Exo Saves the Day, Chapter 11

[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.
Chapter 7 can be found here.
You must read Chapter 8 here.
Chapter 9 is right here.
And Chapter 10 is over here.
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Exo Saves the Day
Chapter Eleven: Emotional Overload
By Gynoneko


“We’ve quarantined the program and stopped all the commands that are causing us the trouble” Jack said. “She shouldn’t be losing any more data today.” I was glad to hear this, but I knew 263 already lost a lot of data, and I wasn’t sure what it was of.

“Apparently it was randomly deleting and corrupting data in order to render her A.I. useless. Luckily, the damage to her A.I. is minimal, and I think we can fix both her OS and her A.I. with no trouble” said Cynthia. She still looked worried as she looked at the data on her screen. “She lost a lot of data though. It looks like a lot of her memory files were corrupted. I’m not sure she’ll ever get those back, or be able to descramble them. Who knows what she’s forgotten? We won’t be able to find out how bad it is until we get her booted up again.”

“Which will take some time” Jack said. “We need to rebuild her OS, or at least part of it. I sure hope you have a copy of that,’ cause I am fresh out!”

“Actually, we need to see if MMR tracked the data she submitted. If they catch on to her, it will lead them straight here” Tom said.

“Good point, Darling” said Cynthia. “I’ll work on getting her A.I. and OS repaired, you two work on getting that data she submitted scrambled.”

“Me? But I don’t know how to hack into secure systems” I protested. I was ready to plead my case when Jack interrupted.

“No need, Danny-boy. I already did. However, I might need your help relaying the signal. Remember that trick I showed you to use with your phone?” It was the same trick I used to send that TXT to the police, and it was already ready to go.

“I’m one step ahead of you” I said, only to realize I was probably 2 steps behind already. Semantics.

Together, Jack and I relayed the data from his laptop to the secure network 263 had “pinged”. He didn’t have that much trouble breaking in, although he did use 2 computers to do it, plus his “magic wand” drive. It was very exciting to see how fast he worked, and to know everything we were doing was against the law.

In less than 15 minutes, Jack had completely scrambled their data, and hid his tracks. Cynthia, however, was having a harder time with 263. Jack decided he’d lend his expertise to Cynthia for a while.

The first thing they did was to repair her OS, by selectively replacing the damaged and missing files, without reinstalling everything from scratch. After a system check, everything was fine, and Cynthia moved onto work on 263’s A.I. Meanwhile, Jack was theorizing how we could register 263 without her Evelyn model being exposed. A lot of them were good ideas. He thought that maybe we could just use another code, or perhaps buy a cheap gynoid and use hers. He even considered changing the code hardwired inside her. None of these would have worked though, but I was working on an idea of my own.

“Cynthia, how does the gynoid registration process work exactly?” I asked.

Cynthia shrugged at me, apparently, she wasn’t that well versed in the registration procedures. Tom, however, chimed in.

“Each gynoid is assigned a coded and hidden Key number. That Key number is encoded into a registration number. The registration number is then given to the user, who submits it to the central registration computer, which decodes it and sends the user the Key number. Once the user enters the Key number, the unit is unlocked and registered.”

I must have looked puzzled at his explanation, because Tom went on to elaborate. “Imagine each robot has a unique key, and that a key master has all the keys locked up. By giving the number of the robot to the key master, it gives us the right key.” That made more sense, I think.

“Is the encoding process the same for all the gynoids?” I asked.

“Yes, the central program used to encode and decode all robot registrations uses the same algorithm for each, but I don’t see how-” Tom had started to say.

“Easy Peasy,” interrupted Jack. He was, once again, already a step ahead of me, but at least I got him on track. I’m not sure what he was planning, I was just glad to have contributed to the idea. “All we have to do is figure out the exact algorithm.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” I asked. “Download the entire program?”

Jack scoffed. “No. That would take all day, but I can get it to tell it to me the algorithm it uses. All I have to do is feed it about a hundred or two fake registration numbers, process how they are decoded, reverse engineer it to derive the encoding processes, and Bob’s your uncle!”

