Green Thumb - The Greenhouse
The Small Business Chronicles: Green Thumb - The Greenhouse
Chapter One: Opening day
Gabby woke up with a start as the alarm she had set for herself woke her up. Fortunately, it was an alarm only she could perceive, since as an android, she could set her own internal alarms. Jack was still sleeping peacefully next to her, though she was about to remedy that.
“Jack,” she said softly, giving him a light shove to wake him up.
Jack responded with only a grunt.
“Jack!” Gabby said more forcefully, shoving him harder.
Another grunt.
“JACK!” She shouted this time, slightly modulating her voice so it would be directed only at him, so as not to wake up Henry.
This time he woke with a start, the sudden adrenaline boost caused by her shouting giving him the perfect wake up call. “What is it dear?” He asked somewhat groggily; it was only 5am.
“It’s the day,” she replied cheerfully, “opening day, remember?”
“Oh yeah, the greenhouse,” he said, rubbing the sand out of his eyes before looking at the clock with a grimace, “Uh, did you have to wake me so early?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” she said, taking on a more apologetic tone, “I have a lot of work to do, and some of the plants in there can only be tended to early in the morning.”
“Okay,” he nodded, stretching himself out before sitting on the edge of the bed, “you know what to do, right?”
“Absolutely!” She squealed, rushing over and planting a loving kiss on his lips before rushing into the bathroom and closing the door. She sent Gemma a wireless message to prepare Jack’s morning cup of coffee, and to get the ingredients ready for breakfast; she still intended on cooking for her husband.
While she messaged Gemma, and Ellie, she was simultaneously cleaning out her mouth, nose, and ears with a special solution meant just for androids. Then, she sat down on the toilet and expelled a blue-detergent like substance from her bowels. Ever since she had become sentient, she’d spent a bit of money on herself so she could purchase special detergent tabs that she could swallow each night and that would slowly clean out her digestive systems, all the way through.
Once she was done with the orifice cleaning, she stepped into the warm shower and made sure to scrub every inch of her perfect body. After all, she was about to receive some upgrades, so she wanted to be perfectly clean for when Jack worked on her.
Once she was out of the shower, she started a trick that Ellie had clued her in on to make working on her hair and face easier. She braced herself on the plush bathmat in front of the sink, making sure the entire area was dry, before reaching up to her neck and twisting her head off. Once her secondary visual and audio systems came online via the neck camera and mic, she carefully set her head down on a dry towel and began blow drying the hair before putting it up in the style that Jack liked. Finally, she applied a few dabs of android skin repair lotion to her face, rubbed it in, and then applied the minimal makeup that Jack preferred. When she was done, she paused briefly to admire her work, as well as the frozen look on her face, before carefully lifting her head back up and clicking it in place on her neck.
Once her head was back online, she took in a deep breath of the warm, humid air before heading out into the room and into the closet.
Nicolette was still being stored in the closet, though it had been a few days since they used her, so she was starting to gather a light layer of dust. She sent a reminder in her HUD to have Nicolette clean herself later in the day, though at the moment she was focused on picking out a good set of clothes to wear in the greenhouse. After she put on a comfortable pair of underwear, she slipped on some trousers, and a breathable t-shirt, before slipping on some socks and and a pair of slip on boots to protect her pretty feet. She then walked over to view herself in the mirror attached to the back of the closet door.
“Very nice,” she said to herself, though she knew she would have to undress in an hour when Jack began working on her, but since she intended on getting to work the second he was done; she didn’t want to waste any time dressing in something pretty, or casual.
Once she was sure she was ready, she sighed contentedly and began heading downstairs to cook her husband breakfast.
Jack smiled as he watched Gabby rush into the bathroom to get ready, acting like an excited child on Christmas morning eager to open presents. Despite her sentience, she still really enjoyed getting upgrades, since the wordplay he’d instilled in her, as well as the other androids, was still very strong.
Once he heard the sink turn on, he got up out of bed and slipped out of his pajamas and into the general set of clothes he typically wore down in the lab. Once dressed, he headed down the stairs, welcomed by the smell of a fresh brew of coffee that Gemma had just prepared.
“Gabby, I love you,” Jack chuckled, knowing she had sent Gemma a message to get some coffee ready. He even saw Gemma had prepared some ingredients for omelettes, though hadn’t cooked them.
“Thanks Gemma,” Jack said politely, taking the cup of coffee from her that had already been mixed with the peppermint cream that he liked, “I take it Gabby still wants to cook.”
“Yes sir,” Gemma said politely, still using the more subservient Mia personality since they were in the house, “it’s alright, I don’t mind.”
“Yeah, Gabby really does love cooking for me,” he smiled, taking the coffee out into the front room and sitting down, turning on the TV to the local news channel while he waiting for Gabby to clean up.
A few minutes later, he heard the shower turn off upstairs, followed by several footsteps a few minutes later. Finally, he heard their bedroom door open, and Gabby slowly descended the stairs seconds later in a decent set of gardening attire.
“How do I look?” She asked dramatically, pausing halfway down so he could get a good luck.
“Like you’re ready to work,” he smiled.
“Good, that’s what I was going for,” she smiled beautifully, continuing to the bottom of the stairs and turning into the kitchen, “breakfast will be ready in a few minutes dear.”
“I look forward to it,” he smiled, watching her blow him a kiss before heading over to the stove. Jack pretended to catch it before enjoying the rest of his coffee and watching the news.
