Body Shop

"Bad for the tool; good for us!" She understood that much about the business now. We mostly fixed other peoples' mistakes. If everybody was careful and correct, we'd be out of business.

I smiled along with her, stripped out of my overalls as she changed boots. She removed her shirt but left the shorts. Not Homenaked! any more, not for now anyway. But still not shy, she didn't mind or didn't know that a bare torso was provocative.

And I saw, she'd taped her nipples! That's why the sealed shirt seam; she wasn't chafing today.

She saw I saw, poked at the tape. "I just hope it doesn't hurt to much, coming off!" A grin. Good to see that.

I didn't suppose it would, it wasn't the kind of tape that cured. It was for temporary fixes, and not vacuum rated. Vac-tape stuck like a bitch.

She stepped up to the foodprep station, fiddled the dial, watched the recipes fly by.

"Ok, 'pancakes', that sounds interesting? What do you think?"

I had no problem with that, been going heavy on the protein lately, a carbo lunch would be fine. And she'd experience something new.

My hands were sore from the polishing, grit under my nails, bearing down on the ceramo-metal nozzles had taken a lot of finger strength. She saw me rubbing them, pulled her seat over, demanded I give her my hand.

I did; she began gentle massage, intent, just working the muscles, thumb to palm to fingers, letting her hands warm mine. It felt great.

"I appreciate your good attitude. Some folks would harbor resentment. Feeling rejected can take a long time to get over."

She looked up, surprised. "I don't feel rejected! I know you want me. I just understand, why it can't be, for now."

She let that lay, that 'for now'. I didn't argue; let her imagine things might change, I can't conceive how that might happen. But I wasn't going to ruin her good mood.

Should I be honest about my feelings?

"I did want you. From the moment I met you."

She nodded. "I know."

After lunch she was uncertain. "I want to get back to work! So much to learn, taking that machine apart. What are those sealed boxes for? Why was there a big empty space with those heavy cables dangling down? And what does that strange cord with all the pins hook to?"

"I can answer some of that? The sealed boxes are electronics."

That didn't connect.

"See, we have brains in our heads." She was also not too sure about that; the primary tape had covered basic biology? Maybe not neurology. "What we think with! What the tape machine writes onto, so we know how to do things."

Ok now she was on board, she knew 'writing' was putting information down. "So those 'electronics' are brains too? Can you tape them?" She thought fast, learned quick.

"Kind of. That long cable with the pins, is for 'taping' the electronics. You can hook that to another box of electronics, kind of like the foodprep station but with another app for getting the tool mechs to understand what the next job is and how to do it."

That was enough talk about brains; move on.

"The big empty space? The power and actuators go there. When a machine is scrapped the power module has to be removed, it could cause a fire or irradiate somebody at the recyc plant. They have to be scrapped carefully, because there is so much power in there, if it all got expended at once, boom!"

Her expression was priceless. I had to laugh, which she took with good grace.

"Do you have, um, power modules here?" Wanted to know if there was something gonna kill her, hiding in our home.

"We do. No problem, safe, if you don't melt them or try to grind them up in a recycler they are no more dangerous than a case of carbos."

She didn't quite believe that but was willing to trust me.

"When the time comes to test your rebuilt mech, we can borrow power from, say, the microplaner. Eventually we'll need to buy another module. They cost about the same as one whole mech did, so we won't do that until we have to."

She was still curious. "How do the rods and twisty things move? They look like they're supposed to move, to make the mech do things. I pushed them around to get them loose, and all sorts of other things moved too."

"Yes, the 'slave actuators' do that. They can induce linear or rotating motion in a rod, according to the program they're given. They also feed back to the 'brain' about where everything is placed, so it can tell if the job is actually getting done.

"Did you find a bunch of little flat disks, in your teardown?"

Yes, she had.

"They are the 'sensors'. Like eyes and ears, fingers and, um, tongues, so the machine can tell where the tools are and where the part under repair is, exactly. How hot it is, how clean. Then it moves the actuators to do whatever needs doing."

She lit up. "I took a bunch of sharp bits, tool heads? Out of a little spinny rack? Like they were being stored there. Why? Will I have to put the right tool in when I'm using the mech to repair something?"