That seemed like an awful lot more than just downloading a program to me, but I trusted Jack knew his business. Still, I had to ask. “Where are you going to get that many registration numbers?”

“I’ll just pull them out of a database on their servers. And… there it is!” Jack was fast. He was already starting to input the numbers before I could look at his screen.

“Won’t they get suspicious when they see they are all sent from the same place?”

“Danny-boy,” he said disappointedly. “I thought you knew me better than that!” He had a point. I decided to just leave him to his work, and see if there was anything I could do to help Cynthia. She was just as busy rebuilding select parts of her A.I., while Tom both monitored her stats and continued to tinker inside her. I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing, but he motioned for me to sit with him, and help him out.

Together, we reviewed all the repairs I made, and improved on some of them. We strengthened some of her joints, improved her flexibility in places, and adjusted various parts. Tom was very good at this work, despite is large hands. I was surprised to see how delicate the work he did was, and how well he performed it, despite this obvious handicap (get it, hand-icap. Yeah, it wasn’t funny to me either). While everyone worked, I realized it was getting late, and no one ate yet. So, I fiddled around in the kitchen, and finished up what I could of the meal 263 had started. The salad was no good anymore, but the soup would be fine. It wasn’t really enough, so I ordered a pizza, and everyone ate while they worked.

Just as Jack finished his second slice of peperoni, he announced to the room his success. “Done! I managed to decode the encoding procedure, and it only took 218 numbers to do it. I converted the algorithm into a decoding process, so you should be in business. And don’t worry about getting traced. They think these were all legitimate registration codes from around the world, there’s no way they would be able to track it here.” With that, Jack stood up, stretched, and proceeded to saunter toward the front door.

“Where are you going?” I asked him.

“I’m just going out for some air. I’m not sure I’m much use anymore in here anyways, and I’ll need to get some shut eye. I’m not much use to anyone tired, especially my date in the morning.” Jack winked as he gathered up his things and reached for the door.

“Wait, you’re going on a date in the morning, in the middle of the week?” Jack was indeed a man of strange habits, and I should learn not to question them, or I might learn more than I wanted to hear.

“Well yeah, she doesn’t know it yet, but…” He was also a man of many talents, some of them I didn’t want to know. “The algorithm has been transferred to your PC over there, just type in the registration number when you are ready. You know where to reach me if you need me.”

“Hey, Jack,” Tom said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Tom had recently finished up his own tinkering. The last thing Tom finished working on was 263’s voice box. While he was unable to make it sound any better, he was able to fix it up enough so it no longer hurt her to speak. We realized we’d have to wait for a replacement before she’d sound normal. He put the box back in her throat, and stood up to escort Jack out.

The two of them left, and talked outside for a while, I assumed while walking toward Jack’s place. They left me, Cynthia, and the still unconscious Unit 263 alone. I sat there, watching 263 breathe in silence as I ran my fingers through her hair. Her face had relaxed considerably, and I was glad to see she was looking more like herself again. Her skin was no longer hot to the touch, and I had long since removed the ice bags and the towels.

“Cynthia?” I asked, still looking at the sleeping girl. I knew I got her attention by the inquisitive ‘hmm?’ from behind her computer monitor. “I don’t have any registration number for 263. How is this algorithm supposed to help?”

“Good question, Daniel. But not to worry, I have the number, and I’ll be giving it to you soon. I think we’re just about finished up here.” She continued to click away at the keys, most likely typing in some code or commands. She stopped after a short while, and looked over at me. “She might not remember you. She might not even remember me.” I looked up at her. I must have been a little startled by something she said that I only just noticed, but she mistook it for concern. “I just want you to know that she might have lost some of her memories of us. She might not remember some things, but fully remember others. She might even confuse memories or mix things up. There is really no way to tell.

