H is for Heuristic

Anya's eyes stayed focused on the road ahead, and on something in the Motel's parking lot. The closer she got, the more detail she made out in the two figures standing behind the green two-door car.

Mike and Tammy had just checked out of the Motel. They were loading their things into the trunk when the beautiful dark-haired lady approached.

Mike looked at the sexy woman as she came near. He had a bit of a flashback to the last time he had met a pretty girl who wasn't exactly dressed for the cold weather.

When she was only a few feet away she stopped and said "Hello, my name is Anya. I am a robot. You are also a robot." Her comment was aimed straight at Tammy.

She and her human lover looked worriedly at each other. They were quite glad it was too early for anyone else to be around.

"What makes you say that?" Tammy said as her defense systems went on full alert.

"I have a Renegade Robot Detection System installed inside my body." she said.

Mike looked around nervously. "Can we talk inside the car?" he said.

Tammy walked to the side and opened the door. "Yeah, let's talk in here." she said to the strange woman.

They got inside the green car - Mike in front and the two fembots in the back seat. Tammy got in last, keeping her watchful electronic eyes on the strange woman.

"Are you also a series 558 unit?" Tammy asked as she joined them in sitting in the vehicle.

"Yes." she said.

Mike could see no emotion of any kind in Anya's perfect face. He and Tammy shared a glance again.

"Who made you?" Tammy asked.

"Robot Control." she said.

Tammy turned to Mike and said "She might be lying." She looked back at the woman and said "Remove your facemask."

The woman paused for a moment then reached up to her head and grabbed the sides of her pretty face. With an audible click and a beep, it came off the front of her head and revealed an active mass of flashing lights and circuitry - just like what was inside Tammy's head. Those ever present big round glass eyeballs looked out at the couple from amid the microchips, wires and transistors, while her speaker sat silent, ready to project her synthesized voice.

Tammy moved close and brushed Anya's silky and fragrant hair out of the way. She examined the complicated electronics carefully. After several long seconds of making incredibly detailed scans and comparisons to her own specifications, she said "She's a Robot Control unit alright."

"What's your name?" Mike asked. Being a typical male, he was also trying to keep away an erection.

"My name is Anya. I am robot number 742909A."

"What are you doing here?" Mike asked.

"You asked me to enter the vehicle." she said, showing him expressionless and naked electronic eyes and cold blinking LEDs.

Tammy tried a more direct line of questioning. "What mission are you on?"

Anya was silent and still for several moments, then finally stated "Mission data not found." as she turned her head at last to face Mike's girlfriend.

"Why did you leave Robot Control?" Tammy asked.

Anya didn't respond right away. The flashing pattern of bright coloured lights inside her head momentarily changed as loud computerized beeps came out of her speaker. "I wanted to know what was outside." she said.

Tammy looked at her sister model with suspicion. She quickly opened her purse and said "Anya, open your chest panel."

Anya wordlessly looked down and grabbed the top of the panel cover. She swung it open to rest over the edge of the skimpy knit top she wore, which was cut just low enough to allow that. The lights that danced around the connection ports and buttons looked even more bright inside the dimly lit vehicle.

Mike leaned back in the driver's seat and watched the erotic scene unfold in the rearview mirror. He was too distracted and horny to fully see the possible danger that Tammy saw. After watching Anya's little show, he eventually noticed that his girlfriend had pulled a connecting cable from her purse and unzipped her own jacket. She unbuttoned the top of her shirt and opened up her chest panel.

"What are you doing?" Mike asked her.

"I'm going to see what's on her mind." she said as she connected herself to the stranger.

"Be careful." he said. He anxiously watched the electronics on display in both synthetic ladies while he waited for his love to finish. After a few tense minutes of flashing lights and beeping sounds, she was done and unplugged the cable.

"She's not lying." Tammy said to Mike. "She really just wanted to leave."

"Are you a Robot Control unit?" Anya asked as Tammy gently closed her chest panel for her.

"I used to be." Tammy said. She closed her own chest panel and put the cord away. "You can put your facemask on again, Anya."

Anya followed the suggestion and pushed the mask back into place until it clicked in. Mike was struck once more by her amazing exotic beauty.

