Building Robot Lovers Ch. 04

Building Robot Lovers Chapter 4

By Gary LM Martin

It all started out as another one of Doctor Malthus's little experiments. The primary purpose of the Erobots was to provide loving companions to men and women.

But that didn't mean that Doctor Malthus wasn't interested in other purposes as well. He had been impressed how well the Erobots had been able to disguise their true nature during real world Testing. He wanted to take that Testing to a new level, to see how an Erobot would function in a high pressure, stressful environment.

And so Doctor Malthus infiltrated an Erobot into the United Survey Service.

How it was done was a complete mystery, at least to Susan. All she knew is that she had to prepare Schriber, Unit 008, for a very special mission.

He was now called Ensign Norman Thomas, a newly minted junior officer on the USS Excaliber. His immediate supervisor was a gorgeous redhead in a miniskirt named Lieutenant Miranda Hartman. Schriber and Miranda hit it off well almost immediately. Miranda found the squeaky clean young Ensign charming and flirted with him constantly. Schriber found Miranda appealing because, well... he was an Erobots, and Erobots were programmed to have sex.

But Miranda's flirtations confused him. Doctor Dickins had downloaded the entire database of Survey Service rules and regulations, and the rules were quite specific on fraternization aboard ship. Senior officers were not permitted to fraternize with junior ones under their command. Schriber was under Miranda's command, but that didn't stop her from rubbing against him, teasing him, making sexual innuendo, and doing all manner of things that Schriber realized were signals of desire for sex.

But what confused Schriber the most was how Miranda responded to his response to her advances. When she rubbed against him in a narrow Johnson tube while she was familiarizing him with ships' systems, Schriber responded by putting his hands on her ass and squeezing. Instead of registering her approval, Miranda had gotten wide-eyed and said, "Norman! Whatever are you doing?"

When they had been studying holographic star charts in astrometrics, and Miranda once again rubbed against his body, he had reached down to kiss her, but she pushed him away, pretending to look surprised, and saying, "Norman, not here! Someone could walk in at any moment."

And so Schriber figured out that there was a time and place for breaking Survey Service regulations. The time and place seemed to be Miranda's quarters one evening, when they were watching "Ultra, Amazon Warrior" together on Miranda's small couch. This time when Miranda rubbed against him Schriber figured the time was right and tried to kiss her. She let him kiss her for the briefest moment before pulling back. "Really, Norman. You're quite forward for a junior officer!"

Schriber talked to Doctor Dickins about this. As with all officers, he had access to the ship's interstellar communicator from his private quarters. Susan looked amused when he described the situation.

"You weren't put on the ship to seduce women, Schriber," said Susan.

"But seduction is one of the purposes I was programmed for," Schriber insisted.

It was true. While Susan had reoriented Schriber's goals somewhat, she hadn't had the time to design a totally new schemata for him from scratch; as a result, what he had was a mixture of the new and the old. Inside this Survey Service Erobot was an Erobot who also craved sex.

"What does it mean, Doctor Dickins? Does Miranda want me, or doesn't she?"

"She may want you, Schriber. Or she may be playing a game."

"A game. Ah. Where the goal is to be pursued, but not caught."

"Precisely," said Susan.

"But which is it? Does she really want me, or is it a game?"

"Does it matter?" said Susan. "Your mission is to see whether you can credibly impersonate a Survey Service officer. All other conditions are secondary."

But all other conditions weren't secondary.

Schriber, through his throbbing Emotion Plate, had the undeniable urge to have sex with Survey Service Lieutenant Miranda Hartman.

********

The Excaliber received a distress signal, from a freighter called the Andropov. When they arrived on the scene, they sent Lieutenant Tom Brand and several security guards over to investigate.

The crew and most of the passengers were dead. The ship had had a run-in with Ramadan pirates, and in the process the hull had been pierced. The only survivor was a passenger named Markessa Jinton. Markessa was a gorgeous woman with large breasts and long flowing black hair, kind of like Shoshanna, but with a more serious, practiced look, and Markessa was a little older, in her early 30's.

Captain Jeffries assigned Lieutenant Brand to take care of Markessa while they continued to inspect the ship. The odd thing about the Andropov is that all the bodies were gone. Markessa said she had been so upset to be trapped with dead bodies that she had flushed them out into space.

