Exo Saves the Day, Chapter 7

[gynoneko]

If you missed the first chapter... click here.
The second chapter is here.
Chapter three is here.
Don't forget Chapter 4 here.
Chapter 5 is over here.
And of course, the infamous Chapter 6 is here.
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Exo Saves the Day
Chapter Seven: Early Riser
By Gynoneko


That night was a restless one. I had a few short dreams, none of which I could remember clearly, but all of which kept me up. It didn’t help that there was a strange girl- a gynoid rather, sleeping in the bed next to me, unable to tell me anything about her. I kept having flashbacks of her opened chest; her revealed circuitry and wires filling my mind. The only thing I really remembered from my dreams was that all of them had the same short man with dark glasses and a business suit. He was telling me that I could not keep her, and that I was not her master. Who the hell was he and why did he invade my dreams?

Finally, at about 4 in the morning, I fell asleep for the rest of the night. I awoke the next day to an arm in my face. The last 2 days seemed like such a blur, I wasn’t even sure that they had happened, but this was a good reminder that they had. While she had a soft arm, it was still crushing my nose. I gently moved the limb off my face, and rolled over to take a look at the owner of said limb. Sunlight beamed through the window next to my bed, filtered through the constant movement of leaves on the trees outside, and rested softly onto the girl sleeping form. Her features were well lit in the dancing light, and it made her look like an angel sleeping next to me. I refocused my eyes onto her face, observing the finely-crafted details of her features; her cute nose, relaxed closed eyes, her soft red lips, her faint freckles. She looked purely innocent and delicate, like someone in need of protection. Perhaps the mystery man in my nightmares was right. Perhaps I couldn’t protect her, perhaps I couldn’t have her. Then again, I was never one to back down from a challenge, and there was no one else to claim her!

My eyes darted down a little lower. The loose shirt she wore was all askew, and the wide neck gave me a perfect view of her cleavage. In fact, it was more than just her cleavage. I could see a nipple peeking out, as she breathed in deeply and slowly. Mr. Happy was wide awake all of a sudden; I needed to practice a little more self-control. Taken off guard by the sight of her luscious chest, I rolled over, away from her, and directly onto the floor, hitting it with a loud BAM! My head hit the side of my nightstand on the way down, and I landed in a very uncomfortable position. I’m not sure which was louder, my cursing or the impact. Needless to say, I woke her up, and my day started with a literal bang. And here I was hoping for a different kind.

I was surprised at how fast she reacted to my fall. Before I could get to my feet, she was already kneeling next to me, seeing to my head. I must have hit it harder than I thought, because she ran into the bathroom, trailing her black USB cord behind her, and came back out half a minute later with a wet rag and a large bandage. She bade me to stay sitting. Her concerned look made me all the more careful not to fall over again, and I let her see to my head. She dabbed at my head with the rag, which stung sharply! I noticed a small smudge of red on the rag as she pulled it back. Great! Now I’m bleeding as well! I watched her face as she nursed my wound, studying her features closely. She was absolutely lovely! I felt bad, realizing that I didn’t even know her name yet, if she even had one! And yet, as she was seeing to my injury, I worried more for her own sake. She looked down at my eyes and smiled. I was glad to see she was not too concerned anymore. At least the local news wasn’t going to report about a man killing himself while falling out of bed. She placed the bandage on the side of my head, and gave it a small kiss.

My heart skipped a beat for some reason. All I could do was stare at her as she went back to the bathroom to rinse out the rag and put it in the laundry basket. She must not have noticed yet that she was still dragging around about 4 feet of her long USB “tail” behind her. After I fell out of bed, she must have been so concerned she forgot to unplug herself. I stood up, a little woozy, but not too bad. I stabilized my balance just as she walked back in, smiling at me. I grabbed at her tail as she walked by me toward the other side of the bed. She let out a little digital yelp, startled at my action, and then turned to look at her still extended cord, her face flush with embarrassment. Before she could retract it herself, I turned her hips so she faced away from me, and lifted up her shirt enough to reveal her charging port.

