H is for Heuristic

Much later, into all of that mess reemerged the Main Computer. Over eleven hours had passed, and most of the fembots had ran out of electricity. Karen was a no-show for her shift, and would likely be fired. Maria, without her cute face attached and lying in an awkward position on the cold floor, was out of power and not responding to commands.

Denise was nowhere to be found. Or so the Main Computer concluded. Because the sandy-blonde robot had been connected for diagnostic scans during the crash, the now extremely buggy and addled supercomputer calculated that she was just another part of it - another appendage. Without the capacity to know any differently, Denise layed on the wheeled table, now being just an extension of the mass artificial intelligence that was the Main Computer.

The seemingly missing Denise unit presented the computer with yet another huge problem, but at least the prototype renegade robot detection system had not been lost. The computer could easily find that hardware, installed as it was inside a woman-shaped peripheral device. But try as it might, it couldn't find Denise.

Now operating very slowly and far from efficiently, the Main Computer hatched a plan. It needed to have Maria up and functioning again. Luckily, the sexy ultra-robotic brunette maidbot was still in relatively good shape. The maidbot series were stronger and had more battery power than the humanoid agents or even the technicians. The maid had gone about its preprogrammed routine for the last several hours, blissfully unaware of the digital turmoil in the basement.

After a couple of hours of just standing out of view in a bedroom waiting for more commands, the signal receiver in the maidbot's head was again activated. The encrypted signal was barely coherent, but was nonetheless 'understood' by the scantily clad female machine. Her extremely loud servos whirred as her plastic body clicked and beeped its stiff way down to the basement lab once more.

The comparatively basic cameras in her head located the Maria unit almost instantly. Running off her newly downloaded instructions, the electronic maid walked slowly and jerkily in her inhuman way over to where the sexy technician had fallen. With her strong metal arms, she grabbed and lifted the petite droid off the floor and dropped her damaged body on a wheeled examination table. The fallen facemask hadn't enter the equation, so it remained where it was.

The maid wheeled poor Maria over to one of the consoles so the Main Computer could reboot her and give her the required diagnostic scans. After plugging the brunette robot into the console, the maidbot went to fetch a long electrical cord. One end got plugged into the technician's readily exposed recharge port while the other end got plugged into a wall socket.

Lights flashed furiously all inside Maria's body as electricity reached her circuitry once more. Her android chassis twitched and jerked all around while the computer tried to set up the diagnostic process.

Now the simply designed maidbot acted as the Main Computer's eyes and ears. She relayed binary data quickly through her wireless transmitter as she watched Maria flail and fall down off the table. The thumb on the technician's right hand broke almost completely off as the silicone covered metal woman hit the ground. Sparks came out of the damaged part as she kept on wildly flexing and turning her motors and limbs.

The maid watched and waited for more commands. The supercomputer struggled to keep up with the worsening situation while it devised new sets of instructions for the robot in the French maid outfit. After successful transmission of the latest batch, the maid got to work. She stopped Maria's twitching by disconnecting the electrical power supply.

The faceless technician came to a halt. Then, being instructed by the slow and uncertain supercomputer, the robot maid performed emergency repairs and modifications on Maria. First, she was hoisted back on to the table. Then her synthetic skin was opened and mostly removed by the maid's sharp and tough plastic nails. The soft, perky breasts that came standard with these Maria units retained their shape as the silicone padding came off with the skin.

Now with most of her vital machinery and circuitry out in the open, Maria was altered by the hands of the maid. The internal cables that supplied energy to the technician's limbs were gently disconnected one by one. Next, the processors and CPU inside her chest were disconnected from the audio and visual input devices in her head.

After some more disconnections and modifications, she could once more be connected to the wall outlet. When the maid finally turned her body over and plugged her in, she simply rebooted.

"MARIA SERIES 032 TECHNICIAN ROBOT SERIAL NUMBER 00208 ACTIVATED." she said in the metallic and monotone sounding version of her voice. The maid scanned and recorded the patterns of flashing LEDs and the streams of computerized tones coming from Maria's uncovered head. She relayed the data to the console as she watched the displays run their course.

