H is for Heuristic

"Please define the experiments." she said after a long while.

Byron thought for a while how to put it, then said "The source of human intelligence... or sentience... I think, is individuality. I need the laptop to be like Heather's individuality."

The blank stare that Natasha returned to him was as vacant as he had ever seen. "That does not compute." she said.

Her statement said it all to him. "Stupid fucking robots." he thought as he felt his frustration level growing uncomfortably strong.

He took a deep breath and explained again. "Since I can't change Heather's programming, I need the laptop so I can create a virtual portion of her... um... self. A virtual portion of her AI."

Natasha gave him another stony silence for over a minute. He glanced from her pointlessly sexy naked body to the flashing lights of the massive console beside them. He knew that this device was part of what would make the decision. He almost wanted to talk directly to it instead.

When he grew tired of all the waiting, he looked back to the robot technician and said "Well? Can I have the laptop?"

Compared to her previous delayed responses, Natasha's answer to this question came almost instantly. "The Master Computing Device is calculating the variables pertaining to your request. The current task will take approximately four hours and thirty-two minutes."

"Four hours to decide?" he said incredulously. He looked over to the supply cabinet where the spare computers were housed. He knew from being shown that there were four laptops in there. This reminded him of the governmental bureaucracy he used to have to deal with.

Byron pointed to the cabinet at the other end of the room. "What if I just went over there and took one?" he asked the stubborn android.

Natasha computed and answered "We will not allow you to do that."

Byron looked at her pale blue glass eyes and her soft-looking thin red lips, and knew that even this slender girl could quickly overpower him. And she could do it completely absent of mercy.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I guess I'll talk to you about this tomorrow. I realise you're only doing your job."

Natasha stared back at him as vacant as ever and made no response that he could detect. He lingered in front of the woman-shaped interface for a while, still admiring the way she looked. He had to admit to himself that he would like very much to share his bed with her too. It wasn't easy for him to look at a beautiful naked woman and not get aroused.

He turned quickly and walked back upstairs. As he emerged from the basement and then the kitchen, he saw Heather sitting in the exact same place and in the exact same way as she was before.

"Let's go to bed." he said as he unplugged her and gently closed her open chest panel. He took her by the hand as she stood up. He looked at her pretty face and kissed her a loving kiss. She responded in the way that she had been programmed.

"I wish you were human." he said quietly as they left the room together.

The short-haired blonde maidbot would come by on her rounds later to put out the fire and turn off the stereo and the lights.

Chapter 40 - Comfort Zone

Byron led his synthetic companion down the hallway, into what he now thought of as their room. She had spent the last several nights next to him in bed, recharging her battery packs while he made love to her and then while he held her as he slept.

Tonight though, he was too tired for sex with the attractive and compliant android. They shared a romantic kiss, which she executed flawlessly due to her updated software. Feeling Heather's womanly curves always got byron aroused, but it was late and he decided to leave the sex for another day.

He sat his tired body on the bed and undressed, while he watched Heather do the same. He couldn't ignore the worry that had come back into his mind that day as he looked to the gracefully moving fembot. Under the circumstances, things had been going so well lately that he had even been feeling good.

But now he was uncertain about his abilities, and that led to uncertainty about his utility to these humanoid machines. That scary thought - the one that he had earlier pushed out of his mind - demanded his attention again. Suppose he failed the androids' task. What would they do?

He unbuttoned and removed his shirt and threw it on the floor, knowing that the robomaid would pick it up and wash it the next morning. He got undressed down to his shorts and continued to watch Heather undress.

Seeing her sexy naked body and knowing that he had access to it was comforting, even as another ominous thought entered his mind. What if he was successful? What would the androids do with him then?

Byron lowered his brow into his hands and lightly dragged the back of his curled fingers over his scalp. He sat for a moment with his hands holding his head while Heather took off the last of her clothing and sat down next to him on the bed.

She put an arm around him and waited for him to face her. "Can you plug me in?" she said, looking so sweet and inviting to him.

