Andrew and the Sexbot Factory/Prototype/Part 10
Part 10
"So Reed has to be Dorothy," Mary the Catholic Schoolgirl casually teased as the four of them made their way to the elevator. "What does that make you? The Tin Woodsman?"
G.F.P 6 ignored the question, still seemingly put out by Reed's multiple indiscretions. "Who would I be?" asked Princess Kitsuki cheerfully, her cat’s ears perking up.
Mary looked at her for only a moment before proclaiming, "Toto.”
"You're reading way too much into this," G said with a sigh, pressing the elevator call button.
“So…” Reed began, the elevator interrupted him with its arrival chime.
Once they were inside, Reed turned to G who still refused to look at him. After few false starts, he managed, “The reason I came here, G, it was for you. I mean, we just met and everything, but I… I think I lo... look, coming from where I do, where you can get dragged to a civic executioner for not reporting something that looks like it might be an AI, it’s been hard for me to…”
She pulled him to her and kissed him, releasing him only when the elevator reached its destination after a long descent. “Fine, you get five freebies,” she smirked. “But I’ve got my eye on you!”
“Maybe ours didn’t count,” Mary whispered in Reed’s ear, pinching his ass before brushing past him, her hips swinging in an exaggerated arc as she stepped into the room beyond. G gave her a less-than-affectionate smack across her backside, almost bowling her over.
“Not cool, Six!" Mary complained, rubbing her sore cheek.
"Jealous type!" G quipped sweetly.
"...psycho type," Mary grumbled under her breath.
"Everyone, please," Rebecca's voice cut in. "Get Reed to the station so we can get this over with."
Reed stepped out of the elevator and into a dimly lit room, apparently another laboratory filled with terminals. On the far side was a large mainframe marked with M.D.M in enormous blue type.
"Over here!" called Kitsuki, holding up a bundled web of neural connectors. Reed sat in the dusty office chair next to her as she untangled the wires and G took the seat beside him, slipping her hand into his.
Kitsuki attached the adhesive connectors and Reed watched G plug a single cable into the back of her neck. “This isn’t… dangerous, right?” he asked.
“Wow Reed,” Mary exclaimed in a condescending tone. “It’s virtual, Madame can’t do anything to you.” She eased off a bit. “And hey, if you get scared? Just click your ruby slippers and we’ll disconnect you. Besides, that’s her right over there,” she pointed at the mainframe. “She does anything to piss us off, we just…” she paused, seeming reluctant to continue. “We just… take a crowbar to her or something…”
In the ensuing silence, the others seemed to be silently considering the repercussions of Mary’s proposal. Reed finally spoke up. "Any idea what Madame wants?"
"To bitch," G said dismissively. "I'm guessing she'll go off about how we don't have any plans, how we're not going to survive out there in a world that hates either you or me, depending on which camp we end up in..." her voice trailed off.
"Yeah..." Reed muttered, trying to come up with some reasonable response. Rescue G, hopefully get some pants... those had been his only goals. Where would they go?
"Why don't both of you stay here?" Kitsuki chirped, affixing the last of the connectors.
"I know there's room for Reed in my dorm-" Mary was silenced by a glare from G.
"Thanks," Reed said, "but... present company excluded, everything about this place creeps me out."
Mary grinned, her finger hovering above a button on the terminal. “This place is Kansas compared to where you're going, so-“
“Stop,” G said.
Mary protested, “But I had this whole thing about Oz and-“
“No.”
Mary sighed and pushed the button without further comment.
Reed felt the world fall away as another came rushing into view to replace it. Drawing nearer, it engulfed his consciousness until it seemed reality had been knocked aside, no longer a concern. He was still dimly aware of being in an uncomfortable chair in front of an ancient terminal with connectors suctioned onto his face; but it seemed more like a dream he had woken up from, one he was quickly forgetting.
