The Doctor is in - The Clinic
The Small Business Chronicles: The Doctor is in - The Clinic
Chapter One: Morning Stroll
It was a beautiful early morning at Jack’s property and the sunlight was streaming in beautifully through the windows of the greenhouse at the edge of his property that his android wife Gabby ran. Gabby was presently walking barefoot through the public garden section in the front, seeming to enjoy the scenery. After several minutes of walking around, she walked over to a park bench, sat down, and carefully detached her left foot, scrutinizing it in her hands.
“I must say dear, I’m glad the fixes I made to my link are working because removing one’s limbs like this is truly an interesting experience,” Jack said aloud to Gabby, who was currently monitoring everything he did while controlling her body just now.
After the initial test runs of his neural link several weeks earlier, Jack had gone a few rounds controlling Gabby. It was slightly different controlling her, however, since due to her sentience she had to willingly give up control of her own body to let Jack control it, whereas the other androids had no choice.
The reason Jack was so excited examining her detached foot was because the first time he tried it in Helen’s body, it caused an almost catastrophic malfunction in his neural link that left him with a splitting headache for nearly a week. It seemed initially that, while he could nearly perfectly remotely operate one of these androids as though it were his own body, his brain wasn’t able to process suddenly losing a limb.
Fortunately, after weeks of patching the codes in the programming, and consulting with Zoya, he’d finally resolved the issue and now removed a different limb each time he controlled an android. He was still nervous about removing the head, but he was sure it would work with that too.
“It is indeed,” Gabby’s voice sounded perfectly in his mind, “But try not getting my feet grass stained so early in the morning next time you use my body,” she requested politely, “Now I have to clean them off.”
“Sorry,” Jack grimaced, “I just like the sensations in your body.”
“You have certainly tuned me well over the years,” she agreed.
“Particularly after trying you all out,” Jack nodded.
Indeed, after trying out several of the other androids, he started noticing areas of improvement he could make in their tactile sensors that even the best programmers would only know to improve if they could actually plug into the sensations of the androids they were designing. Jack was able to retrofit every single one of his androids, with the assistance of JB, Ellie, and even Zoya. As a result of the improvement in tactile feedback, Jack noticed that the number of accidents his androids had were reduced by nearly 40%.
Jack had actually submitted the changes to Spaztec for official review and to say they were impressed would be an understatement. An insider at the company assured him that when the review process was over he would be getting a hefty payday, even though they would be offering the change as a premium feature rather than a standard one.
Jack played around with Gabby’s detached foot in his hands for a few minutes, playfully rubbing some of the grass stain off, before clicking it back on. He giggled slightly as he regained sensation, since to him it felt like a mild tickle as the sensation suddenly rushed back to his brain. He playfully wiggled her cute toes a few times before putting her foot back down.
“As disconcerting it is to have no control over my body, it is fascinating to see you experience it,” Gabby commented.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, before pausing as a notification appeared in his HUD; a message was waiting on his private server, which he intentionally kept cut off from his neural chip for security reasons. A message there meant it was important. “Well, looks like business calls dear,” he smiled wryly, getting ready to terminate the link.
“Well, it was about time for us both to start work anyway,” she replied, “as disconcerting as it is, it is also fun.”
“I know,” he nodded, “I’ll be busy most of the day getting Zoya’s staff ready for the opening of the clinic this weekend, but I look forward to your delicious cooking.”
“Thanks dear!”
Jack merely hugged himself to mimic hugging her and then terminated the link. After a few seconds, he woke up in his body, which was resting in the new and improved neural link pod that he and Zoya had constructed based on the data collected from his first few attempts. This new pod could keep Jack’s body safer while he was remotely connected to a body and even periodically infuse the air with nutrients to keep his body healthy.
Once he emerged, he was surprised to see Zoya, operating Vanda’s body, in his lab. She was standing on one leg at his workbench working on her detached right leg.
“Good morning, Jack!” She greeted him cheerfully, tweaking a tool at the base of her leg and causing the foot at the end to twitch, “How was operating Gabby’s body this morning?”
“Good morning, Zoya,” Jack responded with a quizzical look, his brain still fuzzy from the the post link transition, “Gabby’s body is great…. what’s wrong with your leg?”
“I’m not sure,” she blushed, tweaking it some more and making the toes wiggle, “I was using Andy last night and Vanda must have stumbled going up or down the stairs or something and knocked the servos in this leg out of alignment,” she explained, “I’ve been too busy trying to fix it to check her logs, but that’s most likely what happened.”
