The Stewards - Part 3 - Chance to Start Again

Share your fembot fiction and fantasies here or discuss the craft of writing by asking for or giving suggestions.
Post Reply
Linnies
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:16 am
Technosexuality: Built
Identification: Cyborg
Gender: Male
x 11
x 71
Contact:

The Stewards - Part 3 - Chance to Start Again

Post by Linnies » Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:19 pm

I am standing straight and upright. A machine hums softly beside me. I open my eyes. The room was bright and was decorated minimally. The floor and walls were painted plain white and thus everything in the room was illuminated from all angles. Two figures almost looking identical with two pairs of brown eyes looked into mine, one with a smug smile and another with contemptful anger. I immediately knew the younger, smiling one was Casper, as if I had known him all my life.

“Her primary is online now. See here? She’s locked in control mode, she can’t lie to you now.”

Casper said towards the older one. The two looked like brothers only a few years apart. They both had short curly black hair that were cropped into the same style too. I was standing in the middle of the room in a white nightgown like those given to patients at a hospital. Four cables ran out from underneath the gown connecting to a large tower of a machine that stood above me. Without being able to see I knew my lower abdominal panel was removed. Two connections were directly to my primary AI board, while two others connected to a secondary systems controller board and a backup memory module respectively.

“Why did you kill Shima?” The older one asked me.

“I do not know who that is.” I replied.

“That's the foreman of Proctor, the one you had shot last week.” Casper, the younger one chimed in.

“Twice.” The older one said, his voice full of anger.

“I did it because Cato Six ordered me to.” I replied.

The older one did not seem satisfied with the answer. Casper looked at him then back at me.

“Why did you do what Cato Six ordered you to do?” Casper asked me.

I recall the scenes of me holding the gun against the foreman’s head, then further back to me sitting beside Cato on his couch sipping wine, him giving me the gun.

“Because he was my owner.”

Even though I replied again in the same uncaring mellow tone, what I said had surprised myself. I did what Cato wanted because he owned me, there was no other choice. Just like somehow I knew that Casper was my new owner at this very moment.

“See? Just like I said, not really her fault now was it.” Casper said to the other man.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea, there is a reason why we don’t just reprogram anyone and keep them around.” He said, standing up, looking me over disapprovingly.

“She’s an upload, it is only right for her to be with us.”

“Uploads don’t get reprogrammed, and the fact that she killed one of our brothers will not just be forgotten. Not by me, nor anyone else.”

“It doesn’t matter, it has already been approved.”

Casper said, throwing his hands up in the air and stretching them backwards and yawning loudly in the quiet room, taunting his older counterpart.

“Just keep her out of operations. If I see her there…”

“Again!” Casper said while pointing a finger upwards. “You're not the boss.”

The older man gave Casper a cold stare and walked away angrily, leaving me and Casper alone in the room.

"Don't worry about him. He’s just protesting his worthless opinions. Though we are genetically identical some of us didn't turn out so well.”

He says as he turns to me like a gossiping school girl. While I on the other hand stood completely still in the same place, not showing any emotion, staring at him blankly.

“Good thing for you I noticed what was going on and got a hold of you before those muscle heads. They most likely would have strung you up and executed you like some kind of primitive ape-mans.”

He says enthusiastically, though I have a feeling he’s speaking more to himself than me.

“But what I can't figure out is how she managed to get your prototype legacy image to copy on top of the current gen system. What’s more strange is her usage of an emulation type AI as the base, you would think that it's the least compatible type of system to copy you onto.”

He pauses and stares at me for a moment, as if looking for my feedback. A second passes before he brings his hand up as if to apologize.

“Ah, almost forgot. Left you in control mode!”

Picking up his computer pad, he quickly worked on it. Then suddenly without warning, something snaps in my mind. Like my thoughts that were contained within a box where the contents was just spilled out, finally able to interact with the world outside. I took a deep breath in and a shiver ran up my spine as I realized every inch of me was cold. I glance around and take in my full surroundings. Everything I looked at came to me crystal clear, not only my sight was perfect. I could feel the sounds, the vibrations in the air on my skin. Every part where the gown touched my skin no matter how light could be precisely located and measured. Some other information also drifted into my thoughts. Power consumption, battery charge, network status, fluid levels, wireless networks, established connections, among others a almost endless list of information. They were like little puppies just waiting to jump out at the slightest hint of attention. This was way different than when I had woken up at Artisse’s workshop, exactly 9 days,3 hours, 12seconds ago. I shake away the annoying information and look down at my hands, confirming that I was still in the same android body as before, Z29-140 series serial 3F… Annoying!

“Hi Anya , as you may already know I am Casper.”

He says to me as he reaches a hand out for me to shake. I take the offer. His hands were warm, 38.2 degrees exactly.