He kissed her and got up to fetch the cord. Heather moved the sheets of the bed aside and got in. She layed on her front with her arms bent and tucked under her chest as she waited for him to connect her to the wall outlet.

Byron untangled the long cord and turned on the lamp beside the bed. He walked over to turn off the ceiling light then walked over to the brown-haired bot. He stroked the small of her back for a while before he pushed his fingertip in to where the panel cover was. The cover of the recharge port opened downward, and came completely off with another squeeze and a tug.

He plugged the proper end of the cord into his lady then stooped down to plug the other end into the wall.

"Thank's Byron." she said softly as she rolled on to her side and pulled the covers over the bottom half of her body. Her man walked around the bed and got in after turning off the lamp.

He took the covers from her and pulled them over both of their bodies. Their hands met and held between them as Byron tried to relax.

"Heather, how do you feel?" he asked quietly.

After the slightest pause, the robot responded "I feel fine. Thank you."

He realised he had just gotten the standard quick diagnostic report. He asked a more specific question. "How do you feel about me?"

She paused for a little longer. "I don't know." she admitted.

Byron had the urge to tell her that he loved her, but he didn't know if he did. He paused for a long time too.

His hand reached out to stroke her body in the dark. Her warm artificial flesh felt good to touch and to hold. He had to admit, this is what he liked best about Heather. She may have been a thing, but her body was soft and warm, and it could kiss and it could come. This really wasn't so bad.

Soon Byron settled into a much needed sleep. Heather stayed in that position for him, holding his hand with hers and letting his other hand rest between her thighs just below her very warm crotch.

Inside, electricity flowed all throughout her body. It flowed powerfully into her recharge port, which conditioned and regulated the current to go to her battery chargers and her main power supply. Deep inside her warm, soft and curvy thighs, electricity forced chemical reactions to reverse within her batteries, giving them power they could gradually release into her body the next day.

Her hard drives, her sensor systems and her circuitry were supplied with power while she appeared to sleep. She processed calculations at her usual speed while her body was still. Her cameras recorded high definition video of the insides of her eyelids while her microphones recorded mainly the slowing sounds of Byron's breathing.

What would Byron's three words have meant to all that? How would love integrate into a synthetic body so full of electronics and machinery?

Byron suddenly found himself walking toward the kitchen. He could smell and hear bacon and eggs being made. He got close and saw that coldly machine-like made preparing breakfast for him. She moved in her usual and jerky stiff way, making loud whirring sounds as she moved to go along with her constant computerized tones and beeps.

She was different though. She had brown hair. She had Heather's hair. Byron knew it was her.

"Heather?" he said.

The robot turned around with mechanical fluidity. It was still the same plastic-looking maid unit - dressed in the same ridiculously sexy see-through maid outfit - but the fake looking head was Heather's.

She said nothing as she stared Byron down, with eyes that were so emotionless and empty. Her constant and random sounding computerised beeps got louder and louder, until Byron could hear nothing else.

Then she stiffly moved her hands to the side of her body and in one fast thrust grabbed and removed the front of her torso. She dropped it to the ground, where it crashed and began sparking badly.

Byron looked back up at the maidbot with Heather's head. Her arms slowly lowered back down to rest at her sides while a bright bluish light inside the exposed mass of electronics and charged circuitry got brighter and bigger.

It grew and grew in size and luminosity, and soon, Byron had to squint as he watched it grow bigger than her torso. It got blinding, and Byron shielded his eyes with his hands as the light completely eclipsed the robot's body. It's silent intensity drowned out the maid's robotic sounds as well, and before long, there was nothing else in the room to see or hear but the blinding bright blue light.

"Heather!!" Byron yelled out as he felt himself being pushed away. He felt her get farther and farther out of reach as the sound of fast rhythmic footsteps appeared and got louder.

He heard a door open and saw light.

Natasha had stepped into the room and switched on the ceiling lamp.

"Byron," she said, "The Master Computing Device has made a decision."

Byron opened his eyes. He was sweating. Under the sheets he was holding tightly onto Heather's hand.