No. "It can pick and place those tools, one or two at a time, on the ends of its manipulators. According to the program! It puts one tool away before it gets another out. All on its own!"

She was beginning to like her little mech now, it seemed very clever. This was going to be good.

"Can I work on it some more now? I don't have much to do in here. Watching vids is pretty boring."

I could see that; vids were watching something happen, watching someone else do things and she wanted to do things herself, to have experiences of her own.

I made a decision.

"You be the judge of that! If you get tired, come in and eat or take a nap. I know you don't have your full strength yet. Don't try to keep up with me, not for a hundredcycle!

"You manage yourself from now on? The best helper in a shop is someone who can find the work, who doesn't need me to figure out what they do next. For the next cycles you can choose your own tapes each morning, work on your mechs as you see fit. Ask questions when you have them, but otherwise just keep trying things, learning things."

That was very exciting; some of her old energy reappeared. "You will tell me if you need me? I'll be right here!" She wanted to be useful to me, still.

"I know you will, you've been a great help, and I will ask you for more help from time to time. But in a well-run shop each mechanic is boss of their own job. I won't be interfering with your work, unless you ask for my assistance. Otherwise, we'd just get in each other's way."

She got a faraway look, thinking about that. To be her own owner! This was another new idea, in a life that has been nothing but new ideas!

She got shy. "Will I be..." she stopped, tried again. "Will the mech be like, my slave?" She ducked, worried she'd gone too far.

I smiled. "Exactly! Mechs are slave to whatever program they're given. They don't mind, they don't really think at all. They don't want anything at all. Except to try to do what their program says to do. And you will be in charge of that program. In a way, you are like their owner."

Awe. She was like an owner, at least to her little mech. Her world was rocked, and suddenly had become much bigger.

"I will be a good owner, and make sure my mech has what it needs, and keep it safe, and only use it right."

I felt much better now. Veena had her confidence back, and had a purpose, was useful and responsible. A good slavegirl. A good mech owner.

By sleepcycle she had buffed everything that could be buffed, scraped off the congealed yuck and put everything through the ultrasonic cleaner. Licked them to make sure they were clean!

She had sorted out the parts that were clearly bent or broken, the exhausted elastic buffers and worn friction rods. Checked the wire harness for breaks. Pressure-checked and determined the entire pneumo system needed replaced.

She needed more learning do to any more, and that had to wait for a new cycle.

My progress seemed paltry in comparison. I'd gotten five of the six working plasma sprayers up to pressure, and the last one up to eighty percent. Good enough, all I could do with what I had. Had gotten the customer on the comm, they had been overjoyed, had picked them up and given me the leftovers for the parts room.

My next ticket required some parts, I quickly determined once I opened it up. I called around the settlement, found most of them. Put in an order for heavy-duty pneumo pumps, some were coming on the next orbital drop, and I reserved two for my shop. Ordered a spool of tubing for her mechs while I was at it.

Nothing concrete to show for all that, but it was work too. Something I could teach Veena to do, didn't require any muscle at all, just brains which she has plenty of.

We chatted away over stromboli, something like bao but crispy on the outside, that really added to the flavor! She'd just twisted the selector, pressed Go! It was all new to her, one recipe as good as another. I didn't mind, I'd gotten into a groove selecting the same meals every cycle. She was good for me.

She'd gone over my tapes, found something on mechs, maybe not this brand or model but enough alike that she could make progress. Wanted to visit a tape shop, find or order more. That sounded fine, we'd go the next cycle, we needed graphene anyway. Plus, some special lubricants for her mech, I'd identified the type from the congealed residue in the reservoir and we didn't have any in the shop.

Time to sleep! Veena was exhausted, wobbly from fatigue. She peeled off her tit tape, winced but not bad, just a little red. Stripped completely, snuggled up in her bunk.

Looked at me across the room, thinking about tomorrow. Closed her eyes but they kept coming back open, her mind too full to sleep.

"I can't stop thinking! My brain is full of mechs!" She was a little annoyed.

"It helps me, to turn my thoughts to something else, something completely different. Like, maybe that vid about dogs?"

She smiled, remembering. Definitely a dog girl. Relaxed, closed her eyes. Opened one, smiling lazily, looking at me.

"Goodnight tape tomorrow! Bran."

