Closed for Christmas - The Shop

The Small Business Chronicles: Closed for Christmas - The Shop

Chapter 1: Morning routine (8am-9am)

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jack slowly woke up from his sleep and blindly searched for the blaring alarm with his hand. It finally found its target and silenced the noise. He breathed a sigh of relief once the alarm was off, setting a mental reminder to purchase a less annoying alarm…one he would likely forget in a few moments time.

Jack looked at the clock. 8am: the same time he woke up every day. The date on the clock read December 25, 2135: Christmas day. If Jack were an ordinary person, he would have simply gone back to sleep and enjoyed his day off, but he was not ordinary. Just as he was about to crawl out of bed, a noise behind him attracted his attention and put a smile on his face.

A lovely woman with dark-colored hair and a light complexion lay in the bed beside him, and she was beginning to stir following the disturbance the alarm caused. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned to look at him. “Hmmm, good morning,” she said, stretching contentedly.

“Good morning Gabby,” Jack said, rolling over and planting a kiss on her waiting lips; Gabby was short for Gabrielle.

“You know what day it is?” she asked with a smile.

“Yes…my favorite day of the year,” he answered back.

“Mine too,” she agreed, “Did you want to stay in bed with me a while longer?” she offered.

“I’d love to,” Jack said regrettably, “but I’ve got a lot of work to do, and my new employee is arriving later.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she told him with an understanding smile, pulling the covers off herself and getting up out of bed “I’ll get up and start breakfast for you and Henry.” She then put a robe over her scantily clad body and headed towards the bedroom door.

“Thanks, dear, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he told her, also crawling out of bed.

He slowly took off his pajamas and walked to the bedroom window. He admired the view of the back lawn with the heavily wooded forest at the perimeter for several minutes before sighing and heading into the bathroom to shower, briefly pausing to stare at himself in the mirror.

Jack Brown was a rather ordinary looking man in his early 30s. Though he was still relatively young, his piercing green eyes framed by his jet-black hair gave the impression that he was far older and wiser than he appeared to be.

Jack got out of the shower a few minutes later, taking much less time than he would have preferred. He quickly got dressed in a comfortable pair of cargo pants and a polo, and then headed out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen, where the smell of his wife’s delicious cooking invited him.

“Mmm Gabby, that smells good,” Jack said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before sitting down at the dining room table; she had already loaded the latest news reports on his tablet.

There was a teenage boy, approximately 14 years old, seated at the table, reading a book on advanced physics and engineering principles.

“Merry Christmas Henry, did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I did Jack,” Henry responded, “Merry Christmas!”

Henry stood out in the room because his blonde hair and foreign features gave clear evidence that he was not related to either Gabby or Jack. Jack was close friends with Henry’s parents after they learned their son, like Jack, was a genius. When they died in an accidental fire when Henry was only 8 years old, Jack was granted legal guardianship of the Henry in order to cultivate his growing intellect.

“Are you looking forward to presents later tonight?”

“Yes, but I’m also looking forward to the parade later,” Henry answered, “Do you think you could go with us this year?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not Henry,” Jack apologized, “I’ve got to thank all my employees for the hard work they’ve done for me the past year.”

“It’s alright Jack, I understand,” Henry said, just as Gabby came to the table with their breakfast, a delicious mix of potatoes, ham, and bacon covered in cheese and peppers.

“Hmm, I wait all year for this meal of yours Gabby,” Jack said, once they were all seated and eating the delicious meal.

“Well, I wait all year for this day too,” Gabby said with a knowing smile.

“I know you do,” he smiled back.

“I wish I could get my presents now,” she pouted playfully.

“I know,” Jack said regretfully, “Maybe someday we can be like most other families and open our presents in the morning, but until I can get some more help around here, this is the way things have to be,” he said, looking at Henry.

“Don’t worry Jack, I think I’ll be able to help out in a few more years, when I’m bigger,” Henry said. Even though he was 14, he was slightly shorter than average for a boy his age, though he was just now starting to have a growth spurt.

“Don’t feel pressured to get bigger,” Jack winked, “Just get smarter.”

Henry just nodded his head and continued eating.

After they all finished eating, Gabby quickly cleaned the kitchen while Jack got Henry ready for the parade. Just as he had Henry all bundled up to protect him from the cold and snow, Gabby finished up in the kitchen and came out to join him.

“Henry, you’re looking pretty snug,” Gabby smiled as she saw him, “We’re going to have to buy you some new cold weather clothes later, if that’s alright with you dear,” she said with a sidelong glance at Jack.

“Go ahead Gabby,” Jack agreed, “He is starting to outgrow them. Aren’t you going to bundle up dear?”

“Yes, give me a few moments,” she smiled, heading up the stairs and into the bedroom. A few moments later, she returned bundled in a fashionable down parka with a cute looking forest green hat and matching scarf & gloves to compliment her green eyes.

“You look lovely dear,” Jack said, giving her a kiss, “You keep Henry safe,” he then told her, with a serious look in his eyes.

“I will,” she responded with equal seriousness.

Jack then walked both Henry and Gabby to the door, opening it for them so they could head out into the cold. A thick layer of snow had fallen overnight, but the heating elements in the street and walkways had melted it to give people a safe path to walk on, as well as fresh melted snow for the city water reserves. Jack’s front yard was just as vast as his backyard, extending several hundred feet forward to a gate leading out to the main highway.

As Gabby and Henry headed for the car, Jack called out to them. “Have a good time!”

“We will!” Gabby called back, and then she climbed into the car and drove off with Henry into town.

Jack watched as the car pulled out of the driveway and into town, then he closed the door and headed to a closet in a hallway just off the living room. He put on a light jacket and a hat and then headed outside himself. He walked a short distance from his front door, and then followed a second path that went off to the right towards a small building at the outer corner of his property. He pulled a passkey from his pocket and waved it over a security panel next to the door, unlocking the door and letting him in.

Closing the door behind him, Jack found himself in what looked like a small office. There were a few old-fashioned filing cabinets next to a small array of data processing terminals. There was but one desk in the room, and sitting behind it was a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties. The odd thing about her was that she was completely motionless, looking as though she had frozen in place.

Instead of heading over to her, Jack merely smiled and continued through a large door that entered into a loading dock. There was another young woman sitting motionless in a small kiosk near the loading door controls. Again, Jack merely passed her with a smile and passed through another large door into what looked like a general store. There was a large checkout stand with yet another motionless girl, but Jack headed straight for the front doors, unlocked them, and walked out into the gated parking lot.

From the lot, Jack could see the highway, and the motel that neighbored him to the right. Aside from a small strip mall across the street, and several farms, there were no other businesses in this otherwise wooded area. This general store had been built by Jack’s great uncle in the center of the sprawling town, on a highway that connected the commercial/downtown district in the northern part of the town with the residential district in the southern part of town. A vast forest lay at the foot of a mountain on the eastern side of the road, where Jack’s property resided, and there were farmlands on the western side of the road.

After breathing in the cool, fresh air, Jack smiled and headed back in. He closed the door behind him and then walked into the checkout stand to look at the girl. From inside the checkout stand, he could see a power cord running from the small of her back to a port in the floor. The girl standing motionless before him, as well as the other two, were androids.

Jack smiled at her as he pulled a tablet from his pocket. He activated it and then said, “Well, let’s get started.”

Chapter 2: Sarah (9am-10am)

The instant Jack activated his tablet, the entire shop came to life, including the employees. Lights popped on, heaters activated, and the girl in front of him slowly started moving. A few moments later, she was fully activated. She turned and looked at Jack with a smile on her face.

“Merry Christmas, Sarah,” Jack smiled, putting the tablet away.

Sarah was built in the form of a young woman in her early twenties. She had very thin blonde hair that went down just past her shoulders, and innocent blue eyes. While she was 5’7, she had the appearance of someone who was short because she had a stout hourglass figure.

“Merry Christmas, Jack,” Sarah said, then got an excited look, “Ooh, do I get my presents first?”

“Yes Sarah, you get yours first,” Jack told her, “But only because your condition is more serious than the others.”

“I know,” she said, turning to look at her power cord. Several months earlier, she received a mild overload from a power surge caused by a passing lightning storm. While it did not completely destroy her systems, it unfortunately destroyed both her batteries and her ability to charge. Fortunately, she could still receive power through the AC cord, but that effectively trapped her in the checkout area, when before she could move about and assist customers and clean the sales floor.

“Well, today is the day you finally get fixed,” Jack told her.

“Yay!” Sarah said, giving him a hug.

“I will of course need to disconnect you from here first so I can take you down to my workstation,” he reminded her.

“Oh, I know,” she said, “But how will you get me there?” she asked, looking down at her body, “After all, I’m not exactly light.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have Kat help me out with your body,” Jack said, pulling his tablet out and summoning Kat with it. A few moments later, the girl from the loading dock silently walked in; she had a more muscular physique than Sarah.

“Kat, could you get your hand truck and help me bring Sarah down to my lab?” Jack requested.

Kat silently nodded and disappeared back into the loading dock, returning moments later with a hand truck. She came to a stop right next to Jack and waited for his next order.

“Alright Sarah, talk to you soon,” Jack said, reaching down and grabbing the other end of her power cable.

“Alright,” Sarah said, just as he pulled the cord out. Her face immediately went slack as her systems went offline. She would have fallen over if the servo mechanisms throughout her body didn’t lock into position.

“Alright Kat, I’ll lift and you secure her,” Jack said, carefully grabbing hold of Sarah’s lifeless body from the front. Once he managed to lift her up a few inches, Kat maneuvered the hand truck underneath Sarah’s feet and allowed Jack to lower her onto it. Kat then secured Sarah with the straps on the hand truck and gave Jack a thumbs up.

“Thanks Kat, you can follow me now,” Jack said, walking with her through the doors into the loading dock and into the office, where the girl behind the desk was now active and working on her computer.

“Merry Christmas, Jack,” the girl said with a friendly smile.

“Merry Christmas, Rachel,” Jack smiled to her, heading past the door he had come in from and towards another door. He waved his passkey over the security panel and then stood back as the doors opened, revealing an elevator.

Kat wheeled Sarah in ahead of Jack and then Jack pressed the control to have the elevator descend. The elevator descended 100ft before finally opening into what looked like a fallout shelter.

Jack smiled as he remembered his Great Uncle Mortimer showing him this place for the first time. He had built it when WWIII got started in fear that a nuke would wipe out most of civilization. While death was widespread, it never reached the states, so he converted his fallout shelter into a makeshift workshop, where he worked on robots for nearly four decades before his death. Now, Jack used it to work on his own androids, as well as those belonging to clients he took on from around the area.

Jack walked into the largest chamber, a space that would have been the yard area of the shelter, where the examination table and diagnostic equipment where set up. Without being ordered to, Kat unstrapped Sarah from the hand truck and stood her up next to the table.

“Thanks Kat,” Jack said, turning on all his equipment, “You can head back up now, I’ll send Sarah up to get you when I’ve finished with her.”

Kat was silent, but there was a look of gratitude on her face as she walked up and gave him a hug. She then silently wheeled her cart back onto the elevator and took it back up.

Once Kat was gone, Jack took Sarah’s power cable and plugged it into the power port located at the base of the examination table. Sarah instantly came back online and adjusted to her new surroundings.

“Alright Sarah, I need you to disrobe,” Jack said clinically, hooking a cable up to his workstation and preparing to get started on Sarah.

Sarah nodded. “Ok.” She carefully took her clothes off, being careful not to get her power cord tangled. It wasn’t long before she stood before Jack naked.

“Thanks Sarah, now lay down on your stomach,” Jack instructed, motioning towards the table.

Once she did so, he walked over and tapped the center of her back. Instantly, numerous blue lights lit up beneath her skin, displaying basic diagnostic stats and outlining the various panels that could be removed. He tapped the control to remove her entire back panel, stepping back as the lights illuminating that panel lit up briefly and then went dark. With the seam now visible, he dug his fingers in on both sides and lifted the large panel off, revealing her inner mechanisms.

Because she was still online, all her systems were humming with life. As often as he had seen Sarah, and other androids, like this, he was still impressed at the level of detail Spaztec had added to make everything mimic human bodily functions. He did not waste much time admiring her mechanisms, as he had a timetable to adhere to. He focused all of his attention on the lower portion of her back, where her damaged batteries and power control systems were located. “Sarah, I’m going to keep you online for this, but I’m going to need you to disable your personality programs and load into diagnostic mode,” Jack said, plugging the cables from his diagnostic station into the rear data port on her main CPU casing.

“Alright,” Sarah said in her usual pleasant voice, then she straightened up and said in a more clipped tone, “Diagnostic mode enabled.”

“Good,” Jack said, “Run a full diagnostic on your systems and save the results as a baseline comparison for the new components I’m going to install in you.”

“Understood, running diagnostic…diagnostic will finish in five minutes,” Sarah said in the same clipped tone. From that moment, she fell silent, though Greg could still here her components humming away; the humming got louder due to the extra resources the diagnostic was utilizing.

While the diagnostic was running, Jack couldn’t help but reflect on how he had come to possess Sarah…

Sarah was a Spaztec Perfect Friend model Mark II. She was created for a lonely college student who had based her off of several women that he had been infatuated with, which was part of the reason for her stunted appearance. She served him well, helping him with his homework, taking his notes when he was sick, and having sex with him. All was well with him and Sarah until he happened to fall in love with a real woman. Suffice to say, the human girlfriend did not want Sarah around, and he had lost interest in her anyway.

Fortunately, Spaztec had an android auction site for owners to sell off their androids to people who could not otherwise afford a customized model. Jack learned very early on in his career to frequent this site, as it gave him cheap and unique androids to test his skills on. He had a very special place in his heart for Sarah, because she was the first one he ever bought.

At first, he merely tinkered with her, taking the discarded components from other androids he fixed as part of his job and using them to upgrade her. When he took over ownership of the shop, he adjusted her programming so that she could operate a cash register and give friendly customer service to anyone who came. It was actually a brilliant plan, because aside from the minor repair costs associated with her, she earned him money and neither desired nor required a wage.