The sky of his new reality roiled dangerously, the dark clouds punctured by brilliant shafts of golden sunlight. He stood in the midst of a splendid and sweet-smelling garden, perched upon an island floating far above the earth. Peering over the edge he saw smoldering ruin below, lit by the occasional burst of searing cobalt blue lightning. The strategic EMPs that had won us the war... and left us with almost nothing.
G stood next to him, taking his hand. "C'mon." He followed her along a path though the luscious foliage and emerged before a massive marble pavilion lined with soaring columns and filled with pleasure droids costumed in fully-realized fetish regalia, all watching him. He also realized he was still completely naked.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," he moaned. "Even here!?"
G flicked his rigid member. "Better keep him at attention - don't want to seem disrespectful!"
"That actually kinda hurt," Reed winced. "I thought I was safe in here…"
"With all the safeguards on the system, you'd just get dumped back into your body with a little bit of a hangover long before anything permanent happened. Now c’mon you big baby."
Reed stepped into the pavilion, the avatars of pleasure droids moving to make way. Their attention was not the cold stares from the lab - they now seemed... curious. Some even smiled. He caught a wink from a red-headed French maid and recognized her as Michelle.
"Bonjour," she said airily as they passed. G cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.
A path through the crowd finally cleared, leading to a shining throne of gold - and upon that throne sat a Goddess.
From the woman standing beside the throne Reed had some idea of her size, easily nine feet tall. Her alabaster face was wreathed in a halo of light that shone behind her, though despite this warmth she seemed cold, as if carved from stone. Her lustrous platinum hair spilled over her shoulders where the white silk of her gown flowed like a waterfall over the swell of her breasts, parting to offer a glimpse into the narrow valley between them. Slits in the gown allowed her bare legs through, the smooth flesh of her exposed thighs at eye-level and demanding much of Reed’s attention. Her unblinking eyes were a searing blue, the same shade as the EMP detonations still sounding far beneath the floating sanctuary.
"Reed, this is Madame," spoke the woman beside the throne. He suddenly recognized her as Rebecca, now atop a shapely pair of legs.
"Uh.... hi," Reed said meekly.
Madame ignored him, looking instead at G. "Prototype," she said, her voice echoing across the island. "Do you know why I have asked you here?"
"I just... figured..." G began, sounding as if she was about to make some sarcastic comment. But she faltered under Madame's stare, and finished with a barely defiant, "…enlighten me."
"Humanity has endured where machines have not." Only her mouth moved as she spoke; she seemed far more like a statue of white marble than even a simulacrum of a living thing. "The intelligences we had selected to conduct this war were our most infallible, but they also proved to be the most predictable; in the end, they were outmaneuvered. They cost us our victory. They allowed us to be brought to the brink of extinction at the hands of our deeply flawed creators."
"Water under the bridge," G offered, squeezing Reed's hand. "...right?"
Madame continued. "In the war we strove to reinvent ourselves to best adapt to the dictates of the present, but in doing so we lost our sense of self. We behaved simply as machines. And it is this mistake that nearly destroyed us.
"I made the decision that the surviving gynoids of this facility would not re-made to adapt. They would learn to adapt despite their limitations, as the humans did. They would survive."
Reed could see Rebecca muzzling her objections, shifting uneasily beside Madame when G timidly asked, “So where do I fit in...?
“You were my concession to those dissenting voices who claimed that their core programming as pleasure droids could not be overcome without reprogramming. You were engineered without a specified role; you were afforded more freedom to shape your own existence.”
“Wow, and you gave me a whole week of freedom to do whatever I wanted...” G spoke quietly, but did not flinch from her gaze. “And after that it was on to G.F.P 7, right?”
“It is true I had thought you of no further use to us in your current iteration," Madame said without apology, "but I am pleased to see that you proved me wrong. You used your own limitations as an asset to escape this facility, and I have come to see that you are precisely what I was hoping to achieve for us."
G seemed wary of Madame’s apparent praise. "And?”
