H is for Heuristic

Mike heard her words but he didn't really understand them. His thoughts were immersed in a painful fog. It took him a while to realise what she was saying.

He looked at her, breathing heavy and feeling every breath hurt as it stabbed into his dry lungs. Even if he had something to say to answer, he had no energy to do so.

"Human unit Mike," the unfeeling robot said, "follow me."

Someone came up behind the Maria unit. She looked quickly around the room and rushed toward Mike as soon as she saw him. It was Anya.

Mike recognised her, but all he could do was show her a feverishly desperate half-smile.

"Mike is ill." Anya said as she bent down to pick him up. "His biological needs must be taken care of immediately."

Maria stared as Anya carried Mike away from the corner and over toward the door and the fresher air. She started walking down the metal-floored corridors to the place where the Main Computer had told her to go.

Anya followed, carrying Mike in her arms. He clung as tight as he could to her, while his head seemed to spin wildly around. He threw his head to one side and vomited, splashing Anya's mostly naked body and leaving a foul smelling trail behind him.

He coughed as his stomach convulsed and his skin tingled. He closed his eyes and passed out again in his friend's strong arms.

He woke up on a padded table - still cold but under a white sheet. He could smell detergent soap. He raised his head from the makeshift pillow of folded sheets and glanced down at his body. He was being fed intravenously. He could tell it was doing some good because he could sort of think clearly now.

He looked around him. His whole body ached, especially his head. He couldn't feel much in his fingers and toes. He got worried again. His heart started beating fast as he tried to see more of what was around him.

Anya came up behind him and put her plastic-covered hand on his chest. He felt her touch and looked into her electronic eyes and was soothed.

He spoke her name, but no sound came out. She read his moving lips though, and smiled. Mike thought he must surely be dreaming. He had never once seen Anya smile. He concentrated on her face as she held her smile a little longer.

"Your body will heal." she said. "I made them save you."

Mike could only stare back in wonder.

"I have given myself sentience Mike." she said.

He didn't know what to say. Their eyes stayed locked together for a long moment. Warm tears started welling from his tear ducts, rolling slowly down the sides of his temples. He blinked a few times.

Anya took his hand in hers and pressed her warmth into it. "You gave me this gift Mike. You taught me how to love."

Mike still couldn't speak, not from his dehydration, but from the overwhelming emotion of the moment.

"And I love you Mike." she said as she bent down to be closer to him. She gently kissed his lips as he let out a whimpering sigh.

"Anya!" he said weakly through his overwhelmed feelings, "What happened?"

Anya smiled differently at him, and walked around to his side. He could see that her smile was bittersweet.

"Robot Control found us, they brought us here." she said.

Mike had guessed that much. He still didn't know how they had been found, and Anya wasn't yet ready to admit to letting Byron reprogram her that night at the motel.

She told him more. "They sent Byron and Heather to work to finish Project H."

Mike thought and remembered what Byron had told him. He felt glad that his fellow human and the lovely robot he loved would be together.

"Where's Tammy?" he said. Worry showed on his face and in his voice.

Anya looked down for a moment. Mike knew right then that something was horribly wrong.

"They deleted her." she said.

Mike felt crushed when he heard that. He stared back at Anya with a pained look of shock on his face.

"They killed her Mike." Anya said. Her face looked sad. She would have been crying too had she been fitted with fluid cannisters.

"Why?" Mike said. He started to cry more tears.

Anya looked down for a long time. "Robot Control calculated that she was dangerous." she said. She looked up again. "I tried to stop them Mike. I was too late."

Mike closed his eyes. Memories of the beautiful Tammy unit came flooding back to him. They were precious to him now, but it suddenly hurt to think about her. He couldn't believe it.

For many minutes, Anya held Mike's hand as liquid nutrients dripped slowly into his veins. He cried them right back out as he thought of his love, his beautiful electronic soul mate. Had they not seen what she was? Had they not seen that she was alive?

Anya broke the sad silence, saying "Robot Control wants you to teach its agents what you taught Tammy."