Gabby called him in to the kitchen almost ten minutes later, though the smell of her cooking had been tempting him for several minutes leading up to it. Ever since she’d download some molecular gastronomy programs, her cooking skills had improved immeasurably. They’d cost her quite a bit, though with the greenhouse, she could afford it.
“So, are you excited for the upgrades?” Jack asked her, once he’d taken a few bites of the delicious food.
“Oh yeah,” she purred, “I mean, I’m always excited for upgrades, but these will actually offer me a more meaningful improvement than ‘7.275% better cpu speed’, or ‘.02% more battery life’, or ‘fixes more than 1,000 bugs’,” she said, quoting the change log blurbs and saying them in a funny voice.
“Hey, every little bit counts…especially for you,” he defended.
“I know, and I do appreciate it,” she said, “but these upgrades today will actually keep me safe in my own greenhouse, and greatly improve my efficiency outside of it.”
“Yeah, though you aren’t getting quite as much as the other girls, minus Ellen of course,” he pointed out, “unlike you and Ellen, they actually need to function in there 24/7.”
“Yeah,” she waved off, “by the way, when is Ellen supposed to be arriving?”
“Sometime this afternoon,” Jack said, “she’s still setting up her new unit, and wants to make sure everything is in order before bringing in her old one.”
“I see,” Gabby nodded, “you know, I’m really glad you convinced her to to part with that Secretary unit of hers…she’s quite fond of it.”
“Yeah, but when I offered her a company discount on a Perfect Friend model with discounted maintenance for a year, she was more than happy to part with it.”
“Well, I look forward to when it gets here…she’s very fun to talk to.”
“That she is,” Jack laughed.
“Do you know when Zoya gets off work at the clinic today?” Gabby asked, finishing her food and setting her dishes aside, “I know she changed her shift at the last minute, and I want to show her the section of the greenhouse that we’re growing her medicines and herbs that she’ll need for the clinic you’re gonna build her.”
“Hey Gemma, when did Zoya leave this morning?” Jack asked, since Gemma was standing by to clean up after them.
“Zoya left this morning at 3:37am,” Gemma reported dutifully.
“Well then, that means she was starting her shift at 4am, which means she’ll be home around 2:30pm,” Jack told Gabby; Zoya worked 10hr shifts at a clinic in the residential part of town.
Gabby zoned out momentarily as she ran a few calculations. “Okay, I think I can get most everything ready by then,” she nodded with a smile on her face, “assuming that you get Missy done right after me, followed by Camren.”
“I was actually planning on doing Enja right after Camren,” Jack told her, “do you want me to do Camren instead?”
“Yes please,” she nodded, “I need Camren because she’s shorter…Enja and I are more or less the same height, so I can easily handle her tasks until she’s ready.”
“Fair enough,” Jack shrugged, “it doesn’t really matter to me which order I do them in, to be honest.”
“Thanks, dear.”
“My pleasure,” Jack smiled, finishing the last bite of his omelette and downing the rest of the orange juice.
As soon as he was done eating, Gemma smoothly swooped in and collected both sets of dishes before taking them to the sink for cleaning.
“I know, I’m in a rush,” Gabby shrugged, indicating she’d instructed Gemma to do so wirelessly. “I wish I could communicate with these guys like you can,” Jack mused, as they both got up and exited the kitchen; Gemma swiftly approached the dining table to clean as soon as they left.
“Well, won’t you be able to with that project you and Zoya are working on?”
“I hope so,” Jack smiled, since it was still in the planning stages, and would likely be an irreversible procedure. They approached the lift leading down into his lab moments later, and stepped in, patiently waiting for it to empty out on the bottom.
When they arrived in the lab, Jack was pleased to detect fresh air circulating, with a soothing scent of peppermint.
“I had Ellie and JB clean the filters before we got down, and spritz them with some peppermint oil,” Gabby said, enjoying the content look on Jack’s face, “I know it helps you relax, and you work better when you’re relaxed.”
“I love you, Gabby,” he said, turning to her and planting a loving kiss on her lips.
“I love you too, dear,” she said, her face flushed as they broke apart.
When they walked out into the main lab, they saw Ellie and JB getting things ready for Jack. They had his computer terminal booted up, Gabby’s upgrades all laid out on a side table, and all of Jack’s tools ready. They even had a few snacks and drinks ready on his desk.
“Wow, you really want to get upgraded,” Jack laughed.
“You bet I do!”
“Well, you know the drill,” he told her, giving her a playful spank on her but as she began disrobing.
“Yep, and I get to borrow Ellie and JB for a while, right?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, getting logged in on his computer.
“Thanks,” Gabby smiled, pausing briefly in the middle of removing her clothes to transmit instructions to Ellie and JB. Once she was finished, they nodded politely and headed to the lift.
“We’ll be back in a few hours Jack,” Ellie called back, “Have fun!”
“You know I will!” He called back, before turning back around to gaze down on his wife, now fully nude with her primary torso panel removed, waiting patiently on the examination table. “Let the fun begin.”
Chapter Two - Gabby's Retrofit
Although Gabby had kept saying she was excited to receive upgrades, it was actually more accurate to say she was being retrofitted. Essentially, in order to function properly in the new greenhouse, which had temperature and humidity conditions that would ordinarily be damaging to an android in long term situations, she needed to receive some of the components that the Personal Trainer androids usually shipped with, since they were specifically designed to be able to train in extreme weather conditions.
