FembotWiki - User contributions [en]

User:Natalie Bayer

2026-07-22T23:08:43Z

Natalie Bayer:

Greetings friends!

I'm just your friendly local fembot enjoy and admin on both FembotWiki and Fembot Central. I'm usually open to commissions (mostly short stories and on occasion longer works.) You can message me on Discord (LittleRobotNatalie) or send me an email (nataliebayer7@gmail.com)
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What, you wanna know more about me? Uh...ok let's see...Fast facts!

1. I have been in this kink for upwards of 30 years!

2. I used to go by the name Evil_boo which was a reference to Balders Gate (the one from 1998..) which is why I always used a hamster in a space helmet.

3. I'm kind of a big deal around this place...you can't see it but I am gesturing to my small office with just me in it.

4. I actively play the worlds most well loved tabletop RPG and have run several games on my own.

5. One time I 3D printed a whole sword.
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Anyway, if you wanna look at the lewd robot manips I have made, go here:
https://www.fembotwiki.com/index.php?title=Natalie_Bayer

If you wanna read some robot stories, go here:
https://www.fembotwiki.com/index.php?title=Stories/Natalie_Bayer

File:20220108-075447.png

2026-07-22T23:06:43Z

Natalie Bayer:

Model: @Kairannosaurus_rekt

[[Category:Photo manipulation]]
[[Category:Access panel]]

Main Page

2026-07-10T16:35:41Z

Natalie Bayer:

<center>
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||[[Image:Nav-stories.png|20px|link=Stories]] <big>'''[[Stories]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[Hellhound-Poundhound|6.27.26 - New Chapter: ''Hellhound-Poundhound'']]'''</big>||[[Image:Nav-help.png|20px|link=Help:Contents]] <big>'''[[Help:Contents|Help]]'''
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|[[File:Nav-list2.png|20px|link=Reviews]] <big>'''[[Index of articles]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[Joyce's Anniversary|6.26.26 - New Story: ''Joyce's Anniversary'']]'''</big>||[[Image:Nav-sandbox.png|20px|link=Sandbox]] <big>'''[[Sandbox]]'''
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|[[Image:Nav-list.png|20px|link=Master list of ASFR]] <big>'''[[Master list of ASFR|ASFR Master List]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[Kelly & Trent|6.24.26 - New Chapter: ''Kelly & Trent'']]'''</big>||[[Image:Nav-upload.png|20px|link=Special:UploadWizard]] <big>'''[[Special:UploadWizard|Upload Files]]'''
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|[[Image:Nav-fyop.png|20px|link=Commissions]] <big>'''[[Commissions]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[The Carnival|6.21.26 - New Chapter: ''The Carnival'']]'''</big>||<big>[[Image:Nav-recent.png|20px|link=Special:Recentchanges]] '''[[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]]'''
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|[[Image:Nav-manip.png|20px|link=Photo manipulation workshop]] <big>'''[[Photo manipulation workshop|Photo Workshop]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[Space Crisis|6.12.26 - New Chapter: ''Space Crisis'']]'''</big>||[[Image:Nav-unused.png|20px|link=Special:Unusedimages]] <big>'''[[Special:Unusedimages|Unused Files]]'''
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|[[Image:Nav-story.png|20px|link=Story writing workshop]] <big>'''[[Story writing workshop|Writing Workshop]]''' ||[[Image:Nav-star.png|20px]] <big>'''[[The Rehab Clinic|6.12.26 - New Chapter: ''The Rehab Clinic'']]'''</big>||<big>[[Image:Nav-newimages.png|20px|link=Special:Newimages]] '''[[Special:Newimages|New Files]]'''
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<div class="fw-subtitle"> <b> [[GirlieGirl1985|Featured Artist - July: GirlieGirl1985]]
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{| class="aom-table" cellspacing="0"
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<div align="center"><big>'''Featured Author - July'''</big><br>
'''[[Stories/AlyssaBot|AlyssaBot]]'''<br>
Stories: 4

Story of the week:<br>
'''[[Something Borrowed, Something Blew]]'''

<small>View past [[Author of the Month Archive|Author's of the Month]]</small>

| width="75%" style="background:#ffbb96" class="aom-right" cellpadding="5" |
“Yes Marie, if you would please tell our audience what you are?”

She nodded before looking directly at the camera and smiling a wide, winning smile; the kind that Eric imagined had launched the one thousand ships for the Trojan war ... but that might have been the fatigue and drunkenness talking. “Of course Phil. Let me tell the audience what I am. I am an example of the latest Parallel Pinup Marie IV model, released just this year. I am equipped with advanced learning algorithms capable of understanding my partner, and anticipating his or her needs over time. The Marie IV supports all of the latest apps available on the Pinup App Store by leveraging the cutting-edge Provocateur runtime v1.4! A huge step up over 1.3, Marie IV’s (such as myself) bring performance and operational time gains of up to 22% over previous models such as the Petunia VII and the Tamara II.”

Eric could barely follow what was being said ... runtime? Performance? Algorithm? What? He worked ads, but this was ... who was paying for this? What channel was he on? He almost flipped it to something else, maybe something he could fall asleep to like holo-golf when the camera zoomed out of Marie’s face and showed Phil the salesman ... massaging Marie’s breasts through her dress?

When did he end up accidentally watching weird-ass porn?
|}
<br />
FembotWiki is maintained by members of [http://www.fembotcentral.net Fembot Central] and [https://discordservers.com/server/374871045410127882 Fembot Labs].

Want to become a member? [[mailto:SpazFembotWiki@gmail.com| Contact us!]]

__NOTOC__
__NOCACHE__

Gallery/The Outer Limits

2026-07-10T16:14:25Z

Natalie Bayer:

=[[The Outer Limits (1995)]]=
==[[Valerie 23]]==
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===Animated===
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===Miscellaneous images & production stills===
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</gallery>

==Resurrection==
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==Glitch==
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===Animated===
[[File:Glitch.gif]]

==Mary 25==
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==Mona Lisa==
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[[Gallery|← Gallery]]

[[Category:T.V.]]
[[Category:Vidcaps]]
[[Category:Built vidcaps]]
[[Category:Built:Copied Human vidcaps]]
[[Category:The Outer Limits]]
[[Category:Nudity]]

Space Crisis

2026-06-12T17:23:32Z

Natalie Bayer:

<div style="float:left, top">__TOC__</div>
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==Chapter One==

Every generation looks towards a nebulous “future” with hopes and dreams. Even the term “future” holds a certain kind of romantic undertone that strikes many in a particular way. The future is where things will be better, society will have figured itself out, politics and wars will be easy and smooth. Everything will be washed in a fresh coat of glimmering white paint. Depending on the era one was born in, the nebulous future looked very different.

In the early parts of the twentieth century the future showed the average citizen wearing ostentatious clothes and boarding air-cars and flying to work where electronics typewriters would generate their reports for them. Time marched on, and those air cars and typewriters became something different entirely.

The concept of a vehicle for transport was replaced by dreams of personal jetpacks to fly to the office where conveyor belts would courier you to your desk where you could write your reports in peace. Food was in pill form and swallowed for efficiency sake. Glass domes capped soaring towers and people looked to the stars, thinking that out there among the inky dark and the shimmering stars was humanity's future.

As the twenty-first century rolled into place, the stars were still in our eyes. It was slow at first, the crawl towards space, but humanity never stopped. Slowly, for certain, at times when short sighted politicians and the meddling wealth of billionaires yanked our heads down to earth, but it was always there, always a goal to leave this planet and see what was out there.

Future generations would never be quite sure what finally did it. Some would speculate that we, as a species, finally did it. Finally brought our planet to its knees and could only look upward as a means of escape. Others would claim that it was all a misunderstanding, yes things got bad but that's when we united, buried the hatchet, and started to fly. In reality, it was somewhere in the middle. Earth, as a planet, was drying up. Ages of abuse and uncaring had left it crippled and if we stayed then the whole ecosystem would collapse, and the human race with it.

The human race had done damage to the planet, and the ecology was harmed to the point that it would never recover to the state it was in before. But that isn’t how environments work, and as time marched forward, plants evolved. Soil that was toxic became the perfect home for new and changing plants. By then, though, humanity had realized what they had done and the race was on.

The mentality of “scatter” was on everyone’s mind. Get off of this planet as soon as we can, because time is officially up!

It wasn’t though. People fled the planet in droves, those with money first and then those who could realistically be of use for the future of mankind, and anyone without deep enough pockets were left behind. Which, as it turned out, wasn’t so bad.

Earth recovered, in time. It was hard, and harsh, but it happened. New flowers bloomed where others would have died. Life swelled and humanity continued onward as it always did. Other planets had opened up with the advent of new technologies. Near light speed travel was looming on the horizon, but until we got there, high performance engines were fitted to starships. Artificial intelligence grew and matured into an ever faithful companion rather than the harbinger of doomsday. The coat of white paint was there, dingey in places, and showing signs of wear and tear, but it was there.

New planets offered hope as well. New resources and minerals ripe for extraction and use. Their unearthly properties may very well hold the keys to a brighter future for everyone. Centuries passed along and the discovery of new resources was always the driving factor. There was and always would be, a need for more. Along with it, came the need for someone to do the work to harvest it.

The wealthy need not dirty their unworked hands with such labors. Their hands were trained only to flick dollar bills at those who had the sturdy constitution to do an honest day's work. The conundrum was that none of those kinds of people lived on the shining planet spanning cities of far flung planets. They lived on Earth, or Dorma, or Curtis3, or any number of other planets that the human race had begun to settle on.

The cycle was always the same. Astronomers would sight a planet that could sustain life, and probes were sent out to confirm those suspicions. Was there an atmosphere? Was the gravity earth like? How was the soil? If everything looked to be within the habitable zone, then expedition teams were sent to confirm what the data indicated.

Expeditions were the job of a lifetime, if you qualified to be on a team. It wasn’t as simple as passing a few job interviews and flashing a bright smile. The future was placed squarely on the shoulders of expedition teams. They needed to be strong, self reliant, smart, and resourceful. They needed to know what to look for, how to find it, how to recognize and analyze it. Even then, they would drop onto the planet with practically nothing and survive there until it could be either confirmed or denied that the planet was viable.

Teams were made up of a few dozen members, the best and the brightest, and then they were loaded into a ship and sent off. Leaving behind human civilization in favor of a planet where they would inevitably be at the bottom of the food chain.

It had worked though. So many planets were discovered and colonized by cells of humans, led by a handful of people who landed and conquered the land. Nature itself bent to the will and the hands of accomplished explorers. Once a planet was marked safe, then the industrial complex would arrive. Great ships loaded with machines and tools and experts. Cities were built and seemed to rise out of the ground like some undead thing clawing its way out of the ground. They were something wholly alien to the planet and they clung to the ground they were nestled on like a leech.

Once a human city was there, it was never going away. Then the drills came out and dug even deeper into the ground. Sapping the planet for resources and building more. Human’s were the ultimate self replicating organism on any planet.

Bleak though the practice seemed in a vacuum, it was how life happened. A flower's entire purpose is to grow, produce its fruit, and spread its seed far afield. Fruit looked bright and succulent so that animals would eat it and transport the seeds away, letting them grow in a new place where the parent plant wouldn’t be deprived of the resources. Likewise, viruses swept into the body, not with a mission to destroy the host, but rather to simply continue its own existence. The host was merely a vessel, chalked full of resources.

Human expansion was every bit as natural as the blooming flowers or the sailing virus, riding on a mote of fluid in the air.

Trent and Monica’s home on Curtis3 was in a state of elated chaos. There was a roil of joy and delight in the air. The kind of raw happiness that comes with a once in a lifetime event that will invariably change someone’s life, forever.

Trent’s hands were shaking as if he were chilled to his very core, but his body felt hot all at once. He had only read the first line of the letter from the Inter Galactic Coalition of Human Exploration. The Coalition, as it was more colloquially known, was the governing organization that had oversight into vetting and organizing a team of deep space explorers. When a new planet was found, The Coalition was the body that investigated and analyzed it.

They were the organization that Trent had served, faithfully, for ages. He had passed his preliminary examinations, performed well in his physical and mental evaluations, and with the final submission of his psychological evaluation, all he had been doing was waiting. Waiting for the test results, waiting for a planet to be discovered, waiting for his life to finally fly into the stars. He was waiting on his future, and here it was, in his hands.

“Trenton Almay.” He read to his wife, beaming at him from their kitchen table. “It is our great pleasure to extend to you the honor of joining surveillance team three three seven nine bound for the planetary body blah blah blah.”

He looked up, the grin on his face was unmistakable. This was it, they had made it. The somewhat small house they had lived in for the last two years would be sold back to The Coalition and they would be off of the planet. His eyes drifted back down to the page.

“Due to the nature of the planetoid we will require you…make this expedition..without your family…”

He looked up from the page and met Monica’s eyes. She looked just as shocked as he felt.

“We- You don’t have to take this assignment..” She trailed off. She knew. They did need it, and he would take it.

“I’d be out there for almost five years without you and the kids.” He said.

“Yeah..”

“But-”

“But it’s worth it.” She finished his thought for him. He wasn’t going to be able to say it out loud anyway.

Five years. Jeff would be out of schooling, depending on the timing Aria would be too, though only barely. Melody would be in her early twenties. It was a long time, but..it was worth it. Monica looked up at her husband and nodded.

“We’ll make it work. Don’t worry, we’ll get out to you once things are settled.” Monica said, and stood from the table and stepped into a hug with her husband.

They had been through so much already, and this would just be one more thing. Not that there was any regret there, it was just another notch in the belt. Trent had been there for her, when she was sick, through the doctors appointments, through the remission, through the resurfacing and treatments. The very least she could do is sit and wait patiently until she could rejoin him. The kids would understand too, maybe not like it, but it would be alright. Interstellar communications were getting more and more reliable, so they could send messages and hear back from him in a shorter time.

They held one another for a long time, neither wanted to be the first to separate. It was Monica though that gently squeezed into her husband and separated. Her mouth pressed into a hard line. She looked at him, nodded once and turned back to the kitchen table. Her purse was there, ready and waiting for her. She was only a minute or two away from leaving when the mail had arrived, and now it was time to go.

Melody, her eldest daughter, appeared by the front door. She was dressed fairly blandly. A pair of simple jeans, shin high boots and a somewhat elegant looking button up blouse. Her fiery red hair still holding strong at her shoulders. She seemed to like it trimmed and held there. She argued that it looked nice and framed her face, but Monica suspected it was to emphasize the black choker she had started wearing around her throat.

Despite the all-knowing teenager act that she normally put forth, she was clearly nervous today. Her hands fidgeted a bit and then eventually thrust themselves into her pockets while she waited for her mother. Monica strode towards her, a smile that attempted to exude some measure of comfort and confidence on her face.

Melody was only sixteen, the same age Monica was when she went to the doctor for similar symptoms. She prayed to whatever was out there in the cosmos that whatever Melody was experiencing was just a fluke illness, or allergies to the strange plant life on Curtis3, or anything..anything else…

Trent and Monica lay in bed. Trent wore a pair of boxers and nothing else. Monica opted for a silky night gown that left nothing to imagination. Nothing would be happening tonight, neither would be in the mood.

“The same genetic markers?” Trent confirmed. Monica nodded as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling.

“It will manifest more and more as she goes on. The doctors suspect by the time she’s in her early twenties that it will be inoperable.” Monica closed her eyes, pressing them together hard, as if that might squeeze the genetic anomaly out of Melody. “With my history, they are recommending the same treatment.”

“Isn’t she a little..young..for that?” Trents concern was unmistakable. No, it wasn’t concern, it was terror.

“She is too young, she can’t consent to it yet, and the doctors said there might be a small chance that it could clear itself up.”

“But you just said-”

“I know-” Monica interrupted. “But she was reacting a little differently than I did to the medication. It’s come a long way in the years since I had my treatment.”

Trent nodded. His eyes turned to look at his wife. She still looked so young and vibrant. Her treatment had worked well for her, he couldn’t imagine having to put little Melody through it.

“Maybe she’ll get through it.” Monica commented, opening her eyes and turning to meet Trent’s gaze.

“Maybe.” He said, nodding. “Maybe.”

Trent hated that he wouldn’t be there for Monica, or Melody, as they worked through the medications and treatments. She would be a different person by the time he got to see her again. All of them would be. He slung his pack over his shoulder and looked at the family he was leaving behind. Melody and Monica, looking more and more like one another every single day. His son, Jeff, just barely fourteen, now the man of the house. Scruffy looking hair and a body that was gangly and still growing. He would be fully a man in five years when Trent got to see him again. Little Aria too, thirteen and starting to grow into that rebellious streak that Melody was just leaving. She looked cute, and bored. She didn’t want her daddy to leave, but understood why he had to. She thought that maybe not looking at him would make it easier, or maybe it was because she didn’t want him to see her crying.

He kissed Monica one last time, hugged his children, and then he was gone. Out the door and towards the waiting transport there. It glimmered in the sun, smeared in white paint. There wasn’t even a layer of dust on it. It was either new or unused. Trent could have rambled about its construction for ages. He always did have a good mind for machines and electronics, it had served him well. It was his technical skills that had won him a ticket onto the exploration team in the end. There was enough technology and on the fly repairs that needed to be done on a fresh planet that every team needed as much technical know-how as possible.

The family of five split into a family of one, and a family of four that day. Trent raised a single hand to wave, and then the transport was off. Whining as the propulsion engines whisked him away from the little house he had called home. Leaving Monica to manage everything until they too got their letter that it was time to board their own star ship and rejoin him.

There was a definitive emptiness in the house. It started when Trent had left, and it lingered. It was in the air, in the walls. It could easily be felt at all times. Monica seemed to be the most capable of shoving it from her mind, and stepped up to be the pillar her children clung to. Particularly Melody.

She was so young, but acting so mature. There were more and more visits to the clinic that the pair went through, at least for another year. On Melody’s eighteenth birthday she was eligible for the same treatment regimen that her mother had been forced to undergo. A choice she was assured she still had plenty of time to decide on, though for a still young woman it weighed heavily on her shoulders. Still, even she put on a brave face for the sake of her younger siblings.

Jeff and Aria, a few years younger than Melody, seemed to be taking the absence of their father in stride. Aria, the youngest, soon began the same kind of haughty rebellious streak that resulted in so many self-expressive ways. Monica squashed the ones that might morph into anything destructive, and let slide those that seemed like a simple act to try and thumb her nose at her one remaining parent. The result was a short bob style haircut, much like Melody had worn when their father left, though she insisted on dying it a wild lavender color.

Monica could only smirk to herself. If that was the worst that Aria could muster to try and get under her mother’s skin, then everything would be perfectly fine.

Jeff, like most boys hurtling into the end of their teenage years, secluded himself most of the time. Choosing to spend his time in his room, tinkering idly with the small amount of technology his father had left for him. He was no savant, but he managed to disassemble and successfully reassemble some of the old equipment that had been left behind. Moreover, he managed to get it working again..after a few failed attempts.

Jeff was old enough to know what was coming though. Aria might still live in a small amount of blissful ignorance, but Jeff was well aware that once the communication came through that the new planet had been bent to humanity's will, that they would be packing up their small home here and moving. Not just to a new neighborhood or even a new land mass, but leaving the planet. Friends, familiar faces, the comfort of the place he had grown up, all of it would be gone in the flames of a rocket taking their ship to orbit.

“But you get to go to space!” His friends said in vain attempts to cheer him up. Their small holographic avatars pacing around or sitting on a non-existent floor.

Jeff lay on his bed, his own camera mounted to a computer and pointed at him while a flurry of light beams recreated his friend's avatars.

“And we can still send one another vid-coms.” another one said.

“Cool, I can't wait to get a vid-com of my friends six days after they sent it.” Jeff lamented.

Despite wild advancements in communications technology, there was little science could do to overcome the sheer distance between planets. Light only traveled so fast and so far in a single measurement of time. Jeff knew as much, and he knew his friends also knew it. They were every bit as disappointed as Jeff was, but his father was going to be on the team that colonized a new planet and that was something worth bragging about.

Jeff didn’t feel like bragging. He felt like sulking. He remained on the vid-com for a little while longer, idly chatting with his friends, but it soon became clear that he had disengaged from the conversation. Within half an hour he had bid them farewell and lay on his bed.

It was quiet now, the day already mostly over, and his sisters were in their rooms, his mother in hers. Jeff was certain that he was the only soul in the house who was awake at the moment, a revelation that only hammered home how lonely he was. With a sigh he grabbed his blanket and pulled it tighter around him and drifted slowly off to sleep.

Five and a half years had passed. Monica’s little family had grown into a healthy and beautiful collection of adults. Monica had changed little in that time, looking youthful as always and keeping a perpetual smile on her face. It was that same smile that had helped keep the family together in both good times and bad. Darkness seemed to shy away from that radiant display.

Jeff, now nineteen and Melody, into her early twenties, sat side by side in the uncomfortable chairs in the amphitheater. They were made from wood, a rare commodity in an era where plastics and synthetics made up every little thing. If it didn’t have some scrap of technology or polymer in it, then it was considered “classic” or “retro”. So the wooden creak of all natural material below Jeff sounded, somehow, out of place.

Aria’s school graduation was a small affair. Her private school accepted only a few members of society, generally those who had parents that did something for the betterment of the community, or who had enough money. Trent’s acceptance into the exploration league had landed Aria in a great school, an offer that neither Jeff nor Melody had been able to benefit from.

Two dozen or so parents and families were arrayed around the small stage, also constructed of wood, and waited as names were called one after the other. Aria wasn’t difficult to pick out of the crowd. She had decided to keep her bright lavender hair and every time it grew out enough to show her roots it was immediately re-colored to match. It was more than fitting, her bright hair matched her equally bright personality. The joke among family and friends was that Aria’s favorite activity was smiling.

Jeff had had his time to be dour and depressed. Into his early adulthood now though, he seemed to be dragging himself out of that. There were still those times when darkness would swirl up and consume his mind, but they were less often and lasted a day or two instead of weeks or months. Likewise, it had been almost two years since Melody had begun her treatment, and the happy news that it was working well was more than enough to help Jeff in those times.

The thought of losing another family member had been a real concern to Jeff. Melody and Monica had both assured him that the treatment she would undergo had improved by leaps and bounds since Monica had undergone it. Medical reports were promising, and her body was taking to the treatment well. The genetic scourge that was in her seemed to be shrinking away and disappearing piece by piece. Only a few months ago Melody had been given a clean bill of health and she had been deemed free of the disease. Though, all eyes now turned to Aria.

Regular check ups had, thus far, turned up nothing at all. By Monica and Melody’s eighteenth birthday they had already been showing more than enough genetic markers to be diagnosed, and Aria, now eighteen as well, was showing none. Perhaps there was some hope yet.

The ceremony ended, Aria smiled as always and accepted her graduation papers. The groaning of a sea of wooden chairs filled the air and a round of applause for the newly graduated class filled the outdoor amphitheater. Aria made her way towards her family, wading through a sea of other families and their graduates. No one noticed the two men standing at the edge of the ceremony, just waiting, silently. Dressed formally, they fit into the crowd of onlookers.

Once the ceremony had ended though, and families clumped together, hugged, and congratulated one another, the two men made their move. Walking casually down the grassy hill that led to the rounded amphitheater. Soon they stood before Monica and her family. There didn’t need to be any words passed between them, the manilla envelope they held was enough.

It was an odd thing. In an age of incredible technological advancements, paper was a rarity. Real paper, made from soaked and pressed wood fibers. It was a luxurious item. It was the kind of thing that only something important was printed on. Vid-com’s were cheap and as soon as the message was heard, it was gone a day or two later, lost to the automated processes that cleansed the stored messages from servers and infrastructure.

Paper, though. Paper lasted. Paper couldn’t just be deleted from a server somewhere. You could hold it in your hand and look at it tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or next decade.

“Congratulations.” One of the two men said. He knew what was in the envelope. He nodded to Monica, turned and left.

“Mom?” Aria asked.

Monica had opened the envelope and her eyes were rapidly scanning over the words. She wasn’t crying or letting a solemn tear roll down her cheek. That was enough to help put her children’s fears at ease. Their father wasn’t dead, and this wasn’t some condolences letter from the Coalition. It was something else.

With a sigh Monica folded up the paper, carefully sliding it back into the envelope and smiling. Not the kind of smile she had been wearing. It didn’t speak of a need to be strong, or encouragement to persevere. This was a genuine smile, it was joyful and pleasant. It radiated the kind of contained sunshine that Aria had.

“It’s from your father.” Monica said. “The colony is ready for the first wave of settlers.”

Despite the peals of joy from around the amphitheater a small bubble of silence settled over the family. It was time. They were going to space.

==Chapter Two==

In the past, selling your house would have been a hassle. You had to have some place to go once an offer was made, and timing became a shuffle of one family leaving and another moving in. There was paperwork, on actual paper, and stress. Monica and her family had only to box up their possessions, point the moving drones at their crated possessions, and walk away. The government handled the rest of the transactions from there.

Jeff wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of leaving his home planet for another one. Though, the idea that this would be the last time he needed to move was an encouragement. He was young still, and friendships came easier. Particularly in the smaller community they would settle in. The romanticized idea of a frontier town flitted through his mind, conjuring up images of ancient cowboys on beasts, fighting off natives and living a hard but satisfying life under the stars.

In reality, Jeff had a city to look forward to. The automated construction drones and machines that had been brought to the new planet made for a much faster, much easier, construction project. Human oversight was needed, certainly, but the robots would do the hardest of the labors. Stomping mechanically around, tirelessly welding structured framework in place and erecting buildings with the kind of speed and precision a human could only barely comprehend.

That was why Jeff’s father had been there. The machines needed someone competent there to keep them running. When a drone broke down or finally blew out some critical component, Trent would be there to activate a new one and drag the old one back to his shop for repair or disposal.

Jeff slid a pile of his own books into a box, recalling evenings with his father in their home work shop. Both of their faces illuminated by the gentle glow of a tablet computer as Trent tried desperately to impart some of his knowledge into his son. Jeff had paid attention, at least as much attention that a child could have. Some of it had stuck in his brain, somewhere. He could at very least identify most of the basic components on a circuit board, read wiring schematics, and even understand some of them. Not that he knew what to do with any of it, but he at least was familiar with them.

Jeff had, almost intentionally, procrastinated deciding on a firm field of study. Why bother, he knew they would be rocketing off of the planet for a new home and the small amount of specialized education he could have learned would surely not mature into anything on the ‘frontier’. He shoved another book into the box.

“Not too many books in one box.” Monica chided from where she leaned against his door jamb. “The pickup drone won't be able to lift it.”

Jeff sighed and pulled out one of the heavier textbooks he was packing and tossed it up onto the bed. Monica’s eyes scanned over the book, it was an old but still relevant databook on the basics of mechanical engineering and repair. It was Trent’s.

“Do you want any help sweetheart?” she asked.

“No, I’m fine.” Jeff said, trying in vain to hide the sadness in his voice.

Monica lingered, stoic as always, in the door jamb for a moment before slipping away, maybe Melody needed some help.

Jeff sat still, he heard his mom leave, even with her trying to soften her retreating footsteps. He didn’t so much sigh as simply let the lungful of air seep out from between his teeth. He hated everything that was happening here. He didn’t want to leave, but he was too young to simply stay. Maybe if he had a nice, cushy job working for The Coalition, or in some work share that offered supplementary housing. But he was only nineteen, barely out of his schooling and just beginning to pad out his resume with smaller jobs.

Even if he could sustain himself alone here on Curtis3, would he want to? His friends were here, but how long until they too left. There were other continents here, or more advanced schooling. They would leave, and Jeff would stay. Then what? No friends and no family. He would be more alone than if he boarded that star ship with his family. He blew a small puff of exhaled air out of his nose. ‘Somehow’ he realized, ‘the dark void of space is less lonely than being alone in a house on his home planet.’

The realization didn’t soften the blow of having to leave, but it surely made the idea of a voyage across the stars a little more palpable.

Packing came much easier to him after that. It wasn’t quite enjoyable, but it didn’t hurt him as much any more. When Aria appeared in the hall outside his door, bright as the early morning, he even tossed her a smirk.

“Don’t worry too much about it.” She said, “packing sucks, but unpacking is going to be like Christmas with your own stuff. It’ll be pretty great.”

Jeff never could figure out if she was trying to cheer him up or convince herself that it would be ok. The subtle, slight streak in her makeup just below the eye told him that Aria had been crying, recently. Regardless of that, her perpetual sunshine was always welcome.

It was truly shocking how quickly a whole house could be packed up and made ready when you really devoted time to it. What had taken years to accumulate was boxed up, labeled, and ready for transport within four or five days. Their instructions were to simply place the boxes on the massive pad that had been delivered to their house, once all their belongings were on it, they would be weighed, scanned, and pickup drones would arrive to courier them to the star port, and from there, to their ship.

A strange feeling settled on the house on their last night in it. The house was empty and had a certain feeling of finality to it. Like the last sentence in the chapter of a book. There was something new on the next page, your eyes could see it coming, but you still needed to read through the words you had in front of you.

Large empty spaces dominated the house now. Jeff, Melody, and Aria had reserved a single premeasured box for personal belongings to have delivered to their quarters on the ship. They could pack into it whatever they wanted. Jeff’s packed with books, his personal computer, some small knick knacks, and things to do. The challenge was putting in belongings that you would want to access for the next six months, and nothing else. How much entertainment could you consume in a six month space flight?

Melody and Monica packed similarly. Ongoing treatment for their condition meant that they required machines to help them. Administering and infusing ongoing medical treatment was what they kept telling Jeff and Aria when asked why they weren’t packing their crate with books or movies or other things. Aria, on the other hand, packed lightly. Sketchbooks, art supplies, a few books, and little else.

“We’re going to be in space! What more could I possibly want?”

Jeff had smirked and snorted once at the response, even as he slid another book into his crate, wedging it between a few other things. His was packed to the brim and even though he got the lid to snap onto it, he still wondered if he could empty it and rearrange things to allow for just a little more space.

The beds they slept on, the linens they used, and the morning’s dishes were the last to be placed on the pad. Everyone in the house seemed to wake up early enough, their bodies declaring in unison that there was no more use in delaying. It was time.

Breakfast was rushed and the house was suddenly thrust into some flurried chaos. Jeff and Aria managed to eat quickly, feeling guilty that Melody and Monica had turned down the food in favor of hauling beds and boxes to the transport pad. There would be plenty of time for food later, for now though they needed to get things packed up.

By the time breakfast was done, the two older women had moved most of the remaining goods in the house to the pad, leaving very little for Jeff and Aria to take care of. Still, there were a few things left, and with those last few things placed, it was done. Their house was empty, the only home they had now was on a planet across the galaxy, and it was occupied only by one man. And he was there alone, waiting for his family. The thought put a bit of rush into everyone’s steps.

Every one of them took a few minutes to take off their pajamas and stuff them into their personal crates. Flight suits had been provided for them and were required when undergoing interstellar travel. They were specially crafted from a very form fitting material that would keep blood from pooling in any one area should a g-force crisis occur. The reactive material was laced with electronics as well, each and every part of it would monitor the wearer's pulse and vitals, reacting as needed.

They were stark white with light blue streaks on it, and a Coalition logo plastered across the left breast. They weren’t comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, but they were required. Had Jeff not just spent a day packing his personal belongings, clothes included, into his crate he would have at least put a pair of cargo pants on over it. At least the rest of his family looked the same. Tight white fabrics stretched over the bare skin, and hiding very little. The cluster of white made it obvious where they were heading.

People of all walks of life bustled around the star port. It was a vast change from the somewhat small town feel that Jeff was used to. Their home had been nestled in something of a suburb, and even then it was on the fringes of the settlement. A short walk would land you on the edges of an open field with forests waiting to be logged beyond.

This, though, was wildly different. Every white wall was splashed with strategically placed colors and advertisements. There were video feeds on most walls soothing travelers and giving directions to the launch gates. Others welcomed newcomers to Curtis3 and bid them platitudes about their visit. Monica led her family through the port, seemingly knowing where she was going without too much issue, and eventually presented their launch schedule to a ticket counter. From there, they were directed to stand in line for a health and security scan.

The outbound line was, mercifully, shorter than the line of inbound passengers who would also need to be scanned. The very real danger of transporting diseases, invasive species, or simple plant life that was not native to the environment was very real. The Coalition did everything in its power to quash those kinds of incidents.

As they approached the line of scanners and staff Jeff noticed that there was a separation. Passengers would scan the data card they had been handed as a boarding pass, and would then be directed to another line. Some passengers would be directed to another line, even though there were clearly other empty queues available. It was a mystery that he hoped might be cleared up once he and his family reached the terminal.

Monica went first, modelling exactly what needed to be done so her children could have a ready example to follow. She placed her data card on the flatbed scanner, little more than a plastic coated short range wireless detector that read the card. A small tone sounded from the machine and Jeff could see the handheld tablet light up in the attendant's hand. He couldn’t quite see the information listed on it, but he could see a picture of his mother, and a lot of information. One of the fields seemed to be highlighted in red and blinking.

“Lane four.” The attendant directed, and Monica complied, walking to the place she was directed to.

Aria was next, scanning her card and hearing the tone. Jeff glanced at the tablet again, no blinking red was present.

“Lane two, just down there.” The attendant said and pointed in the opposite direction of where Monica had been sent.

Aria simply walked along to one of the full body scanners. The kind that you stepped into and a heavy mechanism rotated around you. Just beyond that was another attendant with a small case of medical supplies. Swabs, a handheld scanner and some test strips to check for common diseases or bacteria.

The small chime brought Jeff back. Melody had scanned her card and was being directed to lane four, right behind her mother. The attendant looked to Jeff, and somewhat impatiently called ‘next’. They clearly thought Jeff wasn’t paying attention, they were right, but that's besides the point. Jeff had wanted to look at the display in the attendant's hand when Melody scanned her card, but he had missed his opportunity. His card chimed, and he glanced at the screen, nothing blinked.

“Lane one.”

Jeff walked along, past Aria who had just made it out of the body scanner and was presenting her arm for a swab, presumably followed up by a blood sample. Jeff was instructed to step into the scanner and face the small blinking light on the wall. As he did, he lost sight of his family, it was just him and the scanner now. The machine rotated around him, emitting a heavy hum and a strange sensation, like the air around his head just got twice as heavy for a moment. Then it was done, the machine spun down and everything seemed to return to normal, save for a small wobbling sensation inside of Jeff’s head.

As he suspected, they drew blood and applied small droplets of the sample onto a number of test strips. While the chemicals on them worked, the medical attendant ran a number of very standard tests. Shining a light in his eyes, having him open his mouth to check down his throat, recording his pulse, and taking his blood pressure. Once done, they checked the test strip and compared them to some form of information on their hand held scanner.

“All clear, have a good trip.”

The medical attendant said it with the same tone as someone who had repeated the same line over and over again for hours on end, day after day. Cheerful but empty.

He rejoined his family, all of which were waiting for him. Aria hadn’t bothered to pull the sleeves of her long white shirt down over the gauze padding on her arm. The crook of her elbow still showed the pastel blue tape that was put in place to hold it firmly against her skin. Jeff was already shoving the cuff of his shirt over it. Out of sight, out of mind. He glanced at Melody and Monica, who clearly agreed with him as their sleeves were back down to their wrists again.

All that was left was to make their way to their jump gate and board a star ship.

The gate was more of a challenge to find than anything else. It was a smaller, private gate that was owned by The Coalition. Unsurprisingly, they would not be travelling by a commercial craft, rather a private government owned craft. They only managed to find the gate after asking one of the many wandering information drones where it was. The little hovering drone was little more than a ticket scanner and a touch screen display. Monica tapped her data card to it and a small map appeared, showing where they were and where the gate was. She looked at it for barely a moment and then nodded, turned, and pointed further into the bustling starport.

Once they reached the small boarding gate, there were only a few people there, and all of them wore very official looking uniforms. Pressed white pants and jackets over a light blue shirt. They should have been buttoned up and smoothed out, but judging by the way they were leaning against a counter, chatting, laughing, and even flirting with the attendant there, it was clear that this was a far more casual flight.

“Hey, there they are.” One of them, the only one wearing an officer's cap, proclaimed as the family approached.

“Captain Marcus Liber, at your service.” He said, removing his hat and bowing ever so slightly. “This is my co-pilot Ruber, and our android engineer Six Six Three.”

Jeff looked at the engineer. An android. She didn’t look like an android. Though as he looked closer the faint sheen of plastic on the skin stretched across her face and down her throat did seem to catch the light and reflect it a little too brightly. He didn’t want to stare, but he did see a faint line zipping across her neck as well and wondered if that was some kind of detachment point or opening to an access panel. He didn’t have long to contemplate it.

“Nice to meet you all, if you’ll scan your datapasses here, we can get underway. Your cargo has already been loaded and your quarters have been set up.” Captain Liber said in a jovial tone.

Monica nodded and turned to the attendant there and scanned her data card. The woman behind the counter smiled placidly while the data flowed and then seemed to jump just a little and then turned to Monica. All set, welcome aboard. She held out her hand and took the card from Monica. Jeff watched as this woman repeated the same words again and again, in the same tone, with the same infection, for each member. When it was his turn he handed over his card, but his eyes trailed over her. Shining skin, more plastic looking than Six Six Three, and her movements were stiff too.

Jeff nodded once he was confirmed and found Captain Liber looking at him. The crew and his family were already half way down the boarding tunnel to their craft. His smile was infectiously positive, but it did wonders for Jeff, who felt himself calmed by the almost smug confidence Captain Liber had.

“First time in space?” He asked as Jeff walked past him.

Jeff nodded.

“It’s not so bad. More boring than anything.”

There was a bit of silence and Jeff found himself looking over his shoulder at the attendant.

“First time seeing an android?” Liber asked.

“Yeah.” Jeff said.

“That one’s a little more, ehh, primitive. Sixes up there is basically human. She’ll make sure we’re all good.”

Jeff nodded, his face burning just a little. He wasn’t used to being chatted up by an adult who wasn’t his mother. But his mind continued to slide back to the look of that plastic skin, wondering what it would feel like. If the rest of her body was coated in that same plastic, or if she was all metal and hard bits below the neckline. He wondered if Six Six Three, who looked less artificial, was the same way.

Jeff’s mind danced with youthful glee. He was mentally undressing her, even as Six Six Three came into view, he could see the gentle sway of her hips. It looked so natural, so human, but his mind painted a mental picture of the soft plastic sheen on it. Her back, coated in the same plastic. He imagined her in his bed, topless, her plastic breasts in his-

“Alright, a quick tour!” Captain Liber was saying. Jeff hadn’t even realized that they had fully walked up the boarding tunnel and were now on board the star ship.

It felt more like a small common room than a passenger craft. There was a small arrangement of couches that were all arranged to face outwards. All of them were settled neatly in front of a large, triple thick pane of some kind of clear material. Currently all that lay beyond those windows was the star port. Heavy machines and equipment, soon though, it would be stars and galaxies.

“Through this door here, that’s the engine room, obviously it’s locked.” He pointed to a sealed door on the left of the huddled family, then pointed to the right. “Down there are the crew quarters, also locked, but the ones with a little blue light above the doors, those are for you folks. Names are on the little piccard-”

“Placard” Six Six Three quietly corrected.

“Right yep, on the placard outside. Your stuff should be inside already. Further down the hall on the right is the cafeteria. We’ll be rationing food, not that there’s a shortage, but don’t go gorging yourself.”

Liber stepped up behind Ruber and slapped his hands onto the somewhat younger man’s shoulders.

“Ruber here is quite the chef. It’s all pre-packaged stuff, but you’d be amazed what a little salt and some butter will do.”

Ruber nodded and presented a small smile.

“Across from the cafeteria is the engineering bay, that’s where Six is gonna be most of the time.”

The robotic woman smiled warmly and nodded. “It’s going to be locked when I’m not in there, but feel free to pop in and say hi if I’m in there.”

“Cockpit at the end of the hall. That’s about it. So, welcome aboard the Mirum’iter”

He smiled, nodded, and waited just long enough to let anyone ask any questions they may have had, and when no one spoke up, he nodded once more and strode casually off towards the front of the ship. Ruber and Six Six Three fell into step behind him, giving Jeff one last lingering view of the robot’s rear end and dragging his thoughts back to the lewd place they had been in before.

Melody was the first to move, taking up a position on one of the couches and soon after, Aria joined her. Melody’s brilliant red hair clashing with Aria’s lavender. Aria leaned her head onto Melody’s shoulder and the two sisters looked out the windows, the vibrant colors swirling and mixing together as they waited.

Monica patted Jeff on the shoulder and stepped past him, moving to the hell and towards her room and left Jeff alone with his thoughts. The ship was already beginning to subtly shift and vibrate as pre-take off checks were run and mechanisms began to move.

Jeff took up position on one of the couches that faced out of the other side of the ship. He criss-crossed his legs and tried to make himself comfortable, but the twisting knot of nervous energy coiled in his belly. He closed his eyes and tried to force his mind to think of anything else, anything to distract him from the idea that in a few minutes he would be blasting off into the atmosphere, then into space and from there a course that would lead him some place all new.

==Chapter Three==

Some things never changed. Despite a few centuries or more of development into rocketry and physics, chemical based launch rockets were still en vogue. The raw thrust they could produce was unparalleled. The method of using them to launch craft, on the other hand, had evolved greatly.

A system of gantries were affixed to the craft, and the chemical boosters connected to the framework. From there, the entire assembly would be launched out of the atmosphere, once there though, the ionic thrusters on the craft could take over. The gantry would detach and the ship would be on its way, while the chemical rockets would be recovered, refueled, and brought back to the planet for reuse.

Jeff, Melody, and Aria could sit comfortably as they watched their home planet disappear below them. Of course, they needed to wait for the plumes of smoke and debris to clear out of their vision first. As they were launching, the beautifully curved windows were filled with nothing but white smoke and little else. Once they had breached the atmospheric limits of the planet, though, it became a different sight.

A sea of stars, all twinkling and shimmering before them, appeared in the view ports. It stretched out, literally, into infinity. Melody could only smile at that, leaning forward a little and releasing Aria. Jeff sat where he was, simply staring into the vastness of space, knowing that each and every glimmering star before him was its own galaxy, stuffed full of planets. A vast array of the universe spread out before him.

It wasn’t madness that gripped his brain at that moment, but a sense of awe and scale. The universe was vast and he was just a small speck in it, likewise his concerns, his worries and fears, the sadness of losing friends and leaving his home, were equally insignificant. When faced with the unimaginable beauty that the vast array of space had to offer, what could humans conjure to compare to it?

It was quiet in the little common room. The subtle hum of the ion engines provided some small measure of white noise to help distract the mind. Aria and Jeff let their minds wander off into those vast stars, letting the unimaginable size of it all fill them with wonder, joy, and awe. Melody simply sat where she was, leaning forward and letting her eyes bounce from star system to start system. She was content to simply let her eyes wander across the vastness of it all.

Monica joined them at some point, though she never sat down on one of the chairs or couches there. She simply stood, looking out at the stars and letting her children enjoy the view. She had been given many gifts, children whom she loved and who loved her in return, a husband willing to do anything for them, and a chance at living on despite her illness. Her eyes flicked to Melody, a warm compassion for her welling up inside of her. Her eldest daughter had been given the same second chance at life as she had.

Aria was the next to fall in her scope of vision. The wild and bright haired young woman, only barely cresting into adulthood, her whole life laid out before her. Monica could only hope that there was a chance that Aria would never have to go through what Monica and Melody had.

Jeff had heard his mother return to the space and had glanced around at her. The previous bland jumpsuit had been replaced now with a comfortable pair of jeans and a loose fitting turtleneck style sweater. Her hair, as always, was still loosely braided and draped over her shoulder. Small strands of hair jutting out here and there. The change of clothing alone lent her a cute and cozy look, instead of the motherly authority figure she had projected before.

Jeff looked down at his government issue flight suit as well. White and blues on a comfortable, but form fitting single piece. Black boots and little else. He hated how it rode up on his rear end as well. The comfort his mother was radiating was envious. Jeff was loathed to move from his post, looking out at space for something as petty as comfort, but he had to remind himself that sometimes in life, it was the small comforts that mattered. Sometimes you needed to just act instead of thinking.

So he uncoiled himself from the couch, stood up and stretched before wordlessly wandering off to the dorms.

It was clear that the rooms were built with utility in mind, and then touched up by a corporate designer who wanted to add a comforting touch. There was a nook for a bed. It was little more than a notch carved into the wall of the room, but instead of being simply scooped out, the curved wall extended upwards, allowing for more space. He could easily stand on the bed and not hit his head on anything. Much like the common space, there was a viewing window built into the wall, though it was far smaller than the ones in the common room. Perhaps two hand heights tall and running the full length of the bed, with a curtain mounted over it.

Why anyone would want to close off such a gorgeous view was beyond Jeff.

Similar to the bed, a few shelves had been cut into the wall and made for a handy place to store any number of things. Jeff would use it to store his books and a few little baubles. His personal crate was centered in the room, still full of his own belongings, including his clothes. Sliding open the door in the wall to reveal a closet with a small set of drawers in it would have to do for storing and organizing his clothes.

It took the better part of an hour to dig out his clothes from the crate. In the process he had pulled out his personal computer, a few pictured in plastic frames of him and his friends, and his holo emitter. He wouldn’t want to miss a vid-com from back home simply for not having his equipment in order.

Clothes populated the closet and soon enough he had changed. Now sporting a comfortable pair of cargo pants and a simple olive drab shirt. He mussed his hair a little after pulling on the shirt to try and straighten the somewhat shaggy mop of hair he had been blessed with. He gave up a few minutes later and put his boots back on.

On the wall opposite the closet was another door set into the wall. Stepping up to it and letting it slide open, he found himself in a small bathroom. A stainless steel toilet was on one side, a sink in the middle, and a small space that barely resembled a shower on the other. He tilted his head slightly at the sink, and then ventured a look at the shower as well. There were no hot and cold knobs, or any sort of flow control, there was only a button, on or off.

He tapped the button on the sink and it immediately began emitting a deep, almost inhumanly low tone, but nothing else. Tapping the button turned it off. He looked just past the sink to the mirror on the wall and found that it was not only a mirror, displaying his face, but a display of sorts. Showing the date, the name of their ship, and a small hieroglyph just above the sink. Push button, place hands under faucet.

