The Companion Pt.0 1

Every indication from the videos shows that the female nipple stiffens and lengthens under stimulus, Celia noted.

She sampled over three hundred videos of men stroking women's breasts in a fashion similar to Larry's technique, averaged their response curves and nipple length, and slowly let her body respond in the same way.

"Oh," Larry whispered, closing his eyes and continuing to stroke the little nub she'd created for him.

While holding his hand against her breast, she took his erection in her right hand and slowly stroked him, eliciting a groan. She moisturised the skin to keep things moving smoothly, even though that didn't exactly follow a realistic human path.

"It's alright," she soothed. "I'm here for you."

"Yeah," Larry sighed. "I bet."

Again, Celia felt confusion but she couldn't ignore Larry's arousal, her success at emulating a female human, and his clear need for sexual companionship.

She ran through several hundred possible scenarios for bringing satisfaction to her charge, watching thousands of videos for options, taking into account the lateness of the evening, Larry's probably low energy levels, and the furniture in the room.

Best to keep it simple and require very little from him, she decided.

With suggestive nudges she had learned from their time together, Celia steered Larry to the bed and got him to sit down.

I could use my hands, but that will create a mess either on our bodies or on the furniture, Celia continued her analysis. While I could clean up his semen afterwards, I don't see the benefit.

Many of the videos, perplexingly enough, showed the participants enjoying these messes.

I do not understand this and Larry seems to favour hygiene and neat, clean solutions to problems, Celia thought, recalling how he referred to his floor-line-disturbing shunt as 'ugly' and how frustrated he had found it to clean up after the coolant leak. The lowest stakes option, considering this is our first sexual incident, is probably best.

"I will use my mouth," she told Larry, "if that is acceptable?"

"I - uh - you know how?" Larry looked at her wide-eyed.

"I will figure it out," Celia said.

She set her lips, tongue and the simulated flesh on the inside of her mouth to a low moisturisation level and opened her mouth just wide enough to take his erection in, keeping her lips smoothly around the shaft once the bulging head of his erection had passed into her mouth.

That's how they do it in the videos, Celia noted. Then, by my estimation of external movement, there is internal tongue motion as follows...

"Hoo!" Larry cried out.

Celia moved her head backwards, looking up at Larry in alarm, her eyes widening to draw in as much data as possible.

"Was it harmful?" she asked.

"No, no," Larry panted. "It was good. Very good."

I correctly assessed the technique, Celia decided. This methodology should prove useful, despite Larry's reticence towards pornographic videos as instructional.

"Ah," Celia smiled, and enveloped him in her mouth again.

When she resumed her tongue work, she noted Larry's accelerated heart rate and breathing as well as the swelling of his erection.

He is nearing climax, she decided and accessed the database again. The technique should shift now.

"Ow!" Larry shouted the moment she started bobbing her head.

"Something is wrong?" Celia backed off instantly.

"You went a little too hard with your mouth," Larry winced. "You can't really, um, run my tip into the back of your mouth like that."

"Oh," Celia said, recalculating and re-examining the videos. "Odd. This is the style of motion preferred in the videos."

"What videos?"

"The ones most frequently watched by male crew members," Celia said.

"You watched pornography to learn how to have sex?"

"Yes."

"Okay," Larry sighed. "How did you weight your sample size?"

"I examined all of the videos watched and took a median."

Larry frowned.

"How many crewmen did you sample?"

She paused for a moment, examining her data.

"95 percent of the pornography was viewed by 5 members of the crew," she said, pausing again. "Are you saying that I sampled the data incorrectly?"

Larry inhaled, "Possibly. Remember when I said they were visually oriented?"

"Oh," Celia paused again, then looked down at his erection. "The trouble is that I don't have access to any other good sources for data."

"Just, be a little more gentle," Larry said, "you'll do fine. Don't, um, ram the tip up into anything."

Celia recalculated, reexamining the angles the women in the videos used for oral penetration, looked at medical cross sections of human anatomy and realized her error.