Under normal circumstances, an android wouldn’t care whether it received upgrades or not, but Jack used a genius bit of programming and word play to “trick” them into wanting upgrades. He told them that the better they worked, the more money they would make and the more money they made, the better the upgrades they would get and the more work he could do on them. Because working on them pleased him, they interpreted it as one of their prime functions and consistently improved their efficiency each year, earning him more and more profit.

Because the shop was open every day of the year, except for Christmas, he saved as much money as he could each year. He then used that money to give her, and the other androids, upgrades, repairs, and overhauls on that day, with one day set aside each summer to perform major software updates.

“Diagnostic complete, results saved to diagnostic terminal,” Sarah announced, breaking him from his trip down memory lane.

“Very good,” Jack said, snapping out of his reverie and refocusing on her power system, “Now to give you your presents,” he smiled, pulling the old battery out.

It took him only a few moments to completely remove her old power systems. It was fortunate that she could still receive power via the cable, because having her systems online made it easier to tell if the repairs he was doing were working.

Jack placed the old power system in a protected container, since it required special safety considerations before it could be properly disposed of. He then brought a similar box that contained a new power control system and battery that were in much better condition. It was quick work to install the new systems, and he was immediately alerted to the success by Sarah.

“New hardware detected, running compatibility check…compatibility confirmed…power systems online and fully functional,” she reported.

“Very good, Sarah!” He smiled as he watched the new power system light up with activity. “Now, I want you to reconfigure for rapid charge.”

“Warning, rapid charge is not recommended and may damage power supply,” Sarah droned.

“Understood, override safeties and execute my command,” Jack said, making a mental note to disable the safeties in the future.

“Acknowledged, reconfiguring for rapid charge.” The lights on her power system began to blink rapidly. “Current charge at 10%...25%...40%...60%...80%...Power now at full charge, all batteries functioning properly.”

“Excellent!” Jack said, rubbing his hands together excitedly, “Now for the real test,” he said, walking over and pulling the power cord from her open back, “Sarah, confirm power retention.”

“Retention confirmed.”

“Very good, you may reconfigure for normal charge now,” he told her, and while she did, he walked over to the diagnostic terminal and loaded several programs into it. “Sarah, I have some software updates and new customer service programs ready for you to load,” he told her, “please access them and install them when ready.”

“Accessing terminal…programs found, now installing,” she reported, then she fell silent. Jack monitored the installation on the terminal and also overwrote some of her files manually on occasion when he felt she didn’t install them properly.

“Installation complete, now initiating reboot,” Sarah said, and all the systems powered down in her open panel.

Jack took advantage of her downtime to disconnect her from his terminal and reattach her back panel. Once the panel was in place, he tapped the flashing icon on the flesh and watched as it re-sealed itself. By the time the seam was gone, Sarah’s systems were back online.

“Reboot successful, A.I. updated…new customer service programs installed successfully.”

“Very good, now get off the table and stand at attention in front of me.”

Sarah did so swiftly and efficiently, showing off her perfect naked body. Despite her stunted appearance, she was still very attractive. Before he married Gabby, Jack had engaged in sexual intercourse with Sarah on many occasions, and wished he still could, but Gabby got awfully jealous of him paying so much attention to the androids as it was and he did not wish to see her reaction to him banging one of them.

Still, he could not help but admire her body. He played around with her large breasts for a bit before letting them go.

“Well Sarah, I just have one more test for you to run,” Jack said conversationally, taking his control tablet from his jacket and loading Sarah’s remote. Perusing through her preprogrammed commands, he found the one he wanted, labelled: customer_service.haca and had her run it.

“Welcome to Brown’s General Store, my name is Sarah, how may I assist you today,” Sarah said in the pre-programmed greeting.

“Very good, looks like everything went well,” Jack congratulated himself, “Sarah, switch to personality mode.”

“Loading personality…personality loaded,” Sarah said, and then her friendly smile returned, “Ah, I’m detecting a functional power source now, thank you,” she said, walking up and giving him a hug; Jack struggled to control his reactions, since she was still naked.

“Don’t mention it Sarah,” he told her, patting her bare back before separating himself from her, “Now, as much as I enjoy working on you, my first android, please try and be more careful this year,” he pleaded with her, “I’d really like to perform some nice upgrades on you next year, rather than repairs and replacements.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Good! Now, get dressed and then head up and let Kat know I’m ready for her,” Jack said, “But first, give me a kiss.”

“Yes sir,” she smiled, giving him a friendly kiss before putting her clothes on and heading towards the lift.

As he watched her hips swaying from behind, enjoying the view, Jack began mentally planning for his next Christmas session with her, and for his impending session with Kat.

“One down, two to go,” he thought to himself.

Chapter 3: Kat (10am-11am)

Jack had just enough time to reset the diagnostic console for Kat’s intended repairs and updates before he heard the sound of the lift opening up and Kat’s footsteps walking into the room. She silently walked up to Jack and stood at attention.

Kat was built in the image of a woman in her mid-twenties and was rather tall for a woman, standing at nearly six feet tall. She was also rather muscular and very well endowed, though that was expected of a Mark II Personal Trainer model...Jack had to restrain himself every time he worked on her because she was, for lack of a better word, hot! Her fiery red hair perfectly framed her playful face with her brown, almond shaped eyes.

“Thanks for coming so quickly Kat,” Jack said absently, still working on the terminal, “Are you ready for your presents?”

Kat said nothing, but instead gave him a big smile.

“That’s what I thought,” Jack smiled back, “Now I’ve got several things I’m going to be doing to you, but the first thing is to fix your voice,” he told her, “Sit down on the table please.”

Kat silently complied, efficiently sitting up on the edge of the table.

“Alright Kat, I’m going to remove your head now,” Jack warned, stepping around behind her.

Kat prepared herself by bracing herself on the edge of the table with her hands. Jack parted the hair at the back of her neck and tapped the sweet spot in the middle, causing the sub-dermal control circles to appear. He quickly tapped the top circle and waited for the mechanisms in her neck to finish decoupling. He then grabbed hold of her head and pulled it straight off, releasing a slight hiss of air from her last breath. Once he had her head firmly in his hands, he carried it over to his work area and set it down carefully on its side.

With her head safe on his desk, he turned back to Kat, who had relaxed her position on the table. Jack could never quite get used to seeing these androids headless. Despite their robotic nature, they still looked perfectly real on the outside and it kinda creeped him out, and oddly turned him on at the same time.

“You still with me Kat?”

Again, Kat did not speak, she instead gave him a thumbs up.

“Good, I’m going to keep you online for this,” he told her, grabbing some tools and walking over to her open neck. He had been planning for this for several weeks, ever since her digital vocal synthesizer failed. He quickly located the device and pulled it out, causing Kat to jerk a little bit.

Kat was a custom personal trainer android made for a former professional athlete who had been injured during his sport. He originally purchased her to assist him in physical therapy, though, because she had been made in the image of a hot woman, he also used her for sex as well. It was during a rather intense session of oral sex that he penetrated her a little too deep and caused permanent damage to her vocal chords, eliminating her ability to produce human like vocalizations.

Still, she had the backup digital voice synthesizer that usually only kicked in when her head was removed, and he contracted Jack to repair her. He did not wish to spend the thousands of dollars to purchase a custom replacement for her vocal chords, so Jack reconfigured her digital voice synthesizer to work even when her head was attached.

A few months later, a bunch of weights fell on the actor, crushing his spine and paralyzing him from the waist down. He was able to sue the company that made the weight lifting machine, since a design defect caused the accident, however, even with all the money he received in the settlement, he could no longer keep Kat; the spinal damage had made him impotent, and he could no longer appreciate her sexually.

Fortunately for Jack, the athlete knew of his interest in her and he offered to sell her to him at an affordable price…an offer Jack willingly accepted. Jack still occasionally corresponded with the man, who was still living in an assisted living facility in Central Oregon a few hours away. Jack also never bothered to replace Kat’s vocal chords, since, as a custom model, any parts for her would be prohibitively expensive…even with his consultant discount.

Once Jack took over the shop, he saw that Kat’s enhanced strength as a personal trainer model would be useful, so he reprogrammed her to work in the loading dock lifting and unpacking boxes, as well as keeping track of inventory. Due to the nature of her job, not assisting customers, her digital vocal synthesizer was more than adequate when dealing with the various delivery vendors. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be used so frequently and, in the middle of chatting with the regular delivery driver, it cut out and she had to rush into the nearby office to have Rachel assist her.

Jack decided that not only would he be repairing the voice synthesizer, but he would also be replacing her vocal chords to prevent the synthesizer from future strain. It had been several years since he’d taken over the business, in any event, so he had more than enough money to cover the costs.

“Alright, I think…I’ve…got it,” Jack finally said, replacing the last of the micro-components in the tiny voice box and reattaching the cover. He then carefully reinserted it back into her open neck and stood back. “Alright Kat, try and speak.”

It took a few moments, but Kat finally made a sound. It sounded garbled at first, but finally Kat’s digital voice emerged.

“g..ing…esting…testing,” Kat’s voice sounded from her throat, though in a digital garble.

“Hold on, let me try something really quick,” Jack said, leaning back in and poking his tool into the synthesizer. He tweaked a few of the exterior dials and then stood back. “Try again.”

“Testing…testing,” Kat’s lovely voice emerged in digital form.

“Very good!” he congratulated her, giving her a hug that she willingly returned, “It’s good to hear your voice again.”

“It’s good to be able to speak again,” she countered.

“Indeed. Now I have a few software updates for you to install, though they shouldn’t require much time,” he told her, “Can you connect to my terminal wirelessly?”

“Standby,” Kat said, and after a few moments, a window popped up on the console confirming Kat’s access codes. “Connection complete, I have detected the files.”

“Good, please initiate download and installation,” he told her, “While you’re doing that, I’ll be replacing your vocal chords so you can speak normally again.”

“I look forward to it,” Kat said, then she started the download and fell silent.

While she was downloading the updates, Jack wheeled his chair back to the work area and picked up her head, which was still lying on its side. He gently set it upside down in his lap and pulled a few different tools out of his kit. The open end of the bottom of Kat’s head was nothing more than the continuation of her neck. On the edges were the artificial musculature and the connection point for her metallic spine and computer connections. In the middle was the tube that air passed through, and the focus of Jack’s attention.

There was a small latch at the base of the tube that Jack uncoupled with one of his small tools. This released the tube from the rest of the head, allowing Jack to carefully pull it out. The tube itself was several inches long and contained the highly sophisticated vocal chords that differentiated this class of androids from its competitors. Other manufacturers simply sufficed with a voice box, but Spaztec preferred to have their androids vocalize the same way humans do so they could interact more effectively with humans.

Jack placed the damaged tube down on the workbench and pulled a brand new one from a box that had been delivered several days earlier. If Kat were one of the more common androids, parts like the throat tube would have cost much less, but, being a custom model, parts had to be custom made and therefore cost more. It cost Jack a considerable amount, but profits were up this year and it would prevent Kat from having any further issues with her voice synthesizer.

“Installation complete, now initiating reboot,” Kat’s voice sounded, distracting Jack’s attention momentarily. Her body briefly froze up after this while it rebooted.

“Well Kat, once you’re back online, I should have this all done,” he said, inserting the new tube into her head and sealing it in place. With the job done, he held her head up in his hands, admiring the realism; her face was still frozen in its usual playful smile.

“Reboot successful...A.I. updated…resuming personality,” Kat said in an emotionless tone, “Ah, have you finished?” she then asked in her usual tone of voice.

“Yes, time to see if it worked,” he said with a tone of excitement, walking over to her with her head in his hands. He brought it down carefully over her neck and then clicked it into place. Once he tapped the lower sub-dermal circle, he heard the connections clicking into place and then the panel vanished.

Her head came back to life almost instantly, and she quickly took in a deep breath of air. She let out a few bursts of air, seemingly exercising her new throat tube before finally speaking.

“Testing…testing,” she said in a clear, human voice, “Wow, I can speak again!” she said excitedly.

“Indeed, you can dear!” he told her with a big smile on his face, watching her reaction as though she were a little girl receiving a present.

He too was excited, since this was the first time he had ever heard her vocalize before in a natural voice. Although her voice sounded more or less the same as when it was emitted from the vocal synthesizer, the absence of the digital alterations made it sound more natural.

“You have a lovely voice, Kat.”

“Thank you, Jack,” Kat said, leaning in and giving him a friendly kiss.

“It’s my pleasure,” he told her, “Now, we still have a bit of time left,” he said, looking at the clock and seeing he still had about twenty minutes, “How are your primary servo joints doing? Any stress from bending and lifting over the past year?”

“A little,” Kat reported, after running a quick diagnostic.

“Well, I might as well repair it now then,” Jack said, “Get undressed and lay down on the table.”

Kat complied instantly, unlacing her steel-toed work shoes and removing both them and her socks; Jack always liked looking at feet, and Kat’s were very nice. She continued by removing her jeans and the simple top she was wearing.

“You can leave your underwear on,” Jack told her, once she was only standing in her underwear. Under normal circumstances the male part of his brain would have allowed her to keep undressing, but he knew that if she were naked, then he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his work; he still admired her large cleavage barely contained by the basic sports bra she was wearing.

Kat merely nodded, giving him a knowing smile as she laid down on the table.

“Alright Kat, I don’t have time to disengage your limbs myself,” Jack said, getting his tool kit ready, “Could you please disengage your arms and legs for me?”

“Certainly Jack,” Kat said, and her face seemed to zone out as blue lights flashed on her thighs and biceps, revealing seams. “Both my arms and legs have been disengaged.”

“Very good Kat,” Jack said, pulling each limb off and laying it next to her torso.

He then pulled a calibration tool from his kit and started working on the servo mechanisms embedded on both the mechanical openings on Kat’s torso, and the ones on her limbs. The servo mechanisms helped to augment her humanlike musculature, but they still took the brunt of the energy when she moved around, or lifted heavy objects, and occasionally needed to be recalibrated to prevent permanent damage.

