Artificial Happiness

Lisa walked past him and proceeded to one of the laundry chutes with the intention of undressing. Robert turned around and walked after her, trying to come up with some pretext to stay near her.

"About those shuttle reinforcements we talked about yesterday," he took up the topic from the previous day's lunch break.

"Yes?" Lisa asked him to proceed. She seemed slightly irritated that he would bring up the topic here and now, but talking about work was a welcome distraction during the boring evening routine, so she was willing to participate in the conversation.

"I recently read about some experimental debris shielding used on satellites. They recently launched a trial version of such a satellite on Venus. It's cheaper and lighter than the solutions we use for our ships; with some adaptations it might be a good middle ground for the shuttles." Robert was impressed by himself. The idea was not bad considering that he had just come up with it on the fly for the sole purpose saying something.

"Interesting," Lisa considered while taking off the top of her exercising cloth. Beneath was a tight undershirt which clearly presented the outline of her sizable breasts. That was more than enough to spike Robert's excitement. "It might be worth a shot. Repurposing such a technology sounds like an extensive project though." The shirt was also removed, leaving her chest bare for her colleague to admire. He did so with greedy eyes. Two delicate pink nipples demanded all of his attention.

"Yes, of course," Robert commented, struggling to concentrate on the conversation. "A prove-o- concept might be required first; but we should definitely look into it; maybe consult some experts."

"We?" Lisa asked with a frown. She stepped out her pants, revealing long, well-toned legs and curvy hips. Robert didn't know where to look; the situation was overwhelming. "You seem a lot more enthusiastic about the idea than yesterday. Didn't you suggest not to spend too much time on it? Now you want to develop some entirely new concept for hull reinforcement; what changed?"

"Nothing changed," he blurted out, feeling like he had been caught at doing something wrong. I just thought about it a lot..." While waiting for her to remove her remaining underwear, Robert experienced the paradoxical situation that he desperately desired her to do it, yet he wanted to savor the moment for as long as he could. Oblivious to his struggle, Lisa shed the piece of fabric unceremoniously. Seeing her fully nude form, Robert was presented with exactly what he had wanted, yet he still wasn't satisfied. He craved for something more but had no idea what it was. There was an urge to touch her, a need to feel something. But then what? There was a deep desire within him, but how to fulfill it was a mystery to him.

Meanwhile Lisa had discarded all her clothing through the laundry chute, turned around and walked to the towel shelf. Robert craved for her to stay, to come closer to him instead of walking away, to present herself instead of turning her back on him. He resisted the impulse to reach for her, kept himself immobile, just following her with his gaze.

Lisa went for a towel on the bottom shelf, bending over to reach it. While doing so she extended her lovely, heart-shaped buttocks in Robert's direction, granting a revealing view of her backside and part of her labia. At that alluring sight his arousal reached a new peak but in absence of any physical stimulation and lacking the knowledge how to deal with this strange sensation the experience was more frustrating than rewarding.

Torn between bliss and agony, Robert's discomfort with the situation finally got the upper hand again. After a final glance at the body which was the main cause of his confusion, he made a hasty escape. As soon as he was back in his room he reactivated the sexual inhibitor, determined never to turn it off again.

4

Robert's resolve on never meddling with the sexual inhibitor again didn't last long. With the restriction back in place the obsession about female bodies and the unusual behavior of his genitalia were gone without a trace, but the memories and impressions remained. His mind kept drifting back to the strange experience multiple times over the next few days. While confusing and even frightening there had been something deeply appealing about it. He was sure that there had to be more to this unfamiliar aspect of human life. Besides, he was still no closer to understanding what happened to David.

His curiosity just kept on growing until about a week later he couldn't resist trying to lift the inhibitor again. He stayed in his room that evening. Nothing happened at first, but after a while some particular memories came to mind. As it turned out, certain thoughts alone were sufficient to trigger the same responses his body had shown before.

Sitting on his bed, naked from the waist down, he inspected the curious condition of his organ for a while. The state of his penis appeared grotesque, swollen far beyond its usual size and protruding from his body on its own. The head showed a somewhat darker shade of its regular color and the blood vessels along the shaft were more prominent than normal. There was also a slight bend to it now, which wasn't apparent in its flaccid form.

Despite an undeniable urge to touch it, Robert was hesitant at first. It seemed strangely inappropriate, as if the organ, undoubtedly attached to his body, somehow did not belong to him. Eventually he dared to reach for it, carefully feeling with two fingers at first. When nothing bad happened he started probing more thoroughly, exploring the details of the newfound body part. The phallus grew even more rigid under his touches. He kept on playing around for a while. There was a fascination to it, something very appealing; but at the same time it was kind of frustrating. As if he was missing something or not doing it the right way, keeping him in constant, unfulfilled desire for more. After some time, drops of transparent, sticky liquid started leaking from his urethra. While it surprised and worried him at first, he came to the conclusion that, like everything else he had discovered, there appeared to be no harm to it. Still it raised even more questions and left him more aware than ever that he had no idea what was going on.