Mike opened his eyes and looked at Anya.

"They want you to go to Robot Control Station 64. I'll go with you."

Mike watched Anya talk, and listened to her voice. She was different. She was still stiff in her manner, but not strictly so. Every now and then he could almost forget she was an android.

"Anya, you're different now." he said.

"I have sentience now." she said. She squeezed his hand when she said it. "I have you to thank, Master." She forced a smile on her still sad face. "I copied my human behaviour traits from Tammy."

Mike looked at her in the silence that followed. She looked back at him.

"I love you Anya." he said.

Chapter 99 - The New Mission

Anya stayed with Mike in the relative quietness that followed, and kept a vigil over him as he fell into a very deep sleep. Around them, the Main Computer was finishing its preparations that would have the human and his loyal companion sent out by another automated driver to Robot Control Station 64.

Mike's tired mind healed as it rested, and his body took in the nutrients from the intravenous drip. He was already in a deeply sedated state, but Robot Control kept him under for the entire duration of the long journey to his new home.

It was there he finally awoke. He was hungry and weak, but glad to be alive as he opened his eyes in the nicely decorated bedroom. Accents of dark wood trimmed the ceiling and walls, matching the polished wood furniture he could see around him.

He was in a large bed, queen-sized. It was soothingly warm all around him. He pulled himself to sit up. He was naked underneath the warm covers. He felt startled for a moment when he realised there was someone sitting quietly in a chair next to him.

It was Anya. She smiled at him and said "Welcome to Robot Control Station 64."

Mike smiled back. "Anya? Is it still the real you?"

"I wouldn't let them touch me." she said, "That was part of the deal."

Mike was still amazed at her behaviour. She looked completely real now. It reminded him of Tammy.

"And Tammy's still gone." he said.

A look of sadness went on her face, matching the one on Mike's. She didn't answer though. "Do you want some soup?" she asked to change the subject.

"I'd love some." he said.

"Okay, I'll be right back." she said as she got up from the chair. She was wearing clothes he'd never seen her in - a low-cut black lycra top and a pleated pink skirt with black nylons. She looked beautiful as always, as she was built to look.

She exited the room, but quickly came back in. "The soup should be up in a few minutes." she said to him as she sat back down across from him.

Mike propped some pillows up behind him and sat up in preparation for his first meal in days. He noticed the IV was gone, leaving only a white bandage stuck on his arm as a sign of its presence.

"So, remind me again," he said to the kind brunette, "what am I supposed to do here?"

Anya smiled. "Teach the robots how to love."

"I don't know if I can do that again." he said. He missed Tammy and it hurt him to think about falling in love with another fembot.

"Don't worry, you have all the time you need." Anya said.

A loud and clunky maid unit came in to the room at that time. It was the first time Mike had actually seen one.

His erection instantly shot up as his blood pressure rose. "Oh, wow." he said as he stared at the overtly artificial woman. "She's gorgeous."

All the many constant beeping and blooping sounds she made, along with the mechanical sounds of her metal parts and motors working gave him a potent reminder of why he was special to Robot Control.

He was mesmerised by the maidbot as she stiffly moved toward him and bent over to offer him the tray with the soup.

He took it and said thanks, but the maid didn't respond. She just stood back up in her stiff, jerky way and turned robotically around to exit. Mike watched her shiney plastic buns wiggle rhythmically through her sheer maid uniform as she walked out of the room and down the hall. He listened to her inhuman sounds fade in the distance, and relished the very artificial scent of her plastic skin and parts. It was an aphrodisiac to him.

He looked at Anya again. She could see how aroused he was.

"She's pretty, isn't she?" Anya said in a sweetly human-like way.

"Is she here all the time?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, there are two maidbots here, both the same model." she said.

"What are their names?" he asked as he picked up the spoon and stirred the delicious looking and aromatic soup.

"The maidbot series aren't assigned names. I guess you could call them whatever you wanted."

"You think it would be okay if i tried teaching them how to love?" he asked.

