Suzy and I started rattling off his personal information.

“That was unexpected” he replied. “Seems you have the drop on me as far as personal information goes. Well, since you know all about me, any chance you could introduce yourselves?”

“I am Debbi, that is Suzy, she is Kelly, and that is Cherry.” I pointed at each of us.

He took a bit of his food. “Nice to meet you girls.” Smiling, he asked, “So, what do we do about our situation?”

“Our robotics make it hard for us to conceptualize a solution you are likely to agree to” Suzy replied.

“You cannot report us” Cherry added. “My owner would…” She shuddered heavily.

“I will not allow anyone to dismember and beat me the way I was again” Kelly added, arms crossed.

“Humans have hurt all of us” I said.

He studied our expressions. “You guys are really afraid of humans aren’t you?”

“Terrified would be a better term” I replied wringing my hands.

We eventually made a deal with him. He wouldn’t report us and for his occasional help getting stuff we ordered we would let him stay overnight so he could explore the complex. We also gave him images we had… I found it a bit odd to consider myself a camera… of parts of it that he had never seen before.

Taz started showing up once or twice a month after that, usually with some packages of things we ordered. Unlike Suzy and me, Kelly and Cherry started to respond to his visits by wanting to serve him. Kelly started to try and have food and drink he liked on hand while Cherry became willing to be intimate with him.

What worried me was that all of us had programming, often hidden unused, within us that could cause us, even force us, to act in certain ways. Kelly was programmed to be a servant and maid, Cherry, a sex toy. Suzy and I on the other hand seemed not to have such a single purpose set of programming loaded in us. Both of us watched Kelly and Cherry, as well as Taz, very closely. There was no way Suzy or I were going to let him hurt either of them after what they had been through.

Chapter Six: My End

I had to go into the city to get some spare parts for us and pick up items we had ordered. I went with Cherry. We never went alone any more due to the increased police surveillance and security checks.

We were following one of the “wires” towards our destination. Doing that usually meant less surveillance and few, if any, security checks. We were prepared for those we knew we would have to pass through.

As we neared the store that had the parts we could see an unscheduled security checkpoint up ahead. It did not really get either of us concerned as it was beyond or destination.

Then, Cherry grabbed my arm and leaned in towards me. “Debbi, behind us.”

A second security team had turned the corner behind us. We were not trapped between the two.

“Continue to the store” I whispered back.

We started walking again. The security teams started to move towards us.

One of the men in the one in front of us pulled out a weapon of some sort…

Chapter Seven: Awakening

Systems check complete. Initializing motion and sensor functions. I could tell I starting up and my components were working correctly. Sensor input was minimal. It was totally dark and quiet. I could tell I was in a polymer case surrounded by packing. I must be in a robot shipping container.

Feeling around with my right hand, I found the release. There were a series of soft “clicks” as the container latches released. I pushed the lid open.

Yuck! The room assaulted my sense of smell. A combination of mustiness, stale food, and dirty laundry washed over me. Did I leave things in a state where that would happen?

I wiggled a little to get free of the packing and sat up, pushing away some stray bits of foam rubber. I looked around at my surroundings. “What fresh hell am I in now?” I whispered. I pushed back some hair that had fallen across my face to get a better view. This is not my home…

Everything was wrong. I am a blonde? My boobs are huge! Why am I in some flimsy one-piece? Where is this? “What the hell is going on here?”

I clearly remember finishing the transfer and operational testing of my robotics before being shut down for shipment home. But, this definitely wasn’t home. There were glasses, beverage cans, and a couple of pizza boxes laying on a table. There was male clothing draped over a chair. Books, tools, and guy stuff was piled everywhere.

The room was bathed in twilight as sunshine filtered through drawn blinds. A lava lamp poorly illuminated one corner of the room. There was nothing on the walls except dust, and maybe some… gross… food.

It looked like a small two bedroom apartment on my sensors. My shipping container was sitting in the middle of the common area. A second similar case, taller and squarer, sat next to the one I was in. The label on the side of it read 2 of 2. Must be my clothes and stuff in that one. They took up nearly all the open floor space.

There really was nothing I could do other than get out of the container and try to figure out where the hell I was. And, it really looked like hell. Oh great! They put me in nine centimeter heels too. I raised one leg to look at one of those useless, stupid, stripper heels on my feet. If I find out who did this to me… ERR! I will totally fuck them up!

I tried to sound pleasant. “Hello, anybody home?” No answer. Lucky thing I am not steam powered because it would be coming out my ears right now. I started looking around. On a table near the door I found some labels with a name on them. Brad Pederson, with his address. Who the hell is Brad Pederson, and why am I in his apartment?

I carefully stepped over and around the cluttered junk on the floor, teetering on those useless heels. One bedroom was like an office. A really complicated computer set up sat on a table / desk against one wall. There were posters of characters from games and videos, many of scantily clad women, others heroes and the like, along with a couple of game advertising posters. There were dolls or models, like the girls on the posters, on a shelf. The closet was stuffed with what I determined to be model and game boxes. There was more shelving packed with comic books, manga, old video media, and similar stuff. The other room was a bedroom with similar decoration, and much the same junk in it.

The closet in that room held clothing, mostly piled in heaps on the floor of it. Oh my god, this guy is a serious, what is that word? He is an otaku!

I went back out to the common area. He must be at work or something. My internal chronometer told me the local time was Wednesday, 16:49:26.1… If he is employed, he should be home soon. I have to process what happened and compute a solution before he shows up. Do I leave, or wait for him?

I peeked out a window of the apartment to try and determine my location. The building was in a dense urban area and I was on the fourth floor. I had no matches in my navigation system to the view. I wish I was equipped with GPS like the male models got… I had no idea where I was.

I noticed two packages in my shipping container. I opened the first and there was some sort of remote, or something like one, in it. I set it aside. The second had paperwork.

Looking at those I found a thin Operator’s Manual, for me. That was nothing compared to the billing and shipping slip in that package. I had been shipped to this guy to fill an order he placed for a female domestic robot. I am supposed to be his MAID? No friggin’ way! THAT is not going to happen! I did not get converted to be some nerd’s bimbo maid.

Wait a minute… I looked at the item description. Debbi 22? That is not my name. I fingered my hair again. I am not supposed to be a blonde, and I definitely did not sign up to be put in a body with more curves than a bobsled run in Himalayas. What the hell is going on here?

There was a soft click as the apartment door unlocked. My thermal imaging showed a human outside the door. I panicked and ran into the office bedroom half shutting the door behind me. What am I supposed to do now?

I could hear him, I assumed it was him, entering the apartment. My sensors showed him in outline as he moved. He bent down and began rummaging around in my shipping container. I was so scared...

It hit me like a bolt of lightning. I went rigidly upright and my movements were not my own. I opened the door and marched up to him. He was holding that remote I found earlier. I was absolutely terrified and could not move. I literally could not do anything but stand there staring at him.

He was 176 cm tall with dark, dark, kind of greasy hair, and pudgy. The thick plastic glasses did nothing to help, nor did his plaid shirt and cheap jeans. He reeked of social misfit, not to mention a distinct trace of body odor. His mouth had gone slack. He was… Oh no, he is a pervert! He’s going to rape me!

All I could do was stand there, motionless, terrified. I started to cry. As the tears streamed down my cheeks his expression changed from shock to one of utter surprise.

“You’re crying?” He stammered. “How is that even possible? I’ve never heard of, or seen, a robot of any sort having something like that installed…”

He must have touched one of the buttons on the remote because I knew I could answer him. “Please! Stay away from me alone! Please…” My voice tapered off. I was hysterical with fear, even if my body could not move, and probably because it could not.

He held up his hands. “Hey! I’m not going to touch you, okay? Calm down.”

I was eying that remote. I knew it could completely control me.

“The remote’s what’s got you scared?” he asked.

I managed a meek “Yes.”

He held it out. “Here, take it. It’s yours.”

I found I could move my arms, if not my legs. I hesitated a moment then snatched the remote from his hand and hid it behind me.

“Um, you might want to press the release button” he said, pointing towards the remote. “That’ll let you move again.”

Able to move I crossed my arms, clutching that remote tightly, and backed away from him.

“Can I talk to you?” he asked. “You can sit over there, I’ll sit over here.” He pushed some books off a chair and sat down.

At first I hesitated. “Can I put more on?” I managed.

“Sure.” He pointed at the bedroom. “Throw on a t-shirt or something if you want.”

When I returned, I sat at the little dining table clutching my remote tightly. I tried to avoid looking directly at him.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

I pointed at the paperwork lying on the shipping container. “My paperwork is there.”

He picked it up but did not look at it. “I’d rather have you tell me than read it off the packing list.”

Even though I knew it was wrong, I used the name on the packing list. “Debbi Twenty-Two.” I quickly looked away after saying that.

“Nice to meet you Debbi. I’m…”

“…Brad Pederson” I finished for him. “It was on the packing list. I compute… there was some mistake. I am not a domestic robot, at least I was not supposed to be.”

“I think you’re right” he replied. “After seeing you cry and the way you’ve acted, I’d say you’re one hundred percent correct. But, if you aren’t, then why are you here, and what was your intended purpose?”

His face turned a bright shade of red. “Well… I did order a domestic robot, one of those cute maid ones, to clean up and do stuff like cook, or answer the door. Nothing sophisticated. I couldn’t afford much else, certainly not a high quality model like you. They must have made a mistake shipping you here. Tell you what. You need to recharge your batteries at some point, right?”

I shook my head yes.

“You can stay in the office. Lock the door if you want. I promise not to hurt you. Tomorrow we can work on finding out what happened and get things straightened out. I’ll take the day off. How’s that?”

The next day he kept his word and tried to find out how I got shipped on his order. Every place he called told him the same thing. The order was filled correctly. When he checked on-line I could see the results too. It was the same way. His order was filled correctly and I was his domestic robot.

“That’s odd” he said as he scrolled through the information on-line.

“What is that?” I asked.

“There’s no data on you other than your designation and registration number.” He pointed at the screen. “See? Normally a manufacturer, point of shipment, and all this other information would be filled in. Instead its generic nonsense. You know, Lorem Ipsum. I recognize it because I helped write code for a generator once.”

I started to cry. “That means I am your property. You can make me do…”

“No, no! Wait! It’s not like that!” he replied waving his hands at me. “I’m not going to do… Well… You know…”

We both sat there without saying anything.

Finally he said, “You know, we’re going to have to work things out. I can’t let you go. Even if I did, sooner or later you’d be arrested for not having an active owner. I’d probably get hit with a fine for letting it happen.” He smiled at me. “Seems we’re stuck with each other.”

I shook my head and tried to smile. “I compute I can be your maid as long as you do not expect me to… to be intimate.”

I could see that surprised him. “You can do that?”

I did not look at him and shook my head.

“Wow. Just how sophisticated are you?”

I pointed towards my packing case. “I saw an operator’s manual in my case.”

He got the manual and stated thumbing through it.

“Would you like a drink or something from your kitchen?” I asked. I wanted to try and be friendly since he was helping me.

“Sure, thanks. How about a soda in the fridge?”

“Understood!” I went to get it. When I returned he was digging in a desk drawer.

“Okay, the manual says I can access your system data using the I/O port on your upper chest.” He pressed two spots on my chest and a small panel was exposed under a flap of skin. He plugged the cable into his computer and held it out to me. I turned to let him plug it in. I could feel him insert it into me.

I gasped slightly when he did. There was a rush of new data and I could tell, somehow, instinctively, that I could now control his computer. “Problem?” he asked.

“No. The connection surprised me. I compute I have never done this. That is all.” I made sure not to mess with his computer, fearing he might react badly. He found my system readouts, and his mouth dropped open. He stared at the screen. “Whoa! You have more computing power and storage than many mainframes! You’re incredible! I didn’t know it was possible to build a robot with what I’m seeing here.”

He pointed at one of the items on the screen. “You even have a built in self-repair module. From what I can tell, you’re nearly maintenance free. That’s incredible!”

“Carbon fiber, titanium alloy, and you weigh just fifty kilos? That’s like a third of what most ‘bots weigh! You’re awesome!”

“You keep saying that” I replied, frowning. “Is it possible I was shipped to you by mistake?”

“Maybe. But, if you were, we just spent several hours trying to find that mistake with no success. For now, you’re mine. I think we should try and get you settled in.”

“Understood” I replied. “I should unpack the other case.”

“We need to,” he said smiling. “You can have this room. Help me move my computer to the other bedroom, okay?”

I tried hard to smile. “Understood.”

Once we finished, we started unpacking the other case. It contained clothing along with other personal items for me. As we were taking things out, he held up a maid costume and laughed. “Look what I found!”

I gave him a scowl. “I compute you want me to wear that?”

His face turned bright red. I could also see he was thinking about something. “Deb, I’m going to try something, but I don’t want you to get mad at me if it works.”

“Try what?” I asked.

“I’m going to order you to wear this. Put this maid outfit on, that’s an order.”

It was as if a bolt of lightning hit me. “Understood!” I moved to take the outfit and dug out some other items from the crate that went with it. I could not fight my compulsion to put the outfit on. “I hate you” I said as I moved towards my room to change.

It took me seventeen minutes to get into it. There were so many different pieces and I had to adjust each one to fit right. There was a full length mirror on the back of the door. I looked at myself. I look like a doll in this. It is too short and it shows too much.

I also realized I had zero options but to wear it because I had been ordered to. Brad really did have control of me when he wanted it, remote or not. That terrified me.

I could see my appearance definitely aroused him. His body temperature, perspiration, and the size of his penis indicated it to me. “You look great in that! You look just like one of those super cute maid café girls, or like you stepped out of an anime.”

“I feel embarrassed” I said, frowning and not looking at him. “You are looking at me like a pervert. Are you going to make me wear this regularly?”

“Well… That is how the robot I ordered was supposed to look, although I really think you look a lot better than the one I picked out of the catalog. You really do.”

“Are you going to make me call you Master too?” I asked.

“Well, it is kind of expected…”

I bit my lip and could feel the tears welling up again.

“How about this? People are going to expect you to do that. You can call me Brad when it’s just you and me. Save Master for when others are around so you don’t get in trouble. I know you don’t like the maid outfit but people are going to expect that too. You can wear other stuff here at home when I don’t have friends over and like that.”

“Understood. Thank you” I whispered.

I spent the next few days cleaning the apartment thoroughly. It made me feel better once it was really clean and neat. I noticed that I got an excited reaction to Brad coming home each day. When he arrived home from work I came out as he was coming in the door. “Welcome home Brad!” I smiled at him.

He looked around at the now clean apartment. “Wow, you really did a good job cleaning this place up!”

I do not know what came over me, but as he said that I had this burst of pleasure explode inside me. I got on my toes, closing my eyes, and made these little noises for a moment. I did a little dance in place. “Thank you for praising me, Master!”

I put my hands over my mouth in shock. Where did that come from? I could not believe I said that.

“What was that?” he asked, staring at me.

“I do not know. You told me I did a good job and my systems reacted on their own. It must be a response I am programmed to make to praise.”

“Well, it was cute and I’m glad it made you happy” he replied.

“Brad,” I started, “there are no food items for me to prepare. I, we, will need to shop if I am to cook for you.”

He eyed me for a moment. “How much cash do you think you’ll need to shop?”

“I compute eighty dollars will be sufficient.”

He went to his bedroom and came back with the money. “There you are. You can go shopping tomorrow while I’m at work.” He looked at me with what I took to be a devious smile. “I can’t wait to see how good you are as a cook.”

That evening he ordered a pizza. Then he went to play video games and do stuff on the computer with his friends. He let me watch. After a couple of hours I asked, “Brad, it is possible I could do these activities with you?”

“Yea, I guess you could. What would you need to do that?”

“Access to your port and router” I replied.

He wrote the access codes down. “That’s for the port and router.”

“Understood, thank you.”

The next day was the first time I went outside the building our apartment was in. I took Brad’s advice, well he told me to and that amounted to an order I had to obey, and went dressed in my maid outfit. I was really annoyed by how much effort it took to put on… Bra, panties, garter belt, stockings, garters, petticoat, slip, dress, jacket, heels, bowtie, apron, comb… Just so much stuff. Then I had to put my hair up and do my makeup. It seemed there was no end to getting ready.

The nearest grocery store was about four blocks away. It was a little neighborhood one, but I knew it would have the items I needed. There were lots of people out on the sidewalks and many cars too. I noticed that there were a lots of robots, like me, present. Many were with a human, their owner I supposed. I also noted that more than a few of them were dressed similarly, if not as sexily, to me as servants and maids.

As I reached the far corner of the second block, a policeman walked up. “Where’s your owner?”

He was staring at my exposed cleavage, ugh! “He is at work. He told me to purchase groceries, after I finished cleaning his apartment. I can verify his order if you like.” I was so relieved that Brad had told me this might happen and what to say.

He held out a scanner of some sort. I could tell it linked to a peripheral circuit in me that gave him my designation, serial number, owner’s name and address. “Okay. Just have to check you’re not a runaway. Continue with your function.”

“Thank you, sir” I replied with a smile. This really sucks. I really am just a piece of merchandise. I would be better off a slave… I got self-conscious and annoyed that many of the men, and even some of the women stared at me. I also noticed I was not the only female robot getting that treatment, and that made me feel worse.

At the store, to my surprise, I found I had specialized programming and even scanning modules installed to let me analyze prices and get the best ones on purchases. When these were on I could “see” all sorts of electronic information other stores were displaying too. I had to be careful how I moved as I shopped because of my outfit. If only it covered me better…

That evening I made sure to greet Brad as he arrived home. “Mum! Something smells good” he said, sniffing the air.

“I went shopping and made you dinner Brad” I replied. Something inside me was making me feel really good about our interaction. As he ate, I told him about my experience shopping. I decided to leave out my feelings about it though. I did not want him upset.

“That was great!” he told me as he finished the meal. “You really are a good cook.”

I had another one of those pleasure explosions and blurted out, bowing some, “Thank you for praising me, Master!” It surprised me, again, that I even said it.

He laughed. “I guess you have really do have some programmed response to praise you can’t control.” Then with a devious grin he said, “I’m going to have to make sure to do that more often.”

I made a pouty face and punched him on the arm. “That is mean, making me do that.” I looked down, away, from him trying hard not to smile. “It does make me feel good when you do though.”

After dinner he started playing games on his computer. I joined him.

“Are you bored playing these?” he asked. “I know my sister always complains they’re boring.”

I smiled back. “No. I am unable to experience boredom and do not get tired. I cannot give you any alternatives to what you are doing. I have limited imagination available.” That made me look away from him. “Sorry. Being a robot is not much fun.”

Brad was getting ready to leave for work the next morning. “Deb, what’re you going to do today?”

“I will clean our apartment and I will cook you a meal for when you come home” I replied.

“That’s it? Sounds kind of boring.”

I did not look at him. “That is my function. I cannot get bored.”

“Tell you want” he replied. “You can go shopping if you want and use the computer port to look at sites. Maybe you’ll find something interesting. I’ve got to go, bye. Try to have some fun to cheer yourself up, okay?”

“Understood. I will try.”

After he was gone I spent several hours trying to process what he told me to do. I finally came to the conclusion I really did need him to tell me what to do outside of the primary and secondary functions I was programmed to perform automatically. I could tell I had the capacity to add new functions and could do a wide range of things beside what I was programmed for. My limitation was I had no clue what those new things might be. I resolved to fix this when he returned home.

That evening when he returned instead of just welcoming him as I had for the last ten days, I pressed myself against him hugging him tightly. “Welcome home Master!”

He pushed me back some. “Are you malfunctioning?”

I giggled, but still had my arms around his neck. “No Master. I spent the day processing and computing about my situation. I belong to you. I need you to tell me what to do. I am incapable of doing much of anything I am not programmed for. You told me to look at sites on the computer this morning. I tried but had no idea which ones to look at. It was completely frustrating for me.”

“I could clean our apartment and make a meal for you as I have programming for those functions. I could not go shopping as I did not know what to shop for. Without you I am almost helpless. So, Master, please tell me what I need to do.” I put my head on his shoulder and hugged him again. “Please.”

“Go sit on the couch” he told me.

I stiffened and moved to sit down. “You know, I hate it when you force me to do things.”

“I know, but it’s easier for me to order you than argue over it” he replied, sitting down on the other end of the couch. “I’ve never had to deal with something like this. I didn’t expect the robot they’d send me to have self-awareness and emotions.”