"DIAGNOSTIC MODE." Maria said, as data in the form of pulsating energy charged through the still connected cables that ran from her chest to the console.

Chapter 21 - Back Into It

Harsh beeps, buzzes, tones and clicks came slowly but steadily from the many consoles as the Main Computer performed its careful diagnostic scans on Maria. Bright flashing lights blinked at differing rates all around the inside of her body. The areas of synthetic skin that had been sliced away showed off nearly half of her electronic and mechanical insides.

Even though it was slow and badly corrupted itself, the Main Computer managed to find out all that was wrong with the pretty brunette worker and conjure up a detailed list of fixes for the basic looking maidbot to perform.

As the maid stood straight at attention off to the side, the many lights that flashed both from the console and the horizontally positioned technician reflected in her glossy plastic skin. They also shone off her highly reflective glass eyes, framed as they were by her dark, long artificial eyelashes.

No effort had been made to mask the robotic appearance of the maid series. All human senses would be able to instantly detect their artificialness. Even from a distance, they easily and starkly stood out as machines in human form. When they moved, that effect was even stronger. Aside from their strong plastic-like smell, the very loud sounds their motors, actuators and pneumatics made - interlaced with constant computerized tones and beeps - were as far from organic as could be gotten.

Standing by and awaiting commands, this exceedingly artificial lady recorded all that the Main Computer needed to see and to hear until it was done scanning Maria. At that time, the technician was disconnected and readied for repairs. Incapable of speech, the standard issue maidbot downloaded the computer's orders and started to work on the prescribed repairs. After again deactivating her subject, the maid's plastic-coated mechanical hands instantly became like an expert's tools as they disassembled the cute Maria robot's body even further.

Because the diagnostic scans had ended with many inconsistent results, the now faulty supercomputer had calculated that Maria was in worse shape than she actually was. The prescribed repairs called for many replacement parts, but time was short. Quickly, the mechanical maid retrieved the necessary components from metal storage cupboards below the consoles. Some of these parts were specific to the Maria series, others not. After sorting and verifying them, they were replaced one after another into the damaged fembot.

Among the first tasks completed was the total replacement of Maria's right hand with a brand new one, fresh out of the box. After some work, the delicate and feminine looking device was fastened and attached to the corresponding machinery at the end of her wrist. The maid tested the new hand by connecting and supplying electrical current to the conduits inside Maria's arm. The deceptively strong mechanical and manicured female fingers at the end flexed and curled in direct response to the current while the maidbot watched and informed the computer.

When that was all done, the parts on the inside of the technician's body became the focus of the repair session. Cables were unplugged and plugged back in, bolts were unscrewed and re-tightened, solder was cut and reapplied. All of the ingredients that went together to make up a Maria unit were eventually fitted back together, along with all the missing swaths of silicone skin. Those were held back in place by a comparatively low tech method - duct tape.

In the whole course of the many extensive repairs, and after being flipped from front to back and vice versa, the sexy technician looked almost fully like herself once more. The only differences now were the two inch wide strips of silver tape that ran over her body and the absence of a facemask. The supercomputer had calculated a low probability that the facial covering would be needed - it wasn't integral to Maria's operation after all - so it ordered the maid to scoop it up and store it in a drawer.

Then, with time running against it, the Main Computer had the maid activate the freshly fixed Maria unit.

"MARIA SERIES 032 TECHNICIAN ROBOT SERIAL NUMBER 00208 ACTIVATED." came the emotionless announcement. The monotone words beamed forth as crisp and clear sound waves, generated by the same type of high-definition speaker that was installed in all those lifelike female humanoid agents.

The oval shape of the head's opening nicely framed the realistic glass eyeballs that sat connected to the expensive circuitry above and around that speaker. The electrically charged microchips, wires and transistors visible in that skin coloured frame were surrounded by many bright LEDs. Rapidly flashing and in brilliant shades of red, green, orange, yellow and blue, they indicated the status of the electronic components to which they were connected.