It was rather quick work, but he didn’t like performing this type of maintenance on a more regular basis because if he did anything wrong, it could easily turn into hours of work. He did rather enjoy working on the limbs themselves, because every minute calibration caused the digits on them to twitch.

After nearly fifteen minutes, he put his tools away and started reattaching her limbs.

“Well Kat, I think you’re good for the next year,” Jack said, clicking her legs back into place, “Try not to do anything to damage yourself too severely and maybe next year you’ll get some nice upgrades,” he added, clicking her arms back on.

“I’ll try my best,” Kat said, in exactly the same tone Sarah gave him an hour earlier, causing Jack to smile.

“You can get dressed now,” Jack said, and then he heard his mobile beep, so he pulled it out of his pocket to see who it was; it was a message from Gabby:

“Hey Jack, the parade is almost over and I am taking Henry to one of the restaurants in town,” it read, “I want to give you one of your presents early. I am allowing you to have sex with one of your employees today…just one. See you in a few hours!” It was followed by a wink emoji, and a few heart and kiss ones.

Jack smiled as he read the message. Normally, Gabby was pretty jealous about him spending this much time with his employees. He hoped this meant she would give him some great sex later that night!

Jack almost stopped Kat from getting dressed, since she was very hot. But, then Jack thought about his next repair session, with Rachel.

“I haven’t had the pleasure of doing her yet,” Jack thought to himself, smiling as he did so. “Thanks Gabby.”

“I’m dressed now, Jack” Kat said, breaking him out of his reverie, “Am I done?”

“Oh, yes,” Jack said, regaining his focus, “You may go, and please let Rachel know I’m ready for her.”

“Alright, and thanks for the presents,” Kat said, giving him a friendly smile before turning and heading towards the lift.

Jack watched her leave with the same interest as Sarah; Kat looked just as good from behind as she did from the front. Now he had only a few minutes to prepare himself for his session with Rachel.

Chapter 4: Rachel (11am-12pm)

Jack heard the sound of the lift descending a few moments after Kat reached the top. It was not surprising, since the lift was right next to Rachel’s desk, and Rachel was the “smartest” of his employees. Smart wasn’t really the right word to use though, since technically Sarah’s A.I. was more advanced as a Perfect Friend Model. It was more accurate to say that Rachel was programmed with more algorithms to handle her duties. As a matter of fact, she was the only android employed by Jack that he did not have to alter the original programming for; she was a Secretary model and he used her as a secretary.

Rachel was slightly more than a secretary though. While she did act as Jack’s secretary for clients requesting his android repair services, she was also programmed to manage the shop. Despite the fact that managing the shop was not an intended service offered by the original secretary programming, Jack was surprised with how little tweaking he had to do to her core programming; she did an awesome job!

The lift finally reached the bottom and opened up, depositing the lovely form of Rachel, who gracefully made her way into Jack’s repair chamber.

“Ah Rachel, I always appreciate your punctuality,” Jack smiled as she stopped in front of him, “Are you ready for your presents?”

“I’m only punctual because you’ve programmed me to be, sir,” Rachel smiled nicely, using her office banter programming to crack a joke; unlike the others, she always called him sir.

Rachel was built in the form of a lovely woman in her late twenties. She had a rather ordinary appearance with an ordinary height; even the woman’s dress attire she wore was rather ordinary. She had dark brown hair tied neatly behind her head, but the most striking thing about her was that she wore glasses. Not because she needed them, but because the person she was based on wore them.

Unlike Jack’s other androids, Rachel was built in the exact image of a real person…in Rachel’s case, she was based on a woman who died in an accident. The real Rachel was partnered with her sister in a small business they had started together several towns away. They ran it successfully for several years, but then Rachel’s car went off the road during a storm and she was critically injured. Before she died, Rachel gave her sister permission to have an android made in her image, and with the best personality and memory scans available at the time.

Jack had fond memories of working on Rachel during her time at her sister’s company. Her sister actually treated Rachel like her real sister, since the Rachel robot had her sister’s basic memory and personality programmed into her.

Things went rather well for those two, until times got tough and they were forced to fold their business. Unfortunately, folding the business meant that the sister could no longer afford to keep, or maintain, Rachel, so she offered to sell Rachel to Jack, since she knew he was interested in her. Jack was more than pleased to buy Rachel, and he still sent the sister a post card every year showing Rachel with her new family; the sister had moved back East to be with her family and had since married.

Jack snapped out of his trip down memory lane and got back to business. “Very good, then please undress and sit on the table.”

“Would you like me to remotely connect to your server?” she asked politely, unbuttoning her blouse.

“In a moment,” he said, readying her software upgrades, “There are also a few hardware upgrades I’ll be giving you.”

“I can’t wait,” she said, now removing her shoes, stockings, and pants.

“Also, Gabby gave me permission to have some fun with one of you girls,” Jack added, “I decided to have some fun with you.”

“I’m flattered, sir…to my knowledge, I am the only one of your employees you have yet to do so with,” Rachel said, now removing her remaining clothing and standing before him naked, “I hope I please you.”

“I’m sure you will,” Jack told her, approvingly eyeing her appearance as she stood before him at attention.

Rachel’s ordinary appearance extended to her anatomy as well. Unlike Kat and Sarah, her breasts were a more modest size. This was one of the main distinctions between androids customized by people and those based solely on real people. Jack could always tell when someone had customized their android because inevitably, they were made with large breasts and ridiculously attractive figures. He didn’t mind, but it was refreshing to see an android like Rachel every now and then with a more realistic figure. About the only issue he did have with people requesting big breasts was that the added weight often led to increased stress in their back servos…they didn’t realize they needed to request additional structural reinforcement.

Rachel often tricked customers as well. In the few occasions her presence was required on the sales floor and she had to deal with a customer issue: nine times out of ten the customer was surprised to discover she was an android. When asked, most people said it was the glasses, but some also mentioned her modest figure. Jack was always pleased when people mistook his employees for real people.

“I’m curious Rachel,” Jack said, finishing up on his diagnostic station, “Did you ever receive the office romance programming?”

“No, I didn’t sir,” Rachel answered, sitting on the edge of the table, “I am capable of running those programs, if you choose to install them in me,” she offered with a wink.

“Believe me, I will,” Jack smiled, adding the office romance programs to her download list, “Alright Rachel, you can initiate remote access now.”

“Standby sir,” Rachel said, and after a few moments, a window popped up on the diagnostic terminal confirming her access, “Connection established, I am detecting the files.”

“Good, I want you to start downloading and installing those files,” he told her, “but first I want you to lay down and disengage your arms from your torso.”

“Understood sir,” she replied, laying down on the table. She then initiated the separation protocol for her arms, causing the blue lights to flash briefly before leaving the seams. “My arms have been disengaged and I am initializing download.”

“Thanks Rachel,” Jack said, pulling both her arms free from her torso and setting them down on his desk. He spent a few moments admiring the beauty of her arms before getting his tool kit.

He pulled a tool from his kit and aimed it at the wrist of Rachel’s left forearm. A small laser cut through the skin and musculature, revealing the metallic bone beneath, as well as the fiberoptic wires and cables. Once he did the same to the right arm, he attached clamps to both skin flaps to hold them open and then got to work.

One of the many benefits to having Rachel performing her original programming as a secretary model was that she didn’t have to engage in much physical activity. As such, the only physical stress she accumulated was to her arms from working on paperwork and the computer all day, much in the same way humans contracted carpal tunnel syndrome. While she did not experience pain in the same sense as humans, it nonetheless reduced her operating efficiency.

“So, Rachel, what were you working on?” Jack asked conversationally, repairing the components in her left arm; every time he moved his tool, the fingers on the hand twitched.

“I was getting our systems ready for the new prices that will take effect on January 1,” Rachel responded; while she was downloading the updates, she could still communicate.

“Hopefully people aren’t too upset, but it is only a 1% increase,” he said. Jack didn’t like it, but every now and then he had to raise prices in order to compensate for various taxes and overhead expenses that cropped up from time to time.

“Well, with the new customer service programming you’re installing in me, I should be able to attend to any complaints that might arise.”

“What’s the status of my shipment?” he then asked her, now working on her right arm.

“It should be here in about an hour.”

“Good,” Jack said, finishing up in her arms and tweaking the laser tool before aiming it back at the arms. A different colored beam emitted from the end, this one resealing the skin and musculature until not a trace of the incision was present.

“I’ve finished downloading and installing the files,” Rachel reported, “Would you like me to reboot now?”

“No,” Jack said, “I need you to open your abdominal access so I can upgrade some of your sub-processors,” he told her, “Once your panel is open, I want you to shut down.”

“Understood,” Rachel said, and moments later the seam for her abdominal panel lit up and left the visible seam behind. Then, she promptly shut herself down.

“I hope some of these updates and upgrades make you a little less formal,” Jack then said, pulling the panel off and taking a look at her processor assembly.

After a few moments, he located what he was looking for and carefully pulled out several sub processors. Once he had them secured in an antistatic field, he pulled an antistatic delivery bag from a nearby shelf and pulled out an equal amount of new sub-processors. While they looked similar, he knew that they would give her a 15% boost in performance and efficiency. They clicked into their slots effortlessly, eliciting a sigh of relief from Jack.

Jack shuddered as he remembered a time he had accidentally purchased the wrong sub-processors for an android he had worked on in the past. Because they were incompatible, the force at which he inserted them damaged the connections, giving him hours of additional repair work to do.

With the new hardware installed, he pressed the manual power button on her A.I. core. Once he saw the components activating, he placed the skin panel back in place, as well as both her arms, and then waited for her A.I. to come online.

“New hardware detected, running compatibility check,” Rachel reported in an emotionless tone, “Diagnostic complete, hardware compatibility confirmed…processor efficiency improved by 15%...finishing installation of new software…installation complete, now loading A.I.,” she finished, and then a few moments later, her personality came back online. “Ooh, I’m really feeling that upgrade,” she smiled, sealing her panel and her arms and then sitting up.

“How do you feel?” Jack asked.

“My arms feel much better,” she reported, flexing her arms and testing them out, “and I’m able to access information more quickly.”

“Good, and the new software?”

“Successfully installed.”

“Good, then I want you to run office_romance.haca.”

“Okay Jack,” she smiled, and then her whole body seemed to relax, “Ooh, I feel so much better now for some reason,” she said, absently running her hands down her body in a provocative manner.

“I can see that,” Jack smiled, getting turned on by her preprogrammed advances, “Let’s go somewhere a bit more comfortable.”

“Good idea,” she said, happily jumping down from the table and following him.

The two of them walked in the opposite direction of the lift, leading out of the large repair chamber and into what was constructed as a small underground house. The house they entered was the equivalent of a normal suburban three-bed, three-bath, and included a kitchen and a small living area. In addition, there were two storerooms where the garage normally would have been. Jack had extensive stores of android parts in the two storerooms, so he had to use a few of the bedrooms for additional storage.

Jack led Rachel through the living area and into a hallway with several doors. “Here, I think this one is free,” Jack said, opening up one of the bedroom doors. He made it a few feet inside before coming to a quick stop. There were two female androids inside: both inactive, and both built in an Indian ethnic appearance. “I guess not,” he smiled, walking back out.

“Who were they?” Rachel asked curiously.

“Just some pet projects I’ve been working on,” Jack said evasively, “I’ve been hoping to expand the business in the future,” he explained, “I’m planning on using them to staff the next expansion.”

“I can’t wait to meet them,” Rachel said absently, though, at present, her only concern was fulfilling the programming her new office romance software was giving her.

Jack walked down to the next bedroom, though that one was also occupied by a few inert androids. Finally, he opened the last bedroom and smiled, “This is one is free.”

“Good,” Rachel said, rushing in ahead of him and sitting down on the edge of the bed inside, “This bedroom looks like it’s been slept in recently. Do you sleep in here?”

“Sometimes,” Jack admitted, closing the door behind him, “I’ll occasionally pop in here for a power nap when I’m working on several projects at once.”

“Too bad we couldn’t have some fun in your bed,” she said coquettishly.

“I know, but I don’t think Gabby would appreciate having to clean up after us,” Jack said, “Anyway, why don’t you lay back while I undress and then I’ll start on the foreplay.”

“Yes, sir,” Rachel smiled, casually laying down on the bed, continuing to feel her own body as she did.

Jack made quick work of his clothes and quickly joined her on the bed. He’d always wanted to do this, but Gabby would never have allowed him. He began by examining Rachel’s lovely feet. They were quite warm and, of all the girls, hers were the most feminine looking. While they were warm and even slightly moist, they did not have a realistic odor. Although all the girls were advanced enough to support the optional body odor secretion, he chose not to give them that option since the secretion tanks had to be replaced on a regular basis and were somewhat costly.

Rachel giggled as he played with her feet, not because she herself was ticklish, but most likely because the real Rachel was . Naturally, that would have been integrated into her personality programming. He then let his arms caress her smooth, womanly legs, eliciting a content sigh. He then moved up to her vagina, which was very neatly groomed. He played around with the opening for a bit before moving further up and playing with her breasts.

“So, Rachel, how would your ‘sister’ react to seeing us together like this?” Jack asked, continuing to feel up her entire body.

“She’d probably be jealous,” Rachel said, pausing to moan, “She had a bit of a crush on you.”

“Really?” Jack asked, stopping his advances.

“Oh, yes,” Rachel said, “She occasionally created situations that would elicit a malfunction just so she would have an excuse to call you over.”

“I always wondered why she was always calling,” Jack said, the situation now dawning on him, “I mean, when I finally purchased you from her and was able to run a more thorough scan of your systems, I found them to be quite sturdy.”

“The real Rachel would have been attracted to you too.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jack said, “Are you ready for me now?” he asked, now fully erect. He asked only as a courtesy, since, as an android, she could immediately make herself ready; he chose to allow the office romance programming to play out.