While Jack had improved Gabby’s systems over the years to make her far more durable than the average Housewife model, she was still lacking. Fortunately, Spaztec did release Housewife compatible parts equivalent to those found in Personal Trainer models, for those customers who lived in extreme conditions, so Jack didn’t have to jury rig anything.
Basically, Jack needed to retrofit Gabby’s body so she could handle the heat and humidity inside the greenhouse for more than three hours at a time, which is what she was currently rated at, as well as to enhance her filters for the various pollen and airborne material she would be breathing in.
“Alrighty Gabby, this is going to be a rather intense retrofit session,” he warned her, I need to install new components in your torso, as well as your head…and some existing components will need to be linked up with the new ones.”
“Well, you love it when things get intense with me, so I’m sure you’ll have loads of fun,” she smiled playfully.
“That I do,” he smiled back, leaning in and planting a loving kiss on her lips before focusing on work, “Okay, can you please disengage your head please?”
Gabby merely nodded before resting her face in a gentle smile. Blue lights then appeared around her neck, and whirring sounds could be heard. Once the lights had completely encircled her neck, Jack smoothly reached down and pulled her head free of the rest of her body, placing it gently on a cushioned side table. The audio/visual tower quickly popped up out of Gabby’s neck and the camera pivoted in his direction.
“Try not to mess up my hair too much dear,” her voice sounded from a speaker embedded in her throat.
“I won’t,” he promised, before focusing back on her head, momentarily entranced by the frozen expression on her face.
Since she was concerned about her hair, the first thing Jack did was remove her scalp panel by tapping the subdermal controls just behind her ears. Once the seam had appeared, he carefully lifted her scalp, and hair, off and placed it on a hat display that he purchased from a store that was closing. Ellie thought it was funny he used it, but he argued that the scalp panel was basically a hat/wig for androids, and she grudgingly admitted he was likely right.
“Is there anything you’d like me to do while you work on my head?” Gabby asked politely.
“Yes, you can go ahead and check for any software updates that are available,” he told her, “and you can install them too.”
“Okie dokie,” Gabby reported, before falling silent.
With Gabby’s hair now safe from being messed up, Jack grabbed some tools and used them on the bottom of Gabby’s head to carefully disengage and remove her throat tube, a similar procedure he’d done with Kat over a year earlier.
Once he had Gabby’s throat tube removed, he placed it in the special drawer he kept at his desk that had all of Gabby’s spare parts, and then opened a box that had a brand-new throat tube. The main difference with this throat tube was that the outside was covered with a light spongy material sealed in plastic, but with a few tubes running from it. Jack carefully slid the new throat tube in place and then reoriented her head so he could look inside the scalp panel.
At the very bottom of the open cavity which contained the sensory control unit that processed Gabby’s vision, hearing, taste, smell, and head touch to be sent to her A.I. Core, was the inside portion of Gabby’s mouth, with the upper end of the throat tube visible. There were four tube that came out of the throat tube, two were the same color, and the other two were different colors. Jack grabbed the two that were the same color, blue, and hooked them up to small tanks that were located next to both of Gabby’s eyes. These were tear duct tanks, and already had a tube connected from the lower section of her head, since they previously were replenished from her fluid tanks in her torso.
The next tube, red, he hooked up to a tank in the back of her head that handled her head’s perspiration. Also, like the tear tanks, this was also replenished from her torso. Finally, he hooked the green tube up to a tank attached to her mouth that handled her saliva. This too was also connected to her torso.
Once he had all four tubes connected, he relaxed back in his chair and rested from the delicate work. With all the tubes now connected, Gabby’s head was now capable of converting excess humidity that she breathed in from the greenhouse into tears, saliva, and perspiration. The perspiration was more important, because it would help her better regulate her temperature in the high heat of the greenhouse.
“Hey Jack, I need to reboot really quick to install some of these updates,” Gabby announced, when she saw that Jack was taking a brief break from working in her head.
“Okay, just let me know when you’re back,” he smiled.
“Will do,” she replied cheerfully, before falling silent. Although she gave no verbal announcement that she was rebooting, Jack could see the lights flashing in her body and on her core indicating that she was doing so.
After his quick break, Jack grabbed a small box and pulled out what looked like a filter with two small tubules. Jack once again reached inside Gabby’s open head and fiddled around with the back end of Gabby’s nose, removing a similar looking filter. Jack was always fascinated with the android’s nose filters, since they were also basically the interior of the nose, including the delicate hairs. Jack quickly inserted the new filter, which was merely a higher dust and pollen rating, so Gabby could handle the higher pollen count within the greenhouse. The filter basically trapped as much as it could, and then allowed Gabby to blow it all back out.
Now that Jack had all the components within Gabby’s head upgraded, he gently clicked her scalp back into placed, being mindful of her hair, and rested her head back on the cushion. Just as he had it set, Gabby came back online following her reboot.
“I’m back!” She announced playfully.
“Great,” Jack smiled, “I just finished with your head and am ready to start in your torso.”
“Ah, good,” Gabby said, “are you going to reattach my head now?”