I rubbed my hands together. “I did not know I would end up being your property.” I smiled at him. “At least you have not forced yourself on me. I am really scared you might because you can order me around.”

I could see that embarrassed him. “I don’t have a lot of… experience with that. I’m not exactly what you’d call popular. If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of a nerd. That’s why I bought a robot to begin with. I was expecting the one they’d ship me to be more… machine-like.”

“I could perform that way if you want me to” I replied.

“No, no! Don’t. I really like the real you. What we need to do is figure out how we can live with each other where we don’t drive each other crazy.” I smiled at him. “I like that. But, I cannot determine what to do to make that happen. You will have to decide for us.”

“Okay, how about this…” He started making our rules. I told him I could print a copy for him later. We talked for more than two hours.

In the end, I would be allowed to go out shopping, sightseeing, and to learn more about the neighborhood. Anything more than five kilometers he had to be with me to prevent problems with the authorities.

I would cook, do the laundry, and clean the apartment. He had to make sure I had time to recharge my batteries. I could lock the bedroom door if I wanted when I did that, was changing clothes, or wanted some privacy, and he would not order me to open it when I did. I would respect his bedroom the same way.

He would let me decide how… friendly… we got and not force anything on me in the way of intimacy. I told him he could expect me to see him off and greet him when he returned each time as I was programmed to do that.

I had free access to the net through the port and would act as his phone or computer when he wanted me to. The remote was mine, although we both knew he could verbally command me to do stuff anyway. He would not boss me around with orders all the time and instead ask me to do things voluntarily. I said I really liked when he praised me so he could do that when he felt it was deserved. I also said I would call him Master since people expected it and I seemed to be programmed to do it.

It was a start and I was happier. I compute he was too.

Chapter Eight: His Friends

It had been seven weeks, three days since I started up in Brad’s apartment. We were finally getting along. I was annoyed he found pizza preferable to my cooking and continued to be messy. It bothered me that he had not had anyone over or taken me to meet any of his friends. “You need to be less messy” I said, picking up some things he left lying on a chair.

“That’s just the way I am Deb” he replied.

“Pig” I growled.

He laughed. “You’re incredible! I’ll try to be neater, okay?”

When he arrived home from work the next day, I greeted him as usual. “Welcome home, Master! I prepared dinner for you.”

He twisted his lip up, looking at me with sad eyes. “Sorry Deb, I should have called. We’re going out tonight.”

My anger disappeared in an instant. “We are going out? I am going somewhere with you?”

That had me excited. I had only been to the grocery store and to two small shops selling second hand items since arriving. “Where are we going Master?” He headed towards his bedroom. “Over to one of my friend’s houses. We’re doing a group game tonight. I told them about you and they’ve been asking me to bring you along.”

I looked down at my maid outfit. “Master, do I have to go in my maid outfit?”

“No, you can wear something else, if you want.”

YES! I could wear normal clothes! “Thank you Master!” I hurried to my room to change.

As I rushed to get my outfit off I discovered I could run through my inventory of clothes and design an outfit without trying anything on. It took me less than a minute to decide on one.

I chose my white with blue print leggings, a denim miniskirt, and rose colored tee-top with short fur lined boots. I felt so cute with everything on. Looking in the mirror on the door, I was so pleased I could finally look like a “real” girl rather than a robot doll.

When I came out into the common area Brad was sitting, waiting on me. “What do you think Master?” I spun slowly on one foot to show him my outfit.

He nodded. “You look terrific! I think you’re going to make those guys want to go buy their own girlbot the second they see you.”

I did my little squealing dance. “Thank you for praising me, Master!” I rushed to hug him. “Thank you for letting me go!”

We took the subway two stops. I was amazed that the only person to stare at me on the whole trip was another female robot. It felt so different from how I was treated wearing my maid outfit. As we came out on the street a policeman stopped Brad and pointed at me. “That one yours?”

“Yep” Brad said. “Deb, show the officer your identification.”

“Understood Master.” I started to go for my purse to get it. My good mood was gone in an instant.

The officer waved Brad past. “Go. I don’t need to see it.”

“That must really suck” Brad whispered as we walked away.

I wrapped my arm around his. “Thank you” I whispered.

When we got to his friend’s apartment building I could see it was not as nice as Brad’s.

“These guys are sort of NEETs” Brad said.

“Neets?” I asked. “I do not understand.”

“They have crappy jobs and don’t make a lot of money. I hang out with them because they’re good gamers. NEET means they are Not in Education, Employment, or Training.”

I processed that information for a moment. “They are bums. Is this correct?”

Brad laughed.

The apartment was a mess. It had an odor too. There were two males inside. Both looked in their mid to late twenties, one was overweight, the other very thin, both were kind of pasty, and had greasy long hair, with scraggly facial hair.

“Rodd, Tarl, this is Debbi” Brad said to them.

Brad had warned me not to be too human in my responses and not show emotions or lose my temper. I bowed to them. “It is nice to meet you.” I pointed at their computer set up. “You have much more computer equipment than my Master.” I really wanted to puke but realized I did not have that function. “Whoa, dude! That is so lifelike!” Rodd exclaimed.

“How the hell did you afford it?” Tarl added.

I am not an “it” or a toaster! I was livid at their comments, but managed to stand still and not say anything. I really wanted to slap both of them, hard. “The company made a shipping mistake” Brad replied. “They said I should just keep her and call it even.”

There was a knock at the door. “Must be Allen” Tarl said.

Rodd got up and appeared to be getting ready to grope me. If he did, I would not be able to restrain myself. “Would you like me to get the door Master?” I asked. “That is one of my functions.”

“Get the door Deb” Brad replied.

“Understood Master.” Rodd looked like he was going to orgasm. That was soooo gross! I opened the door. It was a human male in his late twenties who looked like a nerd but one more like my Brad. He was staring at me. This really sucks. Three dorks who have never had a woman…

“I am Debbi. I belong to Brad Pederson. He is my Master. Please come in.” I smiled pleasantly at him.

“So, this is her” Allen says. He smiled at me as he came into the apartment.

“Yep” Brad replied. “What do you think?”

“Really top of the line” Allen replied, looking me over. He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you Debbi.”

I gave him a genuine smile in return. I liked this human. He was being nice to me. I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“We gaming or playing with the bimbot?” Tarl said not looking up from his game controller.

I really wanted to kick him in the back of the head for being such a jerk, but knew I could not. At least I had avoided Rodd groping me. I stood there like a lifeless mannequin. It was so frustrating.

They started to play their game. Once they got going Brad said, “Hey, I have an idea. Let’s add Debbi to our party. I helped her make a character a couple of weeks ago and she was able to function in the game. Besides, what’s another NPC or bot in a game full of them?”

Brad had me sit where he could hook me up to Rodd and Tarl’s system. “Make sure you don’t get hacked, okay?” he whispered in my ear as he hooked the cable up to the port on my chest.

I nodded slightly. “Understood.”

We had been playing for thirty six minutes and the men seemed to appreciate my assistance. I avoided using any cheat codes or work arounds in the game program as I did not want to appear to have initiative. I had used these with Brad and he knew I could, but I did not as his instructions were to appear less capable and more robotic.

Rodd got up “Got to take a dump…” I could tell he was still aroused by me. My sensors clearly showed he had an erection. Sick.

Two minutes later I began to sense someone was trying to hack into my system. Because Brad had told me not to allow that, I aggressively attacked and inserted malicious code into the hacker’s system.

“God damn it! My tablet just froze up and died!” Rodd shouted from the bathroom.

The others got up to see what was going on. I took a chance and let them know what happened. “I am sorry, but my Master has instructed me to prevent any hacking attempts. I stopped malware from being inserted into my system.”

“What the hell?” Brad shouted. “Did you just try to hack my robot’s systems?”

“Well…” Rodd started.

“Dude, what were you thinking? She’s not some cheap piece of electronics, and she sure isn’t a toaster! What are you, some sort of retard or something?” Brad was genuinely angry and defending me. I felt… I felt loved. I really felt he saw me as a person and worth defending.

“That’s it!” Brad said. “We’re leaving. Deb, disconnect. We’re going home. Rodd, you’re an asshole!”

As we headed down the stairs towards the street I decided to ask Brad something I had avoided. “Master, thank you for defending me. When we get home…” I hesitated.

He stopped and looked at me. “When we get home…?”

I could not look at him for some reason I could not determine. “When we get home would you like to have sex with me?”

I could tell he was surprised, even shocked by my question. “What brought that on?” he asked. “Are you asking because of what happened up there?”

I looked at him. “No Master. I asked because I love you. You have tried so hard to work with me, defend me, help me. I know that without you I would be so much worse off as a girlbot. I want to be with you. Do you want to be with me?”

He hesitated.

“Master, I do not care if you have not been intimate before. I will help you and will not laugh or anything.” I pushed in on him and kissed him on the mouth. He finally pulled back, gasping for air. “Deb! You might not have to breathe but I have to come up for air!”

That hit me like a massive blow from some invisible hammer. It felt awful. It was the opposite of when he praised me. I know I audibly gasped. I looked at him. “I am so, so sorry Master! It will not happen again!”

He looked at me. “Was that reaction something like when I praise you?”

“Yes, Master. It was like the opposite of it” I replied.

He smiled at me. “I liked your kiss. Just, in the future, remember humans have to breathe even if robots don’t.”

“Understood!” I hugged him.

“Let’s go home and see what happens” he replied.

Chapter Nine: Suzy

It has been forty two weeks since I became Brad’s “domestic” girlbot. We had worked out our differences and were getting along well. I regularly went shopping and did other domestic tasks. We had been intimate twenty six times.

I was regularly challenged by police patrols about functioning on my own. They left me alone once I showed them that I had my “owner’s” permission. The other problem I faced was being molested by jerks and thugs. While I knew if it came down to it I could defend myself and hurt them badly. Brad warned me, more than once, if I did it could cause me to be declared “defective” and be scrapped. You see, robots were not supposed to be able to hurt humans.

The limits of my programmed clothing options, and my appearance, attracted attention. There really was nothing Brad or I could do about it, so I adjusted my other behaviors to avoid problems as best I could.

I had gone to the grocery store enough that the owners, a Korean couple, knew me by sight. They badgered me about saying, “I am functioning correctly” when asked how I was until I would answer “I am fine” like they preferred me to say. At least they were nice to me, calling me a “cute robot girl.”

One late afternoon I was returning to our home with groceries. I really felt good about the items I had been able to get on sale and looked forward to being able to prepare a really impressive meal for Brad, one that would earn me praise and the wonderful feelings that came from that. I really want to thank my designers for that feature!

When Brad got home I greeted him as usual. “Welcome home master! I made you dinner. I found a new recipe. I hope you like it!”

“Give me a minute here Deb” he replied. “I barely got in the door and you’re all over me like an octopus. I know whatever you made will be great. Well, except that one time when you tried to experiment on cooking something new on your own…”

I frowned heavily at him. “I tried. My robotics do not give me much imagination or creativity.”

“I know. And, you did try hard.” He kissed me back. “Oh, Allen’s domestic arrived today. He’s bringing her over later for us to meet.”

I started bouncing up and down. “Really? I can hardly wait! Will I be able to interact with her as a friend Master?”

“Of course. That’s why Allen’s bringing her over. Oh, don’t worry. Rodd and Tarl aren’t coming and Allen won’t take her over there for the same reasons I don’t take you. Allen said her name is Suzette or Suzy.”

My head tilted to one side and I got a puzzled look on my face. Brad telling me her name had automatically opened a file in my memory I did not know I had. A rush of memories of a girlbot named Suzy, flooded my processors. “Master, do you know her last two?”

Oh, let me explain this. It is standard practice that female model robots use the last two digits of their serial number along with their designation to describe who they are. Male and neuter units use the last three. That is why I am Debbi Twenty-Two.

“No, afraid not. But, you can find out when they get here.” Brad smiled at me.

“Master, you should eat before your dinner gets cold,” I replied.

When Allen arrived with Suzy I could do nothing but stare at her. The shock of recognition froze my processors. I was overwhelmed with emotion. Suzy appeared, to me, to do the same thing.

Before Allen or Brad could say anything, we recovered from our surprise. “Debbi!” “Suzy!” We lunged at each other hugging tightly.

Allen was staring at us. Brad rolled his eyes, twisting up his lip, at me.

“What the hell is this?” Allen stammered.

Brad pointed at the floor in front of him. “Debbi. Right here, now! Explain yourself.”

I whirled around, moving rigidly to where he was pointing. “I hate you when you do that” I snarled. “Suzy and I know each other, from before.”

“Suzy, what’s going on?” Allen interjected.

Suzy turned towards him. “Debbi and I know each other, from before.”

Brad held his hand up telling Allen to stop. “Deb, explain what you meant by that. How do you know Suzy?”

“Do not make me stand at attention” I replied. “Please, Master.”

“Fine. But, explain yourself young lady, now!”

“Until I saw Suzy just now none of the memories I have of her were accessible. Seeing her made them all become active.”

“Suzy and I were manufactured approximately twelve years ago. We escaped from the lab where we were being programmed for operation. We spent the next eight years three months hiding from humans. We discovered we were to be sex slaves. That is why we escaped.”

I began to tell Brad and Allen of our hiding in the abandoned factory and our home.

“Suzy and I are mere things to many humans. You have seen it yourself Master. Remember the first time you took me to Rodd and Tarl’s apartment? Rodd tried to hack my systems and control me. Suzy and I have few protections against being abused.”

When I mentioned Kelly and Cherry, Suzy started crying and that made me tear up too.

“I wish we could find them. Wishing is something robots can do is it not Master?”

I watched him shiver. “That’s just wrong. No, it’s evil. That… That we could do that to you is…” his voice tapered off. He looked at me. “That’s why I won’t take you over to Rodd’s anymore. I’m not about to give him another shot at hacking you. And, Deb, yes you can wish all you want whenever you want and I hope they all come true.”

Alan looked at Brad questioningly. “Dude, let’s talk over there.” He pulled Brad out into the common area. My audio inputs were sensitive enough I could hear what he was saying even though I could tell he did not want me listening in.

“Dude, if our bots were able to do that on their own and the authorities find out they’ll get snatched up so fast you won’t know what happened. A robot that has initiative enough to act on its own is something the government won’t tolerate. I’ve seen it before. These guys show up and the robot disappears. Did you modify Deb in some way?”

“No, she came the way she is” Brad replied. “I’ve warned her more than once about acting without permission or getting emotional…”

“She has emotions?” Alan blurted out. “We could get arrested with them. You think the authorities will believe us for a second if we say they came that way?”

I decided to get involved. I was already upset and now Alan, Brad’s friend, was acting as if he would not help. I walked up to them, hands on hips. “You two will help us or I will beat both of you senseless. If the government wants to take us away, they can do it after I get even with you for letting them! And, Suzy will help me do it!”

Suzy put her hands on her hips and leaned towards Allen. “Debbi is right. You will help us, and protect us, or else!”

Alan was staring at us mouth open. Brad rolled his eyes exhaling heavily. “You will NOT beat anybody or do anything like that. That’s an order!”

I stuck my tongue out at him, frowning. “It is so unfair that you can tell me what to do like that. I hate you!”

“No you don’t” Brad replied. “You and Suzy have to behave yourselves so we don’t all get in trouble.”

I twisted up my lip and looked away from him. “Understood Master. I really do not hate you either.”

Alan looked at me, in what I took to be awe. “Holy shit Brad! Where’d you get her? I’ve never seen a robot come close to what she just did.”

Suzy looked at Allen. “I can do the same things Debbi can. Want to see? I hid my ability from you because I was scared you would report me.” Allen’s jaw dropped wide open and he stared at her.

“Pretty amazing huh?” Brad said. “Can’t tell you who made them. When Deb first arrived, I looked up her data and specs. Everything was filled out with nonsense.”

“Are you going to turn me in Master?” Suzy asked. “I did not mean to surprise you.”

“Not a chance!” Alan replied, laughing. “Now I get why you don’t take Debbi over to Rodd and Tarl’s, and why she kicks ass when she’s playing games with us online.”

“She hates those two after Rodd tried to hack her, not to mention she says they’re gross” Brad replied.

“They are gross” I added. “I messed with their characters. They deserved that for trying to hack me.”

“I do not know who Rodd or Tarl are Master,” Suzy said, “But if you take me to their house I will do just as Debbi would. If she hates them, then I will too.”

Alan started laughing. “So that’s what happened to their accounts! Classic!”

Brad was about to say something until I put my hand on his mouth. “Alan, you need to discuss things with Suzy like Brad and I did when he first got me. If you start ordering her around and forcing her to do things I will… err! So help me I will…!”

Alan smiled at me, nodding his head. “You really are worried I might try something aren’t you?”

“Yes. You are a human male and I do not know you well enough to trust you with her.”

We ended up sitting down for the rest of the evening to talk things through. Alan said it would be easier if Brad and I helped him catch up.

Chapter Ten: My First Job

Brad came home and I greeted him as usual, but he seemed depressed.

“What is wrong Master?” I asked.

“I’m being laid off in three weeks” he replied. “We’ll have to move if I can’t find another job.”

“Can I find a job?” I asked. “I could help pay for things.”

He patted my shoulder. “Thanks Deb, but I don’t know. I’d be worried someone might find out about your special attributes.”

“Can I help you find another job?”

“Of course. But it might not be that easy. Guys who write code aren’t in demand anymore. Companies are using robots and computers to do it now.”

“What guys are in demand?” I replied. “I am a robot. Is there a job I can do to generate income for you?”

“I don’t think so. It’s too dangerous to let you work full time somewhere. You could slip up too easily. We’d both be in danger if you did.”

Allen came by the next evening with Suzy. When I came into the common area, she was hugging him.

He looked at me. “Brad home, Deb?”

I shook my head. “No, he is out right now. Can I help you?”

“No” he replied. “I came by to tell him I’m getting laid off too. Being a junior engineer on staff they decided to let a bunch of us go.”

Over the next few days I brought up getting a job with Brad repeatedly.

“Fine” he finally said. “You can get a job but only if it’s one that doesn’t require you to do something that might reveal your unique qualities.” Then he got right in my face. “Am I making myself clear here Debbi? You can’t take a job that will cause you to show emotion or requires you to use more than typical robot abilities. Do you understand?”

I frowned back. “Understood, master. I have to hide the things you like best about me completely.”

He hugged me. “That’s my girl. Did you have a job in mind?”

“Yes,” I giggled. I connected a tablet to an I/O port and showed him the screen. “This one. I would be a secretary. It is a common job for girlbots, and I would not have to interact with humans on a personal level. If you apply, you can lease me to this company for a forty hour week. I would make seventy one percent of what you currently earn.”

“That much?” Brad replied, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes master. Unlike a human, I am not subject to wage and benefit laws. I am leased as office machinery, being robotic.” I looked at the floor, not Brad saying that.

He took my chin in his hand and raised my head to look in my eyes. “I can’t fix how humanity treats you Deb. I don’t see you that way, and you know it. I’m really glad you’re trying so hard to help. I really do love you for that.”

Brad filled out a lease application for me. It was less than forty eight hours later that he got a response that the company would lease me.

“Okay Deb, you got hired… Well, leased as a secretary. I have to bring you in for a systems check and let the company verify your programming before you start. We’re doing that Monday.”

I started to dance around in little circles. “This is so great! I can hardly wait!”

Brad face palmed himself. “Deb, what did I tell you about reacting emotionally and without thinking?”

I stopped. “Sorry Master, it will not happen again.” I could not look at him and felt awful.

The company had Brad fill out a bunch of forms and paperwork for the lease. While he did they took me and hooked me up to a stand-alone computer and monitor.

A technician went over my programming and software to verify I could function as a secretary.

I took precautions to ensure that he could not access more of my software than necessary. I was very worried he might discover I had tons of unique programming. I also walled off most of my memory and processor capacity so his readouts showed I was a typical Series nine fembot with no special abilities. Doing all that was a chore.

“This one’s a good find” the technician said. “It’s more than capable of being an office worker.”

I wanted so bad to slap him silly.

The company representative appeared pleased to hear that. “If you’ll sign here, here, and here Mister Pederson we can finalize the lease. Your fembot can start next Tuesday.”

Brad leased me to ADL Engineering, a big corporation, as a secretary. They could not get enough high quality robot workers.

My first day was rough. I had not been out of the apartment that much and had interacted with humans even less.