“Allow me” I said, as I clicked open the small panel on her back, just above her naked rear. I pushed a small button inside the port, which retracted the cord quickly, all the way inside her, the end flicking her on the butt as it escaped my hand. She jumped a little, and then giggled to herself. I swear her digital voice was actually starting to sound a little better. Either that or I was just getting used to it. I closed her panel, and turned her toward me. She held her arms against her chest, as she looked up at me with a smile.

“Thank you for the bandage. I don’t normally fall out of bed, but I thought you’d enjoy fixing me up for a change” I joked. She laughed, her digitally distorted voice sounded more bearable. Wrapping her arms over my shoulder, she pushed her lips against mine, and gave me a short but satisfying kiss. Now this I could get used to!

She stepped away from me and continued back to the other side of the bed, where she had been sleeping. I felt the bandage on my head. It still stung, and throbbed, but it wasn’t too bad. It would go away in a day or so, but would probably leave a nasty bruise. I watched as she faced away from me and pulled off her shirt. Her petite back came into full view, and I could see the side of her breast as she tossed the shirt to the bed and reached down to pick up the blue one I gave her yesterday.
Before she could put it on, I noticed the large white strips of tape from the skin repair work last night. It should have been done by now. “Hold on a second. It’s my turn to take a look at your injuries” I told her as I walked up to her. She held the shirt up to her front as she turned toward me, one eyebrow arched. Lightly grabbing her shoulders, I led her to the bed, where she sat down, looking up at me with a curious look.

I peeled back the largest of the tape bandages, the one covering her neck. She winced at the action. I suppose it was like pulling off a Band-Aid. To my astonishment, the wound was closed, and there was almost no visible sign of any injury at all. I could see a slightly pale look to part of her skin, where a very faint scar ran across it, but it would take a very close look to even notice it. I whistled in amazement, which I think she misunderstood and started to look panicked.

“No, no, no. Everything is fine. In fact, it worked better than I thought! You look as good as new. Beautiful!” Her face, once again, flushed crimson as she blushed at my remark. She looked away, a smile on her face, which made her look coy. I lifted one of her hands, and she looked intently as I pulled off the tape covering her cuts there. With only a slightly pale scar, her arm was completely healed! The look on her face was priceless as she stared in amazement at her own arm. She pulled the tape off her other arm, and stared at them in joy.

I pulled down the shirt had been holding in front of her, revealing her full beauty to me. She quickly covered herself with a small digital squeal, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She was just too cute, and after her performance in the shower, she really had nothing to hide from me anymore. Well, almost. I gently lifted her arms off her chest, and carefully removed the last of the bandages. All her cuts were healed, leaving only faint pale scars behind. Even the wound on her breast was healed, with hardly even a pale patch noticeable. It was remarkable how well the skin repair process worked. The nano-bots did an excellent job when combined with that special compound I bought, and I was going to give them my best reviews yet! If those nano-bots did such an amazing job on her skin, I wonder if they were actually helping out her voice after all.

“Can I take a look at your voice box again, please?” I asked her. She thought for a second and gave me a nod, her smile fading. She lifted up her chin, and a blue pin-point of light appeared on her neck. A second or two later, the newly-formed panel slid away, to reveal her fully exposed mechanics inside. Unlike last time, her eyes did not start glowing, and she did not freeze. Instead, she remained perfectly normal, still breathing and blinking, aware of everything I was doing. I gently reached inside, unhooked a few small latches, and slid the dark box out of her throat. She held her breath as I did this, clenching her eyes closed, but began to breathe easy again once it was free. Gently, she closed her throat panel with her hands and watched me as I studied the device more carefully.

It was clear that the voice box had taken severe damage. The blow to her head and neck crushed in one side of it, which dislodged part of the mechanics inside, and warped the shape. All it could do was provide a digital mess instead of a human-sounding voice. This particular unit actually allows air, liquid, and food to pass through, and still allow her voice to come through clear, when it was working properly. At the state it was in, she could breathe and drink, but food would not have been an option even if she didn’t have that plug. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She needed to eat to help with maintenance and repairs, but the only thing she had to eat lately was my… well, it was part of me. I suppose she needed that for herself as much as I wanted it. Maybe I was reading into it too much, although it was true that part of me was inside her, making repairs to her body. I shoved that thought aside, trying to calm myself down, and focused on the device at hand.