“Yes,” she smiled, spreading her legs and holding herself open with both hands.

Jack quickly inserted himself inside of her and then they both began working themselves. They rolled around a few times in the bed to get in a comfortable rhythm. Jack caressed Rachel’s smooth back and even squeezed her pert behind. All Jack could think of while he was penetrating Rachel was how long he had wished to do this, but his love for Gabby was too strong…now strengthened by her allowing him to do this.

The two of them finally climaxed after several minutes of sexual bliss and collapsed into each other’s embrace while they caught their breath…though Rachel’s breath was serving to cool off her systems, not send oxygen to her brain.

“Did you want to have another go?” Rachel finally asked, breaking the silence.

Jack almost took her up on it, but suddenly his stomach rumbled and he was reminded of the time. “No, I haven’t had anything to eat in a few hours and you should probably clean up and continue prepping the systems for the new prices,” he told her regrettably.

“Oh, alright,” Rachel pouted, then her behavior changed back to a more professional state, signifying she had terminated her office romance program, “Is there somewhere I can clean up?” she asked, pointing at the sexual juices still wet on her crotch.

“Yes, this place has a decent shower,” he said, “All the rain water, as well as waste water from the main house, collects into a storage tank that this place purifies.”

“Good,” she smiled, getting to her feet, “Would you like to shower with me?” she then asked playfully.

“Sure,” he smiled back, “Follow me,” he then said, leading her out of the room and across the hall into another room, in which there was a rather simple bathroom. “Before we get in, we should probably remove your glasses.”

“Good idea,” she said, and she allowed them to grab hold of them on both sides.

He pressed in on hidden latches behind both ears, releasing the glasses from her head. Jack gently placed the glasses down on the sink and then looked into Rachel’s un-bespectacled face, admiring her eyes. Rachel could see just fine without the glasses; their only purpose was to allow her to resemble her donor.

“Rachel, you look quite lovely without your glasses.”

“I know, but they are a part of me.”

“I know,” he said, “Let’s get clean,” he then said, opening the shower and turning on the water.

Although Rachel was no longer running the office romance program, she still made their shower an intimate experience. She let him clean her back and rubbed her hot, wet body against his. If he didn’t have to worry about the freshwater in the storage tank running out, he would have stayed in there forever. Regretfully, he shut off the water after 15-minutes and helped Rachel dry herself off. Fortunately, Rachel’s artificial hair stayed conditioned, so she did not have to spend an hour making herself up.

“Well, Rachel, that was really fun,” Jack said as the two of them returned to the repair bay, “I hope Gabby gives me permission to have fun with you again.”

“I hope so too,” Rachel agreed, picking up her clothes and getting dressed. Jack chose to remain naked so he could dry off completely.

“Can you get my usual lunch ready once you get back up?” Jack requested, “I have a few more things I have to get done down here.”

“Certainly, Jack,” Rachel smiled, no longer acting subservient…Jack wasn’t sure if it was the A.I. update, or the sex, but he was glad she was treating him more familiarly. Once she had her clothes back on, she gave him a quick hug and then headed to the lift.

Chapter 5: Lunch (12pm-1pm)

Jack spent a few minutes securing his diagnostic station and resetting it for his next project. Once the terminal was prepared, Jack got his clothes back on and headed for the lift.

“Man, I should have asked Rachel to send the lift back down,” Jack said aloud as he waited for the lift to return to the bottom. Now that the sexual ecstasy had passed, he was suddenly ravenous and eager to have his lunch.

The lift arrived a short while later and he quickly entered it and rode it to the ground level. Rachel was back at work behind her desk, typing away on the computer. She gave him a friendly smile when she saw him exit into the office.

“Sarah has your lunch up front…Jack.”

“Thanks Rachel,” Jack smiled, and he continued walking out into the loading dock, where Kat was now inventorying their stock.

“How’s your body doing so far, Kat?” Jack asked her, stopping momentarily to observe her work.

“My body is doing fine Jack, thanks for asking,” Kat said happily, continuing to work.

“Oh, I almost forgot, I got you something else,” Jack said, and he picked up a box with Kat’s name on it that had been left near her recharging station, “Open it.”

“Okay,” Kat said, and she opened the box with the same efficiency as the others and then pulled out a small article of clothing, “What is this?”

“It’s a back brace,” Jack told her, “Humans wear them to reduce the strain on their backs. I want to see if this helps over the next year.”

“Very well, thank you,” Kat said, lifting up her shirt and allowing Jack to strap the back brace on her.

“You’re welcome,” Jack said, tightening it and then lowering her shirt down over it, “Now, this may slightly inhibit your movements, but I’m sure it won’t take you long to adapt,” he told her, walking back in front of her.

Kat merely stretched out a bit and then smiled, “I already have.”

“I knew you would,” he laughed as he walked towards the shop, “Carry on!” he shouted back, heading into the shop.

When he entered the shop, he found Sarah tidying up the area surrounding the cash register. Jack could also see the object of his attention: a deli sandwich and bottled iced tea. Before he reached the sandwich though, he stopped as he saw Sarah using a cleaning solvent.

“Sarah! I thought I told you to use the protective gloves when you use that cleaning solvent,” he scolded her, “You know that stuff can degrade your artificial skin and I don’t want to have to pay for replacing your skin.”

“I’m sorry, Jack, I’ll remember next time,” Sarah apologized, a slight flush coming to her cheeks in a pre-programmed response of meekness. She immediately set down the supplies and headed into the nearby restroom to wash her hands. Once she returned, she put on a pair of cleaning gloves and resumed her work.

“It’s okay,” he told her with a smile, “I know it’s been a while since you were able to clean this area, so your algorithms need to readjust.” He then picked up his sandwich and took a bite, “I’m going to go and eat outside,” he then told her, seeing the weather outside had warmed up a bit, “Let me know immediately if Rachel needs me.”

“I will,” Sarah assured him, and then Jack took his sandwich and bottle of iced tea and walked out the front doors.

The area out front was a gated parking lot. His uncle had been burgled and robbed a few times, so he invested in a 20-foot-tall iron security gate, with poles that retracted into the ground of the entrance and exit during the daytime. Jack sat down on one of the benches in front of his shop and enjoyed his lunch and the scenery.

Jack sat there in silence eating his lunch for nearly 15-minutes before a noise to his right alerted him. It was the owner of the motel next door to him, and she was tapping on the security gate. She was a woman of advanced years, though the way she carried herself showed she could probably keep up with even the fittest young person.

“Ah, Mrs. Ellison, how are you today?” he asked, getting to his feet and walking over to the section of gate she was standing behind.

“Oh, the same,” she shrugged off, “This is the 97th Christmas I’ve lived through and they don’t interest me as much as they used to.”

“I can only imagine,” Jack smiled, as he’d only been around for 32 years, “So, have you got news for me about my offer?”

“Yes, my lawyer and the bank have all approved, but I need to talk it over with my family tonight…they’re coming here to visit me.”

“I see,” Jack said with a smile, “Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed then.”

“You do that,” Mrs. Ellison laughed, “You know, Morty would have been so proud of the way you’ve handled his business,” she added with a sad sigh.

Jack merely nodded his head as the memories of his Great Uncle Mortimer came flooding into his mind.

Jack was born in a region of California known as Silicon Valley. His parents knew very early on that he was a prodigy, and they did everything to cultivate his growing intellect and skills. He quickly made his way through school, making few friends along the way. He was in high school before he turned ten, and that was an extremely awkward experience for him.

Just before he graduated at age 12, his parents were killed in a fire while he was at school. Upon graduating, he still required guardianship, and the only relative willing to take him in was his Great Uncle Mortimer, an eccentric member of the family. It turned out that Mortimer too was a genius, though the other members of his family shunned him. He had always been impressed by the news of Jack and was eager to take him in.

Jack spent six years at a northern California college getting his Masters and Doctorates in Cybernetics and Mechanical Engineering before moving back down to Silicon Valley to intern and train at Spaztec Industries, the developers and creators of the fully realistic androids. After five years of proving himself, he earned an independent license to repair on his own and retained a freelance status with Spaztec Industries to assist them with various software/coding issues.

Over the following five years, he accumulated income by traveling across the western United States performing repairs for high profile clients, and also accumulated Kat and Sarah. After tinkering with them and restoring them during his free time at his Uncle Mortimer's home, his Uncle Mortimer suggested they might be able to earn Jack some extra money by working for him at the shop he tended. The extra money they earned him allowed him to acquire Rachel.

About a year later, his Uncle Mortimer was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, so Jack stayed with him to tend to his needs, since he had no other family or people to care for him.

Upon his death, his Uncle Mortimer left him everything, and since he had no outstanding debts, Jack didn't have to worry about anything. He assigned Rachel to manage the shop, while Kat handled the stockroom, and Sarah was the cashier. With the android employees handling all the tasks, Jack was free to handle his repair work in his Uncle's old workshop, and fix coding issues sent to him by Spaztec. Jack’s only close family now was his wife, a cousin living up north, and Henry.

“I can only hope I can continue running the business for many years to come,” Jack finally said.

“I know you will,” Mrs. Ellison assured him, “Now you go enjoy the rest of your day and I’ll let you know what my family says later this evening.”

“Alright, thanks Mrs. Ellison,” Jack said, and he walked back to the bench while she walked the short distance back to the motel office.

Jack sat back down and finished his lunch. Just as he finished it, he saw a delivery van pull into his driveway and down the side road into the loading bay. He didn’t wait long to head back in, tossing his trash and heading back inside. Sarah was still cleaning the nearby shelves, but Jack headed straight back to the loading dock, where Rachel was personally handling the receipt of delivery while Kat unloaded a rather large container.

“Hey Jack, good to see you again,” the delivery driver called out to him while Rachel was busy signing the delivery pad.

“Good to see you too, Cole,” Jack called back, “I really can’t thank you enough for making this delivery on Christmas.”

“Don’t mention it,” Cole shrugged, “My housewife model hasn’t had any issues since I last sent her to you, and she even learned a few things too.”

“Well, who says handing out a few free upgrades doesn’t get you favors?” Jack joked.

“If there’s anything else you need, you just give me a call,” Cole said, once Rachel finished signing the papers.

“Thanks Cole!” Jack called out as Cole jumped back into his vehicle. Cole simply gave him a smile and then drove off.

Once Kat secured the loading doors, the three of them walked over to the large container.

“What is it Jack?” Kat asked, looking at the unfamiliar markings on the box. She was used to the regular deliveries from the company that delivered them produce and sundries.

“Our new employee,” Jack smiled, “Get it down into my lab, Kat, I’ll be down shortly.”

“Right away,” Kat said, and she quickly got her hand truck and carted the container towards the lift.

Chapter 6: Serriah (1pm-2pm)

Jack quickly finished signing off on Rachel’s paperwork regarding the delivery. Just as he finished, Kat returned to the office level with the now empty hand truck.

“I’ve placed the container near your workstation, Jack,” Kat happily reported.

“Thanks Kat, go continue whatever you were working on before,” he told her. She briefly acknowledged his order with a smile and a nod before returning to the loading dock.

“Is there anything you’d like me to start working on up here?” Rachel asked, seeing Jack was about to head onto the lift.

“Just get your systems configured for a fourth employee,” Jack told her, “I’ll send you more information as I start working.”

“Understood,” Rachel said, and just as Jack stepped into the lift, she added, “Have fun!”

Jack could only smile at Rachel’s programmed enthusiasm. “I will,” he called back, just as the doors closed.

Once the lift reached the bottom, Jack eagerly made his way back to his workstation, seeing that Kat had placed the container conveniently nearby. Jack could barely contain his excitement as he sat down at his work chair and checked on the status of the programs he’d left compiling during his lunch break; the program was complete.

“Alright then, let’s get started,” Jack said, rubbing his hands together as he got up and approached the container.

He spent a few moments sizing it up before pushing it back a few inches, placing his right hand on the built-in scanner, and allowing it to scan his hand. A few seconds later, the scan completed and confirmed his credentials. The container promptly began unlocking itself with a series of clicks and whirs before finally hissing open with a cloud of packing mist escaping.

Once the mist finished evaporating, the form of a lovely woman was revealed. She was packed rather securely, and comfortably, in a perfectly fitted slab of packing foam in an exactly shaped mold of her body. Jack paused briefly to admire her rather petite body.

The woman inside looked to be in her mid-twenties and was of some mixed European/Asian heritage. She had wild looking black hair that went down to her shoulders on the sides, with long bangs that nearly obscured her eyes, giving her a playful look.

Unlike a typical android fresh from the box, she was wearing more fashionable clothing, rather than the generic clothing (grey undies) they usually arrived in. She was wearing a pair of ordinary sneakers with thin, white ankle socks over her small, size six feet. She was also wearing an equally ordinary pair of slightly worn out looking jeans, and her top was a blue, long sleeved waffle tee with a red, lacy undershirt for color blocking, and a fashionable scarf to finish off the look. Overall, she looked like an average-looking college girl that had been put in stasis and shipped to him, though Jack knew full well that she was an android.

The reason Jack was excited about working on this new android was for a completely different reason from his usual passion for repairing and tinkering with androids. Unlike the other girls, whom he had acquired over the years from various individuals after they had already been used, this new android was brand new, and state-of-the-art.

She had only one thing in common with one of his current employees. Like Rachel, she too was based on a real person, a woman named Serriah. Unlike Rachel, however, Serriah was not based on someone who was dead, but on a living person who had volunteered her image, personality, and basic memories.

Jack felt like he had won the lottery when he found Serriah on the Spaztec auction site. There were not too many people interested in her because she was an ultra-custom partier model built to very specific specifications. Only true android enthusiasts such as Jack would have been able to enjoy her, because she would require extensive reprogramming to satisfy the needs of a new owner.

Jack carefully pulled her free of the foam mold and then easily lifted her petite body up and laid it on the table. He lifted up her shirt a little so he could tap the area of skin just above her navel. To his satisfaction, the sub dermal control panel lit up, signifying that Serriah had been fully charged before being delivered. Jack let out a sigh of relief, because waiting for an android to charge up for the first time could take hours.