He pressed the button again, the humming resumed, and he pushed his hands under the faucet. The sensation was odd. There was something there, something pushing against his palms. He felt it more acutely as well. The thrumming sound was in sync with the pressure against his palms. He also noticed small flecks of dirt being shoved off of him into the bowl. He blinked at that before realizing what it was. A sonic sink. High speed soundwaves dislodged dirt and then blasted it off of his hands. He turned and looked at the shower and to the button there.

With an equally deep hum the shower came to life. The sounds coming from the, admittedly, conventional looking shower head. The wonder of it wore off as Jeff realized he would be spending the next six months having his body blasted by sound instead of real water. Conservation of resources and rationing of necessities. Sound was free and everywhere. It made sense, but Jeff felt like a luxurious hot shower might be his first indulgence when he landed.

Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he stepped up to the door and let it slide open in front of him. He heard the small hushed voices of his mother and Melody up the hall from him. Their rooms must have been somewhere near the end of the hall. Melody’s whispered voice was hard to hear, especially as the lingering sound of the door’s hiss still rang in his ear.

“Mel, just do it, it won't take long.” Monica hissed at her.

“But It feels weird!” Melody replied.

“You’ll get used to it, but with all the changes-”

Both stopped as Jeff casually stepped into the hall. He intentionally turned in the opposite direction of the source of the hushed voices and stepped lightly back towards the common room. He knew that they were arguing about something, and from the sounds of it, they were related to Melody’s recent treatments. A fact that Jeff found more than a little odd. Melody was usually very cautious, and, as she said, a little weirdness was worth it to keep her heart beating. Or so Jeff thought.

He was being polite, he knew that the pair would settle down and whatever the issue was it was likely due, simply, to the strain of the day's events. It was only around noon, maybe a little after, it was hard to tell. There were no sunsets in space, and time had a weird habit of not meaning much. Still, Jeff knew the day was only half over, at best.

The somewhat silent hiss of a door sliding open drew Jeff’s attention as he settled back down onto the couch he had occupied previously. He glanced to the side in time to see Monica walking towards the common room, her face stoic, and behind her Melody disappeared into her own room. The door slipped closed behind her. Monica settled down onto one of the comfortable chairs to one side of her son. As she came to rest it looked like she had settled into place, proper posture, and then something just changed. She slumped into the chair and let out a breath. Her eyes moved to meet Jeff’s.

She clearly wanted to say something. The appropriateness or timing of it was up for debate though. She was well aware that Jeff had heard her and his sister’s little tiff, the question was how much?

“Jeff, there’s something-”

The sound of a happy sigh broke her statement. Both looked in the direction of the guest quarters in time to see Aria appear. She had taken the hint and had gone to her room to change as well and had reappeared with a simple gray strapless halter top that carved a line across the top of her chest. It was just enough to reveal the small amount of cleavage she could produce, without showing off too much. It did little to cover her belly, and just barely kissed the top of her bellybutton.

Jeff couldn’t really help himself. Her whole form was on display as she walked along. HIs eyes naturally traveled to her hips and thighs, wrapped tightly in a pair of form fitting black leggings. The drab color of her clothes clashing with her hair color and the silvery bangles and bracelets that she had taken time to put on while changing.

She looked stunning, and if she looked like that when they landed then Jeff had no doubt that there would be a line of off world men, and probably some women, who would flock to her.

Jeff looked away as soon as his brain registered what he was doing and instead forced his gaze back to the floor. He couldn’t have been staring at her for more than a moment or two, surely it wasn’t enough time to cause any kind of concern, though it was more than enough time for him to take in her beauty. He gently shook his head, trying to shake the thought free, it needn’t be there.

She walked back to her spot on the couch, flopped into place and pulled out one of her sketchbooks. The soothing sound of charcoal scratching on rough paper reached Jeff’s ears a moment later. Aria would be there for a while. Her presence in the commons seemed to chase away whatever it was that Monica was about to talk with Jeff about, a fact that he clearly recognized. That was alright though, there was no shortage of time during the trip to talk.

The quietness settled in around the family. Monica staring out at space with Jeff. The engines provided a steady hum like the low bass of a melody that was just beginning to rise. Aria’s movements, swiping charcoal across a page provided the punctuating notes. Aria’s movements were so swift yet consistent that they could have easily merged into a musical rhythm with the deep engines. Jeff lost count of how long that song played. It was an easy thing to do, the soothing sounds with the smooth passage of stars robbed the human mind of the actual passage of time.

The soft sound of a distant automated door sliding open shattered the song. Melody’s footfalls, while rhythmic, were out of tune with the quiet song in the commons. She strode into the room, fully ignoring Monica as she did so. The sound of the fabric on her loose fitting black pants carved their own rhythm into the air. Jeff only caught a glance of the rest of her, a shock of black across her chest, some kind of tube top maybe, and a denim jacket over the top. Her red hair, normally loose and flowing behind her had been bundled up into a tight, but messy, bun.

Her mother was facing the opposite wall, looking out at a wholly different sea of stars. The redheaded woman made a move to sit next to Aria, but the soft sounds of her sketching reached Melody’s ears. She had planned to flop into place, cross her arms over her chest and pout. Letting Aria see her upset, but hiding it from Monica. Seeing Aria though, she seemed to release something. A long held breath seemed to seep harshly out her nostrils and Melody lowered herself gently to the couch next to Aria.

Jeff could hear the murmuring conversation begin behind him, though none of the words made any sense to him. They were sounds and little else. Even as he glanced over his shoulder at his two sisters, all he could see were the occasional turn of the head or small, fleeting gesture. Even when Melody turned her head to look at Aria, or rather her sketchbook, Jeff could only see her lips moving and nothing else.

Monica was the first to leave. Jeff rightly assumed that the tension between her and Melody had finally reached the breaking point. She sighed, once and only once, then smoothly got to her feet and walked out of the room. A moment later the distant whoosh of her door opening and then closing let Jeff know where she had gone. Leaving him, once again, alone to look out at the stars.

The human mind struggled to comprehend the vastness of the stars. Infinite space was a concept, and only a concept, and facing it in reality with one's own eyes set a strange tingling sensation though Jeff’s brain. He felt like his mind was both empty and full at the same time. So great was the distraction that he didn’t hear Melody get up and move to sit next to him. It was only when the weight of her body sent the couch rocking a little that he was brought back.

He was almost startled, certainly the sudden appearance of his sister was enough to jolt him back to reality. He looked over at Melody, her messy bun was clearly poorly done, as it was already falling out, or perhaps it had only been hastily put up and Melody was just letting it fall. Jeff admitted that the look gave her a very cute, not caring, just being, quality. As if she was what she was and it didn’t much matter the work she put into her appearance.

“Sorry you had to hear mom and I.” She began, Jeff only shrugged and waved it off.

“What..How much did you hear?”

The apprehension in her voice was real and it was brushing up against fear, or was it embarrassment? Whatever it was, Jeff realized that she clearly wanted to keep it a secret.

“Nothing. Just that mom was making you do something uncomfortable.” Jeff muttered, “I assume some part of your treatment.”

“Yeah.” Melody quietly confirmed. “It was just treatment stuff.”

Jeff nodded, letting silence fall again, though only for a moment or two, he had to say something lest he lose himself to the stars again.

“I thought all your treatment was done though. Like, they got all of it out of you.” Jeff said.

“Yeah they did, but there’s a lot of maintenance..you know, upkeep on things at the very beginning.”

Jeff nodded at that, already feeling uncomfortable. He didn’t like to think about anyone’s medical treatments, those were private matters. Much less his sister’s.

“I guess that’s why mom doesn’t need to go to the doctor much any more. Right? She had her treatment done years ago and just has to go in for checkups every now and again.”

Melody only nodded at that and the quietness of space settled on them again. Jeff’s mind wanted so badly to slip back out among the passing star systems. But the void’s calling was stopped by a question.

“Are- Is there a doctor on the new planet? Like. Are you and mom going to be-”

“We’ll be fine.” Melody interrupted. “The maintenance part of all of this is a lot easier to do. Heck I can do it myself if I have my- If I have the right equipment.”

Jeff didn’t miss it. There was something that Melody and his mother needed to keep up on their treatment. His mind flashed back to the heavy looking steel case that dominated Melody’s personal cargo crate. Visions of vials of subtly bubbling green fluids and spare needles flashed through his mind. The case must be filled with all the additional medications and equipment she would need for the journey. Clearly it was easy enough to stock up on those necessities once they landed too. Maybe the first few supply drops would carry those refills.

Even the line of questioning seemed absurd to Jeff in retrospect. Of course the new planet would have doctors and medical staff. What kind of backwater, second rate exploration crew wouldn’t have medical personnel with them? Sometimes he kicked himself for asking stupid questions. Even telling himself that he was still young and couldn’t have known was little comfort.

Then he looked out the window again. The Universe didn’t care if he asked a stupid question, or an absolutely brilliant one for that matter. Everything was so small in comparison, and that did comfort him. With a burden lifted, Jeff’s mind spun back to the present, to his sister, his family, and the absolute magnificence of the ship they were on.

“Hey.” He said, causing Melody to look over at him. “Pretty cool that the engineer is a robot, huh?”

Melody smirked at him. “That is pretty slick.”

“I think I’m gonna pick her brain..or CPU…or whatever it is. When we get to dad I want to see if I can stump him with some kind of obscure robot knowledge.”

Melody’s smirk grew to a full smile and raised her eyebrows.

“Good luck. You know dad, like, builds androids, right? From just pieces.”

“Well yeah, but then he sends them off, he doesn’t sit around and chat them up and stuff.”

“Are you sure you don’t just have a crush on her?”

“What? No. I don’t think robots even have..programming..for romance or anything. Like..They’re just machines.”

Melody nodded, “Very modern take you have there.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Jeff said “just that there’s a huge difference between a robot and a person…And I don’t have a crush on her.”

Melody broke out into a small burst of laughter and playfully punched Jeff in the arm while covering her mouth with her other hand.

“Sure you don’t. I’m sure you only want to hang out with the pretty robot for academic reasons.”

The pair shared a small chuckle, but the thought lodged itself in his mind. Did he have a crush on her? Could androids even experience things like a crush? His hormonal mind took it a step further.

Could androids have sex? Were they programmed for it? Did they have the right hardware for it? He found himself mentally undressing Six Six Three again. That plastic skin on display, reflecting the star light. Her chest accentuated by deep shadows in the dim light, her body under his own. They were in his quarters, she was splayed out on the bed, panting in lustful jubilation. He mentally looked her up and down. Everything was there, shimmering in all its plastic and silicone glory.

Her breasts, he could practically feel them in his hands. Or what he thought they felt like. Jeff had an absolutely nonexistent history with sex, but his imagination was on point. He could see the way her plastic breasts squished and molded in his hands. He could feel her icy skin, truly artificial in every way, pressed against his. He saw her equally plastic sex between her spread legs. Those small seam lines he had seen on her throat etched into an outline around it.

In his mind's eye, Six Six Three was a sensual goddess. He felt a little flushed, and the heat had risen enough on his cheeks to bring him back to the moment he was living in. The images of the naked robotic woman below him dissipated into nothingness. He sincerely hoped that Melody hadn’t seen the redness creeping across his cheeks while he indulged. He ventured a glance in her direction and saw that she too was quiet and simply looking out at space. The reflection of the starlight was barely visible in her unfocused eyes. ‘Good’ he thought, he had gotten away with it. But it was likely time to go somewhere else to..cool off.

His room was so boring compared to the passage of literal stars and galaxies out in the commons. Static white walls, some of his own flare on the shelves, but little else. As his finger slid down the light panel on the wall next to the door though, the mood became a little more sexy. Dim lights, the open port hole out to space, and Jeff found himself relaxing a bit.

The door was locked, and he lay on the bed, getting comfortable. His hands already unbuttoning his cargo pants and unzipping them. A hand found its way to his manhood and began to stroke it. His mind turned back to Six Six Three.

She was on top of him this time. In this very room, on this very bed. Jeff imagined her weight pressing into his hips as he grew harder. He could see her smile as she reached down for the hem of the shirt portion of her flight suit. He watched as she peeled it up and off of her body, her breasts jiggling in a not quite perfect manner. The artificial gel packs he assumed gave them their shape swayed and jiggled. His hands were on her body once again.

He started at her hips, miraculously already unclothed. His imagination told him what they felt like. Soft artificial skin, with a plastic sheen to them. There was some give, like there was a layer of padding just below the surface to make her feel real. Her hips were moving, grinding, into him. He felt himself grow fully erect now and he truly got to work.

His mind imagined his hands sliding up her body, dipping in on her torso and then coming to cup her breasts. She moaned, sweet and delightful, practically begging him to keep going. So he did.

He felt his climax rising, boiling inside of his belly and rising up his shaft. The bone deep pressure was quickly reaching a breaking point. Jeff had to make a choice now if this fantasy was about simple relief or if it was for his enjoyment. A choice that was tough to make as a climactic release was slamming its fists against his mind.

His eyes remained closed and he sucked in a deep breath. He needed it.

His mind returned its focus to Six Six Three’s naked body on top of him. The fake skin coating her robotic body, and what it would feel like. He imagined her moving those perfectly shaped legs, the hydraulics, he assumed, inside of her pushing her up and adjusting her with precision. She lowered herself onto his erect and waiting member. The very touch of the plastic coating her sex was divine, or so Jeff imagined at least.

This was about relief, his mind decided.

THe fantasy was gone then, lost in a swirl of panting and gulping for air as Jeff felt his whole body react. The pressure building inside of him burst outward, coating his hands in a warm, sticky mess. His body was hot and yet cold all at once. He was breathing heavy and deep and held onto himself. Six Six Three’s face still dancing in his vision, her smile, the shape of her mouth as her lips parted in a lewd moan. All of it was etched deep into his brain.

It took a few moments for Jeff to gather himself and slide off the bed, attempting to not make too much of a mess. The sonic sink humming and cleaning his hands was a good start. There were no towels to speak of, after all there was no water to dry off. There was, however, some form of toilet paper that did well enough to help clean up Jeff’s softening member.

Sucking in one more deep breath, he stood up straight, adjusted himself and zipped his pants back up. He definitely didn’t have a crush on Six Six Three. It was purely academic, he decided.

==Chapter Four==

Wanting to make damn sure that every bit of flush had drained from his face, Jeff remained in his room for another twenty or so minutes. Or so he estimated, it was gauged more on how he felt than any marker of time.

While there, he unpacked a bit more. Storing books and clothes and personal effects on shelves. Once his heart settled down into an imperceptible thump inside of his chest he was ready to leave. Stepping into the hall, he looked up and down the expanse. The commons appeared, from where he stood at least, to be empty. A mere comfortable space with no life in it. Aria must have finished her sketch and returned to her room. Or maybe she was still on the couch, Jeff couldn’t exactly see from his vantage point, but the sound of charcoal on paper was gone at least.

Likewise, Melody seemed to be missing. Jeff crept up the hall softly and peeked into the commons. Confirming it was empty. His family separating and heading to their own spaces. Time and distance, perfect for diffusing tension.

The ship seemed quiet then, the background hum of the engines had already become just another noise his brain could ignore. That suited him just fine, the deep rumble didn’t need a constant validation in his mind. Slipping back up the hall and turning to the little alcove on the left, about half way along, Jeff found the door. A placard proclaimed it as simply ‘Engineering’ and the sign was illuminated in a pale blue. The same temperature of light that bathed his own door.

Jeff wondered if Six Six Three was in there. He leaned out of the small alcove to peer back up the hall again. The lights over Melody, Monica, and Aria’s doors had changed from the gentle blue to a very clear red. Locked doors.

The blue light seemed welcoming then. She was in there, for certain. Did he just walk in? Was it polite to knock before walking into a robots domain? He raised a loosely clutched fist, readying it to knock before looking around. Maybe there was a doorbell of some kind.

A small crackle startled him, the speaker assembly built into the signage had flared to life and now produced Six Six Three’s voice.

“Can I help you with something?”

It was polite. Crisp. The kind of no nonsense tone that you might expect from a service provider. Jeff thought it sounded heavenly, and mentally added the sound of her voice to a vault in his head. It would surely be used next time he-

“Uh, n-no. Well, maybe yes. I was just going to chat a bit.”

Jeff scrunched his eyes closed. He was so painfully aware of how un-casual he sounded.

“Sure thing. Come on in. Door’s unlocked.”

Jeff wasn’t sure he wanted to go in and see her now that he had fumbled around his first impression. But she was expecting him now. He pushed a hand onto the door and it disappeared into the wall with a hiss.

Jeff stepped into a place that was familiar. Not this place in particular, but the look and feel were familiar. The smell too, it was the scent of a garage with exposed oils, long soaked into discarded rags. The tang of metal shavings immediately found their way to the back of his tongue. While lit well, there still seemed to be pools of light that were just a little brighter.

The whole room appeared to be made of workbenches and shelves. Even the floor served as storage for something. Metal crates packed with parts, big and small, all trailing wires and severed tubing littered the space. The shelves housed containers of varying shapes and sizes. At one time they might have had a label printed on them, but years of use had worn most of them down to colored smears.

The counter space in front of the woman sitting on a stool was about the only clear space. Every other surface was marred with a project in progress. Half finished mechanical components with circuit boards affixed to them, with a myriad of wires bursting out of it and plugging into something else.

Six Six Three was sitting on the stool, her back turned to Jeff as he entered. She was still wearing the flight suit he had seen her in earlier. White fabric stretched too tightly over her features confirmed for Jeff that in his imagination he had gotten, at least somewhat, some of her proportions correct. Her rear end at least, was on point.

She spun around on her stool to face Jeff. He tried, very diligently, to not let his eyes simply drift down to her chest and hips. It was instinctual though, just a brief flick of the eyes to take in the shape, the roundness and smooth curves. That was all he needed, and all he got.

Six Six Three was wearing a heavy vest of some kind. Buckled tightly around her neck and clipped into waiting ports on the hips of her suit. It masked her figure from Jeff’s eyes, but was also pock marked by a number of small burns. The smell of burnt metal reached Jeff’s nose and the sight of something just vaguely smoldering on the bench indicated what she had been working on.

“Sorry, I’m not interrupting, am I?” Jeff asked.

“Nah, I was just resoldering some very intricate components on the forward shield generator. Nothing important.” The light sarcasm in her voice reminded him very much of any number of quips that Aria might have made.

“Uhm. That seems kinda important.”

“Eventually, sure. Captain isn’t likely to let us crash into an asteroid while he’s in his chair. We’ll be fine.” She said with a small smile and a wink. “You wanted to chat though?”

Jeff stepped fully into the room at that point, feeling the door slide into place behind him, leaving him alone in the room with the android. As the light from the hall was cut off, he realized how shadowy the room was. The overhead lights in the space were concentrated over the workbenches and little else. All of them cast Six Six Three into a weird space of light and shadow.

The light from the hall had provided enough light to see her smooth and plainly pretty face, all framed in the short cropping of hair on her head. There was a small undershave to it, but the pixie cut hair still swept over one side. Her eyes, now cast into the shadow of her own eye sockets, were some kind of bright color, maybe a blue? It was hard to tell when Jeff’s eyes had been travelling elsewhere when the light had been present.

Still visible was the plastic sheen to her skin. Somehow more pronounced now that there was no subtle, diffused light. Only harsh whiteness from the overhead lighting contrasted with the shadows. What light it could catch was reflected brightly.

“Yeah, I- Uh- My dad does this kind of stuff.” Jeff swept his hand over the broad spectrum of electronics, wires, cables, dangling bits and pieces, tools, and tubing in the room.

“Starship maintenance?” Six Six Three asked.

“Well, no, machines and robots and stuff.”

She nodded, seeming to understand. The movement catching more of the light and reflecting it to Jeff.

“Are you interested in doing the same thing?” Six Six Three asked.

“More or less.” Jeff replied.

“And you came here to steal my secret tricks of the trade.” She said, squinting at Jeff.

He was stunned for a moment. “Wh- N- No I just wanted to-”

Six Six Three burst into laughter. It was a strange digital sound. It was tinny and clearly synthetic, though Jeff had no clue how the sound was produced. If it was just a pre-recorded sound, then it must have sounded clearer, even playing from a speaker set. This sounded like an actual sound that would be made by a person, though there was just something to it that was uncanny and artificial. Once she began speaking again, Jeff couldn't help but notice that same quality in her voice, if he listened hard for it.

“I’m kidding. Don’t take anyone on this crew seriously.” She warned.

Awash after the sarcasm, Jeff found himself chuckling along with her. It went a long way to settling his nervous energy. Feeling more at ease, he stepped in a little more and leaned against one of the counters, making sure he didn’t lean into some kind of stain or unfinished project.

“What did you really want to talk about Jeff?” Six Six Three asked.

Lies and misdirections would be no use against a robot. She was clearly either too logical or had some kind of speech pattern recognition that linked to a database of psychological tells. She’d see right through him.

“Captain said I was the first android you had ever met, I can only assume it has to do with that.”

Oh. The captain had told her…

“Yeah, I just…I’m curious. My dad knows all about your kind and if I have to be confined to a spaceship with one, I might as well learn a bit. You know?”

Six Six Three’s smirk was a little condescending. It wasn’t the concept, far from it. Continued education was always important, it was more the way Jeff had referred to her. Terms were important, especially to robots.

“First, you should know, most modern robots find it pretty offensive when you point out that we are different from humans. I’m fully sentient and sapient. I know what I am, and I could choose to act very mechanical, but I’m choosing to act like a human. Mostly because humans have a hard time accepting something that doesn’t look and sound like they do. That’s what led to all kinds of suffering in the past. Choose someone who doesn’t look or sound like you, convince everyone they are less than human, subjugate.”

Jeff felt a new kind of blush spreading over his face.

“Don’t worry about it though. I’m not offended, but I wanted to point it out to you so that you knew how to treat other androids.” She slipped off of her stool and stood up. She was slightly smaller than Jeff, but still managed to seem on equal footing with him. She thrust out her hand and smiled, warm and welcoming.

“So, Jeff, Nice to meet you. I’m SIx Six Three. Most people just call me Six.” She looked to the side for a moment, “except Ruber. He calls me egg.”

“Egg?”

She laughed and returned to her stool. “Apparently if you rotate Six Six Three, it looks like it spells the word egg.”

Jeff stopped for a second, mentally conjured up an image of the three numbers and then rotated them. Sure enough…

“Do..you like that name?” He asked.

Six Six Three smiled at Jeff. “No one ever asked me before. So I hadn’t really thought it through. But you know what, yeah I think I do.”

“Alright, then, egg. What else should I know about androids?”

“Well, androids are boy robots, gynoids are female.”

The next hour and a half was filled with some legitimately enjoyable conversation. At some point, Six Six Three returned to her work on the shield generating computer she had been working on when Jeff had entered, but she let him know that she was delighted to keep chatting. Jeff found it easier and easier to keep his eyes off of her, which may have been a result of him getting to know her on a more personal level, and seeing her less as an object of lust, or perhaps it was because he had gotten plenty of glances at her body.

She managed to explain the very basics of how a robot's mind worked though. How processes linked to an operating system and how those processes in turn worked together to make her have a real personality and make her a real person. She explained that there was no practical difference between a human mind that generated thoughts on its own, since those thoughts were ultimately based on all the knowledge a person had acquired. Just replace the word ‘knowledge’ with ‘programmed database’.

Philosophical implications aside, Jeff had a truly delightful time listening to Egg ramble on about how her mind worked. She had a full comprehension of how it would operate and how specifically to manage it, and she could manage it. Jeff commented that he often didn’t know why his brain did what it did.

The conversation turned after that. Egg asked if he knew anything about the actual operation and maintenance of the physical parts of a robot. How to recognize one in distress and how to perform even basic maintenance. He didn’t but he also recalled what his father had taught him about machines. How many of the obvious problems were actually caused by something small and usually insignificant.

Egg confirmed that and actually turned back to him with a smile.

“You want a practical example?” She asked.

“Sure!” Jeff replied.

Egg rolled up the sleeve on her right arm. Below it the plastic coating that served as her skin shone all the brighter as she laid her arm on the workbench, palm up. Jeff stepped closer, his heart pounding as he came closer to the gynoid. He could see her forearm, and the small seam lines that were set into it.

“Ok, so, my hand here. I can move my fingers and everything.” As she spoke, she moved each finger individually.

“Pretty normal movement, but-” She barely shivered as a command was formulated in her operating system. The command opened a small panel just below her wrist. Inside were tangles of wires all pinned back, but just inside of the panel were a number of thin metal cables. As Egg moved her fingers, those cables clicked and moved.

“See those?” Jeff nodded and looked up at her face from her exposed electronics. “Those are tension strands. They move my fingers. But, if one wasn’t working.”

She hooked her finger under one of the cables and wiggled it up and off of the small mechanism that the end of it was looped around. The cable went slack, so did the other cables that she had not touched.

“Now I can’t move any of my fingers, try as I might.”

The sound of the control mechanism inside of her arm clicked and clattered, but there was no movement. Just one cable wasn’t connected, but none of the other ones were working either.

“They’re all connected. Because moving them without all of them working might cause a cable to get caught in the mechanisms, then it would get tangled, and possibly tear my whole arm completely apart.”

“Whoa.”

“Whoa indeed.” Egg replied. “It’s happened too. Older generations of my exact model had all kinds of problems. So they redesigned everything so that when one little thing goes wrong, the whole system shuts down. It sucks, but it's safer that way.”

Jeff nodded along. He had gotten his first glance into how a robot actually operated. It was on a small scale, and in a very controlled environment, but as he watched Egg reattach the tension cable to the control mechanism in her arm, utilizing a screwdriver to wiggle it back into place, he couldn’t help but wonder what other parts of her internal working were like. Moreover, he felt a weird shock of arousal at that thought.

He thanked her, a platitude that she waved off. It was clear that she was always happy to help and more than that, happy to impart information on something she was clearly passionate about. Jeff made a move to stand and make for the door, and Egg stretched her arms above her head.

“I suppose it is about quitting time.” She said as she set down the thing she was working on. “You should see about getting Ruber to make dinner.”

The dawning realization that he hadn’t eaten since a hastily consumed breakfast hit Jeff hard once Egg mentioned it. His stomach grumbled at him.

“I guess so. Will you be joining us?” A hopeful tone laced Jeff’s question.

“Nah. I’ll just head to my bunk and plug in. Us robot types don't actually need to eat.”

Something about the way she said that gave Jeff pause.

“You don’t need to but-”

“But I can, sure. I just don’t. There’s a whole substance storage thing in me, and cleaning it out is a hassle without water. So, you know.”

Sonic sinks and showers would certainly make it hard to clean out..whatever was in her..Still he pressed his lips together into a small, but disappointed smile and nodded before leaving the engineering room.

The hall smelled of something edible. Heavily seasoned foods of some kind filled his nose and only made his stomach growl more greedily. He had to agree, it might not have smelled of moms home cooking, but given the circumstances it smelled delightful.

The word cafeteria did some heavy lifting to describe the actual space. There was a kitchenette, cold storage, and two tables. THey were polished and clean, wearing that same coat of white paint. The room's only color came from the blue in Ruber’s flight uniform and Aria’s lavender hair. She was sitting at one of the tables, her cheek resting against her fist and looking at nothing in particular. Ruber was over at the stove, shaking a pan of some kind and jostling the contents of it.

Aria looked up as Jeff came in, a quick flash or recognition and a smile grew across her face. Ruber also turned and waved once at Jeff as he took up a position across from Aria.

“Where have you been?” She asked.

“I was hanging out with Egg”

“Egg!” Ruber shouted over the sizzle of whatever he was cooking, Aria looked over at him and then back to Jeff in confusion.

“I’ll explain later.” Jeff commented. “She was teaching me about robots and gynoids and stuff.”

“Oh, cool.” Aria commented dryly.

“Where’s mom and Mel?” Jeff asked.

Aria shook her head slightly and twisted her hand into a claw and made a mock swipe at Jeff once.

“More for us I guess.” Jeff said and Aria agreed.

Two plates of some kind of food appeared in front of them. White rice, some kind of spiced orange sauce, small green vegetables of some kind, and something else.

“Rice, curry, and chicken flavored protein dense meat substitute.” Ruber said “bon appetit”

It could have been chicken flavored mush for all Jeff’s stomach cared. He dug in and didn’t stop until his plate was scraped clean. Likewise Aria made short work of her plate as well. It was spicy, buttery, and the chicken flavored whatever-it-was wasn’t nearly as terrible as the name sounded. All in all, it was a delight. The first meal in space had turned out surprisingly well.

Captain Liber had been right, Ruber was something of a savant when it came to spicing up the food in the ration packages.

It was a shame there were precious few of those meals Ruber would be able to prepare for Jeff.

==Chapter Five==

The least Jeff could do was offer to do the dishes. Ruber wasn’t about to argue with that proposal, even if it was part of his job. The captain wasn’t likely to shove him out an airlock and accuse him of mutiny for letting one of the passengers clean up the kitchen. For Jeff’s part it was a nice little distraction. With his hands gently vibrating from the sonic sink he didn’t have to think about Melody and his mom’s argument. Not that he thought they would be anything but perfectly fine after a good night’s sleep, but no one wanted to think of their parents and siblings fighting.

It was awkward, and Jeff wasn’t about to pick sides, though that didn’t stop him from rolling the argument around in his mind. Dramatic though it might have been, he didn’t have enough information to really take sides. But whatever it was, it had to be really off putting. Melody was usually a lot more accommodating, especially with her treatment. That clicked a lightbulb on in Jeff’s mind. Whatever it was it had to be related to some kind of ongoing treatment for Melody’s illness. Maybe space travel did something to the antibodies?

Who knew? Not Jeff that’s for sure.

The last of the dishes had the food scraps on them pulverized by sonic waves. Ruber had told Jeff that each one needed a quick spritz with a sanitizing solution and then they could be left out to “dry.” Ruber had even used his fingers to make air quotes around the word dry. That would suggest wetness, which was crazy. There was, of course, water on board. It was strictly rationed though, much like the food. On the way out of the kitchen Jeff scanned his thumbprint on the food storage locker, punched in his request for a bottle of water, and a moment later had it dispensed to him.

“Mmm, lukewarm,” Jeff muttered as he stepped out of the kitchen and began to head up the hall towards observation, and beyond that, his room. He paused for a moment outside of the engineering room, just before the archway into the observation deck. It was faint, but on the other side of the door was the smallest little crackling sound.

It was something Jeff was familiar with, he had heard it hundreds of times from the garage at home. His father would be leaning over some piece of machinery or in rare cases one of the agricultural or construction androids. Nothing nearly as elegant or..sensual..Jeff shook his head…nothing as sophisticated as Egg was, but every bit as complicated.

Jeff could see him now, big and barrel chested, his sleeves rolled up only to be covered with a heavy leather smock of some kind. His face shield stretching above his head, around the sides, and down to just about the neck. Each time he heard the sizzling crackle of the welding wand everything would light up in the presence of the small sun that flashes at the end of the wand.

Sparks flew and a whisper of smoke rose from whatever he was working on. Jeff would never forget the blinding brightness of those first few welds that he saw without proper face shielding. His father had stopped the instant Jeff’s presence was known, but it was too late, a purple and orange stain appeared in the center of Jeff’s vision and for a long while all he could do was blink and let his eyes water.

Even the smell of metal, so hot it temporarily liquified and melded into another sheet of metal, crept into the edges of Jeff’s senses. He was absolutely sure that the sealed door to the engineering room would keep out the smell, and yet it tickled the perimeter of his nose. It was there, just a fleeting moment of it, and then it was gone. Along with the memories of his father and his childhood. Replaced but the thrum of engines and the oppressively quiet field of stars they were soaring through.

He wanted to knock on the door and talk with the android inside. He wanted to learn more from her, but if he was being honest he wanted to see more of her internal workings.

There was something so oddly intimate to him about that. To his human mind it felt like she had shed her clothes and somehow still had something more to expose, something more vulnerable to show off to him. It would have been like him peeling back the skin on his own chest and letting a stranger stare at his still beating heart. The raw amount of trust it would take to be exposed like that was far beyond Jeff’s comprehension.

It wasn’t just the exposure either. Egg had shown him who she was, who she really was. Not just showed him but explained it in such easy terms. He wondered what else she could show him, what other glimpses he could catch. It was intoxicating to think about and before long his mind began to wander elsewhere. To the curves of her chest as she peeled back her flight suit and exposed her chest. To the way it would, probably, split open and reveal a whirling, blinking, pistoning, mess of circuits and electronics.

He had to focus, or he would stand there drooling all night. Worse, Egg might come out and see him lingering by her door.

With a huff he turned away from the engineering room and headed through the pale archway and into the observation room at the core of their ship. It was just as quiet and empty as the starfield beyond the floor to ceiling windows.

There was a part of Jeff that just wanted to sit and look. To see the lazy drift of infinite space swim past him as he sat in front of those massive windows. To quietly contemplate the sheer chaos of the past day. Packing up the last of his life and boarding a starship and blasting off into deep space. The people he had met, the feat of engineering that went into making a ship that was sturdy enough to resist the lurking doom of the vacuum of space while still being comfortable enough to just sit and look.

On the other hand, he could go to his room, lay on his bed and dream of what all budding adult boys dream of.

Space would always be there.

Jeff’s little room was just past the archway leading into the rear of the ship. To his right he could hear the hum of electronics, just barely behind the thin plastic wall casing. The hall was studded with doors, his was first, Aria next, then Melody and finally his mother. Ruber was currently outside of the door at the far end of the hall, it stood open as he remained half in and half out of the threshold.

Leaning against the wall Jeff could make out the mature curves of his mother. Monica was chatting, giggling, and from where Jeff stood, flirting with the second in command. Likewise he was chuckling about something that his mother had just said. It was deep and rich and genuine. Jeff’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, and in that time Ruber noticed Jeff’s presence at the end of the hall. More evidence that his eyes had been clinging to his mother instead of the rest of the environment.

“Well, I better get some sleep. I’m on shift in a few hours and I should really be somewhat well rested.” Ruber said. He looked up the hall at Jeff, as if he had only just noticed him for the first time. “G’night Jeff.”

With that he turned and slipped through the door and into the crew quarters beyond. Jeff pressed his lips together and looked at his mom. He wasn’t sure if she caught on to the somewhat disappointed feeling he was experiencing, but she offered back a small, tight lipped smile. Then the door to her room slipped open and she stepped through it, letting it slide closed with a hiss.

With the suddenness of the encounter out of the way Jeff stepped into his own room. He let out a small huff, and with it whatever strange emotional jealousy he might have been feeling. As moments slipped past the innocence of the situation settled into place, and Jeff realized that there was nothing to worry about. It was just the crew being friendly with their passengers. Nothing more.

Stripping out of his shirt and tossing it across the room, perhaps with more force than was strictly necessary, Jeff flopped onto the bed. It was a little tricky to angrily flop onto a bed that was more of a shelf with a mattress, but he managed.

Breath in, deep. He told himself. Then let it all out.

It was something Aria had told him in one of the many times he had been angry or frustrated about something. The actual subject of his anger had been long forgotten, but the lesson was still there. She had just told him to breathe, not just that, but to actually really focus on it. That small shift was enough to let things settle into their proper places in his mind. He knew his mother well enough, she was a good and loving person, she wasn’t flirting with anyone, it was just a conversation. Another breath. He reminded himself of who his mother really was. She wouldn’t squander her relationship with Jeff’s father for some handsome looking spacer.

That wasn’t who she was, he reminded himself.

It took a few more loops around his brain before the message started to settle into place. As he let go of the frustration it was easily replaced with other mental images. Home. Long fields of tall grains swaying in a gentle breeze. The feeling of the icy bitter cold air on his skin as he went sledding with his sisters. The feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked at the vast space beyond the windows of the ship for the first time.

Egg..her hand on the bench in front of her..The mechanisms inside of it.

If Jeff’s mind had been standing on the precipice of a cavern, imagining home and ice and space; remembering that Egg was a machine sent him careening back into one of the more unexpectedly sensual places in his mind.

He tumbled headlong into visions of the pretty feminine robot. There was no pretext this time. He didn’t need to trick his mind into crafting a scenario where she came to his room and seduced him, or that he employed some latent hacking skills. She was just there, naked as the day she had been assembled and ready for Jeff.

She was smiling, genuine joy on her face. She wanted this, she wanted Jeff to be there with her. She was happy to move her hands up to her bare chest and push on something between her breasts. The click it produced, Jeff would have sworn he heard it in his ears. The whining of servos and motors too.

Her chest split in half, raised off of her torso an inch or so and then slid apart on some kind of rail system inside of her. Realistically it was probably impossible, but in Jeff’s aroused mind it was perfectly logical. As her chest revealed the complicated array of wires and circuit boards crammed inside of her slender torso, Jeff’s hand was already sliding down his own body.

In his mind the robotic woman mewled and moaned for him, happy to have him fondle both her internals and her breasts. In his mind he was inside of her, pumping hard in and out of the artificial slit between her legs, all while his own hand provided the physical stimulation to match.

Jeff, in his little bunk, was panting and squirming. His hips thrusts synchronized with the scene playing out in his head. Egg was moaning and squirming too, her exposed robotics spurring Jeff forward. He had never thought that the sight of a woman, exposed as a robot, would be so very erotic to him. The mere idea that right now he was on the ship, stuffed full of cables and fiber optics. Blinking LED lights and whirring servo motors. A complicated machine sculpted to look like a woman in every possible way, or so Jeff assumed.

He couldn’t ever be sure if there was a soft vaginal entry for him between her legs, or if her breasts were packed with silicone gel or if they were just hard plastic and given a feminine shape. None of it truly mattered, he knew he was unlikely to ever actually touch or see her that way. But in his fantasy, she was perfect, soft, willing, and sensual. All for him.

At a certain point the chemical cocktail created by too many lustful thoughts halted the moving images his mind created, leaving only lingering flashes of Egg’s body there. Chest split apart and a vague concept of her internals rather than a firm grasp of what they looked like. It was enough though, and soon enough Jeff gently arched his back into one final thrust and burst, making a right mess of things.

The sonic sink took care of most of what was on his hands. The rest was wiped off on his shirt and pants just moments before being tossed into the laundry compartment.

It had only been a day, just a single day, but it seemed long and wild and chaotic. Jeff didn’t realize just how much it had worn him out until he was satisfied physically and laying in bed. The Softness of the blanket on his bed against his bare skin. His arm thrust under the pillow that allowed his neck to be in alignment with his back. It was comfortable enough, not like his bed at home, but it would do. Home..somewhere out there in space.

He pulled the curtain over his little viewport window out of the way and stared off into space. From where he was laying it seemed like nothing was moving, save for a few little particles that flashed past from time to time. There was no frame of reference for him to know just how fast they were going. The sheer screaming speed of their ship didn’t register in his exhausted mind. He just looked into the darkness. So deep was the vastness of space that he barely realized his eyes were slipping closed and drifting off to sleep.

Astronomers, in ages long past, looked up at the sky and beheld its beauty. Before the world was polluted with clouds and lights that drowned out the night sky, early humans could gaze upon the heavenly lights and see them arrayed in all their splendor. Those early humans could see just how crowded the sky was with its star clusters, swirling galaxies, and unbeknownst to them, planets too.

Those far off galaxies were painted on the dark canvass of the heavens. There were so many bodies floating there in the sky overhead. The fools tried to count them, but failed. Others plotted the slow course across their field of vision. Math and science soon learned to track those movements and calculate their trajectories. Then we invented ways to look into the night sky and see what was really out there. We invented a way to zoom in on those stars and planets and floating objects.

To our horror we found that for every cluster of stars that we could see with our naked eyes, there were vast swathes of nothingness. Two close pin pricks of light from earth were actually two distant galaxies with nothing but empty void filling the space between them. For as crowded as the sky was to someone on the ground, when viewed through the lens of a telescope it was found to be jam packed with nothingness. Just an inky blackness that stretched on and on.

For all the existential dread that stirred in people’s hearts and minds, it meant that space travel was far more safe. Gliding through that nothingness soon felt like sailing on a vast open sea. A gentle cruise where we only vaguely had to watch out for icebergs. Even then, computers and technology took care of that for us. A myriad of methods arose for detecting anything that might be a danger to the hull of a starship. Larger objects could be avoided, or in extreme cases annihilated by bolts of hot plasma. Anything smaller would bounce harmlessly off of high powered energy shields encasing the craft.

Space travel, they said, was more safe than driving a hover-car across an open plane.

A mostly true statement.

The problem with mathematical calculations and predictions is that just because the math is right, does not mean you have crafted truth. A tremendous amount of time and energy went into making sure that plotting a course from one planet to the next was safe. Every little thing was taken into account. Food and water were rationed to keep costs low, high powered computer plotted courses, and the very latest galactic data was taken into account. Everything was in its place, the math had been done, then re-done, then done one last time. All the answers aligned. Everything was in place.

At the moment that the calculation was done, it was correct. Everything was fine. What wasn’t correct was the results. Changes happen. The larger the sample size of your calculation the more opportunity there is for variables. The more opportunity for chaos.

Some distance from the Mirum’iter, well out of even deep space scanning technology, something was changing the equation.

It wasn’t so much that something zigged when it should have zagged. It was a massive stone, lazily floating through the nothingness. It didn’t care about luggage, and families, and robots. It just was. It was content to just be. Unfortunately as it gently sailed along that sea of nothingness, another ship approached. The rock was right in the way. The captain of this little ship, some freighter carrying cargo from one place to another, couldn’t be bothered to go around. That would add time to the delivery schedule and they were already behind.

The guns mounted on the top weapons gimbal were hot, they were always hot, that's the way the captain liked it. It was just him out here alone in his ship, and the amount of time it would take to reroute power to the guns and get them warmed up was almost as unacceptable as going around some meteoroid.

Targeting was automatic, and once the computer had a lock on the rock all that needed to happen was a small trigger pull. The captain's hand fell from his control console to the targeting stick; he couldn’t move the guns without disabling the computer, but he could squeeze the trigger.

There were no fantastic sounds or science fiction reactions to the guns. The captain knew they had fired because of a single three round burst of light on his display and the smallest little thump from somewhere above him. He didn’t even hear it over the music blasting inside of the cabin. He did see the bright orange streaks slam into the space rock. Over and over and over until the rock was cleared out of his way. There was still debris, but his computer told him that the route was now safe. He trusted that assessment and plowed ahead.

He could hear the little stones hit his energy shields and bounce harmlessly off. They would float off into space and cause him no more trouble. As he plowed into the field of rock chunks his music slammed into a screaming loud guitar solo, the captain pulled up a mock guitar and played along. Blissfully unaware of the catastrophe he had just caused for the Mirum’iter.

As the ship plowed forward, guitar solo fading into the ringing ears of her captain, the small chunks of space rock kept their momentum. The energy shield had nudged so many of them out of the way, but the physics of movements worked differently in an environment with no gravity. There was no air resistance to slow down a chunk of molten hot space rock. They just drifted on and on until something else got in their way or they were bounced off of something else.

Unfortunately, in space, there was nothing but emptiness between a particularly fast moving cluster of space debris and the intended course that the Mirum’iter was plotted to sail through.

==Chapter Six==

Aria had long finished sitting in the commons and staring vaguely off into the stars beyond. It was beautiful for sure, but there was little to look at. Actually look at. Despite the grandeur of hurtling through space and being able to gaze out at it, there was actually not much to look at. Blackness, stars, swirling galaxies, but the view never changed. The scope of the universe beyond the thick glassy material was so immense that it seemed unmovable.

That hadn’t stopped her from hugging her legs tight against her chest and looking though. She had drawn a bit, journalled a bit and eventually found herself ready for bed. The dishes were still clattering in the kitchen as Jeff scrubbed at them, or whatever the sonic equivalent of scrubbing was. The co-pilot, or was it first mate? Ruber, was that his name? Aria cursed herself for being so bad with names, had come out of the kitchen and had spotted Aira, waved at her and received a polite smile and wave in return, then he had stepped into the cockpit.

When the door had opened, that’s when Aria had spotted the captain.

She had spotted him when he had greeted her family on the ship and toured them around a little, but then he had disappeared into the captain's seat for the remainder of the day. Behind a locked door. In that time he had clearly become a little more comfortable. The official cap he had worn before was gone, leaving a somewhat longer mop of hair on his head. It was pulled back into a small ponytail. His jacket was also gone, leaving just his white trousers and his light blue flight shirt.

His chest below it was covered, for sure, but even from down the hallway Aria could tell what it hid. Strong shoulders, a toned chest, and surely a body that was kept fit and ready for space travel. Maybe it was a whole day of sitting in the cockpit, or maybe it had been there before, but the hint of scruff across his face seemed to present itself as well.

Aria felt the heat spreading across her cheeks, down her throat and across her chest. The feeling of her heart thumping against her ribs was ever present as well. The frantic feeling of hot blush and coursing blood caused her to look away, back to the empty void of space. But it wasn’t long before she ventured a look back up at the captain.

He and First mate Ruber were talking about something in the doorway to the front of the ship. Ruber had his arms folded over his chest, gesturing with one hand from time to time. Liber leaned against the door jamb, one hand on his hip while the other was thrust into a pocket on his pants. The conversation wasn’t a long one, and soon the captain nodded, turned back to the cockpit, and the door slipped into place.

Aria snapped her attention back to the space beyond the ship before Ruber could see that she had been watching them. She tried to control her breathing, but it was still coming in small, shallow gasps, which did her heart rate no favors.

Ruber walked down the hall, through the observation lounge and passed behind Aria. She was unsure if he noticed her disposition or even looked at her. A moment later she heard some kind of small commotion at the end of the hall and then heard Ruber and her mother’s voice. She looked down the hall to see them chatting, and took the opportunity to move down that same hall and into her room.

She was certain that Ruber and her mother would have heard the door open and then close, so she made sure to keep her head down and her eyes locked on nothing but her feet until the door was closed. Even then she held her breath until she was fully across the room and curled up on her bed to let out the small squeak of a breath she held in her lungs.