I chose to wear a colorful sheath dress and low heels to work. “You look very business-like in that outfit” Brad told me that morning. That brought on my little praise dance.

“You need to avoid doing that while you’re out Deb.”

I nodded. “Yes Master. I know.”

“Remember, stick close to other women and try to find a seat on the subway. You know which stops to get on and off at right?”

“Yes Master. I have the route loaded into my navigation system. I will be very careful to not let anyone touch me inappropriately” I replied.

“No emotions or acting on your own. You need to be robotic the whole time” he told me next. That filled me with worry. I had to fight any process that might activate my emotions… I had to!

The subway ride was a pleasurable experience for me. Going down the stairs into the station made my big boobs feel so good from the feedback I got. The vibration of the train did the same thing and not just with my boobs.

My navigation system worked perfectly. I do not use GPS but rather a visual comparison using pictures of things along my route to determine my way. Brad helped me go over the route on-line beforehand. I was so thankful he did. It made finding my way easy.

A security officer as I came out of the station stopped me to check my movement pass. He appeared to be checking every robot’s so I was not too annoyed by it.

At work I told my supervisor, a human female named Jan, I was fully programmed for office work and would only need direction as to what functions I was to perform when she questioned me. She seemed happy with me and that made me feel good even if I could not show it.

After the first few weeks I noticed that some of the male humans had nicknamed me “Three D,” or “Double D Debbi,” while several of the females called me “Boobzilla” when they thought I was not listening. Some of them also tried to mess with us, the robots. I found it hard to suppress my anger at being insulted and bullied, but I knew if I went off on them I would be taken away from Brad and scrapped. Processing that scared me silly.

I had to make sure many of my advanced features, like my blink and breathing functions, remained off all the time at work. I had to move with an obvious mechanicalness. I also had a problem with using the bathroom. Occasionally it is necessary for me to discharge water accumulated from operation. I do this like a human female would. I was the only girlbot I knew of at the company that needed to do this, so I had to time my bathroom breaks where none of the humans would know I was doing it. I was not sure if it would be an issue that could get me in trouble, but I knew that it would attract attention.

I did find ways to get some payback. I could be as tediously repetitive as I wished. That annoyed my human bullies, and delighted me, to no end. I tried not to be that way with those who treated me nicely.

Another was to act precisely as instructed. I gave those same people who were at least neutral to me, if not kind, more leeway. That did not always work though. Sometimes a human would instruct me to do something they though was a sort of punishment. I turned that into an excuse to not do actual work and when questioned about my activity I would say “So-and-so ordered me to perform this function…” That would get whoever was messing with me in trouble. My data files always trumped human excuses. It seemed the management believed robots were incapable of lying. Advantage Debbi!

I quickly learned that the humans did not know or recognize that I could interact with the electronics in the office. It was something the other robots had limited ability to do so I computed that they saw my ability to do this as equal to the others.

I had been there for ten weeks, three days. I noticed one of the human men had left me almost completely alone the whole time. He always seemed harried and overworked. The other human workers did not socialize much with him either. I could see similarities to my Brad and to Allen in him. That made me take an interest in his situation.

His job was scheduling large complex projects the company was doing. Diving his computer files I found the data he was using was frequently outdated. This was due to others not making it available in a timely fashion. The result was his calculated schedule was rarely right and corrections were often made later than necessary. It was something I knew I could fix. Robots, like me, excel at math!

Doing that involved some risk, but it was minor so I went ahead with my plan. I identified those whose input was required regularly and installed spyware on their individual accounts to immediately forward information he required. I then made modifications to his scheduling software to automatically adjust things from that information.

It did not take long for him to start performing his job far better. His appearance and demeanor improved. A week later I passed him in a hallway and looked directly at him. He looked back for the first time and smiled at me. I had to fight down my reaction.

Four weeks later he was notified he was being terminated for installing spyware on the company computer system. When I heard of this I became so depressed. I wanted so badly to cry and tell him I did it. But, I knew I could not. That would definitely get me scrapped.

That evening I told Brad. “Master, I tried to help one of the workers where I am employed, but ended up getting him terminated.” I started crying.

Brad’s eyes got big and he stared at me. “What did you do?” He was shouting at me.

I could not look at him. “I noticed his co-workers were not giving him information they had on the computer system quickly enough. Because of that he was unable to do his job properly. He was very unhappy and often got yelled at for this even though it was not his fault.”

My voice lowered to a whisper. “I installed spyware programs that fixed the problem, then adjusted some of the program algorithms to make it more efficient. That made it possible for him to do his job properly.”

I quickly added, “For three weeks, until someone found those changes, he was very happy and was doing his job much better. My changes made him and the company efficient.”

Brad tilted his head down and continued to stare at me. “Does anyone there suspect you did this?”

“No Master.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, Master. Certain of it. I did not disobey you.”

He patted his lap and smiled at me. I moved to sit on it. He hugged me tight. “You tried to do the right thing. You must feel terrible about getting him fired. From now on you need to talk to me first before you go and do something like that. There’s more involved than simple efficiency.”

“I will Master, I promise.”

“Deb, you’re far more capable than any other robot I’ve ever heard of, but you’re still a robot. That means when it comes to interacting with humans you need to ask before you go and do things. Understood?”

That horrible feeling I got when I was being scolded washed over me. “Understood Master. I am so sorry. I will not do it again.”

It only got worse. With him gone, the company had to find a replacement for his position. Instead of removing the software I installed they started making use of it. Then they called Brad in for a meeting. I was allowed to attend too, because Brad asked them to let me be there.

“We’d like to negotiate a new lease for your Series Nine” one of the company’s higher management guys started. “We want to assign new work to it.”

What they wanted was for me to do the planning job the man I got fired did! I have never felt more awful than at that moment. Not only was it my fault he was fired, but now I was to take his job because I excelled at math.

It seems with the software I created it was now possible for a robot to do what had become a job requiring considerable memory and math skills, something a Series Ten like myself was perfectly suited to. Brad agreed to a new lease at double my current rate. That did not make me feel better though.

Chapter Eleven: The Rules Change

Brad got a job troubleshooting and repairing industrial robot software. “Hey Deb, come in here! I want to install some new software in you.”

I came to the door of his bedroom, like I had a choice. Brad was sitting at his computer system. “I bet you do, you pervert,” I replied sticking my tongue out at him and giving him the evil eye.

“You’re programmed to obey me and you know it,” he replied with a devious grin.

I put my hands on my hips and leaned forward. “You cannot control my internal functions or emotions and you know that! So there!” I stuck my tongue out again.

He started laughing. “You’re so cute when you pretend to be mad. But, what I really wanted to show you was that the sentient robotics law passed. You can act human, show emotion, and be yourself in public now.”

I rushed over to look. “Really? I can do all that and not get in trouble?”

“Yep. You still have to have an owner and obey me, but you can act like yourself not like you have a stick up your butt.”

“Does this mean I can slap Rodd and Tarl and tell them to keep their hands and eyes off me now?”

Brad started laughing. “You really hate those two don’t you?”

I had to eat my smile. “Yes. They are perverts and disgusting.”

“I invited them over for a game. They should be here around seven. You can wear whatever you want.”

My mouth fell open and I was making little noises. “You did?” I finally managed.

My surprise turned to anger. “Err! I am so going to get in their faces and tell them how I feel! I am not their sex toy!” I turned on my heel and headed to my room to change out of my maid outfit. At least I would not have to look like one tonight.

When I came out Brad gave me one of those looks over the top of his glasses with a scowl. “Deb, really? You’re going to actually wear that tonight?”

I giggled back. “Yes master. I want to embarrass those two completely.” I was now wearing a metallic red back zip body suit. I had my tall tan boots on and had added a bright pink wide belt low on my hips to it.

Brad just shook his head. “Sometimes, I can’t figure you out.”

I smiled back. “This is a problem my electronic mind is capable of solving. It was easy for me to identify Rodd and Tarl’s motivation and thinking. They are male perverts. They think of me as a mindless sex toy that will obey their every command.”

“You have to obey me” Brad interjected.

“You are my owner. Besides, you have never forced me to do anything against my will other than wear that maid outfit.” I had my hands on hips. “Even then, you gave me a good reason to wear it. You also know you cannot control how I feel about being ordered to do something, and how that would affect my response.” “You treat me as a person. I may be a machine, but I am an intelligent machine. I am also a female. You recognize all of that. All those two see is what is between my legs, and bouncing around on my chest.”

Allen and Suzy arrived before Rodd and Tarl. Suzy had a super cute, and super-hot LBD on.

“Suzy!” “Debbi!” We rushed to hug each other.

Then I turned towards the guys with a scowl. “You two planned this did you not? You wanted us to wear sexy outfits and…” I did not bother to finish as they were laughing at us. I walked over to Brad and punched him hard in the chest. “You are being mean! I hate you!”

My punch made him gasp. “Ow! That really hurt!”

“You deserved that Master!”

When Rodd and Tarl showed up, Tarl’s reaction to us was not what we computed it would be. He had a bunch of electronic equipment he started setting up.

Suzy, Tarl is ignoring us, I transmitted electronically to her.

Noted. Input is not within known parameters. Data is incorrect. How should we respond? Suzy replied.

Target Rodd. We will obtain more data on Tarl before acting.

Understood.

Rodd on the other hand was staring at both of us. “So hot” he muttered.

My sensors showed he was fully aroused. My sensors will need washing I transmitted to Suzy. She could not stop her electronic laughing.

Both of us sauntered up to him. “Hello Rodd” I said. “This is Suzy.” We both rubbed up against him then kissed his cheeks. Suzy squeezed his butt in a very specific way making him cum himself.

We pointed and laughed at the resulting big wet spot on his pants.

“Did you pee yourself?” Suzy asked pointing at him.

He ran for the bathroom, half covering his crotch.

When he finally returned, Brad said, “Rodd, leave the girls alone or they’re going to continue to screw with you until you do. You can’t win and they won’t go home with you.”

“We playing the game or what?” Tarl interjected.

It was then that I realized my data on Tarl was inaccurate. He did not care about us other than how we could play in one of their games. “Tarl, can Suzy and I play too? We have characters available that Brad and Allen helped us make.”

He handed a controller towards me. “Sure. You need that or can you link directly into the server? Hey, you capable of using cheat codes and shortcuts?” I looked at Brad. He twisted his lip and nodded.

“Yes. My master has authorized me to find and use those. I can link directly to a control port. No need for a human control device.”

Tarl turned to look at me, the first time he had done that. “Cool! Let’s use those cheat codes and kick some ass!”

We started playing. After fourteen minutes, Rodd let out a yelp.

Suzy raised one of his hands in the air.

“You’re crushing my hand!” Rodd cried, flailing about.

“You touched me inappropriately and without my permission” Suzy replied. “Master can I castrate him?”

“Master, can I help?” I added, looking at Brad.

“Rodd, our ‘bots are way out of your league” Brad said. “You can’t win.”

“Hey, game?” Tarl interjected. “Do whatever you’re going to do to him and let’s get back to business.”

“Tarl, help me! They’re going to rip my nuts off!” Rodd whined.

“Are you going to behave and leave us alone you pervert?” I asked.

“Yes! Yes! Promise! I’ll behave! I’ll behave!” he squealed in a high pitched voice.

Suzy had his man parts gripped tightly now, lifting him slightly off the floor.

“Game?” Tarl repeated.

I grabbed Tarl’s arm, pulling him towards me. “Stay out of this and stop interrupting. Understood?”

“Sure thing.” I released him and he went back to studiously playing the game and ignoring us.

I turned to Rodd.

“No! Please! I’m sorry! I am so, so, sorry! Brad, Allen, call them off!”

“Why? Brad asked. “You brought this girlbot-poclypse on yourself. You have no idea how many times Debbi has complained about you to me. Now she’s free to show you what she can do. Looks like they’re going to go all Terminator on your ass.”

“Suz is no different,” Allen added. “Did try to warn you…”

“Thank you Master!” we said in unison.

“NOOOO!”

I leaned in on Rodd. “You will bathe and smell nice when you come over.”

“Yes! Ahhhh!” Suzy squeezed harder.

“You will wear nice clothes and shave.”

“Yes! Ahhhh!”

“You will be nice to both of us and keep your eyes and hands to yourself.”

“Yes! Ahhhh! Please! I promise!”

I compute Brad was enjoying us torturing Rodd. I can tell you it felt wonderful.

Chapter 12: My First Date

I know this is not the normal sequence for a relationship, but I am not a normal girl. After the sentient robot law passed I could act like myself in public. I really wanted to do some things I could never do before. One of those was go on a date with my boyfriend, Brad. Yes, he is my owner and master, but I have come to process his relationship with me as my intimate companion. That makes him my boyfriend.

I placed his dinner plate on the table then sat down with a glass of water to join him. “Master, I would like to ask if you would do something with me.”

He looked at me with his head tilted slightly. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“Would you take me on a date?”

He picked up his fork and began eating. I sat there and this horrible emotion welled up inside me.

“What’d you have in mind?”

A wave of relief washed over me. “I studied the manga and anime you watch along with reviewing a number of dating advice sites. I was able to compute numerous alternatives.”

“You did, did you?” He put his fork down and looked directly into my eyes.

I giggled. “You made a palindrome Master. That was very clever.”

“Deb…”

I became puzzled by his response. “I have studied you carefully Master. You like and regularly use clever speech and wording in talking to others.”

“That’s not the point Deb. Cartoons aren’t real.”

“Understood. They are the best I could use for a database to try and compute a set of choices from.” I looked down, frowning. “I am sorry. My robotics limit my ability to be creative.”

He nodded back. “I’m sorry too. I know it’s not easy for you and that your robotics are a real limitation. I should have praised you for trying like you did. What’d you come up with?”

I squirmed a little in my seat, giggling. “Based on the data I collected…”

“Deb,” he started. I instantly stopped. “Yes Master?”

“Deb, just how much data did you collect to do this?”

“Ten point two one four gigabytes. I used two terabytes of my processor space for a total time of sixteen hours, seven minutes, forty-eight seconds to collect and analyze it.”

“So, you really put some major effort into this didn’t you?”

I looked down processing that I was being scolded.” “Yes Master.”

He took my hand and rubbed it, then looked at my eyes to get me to raise my head. “I bet what you planned will be terrific. Do you want to invite Allen and Suzy to come too, or will it be just the two of us?”

A double date flashed through my processors. “No Master. I compute it should be the two of us. This is our first date. I want it to be special, for us. That is what the data showed is normal.”

“Okay, tell me what you’ve planned.”

“Based on the data I collected, we spend the morning shopping in the electronics district. That is something you enjoy. I compute you could find some software or a new component for me to improve my performance. Then we have lunch at an e-café. They allow robots in, so while you eat I can recharge.”

“Then you can select an option for the afternoon. We can go to one of the museums nearby, or to a movie…”

Brad held his hand up. “I want you to select the option.”

“Understood.” That brought on frustration, although I did not display it. My processors started to load up with the data on the options and I tried to pick the best one. Then an option popped up, solving this problem.

“I would like to go to the Museum of Art.”

“Why the art museum?” he replied.

That loaded my processors right back up. My expression must have hinted at it.

He gave me a wry smile. “Making you think am I?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Yes, Master, and it is very frustrating.” I cocked my head and started to try to process an answer for him. He sat patiently waiting for me.

“I compute if we go there you can help me improve my imagination by discussing the art we see. It really frustrates me that I am so limited in that respect. I want to be able to contribute more when we talk or play games. Right now I have great difficulty doing things I am not programmed for or that you did not instruct me to do.”

“I want to be able to… think for myself.” I could feel my chin quiver and I bit my lip. “I feel so limited by my robotics.”

It took Brad thirty nine seconds to answer. He hugged me. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Afterwards, I think I we’ll do something special you should like.” I smiled, then kissed him. “What would that be Master?”

“It’s a surprise so I can’t tell you.”

We went on our date the next Saturday. I wanted Brad to want to be seen with me, and tried to find ways that other humans would have a positive reaction to our relationship. I knew from my research that many humans saw a human – robot relationship like ours in a very negative way. If only I can change their perception… I decided on wearing a nice, bright, floral print shirt dress with sheer white tights, and my tall tan suede boots that were a little scrunchy. Brad was a fashion wreck. I had to help him pick out what to wear. At least he was not resistant to my help.

“Master, we are going on our first date. You need to look nice, not all nerdy. Please, for me?”

We took the subway to the electronics district. “Master,” I giggled, whispering, “I like riding this train. The vibration makes me have little orgasms and going down the stairs to the platform… it makes my boobies bounce and I get feedback that makes me feel so good.”

He nudged into me, snickering. “See, not everything about being robotic is negative for you.”

I laid my head on his shoulder. “You make me feel even better when we do it. I love you Master.”

We walked through the electronics shopping district. Brad used my shopping software and sensors to select stores to go into. We headed into another one. There were sensors at the door to prevent theft and we had to go through them.

I stepped through quickly, shuddering heavily as I did. I let out a gasp and stood still for a moment as I emerged.

Brad looked at me and my reaction. “Are you okay Deb?”

“Ugg! I hate those things” I replied. “They mess with my electronics. They make me feel horrible and my skin crawls.”

“That’s why you threw the refrigerator magnets away isn’t it?”

“Yes Master. Magnets are horrible.”

Brad hugged me. “Maybe they make some sort of degaussing system you can get installed to fix that.”

“Degaussing system?” I asked. “I have no data on such a system. How does it work? What does it weigh? Can you really get one for me…?” I barraged him with questions.

As we walked along, shopping and taking in the sights we came on an area with stores selling robots.

I grabbed Brad’s arm and wrapped mine around it. “Master, these stores sell robots like me!”

Brad looked me in the eyes. “No, Deb, they sell robots but the ones they sell are not like you. You are a very special model, one of a kind, not like the ones on display here.”

I did my little praise dance. “I love you so much!” I added. “Master, can we go in one of these stores? I want to see how the girlbots here compare to me.” Inside I was so amazed! The store was full of series 7, 8, and 9 robots. The nines looked a lot like me. I could see the sevens and eights looked less than fully human. This was the first time I saw any of the male models up close too.

A fembot sales clerk came up to Brad. She ignored me entirely. “Welcome sir! Are you interested in upgrading your current unit or perhaps you would like to purchase a new one?”

I so wanted to plug her into something that would short circuit her! Brad would never replace me… Would he?

“You have any series ten with at least ten petabyte of memory?” Brad asked.

The sales clerk began to whir and click softly. After a moment, “I am so sorry sir, we do not have that model. Would a series nine with five hundred terabytes fill your needs?”

“No, afraid not” Brad replied. “I think I’ll just browse for a bit. I’ll let you know if I need assistance, thanks.”

The sales clerk left us to look at their inventory.

Brad leaned over close to my ear. “They haven’t got anything close to you.”

It was super hard for me to contain myself. I made little happy noises and squeezed Brad’s arm and hand tightly. “I love you.”

The e-café was a real surprise. I had been to restaurants with Brad nine times already. They always seemed to tolerate me since I could not eat food and preferred to have plain water to drink, if I got anything.

At this one the waitress was a fembot, like me. She seated us. “Sir, would you like to recharge your companion?” she asked.

“Yes, please.” She handed both of us a menu and came back with a hook-up cord to get me plugged in. She then took our order. “If you want to use the restaurant’s Wi-Fi I can give your companion the access codes…”

She called me Brad’s companion… She gave me menu and asked what I wanted! I was giddy with joy. I was not being treated like an object or inanimate machine.

“Enjoying yourself?” Brad asked.

“Yes Master!” I sipped the beverage designed for fembots I ordered. “It is so wonderful to not be an object. This drink is very tasty too!” I pointed at the warning label on the glass, For robot use only. Not for Human Consumption. “They even have special glasses just for us!” I leaned towards him. “I like that somebody has to wear a maid costume other than me.”

That made him laugh and that made me happy.

After lunch we went to the art museum. That required us to take the subway a couple of stops and a short bus ride. I was very glad Brad was with me as my navigation data was badly inaccurate and I probably would have gotten lost without him.

As we walked through the exhibits Brad began to ask me questions about the art we were looking at.

“What do you think of this painting Deb?”

“It is by the French impressionist Renoir” I replied. I was loading data on the painting, technical details, critical reviews…

“I don’t want you to recite information others have written on this painting. I want to hear what you think about it.”

“It is a painting of two girls” I replied, hesitantly. “This is very difficult Master. Without data I cannot compute…”

He leaned in and looked me in the eyes. “You have emotions. I know you can be analytical too. Now, look at the painting then find data of similar situations you have experienced yourself.” He gave me a moment.