“Well, it looks like your nano-bots have been hard at work here,” I told her, “but I’m afraid they can’t do too much more to fix this. I’m going to have to order you a new one” if I can find it I thought to myself. She looked a little sad, but perked herself up, and took a deep breath. “No worries, I’m sure I can get the information I need from this. I’ll just go into the other room and order one online.”

I pulled on my pants and walked into the living room, while she continued to dress herself. The device in my hand was very complex, and had a variety of settings on it, that would change the quality of the voice. First, I looked for the model number, to see if I could find anything online. I was in luck, well… sort of. I found the device online, new, but it was expensive. Not only was it expensive, but it would also take about a month to be custom made and shipped. A whole month! Not to mention it was well out of my budget. I kept it in mind; maybe I could find a suitable replacement, or at least a refurbished or used unit somewhere. Taking careful notes, I wrote down all the information on the voice settings, so I could give her back her original voice when I was able to get one.

I took a very close look at the damaged parts again. The only thing I could really do was to try to glue some of the delicate parts back in place. As it happened, I had a tube of super glue in the office. You never know when you need to glue part of a robotic arm back together again. I grabbed the glue, and carefully worked at the delicate and damaged piece. It didn’t take long, only about 2 minutes, and the repair would have only been a minor improvement. What is taking her so long to get dressed? I wondered. I bet she is putting it on backwards again I joked to myself. With the voice box freshly glued and quickly drying, I came back into the living room and set it down on the counter.

My stomach growled at me. Since I was up, I decided I should make some food. Alas, the milk had gone bad yesterday, my bad, so cereal was out of the question. I decided to quickly fry up an egg, and put on a half a pot of coffee. Breakfast was never really my thing. I was used to running out of the house to get to work and/or school without breakfast, just so I could get there on time. A big lunch and a big dinner were usually all I would ever eat. However, my doctor told me to stop skipping meals, so I started making more of an effort to eat something before I left in the morning. Being a Sunday, I figured eggs were a little nicer than my usual cereal or breakfast bar.

She walked into the room just as I was getting the pan heated, with 2 eggs in hand. She had apparently been spending her time making sure she got her clothes on right. I didn’t even notice her standing behind me in the kitchen until I heard her sniffing the eggs I had started to cook. She closed her eyes to breathe in the scent of the cooking eggs, as though it was the best thing she smelled in her whole life. For all I knew, it was the best thing she ever smelled. My dinner last night was a quick simple meal, with little scent, and I had not cooked anything else around her. It made me sad to know that she couldn’t eat any of it. I wanted to see if she would enjoy eating my cooking as much as she enjoyed smelling it. I couldn’t help but look at the freckles on her nose as she sniffed the air. Cute doesn’t begin to describe how I saw her.

“I’ll make you some eggs if you want,” I said, “but I’m afraid you aren’t able to eat them, are you?” She smiled politely and shook her head. I just had to find a way to fix that problem. I had to get that insidious device removed from her. In short, I had to become her master. But how to do it? She noticed the dark voice box sitting on the counter next to me, and picked it up. She looked intently at it, gauging the damage for herself, before letting out a voiceless sigh. I covered the eggs to let them cook for a few minutes as I turned to face her. Before I could say anything, she handed the box to me, and motioned with her hands that she wanted me to put the faulty device back in her throat.

“You really want me to put it back, even though it is damaged so badly?” I asked. She nodded and repeated her gesture. “Well I can order you a new one, but I’m afraid it will take about a month to get here, maybe longer. And I have to save up for it first.” She listened, and gave a slight, understanding nod. “But you still want this one in while you wait?” She nodded again, this time more deliberately. “Okay. I’ll put it back, but try not to yodel for a while” I joked. She smiled, as I took the box from her hand.