“I see,” Jack nodded, “Do you want me to take a look?”
“Nah, I’ve just about got it,” she grunted, tweaking one final thing, causing the whole leg to twitch on the table. She quickly checked everything and then nodded satisfactorily before lifting it off the table, placing the foot flat on the floor and lining up the top of the leg with her stub and clicking it back in place. After the skin resealed, she moved the foot around at the ankle, bent her knee, and then walked a few paces.
“All better?”
“Much,” she smiled, “I’ve got to work on improving Vanda’s programming the next time I get the chance…she gives me a bit of a headache sometimes.”
Jack merely gave her an amused look and then continued removing the sensors from the pod before getting dressed in his usual work attire that he’d left on a chair nearby. “You know, I can help you with some of that if you want,” he offered.
“I appreciate it Jack,” she smiled, “but I want to stay in practice, since I have to rely on these bodies helping me move around this world and you won’t always be around to help me.”
“Fair enough,” Jack shrugged, walking over to his computer to read the secure message. He entered in his passcode and biometrics and then sat down to view the message. When he saw who it was from, he turned to Zoya, “Hey, I got a message from your ‘mother’ if you want to watch.”
“Ooh, okay,” she said, walking up behind him. After giving him a nod indicating she was ready, he hit the play button.
“Good morning, Jack, and Zoya, if you are there too. I just wanted to let you know that I finally finished the new body and it is currently on its way to your lab as we speak. By my estimate, it should arrive sometime in the late afternoon. I apologize that it took a bit longer than originally estimated to finish, but we ended up having to invent some new technologies to allow Zoya’s apparatus to work comfortably in it, but we believe you’ll be pleased with the results. I would come and meet you in person, but I’m tied up where I am for a few more weeks, but I look forward to meeting you hopefully during the holidays. Until then, enjoy the new body.”
As soon as the message ended, it auto deleted and Jack was sent a private tracking number. He quickly checked and confirmed that the delivery window was 3-5pm.
“Wow, so its finally happening then, huh?” Zoya said.
“Yeah, you nervous?” I asked her.
“A little,” she admitted, “I’m just glad we’ll have all day getting the clinic ready to distract us.”
“Yeah,” Jack nodded, “I have your staff in one of the storage rooms down here, just been waiting for today to get them all ready.”
“Great, while you work on them I’ll be getting my office ready,” she said, bending down and putting her shoe and sock back on the leg that she had been working on before putting on a thinking expression, “Please get Dominique done first, since she’ll be my Secretary model over there and she can help me unpack things.”
“Will do,” Jack nodded, bringing up Dominique’s info on his computer and running some final updates to the code.
“Also, don’t forget that you’ll be my first customer when all my staff is finished, so try and stay healthy until your physical.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he grinned, “I already informed my previous doctor that I was transferring over my primary care to you so you should have access to all of my medical information.”
Zoya scoffed at that, “I’ve already had access to your medical information…now I have legal access to it.”
“Yeah, right,” Jack laughed, since she’d basically performed brain surgery on him several months earlier to install his neural implant.
“Anyway, after Dominique you can work on them in any order you like,” she continued, listing their names off, “Lena, Jaime, or Krystina…. doesn’t matter who since they’ll be assigned to different rooms.”
“I’ll probably do Krystina after Dominque, since she’ll require the most work, then Jaime and finally Lena,” he decided.
“Like I said, aside from Dominque, you can do the others in whatever order is most convenient for you,” she nodded, “I’m heading to my office now, unless you need anything else.”
“No, have fun and I’ll send Dominque up as soon as she’s ready.”
Zoya nodded and then headed towards the lift to the shop, disappearing in it moments later. Once the lift doors were closed, Jack turned back to his computer station, cracked his fingers and said to himself, “Time to get to work.”
Chapter Two: Dominique
The first thing Jack did was double check his messages for anything pending in the day and saw something that immediately attracted his attention. He quickly summoned Ellie and JB via their remote link, since they had not yet emerged from their room, and waited for them to arrive.
They both walked out of the residence a few minutes later in their usual attire, with Ellie greeting him. “Good morning, Jack, we’ve been summoned?”