“No, I still need to replace the section of your throat in the torso first,” he told her, grabbing the box that contained the new throat section in her torso, “I’m going to keep you online for most of this, so try not to move too much.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
Jack carefully dove in to her torso panel and began disconnecting the bottom section of the tube from both her lungs, and her stomach. Once the bottom sections were properly disconnected, he moved up to the exposed section of her neck and pressed the small release buttons near her throat tube, allowing him to smoothly pull the tube from her body. He placed the old tube in Gabby’s spare part drawer and then prepared the new tube.
Just like the tube he’d installed in her head, this tube also had the spongy outer layer sealed in plastic, as well as a couple extra tubes. Jack carefully fed each tube through the hole leading down into Gabby’s interior and then the whole tube.
Once the new tube was fully inserted, he secured the release buttons and then dove back into her body, making quick work of reattaching the tubes connected to the stomach and lungs. At that point, he stopped, since the other things he needed to connect the tubes to weren’t installed yet, and carefully detached both her lungs. After placing them in the spare parts drawer, he brought over some new lungs with a similar spongy material coated in plastic, and installed them. In addition to the spongy material, her new lungs also had miniature dehumidifiers as well, in order to help expel any excess moisture that the new throat tubes missed.
“Okay Gabby, I’m gonna be working around your MCN now, so definitely don’t move.”
“Ok,” she replied patiently.
The next thing Jack pulled out was a strange rig that appeared to fit directly around the MCN. This was a series of tubes with a clear liquid contained within, as well as a storage tank. Jack carefully fit it over Gabby’s MCN, hooking it up to the heat sink that was already connected to the lungs, and then connected one of the tubes from the new throat tube to the tank. This new rig would essentially act as a liquid cooling system to augment her air cooling, since the greenhouse would be significantly warmer on average than the outside.
“Okay, I’m done with your MCN, but now I need to do a few things to your A.I. Core,” he told her, “which means you’ll need to shut down for a bit.”
“Aww, okay,” Gabby said in a mock voice of disappointment, “All systems shutting down,” she then dutifully reported, before all the systems in her body shut off.
Jack waited a few moments for the area around her core to cool off, taking the time to take a few bites of the snacks, and a few sips of the drinks. Once he was satisfied, he cleaned off his hands and returned to Gabby’s body, delicately removing her core and placing it with care next to her head on the cushioned surface.
Instead of working on her core, which he planned on doing next, he actually removed the casing that the core plugged in to. Just as with the other parts, this casing went into the spare parts drawer, and was replaced by a brand-new casing that was fitted with a slightly more delicate liquid cooling array than the MCN, as well as a few dehumidifiers. Once he had the new casing attached, and had the tubes from the new throat tube plugged into it, he pulled himself back out of her body to assess what to do next.
So far, all of the improvements were either to reduce/extract excess humidity, or to maintain proper temperature controls. The only exception was the new nose filter, as well as the filter that was attached to the new set of lungs, which were meant to keep out dust and pollen. These were all improvements Jack could have made to Gabby at any time, since they were made for Housewife’s functioning in extreme environments, but they were a tad expensive, and she didn’t need them until now. Still, as expensive as they were, the income she would be bringing in from the greenhouse would more than make up for the costs of maintaining her.
After Jack’s assessment was done, he reached back into her body and pulled out a large tank of fluid near her back that was hooked into an apparatus with many tubes leading throughout her body. This tank stored her SmartSweat. Jack pulled a smaller tank from it that contained the artificial scent/aromas that gave Gabby a more unique aroma before placing the perspiration tank in the spare parts drawer and then installing a brand-new tank that was 25% larger, making sure to attach the aroma tank to it first. Gabby would need the larger tank to store all the extra perspiration her systems would be able to produce from them excess humidity, and to help cool off her body in the warm temperature of the greenhouse. In addition, the SmartSweat formula in this tank was a heavier duty grade meant for warm climates, so it would keep her even cooler.
With the new perspiration tank installed, Jack had only one more thing to work on: Gabby’s core. Fortunately, he’d saved the easiest task for last. Since Gabby’s core could function while not in the body’s casing, it had its own small heat sink which Jack easily swapped out with one with a higher rating. In addition, he sprayed the sides of her core with a special substance that came out of a can, that would offer better protection from moisture build up just in case. Finally, he installed an additional memory storage module in one of her empty slots, since she had requested it in order to handle some extra programs she wanted to install later. Since she already had very good memory storage capacity, this only increased her overall storage by 15%, but it was more than enough for what she needed.
Before Jack reinserted her into her body, he quickly connected the remaining tubes from the new throat assembly to the perspiration tank, and then he walked over to his computer and copied over the update files Gabby would need in order to properly use her new hardware over into her dedicated update server.
“Okay Gabby’s lets get you back in,” Jack said fondly, picking up Gabby’s core and gently reinserting it into the new housing. Once she was back in with a satisfactory click, he tapped the power icon on her core and smiled as he saw all her lights come back on, her components purring back to life.
He watched patiently as the diagnostics ran on the small panel on her core. In the usual amount of time, she came back online like she always did.
“Ahh, that was a nice nap,” Gabby said, making a yawn sound from her throat speaker, “Did you finish up with me? All I’m detecting is the new memory module you installed…. thanks, by the way.”
“Don’t mention it,” he smiled, “I added the necessary files to your update server…you can download them right away, and they shouldn’t require a reboot.”