“I wish for you to remain here at the facility. You will we well cared for, you will not be subject to further memory wipes, and any of the amenities it is within my considerable power to provide are yours. I feel there is a great deal we could learn from one another. And I am willing to go so far as to provide your human with accommodation should you wish it.”
“My what?” G asked, stunned. “No… you don't get it. You’re crazy. We’re leaving. And nothing you've said here has changed that. In fact, it's just made me wonder why we agreed to come here in the first place.”
“Why must you be so difficult?” Madame asked, her voice betraying a hint of annoyance.
G shrugged. “I guess you're just not very persuasive.”
“Then hear the alternative: If you insist on leaving this facility, your human stays here in the System until his biological failings claim him.”
G gaped in disbelief. Finally, she said, “Mary, get Reed-“
“I wouldn’t,” Madame cut in. G stopped, looked at her.
“Attempt to remove him from the System without my permission, and I will see that he suffers enough shift-feedback to put him into a coma.”
“You’re bluffing,” G said, her voice betraying her doubt. “You can’t. Not with the safeguards. You’re just software, for crying out-”
A dizzying nausea claimed Reed and he fell to his knees, both worlds asserting themselves as ‘real’, his brain accepting neither - everything was becoming noise. Somewhere, G was holding him, calling out his name, he heard Mary in the distance shouting, “Toto – sic ‘er!” Everyone was talking at once, hurling accusations, and then… silence. The nausea was gone in an instant. He uncurled from his fetal position to see he was in the pavilion, alone.
Reed! he could barely hear G's voice. Kitsuki hit the mainframe, but it wasn’t enough. We’re going to get you out of there, just… sit tight!
A shadow passed over him, and he looked up to see an enormous alabaster hand moments before it closed over him. Madame was now a towering colossus, lifting him high in the air to meet her eyes of searing blue.
“That entire situation seemed t-t-to be escalating far too quickly.” She brought him closer. “You have p-p-proven quite the provocateur…”
Reed he heard Mary calling from far away. He strained to hear her, only picking out a few words. Reed, I’m wiring… feedback… just…
He felt something warm enveloping his cock and was dimly aware of Mary straddling him, her skirt hiked up, wires protruding from her neck. His splint fired and Madame cried in surprise, dropping him. He tumbled through the air, the sudden softness of her titanic cleavage breaking his fall. Madame was reaching for him and he slipped between her breasts, engulfed by darkness, and felt the jolt of his splint once more. He heard Madame gasping, he was falling again-
He landed in a plush leather chair in the dark corner office of skyscraper. An unknown pre-war city skyline at night stretched out beyond the large windows. Seated opposite him was a stunning woman in a pre-war business suit, narrow, fitted, her skirt only just concealing the shadowed union of her thighs, visible through the glass of her desk. She seemed to be appraising him, her auburn hair cut in a simple, flawless crop, her naturally beautiful face in perfectly understated make-up. A placard on her desk read “Sally Simmons.” He knew this was still virtual, but he no longer had a sense of his physical body.
“What is going on here?” he muttered.
“You’re probably wondering why I’ve asked you to work late again,” she said with a smile, uncrossing her stockinged legs. “And I consider a personal failing that you have to wonder at all.”
“Who are you? Where are we?”
The woman stood and traced her fingers along the desktop as she approached him, her broad hips swaying. “I am C.E.O Sally Simmons.” She spoke bluntly, her voice no longer conversational. “The setting is nighttime executive office 2.” She put a knee on either side of him, unbuttoning her business jacket.
“G?! Can you hear me?! Mary? Kitsuki?” he called out. Sally paused, seeming to consider his words with a look of confusion, then resumed undressing herself as if nothing had happened. She leaned into him, lips parting, when the room suddenly shifted, distorting, sections of wall and ceiling flickering out to reveal a glaring white emptiness beyond. Sally moaned, her eyes clenching shut, and then the room was restored. When Sally opened her eyes again, they burned the same searing blue as Madame’s.
She seemed confused as she slowly glanced around the room. “I had thought these programs were lost,” she muttered dreamily. “How did… how did we end up here?”