It had been a while since she felt this way about someone, anyone, let alone a man older than her. Not by much, maybe a handful of years, but there was something searing about him that had struck Aria hard. She had been so distraught about leaving her home behind, and fearful about space travel that her brain had locked into that sweet artistic mode. The kind of sweet detachment from reality that some might misread as being a bit of an airhead.

That was far from it. In those times Aria detached from the world around her, she was living a full life inside of her own mind. Details about the world around her mushed together into a muddy and distracting swirl until she could truly observe them. As was the case from earlier in the day. The captain was a single muddy and undefined entity. To Aria’s mind he was little more than a placeholder with a voice.

Now though, she had seen him. She had observed him and took him in. More than that, he had lodged himself in her mind and carved a distinct path to the recesses of her young adult brain. It was an easy path for someone as handsome as Liber to walk.

Aria’s mind played with him. It stripped him of his flight jacket and shirt then placed her imaginary hands on that body. It was hard as stone and perfectly warm. The heat enveloped her like sliding into a perfectly drawn bath. She could practically feel his arms on her, they were on her hips now. Moving upward, under her shirt, reaching to her bra and bunching up her shirt in the process.

As Liber’s imagined hand slinked its way up Aria’s torso to her covered breasts, Aria obliged her senses and moved her own hand along the same hot trail the imagined hand had moved. As she reached her own breast, she pushed her fingers hard against her ribs and slipped them under the wire of her bra.

The warmth and clammy presence of her own hand on her body drew a hastily breathed gasp from her throat. She wasn’t done though. Liber was groping at her and so too did she massage her breast. Those gropes became more and more aggressive as Liber’s imagined visage became more sensual. Oh how Aria wished she could feel those hands, hard from years of work, on her body. The heat of his body pressed against hers. She longed for the weight of his hand on her shoulder, pushing her into the bed as his other hand found its way to her crotch.

Her own hand did the work Liber’s imagined hand could not. She had no trouble sliding it into the waistband around her bottoms and then into the scant elastic of her panties. Just a little further…

She imagined Liber dragging those bottoms off of her hips. His passion wild and unrestrained made him toss them aside, landing across the room along with dignity and social norms, where it belonged. She wanted him, she needed him. Her body, still unspoiled, was ready to be filled by him. Her mind removed his flight suit as well, no need for imagined scenarios. He was naked and on her, penetrating her deeply.

She wanted so badly to cry out. To moan with all due lustful desires spilling from her lips. Her mind was still sharp enough to remember that her mother and the co-pilot were just outside of her room, and she held no assumptions that these walls were thick enough to stifle her passion.

So two of her own fingers toyed at the very outer edges of her feminine lips. The small amount of pressure wasn’t enough to part them and allow her deeper inside, but it was warm and delightful. It was the sip of wine to tease the palate. Her hips were not so invested in small, subtle movements and lust strung out. They wanted release, and her mind agreed.

Thrusting upwards, pushing her own fingers into her slit, Aria found herself letting out a long ragged breath. It was louder than she would have wanted, but, she was sure, not loud enough to tip off anyone lurking in the hall. Her hips bucked again as the ghostly mental image of Liber’s hard manhood drove into her again and again. She matched his imagined rhythm, or rather it adjusted the mental image to match her pace. It was wild and fast, and Liber was glad to keep up.

The hand on her breast groped hard, squeezing and moving until she had her own nipple in between her fingers and pinched it just enough. Not so hard as to cause her pain, or worse, to send a feverish tickle rippling through her, but more than enough that the imagined teeth inside of the equally unreal Liber’s mouth could add a bit of bite. She moaned softly again, ensuring her voice was low.

Soon her hips and fingers were working hard, pumping up and down. She grew wet and sticky, but it was worth it. She needed this release, she needed it more than she needed food or air or water. It was the single most important thing to her at that moment. She didn’t care about anything, just the frantic, electric feeling of something pressed against her clit.

Her head pressed hard against her pillow as the pressure mounted to a crescendo inside of her hips. Liber’s face, his hands, his body, his cock…all evaporated as if it were smoke on a cold day. Traces of it lingered longer than others, but soon there was nothing left.

In that moment the hand on her breast squeezed tightly, holding on for dear life and sending burning sensations to her brain. Equally so, her fingers stiffened and she let the motion of her hips carry out the remainder of her endeavor. Her back arched and her hips thrust up into her waiting fingers. With mouth open and the fear that she might make too much noise, she let out a long, strangled but ultimately quiet squeak.

Her climax subsided and all she felt was heat. Her face was flushed and red, her chest heaved and felt equally warm. Her hand remained on her still wet slit. She would pant and breathe deeply for another moment or two before extracting her hands from herself and planning to head into her small bathroom to clean up her hand. Each deep breath hurt her chest in just the right way.

WIth her brain still flooded with a chemical mixture of pleasure and lust, she found her legs uncooperative. So she lay on her bed for a few more moments until the tension in her muscles subsided and allowed her to move properly again.

At the same time Aria was imagining all manner of sexual desires surrounding captain Liber, the actual captain was in the cockpit of his ship. There was little for him to actually do here aside from monitor the vast array of instruments and monitor screens in front of him. The little holographic projection of the surrounding star system glowed with a somewhat septic green and splashed his face with color from it.

His jacket was dangling from the back of his flight chair and the hat he had worn before was tossed haphazardly onto the dashboard in front of him.

Liber leaned forward, reaching across the array of lights and screens to tap on one of the monitors. It had previously been on a very generic screen, displaying nothing but the Coalition logo and a small animated emblem that lazily spun round and round. As his hand came close though the screen flickered for a moment and changed back to a new view filled with data and charts.

It flickered again and returned to the lock screen, when it did, Liber furrowed his brow. It wasn’t supposed to do that. He pulled back his hand and then brought it forward to the screen again. It flickered, unlocked and displayed the data for a moment or two before flickering again and returning to the Coalition lock screen.

Liber seemed to deflate at this, pressing his lips together into a disappointed kind of look. A small huff blew out his nose and he spun in his chair. Placing his hands against the arm rests he practically threw himself out of the chair and landed on the hard soles of his boots. He marched to the door and gently opened it, peering out of the cockpit for a moment before quietly slipping into the hall.

Turning the corner and peeking up the hall he could see that there was no one in the kitchen, no one in observation, and he heard nothing but the gentle sizzle of welding coming from the engineering room halfway up the hall. No one was around to see him and the captain preferred to keep it that way.

The captain placed his hand on the small reader next to the engineering room. He expected a small beep of confirmation but it never came. That figured. He pulled his hand back and placed it on the reader again. Nothing. One more time, he pulled his hand back, shook it vigorously and affixed a mean stare at it for a moment and then slapped it against the reader. Nothing.

The sound of a gentle tapping, a simple three knock rhythm, drew Six Six Three’s attention. The robotic woman looked up from the sprawl of wires and circuitry she had been working on all day long. The job was close to being done, but not yet. She clicked off the welding wand in her hand and waited for a few moments as it cooled before setting it down. As she waited another round of knocks reverberated against her door.

“Just a sec.” She called.

The welding wand, cool enough, came to rest in a small cradle on Six Six Three’s messy but well loved workbench. She got up from her stool and walked to the door. She pressed a button above a small view screen. Her artificial intellect had anticipated a late night visit. She smirked as the little view screen came to life. Her operating system hadn’t expected the captain, and on seeing him there, outside her door, wiped the expression from her face plate.

She tapped another button and the door whooshed open. Her body rigidly stood at attention and she sharply muttered ‘captain’ before he nodded at her.

“You know you don’t have to do that outside of port. Not with me.” He said, almost amused, as he walked into her space.

“Can’t help it. It’s-”

“Yeah yeah, it’s in your programming. I know.” The captain said. “At ease.”

He knew he had to say it for her to settle down, and as she did he could see the relief sweep over her. She clearly hated it as much as Liber did.

“Well captain, to what do I owe the honor of a late night visit? Come to do another system check on me?” The smirk and wink indicated that while she hadn’t been expecting him tonight, his presence certainly was a welcome surprise.

“Not while I’m on shift Sixes, you know that.” His statement seemed to disappoint her. “Something isn’t right with my palm authenticator. It’s not consistently transmitting.”

Six Six Three returned to her stool and patted the work surface just in front of whatever it was she was working on. Liber took his cue and rolled up the sleeve on his flight shirt until it was bunched up just past his elbow. He brought his other hand up to the soft patch of flesh in the crook of his elbow and pressed his thumb hard into it.

With a gentle sigh of a hiss a small seam line appeared around his arm just below the elbow. His whole forearm was unlocked now and all he needed to do was slide it forward and set it on the workbench for Six Six Three to examine. As she leaned into her work Liber leaned against the wall and let his half missing arm dangle at his side.

The robotic engineer was already poking and prodding at something inside of the upper portion of the arm. Liber watched as his fingers twitched and curled as she manually stimulated his hand to move. He knew better than to express his impatience. Six Six Three would have much rather had Liber leave and let her work, if she wasn’t going to teach or fix she’d rather be alone, but to her credit she also knew that wouldn’t happen.

Soon enough she flipped the arm and hand over, placing it palm down on the workspace and running a razor thin blade under the joint between wrist and hand. She didn’t have to push in too far before she was able to pop open a panel on the back of the hand. It had been practically invisible to anyone who hadn’t been looking specifically for it. Inside was the same kind of tangled and messy circuitry she had inside of her.

Hidden below the control surfaces and wiring was what she was looking for. A short range burst authenticator system. It was what allowed Liber to use anything and everything in the ship. This wouldn’t be the first time the chip itself had come loose and required Six Six Three to force it back into place and manually reconnect a loose wire. It was always a frustrating and precise task, but that’s why the Coalition employed android engineers.

Liber, to his credit, remained silent as he watched his mechanic prod tools into the back of his hand, but his own operating system allowed his bubbling thoughts to stay locked inside log files. Perhaps ten minutes in total were required for the precise hands to adjust the chip and get it into place once again. Once done though, Six Six Three simply set her tools down, closed up the panel and held up the arm.

When Liber reached out for it though, she pulled it annoyingly just out of his grasp.

“Payment is due you know.” She said, her voice dark and enticing.

“Six, come on, I’m on duty. You know I can’t do that.”

Six Six Three smirked and moved Liber’s hand down to her thigh and placed it against her flight suit. She manually moved it back and forth, up and down.

“Who said you have to do anything?” She said with a wink.

Liber couldn’t help but smile at that, she had him there. But he needed to get back to work.

“Rain check? My shift is over in six hours.”

“Aww shoot, I’ll be recharging then.” Six Six Three teased and then pursed her lips. She swiveled cutely back and forth on her stool and looked pitifully up at Liber. “I know I gave you the command to stop the logging script..just a few minutes. C’mon.”

Liber huffed. She was insatiable sometimes. But it couldn’t hurt. He tried to hide the growing smile, masking it under exasperated frustrations, but the smile broke through regardless. That was when Six Six Three knew she had won.

While Liber reattached his arm Six Six Three stood and approached him. His arm had barely locked into place and his operating system connected to it before she was pushing him against the wall. Their lips met and Liber melted into it. His arms rose to embrace her and press her body hard against him. He was already running the commands Six Six Three had given him to disengage his logging, no one at the Coalition needed to know what was happening here.

Her hands were already roaming down his torso, fingertips gliding and moving over the body he had been built with. Her own mechanical fingertips finding their way down to the buckle on his pants. She would need them gone, and soon. Once undone, Liber did his part to try and step out of them and reveal the aftermarket android penis he had installed. Slightly larger than average, and ready to go at his command, Six Six Three’s hand fell to it and eagerly began stroking up and down the shaft.

Liber bent forward, just enough for his arms to scoop up Six Six Three and hoist her up. She continued to kiss him, even as he navigated through the engineering bay. He slammed his newly repaired hand against the reader at the far end of the room, the gentle ding of the reader letting him know it worked. At least that confirmed her repairs were still top notch. He kicked open the door into the engine room.

The heat produced by the engines struggled against the industrial strength cooling systems in place. Both mechanisms fighting a losing battle to dominate the temperature of the space. Not that Liber or Six Six Three cared about that. All they needed was the combination bed and charging station that was set up here. It was where Six Six Three would normally be when she wasn’t doing repairs.

Liber and Six Six Three tumbled into the bed. She was working on her own flight suit, trying to work it off of her body and expose herself to her captain. He was ready and waiting, once she was naked, he would be inside of her. There was precious little time for romance right now, and he would probably pay for it later, but for now all that mattered was passion and sex.

A small, annoying alarm was blipping on the command console inside of the cockpit. It was intentionally designed to be an irritation. It demanded attention and for good reason.

The little screen that would have normally been directly in front of Liber, was flashing red. Angry, burning words flashed on the screen too. They also demanded to be paid attention to. Both screamed into an empty cockpit.

“Collision warning. Port side.”

Another alarm, this one different but equally obnoxious joined the chorus.

“Shield generators offline.”

The shield generator controller, still sitting on Six Six Three’s workbench, could have saved them. Had Jeff not come in to interrupt her. Had Liber taken Six Six Three’s advice months ago and gotten the hand module replaced. All for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The field of space rocks, relatively small in comparison, were screaming at the Mirum’iter. They were on a collision course with one another and there was nothing to stop them. Not some other asteroid, not an energy shield, and certainly not the lightweight hull. They were coming and their target would be in sight within moments.

A whole fleet of rocks, some the size of a fist, others the size of a car, roared angrily in empty and open space. The Mirum’iter’s weapon could have stopped them, the shields would have saved them.

Deep and lustful moans, punctuated with deep grunts and equally lustful swear words were cut off in a sharp hail of sound. The first shards of the blasted rock hit the ship, striking it along the port side. A wild orchestra of sounds, each one a scream at a different pitch and timbre, filled the ship.

The crew quarters, and the sleeping first mate inside, were shredded to pieces.

The core electrical room next to the crew quarters was left a sparking, snapping, mess.

The engine room. The lifeblood of the ship was utterly destroyed.

So were the two lovers inside of it.

==Chapter Seven==

There were plenty of parts on the Mirum’iter that were new..or new-ish. Liber had most recently sprung for a state of the art navigation system. It was the entire reason he had needed Six Six Three to detach his arm weeks ago and install a new authentication chip. She had done a good job installing it, but the card slot inside of Liber's hand had worn down from years of continued operation without proper upgrades. Thus the card slipped and made it hard for him to properly work that navigator.

Had he spent the extra cash he and the crew were owed from the Coalition on upgrades to his ship, and perhaps even his own systems, he would have had a working shield generator as well. Instead he had Six Six Three working round the clock to try to fix, or at least jury rig, the current generator so he could get it back in place and have shielding on the sides and back of his ship instead of just the front.

She had been very close.

Liber's interruption had taken her away from that very task. Likewise the sensual programming that Six Six Three had in place was already running at a higher clip than it would have been otherwise, and the moment Liber walked into her space it had ramped up to fully control her. Jeff had no small role to play in the cataclysmic series of events either.
Had he not interrupted Six Six Three earlier to simply chat her up, she could have made more progress on the generator that would have saved her life, or whatever term best applied to the continued operation of an android like her. Though it wasn't entirely his fault either.
Six Six Three's database of information, and through it, how she interacted with the world around her, was an amalgamation of so many different data points. Unsurprisingly, when a handsome young man walked into her lab, asking questions about machines, about robotics..about her robotics, something in her was triggered. Jeff's face and build were taken in by her optics and stored away for later. She wasn't ashamed that she was planning on running some very salacious programming later that night just before she recharged. Her plan had been to lay herself out, legs apart and manually stimulating the equipment between her legs. The old fashioned way.
Liber's presence had shunted those ideas to the side, she would let him fuck her first, as a warm up. But the long and varied string of events that had been set into motion had other plans for her.
A chunk of blasted space rock, just a little larger than your average basketball, slammed into the side of the Mirum’iter. It was one of many, though this one came along with a small fleet of additional rocks as well. Most didn't have enough force to make anything more than a dent in the hull of the ship. Nor did any of the others possess the force to punch through the numerous layers of additional plating and the electronics woven into the skin of the ship.
One, though, had been sent rocketing forward from the original meteoroid. It hit hard and it slammed all the way into the very delicate engine in the same room as Liber and Six Six Three were in. The instant it entered the space the hole it had punched was sealed with debris and a large plate that was forcefully torn off of the engine. The friction and violence, mixed with the raw suction of space beyond, merged the pieces together, resealing the ship in that spot. But the damage was done.
The engine was hit hard and because of that the tethers and supports that held the thrumming heart of the ship in place fought hard to keep the engine itself in place. But it wouldn't be enough. The engine rocked and the support struts were torn to shreds. One in particular ran from the engine itself up to the ceiling of the engine room where it was bolted in place, firmly above Liber and Six Six Three's naked writhing bodies.
About as wide as a hand, from pinky to thumb, and as thick as Liber's wrist, the support strut was torn free and swung down with a mighty violent force. Liber's operating system had just bid him to load and execute the orgasm sequence it had queue’s up for him. Six Six Three was still rolling all of the sexual data up into a neat little package for her to process and tag later tonight, but for now, she too was close to executing her orgasm as well.
As Liber thrust deeply one last time, his back arched and a groan of pure delight rolled out of the audio processors in his throat, his eyes were closed and he never saw the support strut slam into his body. It caved in his face plate and completely destroyed the underlying mechanics. His head snapped weirdly forward from the force and once the strut finished tearing his jaw off of his face, it continued to fall. As it did, Liber’s head wobbled on broken servo motors and eventually flopped forward. Nothing about it was recognizable save for it’s position on top of his neck.
Six Six Three fared better by some estimates. The strut, having torn apart Liber’s face, finalized its course by mashing into Six Six Three’s throat. She had no time to gurgle or even yelp, all she did was continue to moan softly until the steel crushed the speaker assembly in her throat and all the attached systems.
It wasn’t a clean cut, far from it. Six Six Three’s head was severed from what remained of her neck and was sent spinning through the air. It sailed away from the body for only a moment before it hit the floor with a dull, lifeless thump. The processors and electronics inside of it already surging wildly with what remained of the data and power. One eye blinked rapidly, while the other struggled to close even once. Her glassy eyes spasmed and jittered in their sockets and then all at once, stopped. Her face still wrapped in a lewd expression.
Liber and Six Six Three’s bodies, meanwhile, writhed and squirmed against one another. There was little to no control to their movements. Hands and arms twitched and subtly spasmed just as much as they occasionally flailed in wide, wild arcs as if swatting at unseen ghosts.

A robot’s construction wasn’t like what you would see in ancient science fiction films. They were not one cohesive unit. Humans were like that, but not sophisticated androids. Six Six Three’s missing head didn’t mean that she was fully offline, far from it. Her core processors were somewhere inside of her chest, along with her power supply, likewise Liber was built to be resilient and could continue operating without his head attached.
The more pressing issue was the sheer volume of errors and warnings each were processing at the moment, and those were only getting worse.
Each had suffered a catastrophic amount of trauma, and from that systems began to short circuit as wiring that was designed to carry data was subjected to high power electrical currents. Similarly, heavy cabling meant to only carry current in a single direction was assaulted with opposing data and power signals as every component seemed to be mashed into the next.
Liber’s operating system was the first to fully lock up and give out. The raw violence done to his face and the internals hiding just below his scruffy exterior, could not carry on. So many different parts in one of the more delicate systems had been mangled and a nearly constant stream of sparks and angry snapping of electricity indicated as much. His operating system was flooded with so many errors that there was no possible way to continue on. The processor core inside of him had no additional utility to provide, and once it was pegged at one hundred percent, he was locked.
At that point his body went ridgid, even the remaining motor controls, and their spastic flow of power and data, were non-operational. He was locked, stuck in one position, his manhood permanently hard and stuck in Six Six Three, and in time, even the sparks subsided, giving way to a plume of acrid black smoke rolling out of what remained of his head.
Six Six Three, similarly spasmed and writhed under Liber. The weight of the male android kept her movements somewhat contained. Still her legs kicked and scrambled in a bid to move her body into a more safe and optimal position. Her hands had been on his hips at the moment her head was torn free and between the wild clawing spasms her nails dug into his artificial flesh.
Like her commanding officer, her neck spewed white hot sparks that threatened to ignite the bedding that she had been laying on. It was resistant enough to the sparks, but it left a long and wide streak of charred fibers. The curling smoke from her throat joined with her lovers in a small, gathering cloud at the top of the engine room. If the feminine android hadn’t suffered the same shutdown and overload as her lover, that same smoke may have triggered some kind of fire suppression system, but as they both powered down, so too did the smoke and sparks.
Lights flickered, an instant later as the engine sputtered and rattled, temporarily disrupting most of the electrical systems on the ship. Which was when the largest of the space debris slammed into the back of the ship.
The crew quarters at the rear and port of the ship were hit hard. The outer shell easily pierced by a particularly excited piece of space rock. The skin and electronics were no match for the jagged shard. Ruber had barely snapped his eyes open from the sound before he found himself suctioned out into space. His fate, while grim, was over quickly.
Every loose trinket and bauble, every piece of furniture that wasn’t bolted down, and even some that were, became projectiles. Every missile was aimed at the same hole that Ruber was being forced towards. He was dead long before the brutal and unforgiving vacuum of space took him. A wayward lamp struck him in the head and ended his life.
The door locks slammed into place automatically. Despite the power loss, those were still fully mechanical because Liber hadn’t put forward the money to switch them over to the much more reliable computer controlled systems. Which was all that may have saved the lives of the remaining passengers.
As the vacuum of space occupied what was once the crew quarters, it also pulled on the door. The more it pulled, the more the door, locked deep into extremely sturdy bindings, pressed against the heavy duty sealant. The more it pulled, the more firm the seal remained.
Somewhere in the unoccupied cockpit a small warning light lit up to indicate that the crew quarters had been breached. It was a small thing. Luckily the blaring incoming impact alarm had turned off.
The power was unreliable at best as indicated by the sputtering lights that struggled to remain lit for more than a minute or two before they flickered off again. Once more power built up in the system they would come online again, only to drain that buildup. The artificial gravity wasn’t coming back on without something being done though, and everything began to drift lazily through the rooms and hallways.
The impacts had passed, but the ship had been hit hard, spun and rolled and knocked off course. Everything was a mess of knick knacks, shattered plates, broken electronics, shards of ruined detritus and floating cushions from the observation deck.
The ship was quiet. Deathly Quiet.

Jeff wasn’t sure what happened. He had been asleep, drifting happily through dreams of golden fields of some kind of grain-like crops attended by a small army of beautiful robots that all seemed to look strikingly similar to Six Six Three.
Then there had been noise. Movement. He was awake in an instant and he felt his heart slamming against his chest. It was hard to breathe, had he forgotten how, or was there just no air to speak of? In a flash his mind knew something was wrong, he couldn’t breathe, and they were in space. Not a good combination.
Then there was pain, but only for a moment.
His head hurt in an instant as he was flung from his bed and sent sailing across the small cabin. Thank goodness the wall was there to stop him, who knows how far he would have sailed if that wall hadn't been there to stop him. He loved the wall. It was a bastard though, because it hit him in the head hard enough to send him back into the darkness of fitful unconsciousness.
Time passed. On and on and on.
Jeff wasn’t around to clock it, but when his eyes fluttered open again he knew it had been a long time. Not long enough to stop his head from hurting, mind you, but long enough. His mind panicked again because he couldn’t feel the ground under him, and he knew it should be there. Something should be there. Oh god, had he broken his neck? He couldn’t feel anything!
Wiggle your toes Jeff, just see if you can wiggle them. Let’s see how bad this is.
He wiggled them just fine, and as soon as he did his whole body seemed to wake up. At least the pain and tingling numbness told him he was awake and in one piece. But where the hell was the ground?
He almost wished he hadn’t opened his eyes, because he found the ground. It was some three or four feet below him, right where it shouldn’t be.
As he looked around he figured out what was wrong. In short, everything. His belongings, his clothes, his bags and blankets and pillow. All of it was just coasting through the air with no regard for things like gravity. Of course, neither did his own body, and that was when the panic settled nice and deep into his mind.
He was floating too, and he knew enough about physics and space to know that objects in motion tend to stay in motion. But he wasn’t in motion, and worse still, there was nothing nearby to grab onto. Nothing to plant his feet on and launch him forward, nothing to shove against. Nothing to get him started moving.
He looked all around, his head swiveling and his body twisting weirdly to try to get any kind of movement. Nothing, there was nothing.
Jeff took a deep breath and took everything in. What did he know.
He was in space, and alive. Something was wrong with gravity. The lights flickered for a moment then sputtered back to life.
Ok, and something was wrong with the power too.
What did he have? Nothing really. And there was nothing nearby either. The light fixture above the door some two to three feet just past his arm length might have helped, if he could reach it. Which he could not.
He couldn’t help but take a moment to recognize the humor of the situation. Just barely an adult, dressed in pajama pants, floating in space and unable to move. Not how he expected to die. He barked out a small, sad laugh.
That brief moment of humor was more than enough to knock something free in his mind though. A small distraction from the sheer terror of the situation. To set his mind back on the moment. He didn’t have nothing.
Jeff scrambled a little and managed to get out of his pajama bottoms, leaving him floating naked in space, but that was ok. He tied a quick little loop at the end of one of the pant legs and then tied the other leg around his wrist. Best not to lose his one and only asset. It would be really embarrassing to be found dead, or worse, rescued, while naked.
It took a few attempts to get it, a fact that made Jeff happy for his foresight. He eventually lassoed the light fixture and gently pulled himself forward. He had been expecting to pull himself hand over hand towards the light, but even the smallest tug sent him smoothly gliding forward. Then he had a different problem, but his old friend the wall helped him with that as well. Jeff crumpled into the wall and his movements halted, but he was at the wall now, friction between his hand and the plastic wall casing would be more than enough to help him navigate.
He was okay now. Everything was going to be okay now.
What was next? Get dressed again, right.
He untied the pant leg from his wrist and then undid the loop on the other and shimmied back into them. That was when he learned how difficult it was to get dressed in zero gravity. He was trying to use nineteen years of muscle memory to do something that required all new movements. He managed, but it was odd.
Next, get out into the ship, find the crew, ask what the hell was happening. It was a good checklist. He was proud of it.
Jeff shimmied along the door and down to the handle just as the lights went out. He swore once, hoping that they would come back on, and when they did he made quick work of the door. It struggled open as if it were begrudging Jeff for being asked to do its job. But it was opened, and couldn’t be bothered to be asked to close again. That was alright with Jeff, if it stayed open he could get in and out of his room easily enough.
The hallway beyond his room was eerie, like something out of a horror movie. Silent and dark. Made even more dark as the lights sputtered out again and left only small pools of light around the emergency lighting. Even that seemed a little too dim for Jeff’s liking. The small running lights along the ground and the faint and flickering lights over his family's rooms seemed to be suffering as much as his door was. They didn’t want to work, they just wanted to sleep out here in the cold quiet void of space.
Sorry friends, Jeff had work to do.
Aria’s room was first, right next to Jeff’s. A mere ten foot float up the hall.
“Hello?” Jeff shouted into the nothingness of the hallway.
As if to greet Jeff, the lights flickered back on. The ship was still here, He wasn’t alone. Other than that, though, there was nothing.
“Aria? Melody?..Mom?” Jeff shouted again, a panic lacing his voice. “Egg? Ruber? Captain?”
Nothing.
With gentle hands placed barely against the wall, Jeff half crawled, half floated along the wall towards Aria’s room. Turning his head to the right, he was looking down at the floor, and felt a wave of nausea creep up on him. His adrenaline had kept that at bay for long enough and a new horror ripped over Jeff.
One did not want to vomit in zero gravity. No one wanted that floating around. Then again, it would probably be worse if the gravity kicked in and he, and the contents of his stomach, were too high up. So he scuttled towards the ground before using that to push along the hallway. With everything right way up for the time being, his stomach calmed a bit. Not entirely, but enough. He would have to face down those consequences later.
“Aria!” He shouted again as he floated nearer to her door.
He hated the silence, more now than he ever had before. Though, as he pounded his fist into Aria’s door he hated the empty sound of the thumps a little bit more. Then silence again. No response. That made his heart sink so hard that he thought it might just drag him down to the floor below him.
The lights flickered, then he was plunged into darkness again. He knew it would pass. He hoped. So he waited. Alone. In the dark. In space. On a ship with no power. At least there wasn’t any silence, his panicked breathing took care of that little problem.
Then all at once the lights were back. Jeff took this opportunity to gently shove off of the floor and float up to the handle on Aria’s door. Grabbing it stopped his movement and he steadied himself before he opened the door, fearing what might be there.
He shoved the handle into position and waited for the door to open. It too was uncooperative. It slid to the side a bit, but not enough. Jeff was getting really tired of this kind of thing and took out his frustrations, his fears, his hope, on the door. There was ample room to cram his hands into the gap and he roared in defiance as he shoved open the door more and more. His muscles coiled and strained against the very ship itself, and in the end, Jeff won. Somewhat. It was enough to get into Aria’s room, and once defeated the door made no effort to retaliate and close.
Aria was there, floating like Jeff was. Her head down and her lavender hair creating a strange sort of glowing halo around her head. Her eyes were closed, limbs limp and unmoving. As far as Jeff could tell though, there didn’t appear to be any kind of injury on her. Her button up pajama shirt and matching pants would have given her an extra edge on getting out of the room. Not that she needed it now.
“Aria!” Jeff shouted, and struggled to resist the urge to launch himself at her. He just needed to get to her, to check her out, to make sure she was alive and well.
“Aria!” He shouted again and this time it seemed like something new happened.She mewled a little. Little more than a small sound, like a mouse realizing it had been spotted and screaming in terror as it fled back to its burrow. It was enough though, dead things didn’t make sounds.
It took another few seconds for her mind and body to begin communicating again. She was floating, and under any other circumstance that would have been an incredible thrill. Instead she immediately panicked and flailed around, her hands and legs and feet seeking for something, anything, to acclimate her.
“Aria! Aria, look at me!” Jeff called once he saw her moving, and hoped that she would listen and calm her body rather than give in to panic.
She did, her head snapped in his direction, and a moment later she figured out how to twist and manipulate her body into facing him correctly.
“What the heck is going on!?” The fear in her voice was unmistakable.
“I don’t know.” Jeff answered. “I woke up a few minutes ago and came out here to figure that out.”
Jeff looked up the hallway just as the lights gave out and turned the hallway back into a horror film. Aria squeaked at that and Jeff took a moment to tell her what he had learned, that soon enough the power would come on, and then they would find Melody and mom and figure this out.
Sure enough, a moment or two later and the lights came back on, washing the dreadful hallway in safe white light. Aria looked up at the lights, then back to Jeff and flashed a small smile. Even a little relief in a moment of terror pays dividends.

“I’m stuck though.” Aria commented, and Jeff agreed. He had all the mobility here. He could have slipped out of his pants again, but he didn’t want to strip down in front of his sister, of all people. Nor did he want to suggest she take her shirt off and use it as a lifeline. Instead Jeff held up a finger and told her he would be right back.

“No!” Aria yelped before calming her voice a little. “Don’t..Don’t leave me here.”

“I’ll be right back.” Jeff assured her.

“With what?”

Good question. Jeff had intended to float back to his room and get something. Another pair of pants or a shirt or..something..But peering into Aria’s room told him that there was every bit as much debris to use there.

“Okay okay. Uh..hang tight.” Jeff said and pushed himself gingerly into Aria’s room.

Her luggage wasn’t terribly hard to find and Jeff unzipped it and pawed through whatever came floating out of it. Bras and panties and jeans all tumbled out. Jeff ignored most of it and snatched up a long sleeved shirt that attempted to float past him. Once again he tied it around his wrist and then made a knotted ball on the other sleeve. As he looked up to Aria, he saw the recognition in her eyes mixed with joy and relief. They were going to make it!

It was a lot easier for two humans to lasso one another rather than a light fixture. Once Aria had a good grip on the knotted ball at the end of her shirt, Jeff tugged, gently, knowing that once in motion, Aria would stay in motion. She didn’t so much crash into Jeff, not like he and the wall had, but she made it to him with enough speed to send them both reeling back into the wall. That was okay though, Jeff and Aria held one another in a tight embrace. They were together now, it was alright.

“Kay.” Aria said. “Let’s go find Melody then mom.”

Jeff liked this list. It was a good list.

==Chapter Eight==

Aria struggled a little more than Jeff did to get her bearings and understand the concepts of zero gravity. After the second time she pushed a little too hard and began floating off into open space, Jeff decided to keep her shirt tied to his wrist to rescue her. He was starting to understand why astronauts of old had tether lines to everything. It was far too easy to simply float away.

The lights flickered off again as Aria and Jeff cruised into the hallway. Jeff was already becoming accustomed to the flickering between horror and normalcy, though he admitted only to himself that in those moments when the ship was plunged into darkness that he felt his stomach churn. There was always something in the back of his mind that wondered if this would be the time the power stayed off. If it stayed off how long would the oxygen last? How long until the freeze dried and refrigerated food gave out? Would anyone know to come and look for them?

A worse thought crept into his mind at that moment. They had lost most of their power, and with it the gravity, and something had tossed them from their beds. Were they still on their intended course? Were they drifting lifelessly through open space? And if so, how long before something else, something bigger, got in their way. His mind snapped to the wall that had stopped him and momentarily imagined the same scenario but with their ship.

All of a sudden these walls were too thin. They needed armor plating and reinforcements.

The lights returned. All the more reason to find Melody and his mother and get this situation under control.

As they floated slowly and carefully down the hall towards Melody’s room, both Jeff and Aria never stopped shouting their names. Occasionally Jeff would slip in one of the crew members names just in case any of them were still out. By the time they floated up to Melody’s door all they had been greeted with was silence. They were on a course to float past it with gentle ease, so Jeff grappled against the floor and wall to slow himself and Aria simply grabbed onto Jeff’s bare shoulders.

The handle, like the one on Aria’s door, opened the latch, but the door refused to open. With a sigh Jeff placed his feet against the small lip of the door jamb and then pressed his hands hard against the door. He was coiled up and used his whole body to strain against the door. It moved, slowly, but surely. It took a moment, and a whole cycle of darkness before he managed to awkwardly part the door enough to wedge his hands into it. Once he had that advantage though the door more readily opened.

The pair floated into Melody’s room. Like their own, all of her belongings were floating in a lazy dance around the room. Graceful but disorganized. She had been more meticulous than either of her siblings in her room arrangement though. Her luggage was still closed and tucked away in the closet, and whatever hit them and knocked out the power hadn't seen fit to fling her clothes around the room.

Pillows and blankets from the bed, on the other hand, floated through the air like wraiths. They haunted the room and paid the two young visitors no heed. They were too busy gliding around in a dance that only they knew the moves to.

There were other things in here too, things that neither Jeff nor Aria had seen before. Certainly not back at home, and not in the day since they had loaded their cargo on the ship.

The first, and most striking items, at least to Jeff, was the sheer volume of tools. He knew some of them, he had seen them in his father’s garage and workshop. Though he had little idea what they were used for. Repairing things as far as Jeff knew. There was a scattering of steel and plastic handled tools situated around Melody’s bed. Screwdrivers, pliers, and thin plastic wedges. What had his dad called them? Spudgers?

There were others too, things that were a little more specialized. A soldering iron and a spool of solder, some of which had already been used. Something that looked like a screwdriver, but instead of a sturdy shaft there was simply a needle thin length of metal. It was strong though, even as Jeff held it in his hands he found he couldn’t bend it. The tip had no head on it, rather it ended in a fairly sharp point.

Knowing that tools, no matter how rudimentary, would be useful in fixing this mess, Jeff took some time to gather them all up from their floating positions and shoved them into a fairly large, but empty nylon bag and zipped it closed. There was a small wrist strap on it, so he looped that though Aria’s spare shirt and let it float along with them.

“What is all this stuff?” Aria asked, as if Jeff knew all the answers.

“Tools of some kind. I don’t really know.”

“I didn’t think Mel knew how to use any of this stuff.” Aria commented as she tapped some kind of clamping device and nudged it in Jeff’s direction. Another one to add to the pile.

“Yeah me either. Maybe she was working on some kind of craft thing and borrowed the tools from Ruber?” Jeff offered.

Neither one of them wanted to admit to what wasn’t in the room. Melody.

This was surely her room, Jeff had seen her storm into it earlier in the night, though she clearly hadn’t remained here. All he could think of was that maybe she had made amends with their mom. Maybe she was just next door.

The two shared a look as they finished taking in the contents of the room, worry and hesitation painted across each of their faces before Aria nodded. Time to keep looking.

Monica’s door gave just as much of a fight as Aria and Melody’s room had. By now Jeff was both used to the struggle, and completely over having to do it. Still, he huffed and grunted and strained against the door until he could open in. In the split second after he got the door open he peered into the room and the lights went out. But not before he caught a glimpse of the room beyond.

Two figures were floating in there. Monica and Melody. A wave of relief swept over him, but was soon replaced with dread. Neither one was moving. Maybe, like Aria, they just needed to be jostled awake. But there were other things Jeff saw that made no sense at all. Not at first at least. He had time to mull them over while he waited for the lights to come back on though.

There was something between the pair of them. Long and stringy, maybe some kind of tether. Maybe they had seen this catastrophe coming and had taken the time to tie one another together. Other than that he would have to wait for the lights to return to examine things better.

In the meantime he looked over his shoulder, into the dark, and let Aria know that they were both in the room. The reply was a deep sigh of relief, like Aria had been holding a breath for a long long time and had finally been given permission to let it out. With his attention turned back to the door, Jeff once again wedged his hands into the opening and strained against it. Shoving and pulling and grumbling as it slowly moved open. By the time the lights came on, he had it open enough to let him slip in.

The lights returned, and Jeff peered into the room. Melody and Monica were splayed out in mid air, tumbling in zero gravity along with other items that Jeff had glanced at first. More tools. Some kind of monolithic black box. It looked like it would fit perfectly into the bag strapped to Jeff’s wrist. There were wires, parts, pieces, and electronics, all of which seemed to be hanging in a cloud in the space between Monica and Melody.

Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong. Their forms were sprawled out in midair and the limbs didn’t seem to line up right with how Jeff expected. They rolled and moved more freely than Aria’s had.

“Stay here.” Jeff said to Aria. His tone spoke more than his words ever would. Aria’s panic returned and her breath came in quick gulps.

Jeff floated into the room with caution. He maneuvered around, careful not to bump into anything. It became harder as the power soon fizzled out and plunged the room back into darkness. While it was off, he heard Aria squeak in fear, prompting a comforting “It’s okay, everything’s okay” from Jeff.

Everything wasn’t okay though.

The lights flickered back on, they seemed to be struggling a little more this time. Not a good sign as far as Jeff was concerned. In the fresh light, Jeff maneuvered around a little more. All he wanted was a better look.

He hung in the open air, staring. His older sister and his mother both had their shirts pulled up just a little, exposing their abdomens. Well, where their abdomen should have been. In both cases the skin was missing, no not missing, it was hanging in the air between them. Along with a myriad of tools and cabling.

Skin tone was the only indicator of which one belonged to whom, but there were two fleshy panels that were spinning slowly in the air. Jeff could see the glint of metal and plastics on one side, and on the other, the soft flesh absorbed the light. It looked remarkably real. His eyes darted from the panels to the bodies of the two women.

What he had thought was a tether holding them together was actually a thick bundle of cables all bound up in a mesh tube. On both ends of it the wires exploded outward and plugged into a number of ports inside of Monica and Melody. Their internal workings looked vaguely familiar to Jeff. They looked like the robotic insides he had seen when Egg had shown him what the inside of her arm held.

His eyes flicked from the exposed belly panel up to their faces. Eyes open, Monica’s expression looked vaguely surprised. His older sister looked more annoyed than anything else, as if this were the culmination of being told to do chores for all the siblings all at once. Jeff could only stare though.

Jeff’s eyes darted over the rest of their bodies and found more anomalies. Melody’s arms were near her shoulders, but they were in no way connected. Not even remotely. That would explain the strange movement of the limbs he had seen while in the hallway. One mystery solved, at least. His mother at least seemed to be fully assembled.

They were robots. They weren’t even real people. But that couldn’t be right. He was human, Aria too. Robot’s don’t give birth to humans. The lights went out again and Jeff plummeted back into darkness. He saw no little blinking lights or status indicators or glowing screens inside of the two robots. They were well and truly offline. What he did see, though, was a rapidly flashing series of red lights on something else. A dark shape that was floating somewhere between the two, though off to one side.

The lights came back on and with it a whisper of a voice from the hallway. It was Aria.

“Jeff…what’s wrong.”

He wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that. His mother and older sister were androids, and they were offline. Probably broken. He hadn’t gotten close enough to see if anything was dislodged inside of them. Not that he would know what to look for in the first place. Also they were in space and power was going out faster and faster, that was a problem. Sweet little Aria was going to discover that all the women she looked up to were just machines. She would have to, eventually.

Maybe right now wasn’t a good time for that.

The light revealed what was producing the little blinking lights. It was a monolithic black box with a number of ports on it, and even more cables already connected to it. Many of them were frayed and broken. Worse still Jeff spotted the other end of those destroyed wires. They were floating in open space, connected to both Melody and Monica’s exposed intervals. Like some kind of sea creature probing out into the ether, seeking something to wrap onto. They curled and flowed and grasped at nothing at all.

“Everything is okay Aria.” Jeff lied. “Mom and Monica are in here and they’ll be okay. I think we just need to give them some more time to wake up.”

Jeff kicked off of the floor and drifted to the door. He clearly pushed too hard because he slammed into it, his palms hitting hard against the opening and slowing him. Then he squeezed through and into the hall where he came face to face with Aria.

Her face was more than worried, and Jeff knew she had been crying. The tears were sparking in the overhead lights, just drifting droplets, freed from her face as soon as she blinked. They would drift and dance through the air until Jeff’s old nemesis, the wall, found them. Jeff took her by the shoulders and pulled her into him, the movement nudged Jeff against the wall and the two bodies were pressed together.

“Everything is alright. We’re going to be okay. Everything is okay.” He hoped…

“We need to see if we can get a hold of someone at the Coalition, or a nearby planet, or Dad, or something.” Jeff said and Aria agreed.

Aria began swimming down the hall, slowly but surely. Jeff took one last look into his mothers room. To the pair of robotic women floating in there. He was left with more questions than answers. Later, he told himself. One thing at a time.

“We should check to see if, uh, what’s her name..the engineer is around.” Aria suggested as they reached the observation room at the core of the ship, which posed a new kind of problem.

“Egg, or I guess Six Six three. She’s..uh..she’s an android you know.” Jeff gulped back the mental images of Monica and Melody and replaced them with Egg. Not that doing so made anything better.

“Oh! I didn’t know that.” Aria replied. “Cool..maybe she’s still functional or operation or..whatever they are.”

“Yeah.” Jeff whispered as he came to a gentle stop at the archway into the observation deck.

It was a massive open space. There were couches and cushions floating around the space looking more like a fabric asteroid field than a relaxing place to look out at the star field beyond. It was safer to skirt around the edge of the ship, but he hated the idea of scurrying along the walls in such a large room when the lights went out, but the idea of launching himself through the middle of the space and hoping he didn’t collide with anything was worse.

“C’mon.” Jeff sighed and began to gently paw his way along the wall and hoped he didn’t accidentally push too hard against it and send himself tumbling into the center of the room.

Jeff wasn’t sure how smart it was to start calculating time based on the cycle of power loss, but there was little else he could do to distract himself in the darkness. He and Aria remained still while the lights were off just in case. No need to go crashing into things in the dark after all. Four minutes, approximately, of light and then a minute and a half of darkness. It made for a very slow stop and go path around the outer edges of the room.

In time, the pair made their way to the archway into the forward hall. As they looked up the hall they could see the left turn in the hall ahead of them that led to the cockpit. Just at the turn was the kitchen and Jeff could easily make out cans and glasses and shards of broken plates drifting around in there. Once they restored the gravity that would be a mess to clean up.

He should also secure Mom and Melody to the ground or something before they turned that back on. Even if they weren’t his real mother and sister, he also didn’t want them to crash to the ground and break something else. They had a lot of questions to answer for him. Hopefully Egg could help get them working again.

One thing at a time.

Halfway up the first hall was the engineering room, and beyond it, hopefully, Egg. As Jeff floated towards it though his mind began to make him doubt things. If Egg was still working as expected, why hadn’t she responded when he was shouting earlier?

Because she was in the engine room keeping the lights on. Obviously.

Was she still in there? Was she the only reason the lights and power kept coming back? If so, could she be spared to help them get things stable?

Only one way to find out really.

As expected, the door to the engineering lab was jammed shut and wasn’t responding to the automatic opening mechanisms. This one was heavier too. It took Aria and Jeff both leaning hard into it before it would even begin to budge. When the power was on it moved a little bit easier, leading Jeff to believe that there was some kind of motor system that was at least attempting to help them. The door was practically immobile when the lights flickered off.

It felt like it took an eternity to get it open enough for either of them to squeeze in. Aria volunteered to go first as her lithe body easily slipped through the opening. She floated into the work space and told Jeff to keep at it while she looked around for the engineer.

Six Six Three’s engineering room was impossible to navigate without bumping into something. There were just too many tools and projects and parts floating around to avoid. Aria learned quickly to hold one hand in front of her face while using the other to help guide her along the wall.

She found the door into, what she assumed, was the engine room towards the far end of the smaller workspace. She could hear something inside there, chugging and struggling and whining. She sincerely hoped that wasn’t the engine. The woman, or android, Six Six Three, was nowhere to be seen in the workspace. A fact that Aria thought was odd, in a crisis like this the engineer was supposed to be here, fixing things.

“Jeff, there’s a door here, I think it leads into the engine room.” She called back.

“Is it closed?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.” Jeff swore and threw himself back into trying to pry open the first door.

With Aria’s help from the other side, and more than a few blackouts, they were able to grind the door open enough to allow Jeff into the workshop. What had once been a marvelous space for work and experimentation was now just a floating mess of parts. Jeff could only imagine the mess it would be once gravity was restored. He wondered if Egg was capable of emotional responses, and if so, how pissed was she going to be seeing this?

Aria nodded her head towards the door at the other end of the room. The two pushed gently against the door behind them and instinctively raised their arms, plowing through the mess of parts and pieces and tools. Though it was gentle enough to only require a small bump into the far wall, once there, Jeff slammed his fist against the door several times while shouting.