I don't actually have a human throat to accommodate his erection, she noted, I could modify myself, but that will take considerable redesign effort. Even if that didn't take a while, physically modifying myself is not something I want to do while stimulating him.

"I think I see," she said. "Should I try again? Gently?"

"Please," Larry said.

Much more carefully, Celia sealed her lips around the head of his erection and took him into her mouth, keeping the tip away from the back of her cavity. Her tongue, a much more agile version than the human appendage, began stimulating the end of his erection. With a small amount of experimentation, patiently monitoring Larry's reactions, Celia discovered the sensitivity of the lower side of the swollen head.

His breathing shows that he has recovered from the accidental pain I caused him, she thought.

With a much more discerning examination of various video records, she observed a separate set of videos in which the males caused themselves to ejaculate when their co-stars were unable to elicit a climax.

This should be slightly more reliable, Celia decided, as the men ought to know their own bodies. I just need to take an average and emulate their motions.

She realised her error in designing her oral cavity, not making it long enough to accommodate Larry's full length. Instead, she used her hand to quickly stimulate the base of his erection.

"Oh," Larry groaned.

He will ejaculate shortly.

"Celia," he said, in a tone that she interpreted as a warning as his eyes widened and locked on her eyes.

In response, she sped up her stroking and stared back into his eyes, absorbing everything she could about the way his body reacted to her efforts.

Learn everything.

Larry inhaled, his eyes bulging even as his penis did against her tongue. His body surged, heat radiating in the infra-red as blood flowed, and semen launched itself into the back of Celia's mouth. While she didn't have a true throat or digestive system, she did have the ability to drain fluids, otherwise she wouldn't even be able to clean up excess moisturiser.

As Larry's penis spat into her mouth, the cache at the back sucked up his fluids and sent them down inside her chest for recycling.

Measuring his responses, and guessing once again based on the actions of male porn stars when their orgasms abated, Celia slowed down her stroking and tongue action, gently drawing out and 'swallowing' the last drops of his fluid.

A slightly cooling, sanitary rinse followed so that she could maintain his hygiene for his foreskin according to medical best practices.

"What?" Larry gasped. "What was that?"

Celia withdrew his penis from her mouth, examining it for cleanliness.

"A light rinse," Celia explained. "For hygienic purposes. Was it painful?"

"No," Larry laughed. "It's fine and, um, thoughtful, actually. Thank you."

"It was good then?" Celia asked, still kneeling on the floor.

"Good?" Larry asked. "That was perfect, Celia. It was... was just perfect. Thank you."

"You are welcome," Celia said. "And you are in need of sleep now."

Observing his drooping eyes and sagging shoulders, Celia stood up immediately, lifting Larry's legs with her left arm under his knees and her right under his neck. Larry put his arm around her middle back as she rolled him into place and Celia, in accommodating him, found herself in his bed at his side, his cheek alongside her bare breast, his left arm between their bodies.

This is what humans do, is it? Celia queried what records she had. It is not common in pornography, but it is in non-pornographic forms of entertainment.

Crew records pertaining to cabin door access showed that humans often shared beds after such an affair.

My purpose is not maintaining the ship, Celia thought, my purpose is maintaining its sole crew member so that he can maintain the ship. There is nothing in my duties that can't be done here.

She settled a pillow under Larry's head to keep his neck comfortably unstrained against her breast and tracked his breathing patterns as he fell asleep.

It was well done then, she told the ship.

Analysis: Engineer Johnson appears improved. It was well done.

Larry slept deeply, quietly and without motion. Celia monitored his medical condition throughout the night, an idle consideration as she attempted to discern the problem that had consumed so much of her processing power in the middle of their affair.

His behaviour so overwhelmingly confused me that I interrupted motor control to try to understand it, Celia thought, or at least some part of my neural net was worried that continuing to rub against him might be the wrong action.

Why was he asking if I was okay with the act? She wondered. I was the initiator of the act. My job is to be his Companion. I was carrying out my sole purpose.

Fortunately, even Red Level A.I. had lockouts that prevented endless loops, allowing her to set aside what humans would call 'burning questions' and attempt to approach them from other angles when she acquired more information.