“I could only repair her core systems, her memories were unique to her, and I cannot change them.” Cynthia look off her glasses, and rubbed at her eyes while she continued her speech. “Some were corrupted. I tried to reverse engineer the program that corrupted them before I removed it, to see if I could fix them. I couldn’t do it here, but I put the ability in her system, just in case it works. With any luck, she might be able to remember some things she’s forgotten. However, it might be a slow process, and it isn’t 100% accurate. The scrambling was rather random, and she will probably still get things confused. I want you to know that you may have to teach her things she’s forgotten, and you may have to remind her of events and people as well.” She sighed to herself. “I suppose that won’t be easy for you, since you don’t really know us, but we’ll be nearby, and we’ll drop in on her soon. Tom and I got a hotel room near here, while we try to figure things out.”

I understood what she was saying, but a nagging question burned at me. I decided to drop it for now; I had to find the right time to ask and there were more important things at the moment than that. Cynthia put her glasses back on and gave me a smile. I realized I did have something to tell Cynthia, something 263 had tried to tell me, and I needed to know if what she said was even possible.

“Before, when she was sick, 263 tried to tell me something” I said. “I didn’t hear the whole thing since I halted her systems while she was talking, but it sounded like she was saying that she fell in love with me. Is that really possible?” Her eyes drifted off my face, and down toward 263, as she thought about the question.

“Yes” she replied. That was a simple enough answer, maybe too simple. I was glad she elaborated on it after a second or two. “The EVE A.I. is more advanced than anyone ever realized. Her brain has almost as many connections as the human mind, when you put all the sections together. While she isn’t quite as smart as a human, she is fully capable of love, hate, jealously, a wide range of emotions. It’s really the fact that her mind uses a series of unique procedures that mimic the human brain. She can feel real pain, and real pleasure, they aren’t simulations. In fact, they are vital in making her as human as possible. She has reactions, and can overcome them, just like a human. She can learn from positive and negative feedback as well. While words are enough for her, physical stimulation seems to get better results.

“I’m rambling again, aren’t I? I suppose it would be best to say that she is not like other robots. She doesn’t simulate her emotions, or her sensations. Everything is real. She is more than capable of love, although she cannot fully experience strong emotions or sensations while she is still locked down. Once she’s registered…” Her voice trailed off. She seemed to be lost in thought, and I got the uneasy feeling she wasn’t telling me something.

I thought about this for a moment. “So you’re telling me she’s essentially a mechanical human?”

She pondered this for a while. “I guess I am. Treat her as you would any other human, and although she won’t act quite like one, she will be happy. The Evelyn line was designed to be attached to one human throughout their lifetime. I suppose they could change owners under the right conditions, but they were meant to be bound to one master. To this end, she will act in your best interest when you treat her well. She is not to be treated as a slave, or as a sex doll. She is more a person than many people I’ve met.”

I picked up her meaning. She was making sure I didn’t abuse or mistreat the girl once she was registered to me. I realized that 263 was much more than a normal gynoid before, but she was certainly more unique than I ever dared to imagine. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt her, and I think Cynthia saw that in me.

The computer in front of her chimed, indicating that the last command she told it to process was complete. I checked the laptop in front of me, which Tom had left there, and saw that her entire OS was rebuilt, and her A.I. was at 100%. We were all smiles as we saw the system check come back with no errors. At least her vital systems should be working again, although she remained laying unconscious on the table.

“Here” Cynthia said, pulling a little folded yellow sheet of paper out of her vest pocket. I recognized it as a post it note, one of the ones that 263 wrote. “I think you should have this. I couldn’t tell you earlier, but I think you can appreciate it now.” I unfolded and read the note. While her writing was still very child-like, the message was very adult.

But mother, he needs me. I think I love him.

I re-read it a few times. So this was the note she wrote to Cynthia that she never showed me; the note that put me on her good side. I thought about this, and realized that she really did fall in love with me, and yet she felt I needed her. I couldn’t figure that part out. As I thought about this, Cynthia started disconnecting all the cables running to her mechanical daughter, and manually closed all her ports. Before I could look up from the paper, she had manually opened a panel on her chest. I had been trying to figure out how to open anything on her manually, and here they had both done it and I missed it twice!