“Egg! Hey Egg! You in there? Six Six Three? We could use some help out here!..HEY!”

There was a lot of pent up frustration and fear in that voice. Desperation too. All of it came flooding out as he slammed his fists against the door and screamed for the one and only entity that could possibly help fix this mess to present herself and do just that. There was fixing to do, and Jeff and Aria weren’t able to do it on their own.

“EGG! Hey!!”

“I don’t think she-” Aria began but stopped when she saw Jeff’s gaze snap to her.

He looked wild, ferocious almost. He needed to get to her and fix this, and nothing, no hull or door or anything would stand in his way. If she wouldn’t open the door, then he would do it himself. He had done it half a dozen times already, what was one more.

With a primal scream Jeff reached down to the handle on the door and mustered all the strength, rage, frustration, anger, fear, and anxiety he had. The swirl of emotions combined into one more deep growl as he planted his feet against the lip of the doorway and in one smooth motion he lunged forward, his hands on the door handle, his legs swelling.

The door flew open easily, sliding into the trough in the wall and clanging hard against the bumpers there to prevent it from being knocked off its track. It still made an awful squeal and the sound of the impact rattled Jeff all the way to his back teeth. He lost his grip on the door the moment it started flying open and the motion sent his whole body cartwheeling through the air. The lack of gravity spinning him round and round until his adversary, the wall, stopped him. Or at least his head.

Jeff wailed in pain while Aria could only gasp. The whole process had taken less than a second and it was the only reaction she could offer. Still, Jeff had expressed his frustrations, there was little left inside of him to let out. Save for a bit of embarrassed laughter that turned into real mirth as he realized just how ridiculous that must have looked.

He turned to his sister, all smiles, and mockingly flexed his muscles.

“Ohh, yeah you like that? No match for Jeff!” He laughed again and smirked before turning to the strangely lit interior of the engine room.

He never saw the unexpected blush creep over Aria’s cheeks. Even if he had been looking at her the lights overhead sputtered and disappeared for the next ninety or so seconds. She was thankful for that, it gave her a moment to collect herself. Why had that of all things stirred something in her. A boiling heat in her gut that, regardless of how much Aria mentally pleaded, didn’t go away. Instead, the vision of her brother’s physique lingered on in her mind's eye. His shirtless body flexing for no one but her. Had he been working out when she had spent time drawing?

Delirium and stress and fear. That’s all it was. Nothing else. File it away and move on.

She didn’t.

The light returned and when it did, Jeff took the opportunity to move into the engine room. Aria floated along after him, but before she even reached the doorway she heard her brother hiss out a curse. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see what was inside.

She grabbed hold of the threshold, enough to stop her movement, then gently slipped around it to look inside.

The room was just as well lit as the rest of the ship. At least when the lights were on it was. Currently there was plenty of light flooding the space. To one side was, what she assumed, was the engine. An absolutely massive thing that was vaguely cylinder shaped. There was certainly a central piece that dominated the space. From it any number of cables and heavy tubing protruded and plugged in to other places.

Towards the far end of the room something was glowing with a sickly green light. Around it was shattered glass and more than enough steamy white vapor seemed to be pouring out of release valves. This was the thing that she had heard chugging, and the sound was all too evident now. A struggling, coughing thrum was rattling her eardrums. She felt it in the very center of her head more than she heard it.

More moving parts seemed to be churning all across the thing. It was still working, but it was a fight. Aria looked around the engine and saw that whatever had hit them had clearly dislodged the engine from the bindings that would normally hold it at the optimal position. It was not wobbling and vibrating, the rattle it produced as it lay on its side on the floor was making an awful sound. It grated against every last nerve she had. She hated it.

Jeff, on the other hand, was looking less to the engine, and more at the two figures on the bed against the opposite wall.

Six Six Three and Captain Liber, or whatever was left of them, were there. Naked and unashamed. Liber was deep inside of Egg’s robotic slit. He remained hard, probably because he was programmed to. Her head was missing, the neck severed by an overhead strut, Jeff could almost trace its trajectory as it fell. Liber’s head was caved in too, the raw internal workings of his robotic head were easily seen, as was the torn and mangled flesh around his head. No small amount of it had caught on the beam as it fell. Once caught, it was torn free of his body.

Six Six Three’s hands were curled into claw-like appendages, either from the orgasm she surely felt in the moments before…this…or perhaps because of it. Jeff was wholly unsure of what an android did when it died. If it died, you’d have to be alive for that kind of condition. His mind

snapped to his mother and sister. Were they dead? The real versions of them, that is? More questions, still no answers.

Egg’s neck ended in a twisted and ruined collection of hard metallic support struts and fragile wiring. They had all been destroyed. The support beam that had done it was lodged deep in the bed below her, soaked with some kind of fluid from inside of Egg’s neck.

Jeff let his eyes trail over the pair. He had been wrong about her proportions. Her breasts were larger than he had imagined, her body hard and lithe and perfectly crafted. Seeing her like this, destroyed and useless, was a bit of a shame. Jeff thought she would have made an excellent sexbot. Was that misogynistic? He didn’t care, he didn’t have time to.

Aria croaked out a small gasp. Jeff realized she hadn’t seen this immediately. He heard her beginning to gag. He sincerely hoped she had enough forethought to…nope, she sure didn’t.

Aria wretched and could only watch through watery eyes as her vomit drifted across open space. The lights mercifully went out and she didn’t have to watch where it landed. In the darkness Jeff whispered.

“Let’s get to the cockpit.”

Aria was already moving in a panicked and wild streak out of the room. Jeff cast one last glance back at Six Six Three’s naked form. The perfect smooth curves where her hips melted into her torso. The way her breasts spilled off of her chest, tipped with the finest pink nipples he could have imagined. Even the exposed electronics on her neck, while destroyed, still held a strange kind of charm to him. She was an elegant machine, ruined by circumstance.

He sighed and floated along after Aria.

==Chapter Nine==

Aria’s scrambling and flailing arms did nothing to help propel her forward, if anything it did the opposite. She hit the door frame, and seemingly without her mind knowing what to do, she shoved hard against it. She didn’t know what it was that she had hit, and because of that her brain whirled, like a caged animal. Terror and adrenaline had fully taken over and she raged against the door frame.

Planetside, that would have been no problem. She probably would have wailed that it hurt later, and perhaps tripped or stumbled a little as she carried on, fleeing what she had just seen. But here, in space, with power and gravity and oxygen becoming a precious resource, it was doom.

The image of the engineer and the captain burst into her mind once again. Her head missing, and blood…no…not blood. Something else. Fluids of some kind. Whatever it was robots were filled with. Sticky and viscous and floating in the air like writhing globules. There was stuff sticking out of her neck too. Wires and parts and metal and plastic and…stuff. She couldn’t think about it, not without getting sick again. So she didn’t. The captain too, he was a robot as well. That was enough of a shock to Aria’s system to bring her back into the moment. Was there anyone on this ship that wasn’t a machine?

There seemed to be a rushing sound just then. It was in her ears, not that it was something she was hearing, rather it was inside of her ears. It was blood, her blood, rushing past her eardrums and thrumming loudly. But it was clearing up too, she realized where she was. She wasn’t looking at two ruined robots, she was on a space ship. In space. She heard her own breathing then as well, deep heavy gulps of air that were sucked in and blown back out too quickly. Something in her head conjured up the word for it, but it sounded so distant and wrong. Was she hyperventilating? Was that the word..was that the right term? Her brain tried again, this time with a shorter word.

Panic.

Yes, I’m panicking, she told herself. Putting a term on it helped to define it. Things that were defined could be dealt with. She could deal with this, she had done it before. When dad had left she had dealt with it. When Mom and Melody had gotten sick, she had dealt with it. The rushing in her ears was beginning to calm and allow sounds from beyond her own head to be heard.

It was muffled, like it was being heard from outside the ship. No, that was silly, that didn’t make sense. It was a voice, no it was her name. It was actually both. Her head turned round and round, trying to find the source of the voice. She recognized it, from somewhere far away. Not a distance, but a time. It was her brother, and he was here with her, he had been for a long time and she loved him. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she thought about him and the extra rush of blood did her some good. Her brain was starved for it.

He was over there, Jeff, that was his name. She was upside down now, and he was not. Or maybe he was and she wasn’t. It was hard to tell. Still, she found his face, and followed it down, past his neck to his hand. It was stretched out to her, just within range of her own hand. So, she reached out, her delicate fingertips brushing against his. She felt the strength of his grip and how it seemed to ripple through his whole forearm, and shoulder, to his chest and body. He was gently pulling her in now, reeling her in like a fish caught on a hook. Hand on her wrist, then her elbow and then her shoulder until her body was pressed against his.

He helped orient her to the right position and held her there. The lights flickered out and there was darkness again. She somehow knew it would only last a little while. Her mind was coming back to her now, thoughts were flowing into one another instead of crashing around her head and leaving her feeling like her brain and her body were both weightless. She realized she was crying, and sobbing. She could finally feel her own body as it heaved and crashed against Jeff’s. Her pajamas offering no padding between his body and hers. She realized that her body felt so soft and squishy as her breasts flattened against Jeff, her arms seemed to flail against his muscles.

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” Jeff was saying, quietly.

She wasn’t sure she agreed. How could she? Images of dead bodies, her body. Her mother and sister. Jeff…all of them floating lifelessly through the empty and quiet space around them flashed into her mind. They weren’t going to make it, and a fresh wave of panic rolled through her. She sobbed and buried her head into his chest. But then she heard it again, breathing. His? Hers? It wasn’t really clear, but it was there. It was something, a sign of life in her panic. Each breath was a gentle push against her racing heart. It took time, but she came down again.

Her face was wet from tears and sweat and sobbing when she looked up at Jeff. He was looking down at her as the lights flickered back on. As they did, it became a poignant reminder to her that there was work to do. She sniffled, it was disgusting, but she only needed to do it once. Then her and Jeff were off.

The front of the ship was down a hall that had a sharp left then right turn. Jeff had noticed this while walking around that first night. At the end of the hall was the kitchen, surely filled with floating debris, as everywhere else was. Turning from there was a short jog of a hallway and then a turn to the right. All that was here was another small hallway and a door that would usually be sealed.

The turns and hallways actually made navigation much easier. Floating freely through the observation room was a challenge as there was so very little that was anchored to the hull and allowed for a sturdy enough piece to push off of. The ship was designed for feet on the ground and artificial gravity, not free flying. The smaller halls meant that there were light fixtures within easy reach, and if nothing else, the wall was so close.

Jeff and Aria gingerly nudged themselves along the wall towards the cockpit. The lights flickered off in the middle of their trip, and both froze. Jeff was counting the seconds, and becoming more and more disheartened at how long it was taking to come back. From when he had started counting it seemed as if it was at least three or four seconds longer. They were running out of time.

As expected, there was a key card reader on the outside of the door. Every attempt that Jeff and Aria made to force the door open resulted in little more than grunts and frustration. The door wouldn’t budge. Moreover, it seemed like the only thing that would get it open was a member of the staff’s access card. Jeff had to wonder if Egg’s was built into her body. Then his mind flashed back to the captain. His ruined robotic body on top of hers. His was probably inside of his body as well. After a moment Jeff recognized that it had to be in their hands, that was really the only place that made sense.

He didn’t know specifics about robots, but his time with his dad had taught him a thing or two. There would be two components he would need to make this work. Whatever it was that broadcast the signal. Some kind of short range chip, easily hidden in the hand or wrist. Then there was whatever authenticated the chip as the right entity. He sincerely hoped that particular component wasn’t part of the operating system. He would need power too, but Egg had an internal power supply.

His eyes darted from the door towards the hallway he and his sister had just drifted up. Egg wasn’t that far away. The engine room was just around the corner. His eyes darted back to Aria and wondered which would inspire more panic, leaving her here, or bringing her back into the engine room.

“I’ve got an idea about how to get in here. But…you’re not going to like it.” Jeff said.

Aria could only look at him, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes.

“I’m gonna go back to the engine room. Where…where those two robots were. I think I can get their access cards or something.”

Jeff put his plan out there, waiting to see if Aria would make a choice on her own to stay or go. Knowing her, she would have wanted to come with him. Under the circumstances though, he wasn’t sure what she would do. Panic and adrenaline did strange things to a person afterall. She nodded along and then took a deep breath and looked at the card reader on the wall. Jeff knew then that he would be making this trip by himself.

He hugged her once, kissing her on the forehead and drifting off. Aria’s hand touched her forehead where he had kissed her, the heat from his simple gesture still lingering there and keeping her warm while he was gone.

Jeff was starting to get the hang of this zero gravity space movement thing. He floated away from Aria with a single push against the door, putting just enough force behind it to get him to the wall at the end of the hall with only a minimal amount of unwanted impact. Once there it was just a matter of hand over hand crawling along the wall, using whatever stuck out of the wall as a handhold. He still remained slow when the lights flickered off, though. Not that there was anything in the darkness that he feared, it was just something primal, something deep in the lizard brain that told him the darkness was dangerous and you shouldn’t move around in it.

The door to the engineering room and the engine room beyond that were both still open. The power hadn’t surged on enough to trigger an automatic close sequence on those. Rounding the corner though, the spaces were both so dimly lit that it looked like Jeff was about to willingly float into an open mouth, deep and dark and waiting to swallow him whole. It took another deep, cleansing breath before Jeff grabbed the door frame with both hands and pulled himself into the rooms beyond.

Egg’s workbench had lost its control over the myriad of gadgets and tools that had once been sitting on it. They created a miniature asteroid field that Jeff wasn’t expecting to float face first into. The dimness, the lack of gravity, and the anticipation of what was to come all crashed into him. He yelped and flailed and sent parts and pieces and tools scattering all around him. Some clattered against the wall or floor, others just spun wildly and drifted lazily away. Jeff found himself breathing heavy for a few moments and Aria’s voice came wafting in.

“Jeff? Are- Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, fine, I just..ran into something and it freaked me out a bit.”

Saying it out loud almost made Jeff laugh. It was silly. Of course he was going to run into stuff floating around a space ship with no active gravity. From then on he tried to keep himself low enough to the deck that he could touch it with his feet and nudge himself forward, allowing him to keep his hands up in front of him and ward off any other small bits.

This became particularly important as he entered the engine room.

Jeff hesitated in the doorway. There were surely parts of the engine or tool and definitely parts of the ruined support strut floating around in here. There were also probably parts of the captain and Egg drifting through the space as well. The arrangements of lights in the engine room, when they fluttered on, did provide a better opportunity to see what was in front of him.

Egg and Captain Liber were still posed as they were before, though now Jeff was able to take a much closer and far more analytical look at them. Liber was on top of Egg, her legs spread and her ankles held in the captain's hands. He had been spreading them wide as he penetrated her. The pair seemed to be locked in place from where the beam had swung down. Before the lights flickered out again, he could see the beam as well. Something from the side of the engine room that had twisted loose from whatever had hit them and came swinging down in a swift arc. Neither of the androids saw it coming.

It took Liber’s head off just above the jaw, cleaving it away and sending it flying somewhere in the engine room, probably before the gravity was fully offline. It must have sailed in an arc, towards the struggling engines along the perimeter. He made a mental note to, at some point, find it and tuck it away somewhere so it wouldn’t be rediscovered by Aria.

Egg on the other hand clearly showed signs that the strut had not hit her head. Instead it would have acted like a scythe and hit her at the upper chest, just above her perfectly rounded breasts, still flushed and nipples perky. Jeff shook his head and tried to concentrate again. Her neck had been sliced through and her head must have been tossed somewhere, likely still mostly intact, Jeff hoped. If it was still intact then there might be a possibility of reconnecting it to..something…and getting her working again. Robots were like that, fully modular and each part worked independently from a core. He hoped…

There would be time for that later. Now he needed to survive.

His eyes flicked to Liber’s hands, still clutching Egg’s ankles and gripping them tight. Jeff began the process of wiggling his fingers into the space between his fingers and her ankle. The artificial flesh on both of their bodies felt truly realistic, which meant there was some elasticity and give to it. Still, it took a bit of work before he could even begin to pry open Captain Liber’s fingers from around Egg’s leg. Eventually, he managed though.

Her leg hung there, either from a lack of gravity pulling it back towards the bed, or because the motor systems in her hips had locked it into place. Either way, her leg, now free of Liber’s hand, remained thrust in the air. With a bit more elbow grease and muscle, Jeff was able to move Liber’s arm away from his body and her leg and extend outward. Now came the interesting part of his plan. He needed to detach the arm somehow.

He recalled what Egg had shown him earlier, about panels and the operation inside of her own arm. There was some kind of trigger that she had done to open the panel in her forearm, so Liber must have something similar near his shoulder. Jeff confidently began to paw around the shoulder joint, looking for some kind of latch or release or switch.

The light disappeared from the room and he heard the engine wheeze in response. Things were getting bad and needed to be fixed. And soon. Sooner than perhaps he had time for. Proper disconnection protocols be damned, he needed the arm now. When the lights managed to come back on Jeff abandoned Liber and floated back into Egg’s engineering workshop. He looked around, finding something sharp, a blade of some kind, a screwdriver, and a handful of other tools that he thought looked useful. Then it was back to work before the lights went out again.

The blade seemed sharp enough and easily sliced away the flesh around Liber’s shoulder and revealed the electronics inside. The screwdriver proved to be somewhat useless as it didn’t fit any of the fasteners inside the exposed shoulder. What it was good for was jamming into the space where Jeff logically saw some kind of connection. There were a few stray wires here and there, but they wouldn’t be a challenge to break if needed. With that, he began to wrench the screwdriver back and forth, tugging hard. Soon the sounds of cracking and eventually breaking plastics reached his ears. It sounded like progress.

It took a full ten minutes of tugging and wrenching the tool back and forth, a little bit of placing a foot on Liber’s chest and manually pulling and a little bit of raw strength. In the end though, the arm came free and with it a myriad of magnetically detached cables and wires. Tubes with rubber gaskets and shattered plastic bindings. Free from Jeff and his arm, Liber’s inert body drifted to one side, aided by the lack of gravity, and with him Egg’s body began to drift up a bit. Jeff watched for only a moment, knowing that once the gravity was restored they would crash back down to the deck.

He felt a little bad for Egg. She had been kind to him and wanted to show him more of how she worked, how androids worked, and to tutor him. Their trip would have offered ample time for the pair to get to know one another and to explore. Jeff, briefly, found himself imagining himself in Liber’s place. Egg below him, her legs spread and presenting herself to him. He was inside of her, thrusting and pumping and moaning while she rolled her hips, smiled up at him, and let out a lewd sigh. It stirred a new heat inside of him and he shook it free, letting it boil in his gut with no place to go. It would cool eventually, but those images. Those urges. They stayed in his mind.

Using the same blade, Jeff cut into Liber’s chest and managed to find a power supply there, still pulsating with a blue glow. There were more than a few charred and ruined pieces of electronics around it, and Jeff found that it was easy enough to detach, properly, with the screwdriver he had used on Liber’s shoulder. It was still warm to the touch and when Jeff wasn’t actively floating back towards Aria, he could even feel a small vibration in it.

Getting back to the cockpit door proved to be a bit more of a challenge than he would have liked. He wanted to bring the tools with him, but his pajamas offered little in the way of additional storage, and he still had to wrestle an adult man’s arm and a robotic power supply while also not launching himself into a wall. In the end, it just took longer than he would have wanted, all of this was taking longer than he wanted. To the point that even the darkness that swallowed him when the lights failed wasn’t enough to keep him from moving forward.

The glow from the power supply helped, but it was cold comfort in the depth of dark space. It was like holding a candle up against a cavern. A massive, endless, cavern. A cavern that was aching to claw further into the ship and flood it with the most deadly thing imaginable. Nothingness.

He rounded the corner, facing towards the cockpit. The fist sized glowing orb in one hand and an arm tucked in his armpit.

“Jeff?”

Aria couldn’t see him, not until the lights came back, but the sound and the glow were new and he was the only explanation.

“Yep, coming, be right there.”

Jeff oriented himself so that his feet were against the wall, and then he shoved himself forward. Harder than he should have as evidenced by the sound of him crumpling into the wall and a breathy swear as he hit it. Aria yelped and tried to reach for him, but in the darkness there was only a vague silhouette of his shape, illuminated in glowing blue light. She missed his arms, and instead found her hand pressing against something else entirely. She had groped him between the legs and to her surprise felt something far more firm than she would have expected. She quickly pulled her hand back, and was thankful the darkness hid her rising blush.

Between the crash into the door and the chaos of trying to catch his prize, Jeff barely felt, let alone registered Aria’s touch. It would remain a slip of her hand and for her alone. The buzz of the lights changed the moment and Jeff quickly darted and grabbed the arm and power supply.

“Ta daa” he said as he held them up for Aria to see. She only looked at him with a strange mixture of horror and curiosity.

“It’s the captain’s arm. There has to be some kind of authentication key card..thing..in here. I just need to power it up and put it on the card reader and we’ll be good to go!”

He sounded so hopeful and confident, how could Aria doubt him. He was the one their father had mentored with machines and electronics, and she was pretty sure she had seen Jeff chatting with the other robot lady earlier as well. Maybe he really knew what he was doing.

Jeff, on the other hand, was sweating. He had no idea what he was doing. He only hoped to stumble backwards into greatness. Even as he attempted to connect the right wires to the power supply, and inevitably shocked himself, all he did was shake his hands and hope the numbness went away eventually. It took some experimentation but eventually the motors in the hand relaxed a bit and presented the palm, meaning Jeff had managed to get it powered on. Now, all he had to do was hope that the key card was in the palm, and whatever mechanism it needed to authenticate as the captain was in the arm or hand as well.

And that it still worked.

And that the ship would register it.

And that-

At a certain point you just had to go for it. Jeff gently handed off the power supply to Aria and told her to hold it tight while he reoriented the hand and pressed it against the card reader.

Nothing happened, not with the door at least. The lights flickered off and forced Jeff and Aria to wait. Silently, breathlessly, in the dark. Hoping that the lights and power would come back on just one more time. It seemed to take an eternity, and only a few seconds in Jeff began to worry if this was it, if the lights would stay off. If he had wasted too much time looking at the robotic duplicates of his mother and sister. If he could have darted around faster. Something, there had to have been something he could have done to beat the ticking clock.

Then the lights came back on. The hallway was lit and they could see again. The beep of the card reader was distant and distorted, like it was struggling to remember that it could work. The door too unlocked itself and began to slide open, though it acted as if it sincerely didn’t want to. In the end though, the cockpit lay before them. Jeff could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, flaring white hot along his arms and filling his mouth with a coppery taste. He let go of Captain Liber’s arm, letting it just float there and the pair drifted in.

==Chapter Ten==

Jeff wondered how anyone could fly this thing.

Maybe that was why Captain Liber and Egg were robots. There was just so much here. A vast array of colored buttons and switches. Some were on, others were off. Some were glowing faintly with whatever remnants of power remained in the console, while others remained dark and dormant. The bigger issue was which ones were only illuminated because of the emergency? Which ones should have been on and weren’t? What did any of them mean?

Taking a closer look there was white lettering stenciled on or around most of the controls. None of them made sense. Most were either worn down from ages of use and the ones that were still intact were acronyms or maybe a shortened version of a full word. Was the blinking red light next to the switch labeled “LSS” for Life Support Systems? Left Side Stabilizer? Lasers?

What was clear were some of the technologies that, while newly installed, relied on old technologies. Those stuck out to Jeff plainly.

Every ship needed to communicate. Other ships, star ports, landing pads, and personal calls. The vid-com screen and matching camera were familiar enough. Next to it, like his own personal computer, had some sort of control pad with it. As expected this was a little more robust than the civilian models. For one, it remained powered on, even as the power flickered off and plunged the cockpit into darkness. Many other lights and flight controls remained on as well, making the control console somewhat match the endless starry expanse beyond.

Jeff, even in the darkness, wasted little time. He began trying to work the vid-com system to try and get a hold of someone, anyone. There was a contact directory, many of them, like the controls, were shortened or acronyms. It didn’t matter though, anyone could be helpful. When none of them worked, Jeff’s dismay began to rise. There was a crackle and a small error message on screen that Jeff, at first, hadn’t noticed. It was actually Aria that pointed it out to him.

“J-Jeff. Look.” She had said after the fourth or fifth failed attempt.

Jeff muttered as he read the message. “Signal degradation detected.”

“What does that mean?” Aria asked, the tears in her eyes seemed to infiltrate her voice.

“It means the antenna or something is screwing up the signal. Hold on a second.”

They waited in quiet darkness until the lights came back on. Once they did Jeff immediately scrambled under the console. If the ship was maintained by Egg, he had a good feeling that everything under the console would be a little more easily accessible as she seemed to like to keep things easy to get to.

Sure enough, there was a tangled nest of cables and cords to sift through. It was overwhelming at first, but Jeff quickly caught on to the labelling on the cables. Many of them made more sense to him than the labelling on the console, leading him to believe that Liber managed the topside, and Egg the underside. Neither one had any reason to interfere or relabel the other's equipment. As such, it only took two cycles of the light going off and on again for him to find the cable that lead into the comms array housing.

Jeff knew he was no mechanical wizard, far from it. But he had successfully taken apart a number of electronics back home, where there was gravity, and put them back together again. Many of which even worked after he had done so. With time and a little guidance from his father he had even begun to understand the fundamentals of circuitry and how they worked. His crowning achievement had been when his father had come home with a broken set of walkie talkies from a garage sale and challenged Jeff to get them working.

Similar to this, the issue had been that one of the handsets had been dropped or otherwise knocked around to the point that the antenna had become detached, mostly, from the cable that connected it to the transmitter. It still sent signals, but they were filled with static and only transmitted a short range. Once fixed, he had to repair the second handset, it needed a new capacitor. That was the day Jeff learned how to solder, and more importantly what the properties of solder were.

It was highly conductive, which was why it was used to connect wires to circuit boards. Simply melt the solder and smear it across the wire and the connection point and wait for it to cool. With a relatively low melting point, it didn’t take long to cool and likewise it was easy to heat up to work with. Unfortunately that also meant that when there was some kind of catastrophic short circuit that generated an immense amount of heat that solder might melt and lose its connection.

As expected, whatever had disabled the ship had caused a similar short circuit here. Solder had melted, cables had come loose, and with that sparks flew. The antenna array was still mostly connected, but it could have been better. He could probably fix that if he had some kind of portable heat source. Surely Egg had the tools to fix ship and android alike in her workspace. Jeff didn’t want to leave Aria alone in the cockpit while he floated back and forth, and time was running short. The bursts of light from the power core were noticeably shorter, and the periods of darkness longer. Time and power and life support were running thin. As would the oxygen if things weren’t fixed, and soon.

There was power though, more than enough, and with a little bit of unsafe wiring, Jeff was pretty sure he could make something work. He pushed out from under the console and to the doorway, earning Aria’s curious gaze. He snatched Captain Liber’s arm and drug the power core along with it. It didn’t take long after that to have crossed just the right wires to pass enough current over the antenna wiring to generate enough heat to reliquify the solder. From there, it was just a matter of passing off the power core, and a stern warning not to touch the wires, and then push the antenna back in place.

He knew it was working, or at least working better, when the prevailing static cleared up and silence once again fell over the cockpit. Jeff pulled himself up again and took the core from Aria, who seemed thankful to be rid of it. Jeff took a moment to carefully undo the intentional short he had created and pin back the wires. Once done, the core was left to float.

Jeff got to work calling and dialing anyone he could. Most of the contacts were still showing as blank. No one was picking up, that is until he punched in a call to what amounted to the planetary neighborhoods head office. The voice was groggy, as if the call had come in while someone was napping or at least trying to.

“Planetary surveillance team Three three seven nine.” there was an exaggerated yawn. “Trent Alamay speaking.”

“Dad!?”

Aria and Jeff spoke in chorus with one another, equally surprised was Trent’s voice that distorted for only a moment before coming back.

“Jeff? Aria? What are you-”

“Dad, the ship was hit by something. The crew is, uh, dead? I think, I’ll explain later. We’re losing power!”

Nothing woke up a father quite like hearing their children in distress. And not just distress like throwing up in the middle of the night or crying over a bad break up. The textbook definition of distress, adrift in space. Those were his kids and he needed to help them. His brain jammed into gear and he was fully awake.

“Where’s your mother, Melody?”

“Knocked out, in their cabin.” Jeff lied. “But alive as far as I can tell.”

The vid-com was struggling to show a clear picture of Trent’s holographic depiction, a fact he was surely glad of. The look of suspicion he gave to Jeff would have told him that his father knew exactly what his wife and daughter were. More than that, he would have tipped his hand that he knew Jeff also knew what they were. That would have to wait though.

“Okay. Good. Power first, let me see what model ship you’re on. Hold.”

Hold. As if we’re going anywhere Jeff snarked silently to himself. His father was silent for a moment or two longer and then returned.

“Okay. Mirum’Itir is a Class Nine galaxy hopper, no major modifications to the engine it looks like. The ship's engineer logged all clear before lift off…uh, ok, Jeff you think you can get to the engines and flip on the com unit in there. Schematics look like it’s on the wall just to the right of the door.”

Just on the other side of Egg and Captain Liber’s body Jeff thought. Still, he confirmed that he could. Jeff immediately began pushing himself through the weightless space towards the door as he heard his father begin to comfort Aria. These trips to the engine room were getting easier as Jeff’s muscles remembered where to put his hands to grab and fling himself. He was also getting better at estimating how much force to put into his pushes so that he didn’t crash into the walls. With only a single crash he finally made it into the engine room.

There was a lot of debris floating here along with Egg and Liber’s bodies. They were still locked in place, mid-sex. Jeff took a moment to grab Egg by the leg and drag the pair of them away from the communication screen. The best he could do was force her arm to lock around the very support strut that had taken her head off. With the pair of naked and headless robots tucked away Jeff found and flipped on the communicator and only had a moment to wait before his father’s face wobbled into existence.

“Jesus..” he breathed before remembering that he was supposed to be helping. “Okay Jeff, let’s get to work I guess.”

It was just like when he had been younger. His father would instruct him and Jeff would find what he thought his dad was talking about, hold it up or otherwise indicate it, and he would either get a smug head shake or an approving nod. Now though, the communication was far more crisp and precise. Trent wanted to let Jeff know exactly what he was looking for, this wasn’t a test or exercise, this was the real deal.

It was heart pounding when the first wave of power outages rolled over their repairs. The engine grumbled and the lights went out. Aria squeaked from the cockpit where she had elected to stay and the call with Trent froze completely. Once the power returned and a connection was reestablished they got back to work. It became clear though that they would need to work fast and optimize the few minutes of power that they did get. Much like the communications array the engine had suffered a number of forced disconnections, primarily from the strut breaking loose and pulling away Egg’s somewhat mismanaged wiring job.

Like the console in the cockpit though, it was a matter of reconnecting those missing cables. The trouble was that some of them were never meant to come loose and had broken from the sharp impact. Stretched to their limits and snapped, the only solution was to find something conductive enough to carry data or power across the gap. More than once Jeff found himself stripping bundles of wires and weaving them together in the hopes of making a conduit that was strong enough to carry the load. Wrapped in all the electrical tape and insulation he could find, the job would have to do.

In the end, it took almost an hour, and in that time the periods of darkness drastically increased and the light became precious. Jeff, luckily, had his marching orders. He could work in the darkness with relative safety and connect his makeshift cabling when the power came back on. He was sure to position himself carefully when it was dark as well. With the power off it was the perfect time to connect a freshly spliced cable into what would otherwise be a live connection.

With the last cable connected and cinched into place with whatever non-conductive material Jeff could find in Egg’s little workshop, he was ready and waiting. If he and his father’s work was correct, then this would restore power once the engines cycled again. It would stay on permanently..or at least as long as the cabling held out. Now all that was left was to wait.

The darkness persisted longer than it should have. That was nothing new, Jeff told himself. But…maybe this was it. Maybe they had been just a few minutes too late. He shouldn’t have taken so long checking on Mom and Melody. Or..whatever Mom and Melody were now.

In the quiet darkness, with the ring of silence shattering his ears, what he saw became all he could think about. They were robots, that much was clear, but he hadn’t had a moment to really think about what that meant. Then the questions came flooding back in. Were they always robots? No surely not, he could remember Melody being a child, but he rarely remembered his mother aging. How could a robot possibly give birth to three humans?

Maybe he wasn’t human. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. Maybe he was programmed to not know, and just think and act like a real person. Maybe they were the same way. Maybe Mom and Melody were machines but didn’t know it and acted human because that was what they were programmed to do. He blinked in the darkness, then shook his head. He realized he couldn’t be a robot because he had definitely been hurt before. He bled, he had broken a bone, he had held his breath while swimming and felt the angry burn in his lungs when he had stayed under for too long.

Had he ever seen that from Mel? Or his mother…or Aria?

The lights buzzed back to life. Not just flickering on but they came on, bright and beautiful. The shadowy dimness he had grown accustomed to over the last hour or two…or was it longer? Did it matter? It was gone now, replaced by the full brightness offered by overhead lighting. His father reappeared on the communicator, clear and bright as well.

“Hey hey! Look at that!” It was about the only congratulations Jeff was going to get for now.

“Everything looks to be better now, but, still no gravity.” Jeff commented.

“Yeah, that’s going to take a manual reboot. Float on back to the cockpit and we’ll get that going for you.”

“Sure thing. Wait.” Jeff said and earned a concerned look from his father. “Let me go secure Mom and Melody first.”

“Oh, yeah, good idea. Don’t want them bashing their brains in if they fall.”

Jeff heard it in his voice. There was no mistaking it either. His father had made sure to use a biological term for them, but there was a moment of hesitation. It was brief, but it was there. He knew, but he also wanted to keep hiding it from Jeff. Now wasn’t the time to question it. He nodded to his dad and floated out of the room and into the hall.

“I’m gonna go check on mom and Mel, Aria. I’ll be right back. But the power’s on for good now.” Jeff called to Aria and quietly added “I hope.”

They were both right where Jeff had left them. Floating lazily around the room they both shared for the moment. The bundle of cables connected into their bellies kept them somewhat tethered to one another, though Jeff remembered them both being a little more upright. The lack of gravity did make it a little more difficult to orient himself to what upright actually was.

Now that the lights were on, truly on, Jeff could see things much more clearly. Melody was missing her arms. They were fully detached and the connection joint in her shoulder reflected the all too bright lights well. It appeared to be some kind of shiny chrome with a hefty looking post attached to a ball joint. That ball was held firmly in a socket in Melody’s shoulder and surrounded by an array of motors, some larger than others, though they were all small enough to fit nicely in her body. Looking at it now Jeff could see that the central post worked as both a point to mount and connect her arm and provide it a good portion of mobility.

There were a few delicate looking wires floating around the joint as well. Most of them looked perfectly fine, and reminded Jeff of the kind of cables you might see inside a computer. Ribbon cables and shielded cables with rounded tips on them, likely to match up with a port inside of her arm, wherever that had gone. He needed to find both arms and get them some place safe so that when the gravity was restored they wouldn’t crash into something and break.

His eyes moved to his sister’s face. No, the robot that represented his sister…he wasn’t sure what she was. Then to his mother. Both were lovely, every bit as beautiful as anyone Jeff had ever seen, they just…weren’t human. They possessed the kind of manufactured beauty that you would expect on a model or internet personality. It was wholly artificial, he knew, but in the most realistic way possible. As if there were actually people who were naturally this good looking.

His mind darted, briefly to Aria. She seemed human enough and she was every bit as gorgeous as Melody and Monica. Though the comparison did little to help quell his suspicion that Aria might also be an android. Maybe she just didn’t know it. Maybe his mother and sister didn’t either.

Working quickly, Jeff managed to find and secure both of Melody’s arms and tuck them under the blankets on the bed which were still tightly held in place, folded under the mattress. Next he worked as quickly and gently as he could, pulling his mother and sister down towards the floor and packed them into the alcove where the bedding was. Like Melody’s arms, he tucked their legs up to the knee under the tightly held blankets and hoped that they would stay in place until the gravity returned. When it did the mattress looked like it would absorb a lot of the impact.

The device they were both connected to was left to float between the two of them. If he had to guess it was some kind of recharging station, though there were plenty more cables coming out of it and plugging into the two women for it to be simply power. Maybe there was software on it too? Something to keep them up to date out in space. He would have to ask them once he got them both working again. As he prepared to leave, he wondered if he could get them working again. His dad could, for sure, but that would entail him explaining to his dad what he had found. The threat of an awkward conversation with his father would have to wait until Jeff figured out the best way to bring it up, and perhaps figure out how he felt about it.

For now though simply securing the two would have to do. With any measure of luck they wouldn’t float too far away and they would land softly. He tucked his legs under him and gently shoved himself towards the door, catching the door jamb on the way past and swinging himself around to stop in the hallway. The two robotic women looked secure enough, though anyone passing by would probably get an eyeful. For now Aria didn’t need that, so Jeff tapped the door control and was happily met with the subtle hiss as the door closed itself.

Golly having the power back made things nice.

Next stop, the cockpit and a conversation with his dad about getting the artificial gravity back online, and then getting some kind of plan in place on how to salvage this mess.

Navigating the hallway and through the observation space was far easier or at least less nerve racking with the knowledge that the lights weren’t going to go out at any second or that the breath you just took might be your last. Even the most basic comforts were a huge weight off of Jeff’s mind and opened up a feeling of calm. They weren't out of the proverbial woods just yet, but having power and life support online did wonders for him.

It gave him precious space back in his brain. It allowed him to think. He needed to make some decisions and fast. Was he going to tell Aria about his mother and sister? How could he hide that type of thing if he chose not to? Would she be mad at him for not telling her? Was he mad at his father for doing the same thing?

Jeff sighed to himself and kicked off of one of the chairs in the observation room, propelling himself towards the hall that led past the engineering room and to the cockpit. And Aria. The quick left right turn to get himself in line with the cockpit was getting easier to do and Jeff smiled to himself briefly only to remember that the next step was to get artificial gravity back online, thus robbing him of the need to get good at these quick turn and kick maneuvers. All good things had to come to an end he supposed.

He arrived at the door to the cockpit. The flash of blue hair draped over the chair let him know that Aria was still there, still safe and sound. He tossed out his hands and grabbed both sides of the doorway and stopped his flight.

“Dad said we’ll get the gravity on next.” He commented as he halted, Aria looked up at him and nodded, though there was clearly something on her mind.

“Hey guys I think we might- a problem- eadzone- commun- disrup-”

The sound of his fathers voice distorting and halting was enough to summon more bile and adrenaline to Jeff’s throat. “Dad? Hey Dad!”

With that the communicator flickered and dimmed. He had heard the words “dead zone” or at least most of the words. Space was wide open, nothing in the way, how could there be a dead zone? Maybe his sloppy antenna repair work had finally given out…at least they got the power back on.

It took Jeff a moment or two to glance over the control console. He could figure out what most of the stuff meant, but the clear indicator was the steadily glowing green light next to the life support systems panel. Oxygen was flowing and there was no risk of a hull breech. They were safe, or at least safer, now. Jeff felt his heart rate sink a bit, not enough to make him feel comfortable, far from it, but he at least wasn’t terrified and working on adrenaline alone any more.

With a slightly calmer mind, he sank into the chair and exhaled what felt like three hours worth of held breaths. Something told him he needed to come clean with Aria. She deserved to know about their mother and sister. She would have questions, and he wasn’t sure he had answers. Once their father came back, surely they could ask.

“Aria. I… I think we need to talk a bit about Mom and Mel.”

Aria turned to look at him, her eyes were calm and her face remarkably easy.

“Yeah, I think we do.” she replied.

==Chapter Eleven==

The response gave Jeff a little pause. Aria had been so shaken and so all over the place since the crash, or impact, or whatever it had been, that this level of almost nonchalance was dysregulating Jeff. Maybe it was just the weight of worry lifted from her shoulders, or maybe it was a trauma response. Jeff surely knew that he would likely succumb to some sort of strange set of mental circumstances once the adrenaline stopped flowing.

Still, Jeff raised an eyebrow and looked towards Aria, briefly flicking to the control surfaces behind her. The video call with his father had faded away, the signal deteriorating to nothingness as they floated through a deadzone. It would pass, eventually, he knew, but for now it was just him, his sister, and the robots.

Jeff piqued an eyebrow at Aria, who still looked far too casual for comfort. The situation, drifting along in space all alone, with death and destruction all around them, it was all wrong. She had been an utter source of panic and until this very moment a constant worry in Jeff’s mind. Now, though, with some small amount of comfort from making contact with their father, the power back on and reliably running, oxygen and support flowing, she seemed to settle down. Like a switch had been flipped. Like she too was a machine and had disabled some block of programming. Jeff suspected as much, and now it was time to find out.

“So.” Aria began after sucking in a deep breath and letting it out through her nose. “You’ve seen Mom and Mel.”

Jeff nodded.

“You..you know what they are?”

Another nod. “And you do too?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah, I’ve known for a little while now.”

There was a mote of silence that dangled in the air. Something like an invisible wall between them. Oh, they could see each other just fine through it but Jeff felt like a thick, fluffy, almost pleasant, barrier of cotton settled in his mind. Aria knew that Melody and Monica were androids. Machines. Not human at all, and had kept it from Jeff. There was only one way to cut through that cotton laced wall.

“They’re robots. They’re…they aren’t-”

A sharp look from Aria cut off Jeff’s words.

“Look. They were human once upon a time. Melody grew up a human just like you and..and me. But there’s some kind of genetic disorder that runs in our family. Dad thinks it was something on the planet we were raised on that just kinda..changed us.”

“Us?” Jeff questioned.

“The girls. The genetic markers only affect females in the family, you and dad are safe from it.”

“But, what does it do? What does this have to do with Mom and Mel?”

“It kills us, slowly.” Aria said, her voice briefly catching in her throat. Jeff could see why, there was something in them that was eating them alive..Aria surely had it too… “The doctors said it causes necro- status?”

“Necrosis.” Jeff corrected, trying to keep his voice helpful and calming.

“Yeah, necrosis. So, it has to be removed. But it’s deep in the body. And we can’t just have arms and legs and lungs and stuff cut out every year. So, once it starts really showing up. You know, consuming parts of…us…we have to get on medication. It’s supposed to slow it down, but there’s no cure for it.”

Jeff looked at the door to the cockpit, to the hallway beyond, where in the darkness, tucked under some blankets, were two robots. They looked and acted and sounded like his family. But…

“So. The doctors. They…they turn you into…” Jeff stammered as the pieces fell into place.

“It takes a week or so. Mom told us her and Dad were on a vacation. She was in a clinic being converted. Mel…she never went to her friend's summer graduation party. She was at the same place. Getting…turning into a…a…”

Tears were glistening at the rims of her eyes and Jeff couldn’t help but drift forward and hug her for a moment. She sniffled and took some deep breaths, exhaling them with slow shuddering sobs. Jeff finally had to finish her thought for her.

“A robot.”

“Yeah.” Aria whispered back and pushed away just a little to allow herself to mash the palms of her hands into her eyes and wipe away the moisture there.

“And you..you have the same…”

Aria nodded.

“Does that mean that you’re also a-”

“No, I’m still human. The symptoms haven’t shown up yet. That’s one of the reasons Dad was so keen to get us off the planet. Maybe I’ll be safe, and whatever it is won’t get me. Maybe…maybe I can stay human.”

There was hopefulness, sadness, loss and light in her tone. Maybe she would survive where her sister and mother hadn't. Would that be better, or worse? She would have nothing in common with the women in her family. They would be ageless and maintained for ages to come, and she would eventually die.

Jeff, for his part, smiled a bit. He was beginning to understand. His mother and sister had faced the same choice Aria faced. Die, slowly, bodies consumed by something, or let the doctors do the work and turn you into a machine. Fully end your human life but allow you to persist as something else. Was that more or less selfish? Was that a life they wanted to live…or was it a life they had chosen for the sake of Jeff and his father and Aria. They would be around, they would still be themselves, in one way or another…right?

“Mom and Mel are okay, you know. I made sure they were secured and stuff. They…they might need some repairs though. Once we get the gravity working, that is. I’m sure Dad can help us with that.”

Aria shook her head. “Dad can help you with that. I- I don’t think I can see them like that. Because…because that might be me one day…”

Jeff couldn’t help himself. Or rather his mind couldn’t help itself. After fantasizing about Egg so recently and so viscerally, he imagined Aria as a robot too. Naked and unashamed of what she was. A beautiful smile on her lips as she looked down at her body. No arms, no legs, those had been detached and in their place were wires and cabling just dangling free. Her chest gone, and in its place were circuits and electronics. She was happy for it too, looking lustfully at Jeff.

Then another part of his own mind swept in and took the thoughts. They were gone, logged away for later. A moment later the same images of Melody and his mother briefly came in. Smiling robots, looking at him with desire and then scooped up and stored for some time in the future. There were more pressing matters now.

“Okay.’ Jeff croaked. “I’ll take care of them. If you don’t want to see them like that, I totally understand.”

Aria nodded and looked down at her lap where her hands were fidgeting with one another.

“Do..do you think they are still in there?” Aria stammered “Like. Do you think that's still Mom and Melody?”

Jeff looked at her, for a moment, he didn’t know. It was a question he had been wrestling with since he first discovered what they were. His Mom had never ever seemed different. The transition from human to machine had been so perfectly flawless that there was no real distinction between them. Likewise, Melody had been moody at times for certain, and it seemed like the complaints were disproportionately geared towards ongoing medical treatments, though that was all Jeff had ever picked up on. Her attitude and mannerisms were still distinctly Melody.

Flashes and snippets of conversations, half overheard, came to Jeff’s mind. Comments about not quite feeling like herself or how the treatment might have been making her feel. But all of those were in her voice and with her attitude. A conversation in the hallway at the beginning of this very trip seemed to indicate that too, that she had already been changed from a human into a robot and now was grappling with ongoing care. That would explain why she was partially disassembled and linked to some kind of servicing unit or recharger.

“I think they are. Dad wouldn’t do something like that to them if he didn’t think they would still be his wife and daughter.” Aria nodded at that before Jeff continued. “Besides, if you and I can’t tell the difference between human and robot, is there really any distinction to be made?”