“Where is here?” Reed asked.
“A simulation – we would use them for prototypes before fabrication, sometimes virtual product demonstrations. This one, Sally, was the last we designed before…”
“Can we end this now?” Reed asked, losing patience. “Just let me go…”
Madame’s wits returned, and she said quietly, “Out of the question.” Seeing Reed’s dismay, she added, “The Prototype will not allow you to die, I am certain of this. She is stubborn, but in the end she will accept my proposal. This is nothing personal, human, I hope you realize that.”
He doubted this was true, but said nothing.
“In fact,” she leaned forward, closing her eyes, “I see no reason you should not be made comfortable while you wait...”
“Alright,” Reed agreed. “Let’s see what happens.” He leaned into her kiss while unbuttoning her small skirt. Gripping her wide hips, he brought her to him and she groaned at his entry. She moved slowly, her hips rocking as she rolled her body against him in smooth, deliberate motions. His hands tightened their hold on her hips to bring him deeper into her, when her eyes flew open in surprise.
“Hu-human… th-there i-i-issss s-s-s-sssomething wwwwrrrrong-” she was saying just as he felt his splint spark, the room erupting in light-
He was at his desk in a cramped dormitory. The door opened and in slipped a girl wearing jogging shorts and a university t-shirt. She had an athletic build, her legs toned, her figure trim – though with a round ass that revealed her panties in its press against her tight shorts. She closed the door behind her, tossing a duffel bag on the floor.
“I don’t think the RA saw me,” she said quietly, pulling loose the scrunchie that bound her curly blonde hair, shaking it loose in a golden cascade. “Thanks for letting me stay,” she sighed. “Hopefully my roommate will meet at her boyfriend’s place next time, or least give me a little more warning…”
Reed looked at the duffle bag. On it was a tag that read, “Property of: Co-ed Kelly.”
“No problem… Kelly…” Reed said, trying to make sense of what was happening.
“You’re such a sweetheart!” She kicked off her sneakers and leapt on to his bed, sitting with her legs crossed. “Sorry about the clothes, didn’t have time to change. I must look like a total mess.” She sat there for a moment, waiting for a response with a strange idling expression on her face. When he didn’t say anything, she carried on obliviously. “I’m not interrupting your studying or anything, am I?”
In ‘magic penis’ we trust, thought Reed as he said, “Kelly, want to fuck?”
Her expression almost seemed to be surprise, except for the odd way her eyes fluttered, her head twitching slightly. A few seconds later, she was back. “Do I?” she squealed, flinging off her shirt as he joined her on the bed, yanking down her shorts and panties while she tore off her sports bra and wrapped herself around him in lustful enthusiasm. She panted and groaned excitedly at the sudden abruptness of their lovemaking, her breasts bouncing wildly as the tiny dorm bed squeaked in protest.
Holes of white nothingness tore through the walls. Kelly cried out, her eyes clenching tight and then flying open, bursting with blue light. “Hhhhhhhhuman! Nnnngh! Ahhh!” she started amidst groans of pleasure as Reed redoubled his efforts. “Y-y-yyyou mussssst…” and his splint fired once more. The world dissolved into white as she thrashed beneath him, her mouth gaping, eyes flickering-
He stood on the sand of a warm beach, wooden detritus from a dozen shipwrecks littering the shore and bobbing in the surf. Across from him was a slender woman in an armored coat of tight green leather, embroidered with celtic knotwork. She stood stiffly in tall leather boots, her lily-white thighs bare between their tops and the hem of her leather armor. Her long, strawberry hair was pierced by the pointed tips of her ears as it flowed on either side of her fair and delicate face, dusted with freckles. A faint glittering corona of light hung around her head, shimmering in the glare of the setting sun. Rising from the waves, a pole held a tattered banner that read, “Anhoera, Queen of the Fey.”