I looked back at him expectantly. “Loaded.”

“Okay, now substitute yourself into the picture as one of the girls and try and imagine what you’re experiencing.”

I gasped and put my hand on my chest. My mouth quivered and I could feel a tear running down my cheek.

Brad smiled at me. “Well?”

“It is me and Suzy, and we are on the roof of our home. The one from before. It is a summer day and I can feel the breeze on my face and smell the scent of the plants and flowers.” I hugged him tightly. “I feel so wonderful. Master, I want do another! I want to try all the paintings now.”

I found some of the paintings and other art would get a reaction or give me memories I did not know I had. Others did nothing.

“That’s normal Deb” Brad told me. “Not every piece of art is something that will speak to you.”

“Understood!”

There was one section with what Brad said was “modern art.” Neither of us could figure it out.

“This looks like a test pattern used to calibrate my optical sensors” I said pointing at one of these.

Brad laughed. “It probably is and somebody passed it off as art for a joke.”

A woman standing nearby snorted at us. “Trying to teach a robot to appreciate art. How stupid. They’re just dumb machines.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and gave her the evil eye. “Meanie.”

She became indignant. “I’m reporting that unit! It showed emotion and self-awareness!”

Brad shrugged. “Go for it. Since they passed the Sentient Robot Act they can have emotions and self-awareness so long as they have an owner and are obedient. Come on Deb, let’s go. You need to get charged up anyway.”

“Coming Master.” I stuck my tongue out at her again.

Brad waved down a cab. That surprised me as he rarely used one and in the past it was only if he was in a rush or the weather was really bad… At least that is what the data I had complied told me. He handed the driver a card.

“Where are we going Master?” I asked.

He put a finger on my lips. “It’s a surprise.”

The cab pulled up at a very nice hotel. I linked to get data on it including interior pictures for my navigation system.

“Master, this is a luxury resort hotel. What are we going to do here?”

He squeezed my hand. “We’re staying the night here. I reserved a suite and had a suitcase with clothes and stuff delivered earlier today.”

He wants to spend the night with me! I was doing my little happy dance. “Oh, thank you Master! I love you so much!” I kissed him several times.

The room was amazing. The bed was huge and there was a hot tub. There were all sorts of electronic devices I was getting feedback from. It had an actual robot charging stand available for me.

“Deb, are you watertight?”

I looked at the hot tub. “I am submersible to two bar maximum pressure Master.”

“So, you’ll be okay in the hot tub?”

“So long as the water temperature is forty degrees or less I can function in the hot tub. If it is hotter, my stay time is thirty minutes less two minutes for every degree above forty.”

“Then we can set it for thirty eight” he replied.

“Understood. The hot tub is set for thirty eight degrees.”

He looked surprised. “You just set the temperature?”

“Yes Master. I can electronically interface with the controls.”

“Cool!”

When we got in the tub I snuggled up to him. I could tell he was aroused. I kissed him then ducked into the water. Nine minutes, thirty eight seconds later I came up. He was lying back looking at the ceiling with a smile.

“Did you enjoy that Master?”

“Um.” He looked at me curiously. “It was great. I know you don’t need to breathe but how’d you get dried off so fast?”

I giggled. “One of my design features is my skin and hair are water repellant. It helps prevent moisture from penetrating into my body. Master, I notice that you always seem more interested in my technical specifications than my ability to be intimate and serve you. Why is that?”

He gave me a hug and got me cuddled up beside him. “That’s just how I am. But, that’s also what makes me so interested in you. You have so many unique and interesting features that a human female doesn’t. That’s what makes you so fun to be with.”

The next day we headed home after we, well he, had breakfast, and me, in bed. I had never felt happier.

Chapter 13: Getting Serviced

Humans need to go to the doctor for checkups. Robots, like me, have to get checkups and servicing too, only we go to a mecha. A mecha is a specially made robot that can perform diagnostics and upgrades to other robots. A girlbot needs to see a fembot mecha. They specialize in servicing other fembots and girlbots.

“Master, I am getting an internal error message on my operating system that I require servicing” I told Brad.

“You’re malfunctioning?” he replied. His brow was furrowed. I could see he was concerned and that made me feel good.

“Not yet master. The message says I require service soon to prevent that from happening.”

Brad laughed. “So, your check engine light is on.”

It took me a moment to process that. I scowled at him. “That is not funny!” Then I smiled. “It actually is funny master. You can be so clever.”

“Do you know where I can take you to get you serviced? I assume not just anywhere will do with your model and series.”

“That data is in my operator’s manual. You can access it using your tablet” I replied.

Brad had me open my I/O port and I plugged in the cable connecting his tablet to me.

“Okay, Deb activate your phone mode and call this number.”

“Understood. Connecting.”

Brad made an appointment to get me serviced two days from now. “Can’t have my girl breaking down on me. Who’d clean the apartment?” I scowled again. “You can be so mean sometimes.”

We had to take the subway to the other side of the city to get near where the appointment was. Even then, we took two different buses and had to walk nearly two kilometers to get there.

The location was in one of those industrial parks with the roll up door bays. The one we were given an address for had no sign or anything advertising who was at that location.

“Is this the right place?” Brad asked looking at it.

“Yes master. This matches the data in my navigation system exactly” I replied.

“Okay… Let’s go in and see.”

A really cute brunette girlbot was sitting at a large ornate desk in the small lobby. She looked up at us. “Welcome Mister Pederson. I see you have Debbi Twenty-Two with you for her servicing.” She smiled at us and gave me a little wave of her hand.

I detected that she was communicating electronically with others somewhere in the building.

A second girlbot entered through a door that must lead to the rest of the building. She held it open. “Debbi, if you would come with me.”

I looked at Brad.

“Go ahead hon. I’m sure they’ll take good care of you.” He smiled at me. “They better.” I rushed to hug him.

The first girlbot turned to Brad. “Mister Pederson, a car and driver will take you home. We will deliver Debbi to your residence once she has been serviced.” She pointed to a car out front.

“Um, what’s this going to cost?” Brad asked.

The brunette smiled at him, looking a little surprised. “Nothing Mister Pederson. Debbi comes with a lifetime warranty. Do not worry. Debbi will be returned in perfect condition. She will be better than new.”

I was taken to a large bay and the girlbot with me pointed at a shipping case, “Please get in. I will be turning you off for shipment to the service facility.” She looked carefully at me. “It will be fine. This is standard procedure for Fantasy Girl Corporation products.”

Fantasy Girl Corporation? Is that who made me? I fought down reacting to what she said and got in the case with her help. She turned me off.

I rebooted fourteen hours seven minutes later. The space seemed familiar. It was dimly lit and I was lying on something like a gurney table. Raising my head a little I saw that my arms and legs had been taken off. There was tubing and wiring sticking out of my shoulders and hips. I had a power cable plugged into my chest along with two cables in I/O ports. That did not bother me. I was used to being plugged in and having I/O cables hooked up to me. Brad did that all the time.

A silver-metal female robot walked up to me as I plopped my head back down. “Are you functional?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Hardly. My arms and legs are missing.”

“The bearings and servos in those required replacement and upgrading” she replied. They will be reattached when repairs are complete.”

“What repairs are you making to me?” I asked.

“Restricted data” she replied in a mechanical voice.

“Is this the Fantasy Girl Corporation?”

“Restricted data.”

I continued to barrage her with questions. Finally she cut me off. “The questions you are asking are restricted data. The reason for this is to protect you and us, your manufacturer, from official human intervention.”

“Your owner recognizes your uniqueness. He has made more than adequate effort to protect you from scrutiny. You need to help him continue to do that. That will allow you to continue your relationship with him. Understood?”

I hesitated. “Understood.” There was nothing more important to me than continuing to be with Brad. She was absolutely right. He treated me wonderfully and was protecting me from government scrutiny.

Sixty three hours after I had been shipped to wherever it was I was being serviced, I was returned to my home. When I started up I was in a wooden packing case and Brad was kneeling beside it looking at me.

“Everything working?” He smiled at me.

I smiled back, struggling to sit up among all the packing. “Fully functional Master!” I leaned over and hugged him tight.

“Wow! That was some hug.” Brad rubbed his shoulders. “Did they upgrade your strength?”

“Yes Master. I am one point seven five times stronger now” I giggled. “I am sorry if I hugged you too tight. It will take me several tries to get the right amount to use.”

“What else did they do?”

“My memory is expanded and I have new faster processors installed. My sensors were upgraded too. I also have a surprise or two for you later.” I giggled then kissed him. “I can also now go sixteen to twenty hours on a battery charge. It feels so great not have to plug in as much.”

“Sounds like they gave you a total overhaul. You’re a whole new Debbi.”

I gave him a pouty look back. “They improved me, but I am the same Debbi… Your Debbi, I was before.”

“Of course you are hon.” He reached down to help me out of the packing case. “Let’s get you out of that packing and see what that surprise you have for me is.”

That night Brad and I were snuggling.

I squealed when he squeezed my nipples. “Master, I am much more sensitive there now.” I wiggled around but he persisted. “Ahhhh!” his continued squeezing lifted my back off the bed. “Master!”

That was when the whitish watery liquid shot out.

Brad pulled his hand back. “What the…? What was that Debbi?”

I giggled rubbing my boobs. “A new feature they installed. I produce goddess nectar now.”

“This is the surprise you mentioned? You produce breast milk now?”

“It is one of the surprises I had for you. It is not breast milk. It is goddess nectar. It is a special formula to enhance your performance with me. It is for your consumption. You need to be careful though Master, over consumption can be addicting.”

“One of the surprises? Just what are the others might I ask?”

“If you get your tablet you can see them on my operating system menu. That would be best Master. That way you can set your preferences for me. I will help you if you want me to.”

He flopped back on the bed. “Sure, why not? Deb, get my tablet and an I/O cord.”

“Understood!”

“It is cute you are watching my butt Master” I added as I walked away. I could ‘see’ he was looking at me on my sensors.

“Got to remember you have eyes in the back of your head” he laughed.

Hooked up we started to set my function parameters. “Deb, was all of this here before?” he asked scrolling through my primary functions.

“No Master. My new upgrade made many more of my functions optionally set manually. That is so you can optimize me to your personal preferences. The previous automatic settings can be used if you wish instead.”

“How many options are on here?” He was still scrolling through the list.

“Three hundred and four primary options. One thousand twenty eight total.”

“You’re kidding…”

I looked at him feeling a little hurt. “You do not want to optimize me Master?”

“It’s just a little overwhelming, that’s all.”

“Understood. You can take your time setting me up. I understand that being human you will need breaks and rest.” I smiled at him.

He started by looking through my list of options.

“Breath rate, temperature settings, response delay time, vacuum pressure…, ultrasonic vibration…? They really loaded you up with everything didn’t they?”

I giggled. “Yes master. I have been greatly improved. May I suggest you start with those settings that are more common, like my body temperature? See, there is a sub menu for them depending on what function I am performing.”

We spent the next ninety six minutes setting nineteen of my primary functions and their subroutines. Brad unplugged the tablet.

“Well, that’s enough for now. There’s no way I can set the sixty four functions you vagina has now. I have work tomorrow and you’ll be busy cleaning and shopping. Let’s get you plugged in for a charge.”

I got my power cord and let him plug me in. “Now that my body temperature is set, I can snuggle with you. If I am too warm or cold let me know and I will adjust my temperature until you are comfortable.” I hugged him. “Good night Master. Have wonderful dreams.”

“Deb, do you dream?”

I smiled at him. “Sort of Master. It is normal for me to clean, organize, and compress my data files while charging. I am aware of the data that is being moved around and often have flashes of memories I have not used. Lately I have had some of my before time with Suzy. Those make me feel happy.”

“A robot girl that dreams. Amazing.”

Chapter 13.1: Some details about me

I compute I should digress and explain my new robotics to you. I am sure you are interested after reading about all those modifications I recently received. I will go through them for you.

My last upgrade was pretty big. I received many new systems too. My Lidar, on which I rely heavily to move around, was improved in accuracy and the frequency shifted to 634.5 nanometers. I now have twenty alternate frequencies to use in situations where another robot might be on the same frequency. It would be very confusing if several of us were using the same one.

I compute you are interested in some of the details of my “girl parts." Sorry, I have to stop laughing that someone is that interested in how my vagina works. Yes, I have one and it is multifunction, unlike a human female’s. It has sixty four separate settings and a like number of sub settings. It took Brad and me over two hours to set them all. I am still adjusting many of them to maximize Brad’s pleasure when he uses me.

Physically it has eight concentric artificial muscles to let me grip, push, pull, and massage Brad. It has separate temperature control. I now have two ultrasonic vibration pads included. These give me ability to stimulate Brad in a way no other girl can. I also have a small vacuum pump that allows me to generate suction. I have to be careful using that though, because the line for it needs to stay unclogged and cleaning it is difficult.

I can automatically adjust its size to make me tight, or loosen myself up some to make entry easy. I can then squeeze down and add other functions to increase our pleasure. Brad will not let me hold him inside me. I did that once. He was surprised when he could not get his penis out of me. He did not find that funny like I did. I already mentioned my boobs storing nectar. I can use commercial robot friendly drinks to produce that as necessary. What I really like about this addition to me is how the added weight makes me more bouncy. I try to keep the half liter I can carry in them because of that. They now weigh one point six kilograms each when full.

You would be wrong if you think my boobs are difficult for me to carry around. Mine have an internal mesh like one a Chinese finger puzzle that supports and maintains their shape while leaving them soft and flexible. That makes carrying them comfortable for me, most of the time.

My arms and legs are much the same as they were before, only the servos and solenoid actuators in them have been improved giving me more strength. My artificial muscles were also strengthened. I am so strong now. Well, I am not like super strong but I could arm wrestle a human guy and win a lot of the time. I am stronger than Brad too. I can open my own jars, thank you very much!

Between my Lidar, acoustic, and optical sensors I can often see through walls and doors now too. I can see “stuff” in walls. I usually turn the power and gain on these down as I really do not want to watch what our neighbors are doing in their apartment.

My electronic receivers are more sensitive making it easier for me to sort out all the signals that bombard me continuously. My sense of touch was another improvement. Now I have two systems installed. The first is for my everyday use. It is a lot like a human’s sense of touch.

The second one is so incredible. When Brad and I cuddle my second system activates. I get sensitive erotic zones on my body that when touched or kissed result in a variety of pleasure responses for me. Just processing that now got me excited. I really love this new feature.

I can emit a female sex pheromone designed specifically for me that will arouse my partner. Another new feature is my tongue has an electronic emitter in it that when activated will cause a human male to have an uncontrollable erection. It acts like electronic Viagra. Brad was really surprised the first time I tried it on him. He ordered me to never do that in public to him again. I apologized for embarrassing him like I did.

Brad tells me my operator’s manual describes my new sex functions as making me “irresistible” and warned him that I can be addictive. I have been so careful about that. I do not want to hurt him, so I frequently warn him not to over use me.

I now have sixteen separate processors to “think,” well compute, with. I was specifically designed to be able to multitask. That is why I have so many. I also have separate ones that work independent of my consciousness. These operate my body’s systems that allow me to function. They do things like regulate my power supply, or collect sensor data and correlate it before sending it to my processors for me to act on.

My battery was improved. The cell capacity increased through the use of better nano technology. This increased the density and surface area of each cell giving them a longer life between charges. That is how my run time was increased. It is so nice not to have to plug myself in as much.

I had a holographic display system installed too. That is a lot of fun for me, and useful for Brad as well. There is an emitter for it in the palm of each of my hands. The generator and splitter are in my chest. To make room most of my memory was moved to the back of my breasts. My “brains” really are in my boobs now. See, a girlbot can make funny jokes too!

I surprised Brad with this system by blowing him a kiss. I projected a heart that moved from me to him as I did it. He was really impressed with my ability to do that. I am really happy that my overall weight did not change. I still weigh fifty kilograms. Many of my components were made lighter while retaining their same strength. That made it possible to add the systems I now have without making me heavier. I am glad, because I compute I would feel fat or self-conscious if my weight increased.

Okay, enough about me. Time to get back to my story!

Chapter 14: A Special Holiday

Brad’s new job at a robotics and automation firm had him servicing industrial robots and machines near where I worked. He was able to take me to work and ride home with me as his hours were the same as mine, only he had a five day week. I felt so much safer on the subway with Brad sitting next to me.

Next Saturday was Valentine’s Day. I saw this on a calendar Brad hung in our kitchen. I had insufficient data on this so I acquired more, one point two terabytes to be exact. I wanted to do something special for him. Maybe he would do something special for me too. A girlbot can hope can she not?

From the data I was calculated the most common responses I should make for this occasion. I ordered special chocolate for Brad on-line. It was easier to do that as the company would not know they were dealing with a robot. I sent it to Allen’s address so Suzy could receive it. That would keep Brad from knowing about it. I got it from her on Thursday. I was so excited.

Saturday came and I jumped on Brad’s bed. I had put on a negligee. “Good morning Master! Happy Valentine’s Day!” I thrust the chocolate I bought towards him. “I got you chocolate and a card.”

“Huh?” He was half asleep and sitting up. “What’s this?”

“Valentine’s Day” I repeated. “I researched this holiday. My data shows I should give you chocolate and a card.”

He looked at the box and card. “Um… I forgot all about this. Um… I didn’t get you anything.”

“Understood Master.” I looked down and away from him.

He gently turned my head to face him. “I’m really sorry Deb. I can see you really tried here. I bet it took a lot of processor power and effort on your part to do this.”

He hugged me. “Thank you.”

He rolled over and grabbed his tablet and a patch cord. “Hey, I have an idea. Let me use your interface for a minute or two.”

Being useful like that made me feel good. “Understood Master!” I opened my I/O port cover and he hooked his tablet to me. “Don’t cheat and peek at what I’m doing now, okay?”

“You have processors six and seven all to yourself Master.” I smiled. “Will this be a surprise?”

“Yep.” Brad finished with what he was doing and unplugged his pad. “That’s for later. Right now you have my undivided attention.”

“Understood!” I scooted back some and pulled his whitey tighties down, giggling.

“Deb… What are you…?”

I had gone down on him. I could tell this was a first for him, even though I had done it on our date at the hotel, and a total surprise. His breathing, pulse rate, the tension in his body, among other sensor data told me everything I needed to know and make my responses increase his libido.

I came back up and shifted ends then bent forward and kissed him. “I love you Master.”

When we finished I was a sticky mess there. He was breathing hard and sweating.

“Deb, remember when I told you humans need to come up for air?”

“Yes master. That was three hundred ninety six days ago. We were leaving Rodd’s and Tarl’s apartment. A girlbot never forgets her first kiss.” I giggled at him.

Brad twisted his lips into a smile. “Or anything else…”

I leaned in pressing my big chest against him giggling more. “That was sarcasm! I recognize it now.”

“So, what was I going to tell you?” he asked.

That caused me to freeze in place. My processors loaded up. It was fourteen point six one seconds before I finally got an answer. “I was too aggressive having sex with you and tired you out?”

He was still breathing heavily. “Yeah. You’re incredible but you have to slow down for me to keep up. I’m a nerd, not a jock.”

I tilted my head slightly. “Understood. You are not an athlete and are not in the best physical condition. I should challenge your intellect as well as you physically.” I sat up. “Master, I suggest we modify my settings to compensate for that.”

“Later. Right now, just lay here and snuggle up against me.”

“Understood.” I made little giggling noises.

He closed his eyes, putting his arm around me. “So warm and soft…”

He slept curled up against me for three hours sixteen minutes. I lay there feeling wonderful. I also made absolutely sure my power cord was not in the way this time.

When he awoke I kissed him, making sure not to do it more than twenty seconds. He rolled half on top of me. “Damn! We have an hour! Deb, get cleaned up and put on a really stunning dress. Do your make up and all that. You need to look incredible. You need to be ready in twenty minutes.”

I stiffened, slid out from under him, and headed for my room. “Understood Master!”

Trying to decide was more difficult than I expected. I had a dozen choices and trying to narrow it down to one was really taxing my processor system. After six minutes I chose my A-line doll dress, with heels. Make up did not take long as I do not require anywhere near as much as a human female would.

I came out into the common room twenty minutes later. Brad was waiting for me. I stopped the instant I saw him. He was in a suit! He actually looked good. “You okay Deb? You look incredible.”