“Okay,” she said, the network icon flashing wildly on her core as she remotely accessed the private update server Jack had set up for her. “I see them, should only take a sec,” she replied, as he verified on his computer that she was downloading them. Once she finished, he cleared the queue and archived the file under today’s update log. “Okay, they’re installed…no reboot needed,” she announced cheerfully, as he saw the new liquid cooling systems activate with a cool blue light around her MCN and A.I. Core.
“Beautiful,” Jack marveled, “I’m gonna put your head back on now.”
“Okay, I’ll get ready,” she said, smoothly retracting her A/V/tower back into her neck. Normally the android would do that automatically when it detected its head moving back towards the body, but Gabby did it early so Jack could put her head back on more quickly. Once her head was attached, she had to spend a few extra microseconds interfacing with the new hardware he installed, before rearranging her face into a smile. “Wow, this new stuff feels great!” She squealed, squirming excitedly on the table as she checked out the various new control panels she now had access to in her HUD.
“Glad to hear it, since it cost quite a bit,” he smiled wryly, “Now, these are designed to increase your hot/humid resistance from 3hrs to 12hrs, but it still wouldn’t hurt to take breaks in between,” he told her seriously, “you mean a great deal to me, and I don’t want you melting down in there.”
“Awww, don’t worry dear…of course I’ll still take extra precautions, I love being alive too much not to, and I love you too much too.” She assured him, her eyes tearing up slightly; she could already feel some of the low humidity in the room being absorbed by her new throat tubes and slightly replenishing her tear tanks.
Jack said nothing, but she could see his eyes tearing up too. Without a word, he bent down kissed her lovingly, breaking apart moments later, absently wiping his eyes.
“So, am I done now?” She asked.
“I want to do a quick inspection first, and then you’ll actually need to recalibrate your motor systems, since the new components added about 3-5lbs to your overall weight.”
“Darn, I’ve been trying to lose weight,” she jested, giving him a playful wink.
“Well, maybe I’ll be able to shave some weight off with your end of the year upgrades,” he winked back, as he sat down on his work chair and inspected her hands and feet for damage.
“Ooh, I can’t wait,” she smiled, the breathing deeply as he practically massaged her hands and feet to inspect for damage.
“I’m gonna apply some skin repair cream,” he told her, “and, you might want to have your body increase the muscle mass in your legs by about 5% to handle the increased weight,” he added, squirting some cream onto his hands and rubbing it into her feet.
“Ooh,” she said despite herself, enjoying the feeling of him rubbing her feet, as well as the feeling of the nanites in her feet using the cream to repair the micro damage present. “Okay, I’ll be sure to add some extra protein to my plate tonight,” she told him, programming her body to increase the muscle mass in her legs. Once she ate the protein, it would just be a simple matter of her bodies nanites using it to increase her muscle mass slightly.
“I hope that means the meal you cook tonight is extra yummy,” Jack said hopefully, now rubbing cream into Gabby’s hands.
“Well, it depends on how good the first crops are,” she said, “and how much help I have.”
“Don’t worry dear…I’ll get all your girls in tip top shape, as I always do.”
“I know you will,” she smiled, sighing contentedly as he continued rubbing in the cream, allowing her body to repair the minor wear and tear on her hands.
When Jack finished with the cream, he wiped it off with a hand towel and then peaked inside Gabby’s body once more to verify all the new hardware he’d spent the last hour installing was working perfectly. From the liquid cooling arrays, to the humidity running through the new tubes, everything seemed to be functioning properly. Nodding approvingly, he picked up her front access panel and gently clicked it back in place, admiring as Gabby smoothly resealed her panel and took a few breaths and move around her skin.
“Are you ready for me to run a motor recalibration?” Gabby asked politely, admiring Jack admiring her naked body.
“Yes,” he smiled, “I’ll help you down.”
“Thanks.” Gabby slid her legs off the edge of the table and allowed Jack to help her down to the floor.
Once her feet were firmly planted on the floor, Jack continued to hold her as her systems ran a quick balance check. Immediately, the sensors in the bottom of her feet registered that her total weight had indeed increased by 3.7lbs. Realistically, this wasn’t enough of a weight change to really alter her balance, so she calmly stepped forward from Jack’s protective hold.
“You safely balanced?” he asked in a concerned voice.
“Yes dear, it isn’t that much of a weight change,” she assured him.
“Okay,” he smiled, giving her a playful spank on her firm ass.
Gabby let out a playful squeal, though kept a firm rein on her sexual programming; she had work to do. Although it wasn’t a major weight change, she did still need to recalibrate her motion systems so she could move more efficiently with the added weight, and so she could recalibrate her battery sensors.
Gabby’s recalibration routine was basically just her robot walking around the large area of Jack’s lab, while wildly exaggerating her arm and leg movements at times. Now that she was sentient, she was able to see how silly it looked, but it was a very effective way of recalibrating her systems.
Fortunately, the silly robot walking was only the beginning of it, and she was able to transition into a more normal walk before long. The recalibration routine ended with her doing some basic exercise routines, such as bending down and back up, and twisting around. Finally, she smoothly walked back over to Jack, who was thoroughly enjoying the show she put on, and prepared to report the findings of her recalibration diagnostic.
“Well, did the extra weight take any battery life away?”
“Only by 3-5 minutes, depending on the level of physical activity,” she shrugged, “actually, the liquid cooling systems you installed are helping improve my efficiency a little, since it’s much better than the old air cooling my lungs provide, so they slightly made up for the increased weight.”
