H is for Heuristic

"I will do what you tell me to do." Heather said as Byron turned on the light and closed the door behind them.

Chapter 37 - Log In

A kind of nervousness came over Byron as he rested his hands on Heather's shoulders and looked into her eyes. It had been many years since he had been with anyone, and he wasn't sure he would be able to satisfy the sexy and pretty young lady before him.

She looked right back at him as the faint sound of romantic piano music came muffled through the closed door. Her AI had not the capacity to formulate sexual desires, let alone disappointment at their unfulfillment.

He should have known that. He was worried over nothing. As it stood, Heather was his to command. She would not refuse any sexual notion, nor would she judge any performance, however clumsy.

With the recharge cord temporarily forgotten on the floor behind them, they stood that way for a long time. Worry and anxiousness filled Byron's head while the usual and predictable series of binary instruction sets flashed inside Heather's chest. Then they kissed again. It quickly turned into a full bodily groping session on his part. Heather kept kissing, and let her plastic body be caressed by the human's touch. She had already reached the limit of her programmed knowledge, and kept her electric and mechanical systems in that aroused state.

Under her current software configuration, she had no way of knowing that she should do to Byron what he was doing to her. She just kept holding him, arms in one place, while she kissed him in the deep and wet style for which her mouth had been designed.

He let go slowly and started to undress. She just looked at him.

"Take off your clothes." he said softly.

Heather nodded and began to undress. Off came the same silk blouse that she had been wearing for days, along with the rest of her attractive business attire. They both got down to their underwear at roughly the same time. Byron couldn't resist kissing her again, and feeling her breasts through her lacy pink bra. He reached behind her and unhooked the straps. He slid the bra off her slender arms while she smiled amorously at him.

He threw the bra aside and paid some serious attention to those well constructed tits. Heather was already simulating heavy breathing, and her flawlessly shaped nipples were already hard, thanks to complicated fluid systems underneath the skin-coloured silicone.

Byron's erection grew and poked out of the fly in his shorts. He closed his eyes momentarily and enjoyed the sensation her youthful breasts provided. He imagined feeling his penis between those artificial curves, and made a note to himself to try that later.

He took off his own shorts and socks quickly, and knelt down in front of the beautiful android. He put his face close to her crotch and reached up to peel her pink cotton panties down the curves of her hips and thighs. The microchips and wires just beneath the neatly trimmed patch of artificial hair were far from his mind as he sniffed in the aroma of her amazingly real vagina.

He pulled her panties all the way down as he gave gentle kisses to the area just above her soft pink lips. The smell made hormones surge within him as the mechanical pump inside her slowly pushed the incredible juice out drop by drop.

He couldn't wait any longer. "Move those covers aside and sit down on the bed Heather." he said as he opened his eyes and looked up into hers.

She stepped out of her panties, and carried out the order while he followed and knelt down in between her legs. He took off her socks, just to see the realism of her toes, then got back to what he was doing.

His face went once again between her warm thighs, and now he licked, kissed and gently sucked on her pussy. All the while, fresh lubricant came out along with its powerful artificial pheromones. The many sensors embedded within the flowery folds of her electronic vagina sent raw data into her processors, but the data went uncalculated.

Heather was still showing much enjoyment, even though she could not compute the full extent of the data's significance. She leaned back on the bed, supported by her outstretched arms, and watched with emulated curiosity while the human stimulated her main sexual device.

Along with the airy sounds of heavy breath, her high resolution speaker generated occasional feminine moans, which had their intended effect. Byron was waiting for her to come, while his tongue tickled and played with the satisfying texture of her sensor-laden crotch.

A long time passed before he realised that she wouldn't come. But all that action had made her wet enough to enter, so he stood up and told her to lie down. He spread her legs apart for her while she aimed her beautiful robot eyes at him. With every beat of his heart it seemed, more and more blood was rushing into his dick.