Jack quickly navigated the panel and pressed the activation icon, booting up Serriah’s systems. Most people probably wouldn’t have even heard the sound of her systems booting up, but Jack’s ears were sharp, and he was trained to know exactly what to listen for. In this case, he was listening to her systems to ensure everything sounded right.

“Wow, you’re a thing of beauty,” he finally said with a satisfied look, hearing the last of her components turn on for the first time before settling into a lower pitch sound that was soon drowned out by her body’s built in sound dampening systems. He stepped back just as her A.I. came online.

“Spaztec Partier model, serial number PM183457 coming online,” she announced in a clipped tone, “Running first time startup diagnostics.”

“So far, so good,” Jack said, looking slightly apprehensive. This was one instance where he was slightly out of his element, since, with but one exception, all of the androids he’d ever worked on were used, and required either repairs or reprogramming. That one exception had been more than three years ago, and, not only was it a different class of android, but there had been many technical improvements made over that time that could have altered the first boot sequence.

“Diagnostic complete, all systems functioning properly, now starting first boot procedures,” she reported, and then she sat up and scanned the room until she found Jack, “Hello, my name is Serriah. My designated owner is listed as Harold Kring, you do not fit his defined parameters,” she said with a confused look.

“I’m sorry, but your intended owner died before he could take ownership of you,” Jack reported, “His estate sold you to pay for his funeral expenses, and other outstanding debts.”

“I see,” Serriah nodded solemnly, “Please provide the ownership transfer code provided by my manufacturer to transfer ownership to you.”

“Hold on,” Jack said, and he quickly rifled through the compartments on his work desk before finding the sheet of paper he wrote the code on; he could have simply saved it onto his computer, but he didn’t want to risk a computer error wiping it out, because otherwise he’d have to wait eight days to reacquire it. “The code is: Alpha, Gamma, Epsilon, Phi, Zero, Three, Theta, Kappa, Omicron, Two.” Jack read it verbatim from the paper and waited nervously to see if it worked.

Serriah spent a few seconds processing the code before nodding her head and saying, “Code confirmed, ownership protocols are unlocked and ready for new ownership parameters.”

“Very good, please access my diagnostic terminal to receive my ownership details, and your new programming,” he told her, relaxing in his seat.

“Access confirmed, would you like me to overwrite the previous owner’s memory configuration?”

Jack thought about it before answering, “No, I’d like to enjoy the same personality you were programmed with.”

“Very well, I estimate the process will take up to thirty minutes,” she reported, then she fell silent as she began downloading and installing the multitude of updates and programs Jack had prepared for her.

As she downloaded the files, Jack monitored her progress on the computer, even adding a few things he had come up with on the spot. He was pleased with how fast he was able to reprogram her, but given he’d had nearly a month to prepare for her arrival, he’d had plenty of time to write the new programs and code that she was now processing. Jack was really happy, because, so far, his entire day was going exactly as scheduled.

After he finished adding a few extra programs to her download queue, he brought up the biographical details of her original owner, and the girl upon which she was based.

Harold and the real Serriah were close childhood friends who went everywhere and did everything together. One would even think they were a couple, except Harold was gay and Serriah was a lesbian. Due to their homosexual nature, they treated each other more like siblings and were in some ways even closer than a couple would have been.

As they grew older, their interests slightly diverged, but they still spent a great deal of time together. Serriah was a very successful businesswoman, and Harold was an accomplished mechanic. Serriah’s success eventually landed her a promising promotion, though it was a job based in China, so she would have to leave Harold. Knowing he would be sad without her constant presence, she agreed to commission a Spaztec Partier android in her image, and with her personality & basic memories to keep him company.

Unfortunately, just before the android could be delivered, Harold died of an undetected brain aneurysm. Because the Serriah android was a custom job, there was no way for a full refund to be given to the estate, but with the real Serriah’s consent, her duplicate was put up on the Spaztec auction site, and, after successfully passing an interview that the real Serriah demanded before allowing a stranger to have an anatomically correct android of her, Jack wasted no time in purchasing it.

Part of the reason he was interested in the Serriah robot was the fact that not only was she a partier model, but she also had the personality and memories of a skilled businesswoman. For the job he intended on her filling, he hoped the adaptive partier algorithms, and the business skills, would offer a very interesting combination.

Just as Jack finished reviewing Serriah’s biographical file, she finished installing her new files. “I have completed installing all the files in the diagnostic queue, would you like me to reboot now?”

“Yes, but please reboot into your programmed personality,” he requested; sometimes the clipped tones from the androids grated on him.

“Understood,” she said, then her head bowed down as her systems rebooted into her installed personality. A few moments later, they came back online and her personality came online shortly thereafter.

“Hello Jack, my name’s Serriah, your new Partier model,” Serriah greeted him with a nice smile, dropping to her feet and outstretching her hand. Jack was pleased to discover that she had a rather cute voice when she was not in maintenance mode.

“Pleased to meet you Serriah,” Jack said, taking her petite hand and shaking it, “I take it you’ve assimilated all the new programming I wrote for you.”

“I have,” she told him, sitting back down on the edge of the examination table and swinging her legs back and forth, “I still have about 95% of my original programming, plus everything I need to perform the job you’ve assigned me with.”

“Very good, and are all of my ownership protocols in effect?”

“Yes, I am programmed to respond to all voice commands given by you.”

“Alright, I’m going to give you a test command,” he told her, and after she nodded her head, he said, “Serriah, kiss me.”

Serriah instantly complied, dropping back to her feet and approaching him. She then moved in towards his face and planted a quick kiss on his lips before backing off. “Was that good?”

“Actually, it wasn’t,” Jack admitted, feeling it was a little dispassionate, “Tell me, what sexual preference are you set at?”

“My sexual preference is currently set at lesbian.”

“I see, because of your donor,” he said, smacking his head, “Please reset your sexual preference to bisexual.”

“Alright,” she smiled, and then a few seconds later she said, “Congratulations, I am now bisexual!”

“Very good!” he said, laughing despite himself at her enthusiasm, “Now kiss me again.”

Serriah immediately complied, this time doing it with more playfulness and passion. Her lips pressed against his and found the perfect pressure to settle at. He then felt her tongue probing around in his mouth until she gave him a perfect French kiss.

“Damn, were you programmed to kiss like that, or is that all Serriah?” he asked, once she broke away.

“It’s Serriah all the way,” she announced proudly.

“Well, you were great!” he said, catching his breath, “Just don’t tell my wife I said that,” he added, playfully putting his finger to his nose.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her,” Serriah giggled, pretending to zip her mouth shut.

“Good,” Jack said, “Now that I have confirmed my ownership protocols are in place, I want you to add Rachel as an authorized user,” he told her, “I know it’s unusual for you to have another android as a user, but her job is to function as your boss.”

“I understand,” Serriah said seriously.

“Go ahead and add my wife Gabby as well,” Jack added. Gabby sometimes liked to boss around the employees, and she got upset with him one time he had forgotten to add her as a user.

“Very well.”

“Good, and now for your attire,” he said, looking at her ordinary street clothes, “I’m sure that Serriah likes those clothes, but the job I’m having you do is a little bit on the professional side so, I’ll need you to switch into more professional attire.”

“Aww, do I have to?” she mock whined.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Okay,” she said, “Do you have any clothes for me to wear?”

“Yes, I bought some for you a few days ago,” he told her, getting up and walking into one of the storage rooms, coming back moments later with a box with a set of neatly folded women’s dress clothes.

“How thoughtful,” she complimented him, taking them from the box and examining them. It was a simple white blouse with a thin black sweater to wear over it, paired with black slacks, black dress shoes, and black stockings; Jack had even included a set of black silk underwear. “These are actually quite nice,” she admitted.

“Gabby helped me pick them out,” Jack admitted with a slight blush, “I wanted something that would look professional, but also something that you could move around in with relative ease and comfort for extended durations of time.”

“Well, these should work out quite nicely,” she smiled, “Would you like me to redress now?”

“Yes, then we need to head up to introduce you to everyone.”

“Okay, I’ll be quick then,” she said. She then started undressing, pulling off the clothes the real Serriah had selected for her. It was only a few moments before she was completely naked, and then she reached for her new clothes.

“I think we can wait a bit longer,” Jack suddenly said, admiring her lithe, naked body.

“I thought you might feel that way,” she smiled, putting her new clothes back in the box and turning to face Jack, flaunting her body.

“Hey, can you blame me for wanting to see all the attributes of my new property?” he smiled coyly.

“No, I can’t,” she surrendered.

“I’ll be quick,” he promised her, walking up to her and eying her up and down.

Jack reached out and fondled both her breasts, admiring the texture and the modest size, much like Rachel’s. Jack had personally repaired, upgraded, or otherwise examined countless androids, and each time he could tell the ones based on real people, because they’re breasts were proportioned more realistically.

He then let his hands continue their exploration of her body, gently caressing her smooth skin on her arms and torso before finding her smooth pussy. Jack was very intrigued by the sensation, since Serriah was his only android with a shaved pussy. He gently teased the lips before withdrawing his hands.

“Are you done?” she asked, looking slightly turned on by his exploration.

“Yes,” he said regretfully, “Just one more thing.” He then leaned down and embraced her, feeling her soft back and even giving her buttocks a light squeeze before breaking apart, “Welcome to the family.”

“Thanks,” she smiled gracefully. With a subtle nod from Jack, she turned back to the box and began putting on her new clothes. A few moments later, she stood before him in her new professional attire. “How do I look?” she asked, slowly turning around so he could see her outfit.

“Very professional,” he complimented her.

“Good, I hope I impress all of my customers,” she said hopefully.

“I’m sure you will,” Jack told her, sitting back down, “Now about that,” he started, “Unlike Kat and Sarah, both you and Rachel are the only employees I have that are capable of eating,” he told her, “But, unlike Rachel, you’ll occasionally be required to eat and drink, in order to better interact with human clients.”

“I understand,” Serriah said, “Then you wish for me to deactivate my ingestion and digestion systems most of the time?”

“Yes,” he answered, “I know that you and Rachel are capable of converting food and drink into useable energy, but it also has the added effect of adding more regular maintenance and for the time being, I simply can’t afford to regularly maintain your digestive systems.”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” Serriah shrugged.

“I’ve already arranged for a second recharge port to be activated in the checkout stand area, next to Sarah’s,” he explained, “Now, unlike the others who are all set to heterosexual mode, you are the only one set to bisexual mode,” he continued, “As such, please try not to…uh, come on to any of them, as it might confuse their systems,” he finished delicately.

“I’ll try,” Serriah promised.

“Good, then let’s go up and introduce you to the team,” he told her. He then got up and walked with her into the lift.

“I can hardly wait,” she said excitedly, just as the lift doors closed.

Chapter 7: Team meeting (2pm-3pm)

When the lift reached the top, both Jack and Serriah walked out and found Rachel still hard at work reconfiguring the shop’s systems. She looked up from her work when they exited the lift and gave Serriah an inquisitive look. “Is this our new employee?”

“Yes, Rachel,” Jack answered her, putting his hand on Serriah’s shoulder, “This is Serriah: a freshly reconfigured Partier model.”

“I’m pleased to meet you Rachel,” Serriah said cheerfully, walking over and shaking Rachel’s hand.

“Likewise,” Rachel said with a smile, “And what, may I ask, is your intended job here?”

“I’ll explain that to all of you in a moment,” Jack interjected, “Rachel, could you please follow me to the shop?” Jack asked, “We’re having a team meeting.”

“Okay,” Rachel said, saving her work on her computer and following Jack and Serriah through the doors.

“Team meeting Kat!” Jack called out, since Kat was outside the loading door disposing of the day’s trash.

“Okay!” Kat called back, quickly reentering the building and closing the loading doors. She gave Serriah only a fleeting glance as she followed the group into the main shop, where Sarah was still cleaning up.

“Team meeting Sarah, let’s all meet at the checkout stand,” Jack called out. Sarah silently acknowledged him, setting down her cleaning supplies and removing her gloves. The three of them joined up at the customer side of the checkout stand while Jack and Serriah went into the stand.

“Alright, team, for the past few weeks I’ve been telling you about a new employee I’d ordered,” Jack began, “Well, here she is: Serriah, a reconfigured Partier model.”

“Hi,” Serriah waved cheerfully.

The others waved back, though considerably less enthusiastically than Serriah.

“I think it goes without saying that Serriah here was based off a real person,” Jack added, prompting looks of understanding from the rest of them.

“So, what’s her job going to be?” Rachel asked again.

“Well, her intended job is to run our new gift shop,” Jack said, and before the others could interrupt him, he continued, “I know we don’t have a gift shop yet, but if I get the good news tonight that I’m hoping for, we will soon.”

“What good news?” Rachel asked.

“I’m sure you’re all acquainted with Mrs. Ellison from the motel next door?” he asked them. They all nodded yes…except for Serriah, who didn’t know anybody yet. “Well then you know she’s rather old and has been having trouble keeping the motel running at peak efficiency,” he explained, “For the past few months, I’ve been negotiating with her, and the city, to take over ownership of the motel so that she can retire with her family back East.”

The girls spent a few moments processing that information before responding. “So, would we have to work there too?” Sarah asked.

“No,” Jack answered, “I already have a couple androids in my lab that I’m planning on placing there: a refurbished Secretary model as the motel manager and receptionist, and a refurbished Perfect Friend model as a maid,” he explained, “I’m also considering purchasing a Mark I Personal Trainer model to act as a security guard."

“Why?” Kat asked.

“Over the years, Mrs. Ellison has had to contact the police several times due to people attempting to…bother her guests,” Jack explained delicately, “Unfortunately, since we’re in a remote part of town, the police take a while to get here, and having a security guard would speed things up.”

“Oh."

“I have a question,” Sarah said, “If you’re going to be adding four new employees, including Serriah here, are we going to have to work harder for upgrades each year?”