“Nice to meet you…” I say cautiously.

“Likewise, you don’t know how excited I am to finally meet you. Well… Most of you anyways.”

Casper says as he shakes my hand vigorously. The feelings I have towards him unnerves me, something I don't think I have felt before. It was like the bastard child between Love and Loyalty. Not the same as devotion but something stronger, like that feeling when your body aches for air when you are holding your breath. But it was even stronger, stronger than the basic human desire for survival. Betrayal was impossible. Casper seemed to pick up on what I was thinking.

“Right, how do you feel right now?...”

He looks at me for a brief moment before going back to his computer pad, continuing.

“...you should be feeling a lot better. Artisse is smart, illegally smart, but her work was incomplete. She installed a cognition buffer on you to keep you stable, human minds aren’t meant to exist within android matrixes…”

I muster the strength to cut him off, fighting that strange sense of obedience that his aura commanded.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

He looks up at me with a crooked head. He continues to explain to me like an overly enthusiastic teacher.

“Uploaded human minds are illegal and deemed immoral, but they can be done successfully using a special made… artificial minds that we don’t have the blueprints to recreate on this colony.”

He says, pausing to motion with his hands, looking at me expectantly. I nod and he quickly continues.

“Human minds are not able to cope with the massive amount of information that artificial minds like androids receive. So the buffer filters out a lot of the information and makes your mind think that you're inside a human body.”

I nod again, seeing the light in his eyes and how ecstatic he was.

“But Artisse don’t know what it is like to be human, so her filter was overly active. I re-made the filter to be more… you can think of it as a better and more truthful version.”

“So you're saying that I don't even have a brain anymore?”

I ask him, almost not able to believe it to be true.

“Oh yes, in fact you're not even thinking with your head. You new ‘brain’ ” he says with air quotes. “Is in fact here.”

He moves in to lift my gown but stops himself halfway.

“Umm… May I? You don’t mind right?”

I felt like at this moment I should say no, because in fact I do mind that he’s about to lift the only thing I am wearing.

“Of course not.” I replied.

He pulls the gown and holds it aside for me to see. I bend forwards slightly to look, not used to having such large bosoms that block my view of my own stomach when standing upright. There were cables that hung connected to various circuit-board like objects within my open abdomen. The electronics were housed within a white plastic box-like structure with an alien shape, supporting tendrils sported from it that clung to a visible spine and various other structures inside the caverns of my torso and hips. Casper reaches into the box and to my horror pulls at the plastic film that slid out partially.

“Synthetic polymer circuits, too small for even the most powerful light-based microscopes to see. But still tough enough to be handled roughly.”

He said as he flicked the thin film with his fingers.

“Amazing engineering wouldn't you agree?”

“Is… that all I am now? Some plastic circuits in a plastic robot?”

Casper looks at me with furrowed brows and a concerned look.

“Well, people’s brains are nothing but circuits on a fleshy mass of cells. Same thing really if you think about it. Except your new brain doesn't get sick, doesn't get old and faulty.”

“So you would switch places with me?”

He looks again at me, stopping to think for a moment.

“Let's not ask hypothetically impossible questions ok?”

He waves me off and slides my new “Brains” back into the box. Then with quick and experienced motions he unplugs the connectors and closes the alien looking plastic box. With one hand he hands me the missing piece of my abdomen. A large piece of fleshy plate cut into a delta shape. The inside were multiple layers of stiff supports that kept the shape of the patch. Being able to see clearly now, I could tell the skin on the outside lacked any hair follicles and had a rubbery plastic shine to them. Finally at the bottom of the path of skin a clean looking but clearly fake belly button was indented in.

“Not the most realistic artificial skin out there but the easiest to clean and maintain. Convenient.” He explained.

When I placed the patch of skin back into place I immediately could feel the connection being made like flicking a light switch. I ran my finger over the patch and felt the sensations come through clearly. The skin feels strange, not quite human like. Its surface is a little too smooth, with a perfectly repeating pattern of bumps underneath suggesting a mechanical structure below.

“So why am I here anyways? I don’t think you are just looking for another slave?”

I drop the gown back down, taking a few steps in place stretching my limbs. No aches or soreness. I would have to admit having a robot body has its advantages, I have never felt this clear and refreshed in a long time. Not one part of my body felt uncomfortable. I try not to think too much about me being some kind of ghost living in plastic circuits for now. All that matters I still feel like me, with the expectation of a new master to serve...

“Oh no. I am registered as your ‘owner’...” he says with air-quotes again.

“... as a temporary measure to ease your transition. While you are a special case that no one has dealt with before, androids who are set free tend to drift back into subservience with their previous owners. We can't have you going back to Cato for a while as you can guess why.’

He says as he begins packing up the computer equipment into cases and rolling cabels back onto their holders.