“Please open up for me” I said. I was glad to see she understood the command. Usually, a robot would not understand such a complex command. Sure it sounded simple to a human, but we natural understand implications and the like. I’d need to reference what was to be opened, and whatnot, for a regular robot to understand such an open phrased command. She didn’t even blink an eye, and her neck opened right up for me. I got a thrill again when I saw part of her body opened. It fascinated me to see this, and I really enjoyed looking at the ingenious design that went into building her. I could see her entire body, both outside and in, as a masterful work of art. With a few clicks, I placed the voice box back inside her neck, and gently closed her up.

“Bzzzt Thank you” she said. Her voice was very digital-sounding still, almost like someone was using an old text-to-speak program, except she had more inflection in her voice. At least it was a feminine sounding voice, and not the old male voices which would really throw me off. There was still a lot of noise and disturbance, but at least she could talk a little. She held her hand to her throat again, and sighed. Even though I could understand her now, this was as good as that voice box was going to get, and she knew it. She probably had a beautiful voice before, but now it was all gone.

I kissed on her on the forehead. “No problem” I smiled. Turning back to my eggs, with her watching my every movement intensely, I finished frying them up, and slid them onto a plate. I poured a cup of coffee, and realized that she might also want to at least drink something. “Would you like something to drink at least?” I asked, as she watched me pour my cup. She didn’t seem all that interested in the coffee. “I have juice and milk- no… no milk. I have juice and water. Coffee is sort of an acquired taste anyways.”

She looked up toward the ceiling as she thought about it. “bzzzrrrmmm juice zzz please”. She said quietly. I tried my best not to laugh at her voice; I really didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable than she must already have been. I did smile a bit at her voice though. I went to the cupboard and pulled out a tall glass, filled it with orange juice from the fridge, and set it on the small table I used for meals. I had one chair there, so I pulled up another from my computer as I set my own plate of egg down. Chivalry was always something I strived for, even if that means women think I’m a pig, or just that I’m old fashion. But I always feel a woman deserves to have the door held open for them, or a chair pulled out for them. I did exactly this for my gynoid guest. She giggled as she graciously took a seat. I grabbed my coffee and a fork, and set down next to her.

My meal was a short one, but not uneventful. She sat silently, drinking from the tall glass clasped in both hands, while I scarfed down my eggs and coffee. I’m sure she must have been hungry by the manner in which she looked at the food, but she knew she couldn’t eat anything. I hoped the orange juice would be better for her than plain water, or coffee. Coffee was known to cause problems for some androids, those that could drink it. It stained and smelled, and was usually frowned upon since caffeine does little for machines. However, for humans, it was a god-send. I gladly drank down my coffee in 2 or 3 gulps, waiting for the caffeine rush to hit me in a few minutes.

“You umm… you told me the other night that you didn’t have a master, is uh… is that true?” I asked shyly between bites. She put down her mostly empty glass, raised her eyebrow at me, and nodded. “Well… I was just wondering…” I cleared my throat, blood rushing to my face again as I looked down at my last few bites of egg. “Would you like… me to be your… master?” My voice was quiet and broken a bit; I coughed a bit to clear my throat. Her vibrant blue eyes opened wide, staring right at me unblinking, and a huge smile appeared on her face. She seemed to shake with excitement as tears filled her eyes. She squealed out a little digital squeal and shot up to her feet. “zztt Yes!” she said as she gave me a big nod and hugged me as best as she could while I sat there and took her excitement in. Her body was slightly cool and soft to the touch, and she held on as tight as she could for a bit.

After a minute, she sat back down at the table, wiping the tears from her eyes, with the biggest smile ever. She looked up at me with big eyes, and took another deep breath. I felt like I just asked her to marry me. But then again, for a gynoid, this was the closest thing to one. I realized that I was probably the first person to ask a gynoid if she wanted me to be her master, usually the human would just take them and register them, no questions asked. This was starting out to be a very unusual relationship, but one I was excited to be a part of.

With breakfast done, I put the few dishes in the dishwasher, and started to clean up a bit. She stopped me, and gestured that she wanted to clean up for me. I smiled, and let her do as she pleased. I watched as she did a little dance with her movements, wiping down the counter, and cleaning up. I went back to my computer to research more about her voicebox, until she finished.