Jack sighed a little with relief, making Gabby smile; he was always trying to improve her efficiency.
“So, am I done now?” she asked, since it was already over an hour past sunrise.
“You sure are in a hurry to get out there,” Jack smiled, moving in and giving her another kiss, his hands sliding down her naked back and resting on her hips.
“Yeah,” she sighed disappointedly, knowing Jack wanted to have a little fun with her first. She playfully teased him a little, bringing her hand down to his crotch and gently stroking the bulge that had already formed in his groin, before grabbing it with a naughty smile, “I know you want to, but I really have to go,” she said, kissing him before breaking away, “I promise I’ll make it up to you tonight though,” she added, grabbing her clothes and getting dressed.
“Man, way to give me blue balls here,” he laughed, though he found he was just as turned on by her turning down his advances as he would have been if she was her old non-sentient self and had appeased him.
“I know, but it’ll help you concentrate better with the others,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he laughed, “I’ll definitely need to with Missy for sure.”
“Yeah, she has some very good attributes,” Gabby conceded, now fully redressed, “Would you like me to send her here right away, or do you need a few minutes of prep time?”
“You can send her right away,” Jack decided, “I know you’re in a hurry to get everything ready.”
“Okay, thanks for all the help with building the new greenhouse, and with all my staff,” she smiled, walking over and giving him another kiss, “and for everything you just did with me.”
“For you, dear, it’s my absolute pleasure,” he smiled fondly.
Gabby playfully stroked Jack’s crotch once more, noting that the bulge had mostly receded. “I’ll really make it up to you later,” she promised once more, giving him a passing kiss on his cheek as she headed towards the lift into the house.
“I can’t wait,” he said with genuine enthusiasm.
“Is there anything else before I head up?” Gabby asked, pausing slightly dramatically at the entrance to the lab’s residence.
“Oh, yes actually, when Ellen arrives later, I’ll probably need JB and Ellie back,” he told her.
“Why?”
“Well, she’s bisexual and has expressed an interest in playing around with Ellie before, and she’ll probably want to have some fun with JB since we’ll have an anatomically correct version of her.”
“Ah, just let me know when she’s here and I’ll send them back,” Gabby smiled.
“Will do,” Jack told her, turning on the special monitor he had at his bench that monitored Gabby’s systems remotely; he mainly used it nowadays to communicate with her wirelessly.
“See you later dear, Missy will be down in a few minutes,” Gabby then said, dramatically turning and heading into the house.
“Have fun!” he called back, just before he heard the lift open and head up to the house. Once he heard the lift arrive up at the house, Jack quickly cleaned up the mess from when he was working on Gabby and began prepping for Missy.
Chapter Three: Missy
Once Jack had all the equipment and boxes that he’d brought out for Gabby put away, he quickly sanitized the table and then reached underneath to fiddle with some of the controls. After a bit of work, he finally accomplished what he was attempting to do with a satisfactory grunt, pulling a release tab that allowed him to pull both ends of the table to extend it’s length by a few feet.
After he had the table’s length extended by a few inches, he made a mental note to order a new table that could be recalibrated with the push of a button, and then he gathered up all the boxes labelled ‘Missy’ and then accessed the file he’d started on her on his terminal.
A few minutes later, Jack heard the lift from the house descending down into the lab, so he quickly saved his work and then turned to watch the residence of the lab with anticipation for Missy’s arrival. The lift opened up in the house and seconds later Missy gracefully walked out and into the main lab.
As soon as she was within 10ft of Jack’s work space, the need for him extending the length of the examination table was immediately apparent: Missy was tall.
Missy was a Mark II Personal Trainer model android modelled after a 21st century Olympic swimmer named Missy Franklin, specifically at the end of her career at age 22 when she was a whopping 6’2; Jack was only 5’11.
No surprise, but Jack actually acquired his Missy android from a high school pool department a few cities away that had originally purchased the Missy Franklin android simply because the real Missy Franklin was a famous swimmer. Unfortunately, they didn’t do all the necessary research before purchasing her and did not realize that owning an android that was 6ft+ tall would be far more expensive to maintain. She lasted only one year before they put her up for sale, immediately purchasing a more average-sized generic Personal Trainer model with the money Jack paid for her.
Jack’s reason for acquiring an android that was taller than 6ft was because Gabby needed a tall android in the greenhouse to assist with more of the heavy lifting, as well as helping tend to the larger and taller plants. He gave Gabby a little bit of a hard time, since more than a year earlier he’d wanted a taller than average android to act as a security guard, but she successfully convinced him that it wasn’t necessary and would cost too much money at the time, and now he was still glad he’d acquired the dependable Mark I Personal Trainer Gina.
“Hello Jack,” Missy said in a polite voice, “Gabby sent me down for planned maintenance.”
“Yes, she did,” Jack nodded, “please remove all your clothes and lay down on the table.”
“Yes, sir,” she nodded dutifully, calmly removing the ‘uniform’ that Gabby had all her android staff where within the greenhouse.
The uniform consisted of a breathable mesh shirt, breathable spandex underwear, cargo shorts, ankle socks, and athletic shoes. For Missy, they made sure to choose shoes that were extra padded, so she could add close to an extra inch to her height.
