Travel Troubles

Mary ran from her car to the airport. She wore a black vest with a white undershirt and she held her black briefcase with an iron grip. Her shiny hair was pulled back in a ponytail and black glasses lay on her pointed nose. She was going on a business trip but the traffic was awful, she was almost late for her plane. Her chest bounced as she hurried and began to pant from exhaustion. She got to security and put her briefcase on the conveyor belt that led to the metal detector. Meanwhile, she followed the line as people were being scanned just like the items going down the belt. People went through like clockwork, they walked past the metal passageway, and a green light lit up, showing that they were good to continue forward. When it got to Mary’s turn, she rushed through the detector and a red light blared as an ear-piercing beep rang out. The security guard turned off the machine and walked up to Mary, she spoke in a stern tone.

“Ma’am, are you holding or wearing any metal items?” The guard asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” Mary anxiously said.

“Okay, we’ll need to do a pat down, is that okay?”

“Of course, just make it quick! I’m almost late.”

The guard sighed, as she began to pat down Mary. She started with the legs and went up. Nothing seemed to be out of place, it made the guard wonder what triggered the metal detector. Eventually, she got to Mary’s upper body and there she noticed a seam around Mary’s collar bone. She followed it and found a patch of skin surrounded by a circle on the back of the business lady’s neck. Curious, the guard pressed into it hard.

“Hey! That hurts what are yoooouuuuuuuuuu….” Mary spoke, her voice going lower and lower in pitch as she slumped forward. Her eyes dimmed and she stared vacantly at the ground. The guard stepped back and talked into her walkie-talkie.

“Hey, I got a robot here. What should I do?” the guard asked.

“Just stay there,” a deep male voice from the walkie-talkie said. “Keep the line going in the meantime and get the robot’s items if it has any.”

The guard carried Mary and put her to the side of the metal detector and then grabbed her briefcase and set it beside her. The guard continued scanning people and there were no other hiccups. A few minutes later, two people in technician clothing stopped by and carried Mary, she was surprisingly light considering that her insides must be full of metal and complex circuit boards. The technicians brought her to the robot tech room, where they set her down on a table. They searched for a port and found one on her lumbar, there was a square outline that could be peeled off. They did so and placed the piece of skin to the side, then plugged Mary in. One of the technicians, a red-haired woman named Samatha, plugged her laptop into the cord that was just stuck above Mary’s modest-sized butt. Using the laptop, she viewed Mary’s systems.

Mary was a new generation of robots from Lifelike Incorporated. Samantha heard of Lifelike before, they focused on making robots as realistic as possible, they say that their end goal is to create a machine that is human in every single way except for the material that makes them. Samantha never saw a Lifelike model before and to say that she was impressed was an understatement. She placed her hand on Mary’s arm and rubbed it, it felt so real. She bets that if Mary was online, her skin would produce the same body heat that humans do but for now, she was cold.

Samantha went into Mary and disabled the motor functions of her entire body aside from the head and neck. Then another technician walked up to Mary and pressed her power button, Mary’s head shot upward and her eyes lit up. She groaned, “Ugh. My head. What happened where–where am I?”. She tried to move causing audible whirring, she looked around full of fright.

“Why can’t I move!? What did you do to me!” she yelled.

“Calm down miss,” Samantha replied. “We are getting you on your plane, you should’ve told the airline that you were a robot.”

“Robot? Are you crazy? I am human, what is the meaning of this!”

Samantha reeled back in shock as she gave confused stares to her coworkers. The technician that powered Mary on, Max, shrugged and spoke, “It’s a sleeper.”

“A what?” Samantha and Mary asked at the same time.

“A sleeper. It is programmed to think it is human.”

Samatha’s mouth gapped open as she struggled to process what she just heard. She was new to this job, only having worked at the airport for a month, and not once has she encountered a bot that believes they are human. It seemed cruel to her to have a robot think that it is real.

“I’m a sleeper robot?” Mary scoffed. “You shouldn’t drink on the job.”

“He’s right,” Samantha replied.

Max sighed and took a look at his watch, “It’s break time for me, can you finish this? It’s the same procedure as always.”. Before she could reply, Max was already out the door leaving her alone with Mary.

“Sooooo, where are you headed?” Samantha asked.

“Illinois, I got a business meeting in Chicago,” Mary replied.

“Okay, can I see your ticket?”

Mary tried to move again but couldn’t, she let out a disgruntled huff.

“Front pocket of my vest,” Mary said in a defeated tone.

Samatha reached into the pocket, her hand grazing against Mary’s breasts, she blushed as she pulled out the ticket. The ticket confirmed what Mary was saying, she was off to Chicago. Samatha took the ticket and began to disrobe Mary, first by removing her shoes and then Samatha pulled down her pants, revealing her black panties.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mary asked in a panic.

“You need to be disassembled so you can fit in your box, robots go where all the other luggage goes,” Samantha replied.

“What’s your obsession with me being a robot? I’m not a robot, I help create them! I am working on a project for Lifelike and I need to bring my findings to the HQ.”

“So that’s why you are going to Chicago. Interesting. Let me show you something even more interesting.”

Samantha unbuttoned Mary’s vest and tossed it to the ground, she then pulled up Mary’s shirt to reveal her belly. Mary blushed as she shivered. Samantha then typed a command on her laptop and a hiss was heard from Mary’s stomach. Her belly separated into two and swung open like doors, revealing an organized cluster of wires, circuits, and tubing.

Mary gasped, “What? No this can’t be!”

“It’s true, I’m so sorry they lied to you,” Samantha replied.

“I I I I I I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII am human human huummmaaaannnn.” Mary’s voice became more digitized and fluctuated in pitch randomly. “This unit is not a robot not a robot not a robot notttt aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

A beep came from Mary’s head as it twitched. “I am real real realllllllll, I am human. This unit is human human human.”

Samantha sighed and finished undressing Mary as she sat there malfunctioning. She then pressed onto Mary’s left thigh at two pressure points, Mary’s leg clicked as it came clean off, revealing the mechanical socket that it was connected to. Mary stared at her missing leg as she continued to speak, “Not real…..I am am am ammmmmmmmm nooottttt reeallllll. This can’t be be be beeeeeee!” Another beep came from her and she spoke in a more monotone voice as Samantha removed the other leg, “Hello! I am Lifelike Model DX-001, the new line of deluxe Lifelike models! In a few moments, my sleeper protocols will engage and I will begin to collect data to see how realistic I am am am am am am am am am am am am….”. Mary kept saying ‘am’ over and over and over again.

Samantha removed Mary’s arms and set them aside, she then had to take off the head. Her hand glided to Mary’s power button and she shut down the bot, hoping it would be functional once it got to the Chicago airport. She pressed down onto Mary’s cheekbones and then lifted Mary’s head off of her neck. Samantha then brought a white box labeled ‘robot’ into the room. She put Mary’s head, legs, arms, and torso into the foam as gently as she could. She then folded Mary’s clothes and put them on top of her. Finally, she put the suitcase and shoes on the left wall of the box, it all barely was able to fit. She closed the box and taped the ticket to the top. Samantha pulled out her walkie-talkie and called for a pickup team. A few minutes later, a guy showed up and carried the box to the plane, Mary’s box was buried by the luggage of the other travelers.