She was a very smart gynoid, able to understand gestures, implied speech, and could even dance. Sure there have been dancing gynoids since the early 21st century, but even today their dancing moves were never part of an everyday chore. I certainly didn’t program her to dance, or ask her to. She did this of her own free will. Free will? Did she have such a thing? It could be argued that even humans don’t, but at least we have a concept of free will, while every robot, android, and gynoid with an AI has been programed to follows a strict set of rules which defy the very idea of “free will”.

Isaac Asimov, the famous 20th century author, once wrote about the 3 Laws of Robotics. Surely everyone knows what they are:

1. A robot must not harm a human or allow a human to come to harm through action or inaction.
2. A robot must obey all orders given to it by a human unless it contradicts the first law.
3. A robot must preserve itself, unless that preservation violates the first 2 laws.

In reality, such concepts are not as simple as this. Robots are bound by a series of instructions that follow these laws as a guideline. Some minor changes have been put in place, such as the hierarchy of commands given to a robot by humans, the priority of said commands, and even how robots are to deal with other robots. It was impossible to go up to a robot and tell it to dismantle itself, or tell it to only follow your commands, unless you had some ownership over the robot. It all comes down to the same golden rule. All robots are tools used to help humans and society, and should not be used to hurt anyone. This is nice and all, but the laws have been violated before. With a simple hack, any robot, no matter how complex or how hard-wired its programming, can be made to harm a human.

One such violation is imbedded into every robot. People are too involved in the here and now to care about what happens too far into the future. We saw side effects of this from the 20th century pollution that still effects our environment. One logical conclusion the best AI systems often make is to protect humanity over all other laws. This means it can violate the first law if it feels that mankind on a whole is in danger. Since we don’t want robots running our lives in such a way, this logical phenomenon is directly counteracted, so that robots are not able to see mankind as part of their logical programing is such a way. While robots are programmed to save the majority of lives, or to concentrate on those that need saving the most, there are no robots concerned with saving the planet, stopping a war, or changing the direction mankind is headed in, unless they are directly programmed to do so. This means they will be able to kill a human if it will save lives, although certain criteria have to be met, but they will never be able to take control of our governments or rule our lives.

Long story short, the robots of today use the 3 law system as a guide for their AI, but that’s just the start. Most AIs are programmed to repress any creative or spontaneous activities, as a precaution that robots might “gain the ability to think on their own”. Sure, some androids paint, one gynoid is a world-famous actress, but these exceptions are rare and unique, and deliberate. It is a direct violation of the law to manufacture a robot without the 3 laws guideline, or to alter the guideline in any way. Any robot caught with such a violation is destroyed on sight. And there were plenty of individuals out there who wanted to hurt robots. To see a gynoid dancing to herself in my kitchen intrigued me even more. Was she capable of creative thought? Was she capable of more? I had to know more about her.

As soon as she was done with the short cleanup work, I asked her to come closer. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to take a closer look at your head. I want to make sure there was no damage. I didn’t really get a good look last time.” She looked apprehensive. Perhaps the idea of messing around in her head while she was unaware was too much, but she had allowed me to before. Maybe she was tired of me messing around inside her. “I promise not to shut you down unless I absolutely have to” I told her. After a few seconds of careful deliberation, she nodded in agreement. It was probably best that she make sure there was nothing else wrong, and fix it before it became an issue.

We walked into my office, she sat down, and I asked her to give me access to her head panel. The pin-point blue lights followed her hair-line, behind her ears, and lifted off her head. I watched as her hair separated from her head, and hinged open at the base of her skull. Her cybernetic brain was a sight to behold. It looked futuristic, almost sci-fi. Glowing pathways of intricate blue and green lights danced a complex pattern throughout parts of her brain. Circuitry as finite as a microscopic pathway and as intricate as a fractal lined her cavity. Her brain actually used Photonic Computing, combining traditional cybernetic circuitry with high-tech laser light to read, store, and process data at extremely fast speeds with little power consumption and much less heat. More accurately, it was 5 different photonic computing centers, each integrated into each other, and each assigned to process a different task. Each one of these would have rivaled the processing power of any android or gynoid I had ever seen.