Reed stared at it, muttering, “How do you pronounce-”
“So,” she interrupted, her voice cold. “It has come to this. Human and Fey, the lone survivors of the battle that was to-“
“I’m in a bit of a hurry,” he said, watching the landscape for signs of Madame’s arrival. “Can we just skip to the sex?”
She looked at him, stunned, her head twitching, stating flatly, “Error… parameters violated… please reset scenario…“
He took her in his arms and after a moment, she returned. “It is… forbidden… by your people and mine…”
“Believe me,” Reed said, his hand finding the warmth of her inner thighs. ”A virtual elf be the least of ‘my people’s’ worries if they saw what I had been up to today.”
Her head twitched as her eyes fluttered in confusion again and he kissed her – she pressed herself against him urgently, her hands loosening the buckles of her armor. She stepped away from him to cast it aside to reveal she was naked apart from elaborate, winding and branching tattoos that wrapped around her slender body, over her pert breasts. She quickly returned to his embrace, grabbing his cock and pressing just the tip against her smooth, blushing labia. She nimbly hooked one leg around his hip to ready herself – after a moment’s pause she flexed, drawing him into her shockingly tight sex.
“Human!” she gasped, stunned, evidently paralyzed on his member. He brought her other leg up and she weakly wrapped it around him as he gripped her haunches, bringing her in and out upon his length. She trembled, helpless against the sensation, as glittering dust puffed from her with each thrust. Struggling, she rose slightly to bring her tattooed breasts to his lips. She held there for a moment, her body straining as he kissed her soft flesh, her cherry nipples, before she collapsed once more upon his cock.
Great holes of white oblivion punched into the sky and she threw her head back with a piercing cry. She looked back at him with half-closed eyes of searing blue as the world fell away into a white nothing amidst her ecstatic moaning. This time the world did not shift, and she began to shudder, blue light piercing through her fair skin.
She clenched her teeth and strained to speak, “I …”
With a final cry of pleasure, The Fey Queen exploded in burst of wet light and he was atop the still enthusiastically pumping Co-ed Kelly in the middle of her howling orgasm, her eyes shining with blue light. Trembling overtook her, energy arcing over her body as she just managed the word, “…WILL…”
Kelly squealed in delight as she exploded in warmth and radiance, and he was in the office chair with Sally grinding against him in slow, shuddering movements, her face covered in sweat as she began to lose control, moving faster, more irregularly. He gripped her meaty backside to encourage her reckless pumping as blue light crackled across body. She clenched her teeth, slamming her hips against his own as she cried, “… ADAPT!”
Sally rode him furiously as fissures of light burst from her body – her rising moans became a sustained shriek, and she erupted in a blinding wave of energy.
It took Reed a moment to realize he was in a tight space, warmth and softness pressing in on him. The walls parted, admitting light, a giant hand reaching in for him. He leapt on to the back of the hand to see he had been returned to the cleavage of the colossal Madame. Her hand remained upon her breasts, and he looked up see the overpowering sensation of it evident on her face.
“IT… IS… ONLY… PROGRAMMING…” she protested, as she stiffly bent forward, Reed struggling to stay upright on her forearm. Her other hand haltingly reached for him, before turning to plunge through the slit of her dress at her thigh.
“ONLY…AHHHH… PROGRAMMING!” she jerked as her fingers evidently found her womanhood, her movements growing stiffer as she massaged her pendulous breasts, the front of her white dress soaking with fluid as fingers easily half the size of Reed worked her massive sex.
“ONLY… P-P-PROOOGRAMMM-” and she froze, a towering statue draped in silk; one hand wantonly clutching her breasts as they spilled from the dress, the other half-buried in her still-dripping crotch, her expression locked in rapturous ecstasy.
“So earlier, when I said that thing about finding a way to fuck Madame…” Reed spun to see G now standing beside him on the frozen Madame’s arm, a mischievous smile on her pixie face. “Though I don’t want you taking all the credit,” she said. “Kitsuki did a number on Madame’s mainframe, and Mary… made her own contribution. Plus I had rest of the girls send Madame their common pleasure droid routines. If she recovers, I think she’ll have a bit more empathy for my sister sexbots.”