“Yes,” he smiled, turning to greet them, “I’ve got my hands full helping get Zoya’s staff set up and I just found out there is going to be an inspection of the motel later today, so I want the two of you to head over there as soon as you are ready and assist with getting ready.”
“Awww, we don’t get to help you out,” Ellie pouted playfully.
“Not this time,” Jack shook his head, “The inspection is important, because if we get a good enough grade then we qualify for extra benefits next year.”
“I see,” she nodded, “what do you need us to do?”
“Ellie, I want you to focus on assisting Rahkee with the cleaning,” he instructed, “and make sure you are wearing proper gloves, a mask, hair protection…. just be careful when using the chemicals because they can wreak havoc on your android skin and filters and you, Ellie and JB, are a lot more expensive to repair than Rahkee is.”
“Understood,” she nodded solemnly, seeing the seriousness in his eyes.
“And you, JB, will focus on performing any necessary maintenance on the staff, starting with Rahkee and then focusing on the Kaley trio,” he instructed, laughing a bit, “Since they’re being used primarily for sex, they’ve been technically classified as ‘entertainment appliances’, so they’ll definitely need to be maintained and cleaned.”
“Am I an entertainment appliance?” Ellie smirked.
“You’re something, alright,” Jack smirked back, “anyway, if you finish with the staff early, you can assist with cleaning too JB, just make sure you take the proper protections into mind.”
“Hey, I have all of your knowledge in my memory banks so I know first hand the damage that occurs from not wearing protection,” JB assured him.
“Good, now you two get to work,” Jack told them turning back to his workstation. JB and Ellie merely nodded before grabbing their tool kits from their section of the lab and heading towards the lift to the shop.
Once the lift ascended, Jack pulled up all the data on Dominique before getting his tools ready. He silently cursed himself for not having them grab her before heading out, but the realized he would have to grab the other three by himself anyway, so he grunted as he clipped on his power amplification brace and headed into the residence to grab Dominique out of storage.
Since Jack had allowed Zoya to hand pick and order her own staff with only minimal input from Jack, he was going in somewhat blind, though he was aware of the issues with each of them to some degree. Since she was paying for them herself, and since most of her funds went to the construction of the clinic itself, she made sure to purchase strategically and was more than happy to use Jack’s technician discount waiver on the Spaztec auction site.
All four of the androids were still in their shipping crates, though fortunately the crates had wheels, so Jack carefully wheeled Dominque’s crate out into the lab, only having to use minimal power on his brace. Once the crate was close enough, he tapped in the unlock code and stood back as the crate opened to reveal her.
Dominique was built to resemble a young woman in her mid-20s. She appeared to be of mixed race, appearing to be half Vietnamese and half-Caucasian. She was of average height and had long, past-shoulder length black hair.
Jack quickly read the prior owner history of her to review what changes he might need to make. She was apparently partially a custom design, though she was built to appear to be related to the owner of a real estate firm so she could pass as a sister or cousin. She was programmed to assist with selling homes and as such was equipped with the necessary tax programming and whatnot that she would need to work reception at the clinic, but Jack was concerned that the sales programming might interfere. Aside from those concerns, her body appeared to be in decent shape, though he’d need to strip her clothes off and open her up to confirm.
It seemed that when the real estate firm hit hard times and was forced to go under, the owner was left with little choice but to sell her faux sister in order to recoup her losses. It was a common issue nowadays, but Jack was sure Zoya would take excellent care of her for the remainder of her operational lifespan.
A quick scan on his tablet indicated Dominique was at near full charge, so he activated her remotely and stood back as she activated.
Once her initial startup diagnostics finished, her eyes opened and she gave Jack a toothy smile with a boisterous, “Hello, my name’s Dominique! I am, or was, with the Green Valley Real Estate firm…are you my new owner?”
“Yes, one of them at least,” Jack nodded, since technically Zoya was her owner, but Jack had to be as well out of necessity since technically Zoya couldn’t own any androids since she herself was one…sort of.
“Great, what am I going to be helping you with?”
“You’re going to be configured to work reception at a medical clinic on my property,” Jack replied, “Is your current programming up to the task?”
She paused as she analyzed his question and scanned her current programming, “As a Spaztec Secretary model, I do have the sufficient basic programming to work a reception-like job, however the real estate programming I was given would not seem to be compatible with working in the medical field.”
“How so?”