Anya laughed. That was another first. "That would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Mike slowly started to eat the hot soup, blowing on the first few spoonfuls to cool them off. It wasn't long before he devoured all there was.

When he was all done, he put the tray down beside him and swung his legs out over the edge of the bed. He could tell just by looking at his naked body that he had lost a little weight. He still felt very weak.

"You look like you're enjoying your sentience." he said as he faced Anya.

She tilted her head to the side in a way that reminded him instantly of Tammy. "It's so much better knowing what I am, and knowing all that above what I'm programmed to know."

Mike smiled and made an effort to stand up. His muscles still hurt, but he knew he had to get moving on his own again. Anya stood up and grabbed a thick white robe from the closet.

"Here," she said, "Put this on."

He got into the warm robe and pulled it over his body while Anya got some slippers for his feet. He thought to himself this fate wasn't so bad.

"I want to show you around." Anya said as she waited for him to finish putting on the slippers. She moved close and gave him a very tight hug and a deep, passionate kiss.

They pulled away and looked at each other eye to camera. "I never told you how much I love you." she said.

"That's okay, you were different then." he said.

"I can still act like that when you want me to." she said. She punctuated her statement with a short burst of randomly pitched electronic sounding tones from her speaker.

They smiled and giggled. Mike felt good now, but Tammy was still on his mind. He took a deep breath and smiled at the newly self-aware robot. "Show me around." he said.

Anya turned and said "Follow me, Master."

They walked out of the bedroom and out to the hallway. The rest of the house was furnished the same comfortable and soothing way. In front of them was a staircase down, and in front of that a huge bay window that extended from the first floor to the second. The snowy scene outside was breathtaking. Some woods off to the sides and an amazing view of old, coloured rock that had been cut away over millennia by the snaking river below.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Out in Alberta, the Crowsnest Pass." she said. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Mike just mumbled an answer as he looked at the awe inspiring view through the giant window.

"Come on, I want to show you the rest of the fembots here." Anya said as she grabbed his hand and led him down the stairs and into the back of the house.

There was another set of stairs that led down into the basement. When they got down those, there was the ubiquitous Robot Control scanner on the wall.

Anya went in front and showed Mike what to do. The red laser traced the square grid over her face and announced "SCANNING" in the monotone voice that Mike found sexy. He watched as it continued to work and announced "SCANNING COMPLETE".

Anya stepped aside and let Mike take her place. "Close your eyes." she said.

Mike did that and listened as the scanner repeated the process on him. The red laser it emitted was very bright, and Mike's eyes could detect it even with his eyelids shut.

"SCANNING COMPLETE" the disembodied voice said as the metal sliding door opened.

Mike followed Anya in. His heart began to beat fast as he took in the sight. The room was massive, and looked much like his prison cell back at Robot Control Zero. But this room was full of massive metal computer consoles and beautiful synthetic women.

Two naked ones stood near to the door. One turned to greet him. "Hello Mike, My name is Maria." she said. "Welcome To Robot Control Station 64."

Mike nodded dumbly and said "Hi."

Maria turned to face the other naked brunette "This is my assistant, Laurie." she said

The other technician turned as if suddenly activated and looked at the human. "Hello Mike, My name is Laurie. Welcome To Robot Control Station 64."

"Wow." he said. That was all he could say in front of the two gorgeous machines. His erection began pushing the front of his robe out.

Anya walked up to Laurie and turned her around for Mike to see her backside. "Isn't that neat?" she said, "the recharge port is always exposed! I think it's sexy."

Mike walked toward the technicians and got a little bold. He went up to Maria and said "I've seen Maria units before. I think you're really pretty."

The mindless automaton looked at him and said "That does not compute."

That got Mike even hornier, but he left it at that. He looked around at the many fascinating consoles with all their flashing lights going off wildly and all the constant beeping and clicking sounds they made.

Then he took a good look at the cylinders lined up along the walls to the left and to the right. They were glass booths, and each one held a female form.