He got between her legs and on top of her fast. He felt her pussy and guided his penis into it. It felt so good. He nearly came right at that moment.

"Do you know what to do Heather?" he asked.

"No." she said, still breathing heavy and now showing the accumulation of all those tiny beads of synthetic sweat on her face.

"Just do what I do." he said. "When I push forward, you push forward. When I pull back, you pull back."

She was silent and still for a moment, then said "Okay."

He started to pump slowly in and out. She didn't move at first, but the more he thrust his hard cock inside her, the more her mechanical hips responded.

The relatively blank and unchanging look on her face brought his thoughts a little too close to her electromechanical insides, so he closed his eyes and imagined her as a real woman. Again, he pumped in and out for a long time, hoping and expecting her to come. He eventually realised she wouldn't, and not long after, he released his load into her.

He stopped moving, and eventually so did she. He opened his eyes. She still looked at him with that serene look on her face. The first word that came to his mind was "machine".

He took a deep, satisfied breath and got off her. "You did pretty good for your first time." he said as he got into a comfortable position beside her.

She turned her head to face his way and said "Thanks Byron." her breathing simulation slowed back down gradually to match his own levels.

"Why don't you turn your body to face me?" he suggested.

She did so, and smiled sweetly at him. The semen he had left inside her was already dripping back out, and running down the silicone of her hips.

"Thank you for... letting me do that." he said.

"You're welcome." she said, her already flushed looking face hiding the way her facemask now blushed.

"Will you stay with me through the night?"

"Of course, Byron." she said.

He smiled back at her and then remembered something. "How do I plug that recharge cord into you?"

"Just plug it into my port and plug the other end into the wall socket." she said. She turned to lay on her front as the panel above her buns opened up for him.

He leaned over to inspect the port. He gave her buns a feel and a squeeze while he studied the connection and the indicator lights beside it. A vivid memory of her battery packs being shown to him came back as he stroked the perfect curves of her buns and her smooth thighs.

He got up and picked the cord up from the floor. He uncoiled it and plugged one end securely into heather's open panel, then walked over to the wall and plugged her in. He looked back and noticed a red light flash slowly just below a green one. He turned off the lights in the room, and let those lights inside the woman's back lead him back to the bed.

He got in and pulled the sheets over both of them. "Heather, face me again." he said.

The robot rolled on to her side as he moved close under the covers and in the dark.

"I'm going to try to write some sex programming for you." he said.

"Fembot command already has sex programming. If you want, Natasha can load it into me tomorrow." she said.

"Oh." he said. He sorely wished he could be with her under different circumstances.

"Besides, we need you to focus on Project H." she added.

Byron didn't say anything more. He found her hand with both of his and held it as the distant piano music came to a soft end. She put her other hand on top and stayed with him as he drifted into sleep.

Chapter 38 - Break

In the days that followed, Byron and Heather made love often. He had gotten the robot reprogrammed for sex, and they became adventurous in the ways they did it. Evenings found her next to him in bed, providing companionship by night just as she provided technical assistance by day. By this time too, he had trained himself to ignore her artificiality. Each day she became more a woman to him - a companion - and less a machine.

He had also appeared to make great strides in his programming job. He had begun to mould Project H into something that he thought Fembot Command wanted. He thought that he was surely on the way to transmuting it into something that would give the computer real intelligence.

Now he sipped on hot chocolate while he listened to Telemann on the FM dial. The snow came light but endless outside in the pale winter light, the green of the trees could hardly be seen. Heather sat quietly beside him, waiting to answer his questions and providing company for him while he worked at the multiple computer display on his desk.

Lying activated but unmoving on a wheeled table to the side was one of the tall blonde fembots from the basement. The 'control unit' for Byron's tests and experiments, she was naked with panels removed and connection ports connected. Byron had gradually gotten used to even that.

It seemed that things were progressing well. Many more days of hard, tedious work lay ahead, but most of the humans needs were being met. The androids had made their captive more or less comfortable.