“In real estate, you have to convince people to buy stuff that they may not want to buy,” she explained, “but my limited knowledge of medical fields is that you have to adhere to the customer, or patients, wishes and my programming as it currently is is not compatible with those directives.”
“Thank you for confirming my suspicions,” Jack nodded approvingly, “I’ll get started on deleting all of that from your programming then.”
“I’ll flag all of the appropriate files in my directories to make your jobs a bit easier,” Dominique smiled, zoning out as she did just that. A few moments later, a large list of files appeared on Jack’s tablet.
“Wow, you’re very helpful,” Jack lauded, quickly reviewing all the files she flagged’
“That’s my job!” She smiled cheerfully.
“Well, I’ll have the program rewriting your core programming for being a medical secretary delete all those files at the same time,” Jack informed her, “in the meanwhile, please strip off all your clothes and open your primary access panel so I can take a look inside and see what needs work.”
“Yes, Jack,” she smiled, dutifully stripping off all her clothing before laying on the table and unsealing her access panel.
Jack quickly removed the panel from her torso, peering inside to gauge the situation since he was not the one who had purchased her. Just by eyeballing her, however, he could see that she would need very little work in terms of hardware. Evidently, her previous owner took very good care of her.
“Alright, I’m gonna start the update and transfer of protocols,” Jack told her, “it should take about 30 minutes and then you should be good to go.”
Dominique merely nodded before falling silent as Jack started the procedure, shutting down her A.I.
While that did its thing, Jack got to work replacing a few worn out components and upgrading a few more that Jack happened to have on hand. Once that was complete, Jack made a few quick adjustments to boost her moisture resistance just in case she was needed in the greenhouse. It was mostly unnecessary, but since it took very little time he made it standard protocol going forward. Finally, he detached both her hands and feet and made the adjustments that he had developed to boost her tactile feedback and thus reduce her accidents.
By the time Jack was finished with her body, the update and upgrade process was just finishing up, so he carefully reattached her torso cover and waited for her to come back online.
A few moments later, her eyes blinked and she focused on his face, “Upgrade completed successfully,” she reported happily, “My new protocol is to serve as the medical secretary at Brownsfield Clinic.”
Brownsfield is the name of the overall property that the small businesses and house that Jack owned. He had recently named it such, after his last name, to make it easier to categorize his business portfolio.
“Great! Please confirm that your programming is up to date with the current California health codes,” he instructed.
“Of course,” she smiled, zoning out before saying, “My programming is up to date as of the most recent standards instituted last week. I can auto update for any new changes and check at the end of each business day, if you would like.”
“I would, thank you,” Jack nodded, before reaching into a large box that Zoya had left near his desk and pulling out a bundle of clothes, “lastly, Zoya would like all her employees to wear these scrub uniforms,” he told her, handing her the bundle, which contained a comfy set of underwear, navy blue scrubs top and bottom, socks and flats.
“Ooh, these look much comfier than the real estate clothing I had to wear,” Dominque smiled, eagerly taking them from Jack and putting them all on. While comfort was not necessarily a concern for androids, they could sustain continued stress damage from wearing uncomfortable clothing, so having them wear comfy clothes could essentially serve the same purpose in the end as it would for a human. “Yeah, I’ll wash your old clothes and have them sent back up to you in case Zoya needs you for a fundraiser or something, but here’s another pair in case those get soiled,” Jack told her, handing her another bundle.
“Thanks Jack,” she smiled, “is there anything else I need before I go up to assist her?”
“No, just tell her I’m working on Krystina next and that it might be a while,” he told her, quickly perusing at Krystina’s file on his workstation.
“Will do, thanks for fixing me up,” she said, walking over and kissing his cheek before heading towards the lift leading up to the shop. Jack watched her go with a kind smile before sighing and looking towards the residence. “Well, time to get started on Krystina.”
Chapter Three: Krystina
When Jack reached the storage room containing the clinic staff, he quickly identified the unit containing Krystina. It was easy to spot, since it was tarnished and covered in dust and cobwebs. He brushed it off as best as he could before wheeling it out into the main lab and opening it up, sighing as he saw the android inside.
Krystina was a Perfect Friend model built in the image of a young, Pacific Islander woman in her late-twenties. The reason Jack sighed was because he had read up on her operational history, and because of the state she was in.