One day Schriber passed by Lieutenant Brand's quarters. An ordinary person could not see or hear through a door, but Schriber could do both. He paused and watched in infra-red as the heat signatures of two people were having sex could be seen. It was Schriber's impression that Lieutenant Brand was on top, thrusting into a woman who was presumably the rescued passenger, Markessa Jinton.

Lieutenant Brand was married to a large breasted blonde woman named Marissa and he had two children back on Earth. Schriber knew that men were sometimes unfaithful to their spouses, but Brand had just met Markessa the day before.

And the really unusual thing were the words that he could hear coming from Brand's quarters.

"You love to be controlled," said Markessa.

"I love to be controlled," Tom gasped.

"You want your rider to control your mind," said Markessa. "Say it, Tom, say it!"

"I... I want my rider to control my mind," said Tom. "Aaaaah!"

"That's right, that's a good boy. Every time you obey, the pleasure will only increase."

Schriber couldn't make any sense of this. Was this some kind of sex game? He knew that some humans enjoyed dominating their partner, or being dominated by their partners, but this didn't sound quite like that. And they mentioned something called a rider. What was that?

Schriber's curiosity only grew stronger the next day. What he expected was that Lieutenant Brand would continue his liaison with their unexpected passenger. Instead, he saw Brand entering the quarters of his immediate superior, Lieutenant Commander Sarah Woolsey. Very soon he could hear the sound of lovemaking coming from her quarters.

In the short time Schriber had been on the Excaliber, he had never seen Brand show any sign of affection for Woolsey, or her for him. And yet now, a day after Brand had copulated with Markessa Jinton, he was suddenly doing the same with his superior officer. It didn't make sense, and Schriber's orderly mind wanted things to make sense.

He brought his concerns to Miranda, thinking that she could make sense of them. She listened carefully, but her reaction was not as expected. "So... you've been spying on the crew, and watching them get familiar with each other, right? My first question would be, why are you doing that?" She rubbed her body against him like a cat.

By now Schriber knew this was a classic trap; if he responded sexually to Miranda's advances, she would act surprised and offended. So he stayed on topic. "Is it normal for a Survey Service officer to have sex with a new passenger, and then with his superior officer a day later?"

"Normal?" Miranda asked, rubbing her back against his chest. "It's hard to say. Things are kind of relaxed on the Excaliber, in case you hadn't noticed." She frowned as Schriber failed to respond to her advance.

"One more question, for now," said Schriber. "Can you tell me what a rider is?"

Miranda looked confused. "Someone who rides?"

********

Miranda was right, the Excaliber was kind of a relaxed ship. And with each passing day, it became more and more so. Schriber watched again and again as crewmen and officers who had never before shown an inkling of affection for each other were seen kissing and snuggling in public areas of the ship. It never seemed to last very long, as they would usually walk hand in hand back to their quarters.

Schriber wondered if they were taking a narcotic. His olfactory senses detected an odor in the air, though he couldn't concretely identify it. But the odor was strongest in situations where one crewmember was seducing another. As he walked by the crew quarters Schriber could see, in infrared mode, more and more of the crew having sexual intercourse. And they all seemed to be saying the same things as they mated with each other.

"I want to be controlled."

"I want my mind taken over."

"I want to be used to fertilize eggs and expand the Hive."

The Hive. This was a word that Schriber heard more and more through closed quarters doors. He didn't know what it meant. Was it perhaps a metaphor for some aspect of the copulation process? Humans often invented new words to describe a very old activity, but in this case Schriber didn't know what Hive referred to.

He again tried to raise his concerns with Miranda, to little success. "My, you do seem to be having an eagle eye on the crew," said Miranda, running a hand over her blue miniskirt. "Do you perhaps have some needs that aren't being met, Norman?"

By now Schriber knew the game that was being played, and saw no purpose in playing it. He communicated again by interspace relay with Doctor Dickins.

"So you're telling me large numbers of crewmembers are having sex with each other," said Susan.

"Yes," said Schriber. "Is that normal?"

Susan sighed, causing her heavy breasts to momentarily shift inside her breast control collar. "I don't know. I've never been in the Survey Service. My assumption would be no, but... anything is possible. Maybe on long deep space missions discipline breaks down, even on a Survey Service ship. That's one of the things we put you there to find out, to discover what it's really like to be in the Survey Service and whether an Erobot can perform the same function."