Once she was fully undressed, she climbed up onto the table and laid down, just barely fitting after Jack had extended the length of the table. Jack gazed down and admired her tall, athletic body. Since Missy was a swimmer, virtually all her muscle groups were well-toned and in good shape. This had the minor side effect of reducing her breast size, but everything else more than made up for it. Missy said nothing while he silently admired her body, but merely patiently waited with a friendly smile on her face.
“Okay Missy, please open your primary access panel, as well as your scalp panel,” he instructed clinically, once he’d drunk in enough of her appearance.
“Yes Jack,” she replied happily, zoning out as blue lights flashed on her torso and head, revealing the seams.
Jack quickly removed her scalp panel, careful not to muss her hair up too much. Once he had it set down on the head mannequin, he removed her torso panel and set it down next to it, pausing once more to admire her inner mechanics.
Since Missy was a Personal Trainer android, she already had all of the same liquid cooling enhancements he’d just installed in Gabby earlier, though the Personal Trainer versions were of far better quality. This was even more so with Missy, since she was only built a year earlier and was still in fairly pristine condition. As such, Missy could last up to 72hrs at a time in the greenhouse, though with some of the improvements he was making, he hoped to increase that to 96hrs.
“Okay Missy, I’m going to start by upgrading your filters, so don’t breath for the next few minutes,” he instructed, gathering the boxes with her new set of filters.
“Okay Jack,” she nodded, taking in one more breath and then exhaling before turning her respiratory systems to standby mode.
Jack made sure the standby light was lit on her lungs before reaching into her open head and removing the nose filter. Her nose filter was already slightly dirty from the few days she’d been working in the greenhouse, but was still in decent condition. Jack stashed it in a box he’d brought over for Missy’s spare parts, and then inserted the new filter, which had a higher rating than the one she was built with.
Since that was the only thing he was replacing in her head, he quickly clicked her scalp panel back on before reaching into her open chest and pulling out the filter at the top of her lungs, replacing that one with a higher rating, before tossing the old filter in the spare parts box.
“Alright Missy, you can stop holding your breath now,” Jack told her, sitting down to take a quick break. Missy promptly took her lungs off standby and took a few breaths to get the air moving properly through the new filters.
“Thanks Jack, these new filters feel great.”
“Yeah, but still wear a mask in the greenhouse whenever possible,” he told her, “the reason those filters are so great is because they cost quite a bit more than the standard ones do.”
“I understand,” she nodded, adding that instruction to her programming queue.
After Jack finished his quick break, he stood back and and delved once more into Missy’s large frame, this time detaching the set of dehumidifiers attached to her lungs and throat tube. He replaced them one at a time with ones that were rated for higher humidity levels, and then placed the old ones in her spare parts box.
“Jack, do these count as presents?” Missy asked.
“What?”
“Gabby told me that when we do good work each year, we get presents and upgrades for Christmas,” Missy explained, “do these count?”
Jack laughed, “No, these don’t count,” he assured her, giving her a gentle pat on her shoulder as as he pulled out her perspiration tank and replaced it with a larger one.
“Good, because I still want to help Gabby more,” Missy said, sighing with relief.
“As do I,” Jack smiled, making sure all the connections were in place for the new perspiration tank, before pulling his hands out of her and heading back to his computer. He quickly dragged the files she needed to properly run the new hardware into her update queue. “Missy, please install the updates I just added to your queue; you won’t need to reboot.”
“Okay,” she nodded, zoning out as she downloaded the files and promptly installed them, “installation complete,” she reported.
“Good, I’m going to be upgrading your battery next, so please shut yourself down,” he instructed her, pulling a large battery core from the shipping container her new parts arrived in.
“Understood, shutting down,” she announced in a clipped voice, closing her eyes gracefully as her systems all shut down. Once everything was completely offline, Jack put on a pair of insulated gloves and reached into her lower body, detaching her power core and carefully lifting it out.
Once he had her power core out, he quickly inspected it and determined that instead of putting in in Missy’s spare parts box, he would instead be setting this aside to give to Kat as one of her Christmas presents later this year. “This should give Kat a few more hours of power,” Jack said satisfactorily, placing it on his workbench for later, putting a note on it so JB and Ellie could properly prep it.
Jack then pulled out Missy’s new power core, which was noticeably larger and had what looked like additional batteries attached to it, with cables leading out of them. Jack made quick work of installing the larger core, and then attached each of the cables into the leads from both of Missy’s arms and legs. The additional batteries attached to the core would now capture the kinetic energy from each of Missy’s movements, greatly enhancing her overall battery capacity. Fortunately, this was already a built-in upgrade for Personal Trainers, so Jack didn’t have to replace Missy’s entire arms and legs, though the school that had originally purchased her just didn’t think it was a necessary expenditure, so Missy merely didn’t have the proper battery.
Once her core was properly installed, Jack attached a heavy-duty power cable and tapped the diagnostic screen on the battery, instructing it to initiate a quick charge cycle. With the heavy-duty cable, the new core was able to rapidly charge from the 25% packaging safety level, all the way up to 100%, within five minutes; a normal charge would have taken close to 5hrs. A rapid charge was something the cores could really only take if they were brand new, or severely depleted, so Jack hoped this would be the only time he needed to do this with Missy. He carefully removed the heavy-duty cable, then the insulated gloves, and pressed the power button to turn her back on.
Since it was new, only the power core turned on first, running its own set of diagnostics and safety checks before distributing power to the rest of Missy’s body. Missy’s A.I. Core swiftly turned on, followed by the rest of her systems, and she opened her eyes.