Krystina was built to resemble someone’s dead daughter, who had died in a tragic incident; the wife had long since separated from the husband. The father had managed to have his daughter’s brain scanned, though since it was an impartial scan the Krystina android ended up having to fill in the missing pieces in her memory and personality from the various diaries that the real Krystina had written, in addition to her school projects, social media posts, and various stories told to her by both her father and the real Krystina’s friends that occasionally came to visit.
Krystina was amongst the first Mark II androids to be purchased, so she had been in operation for some time. Additionally, her owner/father ended up suffering from severe dementia later in life and Krystina was essentially utilized as a live in nurse to take care of him. As a result, she ended up being neglected since her owner was not in a proper state of mind to bring her in for routine maintenance and repairs. Her body was littered with cuts, scratches, and the android equivalent of bruises that were caused by her owner’s dementia induced rages.
If that weren’t bad enough, since she hadn’t been taken in for maintenance, her hardware was frighteningly out of date, along with her software, and several components had already failed or were on the verge of failing.
Jack had actually recommended that Zoya not purchase Krystina, but Zoya had a soft heart, and Krystina was highly marked down in price due to her state of neglect. Additionally, since Krystina had been operating for a long time, she had built up quite a bit of experience that would come in handy in the clinic, since Zoya intended for Krystina to specialize in treating elderly patients.
Jack quickly sized her up, briefly wishing he hadn’t sent Ellie and JB off to assist in the motel, before removing her dirty clothes, throwing them away in a nearby bin, and laying her body on his work table to start working on her.
Despite her less than clean state, Jack was relieved to see that her body overall didn’t seem to have too much damage. Since her previous owner hadn’t been in the proper state of mind to replenish her body’s supply of repair nanites, it wasn’t able to repair the cuts, scrapes, and bruises. While it would be an easy fix, Jack still had to repair the damage to her internals before he could have her body power up and direct them, and even then, some of the damage could only be fixed after she was able to bathe herself.
“Ugh, I hate having to do this,” Jack grunted grumpily as he grabbed a laser scalpel and used it to open Krystina’s primary access port, since her body had been in storage for too long for it to have any residual power to open the port itself. Once he had it fully cut, he powered off the laser and then wedged his fingers into the edges to lift up the port, placing it on the side table.
“Damn, some of these parts are almost vintage now,” he remarked to himself, peering inside and cataloguing everything. Fortunately, there was still a market for original Mark II parts, and since Krystina still had some Jack figured he might be able to sell some of them for a tidy profit.
Fortunately, Jack either had most of the upgraded parts in storage, or he had the materials to fabricate them in his 3D printer. He noted a few parts that he would have to upgrade at a slightly later date, possibly the end of the month, but that he had decent substitutes in stock that would suffice until then.
Once he had the inventory complete, Jack began work on her body by pulling out her A.I. Core. While he was working on the rest of her body, he would need his computer terminal to run a full diagnostic on Krystina’s systems before he could update her software. After a few short seconds, with his practiced hands, he detached Krystina’s core from her body and carefully carried it over to his workstation, plugging it in. He had to wait a few extra seconds for it to turn on since it had been inactive for a while, but before long his workstation was able to access the core. He began the full diagnostic, which would take about 20 minutes, and then headed into the residence to gather supplies.
When Jack returned about five minutes later, he was pushing a cart that contained nearly twenty different components, from power systems to regulators. Jack was pretty much swapping everything out.
With a well practiced hand, Jack spent the remainder of the time Krystina’s core needed to run the diagnostic swapping out the components in her torso, scrutinizing each component he removed more carefully and separating out the ones that he could resell from the ones that were clearly junk.
When Krystina’s core finished running the diagnostic, it displayed a long list of errors for Jack to review before he had the diagnostic tool begin repairing all of them. That bought him another 10-15 minutes to finish up installing and calibrating the new components he was installing in her body.
Just as he finished installing her new power core and calibrating her new MCN, the diagnostic finished, rolled back over to his desk to confirm everything was fixed. Unfortunately, the multitude of errors appeared to be a little too much for even Jack’s well tuned diagnostic tool to fix, so he had to spend another several minutes fixing them manually before finally being able to install the years of software updates that she had missed. Since the new updates were virtually replacing most of her software, they were actually able to install a bit faster than if she had been more recently updated, so Jack did not have long to wait.
Jack ran one more quick diagnostic after she finished installing the updates, fixing a small handful of new bugs, before Jack felt satisfied placing her core back in her body. He paused briefly to clean some minor residue off her connector ports that could negatively impact her performance before clicking her core back in and pressing the power toggle on her new core, hoping that nothing blew up in his face.