Aria tilted her head at that.

“If the robot looks and talks and acts and thinks and has all of Melody’s memories, and you and I can’t tell any difference between her as a human and her as a robot…then…is there really a difference?”

That seemed to get Aria thinking. She was certainly not the thinker of the family, though she was no pretty idiot either. Admittedly though, this was deep, heavy stuff. Even Jeff had to admit to himself that there were still questions to be answered, and there might not be a good, solid conclusion on the other side of it. There might just have to be a cold acceptance of who and what his family was. He himself needed to suss out what those facts meant to him and how he felt about them. Were the two robots in the room at the end of the hall really his mother and sister? Were they just machines that put on a good performance because of how well they were programmed? If it was the latter, did that really matter? Like he had told Aria, if he couldn;t tell the difference after all these years then was there really any merit in worrying about it? They were what they were, and depending on when his mother’s conversion had happened, that might have just been the version of her that he had known for the majority of his life.

Melody was a different story. He had definitely been around her as she grew into adulthood. He had seen her grow and evolve and then, suddenly, there was a cut over. Her humanity had ended abruptly and she had become something else. Something stuffed with wires and electronics and made into a mechanical being. Was that the better of the two options? Die a human, or live on as a machine. A rock and a hard place.

One thing was clear, he needed to talk to his dad, he needed some time to process his feelings, and the squirming heat of lust was starting to coil in his belly again. Thinking of his family, his mother, his sister, as objects of lust rather than people was beginning to manifest again. Though, now there seemed to be something more and less taboo about it. He felt himself craving them, wanting to explore them, not just as a fascinating piece of technology, or as a philosophical debate on personhood…but as sexual objects.

The mental gymnastics in his mind weren’t hard to work through. He could fantasize about them with no guilt since they weren’t actually humans. They might have looked like his family, but they might as well have just been sextoys with their faces. That thought crystallized in his mind and began to spread. It took over logical boundaries and began to change how he thought and felt about them.

They weren’t humans. And that changed some things.

“Stay here, see if you can get a hold of Dad again, send him text messages too and see if those make it through. I…I need some time alone.”

Aria looked at him and nodded once. The way he had phrased it made it seem like he just needed to process his feelings, but the raw desire inside of him was taking over and he needed to do something about it.

He drifted out of his seat, to the door and gripped the frame. He looked back at Aria who was already working on the controls, then he looked back to the hall. It was light now, he could see everything. There was no shadow to conceal a hidden truth or deep swallowing darkness into the ship. There was just light, clarity. He knew what he was going to do. He launched into the hall, floating along with far more purpose than he had had in several hours. Heading for the guest quarters. Heading for the two robotic women in one of those rooms.

The trip there was a far more enjoyable trip than previous efforts. The lights helped, seeing where he was going and allowing him a better sense of distance and travel along with actually seeing what does and does not lurk in those shadows did wonders for him. It was, however, more about what was on the other end of that trip that was the driving factor.

The lights had banished the darkness and lifted the lingering mysteries of what was lurking around the corner. Jeff’s conversation, similarly, had lifted a darkness that had hung over them about their mother and sister. Jeff was still sorting out his feelings on what, exactly, that reveal meant to him and the relatively short float through the ship had given him precious little time to contemplate it. Moreover, as he finally reached the far end of the observation bay Aria’s voice carried down the ship from the cockpit.

“Jeff. Text from Dad just got in.”

That was quick, Jeff thought, but text packets were small and much easier to brute force through a weak connection. The ship must have released a torrent of the same data packet over and over, hoping that all the parts arrived and could be reassembled. Likewise a response would have been beamed to them in a similar fashion. Maybe video calls weren’t going to be the best solution.

“Sending it to your tablet.” She called and Jeff got the distinct feeling that Aria had made herself cozy at the front of the ship and would stay there unless forced out.

“Got it, thanks!”

That diverted Jeff’s course only a little. His room was down the same hall as the two robotic women he had been heading for, so a small detour to his room to snag his tablet was of no consequence to him. What would derail his plans and shunt the lustful thoughts rolling around his mind to the back was what his father had sent him.

The tablet was twirling in a lazy circle around Jeff’s room. He had made no effort to secure anything when he had made a hasty retreat and so, of all places, his room was still in disarray. Egg’s engineering workspace might be the only place that was more of a mess and only from the sheer volume of small knick-knacks that had been on her desk. Jeff’s mind followed that room deeper into the engine room beyond..to Egg’s headless body, her head somewhere in the room, maybe in one piece, maybe in a dozen. The fact that just thinking about it was quickly becoming a turn on to him was an interesting piece of self discovery, and would make for some contemplation later, for now he had work to do.

His father had sent him a data packet that contained a lot of smaller documents inside of it. Schematics on the ship, or at least the stock schematics, there was a note saying that he was unsure if the captain had made any modifications to the original plans. From what he had seen and from tinkering with only a little bit of wiring, he was certain that there were some deviations. Egg’s job would be woefully uneventful if everything was standardized.

Along with that there were some hand written instructions on a few topics. The first was artificial gravity and how to reboot that particular system. A quick scan of the other documents told Jeff that there were more repair documents and one in particular that, judging by the file size, would be quite the read. It was labeled as a repair guide for humanoid androids and robotic entities.

Useful, he thought, but sadly low priority at the moment.

Gravity first.

The process for restoring the gravity would take him back to the engine room. As he floated into the space his eyes instinctually snapped to the pair of ruined robots there. With the lights on he could see Egg’s naked body. The smooth curves of her hips and the perfectly rounded breasts that seemed to be strangely firm. Maybe that was the lack of gravity. With the lights on he could also see more of the field of debris that surely came from her and the captain's destroyed neck. Small specks and pieces of plastic and metal drifted about with no intended trajectory.

He could also see the array of control panels set into the walls around the room that were not visible before. Either the lack of power to the panels or the distraction of the two androids and their state. It didn’t matter at the moment, there was work to be done.

Jeff pulled out his Personal Data Assistant Tablet and summoned the instructions his father had sent him. He had read them before and scanned over the schematics and diagrams that went along with it. At the time it had been a confusing mess of buttons and sequences, but now as he floated in front of the control panel that the diagrams depicted he had hoped they would make more sense. If anything, they made less sense.

The diagrams were technical schematics, with instructions and illustrations laid out in some kind of CAD program. There were dark, bold, black lines that depicted the exact shape of the buttons and where they were. Even if Jeff held the PDAT up in front of him and kept his eyes still and moved it out of the way, the control panels on the wall were ever so slightly different. Those exact button shapes had been worn down or fully replaced, likely by Egg, and likely many times over. There was blue tape over some of the buttons and in other places there was just a metal plate welded in place over some of the controls.

It would take another half an hour of reading, rereading, and some educated guessing, to get the control panel to do what he had hoped for. Twice he stepped out into the hall and called up towards the cockpit that he thought he was about to restore gravity, and that Aria should settle down and hang on. Twice it had failed. So as he worked and finally enabled the right systems, in the right order, or so he thought, he pressed the button that he hoped to engage the gravity. He hadn’t bothered to warn Aria, assuming he had gotten it wrong again.

Jeff, and unseen by him, Aria as well, felt something. Just when their bodies had started becoming used to the sensation of floating freely, even when bucked into a seat, weight began to return. It was subtle at first, just a small tugging after something deep inside of the ship groaned ominously. Jeff felt his stomach sinking, not in a mental kind of way, literally sinking inside of his body. His arms felt heavy all of a sudden and he felt his shoulders suddenly taking on the weight of things. His hair, previously floating loosely around his head, fell against his skull.

Next came the noises. All around him, all around the ship, came a sort of sudden but gentle tinkling sound. It was akin to the sound of a bag of small marbles being dumped onto the ground, and it took a moment for Jeff to realize what it was. Those small objects from around the ship began to fall. Knick-knacks, baubles, screws from Egg’s workbench, small projects she would never get to finish, all of them were snatched by the influx of artificial gravity. For the first time in a while things were hitting the ground and bouncing.

From the cockpit Aria yelped as the gravity increased and pulled her down into the captain's seat she had been belted into. It wasn’t a drop or anything, just the sensation of finally having to exert her muscles to hold her arms or head up. Jeff too felt the sudden and nauseating sensation of gravity acting on him. Then with another, deeper, and somehow more guttural, almost primal groan, the artificial gravity came fully online.

Heavier things fell to the ground. Egg and the Captain’s body crumpled weirdly to the engine room floor and deep metal groans cackled around him as the support struts took on the weight they were designed to hold up. The sounds of a thousand different mechanical things and the tools to work on them hitting the floor from the engineering room filled Jeff’s ears in a weirdly angry cacophony of sound. He couldn’t help but heave for a moment, though he didn’t fully vomit, though he was very close to doing so. The last thing he needed was more stench in the room and another mess to clean up.

He found that walking felt somewhat unnatural. It was a quick sensation to get over and soon he was walking fine again, but having spent several hours floating weightlessly the feeling of putting one foot in front of the other to propel him forward was odd. As expected the engineering room was a mess. Wires, mechanical parts, tools, and so many small pieces of equipment were scattered on the floor. Egg hadn’t exactly been tidy in her work space, but this was just a mess. Jeff found that having no shoes on was suddenly a problem, and after stepping on something that poked the sole of his foot for the third or fourth time, he simply used his foot to sweep things aside before stepping forward.

“Aria? You okay?” Jeff called and Aria gave him a half hearted confirmation that she was, though it came between panting breaths. She was definitely throwing up.

“Okay I’m going to go check on Mom and Mel. I think Dad sent me some instructions on how to fix them, at least a little.”

“Yeah.” It was a weak reply, and it sounded as if the mere act of speaking was making Aria more sick.

“Just stay put, I’ll be back soon”

Jeff didn’t wait for a reply. He was already walking down the hall, towards the observation lounge and the guest quarters beyond. His heart was pounding as well making it hard to talk himself out of returning to his original plan for going to see the two robotic women.

==Chapter Twelve==

Jeff struggled, at first, to push the overly lustful thoughts from his mind. Though the fight he put up was a weak one. By the time he was walking out of the large observation lounge, his mind had been made up. Not about any of the deeper or more meaningful questions that had been on his mind. Those were long conversations he would have to have with himself in the quiet peace of his own room. For now the relative calm of the situation left the coppery taste of adrenaline in his mouth and his heart pounding. He had pent up emotions and his body was flush with a strange cocktail of chemicals.

His own biological desires had creeped into his brain and left him feeling, for lack of a more concise term, incredibly horny.

It wasn’t any one thing that was influencing him. Rushing blood and chemicals only went so far. The thrill of seeing into Egg’s arm earlier had lodged itself in his brain like a barb. The knowledge that his mother and sister, though family, weren’t exactly family, or at least that was what he concluded at the moment. In his mind, Melody and Monica weren’t anything other than machines. Like Egg, they might look human, but they weren’t, and given the nature of his previous fantasy about the robotic mechanic, his hormones agreed.

The door into the room where Jeff had left the two women slipped out of the way with much greater ease than before. No need to exert himself shoving it open and working against the motor systems that would have kept it closed. He approached, tapped on the controller next to the door, and it hissed open.

The room beyond was, as expected, a mess. Not in the same way that Egg’s workshop or the engine room was. There was less of a scattering of knick-knacks and trinkets, and more of a general sense of disarray. Clothes and underwear were scattered around the room, clearly the luggage that his mother had brought along had floated free and when gravity was restored, it all just fell to the floor. Mixed in with the clothes were tools and some of the contents of what must have been a tool kit. Bits of wire, cabling, parts that Jeff couldn’t identify, and electronics.

His eyes darted to one side of the room and found the tool kit in question, a heavy looking plastic box that reminded him a little too much of the fold out tackle box he had as a child when he would go fishing. Small trays with supplies haphazardly strewn across it, covering small circuit boards or other components. In the main compartment were larger pieces nestled along with a coil of some kind of thick cabling. Long, thin tools with a sturdy plastic handle resting alongside needle nosed pliers and fine point tweezers.

Everything you would need to do maintenance on an android if you were on a long space voyage and wanted to keep your identity discreet.

The gravity had also pulled the two robots back downward. Jeff’s efforts to tuck them under the blankets to keep them from drifting away had worked well enough, as both of them lay sprawled in the general vicinity of the bed alcove. What he hadn’t prevented was how they would land.

Monica, his mother, seemed to have fallen back onto the bed with little to no fanfare. Her body lay draped over the mattress, legs slightly akimbo. It was the kind of sprawl that, if she had been alive and awake, might have been uncomfortable. For now though she looked fine, if not a little awkward. One arm was pressed against the wall while the other hung out into open space. It looked as if Melody had come loose and had been free floating a bit when gravity was restored.

From where Jeff stood in the doorway she had fallen on top of her mother, and then crashed to the floor, or perhaps landed on her mother then slid off and fell to the floor as the second wave of gravity took hold. Regardless of the order, the results were still the same. Jeff saw her shoulder joints gleaming in the freshly powered overhead lights, that was expected. Her arms were surely somewhere on the bed, likely nestled among his mother’s body. The electronics there looked to be perfectly normal and intact. The chrome disks set into the shoulder were still smooth and ready to accept the arm connection, and the gold plated alignment rods that jut forth from the shoulder were eager to accept their missing limbs.

The placid look on her face was disjointing though, especially given the odd angle and clear damage to the neck.

Jeff stepped into the room simply so that the door would close behind him. Once it had, he knelt down next to his sister and looked over her neck. She had clearly landed on her head and then the weight of her body had pressed downward, turning her head far past what the artificial skin could handle. He was afraid to move her, at least not without doing something to ensure a more soft landing. He was also afraid to leave her as she was since any jostle might fully tear her head off and cause her body to collapse. Adding to the anxiety was the presence of the interface cable that ran from a panel Jeff could now see in her chest to some sort of device that had landed on the bed. Monica was connected to the same device and Jeff could only speculate as to what it was.

With his PDA in hand Jeff snapped a few pictures of Melody’s broken neck. He made sure to get in close and try to capture the damage from every angle. Once done, he sent it to his father in the hopes that there would be some kind of quick fix that could easily be done. But he would have to wait for the data to reach his father. Who knew how long that or a solution might take to return to him. So he pulled open the robotic maintenance handbooks instead to try and find a solution on his own.

There was plenty of information to absorb and after a page or two Jeff found himself flicking through the pages to try and find something that was more pertinent to the broken neck joint. While nothing came up about repairing the joint, there was a section on how to disengage it. From what he could understand, which was a little, but not nothing, there was an internal switch that could normally be flipped through the skin. Of course, with the skin torn as it was it would be a little easier to reach. According to the diagram, once the latch was undone, he could safely remove Melody’s head from the neck and, with some luck, prevent further damage.

Before that though he had some preparation to do. The cable in her chest likely needed to be disconnected to prevent pulling whatever it was plugged into onto them both, or worse, breaking it. Whatever it was seemed important to both Melody and Monica. Next, he wanted to have some kind of cradle or soft spot to set her head once it was free to prevent any further damage, a waded up pile of clothes would have to do. Jeff made sure to punch down a small crater in the middle of it to help cradle the head. Then, it was simply time to get to work.

He needed something like a screwdriver to push into the latch on the far side of her exposed neck, and the tool chest provided just the thing. A long metal tool that resembled in every meaningful way a regular screwdriver, though there was no tip to it. Rather, there was a tip, but it was tapered down to a fine point. He didn’t know what it was for normally, but for now, it would work. Both latches would need to be undone at the same time or he risked one popping free, shifting her head, and locking the other latch with little hope of undoing it.

The cable in her chest was easy enough to figure out, there were two clips on either side of the connector. Simply pinching it released the cable, but Jeff took painstaking time to gently wiggle it free, not wanting to jostle her any more than he had to. Eventually it was out and he coiled up the cable and tossed it onto the bed. Once done he took a step back, plucked up his courage and suppressed the desires in his chest, and settled down onto the floor next to his robotic sister.

Into the side of her neck went the tool first, pushing behind some kind of rubberized tube, which Jeff assumed was some kind of esophagus analog. It felt like it took far longer than it did, simply because every snagged wire or small bit of resistance was met with Jeff freezing, backing off and attempting to reposition the tool. Eventually, he felt the small clasp on the far side of her neck. With one hand still on the tool, he gingerly wriggled one finger into the side of her neck closest to him and fumbled around for the other latch. Once he found it, he took a deep breath, prepared himself to catch her falling body, and pushed.

The latches popped free, and her head was loose. Jeff let go of the tool and darted up to grab her body. She did indeed begin to slide further down and had Jeff not caught her, likely done more damage to the neck joint and head. It took some effort, but Jeff was able to guide her to the ground in a somewhat controlled tumble. Her body still lay in a very uncomfortable looking position, but at least the threat of more damage was gone.

With Melody safely on the ground now, Jeff took the opportunity to fully detach her head. He found that he needed to wiggle it back and forth, side to side, and even simply tug on it a bit in order for it to fully come free of the latches in her neck. All of which made Jeff feel as if something was wrong, worse that it was his fault too. Still, in the end he was able to get her head free and he placed it on the small cradle he had made. Her face, still staring vacantly at nothing at all, would watch the rest of Jeff’s activities.

As much as Jeff wanted those activities to be sensual, he couldn’t help but try and take care of Melody- of his sister…she was so helpless like this. No arms, and now no head. Now that he had the chance to take a closer look at her he was able to see the extent of the damage a little closer.

When the gravity had pulled her back down she had clearly landed on Monica and then slipped off of the bed, down to the floor. Her head had hit first and the weight of her body had pushed into her neck joint and turned at just the wrong angle. The skin had stretched and ripped, which fascinated Jeff. He peered at the top of her neck, now missing the head, and saw that the skin tore across a clear delineation across her neck and throat. It must have been where her head would properly detach from, though it seemed to have ripped and torn in a few more jagged edges. His eyes darted over to her head, still cradled slightly to the side and found the missing chunks of her artificial flesh there.

Peering into her throat and the electronics inside, everything seemed to be in the right place. Not that Jeff knew how things were supposed to look in the first place, but he was encouraged by the fact that he didn’t see anything immediately out of place. Even glancing for a moment at the instruction manual his father had sent him made him feel like things were as they should be. With the lump of anxiety excised from his throat at that, he turned his attention to Monica.

She lay still on the bed, uncomfortable though she might have looked, she was in one piece. At least as far as Jeff could tell. Her face, like Melody’s, was locked in an expression somewhere between surprised and annoyed. Jeff looked at her, and maybe it was the light or the revelation of what she was, but there was something new there. He felt like he was looking at her, truly, for the first time. Until now she had just been “mom” to him. She was an outline, a collection of features and blurs that coalesced together into a singular entity, but there was no definition there.

Now, though, he saw her. The smoothness of her skin, it wasn’t flawless and Jeff imagined that was intentional. She was built to sell the image of being a human still, and no matter the skincare routine, no one’s skin was flawless. Her’s was close though. Her eyes too, were close to perfect little glassy orbs locked behind smooth eyelids. Her lips, slightly parted and seemingly perfectly red. Jeff realized that he had never seen them without lipstick and it made him wonder if it was makeup, or if that was just the pigment in whatever synthetic material made up her mouth.

Leaning in he could see the whisper of that same seam line across her throat that Melody had. Daring to place his hands on her neck, he felt around for a moment and located the same latches just under the skin that Melody had as well. He felt no need to detach her head as well, though he did trail his fingers down her throat to her collarbone and then to the cable in her chest. Pinching in on those clamps and releasing it. It soon joined the cable that had been plugged into Melody. Jeff thought it pertinent to remove the whole device and connected cables from the bed and store it safely in the corner of the room with the tools.

Freed from the equipment now Jeff could take her in a bit more. Her chest had always just been there, part of her that he had never fully taken notice of. Now, with hormones raging and a greying outlook on who and what she was, Jeff found himself enamoured. They were slightly larger than one would have expected for Monica’s build. Jeff chalked it up to the ample amount of loose fitting sweaters she normally wore. Now, though, he couldn’t help but look at the gentle curvature her breasts made against her shirt.

Perhaps he hadn’t really noticed before, but Monica didn’t appear to be wearing anything below her waist at the moment, save for a pair of high waisted panties. Her long smooth legs, still tangled awkwardly along the bed, appeared toned and almost perfect. Like the rest of her. Jeff wondered if that was intentional and his mind pondered the process of her conversion.

Images of his mother danced across his mind's eye. Checking into some kind of clinic, nanobots crawling around inside of her, reshaping her. He had only ever known her to look the way she did now, but he also wondered if she looked different before becoming a robot. Once she was fully robotic she could look however she, or perhaps however their father, wanted her to look. He could just imagine her being taken apart, parts replaced to make her look more in line with this current look, parts and pieces and limbs scattered across an industrial workspace.

He swallowed hard, the heat of seeing his mother now as less and less human and more and more of a machine. A robot. A thing. It was making his pants feel a little uncomfortable as his erection began to harden. An easy solution, his brain told him, just remove your pants. An idea that took no time at all to register as the correct course of action. So his hands moved to his pajama pants and slipped them off of his hips.

Even Jeff was a little surprised at just how turned on he was. Sudden bouts of arousal were no stranger to him, he was still young afterall, but still this seemed unexpected. His eyes darted back to his mother, her body, her breasts, and the panties standing between him and what he wanted. They were quickly removed, another barrier out of his path, and as they slipped down her long, shapely legs they revealed a small, well trimmed strip of hair just above her slit. Immaculately cared for, though Jeff realized that the hair likely never grew, it was installed that way and would remain as it was until…until what? It was replaced? Removed and swapped for something else. Monica was an android and biological certainties didn’t affect her.

She wasn’t biological. She isn’t biological. The phrase solidified itself in Jeff’s mind as he slipped into the bed between her legs. He had gripped her ankles and helped, first, to disentangle them from the sheets and set them straight, and then spread them wide. He had an entry way now and he would be using it.

His hands rest on the inside of her thighs, gliding upwards as Jeff found himself pushing his torso forward, his mouth salivating. Fingers arriving at the very edges of her lips before his tongue did. He gently parted her flesh before laying a barrage of kisses across her sex. She was still dry, and perhaps that added to the thrill for Jeff. Her skin might have felt real, but without her moving, moaning, wettening, she felt so much less than human. Her stiff legs on either side of his head added to the shattered illusion. At this moment his mother was little more than an offline piece of equipment.

A collection of wires and cables, connected circuit boards and finely crafted mechanisms and modules. All of it was wrapped tightly in a very attractive and human looking casing. Her skin, real though it felt, was cold at the moment. He knew she expelled heat from her skin, he had hugged her or held her hand or even just been close enough to feel that heat. None of that human-like warmth was here now. Replacing it was the cold and clinical. There was no doubt that Jeff’s tongue was slavering over an artificial pussy.

He didn’t mind, far from it, the juxtaposition only spurred his lust onward. His fingers pressed down on her folds and pulled them open and allowed him a deeper place to pleasure. He felt his own cock twitching and his mind begged to be allowed more. He needed it, deep down in a place where logic wasn’t allowed. Raw sexual desires were in the driver's seat now.

He pulled back, reluctantly, and checked to make sure there was a bit of a sheen to her entrance. His own saliva would have to do for now. He nudged himself upwards and aligned the tip of his all too hard member with her. For a moment, brief though it was, his lust left a small opening for reason. Was this really okay? He was about to cross a line and-

Time was up. His hips thrust forward and he was inside of her.

She was tight, and that was okay with Jeff. It felt incredible as he pushed deeper and deeper into her. Some of his own saliva clung to his shaft and lubricated the way further, though soon it gave out and he was met with raw flesh. That’s where the discomfort started, that was the limit. It wasn’t nearly enough for Jeff, he wanted more, he wanted it all. This would have to do though and perhaps in the future he could do something else. The idea of making love to her while she was online formed and stuck itself deep in the lizard brain inside of his head. She would squirm and moan, sigh his name and wrap her legs around him. She would beg him to fuck her harder.

His imagination was allowed to run rampant with the robotic woman below him. In and out he slid. The slickness there sustained by the presence of a bit of pre-cum from him. He found himself fumbling with the hem of her shirt and thrusting a hand under her bra to grope at her. In his mind he imagined her sensually pulling the same garments up and over her head, smiling as she did so. Her breasts bouncing and ready, her nipples hard. She would slink towards him with a lustful smirk that told Jeff what she wanted.

A tightness in his lower abdomen told Jeff he was out of time. He hadn’t thought of what to do ahead of time, and now a rolling orgasm was on its way. He was still deep inside his robotic mothers slit. Surely she could handle that, but what if she was offline? He had read the section on how to power on these two androids, but would that help? Would it make things worse? He had to try or else risk leaving a mess inside of her that might cause more damage and more than one awkward conversation.

He yanked his hand free of her breast even as his hips continued to thrust inside of her, seemingly without his permission. It didn’t matter, there was no stopping it now. He leaned forward, causing him to slip just a little deeper inside of her, and used both hands to pry open her mouth. Once done he rammed two fingers deep inside and began tapping around her soft pallet, attempting with desperation to find the one small hard spot there. Finally he found it and pressed upwards.

There was a click, and then nothing for a short while. He was still thrusting, faster now and with some kind of desperation behind it. He wanted to stop himself but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Then his mothers eyes began to flicker, her face warming a little and her expression falling from surprised to something neutral. Her voice carried out into the empty space as well.

“Power on self test complete. Sudden power loss detected. Update progress halted. Please resume update progress.”

Jeff couldn’t hold it in much longer. He was breathing hard and groaning under his breath.

“Sexual systems in use. Activate human emulation?” Monica asked.

“N-no. Disable..uh, denied.” Jeff tried desperately to recall what the proper wording was.

It was something he said, because Monica lay still, her body bumping and rolling beneath his thrusts and then he burst inside of her. He felt movement there too, something from his mother was taking him, almost like it was expecting the orgasm and whisking it away to some storage container inside of her torso. He felt the gentlest of suctions across his shaft, even as he fell back onto his hands. He was panting and his mother was just laying there, activated just a moment before his orgasm.

He sat there panting for a moment and looking at her. She was online, in some form or another, but she wasn’t his mother. She was just powered on, like a computer waiting at a screen prompting you to continue. Jeff’s senses rushed back and he looked to the door, it was still closed, no one had seen him. He had gotten away with it all and he smiled at that. He looked down at Monica.

“How do I resume updates?”

“Power down this unit. Plug it into the android service console, and power it back on.”

The thing he had disconnected earlier. It was an update console. That made sense and explained why Monica and Melody had both been connected. He looked over his shoulder at the blocky thing in the corner and then back to Monica. He opened her mouth and stuck his fingers inside then pressed the power button on the roof of her mouth. She closed her eyes and remained silent after that.

==Chapter Thirteen==

“What authorization could you possibly need!?” Trent shouted into the flickering ghost of a vid-screen. “That’s my family out there!”

“Trent, I understand why you’re upset but-”

“Do you though?” Trent snapped as he threw his hands into the air in frustration.

He had hastily dragged another vid-screen into his office and connected it to a dedicated system to allow him to have a second, independent computer set up. He wanted to have something that wouldn’t be interrupted if Jeff sent another data packet or communication line or…or anything…

“Yes, Trent, I do. If it was my family I would be in a panic as well. But there is food, water, and from what your report says, power and life support.” The man on the other end of the vid-screen sighed. “From the standpoint of a rescue operation, they are in a pretty good place. We can likely get the ship back on course remotely.”

It was hard to quell the fury in his mind. His wife and one of his daughters didn’t care a single lick about food or water or life support. They needed to be fixed. Properly. He had every confidence in Jeff and his ability to get them up and running but that didn’t mean that they were fully repaired. They needed a real service technician to correct any damage that they might have suffered. They needed a full system scan and check up to ensure their software was working as expected. An expert needed to get access to their personality programming and ensure there was no corruption.

Those kinds of operational processes took time, and equipment and the longer they waited the worse it could get. At a certain point there would be enough cognitive degeneration that there was a very real possibility that Melody and Monica would never ever be the same. But, of course, he couldn’t just shout that at the team lead for this colonization effort.

“Sir.” Trent never called anyone sir unless he was really angry, “I understand the resource requirement and the logistics to get a rescue operation in place. But I need you to understand that there are reasons I need to ensure that my family is safe.”

Trent sighed.

“Alex. Please.”

The man on the screen wobbled as the vid-screen’s long distance transmission encountered some kind of distortion. Something out in space had briefly passed through the stream of bits. The image wobbled again and then flickered back into place. Alex, the man who was, for lack of a better word, Trent’s boss’s boss, let out a breath. The noise cancelling microphones detected it, and scrubbed it from the audio, assuming it was just some background noise. The movement was there though, the heavy rise and fall of his chest.

“I’ll see what I can do, Trent. I owe you that much at least.”

Trent pressed his lips into a hard line, nodded and thanked the man who had been both a long time friend and an essential part of his career path. Trent had helped keep Alex’s wife up and running more than once in the past. All under the table, of course. No one liked to admit their spouse was a robot. Alex had no idea about Trent’s own family, and he wanted to keep it that way.

The screen flickered and Alex was gone. Trent let out a breath that felt like it had been cooped up in his chest for hours. Now all he could do was wait and hope and try his best not to go stir crazy. He looked over at the other console, hoping that a message would come in from Jeff or Monica, or Aria, or anyone…anyone at all.

Everything was easier with gravity, except for hauling heavy android update unit things around. Jeff had been deceived by the device his mother and sister had been plugged into. When he had first drifted into the room before, however long ago that was, he had seen the blocky thing floating between them. Maybe it had been blind panic, shock, and disorientation, but the thing didn’t look all that heavy. Even when he had gently pulled the two robotic women into place in the room and the box floated along with them it hadn’t seemed all that weighty.

Now, though, he knew. With gravity back online and power in the room he had to move it by hand. There were small wheels on the bottom of the thing, but Jeff had foolishly guided it to the ground and landed it on the side. Now, legs bent and hands wiggled under it, he had to lift the whole thing by himself and get it onto those wheels before he could even think about getting it over to the two inactive androids.

Through clenched teeth Jeff grunted once, then again, then sucked in a deep breath. He felt his arms trembling as he lifted with his arms, his legs, and his back. He knew that was the improper form, but he was also fairly confident he wasn’t about to blow out his back either. He managed to lift the thing past its tipping point and it landed on the wheels with a hard thump. Jeff stopped at that, waiting and listening to make sure that nothing had jostled loose inside of it. Everything was quiet and good.

He looked down at the thing and immediately wanted to swear. He didn’t, save for in his head.

The large blocky thing was plastered with some barcodes, serial numbers, and a number of connection points where some kind of cable could be plugged in. Most of them were empty, ready to accept but not connected to anything. There were two that had thick cables connected into them though, the ones he had seen before, the ones that connected to Melody and Monica’s chest ports. One on either side of the heavy terminal, one was perfectly fine, connected, clipped in place and coiled up where Jeff had left it.

The other one was mashed into the side of the console. The data port was crammed full of shattered plastic and frayed wiring. Some of it even looked as if it had been shoved deeper into the unit itself. The cable was turned at an odd angle and some broken wiring jut out of it. The image was reminiscent of his sister’s neck before he had detached it.

“Looks like you’re only getting updated one at a time.” Jeff muttered to no one.

Upon further thought, that was going to be okay anyway. His eyes darted over to Melody, most of her at least. He had laid her body flat on the ground, her torso and legs were fine, but her arms were piled up on the far side of her body, along with her head. The eyes were still open, he had tried to close them and it was just too fiddly to manage, so he left them open. Though he had turned her away when he saw that she was staring in his direction while he had…

Was there a term for what he had done? Was it really sex? His mother had been fully offline and hadn’t exactly consented, so was it…no, but she was a robot and those kinds of terms really didn’t apply to machines…did they? On top of that it had been his mother, or at least something that looked like his mother. Did that matter? There were far too many questions and a severe lack of answers, and besides, Jeff had work to do.

He hefted the machine across the room, small though the room was, it still seemed to take a lot of time and effort. The castors on the bottom of the machine didn’t seem to be rolling or were getting jammed on something. Jeff thought about seeing if there was a lock on them or something to help it move easier, but by the time the thought crossed his mind he was already in place.

With the service unit in place he settled down on the floor next to the machine that looked like his mother. The panel in her chest was still open, and every time Jeff looked at it his eyes drifted downward. Her breasts were magnificent, her nipples still seemed to be pert and perky. She was every young man's fantasy come to life, a beautiful, mature woman who still had the youthful firmness to her body, but the maturity of womanhood. His hands had been on those breasts too, it was only a few minutes ago, but he already felt like he could grope them again, her legs could be spread wide again, he could be inside of her once more.

He took a deep breath. Focus Jeff! One thing at a time.

He looked over at the robot service update…thing, and grabbed the thick bundled connector. Lining it up with the connector port in her chest was easy enough, and of course he needed to place a hand on her body to stabilize her as he inserted the plug, what better place than her breast? Still, there was a satisfying click that let him know that the connection had been made, one more squeeze on her chest and then he let go.

In a moment of clarity and focus, Jeff pushed himself up to standing and reached over to the bed and pulled the blanket from the mattress there. He draped it lightly over Monica’s body, tucking it under her a little and ensuring that her chest was covered, while leaving plenty of room for the connector. Now it was just a matter of powering her back on and getting the updates to resume.

Her mouth was already agape from before and Jeff found he was becoming a little more adept at finding that hard patch of tissue just beyond her soft palate. Pushing in on it he pulled out his fingers and settled down on the floor next to her, and waited. He didn’t have long to wait. As he looked at her face for any kind of noticeable change he saw the irises in her eyes adjusting slightly, open and closed, taking in light and surroundings. Her features seemed to relax in a way that was perceptible but hard to quantify. It was as if whatever artificial musculature was under the skin had finally released a hold it had held while she was offline.

Her eyes fluttered for a moment before she spoke. “Unit online. Booting. Error. Update paused mid-installation. Resume installation and update process now?”

Her voice sounded flat, not quite monotone, but lacking any emotional cadence. It was the same kind of voice that you would hear from a purely automated phone system. It was so clearly Monica’s voice, just, without the Monica part.

“Uhm, confirmed. Yes installed. Uhm…resume?”

Jeff kicked himself for not paying more attention to the command structure. It was in the manual he had, maybe while she updated he would study up and see if he could solidify those words in his mind. Or not.

“Confirmed. Resuming installation. Estimated time to complete…” She paused, for too long, and it made Jeff nervous. “...two hours.”

Jeff sighed with relief. He settled down on the floor and looked over at Monica for a moment before turning to Melody. She was still disassembled, and he would likely need some help from his mother to get her back together. The arms might have been easy enough, but there was some definite damage to her neck. If Egg were still around she could have fixed her up with no issues. Jeff’s mind flashed to Egg, her ruined and naked body mounted on the captain, equally destroyed. He found his mental image drifting down to Egg’s body too. Her curves and how they matched up with the mental image he had conjured of her.

His eyes darted to Melody’s head. Eyes open and lips pursed. He huffed once. She was next and he leaned over to the little cradle that housed her head. He picked it up and held it in his lap, feeling that bubbling heat in his guts, the kind that always led to trouble. Closing his eyes helped him ignore it for a short time, at least until he could refocus. He tried to structure his next steps in his mind and see if there were opportunities for him to get something done now.

He needed his mother online to help put Melody back together, so he would have to wait on that. He wanted to wait to tell his father that anything was working again, because currently nothing was. Nothing new at least. He could probably reattach her arms, and maybe prepare Melody’s head for boot.

He opened his eyes and found the face of his sister staring back at him. She was pretty, almost ethereal in her looks. Even when he had still assumed she was a human, or even when she still was human for that matter, he had admired the way she looked. Smooth creamy skin, practically flawless, the cute little button nose and the small pout that her mouth always seemed to have, always showing just a little bit of her teeth just behind them. Jeff wasn’t entirely sure what the process of being converted to a robot was, but however it was done they had preserved those looks perfectly.

It took some work to pry Melody’s jaw open enough for him to wiggle even just a finger in between her teeth. There was no shortage of tools on board the ship, some in this room, and the vast array in Egg’s workshop, but Jeff needed something softer. He was unsure how strong the artificial teeth inside of her mouth were and he wouldn’t risk chipping such a pleasant smile. In the end he pulled the pouch of tools that had been in the room originally over to his side and rummaged through it. There was some kind of tool in there that was made of plastic and Jeff hedged his bets that it would break before the teeth did.

He slipped the tool easily between her soft lips and over her teeth. Once there he found that the somewhat wedge shaped tip of the tool could fit between her front two teeth. From there Jeff started the arduous task of gently prying open her mouth. Once he had enough room to squeeze his fingers in he found it much easier to pull open her jaw, though he admitted to himself that it just felt uncomfortable.

Finally, he had it done. Her mouth was open enough that he could fit his fingers inside and deep into the cavity. He felt, gently, around the back of her mouth until he found the same small patch of soft flesh with a hard button below it. At least that was one mystery solved and he settled Melody’s head down into his lap. Her short, fiery red hair creating a burning halo around her head as she looked up at him, vacant eyes and mouth agape.

The blaze around her head seemed to penetrate deep into his chest. Her cheeks were so pale and her eyes glassy and empty. Even if he hadn’t seen the broken flesh and the array of cables and wires jutting from the end of her throat he would have known something was off. Something artificial had taken her place and that made it easy to settle his emotions.

He felt that same lustful boiling in his belly beginning to rise. It robbed him of his own logic, or perhaps enhanced it in other ways. Melody, this Melody, might be his sister, or what remained of her, when she was online and working as expected. Now, though, she was just a plastic skull wrapped in artificial skin and housing circuitry. Wires and silicone did not make her sentient, especially when offline. Her lips felt real enough, though, Jeff noted as he let his thumb drape over them. They clung to his skin for a moment and then bounced back into place. His tongue slid over his own lips and wetted them.

His arms were moving without even realizing it. Melody’s head rose to meet his gaze and then in an instant her lips were pressed against his own. They were cold, but soft. Artificial but a good enough surrogate for the real thing. None of the cold artificiality of it was enough to stop Jeff from kissing the synthetic lips. His sister’s head and face cradled in his hands, the lips pressed into his, the stillness and lingering tingle of what he had done to the android that represented his mother; all of it was swirling together in his brain and driving him onward.

Her mouth was parted and in due time Jeff began to let his tongue glide inside of hers. He toyed with her tongue and found, much to his delight, that it was more pliable than her jaw and able to play with it. There was, however, only so much kissing he could do by himself. Not that he was going to allow that to stop him, he knew the point of no return when he felt it. He knew it when he passed it minutes before while making out with his robotic sister's decapitated head.

Jeff pulled Melody’s head back, her eyes still staring nowhere and at nothing. They looked right through him and it was easy enough to categorize this as not a real person, far from it. This was a toy, something to be used, and Jeff knew exactly what he wanted to use it for.

He made sure not to let her head just tumble from his hands as he scrambled to remove his pants again. He had the foresight to settle the head module back down into the little nest of cloth he had made for it. There Melody’s head rest, watching vacantly while Jeff once again squirmed out of his clothes. His blood was already pumping, hot and ready, boiling once again for release and Melody’s mechanical mouth looked like the perfect place for it.

He was out of his pants again and his manhood once again twitched as the cooler ambient air surrounded it. He hopped over the tangles of cables that linked his mother to the service terminal and the scattered mess of tools and accessories, and stopped against the door. He tapped the button to open it, and once it hissed out of the way he poked his head out into the hallway. He looked left and right, making sure that Aria was still in the cockpit, or at very least not lurking around in the hall.

Jeff saw no trace of her presence, which was good enough for him. He pulled himself back into the room and bid the door closed. Once it hissed into place he flipped the little switch on the control panel next to the door and in doing so released the magnetic locks. Then he turned back to the mess of the room beyond and the object of his lustful intentions.

He scooped up Melody’s head once again and moved to the bed. He settled down on his back and took a moment to get comfortable, his heart was racing and he wanted to make sure he was comfortable for what he was intending. He set Melody’s head down next to him as he settled in, tossing a little here and there and getting ready. All the while his erection remained ready and hungry, Jeff knew he needed to feed it soon.

He wasn’t fully comfortable, but good enough for the small discomforts to not be a distraction. He scooped up his sister's detached head and swept the small amount of wires dangling from the bottom of the neck to the side. He turned her head around, looking at it once more for no reason other than to confirm that this wasn’t really his sister. It was a facsimile, a replica. The real Melody was gone, and this was just a replacement. It might carry her memories and her mannerisms, but it wasn’t her.

Right?

He excused the thought in a torrent of desire. There were few things lust couldn’t wash away. He moved the head downward, thinking at first to have the now opened mouth take him, he even brushed her lips over the tip of his cock. He was mere moments away from plunging deep into the oral cavity when he had an idea. He reoriented the head so that it was looking at him, mouth open and eyes vacant. A good little sex toy. He lined up the tip of his manhood with the exposed throat lining. Whatever material they used to build her artificial esophagus was perfect. It was tight yet stretched just right to accommodate him.

He pushed the head downwards at the same time he allowed his hips to gently thrust upward. The throat was tighter the deeper he penetrated, though not to the point of discomfort, far from it in fact. He felt the pleasure of that smooth tightness clenching around his shaft in a way that was hard for him to describe. It was divine, and it only made him want to push harder, further, deeper.

He lifted the head upwards a little, retracting himself from the base of it without fully freeing himself from it. Then he was back inside, driving deeper into the throat and pushing Melody’s head down further. Then back out, and in, deeper and deeper with each thrust until he felt an unexpected sensation.

He pushed the head down hard and felt the tightness around his cock release and open up. In a flash of panic he worried that he had somehow broken something, or popped a tube free where it shouldn’t have. He half sat up and looked at the robotic head impaled on his member only to smirk and let out a relieved chuckle. The release he had felt was simply his own cock sliding all the way up her throat and into her mouth. Inside of her mouth, just beyond the lips and white teeth, he saw the vague outline of his own cockhead. He pulled his hips down and watched his own member disappear back into her throat and felt the tight squeeze once again.

Jeff settled into a new rhythm then. Pushing deep inside of Melody’s throat until he felt himself pop into her mouth, then pulling slowly back down. He moved both hands to her head, using them to lift it up and off of him, stopping just before he popped out of the lower portion of her neck. Then back in, slow and steady, delighting in every crawling inch of her throat. He wished there was a little more lubrication to it, but he was terrified to try and introduce anything into the equation. There were exposed wires and electronics dangling from the bottom of her neck, a fact that he was constantly reminded of as some of them poked into his flesh when he pushed the head module fully down.

As expected he wouldn’t keep that same slow routine for too long. The feeling of the throat around his manhood was just too good to stay slow. The pace increased and he soon found his head resting against the pillow on the bed. As much as he was enjoying looking into his sister's face while he impaled her throat, it was becoming a distraction. It was an easy calculus, the pleasure he felt from relaxing his neck was immeasurably more than the boyish delight he got from seeing his own dick popping in and out of the back of the robot’s mouth.

Small little hisses and groans escaped from Jeff’s throat as he felt the increased pace. It all felt so good, the time must have slipped quickly through his fingers because he would swear it was only a moment or two ago that he was reorienting the head and pushing his cock inside of it, and now he was uncontrollably jerking his hips upward. He made sure to push the head down hard against his body so that he came inside of her mouth. He lifted her head just a little, tickling the underside of his dick to coax every last bit out.

He sat in silence for a few moments, feeling himself growing soft as his body retracted down her throat, smearing it with the last drops of love he had produced. Sucking in deep cleansing breaths for a minute allowed him to come to the realization that while he had kept his cum away from the exposed circuitry, there was nothing to keep it from running down her exposed throat once he was done. More than that, he realized he would need to stick his fingers into her mouth to reactivate her when it was time to update her.

“Fuck.” He muttered to no one but the two robots in the room.

==Chapter Fourteen==

Aria was usually good at following instructions. Especially when the instructions were to do nothing at all. Sure, Jeff had told her to stay in the cockpit and wait, but did that mean she had to stay right there?

Their dad might report in with a new message but there was little that she could do when it arrived. No doubt it would be some technical schematic or read out or something that Jeff would understand a lot more than she would. She simply didn’t have the mindset for hard lines and rigid frameworks. Flow and harmony was what she cared about. Lines on a computer screen were barriers and boundaries, and human life wasn’t meant to live inside of a boundary. Human evolution proved as much. No one told roaming tribes of nomads that there was a line in the sand between them and freedom that they weren’t allowed to cross.

She lasted, perhaps, three or four minutes after Jeff left to work on her mother and sister before she got bored. The ship wasn’t yet moving meaning that the vast array of stars and galaxies beyond the ship hadn’t moved or changed. Besides that, she needed something to take her mind off of the disaster they found themselves in. So, she wandered back to the observation deck where she had spent most of her time before.

It was a mess here. The lack of gravity and the jolt from the impact had sent anything not bolted down into a spin. The artificial gravity had not so gently placed things back on the ground wherever they wanted. Blankets and pillows were flopped on the ground near the seating area, the mug she had been drinking tea out of earlier was now in pieces on the ground, her art supplies and satchel lie nearby.

Aria set about tidying up some of the mess. She picked up the larger piece of broken ceramic mug and tossed them in a bin before looking for something to sweep up the remaining shards. She was unsuccessful in that endeavor and made a mental note to try and find something later. Maybe in the engineering lab.

She swallowed hard at that thought. She did not want to go back in there. Logically she knew there was another wall and doorway between her and…and what was in the engine room…but she still mentally linked the two locations together into one place. She would make Jeff go and look for a broom or something. Jeff didn’t seem to mind the appearance of robotic parts all scattered around or the sight of-

She forced the thought out of her head. Focus on something else, your art supplies, grab those.

She stooped down and began to gather up the pencils and sketchbooks that had fallen here and there. A few bent pages wouldn’t hurt anything, and luckily the paint pots seemed to be closed tightly enough that nothing spilled out. Aside from a scattered mess, everything seemed to be well and good. She packed everything back into her satchel and slinked back into the cockpit and checked the communication array. Still nothing.

She told herself that she should sketch or something while she waited, but found a severe lack of motivation to do anything creative. So she tossed the sketchbook onto the console and leaned back in her chair, hands cradling the back of her head and closed her eyes.