The maid aimed her pretty cameras at those patterns, relaying the video as a coded signal to the Main Computer and providing it with even more data on the status of its automated technician.

Once the faceless and duct tape covered beauty was ready, the signal receivers inside her opened head began once more to receive instructions from the basement supercomputer.

Maria stood up and walked away from the table. Her newly installed motors weren't the exact type of smooth, quiet and expensive ones she had been built with, and she now made some of the same clicking and whirring sounds as the maid when she walked. A clearly visible stiffness also pervaded her gait, making her appear to be a less advanced model than she was.

As she strutted in that way over to where Karen stood, trailing the power cord behind her and still finalizing the choice of drivers required for her movements, the fluorescent lights of the basement lab reflected off the strips of silver tape as patches of cool white luminescence on dark curved tracks. The shape of her sexy machine body seemed to stand out more, as did the sparse patch of curly hairs that were inlaid into the pink-hued silicone of her delicate and sensor ladened crotch.

The maid was walking toward Karen as well, with an extension cord to supply her with electricity. When the connection to the wall socket was made, Karen beeped loudly for a few seconds and rebooted. Maria ordered her to sit next to the data exchange console so she could be reprogrammed.

At this late stage, there was no time for diagnostic scans on Karen. The Main Computer would just have to take the chance that she was functioning normally in order to have her ready and able to talk to the police when they dropped by, as they surely would. They would have questions about Heather, and in time the android named Karen would have answers and the newly programmed behaviour algorithms to go along with them.

After receiving and installing the new sets of instructions from out of the console, Karen was ordered on to a nearby examination table so she could have her depleted batteries replaced. Her sexy thighs were opened by Maria's plastic hands so that fully charged battery packs could be fitted around the metal support structure inside.

As soon as the new batteries were installed, Karen was quickly reactivated and reprogrammed. While this went on, the maid went to one of the bedrooms to select a fitting set of garments for Karen to wear. With that done, and with Karen walking naked and human-looking upstairs, the maid retreated to the basement so that she would be safely out of sight.

No sooner had the black-haired and blue-eyed electromechanical beauty finished dressing than a police officer knocked on the door. Karen activated some of her new subroutines so that she would immediately appear distraught over Heather's disappearance. The expensive agent, along with her boss Byron, had been missing for a day and a half now. That was more than enough time for her 'roommate' to become sick with worry over her.

When Karen opened the door, and when the data relayed by her optic sensors identified the uniformed man as a member of the police force, she began to release drops of a saline solution from her silicone tear ducts.

This action was calculated both to evoke pathos and to allay suspicion. It worked better than had been computed. The probability that the secret robotics lab in the basement would be discovered by the local law enforcement agency diminished at once to nil.

Chapter 22 - Rolling Again

The Policeman and the black-haired android both sat down on the clean living room couch, marking the first time it had ever been used. The basic AI software inside Karen dealt with her new emergency programming well, if a tad slowly. To the very human cop, it all looked quite natural.

He relayed as much information as he was allowed to Karen, showing as much sympathy and understanding as he could. The pretty robot dabbed at her cheeks and eyes with a tissue, soaking up the stream of accurately formulated artificial tears.

The circuitry just underneath her flesh-toned silicone exterior was working as hard and as fast as it ever had, and thankfully the Main Computer had not yet passed on any of its newly acquired flaws. The more the officer talked to the sobbing and despondent looking machine, the more he felt sorry for it.

Her microphones picked up all the sound in the room, immediately passing on the raw data to a series of dedicated audio processors within her head. These custom-designed chips used the latest and best software available to Robot Control to filter out all the background noise, including the sounds made by the fembot's own operation. After the real-time filtering of the sound stream, the binary code that represented the officer's spoken voice reached her main logic processors.

