Artificial Happiness

Julia chuckled. "No, I don't own any. Space ships are horribly expensive and I am not that wealthy. Most of them belong to companies or rich people. The common folk have to rent one or pay for individual flights; or, if you have the proper piloting license and training, you can do pilot jobs and test flights; like I do."

"So this is your job?" Robert asked.

"More like a hobby," she answered. "The money one can make in this line of work is insubstantial. Getting assignments is tough. Most pilots are Workers and of course they are usually preferred. In the few cases where Naturals are wanted, the competition is huge. I love space travel and enjoy tasks like these; I would even do it for free. The monetary compensation is just a bonus. But don't tell that to your superiors." She winked at Robert with a grin.

Meanwhile the ship had detached from the airlock and was slowly moving towards away from the station.

"So what are you doing with the rest of your time?" Robert asked, eager to learn more about the life of the Naturals.

"You are quite inquisitive for a Worker," Julia observed instead of answering.

Fearing that he had overstepped, Robert instantly regretted his curious questions. The CERS reacted to his pessimistic assessment of the situation by punishing him with discouragement.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean any offense," he apologized submissively.

"That's not what I meant," she quickly assured him with a chuckle. "I really don't mind; on the contrary, I am happy to chat. It's just surprising, that is all. I have been around Workers before and usually they barely speak a word about anything other than their job. Any deviation from that pattern would be a welcome change."

This clarification immediately restored Robert's mood; more than that it, made him even bolder than before.

"I might indeed be different from most of my colleagues," he informed her in a conspiratorial tone. "Unlike them I am very curious about the life of Naturals and would like to know more about it."

"I'd be happy to satisfy your curiosity," she informed him.

Now Robert was really looking forward to the assignment. He would take his time, start with some unassuming, general questions, try to get to know Julia better and wait for an opportunity to steer a conversation in the direction of the topic he was most interested in.

While the yacht left Zukunftsfabrik station behind and ventured out into open space, Robert already mused on various scenarios how the following days might play out.

5

Julia pushed the Beautiful Mystery's engines to their absolute limits as the vessel accelerated through the vacuum towards a target buoy. Once it reached its maximum velocity, she activated the steering thrusters at the front of the starboard flank and at the back of the port side flank. The opposing thrusts made the ship spin horizontally. The thrusters diagonally across kicked in to stop the spinning so that the ship ended up making a 180 degree turn once it was stable again. The yacht's forward momentum was hardly affected by the maneuver, so it was still moving in the same direction, now rear first. Again Julia demanded everything the engines had to offer, pushing the other way, gradually lowering the speed instead of increasing it. The video feed from the backside cameras showed the buoy still coming closer at a fast pace. For a while it looked as if they would not be able to stop in time; in the end they came to a full halt a few hundred meters before the buoy.

Julia relaxed, leaning back in the pilot chair, loosening the tense grip on the steering controls. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. After hours of testing the manual control capabilities of the yacht and bringing both machine and pilot to their limits, she was absolutely exhausted.

"Well done," Robert commended.

"Me or the ship?" Julia asked with a tired grin.

"Both I guess."

"What do the diagnostics say?" she asked, hoping that they had all the data which was required for this particular set of tests. She enjoyed the task but it was really exhausting over a longer period of time.

"Looks good; temperature is slightly above the expected values and one reactor cell is only operating at 78 percent, but nothing critical. I can't say with certainty before I run a full analysis on the data, but generally I think everything is in the green."

"Great; then I would say we call it a day." Julia turned off the manual controls, switched back to autopilot and set a course for Hawking station.

Modern space ships were mainly piloted by computers. On most flights the human crew did little more than put in the destination and preferred route, supply some additional properties, adjust settings if necessary and keep an eye on the system readings in case something went wrong. Everything else was done by the ship itself.