I got a comm early, about my parts being delayed. Put a dent in my plans. Veena was in the seat, sticking buttons on her scalp when I mentioned it.

"We could go tape shopping now? We might find something better than this."

Why not. She peeled off the buttons, we dressed in 'outside' clothes, hit the transport, were in the market in a kilosec.

Pretty empty this early, most folks heading for shiftwork or sleeping one off. We were the only ones at the tape kiosk.

Veena was like a kid in a candy shop, scanning racks of tapes, figuring out the categories. Exclaiming at each new discovery.

"I could learn to speak Venusian!" If only you knew any Venusians.

"Dogs! All about training dogs!" Don't think there are any natural dogs in the entire orbit.

"Cooking! With heat! Something called barbecue?" Never heard of it.

She found the tools section, lots of well-worn tapes, many with manufacturers labels, given away free with the tool initially. All pretty cheap.

Filled a box with anything that looked remotely useful. A hundredcycle of taping! She'd have a ball. Didn't cost shit, old tapes went for a tenth of a credit, I let her go wild.

She did find a better tool mech tape, this one the same manufacturer as hers, a different model. Close enough, much of it should be useful.

We weren't going for the latest tools, the fad and fashion tapes, those cost quite a bit. All our interests were old stuff, went for a song.

"Be careful about off-brand tapes! Sometimes they have been reused, overwritten. I know all about baseball, something they did on old Earth back in the day. Ask me about the infield fly rule."

She snorted, not too concerned about learning the wrong thing. Everything was new to her; she didn't have much reason to reject anything.

Scanning the shelves, she had some questions.

"What is Sociology?"

"The study of society. Like, how Venusians are different from Jupes, they reorganize their families every twelve hundred cycles, Jupes keep the same clan for life. Stuff like that."

She found one on modern slavery. Hesitated. How much did she really want to know about that? She'd learned only a little, and it had been upsetting. She put it in the box, maybe for later.

Accounting was more interesting. I suggested she had a fine mind, could do very well organizing the shop orders, pricing, inventory like she'd organized the parts room. That one went in her box too.

Enough for one visit. The shopkeeper gave us a bulk discount, glad to move some dusty old inventory, get it off his shelves. Admired my cute fresh slave girl, amused at her enthusiasm. I guess he mostly saw grumpy shift-workers in here.

We went to an industrial outlet, got our graphene, her mech lubricants. Found sensor disks on remainder, bought a dozen spares for nearly nothing. She mentioned elastic buffers, friction rods, remembered what we had in the parts room! We got more, for her mech, enough extra so we'd still have spares.

Buttons! She was going through them. Bought a bag, they went for a credit a thousand.

Lugging our bags and boxes, we made it home in time for lunch, arms sore and stomachs rumbling.

There was a dented cooling unit dumped outside the big shop door, blocking traffic. Somebody came by when we were out, wants it fixed? Probably have a message on the comm. While I fetched the roller lift Veena sorted out our haul, started the foodprep on char sui.

I came in, found her naked again, sweaty from all that hauling, dishing up something saucy and spicy.

"Homenaked!" she announced, grinning. I followed suit, glad to be in the relative cool. Tried the lunch, coughed.

"Hot!"

"Barbecue!" So now I knew. Not a fan. Fetched some water, drank it all, refilled.

She had a question. "I didn't tape this morning. If I tape now, will it be too soon when I wake up? Will I have to wait until lunch from now on?"

Nope. "A sleep cycle is all it takes to clear neural fatigue. First thing, lunchtime, just before bed, it doesn't matter. Just so long as it's only once a cycle."

So after lunch she popped in her better tool mech tape, buttoned up, sat back with her eyes closed, tapping out a rhythm on the armrest as her brain filled with everything there was to know about tool mechs.

I went to the shop floor, rattled around, still no parts delivery. Remembered that trashed bike, why not? I got a power wrench, horsed off the crushed housing. Once I could see the drive train, it didn't look so bad! Just the controls crushed, pretty much everything that stuck out was damaged, but the core mechanics were pretty ok.

I made a parts list; we didn't have much in the way of sand bike spares at all. Gauges of course. Thermal fins, not a good idea to repair those, they crack in the field, and you're stranded.

A new mount for a twisted rotor. Good thing we'd ordered that spool of pneumo tubing, this thing needed all that too. The control bar I could salvage, just bend it back, mill the mount.