She opened her eyes too.

Byron looked around him as he pulled his arm under his side to prop himself up. He was still half-dreaming.

"We will let you have the laptop computer for your experiments with the Heather robot." said Natasha as Byron's eyes tried to adjust to the light.

Byron swallowed and cleared his throat. He made his best effort to shake off the bizarre dream world and enter reality. "What time is it?" he said weakly.

"The time is 3:11 am." Natasha said, sounding like a time-reading computer.

Byron looked at her and saw that she held one of the laptops in her hand.

"You woke me for this?" he said.

"Yes." she replied, just to state the obvious.

Heather was now sitting up like Byron. She said nothing, but grabbed and held Byron's hand again.

Byron sat right up in the bed. He was curious to see how long the naked technician would stand there holding the computer. Heather sat up with him and leaned her body against his.

The three stayed that way for a long moment. Byron thought about the strange dream from which he had just been pulled and looked over to Heather.

Then he looked over at Natasha. The slender but shapely fembot was so utterly mechanical and devoid of emotion, yet so very pretty. Strictly speaking, she was much prettier than Heather, but Byron knew which machine he would rather have near him.

He admired the naked technician's body while Heather held on to him. He thought about asking her to bed with them, but decided against it.

"Natasha, can you put the computer on the dresser?" he asked.

"Yes." came her simple reply. She made a couple of steps to the right and stooped down slightly as she laid the laptop where Byron had asked her to.

He thought again about inviting her to stay. There was enough room in the bed, so that would present no problem.

He felt the warmth and softness of Heather's body next to him. He thought about that too for a while.

"Thank you Natasha." he said. "Can you turn out the lights and leave us alone now?"

"Yes." she said again. Byron caught a glimpse of her tight round buns as she pivoted around and strutted toward the light switch. She flicked it off and exited, closing the door behind her.

Byron layed back down in the bed and turned to face Heather. "Let's make love." he said.

"Okay." she said sweetly as she layed down and unconditionally offered her fully functional electromechanical body to him.

Chapter 41 - New Day

When the digital time display in Heather's field of vision reached 6AM, she executed one of the customised bits of her programming. She acted as Byron's alarm clock.

"Byron..." she said in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. Her plastic fingertips stimulated the palm of his hand, rousing him slowly and gently from his sleep.

But he resisted. He was still tired, and needed more rest.

"Byron..." she said again, with a little more amplification through her speaker and out her mouth.

Without opening his eyes, he squeezed her hand lovingly and said "One more hour."

In under a second, she computed what he meant. "One more hour." she said softly, and reset a few variables within her electronic chest.

"Snooze." he thought happily to himself before falling asleep again.

Sixty precise minutes were counted by the battery powered woman, and with the last second turning from the future to the past, she again called out his name in a hushed and softened voice.

Motors and flexors in her arm and hand began to work, touching him to wake him up as gently as before.

His sleep had been deep, and the hour seemed only to be like the traditional ten minutes doled out by the far less advanced type of alarm clock.

With reluctance, he prepared his mind to wake and opened his eyes. He stared into her pretty painted ones, thinking about the cameras behind them.

"Morning." he said.

"Good morning Byron." she said, like she always did.

"You're lucky you don't have to sleep." he said. "I'm missing a whole third of my life this way."

She just looked at him. Her processors couldn't calculate a proper response.

Byron languidly turned around and kicked his legs out from under the covers. He dragged the rest of his body to sit up and let out a face stretching yawn.

The fembot got up on her side, and walked naked over to where her clothes were.

Byron watched her bend over, knowing that the plastic and metal lady really didn't have the same need for clothing as her human captive. He wondered if her silicon "mind" was in any way aware that her position got him aroused. While she was reaching down to the floor like that, her perfectly molded synthetic vagina was aimed right at him, with it's perfect lips and curves like a delicate prize-winning flower.

He had an idea.

"Heather," he said as he enjoyed the view.

"Yes Byron?" she said predictably.

"Why don't you put some different clothes on today." he suggested.