“How did you do that?” I asked, looking up from the note.

“Do what?”

“How did you manually open her access panels like that?” I put the note in my pocket as I looked closer at what Cynthia was doing.

“Oh! I guess we never really showed you. I’m surprised you were able to do all those repairs without knowing how to do that” Cynthia said. Her voice seemed lighter, and the mood in the room improved greatly. “It’s simple really. Just place one hand on her skin where the panel you want to open is, and then push in her belly button.” She demonstrated by placing her right hand over 263’s neck, and then pushing in her belly button about 2 inches. The blue lights activated and quickly popped open her neck panel. I was thoroughly impressed.

“That’s so cool” I said. I’m sure I sounded like a nerd saying that, but I just couldn’t help myself. I am a nerd. “Let me try.” I kneeled next to her, and placed my hand on 263’s shoulder. Pushing in her belly button, I felt an inaudible click, and her shoulder panel opened right up. I must have giggled to myself, because Cynthia started giving me a strange look. “Sorry. That’s just so cool. A- And useful. I’m sure that will come in handy.”

Cynthia smiled and shook her head. Inside the chest panel she opened was a digital gauge indicating various functions of her body, as well as some small connections. This was the same panel she opened up when she was giving me a hand job, so I never really got a good look inside before. Cynthia reached in the shallow panel, and placed her thumb on a small white square. A small green light appeared under her thumb, emanating from the square, and I heard a clear beep from her chest. Cynthia kept her thumb held down, and a few seconds later, another beep chimed. “Relinquish temporary ownership, Cynthia 0-5-1-2” Cynthia commanded as she kept her thumb held down. A long beep, higher pitched than the last two, chimed for about 2 seconds. As Cynthia lifted her thumb from the square, 263 began to speak in her broken voice.

“zzzt Thank you for taking care of me, Cynthia. zzrrmm OWNERSHIP RELINQUISHED. COMMENCING REQUIRED SHUT DOWN mmzzt.” Her eyes never moved, and she said the last part in a monotone fashion, almost mechanical but better than some of the early androids that you could barely understand at all. With that, 263 stopped breathing, and her digital readouts faded out.

“What did you do to her?” I asked, a little concerned.

“Something that had to be done. While she was being built, I registered myself as her temporary owner. This is not the same as a master, but I needed to be unregistered so you could take your place as her…” She didn’t finish her statement, but I knew what she was going to say. The smile faded from her lips as she fell into silence.

“It’s ok. I’ll take good care of her. And I’m sure we’ll need you and Tom to come by every now and then to visit.” She looked up and smiled again.

“I’d like that” she said. She took a deep breath, sat up straight, and cleared her throat. “Shall we try turning her back on?”
“Before she’s registered?” I asked.

“Sure!” she answered. “She’ll be just like before, the temporary owner thing is really just for following the hierarchy of commands, and is something her subconscious uses. The master is registered to both her subconscious and her A.I. She should start right up and be just like normal, although she will remind you to register her.”

We closed the panel on her chest, although this time it did not disappear completely into her skin. It remained as a visible seam in the shape of a triangle on her chest. Without power, there was nothing to seal up her panels after they were opened. I guessed the physical force of pushing in her belly button would provide the energy to open her ports, but not to close them again. I decided it was best to give 263 some better privacy, and covered her up with the sheet I was using before, taking off the towels she still have covering her privates. Tom walked back in just as Cynthia was showing me the reset and power buttons on the back of her neck, just under her skull.

I pushed the button to turn 263 back on, and waited as a digital gong sound chimed from inside her. Her eyes opened up, glowing bright blue, and she began to speak. “zzrrmm Good Evening” she said in an almost human voice, the digital noise the only real problem. “zzmm I am model- ERROR. mmrr” She interrupted herself with that same monotone voice as before. “brrzz CORRUPTED DATA FOUND. REBUILDING DATA. ERROR, EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD DETECTED. PLEASE REGISTER GYNOID. REBUILDING 10% COMPLETE. zzrrt”

“This can’t be good. I thought she was supposed to-” I started to say, flabbergasted at the sudden errors they assured me she would be free of.