At some point he decided to quit the experiment and reactivated the inhibitor. With a sensation of incompleteness he watched his erection fade while the entertaining memories suddenly appeared as trivial as they had always been.

Like before he intended to leave it at that and never remove the inhibitor again. Like before he ignored his own resolution and did it again a few days later. It went on like that for a while. Despite the fact that he didn't find real satisfaction in his experiments, for some reason he wasn't capable of stopping. It made his lack of insights into the matter even more annoying. He needed to know more about sexuality, but all the sources at his disposal were exhausted.

It was obvious were he could get more information: from the Naturals. Lacking a CERS and subsequently any inhibitors, they had to live their entire lives with these sensations, so they certainly knew what this was about. The problem was that Robert didn't really know any person he could ask such questions. There were plenty of Naturals on the station, but Robert rarely interacted with any of them. As far as he was aware of, there were no common friendships between the two classes of humans. In fact, the most contact with one particular Natural he had ever had was with David. Otherwise there was nobody he knew who qualified. He couldn't just walk up to a random Natural and start asking questions. It would immediately raise suspicions. Besides, the knowledge that this topic was somehow related to David's departure and that there was so little information available to Workers made Robert really careful. He didn't want to make any mistakes which might entail serious consequences. Still he was looking for ways to learn more about the world of the Naturals.

The solution to his problem came by itself, in the form of a message from management, broadcast to all employees fitting a certain profile. The XG3 space yacht was nearing its release and was due for its final tests. Some of those would not be done exclusively by Workers. There was a simple reason for that: the average Worker strongly differed in many ways from the clients for whom the expensive yachts were produced. Therefore it was advisable to let some Naturals who were not involved in the development process test the final product. Five sample vessels would be provided to candidates chosen by VRW for up to three weeks. The testers were supposed to spend this time living in the yacht, try out all of its features and do some piloting exercises. Their feedback would be used to make some final adaptations.

In order to assist and supervise the testers and to help in case of potential defects, an engineer from the workforce with extensive knowledge about the ship would be assigned to each yacht. For this job the company needed volunteers from the applicable staff. There was a reason why these types of assignments were always handed to volunteers: A Worker's CERS was always configured specifically for the current job. Assignments usually came with some reconfiguration. Even for rather trivial changes in positions, tasks and responsibilities, some modifications to the CERS were necessary to ensure that the Worker stayed happy and productive in the new occupation. A drastic change like this, which involved taking the Worker from the familiar environment and assigning him or her to a completely different job and setting, also required substantial alterations to the mental state. How well someone responded to such changes varied from person to person. Studies found that Workers, who voluntarily chose a reassignment, responded a lot better to the necessary reconfiguration.

Robert usually didn't volunteer for jobs which would take him away from the station or diverged too far from his usual job. This new task however, was a good opportunity for him to perhaps find some answers. He would be working closely with a Natural, which might present an opportunity for asking questions. Beyond that there was a chance he would learn more about the outside world.

He immediately replied to the request for candidates. It was not surprising when his application was accepted almost as fast. He was an exemplary employee, well suited for the job; his quick response suggested a good fit for his mindset and the number of enthusiastic applicants was probably not that high.

After being accepted for the assignment, things happened fast. Robert received an appointment with an overseer who made some changes to the configuration of Robert's CERS in order to prepare him for the new task. A little anxious about having his accustomed settings changed, he made a complete backup of the old configuration the night before. Nobody knew that of course. Neither did the overseer realize that Robert's safeguard against modifying CERS settings was disabled. The necessity to check that would usually never occur.

Once the preparations were done, Robert was assigned to a ship and a Natural. The person he would team up with was a 29 year old woman by the name of Julia Fischer. He could not judge whether the fact that she was female was a good thing or not. On the one hand he was interested in peculiarities of the male body and was worried that she might not have the insights he required. On the other hand there was this weird obsession with women which haunted him as soon as the sexuality inhibitor was gone.

Robert met her for the first just hours before the scheduled departure from Zukunftsfabrik station. Even if he hadn't known, he could have immediately told that Julia was a Natural. One clear giveaway was her cloth. Workers wore uniform, purely functional clothing with little regard to design and aesthetics. Colors were used mainly for indicating a Workers position and profession. The company uniforms usually also covered the body from collar to toe, there was no point in exposing skin.

The attire Julia wore was a distinct contrast to that. Her appearance was in no way provocative or salacious by Natural standards, just a common outfit in line with the current fashion. Compared to the chaste Worker garments however, the tight fitting fabric accentuating the shape of her body and the slight display of cleavage might have been considered daring.

Another significant difference was her hair. Workers of both genders usually kept their hair rather short and practical. There were automated hair cutting units in the sanitary facilities with a couple of cuts to select from; when and how to use them was left to the individual. Preferences differed somewhat but most Workers put hardly any concern into it and had their hair cut whenever it became impracticable. Beyond cutting and cleaning there was no interest in additional care. Being subjected to the beauty standards of the common population, Julia had her brunette hair hanging down past her shoulders well groomed and styled.