Then his eyes suddenly moved back and forth between the screens. There was something there that he had not expected. It made itself more clear with every passing second. He was stuck in that moment between disbelief and realisation.

"Oh no..." he said quietly.

Heather looked his way, as if booting up from standby mode. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Byron looked back at her, unsure if he should tell her. Whatever he said to her would surely end up inside the Master Computing Device later.

He sat back in the chair and folded his arms as he looked down at the floor and concentrated.

"What's the matter Byron?" she asked.

"Give me a moment..." he said without looking up.

The more he thought about it the more the problem became clear. All morning, and for days before, he had been meticulously crafting sets of recursive functions for the computer to use. Subroutines nested within subroutines - and on, and on - that he thought would tease out the components that constructed perceptions of reality. But this was like Ralph Sweet's assignment. It would have to go on literally forever to work.

He tried in vain to think of a workaround. With eyes closed, he sat motionless for a very long time while his mind raced furiously to try to find some solution.

Heather scanned him continuously. She saw his body temperature rise in a pattern that revealed his growing frustration. Her processors calculated that it would be better to let him think than to keep asking what was wrong.

Finally, he knew that he had been working for nothing all that time. That called into question his whole approach. He made a fist and slammed it feebly on the mousepad in front of him when he saw that he would have to think of an entirely different strategy.

Now Heather acted again. "Should we take a break?" she asked, in as gentle a tone as her speaker could generate.

Byron stood up and stretched. "Yes." was all he said.

There wasn't much more said between them as they prepared themselves for an early outing on the surface of the thick snow. He submitted once again to Heather's nylon and steel harness as they got their things together to go snowshoeing.

As they stepped out in their gear, another, darker thought crossed Byron's mind. Would Fembot Command keep him around if he wasn't the right man for the job? If not, what would they do with him.

He dared not think that thought through. He stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky. The falling snow looked to him like dark stars speeding past in a grey space journey. It took his thoughts far away, and made him want to be that far too.

"You look sad Byron." the robot said.

He brought his head back down and looked at her, knowing that her concern was counterfeit. He moved as near to her as he could in snowshoes and kissed her lips. Her cheeks felt warm and tender on his as they leaned in close. They held hands through their gloves.

Heather let Byron finish their kiss as she recorded and calculated data. Her rudimentary but still impressive AI could only guess that he was very worried about something. It couldn't begin to guess what it was.

He watched snowflakes land and melt on her silicone face, and hang on her long eyelashes. That old expression about the individuality of snowflakes came to mind, and gave him another idea.

"Let's go." he said as he led her by the hand back to the distant ravine.

It was his favourite place for the time being, and thinking about how the creek under the ice had all on its own carved away the rock was somehow comforting. The scenery helped to set his mind at ease while the fresh air helped to clear his head. He began to devise a new scheme.

Chapter 39 - Self Code

On the way back to the cabin, through the ever falling snow and the unstirred January air, Byron thought hard about what he needed to do. He worked out details as his plan gathered shape, making good use of his excellent organisational skills.

The two of them walked in snowshoes back up to the front door, and Heather used her key to let them in once again. They took off their winter clothes and gear, and this time Byron rushed a bit so he could get to work a little faster.

"Shall I make us some hot chocolate?" Heather said with sweet cheeriness as she unlocked and unfastened Byron's end of the nylon and steel harness.

"Yeah." he said, still concentrating on what needed to be done first.

He sat down at his workstation in front of the computer terminals and started to reluctantly delete some of his previous work. He shook his head and sighed as he thought of all that wasted time.

When that was out of the way, he opened up versions of some of Heather's programs that had been copied to his computers. He glanced through them quickly and tried to decide which would be the right one to alter for his purposes.

He decided on her core AI file as Heather returned to the room with two elegant looking, steaming cups on a chrome tray. Byron took one of the cups and said "Thank you Dear." as he looked into the artificial lady's eyes.