“Don’t worry about this Daniel. I was expecting something like this would happen. With all the manual tweaking in her OS, there was bound to be an error or two. She is just going through and doing a final clean up. Once she’s done, she should be right as rain again” Cynthia explained. I felt a little better, but her monotonic voice put me on edge.

“bzzt REDUILDING 20% COMPLETE. ERROR, EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD DETECTED. PLEASE REGISTER GYNOID. zzt” She continued like this every so often as her OS fixed any errors.

“Emotional Overload?” I asked.

“Sounds like she might need to be registered right away” Tom said. “Since she is still locked, and isn’t registered to a master user, her emotional and sensory data is limited. If this is the case, she might not be able to fully load her programming until her limiter is removed. The emotional input could overpower her A.I. and she wouldn’t have enough resources left to handle it. I’m not sure what emotion she has that is so strong right now…”

“It’s because she loves me isn’t it?” I said bluntly. “She tried to tell me. I’m pretty sure she just can’t handle it right now.”

Tom was quiet. Maybe he didn’t pick up on it, or Cynthia didn’t fill him in. “Oh. I see. But do you…?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I like her. I really like her. I want her to be safe, but I don’t know about love. It is all happening so fast” I answered.

“For her,” Cynthia replied, “emotions are a new thing, and she may be easily overpowered by them. She isn’t a human, so she doesn’t see things in the same way as we do. Just like a human child coming into adulthood, their hormones get the best of them at times; she may be suffering from a similar problem.”

“You will take care of her, right?” Tom said, his deep voice adding presence to the question.

“Of course I will! I like her. I’ll make sure she is safe and happy here. I will accept her affection.” I wanted them to trust me. Love was a strong emotion, and I always had a hard time with it. Every girl I ever ‘loved’ ended up breaking my heart. She might not be any different, and my heart didn’t want to suffer from that kind of pain again. Although, it felt really good to be loved again. I wasn’t sure I was ready to invest my whole heart into her just yet, but I’m afraid my mind and my heart were not cooperating.

“That’s all we are asking from you, Daniel. We can’t ask you to love her back” Cynthia said. She did it again, and this time I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

“There, you did it again!” I said.

“Did what?” Cynthia asked.

“You used my name. Where did you hear my name? I never told you…”

Cynthia stuttered, before coming up with an answer. “I heard Jack use it. He called you Danny-boy, and Danny is short for-“

“No, you used it before he showed up. You’ve been calling me that all night, but this morning you only ever called me by my alias, Exo.” I stared her down, as she stammered over my inquiry.

“I’m sorry, it was my idea.” Tom said. “I bade my wife to take your license so we could look up your background.”

“My what?!” I exclaimed.

“I’m sorry Daniel, I-“ Cynthia started.

“Please, just call me Danny. Only my parents call me Daniel” I corrected.

“Sorry, Danny. I just had to make sure you were a trustworthy person. Please forgive me” Cynthia pleaded. She reached into her purse, and pulled out my wallet, handing it back to me. I snatched it from her hand. They DID steal my wallet, on purpose! “I saw it on the table and hid it when I took your coat. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You shouldn’t have taken the entire wallet” Tom interjected.

“You shouldn’t have taken it at all!” I objected. “It wasn’t fair that you steal my private property so you can run a background check on me. How did you even do a check so fast? Never mind… I don’t want to know. Maybe you should have just asked me, politely.” I was a little cheesed off, but I didn’t want to be. The entire situation was making me a little grumpy. My headache had slowly been building for the last few hours as we worked on 263. The food helped, but it wasn’t enough. I tried to calm myself down, and I took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped.”