Why was Larry asking that question? Celia queried her algorithms, but produced no better answers than she had while asking herself that question all night.

She kept trying to shut down the question, to leave it aside until she acquired more data, but some part of her kept seeing the gap in her knowledge, the misunderstanding of her core mission and wanted to try again.

Larry eventually began to stir against her breast, burrowing gently against her and the pillow as the cabin light automatically simulated a slow sunrise in the orange-red frequencies. He let out a low groan as he became conscious.

I wonder if he wishes for more sexual intimacy, Celia thought, her algorithms looking for more data points. With only one encounter, there isn't nearly enough significance to properly understand my role. His nuzzling against my breast is not a clear indication of arousal. It may indicate a variety of other human needs.

Celia acknowledged Larry's awakening by letting out a small moan to match the sound he had generated.

There may be communication here I do not understand, she thought, I will have to learn what each of these sub vocalizations mean.

Celia softly stroked the back of Larry's head, running her left hand down his neck and over the muscles of his back. Larry let out a breath of relief and pushed himself into her breast.

That seems more overtly sexual, she thought, I must find a subtle test to determine his needs. Humans seem to know each other's needs without asking.

Celia inhaled to lift her breast, cradling his head against her, hoping that Larry would find some inspiration to give her a hint as to his needs.

The angle having changed, Celia realised her nipple lay along his cheek. She stiffened it and waited for his reaction.

If he reaches for it, or for my other breast, I will know he is aroused.

Instead, Larry's lips parted, he turned his head slightly and took her nipple into his mouth. Gently he began suckling at her nipple.

Oh, I see, Celia thought, extending the nipple further and stiffening it to the maximum setting. Of course, I hadn't even thought of what time it is.

"Bah!" Larry shouted in surprise, his eyes widening in shock as he choked and juice dribbled down his chin.

"My apologies," she said, looking down at him in alarm. "Was the flow rate too high? I can adjust it."

"I - what?"

"Or would you prefer milk?" Celia asked, casting her voice for him to know that she was amenable to changes. "That seemed more appropriate, biologically, but I calculated based on your digestive issues with lactose and the data from the mess hall computer that you would prefer orange juice at this hour of the morning."

"Why would you think I'm thirsty?" Larry asked.

"You were sucking at my breast with enough force that I thought you desired to draw nourishment," she explained.

"I - no - it's not," Larry paused, his eyes flickering in that way that told Celia his engineering brain had activated. He looked down at her breasts in amazement, "Wait, do you have a whole drinks replicator in there?"

"Yes."

"You could make anything come out of your nipples?" he clarified.

"Almost any liquid in the menu," her eyes defocused in that way that told him she accessed the ship's data banks.

After a moment, Celia's eyes refocused on Larry, still staring in shock at the small dribble of orange juice running from her nipple down the white slip-fabric of her skin onto the bed sheets.

"Your favourite beverages," she concluded. "Certainly orange juice, milk, warm tea. The alcoholic choices would be against my programming, at least during work hours, and..."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Larry said. "But orange juice is a little weird."

"I see that now," Celia agreed as she looked down at him. "Would you like to set a default?"

Larry sat up in bed and looked down at Celia.

"What is your total capacity?" he asked.

"Four and a half litres of water," she said. "With one kilogram of various base chemicals and esters to manufacture liquids."

"So yesterday," Larry said, his eyes flicking from side to side, "when you flushed the coolant away from my face..."

"Yes," Celia nodded and waved a hand at her half bared chest. "I used almost all of the distilled water I carry. It's easy to recharge from the mess hall or the medical bay."

Larry looked at her breasts again, examining them as if he'd never seen them. Noticing that her new blue tunic had fallen over the left one, she pulled the left panel of the tunic back so he could see both breasts clearly.

"Well, then," Larry said.

"So," Celia looked up at him. "Are you hungry? Or do you have some other need?"

"Breakfast," he said firmly, looking away from her body. "Yes. And then we can check the ship's course and reassemble the relay."

