Cybercock Ch. 01

The box was plain white plastic except for a shipping label embedded beneath a sheet of clear plastic on the top at one corner. The address was correct, but the name of the receiver was a B. Rosenberg. Stacy searched the sky for the delivery drone that had dropped it on her balcony, but it was long gone. Sighing, she bent to examine the box. The shipper's name was listed, Funtronics Inc., with an address in Tokyo, Japan. Stacy picked up the box. It had some heft to it, but didn't rattle when she turned it over, looking for some indication of what it contained. She checked each side, including the bottom, but it was maddeningly blank except for that one shipping label.

Sighing again, this time in annoyance, Stacy tucked the box under her arm and went back inside. With a gesture, she called up the console on her personal rig. The heads-up display in her contact lenses snapped into view, with glowing icons and a virtual keyboard hovering in space in front of her. She reached towards the phantom keyboard and an area of reduced transparency in the shape of a rectangle marked a virtual screen in front of her. She typed "Funtronics Inc." and looked at the "Search" icon.

Multiple hits appeared with varying thresholds of relevance. She focused on the top result and the screen switched to the company's website. It looked like some kind of health product, based on the pictures of smiling Japanese men and women wearing lab coats. The text was a jumble of kanji and katakana characters, but after a few seconds, the translation software rendered it in English. Stacy focused on the "Contact Us" link and various contact information appeared.

"Place a call," she said, while looking at the phone number.

"Connecting," a neutral voice said in her ears, generated by the pair of tiny implants in her ear canals. The previous virtual screen withdrew to a corner of her vision and a new one appeared as a high-pitched female voice spoke in accented English. "Thank you for calling Funtronics Incorporated. How may I help you?"

"I was shipped a package from you by mistake," Stacy said.

"Oh, I am so sorry to hear that, ma'am," the woman responded. "Do you have an order number?"

"No, I didn't order anything," Stacy said, realizing that she was dealing with an automated voice system. "Can I speak to a real person?"

"I am so very sorry that I cannot help you, ma'am . . ."

"I'll bet you are," Stacy said under her breath.

"If you will leave your name and contact information, a representative will contact you during our normal business hours."

Stacy glanced at the clock in the upper right of her field of vision. She had no idea what normal business hours would be in Japan, and if she spent any more time on this, she was going to be late for work. "Screw it, uh, never mind. I'll call back."

"That is fine, ma'am. Please accept my apology once again f-"

Stacy cut the connection as she ran down the stairs and out the front door of her apartment.

Vicki had screwed her over again. The architect for the project had altered the floor plan for the McCowen Group building, adding a climate-controlled rooftop patio and moving the building's batteries and fuel cells from the top floor to the basement. Somehow it had never occurred to Vicki, the project manager, that this would completely disrupt Stacy's design for the building's power generation needs. The current design had become completely unworkable. Vicki had known about the change for over a week, but she had waited until the day before Stacy was to submit the final draft of her plan.

Stacy synched her copy of the building plans and made a disgusted noise. The sprawling patio area was filled with solar panels, some of them now sprouting from benches and tables. They would all have to be moved, maybe to tighter clusters away from the human-trafficked areas.

"You're talking to yourself again," a female voice said.

Stacy had been mumbling as she worked, she realized. She glanced at the entrance to her cubicle where a brunette in a fashionable dress suit stood. Elizabeth Campbell worked in IT, and they had met on Stacy's first day, when she had set up her workstation. "Hi, Liz. No, I'm not crazy yet. Close, but not yet."

"Oh. Is it Vicki again? Are you ever going to talk to her manager?"

Stacy shrugged. "She's untouchable, you know that." Victoria Banks was the niece of one of the board members. In all fairness, on paper she was qualified for her job, but in Stacy's opinion, she could have spent a few more years as a member of a team before being promoted to lead one.

"How about requesting a transfer to a different team?"

She had thought about it, but she liked the rest of the people she worked with and hadn't been with the company long enough to build a good network. If she got transferred, there was no guarantee that she would like wherever she ended up. She might end up designing for off-the-grid tract housing. "I'll think about it," she said.