“No. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you and I took your wallet” Cynthia replied. “We should have trusted you from the start, I mean, you did save our girl before you ever met us. We should have trusted you more, after you did so much to help her. We didn’t take anything from your wallet, if it’s any consolation, and your background check came back squeaky clean.”

I decided not to look in my wallet… yet. I was going to trust them as they should have trusted me. “I trust you. But from now on, I don’t want you doing anything sneaky or keeping any secrets from me. OK?”

They nodded in agreement. 263’s digitized voice rang out, alerting us she was 70% complete. Tom started gathering up equipment, and put everything inside the large case he brought. “Here, you should hold onto this. It has all the instructions we could make on her, and should help you with any repairs.” He handed me the case, and got ready to leave.

“Here you are, Danny” Cynthia said, pulling a white sheet of paper out of her vest pocket and handing it to me. “This is her registration code.” I took it and looked down at the long series of numbers and letters.

“If she really did fall in love, we should be going” Tom said. I had no idea what that meant, but Cynthia nodded and they proceeded toward the door.

“Wait. What do you mean? Where are you going now?” I asked.

“Well, what needs to be done next needs to be done by you, and you alone. I wish we could stay, but we shouldn’t be here for this. Please be gentle with her. We’ll be back tomorrow” Cynthia replied. She handed me another card, this time it was her business card with the address of the hotel they were staying at written on the back. “You can reach us here, if you need to.”

They proceeded out the door. My mind was racing; I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything, and that everything would work well. She was still suffering from an error, but apparently, they trusted that she was repaired to the best of their abilities. She called out that she was 90% complete, just as they were walking away.

“Oh,” said Cynthia, turning around as they walked to their car, “be sure to give her a good name. Something cute. And the money was Tom’s idea, I hope it helps cover the repairs.” With that, they got in their car, and reluctantly pulled away. What was she talking about money?

I walked back inside, wallet still in hand. Well at least they left it this time. I looked inside, and discovered they put over a thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills inside my wallet! Holy crap in a hand-basket! This would cover all the expenses of the repairs, and maybe get her some nice clothes too. I was gob-smacked! Awesome.

It was starting to get late, but I couldn’t wait to see 263 back to her old self again. I decided to clean up a bit in the room. It didn’t take long for her to reach 100%. With another gong-like chime from her body, she restarted. Her eyes started emitting blue light again, as she began her startup process. The blue lights appeared on her chest, and the triangular panel disappeared before my eyes.

“zzrt Good Evening! Detecting new data. Loading new data. rrrmm” She had started up, and was loading the changes to her system. It wouldn’t take long, so I quickly put down the pizza box I was holding somewhere near the trash, and typed in the registration number Cynthia handed me into the algorithm program Jack put on my computer. Within a few seconds, it started building another long series of numbers and letters. This one was 16 digits long, and the program was building it one random digit at a time. I left the computer, and cleared some space near 263, just as she finished loading her data.

“zzt ERROR, EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD DETECTED, PLEASE REGISTER GYNOID. brrm I am model XKQT-114, unit 263. zzzt” She blinked her eyes, and started to look around the room. “zzt One moment please.” She sat up, the sheet barely clinging onto her body, and looked around. Pulling the sheet away from her, she stood up before me, and gave me a small, cute bow. “bzzt Please take your time to register me. Do you have a Key number?”

Her body was still wet from the ice packs, and goose flesh started to fill part of her skin. I had tried to cool her off when she was overheating, but now it seems I cooled her off a bit too much. Her nipples were fully erect, but she was not reacting to the cold at all. Even though I was sitting down, part of me was standing at full attention.

I looked over at the other computer, and saw that it had just finished building the number. I prepared to read off the number. I couldn’t help but notice how much better she looked when she was standing naked in front of me, ambulatory and well. The wet from the ice only covered parts of her torso, but it was enough. A drip of cold water ran down her chest, danced along the curve of her breast, and rested on her perky nipple. Wow. She looked at me blankly as I sat at the computer, a fake smile on her lips. “Y- Yes. RT1-“

“bzt Please read the number to me” she interrupted. Slightly annoyed, I started again, this time reading off all 16 digits. She reviewed the numbers verbally, and I confirmed their accuracy. Here’s hoping Jack is as good as he says.