Schriber nodded. "One last thing, Doctor. Does the word Hive mean anything to you?"

"Hive? Hive?" Susan frowned. "In what context?"

"People saying they want to fertilize and expand the Hive."

Susan grinned. "It sounds like sexual humor, Schriber. Keep me informed."

********

The crew started to change before Schriber's robotic eyes. Crewmembers started to become more blank, more monotone, like the Erobots had been when they first had been activated. Daniel noticed this happening to crewmembers who had recently had sex, and it was spreading rapidly. Crewman Gonzalez had sex with Crewman Ramirez who had sex with Ensign Black who had sex with Lieutenant Calley and now all of them were acting woodenly.

And then one day Schriber was sitting at his trainee's post on the bridge when he noticed that some of the internal sensors were offline, notably in engineering. He mentioned as much to Miranda, who was the senior ship's systems officer.

"Yes, I saw in the last watch's log they're having trouble with that," said Miranda. "I'm sure they'll get it sorted out soon."

"The problem could be with the main Johnson tube, the one you showed me last week. All the circuits pass through there. Would you mind if I had a look?"

"Not at all," Miranda said, stretching her arms and thrusting out her large breasts as she winked knowingly at him.

Schriber went to the main Johnson tube and climbed into it. He checked the internal sensor circuitry one by one. Sure enough, the one leading to engineering was not functional. But it was not malfunctioning. It had simply been deactivated. Schriber saw the loose wire, and reconnected it.

Immediately an image of engineering appeared on the tiny holoscreen in the Johnson Tube. There were a close to a dozen crewmembers in engineering.

And all of them were nude.

It was some kind of orgy. Men and women were having sex with each other. But the truly astonishing thing was on their backs.

Each crewmember had a pulsating object on their back. It looked like a pancake, but it was obviously organic.

Schriber watched with fascination as the creatures pulsated on their back as they had intercourse.

"You want to be controlled by the Hive," said Lieutenant Marty Handler.

"I want to be controlled by the Hive," said Ensign Sonya Watts, her dark black breasts bouncing up and down as she rode on Marty's penis, the thing on her back pulsating with every thrust.

They were all saying variations of the same thing. Others were making sounds.

"Momomomomomom," said Crewman Wilson, as he plowed into Crewman's Bair's vagina.

"Momomomomom. Mamoomisham! Momomomomom!" said Crewman Bair.

And then there Chief Engineer Benecia Garcia. She was sitting on the floor, cross legged, with one of those creatures on her back while two crewmen attended her.

And Chief Engineer Garcia looked very, very pregnant.

Schriber reflected on the fact that he hadn't seen the Chief in several days, but when he had, her stomach had been perfectly flat. How could she have gotten pregnant so rapidly?

"No... no..., please, don't....."

Schriber turned his gaze to one corner of engineering where Crewman Greg Devine was plunging in and out of Crewman Jenny Meltzer's vagina. Jenny was the one who was pleading. "Please, please don't put one of those things on me, I'll do anything you say, please!"

"I know you will," said Greg. "Ooooh!"

"What's happening?" said Jenny.

"My rider is splitting," said Greg, as he continued to pound her pussy. "I am making a new master, just for you."

As Schriber watched, the pancake like creature on Greg's back divided down the middle, and split into two. Then the lesser half started to crawl down Greg's arm, towards Jenny.

"No... no...."

"Relax and enjoy it," Greg said, with an evil smile.

The pancake like creature jumped onto Jenny's back and she stiffened. "It's in my mind! I feel it in my mind!"

Greg continued to pole in and out of her. As he did, Jenny's features softened.

"Oooooh," said Jenny.

"Feels good?"

"Yeah," Jenny grinned. "Really good."

"What is your purpose?"

"To incubate eggs and expand the Hive," said Jenny.

Schriber had seen enough.

*********

"Really, Schriber? A full blown orgy in engineering? And you say the Chief Engineer was pregnant?"

"Heavily so, Doctor Dickins," said Schriber.

Susan made a face. "That doesn't seem possible."

"My sensors do not lie, Doctor Dickins."