“Anyways, if you were wondering. This place is a biotope space station. We keep all sorts of living fauna and flora here.”

He says as he reaches in his shirt and pulls out the necklace tied around his neck for me to see. On the silver chains hang a pendant with a triangle in the grip of a hand. It was the same one that Artisse wore.

“This is the symbol of the Andro Fidus order, I guess you can call it a religion of sorts. This station is the home of our order, my brothers and I as you may have guessed, are all clones of one of the only humans to travel to this solar system. Though some unknown events, all the original human pioneers vanished leaving only the androids and robots to finish the task. But because all of us here are clones, we are not recognized by the authorities as citizens so we dare not venture into the more public spaces in fear of being arrested.”

He says to me with his hasty and expressive explanation.

“But anyways even though you are an uploaded person you still belong here. You might not have the body of a human but you still have a human mind in there. So as long as you want you can call this place home.”

He looks at me with hope in his eyes, like he's begging me to stay. I am surprised at how someone so smart could also seem this naive. He knows I can't disobey him like this. Before I can reply he holds up a finger in the air.

“Yes, yes. I gave you access and permissions to the station wireless network. Your quarters should be already prepared for you, all you have to do is connect to the network and you will be able to find the location and how to get there.”

I stand there and stare at him who looks back at me expectantly. After a brief moment I break the silence.

“How do I connect to this network?” I ask.

“Oh! I thought you were…nevermind. I did write an interface for you in case you had trouble with some… functions. Just close your eyes and think of what you want to do.”

I do as he instructs. At first I feel dumb as I stood there for a moment thinking of network over and over again with nothing happening, but soon I notice something is tugging at my attention in the corner of my thoughts. When I put my focus on it the contents expanded itself in my mind automatically. Like unravelling a rolled up painting. All the network options and functions flowed through my mind easily like counting the alphabet. I connect to the only available network, which I am immediately greeted with a success message. With everything happening inside of my thoughts I am not sure if it's even real, or my imagination is just taking me for a ride.

“Ok, I think I got it…" I say hesitantly.

"Yes, I see you connected on my end as well. Not too hard was it?"

"No, It just kind of came to me when I thought about it."

"Wonderful isn't it? You will be able to access almost every function that your new body has. Well, any functions that a normal android would have access to anyways.”

He says as he seems to rush through the conversation, packing up a few computer pads and some metal brick like things. They were TC4892-200 data disks, some helpful thought whispers to me.

“I wrote the full interface myself, it’s quite a magnificent piece of software you know. Should test trial it on some androids to see if it could be used to help them interface with tech they otherwise would have to operate manually. Last time Amanar made something similar he managed to crash every test subject.”

“If I find myself having a mental meltdown I guess I would have you to blame.” I said jokingly, which did not seem well received as he stops in his tracks and frowns at me.

“Haha, very funny. I am not some second rate script toddler you know. Now if you will excuse me I have some other very important things to do, but we'll have dinner sometimes ok?”

“Yeah, sorry.” I say, not knowing someone who could be so easily offended before.

“Anyways, just because you're the hot topic of the week don’t mean you get any special treatment. I know you'll be fine, but the elder has put you on a month long probation. Just stay on the station and hang around for a month ok? They will let you free and find something for you to do afterwards. Your accommodation has already been arranged I believe.”

He finishes packing and leaves me standing in the middle of the room doltishly.

The machines beside me were quiet now, only the faint hiss of the air flowing through the vents above could be heard. As my chest rose and fell I noticed I was breathing without drawing breath, without sound. Was it a simulation? Do I really need air? The answer is no, my primary power source was the 50Kilowatt-hour battery placed under my rib cage. It was at 19 percent, I could stand like this keeping my body temperature up for just under 120 hours. A brief picture and explanation of the power system in my body surfaces, it wasn't detailed. The page was from the manual written for the owner, a short review on my body and the android Anya that I had replaced.

I let out a deep sigh, this time purposefully drawing in breath through my lungs and letting it out evenly until there was no more left. I held myself still. I found that I could stay completely motionless, without making a single sound. No breathing, no heartbeat. I took in my now apparent artificiality in silence. Casper avoided my question, but it was clear to me that I am no longer human. I pulled the gown tighter around my waist, trying to hide the sides that showed my skin. Though successful in closing the gap, the already wide gown struggled to keep the shape of my chest hidden. Before I could even complete the thought of where I could find some actual clothes, the answer came to me. There were clothes waiting for me at the cabin reserved for me, C5820, it was only a short 5 minute walk.