The possibility for manually controlling space craft had two main purposes: An emergency alternative in case the auto pilot was faulty (which was an extremely rare occurrence) and entertainment. Steering space ships by hand was a common pass time for those who could afford it. A yacht like the XG3, needed to be tested for manual piloting thoroughly, because many of the future owners and renters would certainly try themselves in reckless maneuvers, dangerous races and similar folly.

Like most space travel enthusiast, Julia delighted in the pointless but entertaining piloting hobby. Doing it for hours at a time took its toll though and she was overdue for a break. She disentangled herself from the safety belt harness and lightly pushed off the seat. Floating freely in the zero-G environment she turned around and steered herself towards the exit.

"You can keep working if you want to," she told Robert who was still strapped into the copilot chair with what seemed to be a look of indecision. Telling a Worker that he could stop working was often not a kindness. She had interacted with his kind often enough to know these peculiarities. Robert wasn't an entirely common Worker though; she had figured that out rather quickly. It was hard to tell what exactly made him different, but there was something off about him. "I think I'm also done for now" he answered and followed after her.

As soon as Julia got out of the crammed cockpit and into the more spacious central room she started tugging at the fasteners of her flight overall. She couldn't wait to get out of it. The calibration of the ship's temperature regulator wasn't quite perfect yet. It couldn't fully compensate for all of the additional excess heat produced by the energy reactor and the engines when they operated at maximum capacity. As a result the interior air temperature was slightly higher than comfortable after their stress test runs. In combination with the thick, padded flight suit the heat was almost unbearable.

Most of the time she didn't even bother wearing the overall, but that would be foolish for the current piloting tasks. High velocity and rough maneuvers tended to exert a lot of force on the body, pressing it hard against the restraints keeping it in place. Without proper protection that led to bruises, abrasions and worse. A little thermal discomfort and sweating was a small price to pay for preventing that.

Julia peeled herself out of the overall. With the protective garment discarded she was reduced to wearing panties and a bra. She intended to stay that way until the temperature would stabilize. Being around Robert in just her underwear didn't really bother her. Like most people she didn't react to Workers in the same ways she would to another Natural. It had become quite common to consider them more as robots than real humans. As a consequence, some of the most fundamental emotions usually felt towards another person were simply not there. That could include for example empathy, envy, sympathy or shame.

There were plenty of people who had absolutely no problem with being completely naked around Workers. Some didn't even mind masturbating or having sex in front of them; and some got a thrill out of it. In recent years a whole new type of fetish had developed around the idea of being watched by clueless Workers while committing some naughty act. Julia wasn't into that kind of stuff; some partial nudity was the maximum extent of what she was comfortable with.

She made her way to the fridge and retrieved two water bottles. When she turned towards Robert to pass him one, she found him still wearing his suit and staring at her with a strange look; strange at least for a Worker. On a Natural the situation would have been obvious.

"Looking for something?" Julia asked, startling Robert from his absent gaze.

"No," he answered immediately, averting his eyes. "I was just contemplating a personal project."

The Worker's odd behavior puzzled Julia. He was definitely uncomfortable about something, perhaps even nervous. She had no idea what it might be. She couldn't help but consider whether she had said or done something to cause his distraught condition; nothing particular came to mind. The only apparent cause of dismay was the fact that he was still in his flight suit. Perhaps he wasn't sure whether he was allowed to take it off, she hypothesized.

"You can take off the overall, if you want," she proposed. "It must be simmering under there."

He nodded in agreement, starting to open the fasteners, but there was no urgency to it, indicating that it was not his primary concern. Julia watched him undress while she took a gulp from the bottle. Like her, he was only in underwear beneath. Julia wasn't surprised about the attractive upper body which was revealed when Robert started shedding the suit. He wasn't particularly muscular, but his splendid genes and optimized diet ensured that there was practically no excess fat to be found on his body and his muscles were well outlined beneath his skin. The same was true for pretty much every male Worker. Julia was used to it and while she couldn't quite deny a certain appeal to the sight, the fact that she knew he was a Worker ensured that there would be no attraction between them. She was so conditioned on the idea that he was not really human that her mind automatically rejected the possibility of seeing him as a potential partner. That didn't mean she couldn't admire the view though.