“Not necessarily,” Jack answered, “Obviously, the Mark I Personal Trainer wouldn’t have any remaining upgrades left, so it would require only routine maintenance,” he explained, “Also, the motel will make more than enough money once I bring it back to full capacity and retrofit the utilities,” he continued, “Finally, the gift shop I’ll be adding will also bring us more income.”

Sarah merely nodded while Rachel seemed to add the figures up in her computerized brain, using all of her Secretary model algorithms. “How are you going to pay for the costs of purchasing and retrofitting the motel, not to mention the gift shop?”

“First off, Mrs. Ellison is selling the place at an extreme discount. Secondly, I’ve already applied for several loans to cover the retrofit costs, as well as the extension of the shop,” Jack explained to her.

“What extension?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, I forgot to mention,” Jack said, slapping his forehead, “The shop is going to undergo a fairly major renovation. What’s now the loading dock will be converted into the new gift shop, and the new loading dock will be added onto the other side of the building in between us and the motel, connecting to the storage room of the motel management building,” he explained, thinking what else he forgot to mention, “Oh, and our office will also be changed a bit as well.”

“Interesting,” Rachel said, “I’ve always thought that my office could use a new look,” she smiled.

“What gifts are we going to be selling?” Kat asked.

“Various arts and crafts produced by some of the artisans living in the area surrounding us,” Jack answered, “Also, some of the gifts that are normally sold at city hall,” he added, “Actually, most of them,” he laughed, “Apparently most people passing through don’t bother to stop by city hall, so they haven’t even been selling well.”

“And that’s what my function is going to be,” Serriah chimed in, “My Partier algorithms, mixed with my host personality’s inherent business skills, are perfect for me to sell these gifts to passing tourists, as well as to negotiate prices with the individuals providing the gifts.”

“Well, it sounds like we won’t be getting the gift shop for at least a month,” Rachel said, “What is she going to be doing in the meantime?”

“In the meantime, Serriah will be assisting Sarah with the cleaning, and will assist Kat with stocking merchandise, as needed,” Jack answered.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been adequately programmed,” Serriah assured them.

“We’ll see,” Sarah said, “My programming makes me a bit of a neat freak.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Serriah said.

“Anyway, I can assure you all that if the acquisition is successful, this whole business will improve and there’ll be more than enough money to go around between all of you,” Jack announced, “And, it is all thanks to the hard work you’ve put in over the past few years,” he continued, “I’m sure Uncle Morty would be proud of us,” he finished, just as he received a text on his mobile. He paused briefly to read it:

“We’re just finishing up downtown and should be home in about an hour, see you soon dear.”

“Well, looks like my family will be home soon,” Jack said, putting away his mobile, “Let’s show Serriah around for a bit before you continue your tasks.”

The meeting then ended, with the group walking about the shop showing Serriah where everything was, and explaining what part each of them had in acquiring it, stocking it, and selling it.

After Serriah was completely settled in, Jack spent a few moments giving them their final instructions.

“Alright ladies, you know the drill,” he started, “Keep doing what you’re doing until six, then plug yourselves in and shut down until we open tomorrow at nine.”

“Yes, Jack,” they all said in unison, bringing a smile to Jack’s face.

“I’ll be in the house if you need me,” he said, heading to the loading dock. He then headed out through the same door he entered in several hours earlier, heading through the front yard of his house via the same path as before. He noticed it had warmed up slightly, though there was still snow piled up.

As soon as Jack reached the front door, he paused briefly, took a deep breath of air, and then let out a content sigh before opening the door and walking inside, whistling a Christmas jingle.

Chapter 8: Afternoon (3pm-4pm)

As soon as Jack entered the house, he began to shiver. He silently cursed himself at forgetting to set his smart home system to turn on the heat before he left his workshop. He quickly remedied the situation by turning on the heater, instantly warming the house a few degrees. He hoped it would be a more comfortable temperature by the time Gabby and Henry returned.

With the house slowly heating up, Jack took off his jacket, kicked off his shoes and socks, and sat down in his favorite chair in the living room.

“On,” he commanded, speaking to his TV. The television instantly turned on, and, recognizing Jack’s voice, instantly loaded his preferred news channel, currently reporting the local news reports on the festivities downtown.

Jack sat comfortably watching the news for several minutes before he heard the sound of the car pulling into the driveway. Moments later, he heard the thud of both car doors shutting and then two sets of footsteps approaching the door. The next sound he heard was the doorknob turning.

“We’re home!” Gabby called out, entering the house with Henry close behind. Henry was bundled up in a new set of cold weather clothes. Evidently, Gabby had indeed purchased new clothes for Henry.

“Did you two have a good time?” Jack asked, muting the television as he got up and hugged his family.

“Yes, the parade was really good this year,” Henry answered, hugging Jack and then shedding his outer layer of clothing.

“It really was,” Gabby told him, pulling off her parka and hanging it on the nearby coat rack, “It’s a good thing we contributed to the parade fund this year…they were able to pull out all the stops.”

“And we got a good view,” Henry added.

“Well, I’m glad you two had a good time,” Jack smiled, “I really hope I can attend next year.”

“And what about you dear?” Gabby asked, “Was your day productive?”

“Oh yes,” Jack smiled, “I was able to repair Sarah’s power problem and successfully repair Kat’s vocal systems,” he reported, “Rachel didn’t exert herself this year, so I was able to give her some nice upgrades, and I was able to successfully integrate Serriah into the shop.”

“Who’s Serriah?” Henry asked, now out of his cold weather gear and plugging his mobile in.

“Serriah’s the new android I just acquired,” Jack answered, “She’s going to run the new gift shop…provided all goes well with Mrs. Ellison.”

“And do you know whether the deal will go through yet?” Gabby asked.

“She told me a few hours ago that her lawyer approved the deal,” Jack explained, “she just needs to talk it over with her family tonight.”

“Good,” Gabby said, breathing a sigh of relief, “We could use the extra business.”

“Yeah, I have all sorts of plans for next year,” Jack mused. “Henry, why don’t you head up and shower,” he then said, seeing Henry standing there, “But first, I’m going to let you have one of your presents,” he said, pulling a small wrapped box from a nearby table, “You can enjoy it after your shower.”

“Thanks Jack,” he smiled, giving both Jack and Gabby one more hug before running up the stairs. A few moments later, they heard the sound of the shower turn on.

“Well, now that we have some alone time, you can tell me all about your day…and I can tell you about mine,” he told her.

“Well, I was hoping to take a quick shower first, but my feet are a little sore,” she said, taking a seat in her favorite chair, conveniently located adjacent to Jack’s.

“I see,” Jack smiled knowingly, “Well, I guess I’d better remedy that.” He sat down in his chair while Gabby removed her boots, slipped off her socks, and extended her legs so they rested perfectly on Jack’s lap; their chairs were perfectly positioned for this action.

As Jack started gently massaging her feet, Gabby sighed contentedly and began recounting her day.

“And then, the mayor’s 12-year-old daughter came and gave Henry a kiss on the cheek,” Gabby finished, “I think she has a crush on him.”

“Aww, that’s cute,” Jack smiled, “She does strike me as an intelligent little girl, even more so if she can appreciate Henry’s intelligence.”

“You should have seen Henry when she kissed him,” Gabby then said, “He was quite bashful afterwards,” she laughed.

“I’ll bet,” Jack agreed, “So, what did you do with Henry’s old clothes?”

“Donated them,” Gabby shrugged, “They’re still in good shape…they just didn’t fit him well.”

“Good, I’m glad you got him some better clothes…I can see your fashion sense is just as good as ever,” Jack complimented.

“Thanks!”

“Man, how did your feet get so sore?” Jack asked, massaging a rather large knot in her muscles.

“Standing on my feet for several hours…I even lifted Henry up a few times,” she responded, letting out a few pleasurable moans as he worked out the kinks in her feet.

“I see…I’m surprised they aren’t very moist right now,” he added, feeling the dryness.

“Well, it’s very dry out there…and in here,” she smiled, leaning back in her chair.

“Well, I’ll have to remedy that later too,” he winked.

“So, how did your day go?” she asked, “And not just the censored version because Henry was here, I want the nitty-gritty details.”

“Well, at the risk of sounding arrogant, the day went exactly as I had planned several weeks ago,” Jack told her, “The repairs and maintenance for Sarah, Kat, and Rachel were relatively painless, and the weeks I’ve spent preparing the code for Serriah paid off. I had her completely programmed and integrated in less than an hour.”

“I’m really glad,” Gabby smiled, “That means you have more time for me and Henry.”

“I know,” Jack smiled.

“So, which one did you fuck?”

“Wow, straight to the point,” Jack laughed, “Thanks by the way.”

“Well, I know I have to give you some slack, otherwise you might do something foolish,” she told him, “So, which one? This new girl: Serriah?”

“No, I decided on Rachel.”

“Interesting choice,” Gabby mused, “Any reason why?”

“Well, I’ve already fucked Kat and Sarah several times before, but I never got around to fucking Rachel,” Jack explained, “It was interesting, doing Rachel…unlike the other two, she’s based on a real person.”

“How was that interesting?” Gabby asked.

“Well, it just seemed more…real, I guess,” Jack said, “The others were made to be a little, ridiculously good looking, but Rachel had a more natural beauty to her.”

“Isn’t Serriah based on a real person too?” Gabby asked, “I seem to recall you mentioning that when you purchased her a few weeks ago.”

“She is, but her turn can come later,” Jack shrugged, “Provided you give me permission, of course.”

“Maybe,” Gabby shrugged, adding a playful wink.

“Well, a maybe is better than no,” Jack said, “Well, why don’t I let you take a shower and then I can get started on your presents before you cook dinner,” he then suggested, giving her feet one last rub before letting them go.

“Okay!” Gabby said excitedly, giving him a kiss and rushing upstairs into the bedroom as though she were a small child. Jack could not help but smile despite himself, hearing the sound of rushed disrobing and the bathroom door shutting in his room. Moments later, the water turned on.

Jack relaxed in his chair while he waited for Gabby to finish. Although she was excited to receive her presents, she was still a woman and women liked taking time to make themselves pretty. Henry had long since finished his shower and was now enjoying his present, which was the video game he had been asking for.

Jack continued watching the news while he waited for Gabby to finish, though he was considerably less interested in the news and more interested in merely relaxing before what was to come; the sexual encounter with Rachel had surprisingly drained him.

After what seemed like forever, but was actually about 20 minutes, Gabby finally emerged from their bedroom, freshly showered and dressed in a more casual set of clothing.

“Alright, I’m ready for my presents!”

“I can tell,” Jack smiled, shutting off the monitor and getting to his feet, “Well, let’s go.”

Gabby merely nodded as she followed him out of the living room. They walked down an adjacent hallway that led to the garage/shed attached to the side of the house and stopped at a random stretch of well in the middle of the hallway. Jack scanned the wall with his eyes, as though he were looking for something. He finally found what he was looking for, rubbing a section of the wall with his hand before placing his palm on it.

The part he placed his hand on suddenly lit up. A bright light seemed to scan his hand from top to bottom, then side to side. After the light vanished, the section of wall suddenly shimmered away, revealing a doorway hidden behind a holographic wall.

Jack quickly opened the door, which had a similar lift to the one in the shop’s office. Gabby followed Jack inside and patiently waited as the lift descended, spilling out moments later at the opposite end of the bunker which contained Jack’s lab. In addition to having an entrance in the shop, Jack’s uncle had also installed a second entrance in the house.

They both walked down the hallway into the main repair chamber. Jack once again started the systems on his diagnostic console and then turned to Gabby.

“Alright Gabby, you know the drill.”

Gabby merely nodded as she began taking off her clothes. Once she was naked, she laid down on the table. Her eyes seemed to zone out as a bright blue light emerged from her chest, revealing a large seam encompassing her entire torso.

“Alright, time to give you your presents,” Jack smiled to her, and he dug his fingers into the seam and popped off her entire front torso.

Chapter 9: Gabby (4pm-5pm)

Once Jack had Gabby’s torso panel released from her body, he carefully set it down on a nearby table and then started connecting wires to various locations inside of Gabby’s body. Unlike the other girls, Gabby’s body had much more intricate components inside, as well as a fully functional digestive system.

Gabby was a Housewife model, the only one Jack owned at present. Also, unlike the other girls, Gabby was not intended to be one of his employees…she was meant to be his wife.

As he continued connecting various cables and tubes into her open panel, he thought back on how he purchased her…

Jack stayed with his Uncle following the diagnosis, which kept him from going out and pursuing lucrative jobs. A few months before Mortimer's time was out, he told Jack how much he appreciated having someone to care for him, and how he had come to see Jack as his own son over the years.

Mortimer explained how he’d made numerous smart investments over the years and had saved up quite a bit of money. He offered to pay for anything Jack desired, and, after thinking about it for a while, Jack decided he’d like a top of the line Housewife android.

Jack spent days perusing his options on the Spaztec website. While his Uncle assured Jack that he could afford anything Jack desired, Jack was still fortunate he had a company discount for all the work he’d done, and was continuing to do.

He finally decided on a celebrity model in the image of a 21st century celebrity, Gabrielle Miller. Part of her appeal was that she had actually played two separate fembots in 21st century television.

Despite the appeal, he wasn’t fully satisfied with her original appearance, and he wanted to make her his own, so he made a few modifications to her physical appearance: He increased her height by a few centimeters, increased her shoe size by a half size, changed her eye color from blue to green, and increased her breast size from a 34b to a 34c. The aforementioned changes also necessitated several changes in her torso and legs to compensate for the extra weight.

After he finished the physical modifications, it was time to modify her personality. Because he was still a valued freelance developer at Spaztec, he was able to install a highly experimental Level 10 A.I. that wasn’t due to be released until the Mark IIIs, nearly a decade away, on the condition that he help with the development. The experimental A.I., though somewhat glitchy at times, contained the most advanced adaptive personality algorithms Jack had ever seen, allowing Gabby to more accurately conform to Jack’s needs and desires.