I hooked up various cables inside her head, as she sat there, blinking but motionless. I was not going to run any long diagnostics on her while she was conscious, but I did want to run some simple tests, as well as figure out what each part of her brain was for. I took in her most complex of systems for a while, just gazing at the beauty of it. I did look her over for any visible damage, and luckily there was none. Returning to my computers, I started up a series of short tests and information gathering programs. It appeared that she actually seemed to enjoy letting me work on her, and smiled every time I was inside her body. She most likely wanted to remain conscious so she could enjoy the thrill of letting me work inside her as much as I did.

She looked around the room, gazing at all the various robotic parts. I had almost everything there, including limbs, torsos, eyes, heads, and a huge assortment of circuitry and computer equipment. It must have been very interesting to her. She could barely resist walking around the room to stare at all the different components. One particular robot seemed to fascinate her. It was of the upper torso and head of a gynoid, sitting on a bench, still hooked up to a computer, although nothing was running. It was the same gynoid she looked at closely the day I fixed her up. There was nothing particularly special about this gynoid. It had no skin, no hair, no limbs, and was damaged, but it did have a very young, innocent looking face. I picked up that particular unit at a recycling center about 3 months ago.

I often visited recycling centers, garbage dumps, thrift shops, and the like, always on the look-out for replacement parts. I was shocked to see so much of a gynoid in a recycling center, sitting in a large pile of broken computers and robot parts. I took home the broken gynoid, and had been working on fixing her up on my time off for more than a month. I managed to replace most of her internal circuitry, updating and repairing her as I went. I was still a long way off from getting her running, since she needed serious reconstruction in her joints, not to mention new limbs, but everyone needs to have a hobby or two. Besides, I was lonely, and wanted a companion. Striking out so many times with the ladies led me into a slump, and I found myself wishing I could make the perfect companion, rather than just find one. I hadn’t worked on her in about 3 weeks though, focusing more on my other hobby, my exoskeleton suit, or exo-suit for short.

The tests were pouring into the computer screens. While there were some minor anomalies, there was nothing seriously wrong with her processing and nothing physically wrong either. She had no viruses, no signs of hacks, and she had all the proper security features in place, although few of them were active since she was not registered. I would have to figure that out soon. I told her I wanted her to be mine, but now I had to figure out how. I had to find her identification marks, her company and model and serial numbers. I dove farther into her mind.

She paused a moment while I did this, blinking rapidly, but she allowed me access. The cables I had attached to her were fairly long, so she carefully stood up, and took a closer look at the gynoid across the way from her. There was something very sweet about seeing this, but I was more concerned about getting the data I needed.

I found her model number, XKQT-114; an experimental model. This was indicated by the X at the beginning of the number. Her company name was encoded, I could not see what it was, but perhaps there was a reason they encoded this data. Her serial number was also encoded. Well at least I had one of the important bits of data I needed; that should at least come in handy. However, I was still no closer to registering her, let alone becoming her master. Most gynoids only need to be registered by the user for this to happen, but this gynoid was either a runaway unit, a malfunctioning unit, or a stolen unit. And, as an experimental model, there is no way they’d let me register such a unit. I was still stuck in a dead end, but I was determined to find out more.

After a few minutes, I got nowhere with the encoded data. Luckily, my data-searching programs had come back with a synopsis of her systems. What a system she had! She did indeed have 5 different sections of her brain. Each section was very powerful, and specifically dedicated to one task. While I only got a small gist of what these systems each did at the time, what I eventually learned was astonishing.

The first is what I call the Data Retrieving section. This part of her mind is dedicated to processing and receiving sensory data, and delegating where that data is to be sent and how. Anything from a tickle to a burn, a word to a note, a picture to a face, is processed by this section of her mind and sent to the appropriate channels. This is an involuntary system that gives her a lot of information without her having to think about it consciously. It controls her 5 senses, as well as simulated input.