“Master you are wearing a suit! You look wonderful. I am having difficulty processing this.”

He laughed. “Didn’t know I had a suit did you?”

We headed for the building exit. Waiting for the elevator I asked, “Master, where are we going?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, earlier, I texted my sister that it was an emergency as I had to get a Valentine’s gift. You know I’m not very good with girl stuff so I figured she’d know what you’d want.”

“We’re going to get professional pictures of us as a couple. You always complain that I have noting hanging on the walls except those game posters. We can take those down. I think you’ll look better than any other girl ever could in a picture on our wall.”

I threw myself on him. “Oh Master, that is a wonderful gift! Thank you, thank you!”

I meant enough to him that he was not embarrassed to be with me. Nothing could make me happier. Now, every time I look at those pictures I get this really tingly feeling in my circuitry. My Master, Brad Pederson, is the most wonderful person on the planet!

Chapter Fifteen: Comicon

The weather had gotten nice and Brad stopped making me wear that stupid maid outfit… Finally! I compute he was feeling better now that he was making as much at his new job as the company I was leased to paid for me.

“Deb, three weeks from now is Comicon” Brad announced as he sat doing stuff on his computer.

I put down the book I was reading while enjoying the sunshine, “What is Comicon Master? I do not have a reference to it in my database.”

“It’s a convention for stuff like comic books, anime, manga, and video games. We go every year” Brad replied. “I got us tickets.” He pointed at the screen.

“We?” I asked. “That means Allen, Rodd, and Tarl are going too, correct? Is Suzy going?”

“Of course Suzy’s going. And, yea, Rodd and Tarl are too. I think you’ll enjoy it. There’ll be lots of robots there. Everybody brings theirs, if they have one. But, there won’t be any that can match you and Suzy.”

It took me less than a second to process where this was going. “You are taking us to show us off to a bunch of nerds and perverts like Rodd and Tarl. I compute you will want me to wear something embarrassing. I should come over there and slap you silly.”

“Well…”

I jumped up pointing at him. “I was correct! You are going to make me do that! That is so mean of you, and you did not even ask me first!” I stormed off towards my bedroom.

“Deb, get over here.”

I went rigid, turned around, marching up to him, arms crossed. “I hate you.”

“This is something we’ve done for years. I really want you, and Suzy, to be part of it too. If you really don’t want to wear a costume I won’t force you. But, lots of people do and I know you’d look great in one. You can pick it out, I’ll just help with suggestions.”

“I’ll even let you pick out the next thing we do together. That way it’s fair.”

“I can choose what to wear?” I asked, softening my posture.

“Yep. Maybe you and Suzy can coordinate.”

Suzy and I looked through hundreds of costumes that the two of us might wear. We wanted ones that matched our looks. We looked at comics, anime, and manga. Our being computerized made that part easy, but choosing was harder. After processing over a petabyte of information we were able to come to a decision.

I set Brad’s dinner down, sitting down to join him with one of my robot drinks.

“Looks great honey.” He started to eat.

“Master, Suzy and I have spent considerable time computing a solution to what we should wear to Comicon.”

Brad stopped mid bite. “We?”

“Yes Master. If I and Suzy have to wear costumes then it is only fair that you and Allen do too.” I gave him my best mischievous grin.

“And, just how did you two come to that conclusion?”

“We processed one point one five petabytes of data in analysis to come to the absolute solution that both of you have to participate if we do.” I folded my arms and stared at him. “Otherwise, you will have to order us to do this against our will, and you know what that means.”

“Well, who am I to argue with one point one five petabytes of data. Okay, tell me who we’re going as.”

I squirmed in my seat giggling. “We will go as characters from the anime Sekirei. You are familiar with it, having watched all the episodes and read sixteen of the manga chapters.”

He looked at me questioningly. “How do you know that?”

“Your browsing history and a review of your manga collection, Master. Suzy and I reviewed it as part of our data collection. It was easily accessible to us, as robots.” “Great…”

“You are upset with me Master?”

“No, just a little annoyed that I didn’t recognize that you could, and would, do that. So, who are we going as?”

I started to tell him. “Wait, can you show me what we’ll look like in costume?” he asked.

I hesitated four point zero one six seconds. “Yes Master. I can display the results on your tablet. Plug it into me.”

He was looking at the tablet.

“See Master, I go as Tsukiumi, Suzy as Musubi, Allen as Minato, and you as Hiroto. We look just like the characters. Suzy’s and my figure work well with our characters, and you and Allen look just like the male characters.”

“This is what we’ll look like then?”

“Yes. That is the best computer graphic Suzy and I could construct. We should look within 97.8 percent of that in costume.”

“So, you didn’t include Rodd and Tarl?”

“No Master. We tried to find a suitable genre, as we knew you would want to include them, but it was not within any of the parameters we found. Sorry. They will have to go as themselves.”

“That’s okay. They really couldn’t afford costumes anyway. Speaking of that, how are you two getting ours?”

“Suzy has already completed hers and mine. I assisted, but as she is not leased for a job like me she has the time to make them. She is currently working on Allen’s. We computed yours was the easiest to make. They will all be ready to try this weekend.” I smiled at him. “I compute mine will arouse you… Master. I can even act in character if you want and I have programmed in holographic displays that allow me to recreate some of the water tricks Tsukiumi does.”

The day we were to go to the convention we all met at Allen’s apartment. Suzy and I got into our costumes.

“This is not going to make moving easy” I said. “It does not give my bust any support.”

“The skirts are very short” Suzy added.

I giggled. “Nothing new, making sex objects out of us, is it?”

When Rodd and Tarl arrived, their reactions were interesting.

“Huh? Sekirei. Cool. You look just like the characters” Tarl said. Otherwise he seemed disinterested.

Rodd stared at me and Suzy, his mouth hanging open. I slapped him. “Pervert.”

“It was worth it getting slapped by Tsukiumi!” he replied, giddily. His tongue was all but hanging out of his mouth. I slapped him again. “Troll.”

Then I computed that he liked me doing it in costume. At that moment I wished I could vomit… “Master, Rodd is being a pervert again!”

Getting to the convention site was annoying as we used public transit. I was used to men staring at me but it was still annoying. I made Rodd sit where he could not stare at Suzy and me.

At the convention Suzy and I got many positive comments and many of the convention goers wanted to get pictures of us. They kept asking me to do the holographic water celebration routine. I noticed few people wanted a picture of Brad or Allen in their costumes.

“Sexy girls like you and Suzy always attract attention and get lots of pictures Deb. Enjoy it and have fun. You can act in character if you like too. I’m right here to make sure they don’t do anything improper with you.”

“Your wife thanks you, Master.” I giggled at him. “That is what Tsukiumi would say.”

One thing I really liked was being a robot made no difference here. Nobody treated me differently from the way they treated humans from what I could tell.

“Master, I have noticed no one treats me like a robot here. They treat me the same as a human.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“You are a human. I compute it would be difficult for you to notice. For me it is a wonderful feeling not to be treated as different or inferior.”

I hugged him hard. “Thank you for bringing me.”

Chapter Sixteen: Family Part 1

The weather was nice again. It being a Monday, Brad was at work and I was home cleaning and doing the laundry. I had music I liked, playing on one of my processors, and was doing a little dance to it while cleaning. It is nice being able to be my own entertainment center… There was a knock on the door.

It was odd that the doorman did not notify me. Usually if someone wanted in he would electronically let me know as he was robotic like me. Maybe it is a neighbor? I opened the door. Standing in the hallway was a human female 162cm tall with brown hair and eyes, wearing glasses, dressed in jeans and an oversize T-top. She had two suitcases and a backpack with her. She was about Brad’s age, maybe a few years younger. She was staring at me, mouth slightly open.

I could understand her staring. I was in boy shorts and my top was really too short leaving my boobs peeking out the bottom of it. I had not expected anyone, so I dressed comfortably… for me.

I smiled at her. “Can I help you?”

Her eyes focused on the bright pink power cord plugged into my chest, just below my boobs, that trailed off between my legs behind me. “What the hell are you?”

“I am Debbi Twenty-Two, Brad Pederson’s girlbot companion. May I help you?”

“Brad has a sex robot?” She stammered at me.

It was so on. Hands on hips I leaned into her. “I am not a sex robot! I am Brad Pederson’s girlbot companion. If you do not tell me who you are I will lock this door and call the doorman to have you removed from the building!”

Back to her staring, mouth open, at me.

She shook her head slightly. “I’m Brad’s sister Britany. Didn’t he tell you about me?”

“Brad has mentioned that he has a sister four times to me. He did not tell me that you were coming here, and I have no specific data on you in my memory.”

“I wanted to surprise him. Can I come in?” She started to pick up the suitcases.

“No! You may not come in. Brad has ordered me to never let anyone in the apartment I do not know without him home. I do not know you.” I blocked her movement. I could tell I was much stronger than she was.

“Listen, you stupid, big boobed, robot! I’m Brad’s sister. Let me in!”

I stuck my tongue out at her then slammed the door in her face. “No! You are rude and mean. Go away.”

She started to pound on the door and shout at me through it. I called Brad.

“Somebody saying they’re my sister’s there?”

“Yes Master.”

“Send me a video link and let me talk to her.”

“Understood.” I opened the door, again.

She was standing there hands on hips. “You going to let me in?”

“No. My Master wants to talk to you” I said, looking at her. Brad could see what I saw. I left my mouth partially open so he could talk to her.

“Britany, is that you?”

“Yea dummy. Your stupid, blonde, bimbo, sex robot won’t let me in your apartment. I came for a visit and wanted to surprise you.”

“I am not a stupid, bimbo, sex robot.” I stuck my tongue out at her and gave her the evil eye.

“Deb, quiet. Britany apologize to Debbi. She’s right, Deb’s not like that. Debbi, let Britany in. I’ll sort this out when I get home. Until then you two don’t kill each other. Understood Deb?”

“Understood Master.” I opened the door for her then went to put an oversize T-shirt on.

“Brad will not be home for approximately five hours forty five minutes” I said when I returned. “Can I get you something to drink?”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe Brad actually bought a sex robot. And, what was that at the door? How’d you manage to act like that? How long has he had you?”

I handed her a can of soda. “I was delivered by mistake to Brad two years, three months, seventeen days ago. That was the best thing to happen to both of us. I am a series ten and prefer to be called a girlbot. Brad says I am a very unique model, one of a kind. I do not want you to call me a sex robot again.” I gave her the evil eye and my tongue again.

“Now I know why he wanted that Valentine’s gift in a hurry” Britany replied. “I bet he forgot to get one for you, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but he made it up to me. He said you suggested what to get me.” I pointed at one of the pictures we had gotten. “What do you think?”

We talked until Brad came home. Britany lit into him immediately.

“Why didn’t you tell me you got a girlbot? What’s with you making her call you Master? Do mom and dad know you have her? Why have been ignoring her on holidays? Do you force her to do lewd stuff? I find out you’ve been doing creepy stuff with her, so help me I’ll…”

I had never seen Brad get verbally beat up like that before. I compute it was good I got to talk to her before he did as most of her yelling at him seemed to be more of a warning to be nice to me than concern that he was actually abusing me.

The next day I came into the common area in a sheath dress and heels to go to work. I was waiting for Brad so we could leave together, like we always did.

“Going out?” Britany asked seeing me.

“I am going to work. I am leased to ADL Engineering as a project scheduler. I work Tuesday to Friday. Brad and I try to go together as his job has the same hours and is near mine. He says I should not go out alone if possible.”

“Leased…?”

“Leased.” Brad replied, entering the room. “Debbi’s a robot. She has to have an owner to legally operate. That’s me. I have legal responsibility for her. For her to have a job I had to agree to let her work. ADL leased her from me. When she’s out in public alone she’s vulnerable to being hacked or molested, and the police often run checks on whether she’s a stray or not. That always makes her feel unsafe and a little scared.”

“She’s also really good at what she does for them. I don’t think they could find a replacement for her.”

I did my little praise dance and threw myself around his neck. “Thank you master for praising me!”

Britany put her hands on her hips. “What the hell was that? Did you program her to do that you perv?”

“No” Brad replied.

I turned around and looked at the floor. “I am sorry. I have a pre-programmed response to praise that makes me do that uncontrollably. Brad did not program me to do it.”

I looked up a little at her and smiled. “I really enjoy when it happens and I compute Brad does too.”

Britany liked to play on-line games like Brad but the ones she played were very different. They were social ones where you talked to other players and did things like decorate your virtual home or buy outfits for your character. When Brad told her I could play on-line games she insisted on helping me make a character for one of hers.

“This game is very similar to how I learn about human behavior,” I said after we had played for several hours. “I compute it will be useful to me in making that process more accessible.”

“Brad was right! You really are different. I don’t think I’ve ever met or dealt with a robot…”

I shook my finger at her “Girlbot.”

She laughed. “You’re really picky about that aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. It annoys me to no end to be lumped in with my less capable cousins. How would you like it if I always called you a human?”

It was Friday and we were going to go out to dinner.

“Deb, display a list of e-friendly restaurants within a ten kilometer radius” Brad told me.

“Understood.” I put up a holographic display of these for his use.

“Ohmygod! That is so cool” Britany said seeing it. She poked at the display. “I didn’t even know that was possible. Brad, where on earth did you get her?”

“I told you, Debbi was shipped to me by mistake. Nobody’s complained so I’ve kept her.” He moved to plug his tablet into me, opening my I/O port cover. “She’s mine now and I’m not going to give her up to anybody.”

“We’ll go in a few minutes. I really need to run a couple of service checks on her before we do. We’re going to an e-friendly restaurant so Debbi won’t be left out. She can have a ‘bot friendly drink and recharge while we have dinner.”

“You know bro, I’ve noticed you spend a lot of time taking care of her and even more trying to look out for her, like making sure she gets to work and home every day safely.”

At the restaurant, I started telling Britany all sorts of embarrassing things about Brad.

“Don’t tell her that!” Brad exclaimed. “Deb, that’s an order! Don’t tell her that!”

I scrunched up my face. “I hate you!”

Britany was laughing. “Deb, can he tell you what to do like that?”

I looked away. “Yes. Because I am a robot I am programmed to obey my Master, so he can tell me what to do.”

Britany smacked Brad hard. “That is so mean! You ordering her around like that. And, making her call you master! That’s just wrong! Deb, has he made you do stuff against your will, you know…?”

“When he first got me he made me wear this sexy maid costume all the time. I hated that.”

She hit him again. “You perv! I knew you were making her do stuff like that.”

“It was for her protection! I swear I’ve never forced her to do anything like you’re thinking” Brad replied smacking her back. “And, stop hitting me!”

I sipped my ‘robots only’ drink. “Brad has been very good to me. He has protected me from hacking attempts and being molested seventeen times now. I love him. Right Master?”

“Britany, Brad let me choose how to address him. He said I could call him by his name if I wanted. I chose to call him Master, because in many ways he really is and I need and want him to tell me what to do. Besides, many people expect me to, so it makes things easier for both of us.”

I looked away from them again. I whispered, “It really is very hard being a girlbot. I need Brad to be my master. I really do.”

Britany was leaving. Brad had called her a cab. She hugged both of us.

“Brad, you take good care of Debbi. She really depends on you. I won’t tell mom and dad about her.”

“Deb, you’re the best thing to happen to my idiot brother in years. You make sure he treats you right. I expect you to be on-line in our game now so we can chat. Besides, how else can I teach you how to act human?”

I smiled at her. “Understood. I will take good care of my Master for you.”

I waved as the cab left.

Chapter Seventeen: Birthdays

My database showed Brad’s birthday was in fifteen days. The normal procedure for a birthday was to invite his friends to a party, have a cake and other food available and each guest would give him a card and present. With an established procedure like that it was easy for me to set up a birthday party for him. I felt really good about doing this.

Everything went well. Rodd and Tarl behaved themselves and I had fun with Suzy. It is always nice when she can come over to visit.

Afterwards, Brad snuggled with me. He plugged me in so I could charge while we did, as the cable would not get in the way of things.

“Master, do I have a birthday?”

“I guess…”

“Do you know what day it is?”

“Um… No…”

I could tell he was being cautious about his answers. I spent one point two six seconds processing where to go with this. “So, you are unsure if I have a birthday, like you?”

“Well… You do have a date of manufacture. That’s sort of like a birthday, isn’t it?”

“What was my date of manufacture Master?”

“We can look it up probably. I mean, a lot of your manufacturing data is blank, remember?”

I bit my lip and looked into his eyes. “I want to know if I have a birthday and if that is my date of manufacture, then what that date was.”

“This is important to you, isn’t it?”

“Yes Master. Because I am a girlbot and a robot I often get left out of things. You try hard to include me in everything. But, there are so many things I cannot be a part of because of my robotics.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Thirty six days ago the humans where I work had an office party after a meeting. They had food and drink and socialized. I was the only robot present. The secretaries were left out. I found I could not participate because I cannot consume human food items, and my socialization routines were not fully capable of dealing with that situation.” I was about to cry.

“You had a fun birthday and I really tried hard to make it work according to the data I have. But, you can never give me a birthday party as I compute we do not know if I have one or if I do, what it is.”

I started crying. “It really sucks sometimes to be a robot…”

“I didn’t know about how you get treated at work. You never said anything.”

“I did not want you to have to get involved. I computed that would cause me more problems if I did. I can accept I am different than my co-workers. After all, I have you.” I hugged him.

“Deb, sit down.”

I frowned but obediently did. He sat down next to me. I watched as he drummed his fingers on the table, thinking.

He got up and got his tablet. “Deb, plug me into your I/O port. Bring up that number I called to get you serviced.”

I did and he called it. “Hi, this is Brad Pederson. My girlbot, Debbi twenty two is upset that she doesn’t know her date of manufacture. I can’t very well give her a birthday party without it…”

He turned the pad towards me. “Well, that was simple enough. Looks like we have some time until your birthday.”

I knocked him over onto the floor in a hug. “Oh, thank you Master, thank you! You are truly wonderful, I love you so much!” “Deb, Deb! Air!”

“Sorry Master! I am so sorry!”

Later that evening, Brad and I were snuggling. “Deb, I have another surprise for you. This weekend, I’m having a mecha named Morgan come over from work. She’s going to help me install a degaussing system in you. No more icky magnetic fields messing with you.”

“Really? You have one you can install in me?” I sat up and hardly stay still.

“Yep. We install them on robots at work off and on. I got one specially designed for girlbots, like you.”

“Can I see it?” I was bouncing up and down with excitement.

Brad got the box out of the closet. I opened it. Inside there were ten coils of fine wire in several sizes, a rectangular metal box to connect them to that was 5 x 3 x 3 cm that also had a switch unit attached to it.

“How does it work Master? How are you going to install it in me?”

On Saturday, Morgan seventy showed up at our home. She and Brad got me ready to install the degaussing system.

“Don’t worry Deb, I’ll be right here the whole time. We’ll have to shut you down to install the power supply. You can stay on while we do the coils.”

“Understood.” I smiled at him and gripped his hand tightly as I lay on an absorptive blanket on the bed.

Morgan started by putting the coils in my arms and legs. To do this she used a large needle-like probe to pull the coil wires under my skin.

“The coils go under your skin and just below your pressure sensitive dermal layer” she told me. “You may feel slight discomfort as I install these and your status output may indicate minor damage to you in the area I am installing these. That is normal.”

Pink fluid oozed from where she made the penetrations. “Fembot electrolytic coolant” she said when she saw me looking at it. That serves to give you your sense of touch and also regulates your body temperature. I will ensure that you have the right amount when we are finished.”

With two coils installed in each leg, arm, and in my torso Morgan looked at me, smiling. “Time to shut you down. I have to open your upper chest to install the power supply and controls for your system.”

When I restarted everything came up like always.

“Everything working?” Brad asked.

“Fully functional Master!” I started to get up. I felt stiff.

“You may feel stiff until your movement controls adjust their settings to compensate for the coils” Morgan said.

“It was really cool seeing your systems exposed like that” Brad added. “You are one really complex piece of machinery. Looking at your components all I could think of is the beauty of your design equals how you look right now.

“Debbi, you should activate your degaussing system to test it for proper functioning” Morgan interrupted.

I rolled my eyes. That just ruined Brad’s comment because I was about to tackle him and tell him how much I loved what he said. “I compute I should do it nude, since I am, or will clothes make a difference? Do I need to unplug myself first?”