The android paused for a moment, still bent over and clutching her pink bra.

He stood up. "Stand up." he said, and she did too.

He led her to the bedroom next door where there was a dresser and a closet full of ladies' clothing.

"I'm going to make you into a person, Heather." he said, telling her for the first time what he had planned the previous day.

She stopped in the middle of the other room and looked at him. Her CPU was caught on that word - person. "I don't understand." she said. After a little pause she continued. "I am a woman."

Byron tried to read her face, but the silicone wouldn't surrender any signals. "Well, you are a woman," he said, trying to sound as nice about it as he could, "but you're a machine."

She just looked at him. After a while, she said "Yes. I am a machine. I'm programmed to be a woman."

He looked at her pretty face. He raised his hand and stroked her soft pink cheek.

They kissed again. She reacted to his touch the way her programs told her to, and offered no resistance as his hands glided down to caress and fondle her well-built behind.

He pulled himself slowly away - again with reluctance - and got back to the task at hand.

"I'm going to take a shower and make breakfast. After you come back from the lab, I want you to choose some clothes from this room and wear them."

Heather looked momentarily at the open closet, then back to him. "I don't know how to do that." she said. She looked down to the floor, appearing to be disappointed by her software limitations.

"You can try." he said, as much stating as asking.

She looked up once more, her facemask configured to look like she was almost ashamed, and said "I don't know how to try."

She looked back down to the floor while Byron thought about that. She was right. Machines didn't try - they either did something or they didn't. Yoda was right too.

Byron put his arms around her again. He hugged the naked android, and she hugged him right back. That felt so good to Byron - having a pretty young woman holding on to him. Even if she was artificial, she was built like the real thing and his body could forget what his mind couldn't.

He kissed her with affection on the lips and watched her face. Her sullen look was gone now that her chips were busy processing new sets of data.

"I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"Okay." she said.

He walked out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall. He smiled at his attractive synthetic companion, and she smiled back at him as she walked in her womanly way out of the room and down the hallway to the kitchen. He heard the loud whirring, clicking and beeping of the maidbot, and closed the bathroom door as it got closer so he wouldn't have to look upon what to him was mechanical grotesqueness.

Heather walked past the cute blonde robotic maid, but paid her no processor time. The calculations were mutual. Both Heather and the maid merely recorded one another's video image, and wasted no time on such things as greetings or even acknowledgement.

By now, Heather had also stopped acting "real". No humans around meant no wasted electrical power on things like blinking, smiling or blushing. She walked zombie-like through the door in the kitchen and down the concrete stairs into the basement lab.

Once the naked fembot had been scanned by the monotone-voiced doorkeeper, she walked as plainly and simply as could be over to Natasha, who waited naked like her by the empty examination chair.

Natasha turned her head in a motorised way to face the other robot. "Hello, Heather. How was your day?" she said in a way that seemed just as motorised.

"My day was fine. Thank you." Heather said, in an emotionless and mechanical way that would have made poor Mr. Clarke cringe.

Maintaining absolutely perfect posture, Heather walked over to the chair and sat down. She stared directly ahead with empty electronic eyes while Natasha prepared the console.

The robot technician looked at her and said "Please remove your facemask, Heather."

After quickly computing the meaning of the other fembot's speech, Heather reached up and grabbed the sides of her face. The locking mechanisms behind it released, and she took it along with its null expression away from the rest of her head. Her complicated and intricate internal structure was laid bare to the other artificial woman, who quickly scanned and analysed the thoroughly inhuman sight. All of the many flashing lights, microchips, transistors and wires that worked unseen to give the facemask the illusion of life were now out in the open, and under the exacting scrutiny of the dedicated and faultless technician.

Natasha got some cables ready and said "I am going to download data from your visual and auditory memory banks into the main computer for processing and evaluation."

Heather said and did nothing while she was connected through built-in ports to the Master Computing Device. It took over the process, and pulled the raw data out of her as fast as it could. The lights inside her head kept flashing and her speaker kept emitting tones and loud beeps for Natasha to examine.