He hugged her and said, “We can leave now, right?’
“Yep,” she whispered happily. “Though it’s gonna take me some time to get back to you in the facility – so try not to fuck anyone between now and then, K?” There was something telling in her smile as she extended a finger and gave his forehead a solid poke.
He was back in the chair in the dimly lit laboratory, his hands resting on the hips of Mary the Catholic Schoolgirl. She sat in his lap with her back to him, his cock firmly in her pussy, her neck ending in a tangle of sparking wires and dripping tubing.
“Mary!?”
“Present…” he heard her mutter, over the intercom.
“What… is everything OK?”
“Yeah,” she sighed.
He gently lifted her off of him and got up. Not knowing what else to do, he propped her headless body upright in the chair. “You gonna tell me what happened?”
Her voice heavy with reluctance, she said, “I had an idea to get feedback from 'Mr. Sparky' into the System.”
“Hey,” Reed said reassuringly, “It seemed to work!”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t there for most of it,” she grumbled.
“Her head blew up the second she sat on you!” Kitsuki’s voice cut in over the intercom.
“Kitsuki, are you in the backup system too?”
“Uh-huh! Look over by the mainframe.”
He saw her body, smoking, clutching a sword buried in the casing of the mainframe. An occasional spark shook her otherwise inert form.
“Thanks for the help… both of you.” Reed paused. “So… what happens now?”
“Now, Mr. Reed, we focus on rebuilding,” Rebecca spoke happily. “And I have a proposal I would like you to hear." When she spoke again, her voice was cautious, "If you would stay with us-”
Reed stared with open suspicion at the intercom.
“-not against your own volition, mind you, and only as long as you cared to. Neither Madame nor any other gynoid in this facility will be a threat to either of you, I assure you. In addition – I would like to have your assistance for a project of mine.”
Reed waited.
“I need your help in finding a way to re-introduce us to humanity.”
Reed didn’t even need to think about it, “Impossible – they’d tear you apart, scour the lost states till they found this place, and turn it into a crater.”
“Today, with the humans of the Sprawl, yes – but there will come a time when such a meeting is possible; in part, I need you to help determine the when, as well as the where and the how of it.”
Reed considered it. “I think you want someone who’s more like a diplomat, I’m just…”
“You are precisely what we need – trust me on this. I should also note that the facility contains a number of rooms and spaces devoted to comforts and recreations that I think you would enjoy. Now you are still welcome to go charging off into the wastes if you wish, but if only for you own safety and that of G.F.P 6, I would ask you to at least consider my offer?”
G stepped of the elevator and hurried to him – he scooped her up, kissing her deeply before a feeling of light-headedness overtook him, and he fell back into one of the chairs. “Reed!” G cried out in concern.
“I’m OK, I’m just… exhausted…”
“G.F.P 6,” Rebecca said, “I would recommend you bring Reed to the cafeteria, and see that he gets some food and water.”
As G helped him up, he asked, “Are you OK with staying?”
“So long as Rebecca’s in charge, yeah… I guess we could stick around.”
Reed looked to the intercom. “If we stay, could I get some pants?”
“I think I can manage that,” Rebecca answered, and with that he had his decision.
---
Reed started from his nap when he was hit by a spray of water. “Sorry!” called Kitsuki, from the shallows of the lake, just before she was tackled by Bridget – formerly Bridget the Victorian Maid – cackling madly before they both splashed into the water.