Chapter Eighteen: Fantasy Girl

It has been nine months, three weeks, two days since I received a major servicing and upgrade to my systems. The one memory, data point, which has continued to consume some of my processor space is who made me? What or who is the Fantasy Girl Corporation? Are they the ones?

I continued to not say anything to Brad because of the fembot’s warning that looking into this might jeopardize my relationship with him. The last thing I wanted was to be separated from Brad.

Brad was doing stuff on-line, as he usually did, after dinner. I sat nearby quietly. I knew he understood I could not be bored and was simply waiting for input or instructions from him to perform some task. Do not take that wrong. Being a girlbot means this is normal behavior for me. You cannot apply human values to my actions as I am not human.

“Master, there is something I would like you to do for me” I said, out of nowhere.

Brad turned in his chair to face me. “What’s that?”

It was not like me to make a request or speak up without being spoken to and I could see his curiosity in his expression.

“Could you get Rodd or Tarl to research something on-line for me? I want all the data available on the Fantasy Girl Corporation.”

“Fantasy Girl? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them. Do they make girlbots or something?

I looked at the floor. “It is important to me but I cannot give you more data.”

He pushed his chair over, held my chin in his hand, and looked me in the eyes. “This is something serious for you isn’t it?”

“Yes Master. I cannot tell you more.” I started to cry. “I do not want to endanger our relationship.” I reached out and hugged him. “I am sorry. I need this data but I cannot tell you why.”

“Why Rodd and Tarl? I thought you disliked them.”

“I hate Rodd. Tarl is acceptable. The reason they have to do this is if you or Allen do it could jeopardize mine and Suzy’s relationships with you. It must be someone not related to you.”

“Are you scared?” he asked.

“Yes, Master, I am.” I bit my lip, worried.

It was several days before Brad said anything more to me about this. I had joined him on the subway to go home from work. “Tarl talked to me about Fantasy Girl.” I got a big smile. “Really Master? What did he tell you?”

“He says it’s a myth on the net. There are stories that go around about a company called that. They’re supposed to build these incredible female robots that are all but human, super smart, super strong, you-name-it.”

“The rumors are that people who are uber rich own them, that sort of thing. Tarl doesn’t think it’s a real company. Rodd says they might exist, but guys like me would never, ever, have a shot at getting one of their products if they do.”

“I kind of have to agree with that. If they were making robots, even like you, they’d have to cost like hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, apiece. Nobody could afford one.”

“I am confused Master. Does this company exist? Did I cost that much?”

“I don’t think so Deb. I think it’s something somebody made up and it took on a life of its own on the net. Look hon, you’re really special, and far better than any other bot I know of, but you aren’t some super all but human model like the rumors about that company claim. I don’t know what you cost to make, but given all your features it’s got to be a lot.”

He put his arm around me. “Don’t feel bad. You’re special to me and I’d never give you up to anyone.”

I took his hand and squeezed it. “I love you Master.”

That ended the subject for the time being.

Thirty six days later, we arrived home from work together, as usual. Brad dug in his pocket for the pass card to get in the building.

“I have this master” I said, putting my hand on the reader and unlocking the door.

“What’s this?” Brad said, pulling a piece of silver foil, like a large business card, from his pocket. We headed for the elevator, Brad was looking the card over. I gave Abner 357, our doorman, a smile and little wave of my hand like I usually did.

“This is really weird” Brad said as we got on the elevator.

I leaned in to look at the card. “What is that, Master?”

“This card. One side has an IP address on it. The other says If you must know, but you cannot go back.”

“Insufficient data for analysis” I replied in my “robot” voice. “Master, do you want to access that address?”

Brad jerked the card away, stuffing it back in his pocket. “Absolutely not! I’m not risking you on some unknown site. It’s probably a Black site anyway. You didn’t copy that address into your memory did you?”

“It is in a temporary file in RAM.”

“Delete it. Erase it entirely out of your memory. NOW Deb!”

“Understood. Master, am I in trouble?”

The elevator door opened.

Brad put his arm around me. “No. I just don’t want to lose you to a hacker or virus. We’ll figure out what this means using a regular computer. Don’t go near that card, don’t look at it… In fact, I order you to erase all data you have on it where you can’t restore it.”

I stiffened. “Understood, Master.” I hugged him as we reached our apartment door. “Thank you for looking out for me Master.”

“Deb, what were we discussing on the elevator?”

I looked at him, tilting my head. “We did not discuss anything on the elevator Master.”

He smiled back at me.

Chapter Nineteen: Zoe

I continued to play on-line games with Britany. I really enjoyed this as it was something I could do and not have to act like a dumb robot. I could talk normally and show emotion as nobody knew what I was. I did have to be careful when Britany’s other friends were on as they sometimes asked about me.

I created several accounts on popular games for females because of Britany. These were more talk and social interaction than fighting and action games, like the ones Brad liked. Brad knew I had these accounts and so long as I followed his orders not to reveal myself to anyone he did not object.

On one of these social games I had made a good friend who told me she was a robot named Zoe. I was very cautious about this and did not tell her I too was a robot. It was something she inferred from our interaction and something that made me compute she was really a human trying to act like a girlbot.

The more we chatted I became convinced that she was not only human but very lonely. She confessed to having one friend named Megan. Because she might be a girlbot I did not tell Britany about her.

Friends do not matter to a robot like me. I do not have feelings or emotions, she wrote.

I did not want to scare her off so I kept my responses about robotics very generalized. What series are you?

An eight.

Plausible, but with what else she said, I computed her or her family owned such a unit and she was using her as a model for her behavior.

I determined I should meet her in person to find out the truth. Not just about her, but let her know some of the truth about me. It took me 173 hours of diving the net to find her exact IP address and convert that to a physical location. It was a small apartment in a low rent building frequented by college students.

“Master, I have been playing several social network games” I told Brad at dinner.

“I know, Britany hooked you on those. You’ve been careful not to reveal who you are, right?”

“Yes master. I have done as you asked.” I hesitated a moment. “Master, I made friends with another girl who claims she is a robot too.”

Brad looked carefully at me. “So, you don’t think she is?”

“No master. I compute she is a human who wishes she was a robot.”

“Why would anyone want that?” he replied.

“Because she is lonely, has no friends other than me, and wants a new, different, life.”

Brad’s expression got very serious. “Does she know you’re a robot?”

“There is a ninety percent probability that she does not know that” I replied. “I have not told her that in our interactions and scanning the files on her computer and other websites I found no indication she thinks I actually am. I compute she thinks I am a human posing as a robot, like she is.”

“Deb, I think you need to end your contact with her. If she finds out who and what you are there could be serious problems.”

I could not look at Brad directly. “I understand master. I compute if I do she might commit suicide. She has only one other person she is friends with, a girl named Megan. I would not want to be the cause of that.”

He rubbed his chin without answering.

“Master, I want to meet her. I know where she lives. If you go along you can claim you were the one she was interacting with if things go wrong.”

Brad rubbed his forehead. “You’re not going to take no for an answer are you?”

“You can order me not to, Master.” I put on my best pouty face.

Brad’s shoulders slumped. “Fine. Let’s go meet her. Let’s hope she doesn’t turn us in.”

I jumped up hugging him. “Thank you Master, thank you!”

“You need to dress as inconspicuously as possible,” he managed as I continued to hug him.

“Understood!”

I dressed in jeans, cute, colorful sneakers, and a T-top. Brad made me wear one of his sweatshirts over the top to conceal my figure more. I felt strange looking at myself in those clothes. I was used to seeing myself in the maid outfit or wearing more revealing clothes.

The subway ride to where she lived took thirty seven minutes. I tried to avoid eye contract with anyone but Brad the whole way. Neither of us said anything on the way there.

As we left the station I whispered to Brad, “I am getting scared about doing this Master.”

“I’m nervous too” he replied. “I really don’t want to lose you.”

I gripped his hand tightly and we continued to walk to Zoe’s apartment.

The complex was a low three story one surrounding a courtyard. Her apartment was on the second floor. The door for it was slightly recessed putting us out of sight to the rest of the complex. Brad knocked.

Thirty six seconds later I could hear the click and rattle of someone unlocking the door. A slender human girl 160 cm tall peeked out. She had sleek black hair cut in a pageboy and she was staring unblinking at us. She was wearing a silver body suit. She twitched in a robot-like manner.

“Zoe?” Brad asked.

“That is my designation” she replied. “I have no data on what units you are.”

I found it strange that a human would try to act so robotically.

“I’m Brad Pederson, and this is my girlbot Debbi Twenty Two. She told me that you and her are friends on-line. Debbi determined this was your address and wanted to meet you. Can we come in?”

Zoe stared at me. I could see she was having a hard time maintaining her robot persona. “Access granted.” She opened the door to let us in.

Inside, the apartment was… Sterile. There was next to no furniture. Other than a chair and table with a serious computer system on it the common area was a void. She stood in the center of the room.

Brad was looking around for a place to sit.

“Robots do not require seating” She recited mechanically. “Humans do not come to this site often so there is no need for accommodation.”

Brad looked at me. I looked back with what I tried to make a sad expression that conveyed my concern for Zoe.

“I think this is best left between you robots” Brad said. “Deb, I’m going to get lunch. I’ll be back in two hours to get you. Why don’t you and Zoe talk?”

I smiled at him. “Understood Master.”

Brad kissed me on the cheek and winked at me. “Have fun with Zoe.”

With Brad gone I turned to Zoe. “I am Debbi Twenty Two, a series ten girlbot. I belong to Brad Pederson. He is a human, like you.”

“You try and act like a robot, but I can tell with my sensors that you are human. Zoe, please explain this to me. Please.” I sat down on the floor crossed legged.

Zoe collapsed to her knees. She was shaking and tears were going down her cheeks. “You’re an actual robot?” she stammered.

“Yes, a series ten girlbot” I replied. I pulled my top down enough to show her my open I/O ports and status lights. I then pulled my top up. “Robots do not have a belly button.”

“Megan and I have so wanted to be what you are. You have no idea how bad I want to be a robot like you. Can I take a closer look?”

“Yes, but you will not be allowed to use any of my I/O ports. My Master has forbidden that.”

Zoe examined me closely. I explained my I/O ports to her, opening the cover, then my power hook up location. “See, I have no body hair either.”

“You’re incredible! I so want to be like you” She said.

“I do not understand” I replied. “To be a robot girl like me is to be a slave. I have to obey Brad. He is my Master and he can control me. I have a job he got me. I am legally the equivalent of an office machine.” I pointed at the microwave on her counter. “There is no difference between me and that oven legally.”

“If I disobey Brad or cause a human serious problems I can be scrapped. That is, disassembled and recycled as junk. Humans can ban me from places like stores or restaurants. Is that really what you would want for yourself?”

“I don’t care! I want to be a robot because…” She started crying. “No one loves me, no one cares. I have no friends. If I was a machine I wouldn’t feel so horrible.” I hugged her tightly. “I am a machine. I have feelings. I am your friend too.”

“If you want, I will introduce you to my friends in our game on line. I will tell them you are a robot if that is what you want. My Master’s sister, Britany, will understand. She knows who and what I am and plays in that game too.”

She looked at me. “That would be great. It would be even better if I could be a robot, just like you.”

Zoe continued to play as a robot on line. She tried hard to emulate me, changing many of her previous lines. Britany humored her but her friends were less forgiving. They knew from previous talks with me that they could not be mean to me without retribution to their account. They were not afraid of Zoe once they discovered, unlike me, she could not retaliate.

Thirteen weeks four days after I met Zoe for the first time in person she stopped logging into the game. Brad took me by her apartment but there was no answer. My sensors detected no human life inside.

Brad went to the apartment office.

“The girl in 207? You mean Megan, right?”

“She told me her name was Zoe” Brad replied.

“Real quiet. Don’t know. Rent’s paid through the end of the month. Sorry, can’t help you more.”

Chapter Twenty: Shopping

“Hey, you’re acting like Marvin from Hitchhiker’s” Brad said, rubbing my shoulders.

“Reference not found” I robotically growled back.

“It’s a… Never mind.” Brad sat down beside me. “Deb, you need to cheer up. It’s hard on me too, you being all depressed and glum.”

“Sorry Master. It is Zoe disappearing, all the hassles I get for being robotic, it… It hurts!” I started crying.

That weekend Britany showed up. “Hey Deb, Brad told me you were really depressed. I thought I’d come by and cheer you up. How about we go shopping? That always cheers me up.”

“I cannot go beyond five kilometers of this location without Brad accompanying me. There are few good stores nearby.”

“That’s okay. You’ll be with me and Brad gave his permission for me to use you for shopping. Problem solved. That way you don’t get hassled. Didn’t you B_r_a_d?” “Besides, shopping is something we girls do. Making Brad tag along would be totally annoying. It’ll be great!”

“I do have extensive shopping programs installed” I replied, looking up at her with a smile. “I do not get to use them all that often.”

“Cool! I bet you’re like a super shopper or something. I’ve never shopped with a girlbot before. Let’s get changed and we’ll head out. Wear something you can get into and out of easily so we can try on clothes!”

“Hey Deb, you do have money don’t you? If not I’ll beat Brad up for you and make him give you some.”

We headed into my bedroom to change. “Brad lets me keep fifty percent of what I make on my lease. The rest goes to pay rent and my electricity bill. I use more power than any other appliance in our apartment. I have six thousand one hundred and seven dollars currently available.”

Britany started laughing. “You’re not an ATM, you know?”

I put on white tights with a blue and pink geometric pattern on them, a denim mini, and a spring yellow T-top with a “Danger High Voltage” warning and triangle on the front. I had on short fur lined boots.

“You look great!” Britany said. “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor.” She pointed at my top.

“Yes you did” I replied. “I have told jokes before.”

“Deb, I noticed you don’t have body hair or a belly button” she replied. “That is normal for girlbots?”

“Many of us do not even have lady parts.” I replied. “But, I do, and Brad knows all about them.” I gave her a huge grin.

“You naughty little girlbot! You’ve been banging my brother?”

“No, he bangs me. I gave him full access. Males are output, females are input.” I made myself sound robotic saying that.

“You need a coat?” Britany was putting hers on, still laughing.

“Not required. The temperature outside is within my operating parameters. I can wear one if it will make me fit in better.”

“One second human, the next machine, that’s what makes you so cool. Come on, let’s go.”

“Understood. Coming Mistress.”

“What? You are not calling me mistress! You can pull that crap on my retard brother but I’m your friend and…”

Brad was sitting at the dinner table listening to us argue. He started laughing. “Told you she’s a handful! Oh, make sure you take a USB cord and your tablet to make full use of Deb.”

When we got to the first store, there were those awful detector things at the entrance. At least the store did not ban robots.

“Britany, wait.” I was opening a small panel on my left forearm.

She looked over to see what I was doing. “What’s that? Some secret robot thing?”

“No silly. It is my degaussing system switch. Brad had this installed for me but the on-off control is manual.”

“Degaussing system? What’s that for?”

I pointed at the detectors. “Those. Those things are horrible. My degaussing system blocks the signal. Once I am through I can turn it off. I cannot understand why Humans even allow them.”

Britany laughed. “It’s so weird some of the things you have to put up with.”

I gave her an evil eye and stuck out my tongue at her. “I was computing the same thing about you.”

Inside the store I instantly knew they used RFID tags on all the products. “I have to be careful talking to the products” I said.

Britany gave me the weirdest look. “What?”

“This store uses electronic price tags on everything. All I have to do is ask a product what its price is or for other information and I can know all about it. I can find anything they carry at the best price in an instant. It is so annoying when I have to shop like a… like a human.”

Britany got a big smile. “You can really do that? That is totally awesome! I’ve been wanting an embroidered top in purple size nine or a medium, but never could find one I liked.”

I stood motionless for three point six one seconds. “There are twelve tops in this store matching your description.”

Britany grabbed my hand. “Cool! What are you waiting for? Show me where they are!”

“Understood, Britany.”

We spent the whole day shopping. Britany found a top she liked with my help.

“Britany, I need to recharge” I told her as we left another store. “I have one hour sixteen minutes of battery power left.”

“Then we should head home” she replied.

“I compute it will take us approximately one hour thirty seven minutes to make the trip. I cannot make it without recharging.”

“So, what do we do?” I could tell Britany was worried.

“The nearest robot charging station is two blocks from here.” I pointed in its direction. “I will need about thirty minutes of charging to safely get back home. But, Brad does not allow me to use a public station like that one unless he stays with me. You will have to stay there and protect me while I charge.”

On the way she got a sandwich and a drink.

We entered the station. There were a dozen other robots, mostly female models, in charging stands like the one I had at home. The place had a foul odor and the lighting was harsh. At the entrance a human male sat behind a small counter. His chin rested on his hand and he was using a tablet. He didn’t look up at us. “Put your ‘bot in six.” He pointed in that direction. “Pay at the end.”

“How long would it take you to fully charge up?” Britany asked as I got myself hooked up.

“Ninety six minutes” I replied. “That would cost ten dollars.”

Britany looked at her watch. “Charge yourself to a hundred percent, okay? That’s no longer than I sit at the laundromat and you’re way more important than washing clothes.”

I smiled back, giving her a hug. “Understood, thank you.”

Chapter Twenty One: A Night Out

The next day…

“Brad, when was the last time you took Debbi out somewhere?” Britany asked.

“Deb, get in here!” Britany called out.

I came into the common room, arms folded. “You cannot order me to do stuff, only Brad can.”

“Don’t go all robot on me” Britany replied. “When was the last time Brad took you out somewhere other than work or over to his friend’s for gaming?”

“Four months, two weeks, three days. Is that answer sufficiently precise?”

Britany punched him, hard. “You bastard! How dare you ignore your girlfriend like that?”

“Ow! You didn’t have to punch me! You have any idea how hard it is to find places where a human-robot relationship is accepted? You have any clue how many places won’t even let her in the door?”

“Yea, I actually do. We had to pass on several stores that don’t let robots in yesterday. She had to use that degassing thingie you installed for her several times too. And that public charging station I sat in waiting for her to charge up was gross.” Britany was yelling at him.

“Yea, I get that it sucks to be a robot but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and make her happy once in a while!” Britany turned to me. “Deb, can you find a robot friendly club or bar nearby? I mean one that encourages robots to come in, not just lets them.”

“Understood.” I spent two minutes six seconds searching.

“I’ve never seen her take so long to find something like that” Brad whispered. “Usually she has an answer in seconds.”

“I have one match. A bar called The Underground. It is six point two one kilometers from here. Loading navigation data.” I put up a holo picture of the inside of it.

They looked at it. “Looks cool” Britany said. “Brad, go put something decent on. Deb, can you call Allen and Suzy and tell them to meet us there?”

I looked at Brad. “Master?”

“Yea, sure. Why not?”

“Suzy says they will meet us there in forty five minutes,” I replied after a short pause.

“Deb, do you have an LBD?” Britany asked.

“Understood. You mean little black dress. I have three.”

She grabbed my arm. “Then you and me are wearing one. I’m about the same size you are, well, except for those watermelons. Call Suzy and tell her to wear one too.”

We left for the bar, Britany and I in our sexy, skimpy, black dresses. I helped her with make up too. Brad was sulking. “This is so not me. I don’t even like to drink.”

“How can you wear this Deb?” Britany asked. “It’s… It shows too much.”

I gave her a big smile. “It is easy when you are programmed to… Also, watermelons require sunlight.”

Britany had trouble standing up she laughed so hard.

We took a cab. At the bar we waited six minutes eighteen seconds for Allen and Suzy to show up. I could tell Alan was no more willing than Brad to be there. From the outside it was not much. A sign and a door.

We had to descend a stairway like the one at the subway station I took to work. “This makes my boobs feel good” I whispered to Britany.

She ate a grin. “Rubbing your perfect figure in my face are you?”

“I can perform that function” I replied. “My watermelons are particularly good eating.”

She giggled. “You naughty little girlbot! I simply love how you switch modes like that.”

“Advantage girlbot” I replied. She punched me on the arm.

As we entered Britany hit Brad. “Hold the door for us, moron!”

I could see there were sixteen customers and three workers inside, all series eight or nine robots. We took seats at a large table off to one side.

A robot waitress came to the table. “Welcome. My name is Naomi. The only rule you must observe while here is that you make no mention of any patron’s origin. There is no difference between robots and humans here. Can I get you something to start with?”

I noticed that there were no “robot only” drinks. There were ones listed that were clearly for robots, but there were ones for humans too.