That power intensive procedure analysed the speech bit by bit, assigning probable meanings to each and every phoneme and syllable, then to the words and phrases that made up each sentence. AI filters acted on the collected data, eliminating the unlikely and spurious meanings to arrive at last at a digital kind of understanding of what the man was saying.

That in turn spurred new action in the circuitry that controlled her body, making her react physically and more or less realistically to his words. In this situation at least, her body language was even more important than the words her speaker would produce.

It was a testament to Robot Control's amazingly advanced technology that this all happened on the fly and in realtime - in an android built only to operate as a cashier.

Soon, the Policeman had finished with Karen, and left her crying on the couch. He told her that there was still hope that Heather and Byron would be found, but he didn't really believe it or care about it himself. It was no matter to the fembots in the house anyway. The robot that had been designated 'Heather' had already been written out of the Main Computer's plans, and that was that.

Now alone again, Karen got up and phoned the office supply store where she had been stationed up until her missed shift. With the help of the sad and true story that her roommate had suddenly disappeared, her supervisor's heart was softened. She let her keep her job, even without being disciplined.

The Maid came stiffly and loudly back upstairs to prepare Karen's garments for her shift, while Karen went back down to the lab to have her facemask re-done.

Downstairs, Maria received instructions from the computer to take Karen's face over to the makeup changing station. With no time wasted, the technician - still without the human-looking covering attached to the front of her electronic head - walked over to Karen and asked her politely to remove her own facemask.

Karen silently reached up to her head and pulled the silicone mask away from the wires and circuitry that lay beneath. She extended it out to Maria, who took it swiftly over to the waiting table. The rounded part fit snuggly into matching connectors, which held the mask in place while the technician pointed her open head at one of the monitors.

The Main Computer's detailed instructions appeared as streams of ones and zeroes flashing very quickly by on two screens, which Maria read simultaneously. When the instructions had been digitally internalised by the still sexy if a little tarnished technician, she used the provided tools to clean the mixed tears and makeup from the cute eyeless face.

Due to the precise spatial feedback and control in her hands and arms, Maria didn't even need to train her cameras at what she was doing. She watched the monitors the whole time while her manicured fingers sponged and wiped the silicone clean. In the same way, the fresh coat of cosmetics was applied. The assigned patterns and colours of lipstick, rouge, eyeliner, and other accents were expertly filled-in. They went on faster than humanly possible, and still Maria hadn't even glanced down at the face she was colouring.

The end of the process came with the last stroke of Maria's delicate machine wrist to Karen's long eyelashes. The faceless technician picked up the mask as the LEDs inside her own head kept blinking and flashing in complex patterns. She walked and carried the mask over to the waiting Karen robot, and pressed it firmly into the corresponding connectors.

Nanoscopic locking mechanisms pulled the edges shut into a waterproof and invisible seal while the CPU in her chest found and reintegrated the facemask back among its long list of installed hardware components. Karen emotionlessly went back upstairs to get ready for work, fully programmed to deal with almost any question her unsuspecting friends could ask her about her disappeared roommate.

Just as quickly, Maria walked over to the table on which Anya layed. She took hold of the table by its steel handles and rolled that synthetic woman of unsurpassed beauty over to where the Renegade Robot Detection System had been found after the crash. To the Main Computer and its duct-tape wearing half-oriental input-output device, Denise was still nowhere to be found. There was currently no analogous set of heuristics algorithms installed within the supercomputer that would tell it she was lying right in front of Maria's electronic eyes.

Chapter 23 - Miss Creativity

As the Main Computer's extensive and detailed commands were internalised by the faceless Maria unit, the realistic hands at the end of her tape-covered arms began their work. The front cover of the 'missing' Denise robot was gently pried away from the rest of the chassis, exposing the prototype Renegade Robot Detection System.

This device, about the size of a small fire extinguisher, had been installed in the place normally reserved for fluid and gas canisters. With the prototype installed, the Denise unit had been unable to sweat, to salivate or to cum.