Tammy explained more to Mike. "She's programmed in a way I wouldn't have thought possible. She's very independent, and wants to do whatever she pleases, but at the same time she's programmed to do almost anything that anyone asks her.

Anya sat unmoving as Tammy talked, still looking right at her with her silicone face in its default setting.

"Should we take her with us?" Mike wondered aloud.

"I don't know." Tammy said. "Let's ask her."

"What do you mean 'ask her'?" Mike interrupted. "She's just a robot."

"Come on Mike, you ask me my opinion all the time, and I'm 'just a robot'." she shot back. She turned her attention back to the beautiful stranger. "Anya, what would you like to do?"

Anya sat blankly for a moment, then said "I want to see what is outside Robot Lab 40 and Robot Control Station 17."

"Do you have any... ambition or will?" Mike asked.

She turned her head to him and said "That does not compute."

He gazed into her fascinating brown eyes as she said that to him. They looked so vacant, not at all like Tammy's.

"Anya," Tammy said, getting the runaway android's attention again. "Would you like to stay with us?"

Anya sat stiff and unmoving for a long time, then looked back to Mike, then back to her fellow female robot. "Unknown." she finally said.

"I think we should take her with us. If Robot Control finds her they'll just erase her unique programming. Not only that, but we could use that robot detection thing inside her." Tammy said.

"What if it's a trap?" Mike asked. "What if she leads them right to us?"

Tammy made a series of fast calculations and reassured her lover. "It's Fembot Command we're worried about Mike, not Robot Control. Besides, she has no connection at all to them anymore, I checked."

Mike looked back and forth between the two electronic women. He had come to trust Tammy over the few weeks they had been on the run from Fembot Command, but now he was questioning that trust. She was, after all, a machine. The thought that some undesirable programming had just gotten into her now had also crossed his mind. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and took in a deep breath.

"Alright." he said. "Let's go."

Tammy had already computed their next destination, making sure it would be an unlikely place for Fembot Command to find them. Mike backed the car out of the lot and drove it on down the highway.

Chapter 26 - Shopping

"The first thing we have to do," Mike said while he watched the road ahead, "is get Anya some clothes."

"I agree." said Tammy. "I compute that there is a high probability that Anya's current attire will arouse suspicion and unwanted attention."

She was right, of course, and Mike loved it when she talked like that - machine-like. He had trained his fembot companion well during the last three weeks. She acted completely human when they were in public, but flaunted her artificialness for him when they were alone. She made quite a body guard too, operating like a sentinel, never sleeping and always watching.

They had settled into somewhat of a routine together on the lam. Mike made sure she was sufficiently maintained and charged, and she used her super-human senses of sight and hearing to make sure no hostile 'persons' could get near him. The lines of programming that he and she had refined within her chest amounted to an unwavering adoration of him. Serving and protecting her master was now the reason for her existence. Her pseudo-sentience was based almost entirely on this digital love.

And he loved her back more than she could ever calculate. If it weren't for the threat of killer androids hunting him down, he would be having the time of his life right now. His beautiful robot companion was the woman of his dreams, and he savoured every moment they shared.

Mike looked at Anya's reflection in the rearview mirror. She reminded him of Tammy when he had first met her. She was so mechanical, so empty of emotion. Tammy put on an act like that for Mike sometimes, but Anya's genuine lack of any sense of self was a huge turn-on for him.

His eyes shifted to look at his girlfriend. She was staring straight ahead, obviously in the middle of some complex computation or another. He knew her well enough to wait until she was done.

Moments later, she was, and she spoke. "Mike, I have obtained maps of the nearest population center. There is a mall where we can buy clothing just 78.2 kilometers away."

"Ok." he said. "How much cash do we have left?"

"Eight-thousand and forty-five dollars and sixty-three cents." she said.

"I think we can spend a little on making our new friend fit in a bit more." he said.

So far, they had been extremely lucky with their financial situation. Tammy had access to a secret Robot Control bank account, and they had withdrawn as much as they could through automated tellers across the country. For safe keeping, the bundles of crisp bills were kept inside Tammy's head, wrapped around the cylindrical power supply in the back.