Once he had his configuration saved into the online shopping cart, his Uncle paid the exorbitant price. She finally arrived a few days later and not only satisfied Jack's personal needs, but also assisted him with tending to his Uncle until his passing a few months later.

As Jack continued to profit from the business he inherited from his uncle, he also made numerous improvements to Gabby’s hardware, as well as her software. It got to the point where she was so realistic, most people in town couldn’t believe she was an android, and those who were aware of her nature did not treat her like one.

Although her jealousy protocols were a bit of a nuisance, particularly when it came to him working on the other girls, he still found his life fuller with her in it.

“What sort of presents am I getting this time?” Gabby asked, once he had all the connections in place. He could’ve had her remotely access his terminal, but with her he preferred to play it safe, as any damage to her would be extremely expensive to fix.

“Some of the usual,” Jack replied, his eyes fixed on his terminal preparing her updates, “A.I. updates, firmware flashes,” he droned, “I’ve also got a few hardware upgrades for you as well: some new eyes, a few upgraded processors, and an upgraded vagina.”

“Ooh, I can’t wait!” Gabby said excitedly. The lights on her A.I. assembly started blinking more rapidly as her excitement grew, and a few cooling systems kicked into gear.

“Neither can I,” Jack added, thinking about the enhanced vagina, “Alright, you should have access to the software updates now.”

“Checking,” Gabby said, her face zoning out momentarily, “I see them,” she reported. Unlike the other girls, Gabby was programmed to speak more humanly; instead of saying she has access, she instead says that she can see them.

“Good, you can start installing them now.”

“Okay.” The lights in her panel started flashing even more wildly. “I’ll need to reboot in about five minutes.”

“Good, then you’ll have time to help me with a few things,” Jack told her, grabbing a canister with a strange liquid inside, “I noticed your feet were a little drier than usual when I was massaging them earlier,” he said as he approached her, “How’s your perspiration canister doing?”

“It’s got about 3% remaining,” she told him, “But it’s been almost six months since you installed it.”

“I know,” Jack smiled, “I just got this today,” he told her, holding the canister in front of her eyes.”

“Ooh, is that the modified serum?”

“Yes. This stuff is more concentrated, so it should last twice as long.”

“Will any of the updates I’m installing now account for the new concentration?” she asked in a worried tone of voice. She was worried because the serum allowed her perspiration to have a more realistic aroma…a higher concentration would obviously equate to a stronger smell, unless her systems were properly modified to reduce the amount filtered into her perspiration.

“Kinda,” he told her, “The software controlling the new serum is still experimental, so the developers installed a control panel so you can adjust the concentration yourself.”

“Good,” she sighed, “I wouldn’t like my scent to repel you.”

“Neither would I,” Jack assured her, pulling the old canister out and installing the new one, “Alright, the new one’s in, try not to access it until after you reboot.”

“Okay,” she nodded, “I’ll need to reboot in about a minute, dear, is there anything else?”

“I’ll need to replace your ‘stomach’,” he responded, “Hopefully you’ve already converted enough of it into energy,” he said, disengaging her stomach from the digestive system and setting it down.

“Enough,” she shrugged, “The dinner I’m making tonight should fill it back up again.”

“I can’t wait,” Jack smiled, inserting a new stomach, “There, this one should be able to hold about 5% more than the old one.”

“Not much more,” she shrugged, “But…ah, I have to reboot now.”

“Go ahead.”

Gabby merely nodded. Her face went slack as all the systems in her panel that had been humming away suddenly fell silent. There were still a few lights blinking on and off on her A.I. core, but they were doing it in a much more deliberate fashion as the updates installed themselves. After a few minutes, her systems slowly came back online until her face once more had its usual life.

“I’m back,” Gabby smiled, once her systems were back online.

“Good, and what did your post-installation diagnostic tell you?”

“All my systems are fully functional, the software updates have improved my overall efficiency by about 2%, and the new serum is now compatible.”

“Good, these new processors should boost your efficiency by another 5%,” Jack told her, pulling a small case from a nearby cabinet. Inside were about five small processing chips, approximately the size and shape of the fictional isolinear chips on the old Star Trek shows.

“Are you going to shut me down?”

“No, I thought you might enjoy having me hot swap them,” Jack smiled. He knew the only reason she enjoyed being worked on was because she knew he enjoyed working on her. Her adaptive personality detected that he became aroused when he hot swapped things, so it made her enjoy it in order to please him.

“Ooh, I can’t wait,” she said, practically purring. She watched as he reached inside of her and opened the maintenance bay on her A.I. core. The lights in the panel started blinking faster in anticipation of his next move, which was to pull out one of her five sub-processors.

Several lights flashed wildly upon the removal of the still active processor. Gabby jerked a little as well, since several of her active processes were still running through it. Once her systems adapted to the missing processor, she started moaning with pleasure. “Keep going,” she purred.

“As you wish,” he smiled, grabbing another chip and pulling it out. More lights flashed and she jerked even more wildly. If she had been more active, the loss of two chips would seriously impede her functions, but since she was laying stationary on the table, she would have to lose at least one more.

“Keep going,” she managed to say. If she were human, one would say she appeared almost lightheaded…but she was not human.

Jack merely nodded this time, knowing that if he spoke her auditory systems would probably crash her remaining processors. He reached in and pulled out a third processor, this time eliciting a few sparks, and making him recoil his hands. So much power was now flowing through the two remaining processors that the energy was starting to arc between them. Gabby was no longer responsive, her A.I. most likely attempting to resolve the multitude of processing errors that were undoubtedly cropping up.

Jack waited a few moments, knowing enough of her systems were still active to still take pleasure in what was happing to her. Jack finally reached inside of her with protective gloves on, once he saw smoke was starting to rise from her panel. He blew away the smoke with his breath and finally pressed her manual shutdown button.

It took a few moments for the request to make its way through her now fried circuitry, but it finally processed, forcing all her systems to shut down. When they all finally went offline, he was pleased to see her face had frozen with a smile.

Once the smoke cleared, he carefully removed the two remaining, and fried chips…fortunately he stopped before the damage to them became irreversible, because he had every intention of installing them in one lucky employee next Christmas…

Jack made sure all five of the old chips were secure before he carefully inserted the new ones. Before he reactivated her, he had his diagnostic terminal perform a quick sweep of her systems to ensure no damage had occurred.

Jack was more than pleased following his purchase of Gabby. Her experimental A.I. performed more than adequately, with minimal glitches, and she had perfectly adapted to all of his needs within a week; the Mark IIs could take up to a month.

Unlike the other girls, Jack performed monthly, sometimes weekly, maintenance on her, and he gave her bi-annual hardware upgrades in addition to the bi-annual software updates he gave the others. Also, unlike the other girls, Jack could afford to give her all of the optional enhancements, such as realistic scent, digestion, and even hair growth. Since all Jack needed the other girls for was specific pre-programmed tasks, Gabby benefited from the lion’s share of the upgrades and updates to allow her to always function at or above optimal efficiency.

He spent some time caressing her frozen face and body before finally reaching in and reactivating her. It took a bit longer than normal, since she was integrating new processors and because of the hard shutdown, but her systems finally came back online as though nothing were wrong.

“Welcome back, dear,” he smiled down at her.

“Oh, if only you could know what it’s like to experience a good malfunction,” Gabby said, shuddering with delight.

“You never know,” he smiled cryptically, absently eyeing a storage compartment tucked away in one of the corners; it appeared to be filled with components necessary to assemble an android.

“Is that all my presents?” she then asked, not noticing his earlier action.

“No, I have two more for you,” he smiled, turning around and picking up yet another box. This one had an odd baglike device in it with hundreds of fiberoptic cables running from the bag to a computer like assembly at the other end. “Here’s your new vagina,” he told her, holding it in front of her eyes.

“Ooh, is that the one you told me about?” she asked, a blush forming on her cheeks, “The one that…vibrates?”

Jack confirmed her inquiry with a kinky nod and smile.

“We’ll have to test that out later tonight,” she said excitedly.

“I know,” Jack told her, “You’ll probably have to take another shower before we go to bed,”

“Is that a promise?” she asked coquettishly.

“You better believe it,” he laughed.

“Well, why don’t you go ahead and install it already?” she asked with well programmed impatience.

“Alright, alright,” he told her. He carefully set her new vagina on his workbench and then got to work in her torso. The bottommost portion of her panel had the upper portion of her current vaginal unit; it looked nearly identical to the new one. As complicated as the device appeared, he needed only to disengage three releases in various locations before he was able to simply pull it free from her body; the vaginas were obviously designed to be easily replaced.

“That feels weird every single time you do it,” Gabby muttered to herself. From the outside, her pussy still looked as real as ever; the pubic hair was neatly groomed and the lips were closed. The module connected to the musculature just behind the opening, unlike obsolete sexbot models who had the entire section merely pop out.

“I can only imagine,” Jack responded, trying to imagine what it would be like to have his genitals suddenly removed. He placed Gabby’s old vagina in a stasis unit, just in case something happened to the new one. He made equally quick work installing the new one, and he knew the installation was successful when a green light lit up on the diagnostic end.

“That feels much better,” Gabby sighed.

“Good, now I’m going to replace your lubricant canisters and run a quick test,” he told her, reaching in and disengaging two empty canisters on either side. He quickly replaced them with two full ones from a container that was filled with them.

“Did they enhance the concentration on my lubricant as well?” Gabby asked as he inserted them.

“No,” Jack said, “But the stuff is relatively cheap, so I’m not worried,” he smiled. He then grabbed a sexual stimulator from his workbench. “Alright, I’m going to test out your new vagina with this,” he told her, “Don’t forget to activate the vibrating feature.”

“Okay,” she said, and then she squirmed a bit as he inserted it inside her and began pumping it in and out. From the inside of her panel, he could see the bag pulsating from the combined vibration and stimulation. She finally climaxed, using a bit of the lubrication and soaking the device.

“Very good,” he said critically, pulling it out and wiping it off. As he also cleaned her pussy, he noticed that perspiration had begun to form on her skin. “Wow, I can’t believe you worked up a sweat after that,” he laughed.

“I really enjoy being worked on,” she blushed.

“Only because I enjoy working on you,” he smiled.

“You forgot to mention the new vagina is a bit more sensitive,” she added.

Jack blushed. “Oh yeah, well, I was more interested in the vibrating feature.”

“Of course,” Gabby sighed.

“Well, the last present I have for you is a new pair of eyes,” he said, sanitizing his hands and moving up to her head.

“Do you need to remove my head?”

“Not this time,” he sighed regrettably; he loved removing her head, but it wasn’t necessary this time.

“Okay,” she said, sensing his disappointment, “What are the new eyes for?”

“Well, aside from having enhanced facial tracking features and night vision, they also change color,” he told her.

“Change color? What for?”

“Well, it’s a sort of non-invasive diagnostic tool for me,” he told her, “When all your systems are functioning properly, they’ll be their normal shade of green,” he explained, “If you’re low on power, or report a glitch, they’ll turn blue,” he continued, “And if there’s a major issue with your A.I., or if your human emulation is deactivated, they’ll turn amber.”

“Interesting, I figured it would be based on my mood or something.”

“Well, maybe someday when I’ve managed to give you a true human emulation, that will be possible,” he sighed, “Suffice to say I intend on keeping your eyes green.”

“But I already feel so human, at least compared to the other girls,” she complained.

“But you’re still just a collection of programs upon programs,” he told her, “Until that changes, you still aren’t much different from the rest of the androids,” he told her, “Here, I can still control you like this,” he told her, accessing her programs and activating one labeled masturbate.haca.

Gabby immediately started masturbating, continuing until he manually terminated the program.

“I see what you mean,” she sighed regretfully, regaining control of her hands.

“Don’t worry, I still love you even though you’re just a machine,” he smiled, “Anyway, I still need to install your new eyes,” he said, “you know what to do.”

Gabby merely nodded as both her eyes suddenly faded out, the irises and coloration shrinking until they were nothing but white orbs. Jack then put his thumb and pointer in each socket, seeming to press in and allowing the eye lids to open up much wider than was possible for a human. On her metallic skull, in each ocular cavity, were manual releases which he engaged, allowing both her eyes to pop out.

Despite his arousal at working on androids, especially Gabby, Jack still found it disconcerting when he removed their eyes; it made her look dead. Because of this, he made quick work of removing both eyes and replacing them with the upgraded ones. Once they were installed, he returned her eye sockets to normal as she activated them. Slowly, a black pupil appeared and then small slivers of green slowly materialized around it until they spun around, leaving a realistic green iris surrounding it; that turned Jack on.

“Well, how do they feel?” Jack asked her, placing her old eyes in the same box as the new ones.

“About the same,” she shrugged, “I can track your movements a little easier though.”

“Good,” he said, then he looked at a clock on the wall; it showed it was 4:55pm. “Well, that’s all the presents I have for you,” he told her, “What say I put you back together and head back up for dinner.

“Okay,” Gabby said.

She continued lying on the table as Jack lifted her torso panel up and carefully placed it over her body. With practiced precision, he placed it in the correct position and clicked it into place, withdrawing his hands as she resealed it. Once it was sealed, she breathed in and out a few times, allowing her smooth torso to rise up and down; as she did so, perspiration started emerging from various locations, making it seem as though it had never been removed.

Once her systems were fully integrated, she hopped off the table and stretched her lovely body out. “Ah, I feel so much better now,” she sighed, feeling herself up and enjoying the sensations her enhanced processors and updates were allowing her to feel.

“Good to hear, now let’s head up and get dinner ready.”

“Alright, but first…” Gabby said, and she ran up and jumped into his surprised arms, planting a kiss on his face.

As surprised as he was, Jack did manage to hold on to her naked body, returning her kiss with equal gusto. It was at times like this that he forgot that she was just a robot, nevertheless, it was always in his mind…he hoped sometime in the near future it wouldn’t be.

“Alright, get dressed,” he smiled, “I’m sure Henry is starving by now…and now that I mention it, so am I,” Jack laughed, lowering Gabby to her feet.