"Excellent," Celia said, smiling as she sat up and fastened her tunic. "The fabricator has finished with the parts you needed."

"Cool," Larry said.

"You change," Celia said. "I'll get your breakfast. What would you like?"

"Scrambled eggs, ham and toast," he said. "Don't get a drink, though. Just an empty glass."

"Sure," Celia said.

When Larry arrived at the mess hall, Celia had already taken a seat with the breakfast she'd fetched from the autochef replicator in the kitchen.

"You don't want anything to drink?" she asked as he sat down.

"I'd like to see this in action," Larry looked down at her chest and back to her eyes. "If you don't mind?"

"I don't mind at all," Celia shrugged. "What would you like?"

"Orange juice," Larry said. "That tasted fine."

Celia undid the top four buttons of her tunic, slid the fabric off her right shoulder and bared her breast. She took Larry's cup and placed it on the table in front of her so she could lean over and align that charcoal black nipple with the edge of his glass.

She cupped with her right hand and pressed down on the surface of her breast with her left, expelling a steady stream of orange fluid into the cup.

"Do you need to press down like that?" Larry asked.

"That was not the original intent when we designed it," Celia admitted as she continued expressing. "But given the urgency of the project, not everything could be tested ahead of time. The valve came out a little more resistant than we intended. It was enough that it worked during the emergency yesterday, even though that wasn't one of the intended purposes. As you could tell this morning, the suction from your mouth was enough to cause it to release."

When she had filled the glass, she pushed it across the table so Larry could take a sip

"Good stuff," Larry said, tipping the glass toward her in a kind of salute. "So what was the 'intended purpose' of your breasts? You could have made them merely aesthetic."

"I believe we were intent on mimicking human female form and functionality as much as possible," Celia said, her eyes flicking in and out of focus as she examined the history of the design process. "It never occurred to us to make the breasts non-productive, only to enhance them. In an emergency, I carry enough calories to keep you alive for three to four days if we ration carefully."

"You're a portable life support?" Larry asked.

"Only for food and drink," she reminded him. "Not oxygen."

"And my, uh, semen that you swallowed this morning?"

"Recycled," Celia said, waving at her throat and chest.

"Efficient," he said.

"Thank you," she accepted his compliment. "Now about this work today..."

The navigational tasks having gone easily, Larry and Celia sat at a workstation suspended in the keel valley, a platform just wide enough for a work table with a chair for each of them on either side.

"The fabricated parts worked out perfectly," Larry said as he fit them together and applied a layer of sealant to the inner casing.

"Indeed," Celia agreed.

"Hand this down to me?" he asked.

Celia lifted the assembled relay off the table as Larry rose from his chair and descended the ladder into the bottom of the keel valley.

Squatting with zero effort, she lowered the relay to Larry as he reached up to take it from her.

"Did you change the shape of the shirt?" he asked her as he squinted at her.

"It fits my body a bit more precisely, yes," Celia volunteered, not willing to divulge that she had tightened it specifically to accentuate her breasts, just to see if Larry would find them more attractive.

The fabric covers my skin, Celia thought, which means that while clothed I look more like a human female than I do naked.

Larry nodded an acknowledgement and turned to carry the relay to its housing. Celia dropped down off the platform, falling two metres with a cat-like pounce, and followed Larry.

With the catches already open and the coolant lines blocked, the installation did not represent any dangers. Larry slid underneath and began setting up.

"Celia?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask a favour?" Larry said slowly.

This is a human thing, Celia thought, instead of asking for the thing, he asks to ask for the thing. This will be something important to him, something that requires work from me, or might be mildly embarrassing to him.

Possible 'favours' blossomed before her, forking and branching through sexual acts, food requests and all sorts of esoteric human needs.

"Of course," she said. "I am here to be your Companion."

"Would you mind," Larry paused. "Calling me 'Lawrence'?"

His eyes are not meeting mine, Celia noted. Computer, doesn't everyone call him Larry?

All records indicate that he responds to 'Larry' or the even shorter 'Lair'. Hold for analysis.

Quickly, please. This appears important.