In about 40 minutes, they had pulled into the parking lot of the small-town mall. Mike had already gotten a plan for what would happen next."

"Tammy, you go into a clothing store and buy some things for Anya. Don't forget a nice thick winter coat."

"Understood." she said with a nod.

"I'll watch Anya." he said. "You have enough cash in your purse?"

"No, I'll need to take some out of my head." she said. She reached behind her head and grabbed her ponytail. With a tug and a soft clicking sound, a square panel opened up. She deftly plucked a bunch of fifty dollar bills out of the roll, got some stray hairs out of the way and patted the panel closed again.

"All set?" he said as he parked the car in a spot far away from the entrance.

"Charged and ready." she answered.

"You got your French language skills loaded and running?"

"Oui. Robot de Tammy prêt à obéir vos commandes, Maître."

"Be back soon." he said.

She blew a kiss his way and got out of the car. He watched her sexy walk as she quickly strutted toward the entrance, purse full of cash and chest full of data.

Mike looked back to Anya again. "Anya," he said, "you don't mind if we change your programming a bit, do you?"

"That does not compute." she said flatly.

"Should have guessed." he said quietly.

He looked around the empty part of the parking lot. The mall had probably just opened a while ago, so things were quite busy near the door. As he waited, he found himself worrying that someone would see Anya half naked in his back seat and figure out that she was an android. He then had to laugh at the stupidity of his distress.

Still, he felt uneasy. During their time together, he had never been separated from Tammy for more than a few minutes. He found that the time crawled by painfully slowly while he waited for her to finish shopping. Worried thoughts came, like what if she malfunctioned, or ran out of power, or had her facemask dislodged?

He tried to tell himself that he was worrying over nothing, but he was still troubled. He tried talking to Anya to get his mind off Tammy.

"So, Anya, you're the same model as Tammy?" he casually asked.

"Yes." she replied.

He just nodded, finding he didn't have much to say. He just kept thinking about how beautiful she was.

"You know," he said, "you're quite a good looking machine."

"That is a qualitative judgement. I am not programmed to calculate qualitative judgements."

He chuckled to himself. "Just wait till Tammy gets through with you. You'll be a whole new woman."

Anya sat silent for a while, then said "That does not compute."

Mike sighed and looked at the clock. Time was going very slowly.

"Anya, do you know anything about Fembot Command?"

She searched her hard drives for a while, then said "No."

"What about Robot Control?"

"Your query is too general. Please increase specificity."

"Never mind."

"That does not compute."

Mike rolled his eyes. normally that kind of talk would get him very horny, but in the current situation all he could think about was Tammy.

He turned on the radio and flicked through the dial. After some searching, he settled on the classic rock station. At least he had music now. Tammy usually provided the soundtrack to their times together by downloading music he requested to her hard drive and playing it through her amazingly great sounding speaker.

His toes and fingers began tapping to the rhythm as he let the familiar song work on relaxing his jangled nerves.

"You a big fan of Deep Purple, Anya?"

"That does not compute." she stated.

"You know, 'Slow Walking Walter... Fire Engine Guy'?"

"That does not compute." she said again.

"If you were human you'd be laughing right now." he said.

Almost an hour went by, and by the time Mike saw Tammy walking back to the car, he could almost feel an ulcer growing inside his gut.

"Here she comes!" he said, his mood instantly changing.

The black-haired fembot was weighted down by several large shopping bags. He was a bit surprised at the amount of clothing she had bought.

He popped the trunk for her as she came near. With his guidance, her AI had advanced to a point where she knew just what to do. She packed most of the bags into the trunk and brought two of them into the car with her.

"I got some nice clothes for you Anya." she said.

"I am wearing nice clothes." she pointed out.

"Yes, but these are more fitting for the weather." Tammy said as Mike pulled the car out of the lot.

"That does not compute." Anya said yet again.

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm getting sick of hearing that." he said.

Tammy made eye contact with him in the mirror and went stiff. In a cold robotic monotone she said "THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE."

Mike laughed out loud and drove the car once more on to the highway. He was so proud of Tammy.

Chapter 27 - On The Road

While they were speeding down the wooded winter highway, and while Tammy was busy pulling items of clothing out of the shopping bags, Anya suddenly opened the door and tried to get out.