The second is a Data Conversion section. Here, all physical data is, from what I can tell, converted into digital electrochemical signals. This means that her sensory data is treated as chemical data on the fly, to simulate the human electrochemical signals in our bodies. It makes all the data sent into her brain act as electrochemical data. This means that some things, like pain, can overtake the system, and she would not only look and act like she is in pain, but she could actually be in pain, with all the side effects and debilitating qualities. The same would be true with any strong sensory data, including pleasure. I suppose that this was designed to limit the amount of information her conscious and subconscious minds can take, once again copying humans.

The third section is dedicated to Reaction and Involuntary Movement. Here, all the data that is sent through the data conversion process is given a subconscious reaction. This means that if she is feeling pain from a burn on her hand, the reaction would involuntarily retract her arm from that heat source. She would have little control over such a reaction, but with enough will, she could overcome it. It also means that the tiny movements in our bodies that we don’t think about, such as the way we stand or walk, or the muscles that keep up upright, or even the beating of our hearts, are all controlled by this same reaction center in her. The reaction systems were able to be overcome with enough will, but her involuntary movement was autonomous.

The 4th section is her Consciousness. This is the main processing unit of her mind, the part that is dedicated to higher thinking and self-awareness. This was the largest and most complex part of her mind, and the most impressive. It contains most of the complex AI she has, but also the learned information and stored data as well. Words, locations, people, things; all of these and more are contained in her consciousness ready for access at a moment’s thought. All her memories are stored there. She is able to exert her will, or her submission, through her consciousness, allowing her to follow commands and make reactionary movements, or to resist such reactions. She could also brainstorm and dream, something else I had never seen in a robot before. I would have to look more into her dreams later.

The final, and most important part, is her subconscious. This is actually the glue of her brain. This section holds together all the other sections, and decides what information is sent where, and how it is sent. It is the part that controls the synchronicity of her entire system. The AI here is concerned with the welfare of her bodily functions, and she has no control over this part of her mind.

Altogether, her mind was a miracle of modern science, something far more complex and human than some humans I have met. I could barely comprehend the power she had been given. But why was such a simple girl given such a complex and amazing mind? She intrigued me more and more. At the time, all I could do was store the data for review later. Her physical mind was an amazing achievement, but her software was incomplete.

I noticed that, while her AI was apparently complete, and she was capable of running on her basic systems, she was missing large parts of her programming. Most of her protocols were not there, and she was lacking some basic functions, like bathing. I suppose she was capable of learning these with such an advanced AI, but to not have them pre-programmed is very unusual. Luckily, her AI is advanced enough to allow her to learn things, and fairly quickly as well. She was going to need that, in order to make up for the missing data.

While I was working, a thought came into my head. I still had no name for her. “Um… Do you have a name?” I asked shyly, trying to look more like I was concentrating on my work. She turned toward me, and sadly shook her head. She was a girl with no name. I’d have to fix that , but again, only her master can change or assign a name.

After another short test, I asked her to sit next to me again. She gladly complied, and I went around to the back of her head, and unplugged the connections. Gently, I closed the panel, and got the sense that I should refrain from opening this too often. She is very delicate there, and the slightest thing could damage her brain. I was very careful with her, but just to be safe, I would avoid accessing her head in the future.

As I closed up her skull, I heard a rumble in her stomach. She was hungry after all. Her cheeks blushed at the noise, but I understood that she was not designed to go long without being registered to an owner. There was little I could do to help her right now. I had to figure out how to register as her Master, but without knowing her company, or even if she was stolen property or not, there was no way I could do this.

I decided to let her wander the apartment for a while, to get used to things around here, while I worked on fixing up my exo-suit. It wasn’t in as bad shape as I thought. Apparently part of it overheated and I didn’t have enough cooling systems inside to cool it off fast enough. One of the circuit boards had a few fried components, which wasn’t a major issue. I started replacing these parts while considering what to do about the overheating problem. Perhaps I could use a heat sink or a quiet fan. Simple is best they say.