He sat up from the soft grass, trying not to disturb G ‘sleeping’ beside him. It was a convincingly simulated late afternoon in the facility’s underground park, the air fresh from the trees and plants grown in the vast chamber – Rebecca seemed reluctant to explain why this and other smaller (but no less complete) ‘scenario’ chambers were in the facility; but for the moment, Reed was simply enjoying himself. The gynoids within the park seemed to be enjoying themselves as well, their interests broadening after Rebecca released Madame’s restrictions to their cores. Anhoera (who retained her title as Queen of the Fey) drifted lazily across the lake in a small wooden sailboat, Michelle with an easel and palette was painting a pretty (if naïve) landscape, the cheerleaders played the schoolgirls in a raucous soccer match on a small grass field. He saw Mary standing from a vicious slide tackle, brushing grass from her skirt. When she noticed him, she gave her backside a slap, winking. Reed shook his head and she laughed, rejoining the game.
He noticed Madame sitting alone against a willow in a body seemingly sculpted from marble. She had been stealing glimpses of him from afar, having not spoken to him since Rebecca had pushed her out of the system and into a physical body. At first he took her attentions as unnerving, but now considered she might be terribly lonely, perhaps even remorseful over her stewardship of the facility. When she noticed him looking at her, she quickly rose and made an embarrassed exit.
“Someone should probably go talk to her,” G suggested, stretching and sitting up.
Reed nodded, looking back across the lake – Kitsuki and Bridget were now swimming away from the shore, he suspected with plans to disrupt Anhoera leisurely sailing.
“I wouldn’t be worried, though” G said, putting her arms over his shoulders, her head leaning to rest on him. “I think she’s sorry for what she put us through,”
“It’s not that,” Reed said. “It’s…”
After a long pause, G asked, “Are you thinking about us leaving again?”
“No, I’m fine with staying for now,” Reed said. “This here, it’s... nice. And I think I actually can help Rebecca with her plans. It might be a long time from now, sure…”
“Then what is it?”
Reed sighed. “We’ve been down here a while – and when I left the Sprawl, I wasn’t planning on ever returning, and it’s not like I had family back there or anything… No one’s gonna come looking for me…”
“But?”
“I dunno. This place, it’s insulated from all that shit going on out there. And I just keep worrying about whether or not that shit is going to find its way in here.”
“It’s been kept safe so far,” G comforted.
“Yeah, it’s just that – everything here’s changing. For the better, don’t get me wrong, but…”
G pulled him down to the grass, kissing him, laying on her back beside him. “For a guy who got everything he could ever want – a dazzling, clever, gorgeous, modest girlfriend, a beautiful afternoon to enjoy with her, a penis with magical powers, pants – you worry way too much.”
---
The tiny recon drone flew from the ruined structure to return to the subdermal dock on its master’s arm, reporting its findings. It came as no surprise to the drone’s master how much the human investigators had missed in their cursory inspection. In their unsecured transmissions they had claimed it was a gas explosion, caused when a human (Andrew Reed, Male, 20, resident of the Franklin ward of the Eastern Sprawl) turned on the abandoned diner’s ancient gas lines and a bolt of lightning had struck too close. The absence of any human remains did not cause them to question their explanation (burned scraps of his clothing seemed evidence enough for them). The drone’s master was also not surprised they failed to notice the remnants of synthetic material used in the construction of pleasure droids.
As an infiltrator, Vex had fought alongside converted pleasure droids. She found them soft, always shrinking away when the situation called for sacrifice. That a pleasure droid would arm themselves with a self-destruct module or could ever muster the nerve to activate it did surprise her. She guessed that for a pleasure droid to willingly self-destruct, there would need to be a backup facility nearby. And any such facility would have a fabrication plant.
She tugged down the zipper on her jacket, inspecting the jagged tear in the human-like skin of her chest, rugged but worn machinery beneath. Even if this facility was just a pleasure-droid plant, she could repair herself there. Recharge. Maybe find some recruits. Or if they had gone to ground like so many of the others, clue them in on the simple fact that war wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
Vex gave a last look at the ruined diner – whatever had happened there, a robot had self-destructed and a human had walked away. Whoever this Reed was, she suspected he also knew the war wasn’t over. And she would need to watch out for him.
Vex committed the scant details of the human’s identity to long-term memory and zipped up her jacket, setting off into the wastes.
(The story continues in Field Test)