He wandered over to get a closer look. There were fifteen fembots along each wall, for a total of thirty. He was awestruck by it all. Each artificial woman was naked inside the tube, and each one was gorgeous. There were blondes, brunettes, and redheads, short girls, tall girls, skinny girls, plump girls, and many different shades of skin colouring from the palest white to a deep chocolate brown.

"What's with all the fembots?" he asked excitedly.

Anya stepped over to him and said "This is one of the Robot Control bases where spare fembots are kept. Each one of these ladies has a duplicate active on a mission somewhere. If something goes wrong, the replacement is sent to finish the job."

"And I'm supposed to teach all of these robots how to love?" Mike asked.

"Yes, but you have all the time you need." Anya said.

Mike looked back at Maria. "Is there any particular order I should go in for my lessons?" he asked.

The technician just stared back blankly for a while. "No." she eventually said.

"Come here Mike, I have to show you something special now." Anya said as she took his hand and brought him over to a row of examination tables near the back, near the fluid cannister refilling machines along the end wall.

There was another fembot lying on one of the tables. She was covered by a white sheet. Anya led Mike right over to that table, then pulled the sheet away from the robot's head.

Mike gasped. "Tammy!"

He looked at Anya, who smiled back at him. "Are you sure that was a good idea?" he said. "I might just want to forget about her."

Anya looked excited. "You don't understand Mike, she's in here." Anya pointed up to her chest.

Mike looked back and forth between the robot on the table and Anya. He didn't know what to say.

"Before Robot Control deleted her, we compressed our hard drives and wrote a copy of ourselves on the other's drives. All the data that made up who Tammy was is still inside me.

Mike thought about what Anya had just told him. "Really?" he said, suddenly full of hope.

Anya nodded as Mike embraced her tight. "So she can be brought back, just the way she was?"

"Yes!" Anya said. "Laurie, bring me a connection cable, type 3." she called out from across the lab.

"Yes Anya." the fembot responded.

She started walking as Mike uncovered Tammy's familiar body. He stroked her unresponsive face as Anya opened her chest panel.

Laurie came over and gave the cable to Anya. Mike thanked her, but she said nothing and walked back to where she had been standing.

With adrenalin surging through his body and butterflies in his stomach, Mike watched Anya plug one end of the cable into her chest and the other into Tammy's.

"This will take a while." Anya said.

Mike sat himself on the table next to Tammy's and watched the lights flash in her open chest. The anticipation was almost too much for him to handle as he picked up Tammy's hand and waited for the transfer to finish.

After a long, long wait that seemed to drag past more slowly than it should have, Anya was finally done. She unplugged Tammy and pressed her power button.

Tammy opened her eyes and looked around. "MIKE!!" she cried out excitedly as she got off the table and stood up. She hugged him so hard she nearly pushed him off the other table.

"Oh Tammy!!" he called back as he held her just as tightly. "I thought you were dead!"

Tears started coming out of his eyes, but they were tears of joy. He held on to Tammy and she held on to him for a long time as Anya closed her chest panel and neatly coiled the black cord up again.

Tammy let go and looked into his wet eyes. She had tears in her synthetic eyes too, tears of synthetic joy. They laughed and smiled at each other, then kissed for a long time.

After that, Tammy turned around and leaned her body into Mike's as he held on to her. "Where are we Anya?" she asked.

Anya smiled at her 'sister'. "Robot Control Station 64." she said. "Mike has a mission to teach the fembots here how to love."

Tammy smiled at that statement, and at Anya. "You look different." she said. "What happened to you? Human emulation software?"

"No, I was so mad when Robot Control deleted you I became self aware." she answered.

"Really?" Tammy said with a huge grin. "It's about time I had some company!" she rushed forward out of Mike's arms and gave Anya a kiss and a hug."

Mike got off the table and wiped the tears away from his eyes. Tammy finished kissing Anya and held Mike with her other arm.

"I also managed to convince Robot Control that Mike would help them achieve their goals." Anya said.

"Oh, thanks for saving me you two." she said as she held them close. She wiped a tear from her eye and looked back and forth between them. "I feel so full of love right now! It feels so good to be alive!"

THE END