I know that most of this chapter consists of monolithic narration, but Rolland lives alone so unless I were to have him talking to himself there wasn't much I could do. Also, I enjoy writing the parts with Freya a lot more so I tend to consolidate the Rolland-centric chapters. As you might predict next chapter should be much much more...exciting.
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Chapter 4
Rolland clicked the batch script that would build and package his latest software commission and laid back in his chair, raising the empty bag of Cheetos to his lips to drink down those crumbs which hadn't managed to end up on his shirt. It was three years since he had finished his internship, three years since he had recovered the object. In that time he had graduated with high honors with a dual Masters Degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, but even with his security clearance he was still having trouble landing a regular job. Most of the responses he got back involved "not the right fit" which indicated to Rolland that the managers were scared of his intelligence, scared that he would show them up and scare he could their jobs better than they could. In all honestly it didn't really matter much to him, Rolland was making more than enough money as a freelancer, tackling the hard problems that the bonehead internal staff or brain dead foreign outsourcers couldn't handle and doing it all on his own schedule. Rolland swiveled his chair around to look at his combination apartment/lab, although it really didn't have enough lighting or ventilation for either. He had rented a cheap place in the basement of a hardware store in one of those industrial retail districts that were quickly vanishing from the increasingly gentrified urban landscape. Rolland chose it because of a three phase power hookup and thick walls that would keep loud noises in and EM interference (or surveillance) out. Everything that Rolland had done over the last 3 years, his flexible, solitary job, his dungeonesque apartment/lab, the hundreds of thousands of dollars in advanced test and analysis equipment, was part of his obsession to discover just what The Object was, and what it did.
Pulling himself out of his chair Rolland walked over to one of the brick walls of his dimly lit habitat. Feeling around one of the mortar joints he pried a brick loose then took hold of something inside and with some effort pulled the false section of wall open revealing what had probably been an old coal bunker. Standing in the middle of the darkened space was what looked like a large silver metal U, standing on a silver metal base with a number of screens and ports built into it. Since recovering it that night in the fall of his senior yard Rolland had referred to it as "The Object" because it had very little idea that it was or what it did. Rolland knew that he could never tell anyone about The Object unless he wanted to end up in The Village for the rest of his life and therefore his efforts to figure out The Object had been painfully slow. It had take him months just to figure out how to power the thing and then turn it on. Then he to decipher the strange digital text, resembling a 2D bar-code, that appeared on the screen. At first Rolland worried about the sheer impossibility of having to translate an alien bar-code, but on a lark he first tried some more mundane encodings and was astonished to discover English text in 8 bit Unicode. The Object clearly had a human origin, but at the same time it was clearly not of this world. Working off the assumption that The Object has been at least influenced by the hand of people like himself Rolland figured out a way to reset the password protection to its factory default which he was then able to guess. Finally, about a year ago Rolland succeeded in turning The Object on.
Rolland wheeled The Object out of its hiding place and set it up in his lab. It was about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide and somewhat resembled a pair of tall cows horns connected to a central base that contained the power supply and electronics. Rolland has resisted trying to take The Object apart as he was deathly afraid of damaging it and rendering The Object inoperable. Rolland had fashioned a USB adapter for the physical interface port on the base. The Object's primary interface was some sort of wireless protocol, but Rolland had just found it easier to reverse engineer the protocol on the port. Plugging in his laptop Rolland commanded The Object to wake up and then plugged in the power adapter he had fashioned to connect The Object to his high capacity voltage regulator. He watched as the charge meter on the interface program he had written for his laptop gradually approached 100% at which point a button marked "Engage" turned green.