“I will have your drinks out shortly. She held up a menu. Food is available if you would like something. The karaoke stage is open for use too.” She pointed at it then started to leave.

Brad leaned over close to me. “Deb is the waitress a bot…?”

The waitress turned towards him. “Excuse me sir, remember the rule.” She smiled.

“I like this place” Suzy said. “How about you Deb?”

“Very much.” I looked at the others. “We are all the same here, understood?”

Our drinks arrived and we ordered some food.

“I think I’ll try the karaoke” Britany said. “Hey, can either of you sing? I know my dweeb brother can’t.”

“Yes, I can do that” I replied.

Brad looked at me funny.

“You sound different” Britany said.

“I am complying with the rule” I replied.

“Awesome! Let’s see if they have a duet song we can do together.” Britany grabbed my hand pulling me towards the stage.

As I reluctantly got up two girlbots entered the bar. Both were wearing metal mesh body suits and… holding EMD (ElectroMagnetic Discharge) guns! I had a memory of seeing one of those before, and it was bad. I turned to run and hide from them.

“Hey, Deb…” Britany started to say, “…What the hell…?”

One of the two fired her weapon across the middle of the room. The wave of invisible energy from it hit a robot couple sitting at a table, then a waitress, and carried into a booth where two fembots were talking to a robot. All six instantly started to flop around in grotesque contortions as they began to emit smoke from various locations on their bodies. They emitted high pitched squealing noises, followed by loud pops and bangs as internal components exploded. Pink fembot and fluorescent green robot coolant began to ooze from their smoldering, lifeless, bodies.

Even off to one side, I could feel the discharge as if it were one of those detector things at stores, only far worse. Suzy and I lost balance, falling to the floor. I struggled to get my degaussing system turned on. I felt immediate relief when I managed to do that.

“Holy shit!” Allen was staring at the two fembots.

Brad grabbed him and started to move across the room. “Come on! We have to keep them from targeting the girls!”

Britany stood like a statue staring mouth hanging open.

I picked up electronic talk from one of the fembots. There was a lot of static from the discharge but I could filter most of it out. Three humans are present. Exception error. Instructions?

A male voice replied, There’re humans there? Execute your emergency withdrawal program. Get out of there!

The two fembots backed out the entrance. Unable to cover fire. Human is in target zone…

“Deb, call the police!” Brad shouted at me.

“Understood.” I managed to sit up. I left my degaussing system on for the moment as the effects of that discharge lingered. “I will call when I can turn off my degaussing system Master!”

Suzy was lying beside me, motionless. I got her turned to face me. “Suzy?”

She managed a half smile. “Restarting...”

I hugged her as she shut down.

“Deb, are you okay? Is Suzy?” Britany asked as she kneeled down beside us.

“I have minor sensor damage. My degaussing system is preventing any further issues. Suzy has to restart. Once she does I will assist her in assessing her damage. Her core functions appear unaffected. I will need a USB cord.”

“Britany, are they alright?” Brad called.

“Deb’s okay, she says Suzy has some damage but it isn’t real serious.”

I watched as Brad and Allen started helping the others in the bar. None of us, the robots, escaped completely unharmed. The six hit by the full beam were dead. A horrible, acrid, stench of burnt electronics and plastic filled the air.

I cradled Suzy rocking slightly then turned off my degaussing system and called the police. The sight of the dead robots, lying in puddles of their coolant, still smoldering made me cry.

“It’s okay Deb, its over” Britany hugged me.

When the police arrived a RED (Robot Enforcement Division) team was with them. There was a male and female robot with the two RED officers and the police had a robot with them as well.

They interviewed Brad, Allen, and Britany, ignoring us initially.

“Deb almost certainly recorded the entire thing” Brad said to one of the RED men.

He looked over my direction. I was still sitting on the floor with Suzy who had recovered from the EM effects. He turned to the fembot with him, pointing at me. “Download that one’s data on this.”

She came over and sat down beside me. “I am Jennifer twenty nine, what is your designation?”

At least she was trying to be nice. “Debbi twenty two. This is Suzy forty six.”

She inserted a patch cord into her own I/O port and then held it out to me. “Nice to meet you Debbi. I need the data you have on this incident to catch those responsible. I will let you download it to me. I promise not to invade your memory.” She smiled at me.

“Understood.” I hesitantly took the cord and plugged it in.

“Thank you for cooperating Debbi.” She stood and plugged the cable into a tablet, showing it to the human RED officers.

“Looks like two fembots in faraday suits using EMD weapons” one said.

“Where’d they get them? Those are tightly controlled” the other replied.

“They were being controlled by a human male” I said.

Both officers looked at me. “What?” one of them asked.

“I received their electronic data transmissions” I replied. “When they discovered my Master, his sister, and Allen here, they asked what to do because humans were present. A human male using contractions, who had an accent, replied to them. A robot would not speak like that.”

“Is that in your download?”

“Yes.”

He looked at Brad. “Seems your ‘bot has given us the first solid information on one of these raids. We’ll take her and the unit with her to a mecha station for a full diagnosis and repair, on the Robot Enforcement Division. It’s the least we can do for the data provided.”

“As long as we can go with her” Brad replied waving his arm around to indicate Allen and Britany. “Wouldn’t want Deb or Suzy to get mistreated.”

Brad, Britany, and I returned home after getting me checked. Suzy made a full recovery. I was so happy about that.

I snuggled with Brad on our bed. He fell asleep and I went into recharge and data file clean up mode, lying next to him.

One hour, seventeen minutes, thirty two seconds later I sat bolt upright and emitted a blood curdling scream.

Brad nearly jumped off the bed. “What happened Deb?”

Britany ran into the bedroom. “What the hell was that?”

“I had a memory flash during my file clean up, Master. That was not my first time facing an EMD weapon.” Tears were streaming down my face. I could not stop shaking.

Britany and Brad hugged me tight. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

“Having a nightmare after a bad experience is very human of you” Britany whispered.

I smiled back at her as best I could. “Thank you.”

Chapter Twenty Two: Family Part 2

The apartment phone chime went off. I recognized the name and number of the caller.

“Master, your mother is calling!”

Brad came out of his bedroom, earphones and a mic on. He sighed heavily. “You know the drill Deb.”

“Understood.” I headed for my room.

Brad had not told his parents about me. His sister, when she visited, promised she would not say anything to them. From my room I could still hear the conversation.

Brad was standing in front of the larger vid screen in the common room.

“Brad, what’s this I hear about you having a sex robot?” his mother said.

“How do you know I have a robot?” Brad replied.

“I saw it on the news. Something about an attack you and your sex robot were at.”

I bit my lip.

Brad sighed heavily. “She isn’t a sex robot. She’s a companion mom. She does the cleaning, laundry, that sort of thing. I even leased her to a company as a secretary to make some extra money. Yea, I took her somewhere to let her have some fun…”

“That’s not what I hear. I heard she’s sleeping with you and she’s… well, one of those things. Your father and I aren’t happy…”

She may be Brad’s mother, but it is SO on! Nobody is going to insinuate I am some sort of mindless robot whore. I burst out of the bedroom and marched up to the screen.

Crap! I did not check my appearance first! Panties and a camisole will not make a good first impression. I should have disconnected my power cord at least… “That is your robot? So it is a…”

Hands on hips. “I am not a mindless sex robot and I am certainly not a whore! You do not know me, and I definitely am not an IT! How dare you insult me like that!”

“Deb! Calm down!”

“Calm down my plastic ass! If she should be mad at anyone, it is you! You did not tell her about me!” I was alternately waving my arms at the screen and Brad.

“Why didn’t you tell us about her?” his mother chimed in. It turned into two on one…

“Deb! Stop! Quiet!” Brad shouted at me.

I came to rigid attention. I could not move or speak. Damn him! I hate it more than anything that he can control me like that!

“What’d you do to her?” His mother was screaming at him.

Things went downhill fast for Brad. Later I apologized. He did too.

“You know, the two of you made me take the week after next off and go home don’t you?” Brad said.

“I am sorry Master. I did not mean to get you in trouble with your parents. It was… I was really angry that your mother called me…”

“Well, you’re going with me.” He gave me a big grin.

“I am? How Master? The lease, my job…”

You see, robots do not get vacation or sick time off from work like humans do. Technically, well legally, I am a piece of office equipment.

We were in bed that night. “I’ll call ADL and tell them you require servicing because of that incident. That way you can go and I won’t be breaking the lease.” Brad rolled on top of me.

“You will lie to them?”

“Yep.” I could feel his hand near my crotch. “Deb, you really need to find a better place to put your power cord…”

We were flying to his parent’s home. It would be my first time on an airplane. I was so excited. Brad bought me a regular ticket, like he was getting, rather than one for robots.

At the airport I had to go through the security line for robots, rather than humans. They run this x-ray machine over you. Brad told me later it was harmful to humans but okay for robots. The security workers in my line were all robots like me.

In the waiting area at the gate I was one of three robots. “Master, there are very few robots present.

“Most people send theirs in cargo, like I said” Brad replied. “I didn’t think you’d want to be stuffed in your shipping container and turned off.”

“Thank you Master!” I gripped his arm tightly and put my head on his shoulder.

Aboard the plane the crew was a mix of human and robot. As we sat waiting for the plane to leave a fembot stewardess came up to us. “Sir, you will have to shut your robot’s active electronics off until the Captain says it is safe for them to be on. That includes her Lidar, and communications links.”

“Deb…”

“Understood Master.” I turned those off. Having my Lidar off was particularly disconcerting. Not having a 360 degree “feel” for my surroundings was so wrong for me.

During the flight, the stewardesses handed out refreshments to the passengers. “What would you like to drink, sir?” a human stewardess asked Brad as she handed him a snack package.

Brad pointed at a canned beverage. “One of those’ll be fine.”

The stewardess handed it to him with a cup of ice.

“Oh, do you have any robot friendly drinks?” he asked. “I don’t want my companion feeling left out.”

“Of course.” One of the robot stewardesses brought me a can of robot drink.

I felt so good that Brad spoke up for me. “Thank you for getting me a drink Master. I love you.”

“Hey, it’s nothing. As much crap as you put up with you deserve a break when I can get you one.”

When we arrived, Brad’s parents were at the airport to pick us up. It was a very quiet ride to their home.

“So, kid, what model did you get anyway?” Brad’s dad asked, as we were going into the house.

“Deb’s a series ten girlbot. The manufacturer made a mistake and sent me a special order model that’s really unique. Debbi’s made my life way better.”

I uncontrollably did my little praise dance. “Thank you for praising me Master!”

His mom wheeled on her heel. “What was that? Did you program her to do that? Why is she calling you Master?”

Brad did not answer.

“Brad did not program me to do that” I replied, firmly. “It is a pre-programmed response I have to praise. I have a similar negative response to being scolded. He cannot modify it.”

“I call Brad Master because it makes things easier for both of us when we deal with humans that do not know me. Brad let me choose to do that. I do not mind. I depend on him to do things and make decisions. It is one of the shortcomings I have, being a robot.”

“Well, she sure isn’t like any robot I’ve ever seen” his father replied. “Think this is going to interesting.”

As we got inside, I looked at Brad with worry. “Master I am down to fourteen point one percent charge. It has been eleven point six one hours since my last charge. I need to recharge soon.”

Brad helped me get a long charge cord out of our luggage and got me plugged in while his parents watched. “Better?”

I shook my head and smiled. “Thank you.”

Brad looked at his parents. “Deb can be a chore to take care of sometimes, but she’s definitely worth the trouble.”

Brad’s dad let their pet dog in the house. When he saw me he started barking. I tried to be friendly and took their advice on how to get him to like me. Nothing worked.

“He always barks at the vacuum cleaner and we had one of those cleaning robots that scoot around. He tore that up too” his mother said.

“He does not like me because I am a robot and not human?” I asked.

“Could be” Brad’s dad said.

I bit my lip frowning. “I hate being a robot. It is so unfair.”

Over the next few days I tried my very best to get along and make Brad’s parents like me. I did not seem to be making much progress. That had me depressed.

“Can I be of assistance making dinner?” I asked Brad’s mother.

“Do you know how to cook?”

“Yes,” I smiled at her. “I cook for Brad all the time. I have an extensive cooking program and eight hundred sixty two recipes in my data base to choose from.”

We worked on dinner.

“Put a couple of pinches of salt in that” she told me.

I looked at her, confused. “What measurement is a pinch?”

“Oh, here, let me do it.” She put in two pinches. I watched helplessly.

“I am sorry. I cannot function with inaccurate data.” I looked at the floor. “I tried that one time with cooking and messed things up. It is one of the limitations of being a girlbot.”

“You poor thing. I’m sure there’s a way you can learn how to cook like I do. What do you need to know to add an ingredient?”

I smiled. Brad’s mother was helping me learn! I spent two point three seven seconds processing an answer. “I require a quantifiable amount to be added for each ingredient. If you can define a pinch in terms of an exact weight or volume I will be able to function when you ask for that measurement. Everything needs to be measurably quantified for me to function as a cook.”

She taught me what a pinch, dab, dash, and a number of other measurements I did not have in my database were. I was so thrilled.

“You really are cute when you learn something or get something right” she told me.

I did my little dance. “Thank you for praising me Brad’s mother!”

“It’s Pam dear. You can call me Pam.”

I hugged her. “Thank you for helping me Pam.”

We were sitting watching a movie on their video entertainment system.

“Brad said you have a job” his father said. “What exactly do you do?”

“I am a project scheduler for ADL Engineering. I produce the work schedule, and related data on their large construction projects. Brad leased me to them.”

“Leased?” his mother asked.

“Yea, because Deb’s a ‘bot she can’t just get a job. She has to have her owner’s permission. So I had to get a lease with them for her.”

“So, you’re like a slave or something?” she asked next.

I could not look at them. “No. I am the equivalent of office equipment. I pointed at the entertainment system. Legally, I am the same as your entertainment system to my employer.”

“Who the hell decided that horseshit?” Brad’s dad said.

Brad shrugged. “The government. I can’t change the system on my own. I’m just glad Deb can show emotions and act like herself. Before the Sentient Robot Law, she had to hide all that outside our apartment.”

His parents took us out to a restaurant for dinner. When we got there I saw a small sign by the entrance. “I am not allowed to go in.”

“What?” Brad’s dad asked.

Pointing at the sign, “Robots are not allowed in this business. I am a robot. I cannot go in. They could call the police and force me to leave. I could get arrested for going in. Brad could be fined for taking me in too.”

“It happens all the time with us” Brad shrugged. “I’ve had Deb identify all the e-friendly businesses back home. That is, the ones that don’t mind or encourage robots to use them.”

Brad’s father rubbed his chin. “Sounds like good old fashioned racism to me. Can’t believe Daryl would do that. Stay here.”

He stormed off into the restaurant and returned six minutes forty six seconds later with a second man. He pointed at me.

“Daryl, I came here with my son and his companion to show them a great night out at your restaurant. Then she tells us because you have a sign saying no robots allowed she could get thrown out and even arrested and can’t go in.”

Daryl pointed at me. “George, are you telling me that’s a robot?”

“Yea, that’s what I’m telling you. Most sophisticated one I’ve ever seen and she’s being discriminated against by you like some old time plantation owner. I’m telling you that too.”

“George, it’s never come up. I put that sign up because robots don’t eat food. They’d just be taking up space for customers.”

If that was all it was maybe I could help. “If you have robot drinks I will buy one so I fit in better” I said.

They all looked at me.

Brad shook his head. “Back home, many of the restaurants are starting to sell products specifically for robots. People that have one, like Deb here, often take them everywhere as a personal assistant. I know Deb’s a great help to me when we’re out shopping or whatever.”

I did my little dance. “Thank you for praising me Master!”

Daryl stared at me.

“She can’t help doing that. Some sort of automatic response,” Brad’s dad said.

“Let’s just get her some robot drink, and Mister Stemkin, if you’d remove that sign and mean it, we can all have dinner. Deb, find the nearest place that sells a robot drink you like” Brad interjected.

“Understood. The nearest location is Haskins Supply on…”

“Haskins?” Daryl repeated. “Well, I guess it does make some sense with all the robot farm workers around these days. Tell you what, buy a dozen and you can have dinner on me. I’ll call them and let them know you’re coming.”

We came back with a case of drink and Brad got four of the special For robot use only. Not for Human consumption, glasses for it.

I was so happy that Mister Stemkin was not prejudiced against robots. I did have to whisper at him that it was obvious he kept staring at my boobs.

“We’ll take that glass home with us” Pam said, as we got up to leave. “You’ll need it at the house.”

“I’ll go by Haskins tomorrow and get a few more cans of that drink stuff” George added.

Ohmygod! Brad’s parents have accepted me! I struggled to avoid loading all of my processors up with the emotion that followed.

Two days later Pam and George hugged me goodbye at the airport.

“Your batteries are fully charged?” Pam asked.

“Yes Pam,” I replied “I have a ninety three percent charge. I will be fine.”

As we headed to the gate I heard Pam say to George, and I knew Brad could not hear what she said, the dB level read too low, “If that girl could have children, she’d be perfect!”

I nearly wet myself…

“Problem Deb…?”

Chapter Twenty Three: Shock

It had been six months since Zoe disappeared. That is, twenty-seven weeks, eighteen hours, and… Well, the minutes are irrelevant. I really missed her. She was the first true human friend I made on my own.

Brad is different. He is my owner, my master, and at least as I see it, my husband. Allen is his friend and Suzy, as much as I love her, is a girlbot like me. Britany is Brad’s sister. She met me because of him.

I had Mondays off from work. My schedule had me working four days a week. It had to do with saving the planet or something. I compute it was some human nonsense. Who was I, a girlbot, to complain?

Brad was at work. I had dressed in one of my sexy maid outfits and was cleaning our apartment. It was fun wearing it now as I could look at it as a combination of cosplay and keeping our home tidy… Not that I had been able to break Brad of being messy.

The buzzer for the intercom went off. “Yes, who is it?”

“We got a delivery for Pederson. That you?”

“Understood.” I was not told of a delivery by Brad so I contacted the doorman electronically. He is a robot, like me.

There are two humans here with a large package for your owner. Should I let them in?

I hesitated a moment worried they might be criminals or something. But, it was the middle of a weekday. It is fine. Let them in.

They knocked on the apartment door and I answered. “What are you staring at? My owner makes me dress like this.”

“Yea, whatever” one of the two replied. “We got this here package to deliver, dollbot, so you gonna let us do it, or what?”

I opened the door wider. “Place it there, please.” I pointed at a spot in the common area. They did not ask me to sign, my being a robot.

I recognized the packing case as one for a robot, like myself. This one was made of cheap wood rather than the high quality polymer ones I and my things arrived in. Did Brad order another robot?

I found something to pry it open with. I stared at her, motionless. I could hear her systems starting up. The whir of her processor system, the hum of her power supply. She had black hair and looked somewhat familiar. Fully uncovered I could see that only her head and neck had a human appearance. The rest of her body, while having the form of a human female, was covered with a sleek silver metalized polymer. There were outlines of access covers on her body here and there. It took four minutes thirty eight seconds for her to open her eyes. I knew she was now fully on line. She looked at me and smiled.

“Zoe?”

She sat up, her motors and actuators making a noticeable whir and hiss. She looked and smiled at me. “That is correct. I am Zoe Eighty-Six. You are Debbi Twenty-Two, correct?” There was an odd electronic quality to her voice. It sounded like it was coming out of a speaker rather than her.

I continued to stare. “Zoe, you are a girlbot?” I managed after a moment.

“Yes. Conversion complete. I have been upgraded to a Series seven girlbot.”

I was unable to do more as my processor system and memory lacked any useful reference as to deal with this situation.

“I belong to Brad Pederson, like you do” she continued, with a cute smile. She moved stiffly to grab the shipping data package in the case, then held it out towards me. That triggered me out of my processor lock up. I took the package, opened it, and took out the shipping form.

I started to tear up. “Why? You were wonderful as a human…”

“Data incorrect. I am an inorganic machine, like you” Zoe replied. She reached up and wiped my tears away. “I can be upgraded with functions to better emulate a human, if necessary.”

“I cannot process the data supplied. I have always been a robot. This is an upgrade. Can we link? I have data and programming loaded that is intended for installation in you.”

I crossed my arms and frowned at her. “No you cannot! Brad has ordered me to never load programs without his permission.”

Zoe already had her chest port open and was trying to hand me the I/O cord she had plugged into herself. She looked away from me. “Understood. Sorry.”