Her eyes began to fade in and out with brilliant blue again, as she processed the data. “zzzt Thank you for purchasing me. In order to complete the registration, please answer a few questions. rmm” Thank you Jack.

She began drilling me for data. She asked me my name, my birthday, my family members, friends, address, phone numbers, vehicles, and on and on. It took at least 10 minutes just to get through her questions; not the way to get someone excited about their new gynoid. When she finally stopped, she asked me one final question.

“bzzt What is my name?”

I hadn’t really come up with anything good yet. I was kicking myself for not thinking of something sooner. Maybe Evelyn would work, but that sounded too classical. Perhaps Eve, but that was too biblical. For a while I was thinking Kitt, like the old night rider car... but that was just lame. I ran a few more names through my head until one finally stuck. It worked on many levels for me personally too. After all, it was a cute name, and was rather nerdy too. I had a name for her.

“Your name is Tera.”


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/Chapter 11
Chapter 12.

[NukuNookee]

Oh, I'm not sure about the name, now she'll sound like Dr. Craig from St. Elsewhere in my head...

(William Daniels did the voice of K.I.T.T. and also played Dr. Mark Craig, as well as Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World.)

Of course, I could be thinking of Eartha Kitt... aka Catwoman... much better, more sultry voice... *rrowl*

Another excellent chapter, looks like they're going to get intimate now that the registration has happened... prolly why everyone cleared out in a hurry.

[gynoneko]

Oh, I'm not sure about the name, now she'll sound like Dr. Craig from St. Elsewhere in my head...

(William Daniels did the voice of K.I.T.T. and also played Dr. Mark Craig, as well as Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World.)

Of course, I could be thinking of Eartha Kitt... aka Catwoman... much better, more sultry voice... *rrowl*

Another excellent chapter, looks like they're going to get intimate now that the registration has happened... prolly why everyone cleared out in a hurry.

How did you guess?


Well, I'm not the best at names... maybe I'll put up a poll, or if anyone has any names they'd like to suggest, I can take a look at them and change it to what people like the most.

[Baron]

Why not call her "VEKTA," as a play on "Vector," or avenue. Since she represents a new vector / avenue of AI-possibilities, the logic is simple.

The "familiar" could be "Vekki," or "Vex," playing off of Victoria {er, VEKtoria}, whilst retaining the descriptive root. Just my own $.002.

As for your earlier question about Jack's "Englishness" reading well to Yank eyes, he comes across just fine, at least to me. I tend to lace a lot of my own writing with various British expressions and sayings, so Jack's persona is a right corker by jove, at least to this Yank.

[gynoneko]

Eh, She's pinin fer the Fjords!

'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!

[Baron]

It's not a palindrome!! The palindrome for Bolton would be "Notlob!" It doesn't work!!!

I say, would you pass the SPAM, please???

[gynoneko]

It's not a palindrome!! The palindrome for Bolton would be "Notlob!" It doesn't work!!!

I say, would you pass the SPAM, please???

Interesting how the first things people think about when Britain is brought up is Monty Python. LOL

Well I hope my story is to everyone's liking. I ran into a small writer's block on the next chapter. I know what I want to happen, and how to get there, but then an idea came up and it lead to a problem I am trying to fix.
I hope it won't take too long to fix, but I am also trying to write for the gynoid game idea and work on some other things as well.
Let me know if you guys have any suggestions! Thanks for reading.

[gynoneko]

I've updated the ending of the story to use the winner of the poll, Tera. I know it is an ongoing poll, but I need to actually finish writing the next chapter and I need a name for her. :p
So Tera it is, although I think Aria will be the runner up and will end up being used for a future character.

Also, I might play with that Vekta, Vekki, Vex idea for a later character as well.

Thanks for the suggestions and voting in the poll!