Pressing the button Rolland sat back and watched as a line of blue rectangles set into the inside of the U began to glow brightly and a few seconds later a pink energy field formed within the interior with a satisfying buzz. If it wasn't obvious before, this is what convinced Rolland that he was dealing with some seriously advanced technology and not just a movie prop. Unfortunately this was also the point Rolland had been stuck for the last year, measuring and testing the field trying to figure hot what it did. He'd tried every type of probe and sensor he could buy, and all he detected were some stray EM fields. He'd passed every sort of object he could think of through the field with to no end. He had tried animals, insects, fish, plants, processed foodstuffs, but nothing seemed to happen. The energy field would shimmer and glow a bit, but anything passing through appeared to be left unaltered. Finally in an act of desperation Rolland tried his own arm...then he just took a breath and went through himself. For a moment his vision was clouded by a bright white haze and his body tingled all over, but he quickly found himself on the other side, no extra limbs, no super powers, however in an abundance of caution Rolland decided to abstain from further personal human subject testing. Currently he was exploring the many byzantine options and configuration settings. Like any proper technological device the options were such that no person could ever hope to understand their functions without reading the manual. Normally Rolland supported this approach, but as he was unable to search Google for "U shaped energy field generator manual" Rolland was becoming increasingly frustrated.
After a few hours of changing settings, passing items through the Object and then noting down the lack of results, Rolland was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Just at that moment heard an IM window pop up on his computer, turning to see who it was his heart skipped a beat when he saw it was that girl he had met on the Fembot Fetish Forum, an online community composed almost entirely of guys where those interested in female robots could come and talk about having having the ideal android lover. He had gotten a private message from her about two weeks prior regarding one of his stories and their online relationship grew from there culminating in several very hot role play sessions. Although the forum had a sizable proportion of guys claiming to be girls, this one just felt right to Rolland and the last time they had talked she mentioned being in the metropolitan area on business and the possibility of meeting in person. Still Excited, Rolland rolled back over to his computer and pounded out a reply.
BotGrrl: Hey Rolland, you there?
TheEngineer: Hey Bot, can you run a quick diagnostic for me?
BotGrrl: One second.....all systems reporting 100%, energy levels at 87%.
TheEngineer: Wonderful, what did you wish to talk about?
BotGrrl: Well that business trip worked out, I'm going to be in town this evening with a lot of free time on my hands, think you'd still be interested in meeting IRL?
TheEngineer: Oh, you bet, did you have somewhere in mind?
BotGrrl: How about a book store, they have wi-fi, food and a place to sit down.
TheEngineer: Great, there's a Book Stop out on the Marine Parkway near the airport. That should be pretty convenient, its right off the subway if you are coming from the airport.
BotGrrl: Oh, the one in the 2400 block near the Avenue U Station.
TheEngineer: Yeah....that's exactly right, you know about it?
BotGrrl: Oh, I just had Google maps up.
TheEngineer: So what time should I meet you there?
BotGrrl: Well I should be able to be there by 8pm, is that alright with you? I know its kind of short notice.
TheEngineer: No, its no problem at all, how will I recognize you?
BotGrrl: I'll be wearing a gray sweatshirt and sitting in the lounge area right near Sci-Fi / Fantacy section.
TheEngineer: Wait, how do you know the layout?
BotGrrl: Oh, someone reviewed the story on their blog, with pictures.
TheEngineer: You found a photo review that quickly? That's amazing.
BotGrrl: Ha, well I am a fembot, you know. Seriously, I'm just pretty good at web searching.
TheEngineer: Well I guess I'll see you there.
BotGrrl: Yeah, likewise.
TheEngineer: Oh, before you go, you never told me your real name, I mean I don't want to call you Bot Girl in public.
BotGrrl: Good point, my name's Freya. Anyway, gotta run, see you later.
**BotGrrl has Signed out**
Freya smiled as she closed the IM window and web browser in her visual attention space. Unless her investigation has been subject to a severe miscalculation she had properly identified the human which had managed to make off with the device and not only that he was a fembot fetishist. Mentally tenting her fingers Freya was confident that she would soon have what she wanted and then some, all with a minimal amount of persuasion.
"Next Train to Downtown arriving on Track 1," chimed the automated announcement system.
Taking her small backpack full of personal items Freya got up and stood by the platform. Arriving a little early at the Book Stop wouldn't be a problem as she could take advantage of their wide selection of romance novels.