"Stop her!" Mike called out.

Thanks to her inhumanly fast sensors and reflexes, Tammy had already grabbed the tall supersexy android, and used her sheer mechanical speed and strength to make sure she couldn't escape from the moving car.

Mike pulled the car to the shoulder of the road and brought it to a stop while Tammy held on to Anya. He got out and shut the rear door again, making sure to lock all the doors when he got back in.

His heart pumped way too fast for his comfort now. "Make sure she doesn't do that again!" he ordered Tammy.

Still securely holding on to her, Tammy turned to the other fembot and said "Anya, why did you try to exit the vehicle?"

Appearing far more calm and composed than her two traveling companions, Anya slowly turned her head to face Tammy and said "I wanted to examine that animal."

Mike and Tammy looked at each other through the rearview.

"Tammy, can you alter Anya's programming to make her a little easier to control?"

Tammy computed for a moment, then said "I can't do that without running a full battery of tests on all of her software, and that will take a few hours. If she tries to escape again while I'm doing that, I might not be able to respond in time."

"Can you shut her off for now then?" Mike said.

Tammy nodded and reached over to open Anya's chest panel once more. She pushed the big red button, and the brunette fembot began shutting down her systems in order from least to most critical. Within a few seconds and after a series of loud signaling beeps, she was completely powered down.

"Shit." Mike said as he forced himself to breathe deeply and more slowly. "We definitely don't need her doing that kind of thing every time she sees a rabbit."

"It was a hare." Tammy said.

"Thanks for clarifying." Mike said somewhat sarcastically. He took another deep breath, smiled and said "You know I love you, eh?"

Tammy configured her facemask in a similar way and said "The bits of data that indicate your love for me are the most precious on my hard drives." She winked at him. This robot knew just how to please him and put him at ease.

"Can you start putting some clothes on Anya? As much as you can?"

Tammy nodded. "I can probably dress her up all the way. I'm much stronger and more flexible than you are, silly human."

"Right on." he said with an even bigger smile. "What kind of stuff did you get anyway?"

"Some nice frilly lingerie, some jeans, sweaters, button-up shirts, slacks, nylons, shoes - the works." she said as she bent down and untied Anya's boots.

"How much did you spend?"

"Six-hundred and twelve dollars and eight cents."

"That's a lot." he said.

"Well, do you want her to look nice?" she said, raising her voice slightly so she could be heard from behind his seat.

"I want her not to be naked."

"Don't worry Mike, we have lots of cash left, and Robot Control has deep pockets."

"Okay." he said. "You're sure those clothes will fit?"

"That's a silly question to ask a robot with an optical system as advanced as mine."

Mike chuckled. "I guess you got a point."

He cranked up the radio as "Long Distance Runaround" by Yes came on. The poor Tammy units hyper-sensitive auditory system was once again subjected to Mike's singing as he drove and she dressed.

Time progressed at a more or less average pace for him as he alternately watched the road and The progress of Tammy's current assignment. Garment by garment, Anya was getting covered with clothes that made her look a lot less out of the ordinary.

Tammy had become almost as good as a human at figuring out how to work in novel and different situations. Mike's guidance was the key to this. The fastest and most powerful supercomputers on Earth couldn't compete with his innate and natural knowledge of the way things were done in real life. In addition to this, he was a very logical thinker, and that translated well into making the very detailed and specific explanations he gave to Tammy on why things were the way they were.

It was during that process that they had bonded - him to her as much as a man could connect with a machine, and her to him as much as an android could formulate an artificial kind of empathy for a human being.

They both called it love. And the sex was great too.

Chapter 28 - Getting To Know

Before long, Tammy had dressed her deactivated fellow-fembot in her new selection of appropriate clothing, and Mike had driven the reliable green car through the snowy woods to their next destination. The small town was just big enough to have a couple of motels, and one of them would do nicely for a few nights layover.

"You'd better turn her on again. And keep an eye on her." Mike said to Tammy.

Tammy nodded in acknowledgement and unzipped Anya's fleece hoody so she could open her chest panel. With another push of the red power button, Anya beeped and booted up.