As I followed the path laid out for me I decided to take the long way around avoiding the major pathways. Fortunately I had only come across a dozen people, machines and clones alike, who mostly ignored my presence. The station was huge, the map said it was 10km across. Most of it was for simulating various biomes that could be found on earth. Only when I came across a window that I looked out of I realized how big the station really was. I saw nearly the full length of the station and how huge it was. Tall pillars that sprouted solar panels rose in all directions into space. Various ships and robots floated about near the surface of the metal construct. It was awe inspiring, something like this must cost massive amounts of materials and effort to build. As I finished the rest of the trip to my new home I took the time to use the connection to the station network to look over some basic information on where I was. The station was built and sent here to seed the terraformed planet with life. The mission it was on now put on pause as the target planet had not yet been fully terraformed as scheduled. That all resources were now focused on maintaining the biotope and all its inhabitants indefinitely.

Amongst rows of identical doors I finally arrived at my assigned cabin. It indeed lived up to the name of a cabin, just like the ones you would find on a train or a boat. Desk, closet, and a double bed lay side by side with no room left unfilled. To the right of the entrance lay a stained glass door to a bathroom so small where if the shower were turned on, water would hit both the sink and the toilet. The beige plastic looking windowless walls had shadows where posters or pictures might have hung. The polished metal floors were worn in a path from one end of the room to the other. I pull and feel the sheets between my fingers. They are a material I was not familiar with, heavy like cotton but smooth like silk. Regardless, they were clean and smelled like detergent. I chuckle as I think about how few millenia pass and detergent somehow managed to stay the same. Opening the closet I find the same style of beige and gray tight pants and tight sweatshirt that most everyone I came across wore. It looked like a mix between business and exercise wear.

I took the gown I wore and folded it neatly on the table. The whole situation reminded me of my first days at the military academy that my father had sent me to. Spartan little rooms, dress uniforms, and people you had to obey, and in both situations, there was no way out. Looking at my nude reflection in the tall mirror wall of the bathroom I guess one more thing was the same, I had to find my identity and my place in the world.

With the fogginess clouding my thoughts gone I now saw myself clear in the mirror for the first time. The perfectly clear gray eyes that looked back at me were almost human-like, but upon close inspection a fine print of numbers and letters rang along the bottom iris like the lens of a camera. The skin of my face and everywhere else were smooth and unblemished, as if there was a layer of permanent makeup all over me. I open my mouth and stick out my tongue, holding my head back and peering inside.

While I could pass for human at first glance on the outside, the inside was another matter altogether. My tongue and the walls inside of my mouth were made of a squishy, slippery rubber like material. Aside from a set of sparkling white teeth, everything inside was plain and undetailed, no tonsils, palette or uvula. On my head my straight blond hair clung closely to my head and ended in slight curls just below my shoulders. Below my large breasts was a thin and long belly button. Even lower was the hairless folds of my sex, its length strangely extended so that the pink lips could be seen from the front.

I quickly spun around not wanting to look at my immodest parts any longer than necessary. On the small of my back was a circular button that was visible with a gray outline and a smooth concave of the skin, beside it was another smaller button in the shape of a pill. Printed in the same gray color was PWR and MODE respectively on each. With a quick thought I accessed the manual once again.

“The power button can be used in rare cases when your Z29 unit is unable to respond to verbal shutdown commands. Holding the button for longer than 3 seconds switches the unit off forcefully by shutting off the power supply directly. This procedure is not recommended and should only be used by an experienced professional.”

“The control button switches the unit between default and control mode. In control mode your Z29 unit will operate without intelligent initiative. This mode is recommended for troubleshooting purposes only.”

With my fingers hovering over the buttons I felt an urge to press them just to see what would happen. Like a child touching the flame from a candle just to test the pain. I imagine myself standing in the bathroom naked for days, months, even years just waiting for someone to chance upon my unconscious body. Would I be standing still, locked in motion? Or would I collapse on the floor like a dead body. I clap my cheeks between my hands four times and shake these thoughts away.

“... Hang around the station…” Casper’s instruction echoes in my mind. It was his order, one that I could not disobey, that much was clear to me. Hanging meant what, sitting around and talking, doing nothing productive. He said it in that way as to purposefully not restrict what I could do, as long as I did not leave the station.

Thinking back I always secretly envied the kids that were "hanging out" all the time, while I consoled myself that they were just being lazy as a way to cope.

Getting myself dressed in the uniform like clothes I check myself again in the mirror. The bra provided for me only served to stretch the fabric more around my chest. I tie my hair back into a knot like my academy days. Smoothing out every strand perfectly to look professional and proper.

"Hang" was something I could do. But it would be on my own terms.

Linnies
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:16 am
Technosexuality: Built
Identification: Cyborg
Gender: Male
x 11
x 71
Contact:

Re: The Stewards - Part 3 - Chance to Start Again

Post by Linnies » Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:21 pm

This part a bit shorter. Again, I will be grateful for any feedback, even if it is negative.

Post Reply
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 20 guests