What about the housing? It looked bad but all the material was there, sheet metal, not ceramic, should be able to hammer it out.

Oh! A good first job for Veena's mech! If she got it working in time. Perfect for a mech - tedious, time consuming, lots of tiny adjustments that would drive me crazy. I'd make the offer; it was her project.

Somebody banging on the big door, the cooler guy back? No, the parts van! Hurray! I flashed my embed, she lowered my pallet to the tunnel grid outside and whirred off.

Now I had enough to get going. About time, I got anxious when I didn't have work in front of me. Was deep into it, new parts spread on my assembly table, the next ticket machine opened up, spilling its guts and Veena came out.

I saw her out of the corner of my eye, she looked around at her sprawl of mech bits and blanched.

"What's wrong!"

She looked desperate. "This is... so bad! Never saw a mech in such condition!" She'd never seen any other mech at all; that was the tape talking.

"The force rods are all skew! Most of the axial transfer levers are worn to a stub! Half the sensors, they've been mounted backward! Who had worked on this last? Idiot! Criminal negligence!"

She even stood differently, like a world-weary shop foreman except tiny and cute. The tape had 'shadows', body language and expressive habits that were 'scraped' along with the expertise, but it wore off in a moment. Back to my tiny, cute shop mechanic.

"Nothing for it, but to get started then?"

She just breathed for a while, until she got her calm back. Started looking thoughtful, then calculating. Picked up a force rod, sighted down the barrel.

"Do we have a microplaner?" She knew we did; her mind was just so full of mech right now she couldn't think of anything else.

I showed her where it was, again, tutored her on its safe operation. Left her to it.

We passed a content half-cycle together, each doing our separate thing, busy and productive. She was in the zone, reconditioning parts, straightening what could be straightened, matching alignments with a microtome, she knew how to do that now. Extras on that mech tape? Oh! It was a manufacturer freebie originally, they probably batched them up, they sold more tools that way, once you knew about their other stuff, you'd be more likely to buy it.

Late in the cycle she got my attention.

"I'm missing half a dozen tool heads. Borrowed, broken, whatever, the scalers are incomplete, and there are no tempering bits at all! Will we have to order those?"

I had a look. "Some of this you could print." I explained printing, how the graphene got shaped in the printer, saturated with resin, cured under light. Would work for non-impact tools, printed graphene could be brittle. Like scalers, that should work. Maybe tempering bits, the smaller ones.

She sighed. Didn't have a tape on printers, should have got one while we were there!

"You could, I don't know, read up on it? It's not that much to learn."

This was a new idea to her. Learn? On her own? By what, just looking at it? Intrigued by the though, her eyes went wide.

I smiled. "Something like that. Here, let me show you the design app, how to top up the hoppers, size the parts. You can try a tool or two, it doesn't work well then, we're just out an ounce or two of cheap material. But you might get lucky, save a day and a trip."

She was willing, when had she not been willing? It was part of her makeup, to try anything.

She fooled around with it, good, that's a fine way to learn anything on your own. Got serious, went through the app features, asked me a half-dozen questions about what was bilateral symmetry, how to extrude, was it a good idea to have voids or better to make solids? Set up her first tool and pressed Go without hesitation.

Watched through the little window at the sprayer tips darting around, some so small you could hardly see them! Almost like a swarm of flies, twitching about. Laughed, charmed by this little mech and its delicate manipulators.

That's the Veena I bought! She's back, recovered from the traumas of early human-hood. Made my heart swell. I cared that she was well and happy, for some reason beyond 'owning' her, having a valuable tool.

She stopped, gonna grab a bite, take a nap. Good! She could pace herself, knew when she'd had enough. Had made a list of necessary parts, left it with me and went inside.

I thought the list was good, maybe there were one or two others that could be printed but it was her project, none of it was too dear. Used the comm to place an order with a fab house I like to use. Small parts mostly got fabbed locally, nobody wanted to wait for an orbital drop for miscellaneous stuff.

They knew most of the part numbers, their records went back to settlement founding! One stumped them so I scanned it, sent them the digital wireframe and the desired material, same stuff as her broken one so I felt ok making that decision for her. They'd entered it into their system, would know it if that part ever came up again.