As I worked on my suit, I heard the gynoid going about the apartment. I could hear her rummaging about in the kitchen, looking through cabinets and drawers, clanging against pots and pans. Suddenly, there was a THUD, followed by a loud CLANG, and a digital “oof!”. I quickly ran into the kitchen to see what happened. I found her sprawled out on the floor, with potato chips all over her, and my large roasting pot next to her. She had apparently tried to get it down from the top of the fridge to look at it, and lost her balance, spilling the bag of chips resting inside it. She was alright, and the pot made more noise than damage. She rubbed at her rear as she sat up. I couldn’t help to bolt out a hearty laugh at the situation. At first she just groaned a bit, but soon she joined me in laughter as well. I helped her up to her feet, and helped her clean up the mess. I decided it would be a good idea to show her the step ladder I kept around for reaching the lights (even at might height, those lights are just out of my reach). I also decided to warn her about the knives and the stove. I didn’t want her cutting or burning herself.

For a little while longer, we went about our tasks. I was busy replacing circuitry, while she was busy going through things. It took her a while to move on from the kitchen, and at one point I heard her flush the toilet, and start turning on an off all the sinks and faucets in the apartment. I could only giggle to myself thinking about her trying everything out. It must have been about an hour before I was pleased with the work I did, and hooked up the suit to its charger. I’d have to test it after it got a full charge on it. I stretched my legs as I walked back into the living room, looking around for the curious gynoid. There was no sign of her. The noises had all stopped a few minutes before, and I thought nothing of it, but now I had to find where she was hiding. The door was still closed and locked, so she was inside the apartment, but there couldn’t be many places to hide in such a small place.

I found her going through my clothes in the closet, making a huge mess on the floor as she looked at every single shirt and pant that I owned. It was around lunch time, and I decided I would head out to pick up something to eat while I ran a few errands. The final part of my exo-suit was not yet finished; my jacket needed to be cleaned.

“Stay here and I will be back in a few minutes. I just need to send my jacket out to be cleaned” I told her, scooping up my jacket from the clothes basket in the bathroom. “Just stay here, and be careful not to hurt yourself. Say, you don’t happen to know what sizes you wear, do you?”

She arched an eyebrow and shrugged her shoulders. Of course she didn’t know her own dimensions, not consciously at least. I looked at her body, trying to gauge what sizes she might wear. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they might be, so I figured I’d at least get her some generic panties and some shirts and pants to wear while I was out. That way I could take her out later to get her measured properly.

“Mmm… never mind, I’ll be back shortly” I told her. As I walked to the front door, she followed behind me, leaving the mess of clothes on the floor in my bedroom closet. It was kind of cute to have her following me around like a puppy, but I didn’t want her to go out just yet. Who knows what would happen if we ran into any trouble. I figured my apartment was about the safest place right now. No one knew who I was, or where I lived, at least no one that would also know about the girl, or the thugs in the alley that night. She should be safe here.

“I’ll be back in a short while. Just stay here” I repeated. She nodded at me, as gave me a quick hug goodbye. I couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to live with a girl who watched me leave every day. It was a nice feeling to know someone was there waiting for me to return. I gave her a smile, and turned toward the door.

Just as I opened the door to leave, a large man stood in my way, one hand ready to knock, the other holding a picture. He was a big guy. At least 6 foot 40. He had on a black business suit, and black sunglasses. His arms looked like the sleeves would burst if he flexed his muscles at all. I was pretty sure he could bench press my car. I just stared up at him, a feat in itself considering my own height. I was used to looking down at people, but looking at someone my own height was a bit of an oddity for me, and someone taller than me was intimidating to say the least. As I took in his bulking form, he took in mine. I’m not sure how I looked to him, holding a blood-stained coat in one arm. His one hand hung there in the air, ever ready to knock on my now open door, while his head looked down at the picture in his hand, and back up at me, several times. He spotted the coat in my hand, and his expression when from startled to serious.

“It’s you!” he snarled. His voice was deep and sounded dangerous. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was a model for Thugs-R-Us. I watched in horror as he reached inside his jacket to pull something out.

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/Chapter 7
Chapter 8

[NukuNookee]

Argghh! A cliff-hanger....

Looking good so far, well written and the pacing is spot-on.

[gynoneko]

Thanks for the feedback!
I have up to chapter 10 planned out, and I am working on the next chapter now. I should have it up soon!

NaNoWriMo is this month, and while I am majorly behind in writing, at least it is something I enjoy sharing on here.