The Worker's body was exactly what Julia had expected up to the point when he pushed the overall down past his waist. She was startled to see a significant protrusion at the front of Robert's underpants. It took a moment for her to acknowledge that her initial perception of the situation didn't deceive her: The Worker had an erection.

"What the hell is that?" she asked, pointing at his groin.

Once the Robert realized what she was referring to, he swiftly pulled down his underwear and presented his manhood.

"What are you doing?" Julia asked in a high-pitched voice, utterly perplexed.

"You wanted to know what it is," Robert tried to defend his action, sounding seriously confused.

"I know what it is you dolt, but it shouldn't be like that," Julia snapped. She was confused and alarmed yet she couldn't help but stare. There was nothing special about it, just a normal engorged dick, maybe slightly above average in size, yet it seemed so out of place. As far as she knew Workers did not experience arousal unless explicitly configured for it. Something was wrong here.

"You mean it shouldn't be like that because I am a Worker?" Robert asked carefully.

"Obviously," she replied.

"So for a Natural this condition would be normal?" he continued his inquiry.

"I guess so." Julia was more and more confused by the situation.

"Can you explain it to me?" Robert asked with a hopeful expression on his face.

Once again she was baffled. "You don't know what an erection is?"

Robert shook his head. He looked lost and confused. Slowly the whole scenario started to make a little more sense. For Workers who spent their entire lives on an isolated station, surrounded mostly by their own kind, there was probably little need for sexual education. Most of them would never have a use for such knowledge. Usually the CERS kept them from having any interest in it. Apparently this had changed for Robert recently and now he was clueless about what was going on.

Julia relaxed a little, but was still uncomfortable about the situation; especially with the Worker's phallus continuing to point at her. It was like stumbling into the plot of a porn video. She had no interest in letting that story unfold.

"First of all, get that thing out of my sight," she demanded. Robert complied hastily, stowing the organ back in its confines. At least he still followed orders. More hesitantly she added: "What exactly do you want me to explain to you?"

"I would like to know everything about sexuality," he requested sounding more like a school boy than an adult.

Julia took a deep breath while trying to collect her thoughts. This day had certainly taken an unexpected turn. She wasn't sure how to deal with Robert. Never before had she experienced or even heard of a case like that. Some of his behavior had been unusual from the start. Clearly there was something wrong with his CERS. If the system was faulty or wrongly configured there was no telling what might be going on in his head. Was he dangerous? He hadn't shown any irrational or violent tendencies so far. The safe thing to do would probably be to inform the company. The yacht wasn't far from earth by now. She could contact the VRW headquarter and confine Robert to his cabin until they took care of the matter.

Julia was curious though. Without a doubt this was an extraordinary occurrence and she wanted to know more about it. She had not received any instructions for such a scenario, so there were no obligations either. After brief consideration she decided on questioning Robert about his point of view, before daring to make a choice.

"Before I can explain anything to you, I will need to know what is going on," Julia clarified, arms crossed and a stern expression on her face. She hoped to exert an aura of authority, to ensure the Worker's compliance. The role of the displeased superior wasn't really a familiar one for her, but for this purpose it should be sufficient. "It's obvious that your CERS doesn't work the way it should. Not just because of the bulge in your pants, but also because of your behavior. For example a usual Worker would not be ogling my chest, like you are doing right now." The Worker quickly averted his gaze, scanning the room for another point of interest to focus on. "Do you have an explanation for that?"

Robert opened his mouth and closed it again. It was plain to see that his mind was hard at work figuring out what to tell her. Either he was trying to come up with a lie or he was looking for the proper way to tell his story. Julia had little patience for either. The fact that he had enough mental freedom to be so hesitant was already disconcerting.

"My sexual inhibitor is deactivated," Robert stated with some reluctance.