It took several more seconds than usual for Krystina to power on, though given her previous state a delay was to be expected. Finally, her eyes fluttered open as she came online and they quickly focused on Jack’s.
“Hello, I take it you’re my new owner,” she stated matter of factly.
“Not quite,” Jack said, “Your new owner is Zoya, but I am listed as your co-owner for maintenance purposes.”
“I see,” she nodded, zoning out briefly as she ran a quick diagnostic, “You must be good because my systems haven’t been in this working order in quite some time.”
“Thank you,” Jack smiled modestly, “I’m actually not done yet, I just needed to fix you up enough so you could move around on your own.”
“Ah, I see,” she nodded.
Jack carefully lifted Krystina’s panel off the table and lined it up with her torso. “I had to laser this open, so it might take a bit longer for you to reseal it,” he warned her.
“Understood,” she nodded, zoning out as she resealed it, the process going noticeably slower than usual. Once it was resealed, she slowly sat up and swung her legs off the table, her joints whining audibly.
“Man, you’re in worse shape than I thought,” Jack cringed.
“Sorry, my father wasn’t exactly capable of fixing me or ensuring that I was well taken care of,” Krystina replied.
“No worries, I just need you to follow me into the residence here so you can bathe yourself,” Jack explained, helping her down off the table onto her feet, with even more of her joints whining loudly.
“Ah, thank you,” she smiled, slowly following him into the residence and into the guest room, where he quickly briefed her on the cleaning supplies.
“And remember, try not to linger too long in there. Those cuts in your skin go down to the metal, and although you are water resistant, you are not water proof with the skin damage,” he told her.
“Don’t worry, I’ve had plenty of practice maneuvering around my skin damage,” she nodded politely, before stepping into the shower and turning on the water.
Jack remained outside for nearly a minute just in case she had any issues before stepping out. On his way back to his workstation, he stopped by his storage room and gathered replacement joint mechanisms to install in Krystina. He just grabbed one of everything, since he had to assume at this point that everything in her needed replacing.
Once he had those at his desk, he prepped a supply of fresh nanites to install in her body and a jar of skin repair paste. Finally, while he was waiting for her to get out, he prepped the batch of updates and programming that Krystina would need to do her job in the clinic, since all he’d had time to do before was simply update her to the latest A.I. updates.
Just as he was finishing up the update package and placing it in the wireless server for Krystina to access, she returned from the residence now clean and bathed. She stopped at attention in front of Jack so that he could inspect her body before resuming his work. Jack carefully scrutinized every inch of her now clean skin, documenting several more areas that were previously obscured by dirt and dust smudges. Once he finished, he nodded approvingly and helped Krystina up to the table, since her joints were not up to the task.
“Well Krystina, this shouldn’t take too long,” he assured her, “believe it or not, I’ve seen worse.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said skeptically, gesturing at some deep scratches on her torso.
“Yeah, I had an android that I had to repair her caved in skull, and I just finished one a few months ago that had half her body burned in a crash and the other half severely water-damaged,” Jack assured her, putting on protective gloves, “Could you reopen your primary access panel again, please?”
“Wow, I really am in good hands,” Krystina laughed, “hold on, here goes,” she smiled, zoning out as she unsealed her access panel.
“Thanks,” Jack grinned, placing the skin panel on the side table and then reaching in and injecting a fresh batch of repair nanites into her body’s nanite storage container; it was empty. The nanites were very useful in making simple repairs, much in the same fashion as the human body repairing small cuts or wounds, but they needed to be replenished after every 10-15 repairs, depending on the severity of the damage. Krystina likely ran out years ago.
Once the nanites were safely injected, Jack sterilized the needle tip to disable any nanites that might be clinging to the tip and then safely disposed of it in an e-waste container. He then clicked Krystina’s panel back on and waited for her to reseal it before removing the gloves and grabbing the jar of skin repair cream.
“Okay, I need you to sit up on the side of the table for this, since most of the damage is to both sides of your torso,” Jack told her, helping her sit up, “once I lather the cream on you just have your nanites get to work while I work on your joints.”
“Okay,” she nodded, relaxing on the side of the table while Jack rubbed in the skin repair cream on the various sections of her torso. Once he was finished, he washed his hands and then got his tools ready.