"Okay, gotta go. Just stopped in to say 'hi'. See ya'."

Stacy worked all morning, through lunch, and well past the end of the work day to relocate the solar panels. She ended up having to replace some of the glass on the building's south face with relatively more expensive transparent panels, but still came up within budget. Routing power down to the basement had been simple by comparison. She added a conduit near the building's center and let the software figure out the best way to route all of the power cables to it. It was a few minutes to ten when she finally shut down the design software and stood up from her desk with a triumphant, "Yes!"

The disembodied voice of her personal assistant spoke into her ears. "Stacy, you have two voice messages from Timothy Cabot. Would you like to hear them now?"

"Oh, shit," she said. She had ordered the PA to hold all calls until she was done. "Don't bother. Just call Tim."

Tim picked up on the first ring. It was voice only. "Stacy, there you are." He sounded tired.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I had to stay late to work on something and I completely forgot. Did you make it there okay?" He had flown out last night, and would have arrived in Mumbai late this afternoon.

"Yeah, I called you from the airport, and again when I got to the hotel." He didn't sound angry, which made Stacy feel guilty. If he had forgotten about her, she couldn't imagine letting him off so easily. "I was about to get some sleep, but I'd like to talk."

"Me too," she said. She had been dating Tim for six months now. They both had busy careers and mostly saw each other on the weekends. The thought of moving in together had kept cropping up in her mind but she quickly dismissed it each time. Somehow, having him on the other side of the world made her want to see him, even though, were this a normal week, she would go for days more without seeing him in person. "Can I get video?"

"Hang on, let me place a camera."

Stacy sat down and tapped her workstation camera with her rig to give him a visual of her. Tim's image appeared in her field of vision with slight transparency. He was lying in bed on his side with the soft glow of lamps illuminating his face. A day of stubble covered his normally clean-shaven face. Bright daylight peaked through around the edges of a heavy curtain behind him. "I miss you already," she said, laughing at herself.

"I miss you, too," he said. "I'll get back the end of next week. Maybe you can take some time off to come meet me at the airport?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Probably, she thought grimly, if she didn't have to deal with another screw-up like today. They talked for a few minutes more until Tim put a hand over his mouth to cover a huge yawn.

"Oh, I should let you get some rest," Stacy said. "It's morning there, isn't it?"

"Yeah, heading toward noon. I've got to head in tomorrow to start negotiations. Why don't you call me Friday night, your Friday night, around eight? It will be Saturday morning here for me."

That was two days off. Again, Stacy was surprised by how much that distressed her. Things had been going well with Tim, but it had always been an unspoken agreement that their relationship came second to their careers. "Uh, yeah, sure," she said, "Friday."

He yawned again, nodding. "Okay, I'll look forward to it. Love you, babe."

"I love you, Tim."

The image vanished as the connection dropped. Stacy sat for a moment staring at the empty space. With a snort of disgust at herself, she shook off the loneliness and gathered her things to go.

Back at the apartment, she headed straight for the shower, never even glancing at the delivery box still sitting on her kitchen table. She just wanted to put this day behind her and see what tomorrow had in store.

The next morning, the box was waiting for her when she went to sit down, plate of eggs and coffee mug in hand. She had left it sitting at the place where Tim usually ate when she had him over. "Well, hello there," she said drily. "I guess I forgot all about you." She called up her PA. "What time is it right now in Japan?"

"It is 8:30 PM," her PA answered.

She did the calculation in her head. "So, fourteen hours ahead?"

"That is correct."

So, if she got home by six, their office ought to be just opening up for the day. Perfect. "Set a reminder for me to call Funtronics when I get home," she said.

An image of her calendar appeared with the new appointment. "Reminder set."

At the office, Stacy checked her redesign over one more time before submitting it for final approval. She got a report back a few minutes later confirming that the design was within spec and within budget. Once each element of the design had passed review and inspection, the assembly team would begin breaking ground on the structure in Algeria. First, machines would erect the support frames from steel reinforced with carbon nanostructures. Then, another set of robots would additively construct the walls and floors from high-strength polymers, depositing it a few millimeters at a time, like dozens of spiders coordinating to build a massive, solid web within the structure. More specialized structures like elevators and Stacy's solar panels would be brought in pre-assembled, with a final wave of bots to apply the finishing touches. The sprawling five-story building would be built from start to finish in under a month.