Gabby merely smiled, efficiently redressing before following him back down the hall and into the second lift.

Chapter 10: Dinner (5pm-8pm)

Jack and Gabby stepped off the lift into the main house moments later. After the door to the lift was secured and obscured, they walked down the hallway and into the kitchen, where Gabby immediately began preparing Christmas dinner. While Gabby worked in the kitchen, Jack walked upstairs to Henry’s room and walked in. Henry was currently playing the video game he had received as a present.

“So, Henry, how’s the game?” Jack asked, sitting down on Henry’s bed next to where he was sitting.

“Awesome Jack! Thanks!” Henry smiled, pausing it and giving Jack a hug.

“Don’t mention it,” Jack smiled back, “With the grades you’ve been getting in school, you earned it!”

“School’s pretty easy,” Henry shrugged off modestly.

“I know,” Jack said, “But even us geniuses have to go through the basic stuff…you never know when it might come in handy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Henry said, “So, did you give Gabby her ‘presents’?” Henry asked with a knowing smile.

“Yep, she really liked them…though one of them is really for me…but you’ll find out more about that stuff when you get a bit older.”

Henry shuddered a bit at that, not wanting to think of the things that adults did. “So, I’ve already learned a lot from you, when do you think I’ll be able to work on Gabby and the others?”

“When you’re a bit older,” Jack promised, “I’m not sure you’re quite ready to work on androids that are anatomically correct yet,” he said, “Especially the female ones,” he added with a wink.

“What about the male ones?” Henry countered.

“Perhaps,” Jack told him somewhat noncommittally, “The male ones aren’t too sought after, unfortunately, but if you want in on a little secret, I’m actually building one of my own.”

“Really?” Henry asked with an excited look, “Who’s it based on?”

“I’m afraid I can’t say just yet, but it isn’t going to be your typical android,” Jack said, “I’m sort of building it from scratch…literally.”

“I see, well I really do hope you’ll let me work on it with you someday.”

“Maybe, I’m sure for some of the systems I’ll need a fresh perspective,” Jack said, “Well, I’ll let you get back to your game now,” he said, getting up from the bed and patting Henry’s shoulder, “Dinner will be in about an hour and a half. Gabby’s preparing the food right now.”

“I can’t wait,” Henry said, resuming his game as Jack headed out and back downstairs.

Jack took a quick peek inside the kitchen to check Gabby’s progress. She was humming a relaxing tune while preparing several food products on the cutting board, while a few pots and pans were warming up on the stove. It was at times like these that Jack was glad he invested in good cooking software for her.

With nothing else to do, Jack merely sat back down in his favorite chair and loaded a nostalgic show.

As Jack continued to watch his show and enjoy the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen, he was suddenly aware of a knocking sound coming from his front door. “Must be Mrs. Ellison,” he thought to himself; even though he had a buzzer, she was old-fashioned and still insisted on knocking.

As Jack got up to answer the door, he glanced at the clock on the wall; it was a little past 6pm. He quickly opened the door to see Mrs. Ellison standing on the doorstep.

“Hello Jack, may I come in?” she asked in her sweet voice.

“Certainly,” Jack said, allowing her to come in, “Gabby’s cooking dinner, if you want to join us,” he offered, showing her in to the dining room.

“No thank you, I’ve eaten already,” she smiled, sitting down at the dining room table, “Though whatever she’s cooking sure smells good,” she added, “Hey Gabby!”

“Hello, Mrs. Ellison!” Gabby called back, still cooking dinner.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Jack asked as he sat down opposite her, handing her a glass of water.

“I just had dinner with my family and, after talking it over with them, they’ve agreed it’s a good idea that I sell the motel to you and come and retire with them,” she told him, “Apparently, they’ve actually been hoping I might retire for several years now, ever since my husband died,” she added with an odd smile.

“Well, I must admit, you haven’t been running the place as…efficiently since he passed.”

“I know, but for a while, I figured that place was all that was keeping me going, but perhaps it is time for me to finally slow down and just relax with all my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren,” she laughed, “Oh, I almost forgot, I even have a great-great-grandchild on the way.”

“Wow! I hope I have as many...descendants when I’m as old as you,” Jack mused.

“Well, that might be difficult, considering your wife is an android,” she said a bit delicately.

“Well, there’s still Henry, plus, I like to think of my employees as my family,” Jack said defensively.

“Don’t worry, I was only teasing,” she laughed.

“So, when does the transfer of ownership become official?” Jack asked, excited at finally being able to expand his uncle’s business.

“On January 1,” she answered, “I need time to pack my things, and release my one remaining employee, and I’m sure you’ll need the time to prepare a few of your androids to run the place.”

“Amongst other things,” Jack said, “I’ve already prepared a few retrofits to improve a few things.”

“I see Morty taught you well.”

“He did,” Jack said modestly.

“Well, my family is still over, so I’d best be going,” Mrs. Ellison said, setting her glass of water down and getting to her feet, “Good luck with the motel,” she said, reaching out her hand.

“Thanks,” Jack smiled, taking her hand and shaking it.

“My lawyer will be over in the morning with the paperwork for us to sign. Until then, Merry Christmas,” she said, and with that, she turned and left.

“That sounded like good news,” Gabby said conversationally, most of her attention still on the dinner.

“It most certainly was dear,” Jack said, walking up and surprising her with a kiss on the cheek, “I got the motel!” he said gleefully, doing a little happy dance.

“Oh sweetie, I’m so happy for you!” Gabby said with genuine enthusiasm; her programming came to the conclusion that, with the motel, there would be more money for future upgrades.

“Uncle Mortimer would be so proud of me!”

“So, dear, should I break out one of the special vintages tonight in celebration?” Gabby suggested.

“Good idea, dear!” Jack said, giving her another kiss, “How about the 2052?” he said, after giving it some thought, “Uncle Mortimer bought it when he first opened the shop and told me he was saving it for such an occasion.”

“I’ll get it right away and put it on ice,” Gabby said. She then made sure the food was at a safe temperature before heading to an unobtrusive looking wall in the hall just outside the kitchen. She placed her palm on a hidden hand scanner and then stepped back as that part of the wall swung in, revealing a cold, dark room at the bottom of a staircase. It was a wine cellar his uncle had built and he had quite a collection of both rare and unusual vintages. Gabby disappeared into the darkness for a few moments before returning with an aged bottle of expensive champagne.

“Ah, I’m glad it was still in there,” Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief, “I wasn’t sure if I had already had it with him.”

“No, you had the ‘62’ with him,” Gabby reminded him, resealing the cellar and getting an ice pale ready.

“Oh, that’s right,” Jack said, “I’m glad you remembered.”

“How could I forget?” she asked him, placing the bottle in the bucket of ice and returning to where Jack was still standing, “You had it to toast my arrival in your lives.”

“Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long,” Jack said, thinking back. It was a happy occasion when he first activated Gabby…most parents, or guardians, would have insisted their son look for a human woman, but Uncle Mortimer knew that the only woman Jack could ever live happily with was an artificial one.

“Well, this is a much better occasion than that, even I have to admit,” Gabby said, snapping him back to the present; she had already resumed cooking their meal.

“It most certainly is,” Jack agreed, “So, is dinner almost ready?”

Gabby paused a moment as her systems analyzed the food she was cooking, “It’ll be ready around 7.”

“Well then, I’ll be out in the front room watching my show,” he told her, planting one more kiss on her cheek before returning to his chair.

Dinner was ready at seven, just as Gabby had estimated. They all sat down at the table and toasted to Christmas, and to Jack’s recent acquisitions. Jack was in such good spirits that he even allowed Henry to try a small sip of the good stuff, knowing this was probably the only opportunity he’d have to try a rare vintage like this. Even Gabby had some, since her advanced systems could emulate drunkenness.

Gabby had cooked a delicious meal this year, with the main course being goose. This was her first time cooking it, but, as usual, she did a great job.

After dinner, from which all of them were stuffed, they headed into the living room to finally open all of their presents.

Despite Gabby already receiving presents in the form of upgrades, Jack still got her some ordinary presents, that is, presents a real woman would expect: clothes, jewelry, knick-knacks. The Housewife models did have a few vanity subroutines after all, to make them all the more realistic.

Henry got a few more video games, as well as technical manuals on some of the more basic androids, robots, and computers he was interested in repairing.

Jack got a few tools he’d been interested in to assist him with his usual repairs, as well as new clothes, and a new smartwatch.

They all spent a few more minutes enjoying each other’s company and watching a short Christmas special on TV before getting ready to split.

“Hey honey, there’s one more present I need to give you,” Gabby said as the special was ending, glancing towards the bedroom with a wink.

“Oh, I see,” Jack smiled knowingly.

“I’ll head upstairs now,” Henry said knowingly as well, shutting the TV off and running up the stairs. His TV turned on…a little louder than usual.

Jack and Gabby merely smiled as they headed into the bedroom.

Chapter 11: Nighttime Routine (8pm-Midnight)

Over the next couple hours, Jack and Gabby got full enjoyment from the enhancements he had made to her systems a few hours earlier; Jack got particular enjoyment from the new vibration feature of her vaginal systems.

After what seemed like forever, but was actually two hours, Jack and Gabby finally decided to stop for the night. They rested in each other’s arms, catching their breath, and letting their hearts slow back down, or rather, Jack’s heart needed to slow down while Gabby’s processors had to cool down.

“Oh no, I think you broke the vibrator dear,” Gabby said, leaning in and giving him a kiss.

“Don’t worry sweetheart,” Jack smiled, kissing her back, “I can fix it, and if not, it’s still under warranty.”

“Oh, you’re so funny dear,” Gabby laughed, “I can’t remember a time you’ve ever had to rely on the warranty for anything.”

Jack laughed with her at that statement. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” He then slowly got out of the bed and put his clothes back on. “Why don’t you freshen up while I check on the shop?”

“Alright dear,” Gabby agreed, also rising from the bed. After giving Jack a quick peck on the cheek, she headed into their bathroom and started the water in the tub for her evening soak. It was during these soaks that she replenished her body’s supply of artificial body odor, mixed with her usual perfume.

On his way out, he took a quick peek in Henry’s room; Henry had gone to sleep already. Jack could only smile as he watched Henry sleep, wondering what the little genius was dreaming about. While Gabby was able to keep Henry well fed and safe when she went out with him, only Jack was able to cultivate Henry’s skyrocketing intellect, and Henry had some pretty interesting ideas when it came to cybernetics. Some of his ideas were so compelling that Jack was considering testing them on Gabby one day…at least, once he fully understood them.

Jack finally closed Henry’s door and headed down the stairs. He put his jacket back on, since it had once again gotten very cold outside, and trudged his way through the snow to the shop. The lights were already off, since Rachel had shut the shop down for the day, but Jack still liked to come in and make sure that all of his girls were properly plugged in for the night. Jack still remembered the time Sarah and Kat had malfunctioned and forgotten to plug themselves in…he and Gabby ended up having to fill in for them, and he hated working the register and actually dealing with customers.

Jack made his way into the office through the rear entrance. Rachel was sitting passively behind her desk, with her charging cable plugged into her back. “Good girl,” Jack smiled, leaning down and planting a kiss on her sleeping lips. He shuddered a bit though when he saw her eyes were still open. “I’ll have to fix that,” he muttered to himself, walking over to the loading dock doors and ensuring that Kat was safely plugged in.

After ensuring Kat was safely plugged in, he gave her a quick kiss before heading out into the main store. The place was dark, yet clean and ready for the rush of customers coming in the next day. Both Sarah and Serriah were plugged in and charging in the cash wrap, though they looked a bit crowded in there.

Jack gave Sarah a quick kiss before turning to Serriah, his newest android. “Don’t worry Serriah, soon you’ll have your own charging station,” he whispered to her dormant body before planting a gentle kiss on her lips.

Once Jack was sure all of his girls were safely plugged in, he did one final check to ensure the security systems were functioning properly and then he left the shop to return to the house.

By the time Jack returned to his bedroom, Gabby was out of her evening bath and now resting comfortably in their bed in her usual nightwear, reading up on the latest housekeeping tips on her tablet.

“Are your girls safely tucked in?” Gabby asked, looking up the instant he crossed the threshold of their room.

“Yes, dear,” Jack said, closing their door and slowly stripping his clothes. Once he was in his nightwear, he crawled into the bed next to Gabby and then took a sip of water from the cup she had made ready for him while he was out. He wiped his mouth, shut off his bedside light, and then turned to her. “Are you ready to sleep dear?”

“Yes,” Gabby replied, quickly turning off her tablet and placing it on her nightstand. Jack knew she would be ready, but he still asked her just as a formality. She shut off her bedside light and then made herself more comfortable. “Merry Christmas Jack,” Gabby then said, rolling over and giving him a deep kiss.

“Merry Christmas Gabby,” Jack replied, returning the kiss. Once they broke apart, they both got more comfortable and prepared to fall asleep.

It was more accurate to say that Jack prepared to fall asleep, as Gabby, being an android, was able to merely activate the proper sleep programs and fall ‘asleep’ instantly. To the un-observant eye, it would appear that Gabby was indeed asleep, and in a small way she was. Her personality was asleep, but Jack knew all too well that her complex A.I. was still hard at work, and this sleeping façade was merely one of a multitude of programs running to make Gabby appear as human like as possible.

“Perhaps one day you’ll be much more than just a collection of programs,” Jack thought to himself, then he gave her one last kiss and fell asleep with a content look on his face.

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The Small Business Chronicles continue in The Repair Shop - Part 1

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The Small Business Chronicles

Season One Closed for Christmas - The Shop | The Repair Shop - Part 1 | Off-season - The Motel | The Repair Shop - Part 2 | Slow day - The Cafe | The Small Business - End-of-Year Review

Season Two Homefront - The House | The Repair Shop - Part 3 | Green Thumb - The Greenhouse | The Repair Shop - Part 4 | The Doctor is in - The Clinic | More Help at Last - The Backups