"I'm not saying they do, Schriber," said Susan. This was one of the reasons Schriber had been sent into space. To see if the effects of extraplanetary radiation or ship's systems would have any adverse effect on the Erobots. Right now it sounded like Scriber was malfunctioning, not correctly interpreting what he saw. It was a danger Susan had warned Doctor Malthus about; if Schriber malfunctioned during the mission, there would be no easy way to recall him.

"What do you wish me to do, Doctor?"

"Continue to observe," said Susan.

"Only observe?"

"Only observe," said Susan firmly. "Take no action unless I instruct you otherwise. Understood?"

"Understood," said Schriber.

After the holoscreen went dark Schriber tried to make sense of what he had seen. All those people having sex didn't comport with what he expected from Survey Service officers and crewmen. And then there had been the creatures on their backs. Riders, someone had called them. Where did they fit in?

They were having sex when they wore them; therefore, riders were probably some kind of sexual aid. And probably harmless, since Doctor Dickins didn't seem alarmed by his report. He should continue to observe, and nothing more.

********

Now that he knew what he was looking for, Schriber could see riders on the backs of the crew. Using heat sensors, he could make out the round shapes on their backs under their uniforms. These riders generated more heat than the human body did in that area and were easy to detect. By Schriber's rough estimate more than half the crew now had riders.

And yet when they were in uniform, they did not act sexually aroused. If anything, they acted more subdued than before. Perhaps these riders were very conditional based sexual aids, he theorized, arousing crewmembers when they desired sex but suppressing their desire otherwise.

And then Schriber noticed something he found impossible to ignore.

Commander Alice Houseman, the first officer of the Excaliber, was having sex with Captain Matt Jeffries.

When Schriber passed by the Captain's quarters he knew what was happening. He could see the outlines of Commander Houseman, riding up and down on Captain Jeffries's penis. He could even see the outline of the rider splitting down the middle on her back.

"You are simply going to love this," Alice promised him.

"No... oh no," the Captain said, but his protests were feeble.

As Schriber watched, the newborn rider made its way down her arm onto the Captain's back. In moments the Captain had a new purpose in life, to fertilize eggs and expand the Hive, which Schriber now knew was a euphemism for sex.

Still, it trouble Schriber that the Captain had broken discipline in such a major way by having sex with his first officer. Both had families back on Earth. It was one thing for a junior crewman or even a junior officer to fraternize improperly, but Schriber found it hard to believe that a Captain of a starship would do it too.

He brought his concerns to Miranda Hartman, mainly because there was no one else he could bring it to.

"The Captain and Alice? Really?" She folded her arms under her breasts. "And how do you know that?"

Schriber couldn't explain how he could see and hear through doors. "Just trust me, I do."

Miranda frowned and thrust her breasts out at him. "It sounds like a really wild story, Norm," she said. "But all right. I'll get to the bottom of this. Alice is a good friend. If there's any truth to it, I'll find out tomorrow."

Something troubled Schriber about Miranda's plans, but his error checking subroutine couldn't clearly identify what it was.

********

And then the next day when Schriber passed by the Captain's quarters, he saw the heat signatures of the Captain having sex again. But this time, he wasn't having sex with the First Officer.

"You want to be controlled," said Captain Jeffries.

"I want to be controlled," came Miranda's voice.

"You want to seduce men and bring them into the Hive."

"I want to seduce men and bring them into the Hive," Miranda repeated.

It seems that Miranda had now taken one of these mysterious sexual aids called a rider.

*********

Schriber was in the engineering catwalk on the upper level, discretely watching the scene in Engineering below.

Chief Engineer Benecia Garcia was nude once again. Crewman Jacklyn Smith held her hand and encouraged. "Push, Benny, push!"

Garcia gasped her body coated with a sheen of sweat, as something started to emerge from her vagina. "Something" was the best word Schriber had for it because he didn't recognize it. It was a head, but not the head of a human baby. The closest thing to it in Schriber's database was the head of a snake, a bright yellow snake.

The head hissed and looked around engineering, taking in its surrounding.

"That's right, keep pushing Benny!" said Crewman Smith.

Garcia cried out, and then something else emerged from her vagina.

A second yellow head.

Miranda suddenly appeared at Schriber's side.