Her firm specialized in designing buildings that were self-contained, self-sufficient, and fault-tolerant. The building they had been working on processed waste water in addition to being able to generate its own power. While such capabilities were overkill for most of the developed world, they were critical when your building was ten miles or more from the nearest road. The McCowen group, whose company motto was "Terraforming Earth" had chosen a spot deep in the Sahara desert as the site for their base of operations. Their desalination plant in the Mediterranean was operational as of last week, and 'bots were already constructing the hundred miles or so of pipeline that would carry fresh water into the desert interior of Algeria.

It was exhilarating, cutting-edge work, and Stacy was happy to be a part of it and see it all come to fruition. On the other hand, there was a bit of a letdown as the months of data collection, collaboration and design work came to a close. The next project was months away from being finished, and she had a hard time getting excited about it. She would push on regardless, but she always looked forward to the point where things started to come together and she would just feel pulled along toward completion.

She left work at five this time and picked up Chinese take-out on the way home, treating herself after yesterday's near-debacle. She had just taken her first bite of a piece of sweet and sour chicken when the reminder she had set that morning flashed on the corner of her vision. "Nope," she said to the PA, waving her chopsticks in the air. "Dinner first. Remind me again after."

The reminder disappeared and didn't come back until after she had finished dinner and disposed of the little paper boxes. She sat down at the table again and took a deep breath. "Alright, place the call," she said.

She navigated the same, cheery, high-pitched virtual operator as before, who reluctantly patched her through to a human being. The option for video was up, so she selected it. The upper body of a middle-aged Japanese man appeared before her. "Hello," he said in accented English. "I am Okura Masoyoshi. How may I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Stacy Weathers. I received a package from your company by mistake. It was addressed to a B. Rosenberg."

"Ah," he said, "my deepest apologies, Miss Weathers." He dipped his head almost out of sight of the camera. "I will do my best to rectify the situation. Do you have the package still?"

"Yes, of course," Stacy said. She reached across the table to retrieve it. "Right here, see? I just want to make sure that B. Rosenberg gets what he or she ordered."

"Could I ask you to tilt it in my direction so I may scan the label?"

Stacy did as he asked and he began to type at a keyboard. "Oh, yes. We heard from Mr. Rosenberg yesterday when he did not receive it. We were not able to trace the actual whereabouts of his package, so we ordered up a replacement to be manufactured and delivered immediately. Again, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this mistake has caused you." He bowed again.

"No, that's okay, really," she said, feeling embarrassed for him. "So is there anything I should do to return this box?"

The man looked pained. After a moment he said, "I am sorry to ask this of you, Miss Weathers, but shipping the item back would only result in greater financial loss for my firm and inconvenience for you. Would you, perhaps, be willing to dispose of it for us? I will transfer a token payment to your public account."

"You mean it costs less to make a new one than to ship it back?" she asked, surprised.

He looked uncomfortable. "It is not that, Miss. It is just that this item, once it has left the manufacturing facility, cannot be resold. It is a very personal item."

The turn of phrase struck Stacy as odd, but she thought that it must be some idiom that didn't translate well. "Okay, I understand. I can take care of it, no problem."

"Thank you, Miss Weathers." He bowed again. "Is there any other way that I can help you today?"

"No, that's all, really. Thank you for making it so easy."

"You are . . . too kind," he said. "I wish you a good evening."

"Thanks," she said. "Bye."

Stacy picked up the box and started for the trash, but curiosity immediately began to set in. He had said that it was a personal item. Just what did that mean? And just what kind of product would a company called Funtronics sell?

Feeling a little guilty, she returned to the table and set the box down. Van der Waals forces held the flaps of the box down tight. She peeled the flexible plastic from one corner, and it separated from the flap beneath like very fine Velcro.