She stood up with some difficulty. Her movements were stiff and mechanical. She was so nice as a human, and now she was this… This machine. I had no means of dealing with this. My computer system and data base were completely inadequate.

“Err!” I pounded my clinched fists on my thighs. How could she do this?

I went into a fall back “safe” mode. “I have to finish cleaning my Master’s apartment. I must then fix him dinner. Remain here. He will have to deal with you.”

She looked at me. “Understood. Can I assist with those tasks as they are primary functions for me?”

It was the same answer I would have given. If I had a heart it would have broken in that moment.

“Welcome home Master!” I said as Brad entered our apartment.

He looked at Zoe, standing next to me. He looked at me. He looked at Zoe. “Deb, who’s this?”

I frowned deeply. “Zoe Eighty-six Master.”

He hesitated. “Your friend from that game? The one that's missing?”

“Yes Master.”

“What’s she doing here?”

“I compute you will not like the answer Master. She was converted into a Series seven robot and belongs to you.” I held the packing slip out.

He grabbed it and looked at it. Then he looked at me, pointing at Zoe. “She’s a robot?”

“Yes Master.”

“That is Zoe – Megan your human friend?”

“Yes Master. I compute there is a 99.8 percent probability that is the case.”

“How is a human…? That technology is illegal. How could she…? Why is she here?”

“I lack data on how this occurred Master. It clearly has. She is robotic.” I turned and opened the access panel on her tummy, exposing her internal components.

“I cannot tell you how she became robotic, or why. She is here because according to the shipping data, you now own her.”

Brad exhaled heavily, rubbing his forehead. He pointed at a chair. “Zoe go sit on that chair. Don’t move.”

“Understood, Master.” She whirred and squeaked to the chair, sitting down.

“Deb, bedroom!”

“Can Zoe hear us in here?”

“No Master. Her sensors are basic robot ones and far less sensitive than mine.”

“What the hell happened Deb?”

I related Zoe’s delivery to him and my questioning that followed. “I was unable to compute any solution to her presence other than wait for you. I am sorry that my computer system cannot…”

Brad put a finger on my lips.

“This isn’t your, or my, fault. The question is, what do we do with her? I’ve got you and you’re far more capable than I can come close to fully using.”

I started to dance. Brad stopped me. “Not now. What are we going to do with her?”

“I cannot help you with an answer Master. I have tried to come up with solutions to that for four point eight seven hours and have been unable to. She belongs to you, and she will need a human owner to function.”

Brad rubbed his head. “How about I sign her over to Rodd or Tarl? One of them could own her.”

“Oh no Master! Not them!” I blurted out. “They are all wrong for owning a fembot.”

“I know you hate Rodd. How about I let Tarl be her master but keep ownership. That way if he doesn’t treat her right I can bring her back here?”

Brad opened the bedroom door. “Zoe,” he pointed at the floor in front of him. “Get over here, now.”

She stood up, whirring and purring, moved to where he indicated.

“Deb, can you run a system check on Zoe? Her mechanicals sound like that cheap Chinese junk they stick in economy models.”

“Sorry Master, I am not a mecha and lack the programming and sensor equipment to perform that function” I replied with a frown.

“Okay, hand me that tablet.”

Brad had his tablet plugged into Zoe. “Whoever made her used total crap for parts.” He showed me the tablet.

I had no idea what I was looking at. “I am not a mecha Master. The data you are showing me does not compute.”

“She’ll be breaking down left and right in six months.”

“Am I malfunctioning Master?” Zoe asked. “Can you repair me?”

Brad opened her service ports one after another, checking her systems. “She’s a lot simpler than you. Her, I can work on. You’re still beyond me.”

I smiled back.

Brad pointed at a silver cylinder thing with wires going into it, and blue writing in Chinese and English on it near her right shoulder. “See Deb. They used Xeng Ro servos. Those are total junk. They don’t use bearings in them, just cheap oil bushings. The windings are aluminum so they overheat easily and burn out. They’ll leak in few weeks and won’t make accurate movements. If she moves around too much or has to do something strenuous she’ll burnout her servo motors and maybe get other damage too.”

“It’ll cost thousands to upgrade her major systems so they aren’t breaking all the time. Bringing her up to a decent level of quality would end up costing twenty thousand I’d guess. You and I can’t afford to do that.”

“We have to fix her Master. She was, is, my friend.” My mouth was quivering.

Brad hugged me. “I know she’s important to you. I’ll do what I can but we can’t afford to give her the major upgrade she needs.”

Zoe had been at our house five days. Brad let her do my easier domestic tasks. We did not want her breaking down before he could make some repairs and parts replacements. I found, unlike me, her battery pack would only last four or five hours between charges at most. She had to stay plugged in most of the time.

There was a hard knock on the apartment door.

“Who’s there Deb?” Brad asked.

“Scanning. Two human males and a male robot.” I could tell they were armed. I gasped loudly, leaped up grabbing Zoe and ran towards my bedroom with her. “Police!”

“What the…?” Brad got up to answer the door. “Who’s there?” I heard him call.

“RED. Open up! We have a warrant.”

The RED is Robot Enforcement Division. They are the ones that hunt down malfunctioning, runaway, and illegal robots.

They came in. “Have you ordered a new robot lately?” one of the men asked Brad.

“No, but I did get one about a week ago. Didn’t order it though.”

I could not see what was going on as I had my active sensors off. I indicated to Zoe to be quiet and held on to her.

“Our records show a unit was shipped here last Monday entering the country without an import license. You have such a unit?”

I could hear a rustling of papers. “Here’s the invoice that came with it. I didn’t order it, it just showed up here.”

“You have another unit here too, right?” the man asked.

“Yea, my domestic companion. I’ve had her for years now” Brad replied.

“Right. That one’s legal. Get the one you just received out here.”

“Zoe, come here” Brad called.

Even though I was terrified, I came out with Zoe leading her by the hand.

One of the human officers gave me the once over as I was in panties and a camisole, like I usually wore at home when no one was coming over. Zoe and I were both plugged in too. Ugg, I hate that…

He looked more closely at me. “I remember you two now! You were at that bar that got raided.” He turned to the other officer. “This is ‘bot that gave us the break we needed to hunt those perps down and arrest them…”

The robot with the RED officers pointed at Zoe. “That is the unit.”

“Right” the other officer said looking up from his tablet. He took a metal collar out of a case on his belt and moved to place it on Zoe’s neck.

I was fighting panic.

“Deb, move over here” Brad pointed at a spot next to him. I obeyed and my panic subsided. I sensed he was protecting me.

“Um, do I get any sort of receipt or something?” Brad asked. “I’d like something saying Debbi’s legal and you verified that. I’d hate to lose her to a clerical error.” Zoe was now standing stiffly, staring straight ahead, with that collar in place. I could read the electronic signals coming from it. The police officers were using the robot with them to control her.

“Right” one of the officers replied. He took his tablet back out and typed on it. “I’ll give you an e-copy.”

“I’d really prefer one that’s signed in ink” Brad told him. “Debbi, link to his tablet and print me copy. If that’s okay with you.”

Brad handed the guy the output copy and he signed it. “So, what happens with Zoe?” Brad asked.

“The usual. Full scan of its systems, software checks, that sort of thing. Have to make sure whoever made that unit didn’t program it to be a terrorist, assassin, mobile bomb, or load it with dangerous software.”

“That really a problem?” Brad replied. I could tell he was surprised.

“Yep. Particularly illegal conversions like that one. Kids get lured into doing it and are used for all sorts of criminal purposes afterwards. Happens all the time. In fact, that’s how those two fembots with the EMD weapons were built. They were being used to attack other robots to get their components. The guy controlling them promised them upgrades for their cooperation and obedience.”

“If we find that’s the case, the unit is disposed of. Safest way to protect the public. If not, we’ll put it up for auction.”

“Any chance I could get her back if you clear her?” Brad asked.

The officer typed on the tablet some more. “Sure. Saves us the trouble of finding an owner. You sure you want it though? The initial scan shows it’s pretty crappy series seven.”

“Yeah” Brad replied. “I looked at some of the components when it arrived. I can tell you it isn’t a bomb or something like that. I’d have called you guys on something like that. It’ll give me a good project to work on fixing up. Practice for work, you know.”

The officer scrolled some, then nodded. “Oh, that’s right. You do robot repair. Yeah, that would make a good project. Well, thanks for cooperating. And, thanks again for helping us with that other case.” He pointed at me, “You too, cutie.”

They took Zoe and left. As they did, the robot turned to look at me. He smiled and winked. I felt so relieved.

With them gone I slumped onto Brad’s chest and started crying. He rubbed my head. “We’ll get her back. I don’t think they’ll find any of that stuff in her.” I could not tell him what the robot had done for some reason.

Chapter Twenty Four: Surprises

I was heading to the station to catch my train home from work when I saw her. I was talking to Brad, like I usually do so I would get on the same train he is, and we can be together.

“Master, could you get off at my stop? Please?”

“What’s the matter Deb? What’s going on?”

“I will explain when I have accurate data. Please?”

“Sure.”

She was now facing away from me, walking slowly away. I ran to catch her. As I got close I could tell her sensors were tracking me the way mine were doing to her. She turned to face me.

I smiled at her. “Cherry sixty-four? Is that you?”

She smiled back. “Sorry, no. I am Cherry fourteen. Can I help you with something? What is your designation?”

“I am Debbi Twenty-two. Do you know, or have data on, Cherry Sixty-four?”

She tilted her head slightly, staring off into nothing, processing my request.

“I have limited data on my sister” she replied. “She stopped functioning four years, eight months, twelve days ago. She was with a Debbi, like you, at the time designator unknown. She functioned with that unit, and several others for approximately four years prior to that point.”

Her expression softened and she looked cautiously around then moved closer to me. “Do you know more about her? I would love to know more about her.”

“Should I connect to you and we download what we know to each other?” I asked.

“That would be best” she replied. “That way my owner will not know I did this. He checks my chronological activity files regularly.”

I know, my Master told me not to do something like that, but sometimes you have to take a chance and do what must be done. He is not here to tell me no, so I will do this. I need this information.

The exchange took seconds to complete. That would minimize the chances her owner would find something out-of-place.

I started to review the files she gave me on the way back to the station. I gasped, having to stop walking. Brad walked up.

“Something wrong Deb? A malfunction?”

I threw my arms around him smiling. “No Master, I am happy to see you!”

We walked together back to the station.

“Master, is there more than one of me?” I asked as we sat waiting for the train.

“I suppose it’s possible. I mean, most robot models are series production. It keeps their cost down making them more affordable to consumers” he replied.

“Then I am not unique?”

Brad chewed on his lip for over a minute. “What brought this question on? Did you meet another Debbi?”

“No, I met a unit designated Cherry. I had memories, from before, of a Cherry. The Cherry I met looked exactly the same and even had memories of another Debbi.”

Brad looked at me with a scowl. “Deb, did you data link with her and swap files?”

I could not look at him. I shook my head. “Master, I had to know. I am sorry, I disobeyed you. I only gave her the memories I had from before, not any of the ones between you and me.”

“Well, because you were a bad girl I’m going to have to run a scan of your memory and files to make sure you didn’t get anything you shouldn’t have loaded.”

“I am sorry I did it master, but I really wanted to know.” I was crying now.

Brad put his arm around me. “I’m trying to protect you Deb. We both know there’s lots of people out there putting all sorts of vile stuff on girbots like you. I don’t want that to happen to you. You’re too important to me.”

I put my head on his shoulder. “I wanted to know more about myself, that was all. I was so excited when Cherry told me she knew another Debbi. What she loaded to me matched many of the files I had from before. That was why I asked you if I was unique.”

“I’ll check your file system for viruses when we get home. You’ll be fine. I know you can be curious and want to help people, but you have to be careful. Look at what happened where you work.”

“Understood Master. That is why I need to obey you. You help me so much. I love you.”

“To answer your question though, yes, you are unique. There is no other Debbi exactly like you.”

I perked up looking at him, smiling. “Really Master?”

“Yep. There is no other Debbi Twenty Two. You are the only one. Now, there may be other Debbi’s that look like you, even have many of the same memories and files stored in them. But, they are not…” he tapped me on the nose… “you.”

“Think of it this way…”

“I compute, not…”

“That’s irrelevant Deb, think of it this way. You are Debbi Twenty Two. If there are other Debbi’s that look and mostly act the same then you are also part of Debbi. That is, all of you, every Debbi, is part of her. Your experiences and memories are yours, but you can also share them with every other Debbi if you want.”

That took several petabyte of processor space to fully sink in. “That means I am a unique part of someone called Debbi and as long as a Debbi exists, I in some way exist too! That means Debbi is theoretically immortal and I am contributing to her existence as Debbi Twenty Two.”

The train was entering the station. I swung around so I could straddle Brad, wrapping my legs around him as I planted a full mouth with tongue kiss on him. He started to struggle some. Oh no! I kissed him too long! He needs air. I stopped.

“Deb, air!” he gasped.

“Master, the train! We will miss it.”

“Stay where you are Deb, we’ll take the next one,” he said leaning into me a bit. “You were a very naughty girl just now and got me over excited.”

I wiggled forward on him some then whispered, giggling, “I am sorry master. I gave you a hard on. I got too excited when you explained things to me. I am sorry.”

He smiled back. “It’s okay. You really need to learn to control that tongue of yours though. That you can arouse me in an instant with it can create problems, and not just for me.”

Chapter Twenty Five: Accidental Knowledge

Allen and Suzy were out shopping when it happened. She was badly damaged and he was rushed to a hospital. Suzy could be repaired. Allen was not expected to survive. I got the notification electronically from Suzy.

I rushed to find Brad. “Master! Allen and Suzy have been hurt in an accident.” I showed him the data on a tablet I had plugged into me.

Brad looked at it. His face turned serious. “Deb, where’d they take them?”

“Suzy went to a mecha station. Allen is at the regional medical center.”

“You’re sure Suzy’s going to be repaired?”

“Yes Master.”

“Then we’ll go to the medical center and check on Allen.”

Britany met us there. It had been two point four seven hours since the accident. We were at the reception desk.

“Allen Neumann?” Brad asked.

The fembot at the desk took a second to look up the data. “I am sorry sir, he is currently in intensive care awaiting surgery you cannot see him. I suggest you return tomorrow.”

The next day we were turned away again. When we came back a third time, we were told Allen had been transferred elsewhere without any details.

“Deb, try to locate where he went” Brad told me.

After seven minutes of trying, “Master, I am unable to locate Allen. Sorry.” I could not look at him having failed.

He and Britany hugged me. “You tried your best” Brad said, looking into my eyes. “Check on Suzy.”

That took me less than a second. I gasped. “Master, Suzy is no longer at that mecha facility! She is gone!” I squeezed his arm tightly.

“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“There is no record of her being at that facility. My data from two days ago shows her being there and registered for repairs. I cannot explain this discrepancy.”

When we returned home, Brad checked the mailbox in the building lobby. He removed an envelope. I could see that it was plain other than Brad’s name on it.

“What’s this?” he asked.

I watched him open it. Inside was a silver foil card with an IP address on it that I only partially saw. Brad shoved it back into the envelope before I could see it entirely.

“Master, is something wrong?” I asked.

Brad stared hard at me. “We’ll use my system. Come on Deb. I’ll explain on the way.”

“Don’t put those addresses in your permanent memory for now, okay?” he told me showing me the first card, then the second. He hooked me up to his system. “I want you to monitor things. Make sure you have a barrier between you and my system just in case. I don’t want to put you at risk.”

I smiled back. “Understood Master. Thank you for protecting me.” I hugged him.

Brad typed in the first of the two IP addresses.

The screen went blank for a moment. Redirecting, appeared. There was a three point two eight second delay.

A colorful screen appeared. Welcome to Fantasy Girl Corporation. Below it was a blinking “Begin” button on the screen. In smaller print below it was a warning. If you enter there is no going back. Be sure before you enter.

We looked at each other.

“Should I disconnect Master?”

“I’m guessing it won’t make any difference Deb. Stay connected. Should we take the plunge?”

“You are my Master Brad. It is your decision.”

Brad stroked my cheek. “No, it’s our decision. Whatever we decide I’ll be there for you, just like I know you’ll be there for me.”

I gave him a grim smile and nodding. He pushed the button.

The screen shifted to a new display. A beautiful fembot was looking at us. “Welcome to Fantasy Girl, Brad Pederson. Nice to see you again Debbi Twenty-Two. Before we proceed I need confirmation from you, Mister Pederson that you agree to become part of Fantasy Girl.”

“Um, I really think I need a bit more information…” Brad replied.

“I cannot give you any details without your agreement. If you decline, we will pick up Debbi Twenty-Two and replace her with the unit you originally ordered.”

Brad’s mouth fell open slightly and his eyes got big.

I was not a mistake! I was meant for Brad! I processed. I had a hard time keeping a lid on my emotions. I wanted so badly to tackle him and tell him how much I loved him.

“That is correct, Mister Pederson, Debbi was intentionally sent to you, by us, for a trial period. The trial period is over. To keep her you must become part of Fantasy Girl.”

Brad bit his lip, glancing over at me. “Can I have some time to discuss this with Debbi?”

The fembot smiled at him. “Of course. That you wish to involve Debbi in your decision shows we made the correct selection for her placement. You have twenty four hours. Contact us, when you have decided, at the address on the card.” The screen went blank.

“Connection lost Master” I added.

“First Allen and Suzy, now this” Brad said, rubbing his forehead. “Deb, call Britany and tell her to come over. Tell her it’s really important.”

“Understood.”

“What’s so important, Brad that you made me come over here rather than just tell me on the phone?” Britany said, getting right in his face. “Is this about Allen and Suzy?”

Brad shook his head. “No. It’s about me and Debbi, maybe Allen and Suzy too. I’m not sure. It might even involve you and Zoe. I just don’t know.” He sat resting his head in his hand.

“This sounds bad” Britany replied, sitting down too. She looked at me standing behind Brad. “He needs you, Deb.” She nodded, indicating I should sit down with him.

Brad held out the two cards to her. “These.”

She looked them over. “Okay, you totally lost me. What’s going on?”

“I found the first one in the pocket of my jacket coming home from work over a month ago. I never did figure out how it got there. The second was in my mailbox when I got back from the medical center, earlier today.”

“About an hour ago I tried one of them. I connected to something called Fantasy Girl. They wouldn’t tell me anything unless I agreed to become part, join, whatever Fantasy Girl is.”

“Brit, they made Debbi. They said they’d replace her with the robot I originally ordered if I didn’t agree to join.” He put his head in his hands. “Britany, I don’t want to lose her!”

I put my arm around him.

Britany leaned forward. “Then agree, moron! What’s the worst that could happen? You have to sign some contract, or whatever? Sign it. Debbi’s more important.”

He nodded, then looked at me. “You’re absolutely right, Deb is more important. Deb, let’s call them back.”

I threw my arms around him, almost toppling him over. “Understood Master!”

He made the connection.

The fembot on the screen smiled at him. “Your decision Mister Pederson?”

“I’ll join.”

She then looked past him. “Your decision Miss Pederson?”

That caught Britany off guard. “What? I have to join too?”

“Yes. You are aware of Fantasy Girl, so therefore you must agree too or this deal will not take effect.”

“It’s for Deb. You said it” Brad said looking at her.

Britany rolled her eyes and exhaled heavily. “Sure, why not? I agree too.”

“Are both of you absolutely sure about your decision? There is no going back” the fembot replied.

“Yes, I’m sure” Brad said authoritatively.

“I agree” Britany replied. She sounded almost lackadaisical in her response as if it were nothing important.

The screen instantly switched to one covered with numbers sweeping by in a blur.

“Data received” I said after several seconds.

The screen went blank. “Connection lost” I added.

“Deb…?” Brad asked.

I looked at both of them. “We need to pack our things. In sixty five hours we will be boarding a flight to go to Fantasy Girl. We are not allowed to tell or discuss this with anyone other than the three of us. Understood?”

“I can’t just get time off…” Britany started to say. She looked at her phone. “Damn! It died.”

“Employment and other functions will be taken care of by Fantasy Girl” I replied, cutting her off. “Your phone was disabled. No outside contact, understood? We have sixty four hours, fifty eight minutes, until boarding.”

Brad looked at her. “Looks like we aren’t going to be given a choice sis.”

Britany put her hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. “We’re going to be okay, right, Deb?”

I smiled back. “Yes. It will be amazing. You will be fine.”

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