That didn’t last long either.

What the hell is taking Jeff so long?

She huffed and sat back up and strolled out of the cockpit and down towards the observation deck and the living quarters beyond that. Aria slowed her pace a little, creeping along the hall quietly. She didn’t actually want to see her mother and sister being repaired, she didn’t like the thought of them being robots. It reminded her that one day she might be the same thing. A human shoved into lines and borders and contained.

Monica and Aria had talked about the processes a number of times before. Any good parent, knowing that there was some kind of hereditary condition that might be passed on would do the same. Inform the kids, let them know how to live with it, how the parents lived with it, and in this case, how to conquer it. All it would take was a complete surrender of her biological functions and a reliance on technology to preserve her humanity and her creativity.

That last part was the terrifying part. She loved art far too much to let it be boiled down to something that was generated. Something that took the sum total of all the data fed into it and then spitting out the most predictable outcome. Was it even possible for a woman turned into an android to be truly creative?

She hated to even think about it, and with the genetic markers in her body still not showing any trace of the genetic breakdown that Melody and Monica had, she was hopeful that she would never have to. The thought of having to update and recharge and be repaired alone was enough to send a fresh shiver down her spine. But she did want to at least check up on them. They were still her mother and sister afterall, and she truly believed that they were just that. Personality still lived on in whatever neuro micro processor whatever inside of them.

She arrived just outside of the door to her mother’s suite. She stopped, willed her heart beat and breathing to settle down a bit and closed her eyes, focusing in to make sure there weren't any kind of weird sounds or muttered curses coming from inside. She wanted to know what was happening, but truly didn’t want to see it. She imagined the sound of a ratchet tightening some bolt or sparks and crackling electricity as Jeff used some tool to do…something.

Instead she heard the distant but distinct sounds of skin slapping against skin. Rhythmic and steady with the occasional grunts and groans. It wasn’t a far leap to figure out what was happening. Aria made a face and wondered why Jeff needed to do that before getting to work, but whatever, it had been a stressful few hours. It was about that time that she also realized that she hadn’t really released any of that same tension. There was a lot of pumping blood and flooding chemicals in her own body that she had simply been shunting to the side.

Distractions only went so far and the more she thought about it the more she realized that, perhaps, the reason why she had been so bored and unmotivated was because there was something clawing at her brain. Something that was just taking up space, wanting to be released. She hadn’t really thought much about that kind of release in the chaos that had gripped them, but things were settling now. They were still in trouble, for certain, but there was a measure of calmness to the present situation.

Aria slipped back down the hall, away from the living quarters and back towards the cockpit. She had a funny feeling Jeff would be occupied for a while down there. So she settled into the captain's seat, tucked to one side of the cockpit and out of direct view of the door into the cockpit and away from the hall. She decided to close the hall door on her way in and leave the cockpit door open, that way she would hear the hiss of the hall door opening and allow her a moment or two before anyone saw her.

There was a moment, brief though it may have been, where Aria thought about backing down. Retreating to the solitary space of her own room. But that would have put her out of the cockpit, away from any communication from her father, and almost worst in her mind, closer to Jeff and the two androids he was working on. She sighed, not quite frustrated, but not entirely relieved either. The cockpit would do fine.

The elastic band around her pajamas proved to be no barrier at all as she flattened her hand against her belly and shoved downward. Breeching the band, she lifted up a little, making way for her other hand. She had never truly been one for technique in these sorts of activities. Her time was usually spent alone in her room when a mood fell over her she simply did what was necessary and then moved on with her life. Usually at night, usually right before bed, and usually as an aide to fall asleep faster. This was different.

She wasn't touching herself because she was bored or tired or even just needed a quick hit of dopamine. It might have been the strange cocktail of chemicals in her body that all released at the same time as things on the ship began to settle. Regardless of the reason, this was a rare occasion where Aria simply wanted to touch herself, she wanted to feel good. She craved the release that was sure to come, but more than that she craved the journey to find it.

She had seen porn before, it did little for her other than to implant ideas on how a ‘professional’ might go about things. She had never had the opportunity to really try out any of those techniques for herself though. She was single, still a virgin, and only just barely coming into womanhood. Not only that, the lingering fear of potentially needing to forego her biological body had shunted the idea of dating to the back of her mind. But she was still biological, and she still had needs.

She brought her free hand to her mouth, letting her tongue wet two of her fingers. She had seen women in various clips do that kind of thing before, she was never really sure why, but now was the time to try it.

The added slickness on her fingers, no matter how miniscule it was, surprised Aria. As her hand slipped into the opening in her pajama bottoms and crept over her pelvis to her waiting slit, she felt a spike in her excitement. It had been growing, steadily, since she had heard her brother in the other room, and now it was her turn to do the same thing. While Jeff was off masturbating and repairing robots, Aria would be doing the same, just monitoring a comms array at the same time instead of working on electronics.

She breathed out as she felt her fingers caress the outermost rim of her slit, her own saliva helped her fingers glide over them gently. Aria couldn’t help but let out a small sigh at that, laced with pleasure and understanding. This was why you wetted your fingers first. She stroked her own body for a few moments, just letting the sensation of it all wash over her as she looked out at an endless sea of stars through half lidded eyes. Carrying on, she began to feel an odd kind of detachment from the world. Jeff, her robotic mother and sister, the ruined engineer and captain, the damaged ship they were floating in, all of it melted away as pleasure replaced fear.

The stars beyond became a reminder of the isolation, in the best kind of way. It reminded her that she was alone out here, just her and the spreading warmth between her legs. A heat that started as a low simmer and grew and grew until it was crawling up her belly. She felt it, not just with the exposed skin on her arms, but deep in her core, there was a gently boiling heat that was rising inside of her.

The two fingers she had been using to gently massage herself with were now welcomed inside. Her body opened up and folded outwards to allow her more pleasure. The gentle, smooth strokes morphed into a rhythmic swirl. Turning round and round as she gingerly pushed deeper into herself, finding her clit and toying with it for a moment. She knew what that was, what it was capable of, and she intentionally shied away from it. This wasn’t about efficiency, this wasn’t a task to accomplish, it was a beautiful journey.

She kept moving her fingers around, finding that the fabric of her pajamas was a hindrance, but she was unwilling to fully strip out of them. There was still something in her mind that needed to be kept aware that she was not actually alone out here among the stars. The cockpit was hers, but the ship beyond had others in it. More than that, if Jeff got Melody and Monica working in short order they would want to come and see her.

She wanted, so desperately, to remain there in that moment. To keep touching herself and feeling the spreading heat and the desire flooding her body for hours, days if she could, but she also knew that would be impossible.

So she reveled in what time she had. She let her eyes flicker open and look out at the openness of space again as she touched herself. The heat that had originated between her legs continued to spread upwards. Once it touched her chest, she felt compelled to remove one hand from her bottoms and slide it into the hem of her shirt and up to her breasts. There she began to play with the soft mounds on her chest. She rolled her palm over them and felt the hardened tip that must be her nipples. She hadn’t realized that they were so erect. A smile spread over her face as she realized she now had a new means of feeling pleasured excitement.

She pinched them, gently at first but growing more aggressive as the minutes ticked away. Her hand worked between her legs, now rhythmically moving in a repeated motion, swirl swirl, plunge, find her clit and stroke then pull back. Repeat. It was easy enough that it became a background routine, her brain took the reins and just made it happen. This allowed Aria to focus more on the feeling of her hand on her chest. The feeling of her fingers squeezing into the soft mound, the sensation of her nipples being gently swirled around, playfully pinched between forefinger and thumb. She felt the heat that had spread there from her crotch coil and then amplify.

It spread up to her throat, turning her skin a tender pink and as the hot fingers of lust met her neck she let out a small whimper. She was genuinely trying to remain quiet, but her body demanded this, there was no helping it. She let the sound seep out of her mouth and into the cockpit and could only hope it didn’t dance down the hall, through the observation deck, and into Jeff’s ears. The whimper was followed by a deeply inhaled gulp of fresh air. It cooled her chest and tempered the heat, but the temperature was inevitable. It returned and as it did she pushed her fingers deeper into herself.

She became aware that she had been at this for some time, though she was wholly unaware of just how long. Her eyes opened again to see stars, then flicked to the clock on the control panel. Time must have distorted around her, it claimed she had been like this for nearly a quarter of an hour. She breathed out, letting heat and lewd sounds enter the cockpit. Aria wasn’t sure if that seemed like a long time, or a short time. It didn’t matter, all that mattered at the moment was pleasure.

She redoubled her efforts, sadly deciding that she should wrap up before Jeff returned with someone. Or worse, a buzz from the communicator interrupted her. Her fingers returned to her clit, teasing and taunting it, remaining there as if to say our destination is in sight, let’s finish this.

Heat clutched her cheek and earned another whispered moan as the raw pleasure between her legs began to build. Like a fire someone was trying to start and the fuel was finally catching. The sizzling crackle of wood that was fully ablaze. Hotness erupted, travelling along the lanes that were carved into her body from the past few minutes. There was no need to slowly spread, it was an all consuming fire that moved fast and hard.

It wrapped around her spine, causing her to arch and spasm slightly before it moved on. Her arms stiffened, sending her fingers deep inside of her and pressing against her clit. The other hand grabbed hard at her breast, holding it and leaving, she was sure, small crescent moon shaped bruises where her finger nails had dug in. Her lips parted too, sending a heated moan into the cool open air so that the ocean of empty space could claim it.

She stayed locked like that for a moment, nothing moved. Then she settled back into her chair. It cradled and supported her. In that moment it was the most comfortable thing she had ever sat in. Her breath came fast and hard, sucking in cool air to try and push that heat back down, to put it in its place until next time. Each new breath extinguished more and more of the flames inside of her until she was once again stable.

She extracted her fingers from between her legs, feeling the sticky wetness on them made her giggle just a little. She hadn’t planned for this, but it wouldn’t be too much of a challenge to clean. The kitchen was right around the corner and there was sure to be a sonic sink and some towels there. For now though, she simply let her arm dangle from the chair, breathing and taking it in. The waves of endorphins flooded her brain and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she was smiling again. She felt good and calm and normal.

She did eventually haul herself out of the chair and make her way to the kitchen where she cleaned herself up. Then as she tossed away the paper towel she had used to ensure there was nothing dripping out of her, she had a thought.

Dad knew Mom and Mel were robots, I did too, Jeff just found out, but the crew here thought we were all human. I think.

With that thought in mind and some quick math to go along with it, she pulled open the storage cabinet. She started counting the pre-packaged meal kits and compared that to her earlier thought. Sure enough, there was food enough for four adult humans, and as far as she could tell, her and Jeff were the only ones who would need to eat it. A fresh wave of relief washed over her. They wouldn’t have to ration out food, her and Jeff could actually be a little more wild with their meals.

Good she thought to herself. Because orgasms make me hungry.

She reached into the cabinet and began to pull out meal packages to see what there was to work with.

==Chapter Fifteen==

“Fuck.” Jeff muttered again, it was, perhaps the dozenth time he had muttered it in short succession.

He had set Melody’s head to one side as quickly and as gently as he could, though it was definitely more quick than gentle. He had scrambled off of the bed and was frantically searching for…something. Anything really. The clarity that only comes in the flood of chemistry in your mind after an orgasm was in full effect. He realized that, unlike a human, there was nothing on the other end of that esophagus, there was no where for his mess to go except all over the bedding, or worse, the exposed circuitry in the neck.

The clarity extended only to what he had done though, not to what he needed to do. He did manage to orient the head module so that it was upside down. The artificial gravity on the ship would draw any of the fluids he had left towards the roof of the mouth instead of the neck, which was enough to buy him some time, but he was still in a hurry. He had no real idea of when Monica’s updates would be finished, and the last thing he wanted to do was answer questions asked by his mother.

She’s not really my Mom though.

The thought didn’t slow him down though. She might not be the biological entity that birthed him, but she had the memories, both old and new, and worse, the tone and attitude programmed into her head. She was his mother so long as he recognized her authority in that manner. He also knew that if he stepped out of line that his real, actual father would hear about it. His dad would see reason if Jeff had applied any kind of logic to what he did. His father was reasonable as long as there was a good reason, or even a poor reason with good intention.

His eyes darted to Melody’s detached head, her red hair falling in a messy shroud around her. The neck pointed upward and some of the cabling inside of it jut up and then flopped over the sides where it rested against her soft, almost human, skin. He wasn’t sure there was any kind of explanation he could give to his parents that would justify what he had just done. Even he wasn’t sure there was a good reason for it, in all honestly, it had just happened. His eyes scanned the room, looking for something to clean up and landed on Monica.

She was still plugged in, still offline and presumably installing updates. He didn’t have a good reason for what he had done to her either. It had just happened and he hadn’t given it a moment's thought. There would be time for that later, probably when he wasn’t in the middle of three different crises all at once.

Jeff managed to find some kind of microfiber cloth in the tool set that was velcroed to the side of the blocky update machine thing. He was very sure that it was not meant for cleaning up semen, but lacking anything else obvious, it would have to do.

With all the delicacy he could muster Jeff swiped the rag over the roof of Melody’s mouth several times. Each pass he would fold the little cloth in half and go back in, cleaning out more and more of what he had left behind until he was convinced that he got all, or at least almost all of it. He could never be truly sure, that stuff was sticky afterall. Still it was better than leaving globs of it in there to dry. He idly wondered if she would be able to tell once she was repaired and reactivated.

Which raised another question. Just how would he repair her?

He huffed and tossed the wet rag into the laundry hamper in the room, making a mental note to perhaps start a load of laundry once he was done in here. He also needed to get dressed properly. So many things to do and all of them were taking up space in his head. He glanced at Melody’s head again. Focus Jeff.

He settled down onto the bed and looked over the head module, his data pad in hand and the schematics his father had sent over at the ready. From the looks of it, there was little actual damage to either the structure or the wiring. But not nothing. There were a few cables here and there that had been stretched and broken when her body had crumpled to the floor. He had no idea, nor had the time, to try and trace exactly what they were for, all he knew was that they needed to be replaced before he would even consider connecting her to the body and getting updates installed.

Jeff opened a little task app on his tablet and added the first of many things to do. ‘Replace wiring in Melody’s neck and head?’ Followed quickly by ‘do laundry’, ‘update mom’, 'update Melody’, and ‘contact dad again.’ He sighed, just a few little things here and there, he told himself. The grumble in his belly prompted another action item. ‘Ration food’. He tucked the tablet under his arm and looked at his mother, then to the update machine. There were plenty of status lights on it, but nothing that indicated some kind of progress bar, in fact the only way he knew anything was still happening was because Monica’s eyes were twitching back and forth slightly in cadence with a status light on the update machine, like she was reading lines from a book.

He left the room and went to his own, gently tossing the tablet across the room so that it landed in a pile of blankets on his own bed. He wasted no time in stripping out of his pajamas and tossing them into the hamper. Then it was off to the sonic shower.

Standing naked while focused sound waves blasted dirt and…other things…from his body wasn’t exactly relaxing. He fondly remembered long, hot showers back at home. Steam rushing all around him and the world fading away. After a long day of work, or some time in the gym it made the worries and cares of life melt away in a wash of soap and water. This space travel thing definitely wasn’t for him. When he was done he felt clean, but a different kind of clean. His muscles didn’t feel refreshed, his mind wasn’t cleared. He was simply not dirty.

There had been no real time to organize and unpack before things broke, so his bag was still stuffed with clothes. The few things that had been put away were a tangled mess, but at least they were in the closet space. It took him a moment or two to find proper underwear and a comfortable pair of cargo pants, finishing off with a simple black shirt. It was unexciting, but he also figured there was enough excitement happening already. He scooped up the tablet, tapped on the schematics for Melody and then on the wiring bundles that had been damaged. More information floated up around the screen describing exactly what was broken.

He copied the information and began to tap out a quick message to his father. He tried to use neutral language, making it clear that, while things looked to be broken, nothing seemed to be beyond repair. He pasted in the cables that he could see and made a note that the engineer on the ship might have replacement android parts, but he didn’t know what to look for. He knew for certain that his dad would, and he hoped that it was easy enough to convey in a single message. There was no telling how long it would be between bursts of clear signal. Jeff sent off the message, nodded to no one, and tucked the tablet into a cargo pocket and strode off towards the cockpit.

As he passed through the observation deck Jeff heard something and every last one of his nerves prickled and his heart began to hammer. The gentle, distant sound of something crackling and sizzling, with an occasional popping sound. Added to that the faint scent of something burning. There was only one logical conclusion, something else was on fire, this time quite literally.

Jeff broke into a full sprint and angled for the hall that led into the cockpit, but before that, he passed the door to the kitchen. The sound caught him there, so too did the smell. Skidding to a halt just past the door, he backed up a bit to see Aria there, swaying her hip and now that he was close enough he could hear the gentle hum of some song. A small plume of wispy smoke was rising from a pan on the range in front of her. The smell was something cooking, well, something burning.

“Aria? What are you doing?” Jeff asked.

She looked over her shoulder at Jeff, and from his point of view there seemed to be a contented little glow coming off of her dopey smile. It seemed that a portion of the stress and worry had been lifted or at least moved to the back of her mind.

“Makin’ eggs. Well, plant based egg substitute powder and hydration. Want some?”

Jeff could practically see the words wafting through the air, slowly but surely. They danced around for a moment and then slipped into his ear and made their way to his brain. A thick cottony layer of worry and anxiety kept the words from registering properly. It took at least two passes for his mind to finally put everything in place. He had heard her cooking, he had smelled food, nothing new was broken. She wanted to eat and the grumbling from Jeff’s belly reminded him that he should as well.

Everything came crashing down on him in an avalanche. He managed to stammer something akin to accepting some food from Aria, and she dutifully went back to humming and swishing her hips while Jeff settled down into one of the plastic chairs at an equally plastic molded table. Aria kept humming and the sway of her hips was enough of a distraction to Jeff that he didn’t immediately crash, though he wanted to.

All the fatigue that a constant stream of crisis and stress had brought him made him want to put his head down and sleep. Sleep until someone else dealt with his two robotic family members, repaired them, fixed the ship, got them back on course and then sorted out how he felt about the robots and told him how to feel. His stomach growled at him again, it could smell the food that Jeff wasn’t paying attention to and it felt the need to remind him that he hadn’t eaten recently.

“Aria we should probably be careful with the food supply.” Jeff managed to mutter, recalling his checklist.

“Why?”

Jeff looked at her as if she had just sprouted a second head.

“I checked the storage, they stocked the trip for four people. You and me, Mom and Mel. But two of those people aren’t going to be eating, are they?”

Jeff opened his mouth to ask why they wouldn’t be eating, but his mind stepped in a moment later. They might have eaten to keep up appearances, but there was no need for that now. The crew was gone, Aria already knew they were robots, and Jeff had clearly just found out. There was no need to keep up any kind of appearances if they didn’t want to.

Aria slid a plate of, something, in front of Jeff before settling down across the table from him with a plate of her own. She was already eating by the time Jeff fumbled the spoon into his hands. What Aria had made resembled scrambled eggs with some kind of slab of protein next to it. Little flecks of seasoning, or maybe it was scorched food product, scattered into the mix. At very least everything looked edible and Aria didn’t seem to be too upset about it.

It was just that, edible. It wasn’t good by any definition, but Jeff’s nerves were so fractured at the moment that it didn’t matter. It was the best thing he had eaten in a long time. It was quiet for a while as the two siblings ate. Scooping food up, chewing it, and swallowing. The silence around them was flecked with the white noise of the humming engine across the hall and the background rattle of a ship that was lovingly pieced together.

“How are Mom and Mel?” Aria asked at last, her voice remaining soft.

“Uhm, fine. I think. Mom is plugged in and running some updates that got interrupted by the crash.”

Aria nodded at that and looked down at her plate. “And Mel?”

Jeff was entirely unsure how much detail to give poor little Aria. He knew that she would argue that she's an adult and can handle the gory details. She had asked, afterall, but that didn’t mean Jeff needed to be graphic about it.

“How, uh, how much detail do you want?” He asked at last.

“That bad huh?”

“No, she- She’s going to be fine, but there is some work to do. I just didn’t know how much explanation you wanted. I know how you feel about… about their whole situation.”

Aria nodded along a bit, partially agreeing with Jeff and partially to try and convince herself that she could handle the information. He was right though, seeing Egg and the captain all broken was like stumbling upon a corpse, but different somehow. Was it worse because Jeff would be talking about their mother and sister?

“Just give it to me.” She replied at last.

Jeff took in a deep breath, he wasn’t even sure if he was ready to explain it all, but he was the older brother, it was his responsibility. “Mel kinda broke a bit when the gravity came back on. She was floating around in the room and she landed on her head. It broke the skin and some of the wiring and maybe a few other things inside of her. I don’t actually know. I won't know until I can get her powered back on.”

He poked at some of the egg substitute on his plate.

“Her arms are still disconnected too. I don’t know how to get those back on, I’m hoping that once Mom is back online that she can help me a bit. I sent dad what I found in Mel’s neck, so I just have to wait to see what he says.”

“Is her neck, like, broken? Like, broken off or something?”

“No, the joint looks fine, it’s just wiring and stuff that got a little banged up. I detached her head and set it aside for now. The charger thing Mom and Mel were plugged into got a little busted up in the fall too. So there’s only one charging port they can use now. Mom’s plugged in to it at the moment. Once she’s back up and running we’ll get some more answers.”

Aria nodded again. It wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It helped to hear them be a little dehumanized by some of Jeff’s terminology. Neck joint, and charger and wiring. They were machines.

“Do-” Aria started without thinking, she wasn’t sure where she was going either. “Do, you think it’s still them?”

“What do you mean?” Jeff said after a mouthful of eggs went down.

“Like. They’re robots now. They aren’t human anymore, but, does that mean they are gone?”

Jeff hadn’t expected philosophical questions and eggs today. “I don’t know.” He replied, took another bite and used the time to think a bit. “Does it matter?”

Aria tilted her head and looked a little confused.

“If they walk, and talk, and act like Mom and Melody, then what’s the difference?”

“Other than the obvious, I guess nothing.” Aria replied.

“Even with the obvious part.” Jeff continued, “you’re asking what part of a person is a person? Is it the brain? Or the body? Or some ethereal soul that we aren’t convinced does or does not exist?”

“It’s all of it.” Aria offered.

“But does it have to be biological?”

“I- I don’t know. Maybe not?”

“Mom and Melody were converted long before you knew about them, and I only just found out. In that time after conversion and before we found out, they were just the same people, right?”

“Yeah.” Aria said.

“Does that mean that in that time we didn’t have a mother or a sister?”

Aria blinked, and thought. Jeff made a good point. There was a significant amount of time that their mother was actually a robot and they didn’t know it. What did that mean? Were they so unobservant that they just hadn’t noticed, or was the robot acting the part so well that they had been convinced. Or, to Jeff’s original point, did it matter? Mel and Monica just were who they were, and the state of their mind and body, digital or organic, didn’t really matter.

Aria nodded but said nothing and Jeff took that to mean that he had won this round, even though there was no competition. He also realized that he had begun to try and answer those questions on his own. They were the core of what he had been feeling before. Was it ok to do what he did to Monica and Melody? They acted like his mother and sister when they were fully repaired and online, but when they were in this state, when they weren’t running whatever software made them his family.

He blinked and had a moment or two to be lost in thought again. Aria surely thought he was just wandering off to a place where he would worry about the repairs or getting the ship running or something. Jeff was rolling around a wholly different concept.

The body did not make a person, the mind or brain alone did not make the person, it was the actions and behaviors that made a person. And if whatever it was, organic or otherwise, was offline then so too was that person. He smirked to himself a little as the concept and thoughts crystallized in his mind. What he had done was not have sex with his mother, she wasn’t occupying the body at that time, he had simply used a feminine coded piece of equipment. That wasn’t Melody’s head he had used, it was just another robot’s cranium module, Melody didn’t inhabit it.

The two robots down the hall might be his mother and sister later, but for now they were just machines and nothing else. Once they were updated and powered on and operational, that would be a different story, but for now, he absolved himself of any and all guilt.

Jeff finished his plant based egg substitute and protein patty in relative silence. He glanced at his tablet from time to time, hoping for a response from his father, but nothing had come in just yet. Once he finally managed to look up all he saw was Aria, cheek resting on her fist looking and vaguely smiling at him.

“What?” He asked.

“Nothing, you just get this weird look on your face when you finally figure something out.” She giggled. “I’m just trying to see if I can guess what it is.”

Jeff sincerely hoped she didn’t, but he had to offer something up. Aria might have been bubbly and a little air headed, but she was determined. If she wanted to figure something out, she would and in Jeff’s experience it was better to simply tell her what she wanted instead of the constant buzz of her trying to guess.

“It’s just some of the wiring stuff for Mom and Mel. I think I was just misreading some of the stuff Dad sent. Here look-”

Jeff turned the tablet around and pushed it towards Aria. The screen showed a wiring diagram for some internal part inside of one of the androids, Jeff himself wasn’t even entirely sure what it was or what it was for, which meant that Aria wouldn’t either. Predictably Aria looked at it for a moment and shrugged before booking back at her brother.

“Well, uh, I guess have fun with that.”

She stood, collected the dishes and walked them over to the sink and put them in the waterless basin there. Soon the pan she had been cooking in joined the dishes and she looked over her shoulder at her brother.

“Since I cooked, you can do the dishes.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow and tried his level best to look annoyed.

“First of all, that wasn’t cooking, that was butchery. Second, fine.”

Jeff and Aria stared each other down for a few long seconds, each one trying to look more annoyed than the other. They burst into a round of well earned laughter at about the same time and Aria strode out of the kitchen.

“Seriously though, low heat next time.” Jeff shouted after her as he sighed and stood. He had dishes to do.

Aria returned to her self assigned duties in the cockpit. She snuggled into the captain's chair, pulled out her sketchbook and tried to occupy her mind with drawing. The field of stars beyond the viewscreens was a canvas that offered little in the way of details, but the awe of being in space sparked her imagination. She settled down and attempted to capture that feeling.

Jeff, meanwhile, got to work in the sonic basin. He didn’t much care for the feeling of the sonic waves washing over his hands as he scraped away whatever was left of the slimy undercooked bits in the pan. It felt like a sudden pressure that, if he hadn’t been expecting it, would have felt incredibly uncomfortable. As it was though, he simply used whatever cleaning utensils were on hand to try and loosen the burn bits, and slide away the undercooked parts. Down the drain and into some kind of waste system. From there, Jeff assumed, it would be packaged and jettisoned into space.

It wasn’t a lot of work, but it took time. Mostly just trying to get things cleared away enough that they wouldn’t start to grow if they were left unattended for a week or more. The low hum of the sonic sink filled up the background of the kitchen with the clatter of dishes taking up any foreground hearing he might have had. It made it hard to think when there was a sharp clatter every few seconds.

Not that it would have mattered.

Out the door, down the hall, through the observation deck, down another hall and behind the closed door into Monica’s room, there was activity. There was no possible way for Jeff to have heard the small tone that the android service updater unit made. A small happy chime letting anyone in the area know that a process had been completed.

New software packages, updates, and enough power to keep Monica charged for at least two days of regular activity. It was all done and ready, Monica’s operating system, running in a low bandwidth mode reported that the software had installed and everything had been verified. The service unit confirmed that, and released the magnetic locks it had on the combination data and power coupling lodged in her chest.

With mechanical precision Monica moved her delicate hands up to her chest and pulled out the cable and clipped it into the waiting holster on the service unit. She still hadn’t fully booted though, because there were lingering tasks in her low bandwidth system.

Now that her hardware had been verified, the new software was in place, and everything seemed to be in working order, her OS needed to start dealing with everything that was waiting in the backlog of requests. Things that had piled up while she was offline, but still vaguely aware of what was happening. For starters, something had interrupted her update and charge cycle, which was quickly cleared out since it had, at some point, resumed. She was in a new position than when she plugged herself in though, that required a little bit of investigation.

Timestamps were compared from the start and finish time, giving her a range to look through. Log files were summoned and Monica stared blankly into the room as her operating system scrubbed through them, looking for anything that might indicate a change. It found a strange shift in weight and balance distribution, typical of a loss of gravity. There was no audio announcement or system wide alert about an impending loss of gravity on their travels, so the logic centers had to imagine that it had been unplanned.

A system log reported a sudden loss of power and connectivity to the service unit, as well as the other android system in the room that had been linked to her and the service unit. There was no other indication of what happened for a long while. Her log files were simply empty for a time, then, the connection was re-established and her low bandwidth systems returned. A fresh connection made to the service unit and updates resumed.

There was something else there as well. A verbal question posed by her own operating system in regards to unexpected sexual activity. The target of the request and act were unexpected, but her low bandwidth system didn’t have access to the full database of authorized users, only some basic information and operations. Her visual cortex had recorded the user who had returned a response, and logged it. Once her full operating system was back online the user would be added to the authorized user listing, since they clearly knew about Monica’s robotic nature, and had commanded her properly to disengage. The logic centers in her low bandwidth operation confirmed and tagged the request with her own internal administrator credentials.

Jeff was about to become an admin and authorized user for every part of Monica. The next order of business was the sexual activity itself. The user would be added to the database of sexual partners and treated as such.

There was little else of note waiting in her queue, so she began to fully boot. Her head dipped forward for only a moment as a more robust power system took over and engaged the rest of her hardware. Her mouth fell open and she sucked in a deep breath of the chilly air, her face relaxed from the stiff blank stare into something a little more friendly. Monica’s body slumped a little as her motor control systems relaxed into a more human mode. As her human emulation came online, so too did her internal operating system, and with it, the waiting database entries. That was all handled in the background though, just another process to work through, Monica would never actually know about it.

She stood up and looked around, spotting Melody or at least her armless and headless torso. It took little time for her to put together what had happened. Gravity had been lost and she had crashed to the ground, in doing so, damaging a part of her. The arms had been disconnected by Monica herself before the update process had started so that she could personally do some fine tuning on the motor controls inside of them. She picked those up and easily snapped them back into place, deciding that she had better find out what had happened before making adjustments.

The damaged neck joint gave her pause though. She would need to get that repaired, a task which she was unsure of how to accomplish, but surely there would be someone on board who could help. She spotted Melody’s detached head on the bed and gave the broken wiring a cursory examination. Her mouth pressed into a hard line and she looked sympathetically over her daughter.

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. You must be terrified, or you will be at least.” She sighed. This kind of thing would not help assuage Melody’s fears about being transformed into a robot.

She stood and left her daughter as she was. Monica took a moment to make herself a little more presentable to her kids. Slipping into a long, oversized grey sweater with a heavy collar that looked more akin to a hood bunched up around her neck. Long matching grey socks to ward off the chill of space, and a pair of comfortable, though formfitting jeans. Dressed again, Monica softly padded to the door, then out into the ship to find her kids. Fully unaware of the changes that had been made to her programming without her knowledge. Things were as they had always been, at least to her.

==Chapter Sixteen==

Jeff had joined Aria in the cockpit, she was sketching with her tongue clenched between her front teeth in concentration. Jeff occupied himself and the silence by trying to compile a list of parts and components that he would need to find in Egg’s workshop. At a certain point he had the thought that he might also need to get some of those parts from Egg herself, she wasn’t going to need them any time soon after all.

Jeff wrinkled his nose at that. When they eventually got rescued, brought to port and put feet on the ground again would the crew be repaired? Would they be scrapped? Was there some kind of insurance policy that you could take out on your own robotic body? Humans had a long history of medical policies to heal and treat illness and injury, presumably there would be some kind of system in place for synthetic beings as well. His thoughts wandered to Monica and Melody.

They weren’t human any more, but they were treated like they were, was there something for them? More questions to ask his father when they weren’t stranded in the empty void of space.

“Jeff?”

The sound was distant, quiet and hauntingly not Aria’s. Both the occupants of the cockpit looked up with a sudden jolt, glanced at one another and then in a flurry of motion dropped whatever they held and dashed from the cockpit. Down the hall, left turn, then right past the kitchen and into the observation deck.

Looking confused and more than a little worried stood their mother. Monica looked like a suburban mom who was trying a little too hard to look casual while knowing how good she looked. Frumpy clothing covering obvious beauty. Her hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail that was more of a contained mess than anything else. She was looking around, worried and searching until the commotion at the far end of the room stole her attention.

A series of processes snapped into place inside of her operating system. Snapshots of the two figures there, facial features were captured and matched to an internal database of known entities. Her children. A list of appropriate responses was curated and laid out, then passed over several times as her social filter matched the current situation, recent events and the state of her own systems. Once that list had been pared down there was a second pass that happened, it matched Jeff and Aria’s facial expression, body language, stance, body condition, clothing, and every other data point it could cobble together against a database of reactions. All of it happened in the blink of an eye.

Monica’s face melted into a look somewhere between relief and confusion. She was so happy to see her children alive and well, but worried about the stillness of the ship and the reactions from her kids.

“Mom!” Jeff and Aria both cried at the same time and sprinted across the space.

All confusion about who and what Monica was melted away in that instant. Jeff didn’t care if she was a robot, a human, or a puddle of sentient slime. She was his mother and she was here. There was something truly magical about the feeling lost and alone in a terrifying situation only to stumble across someone in a position of authority. A wave of feeling as if everything in the world would be okay now, like they had crested a hill and were finally on the path to recovery. Something logical in Jeff’s brain told him that wasn’t true, but the emotional response of having someone else in a unique position to help make the grumpy logic sit down and wait its turn.

“Where is everyone? What happened?” Monica began as she gathered her children into a firm hug.

No one answered anything, or asked any new questions for a long time. Monica recognized something traumatic had occurred and was content to just embrace these two at the moment and help collect their thoughts and emotions.

Eventually though, the hug ended. The trio settled down into the chairs on the observation deck, the inky blackness of space serving as the background to Jeff’s explanation of events. It took longer than he had anticipated to relay everything that had occurred, which he tried to lay out in a somewhat logical sequence of events. There were still holes in his story, some of which Aria was able to fill in from her perspective, but there were still a lot of unknown factors.

What had caused the sudden catastrophe was still completely unknown. Jeff knew that something had hit the ship, but why the shields hadn’t bounced it off was unknown. Jeff speculated out loud to Monica and Aria that he thinks that whatever hit them did enough structural damage to dislodge the support beam in the engine room and take out Egg and the Captain. He hadn’t seen anyone else either and their fate remained a mystery to him.

Monica admitted that she had no idea that the crew were androids, and seemed genuinely upset at what had happened to them. Which opened a conversational door for her. She could tell from the sudden glance from Jeff at her that there were some explanations and conversations that needed to occur.

“So, I suppose I should also make a confession.” Monica began.

Jeff and Aria looked a little confused for a moment but let her continue.

“Jeff, your sister already knows this. Your father and I have had some conversations with her about it, we just didn’t quite know how to broach the subject with you.”

Jeff blinked. What else could she possibly be hiding?

“You see, there is a genetic disorder that some folks have. It affects women much more heavily than men and, well, there is no cure or treatment for it other than-”

“Mom-” Aria interrupted. “He knows that you’re a robot.”

That ground every process in Monica’s operating system to a halt. A string of words and generated audio files were dumped from her vocal processors, they were unneeded now. Log files were scanned rapidly as well as she sat in a moment of stunned silence. How did he know? She had never told him about her or their condition in a way that might lead him to discover this. Had something happened while she was offline? There were some logical leaps her OS made about that time, and concluded that there was a very real possibility that he had walked in on them while she was in low bandwidth mode or offline. The whole ordeal was in the process of being tagged as highly embarrassing.

“He got you back up and running after, after whatever happened.” Aria continued. “Dad helped him a bit.”

“Oh! You’ve been in contact with Trent?” Monica asked.

“Sort of.” Jeff replied. “The transmitter is kinda fucked-”

“Young man!” Monica chided and Jeff blushed and blinked at that.

“It’s uh, busted. Well it was, I kinda got it working again. We can get a message to Dad as long as there is a relatively clear path to where he is, and we have no way of knowing that, so we just kinda send stuff off and hope for the best.”

Monica nodded at that, then swelled with a bit of pride in Jeff. “So you’ve fixed the transmitter and me? You are your fathers son.”

“Fixing you was easy, the transmitter was…it took some work.”

There was a bit of silence in the room then. There was a lingering bit of shame from what he did to Monica. He was certain that once Aria was gone that there would be a discussion they would have. He was not looking forward to that.

“Well.” Monica said with a sigh. “We need to get Melody working. Jeff, I assume that if you were working on me that you saw her- the state she was in?” Monica said with a glance at Aria, or rather, the squeamish way she wiggled at the mention of Melody.

“Yeah, Dad sent me schematics and manuals for you and her. I’ve been trying to figure out what needs to be done, and I was kind of hoping you might have some insight on that. I mean, you’re a- you know, and Melody’s construction looks pretty similar. I thought maybe you had done something like this before.”

Jeff realized how silly the thought process was once he said it out loud. Yes, maybe his mother had had her head forcefully torn off and was in possession of the intimate knowledge on how to repair that particular problem.

“That’s definitely your father’s area of expertise. I’ve only done some very surface level help with him when working on Mel. But maybe we can get something to work? Can you send me the manual for Melody and I can see what I can..” she smirked, freeing something in her mind, “..what my programming can come up with.”

Jeff felt a hot thrill run through his body at hearing his mother talking like that. Referring to her own programming instead of using some kind of human vernacular. He actually liked it and hoped that Melody was the same way. Normalizing that kind of thing felt a little more genuine to him than constantly trying to translate back and forth.

Jeff and Aria, be it human ears, or just the rush of relief from having their mother here weren’t paying much attention to the background noise of the ship. Monica, on the other hand, had meticulously crafted sensors installed across her body. In particular, her hearing was far more keen than her human children’s. There were programs installed to take it all in and parse out what was useful audio data and what was just background noise. The rumble of the engines was identified, tagged, and sent to storage. If that nose should disappear she would know, but for now it wasn’t an active concern or something worth listening to.

The distant chirping alert that sounded as if it was coming from the cockpit, on the other hand, seemed important to her OS. Particularly because it hadn’t been present when she walked out of her room and onto the observation deck. Her head perked up and she looked intently at the hallway leading towards the cockpit. Jeff and Aria took notice, more of their mother’s behavior than the sound itself.

“There’s an alarm going off down that way.” Monica said and pointed towards the hall.

Jeff was the first to get to his feet and started jogging towards the cockpit. It wasn’t until he passed the kitchen at the bend in the hall that he also began to hear the warbling alert of an incoming transmission. Once he heard it though, he broke fully into a sprint.

The waiting transmission, as expected, was from Trent. It was the wiring layouts and information Jeff had hoped for, but they were clearly in a good place to send a transmission, so he struck while the proverbial iron was hot. They had been sending text only messages since there was far less chance of packet loss and smaller transmissions had a better rate of success. Still Jeff tapped out a quick text reply and sent that off before setting about starting the vid-comm transmitter.

“Hey Dad!” Jeff started waving into the camera and giving a smirk that he hoped was more comfort than terror. “Look who’s up and running!”

Gesturing over his shoulder at Aria and Monica as they stepped through the doorway.

“Is this live?” Monica asked and Jeff shook his head.

“No, just a stand alone message.”

“Oh, Hi honey!” Monica said, smiling and waving into the camera. “We’re all hanging in out here, but uh, we could really use a pick up. Just don’t leave us for cheese burgers.” Monica chuckled and winked at the camera. Both Aria and Jeff looked at her then one another in confusion at that. Monica noticed and waved them off before turning back to the camera. “We might need an assist on Mel though. Hurry.”

Jeff got the idea that even just a few seconds of video was probably pushing it, so he stopped the recording and sent it as a second transmission. Hopefully the text message would reach him quick enough and the video would get there eventually. He let out the breath he was holding and slouched back into the chair. The background noise of the rumbling engines resumed its place filling the space.

Jeff turned and looked at his mother.

“Cheese burgers?”

The laugh that rolled from Monica’s throat was so deep and rich and delightful that for only a moment Jeff forgot they were literally lost in space. It served perfectly well to cut the tension and from Monica’s point of view, it gave her operating system an opportunity to speak a little more freely about her conversion.

“Well, this was while you kids were still pretty young. I was..I had just gotten…my conversion was done and everything and I was still getting adjusted to everything. I had been like this for maybe two months or so.” She swallowed, unsure why this was stirring up all kinds of emotional responses. Though it was a comfort to her, at least a little, that there still remained parts of her old human life inside the code.

“-and you know know how your father can be. Can’t keep his hands off of a good piece of technology-”

“Ew, Mom…” Aria chided.

“Not like that. I mean yes like that, but that’s not the point.” Aria made a disgusted face, but let her mother continue. “Anyway, he was tinkering with something inside of me, just trying to optimize stuff, you know how he gets. So, I was in his workshop on one of the benches there. He had taken me apart, not completely apart mind you, just opened my torso and detached my head and was working on tweaking some things.”

While Aria might have begun to feel a little uncomfortable at imagining her mother in that kind of state, Jeff, on the other hand, was beginning to feel a warm rumble in his body. That same sensation that he had gotten when Egg was explaining how her hands worked, how his body had responded when he imagined her in pieces. The same wandering thoughts he had experienced with Egg, taking her apart and toying with her body. Those same feelings assaulted him but now they were about Monica, the robot, personality offline and squirming below his hands as he-

“But we hadn’t told any of our friends about the procedure and the disease and all that, so when someone knocked on the door your father had to run and take care of that. Before he did though he made sure to close and lock the room I was in, because no one wants to see their neighbor all spread out across a table.”

Jeff imagined her spread across a table, though probably in a slightly different way…

“It was Greg and Kate, I don’t know that you guys remember them. They were our neighbors back at the old house. Anyway, they wanted to go out for some dinner, and I guess maybe your father forgot about his half disassembled robot wife or something. So he agreed, said I was feeling sick, Mel was old enough to watch you two and he just kinda left me there. They went out for dinner and got to talking and your dad lost track of time.”

Monica leaned against the wall in the cockpit and chuckled to herself.

“I was furious, well, at least when I reconnected to my emotional subprocessor I was. I gave him hell for it for a long time, but now I just kind of tease him about it. It became code for ‘don’t leave me hanging’ you know, ‘Oh, I’ll be right back honey..sure as long as you aren’t going for cheese burgers.’”

Monica chuckled to herself and delighted in the fondly remembered memories. Jeff and Aria simply nodded along and smiled politely at their mother. It was good to have a bit of laughter and a relief in some of the tension.

“Welp.” Jeff said, slapping his hands against his knees. “Dad gave me a lot of work to do. I need to go raid Egg’s lab and see if I can find all this stuff.”

“Egg?” Monica asked.

“The head engineer lady. She was showing me her workspace earlier and has a lot of the stuff that I might use to finish fixing up Mel.”

Monica blinked back at him, her logic processors were still struggling to connect some dots. “But..Egg?”

“Oh, uh, she was also an android, and apparently her serial number looked kinda like the word ‘EGG’ like…it was six six three and if you-”

“Ahh, if you flip the numbers around it looks like letters. Got it. Okay.” Monica said at last. “She was an android too?”

“Yeah, built, not converted like you. She was showing me some stuff before everything went to shit”

“Language.” Monica muttered but let it slide.

“Right, uh, I’ll be in the engine room if you need me.”

Jeff wandered off at that, knowing full well that it was unlikely that Aria would come to find him. The terror in her eyes was still burned into his mind from when she had floated in there before. He was fairly sure those images would haunt her for a while.

Aria and Monica watched him leave. Monica watched him go, smirking after him. He was becoming more and more like his father everyday, and she noted that he was filling out nicely. He was strong, not quite toned and fit, but he looked good in his cargo pants and watching him walk away from them drew her eyes down his body.

After he disappeared she turned back to Aria, smiling warmly at her. There were some things that a mother could just tell, and even after her conversion she was still Aria’s parent.

“Something wrong?” She asked.

Aria had pulled her legs up onto the chair and was hugging them now. She looked worried, but more than that, she looked anxious about something. It wasn’t a new thing for her, Monica recognized the stance and attitude, it wasn’t a new thing for little Aria.

“I just. I don’t know what to think.” She began.

“What about?” Monica asked, even though she could very easily guess.

“You, Mel…me…Just. Everything about…”

“About being converted to a robot to avoid your genetics?”

“Yeah.” Aria whispered in reply.

“Maybe I can help answer some questions. I am an expert on the subject these days.”

Aria had to smirk at that and unfurled herself from the chair. She kicked against the control console to turn herself to face her mother. She was met with a face that she recognized, a soft smile, slightly raised eyebrows and a look that said she was ready to talk and that nothing was going to offend her. It was her mother’s safest expression, the one she put on when she really wanted to talk and wanted to make her kids feel safe to open up.

It used to work well on Aria, she always talked to her mom. In light of recent events and discoveries and conversations, that seemed like it would be a challenge, but she had to try.

“Does…Do you still feel like, like yourself?”

“Sure. I still have all my memories and personality and everything up here.” Monica tapped the side of her head. That wasn’t where anything was stored, but for her daughter’s sake it seemed like the right move.

“No, I mean, do you feel like you?”

That took some processing. Monica’s operating system and connected pathways rolled the question around for some time. She was used to nearly instant answers and information, but this was more complicated than that. She had to define what she felt, not just what her sensors registered. She needed to define what ‘self’ was and if she could even recall what that ‘self’ was before the conversion then compare it to now.

If she was being truly honest with herself, she noticed no difference. Then again, she didn’t know if that was because she was specifically programmed not to feel anything different. Was there some block of code that specifically suppressed a disconnect between the old human ways of thinking and feeling and how she processed things now? Would she even know if there was?

She began to respond slowly. “I, think, I feel the same.” She exhaled. “I suppose there are differences, but it's the same kind of thing as me asking you if you feel a difference between when you were ten and when you turned eighteen. Same person, but different, well different everything. I suppose I haven’t actually answered the question, have I. Yes, I still feel the same as before, at least personality wise. I know this body is new and I can hear and see better.”

“Do you miss some of those things?” Aria asked, feeling slightly comforted, at least enough to ask more.

“What things?”

“Like, little..human..things. Aches and pains, or not being able to know things immediately or, you know, just-”

“Ah I see what you mean.”