The packing material inside was molded plastic that exactly fit the interior dimensions of the box. She lifted the top piece off and stared at the contents. An involuntary giggle burst out of her. It was a good seven inches long, a little on the thick side, and flesh colored, with a flared base. The detail really was exquisite. It was circumcised, the large, textured glans a dark pink. It curved up slightly just below the head, with a hint of veins to texture the shaft.

Stacy was hesitant to touch the thing. She owned a few sex toys, but nothing that looked so realistic. Instead, she went for what looked like an additional compartment. It contained a rather skimpy-looking garment, like a loin cloth with straps, and what looked like a pair of pills in a foil and plastic wrapper. Another compartment held a wireless charging device. A data stream notice flashed across her display, followed by the text, "Introduction to Funtronics Cybercock Model A, USA English".

Stacy accepted the download and called it up. There was a text manual and an instructional video, so she selected that. A young, attractive Japanese woman appeared. She spoke perfect English, only slightly accented. "We of Funtronics thank you for your purchase. We hope that our product brings you many years of pleasure." She held up a duplicate of the dildo in the package. "Included in your kit is the Cybercock Model A device. This product is made from patented Realskin, the most lifelike non-organic material you will find." The shot cut to an extreme closeup as the woman ran her manicured hands over the thing, and the surface actually moved and stretched just like real skin would. "When in use, the Cybercock will gently warm to body temperature."

The shot resumed its prior distance as the woman set the toy down and picked up the article of clothing. "Also included is a dual harness with fully adjustable straps. The Cybercock can be used in place of a natural penis that has been lost due to injury." An image appeared next to her, a cel-shaded lower torso and hips with the harness around them. The dildo was affixed to the harness at a kind of pocket where a male penis would have been.

The woman continued to speak as the image changed again. "It can also be used when a male possesses an intact penis that is non-erectile." Now, a flaccid penis and testes could be seen occupying the lower hole of the harness while the dildo stood up proudly from the upper pocket. "The size and shape of the Cybercock Model A is designed for maximum pleasure for your partner and is fully compatible with the physiology of close to 90% of males and females when used for penetrative sex. Please note that Funtronics also produces the Cybercock Model AS, engineered especially for use with a partner possessing a vagina or anus substantially below the average size."

Stacy watched the presentation in silent fascination. Despite the clinical nature of the images and description, she was starting to get aroused as the woman cradled and caressed the thing lovingly in her hands.

Next, the woman in the video picked up the pill packets. "To function properly, you will need to ingest a nano-capsule to establish the feedback interface between your body and the Cybercock. After ingestion, wait thirty to forty-five minutes for the nano to install. The Cybercock will broadcast a ready signal when they have completed installation. Please note that a single dose of nano will function at peak efficiency for about eighteen months. Your Cybercock will alert you when it is time to renew the dose and will trigger a flush of the existing nano on your command. Please be aware that the Cybercock nano-interface is currently being evaluated by the FDA, but it is not at this time regulated under US law. Rest assured, though, that our product violates no current product safety laws and has undergone rigorous and extensive testing."

The woman smiled broadly. "We at Funtronics once again thank you for your purchase. If you experience any difficulties with your product, please contact us through any of the channels listed in this manual and we will do our best to make sure you are happy. Please talk to your doctor before using if you have heart disease or a neurological disorder. Good luck, and happy fucking!"

Stacy laughed as the woman faded out. "Wow, just wow," she said, shaking her head. She had quite the story to tell to her coworkers. Chuckling again, she closed up the box.

While she was tidying up the kitchen, a message, text only, came in from Tim. "Hi. First meeting went well. Might have a new client, but I won't know for sure until we meet again Monday. Met someone at the hotel today who knows the city. She's showing me some of the sights tomorrow. Love you. Miss you."

Stacy's frowned at the message for a moment for dismissing it. Was she feeling possessive? Yes, she decided. Yes, I am. She and Tim had agreed to an open relationship from the beginning, so it was entirely possible that he and this mystery woman would end up in bed together. That hadn't bothered her when he had met up with an ex a few months ago. Tim had actually wanted details when she hooked up with a guy from a Craigslist ad shortly after they started dating. Hearing about other guys having sex with her seemed to turn him on like nothing else. That didn't seem to work the same way for her, but she had never thought it was a big deal.