"Sexual inhibitor?" she asked, not familiar with the term but able to deduce its meaning from context. "You mean in the configuration of your CERS?"

He nodded.

"That doesn't sound like something happening by accident," she expressed her suspicion with a frown.

"No," he admitted, "I turned it off."

"Why?"

"I was curious. I wanted to know what sexuality is; but afterwards I was more confused than ever."

"How did you even manage to do that?" she wanted to know. "Workers are not supposed to be able to change their own configurations."

He shrugged. "I just did. I still had the tools for it from a project I had been working on. The rest was easy."

Somebody definitely messed up there, Julia was sure. She wasn't an expert in the overseer's business but it was common knowledge that they were subjected to strict regulations. Something like this was clearly not supposed to happen.

"I didn't break any rules," Robert claimed defensively, even though there had been no accusation. "Nobody ever said it was forbidden."

That sounded unlikely at first but the more Julia thought about it the more sense it made. Companies like VRW strongly preferred relying on the CERS to ensure proper behavior of their Workers, in favor of defining and enforcing specific rules. It had turned out to be more efficient and surprisingly reliable. This philosophy also helped tackle the criticism against the concept of the CERS-Workforce as being slavery. A common counter argument used by companies was that there were no chains, no guards, no locks and no inhumane rules or restrictions. Workers weren't forced to do anything they didn't want to, nor were they prevented from anything; they were merely encouraged or discouraged towards the desired behavior. Based on that reasoning it made sense that there was no established rule against modifying CERS settings. The implants made sure that Workers didn't get any wrong ideas and that was sufficient. Apparently this safeguard wasn't active in Robert's case anymore.

"How long since you made that change?"

"The first time was a few weeks ago. I turned it off and on again a few times since. I wanted to stop but wasn't quite able to. I just need to know what this is about."

"Wait a second. Did you only volunteer for this assignment in the hope of learning more about sexuality?"

He nodded, looking ashamed of himself. "I am sorry if my behavior was inappropriate, I didn't mean offense."

Suddenly Julia felt sorry for Robert. She couldn't begin to imagine how terrifying it must be for an adult, who hadn't heard anything about sex in his life, to be plunged into a sudden puberty, without anyone around to talk about it. Clearly this was really important to him.

"It's okay," she assured him with a significantly softer tone. "This is just really weird for me. For the future you should know that openly staring at people is considered rude. Even more important: Don't expose your genitalia in front of someone who hasn't explicitly agreed to it. That can get you in a lot of trouble."

Robert nodded. "So would it be possible for you to teach me about sexuality?"

Her first instinct was to refuse. It just seemed inappropriate. Considering the hopeful expression on his face and how utterly lost he seemed she found it difficult to deny him though.

"Possible, yes," Julia admitted reluctantly. "However, I am not quite sure how to go about it. I might not be the right person for that" She wouldn't even have known how to handle that situation with a child, much less with a grown man. Much to her private embarrassment, the first method which came to her mind was a practical hands-on way. That idea was quickly rejected of course. Robert was handsome in a way, but the fact that he was a Worker made sure that she felt practically no attraction towards him. She barely even considered him a man. The only reason why she wanted to help was that she felt sorry for him and a little guilty about the CERS-Workforce situation in general. Pity and guilt were not a good basis for engaging in sexual actions; at least not to her.

The most obvious way of teaching him would be a direct conversation. However, the thought of having 'the talk' with an adult Worker barely younger than her, who she had only known for a few days, was beyond weird. She had never done anything remotely like that. Where would she even start? How much detail was appropriate?

There had to be a better way. How did kids nowadays learn about sex? The answer was obvious: the Internet. Certainly there were some decent instruction videos on sexuality for young people online. Luckily the yacht was close enough to Earth to access the Internet via one of the many satellites dedicated to this purpose, without too much latency. With Earth's global network at her disposal, Julia could pick from such a vast collection of sexual material, there had to be something fitting this purpose.