Of course there was no point in applying makeup for Workers, whereas Julia supplemented her angular facial features with a decent amount of cosmetics. Studying her appearance Robert guessed that he would probably be attracted to her if his sexual inhibitor hadn't been active at the time. While his sexuality was repressed, it was not so easy to tell what might arouse him about a person once the inhibitor was inactive. Through his previous experiments he had gotten a rough idea about what caught his interest though.

The woman introduced herself as Julia and offered to call her by that name, dismissing the need for formalities. That was fine by Robert; he had no other name to offer anyway. Workers had no parents, no family, therefore no family name. The real identifier of a Worker was a complex serial number unique to each individual ever created. The calling names were just given for convenience reasons.

Julia's greeting was friendly and casual. Unlike many Naturals her conduct towards Workers was hardly affected by an attitude of superiority. Still Robert felt somewhat humbled. The notion that Naturals were of superior status and importance was omnipresent. He automatically acted submissive around her. With David it had been different. It took Robert a moment to realize that the primary reason for that was the recent change to his CERS configuration. Unlike David, Julia was neither an overseer nor a direct employee of VRW. That meant that she was not able to make modifications to his personality and was likely not accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of Workers in engineering. In the previous assignment the company had simply left it to David to make the necessary adaptations to Robert's settings so he fit the requirements. In the present case that was not an option so they had given him a configuration closer to that of the average assistant, like Catharina, to ensure he treated the Natural with proper courtesy and obedience.

"So this is the plan," Julia announced. "Over the next three weeks we will take this yacht to Venus and back. On the way we will swing by Earth and stock up at Hawking station. The distances between all three planets are conveniently small at the moment; so if this ship holds what it promises in terms of speed, we should be able to make the trip with a day or two to spare. We will do the specific piloting exercises the company has provided at regular intervals in between."

Robert acknowledged the idea without comment. He was not particularly proficient or interested in astronomical navigation, so he had no real opinion on the matter.

"When will you be ready?"

"I can depart anytime," Robert answered promptly. "All preparations have already been completed.

"Great, give me two hours then I will be ready as well. Let's say we meet at the ship at 15:30 local time."

Robert nodded obediently. Having nothing to do in the meantime he headed back to his room and took a closer look at the current settings of his CERS. He wasn't particularly fond of the new condition of his mind. While the implants made sure there were no unpleasant feelings about it, he found it disagreeable on a rational level. The manipulations of his attitude towards and interaction with Naturals seemed pointless and counterproductive to him. Usually such thoughts would be prevented by the CERS, but with the alteration safeguard disabled Robert was free to build his own opinion on the matter.

Surveying the current configuration he quickly found some parameters which looked tempting to change. Even though he had done it before, he was hesitant at first. His previous modifications had been limited to temporary experiments with the pursuit of knowledge as the main motivation. Now he intended to do persistent changes for his own benefit. After a moment of inner conflict he compromised on a small set of simple measures which wouldn't have too much of an impact as a first test. He briefly considered deactivating the sexual inhibitor as well, but decided against it. Satisfied for the moment he put his Plug back in place.

As usual there was no immediately recognizable effect after the new configuration was applied. Once he met with Julia again, the difference became obvious. Talking to the woman immediately came easier and more natural; to Robert it felt like he had much more freedom in what he could say and do.

They met at the traffic dock area on one end of the space station and ventured to one of the smaller air locks. On the other side of it, the assigned yacht was already waiting.

"No luggage?" Julia asked when she saw that Robert came empty-handed.

He shook his head. "The company provides everything I need on the ship."

"Makes sense; I guess we can get going then; after you."

Opening the airlock required credentials, which Robert could provide by bringing the implant in his forearm close to the access panel. With a hiss the thick metal gate opened and provided entrance to the yacht via a short tunnel.

Julia let out a whistle of appreciation when she got aboard after Robert, stepping into the comparatively large living area. "So this will be our shared home for the days to come; quite fancy. If it handles as well as it looks I will have a lot of fun with this crate. Does the ship have a name?"

Robert was confused by the question. "The designation code is VR-Y3-XG-A4C7," he recited from memory.

Julia shook her head. "That's not what I mean. A ship needs a proper given name; something with personal meaning. It's an old naval tradition."

They spent the next few minutes making a quick tour through the yacht's luxurious interior while also discussing a name for the vessel. It took Robert a bit to grasp what kind of name they were looking for, but eventually he came up with a proposal which seemed acceptable: Beautiful Mystery.

"A bit cheesy, but I like it," Julia concurred, while she made herself comfortable in the pilot chair. "Quite poetic; at least by Worker standards; Beautiful Mystery it is."

Glad that she liked his idea, Robert took his seat in the copilot position.

With the swiftness of someone who had done this plenty of times, Julia's hands darted across the controls in front of her, preparing the ship and the attached systems for takeoff.

"You seem to be quite familiar with these systems," Robert commented.

Julia shrugged. "The interfaces of these vessels are all pretty much the same and ridiculously simple. The yachts are particularly idiot-proof."

Robert agreed, but he had been working with them for most of his life, so he had no real frame of reference. "Sounds like you have piloted plenty of space craft. Do you own many ships?"