She smiled back at him and said "Your welcome." as she put the tray down on an end table next to the sofa. For no other reason than to appear more real for him, she began to slowly sip the hot drink while he wrote out the code that he had tentatively structured in his mind on the way back from the scenic ravine.

Hours passed by as he typed and checked his work. More firewood went into the fireplace while the stereo cycled through some of the CDs that Melanie had brought back for him.

And despite the fact that he didn't like to have her around, the robotic maid was summoned to make the night's dinner while Byron was busy typing out long strings of programming. Soup and sandwiches would do tonight, and he continued working even as he ate.

Late in the evening, with his neck stiff and his back sore, he sat back and folded his arms. He looked at the screen and nodded slightly.

"Heather?" He called as he turned to see her sitting casually on the couch.

"Yes Byron?"

"Come sit in the chair." he said as he stood up and stretched his tired limbs.

The fembot walked over to where he had been working for so long and sat down. Byron reached behind the computer and pulled forward a USB cord that was already connected to the back.

"Open your chest panel please, Heather." he said.

She looked up at him and smiled, then unbuttoned her blouse enough to swing the panel cover down. Once the proper connection ports had been exposed, Byron plugged the cord into his beautiful assistant and clicked the mouse to start a data transfer.

He watched a progress meter on the monitor as it went from 0% to 100% in about three minutes. Heather sat still and smiled through the process.

Byron clicked the window away and said "Did you get it all?"

Heather nodded and said "Yes."

"Open the program." he said with eager anticipation.

Heather sat still and silent for a moment than said "I can't."

Byron's face grimaced. This wasn't good. "Why not?" he asked.

"You aren't authorised to alter my programming." she stated.

Byron paced around on the floor for a while. He should have known that would happen. "Now what?" he asked himself out loud.

Heather sat looking at him, still connected by the black cable to his computer.

"I gotta pee." he said, and left the room.

Heather watched him walk away, and remained unmoving while he tended to his biological needs. Not a single original computation ran through her processors while he was doing that. Her position sitting on his chair and plugged in to his terminal could remain unchanged for a very long time. The sensitive microphones behind her realistically formed silicone ears recorded the sounds of running water as her stereo cameras recorded the scene in front of her. She was effectively 'on pause' until he returned a couple of minutes later.

"I have an idea." he said to her as he passed the living room on his way to the kitchen. He walked with urgency through the door and down the cold stairs to the basement lab.

He submitted again to the laser scan, following the instructions projected out of the box on the wall in its synthesised female monotone.

When the thick metal doors parted and opened for him, he walked through and looked for the naked brunette robot that acted as the eyes and ears of the Master Computing Device. She was standing completely motionless beside an empty examination chair, her naked backside facing him with it's exposed recharge port showing a single bright green light.

"Natasha," he said as he approached.

The technician stood still for another moment, then pivoted swiftly around to aim her digital video cameras at the human. From behind her pretty pale blue eyes they recorded thousands of sequential images of the man, while processors within her chest interpreted their significance.

Her speaker generated the sound of her voice while her complex mouth moved its plastic lips in flawless synchronisation. "Yes Byron."

Byron hesitated, hoping he wouldn't have to explain his plan in too much detail to the attractive but emotionless machine. "I need a laptop computer."

Natasha stood motionless and unresponsive while her processors exchanged streams of data with the Master Computing Device. "Why?" she said after that unseen flurry of activity.

"I need it to finish Project H." he said, not wanting to say much more.

He watched and waited as the Master Computing Device took data from the electromechanical technician and formulated its response. He again found himself staring at Natasha's beautiful tits. He wondered if the naked android would let him touch them.

"That does not compute." Natasha said. "Three computers have already been assigned to you."

"I know that Natasha," he said, "I need a portable one so I can run some experiments on Heather."

Natasha was silent for a long time as Byron got distracted again by the sight of her sexy synthetic body. He wondered if she could get wet like Heather could.