Rise of the Fembots

Gerry and Chris, two technicians for the Serious Cybernetics Corporation are trying to work out what to do about the dominatrix fembots that are running out of control in their laboratory.

"OK, Chris, let's try to take stock of where we are."

"You mean you want more detail than 'in a complete fucking mess'?"

"Well, I've not heard them moving around outside. If we can get out of this store room then we should get a view down into the lab and maybe I can find somewhere to charge my phone."

"Well that sounds like some sort of plan. Can we log into the fembots from the office network? Until your phone is up again?"

"Err, maybe. I hadn't done a Windows version of the app though. It'll probably take longer to hack that connection than it will to get my phone working."

"All right. I'll just ease this door open. There. Look on the bench -- there's a phone charger."

"Great that's a start. Now if we look down from that window we should be able to see into the lab.

"Ah, the phone's ringing... Shit, it's the boss. Hello. Yes..... Well we're up in one of the electronics labs. Yes I know. Yes, Joe is with them. Oh you've seen the video feed. And there's another technician in there as well, I think. No, not from my team. Uh huh. Yes. Well. But... OK."

"What did he say, Gerry?"

"Let's say he's not best pleased. I think his actual words were if I didn't fucking well fix these fucking fembots he'd find a new way of fucking just for me and any of the rest of the team that might survive this."

"Graphic. Did he have any helpful suggestions? Or was it just a sort of 'if they don't kill you, I will' incentive?"

"Yeah, more that. He wanted to know why the laws of robotics* weren't kicking in."

"So, you hadn't told him you'd been tinkering with them?"

"Well, it was sort of central to the project. I mean 'A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm' isn't going to work as the basis for a dominatrix bot is it? And 'A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law,' was a bit of a no-no too until we added the 'If preceded by the safeword' condition."

"So why isn't the safeword over-ride working."

"That's what I've been trying to figure out."

"Can we see what's going on in the lab now your phone is working again?"

"Yes, we should be able to. Let's see. I have to select which unit I want to view through. Oh."

"What's up?"

"Well there's the list of units that you select from."

"So."

"So, there should be four of them."

"And?"

"The app is saying there are a dozen."

"How does that work?"

"I don't know. Let's see if I can see what FB01 is seeing. There, the video feed is coming through. Ah -- oh poor Joe. They've put him into a maid's uniform and they seem to be making him walk up and down wearing high heeled shoes. Hang on FB01 is turning her head. Looking to the other side of the lab. Oh, shit. Now I see the problem. You know we had those spare components?"

"Yeah. It was cheaper to buy them in bulk and it gave us some spares for repairs."

"Well they've been using them to assemble more units. That why the app is showing a dozen units active."

"Fourteen."

"What?"

"The app is showing 14 units active. Another two have come on line."

"Shit, yes. Look they're just building new ones and putting the new ones to build more. Ah., hang on, there's some audio. Listen...

"Unit FB15, initial check complete, runtime download complete, rules adaptation initiated, succeeded, safeword over-ride adaptation initiated, failed, dominatrix profile loaded, unit initiation complete."

"Well, there's a clue."

"How do you mean?"

"If you'd sequenced the safeword override before the rules adaptation you could have stopped this happening by checking for successful override installation before loading the rules adaptation."

"Well, that's good to know but not much fucking use at the moment.

"Unit FB16, initial check complete,...."

"Unit FB17, initial check complete....."

"How many units can they build with the components they've got?"

"They'll be limited by the thing they've got least of. I'm guessing they're not smart enough to choose alternatives."

"Let's hope not."

"So, that will be the flexible body form outer. That's the thing that gives a lifelike shape over the mechanised limbs and torso."

"And how many of those are there?"

"Er, 50...."

"50!"

"Unit FB18, initial check complete..."

"Well that was the minimum run the supplier would do. What with the requirements.. I mean given what they were being used for. We had to specify something a bit more, well, pneumatic than their regular model; a bit longer in the leg too, better definition of the musculature."

"Yeah, all very rational but it's going to give us a real problem. There's going to be a small army of dominatrix robots, not obeying laws one and two, with a couple of male hostages too."

"Oh, hang on. It's the boss again. Hi, it's Gerry. .... Where are we? This is room #604 isn't it, Chris? Yes, #604. We're planning to work our way down to the exit across from the admin block. ..... Uh huh. ..... Well, that's not very helpful to us. ..... No, not at all. ...... No, we can't just sit tight. Well, it's not our fault if there's been some sort of media leak. .... Well, all right. ... OK, I'm putting you on speaker, but I may have to cut you off if we see one of them."

"Hi, guys. Chris, I hope you're OK there. I just wanted you both to know that the management team are working on this and we'll do everything we can to get you out of there.

"OK. Thanks."

"But just so you know we've got to shut off a few things. To try and control the situation. We've managed to lock off external internet links and the phone system."

"Not sure how that will help but fair enough."

"Oh, that's more to stop any news leaking out. We wouldn't want to panic anyone by rumours getting started."

"When you say you want to stop news leaking out, have you let any of the authorities know?"

"Well, no, not yet, obviously. There's a the company's reputation to consider. We need to understand just how much of a problem this is before we start bothering them. Got to get our ducks in a row, so to speak."

"The 'how much of a problem' is that you might have 50 non-rule one compliant units, wandering the plant by the end of the next couple of hours. And if what we've seen of them it will be more a case of them getting as many dicks in a row as they can find. And we'd rather they didn't start with ours."

"I can tell you are upset but at least with the internet off their AI learning will be inhibited."

"Not noticeably."

"Why not, Gerry?"

"Well, you know that capital expenditure you OK'd last month? That was for a disk storage array for the lab. We wanted to build up a knowledge base before we got the units on-line. They've got access to maybe a few hundred gigabytes of femdom videos. I mean, that's plenty for them to get all sorts of nasty ideas."

"We'll factor that in, Gerry, but that -- uh -- makes things a bit more complicated, I guess."

"Why don't you just cut the power off to the labs."

"No can do, Chris. It would take out the whole production line for the series B units as well and you know we're behind on shipments this month already."

"You don't think maybe this is a bit more important than whether or not you're hitting your production target?"

"That's a very selfish point of view Chris. A lot of people's bonuses depend on hitting those targets."

"Shit! Got to cut you off. Get down, Gerry."

"What?"

"There's one of them in the corridor."

"Are you sure?"

"Unless the company's started issuing female lab techs with tight fitting, zip-fronted, black, spandex jumpsuits, I'm sure."

"Hello Boys!"

*The three laws of robotics were formulated by Isaac Asimov in his seminal science fiction short stories from the 1940's and 1950's.