There was more processing in that question. On the surface Monica definitely did not miss having headaches, or the way her legs would cramp up if she stretched the wrong way in her sleep or the fatigue that diseases caused. Then again, there was something missing. There were moments like this, where she wanted to connect with someone, her daughter, her friends, her husband, that was a challenge. On some level or another she knew that she was different from them.

She was about to respond when another thought came bubbling up out of nowhere. Aria wasn’t asking her if she missed being an organic human. She was asking if, or when, the same disease that claimed Monica’s organic body took hers, if she would feel different. Her eyes flicked to the sketch pad that Aria had been drawing on, set aside for this conversation.

If I need to be converted, would I be the same Aria as I am right now.

That was the real question. Would some things that inspired Aria go away if she too needed to become a machine? Regardless of stored memories or a personality that was mark for mark identical to a human's, there were things that only a human could do or feel. In that regard, Monica supposed there were some things she missed, she did feel different, she was different.

“Sure. There are some things I miss. Interpreting the world around me is much more, what’s the right word for it, mathematical. My operating system interprets things like a gentle breeze as a temperature, and a registered force against my face and sends that off to be processed and I respond in the same way I would when I was a human. I close my eyes and smile and breathe deep and let it wash over me. But it’s not exactly the same.”

“Are you…okay with that?” Aria asked.

“I have to be. What alternative did I have?”

Aria looked away. Her eyes flicked to the void of space beyond. Deep and dark and empty. Monica saw this and pressed her lips into a hard line. She suspected she knew what Aria was thinking. A young woman, barely into adulthood, being told that there was a non-zero chance of a fate she clearly didn’t want. What alternative did Aria have? Monica didn’t want to think about that.

“The good news is that by now the genetic markers should have been appearing in your regular check ups, and they haven’t.”

“But they still could.” Aria said, sulking.

“I suppose. Yes. But we’ll tackle that when the time comes. If the time comes. And we will do it together, as a family.” Monica said, attempting to be as comforting as possible while still trying to remain realistic.

“Yeah.” Aria whispered.

The pair sat in silence for a moment or two. Monica wanted so badly to comfort Aria, but facts were facts, there was little anyone could do to prevent a genetic condition. You had it or you didn’t, and so far Aria didn’t. Her daughter was right though, there was no telling when or if it would manifest itself. Aria had a lot on her mind, and clearly had for a while now. Stranded in space wasn’t the most ideal environment for those kinds of thoughts either, but just like the disease, there was nothing to be done for it.

“Hey Mom, I could use a hand if you have a second.”

Jeff’s shouting from down the hall shattered the silence in the cockpit. Monica looked to her daughter and rose, placing a gentle hand on Aria’s shoulder and noticed a single silvery tear rolling down her cheek. She bent and hugged her daughter and felt the soft sobbing that rolled through Aria’s slight body. She cooed softly into Aria’s ear, assuring her that everything was going to be okay, and that they would make it through this together. Aria nodded, but didn’t believe her mother for a single second.

Monica strolled out of the cockpit and towards the engine room, leaving Aria alone, just her and the emptiness of space.

She wasn’t sure what was worse. The looming threat of a disease she couldn’t prevent, or the measure it took to stop it.

==Chapter Seventeen==

Jeff had taken his time strolling back to Melody. Down the hall and through the observation deck. He stopped there and watched the stars drift past in their slow dance. So slow was it that at a glance it looked like nothing was moving, but he found that stopping and staring for a few minutes allowed him to see that the small pinpricks of light had moved a little. Imperceptible as it might have been at a glance, they were moving. So too was the ship.

As he lingered on the observation deck he wondered for a moment if the passing star systems and space dust was the only thing moving forward here. With the adrenaline from the whole ordeal beginning to flush itself from his blood stream, his mother actually operational again and soothing his younger sister, he had a moment to really take stock of things.

They weren’t great.

Power and life support was back online, for what that was worth, he and Aria would keep breathing. His mother and Melody could easily forego that for now. He hoped. He didn’t actually know if they needed to breathe or not. As he watched dust flutter past the window he figured that their normal breathing would be tied to their cooling systems or something. He hated how little he knew about the robotics and internal workings of it all.

He nodded to no one at all as he made up his mind to actually learn some more about that. As luck would have it, he had both the perfect test case and the perfect instructor for that exact task.

He walked onward, down the hall and into Melody’s room.

She was right where he had left her.

Two arms, slender, but hiding some toning to them. Under normal circumstances Jeff would have just seen it as budding muscles under the skin from hitting the gym. Now, though, he wondered what it was, structurally, under the flesh that gave it that kind of tone. He settled onto the ground next to the pile of parts that would be his sister. The arm flexed and moved in his hands. If he didn’t look at the mechanical end it looked perfectly human. Whatever it was below the skin moved too, flexing and stretching as he worked the elbow. In her wrist he could see movement as he manually moved her fingers. Just like Egg’s had.

He set her arms down and propped the tablet up on his knee and began tapping through it to pull up her schematics. It toppled off, causing Jeff to let a small huff of frustration leak out of him. It was a small twist on the valve that barely contained the growing supply of frustrations in his mind. He swore, quietly, to himself and wished for a third hand to hold his…

He glanced at the arm in his hand and couldn't help but burst into laughter for a moment.

“Hold this for me Mel. Thanks!”

It took a moment or two to get her arm and fingers manipulated into a configuration that would both hold the tablet and not topple over itself. But he managed to get there in the end. He flicked through the massive manual, stopping only when he found notes from his father. Most were just observations, but there were occasional passages that corrected something in the manual, or in more rare but highly useful instances, offered some additional advice on how to better work some systems.

It took a little twisting and moving in a somewhat uncomfortable orientation before Jeff could really get everything in place. Melody’s arms, her torso, and the detached head. It was all laid out in front of him on the floor of the somewhat small and increasingly cramped sleeping quarters. Adding to that, he had a packet of tools that came with the android servicing unit, which took up a corner of the room as well. There were soon cables and tools and parts of his sister all over the place.

It was not a place of thought and serenity, he needed to get out of there. His knees hurt from sitting, and his tailbone was protesting against the treatment he had condemned it to. He began arching his back every few minutes and became dismayed at the amount of pops and cracks it let out with each one.

He looked down at the tablet, the pages were filled with words, notes, and the occasional diagram. Other pages were filled with nothing but code snippets and terminology that only partially made sense to Jeff. All this robotics talk needed an interpreter of some kind. His thoughts turned to Egg and the swirling mixture of emotions her mental image brought up.

She was beautiful, enough to creep her way into his fantasies on the first night of travel. She was fascinating and fun and interesting and a legitimate joy to talk to. She was also dead. Right? She was offline for sure, her head destroyed and…and the engine room would need to be cleaned out a little…especially now that the artificial gravity had returned.

Add it to the ever growing check list…He sighed.

He glanced back at Mel and all the scattered parts there. He hadn’t really gotten into anything just yet. The most he had done was clipped the frayed ends of some wires that he knew were safe inside of her neck. The body side of her neck, that is. He was still struggling a little to actually scoop up her head and work on it. There was still something strangely sacred about it.

He took a deep breath and let it slowly seep out of his nose. His lungs emptied like they were simply incapable of holding anything inside of them and forced it all out only to take in another soft breath. There had to be something to help this whole situation, he needed…

A workbench.

And tools…

Like the ones that Egg had kept in her workshop. Jeff’s eyes darted back to Mel and a small smile broke out. He just had to get her there.

“Stay put.” Jeff ordered Melody.

He got to his feet and moved back to the engine room, hearing his mother and Aria still softly talking down the hall, he figured he would just let them talk for a bit. There was a lot of ground to cover. Jeff wondered if Monica was going to have a similar chat with him. Similar but different. He understood that the genetic dysfunction was only on the female side of the genetic pool, he hoped that meant that there was no chance of mutation.

The last thing he wanted would be to be turned into some unfeeling machine that…

His thoughts turned to Melody, Monica…Aria…for a brief moment he understood a fraction of what they were going through. What they had already gone through, and in Aria’s case what she might still be forced into.

Egg’s workshop was a disaster. The loss of gravity had tossed everything into the air and allowed it to float in whatever direction the fates decided. When Jeff had restored the artificial gravity, that same whimsical force had dropped everything straight down. The floor was scattered with tools, bolts, fasteners, straps and tie downs, and a thousand other bits and pieces from whatever she had been working on.

Jeff found it hard to not step on something as he walked in, his eyes lingering on the door to the engine room then back to the workbench. It took some time to clear the bench, and even then it wasn’t fully cleared. Egg had a number of tools that were mounted to the desk itself, some Jeff could figure out. Clamps and organizers and little places to rest a tool or a hot soldering iron or welder. Others were completely foreign to him and he could only assume that they served to house some part of the ship for being worked on or perhaps something to be used in repairing the ship board androids.

The latter seemed more of an important data point, but he would cross that bridge some time soon. He swept his foot across the deck, shoving bits and pieces out of the way to clear a path for the next step.

Returning to Melody, he stepped over her and to the bed where he pulled off the sheet there. He carefully placed it on the floor next to Melody’s headless and armless torso before tucking part of it under her body. There was a dull fire that flared through him as his hands tucked the sheet along her curves. The feel of her hips, the softness of her breasts. He closed his eyes and without even meaning to began to fantasize that she was online. Smiling at him, mewling for him to touch her. He indulged for only a moment, letting his hands wander along her chest and over her legs.

He sucked in his breath only moments before he felt his fingers dive between her legs. The flash of fresh air seemed to knock his brain out of the dream and back into reality. His eyes snapped open and his hands returned to their task. He almost didn’t dare to look over his shoulder to see if he had been caught, but he trusted his senses more than that. He would surely have heard someone walking down the hall.

He reached across Melody’s body, and pulled her towards him. Her body rolled over and came to rest on the sheet. Jeff hoped that the movement didn’t dislodge something else inside of her. Too late now, he told himself, and looked down at Melody. Her arms joined her on the sheet and Jeff scooped up her head and placed it on her back. Everything was ready, he just hoped his mother was done with her chat.

Out into the hall and back into the observation deck, standing in the threshold of the workroom and the hall.

“Hey Mom, I could use a hand if you have a second.” He shouted.

Moments later, before he saw her, Jeff heard the soft sound of her shoes on the hard floor. He trusted his sense and smiled to himself. He definitely would have heard her if she was sneaking up on him.

“Yes?” Monica asked,c rounding the corner and coming into view.

“I’m still working on Mel, I was going to move her to Egg’s workshop here. Because, you know, tools and space and stuff.”

‘Why am I so flustered all of a sudden…’ Jeff thought to himself before settling on the reasoning that he had just been nervous about being caught.

His eyes trailed over his mother though. Like Melody her curves seemed a little too enticing, a little too tempting. She was mature, but he knew that she was ageless and inhuman. This was the machine that had pretended to be his mother for most of his life, and now he knew that she was just wires and circuits inside of a framework, wrapped in pretty skin. His mind took it a step further as well. She only acted like his mother…like a human. She was just a shadow of what his real mother was. This Monica wore her face, said her words and used her voice, but at the core of it all, she wasn’t actually his mom.

It took a bit of effort to banish those thoughts, even then they weren’t gone, just locked away in a strong box to unpack later. There was work to do.

Together Monica and Jeff were able to lift the parts of Melody on the sheet and haul her into the workshop where they placed her on the bench. It was a less than graceful affair. Hauling his sister through a space ship while she was offline and broken into parts, lifting awkwardly until the sheet was high enough to reach the table, and then unfurling it again.

Melody lay there before him, her face unaccusing, but Jeff felt something. His eyes strayed down to her throat, the torn and warped skin there and below it, the remainders of the wiring and tubing that had carried power and data into her. So much complexity just to make her seem like his sister. Just to pretend to be a human. Regardless of who or what she was, she had originally been his family and he still felt some measure of obligation to get her working again. If for nothing else it would be nice to have help on the ship, a new pair of eyes to look over things, and he was beginning to think of other things she might do for him.

One thing at a time. She was little more than a broken toy at the moment. He needed to fix that.

“Have you ever had to do something like this before?” Jeff asked.

“Yes and no.” Monica replied. “There were times just after I was first, you know-”

“Converted?”

“Yeah. There were times in those early days when the technology wasn’t great. I used to stumble a lot and fell. We used to tell you kids that it was just the sickness, and from a certain point of view I suppose that was true. Anyway, more than once I fell and my arms didn’t move fast enough to catch me, and I managed to break them.”

She chuckled to herself.

“A few times actually. Five times in fact, and that was just in two years.”

“How’d you fix that?” Jeff asked.

“Hardware got better. Processors got faster and faster, programming got more efficient. Parts got smaller and consumed less power so more power could be crammed into the same space.” She turned to Jeff and leaned against the workbench that housed her daughter. “I’ve been rebuilt six times if you can believe it.”

“Six times?” Jeff blew out a small whistle.

“It’s been almost twenty years. I was converted just after Aria was born. Your poor father had to take care of me and a screaming baby.”

She chuckled lightly at that as the memories of that time replayed themselves in whatever construct made up her mind. Jeff wondered if it was actually playing some kind of visual representation of the memory, something like an instant video playback or if it was just pulling up a log file and recreating some small amount of the emotional response she had at that time. Either way, for the first time in a while, Jeff’s mother looked distantly happy. Like a flutter of nostalgia for a better time in her life.

She shoved off of the workbench and turned easily back to her daughter.

“Reattaching her arms is easy enough. I can help you with that, her head though, that would have been something your father would know how to do. Plus whatever is going on inside of her. We’ll likely need to explore that.”

“Did your programming ever come up with any information on what to do? From the manual I sent you?” Jeff asked.

“To a certain extent, yes. I definitely understand her construction a bit more, but wiring charts and parts lists are going to do little to get her working again.” There was a hint of despair lingering at the edge of her simulated voice.

“We’ll figure it out.” Jeff said, “we always do.”

Monica smiled at him and nodded before turning back to Melody. Together they lifted her torso up and turned it over so that she would no longer be face down. Jeff placed her arms on either side of her, left on left, right on right. Monica did her best to instruct Jeff on what he was seeing and what to look for in case this sort of thing happened in the future.

The layer of synthetic skin bulged over the edge of the chrome metal joints just enough so that when the two parts came together there would already be a bit of a seal as the skin pressed against one another. Monica also pointed out that there was a fairly important component in the shoulders that would start a vacuum seal once Melody was back online. It wouldn’t make her completely water tight, but it would keep fluids out up to a certain depth. After that, the water pressure might be a little too much and overcome the sealant.

She let Jeff line up the first shoulder and press Melody’s arm in place and then squeeze the upper arm just right to engage the first layer of locks. The physical locks were good enough to hold the arm in place until power was eventually restored to her whole body, though Monica was quick to caution Jeff about moving the arms too much with only one set of locks in place. Like a good mother there were plenty of warnings about making sure to do things properly and correctly, lest something get broken.

Melody’s other arm clicked into place with a little more confidence than the first one now that Jeff had a bit of experience under his belt. Now Melody looked mostly like herself, it was only the tangled mess of exposed wires and some twisted metal struts jutting from her neck that confirmed she was a machine.

That was going to be the challenge. Three minutes and the arms were attached, the real work was about to begin and he had no idea where to start. A quick glance towards Monica told him that his mother was uncomfortable and perhaps even a little squeamish about this particular repair. Jeff looked back at Melody and realized that he too was feeling more than a little uncomfortable about it. After a moment and a quick, deep breath, Jeff realized that his discomfort came from not knowing what to do, not from the sights before him.

Melody, at this moment, was a project. A thing that needed fixing. Until she was whole and her body operational and her programming loaded, this was just a pile of parts. That thought alone lodged itself in his mind and allowed him a bit of calm. He could do this, because this wasn’t surgery or some kind of medical emergency. Melody, the machine that wore her face and used her voice, was broken, and he was the only one who could fix it. He had to detach his sister from the robot on the bench. Once he did that, things would fall into place.

Monica’s hand grasped Jeff’s bicep and squeezed it a little. He realized he had been somewhere else inside of his mind. He blinked and met his mothers smile.

“I’ll send you what my programming pulled together. I don’t know if it will be helpful or not, but I’m sure you can sort it out. You take after your dad a lot more in that regard.” She leaned in and wrapped a single arm around him and pulled him into a brief hug. “I’m afraid I don’t have the stomach to watch this whole process.”

A crooked smile crossed his lips as he wondered if she had a stomach at all. Monica turned to leave as his tablet alerted him to a new message from his mother. Then she was gone, the door sliding closed behind her, leaving Jeff and the machine alone.

He had to keep thinking of it as a machine. It was just a robot that needed fixing. It most certainly wasn’t his sister. That would make it easier to work on her…work on it. He wouldn’t be prying wires and struts out of Melody, just the machine that represented her. Even as he pulled up the newly marked up schematics that Monica had sent him with every page marked with a serial number followed by his sister’s name. She was just a machine, she had to be.

Jeff had put this off for long enough.

The manual his mother had sent him had some additional notes alongside the ones his father had added. There were precious little tidbits of advice on what to do when an android's head was forcefully snapped off in the middle of a meteor strike while in space though. Still, the theory behind it was sound and thankfully there were more than a few diagrams and sketches in the literature to help. He propped up his tablet against the back wall of the workbench and began to examine the portion of the neck that remained attached to the body.

There was so much damage, obviously, her head had been ripped mostly off by falling on it. The neck itself was made up of mainly two categories. Wires, tubes and things that were more pliable. Those wouldn’t be much of a problem…probably. The more rigid framework used to move and maintain the head would be more of an issue.

Towards the back of the neck was the spine, or what was left of it at least. Jeff could see that when the robot had fallen from the ceiling of the dormitory that it had likely turned weirdly then broke. The core of the spinal column, much like a human, was packed with a thick bundle of fiber optic cabling, much of it had been torn, frayed or snapped. That was the first problem. Simply put, Jeff needed a replacement spine.

His eyes darted to the engine room. He had a good idea where to get one…

First thing’s first though, he needed to know how to get it. Not just get to Egg’s but how to get Mel- get this robot’s backbone assembly out of her- it’s body.

It took a few minutes of wildly flipping back and forth through the manual on his tablet before he fully tracked down the page he needed. Nestled in a dense section of technology mambo-jumbo, he found a whole sub-section on accessing the internal workings of what the manual called the “main dorsal service bus.”

“Just call it a spine. Friggin’ nerds…” Jeff muttered to himself as he dug into the dense text.

It did not take him long to realize that this was not going to be an easy task. There was no simple or easy way to unlock the body. He had really been hoping for a set of buttons hidden just below the surface of the skin, hold them in for five seconds and the whole thing would pop open. From what he could tell this was going to be a long sequence of smaller tasks. Unlock one panel, remove some circuitry to gain access to a bolt or screw that holds another panel in place, undo that, repeat. He gathered the tools he thought he would need and settled down for a long night.

The first thing he needed to do was get the body before him undressed. It would be hard to remove flesh coated panels and dig out circuitry with pajamas in the way. As he began to work he almost regretted reattaching her arms. If he felt more comfortable moving them around like a real person it wouldn’t be such a problem, but his mother cautioned him against too much motion and he was trying to heed that warning. He started and stopped in a half dozen different places and an equal amount of thoughts crossed his mind on just how to make this work.

“You packed plenty of clothes. Sorry. I owe you some pajama’s”

He scooped up a utility knife and slipped it into the collar on the shirt. He kept tension on the fabric and flicked his wrist upward to keep cutting. Soon he was cutting into the waistband on the bottoms. It took a little more cutting, down the legs and along the sleeves before the clothes were ready to be removed. It still took him rocking the torso back and forth while pulling to get them fully out from under the body. He tossed them aside and turned back to the headless form before him.

Her breasts were, without a doubt, the best part of her construction. Perfectly proportioned with her generally slim build, while still bulging off of her chest. Jeff could see the very faint outline of her ribcage pressing below the skin and the tapered shape of her torso as it dove towards her pelvis. She was almost too angular to be human, a fact that he shrugged off, she wasn’t human.

She sure felt human though…

It was going to be a long night…

==Chapter Eighteen==

Jeff lost count of how many times he started to work on something only to find his hands drifting along the soft skin below his hands. Whoever had assembled Melody’s body had done a spectacular job. It looks just like her and he presumed felt like her too. The distractions, while nice, were not exactly welcome. He had plenty of research and disassembly work to do.

It took upwards of an hour to get to all the flesh coated panels along her back. Each one was small, maybe palm sized, some smaller and very few larger. Jeff realized he could have had this particular task done much quicker if he hadn’t kept groping at the silicone breasts laid out before him. Still, the deed was done, he had opened up Melody enough, and removed more than enough of the internal components and circuitry to expose the array of mounting brackets along her spine.

There were just as many mounting points as there were vertebrae it seemed. The spine was latched against skin plates that would move and flex as her back moved. Disengaging them wasn’t a challenge, though it was tedious. A small precision screwdriver helped to undo the clip and each one sang with a little metallic ping as they came loose. The problem was the sheer volume of clips to undo. Each vertebrae had at least two brackets, one on each side, and occasionally one on the underside as well. Those were particularly challenging to get at. They required Jeff to orient his screw driver almost sideways inside of the torso cavity and work into a small space between spine and skin.

The broken upper portion of the backbone was where the real work came from. The spine connected to a metallic disc that handled the data connection and linked up with a number of other components. A latex tube that would stand in for a esophagus, mounting posts to ensure the head was mounted properly and turned correctly. There were micro-motors there to turn and adjust the neck and head position to a finite and precise degree. A myriad of fiber optic cables were run from the head, through the throat, and down into the body where, presumably, they connected to some kind of processing core.

The drop from zero gravity to the floor had mangled that connection disc, or at least a fair amount of the connections it housed. The disc and the mounting posts seemed fine, but the underside of the disc itself had been turned and twisted improperly, snapping many of the wires that linked it to the rest of the body. Jeff had spent some time snipping those wires before moving Melody into the lab, just to ensure that there was a clean wire tip when it came time to do the repairs.

Now, with most of the torso emptied out he could see where the spinal column connected to the disc. The spine was bent at a fundamentally wrong angle, and from what he could see the top two vertebrae were separated. Jeff had some measure of confidence in his ability to solder wires and reconnect things in a small space, but that would be too much. It would all have to come out.

With most of Melody’s internal components dangling from ribbon cables over the side of her open torso, Jeff was finally able to set aside the tools and reach two hands inside the open torso and wiggle free Melody’s old spine. Once loosened from the bindings Jeff needed to release most of the fiber optic cabling by hand. A tangled web of light blue threads that spread out from between the vertebrae and into the body. The end result was a glimmering backbone, capped with a vaguely rounded disc and dangling fiber optics that looked more like fine blue hair than individual cables.

He set it aside and let out a breath before realizing that he was only half way done with working on this one component. Important though it may be, it was exhausting and he needed a break. His own back hurt from leaning over the robot’s chassis and his fingers felt numb from the amount of dexterous work he had done. Egg’s stool provided little comfort as he sat on it and his back crackled as he arched it.

Sitting down gave his mind a little time to wander. Like water his thoughts welled up and flowed over the robot’s body before him. The smooth legs giving way to a flawlessly crafted sex. A gaping opening that started at the abdomen and caved in all the way up to the neck. There was no head there, but mounted on their own outer plates where the breasts. He had propped them up against the back of the workbench so that they hung more naturally, they looked more full. The nipples seemed to be permanently puckered and ready. Begging to be touched…

Jeff almost regretted sitting down for a break, his body and mind refused to obey when he told them to get up and get back to work. Just another minute or two and we’ll be ready. That was a lie, and Jeff knew it. The only thing that seemed to over power those pleas for rest was the desire to touch. He slapped his hands onto his knees, shoved hard and threw himself back to a standing position. A step or two put him at the workbench again where he could look over the robot’s flayed open torso. His hands drifted along the legs, over the inner thighs and up and over the dry, cold sex. A moment later his hands were on those breasts, answering their call to be fondled, to be played with and massaged. His fingers tickled the nipples and he could almost hear the voice that would have been attached to those actions. The breathy moan, the deep vocalization of pleasure.

His eyes fell on Melody’s face. Her long red hair falling all around her like some sort of hood. Down her slender throat and to the torn flesh around it. He would need to trim that up a little, he was sure, but not now. For now he scooped up the head and brought the cold lips to his own. A one sided kiss for her. His hands on her head, tangled in her hair, feeling both the realism and craftsmanship that had built her, and the artificial feel of the skin, the too silky feel of her artificial hair. The cold lips that felt more plastic than anything at the moment.

He wondered if any of it would feel different once it was powered on, warmed up and operating as it was supposed to. Would it feel more human once it was pretending to be his sister.

He would have to find out later.

For now he had another thought. His thumbs barely brushed against the ruined flesh at her troat and felt the alignment posts just on the underside of the head. If he was going to be using Egg’s spine and neck joint to replace this one, he had better make sure they were compatible. He drew back, sighing and tucked Melody’s head under his arm and turned to the engine room. To the place where Egg and Captain Liber were still entombed.

The door slid open much easier now that the power was on. Now that there was nothing floating around in his face and obscuring his view. The room itself was still dark though. The overhead lights had been permanently damaged when the support strut had fallen. More ominous than the dark was the chugging noise that the engine was making. The door had shielded the noise and chaos, but now Jeff was assaulted with the noise.

The little pen sized flashlight that he snatched from Egg’s workbench was better than nothing in the darkness, but it felt a little like walking into a cavern holding a candle. Still, the directional beam of light banished the darkness in an ever weakening cone in front of him. The far reaches of the room were hazed in a dim, shadowy light, casting everything as an ominous shadow.

In the riot of colors produced by the myriad of blinking status lights and the dim glow of so many status panels lay Egg and Liber’s bodies. They had drifted, a little, in zero gravity and then had fallen back down once artificial gravity had been restored. Jeff had been in here when it happened. The sight of their fallen bodies was no surprise to him, though the idea of the grim task set before him wasn’t so pleasant.

He took a moment to prop up the flashlight in a place where it shone on Egg’s headless body. She had been naked at the time and a small amount of some kind of fluid from her severed head had dried on her chest. Some kind of hydraulic fluid or maybe something from the cooling system. Jeff didn’t think it was worth thinking too much about. He pulled her into the center of the engine room and forced her limbs down into a mostly neutral position. The motors inside of her had seized up long ago and now refused to cooperate with Jeff.

Once he had her laid out all that was left was to see if the detached head he brought with him would fit on the neck joint. If it didn’t…

Jeff refused to think of that, surely most modern robots had compatible parts with one another. Right?

The hard lump in his throat was getting harder and harder to swallow back as he settled into place just above Egg’s own ruined neck joint. That was about the time that he noticed that there was still some of Egg’s head left attached to the joint.

While Melody’s head had been detached somewhere just above the hollow of her throat, Egg’s neck still had most of the neck and, from the looks of it, part of her jaw structure still attached. Snatching the flashlight from the perch he had left it on and shining it on the mangled remains of her head showed that he was correct. Her lower jaw, was still, mostly, there. Laid inside of it was her tongue and most of her teeth. Jeff could see down her throat a little as well, or at least the tubing that made up her throat.

He blinked at that. Step one wouldn’t be checking connections, step one just became removing the remains of Egg’s head.

He recalled the manual his father had sent him and the steps that would need to be taken to detach an android’s head. Find the physical locks. His hands gingerly found their way to her neck line, just above the collar bone. He poked and prodded at the skin, attempting to use enough of a delicate touch that he could feel the clips below the flesh, but firm enough that he wasn’t just fondling her neck and feeling nothing else.

With fingers slowly trailing along her neck line, moving back and forth, encircling her neck proved to be a far more frustrating exercise than he would have liked. On his first three or four passes, he felt nothing at all. Each time he would press a little harder into her skin to see if that helped, when it didn’t, he let up on the pressure, thinking that a lighter touch might be in order. It wasn’t. It wasn’t until he moved further up the neck and began to feel around the back of the jawline that he felt the latches just below the skin. He was not hopeful that this would work, since Melody’s locks were not in the same place.

To his great surprise, the latches came undone with relative ease once he found them. They sprang open just below the skin of her neck, causing two small bulges to form from her neck at approximately the same position that Melody’s had.

“Huh..” Jeff muttered.

He placed a hand on what remained of the jaw and twisted and pulled. It was an awkward position made only more awkward by the lack of anything to really hold on to. In the end though, Egg’s lower jaw and a portion of her neck came free and Jeff politely set it aside.

The same polished metal disc was embedded inside of Egg’s neck, though hers looked to have seen a little more wear than the nearly pristine one inside of Melody’s chassis. As his mother was fond of saying, Egg’s had seen better days. Then again, every day where your head wasn’t lopped off by a falling beam on a space ship was likely a better day.

The once polished chrome surface was marred by scuffs and scratches, particularly around the slots where the alignment posts inside the head would slide into place. Egg was either really bad at reattaching her own head, or someone else was doing it for her and also doing a terrible job. Jeff’s eyes darted to Captain Liber. They seemed to have something of an intimate relationship, they were both equally mechanical, maybe they…

Jeff shook his head and tried to stop thinking about the sex life of the two robotic crew members.

Jeff was delighted to see that the robotic head that he had brought with him aligned nicely with the waiting joint on Egg’s body. For a moment he considered just attaching the head to the body right then and there, no need to remove a spine and install it in the waiting body on the workbench, no extra work, just click and done. Easy as that. In fact, he aligned the head there and almost pushed it into place, but had a moment of clarity.

He wasn’t entirely sure where the seat of personality came from in an android. He assumed that it was in the head, like a brain, controlling everything from on high. He hadn’t considered that the head was just a replaceable part that might very well be only sensors and a pretty face. He looked down at Melody’s face, wondering if it was her behind it in the circuitry, or if it was literally just a mask. Her real personality could live on a drive inside of the torso somewhere. The entity that he knew as Melody could just be a bundle of code and databases waiting some twenty yards away in the workroom. If he clicked this head into place it might be Egg that woke up with his sister’s face.

What if Egg’s was housed in her head because she was built as a robot from scratch and Melody was a converted human. What if the parts matched but the software was incompatible. The more Jeff considered the possibilities the more convinced he was that putting in the work to extract Egg’s spine and install it in his sister’s body was the right choice. Though now he was even beginning to wonder if that would work.

Jeff told himself that there was only one way to find out.

Much like Melody, Egg was covered in a series of interlocking plates that, when combined together, sealed nicely in place and made her skin look like one continuous piece. She appeared human, or at least as human as anyone else on the ship. Jeff realized that once Melody was repaired the android to human ratio would be in balance, but only just barely, and only if you counted the operational robots.

Unlike Melody, though, Egg’s construction was a little more rugged in that the plates, while interconnected, were also a challenge to disengage. Melody, according to her manual, had dedicated plates that were set up as a specific starting point. Remove one platter, then the surrounding plates would come apart with relative ease. If Egg were constructed in the same way, those starter plates were a challenge to find and Jeff found himself wishing for the kind of easy, science fiction solutions offered up in movies.

‘What I wouldn’t give for a simple remote or an eject button or something.’ He thought to himself as he pawed over her body, looking for the first catch release. Under any other circumstances he would have loved the opportunity to run his hands over the naked body of a beautiful woman, but the frustration of not finding what he needed was ruining the mood. He barely grabbed her chest while looking for the catch releases.

He did, eventually, find one plate. Just below the hollow of her throat there was a small portion of her flesh that felt just a little off. It was well concealed as it was nestled among the underlying framework that simulated human bone structure and was easily missed the first three times he passed over it. Once he found it and pressed it in, a process that felt very much like choking her, there was an almost imperceptible ping from inside of her. Jeff felt the skin loosen around her upper chest, and from there it was only a matter of peeling back the skin.

Once the loosened skin was rolled back enough he could see small clips embedded into the underlying plastic or occasional metal plating. With the aid of his precision flathead screwdriver he was able to push the clips out of the way and unlock more and more plates. It was a little like undoing a jigsaw puzzle if the pieces were made of skin and silicone gel. An analogy that he thought of and hated immediately, but the results were clear. More of her body opened up to him and soon enough he had revealed enough of her torso to begin the arduous process of pulling circuitry from inside of her.

Egg’s internals were, like the neck joint, a little well worn. He had already taken a peek into Melody’s body and found it to be a little like working on modern computers or vehicles. Parts were well organized with cables bundled together into tidy mesh bundles. They ran from place to place around the body and were neatly kept out of the way either by some kind of anti-static strap or, in most cases, built in plastic clips to tuck things away. Ribbon cables were run under components where they could in order to keep them free of internal moving parts and the finer wiring were run tightly against other components to keep them from straying.

Egg’s internals looked as if she were assembled from a dozen different machines and all the parts were installed by different people.

Melody’s component based construction kept larger parts neatly encased in plastic coverings with built in cooling systems and runways for cables. Egg’s component load looked to be cobbled together from whatever was on sale at the time. Rarely did they have any kind of casing around them, though Jeff could see spaces for something to clip into place and cover them. Cables were taped to her framework by opaque yellow tape or zip-ties, and in many cases, simply left to dangle. Jeff could see several instances where her internal cabling would sway precariously close to a spinning fan.

It was a wonder she was operational at all, though Jeff made a wager that if anything broke she could fix it herself. From the looks of the cable management and how it compared to her workshop, he guessed that she had done exactly that. It was messy but functional, Jeff supposed that was all that mattered at the end of the day.

The messy construction and maintenance inside of Egg made for a unique challenge when it came to disassembling her. As he dug deeper he was acutely aware that he needed to treat everything with a sort of fragility. He was never sure if removing one part or component would result in some hidden cable stretching and breaking. More than once he found himself attempting to move some small circuit board or controller interface only to just barely see an opaque ribbon cable just reaching its limits. He always stopped in time, and often there was some other part that was just sitting on top of the cable and limiting its range. All of it though made the task far more arduous than it needed to be.

He would have been content o simply rip her apart, after all there weren’t many options for coming back from having your head caved in. Robot or otherwise, that was a bad situation. Jeff was sure that she could maybe be rebuilt if her storage media was anywhere but in her head, but he hadn’t seen much evidence of that in her torso. He could be wrong, and he hoped he was, but he wasn’t holding out hope. More than just caring for this poor broken android, he wanted to make sure that her internals were kept in as good a condition as possible. He might need them at some point.

In the end, however, he had his prize. He emerged from the inside of Egg’s flayed and disassembled torso holding her backbone, capped with a scuffed but serviceable mounting disc. Now there was just one more thing to accomplish before he could tumble into bed for the night. His eyes rejoiced at the idea of closing for more than a blink every couple of seconds.

The workroom was a blessing to his eyes in that regard. Instead of squinting in the darkness and searching for things by the light of a weak flashlight beam, the workspace at least had better lighting. It was far better in the ships main cabins, but there was a bright enough overhead light that only flickered sometimes.

In that sometimes flickering light lay an android’s body. Headless at the moment, but to Jeff that did little to detract from the beauty of it. His growing fascination with robotic bodies was growing, but it was more than that as well. There was an elegance to the way each of the parts fit together. Components that were specifically molded and shaped to fit together with something else. The way the circuitry and wiring was laid out to be flexible while still providing the needed connectivity. Whatever process had resulted in the version of Melody before Jeff, it had done an amazing job.

As he moved cabling and parts out of the way to insert the new spinal module in place, Jeff let his mind wander into a sleepy kind of stupor. On some level he knew that even with this module in place there was still a myriad of fine fiber optics connections to link up, then everything he had taken out he needed to put back, slowly, carefully.

Time blurred into nothingness around Jeff. Aboard a ship in space it was a little more challenging to tell if it was day or night, everything was just a dark void of stars. The main cabin in the ship was programmed to begin dimming the lights and filtering out the blue in the tones to aid a normal circadian rhythm remain in sync.

Egg cared little for that, as long as she had power she kept working. The buzzing overhead lights were not part of those dimmer timers. They were cruel white light that remained active as long as they too had power. As long as those lights were on, Jeff too worked on.

The spine fell into place. Melody had been constructed well and everything normally fit nicely around everything else. Her new backbone module would have to be the exception for a little while. The hard components had left enough space around it for movement and it appeared to Jeff’s untrained eyes that those movements would still be perfectly fine. The circuitry that normally studded the spine clipped into place with little fuss, though there were a few smaller controller cards or data relays that Jeff knew would be a problem if Melody moved a little too far from one direction to the other.

“No gymnastics for you.” Jeff murmured to her detached head.

Lacing the fiber optic cabling to the rest of her circuitry was, by far, the most mind numbing task. His arms were deep inside of her open torso, often times navigating only by touch until he managed to plug in the endpoint to the waiting port. Then he would do it again and again and again. Over and over to the point that his finger tips felt raw. But it was done, and that was what mattered most. The remaining large components and circuitry fell into place with relative ease, leaving the robots open torso to resemble a luxury car’s engine more than an analog for internal organs.

Plate after plate fell into place along the body and framework like so many jigsaw pieces falling into place. Jeff started with the smaller ones, the sides of the abdomen, under the arms, or along the belly. The portions of her body that needed to flex and move were made of small plates that were backed by flexible plastic and loosened wires rather than hard curved plates. Her chest, portions of her collar and pelvis, those were more rigid. Each one clicked into place until, once again, Melody looked like Melody. Mostly at least. If he placed her head near the new neck joint, closed one eye, and squinted.

Her head clicked into place with little fuss. Egg’s neck brace was a little more worn and it took a bit of wiggling to get the alignment posts on Melody’s cranium module to lock into place properly. But it was done, though not seamless. There was a small band of skin around the neck and throat that had needed to be cut away, leaving a small ribbon of exposed electronics in her throat. It was a mostly clean cut, but it exposed what Melody really was. There would be no more hiding that, she was a machine and nothing else.

“I’ll have to get you a nice scarf or something.” Jeff said as he set aside his tools and settled back down onto the stool.

Finally done, Jeff allowed himself to yawn. Then stretch his back and arms. Everything hurt and he felt like he was moments away from developing a charlie horse in his calf. One heavy sigh later and he decided that he could activate her tomorrow. He was in no mood or state to really test to make sure she was working, or to have the inevitable conversation with her about what had happened. Surely she would detect the new hardware and ask about how it got there and where it all came from. He stood and flicked off the lights before walking out the door and headed towards his quarters.

Awkward questions could wait until he had slept and had a cup of coffee.

==Chapter Nineteen==

In the middle of the night, as Jeff slept, someone turned off the gravity. He felt the small sensation of his body floating just a little. The weightlessness sensation was not so unfamiliar at this point, but it was enough to snap his eyes open.

His sleeping quarters were still mostly dark, illuminated only by a small bit of light from the bathroom and whatever the stars beyond his window provided. It was enough though. He could see everything in the room, his luggage, the haphazard mess of clothes and items that were still strewn about his room, left where they were while he had spent his day repairing androids and fixing a star ship. Fixing might have been the wrong word, they were operational, but they were far from fixed. Both the ship and the robots.

He pushed off of his bed in an attempt to reach the door and fly out into the ship to see what had happened, but he found himself gently drifting to the floor where his feet met solid ground. Not that he had time to contemplate that for long before the door to his room slid open.

There were two figured there, He recognized both of them.

Egg was leaning against the door jamb and smirking at Jeff through half lidded eyes. She looked incredible, curved in all the right places and looking so delightful. The lingerie she was wearing helped too. High heels that gave way to sheer purple leggings, a garter belt at her waist though no panties. Her robotic slit was fully on display for him, not that his eyes lingered there for long. A chest more impressive than he remembered was held back by a matching purple bustier, only one strap was held over her shoulder, the other was already tumbling off to the side.

She looked mouthwatering, but Jeff had to see who else was with her.

Just over Egg’s shoulder, back lit by the hallway was another woman, but Jeff recognized the silhouette. How could he not? He had spent a significant portion of his day working on her body. Taking it apart, putting it back together again. He had seen her growing up.

Melody took a single step forward with a soft click of her heels against the decking of the ship to announce her presence. Like Egg, she was dressed in lingerie, though simpler. Black stockings, a black garter, and matching bra. Simple but elegant. All of it was trimmed with lace and frill. She wore a shawl with it as well, though as she took a step forward that seemed to liquefy and flow off of her. The light behind her caught the red hair on her head and amplified it into a halo around her. Jeff couldn’t quite make out her face yet, it was cast too deeply in the shadow of her brilliant flaming hair.

“May we come in?” Melody asked.

The depth of her voice vibrated inside of Jeff on a level he found hard to comprehend. It was like he felt the words rather than heard them. He just knew what she was saying by the vibrations. He was also stupidly nodding for them to enter.

There seemed to be no sound as the pair entered the room, the door remained open but it lost all importance as Egg cradled his chin and drew his face up to hers. Her lips met his and it was like a lightning storm rumbled through his body. His fingers felt electrified and a bolt of lightning formed in his groin. He was unable to control the erection that grew between his legs. No one commented, there was only movement and touch after that.

In a graceful kind of ballet Jeff found himself, Egg, and Melody floating off of the ground, a simple gentle nudge and the trio were weightless. Spiraling upwards in a gentle spin. Egg’s lip continued to meet his, pulling away only long enough to make a small wet sound before she returned. Each time she was more aggressive. She insisted on parting her lips and breathing softly against his, and in turn he let his mouth open just enough. She pressed forward, her mouth pressed hard against his. He had no argument about her artificial tongue slipping into his mouth.

He did the same, dancing and twirling with her. In the space between their lips they tangled, explored, lusted and loved.

Melody made herself busy in other ways. She wordlessly slipped her fingers into Jeff’s waistband and dragged his pants away from his body. She let them float off into oblivion where they dissolved into nothingness. He wouldn’t be needing those ever again. Not here, not ever. Melody’s hand felt cold as it wrapped around his shaft. Smooth strokes brought her palm up to the tip and then gliding back down, leaving a trail of hot sensation behind it.

How long had they been at this? Time meant nothing when he was with these two, he couldn’t even gauge how long Melody had been working on his hard manhood. All he knew was pleasure, his mouth sang with it as Egg kissed him and his cock tingled with a wild fiery sensation.

Jeff didn’t know when it happened, he wasn’t exactly paying attention to the actions of the two androids with him. All he knew was that for one moment he was kissing Egg and the next he was laying on his bed again. Melody was kneeling beside the little cubby that his mattress rest in. Her smile was intoxicating in a way that Jeff found impossible to describe. It told him so many things, what she wanted, what she was going to do to him, how he would feel, and most importantly, that she wanted all of it.

She moved, leaning over him and opening her mouth to take him into it. Jeff knew that she wanted to take it slowly, that there was a part of her that wanted to just kiss the very tip of his dick and tickle it with her tongue. That she wanted to stretch this into eternity. Jeff also knew that her programming wouldn’t let her do that. She wasn’t built for that kind of thing, and the code that made her look and act and feel like his sister was made for other things. She opened her mouth and plunged fully down his shaft.

Jeff’s head fell back onto the pillow as Melody worked up and down. He couldn’t see the wet sheen her artificial saliva left along him, but he felt the cold air as his shaft left her mouth only to warm back up a moment later as she took him in fully once again. Hot and cold, up and down, in and out. Each motion sent a spike of raw lustful pleasure surging through him. He could feel himself inside of her, at the back of her throat, deep into the rubbery replica esophagus she had built into her neck.

Egg was there too, looming over him and smoothly removing the lingerie she was wearing. It seemed to simply melt off of her as she moved, fading away as her arms went through the motions. Once she was naked before him, she slipped into the cubby over Jeff. Her smile never left her mouth, her eyes never left Jeff’s.

She moved towards his face, letting her waiting slit perfectly alight with his mouth. He felt her thighs next to his ears, he could hear her. The distant whine of internal motors as her hips moved forward and back. Like a coiled spring her felt the vibrations from her as his tongue penetrated into her wetness. Her moans were digital, distant and tinny, but identifiably hers. Jeff preferred it that way. Egg was unabashedly mechanical and that in and of itself was a turn on to Jeff. She knew what she was, there was no shame, and she used the extreme level of control she had over her body to milk every last bit of pleasure from Jeff. He didn’t mind, not one bit.

Likewise, Melody worked his shaft. At some point her hands had come up to cradle his balls as if they were some kind of divine relic. She too was moaning, even when her throat was stuffed full of his impossibly large girth. Jeff knew that it was because her voice wasn’t caused by the vibrations of a vocal chord. There was no need for breath to pass over some organic part of her and cause a vibration, she had speakers and vocal processors and electronics to do that work. Her moans were only slightly muffled by a full throat.

Melody extracted Jeff from her mouth and opted to move again. She straddled him, took his hard cock in her hand and guided it into her. She let out a long whispered groan and somehow Egg had turned now. She and Melody were facing one another. Both were bouncing gently on Jeff one way or another, both were filling the empty room with expressions of pleasure. Jeff felt Melody grinding against him, the pleasure was unimaginable and Jeff was surprised that he hadn’t yet cum inside of her, though that time was drawing near. He could feel it, like an unstoppable cascade that you could only sit and watch. It was rolling already, the avalanche of heat had crashed into his hips, putting pressure on it and it was all he could do to stop it. He wanted this moment to last forever. He wanted to feel Egg and his sister riding him for eternity. Even if he knew he couldn’t.

He opened his eyes, just enough to see Egg. Her back was to him, and he could see it was opened. A black void filled the column where her spine had been. Faintly glowing blue fiber optics dangled from it. A mane of wiring draped over him now. His eyes followed the darkness upward, towards her neck. Egg’s head was missing now. Nothing was there, but the sounds of her pleasure still flowed from a throat that wasn’t there.

Jeff’s climax was coming, its arrival was moments away.

Egg tumbled off of him, clattering to the floor amid a pile of her own clothes. Jeff spared a glance in her direction. Her chest was gone as well, the once beautiful breasts replaced with a dark void. She was sprawled out and Jeff knew that she was missing parts of her. They were scattered around the room, piled up everywhere around him, floating in the air, and dangling from her torso.

All he could see now was Melody. She was looking at him, her bouncing movements caused her bare breasts to jiggle and bounce in rhythm. Her head fell back and she let out a primal sound, as she did the ribbon of cut flesh along her neck became apparent. Not only that, it was growing, spreading, revealing more and more of her internal framework as Melody’s lustful cry went on.