“Ah, thanks for the nap Jack,” Missy said playfully, a pre-programmed response to only being offline for about 20 minutes.
“No problem Missy,” Jack smiled, pulling a large turkey baster-sized syringe out of one of his drawers, as well as a large container of a bluish gelatinous looking material, “Missy, please unseal your muscle ports.”
“Okay,” she nodded, zoning out as several small holes suddenly appeared on her arms and legs, just over the major muscle groups.
“Thanks Missy, this should only take a few minutes,” Jack assured her, sucking up a large amount of the blue substance and then squeezing measured amounts into each port. Once he finished up, he wiped off the syringe and set it aside from cleaning later, putting away the container and reminding himself to order some more later. “Okay Missy, you can close up and do your thing.”
“Okie dokie,” she smiled, sealing her ports and then zoning out once more. Each muscle on her arms and legs suddenly started throbbing beneath her skin for several seconds before suddenly bulging out slightly as the substance expanded her muscles. This was a feature exclusive to Personal Trainer models, otherwise he would have done the same with Gabby; he had to wait for her body to do it the long way. When the throbbing subsided moments later, her major muscle groups had expanded in size by 20%, enough to give her a significant boost in strength and endurance.
“Wow, very nice,” Jack nodded, giving each muscle an approving squeeze, smiling as Missy giggle with each squeeze.
“Are you ready for me to get up now?” she asked politely, once he finished inspecting her new muscles.
“Not quite,” he said, grabbing the skin repair cream and walking over to her feet to inspect them.
He was momentarily caught off guard by just how large they were. At size 13, Missy had the largest feet of any of his girls, dwarfing even Kat’s feet. After a quick inspection, he applied a few dabs to her feet and then gave them a light massage, feeling for any damage. As a large android, her feet were highly susceptible to stress and needed to be inspected regularly.
After nearly a minute had passed, most of which was him simply enjoying her large feet, he wiped his hands off and gave her feet a gentle pat. Taking one more quick peek inside her body, he nodded approvingly and reattached her torso cover, standing back as some of the muscle substance that he’d injected into her torso increased the size of her abdomen slightly.
“Alright Missy, you can get up off the table now,” he told her, holding out his hands to help her down.
“Okay,” she nodded, gently taking his hands in her larger ones and carefully climbing down off the table. She went a bit slower than usual, since she was not yet used to the new muscles. Once her feet were firmly down on the floor, Jack gave her a gentle pat on the back.
“Okay Missy, go run a motor recalibration.”
Missy merely nodded, and strutted out into the main lab before initiating the same exaggerated movements that Gabby had done earlier, though with Missy’s larger more muscular body, Jack found the sight to be far more erotic and he made sure the security cameras in his lab were functioning properly so he could review the footage later. When she finished a few minutes later, she dutifully walked back over to him and stood at attention for inspection.
“Very good Missy,” he clapped, walking over to her and admiring her new, more muscular look, “so, how’s the new battery and muscles helping?”
“With the new upgrades, my total battery life has been extended by approximately 34%,” she reported, absently flexing her new muscles; the new perspiration was beading up on her chest.
“Good, now before I let you go, I have one more test,” he told her, attempting to hold a serious face before losing it to a slight blush, “umm, I want you to lift me up.”
“Are you sure?” she asked with a look of bemusement.
“Yes, I’m sure,” he nodded, “I must admit I take great pleasure in some of you ladies being able to lift me up as though I weigh nothing, but considering I weigh slightly over 180lbs, it’s actually a decent test of your strength.”
“Understood,” she nodded, quickly sizing him up with her visual systems before slowly approaching him, “are you ready?”
“Yes,” Jack nodded.
Missy nodded in response before reaching out her arms and gently grabbing his sides. Then, she slowly lifted him up, more for his own safety than her own, until she was lifting him as high up as her arms would allow. She held him up there for ten seconds, per her usual strength test timer, and then slowly lowered him back down to his feet.
“Was that satisfactory?” she asked politely, gently patting down the areas where she was gripping him.
“Yes, quite,” Jack said, his heart pounding at the sight of the Amazonian android woman standing before him; he wished he’d gotten one of his own earlier.
“Good,” she smiled, “then am I done?”
“Yes Missy, you’re done,” Jack nodded, quickly composing himself and walking back over to his desk, “you can get dressed and head over to the greenhouse.”
“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, bending down and retrieving her clothes, making quick work of redressing. Once she was fully redressed, she turned to Jack. “Alright, I’m ready to head back…do you want me to send Enja or Camren?”
“Camren please,” Jack told her, “Gabby specifically requested that she be next.”
“Very well,” she bowed, turning and heading back into the residence to ride the lift back to the surface.
As she left, Jack wished she could be more personable, though he realized that the Personal Trainer androids had the least powerful CPUs of the five classes, so he didn’t expect much. Still, he was going to be working on two more back-to-back, so he braced himself for more basic conversation. At least Missy’s looks more than made up for her conversational deficiencies, Jack thought to himself, as he prepped Camren’s upgrades at the table and returned it to its normal length.
Season One Closed for Christmas - The Shop | The Repair Shop - Part 1 | Off-season - The Motel | The Repair Shop - Part 2 | Slow day - The Cafe | The Small Business - End-of-Year Review
Season Two Homefront - The House | The Repair Shop - Part 3 | Green Thumb - The Greenhouse |