“I’m going to detach your arms and legs one at a time while I repair the servos,” he told her.
Krystina merely nodded, her systems focused on directing the nanites to repair her skin. Jack meanwhile carefully detached Krystina’s left arm and brought it over to his table to repair it. Using a small tool, he unsealed a small section of skin surrounding her elbow, revealing her metallic elbow joint. He cringed as he saw it, since it looked very corroded and not at all in good shape. He released the locking mechanisms on either side of it and delicately removed it, tossing it in the recycle bin before delicately inserting the replacement joint and replacing the section of skin. He then bent the arm at the elbow several times, smiling satisfactorily as he heard no whining this time. Jack repeated the process with the left wrist and elbow before clicking the arm back on and doing the same with her right.
Once he was done with her arms, he gently laid her back down so he could detach her legs. Starting with her left, he replaced the joint at the main torso connection point and then unsealed the skin surrounding her knee before moving down to her ankle. For this, he detached the foot and even replaced what looked like a miniature shock absorber. He repeated this with her right leg and then clicked both legs back on.
Just as he finished with her limbs, he observed the nanites finally working their magic. The cuts and scrapes slowly started repairing themselves before his eyes until nothing remained but the now dead nanites, which he brushed off into the e-waste collector.
“How do you feel so far?” Jack asked, admiring his repair work.
“Much better, thanks!” Krystina smiled, sitting up and swinging her legs off the edge of the table with no loud whining sounds, and moving her arms to the same effect, “I wish my father had been able to take better care of me,” she said in a voice filled with regret.
“I’m sure he would have if he had,” Jack reassured her, patting her shoulder. “Well, you’ll be in good hands with Zoya, and with me around this will never happen again.”
“What will my purpose be here?”
“Well, if you access my lab’s private server, you’ll find a series of updates and files that’ll explain things in great detail,” Jack told her, queuing up the files and watching as she zoned out in typical android fashion to access it.
“I have access to them,” she reported dutifully, “they should take approximately five minutes to install.”
“Great, I’m going to tidy up around here and grab your clothes while you do that,” Jack told her, and after she nodded and then zoned out for the file install, he did just that. Since Zoya had already gotten the correct clothing size for each of her employees, Jack merely had to grab the bag from the residence that had her name on it. By the time he returned with the bundle, she was just finishing a quick reboot to finalize the new programming.
“I see,” she nodded, quickly processing the new programming, “I’m going to be used as a nurse? Ha, good thing I already have plenty of experience.”
“That’s why Zoya picked you,” Jack nodded, handing her the bundle of clothes, “Here’s the uniforms she provided.”
Krystina wordlessly took the bundle and grabbed one of the sets of undies, pants, and scrubs tops, making quick work of putting them on before scrutinizing herself in a nearby reflective surface, “At least this Zoya seems to have good taste,” Krystina nodded approvingly, grabbing a scrunchie and making her hair into a manageable pony tail.
“Yes, she does,” Jack agreed, quickly scrutinizing Krystina. “To be honest, I tried convincing her not to purchase you…I’m glad she won.”
“Me too,” Krystina grinned, “Am I done now?”
“For now,” he answered, “there are some more upgrades I need to give you, but the parts won’t arrive until later in the month.”
“Understood,” she nodded.
“For the time being, you should be able to find your way to the clinic with the information I programmed into you,” Jack told her.
“Yes,” she nodded, briefly zoning out to access it.
“Well, good luck on your first day, I’m sure Zoya is eagerly awaiting your arrival,” Jack smiled, “I’ll be in later for my physical, so I’ll see you again then.”
“Thanks for fixing me, Jack,” Krystina smiled back, giving him a quick hug before heading to the lift leading up to the shop.
“Don’t mention it,” Jack called after her. Once she ascended in the lift, he sighed and then headed back to his workstation to prepare to work on Jaime.
Chapter Four: Jaime
In Development
Chapter Five: Lena
In Development
Chapter Six: Lindsey
In Development
Chapter Seven: Evolution
In Development
Season One Closed for Christmas - The Shop | The Repair Shop - Part 1 | Off-season - The Motel | The Repair Shop - Part 2 | Slow day - The Cafe | The Small Business - End-of-Year Review
Season Two Homefront - The House | The Repair Shop - Part 3 | Green Thumb - The Greenhouse | The Repair Shop - Part 4 | The Doctor is in - The Clinic