Jeff watched as the artificial flesh on her chest dissolved. It ate her breasts ending at her nipples as they simply stopped existing. The molded plastic chest piece was left in their place. Gentle ridges meant to convey ribs were there, along with small ports that Jeff assumed were normally hidden below access panel. Her belly faded, leaving a cavity there that was filled with circuitry and wires. A tangled messy thing that was miles different than how Jeff remembered her. Gone were the sleek components, replaced with messy, dingy, parts. A piecemeal of things inside of her. Jeff knew they belonged to her, that they were just another part of who she was, but they were a tangled and messy affair.

Soon it spread around her head, exposing the plastic and metal framework that made up her skull. Jeff could see the wiring, the blinking of status LED’s inside of her. Her hair wilted away and gave way to a clear plastic skull cap the protected some kind of processor core. It left her face though, a perfect replica of his sister’s face. The mask she wore over her robotic nature. The small shred of humanity that protected Jeff from seeing her as she was. Just a machine. Just a thing. Just another piece of equipment that was pretending to be a person.

The avalanche arrived, whether Jeff wanted it or not.

There were bursts of colors behind his eyes. He felt the heat and the expelled pressure. He filled up Melody, he could see it. The skin that had protected her pelvis from him was gone now and he could see the rubbery device that was attached to the other side of her sex. It flexed and clenched, driven by mechanisms that Jeff didn’t understand. He could see himself on the side of it, pulsing and firing off his load. He watched in fascination as her robotic systems whisked it away through tubes that snaked into her body.

He was left panting, so was she. A robot and her brother.

Jeff bolted awake in his bed. A deep gulp of air seared his lungs as he took it in. He was breathing heavily and sweating. There was a throbbing ache between his legs as well. He let his head sink deeper into the pillow and covered his eyes with his forearm. All he could think about was breathing and Melody’s face.

It took some time to calm his nerves. His breathing stabilized after a minute or so, but his pumping heart would take longer. It felt like there was both fire and ice in his veins and none of it felt good. He found the erection between his legs wasn’t going away either. He, at least, knew how to take care of that. But even as he masturbated, he couldn’t shake Melody’s face from his mind. Images of her face attached to a raw, robotic head, haunted him. In the end, he decided that it might have been the most clinical orgasm he had ever given himself. Little more than biological responses to stimuli. It helped quell the sensations there, but it left him unsatisfied.

Minutes passed, and his body settled. He was not relaxed, not by a long shot, but nothing felt like it was racing inside of him either. He decided that it wasn’t yet time to claw his way out of bed, and so he pulled the comforter over his head and closed his eyes and attempted to untangle what he had just experienced.

‘Obviously,’ he told himself, ‘the days events got to me more than I had expected. Melody in particular. Ugh, what the hell am I supposed to do about that? She’s a robot and not my sister. Not any more at least. Right?’

Jeff paused, as if some cosmic entity would answer him with a simple, easily digested answer. When no such answer came it only seemed to frustrate him more.

‘But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...but that doesn’t mean she is my sister. Just something acting like her. But, does that mean mom isn’t mom? What if Aria has to do the same thing? I don’t know enough about the process, maybe I should figure that out first. I’m sure that’ll answer some questions.’

Jeff knew he was lying to himself.

He lay in bed a little longer, trying his very best to both cling to and file away the images he had seen of Melody, and then promptly forget them. He had plenty to do today and he didn’t need her robot face floating through his head and making him horny. Another thought came to him, one that he filed away in the ‘unpack later’ portion of his brain.

Why was he so turned on by that? Surely out of context it would have been horrifying, but, he found himself wildly turned on by it. Maybe he just had a thing for robots. It was probably Egg’s fault. Surely he didn’t have this kind of attraction before.

He physically shook his head and tried to banish the thought before his own mind started recalling past memories to try and analyze them too. The inhuman growl from his belly helped him in that regard. Existential sexual preferences were unsustainable on an empty stomach.

With great effort he tossed the blankets off of himself and fell out of bed more than climbed out. If the gravity had truly been off he would have found it nice to simply drift out of bed. Instead he felt the weight of his body and his situation press down into the soles of his feet. He hated it and idly wondered if this is what adulthood felt like every day. No wonder his dad always wanted to go to bed early.

No one appeared to be up as Jeff slipped into the kitchen. The lights were dimmed and yawned to life as he walked in. It took a moment of searching before he located a mug and the instant coffee granules. He sighed at the granules, they wouldn’t be as good as what he got planet side, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

With a tepid cup of coffee like substance in hand Jeff walked down the hall and into the workshop.

Melody was still on the bench, still coated in synthetic skin plating, except for her neck. She was nothing like the dream version of her he had experienced. Those thoughts still lingered in his mind. In his dream she had a much larger chest, softer skin, of course she had also had all that stripped away. He reminded himself to dwell on that later, surely there was a lot to unpack there and Jeff was no good at symbolism, that was Aria’s specialty. He smirked and shook his head before murmuring “artists.” Then sighed and pulled up a stool to sit on.

Normally there would need to be a whole device paring ritual in order to get her to power on. She was never really meant to be powered off, not fully at least. Human’s weren’t powered off, so neither would an android imitating a human. There was, of course, a power switch somewhere on her body. Jeff had read her manual enough to know where it was, but he was presented with an easier means of activating her.

Nestled in her throat, just behind the primary vocal processor and all its attached speakers, was a small bit of circuitry. It was little more than a small PCB board with a button on it, but it was connected to some very important systems. He needed only to slip a screwdriver into her exposed neck and press the button.

Nothing much happened at first, but Jeff also expected that. Internally the small dime sized battery on the board sent a wake signal coursing through her body. First to the head where another internal battery powered system fired itself up. It would take a while to load the operating system from a cold start. Another jolt of power and data was sent down into Melody’s torso. From there it engaged her primary power core.

After being plugged into the servicing unit for almost an entire day, the core was fully charged, ready, and waiting. The only thing it would be doing for the next few minutes would be providing wake up spikes to the rest of Melody’s body along with powering on the primary processor core to handle the instructions. Jeff knew all of that from a very high level, fundamental level. The manual had gone into some very specific wording that sailed cleanly over his head. He managed to gather that “neck button make robot go on”, and that was good enough.

While he waited for things to do what they were supposed to do, he pulled out his tablet with the intention of browsing through online forums and news sites. A typical routine for when he was forced to wait for something. He was more than a little disappointed to find that out in the bleak reaches of space, adrift on a barely powered star ship, that there was no connection to the networks. Sleep had evacuated that little factoid from his mind.

Before he flipped his tablet closed he spotted the time. 0126. It was one thirty in the morning? No wonder no one was up and in the kitchen. Jeff realized he hadn’t checked the cockpit, and at this point he figured the only one there would be his mother. He wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to see her given the dream scape he had tumbled through. She might just feature in the next one.

He blinked and wondered if that would be so bad. She was obviously attractive, and not human. She was just as much a robot as Melody and he was having surprisingly few qualms about her. His eyes flicked towards her, landing on her exposed neck. There were more and more lights shimmering into existence inside of her, lending her a sort of torn, but glowing collar around her neck. He could almost visualize her with some sort of thick cuff latched around her neck, one that he could-

Melody’s eyes snapped open.

It was enough to capture Jeff’s attention. It didn’t quite startle him, since he expected something to happen in short order, but the suddenness of it certainly drew his eye. He watched her intently as she continued to boot. Her eyes swiveled smoothly in their sockets, looking up then down, left and right. Jeff assumed this was to calibrate the optics, or perhaps take in the location since it was clearly different from before. He also noticed that as he watched her, she didn’t blink. He could only assume this meant that whatever chunk of code that made her act human wasn’t quite online yet.

The inhumanly flat voice all but confirmed that.

“Model SHR-CT-77320 booting. Verbose mode enabled. File logging enabled. Resuming previous state. One moment.”

Jeff blinked at her. He could see a wild riot of colors inside of her neck blinking and fluttering, even as Melody lay silently.

“Error. Unable to load previous state.”

“Fuck.” Jeff blurted and got to his feet only to find Melody speaking again.

“Loading last known good configuration. Alert, data loss possible. Loading maintenance state for confirmation. Please connect control interface now.”

She was silent again, or at least she wasn’t speaking. A small patch of skin over her temple retracted into her head and then slid out of the way to reveal a small connection port just inside the darkness of her skull. The glow from the lights above offered little help for Jeff to see what it was. The weak light from his little pen light only barely showed him the port. He was surprised and more than a little amused to see that it was the same kind of connection that his tablet normally used for connecting to a computer or charging. He was fairly sure there was a cable in his room for it, if he could find it in the mess. He was almost to the door when he had another thought.

Egg likely had a similar cable on her workbench.

After a brief search through a few drawers and organizers on her desk, he did managed to find a cable. It was shorter than he would have liked, but the cable fit, even if it meant he would need to sit much closer to Melody.

“Control software not found. Install software now?”

Melody’s voice spoke the exact wording on the small pop-up that appeared on the tablet. Jeff tapped the small ‘yes’ button on it and waited. The installer moved quickly at first, then slowed, then crawled forward, then managed to finish the last third of the installation bar in a matter of a second. Once done, it automatically launched itself and connected to Melody before flashing a box asking for a password for the device. Jeff tried his password, though it was rejected. A moment later he realized it wanted the password for Melody...she was the device.

He swapped over to the manual his father had sent him and flipped through it before becoming frustrated and then swapped back to the table of contents. There was a whole section on the control app that he had seen, but only glossed over before. Now, though, it seemed far more pertinent and Jeff hoped that he and his father shared their affinity for losing passwords and writing them down someplace obvious.

“Of course.” Jeff muttered.

In the middle of the app settings page, there was a screenshot of the password prompt and next to it, written in his fathers digital handwriting, was the password. Or at least he assumed it was. It was Melody’s first and last name, in camel caps, with the number one at the end and an exclamation point. Jeff flipped back to the app’s waiting password prompt and put in the password and was delighted to see that it was accepted.

“Loading configuration. One moment.”

Jeff’s eyes lit up. He had control over everything about Melody. Her speech patterns, dictionary, preferences, settings, database access, file structure. Everything was at his finger tips.

Everything...

==Chapter Twenty==

Jeff sat in stunned silence for longer than he cared to admit. He wasn’t even exploring the various settings and controls. Melody didn’t react either, she lay still, eyes fixed on nothing on the ceiling above her. She didn’t even blink. This was all the confirmation that Jeff needed to confirm that Melody, the human woman who had been his sister, was gone. He was tapped into everything about her and she put up no resistance at all.

Jeff recalled the heated argument she had been having with his mother before the impact. How she was angry, passionate, worried, and frantic. This was none of that, this was a shell that would house those responses, but they weren’t real emotions, they were outputs based on information input. Melody was no more, all that remained was this substitute.

It was the final nudge that Jeff needed, conscious or not, to begin changing her settings. This was just a machine that emulated a person, it wasn’t actually her. Dipping into her personality settings and relationship databases was, therefore, perfectly acceptable. They weren’t even terribly difficult to find. The app had a search field, and after a few attempts, Jeff found the right wording to lead him into the very core of her operational settings.

He wasn’t entirely sure what most of the terminology meant, nor the data associated with it, but he made some educated guesses when he found his name. Some things made sense, the data point labeled family had a subsection that marked him as brother. Inside of that there were more specific settings. Things like known preferences that Jeff had that Melody would know about or familiar nick names for him. He chuckled at some of them. Each one of those were tied to some other string of data. Tapping on it loaded a database view.

From what Jeff could tell he was inside of her memories, or at least a digital version of them. Names and preferences all linked to some chunk of data that was just that, raw data. He had to assume that Melody’s memories were assimilated into some kind of digital format that was far beyond his understanding. Instead of trying to modify anything there he simply closed the database view and left it alone.

It was, however, fascinating to see the other relationships statuses. When he looked at the reference to their father there were a number of additional pieces that Jeff didn’t have when he had looked at his own profile. Tags for things like authority settings, how much he was allowed to order her around and the kind of filtering that his words might bypass. Most of it was in plain text as well. Bypass social filtering was linked to some strange phrase that seemed to make no sense, and after a moment of contemplation Jeff put the pieces together. It was a passphrase that when his father spoke it out loud it would bypass whatever was linked to it. In this case social filters. What exactly those were would take a bit more research.

Jeff swapped back to his own profile and added the bypass to his name. Immediately a new window popped up on his tablet prompting him to speak the command phrase he wanted out loud.

“Listening.” Melody whispered.

Jeff hadn’t thought about the phrase he would want, but he spoke the first thing that came to his mind.

“Melody, do as you’re told.”

“Please repeat phrase.”

Jeff furrowed his brow at that and thought that, perhaps, she hadn’t heard him. So he nudged himself closer and spoke more clearly.

“Phrasing saved.” Melody intoned.

Jeff nodded at that and looked back to his tablet and rolled his eyes at himself. He barely saw the pop up disappear asking him to confirm the phrase. She had heard him just fine he just needed to say it again. She really was a computer through and through.

After the box cleared itself out he was presented with a list of options to add. He could bypass more than just her social filtering. There were authority locks he could bypass as well. The list was fairly extensive and some made sense others were some jargon that didn’t register to him. He decided to stick with just the social filter for the time being. He was finally prompted for the level of admin control the phrase would allow. Complete control seemed like the right choice.

He felt giddy at what he had just done, to the point where he needed to set down his tablet and take a deep breath before settling down. He wanted to badly to see what else he could modify inside of this app, but remembered that there was actually an intention and purpose to connecting to Melody. He needed to figure out how to get her to reboot properly.

The search settings option once again became his saving grace. Searching for ‘previous state’ brought up a whole console about her boot sequence and status. There was a little yellow triangle with an exclamation mark floating next to a line item with yesterdays date on it. Tapping on it brought up a new screen that showed all manner of data.

Core temperature, log file links, a list of running processes and their status at time of crash, a screenshot of the last thing her eyes were pointed at, status of every part of her body. It was a lot of data and all of it seemed to send a small burst of heat coursing through Jeff as he looked over it. He wasn’t sure why at first, but it became increasingly clear. He was seeing Melody for what she was and what she wasn’t. She was an extremely attractive android woman, and she was definitely not a human being any more. She was just like Egg. And that made things a lot more simple in his mind.

The last option in her last known state page was the option at the bottom to try to recover the lost data and repair the state, or to use the last known good state. The data marked on the last known state was from the day before, from when they were still at home and nervously preparing to leave on an interstellar flight. Jeff wasn’t entirely sure that letting Melody lose a whole two days of time would be good for her, then again who knew what the repair would fix and leave behind. He had to try though.

He tapped on the repair option and let the progress bar that appeared on his screen climb ever onward.

The middle of the night, Jeff decided, was the perfect time to work on robots. There was a relative amount of assurance that no one would barge in on him reprogramming a naked fembot on a workbench. Nor would they see him toying with her breasts as he waited for a repair function to finish.

That did spark something in Jeff’s mind. Melody was going to reboot and pretend to be human, not only that she was going to act like his sister. There was a certain amount of embarrassment Jeff would feel with her waking up naked on top of having to reveal that he knew she was a robot. He couldn’t exactly redress her, but he could at least cover her up.

Within a few minutes he had walked to his room, yanked the blanket from his bed and returned to drape it over Melody. He was none to pleased because it meant he couldn’t let his eyes crawl over her body any more, but at least it would make the reboot a little more comfortable for her. With that done, all that was left to do was sit and wait.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it was enough time for him to finish his cup of awful coffee and to begin day dreaming. A small chime from his tablet brought him back to reality as it indicated that the repair had finished successfully. He thought that was curious given everything that had happened. There was an indication below the alert that new hardware had been found and integrated into the system profile along with a merger status that said it was successful. Jeff tapped the only confirmation button there and was prompted to remove his tablet and reboot the android.

Once the cable was removed from her head the small patch of skin hidden inside of her skull rolled back into place and re-sealed itself. More waiting, so much time was spent waiting.

Her mouth opened, a little, just enough, then her chest rose and fell and Jeff could hear the process of breathing beginning. It sounded so human, air sliding over the lips and into whatever cooling system was inside of her. Her face was more relaxed now as well. Not so stiff. Blinking had resumed as well and her head was shifting slightly from side to side. She was taking in the space, not as a machine, but as Melody now. Unfortunately, Jeff could hear the subtle whine of the motor controls in her neck, even under the muffled cover of the blanket thrown over her.

“Good morning. Well, technically. It’s very early in the morning.” Jeff said.

Melody turned and looked at Jeff, her face melting into a look of confusion and worry, one Jeff had seen plenty of times before. It was amazing how accurately her entire existence had been programmed. If Jeff hadn’t just spent two days taking her apart and putting her back together again he truly would have never known.

“What..where am I? What’s-”

Jeff held up a hand and silenced her.

“Get dressed first. Your pajamas were kind of ruined in the process, but no one is awake, so, you can go to your room and grab something. Probably best to meet me back here.”

“Process, what are-” She began, only to be silenced again by Jeff. She took the hint.

Jeff watched her slip off of the bench and swaddle herself in his blanket before going to the door and out into the hall. He heard her soft foot falls for only a moment or two before they were swallowed up by the distance between her and the workroom. Similarly when she returned, he only barely heard her for a second or two before she reappeared in the doorway.

A simple white top, black leggings, comfortable socks, and an expression that told Jeff she had seen her reflection at some point in the last few minutes.

“Jeff I…” She trailed off.

“It’s okay. I know. Mom told me about you and her. Dad helped a lot too.”

Melody was silent, she stepped into the workshop and closed the door behind her.

“You must have a lot of questions.” Melody said.

“Not really. Mom answered most of them.”

“Oh, well, uh, then I have some questions.”

Jeff smiled at that. Of course she did. He simply waved his hand at her in a sweeping gesture to let her know that the floor was hers.

“What...happened?”

Jeff chuckled, where to begin? “Well, I think we were struck by some space junk. That almost killed us, well, killed me and Aria, you and mom can’t be killed I guess.”

Melody frowned at that but Jeff barely noticed.

“I managed to get the comms back online and got a hold of dad, who walked me through getting the power on. So, no one is dying, but we’re still kind of just drifting at the moment.”

“Where’s the crew?”

Jeff gulped at that. “Gone. Something in the engine room broke loose and-”

Jeff wanted to say that it had killed them. But he also didn’t want to contradict himself. Liber and Egg were machines like Melody, and as he just said, they don’t die.

“-and took them out.” Good job Jeff, he mentally congratulated himself. “They were robot’s too. So, yeah.”

Melody nodded at that and silence fell over the room. There was a question just boiling under the surface of Jeff’s thoughts. He wanted the answer, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to ask the question.

“How..what was it like?” Jeff asked after an agonizing amount of time.

Melody’s social mesh took in and parsed the question and sorted it through a number of processes. Like rocks and sand tumbling through a sieve the question was analyzed again and again, passed from one response matrix to another before it finally landed on the section of her programming that held her memories. From there, it was simple. He wanted to know what it was like being transformed from a human into a robot.

The process started all over again, running the potential answers through more and more finely meshed responses. Did he want a technical description of what it was like? Not likely. Was he curious because he wanted to undergo the same process? What did he really want to know? In the end, she had to once again rely on her social filters. The database of relationships between her and other people around her was called up, and Jeff’s name and ID were polled. Now she had a whole landscape of who Jeff was an his preferences. She had talked to him a number of times before she was digitized, and had plenty to pull from. All she needed to do was allow her social programming to handle things now.

First, a dash of human emulation. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose and let it slowly seep back out, then answered with another question. Because that was what Jeff was all about. Discussion, and knowledge. Her programming wanted to give him the correct and accurate information he requested, she just needed to narrow it down a little.

“Like, what was the process? Or how do I feel about it?”

“Both I suppose.”

If Melody’s processors had eyes to roll, it would have spun them around. Of course he wanted to know everything.

“Well, I think it started when I was sixteen or so. At least that was when the diagnosis came in. After that there was some medical treatments to go through. Some experimental medications that targeted the mutagens in my body. They worked for a bit, mostly to delay things a bit.” Melody huffed a little, her processor core pulling up and loading the kind of emotional responses she had while going through the treatments. “You would have been fourteen or so, off hanging out with your friends for that. You probably didn’t notice how out of it I was all the time.”

That much was true. He never recalled seeing her fatigued or anything, just that she was always in her room or out with their mother at the doctor. It made sense that she was likely resting from treatment rather than just hanging out in her room on vid-calls with her friends.

“After two years of that they finally decided that the treatment wasn’t working so that doctors laid it out for me. I could allow every cell in my body to be chewed up and spit out, or..you know..” She gestured to the exposed robotics inside of her neck.

“So they turned you into a machine.” Jeff said.

“Slowly but surely. I almost didn’t go through with it. Did Mom tell you that?”

“What? No!”

“Yep. She told me she went through the same process when she was just a little older than me. She was like twenty nine or something when she was diagnosed. She went for it, no hesitation, but I wasn’t so sure.” She smirked, “It took me like three months to finally decide.”

“What was the hang up?” Jeff asked, curiosity piqued now.

Melody shrugged. “It took me a long time to decide if I would be me after the process.”

“And you decided that you would be?” Jeff asked.

“No, I decided that I could either be dead or a robot.” She said a little too forcefully then fell silent before quietly adding. “I did it because I knew Aria would be scared.”

Jeff tilted his head and looked inquisitively at her.

“She’s going to end up with the same thing. It’s genetic, Mom gave it to me, and will surely give it to Aria.” She let another breath slip out her nose. “You know how she is. She’ll be terrified. Mom will comfort her, but I’m her big sister, I needed to be a role model for her. You know, show her that it would be okay. That you would still be the same person once you’re all done.”

“Are you? The same person I mean.”

She shrugged. “Is Theseus’s ship the same?”

Jeff nodded, humming quietly as he thought about that. Melody continued.

“That’s kind of how the process went. As soon as they identified some part of me that was a little too comfortable for the infection, it was just cut off and replaced. Slowly but surely more and more of me was gone until, well…” She trailed off but pointed at the side of her head. “Everything must go.”

“And now you’re just…”

“Just a machine that thinks like Melody? Some days I feel like that. Some days not so much. I think there is some programming that tries its best to make me think and feel like a human again. It lets me fumble my words or trip on my own feet or something.” She shook her head. ‘It’s not the same though. I know what it’s doing and I just have to let it happen.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I don’t get much of a choice in the matter. I’m not even allowed to modify any of my programming or even see it. I am the code, and the code is me.”

“Very zen master of you.” Jeff quipped.

Melody laughed. The same laugh Jeff had heard hundreds of times before. He began to wonder when that laugh stopped belonging to Melody and started belonging to the imitation of her. Either way, it was captured perfectly.

“But really, it’s been over two years now, and I just feel the same as always. I don’t know if that’s something programmed into whatever is in my head, or if that’s me or what. I don’t honestly know, and I’m not sure I want to invest any time thinking about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I think I know the answer and I don’t want to dwell on it.”

A weighty bit of silence fell over the pair of them. In the quiet of Egg’s workshop, comforted only by the hum and rattle of the struggling engine, Jeff and Melody both came to the same conclusion all at once. No one wanted to speak it, and no one wanted to admit what it meant. More than that,Jeff knew something she didn’t. He had a back door into her very core, if she wanted to be reprogrammed, he could do it. He wasn’t really sure if he wanted to admit that to her at the moment, but he knew that there would come a time when he was going to use that administrator phrase.

It was so easy to just see her as some piece of machinery when she was inactive or speaking in a flat monotone. When she was laying there, opened up and exposed for him he had felt such a sense of power and authority over her. He was the human and she was the object. Now, though, as she spoke using Melody’s voice and accessing Melody’s memories, she was something else. She was his sister again, and he struggled to separate the two while still seeing them as opposing entities.

There was the robot who he had repaired. That was just a thing with nice tits and a good ass. Melody, the girl sitting on the workbench now, was something else. The body mattered so much less than the mind. She remembered their childhood, but did she? It was all data and nothing else. But Jeff knew enough about human biology to know that the brain worked similarly enough. It was all chemical triggers that stimulated an electrical response inside his brain. What was the difference if his memories were triggered by biology and hers were triggered by ones and zeroes.

Jeff was beginning to understand why it had taken her so long to make her choice. There was no good, clean answer. She was both a machine and a person, while still not being fully one or the other.

“Why am I getting a new hardware installed alert?” Melody asked after a few moments of oppressive silence.

Jeff had been studying the intricate metal design on the floor when she asked, then his eyes flicked up to meet hers.

“Well, you know how you activated under that blanket and you weren’t dressed?”

She nodded.

“When we were hit by, whatever we were hit by, it knocked out the gravity. You started floating around the room and then when I turned it back on you crashed into the floor face first.” Jeff swallowed. “And that kinda, ripped your head off.”

Melody blinked and let her fingers graze the ripped edges of her throat.

“From what I could tell from the manual that Dad sent me, we needed to replace the neck joint cuff..thingy, but yours was damaged. So, I kidna borrowed one from Egg.”

“Egg?”

“The ship’s technician.” He nudged his head towards the engine room. “She wasn’t using it any more since-”

“I see. So you…”

“Took you apart, extracted your spine and the damaged neck cuff and then installed the one from Egg’s body into you and rewired everything into place. I guess there is probably a serial number or something on it that’s registering itself to your operating system.”

Melody blinked for a second then burst into sweet laughter.

“You sound like Dad with all your techno jargon. Like pulling out a spine from not just one but two robots was just something you do on a Tuesday.”

Jeff joined her in laughter. Melody hopped off of the workbench and pulled Jeff into a hug. He was just a little shorter than her, meaning his ear was right next to the ripped flesh along her neck. He heard her, the small whine of micro-motors readjusting her head and body. He felt a small waft of heat leaking out of her body. He smiled, glad that Melody knew she was a machine and not a person. It would make things so much easier.

“Melody, do as you’re told.”

|}
</center>

Natalie Bayer

2026-06-10T21:33:09Z

Natalie Bayer:

__TOC__

==Manips 2026==
<gallery>
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</gallery>

==Manips 2025==
<gallery>
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</gallery>

==Manips 2024==
<gallery>
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Audreybot.png
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LetItGo.png
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</gallery>

==Manips 2023==
<gallery>
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</gallery>

==Manips 2022==
<gallery>
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0TA4-c5XgKrHrv_CPRflPi1g6iOuQFrr-52vptDNU9s.png
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RDT_20220112_1036276824334594134143123.png
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Cadey_mercury_black.png
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Shelly.png
</gallery>

==Manips 2021==
<gallery>
AlisaBishop-Manip1.png
PrincessHelayna-Manip1.png
SAhnHfK.png
1nm0INm.png
Octokuro-Manip1.png
684684rgh684tfjh684864684hns.png
Dc3f8416.png
Dz32LCBVYAAPoUI.png
SaraMeikasai-Manip1.png
RDT_20211216_1801208340872227354636040.png
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UebfgvuYEGF4587366.png
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FakeLikeMe.png
Fff16848673521436874313435.png
Image0_(1).png
MikomiHokina.png
5386889_2insta.png
BolXc9u.png
Brunette-Girls-3.png
1DHrZCjG.png
EmmaKotos-56xutyr1jka71.png
EUCbeHTXYAAK3Ke.png
RDT_20210826_0019427620592457726091044.png
RDT_20210902_1358311951618439610017580.png
Tumblr_l_201861589738711.png
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UwQgbJE.png
NatalieCheckUp.png
MayAndLawan.png
</gallery>

==Manips 2020==
<gallery>
Eg 4VnkWoAAZoUE copy.png
Eg0LdFxWsAAJAec copy.png
Depositphotos 174339892-stock-photo-beautiful-hot-sexual-fetish-woman copy.png
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Eg0Ph CXcAAJMcw copy.png
Egk5TZSXYAAQ1jF copy.png
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Eg57eL0XgAAMM4k copy.png
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HTB1xJMvSFXXXXb6XXXXq6xXFXXXj.png
Women-black-red-sexy-faux-leather-clubwear copy.png
EeFN7JFXsAAjvUH_copy.png
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EfZHOUGXYAA_JFr_copy.png
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EgEkxomWAAAoMnl_copy.png
EgEMfGcX0AEG9fs_copy.png
EgEMxnnXYAILzGr_copy.png
IMG-1056_copy.png
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CriisAndroide1.png
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CriisAndroide3.png
MEGAN Commission.png
HellyVonValentine.png
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GIXkjVf.png
HellyVonValentineOfficeAssistant.png
Nikita dragun 4.png
Nikita dragun 1.png
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1.png
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01.png
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04-2.png
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HeathersPaperwork.png
Roylat1.png
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CaraMell.png
Tumblr mcao4rn8Jb1qayih8o1 1280.png
Tumblr cdc3d6644ac26c840dfdd7218331758f 4e1248a3 1280.png
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</gallery>

==Manips 2019==
<gallery>
bHoNhYZ.png
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F d1e1f7d2-f9f9-48b2-addc-3e330efbc05d - 22Carbox-8.png
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MiloMoire (2).png
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6De11xOXnNkOYqS26uV4DbG--pyhE9MsBaCG 4VPjOI.png
5sYg0B3.png
1m48jhkbg4k21.png
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72bqe15.png
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Dk0bu2J.png
DHRgNtI.png
AHFlEYt.png
95gdsmfb72lz.png
1VpccjA.png
</gallery>

==Manips 2018==
<gallery>
OvP1OXT.png
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6nR9SAY.png
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GWCsjjX.png
FJxrYT2.png
Ds9rc42.png
Tumblr opbjp8vWJ51vbtysxo1 1280.png
195123869.png
3Cu79xk.png
0FiMSnd.png
MtCASS3.png
LeSAR6A.png
L9RCoVG.png
JAUVuGh.png
HEvtbaR.png
ATT9xCn.png
9lz1kfn.png
0J8ssXU.png
ZkVQjuT.png
ZEMsI4o.png
UULXmdt.jpg
Tf4PLHaZwmxynvLF7UZOsyNcF-o6F3aWZpj7nfytV4Y.png
KAfiwEZ.png
Je0EY8r.jpg
I5BGC3A.png
K8MCuUx.png
HCAOa2F.png
Fa3e4a81fe7e67e1557eabd2d94f811a.png
E-kOlr0a2xa-j V7gDvXLZ49btZfPFH8ERqrJOnxPLo.png
80TK4dx.png
H7XC6tQ.png
GH9tLkK.png
DHrZCjG.png
6whepr1spg011.png
0TXH66Y.png
7-vs2dk0RfPytK66MrRf9IoxqzuxLvYdFAEz7IEFBA.png
0NXyj2Q.png
Yj4JGux.png
WWMcJTQ.png
HyEonSU.png
D1117 47 004 0004 600.png
BFgbru2.png
45cxlRc.jpg
Miftyjuxz.jpg
Untitled-1.jpg
ADVq08z.jpg
75wrpvy copy.jpg
6bbec2M.jpg
5E117BS.jpg
3Xwuq6B.jpg
WaRGEwgre.png
Os7rgB4.jpg
AsKP2tE.jpg
1gQFRYK.png
TwN300A.jpg
Z8RvRUr.jpg
Vm39Iv7.jpg
Rawegrewa.jpg
UzLLrQQ.jpg
Rstejrseytkj.jpg
QYnmRyO.jpg
Jr9csCh.jpg
GBMtyl2.jpg
47g7r2z.jpg
Wr80sfx.jpg
Jz6tvmX.jpg
HeeaTrP.jpg
CdyHDLw.jpg
CckrL3g.jpg
A8dZpgZ.jpg
4NdEc8w.jpg
DYcaF4p.jpg
V3bU77n copy.jpg
Nhrok6Y copy.jpg
BNzWmoh copy.jpg
Qq1tG7d.jpg
N1GwsHo.jpg
DHrZCjG.jpg
ISgRGBw.jpg
Tumblr mg2oqmRUqA1qmi2n7o1 1280.jpg
QezzD2b.jpg
Imgpsh fullsize (1).jpg
</gallery>

==Manips 2017==
<gallery>
YmmBb5U.jpg
UHvAnk2.jpg
Thl0l2N.jpg
TcMaPiy.jpg
Purple-Christmas-Decor.jpg
L7QYCKt.jpg
KnG6Xi8.jpg
IR4A0I6.jpg
Ekjp6.jpg
3c96f783a95d43efa2b7ded689b7a611.jpg
AZQRecN.jpg
856LbR4.jpg
Belle.jpg
PY83qRd.jpg
NXE18Ci.jpg
Fgbbi27.jpg
X4EcWVr.jpg
SnMHlFv.jpg
LFu50Du.jpg
Tumblr ozho8zxVJK1vqhtixo1 1280.jpg
NTAET8M.jpg
1rbHs84.jpg
Pe33jvi.jpg
FhwEhJu.jpg
15118294688611972078953.jpg
JSDtJJH.jpg
AHV9JZN.jpg
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CHqgr1Q.jpg
LuXrFGK.jpg
KmLNL7c.jpg
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RLpyKHP.jpg
S54Ho2v.jpg
JJsMIuv.jpg
WLryODx.jpg
SEyHnMd.jpg
618d15fb299aaf81.jpg
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QDBEfi5.jpg
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HPGFkAP.jpg
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FUkSLUE.jpg
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XND0400.jpg
SHCsYxt.jpg
QpeBMas.jpg
VVz21Nd.jpg
DHrPz3o.jpg
0YOvhsX.jpg
HGZTKJ2.jpg
Q52M4hD.jpg
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ThSK52U.jpg
SUFPNdY.jpg
Iau66Wx.jpg
Gy5OFfk.jpg
Dnp0XHr.jpg
6MRxcqZ.jpg
UHxgKMi.jpg
Ryt3HlsvnXRW0EnlkLq-eZ6aUDlnySZpqgK0HX9l2Ag.jpg
E29qwVC.jpg
WJ8NbAO.jpg
PQSKaRO.jpg
EsZyVHs.jpg
UbZrBGI.jpg
Keira 93755 3.jpg
4MeS2xI.jpg
SNfBN7L.jpg
MGgkE8H.jpg
F48JCPU.jpg
B8GyvnT2.jpg
Pb2Laom.jpg
PuM5ZFU.jpg
Tumblr o2wv14mE7B1u0cqhdo1 500.jpg
Sj0lLvM.jpg
YOk7sxZ.jpg
M98YvxX.jpg
GR8MQ49.jpg
Bsc539h.jpg
JXaH70l.jpg
Gnxdfg81e8qz.jpg
TXPJKCP.jpg
T76PSfd.jpg
Q53GBO9.jpg
Estjhw45e.jpg
CEu79DY.jpg
WJPHek2.jpg
KCPjfrI.jpg
R5NY5xj.jpg
TrfH8Lc.jpg
QmWKATv.jpg
OAgtyvD copy.jpg
EuuVXd7.jpg
DjdIVIV copy.jpg
Asrghaerwhg copy.jpg
0lO1dwk copy.jpg
9q93854dllgz copy.jpg
BBMA2Rk copy.jpg
Etrhaehrt.jpg
KeBkDsQ copy.jpg
WKnxw9M copy.jpg
Xgi6BoR copy.jpg
0dSP0KO copy.jpg
ZD5XLNe copy copy.JPG
YFQBpj5 copy.jpg
Tessa Fowler (1) copy.jpg
OYB65A5 copy.jpg
Mvc4ERo copy.jpg
JET3X9R copy.jpg
FuCD1V4 copy.jpg
D3dmUA9 copy.jpg
UdxVnzN.jpg
OC9lesrgtuv.jpg
NbvRnMN.jpg
KocPnKg.jpg
KebY3nE copy.jpg
Eeeaalh copy.jpg
Aerhaer copy.jpg
433C4iKqnT2ABh0RHQw5wPj2kjssFixZE8FX7QHjkRE.jpg
15sU58Q.jpg
AU0bV07.jpg
AuM1ezU.jpg
Gdhstresjr.jpg
I7yt7m7.jpg
OC9leuv.jpg
Tumblr oiyijaQAXA1rasva5o1 1280.jpg
UGoXHe5.jpg
Officer Jill Hastings.jpg
UqOa7pN.jpg
Kzrv7dE.jpg
J9eFlrp.jpg
A6VTSGD.jpg
Cjy32Ds.jpg
2d59debcef77866fbd4e1fb6eea71acb.jpg
AjI84Ev.jpg
Jr1cN95.jpg
Q018uko.jpg
Tumblr obpmrgatgY1qam4i5o1 1280 copy copy.jpg
MjLTfo5 copy.jpg
OLmkuGa copy.jpg
F4pl2Aq copy.jpg
S2099 gp671 1464300692 copy.jpg
YxQZ6nK copy.jpg
JTf1aar copy.jpg
</gallery>

==Manips 2016==
<gallery>
MEFAacO copy.jpg
LfZCT6C copy.jpg
I1eQmUn copy.jpg
BZcE8CJ copy.jpg
9laYVkN copy.jpg
OqzWDtM copy.jpg
SHxdivI copy.jpg
3rQvG1T7QmmFZMCHcDp7EC8Z5-qcPdHv0ecszRrdEu8.jpg
R4Qtewu copy.jpg
Y9m7mHWCkKlBJ0jyWhQTcPTYkZyz4IzGFNvj0vkgMKI copy.jpg
XLYK3Dx.jpg
XjGyAMmJvs3iVLib1qipPXiAH uk5v rzwM-JoqK7lc copy.jpg
POpuvql copy.jpg
Lu9wQcT copy.jpg
I30N2aR copy.jpg
Potd-090524-70046-big copy.jpg
BFoui8u copy.jpg
Ha9T4Hj copy.jpg
Lucy 84331 12 copy.jpg
Nd232rv copy.jpg
Th42Y4A copy.jpg
XLYK3Dx copy.jpg
IFL robots copy.jpg
K17IciB copy.jpg
Qeu3Qri copy.jpg
RWs9neB copy.jpg
STVt8Kk copy.jpg
UnwrQ6F copy.jpg
GMDeFJX copy.jpg
ShAFlC2 copy.jpg
ShUod8q copy.jpg
Tumblr o54mkksxvQ1v3algro1 540 copy.jpg
Tumblr o3ig7cewMO1siuxfpo1 500 copy.jpg
TmMKkYE copy.jpg
Te14xif copy.jpg
Penthouse 11 copy.jpg
MTR45Fq copy.JPG
E1CtQPU copy.jpg
Stgh copy.jpg
UoFZmZf copy.jpg
Ukyfd copy.jpg
Tumblr o0lwgfV3yo1u5vmr9o1 1280 copy.jpg
Tumblr nrja3vU89R1sqnstuo1 1280 copy.jpg
YBigbrb copy.jpg
XJyd79V copy.jpg
W2nR7tp copy.jpg
94vW8A2 copy.jpg
3JP08hQ copy.jpg
1hpbXia copy.jpg
Y9UYMFI copy.jpg
VQthlfZ copy.jpg
VDhP9p7 copy.jpg
JAvJO4g copy.jpg
F1zQFtE copy.jpg
</gallery>

==Manips 2015==
<gallery>
Malfunctioning Christmas.jpg
CU7970.jpg
CU7969.jpg
CU7968.jpg
CU7967.jpg
CU7966.jpg
CU7965.jpg
CU7964.jpg
CU7963.jpg
CU7962.jpg
CU7961.jpg
CU7960.jpg
CU7959.jpg
CU7958.jpg
CU7957.jpg
CU7956.jpg
CU7955.jpg
CU7954.jpg
CU7953.jpg
CU7952.jpg
CU7951.jpg
CU7950.jpg
CU7949.jpg
CU7948.jpg
CU7947.jpg
CU7946.jpg
CU7945.jpg
CU7944.jpg
CU7943.jpg
CU7942.jpg
CU7941.jpg
CU7940.jpg
CU7939.jpg
CU7938.jpg
CU7937.jpg
CU7936.jpg
CU7935.jpg
CU7934.jpg
CU7933.jpg
CU7932.jpg
CU7931.jpg
CU7930.jpg
CU7929.jpg
CU7928.jpg
CU7927.jpg
CU7926.jpg
CU7925.jpg
CU7924.jpg
CU7923.jpg
XSprinkle Spranklex.jpg
Sexualizeme copy.jpg
Mainope.jpg
Elffkitten.jpg
CU7922.jpg
CU7921.jpg
CU7920.jpg
CU7919.jpg
CU7918.jpg
CU7917.jpg
CU7916.jpg
CU7915.jpg
CU7914.jpg
CU7913.jpg
CU7912.jpg
CU7911.jpg
CU7910.jpg
SexyCyborg2.jpg
SexyCyborg1.jpg
CU7909.jpg
CU7908.jpg
CU7907.jpg
CU7906.jpg
CU7905.jpg
CU7904.jpg
CU7903.jpg
CU7902.jpg
CU7901.jpg
CU7900.jpg
CU7899.jpg
CU7898.jpg
CU7897.jpg
CU7896.jpg
CU7895.jpg
CU7894.jpg
CU7893.jpg
CU7892.jpg
CU7891.jpg
CU7890.jpg
CU7889.jpg
CU7888.jpg
CU7887.jpg
CU7886.jpg
CU7885.jpg
CU7884.jpg
CU7883.jpg
CU7882.jpg
CU7881.jpg
CU7880.jpg
CU7879.jpg
CU7878.jpg
CU7877.jpg
CU7876.jpg
CU7875.jpg
CU7874.jpg
CU7873.jpg
CU7872.jpg
CU7871.jpg
CU7870.jpg
CU7869.jpg
CU7868.jpg
CU7867.jpg
CU7866.jpg
CU7865.jpg
CU7864.jpg
CU7863.jpg
CU7862.jpg
CU7861.jpg
CU7860.jpg
CU7859.jpg
CU7858.jpg
CU7857.jpg
CU7856.jpg
CU7855.jpg
CU7854.jpg
4ujOPEo copy.jpg
Dook95e copy.jpg
Dsrfhg copy.jpg
IZpsbBQ copy.jpg
Tumblr nb55dy7meB1rsf8e7o1 500 copy.jpg
ZHmugbH copy.jpg
ZJuVqiR copy.jpg
</gallery>

==Manips 2014==
<gallery>
Wretg copy.jpg
Serthusretuy copy.jpg
Ariel 85499 7 copy.jpg
Ariel 85499 6 copy.jpg
Ariel 620 12 copy.jpg
WrgbvWG.jpg
Wgfpreohg.jpg
Rdehasret.jpg
CU7853.jpg
CU7852.jpg
CU7851.jpg
CU7850.jpg
CU7849.jpg
CU7848.jpg
CU7847.jpg
CU7846.jpg
CU7845.jpg
CU7844.jpg
CU7843.jpg
CU7842.jpg
CU7841.jpg
CU7840.jpg
CU7839.jpg
CU7838.jpg
CU7837.jpg
CU7836.jpg
CU7835.jpg
CU7834.jpg
CU7833.jpg
CU7832.jpg
CU7831.jpg
CU7830.jpg
CU7829.jpg
CU7828.jpg
CU7827.jpg
EvilBoo CU7826.jpg
EvilBoo CU7825.jpg
EvilBoo CU7824.jpg
EvilBoo CU7823.jpg
EvilBoo CU7822.jpg
EvilBoo CU7821.jpg
Evil boo WII2BDI.jpg
Evil boo vViA9kK.jpg
Evil boo SHqAX6C.jpg
Evil boo s4D9siS.jpg
Evil boo mjhqqzE.jpg
Evil boo eXLui4z.jpg
Evil boo 7jRZQ3s.jpg
</gallery>

==Manips 2009==
<gallery>
Aprilbot2287.jpg
Jackiebot.jpg
Larysaupload.jpg
Janebot.jpg
Samanthabot.jpg
Closet.jpg
Ericabot.jpg
Jessicabot.jpg
Some assembly.jpg
Tamrabot.jpg
Ami.jpg
Aprilbot.jpg
Kuzu.jpg
Debbiebot.jpg
Melissabot.jpg
Sophiebot.JPG
Trishabot copy.jpg
Dannibot.jpg
Evil boo shaybot.jpg
Evil boo marybot.jpg
</gallery>

==Animated Manips==
<gallery>
R1114.gif
OpeningUpToFriends.gif
Robot1062.gif
BouncyBounce.gif
State1.gif
</gallery>

==Commissioned Manips==
<gallery>
PA_com_1.png
PA_com_2.png
PA_com_3.png
PA_com_4.png
PA_com_5.png
PA_com_6.png
PA_com_7.png
PA_com_8.png
PA_com_9.png
PA_com_10-1.png
PA_com_10-2.png
PA_com_10-3.png
PA_com_10-4.png
PA_com_11.png
PA_com_12.png
PA_com_13-1.png
PA_com_13-2.png
PA_com_13-3.png
PA_com_14.png
PA_com_15.png
PA_com_16.png
PA_com_17.png
PA_com_18.png
PA_com_20.png
PA_com_21.png
PA_com_22.png
PA_com_24.png
PA_com_25.png
PA_com_26.png
PA_com_27.png
PA_com_30.png
PA_com_31.png
PA_com_32.png
PA_com_33.png
PA_com_34.png
PA_com_35.png
PA_com_36.png
PA_com_37.png
PA_com_38.png
PA_com_39-2.png
PA_com_40.png
PA_com_41.png
PA_com_42.png
PA_com_43.png
PA_com_45.png
PA_com_46.png
PA_com_47.png
PA_com_48.png
PA_com_49.png
PA_com_50.png
PA_com_51.png
PA_com_52.png
PA_com_53-1.png
PA_com_53-2.png
PA_com_54.png
PA_com_55.png
PA_com_56.png
PA_com_57.png
PA_com_58.png
PA_com_59.png
PA_com_60.png
PA_com_61.png
PA_com_62.png
PA_com_63.png
PA_com_64.png
PA_com_65.png
PA_com_66.png
PA_com_67.png
PA_com_68.png
PA_com_69.png
PA_com_70.png
PA_com_71.png
PA_com_72.png
PA_com_73.png
PA_com_74.png
PA_com_75.png
PA_com_77-1.png
PA_com_77-2.png
PA_com_77-3.png
PA_com_78.png
PA_com_79.png
PA_com_80.png
PA_com_81.png
</gallery>

{{Backtogallery}}

{{Backtocomissions}}

[[Category:2D art]]
[[Category:Natalie Bayer]]
[[Category:Photo manipulation]]
[[Category:Commissions]]

File:R1292.png

2026-06-10T21:33:06Z